Platonic Psychology: Appetitive: Greek History Review #9: Reading Herodotus

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Appetitive: Greek History Review #9: Reading Herodotus

I have been enjoying the Berekeley podcasts I have been listening to so much that I started reading Herodotus. Professor Pafford discusses Herodotus often, and I became so excited about Herodotus that I decided to read it in, at least at the moment, in lieu of my other Greek History studying.

I am reading the Landmark Herodotus, edited by Robert Strassler. Cerinthus gave me this absolutely stunning a thorough volume for Christmas a few years ago. I read the introduction this morning out on the porch in between a desperate (and successful) attempt to salvage some badly-mangled pizza dough and an attempt to talk to Propertius II about Isocrates (sadly unsuccessful due to technical difficulties with skype). The introduction is written by Rosalind Thomas, and is a delightful and meandering introduction (divided into sections for easy reference by the text itself) and it goes through some of the big issues in Herodotus, such as his accuracy, in a way that provides new information to either a layman or someone with an undergraduate degree in classics. Her writing style is warm and accessible. More reviews on the volume as I continue.

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Why Platonic Psychology?

Entry types into this blog are divided into three categories: appetitive, spirited, and reasoning to correspond with the three parts of the Platonic conception of the soul. The appetitive portion will most often be humorous content with a classical bent. However, Plato's understanding of appetitive is much broader than that, encompassing the general pleasures of spectacle-- such as theater, both comedy and tragedy-- as well as emotions and bodily pains and pleasures. Sometimes I will stray into one of the more Platonic uses of appetitive. If I can manage it, I will post a weekly translation of a joke or funny phrase into Latin or Greek. The spirited portion (literally timophillic i.e. honor loving) will be my own ideas about Greek and Roman ideas. This section attempts to put me on the map as a classicist with a point of view. The reasoning part will be commentary and reviews on classical texts. I will also try to post a passage for Latin or Greek prose composition, as well as translations of prose passages or poetry in Latin or Greek. I will offer my take on the passage, and if anyone would like to offer their own attempt at the passage, or corrections or criticisms of mine, they will be welcome to do so in a comment on the blogpost or email me at sulpicia3@hotmail.com.

Bread, Roman Poetry, and Other Frivolity

If you're interested in me as well as my commentary about classical texts, visit my personal blog Fragments of Sulpicia (III), in which I discuss my general day-to-day existence, alongside bread recipes, pedagogy, and Roman Love Elegy.

The Roman love elegists, writing at the end of the Roman Republic wrote beautiful poems about their experiences in love, creating the persona or changing the name of a real person on whom to center their poetry. The only extant female poet calls herself Sulpicia, daughter of Servius and constructs her poems around her lover, Cerninthus. In order to write freely, I have taken up her name, Sulpicia, and the names of her characters and the characters of her contemporary love elegists, to refer to people in my own life. A reference list of characters can be found on the righthand side of Fragments of Sulpicia (III).

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Appetitive: Greek History Review #9: Reading Herodotus

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