NUNTII: Peter Jones in the Spectator

Peter Jones' latest column in the Spectator ponders the meaning of myth:

Philip Pullman, author of the apparently anti-Christian His Dark Materials, and the Archbishop of Canterbury debated the significance of religion, and both enthusiastically agreed that ‘myth’ was an important feature of it. But why?

The Greek word muthos originally meant ‘word, speech, message’. It gradually came to mean ‘significant story’. At the one extreme, these were stories that had strong traditional and communal significance because (for example) they ‘explained’ the nature of the human and divine worlds; at the other, they were straight inventions by philosophers to make a point (e.g. Plato’s muthos of Atlantis). At all times there was an uneasy balance between myth as history that preserved a past, myth as explanation of the world, and myth as key to how things should be. But given myth’s status as story, usually involving men and gods, it is not surprising that Greek intellectuals, with their passion for rational explanations of the world in humanly comprehensible terms, should have begun to ask what sort of authority and credibility they had. Plato, for example, could not believe in Homer’s immoral gods. [more]

1:42:12 PM    

NUNTII: Nuntii Latini

Here's the latest headlines from Radio Bremen's version of Nuntii Latini for the month of March:

Electiones quaedam
Kerry competitor Bush praesidentis factus
Köhler praesidens futurus?
Undecies praemium Oscar datum
Bremenses quasi in Olympum elati
Rosetta in spatium cosmicum missa
Aedes antiquae nuper inventae
MEMORABILIA: De Senecae philosophi morte
NOTABILIA: Pellicula de passione Christi exhibetur

Audi ...

1:39:40 PM    

NUNTII: The Decline of Classics

Harry Mount in the Spectator laments the decline of Classics:

Whatever you might think of The Passion of The Christ, at least Mel Gibson tried with the Latin. There aren’t many films with a credit for ‘Theological Consulting and Aramaic/Latin Translation’, and Dr William J. Fulco, the Jesuit priest brought in to sort out the locatives and the subjunctives, gets an alpha beta, if not quite an alpha, for his homework.

The Latin is pretty straightforward, though. ‘Sanctus est,’ is Mrs Pilate’s view of Jesus. ‘Facta non verba,’ is the Roman soldier’s order to Christ, when he starts talking too much. ‘Mortuus est,’ says Longinus, the soldier who sticks a spear in Jesus’s side to check whether he’s alive. There’s only one slip — noticed by the editor of this magazine. If you are addressing a man from Judaea, you should use the vocative ‘Judaee’, not ‘Judaeus’; vide Julian the Apostate’s Vicisti, Galilaee.

Still, even Father Fulco’s simple Latin will be beyond most schoolboys now. Latin in Britain is not quite yet a dead language. But it is dying.

For all the supposed life that Harry Potter breathed back into the language, a negligible number of children are now actually learning it in any rigorous way. Yes, they might be able to translate the Hogwart’s motto — ‘Draco dormiens numquam titillandus’ (‘Never tickle a sleeping dragon’). But they won’t be able to write a Latin poem in praise of Maggie Smith’s acting skills or J.K. Rowling’s philanthropy, or recite screeds of Virgil as any halfwit grammar school boy or public school boy could half a century ago.

The number of grammar schools has slumped in that time; and the number of children studying Latin in public schools and the remaining grammar schools has collapsed. In 1960, 60,000 children did Latin O level. Now 10,000 do the much more basic replacement, GCSE. When it comes to A levels, it’s time to drag in the life-support machine: only 5,000 children a year take a classical A level of any sort, less than 0.8 per cent of all A levels taken. [more]

1:36:28 PM    

NUNTII: Nuntii Latini

The latest headlines from Radio Finland's Nuntii Latini:

Confoederatio Natoamplificata (2.4.2004)

Comitia regionalia Francorum (2.4.2004)

Saddam a custode corporis proditus (2.4.2004)

Lex Irlandiae tabacaria (2.4.2004)

Maxima in Finnia calamitas vehicularis (26.3.2004)

Negotiatores Finni Bagdati occisi (26.3.2004)

Audi ...

1:33:40 PM    

AUDIO: John Dominic Crossan on Crucifixion

NPR's Fresh Air this week featured an interview with JDC on matters crucifixional (in both Real and Windows Media formats).

1:29:37 PM    

REVIEW: From Scholia

D. W. Roller, The World of Juba II and Kleopatra Selene: Royal Scholarship on Rome's African Frontier.

1:23:18 PM    

REVIEWS: From BMCR

Dale Wilt Evans, Truth and Mockery in Platon and in Modernity: A New Perception of Platon's Euthyphron, Apology, Criton and Phaidon.

Peter Jones, Homer's Iliad. A Commentary on Three Translations.

Mogens Herman Hansen (ed.), A Comparative Study of Thirty City-State Cultures. An Investigation Conducted by the Copenhagen Polis Centre.

P. Drager, C. Valerius Flaccus. Argonautica. Latin/German.

1:22:18 PM    

NEWSLETTER

Issue 6.49 of Explorator has been posted ... Enjoy!

1:19:14 PM    

AWOTV: On TV Today

9.00 p.m. |HISTC| Cleopatra Part 2
With Antony and Octavian (Roddy McDowall) ruling the Empire,
Cleopatra returns to Egypt. Realizing that Antony can be of help to
her in return for Egypt's wealth, Cleopatra arranges a meeting with
him on her barge, where they fall in love.

HISTC = History Television (Canada)

1:17:38 PM