TTT: Amphora and Labyrinth

Amphora is the official outreach publication of the American Philological Association. Unfortunately, the way the APA has set up their website, I genuinely doubt whether a good chunk of its target audience even knows of its existence:

this eight to sixteen-page publication is intended for a wide audience that will include professional classicists, present and former classics majors, interested academics and professionals in other fields, high-school teachers and students, administrators in the field of education, community leaders, and anyone with a strong interest in or enthusiasm for the classical world.

This sort of thing, actually, is one of the reasons I decided to start up rogueclassicism (more on that when my new laptop arrives ... techboy came to our school again today and again did nothing in terms of setting up a computer in my room; so I stormed home and ordered the laptop I've been putting off purchasing as long as possible); there's a pile of really good stuff out there which "a wide audience" would be interested in but, alas, would only come across if they virtually stumbled upon it, archaeologist-like. Even if one did so stumble, one would be hard pressed to click on the links, there being no indication of what the contents are.  So here are the contents of the first three issues of Amphora, with links to the .pdf files to download them (I omit administrivial sorts of things):

Amphora Issue 1.1:

Fr. M. Owen Lee, "Unanswered Questions" (on his experience reading/handling the Codex Palatinus of Virgil)

Mark Lawall, "The Amphora and Ancient Commerce"

Lois V. Hinckley, "Elpenor's Last Exit"

Nancy Felson, "Teaching and Reading Classics After 9/11"

Stephen G. Daitz, "Let the Music Be Heard: The Case for the Oral Performance of Greek and Latin Literature"

Martin Helzle, "Building on Sand? Literary Interpretation and Textual Criticism"

There are also book reviews, a film review of Ulysses (1954), and a review of the De Imperatoribus Romanis website ...

Amphora Issue 1.2:

C.W. Marshall, "Remembering Rhesus"

Victor Davis Hanson, "Viticulture and Classical Idealism"

Ward W. Briggs Jr., "One Writer's Classics: John Updike's Harvard"

Donald G. Kyle, "Why Greek Sports History?"

Susan McLean, "On Translating the Poetry of Catullus"

... again there are book reviews, a film review of Cleopatra, and a review of the Maecenas website.

Amphora Issue 2.1

Janice Benario, "Horace, Humanitas, and Crete"

Thomas Falkner, "Novel Approaches to the Classics (Part I)" (on novels set in the academic world)

Barbara Tsakirgis, "The Nashville Athena: Rebirth of an Athenian Goddess"

Kenneth J. Reckford, "There and Back Again: Odysseus and Bilbo Baggins"

Randall Nichols, "On Good Teaching"

Ourania Molyviati, "Mount Olympus"

... again we have book reviews and a review of Clash of the Titans.

Amphora has become somewhat better as it has 'matured', although it still has a really boring layout with too many articles that are continued here, then there, then there, then there. Still, content-wise the articles are readable by professional and layperson alike -- they clearly deserve much more 'fanfare' than they get at the APA site.

Labyrinth is the journal of the Ontario Classical Association, whose website appears to have gone the way of the Spartans at Thermopylae. It was once apparently delivered to high schools in Ontario, but since March of 2002 it has been available online only. As with Amphora, Labyrinth's primary problem is that no one seems to know about it. Despite doing an M.A. in Classics at Kingston, Ontario and a yet-to-be-finished Ph.D. at McMaster in Hamilton, Ontario, and despite teaching at Wilfrid Laurier University, which is just down the road from the University of Waterloo, wherein Labyrinth emanates, I never heard of it until I had suggested starting up a popular magazine for Classics (more on that later). One can find it on the web only if one knows of its existence. In any event, in the interest of equal treatment, here's the most recent three issues of Labyrinth ... since it is an html journal now, links are directly to the articles:

Labyrinth 82 (October, 2003)

L.A. Curchin,  Breaking the Vapour Barrier: What Made the Delphic Oracle Work?,

C. Mundigler, The Ancient Spice Trade, Part I: The Ancient Near East,

David Porreca, The Magus (on the figure of the magician in various ancient cultures)

Labyrinth 81 (March, 2003)

S.L. Ager, Heroism in The Lord of the Rings, or what Oedipus and Frodo have in common?

