Huler, Scott: No-Man's Land

Crown © 2008, 286 pages

Author Scott Huler found himself in his forties becoming obsessed with Homer's Odyssey, the epic that takes up where the Iliad leaves off, tracking Odysseus' adventures en route back home at the end of the Trojan War. Taking his inspiration from the Joyceans--fans of James Joyce's Ulysses who celebrate Bloomsday every June 16th by following the fictional Leopold Bloom's route through Dublin--Huler decided to travel the Mediterranean following the similarly unreal footsteps of the hero Odysseus. Huler left his pregnant wife behind and took off for, among other destinations, Calypso's island (Malta) and the Cyclops' cave (on Sicily) and the islands associated with the Sirens. Odysseus' visit to the Underworld is reenacted more in spirit than in fact.

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Build your own polis

Blogographoi may be interested in Ikariam, a free online game in which, I gather, one is able to build up an ancient civilization on a Mediterranean island. Haven't played it myself but it sounds Sims-like.

Mandaeans in Danger

The Iraqi Mandaeans, the only surviving Gnostic group from the ancient world, are in dire danger: read April DeConick's blog post, and help spread the word.

Judith

Visit Zenobia's website Empress of the East

 

Omnis Gallia est divisa in tres partes

I'm celebrating the Ides of March tomorrow over at TwitterLit! Posts will appear at 5:00 AM and 5:00 PM DST.

It's Exelauno Day!

Here I thought that Exelauno Day was just something that Jim O'Hara made up, but it turns out that the holiday has a proud tradition.

Herodotus Teaches Black History

or someone's channeling Herodotus:

Michael Eric Dyson kicked off Black History Month at the University of Missouri with a lecture Thursday that resembled a one-man show. He infused his speech with rap lyrics, stand-up comedy and rapid-fire references ranging from the rapper Soulja Boy to the ancient Greek historian Herodotus and seemingly everything in between.

Shifting borders

Via Opinio Juris: The bloggers at Coming Anarchy have put together an informative series of posts about the shifting borders of states and empires. There’s a time-lapse animation of the expansion and contraction of Rome and Byzantium, a series of maps for each of Ethiopia, Poland, Armenia , Persia, and Russia. Also, there’s a series of comparative maps on state borders in modern Europe.

(If the links don't work, go back to the original at Opinio Juris )

Judith

Visit Zenobia's blog Empress of the East

Bone Ignorant

Never in the field of human ignorance has so little been known about so much:

Truth or Fiction and UK TV Gold Weep.

MLK Jr. and Greek Classics

"Erudite men and women have researched the education of Dr. King, concluding that he studied the ancient Greek classics at length and drew inspiration not only from the Bible, but also from ancient Greek philosophers, playwrights and political figures."

Read more from Alexandros P. Mallias, Greece's ambassador to the United States and the January 2007 recipient of the Martin Luther King Jr. Legacy Award for International Service.

Homer's secret

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 22.12.2007

Homer's secret is out," announces the FAZ in the Bilder und Zeiten supplement. Writer and translator Raoul Schrott puts together a fresh and multifaceted image of Homer. Homer, he writes, came from Cilicia, in what is South-Eastern Turkey today. "What makes his epos so unique are the parentheses which contain Greek fables and genealogies, Assyrian legal and contractual practices, prayers and sacrifice rituals, the most diverse realities as well as the names of thousands of people and places. His work is an encyclopaedia of its time. To this end, Homer was also a protohistorian and geographer bent on documentation. And as such, Homer emerges as a representative of that elite profession whose job it was to draft written documents of all kinds: a scribe who did his work within the administrative apparatus set up by the Assyrians in Cilicia."

Perhaps it reads better in German :-)

Best wishes for 2008 to all!

Judith

<a href="http://judithweingarten.blogspot.com"> Empress of the East</a>