THIS DAY IN ANCIENT HISTORY

ante diem xvii kalendas maias

• ludi Cereri (day 4)-- games in honour of the grain goddess Ceres,
  instituted by/before 202 B.C.
• Fordicidia -- an obvious fertility ritual in which a pregnant cow would be sacrificed to the earth goddess Tellus
• 421 B.C. -- Peace of Nikias brings the first phase of the
  Peloponnesian war (a.k.a. the Archidamian War) to an end (I have yet to confirm this date)
• 69 A.D. -- the forces of emperor wannabe Vitellius defeat the forces of emperor wannabe Otho
• 251 A.D. -- Martyrdom of Maximus and Olympiades in Persia

5:59:07 AM    

TTT: Methodos

The homepage for the Center for Hellenic Studies at Harvard alerts us to the fact that the French journal Methodos has converted to a more electronic form of delivery. They've put issue four up, which includes (inter alia) the following, which should be of interest:

Rosella Saetta-Cottone, La parodie du Télèphe entre les Acharniens et les Thessmophories.- L’échec du Parent

The English version of the abstract (the article is in French):

The parody of Telephus within the Thesmophories imitates the one of the Acharnians. In his defence of Euripides, the Parent uses the same Telephus’ argumentation as the one used by the protagonist actor of the Acharnians in his defence of Aristophanes.This re–using is part of the Thesmophories’ aesthetic project, consisting in setting up an analogy between Euripides theater effects and Aristophanes comedy effects, through the rewriting of the Acharnians. The Parent’s failure echoes to the Acharnians’ protagonist success, and throws light, in a comic way, on the intrinsic limits of Euripidean realism.

5:46:50 AM    

NUNTII: Petronian Society Newsletter

The latest newsletter from the Petronian Society hit the web this week, and includes:

Ronald Hock, Recent Scholarship on the Greek Novel and Early Christian and Jewish Narrative

Barry Baldwin, Syme's Petronius

Barry Baldwin, Arbiter of What?

Barry Baldwin, Pontia's Pilates

Antonios E. Sakellariou, OCLOPETAM , Petr. Sat. 35.4

A. Watanabe, Hippothoos the Lover, Bandit, and Friend: a Study on Elite Masculinity in the Novel. Disseration, Yale 2003 (Summary by the author)

... among other things.

5:40:25 AM    

TTT: Hippocratic Tradition

I've been saving these for a 'slow news day' such as today. A couple of interesting online texts (.pdf) at the Bulletin de Medecine Ancienne site:

Wesley Smith, The Hippocratic Tradition

Claude Goffart, L'Obstétrique et le vocabulaire du grec ancien

The Goffart work is huge ... best consulted via a high-speed connection.

5:34:45 AM    

MAG: Archaeology Odyssey

There's a new issue of Archaeology Odyssey out. Of interest to Classicists, rogue and otherwise, are at least three articles:

Ingrid Rowland, Etruscan Women -- Dignified, Charming, Literate, and Free

Is Homer Historical? An Interview with Gregory Nagy

Ann Olga Koloski-Ostrow, Roman Latrines -- How the Ancients Did Their Business

Abtracts available at the site ...

5:26:34 AM    

GOSSIP: Boudicca Flick in the Works

One of the things that regular shows up in my daily scans are things from Variety magazine. There is always a sentence or two that gets picked up, but to get the info one must subscribe to the (expensive) Variety online service. They do have a two week free trial, though, which I decided to try because this one seemed worthy. The gist is that the Pulitzer Prize-winning David Auburn is currently penning the script for a Boudicca movie to be produced by Paramount (and executive-produced by Robert de Niro, among others). Stay tuned ...

5:10:59 AM    

AWOTV: On TV Today

... nothing of interest

5:01:18 AM