In his account for why stars and planets move in different directions, Aristotle reasons that if the universe is to move eternally in a circle, it must have a center that remains at rest, and that if there is to be such a center, ‘it is necessary that earth exists:… Read more
I’m happy to announce a talk I will be giving at Catholic here in DC next Wednesday. Here is the poster. CUA talk POSTER The point of departure of the talk is the following observation: in many ancient descriptions of spectacles the focus is very much on the… Read more
To follow up on my last post, which concerned the great variety of couch styles represented on Athenian vases: If there were so many different types of klinai in the repertoire of Athenian vase painters, why did Plato choose to use the kline as a paradigm in his… Read more
In a recent article on artists' signatures in antiquity, Osborne has argued that such signatures reveal the socially embedded nature of pots, sculpture, gems etc., a collaboration between artist, object and end-user. As Osborne states, "What they all [plastic arts and literature] share is the sense that there is an 'author,' that the identity of the creator of these works is something worth knowing—and worth knowing because these are works… Read more
Perhaps I’m simply becoming provocative for the sake of provoking; or maybe I’m losing my mind; but in the process of writing this book on mathematical Pythagoreanism and its supposed progenitor Hippasus of Metapontum (fl. early-mid 5th Century BCE), I am beginning to see mathematical Pythagoreanism everywhere. And I mean… Read more
