If there is one occurrence that many people remember from antiquity, it is that three hundred soldiers from the ancient Greek city-state of Sparta once stood against the much larger army of the Persian king Xerxes.1 This is partly the result of its many depictions in pop culture, including the well-known fantastical â and fairly problematic â retelling in the movie 300 from 2006.2 The second Greco-Persian war, which occurred in the beginning of the fifth century BCE and that saw the aforementioned heroics of the Spartans, was a time of military savvy, masterful intrigue, and uncountable tears. But today I want to focus on one specific aspect, a single word even. I am concerned here with a term that the ancient historian Herodotus uses to describe the thought process of the Spartan king Leonidas I when the latter send most of the other Greeks soldiers away â yes, there were other Greeks present! â and prepared his Spartans for their last stand. That word is ĎÎŹÎžÎšĎ (taxis).3 And Herodotusâ metaphorical use of what ultimately was just a mere technical term, can inform us about the martial ideologies of Greece in that time.
Category Archives: Ancient Greece
Dragon Myths and Dinosaur Bones
Dragons and dinosaurs. Not only does a substantial amount of children make one of these their entire personality for a while, but many adults are still highly interested in anything related to these respectively magical and prehistoric organisms.1 It is therefore only natural that both obsessions are regularly combined. And this has, amongst other things, led to the question we try to answer in this weekâs blog: was it encounters with dinosaur bones that formed the basis for myths about dragons?
Reading Aristotleâs Nicomachean Ethics Is Still Rewarding
A while ago, I told some people about the fascinating experience that reading Aristotleâs Nichomachean Ethics entailed for me. A few queries about the Ethics followed. Not because I am an expert on this book or anything, but because I read more of it â and about it! â than the others present. And I can very much not help myself, sharing my enthusiasm for anything slightly related to the humanities⌠During that conversation I got an interesting question that fit the ethos of the Nicomachean Ethics: Why? Why read a philosophical treatise from more than two millennia ago? Philosophy has moved on since then, after all. Nobody has the spare time â and neither do their friends â to live the good life as proposed by Aristotle in the company he envisioned. The author of the Nichomachean Ethics was also famously misogynist and harbored many other views that do not fit our modern societies, with their human rights and the like. His stance on slavery was at best ambiguous and at worst tacit resignation, for crying out loud!1 So let us today discuss that monosyllabic question â why? Because I wish for others that very same experience that I had with the Nichomachean Ethics. But there are also more practical reasons to dust off this tome.
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The Death of Plato
Some famous people are perhaps as much known for the manner and time of their deaths as for the things that made them a household name in the first place. The infamous moniker âthe club of 27â, which denotes legendary musicians like Kurt Cobain and Amy Winehouse who died tragically at a mere 27 years old, comes to mind.1 But also philosophers can acquire such moribund recognition.2 Socratesâ death, for example, has been portrayed throughout nearly all artforms.3 And the story of this ancient Greek philosopherâs forced suicide, on account of not saving his skin by changing a way of life which he deemed too important, still resonates today.4 But if you are a morbid mortal like myself, you have probably sometimes wondered about the demise of those towering figures of history whose end has not (yet) become part of popular culture. Like Socratesâ most famous student, that other widely acclaimed ancient Greek philosopher â and Dutch cd-store â Plato.
The Homeric Extended Universe
Since the Marvel Cinematic Extended Universe entered the movie scene roughly a decade-and-a-half ago, a lot of people were â and many still are â enthralled by the expansive storytelling that was employed. Throughout the cascade of interconnected narratives and characters from different adventures unexpectedly teaming up on other occasions, people never knew what to expect next. They did know, though, that they couldnât wait!1 Even our old friend Gilgamesh pops up in both Marvel comics and movies.2 But such an extended narrative universe is nothing new. Gilgamesh himself, for example, already figured in a number of tangentially related Sumerian narratives which predate the famous epic that nowadays bears his name.3 Today, though I want to introduce another batch of loosely connected ancient stories: Welcome into the Homeric Extended Universe!
Searching for Ecological Attitudes in Ancient Stories
Last week, spring was in the air: the sun was shining, the birds where chirping, and the cars polluted the air.1 But only two of these observations will presumably enter most stories that feature this season. Except when one writes specifically about pollution, that is. Such as in the famous âFable for Tomorrowâ that opens the 1962 book Silent Spring by Rachel Carson.2 And we might wonder whether it will be such specific works that shall survive and determine the reconstructed societal views on nature that will be attributed to our current day by the scholars of the future, when they are trying to glean these from our stories. Though, we do not need to wonder that much, as we ourselves struggle with similar questions regarding our own past.
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The Poignant Meaning of ΤĎĎΡ in Ancient Greek
Those of you who have been reading this blog for a while now, might have noticed that I am an adept of ancient languages. When others grab their phone, put on the tv, or devour snacks in their downtime, I turn to philology â and often also to those other activities, truth be told.1 And I love them all, from the venerable Akkadian to plain old Latin. Or should I say arâm Akkadian and amo Latin?2 Every aspect of ancient languages is interesting, obviously, but what fascinates me perhaps the most is the morphology and grammar of languages â the forms and structures which give each tongue its own feel and sense of elegance â and their lexicon.3 ,,Big deal!â, you might say about the latter, ,,Who doesnât like, you know, words?â But words can convey a world of meaning, which is difficult to express in languages with a different vocabulary. And one of these words, which we should therefore immediately adapt in any of the still living languages that wants it, is the ancient Greek ĎĎĎΡ. So, let us play some semantics, without annoying others for a change!4
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The Multifaceted Appreciation of Thucydidesâ History of the Peloponnesian War
It is impossible to read ancient sources without a sense of awe. And especially the literary efforts of the past. Whether one finds oneself on the battlefield of Troy, treks along with Gilgamesh in search of immortality, or watches with astonishment the rise and fall of mighty dynasties in the MahÄbhÄrata, one cannot but be convinced that it is the sheer quality of these works which preserved them throughout the ages and made it possible to become the affordable paperback editions that we can buy at the local airport.1 However, as you might have gleaned from the tone of that last sentence, the reasons that we admire those ancient texts today, manifold as they are, often have not much to do with the reasons that they used to be appreciated.2 Seldom has this been more obvious than with Thucydidesâ famous account of the Peloponnesian War. Some of the modern uses of his text might even have baffled many of those reading it in centuries past!
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