R.A. Faber, "Drunkenness is Nothing Less than Wilful Insanity": Seneca's Sententiae

L.A. Curchin, The Suovetaurilia

C. Mundigler, Ancient Olive Oil Production: The Roman World, Part II

G.I.C. Robertson, Asylum at Argos: The Suppliants of Aeschylus

Labyrinth 80 (October, 2002)

S.L. Ager, Rescuing Local History: Inscriptions and the Island of Thera

R.A. Faber, Some Interesting Rhetorical Terms 

L.A. Curchin, The Horse in Classical Religion 

C. Mundigler,  Ancient Olive Oil Production: The Roman World Part I

G.I.C. Robertson, A Poke in the Eye with a Sharp Stick  (on Odysseus and the Cyclops)

There is one more issue available online at what appears to be Labyrinth's homepage at the University of Waterloo.

I find the articles in Labyrinth are actually very readable and very often are things which warm a rogueclassicist's heart (e.g. the ongoing connections between the ancient world and Lord of the Rings, L. Curchin's Roman religion pieces) or which are incredibly useful (olive oil production).

Clearly, both Amphora and Labyrinth deserve a wider audience and hopefully my somewhat humble efforts here will bring them that. I optimistically suspect there are other examples of 'outreach' of this sort out there which similarly might benefit ... if anyone knows of same, feel free to drop me a line.

::Wednesday, October 15, 2003 8:57:31 PM::
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THIS DAY IN ANCIENT HISTORY

idus octobres

• festival of Jupiter -- all ides were sacred to Jupiter
• Rite of the 'October Horse' -- one of the many rituals which makes
  the study of Roman religion so fascinating. On this day a race
  between two-horse chariots would be held in the Campus Martius,
  and the right hand horse of the victorious pair would be sacrificed
  by the flamen of Mars on an altar (in the Campus Martius, of course).
  After the sacrifice, people who lived in the Via Sacra neighbourhood
  would fight the people who lived in the Suburra for the right to
  the head. If the 'via sacranites' won, they'd display it on the Regia;
  if the Suburranites won, it would be displayed at the Turris Mamilia.
  Meanwhile, the cauda (tail - genitals) would be rushed to the Regia
  so the blood would drip on the sacred hearth; the Vestal Virgins
  also probably kept some of the blood for use at the Parilia on
  April 21.
• ludi Capitolini -- a somewhat obscure day of games which was
  unique in its not being 'public' (in the sense of being put
  on by a magistrate) but rather the ballywick of a collegium of
  'Capitolini'. Not much is known about what went on at these
  games save that an old man wearing the bulla of of a young boy
  was paraded about and mocked; there were possibly competitions
  in boxing and running as well.
• 70 B.C. -- birth of Publius Vergilius Maro, a.k.a. Vergil, a.k.a
  Virgil (I should hope no further glosses necessary)
• 1999 -- death of Don Fowler, fellow of Jesus College, Oxford
  and frequent contributor to the Classics list almost from its
  inception, among other things, of course

::Wednesday, October 15, 2003 5:47:19 AM::
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CHATTER: Say What?

There's a Reuters piece about elephants making the rounds, and, of course, it uses the obvious example of their use in warfare in the Roman world:

Historically elephants have been used for work, lifting weights humans could not, and for war -- the Roman Emperor Claudius rode an elephant to invade Britain nearly 2,000 years ago.

You remember ... he parked it right outside Boudicca's tent ...

::Wednesday, October 15, 2003 5:36:17 AM::
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EXHIBITION: Petra redux

Last evening we mentioned a review of the Petra exhibition at the American Museum of Natural History (scroll down a bit). Today's New York Times also has a decent review ...

