They yearn for what they fear

Hello! Classical literature and history comic/illustration blog. Primarily Divine Comedy and Ancient Roman art <3

[catilinas]

marcus tullius cicero

[garland-on-thy-brow]

Remember how Shakespeare's Antony narrates the details of Caesar's death that he cannot know? Thematically this is of course about the unreliability of oratory and malleability of language in general.

However, we can also bring the Cassius-Antony famous dinner from Dio into it.

Cassius, by way of pleasant conversation, told Antony in detail how his master died. Perhaps let him lick the blood off the dagger.

[petrarchesco]

Nothing changed my perception of how I spend my free time like a specific short essay by Umberto Eco where he talks about how much time people spend reading and says "Talking about the average reader, who spends just a few hours a day reading, I'd assume it'd take them about 4 days to start and finish a medium-lenght work." What do you mean 4 days mr. Eco? That shit takes me from 3 weeks to 3 months. This sentence has been stuck into my brain for I don't know how many years now and whenever I need the motivation to read more throughout the day my mind goes to it. It boosts my morale through humiliation.

[girldante]

Grzegorz Gwiazda, Sitting Dante, 2022

[oolonginus]

VIDE COR TUUM

Courtly Love, the Love of Courtliness, and the History of Sexuality—James Schultz

Vita Nuova—Dante (Frisardi translation)

[oolonginus]

CANTO I: THE DARK WOOD

First of all, happy Dantedì!!!

If every major element in the Divine Comedy has its echo, then like Lucifer whose triplicate heads and wings remind one of the perversion of the Trinity, so too does the Dark Wood subvert the Earthly Paradise. To bring to mind the presence of the divine in such a wilderness, I thought of fractals.

Fractals are found in multiple aspects of the natural world (such as trees and spiral galaxies), and what makes them special is their recursiveness; they contain the same pattern when looked at as a whole, as well as when only a tiny part is observed. No spoilers to those reading the books right now (!) but this logical beauty and wonder to be found in small and grand examples is akin to how Dante speaks of some of the higher parts of the Paradiso.

The structure of our own lungs is a fractal as well, following an extensively branching formation in order to maximize gas exchange. Having lungs as the representation for the Dark Wood puts emphasis on the human aspect of error, but also evokes the imagery that Dante provides many times of the Holy Spirit moving as breath between the three natures of the Trinity.

Furthermore, Virgil is introduced as seeming “hoarse from long silence.” How long has it been since he’s drawn breath? How fitting that, being forbidden god’s grace, the first thing that Dante notices about him is that he has not had to breathe, to vocalize?

The lungs are gold primarily to harken back to medieval altarpieces framing the saints, but there’s also a certain epic written by a certain poet, where an underworld journey can only be begun by first finding a golden bough in a forest……

[e-pistulae]

Welcome to 58 BCE

Does it count as bringing Cicero back from the dead if he considers exile a living death?

if you missed e-pistulae last time: cicero is back 🫵 he is being exiled NOW 🫵 you will hear from him soon 🫵

e-pistulae is like dracula daily but for the letters of marcus tullius cicero. i am translating them from latin myself. this time it is the letters from the period of his exile. he's having possibly the worst time ever, and you Will be hearing about it. quit your job subscribe to my emo substack!!!

[catilinas]

hello??????

[hortensius]

siquid habent veri vatum praesagia, vivam

[necrophilologist]

do i have the time for this today? no. will i try anyway? yes

[necrophilologist]

yayyy

[oolonginus]

It’s actually really hard to draw Vergil without making him into the most beautiful woman imaginable. Hundreds of years of artists have also struggled with thuis—

[oolonginus]

There he is 🤍 Missed you beloved

[oolonginus]

It’s actually really hard to draw Vergil without making him into the most beautiful woman imaginable. Hundreds of years of artists have also struggled with this—

[hortensius]

It's Marcus Caelius Rufus, baby!

[ceridvven]

i think about her constantly

[astirastyr]

It was bound to happen, my friends…

For context: Somewhere—I don’t remember the exact source—I once read that during the festival of Bona Dea, even images of men were covered. This inspired me to explore a slightly symbolic idea

Some variations below the crop!

Thank you for commissioning me sweetheart @p-clodius-pulcher 😭😭

[neighbourhoodthree]

late roman republic meets disco elysium

[oolonginus]

3/14/25

7/20/24

5/26/23

Happy Ides! I return with a triptych treat, the famed ghost scene from the end of Act 4, scene 3. These were drawn from a half-year to a little over a year between each iteration.

I wanted to show the dramatic changes in interpretation with each round, because every time I read Shakespeare’s JC somehow there’s never any lack of new implications to discover, and I am again compelled to revisit the same scenes such as this one.

About the latest edition:

The first theme of the ghost scene is guilt, ostensibly about killing Caesar. However! This visitation occurs right after Brutus breaks the news to Cassius about Portia’s death, and after the chilling horror of the fake display of accepting Portia’s death with Stoic calm, when Brutus pretends as if he hadn’t known of her death until Messala reports it (I definitely want to draw this part at some point, focusing on Cassius, who looks quite through the deeds of men).

The ghost is there to torment him as soon as he isn’t being Watched by anyone, it is as much a manifestation of his grief as it is anything else. Brutus never properly mourns his loved ones, as he voices at the end of the play, when he says of Cassius: “Friends, I owe more tears/ To this dead man than you shall see me pay. —/ I shall find time, Cassius; I shall find time.” Isn’t it something that both Portia and Cassius have to harm (or threaten to harm) themselves to get Brutus’ exterior to crack and let them in? And how Brutus is incapable of grieving for the ones he loved most in the world?