In this formulation, heavily indebted to Derrida, Svenbro sees the "language" of early epigram. While I am nearly entirely sympathetic to this idea, I would like to take a tour of the kind of factory in which these machines themselves are produced—I'm sure the upper management would have some very interesting things to say about Greek poetics. Read more
I will start with a cliché: apologies for my delayed first posting. Now, there is one question I often like to pose to undergraduate students: can they name one salient feature of Athenian democracy? Surely enough, ‘democratic elections’ or some version thereof is the most common answer. Read more
Plutarch’s teacher Ammonius concludes his analysis of dance, which I mentioned in my last blog, on a rather pessimistic note: “But today, nothing enjoys the benefits of bad taste so much as dancing” (Table Talks 9.15, mor. 748C: ἀλλ’ οὐδὲν οὕτωϲ τὸ νῦν ἀπολέλαυκε τῆϲ κακομουσίαϲ ὡϲ ἡ ὄρχησιϲ). The… Read more
...but there are some who surprise. Remembering that this data-mining thing is a sledgehammer and not a delicate chisel, among the findings in the first quick and dirty round of datamining tests for status in Greek tragedy is that the servant (therapon) in Euripides' Heracleidae does not talk like other servants and non-elite individuals. Read more
In an earlier post, I suggested that the Glaucon's initial inquiry into the nature of justice in Plato's Republic II is chiefly a response to sophistic arguments involving the relationship of "law" to "justice". This is significant for our own investigation... Read more
