Appetitive: Egyptology News

I am not much of an Egyptology person, but I find it interesting as a non-scholarly observer. When I was looking for some information on Egyptology recently I happened across a prolific blog called Egyptology News that posts updates on everything Egyptology related. Recently, the site has posted pictures of the Ptolomaic Temple, as well as a lot of information on the looting that took place in Egypt during the recent protests.

Reasoning: Scholia

For those of you who do not know, "scholia" (singluar scholium) are the marginal commentary notes  on classical texts (and possibly stretched to include some of the ancient scholars works in their own right). Until last weekend, I knew next to nothing about ancient scholarship. Now I know a little bit. Last Saturday, while proctoring an exam, I read the kindle free sample of Eleanor Dickey's Ancient Greek Scholarship: A Guide to Finding, Reading, and Understanding Scholia, Commentaries, Lexica, and Grammatical Treatises: From Their Beginnings to the Byzantine Period, which first discusses the scope and format of ancient scholarship in general, and then about the bodies of scholia on texts (such as scholia on the Iliad or Euripides' works). The second half of the book is essentially a textbook on how to read ancient scholarship. It sounds great, but I have so many other things to read that I have not bought the full version yet.

Recently, the Homer Multitext ran a post about a particular book with scholia on the Iliad. The post discussed an individual text of the Iliad (and a specific folio within that text) and the unique summery in the scholia of the particular manuscript. It then compared this text with other texts of various time periods. The article was very interesting and I recommend it.

Appetitive/Reasoning: Encomia (?) of Helen

 

Propertius II and I are almost done with Horace! It's been a long journey. We are reading the last of the 24 poems in our set (Epode 17) this week. Although the plan is to read Iliad Book 14, Propertius II is not done with Book 13 yet (he has been reading through the entire Iliad in Greek of the last two years (although he was interrupted by classes and having to write a thesis). So, in the meantime, we are planning to read Gorgias' "Encomium of Helen." We may also read Isocrates' "Encomium of Helen."

I have had a very busy week. Back to regular posting soon.

Appetitive: Learning Sanskrit

 

I have talked a lot about learning Sanskrit in previous blogposts (#1, #2). I actually started training myself in the language Tuesday in preparation for my first meeting with my friend Catullus II Wednesday morning. It's really hard! We read and discussed the first chapter of William Dwight Whitney's Sanskrit Grammar (concerning the alphabet) and attempted to puzzle through pronunciation and how to approach a primarily syllabic alphabet. It should be a fun challenge. Our second meeting is this Wednesday and we will be looking at the second chapter (pronunciation).

Learning a new language is always difficult. Sanskrit is the fourth language I am currently actively studying (alongside French, Latin, and Greek) and I will hopefully be adding German to the list sometime in the next few weeks. Tips for learning Sanskrit or (especially) book recommendations would be very welcome.

Note: It's been a hectic week. Normal posting should resume soon.

Spirited: Horace Epode III

Bennett titles this epode "Oh that Guilty Garlic." As it had such an amusing title, Propertius and I decided to read it and I mentioned that I would translate it in a recent blogpost. Here it is.

Parentis olim siquis impia manu
   Senile guttur fregerit,
Edit cicutis allium nocentius.
   Oh dura messorum ilia!
Num viperinus his cruor
   Incoctus herbis me fefellit? an malas
Canidia tractavit dapes?
   Ut Argonautas praeter omnis candidum
Medea Mirata est ducem,
   Ignota tauris inligaturum iuga
Perunxit hoc Iasonem;
   Serpente fugit alite.
Nec tantus umquam siderum insedit vapor
   Siticulosae Apuliae,
Nec munus umeris efficacis Herculis
   Inarsit aestuosius
At siquit umquam tale concupiveris,
   Iocos Maecenas, precor,
Manum puella savio opponat tuo,
   Extrema et in sponda cubet.

If ever any man breaks
the old neck of his father,let him eat garlic, 
which induces more injury than hemlock.
O tough intestines of harvesters!
What poison rages furiously in my heart?
Surely no viper's blood has been boiled
with these herbs to decieve me? Or did
Canidia serve bad dishes?
When Medea was amazed at the leader,
shining beyond the other Argonauts,
she anointed Jason, going to bind the bulls\
with unknown yokes, with [garlic];
Having steeped the gifts in [garlic]
for his concubine, she flees in her dragon chariot.
And not at any time so great a heat
of the stars sat over arid Apulia,
nor did such a glowing gift burn
the shoulders of powerful Hercules.
But if anyone ever will have desired
such a thing, jocular Maecenas, oh heart,
may your girl place a hand opposite your kiss
and may she lie on the far-side of the bed.

I used Bennett's commentary and text and discussed the text with Propertius II. I took some liberties-- especially with tense-- to attempt to make this into decent English.

Appetitive: Books-- a Valentine's Day Tradition

The summer before my junior year in college, I almost entirely stopped eating chocolate. When Valentine's Day came, a package arrived for me. Inside the package was a box-- which looked very much like a chocolate box-- wrapped in white paper with a pink ribbon. I opened it, thinking I would have to figure out which of my friends I could convince to eat it. To my great pleasant surprise, it was a copy of the hardcover copy of Being and Time which I later used to start my Heidegger study group. The books-wrapped-like-chocolate have now become a tradition, and they are usually dense texts. This year my parents got me Hans-Georg Gadamer's Dialogue and Dialectic: Eight Hermeneutical Studies on Plato and a study of Dionysus by Richard Seaford titled DIONYSOS. I am quite excited to read both of them. Being by far the lighter of the two, I read the introduction to DIONYSOS earlier today and it looks great. Richard Seaford is brilliant; I read on of his essays from Reciprocity and Ritual: Homer and Tragedy in the Developing City-State in a Greek class I took on tragedy and the Oresteia.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Spirited: The Horace to Come

Properitus II and I are finally finishing up our stint of Horace poems. Since we finished the list of typical odes plus a few that we picked out, we decided to move on to the epodes. The first epode we read (Epode III) was quite funny; it was much in the style of Ode 2.13. The second one was...well not what I was expecting. Although Bennett, the editor, failed to write a commentary due to Epode VIII's "crude" subject matter, I figured this was simple 19th century prudishness. I was mistaken. The ode was rather revolting. I don't suggest it and I shall not put up a translation. I will, tomorrow, put up the "Garlic" ode which was charming and silly.