The Archimedes Project

From the article, “The Ancient Mechanics and How They Thought” by Guy Gugliotta, in today’s New York Times, combining several of our favorite subjects:
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Consider the galley slave, clad in rags, chained to a hardwood bench and clinging to an oar as long as a three-story flagpole. A burly man with a whip [...]

Robert Fagles (1933-2008)

From Chris Hedges’s article in The New York Times, “A Bridge Between the Classics and the Masses”, April 13, 2004:
On his deathbed, the Roman poet Virgil asked that the manuscript of his greatest work, The Aeneid, be destroyed. It was, after a decade of writing, still flawed. And perhaps, as some have suggested, this gentle [...]

Beowulf: Everything really, really old is new again

Beowulf is back. Again. No, I’m not talking about the recent movie version, which came hard on the heels of the film Beowulf & Grendel (and its “making of” documentary, Wrath of Gods, which I’ve heard is supposed to be quite good).
I was reminded by Mary Lee’s recent post of a few recent [...]

New to me

Sylvia’s Classical Bookworm blog, where the Sidebar Menu includes such tasty treats as “About the Great Books”, “Great Books Online”, “Great Publishers”, “Libraries”, “Reference”, “Reading Guides”, “Reading Groups”, “Book Arts”, “Illuminated Manuscripts”, “Appurtenances”, “Other Good Stuff”, “Art”, “Latin”, and “Just for Fun”. Worth noting that “Appurtenances” includes a link to the Antioch Bookplate Company, whose [...]

More thoughts on The Barefoot Book of Classic Poems and classic poetry

Ah, but a man’s reach should exceed his grasp,Or what’s a heaven for?
Or what’s a poem for?
– from Stephen Fry’s nifty Ode Less Traveled: Unlocking the Poet Within (original quote from Robert Browning)
On the heels of my guest review at Chicken Spaghetti of The Barefoot Book of Classic Poems, I’m still agitating and cogitating [...]