Language/Literature

The Decapitated Scholar

OK, so he’s not quite decapitated, but after the student riot here at Chancellor College on the night of 2/15 he lost his mortar board. (So sad, especially after all that work by the masons---see photo in my earlier post). As it happens, I was inadvertently caught up in this event. Here is a brief blow-by-blow. Read more

What exactly is Pandēmos Mousikē?

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

Not everyone can be a hero…

...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