The Lion of Chaeronea

A blog dedicated to classical antiquity, poetry, and the visual arts. All translations of Greek and Latin are my own unless otherwise noted.

[lovecrumbss]

James Baldwin talking about love

[unhelpfultarot]

The World and Nine of Pentacles

Some days you want to dance naked in the open air with your friends, and some days you'd rather wear a comfortable slouchy robe in your own yard, so you're glad both options exist.

[lionofchaeronea]

Exciting news for mystery fans! In the wake of the recent "Young Sherlock" and "Young Poirot" reboots, Britain's ITV has commissioned Young Marple, starring Sydney Sweeney in the title role.

From the official press release:

"Long before St. Mary Mead, Jane Marple was a dancer in the seedy music halls of London's East End. In this series, she'll solve six fanservice-laden mysteries, while growing into the elderly spinster we know and (mostly) love."

ITV Head of Programming Fred Blythewaite is enthusiastic about the project. "I have no doubt that it will be our channel's finest hour," he said, adding "If not, we'll just dump it on Netflix".

[lionofchaeronea]

Title: Study of Sea and Sky, Isle of Wight Artist: Joseph Mallord William Turner (English, 1775-1851) Date: 1827 Genre: seascape Movement: Romanticism Medium: oil on canvas Dimensions: 32.1 cm (12.6 in) high x 50.2 cm (19.7 in) wide Location: Tate Britain, London, England, UK

This work, which reflects Turner's lifelong interest in the sea, was completed during July-August 1827, when the artist was staying at East Cowes Castle on the Isle of Wight. Art historians speculate that he may have done some of his preparatory sketches on board a man-of-war anchored at Cowes Roads.

[lionofchaeronea]

So, I'm signed up to do a "poetry marathon" tomorrow -- 24 poems in a 24-hour window. It's unlikely I'll succeed, given that I have dinner out with my folks in the evening, but I'm OK with that. My chief goal is to get enough halfway decent raw material out of the exercise to put together a chapbook. (Also, if I get stuck for ideas and need to procrastinate, I'll have an excuse to do some much-needed cleaning around the place.)

[lionofchaeronea]

Sometimes I do miss living within walking distance of a good academic library. I know this isn't a terribly significant problem to have in the grand scheme of things, but it would still be nice to be able to pop over and do some hard-core research whenever I feel like it.

[unhelpfultarot]

Five of Pentacles and Seven of Pentacles

Soon you should take a short break from the grind, to stop and admire your progress.

[lionofchaeronea]

I am so fucking sick of racist thugs, and of the rabble-rousers who deliberately stir up racist thugs for their own political ends. Damn them all to hell.

[lionofchaeronea]

Title: St. Christopher Artist: Orazio Borgianni (Italian [Roman], 1574-1616) Date: end of the 16th or beginning of the 17th century (between 1605 and 1616?) Genre: religious art (Roman Catholic Christianity) Movement: Mannerism Period: Early Baroque Medium: oil on canvas Dimensions: 165 cm (64.9 in) high x 120.5 cm (47.4 in) wide Location: Museo del Prado, Madrid, Spain

In this large painting, St. Christopher, whose image is today used as protection by travelers, bears the infant Christ on his back as he fords a river. This story first appears in the Aurea Legenda (Golden Legend), an enormously popular book of stories about the saints compiled by Jacobus de Voragine in the 13th century. The palm leaves at the end of Christopher's staff refer to his martyrdom, which is variously dated to the reigns of Trajan Decius, Diocletian, or Maximinus Daza.

Orazio Borgianni, born and trained in Rome, spent some years in Spain under the patronage of Philip II, where he produced the majority of his mature work. His style combines the dramatic poses of Mannerism, early Baroque tendencies found in contemporaries like Annibale Carracci, and an interest in light and shadow drawn from Caravaggio (with whom, according to Borgianni's biographer Giovanni Baglione, Borgianni once quarreled violently, hurling a bottle of varnish at his head).

