Category Archives: Reception
Another “Bad Classics” Piece of Jewelry
It seems as though jewelry designers like using ancient coinage as inspiration for their pieces, but aren’t as concerned about the accuracy of the description on the websites that sell them. In Bad Jewelry Latin (well, History), I discussed a … Continue reading
George Grote on myth and allegory
There’s a lot to be learned from texts that might seem out of date, and while it seems odd to say that to anyone interested in ancient texts, it’s easy to forget that the latest scholarship isn’t necessarily the most … Continue reading
Rhythmici vs. Metrici vs. Poetae
Scholars have a tendency to see themselves in their work. This is why Hellenistic poets were once thought to be proto-Romantics, and later became proto-pomo. This explains the Pessimists who argued, beginning in an age dominated by the fear of … Continue reading
A Reading from Homer
This is what I suspect many will picture when they read the title above: That’s Alma-Tadema’s famous painting, which hangs in the Philadelphia Museum of Art. But an article in the Sacramento Press describes an event that conjures images of the frame … Continue reading
Bad Roman Humor
So my friend, a poet (who’s not a classicist but who nearly was once upon a time in college), picked up a translation of Juvenal and had a few questions for me. We naturally made a few jokes about his … Continue reading
Michael Choniates as a scholar and poet
I’ve argued before that Michael Choniates (archbishop of Athens at the time of the 4th Crusade) was a true scholar, and I’d like to point out something I’ve just spotted in his famous poem lamenting the state of the city … Continue reading
Dubiouser and dubiouser (+ a new comic)
In the news: The Boston Marathon gives a professor a chance to repeat an oft-repeated absurdity: “As my old Latin professor used to say, ‘If it weren’t for Marathon, it’s highly likely we’d all be speaking Farsi,“‘ said Matthew Gonzales, … Continue reading
Happy 6th Birthday to the CAMPVS!
In honor of the 6th birthday, of this, our humble blog, I wanted to share with you some clips from NBC’s great comedy 30 Rock, which have some great classics content. In the first, Alec Baldwin—faced with the prospect of … Continue reading
Mencken on poetry
I came across the following bits of interest from H.L. Mencken’s collection of critical essays, Prejudices: First Series. I thought Eric might be interested in his judgment of Edgar Lee Masters, which includes references to ubi sunt poetry and the … Continue reading
Ovid and Housman
My Latin IV students are reading Ovid in translation, and this week we’re covering book 5, which is essentially a pastiche of the major genres of epic, moving from a parody of Odysseus and the suitors, to Hesiod’s Helicon, and … Continue reading