::Wednesday, October 15, 2003 5:33:15 AM::
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CHATTER: Tithonus

A piece in the Daily Herald opens thusly:

An acquaintance of mine recently celebrated his 91st birthday. "I never wanted to be 91," he said, "until I turned 90."

Well, perhaps he didn't, but a good many other folks view getting to 90 or 91, or 100, as a laudable and reasonable goal. But -- there's always a catch here -- we want to have good health at the same time. Too often we are reminded of the Greek story of Tithonus. His wife Eos (a goddess) pled with Zeus to grant immortality to her husband. The wish was granted, but Eos forgot to make good health part of the bargain. So Tithonus supposedly lived on and on, progressively older and ever more fragile, senile and without cognition.

We are reminded of Tithonus too often? By whom? Still, it's nice to see the old guy getting some attention ...

::Wednesday, October 15, 2003 5:27:02 AM::
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NUNTII: William Hostettler

The South Bend Tribune has a feature on Latin teacher William Hostettler, although the only place Latin seems to be mentioned is in the headline ...

::Wednesday, October 15, 2003 5:17:19 AM::
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TTT: Did Rome Really Fall?

While tracking down the url for the item which follows this one, I came across a transcript of a ThinkTank episode at PBS (I've never seen this program myself). In it, host Ben Wattenberg talks with Elizabeth Fentress and Jan Gadeyne (Classicists both) all about whether Rome really fell. Worth a look, although be prepared for some bad formatting and bad rendering of Latin (especially, e.g. the translation of SPQR)

::Wednesday, October 15, 2003 5:13:08 AM::
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AUDIO: Father Foster

This week, the Pope's Latinist waxes about the Great Fire of Rome in 64 A.D. and some vocabulary associated with fire and burning (interesting how Father Foster pronounces 'vigiles').

Folks wanting to learn more about the Great Fire of Rome and who (maybe) was to blame might want to check out the companion website for PBS's Secrets of the Dead: The Great Fire of Rome program (note in passing: the jury is still out -- to judge by comments recently made on the Ioudaios list -- on the dates of some early Christian apocalyptic literature).

::Wednesday, October 15, 2003 5:07:20 AM::
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BULLETIN BOARD: Recent Postings

Jobs:

UCIrvine: Chair (!)

DePauw: Generalist (tenure track)

UOtago: Roman Historian (lecturer/senior lecturer)

... all jobs (use the calendar on the jobs page!)

Events:

CFP: CITY AND COUNTRYSIDE IN THE ANCIENT IMAGINATION

... all events (use the calendar on the events page!)

::Wednesday, October 15, 2003 4:52:24 AM::
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AWOTV: On TV Today

4.00 p.m. |DCIVC| Byzantium: Forever and Ever
dna

7.00 p.m. |HINT| Incredible Monuments of Rome
"A look at the Colosseum, Pantheon, Forum, and other ancient
monuments that were often places of ritualistic human sacrifices
and torture."

9.00 p.m. |DISCC| Atlantis Uncovered
"Examine what is known about Atlantis and explore the
unanswered questions to the biggest archaeological mystery
ever. "

9.00 p.m. |HINT| Time Team: Wadden, Dorset
"When Time Team descended on Wadden in Dorset, England, they
outnumbered residents--the village consists of 5 houses. They
were invited by neighbors David James and Grace Brooks, who
found a huge amount of old pottery in their shared garden during
excavations for a septic tank. The pottery dated from Medieval,
Roman, and Iron Age days. The name Wadden derives from Wode Hill
and dates back a 1,000 years, but what lies beneath the handful
of houses that remain? Time Team has 3 days to find out."

HINT = History International

DCIVC = Discovery Civilization (Canada)

DISCC = Discovery Channel (Canada)

::Wednesday, October 15, 2003 4:31:52 AM::
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