[lionofchaeronea]

Current nonfiction reading is The Poetry of Being and the Prose of the World in Early Greek Philosophy by Victoria Wohl (Univ. of California Press, 2025). It's the published version of the 78th Sather Classical Lectures that Wohl delivered at Cal-Berkeley (her alma mater, as it happens).

Wohl's central claim, which she expresses in clear, elegant prose, is that it's futile to attempt to separate the "philosophical" content of the Presocratics from their "poetic" mode of expression, because it's precisely the latter that gives shape and meaning to the former. Drawing on literary-critical theories of poetry as a generator of multiple, often contradictory, meanings, she analyzes five of the Presocratics -- Parmenides, Heraclitus, Empedocles, Anaxagoras, and Democritus -- who wrote either in verse or highly charged prose. In each author, she finds that "the medium is the message": the ties between their thought and their language are inextricable and must be explored if their way of "doing philosophy" is to be properly understood.

This may not seem like a particularly controversial argument, at least for someone approaching matters from the literary side -- Wohl has also written with great accomplishment on Euripides -- but as she notes, the Anglo-American tradition of analytic philosophy has meant that even the most perceptive students of the Presocratics are hesitant to read them in such a lit-crit manner. Their assumption, following Aristotle in the Metaphysics, is that poetic language, however interesting in its own right, is ultimately a veil that conceals the "true," supralinguistic content that properly defines philosophy. Wohl, on the other hand, is more in sympathy with the continental tradition of philosophy, which (at its best) reads literature and philosophy as two sides of the same coin.

It's a really thoughtful monograph, one that's leading me to think about the Presocratics in an altogether new way. As an added bonus, a free electronic copy of the book is available through UC Press's open access program, Luminos. (Of course, Luddite that I am, I bought a physical copy.)

[lionofchaeronea]

Now that the BBC is at a loss about how to proceed with Doctor Who, I've decided to shoot my shot and offer to play the next Doctor. No, I'm not British, but I...

a) am available; b) work cheap; c) can fake a decent Scottish accent; and d) will happily shout "DAAAAAAAVROOOOOOOOOS!" in a manner so hammy that Colin Baker will beg me to show some restraint, for God's sake.

C'mon, Beeb. What have you got to lose?

[lionofchaeronea]

The kid sitting in front of me on this flight is watching Paw Patrol: The Movie. I'm not familiar with Paw Patrol, and I'm surely missing some nuance by not being able to hear the dialogue, but as far as I can tell, it takes place in some sort of anarcho-capitalist dystopia where politicians are irredeemably corrupt, building codes do not exist, public services have been abolished, and everyone would have died long ago if not for a group of talking dogs and a ten-year-old on a quad bike. Talk about dark. And they show this stuff to kids?

[lionofchaeronea]

I'm not a big soccer fan -- I'm not a big sports fan, honestly -- but I'm going to make a good-faith effort to follow this year's World Cup. I feel a bit silly being unacquainted with the sport favored by 90% of the globe. Plus, it'll give me a chance to root for multiple teams I like -- those that are good (Mexico, Brazil) and those that are...less good (hi there, Scotland!)

[lionofchaeronea]

Meet Alasdair, the Beargpiper.

[lionofchaeronea]

Just for fun.

Where should I go next?

Argentina

Brazil

Chile

India

Japan

Mexico

Mongolia

South Korea

Other (please specify)

Voting ended onJun 10

[lionofchaeronea]

To those who regularly post here in Spanish, French, German, and/or Italian, you have my thanks. Every time I encounter one of your posts, I make a good-faith effort to translate it in my head, and my grasp of your language improves a little bit.

