Clay loom weight decorated with an owl, Greek, 5th Century BCE
From the Acropolis Museum
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Clay loom weight decorated with an owl, Greek, 5th Century BCE
From the Acropolis Museum
~ Finial, lion head.
Place of origin: Thebes (modern Luxor), Egypt
Date: ca. 30 BC-A.D. 642
Period: Roman Period
Medium: Wood, stucco, paint
Terracotta vase || Greek, Sicilian, Centuripe || 3rd–2nd century BCE
The scene shows a bride surrounded by attendants. The vase was made for the tomb.
Source [the Met]
Calcite and lapis lazuli figurine of an ibex, Bactria (Afghanistan), 2nd-1st millennium BC
from The Yale University Art Gallery
so you read the táin, what next?
táin bó cúailnge is a great starting place if you’re interested in medieval irish lit. it’s famous for a lot of reasons – its length, its quality, the fact that there are good, accessible modern translations available… definitely a go-to if people want to know where to start
but say you’ve read the táin, and maybe you’ve even read the remscéla (fore-tales, prequels), and you know there’s a shitton of other material out there but you have no idea what direction to go in
here are my recommendations for
what medieval irish text should you read next based on which bits of the táin you liked most
a non-exhaustive* and extremely biased list**
*I may or may not make further recommendations at some stage.
**i tried to minimise the ulster cycle content here bc that seems like an obvious jumping off point and you’re probably here for Weird Shit but there’s still some ulster cycle bc i like it
if you were intrigued by the hints of supernatural fuckery going on in the background but still like having some humans around -> togail bruidne da derga (the destruction of da derga’s hostel)
if you have no interest in humans and just want supernatural fuckery all the way down -> cath maige tuired (the second battle of moytura)
if the ríastrad/warp-spasm gets you excited ;) and you want more body horror and weird creatures -> immram curaig mael duin (the voyage of mael duin). or pretty much any voyage text but mael duin has some of the fuckier creatures in it
if you’re like “yeah! medb DID effectively utilise girl power!” and/or just really want to see cú chulainn getting beaten up -> serglige con culainn (the wasting sickness of cú chulainn)
if you’re into the geography of it and how events relate to place names and histories -> this is called ‘dindshenchas’, the lore of place-names, and there are whole collections of just this, but you might also like acallam na senorach (tales of the elders of ireland) which is that but with a frame-story around it, featuring st patrick on a road trip with the last of the fíanna
if you read the mustering of the ulaid and were like “oh hey a big-ass list of names? i LOVE a big-ass list of names! give me all the names!” -> lebor gabala erenn (the book of invasions). alternatively, dindshenchas.
if you cried over the fight with fer diad and generally enjoyed having Feelings -> well, ideally, early modern prose texts (FULL of feelings), but since there are minimal translations of those available, consider longes mac nuislenn, oidheadh chloinne lir, or anything with the word “aided” or “oidheadh” in the title (it means “violent/tragic death”)
if you like the references to classical texts that happen now and again -> merugud uilix meic laertis (the wanderings of ulysses son of laertes), aka the medieval irish retelling of the odyssey, which bears no resemblance to the odyssey; OR togail troí (the destruction of troy), the irish retelling of the trojan war that had a noticeable influence on the táin (togail troí is more relevant, merugud uilix is funnier)
if you like it when people insult/trash-talk each other -> scela mucce meic datho (the story of mac datho’s pig)
if you just really want to know what the fuck is going on with the bulls -> echtra nera (the adventure of nera). this is only one version of the backstory but it has some cool supernatural fuckery in it so what’s not to like
if you want more láeg/cú chulainn content -> tóraigheacht gruaidhe griansholas (the pursuit of gruaidh griansholas), which is a late text featuring excellent láeg moments
this has been: 2am medieval lit recommendations with néide, your host. tune in tomorrow and i might actually give you links to help with finding these. have fun.
edit: now updated with links. where possible i have provided a link to read the text free and legally online. some are pdfs, some are archive.org, some are just text. two exceptions: tales of the elders of ireland is a very recent translation and is not available legally online; link is an affiliate link to amazon, so if you buy it via that link, i get a few pennies. i recommend supporting your local libraries and bookshops if you can tho. dillon’s translation of serglige con culainn is also not available online that i could find; link is to a scan. it was published in the 50s so may not be *quite* out of copyright yet but close enough i hope. (quality is not great as i had to compress it.)
Bolonia (Italia) era una ciudad llena de torres en los siglos XII-XIII. Quedan las dos más destacadas, conocidas como las Dos Torres, la torre Garisenda (48 m de altura) y la torre Asinelli (97,6 m de altura).
confusing Odysseus and Orpheus is like confusing a liar and a lyre. send post
Looking back, Nobody found this funny.
Egyptian
Game of Hounds and Jackals
Middle Kingdom, ca. 1814-1805 B.C.E.
