Ama et Fac Quod Vis

Matilde. 28. Torn between many places. Doctor of Philosophy in Classics and Ancient Philosophy madly in love with philosophy, literature, and languages (Ancient Greek, Latin, English, German, Japanese, Chinese). Big Tolkien fan. Feel free to hit my askbox. || "For me the question was somehow: I can either study philosophy or I can drown myself, so to speak. But not because I didn’t love life! No! As I said before—I had this need to understand … The need to understand was there very early." - Hannah Arendt

[metamorphesque]

Anaïs Nin, Leon Wyczółkowski

[theladyelizabeth]

History to Film - Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007) & HBO’s Elizabeth I (2005) 

One of Elizabeth’s most useful talents was her capacity to learn languages. In her youth she learned French, Latin, Spanish, Italian and Greek and likely even a bit of Welsh due to her Welsh personal attendant, Blanche Parry. According to her tutor, Roger Ascham, she was particularly talented at French and Italian which “she speaks like English.” Indeed, later on in Mary I’s reign, the Venetian ambassador remarked that:

As a linguist [Elizabeth] excels the Queen, for besides Latin she has no slight knowledge of Greek, and speaks Italian more than the Queen does, taking so much pleasure in it that from vanity (per ambitione) she will never speak any other language with Italians.

Though one has to wonder if it had less to do with vanity and more to do with politeness and a desire to accomodate the Italians in court - after all, during Mary’s reign, Elizabeth needed all the friends she could get. Still, Elizabeth never lost an oppurtunity to show off her linguistic skills. 

Elizabeth produced a sizable number of translations throughout her life - a hobby she indulged in for pleasure as often as she could. She continued to learn other languages during her reign as Queen, including taking an interest in the other native languages of the British Isles such as Irish and Cornish. Elizabeth’s proficiency with languages allowed her to converse easily with ambassadors and visitors to the English court without the need for a translator. If, on the rare occasion she had a visitor who spoke a language she did not, they would converse in Latin instead which was still considered something of a common tongue in European royal courts. 

Both Elizabeth: The Golden Age and HBO’s Elizabeth I portray Elizabeth speaking in her ambassador/suitor’s native language as she would have in real life. The Golden Age does take more creative liberties however - though marriage negotiations with Archduke Charles were once in the works, they eventually amounted to nothing and the Archduke never actually visited England. Nor is it certain that Elizabeth knew enough German to speak as fluently as she does in the movie. 

The scene in HBO’s Elizabeth I where she welcomes the entourage of the Duke of Anjou is more true to reality and it has an extra tidbit of historical accuracy. After making her pointed “miserable Protestants” barb, the Earl of Leicester (who she had been bickering with just beforehand) chuckles in the background, indicating that he had understood what she said. As an educated courtier and nobleman, Leicester would have also had a decent grasp of French and Italian at least (although it seemed he was not as talented a student of languages as Elizabeth was in his youth - Ascham once wrote to him berating him for preferring mathematics to languages and rhetoric), and this small but amusing detail adds to the enjoyment of a period production.

[the50facesofme-deactivated20220]

Ancient Greek or Minoan Incense Censor. I think Minoan. Whichever it is, I really love the whole look and shape to it. Small enough to carry if someone like myself plans to hold ritual while adventuring in the wild.

[anabimelo]

Repost ‘cause I regret deleting this

[osoma-nga]

[hawkeyedflame]

if you can look at this panel and tell me it doesn't make you want to read otoyomegatari then we cannot be friends sorry

[ithri0uragh]

Algerian Imazighen children wearing their traditional jewelry and cloths.

(Left to right) Touareg, Kabyle, Mozabite and Chaoui.

[demonwindu]

kant x jungian functions correlation

open in new tab as image and zoom in.

1. "pure" in kant is more obvious and less synthesized so that's why i put te in there.

2. high ti is there because that's the materialistic deductive reasoning.

3. dialectic is more interpersonal and psychological and metaphysical (if you follow the tree all the way down you see psychology, god, soul and such stuff for that reason).

so if practical version of that is fe then more theoretical version must be fi.

note: i just added blue bits all the rest belongs to andrew stephenson.

[hogwartshousefriends]

Hufflepuff: Oh. My. God. It’s my favourite kind of cake.

Hufflepuff: Gigantic.

[apuleiaprimilla]

Statua femminile di Concordia

I sec. d.C.

Napoli, Museo Archeologico Nazionale

Photo: © Luigi Spina 

[redtwine]

[taohun]

wake up babe new mitski article that will steal your breath from your chest just dropped

[luthienne]

Gregory Orr, from Poetry as Survival

[Text ID: But we humans are unable to bear the notion of our powerlessness against random violence, and story-making, no matter how unrealistic the story, becomes a major ally in preserving our sense of control over destiny and circumstances.]

[michaelmoonsbookshop]

Vintage Penguin Classics

[ancientegyptdaily]

Stairway to the rock-cut tombs of Beni Hasan in Middle Egypt.

At this site, the provincial high elite were buried in large and elaborately decorated tombs carved into the limestone cliffs near the provincial capital, located in the upper cemetery area. These tombs lie in a row on a north–south axis. There is a slight break in the natural rock terrace, on to which they open, that divides the thirty-nine high status tombs into two groups. The basic design of these elite tombs was an outer court and a rock-cut pillared room (sometimes referred to as the chapel) in which there was a shaft that led to the burial chamber.

Some of the larger tombs have biographical inscriptions and were painted with scenes of daily life and warfare. They are famous for the quality of their paintings. Nowadays, many of these scenes are in poor condition, though in the 19th century copies were made of several of them. [X]

[archaeoart]

The Prince of Wales at the temple of Amun, Karnak, circa 1862.

[philosophybits]

“When we reason a priori, and consider merely any object or cause, as it appears to the mind, independent of all observation, it never could suggest to us the notion of any distinct object, such as its effect, much less, show us the inseparable connection between them.”

— David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding