#classical-translation

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Philosophy
fromApaonline
3 days ago

Using the Absurd: How Erasmus Challenges His Students

Erasmus utilized humor, particularly absurdity, as a motivational tool in teaching Latin, enhancing engagement and challenging students.
History
fromMedievalists.net
6 days ago

New Medieval Books: Light on Darkness - Medievalists.net

Liturgy is central to Western cultural history, rich in artistic expression and emotional depth, influencing society for over a thousand years.
UX design
fromYannglt
1 week ago

AI and the Rosetta Stone

AI enhances the translation between design and engineering, increasing speed while challenging the preservation of meaning.
Philosophy
fromMail Online
6 days ago

Bible analysis uncovers clues showing scripture was written by God

A network of over 63,000 connections in the Bible suggests intricate links that some believe indicate divine authorship.
History
fromWorld History Encyclopedia
5 days ago

Truths Wrapped in Fiction: Mesopotamian Naru Literature: Originality in Writing Ancient Bestsellers

Originality in ancient literary works was less valued than in modern times, with authors often assuming identities of famous figures.
Online learning
fromOpen Culture
2 weeks ago

Learn Ancient Greek in 118 Free Lessons: A Free Online Course from Brandeis & Harvard

Leonard Muellner and Belisi Gillespie have created 118 YouTube videos covering two semesters of college-level Introduction to Ancient Greek, aligned with the textbook Greek: An Intensive Course.
fromThe New Yorker
4 weeks ago

How China Learned to Love the Classics

It wasn't until Whitmarsh had been herded into the main hall that he grasped what he'd signed up for: 'a geopolitical event, not an intellectual one,' as he put it, with hosts including Greece and China's ministries of culture.
World politics
History
fromMedievalists.net
3 weeks ago

New Medieval Books: Widow City - Medievalists.net

Late medieval Italian widows mourned their spouses and navigated their lives through religious or secular paths, evolving from allegorical subjects to prominent authors who reshaped public discourse on widowed identity.
OMG science
fromNature
1 month ago

Daily briefing: Galileo's notes discovered in the margins of an ancient book

Tectonic plates moved 3.3 billion years ago with higher oxygen levels; Galileo's annotations discovered in 400-year-old Ptolemy text; rotator cuff degeneration common in older adults regardless of symptoms.
Philosophy
fromBig Think
3 weeks ago

The 3 types of reading (and the 2 you'll pick)

Reading exists on a spectrum from scanning to deep engagement, with most digital readers employing surface-level scanning that misses textual depth and nuance.
fromWorld History Encyclopedia
3 weeks ago

Mesopotamian Literature: The Earliest Works of the Imagination

Writing was created in response to the need to communicate over long distances in trade and, initially, was focused on the purely practical aspects of record-keeping. Scribes in ancient Mesopotamia recorded what commercial goods had been shipped to which destination, their quantity, purpose, and cost.
History
Higher education
fromInsideHook
1 month ago

Are the Humanities Poised for an Academic Comeback?

AI-driven interdisciplinary courses combining humanities and artificial intelligence offer a potential pathway to revitalize humanities programs facing institutional cuts and declining enrollment.
fromMedievalists.net
3 weeks ago

New Medieval Books: Approaching Records of the Household and Wardrobe - Medievalists.net

The Household and Wardrobe Accounts are English records that document the daily needs of the king and his family. This book serves as a guide to these sources, showing how they can be used and what valuable insights they offer into medieval government.
History
Books
fromNature
1 month ago

Brain mysteries and Bronze Age diplomacy: Books in brief

Lionel Penrose's mid-twentieth century research connected genetic abnormalities to hand creases, establishing the hand as a significant diagnostic tool across multiple medical disciplines.
Philosophy
fromApaonline
1 month ago

Why Engage with the Past? Philosophy and Its History

Philosophy departments distinguish between contemporary theoretical and practical philosophy addressing current issues, and history of philosophy studying outdated theories from past philosophers.
History
fromWorld History Encyclopedia
3 weeks ago

From Clay to Culture: The Power of Written Language

Cuneiform, invented in Sumer around 3500 BCE, was the first script, enabling civilizations to record human thought and preserve all aspects of human experience through written communication.
fromJezebel
1 month ago

The Time I Learned Greek Scholars Are Canonically Hotter Than Roman Scholars

It started with a book launch in 2021. I'd been living in London as a social media journalist when I asked my then-publication's culture editor to send me to one of these exclusive-sounding events, as 1) I'd never been and 2) I just really wanted to be a person who "has a book launch to go to." Thankfully, there was one that exact day-and he put my name on the list for the release of Mary Beard's Emperor of Rome. Huzzah.
Books
History
fromwww.scientificamerican.com
3 weeks ago

Long-lost page of Archimedes' writings rediscovered in France

Scientists recovered a missing page from the Archimedes Palimpsest, a 10th-century medieval manuscript containing writings from the ancient Greek mathematician Archimedes.
History
fromMedievalists.net
4 weeks ago

New Medieval Books: Silence of the Gods - Medievalists.net

Europe's last pagan peoples underwent Christian conversion from the 14th to 20th centuries while maintaining their indigenous religious traditions despite political pressure to adopt Christianity.
Philosophy
fromApaonline
1 month ago

The Humanities Challenge: Expanding the Circle of Philosophy

Philosophy offers transformative insights and vision into human life, and public humanities must evolve beyond traditional academic formats to make philosophy accessible to broader audiences through innovative, engaging methods.
History
fromwww.thehistoryblog.com
1 month ago

Origin of repatriated erotic mosaic uncovered

A Nazi-looted mosaic depicting an intimate domestic scene was repatriated to Pompeii, but research revealed it originated in Latium, not Pompeii or its surrounding region.
Soccer (FIFA)
fromDefector
1 month ago

An Afternoon With Pliny The Younger | Defector

A rare keg of Pliny The Younger drew solitary beer seekers to a rainy bar amid a quiet sports day, yielding pleasant unexpected company.
fromHarvard Gazette
1 month ago

Moved by what's missing in Homer's 'Harrow' - Harvard Gazette

At first sight, Winslow Homer's " The Brush Harrow," which depicts two young boys, a horse, and a harrow against an arid landscape, evokes a feeling of somber isolation - but it's hard to pinpoint why. During a talk by curator Horace D. Ballard at the Harvard Art Museums on Jan. 29, visitors learned that Homer painted the scene in 1865, as the Civil War was ending, making the emotional underpinnings of the work clearer.
Arts
fromPhilosophynow
2 months ago

The Educational Philosophy of Quintilian

What could be more important for the future of any society than the education of its children? Innovative theories abound. Educators are constantly presenting groundbreaking new paradigms for improving a child's academic achievement. In the past quarter century or so, these have included: * Expanding educational opportunities for preschoolers * Selecting the best teachers for a child * Making instruction more relevant * Establishing or strengthening character education * Providing a multidisciplinary education * Defining the boundaries for student-teacher relationships * Approaching literacy from a whole language perspective * Fostering critical thinking skills
Education
fromMedievalists.net
1 month ago

New Project Explores the Craft of Writing in the Medieval Nordic World - Medievalists.net

CHARM is built around a large-scale survey of material connected to three major writing centres-Turku, Naantali, and Viipuri-in the 15th century. By comparing charters and book fragments together, the researchers aim to map how writing practices were adopted, modified, and localised, and what that meant for society and administration in a region that was then part of the Swedish realm.
History
LGBT
fromQueerty
1 month ago

The Myth of Greek Sex: How Oscar Wilde, some steamy classics & a century of bias rewrote ancient queer love - Queerty

Homophobia in the West originated across the ancient Mediterranean amid crises—inequality, fear, and obsession with self-control—transforming previously accepted queer love into sin.
Writing
fromBig Think
2 months ago

Why "read more" may be the most underrated thinking advice we have

Extensive, wide-ranging reading is essential to develop the skills and raw materials needed to compose clear, effective prose; there is no shortcut.
Science
fromwww.scientificamerican.com
2 months ago

Lost ancient Greek star catalog decoded by particle accelerator

Researchers decoded portions of Hipparchus's lost star catalog from a palimpsest using synchrotron imaging, revealing constellation names and measurements.
Books
fromBig Think
2 months ago

5 literary conspiracy theories - debunked

Literary conspiracy theories question authorship, use pseudonyms, and misattribute works, sometimes entertaining but often distorting historical understanding.
History
fromMedievalists.net
1 month ago

The Survival of Roman Education in Early Medieval Britain - Medievalists.net

Roman cultural practices persisted in Britain for generations after AD 410, with aristocrats maintaining traditional education and Christian learning similar to their Gallic counterparts.
fromThe Atlantic
2 months ago

Why Authors Can't Let Go of Greek Myths

When I was 8 or 9 years old, my uncle and aunt gave me a copy of D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths, a standard-bearer for children's folklore that was originally published in 1962. I was immediately dazzled by the book: D'Aulaires' was my first exposure to Greek mythology, and I marveled at its vibrant cosmology, its richly illustrated tales of deities whose omnipotence was matched only by their strikingly human, self-indulgent caprice.
Books
Philosophy
fromiRunFar
2 months ago

Classical Texts for Running and Life

Excellence is difficult and requires sustained effort; running and reading cultivate virtue and classical books offer enduring guidance for improving character.
fromOpen Culture
1 month ago

The Rohonc Codex: Hungary's Mysterious Manuscript That No One Can Read

Image by Klaus Schmeh, via Wiki­me­dia Com­mons Mag­yar, which is spo­ken and writ­ten in Hun­gary, ranks among the hard­est Euro­pean lan­guages to learn. (The U.S. For­eign Ser­vice Insti­tute puts it in the sec­ond-to-high­est lev­el, accom­pa­nied by the dread­ed aster­isk label­ing it as "usu­al­ly more dif­fi­cult than oth­er lan­guages in the same cat­e­go­ry.") But once you mas­ter its vow­el har­mo­ny sys­tem, its def­i­nite and indef­i­nite con­ju­ga­tion, and its eigh­teen gram­mat­i­cal cas­es, among oth­er noto­ri­ous fea­tures, you can final­ly enjoy the work of writ­ers like Nobel Lau­re­ates Imre Kertész and Lás­zló Krasz­na­horkai in the orig­i­nal. Alas, no degree of mas­tery will be much help if you want to under­stand a much old­er - and, in its way, much more noto­ri­ous - Hun­gar­i­an text, the Rohonc Codex.
Books
fromAeon
2 months ago

How a playful literary hoax illuminates Classical queerness | Aeon Essays

Carved on the walls surrounding her sarcophagus were more than 150 ancient Greek poems in which Bilitis recounted her life, from her childhood in Pamphylia in present-day Turkey to her adventures on the islands of Lesbos and Cyprus, where she would eventually come to rest. Heim diligently copied down this treasure trove of poems, which had not seen the light of day for more than two millennia.
Philosophy
Books
fromOpen Culture
2 months ago

Dictionary of the Oldest Written Language-It Took 90 Years to Complete, and It's Now Free Online

U. Chicago released a free 21-volume Akkadian dictionary in 2011, offering downloadable PDFs that make the ancient Mesopotamian language accessible.
fromMedievalists.net
1 month ago

New Medieval Books: The Medieval Moon - Medievalists.net

In this book of moons, I am writing for people for whom the medieval world and its literatures and arts may be unfamiliar. I hope that in telling the stories of medieval moons, I also introduce these readers to the wonderful, mesmerising realm of medieval texts and images. But I also hope that this book may be useful to those with greater familiarity with medieval languages, literatures, and arts.
History
Philosophy
fromPhilosophynow
2 months ago

What Have the Romans Ever Done For Us?

Roman thought combined Greek philosophical influences with practical political and engineering practices, producing enduringly useful ideas rooted in pragmatism.
Books
fromThe Atlantic
2 months ago

C'mon, Professors, Assign the Hard Reading

Assigning whole novels in literature classes restores deep reading, rebuilds attention, and enables students to engage meaningfully despite technological distractions.
Philosophy
fromPsychology Today
1 month ago

How Ancient Philosophy Lost Its Mind-Twice

The shift from Classical Attic to Koine Greek correlated with a philosophical simplification from Plato's multipart psyche to the Stoics' unitary rational mind.
fromMail Online
2 months ago

Long-lost Egyptian scroll fuels debate over real-life biblical giants

An ancient Egyptian papyrus held by the British Museum has been cited as possible evidence supporting some of the Bible's most controversial claims about giants. The 3,300-year-old document, known as Anastasi I, has been in the museum's collection since 1839 and has recently resurfaced on the Associates for Biblical Research, renewing interest in its possible links to biblical accounts. The papyrus describes encounters with the Shosu people, said to stand 'four cubits or five cubits' tall, up to eight feet in height.
Books
History
fromMedievalists.net
2 months ago

Reading in Byzantium: Literacy, Books, and a World of Texts - Medievalists.net

Byzantine reading was communal and performative, woven into religious, educational, and administrative life while preserving classical learning within a Christian intellectual framework.
Philosophy
fromPhilosophynow
2 months ago

Ancient Synergy

Roman Mithraism integrated Stoic virtues of wisdom, courage, and self-control, shaping rituals, social roles, and strong appeal among Roman soldiers.
History
fromMedievalists.net
1 month ago

New Medieval Books: Celtic Magic - Medievalists.net

Ancient and medieval Celtic-speaking peoples maintained distinctive magical beliefs and practices whose evidence appears in inscriptions, classical accounts, medieval manuscripts, charms, and medical recipes.
fromLGBTQ Nation
2 months ago

Why the right wants to ban Plato: It's part of their war on being human - LGBTQ Nation

Texas A&M University last week banned a philosophy professor from teaching about Plato's Symposium because it's too gay, and, while obviously philosophy classes should be allowed to teach about Plato and state lawmakers and administrators shouldn't be interfering in curricula... they are right that the specific texts that they banned are pretty gay. If the legislators' and administrators' goal is to make LGBTQ+ people feel more isolated and alone as a way of getting them to conform and pretend to be cisgender and heterosexual,
Philosophy
#old-high-german
fromblog.apaonline.org
2 months ago

How to Handle the Death of the Essay

If you don't know it, Ecclesiastes is a collection of Old Testament verses in which the eponymous title character discourses on the apparent meaninglessness of pleasure, accomplishment, wealth, politics, and life itself in the face of the infinitude of the universe and the absolute perfection of God. It is the source of many of our most cliched phrases, such as there is a time for everything and there is nothing new under the sun.
Philosophy
#roman-archaeology
fromMedievalists.net
2 months ago

New Medieval Books: Chasing the Pearl-Manuscript - Medievalists.net

This is a book about a book: the small, cropped, somewhat ragged but brightly illustrated volume now known formally, and rather forbiddingly, as British Library MS Cotton Nero A.x/2. The fame and beauty of its four Middle English poems have given it sobriquets beyond the shelfmark, however, which are more familiar and intimate: it is also the Gawain-Manuscript or, as I will call it, the Pearl-Manuscript.
History
History
fromOpen Culture
1 month ago

The Dead Sea Scrolls: Discover the Secrets of the Bible's Oldest and Strangest Texts

Dead Sea Scrolls include the oldest known biblical manuscripts, diverse texts (biblical, apocryphal, sectarian, unknown) that complicated but did not completely upend understanding of Christianity.
fromMedievalists.net
2 months ago

New Medieval Books: Interconnected Traditions - Medievalists.net

This open-access book brings together more than thirty essays on languages and the ways they develop, interact, and influence one another. Its main focus is the Middle East, where Hebrew, Arabic, and Aramaic long existed side by side and often overlapped in everyday use, scholarship, and culture. In line with Geoffrey (Khan)'s commitment to the maximally accessible dissemination of research, this Festschrift has been published in both open-access digital editions and affordable printed formats.
History
History
fromMedievalists.net
2 months ago

New Medieval Books: Impossible Recovery - Medievalists.net

Julian of Norwich's illness and visions show how sickness and revelation intertwine, shaping personal recovery and the subsequent expression and theorization of experience.
History
fromMedievalists.net
2 months ago

Over 32,000 medieval manuscripts transcribed in four months using AI - Medievalists.net

Automated transcriptions of 32,763 medieval manuscripts were produced in four months using a standardized, machine-learning-trained corpus to enable large-scale searchable manuscript analysis.
History
fromMedievalists.net
2 months ago

New Medieval Books: The Horse in History - Medievalists.net

Eleven studies examine horse equipment, training, folklore, and material culture across time and Europe, emphasizing archaeological evidence and diverse methodological approaches.
fromMedievalists.net
2 months ago

Rules of a Medieval Library - Medievalists.net

When universities began to emerge in Europe during the eleventh and twelfth centuries, they soon became important centres of knowledge. Their libraries could hold hundreds of books, and many of the most valuable volumes were kept under close control - sometimes even chained to desks. We have few details about how medieval university libraries operated, but a revealing set of rubric headings survives from the University of Angers in western France.
History
fromMedievalists.net
2 months ago

The Classical Near East, with Kevin van Bladel - Medievalists.net

A conversation with Kevin van Bladel on his proposal regarding "The Classical Near East," a constellation of fields defined by the classical literary traditions of medieval Near Eastern cultures, including Byzantium.
History
fromMedievalists.net
1 month ago

Why were pseudo-Arabic inscriptions placed on churches in Greece?, with Alicia Walker - Medievalists.net

A conversation with Alicia Walker on the pseudo-Arabic inscriptions (or pseudo-kufic) that appear on a number of tenth- and eleventh-century churches in Greece, most notably at the monastery of Hosios Loukas. What did the Arabic script signify in Orthodox culture at the time if not tension with Islam? Alicia Walker is Professor of History of Art at Bryn Mawr College.
History
fromMedievalists.net
2 months ago

New Medieval Books: The Forsaken 14th Century - Medievalists.net

In this volume, the authors aim to provide a truly global overview of the 14 century, with each region given approximately the same space. It is obviously impossible to cover every event in every country of the world in a single volume, just as you would not be able to visit every city in every country if you traveled around the world for a year.
History
History
fromMedievalists.net
1 month ago

New Medieval Books: Ipomedon - Medievalists.net

A twelfth-century Anglo-French romance about Ipomedon, an incognito prince tested by adventures, tournaments, and ironic narration exploring chivalry, humour, and social values.
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