Appetitive: Sexual Orientation of Alexander the Great

I found a fabulous piece on Rogue Classicism today. Apparently, Paul Cartledge, a scholar I greatly admire, and James Romm, the translator of The Landmark Arrian, did an interview on the sexual orientation of Alexander the Great. It is a brief, but fairly nuanced look at the topic. I recommend it.

Spirtited: Horace 2.13

I decided provide my translation of another Horace poem. Horace's ode 13 in his second book is not an ode that is traditionally translated. I picked it because I saw that it mentioned Alceus and Sappho. It turned out to be quite funny and I really enjoyed it.

Ille et nefasto te posuit die
Quicumque primum, et sacrilega manu
Produxit, arbos, in nepotum
Perniciem opprobriumque pagi;


Illum et parentis crediderim sui
Fregisse cervicem et penetralia
Sparsisse nocturno cruore
Hospitis; ille venena Colcha


Et quidquid usquam concipitur nefas
Tractavit, agro qui statuit meo
Te, triste lignum, te, caducum
In domini caput inmerentis


Quid quisque vitet, numquam homini satis
Cautum est in horas: navita Bosporum
Poenus perhorrescit neque ultra
Caeca timet aliunde fata,


Miles sagittas et celerem fugam
Parthi, catenas Parthus et Italum
Robur; sed inprovisa leti
Vis rapuit rapietque gentis.


Quam paene furvae regna Proserpinae
Et iudicantem vidimus Aeacum
Sedesque discriptas piorum et
Aeoliis fidibus querentem


Sappho puellis de popularibus
Et te sonantem plenius aureo,
Alcaee, plectro dura navis,
Dura fugae mala, dura belli.


Utrumque sacro digna silentio
Mirantur umbrae dicere, sed magis
Pugnas et exactos tyrannos
Densum umeris bibit aure volgus.


Quid mirum, ubi illis carminibus stupens
Demittit atras belua centiceps
Auris et intorti capillis
Eumenidum recreantur angues?


Quin et Prometheus et Pelopis parens
Dulci laborem decipitur sono
Nec curat Orion leones
Aut timidos agitare lyncas.

He planted you on an inauspicious day, 
whichever [day you were] originally [planted],
and by a profane hand, Tree, lead forth into destruction
of future generations and the scandal of the neighborhood.


I would also believe he crushed 
the neck of his father and by night 
scattered the blood of guests
on the hearthstone; he has handled Colchian drugs


and [has engaged in] whatsoever evil
is conceived of in any place, he who planted
you on my farm, Wretched Stump, you,
destined to fall on the head of the innocent master.


Why does one shun everything, a man is never
aware enough from hour to hour: a Punic sailor
dreads the Bosphorus but does not fear
blind fate from other placed beyond.


A soldier dreads arrows and the quick flight
of the Parthians, and a Parthian fears
Italian captivity and military might.But the unforeseen 
power of death has seized and will seize [both] races.


How nearly did I see the realm 
of dark Proserpina and Aecian judgemnts 
and the seats assigned for the righteous 
and with her Aeolic lyre,


Sappho, grieving concerning the women
of her village and you, Aleceus, singing
loudly with a golden instrument of the hardships
of ships, the hardships of exile, the hardships of war.


And it is a wonder that both  speak
in sacred silence worthy of shades; but to a greater extent
the crowd, shoulder to shoulder, drinks in
with their ears the expulsions of tyrants and battles.


What wonder [is it] when the hundred-headed 
monster, beguiled by the songs, lets his black 
ears droop and the writhing snakes in the hair
of the Eumenides refresh themselves?


And also Prometheus and Pelops' father
are lured from their labor by the sweet sound
and Orion does not care to agitate
the lions and the wary lynxes.

I used some help from the commentary come's from Bennett's edition of Horace as well as from translating with Propertius II. I took a few liberties with the literalism in order to try to capture the spirit of the utterance in English-- or at least how I interpreted that spirit. I would be happy for people to comment on my translation and offer suggestions.

On the subject of trees, BBC News recently posted an article about how scientific data on tree growth is applied to history to help explain certain migratory patterns. I found this article through a post on The Campvs, which encourages scientists to apply the tree data to more specific periods such as changes in climate during the years of the Social War.

Spirited: Horace 3.30

It has been a long day so I will not post a translation of 2.13 until tomorrow.  Here is my translation of 3.30:

Exegi monumentum aere perennius
Regalique situ pyramidum altius,
Quod non imber edax, non Aquilo impotens
Possit diruere aut innumberabilis
Annorum series et fuga temporum.
Non omnis moriar multaque pars mei
Vitabit Libitinam: usque ego postera
Crescam laude recens. Dum Capitolium
Scandet cum tacita virgine pontifex,
Dicar, qua violens obstrepit Aufidus
Et qua pauper aquae Daunus agrestium
Regnavit populorum, ex humili potens
Princeps Aeolium carmen ad Italos
Deduxisse modos. Sume superbiam
Quaestiam meritis et mihi Delphica
Lauro cinge volens, Melopomene, comam.

