Are the Romans Better Than the Greeks in Philosophy?
By Hanzhao Kuang
In a 2012 survey, Philosophy Now asked seventy-five academics to vote on the five most important/interesting philosophers from history. Among respondents, many Greek thinkers were popular choices: Aristotle came in first with forty-four votes and Plato ranked third with thirty-one votes. But Roman philosophers came short: Cicero, a famous Roman philosopher, received merely two votes…
For Medea, Love is Fear, and Love is Fire
By Rebecca Onken
Medea is, for many (classicists and armchair consumers alike), the quintessential classical witch. Her powers dazzle. Her escapades are many and run the gamut of moral acceptability: she ensures Jason’s success in attaining the golden fleece by means of wondrous “medicines,” returns the blush of youth to an ailing old man, orchestrates the murder of a different old man, kills roughly three family members, and spirits away from her crimes on a chariot drawn by dragons…
Pericles’s Funeral Oration: A Partial Translation of The History of the Peloponnesian War 2.37-41
By Noah Apter
Pericles’s funeral oration comes down the centuries as one of the most difficult pieces of ancient Greek literature to properly translate. As classicists, it seems that Thucydides wishes to help us sharpen our teeth on his grammar. Why? It is in the nature of speeches to differ from narrative texts, the former tending to be “live” while narratives…
“… Different and Again Different Waters Flow”
Change and the Logos of Heraclitus
By Syed Riza Qadri
Heraclitus’s fragments on change and the impermanence of nature read like reminders of one’s own passing existence. “It is not possible to step twice into the same river” seems to say (DK 22B91), “Yesterday is gone, and today shall be gone tomorrow.” But as one reads through these extant writings of the philosopher, the thought that some day one shall be gone as well doesn’t feel morose…
Han Dynasty Tomb Brick
By Lily Nesvold
Tomb bricks, as the name implies, were used to construct tomb chambers. Families would commission the bricks to be manufactured and decorated, and then the finished products would be transported to the burial location. The tomb interior would hold a wooden coffin and gifts, such as ceramic jars, clay tomb figurines, and other pottery wares — everything the occupant needed for the afterlife…
