Astrologophile

Dark Academia just slid into my life, a name for all the things I already enjoyed. Latin Masters student and aspiring Latinist/Classicist in Sweden.

[wonderstruck]

If you see this you’re legally obligated to reblog and tag with the book you’re currently reading

[astrologophile]

First Latin text of the summer - the Annals!

I'll probably just the first two books which I've actually read once before. I want to focus on a shorter section to get familiar with Tacitus' style and see how translators have tackled him.

I have this English translation by Cynthia Damon + I'm going to borrow the Swedish one by Bertil Cavallin at the library. I also found another on accident by Ivan Svalenius whom I've never heard of so that's exciting!

[astrologophile]

I am finished!! All assignments DONE! I can now eat my celebratory Toblerone cake and take a vacation for two weeks before I start working full time over the summer 🥳

But of course a student's life is never over, even over the break. I'm going to read some Latin texts and their translations to prepare for the Latin prose translation course this fall 📜 Gotta get that reading comprehension up and running again! If anyone wants to do something similar and keep each other accountable, hit me up lol or I might end up reading nothing.

[astrologophile]

June 7th, 1.15 pm

Oh I am so not feeling it right now. Went to bed late, got woken up by the cats a couple times this morning and then I was just in a bad mood. After 2,5 hours on the couch I have finally dragged my ass to my kitchen desk and took my meds like three hours late. I'm not sure if I'm just ADD procrastinating in general or if it's that I slept badly or that I need to recover from Friday and Saturday (or all of the above?). How can you even tell?

Guess I'll just dabble with the material for a bit until I can get into it properly. Focus music on!

[darkacademiavibes]

Borrow books, share pdfs, email ebooks. Understand that academia is expensive. Make it more accessible, help someone gain knowledge. Dismantle the disparity with second-hand books and hand-me-downs. Share. Share. Share.

[astrologophile]

The struggle of wanting to save money but also have physical books to browse, underline and annotate...

[astrologophile]

June 5th, 10.30

I submitted the home exam/assignment yesterday! I started this month by submitting another one day late, then four days early, now one day early 🥳 I'm usually a stable "five minutes before deadline" kinda gal.

Only one assignment left now, yay! Surprisingly I haven't felt motivated to finish it despite it just being writing an informative text about Pliny the younger - in my native language. No translation or analysis involved. But I do want it to be good. Gonna channel my inner (elder) Pliny and get studious.

Today's setup, still catless, but Åke did end up sitting in the left box a lot yesterday!

This is my inner Pliny lol. Yes it's AI. Just a silly image I prompted when I stayed up at night to finish that late assignment and needed motivation. Let's not even discuss the fact that bound books didn't exist yet.

[rolameny]

the belief i have in my ability to carry any amount of stuff home if i am equipped with my backpack and two reusable totes is hubristic to a degree that the achaeans fighting at troy could only have dreamed of

[astrologophile]

A couple of new (to me) things that I've appreciated a lot:

These blue book covers, very minimalistic and they just feel very serious and trustworthy and for some reason I like that the edge of the covers align with the edge of the pages?

Index of forms / Index Verborum. All the Latin words and forms used in the book. Amazing. So helpful. Obviously not a new idea (this book is from 1999) but I don't think I've seen it before.

[thoodleoo]

starting a gofundme for my friend cicero in exile at thessalonica to help him purchase another villa so that he does not kill himself in exile

[batrachised]

love the phrase "but I digress." yes I temporarily got lost in the moors I wander in my mind but don't worry I'm self-aware about it

[catilinas]

more benches in museums

the benches need to have backs!

[astrologophile]

June 4, 9.30

My studies have really been all over the place lately, some random sessions in between working and activities/events. My brain really wants to go on vacation, too. There's a deadline tomorrow at noon for my Latin history class that I plan to - WILL - submit today! This afternoon and the weekend is for finishing my Pliny introduction but also celebrating a friend's birthday and our national day.

Got some advice from my physiotherapist for when I'm working and studying and for my poor aging back's sake I'm gonna do my best, so today I've set up shop at the kitchen table again, raising the screen, using a detached keyboard... sitting upright lol. I was gonna put an alarm at 10 to get up and hang up my laundry as a little break and stand up, but uhh the prep took more time than planned. I also put out boxes for the cats since they've enjoyed sleeping on the table when I'm studying, but as you can see they were not tempted. Oh well.

[astrologophile]

May 21st 2026

Ohhhh man, I accidentally took a long pause from tumblr! Studies, a trip to Rome, more studies, birthday... but now I'm back and ready to get some structure again (it has been seriously lacking lately)! I need to get right into it, so here's my plan for today:

Read some introductions of published translations

Gather information about Pliny the younger with references

Start writing my introduction

Read classmate's assignment and start commenting

[astrologophile]

April 7th 5.30 pm

No studying today, just a 2 hour Zoom lecture - the start of my epigraphy class! I've got a cold coming, nothing dramatic yet, only a sore throat but I'm pretty tired. My go-to strategy is to rest immediately, drink as much water as I can, and make sure I eat. I've got another Zoom lecture tomorrow, I'm going to read some assigned chapters of the epigraphy handbook before that. Then we'll see if I can go to work Thursday and Friday or if I get worse. It's just, I can't get worse because I need to clean my apartment and I'm traveling to Rome soon! So anyone reading this, please wish me well so I don't have to travel with a fever or something! I'm not above begging 😬

[astrologophile]

April 1st 2026

Okay I'm so excited about the history of Latin now! Had a nice Zoom lecture where I realized that I need to revise phonological terminology and IPA symbols and geography of (ancient) Italy... and learn German really fast? How come the Germans have written all the good scholarly books on Latin and why aren't they translated lol?

Jokes aside, I've got some short Oxford bibliography articles to go through, and I think I want to make a quick terminology list (which will definitely not be quick) before I dive into the main course book.

Read Oxford Bibliography: "Italic Languages", "Archaic Latin", and "Latin and Indo-European"

Terminology list for phonology etc

Read chapter 2 (or 3?) of Blackwell's History of the Latin Language

Learn the areas of the ancient Italian peninsula

Browse through Weiss' Outline of the Historical and Comparative Grammar of Latin

Plus today I got the book I ordered last week, the latest edition of Medical terminology. It's a Swedish medical dictionary, rarely used in the era of Google, but I like it old school, and even though I'm only working part-time at the hospital I know I'll browse in it on my free time as well because it's just so interesting!

[deadpearls]

lotr version because this meme encompasses my entire being

[astrologophile]

Super duper normal

[vinyafinwe]

if I had a melkor iwould. haha well. decline him like a 1st conjugation deponent verb. melkor melkaris melkatur. and so on.

[astrologophile]

Why is this so damn funny