I have completed a monument more durable than bronze
and higher than the majestic place of the pyramids,
because no consuming rain, nor powerless North Wind
can destroy [it] or the innumerable succession of years
and the flight of the seasons.
Not entirely shall I die and parts of me
will evade Death: on and on I will increase
in new praise. While the pontifex
mounts the Capitol with a silent virgin
I will be celebrated, where the furious Aufidus
makes a clamor and Danus, poor in water, once ruled
over rustic people, powerful from humble [origins]
the Aeolian song transferred into Italian poetry.
Take the proud honor sought by the meritorious and
graciously wreath my hair with Delphic laurel.

I used Bennett's edition of Horace (my copy is the first edition) and pieces of may translation amended from his notes. I also discussed the translation with Propertius II, although I did not take particularly good notes so I may have made mistakes that he urged me to correct.

Spirited: Horace

I have spent much of my free time over the last few days translating Horace. I will put up a translation of my favorite recent ode (Horace 3.30) tonight when I get home from work.

Appetitive: Egyptology and Archives

The other day, a friend of the family posted an amazing link on her blog. Apparently, there is an entire internet archive of the materials from Tutankhamen's excavation. The archive, put together by Oxford University, is incredible.

Looking at some of the materials from the excavation, I remembered that one of my early pleasant encounters with non-fiction outside of a classroom was a book on Tutenkhamen. My parents bought me The Murder of Tutankhamen after Bob Brier, or as we called him, the Mummy Guy, came and spoke at my high school. He was a small, skinny man, with a large head and lamp-like blue eyes. Engaging, sweet, and knowledgeable, he quickly captivated his audience and even offered to be pied with whipped cream at the Halloween carnival. His book reads well and I can imagine that I would enjoy reading it again.

Although I have never been a particularly devotee of Egyptology, I can certainly appreciate the field.

Reasoning: Panel on the Delphic Oracle

After listening to the BBC post on Aristotle's Poetics that I reviewed on yesterday's blogpost, I listened to a BBC piece on the Delphic Oracle. The panel was Paul Cartledge, A G Leventis Professor of Greek Culture at Cambridge University; Edith Hall, Professor of Classics and Drama at Royal Holloway, University of London; and Nick Lowe, Reader in Classical Literature at Royal Holloway, University of London. Since the piece is from In Our Time, the host is once again Melvyn Bragg, but luckily he's a little less arrogant and annoying. Although most of the information of Delphi is pretty basic (especially for anyone who has read Herodotus' Histories), the panel is fabulous.

Appetitive/Reasoning: Discussion of the Poetics

At my Alma Mater, one of my favorite professors is teaching a class on Aristotle's Poetics (in Greek). One of the secondary sources that he assigned for the early classes was a BBC's In Our Time program on the Poetic. A friend of mine posted the piece on twitter and I decided to listen to it.

The moderators is Melvyn Bragg, a British radio host, who is quite intelligent but seems to fancy himself as an elite intellectual and does not like to be contradicted. His discussions takes place with
Angie Hobbs, an Associate Professor of Philosophy and Senior Fellow in the Public Understanding of Philosophy at the University of Warwick; Nick Lowe, a Reader in Classical Literature at Royal Holloway, University of London; and Stephen Halliwell, a Professor of Greek at the University of St Andrews.

I enjoyed the podcast and think anyone interested should listen to it. However, I thought that the power dynamics of the discussion almost eclipsed the academic content for being interesting. Bragg seemed to be having a relatively good time until he decided to post his first question to Halliwell. Looking for a black-and-white answer, Bragg asked about the Poetics as a response to Plato's critique of poetry in the Republic. Halliwell spoke cogently and concisely about how to interpret Plato's work in the Republic. Bragg, now annoyed by a complicated answer quickly began to lose his patience with Halliwell and he became increasinly rude and arrogant causing me to mock him in this way to a friend over skypechat (this is a parody, not what they actually say):

Halliwell: "These ideas are really intersting and there is lots of nuance that people miss!"

Bragg: "Nuance! No more nuance! I will now slam my fist of Victorian criticism and crush your nuance."

Halliwell, eventually sort of bows to Bragg's older criticism, possibly because it seems like Bragg will not let him speak again if he does not. Later on in the show, Bragg asks Halliwell about 'catharsis' and Halliwell once again responds in a proper, scholarly manner about the difficulty of interpreting 'catharsis' and how rarely it turns up in Aristotle (once in the Poetics and once in the Politics). Annoyed again, Bragg says something very similar to "aren't you a scholar? Can't you just tell us what it means?" I could not believe it, especially since Halliwell is both a distinguished scholar and was attempting, however fruitlessly, to provide a more reasonable opinion on the texts on which he primarily conducts his research.

As much as I make fun of the discussion, clearly Bragg runs a radio show that discusses complex and interesting issues, so I subscribed to the show. If your interested, the RSS feeds and subscriptions to the podcast can be found here.

Just to spite Bragg, I thought I would include Halliwell's Author Page and some of his books: