ante diem vi idus februarias

• 1909 -- birth of David Daube

::Tuesday, February 08, 2005 5:32:21 AM::

Today's meagre selection:

collage @ Wordsmith

languish @ OED

::Tuesday, February 08, 2005 5:24:26 AM::

::Tuesday, February 08, 2005 5:18:14 AM::

Latest headlines from Akropolis World News (in Classical Greek):

Max Schmelling dies at 99 - White House searching for new chef

::Tuesday, February 08, 2005 5:10:19 AM::

De linguis Unionis Europaeae (4.2.2005)

In Unione Europaea sunt viginti quinque nationes et viginti linguae officiales.
Omnes magistratus Unionis ius sua lingua utendi habent, quam ob rem orationes et scripta eorum in ceteras linguas verti debent.

Cum sermones singulis linguis habiti in ceteras vertuntur, coniunctiones linguarum sunt trecentae octoginta.

Anno 2007 Bulgaria et Croatia et Romania in Unionem acceptis numerus linguarum officialium erit viginti tres, ex quibus quingentae sex coniunctiones fient.

Sumptus interpretationis iam hoc anno unum miliardum et ducentas miliones euronum faciunt neque interpretes linguarum rariorum periti facile inveniuntur.

Quae cum ita sint, plerique magistratus in rebus Unionis agendis lingua Anglica, rarius Francica aut Germanica utuntur. Sed praesertim Franci superioritatem Anglicae linguae concedere nolunt.

Sunt quidem qui censeant linguam Latinam in usum Unionis Europaeae resuscitandam esse, sed voluntas politica ad rem efficiendam deest.

Tuomo Pekkanen
Nuntii Latini, Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE)
(used with permission)

::Tuesday, February 08, 2005 5:08:40 AM::

Okay ... this is getting kind of strange. First we get the announcement the other day of a conference devoted to 'the Atlantis hypothesis'. Today, we get two press releases from some Spanish source (in English, with varying items lost in translation). Here's the incipit of one:

Recently a team of scientists has discovered by means of technical outposts of submarine sounding a great extended island that extends like a great right bank in the center of the Gulf of Cadiz, in front of the coasts of Cadiz and Huelva.

Hispanic-Cuban investigator Georgeos Diaz-Montexano thinks that he could be the same island-Acropolis where, according to Plato, was the real city of the kingdom or emporium of the Atlantic island-peninsula that Plato it denominates like Atlantis and Atlantida.

Serving dish affirms - through Critias- that just ahead (or of a side) of the Columns of Hercules (Straits of Gibraltar) was the island or peninsula (in Greek Nêsos) of Atlantis. The concentric city surrounded by three pits or circular water channels by sea and two by earth was closely together of the coast (between 3 and 9 km) in a very flat or level plain almost at the same level of the sea.

The descriptions of Plato do not leave place to the doubt, are than clear, precise more. The island-Acropolis where was the main or "capital" city of the Atlantic empire of the Atlantida found just in front of the Columns of Hercules, in the mouth of a gulf or called sea Atlantic and that single could to be same Gulf of Cadiz, because own the Plato indeed affirms that a region or region of Atlantis that arrived until the same Straits of Hercules it called, Gadeira or Gadira, the same Roman Gades and present Cadiz of Andalusia. As Georgeos explains Diaz:

"... in principle, any island, end or peninsula submerged in some point of the Gulf of Cadiz, from the Straits of Gibraltar to the neighbourhoods of the Algarve in Portugal and that is relatively near the Iberian or Moroccan coasts could be the same island-Acropolis where was the circular concentric city of Atlantis... "

"... the truely surprising thing of this scientific discovery is that she only appears represented this great island submerged in bathymetrical maps made by foreign scientists, whereas in the bathymetrics maps of the Spanish oceanographers - supposedly more recent does not exist; As if he had disappeared without leaving most mini sign... "- Perplex Diaz-Montexano comments. References to this same island in front of the not-single Straits of Gibraltar appear in texts of Plato of the Timeo and the Critias, Georgeos Diaz-Montexano have undertaken an ample search in Greek, Latin and Egyptian documents and have discovered that it is a quite recurrent subject in many sources. This island that Plato calls Atlantis or Atlantic (that are the translation of another Atlante name as it affirms Plato) she appears mentioned in other previous sources like Alibê or Aliba, Tartessós, Megalos-Nêson (Great Island), Erytheia, Sarpedona, Mêlousa and Pontion, among others. [the rest]

Then, hot on the heels (in an email manner of speaking) comes another, with the headline "Simple Coincidences or Plagiarism?" ... again, the incipit:

The French geologist Jacques Collina-Girard claims no one before him (Sept, 2001, publication date of his article) had realized Atlantis Island could be located in one of the sunken islands or shoals at the Strait of Gibraltar, which was exactly where hispano-american investigator Georgeos Díaz-Montexano has been upholding for the last years: he could prove the first publication of his theory was in April, 2000.

