Greek artifact’s “possible relevance to the Homeric epics is intriguing but elusive”
While it would be “fun to believe” that an artifact recently discovered at an ancient gravesite in southwestern Greece is an early representation of the conflicts described in Homer’s Iliad… Read more »
When you wish upon a university library…
Librarians at the University of Missouri are hoping Christmas comes early this year. They wrote a wish list of books they want for their library and sent it to the… Read more »
Yes, we’re in deep d’oh now: The Simpsons’ thirty years of literary joshing
¡Ay, caramba! Hard to believe it, but today’s the thirtieth anniversary of the first-ever broadcast of The Simpsons! And you, since you’re reading this and are thus a person of great taste… Read more »
Why there’s a “first edition of the Iliad” in The Boy Next Door
When we last reported the motive behind a laughable movie prop choice, it was a welcome glimpse into the filmmaking process, and how an elder statesman of film handles last-second… Read more »
To be and not to have been: kill lists and poetry
When a writer or a translator strips a well-known work down to its essence, as Alice Oswald had done with The Iliad in Memorial, the narrative takes on almost new meaning. In… Read more »
Iliad date is confirmed, thanks to science
How do you date a text from roughly 8 B.C.E.? You track it like a geneticist. “Languages behave just extraordinarily like genes,” says Mark Pagel, an evolutionary theorist at the… Read more »
FRIDAY SOMETHING-OR-OTHER-TO-DO-WITH-BOOKS MUSIC VIDEO: Cream
Break out your mink hats, Cream fans, here’s Jack Bruce and his mates (Eric Clapton, guitar; Ginger Baker, drums) performing “Tales of Brave Ulysses” live on the Smothers Brothers Comedy… 1 / Read more »
SLIDESHOW: The battle of the beards continues
The Battle of the Beards continues as the Star Tribune picks up yesterday’s glove and points out yet more overlooked beards. Add in a few reader suggestions and we were… 1 / Read more »