Sure, you've got time on your hands--even in California, it's still winter. Or, more accurately, suddenly winter. So what better thing to do than to head over to Ancient Lives and help transcribe a few papyri? When you get to the sight you can click explore or above where it says transcribe. You don't have to know any ancient languages either. I believe that it is sort of a crowd sourcing model, where a lot of people make their best guess and this helps them with the answer. A fascinating idea, and probably at least as entertaining as solitaire.
Raul Castro Squandered His Last Chance
-
14ymedio, Generation Y, Yoani Sanchez, Havana, 22 March 2017 — A year ago
Cuba had a once in a lifetime opportunity. US President Barack Obama came
to the ...
7 years ago
I think one of those lines translates as, "If you lived in this period, you'd be home now."
ReplyDeleteBa-dah-boom.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI peered at a bit of cuneiform on Sunday, I thought briefly it would be fun to be able to read that stuff.
ReplyDeleteIt would be. Helping someone else dcipher it might be a nice second best, though.
ReplyDeleteI probably have access to that knowledge close to home, at the University of Pennsylvania Museum.
ReplyDeleteI don't think UCSC has much in the way of papyri, as it doesn't even have a museum. But I'm sure there is some in many spots of the greater Bay Area here.
ReplyDeleteYou know, I wonder about that. So much depends on what fields of scholarship and areas of artistic taste were in vogue when money accumulates in the hands of collectors in a given area.
ReplyDeleteI was browsing the Internet for translations of and information about Virgil's Georgics and Aeneid this evening, and I came across an introduction that had been written by someone from Santa Cruz.
Was it Gary Miles, by any chance?
ReplyDeleteI don't remember. I see now that he is a big man on the Georgics, but I browsed quite a number of editions. I don't remember if his name was the one I noticed.
ReplyDeleteI have a colleague named Gary Miles, but he knows no Latin as far as I know.
He was my college core course professor, and remains a friend to this day. I remember sitting for a meal with him in the Cowell dining hall and talking with him about his work on the Georgics way back when. Unfortunately, I am not much of a Roman history buff, and I haven't read Virgil.
ReplyDeleteUntil yesterday, I had read no Virgil beyond the first line of the Aenied, But I always like the idea of the Georgics. Who today can imagine a poem about agriculture (and apiculture, too, as I found out). I especially like the first line in the translation by one Peter Fallon:
ReplyDelete"What tickles the corn to laugh out loud ..."
Yes, though I have to admit that I did not find the idea of poetry about agriculture that scintillating at the time. But Wendell Berry would approve.
ReplyDeleteBut how can you resist corn smiling, or even laughing?
ReplyDeleteWell, I am not a big fan of corn. But also, I can't quite visualize that image.
ReplyDeletePart of the reason it's so striking. Perhaps you could investigate the words Virgil chose in the original Latin.
ReplyDeleteOne translation gives the crop as wheat, which opens up the vexed corn/maize question.
Not to mention the vexed corn maze question. I walked through one of these once, or think I did.
ReplyDeleteBlogger must like corn; it's eating my comments again.
ReplyDeleteIntended comment: In such a maze, you must have been up to your ears.