College friendship is sending one of your friends who's graduating soon a giant list of monster theory and gothic horror academic reading recs so they can download as many PDFs as possible before they lose their university database access
Got a request for some of the recs here, so here's a short-ish list of some of the reading recs -- I've made an effort to link open source and/or at least slightly more accessible databases like JSTOR wherever possible, but some of these are, admittedly behind various paywalls that I wish everyone luck with circumventing in whatever manner you deem fit
Monster Theory - Really great anthology to start with, especially the first reading, Jeffrey Jerome Cohen's famous "Monster Culture (Seven Theses)" which is a personal favorite
The Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts - A general SF/F journal, but there are definitely a lot of great monster theory and gothic horror readings sprinkled throughout. Consider taking a look at Veronica Hollinger's "The Vampire and/as Alien," the special issue on Dracula, and Faye J. Ringel's "Genetic Experimentation: Mad Scientists and the Beast," among others
Werewolf Histories edited by Willem Blécourt - Phenomenal anthology on werewolf scholarship, especially if you're interested in the connections between werewolves and witchcraft and/or witch trials in Early Modern Europe
Skin Shows: Gothic Horror and the Technology of Monsters by Jack Halberstam - Of interest to those who are interested in the connection between the gothic and gender (among other topics). Halberstam has written extensively on both
The Journal of Dracula Studies - Exactly what it sounds like.
Preternature: Critical and Historical Studies on the Preternatural - Another journal, which focuses on the connections between witchcraft and occultism, monsters, demonology, and the like.
Susan Stryker's "My Words to Victor Frankenstein Above the Village of Chamounix" - An absolutely landmark piece of writing on Frankenstein and the transgender (and in particular the transfeminine) experience; one of my favorite pieces of academic writing of all time.
Speaking of Monsters: A Teratological Anthology - Another solid monster theory anthology
Arts of Living on a Damaged Planet: Ghosts and Monsters of the Anthropocene - A really, really good anthology about the ecological gothic that I cannot recommend enough. As a known werewolf guy I especially like the piece "Wolf, or Homo homini lupus" by Carla Freccero
The Vampire Lectures by Lawrence Rickels - So many vampires
Monster Culture in the 21st Century: A Reader - Another anthology, I in particular recommend Rosalind Sibielski's "Gendering the Monster Within: Biological Essentialism, Sexual Difference, and Changing Symbolic Functions of the Monster in Popular Werewolf Texts" in this one.
"The Trans Legacy of Frankenstein" by Jolene Zigarovich - Definitely a good read if you enjoyed the Stryker piece earlier; it's a more general survey of the idea but might give you some ideas for further reading
TransGothic in Literature and Culture - A whole anthology of works on transgender identity and the gothic!
Twenty-First Century Gothic: An Edinburgh Companion - Not to be confused with the other similarly named anthology earlier, this one is on various modern perspectives on the gothic.
"Christians and Jews in the Twelfth Century Werewolf Renaissance" by David A. Shyovitz - Stand-alone article but really really interesting
Wonders and the Order of Nature: 1150-1750 by Lorraine Daston & Katherine Park - Incredible volume that gets into several different subjects surrounding the fantastical in the medieval and early modern eras, monsters among them. The same authors have written some other fantastic work, such as "Unnatural Conceptions: The Study of Monsters in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century France and England" and I honestly would recommend any of their work.
Monster Anthropology: Ethnographic Explorations of Transforming Social Worlds Through Monsters - A more anthropology focused volume, I particularly like Rozanna Lilley's "Drawing in the Margins: My Son's Arsenal of Monsters—(Autistic) Imagination and the Cultural Capital of Childhood"
Marvels, Monsters, and Miracles: Studies in the Medieval and Early Modern Imaginations - Another anthology, this time with a historical perspective
This isn't even everything I've dug into on the subject, but I hope it's enough to get folks started on some reading!
Mesolithic Harpoon Head, 4500 BCE, Stewartry Museum, Kirkcudbright, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland
This is a 6500 year old harpoon made from a Red Deer antler and found in the River Dee. It is of a similar type of harpoon to those found in Mesolithic caves or rock shelters near Oban. This piece has been carbon dated to around 4500 BCE.
A 5200-year-old pottery bowl from Shahr-e Sukhteh bearing what could possibly be the world's oldest example of animation. It shows 5 images of a wild goat leaping, and if you put them in a sequence (like a flip book), the wild goat leaps to nip leaves off a tree. Museum of Ancient Iran
Roman domus known as ' House of Muses", Türkiye.
Photos and text from DAILY SABAH - ANADOLU AGENCY
The House of Muses, discovered in the ancient city of Zeugma in the Nizip district of southeastern Gaziantep province during excavations carried out since 2007, is one of the most important examples of Roman residences in the historical site with its rich architectural decoration, well-preserved mosaics and frescoes. Zeugma is home to Roman houses, believed to belong to nobles, dating back to the second and third century B.C
The ancient city’s House of Muses, which was unearthed after 14 years of excavations, was named after a mosaic on its floor depicting the nine muses of ancient Greece, who, according to legend, rule over the arts and sciences and inspire those who pursue them.
The Zeugma Mosaic Museum, one of the world's largest mosaic museums, is home to unique ancient artifacts, such as mosaics, Roman-era fountains, a bronze sculpture of Mars – the god of war in Roman mythology – and the famed Gypsy Girl.
Article published on August, 17, 2021 - DAILY SABAH
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are you Rome in 64 AD? cause you’re smoking
Two knights on horseback rendered in Hebrew micrography in the margins of the Yonah Pentateuch, 13th century.
Source: British Library, Add. MS 21160 fol. 192v and 201v
The Hunterston Brooch, 700CE, likely Dunadd, Argyll, The National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh