TROY REVISITED

A collection of Mediterranean and near-eastern art, archaeology, and cultural information cultivated by a Canadian Classical Studies student. 

[classicalmonuments]

Temple  of Athena Nike

Athens’ Acropolis, Greece

420 BCE

Stylobate: 8.27 m x 5.64 m; height: ca. 4 m.

The Temple of Athena Nike was named after the Greek goddess, Athena Nike. The temple is the earliest fully Ionic temple on the Acropolis. It was a prominent position on a steep bastion at the south west corner of the Acropolis to the right of the entrance, the Propylaea. In contrast to the Acropolis proper, a walled sanctuary entered through the Propylaea, the Victory Sanctuary was open, entered from the Propylaea’s southwest wing and from a narrow stair on the north. The sheer walls of its bastion were protected on the north, west, and south by the Nike Parapet, named for its frieze of Nikai celebrating victory and sacrificing to their patroness, Athena Nike.

Nike means victory in Greek, and Athena was worshipped in this form, as goddess of victory in war and wisdom. The citizens worshipped the goddess in hope of a successful outcome in the long Peloponnesian War fought on land and sea against the Spartans and their allies.

[lionofchaeronea]

Apulian red-figure terracotta fish plate.  Attributed to the workshop of the Darius Painter; ca. 340-320 BCE.  Now in the Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, Texas.

[myth-boy]

Classical Language Learning Masterpost

I’m not studying any Greek or Roman this coming year (I sacrificed intro classical languages for gender & history), but I will be doing a Roman history module and engaging with the language is always useful. I know a few people who have been looking for Greek/Latin learning resources, which is how this list came about. It includes MOOCs, youtube videos and websites. Not really knowing much Latin or Greek I can’t vouch for them 100% but my googling skills are pretty on point, so they should be okay. Feel free to correct me or add to this.

Latin

Getting started on classical Latin

Duration 10 hours

Introductory level

This free course, Getting started on classical Latin, has been developed in response to requests from learners who had had no contact with Latin before and who felt they would like to spend a little time preparing for the kind of learning that studying a classical language involves. The course will give you a taster of what is involved in the very early stages of learning Latin and will offer you the opportunity to put in some early practice.

Continuing classical Latin

Duration 4 hours

Intermediate level

This free course, Continuing classical Latin, gives you the opportunity to hear a discussion of the development of the Latin language.

FLVS Latin

As we build our Via Latina, we will travel back to ancient Rome. On our travels we learn about their culture, history and literature.

National Archives: Beginner’s Latin

Welcome to the beginners’ Latin tutorials. These lessons cover the type of Latin used in official documents written in England between 1086 and 1733. This can be quite different from classical Latin, as used by the Ancient Romans.

Learn Latin

Here are two dozen short lessons on learning Latin designed for “mountain men” (and women: montani montanaeque), engineers, philosophers, and anyone else looking for entertainment and with lots of free time by the campfire. My course is quite different from Peter Jones’ Learn Latin (New York: Barnes and Noble, 1997), but it is just as devoted to interesting you in Latin.

Learn Latin (Learn101)

I would like to welcome you to the Latin lessons. I’m here to help you learn Latin, by going step by step. All the lessons contain audio and are all offered for free.

The London Latin Course

170 videos

Learn Latin from the ground up. This is a serial course, structured to bring you to a high level of Latin fluency. The pace is slow and unhurried. This course is suitable for all ability levels. Restored Classical Pronunciation.

Latin Online

Latin is probably the easiest of the older languages for speakers of English to learn, both because of their earlier relationship and because of the long use of Latin as the language of educational, ecclesiastical, legal and political affairs in western culture.

Latin Excercises

Welcome to UVic’s practice exercises for Wheelock’s Latin (6th edition). There are 40 units comprising many hundreds of exercises to help you consolidate your progress in the classroom and with the textbook.

Ancient Greek

Introducing Ancient Greek

If you are starting to learn Ancient Greek, this site is for you! This site will help you prepare for a Beginner’s Ancient Greek course.

Classical Greek Online

Greek has been important in the intellectual life of western civilization, but not to the extent of Latin except for ecclesiastical matters. In years past, Latin was introduced in the first year of High School, followed by Greek in the third year.

Ancient Greek Online

This site was designed to be a learning environment for students as well as a reading room for scholars. The large print Greek is easy on the eyes. The Internet has returned us to the scrolling method of reading texts, which lends itself particularly well to the project at hand.

Teach Yourself Ancient Greek

The material presented here will be of use to anyone beginning ancient Greek, but is specifically designed to accompany our book.

Ancient Greek Grammar

103 videos

Including pronunciation tips. I haven’t personally watched this and there’s no real description, but it looks pretty comprehensive from what I can see.

Greek & Latin

Introducing the Classical world

Duration 20 hours

Intermediate level

How do we learn about the world of the ancient Romans and Greeks? This free course, Introducing the Classical world, will provide you with an insight into the Classical world by introducing you to the various sources of information used by scholars to draw together an image of this fascinating period of history.

Discovering Ancient Greek and Latin

Duration 12 hours

Intermediate level

The free course, Discovering Ancient Greek and Latin, gives a taste of what it is like to learn two ancient languages. It is for those who have encountered the classical world through translations of Greek and Latin texts and wish to know more about the languages in which these works were composed.

Textkit

Textkit began in late 2001 as a project to develop free of charge downloads of Greek and Latin grammars, readers and answer keys. We offer a large library of over 180 of the very best Greek and Latin textbooks.

[fuckyeaharchaeology]

Egypt’s Oldest Papyri on Display, Details Construction of the Great Pyramid of Giza

Fragments of six pages from the oldest existing papyrus document in Egypt have been put on public display for the first time at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. The pages were unearthed in 2013 near the ancient Red Sea harbour of Wadi al-Garf by French archaeologists Pierre Tallet and Gregory Marouard, along with Egyptian archaeologist Sayed Mahfouz. They were confirmed by the Egyptian Minister of Antiquities on July 14 to be the oldest existing papyrus document in Ancient Egyptian history, dating over 4,500 years ago.  

The pages appear to have been from the logbook of an Egyptian nobleman known as “Merer.” The logbook contained records from a period of several months, detailing operations related to the construction of the Great Pyramid of Khufu in Giza and the work at limestone quarries at Tora on the opposite bank of the Nile. It also details everyday accounts of sailors as they hauled limestone blocks from the Tora quarries to the pyramid site, as well as the revenues transferred from Egypt’s various provinces to pay for workers’ food and expenses. Merer’s logbook even included details of the lives of Khufu’s pyramid builders, and the forms of compensation they received.  The papyri, according to Minister of Antiquities Khaled al-Anany, are a testament of “the highly efficient administrative system during Khufu’s reign.”

[wtfzeus]

Cheating, bribery and scandal: how the ancient Greeks did the Olympic Games

There's plenty of evidence to suggest that attempts to manipulate the outcome of the competitions are as old as the Games themselves.

Only just found this. Nice

[stdyngs]

so as an aspiring classicist (slash medievalist) i like roman history A Lot, and i read about it A Lot, and over time i’ve come up with A Lot of reliable resources for studying it. 

online:

ancient history encyclopedia

fordham ancient history sourcebook (rome)

fordham ancient history sourcebook (byzantium)

de imperatoribus romanis

illustrated history of the roman empire

ancient sources:

the history of rome (livy) - covers from rome’s (obscure, semimythological) early history all the way up to the reign of augustus. long, dull, but relatively worth it.

lives of the twelve caesars (suetonius) - deals with the lives of julius caesar through to emperor domitian. fair warning: people don’t call suetonius an ancient gossip columnist for nothing, so take him with a grain of salt.

annals (tacitus) - reign of tiberius to reign of nero, everyone loves this one.

de bello gallico (julius caesar) - caesar’s own record of his campaign in gaul, aka roman war propaganda. short but important part of roman history.

books:

i’ve read most of these and been recommended the rest, but they reflect my own interest in specific subjects. you can find a more comprehensive list here.

rubicon (tom holland)

a history of rome (m. cary and h.h. scullard)

the roman republic (michael crawford)

who’s who in the roman world (john hazel)

spqr (mary beard)

the classical world (robin lane fox)

cicero (anthony everitt)

audio:

the history of rome (mike duncan)

the history of byzantium

[idionkisson-archive]

Astronomers Recreate Ancient Skies to Date a Nearly 2,600-Year-Old Greek Poem

Researchers narrow down the dates for when the lonely poet Sappho wrote

[archaicwonder]

Ancient Greeks May Have Used World’s First Computer to Predict the Future

Researchers have deciphered minute inscriptions on the 2,000-year-old Antikythera Mechanism that indicate it may have been used as more than an astronomical calculator.

[archaicwonder]

Monumental Ancient Naval Bases Discovered in Athens' Piraeus Harbor

Massive fortifications and sunken ship-sheds thousands of years old were the base from which the Greek naval juggernaut overcame the Persians.

[troyrevisited]

Written in the stars

[clyternnestra]

ancient greek masterpost!

I’ve been collecting resources to aid in teaching yourself ancient greek for about a year now, and here they all are!

Where to Start:

List of places to start

How to guide

Intro to the language

Info about dialects

Info on learning homeric greek

Lexicity, has tons more links and helpful guides

Textbooks:

Google drive with TONS of textbooks and reference guides to culture, history, mythology, etc.

Companion site to Mastronarde’s textbook

Mastronarde textbook answer key

Companion site to the Teach Yourself book series

First Greek Book textbook download link

Learn to Read Greek textbook

Companion site to Athenaze

Grammar, Guides and Practice:

Grammar info

Grammar review

Vocab and grammar drills online

Worksheets on conjugations and declensions

Pronunciation guide

Parts of The Odyssey read aloud in ancient greek

Parts of The Iliad read aloud in ancient greek

Other:

Dictionary

Dictionary and texts

Trojan War dates

Some books of the iliad

Some books of the odyssey 

Sappho original text

General info about Sappho

Ancient greek music reconstruction and info

More music info

[fashioninfographics]

Women’s Hairstyles of the Byzantine Empire

Via

[ancientorigins]

The Enigma of the Roman Dodecahedra

The Roman Dodecahedra are fist-sized bronze artifacts found throughout Europe and dating back nearly 2,000 years. More than 100 have been found, but there are absolutely no records to hint at their purpose. Despite decades of research, no one has solved the mystery of what they are and what they were used for. Theories range from surveying instruments to astronomical devices, candlestick holders, religious relics, or even toys. What’s your view?

Read more…

[dianapanemamat]

We need to erase the idea that ancient Greek and Latin are the *hardest* languages to learn and that only the select few, the brightest and most cultured (or whatever other prerequisite you may have been fed), who participate in this difficult and elite curriculum can master them.

Holding this mentality perpetuates the cultural elitism that surrounds the study of classical languages. 

Anyone can learn Greek or Latin. That’s right. Anyone.  They’re languages all the same, and it doesn’t take some innate talent, pedigree, or prestigious course load to learn them. Anyone has the potential to learn the classical languages no mater your age, race, socio-economic background. 

However, when you spread the idea that only the select few can master these languages, you drive away people by intimidation who have the full mental capacity to learn, but are wary of pursuing the study of Latin/Greek because the current education system might have excluded them (e.g., maybe non-native English speakers in a predominately English speaking neighborhood) or not tailor to their individual needs (e.g., school lacks funding, learning disabilities, physical/mental illness).

And by doing so, you have robbed them of the benefits of learning another language (e.g., increased analytical skills, cultural diversity, vocabulary strengthening). 

[archaeologicalnews]

Roman Imperial leaders had wine empire away from the battlefield, study suggests

Archaeologists from the University of Sheffield have uncovered a unique insight into the life of one of the Roman Empire’s most prominent landowners.

Until now, very little was known about Rome’s Imperial leaders aside from their battle triumphs, territorial conquests and monumental legacies.

Researchers from the University of Sheffield’s Department of Archaeology investigating the vast Imperial estate of Vagnari in Italy, have now unearthed evidence of wine production on an industrial scale – shedding light on their home life away from the battlefield.

The excavation team discovered the corner of a cella vinaria, a wine fermentation and storage room, in which wine vessels, known as dolia defossa, were fixed into the ground. Read more.

[archaeologicalnews]

Text in lost language may reveal god or goddess worshipped by Etruscans at ancient temple

Archaeologists in Italy have discovered what may be a rare sacred text in the Etruscan language that is likely to yield rich details about Etruscan worship of a god or goddess.

The lengthy text is inscribed on a large 6th century BCE sandstone slab that was uncovered from an Etruscan temple.

A new religious artifact is rare. Most Etruscan discoveries typically have been grave and funeral objects.

“This is probably going to be a sacred text, and will be remarkable for telling us about the early belief system of a lost culture that is fundamental to western traditions,” said archaeologist Gregory Warden, co-director and principal investigator of the Mugello Valley Archaeological Project, which made the discovery. Read more.

[archaicwonder]

Roman Marble Head of Mithridates VI Eupator, King of Pontus (120–63 BC), as Heracles, Roman Imperial, 1st Century AD

Keep reading