[gothyanki]

tag game: tag ten people you'd like to get to know

Tagged by @elfgremlin - thank you!! <3

last song: Green Island Serenade, sung by Vienna Teng. Got the urge to go through all her albums again the other day - she was one of my favourite singers back in the day, but I hadn’t listened to her for ages outside of a few songs I put on character playlists.

current obsession: I’m very Tyranny-the-Game-brained at the moment, though my Elder Scrolls Thing is creeping back in as well.

currently reading: Terminal Boredom, a short story collection by Izumi Suzuki (who was also the first author I read this year, funnily enough - I started it off with her novel Set My Heart on Fire). I’m also partway through Kāwai: For Such A Time As This by Monty Soutar (liking it just fine, but it’s the kind of book I pick up and read a few chapters of at a time rather than racing through) and Swordheart by T. Kingfisher (really really not getting along with it despite having enjoyed her horror and fairytale retellings in the past - wish I could toss the romance out and give the nonbinary lawyer-priest + oxcart-driving badger-man protagonist status instead).

currently working on: Pre-canon Tyranny fic about Bleden Mark, Kit, and Calio with some Mark backstory in it. Also a mysterious original short story and my fuckign dissertation. :/

currently wearing: Comfy turquoise fleece, evil (but also comfy) red leopard-print leggings, and an Eris Morn Destiny shirt gifted to me by @hokuton-punch ages ago. And vibes-matched socks (one white with a single strawberry on it, the other grey with lots of strawberries on it).

last search: “inimical in hindi” (branched off from another search that was… distantly related). 

favourite flower: Southern rātā! So red, so Shaped. Passiflora, too.

Tagging (absolutely no pressure) @vivacias @tinfoil-gregor-samsa @clockworktardis @merrilynoblepriest @e-suds @dragonologist-phd @darkwingerduck @yesistolethisurl @maererme @l307p and anyone else who wants to do this!

[clockworktardis]

Tagged by @gothyanki (follow them, they’re fun)

Last song: Holy Shrine by Big Crick, which i found via the indie demo We Harvest Shadows, which has a very Silent Hill 2 vibe. Feel free to check it out on Steam or give the artist some love.

Current obsession: survival, a creative project of my own, and indie games

Currently reading: an awful lot of studies to do with the development and advancements in AI, along with their relevant counterparts noting the pitfalls and shortcomings caused by the economic over-reliance on the technology.

Currently working on: job applications, resolving problems with the university bookkeeping, studying for the LSAT, and writing a novella about structural inequality, fellowship, love, trust, betrayal, and rebellion.

Currently wearing: a worn fleece pullover that’s long since lost its labels and jogging shorts.

Last search: Markiplier Subnautica 2 part 10. I finished the early access version in the first 24 hours, and it’s been fun watching him play through it.

Favorite flower: today it’s the tiger lily.

Tagging: @clockworkcrow @kaminaduck @saffrontherogue @heavenhillgirl @littlethingwithfeathers @laenij @gremlin-078 @erin-gilberts @timeisamarmaladeconstruct @tipsypotatogirl and anyone else who might enjoy this

[gremlin-078]

Tagged by @clockworktardis

Last song: Maneater by Nelly Furtado oop

Current obsession: Junk journaling! I really want to give it a proper go this summer when I have access to my craft supplies again.

Currently reading: 'Same-sex sexuality in later medieval English culture' by Tom Linkinen. It's quite dense but interesting nonetheless!

Currently working on: Turning my undergraduate dissertation into a journal article wish me luck aaah

Currently wearing: Men's button down shirt and checked wool trousers

Last search: the Stardew Valley wiki, where would I even be without it

Favourite flower: Roses, mainly for their scent

Tagging: @sandersstudies @byjove @en-theos @glumshoe @lionofchaeronea @ana-actually

[lionofchaeronea]

Tagged by @gremlin-078

Last song: "The Irish Roar" by the High Kings

Current obsession: Landscape photography. Day by day, I'm getting better at it.

Currently reading: Transformation and Other Stories by Mary Shelley and Why Surrealism Matters by Mark Polizzotti

Currently working on: The Stafford Challenge to write a poem every day for a year, plus a just-for-fun research project on women in the Surrealist movement

Currently wearing: Button-down shirt and blue jeans (a fashionista, I am not)

Last search: Water of Leith

Favorite flower: Daffodils, because they look like little trumpets

Tagging: anyone who feels like doing this -- I'm not great at tagging games