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history dork | 21

[symeona]

So… you’ve officially broken my mind and I can’t thank you enough. I’ve been thinking about what you said regarding 1) the gods visiting Africa and 2) the Cyclopes being people from the literal island of Cyclades.

My entire life, I thought I was so smart bc I could recall the (admittedly bastardized) versions of ancient Greek stories, but… I just spent several hours digging through every essay and paper I could find about both of those topics.

A lot of the sources I found were in Greek, and I’m unfortunately only fluent in English. I went through your tags to see if I could find more sources to read up on factual histories of Greece and Peloponnesian (Aegean? Shit sorry I’m not sure what the right term is) cultures in general, but I was wondering if you have any suggestions on books/authors to get started with.

Also, thank you so much for putting in the effort to explain and mention things about your knowledge. It’s probably frustrating as hell to see the rest of the world fucking around with your culture.

Aw mannnn I'm sorry I know everything is so inaccessible!!! Most of the stuff is in Greek museums as documents that aren't even online, let alone translated!!

But I do have some interesting stuff that you will probably love!!

Chalice and the Blade, keep in mind it was published in the 80s so... Some of the language is outdated, but Eisler did such a phenomenal job calling out preconceived notions ppl had about ancient times and Greece.

Because I'm petty✨ Here is the exact verse in the FIRST BOOK of the Odyssey where Poseidon returns to the land of "Ethiopia" (in ancient times Ethiopia was the name for north and central Africa, Macrobians were the ppl of south Africa) to receive offerings of bull and ram. Expensive stuff. A pretty huge deal, ppl didn't offer that kind of stuff to random gods.

And here is when Zeus and the gods go to Ethiopia for a feast🥳 I will give you 100€ if Nolan has actually read the Odyssey even once

This is harder to find articles or books for. But I will do it myself if nobody else will. Let's talk about the Cyclopes, a simple people who had livestock and warriors and music. And something about ... Eyes ..that's about it. I'm from the Cyclades. So this description is all I need, I grew up with this stuff. Eyes were one of the symbols of warriors, I'm sure it was scary to fight a woman with eyes tattooed or painted on her body. But that's all it was.... No 5foot monsters with one eye... That's Homer 1000+ years later, telling a story of a people that Dracon did a pretty good job of silencing. But truth has a way of surviving regardless.

[glowcowboy]

don’t forget to be very very silly today. it’s essential

[l9mb]

i cant go out.im busy

[memories-of-ancients]

Glass mosaic and rock crystal beads, Roman (eastern Mediterranean), 1st century AD

from The Metropolitan Museum of Art

[uncleclaudius]

The mosaic floor of a dining room in a Roman villa in Antandros in Anatolia, which was occupied between the 3rd and 6th centuries AD.

[taxidermychrist-deactivated2025]

the women in my bluetooth headphones sounds mad at me :(

[vampire-cathedral]

[byekansas]

No thanks.

[granstromjulius]

Antonio Ciseri

[rweoutofthewoods-deactivated202]

Life is really not so bad. There is sun and rain and beaches and mountains. There’s coffee and stories to read and things to write. People to say good morning to everyday. People to smile at. And when you pass a hiker they will nod and say hello and the cashier at the gas station might ask you if you’re okay when you need it most. Random girls will compliment you in the street and you’ll pay it back and compliment other strangers. They’ll make your day and you’ll make theirs. And there is cruelty but there’s a lot of beauty too. So many people have so much kindness in them. And you can’t single-handedly change the worst of life, but you can offer kindness too. You can make someone smile.

[hawkpartys]

[diamondguls]

i love you, Two Catfish as Street Musicians in the Kashina district, ca 1855 of an unidentified artist, you go so hard

[funhomo]

ea-nasir this ea-nasir that feh the best thing about the babylonians is all the clay women holding their tits

[funhomo]

tfw bras haven’t been invented yet but a girl makes do

[lestrawberryswitchblade]

Okay but for real though I’m so fascinated by the ubiquity of this pose in the archaeological record across time and place. It must be really significant

[lestrawberryswitchblade]

Like look at all the titty grabbing going on

[just-late-roman-republic-things]

So, apparently Emperor Julian wrote what historians call a satire, and what I call a "crossover crack-fic in which the Greek gods get all the Roman emperors together in a room and make them argue about who's the coolest."

This crack-fic has, incredibly, survived. It's about 90% Julian roasting historical figures through the mouth of Dionysus' boyfriend. Favorite bits:

Julius Caesar, Augustus and Tiberius show up and are appropriately shit-talked. (And, for Tiberius, kink-shamed.) Caligula steps through the door and is immediately yeeted into Tartarus before anyone can say anything about him.

Nero comes in with his lyre and Apollo promptly knocks the laurel wreath off his head.

Alexander the Great crashes the party and he and Julius Caesar hate each other on sight.

The gods ask Romulus if any of his descendants are a match for Alexander and Romulus is internally like "Aw, shit."

Alexander almost storms out of the party because he doesn't get to monologue first.

When it's Augustus' turn to make a speech Poseidon doesn't let him have a cup of water because he's still mad about that one time Augustus blasphemed against him 400 years earlier.

The gods tell each of the emperors to Explain Themselves and Marcus Aurelius is like, "But you gods already know everything about us," and they're like "...That's fair."

Cameo appearance from Jesus at the very end, who's apparently best bros with Pleasure in a sort of "sin with one, get forgiveness from the other free!" deal.

[godfearsmefishwantme]

minor update on my language learning journey:

i ordered my first greek learning book about a week ago after a multitude of research on what would be the best for my skill level and had audio to go along with it :3

unfortunately, i havent been able to make much progress since i made my post about wanting to learn greek but honestly thats my bad while also being out of my control lol. ive been getting up for work at 4 am and leaving work at 4 pm which then i will go to bed at 8:30-9:00 so not a lot of time to dedicate to it but also im kinda lazy when i am not at work and i want to just zone lol.

with all that said; i am hoping this book changes that! i plan on taking notes on it on like the weekends and dedicated a bit of time to that with the goal of impressing my favorite professor <3

[en-theos]

WEIRD TITTIES IN GREEK ART

Terracotta red figure lekythos, Attica, attributed to the Brygos Painter, 490 - 480 BC

the sack of troy, attic red figure pottery, c.500-490BC, national archaeological museum naples

Terracotta Nolan neck-amphora (jar), Attributed to the Ethiop Painter, ca. 450 BCE

Volute krater, Ilioupersis Painter, Apulia, c. 370-350 BCE, british museum

Red-figure pelike with the punishment of Dirce tied to a bull, end fifth century bc. Policoro, Museo Nazionale della Siritide.

Detail of a hydria by the Meidias painter, Attica (Greece), about 420 BC, excavated in Italy British Museum.

Detail of a south italian krater, ca. 450-425 bc, musee du louvre

kylix, epiktetos painter, attic, ca. 510 BC. british museum.

[thememedaddy]

[escuerzoresucitado]

Plato #1 hater

[classicslesbianopinions]

[image description: text that reads as follows:

In a groundbreaking discovery, the ancient scroll was found to contain a previously unknown narrative detailing how the Greek philosopher spent his last evening, describing how he listened to music played on a flute by a Thracian slave girl.

Despite battling a fever and being on the brink of death, Plato - who was known as a disciple of Socrates and a mentor to Aristotle, and who died in Athens around 348BC - retained enough lucidity to critique the musician for her lack of rhythm, the account suggests.

end image description.]