Comments for Athena's Owl

Comment on In Memoriam: Roger Hornsby by Rachel Willoughby

Rachel Willoughby — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 03:55:39 +0000

There are too few encounters that touch our lives in a most positive way. Still fewer are the ones that we never forget, even for a day. I knew little about classics when I signed up for Dr. Hornsby’s class at East Carolina University. I was a fine art student concentrating in Sculpture and I wanted interesting subjects to study as my electives. Lucky for me his first semester as a visiting professor was my first classics introduction. What an introduction it was. The combination of Plato’s last days of Socrates and Dr. Hornsby’s guidance in its understanding quickly became the highlight of my life at that time. He awakened in me a deep love for the classics because he helped me see that there is always more to the story than you see there on the page. The references to other literary works opened up a whole new world of possibility for me. I would wake up on Tuesday or Thursday mornings and jump out of bed with excitement because I was going to his class that day. The other students rolled their eyes every time my hand shot up in the air to answer every question he posed. I have never been this enthusiastic in a classroom in my life before or since having the great pleasure of being one of his students. I of course attended every class he taught and every lecture he gave while at ECU. I was fortunate enough to keep in touch with him over the years but life takes us all where it will and our letters became more infrequent. Eventually my letters were returned due to his University of Iowa e-mail address no longer being valid. I was made aware today of his passing a few weeks ago. He was a truly magnificent man and will always live on fondly in my cherished memories.

Comment on In Memoriam: Roger Hornsby by John Given

John Given — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 21:15:17 +0000

Roger Hornsby’s obituary was published today in the Iowa City Press Citizen. The author was kind enough to mention Roger’s time at ECU.

http://www.press-citizen.com/article/20091022/NEWS02/910220337/1078/Roger-Hornsby–83

Comment on Greek Bible Manuscript Online by John Given

John Given — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 14:55:57 +0000

Derek, It's great to hear from you. I'm glad you're still keeping your Greek fresh. You're still in Greenville, right? You should certainly feel free to join the Ancient Greek Reading Group, which is directed by Prof. Tricia Wilson-Okamura and meets every other Wednesday. (If you want me to have her put you on the e-mail list, let me know.) Otherwise, the best way to stay fresh is lots of practice. I deal with Greek constantly, but I still try to set aside time for some "for fun" Greek reading. Some of the early Church fathers' writings are readily available in the Loeb Classical Library and are quite accessible.

Comment on Greek Bible Manuscript Online by Derek Brown

Derek Brown — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 14:41:53 +0000

Dr. Given:

Just wanted to thank you for this blog and Twitter feed. Both are helpful for me as I try to keep my Greek fresh. Do you have any other resources that may would be helpful in that?

-Derek
-They Indeed Bastards, And They Hate Us (But They Invented Western Culture)

PS: I have two Greek tattoos now. One on each wrist. Hope the accents are right.

Comment on Dr. Perry’s Summer Research by Barbara A. Porter

Barbara A. Porter — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 12:20:01 +0000

Dear Megan, Nice to see this. Took me a while to get to it but you know well why…. Good luck on final push on fellowship. Best, Barbara

Comment on Where is Macedonia? by MM

MM — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 16:41:30 +0000

You make it sound like Macedonia suddenly sprung up out of nowhere in 1991. The Socialist Republic of Macedonia was a part of the federation of Yugoslavia and the Greeks never objected then. Indeed, they even called their part of Macedonia “Northern Greece” until 1988. And lets not forget who was the majority in Greek Macedonia until the early part of the 20th century until the Greeks conquered it and colonised it with Pontian Greeks (refugees from the population exchange with Turkey). That’s how Macedonians became a minority in Greek Macedonia. I should know, about a third from the people in the Republic of Macedonia have roots in the Greek part of Macedonia. They were ethnically cleansed from there in the 1920s and 1940s. The persecution is still going on.

florina.org – party of the Macedonians in Greece
misirkov.org – Writings from the greatest figure from the period of the Macedonian national awakening

Comment on Greek Bible Manuscript Online by Josh McManaway

Josh McManaway — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 03:07:05 +0000

I don't know if this is interesting to anyone, but apparently a particularly Christian practice that is shown in this manuscript (among others) is the nomen sacrum. Instead of writing θεος, the scribe would write ΘΣ with a line above it. The other three most common nomen sacrum in Christian texts are Κυριος (ΚΣ or ΚΥ), Χριστος (ΧΣ), and Ιησους (ΙΣ). Larry Hurtado, in his book, "The Earliest Christian Artifacts: Manuscripts and Christian Origins", notes that the "nomina sacra are not really abbreviations, at least in the sense that they do not function to save space or writing effort."(p. 100). What's particular about the Christian practice is the placement of a horizontal line immediately above the nomen sacrum, or just above the last character. If one goes to Jn 1:1 in Sinaiticus, they can see this in use on the fourth line down, right above "ΘΣ". Hurtado devotes an entire chapter in his book on this, if anyone's interested.

Comment on Dr. Perry’s Summer Research by Todd Lickliter » British Emperor

Todd Lickliter » British Emperor — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 13:21:22 +0000

[...] Dr. Perry’s Summer Research [...]

Comment on Classics on Broadway by » Orestes (mythology) muskrat

» Orestes (mythology) muskrat — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 21:42:33 +0000

[...] Classics on Broadway [...]

Comment on The Missing LIMCs by Lisa

Lisa — Sat, 30 May 2009 20:09:59 +0000

Very cool! Thanks for posting, John!