Collina-Girand has successfully confused the National Geographic Society, as well as everyone else, with his "influence", "degrees", and "academic references". He has "more credibility" than Georgeos Díaz, as he is part of the "oficial" and "academic world". However, he is neither entitled to nor has the right to take advantage of someone's effort and intellectual property, even from an "amateur".

Anyway, this point is, in fact, easy to solve (both in front of public opinion and court, if there was no other way but turn to Law): In order to prove Collina-Girard has formulated a theory almost identical if not really similar to Georgeos Diaz-Montexano's one, at least in the most fundamental points and the theoretical statement, he just needs to settle two obstacle, from my on point of view, easy to overcome.

1. He has to prove that those who read the basic statements of Collina-Girard's theory, which was same as Georgeos Diaz's, would find both theories similiar or almost identical to each other, close enough for them to be easy confused, regardless of who was the first person to write it. So, first of all, it would be necessary to lay down how close the two basic statements are: the major defence of Collina-Girard's is still that both theories are "totally different". Of course, what else would he say! [the rest]

Wow ... a semi-scholarly smackdown in the works. I propose a cage match, held appropriately at the Atlantis resort in the Bahamas ... let's get ready to rrrrrrrrrrrrrrumblllllllllllllllllllllllllllle!

::Tuesday, February 08, 2005 4:57:01 AM::

From the Current ... check out the bit at the end of this excerpt:

By now, a relatively large part of the population has heard of the movie "Troy" with Brad Pitt, but did Troy, and all of the personalities involved, actually exist?

UM-St. Louis Professor Michael Cosmopoulos discussed this issue in "Searching for the Kings of Trojan War," a lecture held on Saturday at the St. Louis County Library Headquarters.

Cosmopoulos is Hellenic Government-Karakas Family Foundation Professor in Greek Studies and Professor of Anthropology at the University.

The lecture was accompanied by slides, opening with the movie poster for "Troy" featuring Brad Pitt.

Cosmopoulos began with a joke for the audience, saying "Helen of Troy is the reason for Brad Pitt."

Cosmopoulos moved on to the archaeology of the Trojan War. He mentioned Heinrich Schliemann, giving the crowd a brief bio of the "Father of Bronze Age Archaeology." There was also mention of St. Louisian George E. Mylonas, a professor at Washington University , who excavated the ancient Greek city of Mycenae for years.

In getting into details of Greek mythology, Cosmopoulos started with Troy. He said that Troy was actually a very small city, and that the story of the famous Trojan Horse was actually a myth. He said that Troy was probably destroyed by an earthquake.

Poseidon, god of earthquakes, was symbolized by the horse, leading to the connection of the Trojan Horse.

The city of Mycenae was mentioned as the city that produced most of the Greek myths and heroes. Cosmopoulous brought up the idea that the mask of Agamemnon was actually the mask of Perseus, who slayed Medusa.

What's the 'mask of Perseus'? This sounds very much like something taken out of context and misunderstood by the journalist ...

::Tuesday, February 08, 2005 4:48:52 AM::

::Tuesday, February 08, 2005 4:42:54 AM::

Alan F. Segal, Life after Death: A History of the Afterlife in Western Religion

Alan F. Segal, Life after Death: A History of the Afterlife in Western Religion (a different review from the foregoing)

John Collins And Gregory Sterling, eds., Hellenism in the Land of Israel

(all are pdf)

::Tuesday, February 08, 2005 4:34:37 AM::

Minna Skafte Jensen, Friendship and Poetry: Studies in Danish Neo-Latin Literature. Edited by Marianne Pade, Keren Skovgaard-Petersen, and Peter Zeeberg. Renaessancestudier Series 12.

Angelo Meriani, Sulla Musica Greca Antica: Studi e Ricerche. Quaderni del Dipartimento di Scienze dell'Antichità.

::Tuesday, February 08, 2005 4:28:19 AM::

7.00 p.m. |HINT|  Herod the Great
Explores the life of King Herod, the great builder who left behind Masada and the Temple Mount. Was he a great king or a ruthless killer?

HINT = History International

::Tuesday, February 08, 2005 4:20:21 AM::