Notebook
Essay: Language contact and early Romance
Tuesday 7 October 2008 #
What role was played by ‘language contact’ in the early history of Romance?
- Paper:
- Romance Philology
- Due:
21 October 2008Complete!
Essay: Sophocles’ ‘Oedipus Tyrannus’ and ‘Antigone’
Tuesday 7 October 2008 #
“The maid shows herself passionate child of passionate sire, and knows not how to bend before troubles.” (Antigone 471–2)
Discuss with reference to the Oedipus Tyrannus and the Antigone.
- Paper:
- Ancient & French Classical Tragedy
- Due:
17 October 2008Complete!
Essay: Self-authorship in Seneca’s ‘Medea’ and ‘Thyestes’
Monday 28 April 2008 #
How does Seneca identify Atreus and Medea as artists creating the works in which they themselves appear? What can Stoicism offer in the face of the tragic passions that they embody?
- Paper:
- Ancient & French Classical Tragedy
- Due:
6 October 2008Complete!
Essay: Seneca’s Medea and the Argonautic Odes
Monday 28 April 2008 #
How central to Seneca’s Medea are the two Argonautic odes (vv. 301–79 and 579–669)?
- Paper:
- Ancient & French Classical Tragedy
- Due:
7 October 2008Complete!
‘No parking meter? No excuse!’
Wednesday 23 April 2008
I was in a newsagent this afternoon on the Rue de la Servette, a four-lane (+two tram lines) road in Geneva. A lady had got in to the shop just before me; she asked the shop-keeper where there was a parking meter in the vicinity. The lady behind the counter told this woman that although the signs had been put up and the ground prepared for them, the meters hadn’t yet been installed. Nevertheless, she went on, the customer should be vigilant because the lack of machines is not seen as a valid reason for not displaying a parking permit, and the wardens—who, she said, are known to pass regularly—are still liable to issue parking tickets!
All of this was reported slightly apologetically (in a don’t-blame-me-it’s-not-my-fault tone) but seemingly neither of
Killed by a book!
Sunday 13 April 2008
Pliny the Younger, Epistles 2.1.5:
Nam cum vocem praepararet acturus in consulatu principi gratias, liber quem forte acceperat grandiorem, et seni et stanti ipso pondere elapsus est. Hunc dum sequitur colligitque, per leve et lubricum pavimentum fallente vestigio cecidit coxamque fregit, quae parum apte collocata reluctante aetate male coiit.
For while he was preparing a thanksgiving speech to the Princeps for the consulship, he happened to lift a rather large book which slipped from the old man’s hand, who was standing up at the time. When he bent down to pick it up, his foot slipped on the smooth and wet pavement, and he broke his hip, which was knocked out of joint, and because of his advanced age, re-knitted badly.
Let that be a warning to those of us who
List of English homonyms whose meaning is derived from the way they’re stressed
Wednesday 27 February 2008
In English, we have many words which are used both as nouns and/or adjectives, and as verbs. When the words are used as nouns or adjectives, the first syllable is stressed, whereas when they're verbs, it's a later syllable which is stressed. The nouns are therefore known as 'Initial-stress-derived nouns’—what else?
Here are some fun examples:
Essay: Nature & Stoicism in Seneca’s Phaedra
Friday 11 January 2008 #
What is the force of Nature in Seneca’s Phaedra? How does this theme relate to the Stoic obligation to live according to Nature?
- Paper:
- Ancient & French Classical Tragedy
- Due:
24 April 2008Complete!
Essay: Euripides’ Hippolytus and Seneca’s Phaedra
Friday 11 January 2008 #
What has changed between Euripides’ Hippolytus and Seneca’s Phaedra? How different is the dramatic technique of the poets? And what strikes you as distinctive in their thematic preoccupations?
- Paper:
- Ancient & French Classical Tragedy
- Due:
20 March 2008Complete!
Essay: Christianity, diffusion and opposition
Sunday 10 June 2007 #
- Trace and explain the main causes of the rise of Christianity between the Pauline period and the conversion of Constantine. Why did people become Christians?
- What did Graeco-Roman polytheists make of the new sect? How soon was it distinguished from Judaism?
- Why were Christians persecuted? Did the Church Fathers exaggerate the extent and frequency of persecutions? Was Christianity incompatible with e.g. loyalty to the emperor, or with military service?
- Why did some Christians persecute others? How did belief turn into heresy?
- Paper:
- Religions of the Greek & Roman World
- Due:
12 June 2007Complete!
