Nugae

moments of frustration or mild amusement, usually whilst reading some ancient stuff...& and the occasional repost

[realalesocialist]

Fuck postmodernism.

[creusastrikesback]

Creusa ain’t got time for that.

[creusastrikesback]

That time Hesiod wrote a fable about a hawk and a nightingale that doesn't seem to make any sense. That's because the fable was actually an allegory for graduate school. Thanks, Hesiod. (ll. 202-211) And now I will tell a fable for princes who themselves understand. Thus said the hawk to the nightingale with speckled neck, while he carried her high up among the clouds, gripped fast in his talons, and she, pierced by his crooked talons, cried pitifully. To her he spoke disdainfully: `Miserable thing, why do you cry out? One far stronger than you now holds you fast, and you must go wherever I take you, songstress as you are. And if I please I will make my meal of you, or let you go. He is a fool who tries to withstand the stronger, for he does not get the mastery and suffers pain besides his shame.' So said the swiftly flying hawk, the long- winged bird.

[creusastrikesback]

The cutest passage in all of Herodotus. (3.113) 113. Let what we have said suffice with regard to spices; and from the land of Arabia there blows a scent of them most marvellously sweet. They have also two kinds of sheep which are worthy of admiration and are not found in any other land: the one kind has the tail long, not less than three cubits in length; and if one should allow these to drag these after them, they would have sores from their tails being worn away against the ground; but as it is, every one of the shepherds knows enough of carpentering to make little cars, which they tie under the tails, fastening the tail of each animal to a separate little car. The other kind of sheep has the tail broad, even as much as a cubit in breadth.

[earlhamclassics]

That is how you take notes, folks. These are Peter Fontein’s (1708-1788) personal notes on Theophrastus.  

[creusastrikesback]

I would toooooootally do this if that tiny passage were all I had to translate. A fine way to spend a casual Saturday evening.

Meanwhile Theophratus is lol'ing.

[creusastrikesback]

That time the Athenians fell in love (lust) with war on Sicily. Tinder: helping people make questionable life choices since the 5th century BCE. (Credit to Alex Karsten for the idea!)

[creusastrikesback]

Aeneas gives the speech he needs to hear, but srsly ain't nobody got time for that. Let's eat some stags.

[creusastrikesback]

When narrative epithets get in the way. Thanks to Jillius Caesar for the inspiration.

[incidentalcomics]

[creusastrikesback]

The etiology of the chicken dance. Hubris will get you nowhere with Athena Promachos.

[creusastrikesback]

The only thing more basic than Mycenaean Greek is a venti pumpkin spice latte. *correction: Linear B does have one "real" consonant cluster (pte) and a handful with digammas...but that's still some basic shit.

[creusastrikesback]

UPDATED more characters added, and, in the spirit of my Parthenon prof's (#markabbe), I decided to add some polychromy.

[creusastrikesback]

Merry Christmas from all your Greek prose buddies.

(Draft version)

[creusastrikesback]

Lol there's a Lake Gyges #menos AMIRITE??

[creusastrikesback]

[creusastrikesback]

Can women ever have it all?

[creusastrikesback]

New Series: Music Videos That Were Actually Written About Classical Texts

First installment

"We Takin' Over"

aka

The Iliad, Catalogue of Ships

Ay, ay Started in Atlanta, then I spread out wit' it South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi On to North Carolina, Philadelphia and Virginia From down in Miami where it warm in the winter On up to Minnesota where it storm in the winter Jacksonville, Tallahassee, Memphis, Tenn. holla at me Me in H-Town, Southside, Cloverland daddy I'm the man out in Dallas, better ask Khaled Kept me out in Cali with my eyes open barely Blowin' and spinnin', goin' down Bennett Drop six-fo', three-wheel then switch it Red light stop, make it drop for the bitches Got a glock fo'-fifth, blow your head off wit' it Anything you hear that I said, I meant it King got the crown then sped off it wit' it Say you need bricks, I said I get it [Akon] If you want to, we can supply you Got enough work, to feed the whole town They won't shoot you, unless you try to Come around and try to stomp on our ground 'Cause we takin' over, one city at a time Said we takin' over, one city at a time Said we takin' over, one city at a time Said we takin' over, one city at a time

- DJ Khaled feat. Lil Wayne, Rick Ross, Fat Joe, T.I., Akon, Birdman

Tell me now, Muses, who live on Olympus – since you are goddesses, ever present and all-knowing, while we hearing rumour know nothing ourselves for sure – tell me who were the leaders and lords of the Danaans. For I could not count or name the multitude who came to Troy, though I had ten tongues and a tireless voice, and lungs of bronze as well, if you Olympian Muses, daughters of aegis-bearing Zeus, brought them not to mind. Here let me tell of the captains, and their ships.

- Iliad, bk 2, Homer feat. the Mu$es

(credit to Giselle Furlonge, reppin Classics hard at the notorious S.A.S.)

[creusastrikesback]

So happy together...