Posts

So I was writing my favorite podcasts entry, and I put in a little aside about the podcast Nocturne and some of the more melancholy aspects of it. When I posted it on Mastodon, I put it under a CW (content warning) due to mentions of death, and realized I’d rather excise it from the entry and have more people read the entry. So I just removed it and then reposted it on Mastodon, as I planned on putting it in another entry. Here is the text below:

Last updated 07 Nov 2024

Last updated 26 May 2024

Last updated: Sat 28 Jan 2023

Dear Reader: this is the first in what I hope will be an ongoing series of posts on etymology, philology, and just fun with words. I used to blog about strictly Classics stuff, as I was trying to blog professionally and pursue a tenure-track career. Now it’s just fun and I like geeking out about words. So here’s the first of, dis volentibus, many. Enjoy.

So I was thinking recently of the marvelous shields throughout Aeschylus’ Seven Against Thebes (aka Septem Contra Thebas, aka ἑπτὰ ἐπὶ Θήβας). The Septem was part of the prolegomena to my dissertation, where I looked at Polyneikes’ homecoming to Thebes, which only truly happens at his death. I spent a lot of time with the play, mostly with Polyneikes’ shield, but the other shields are also really fascinating. I was talking to a friend about all this recently, and found that I was interested in exploring the rest of the shields in the play.

Last updated 29 Oct 2024