#classical philology

[literarydesire]

Outfit for today’s 8 am lecture on Classical Greek Archaeology and a very misty morning☕️

[volumniafox]

Help Finnish classicists out! The University of Helsinki is planning on cutting all courses on classical archaeology. The University of Helsinki is currently the only university in Finland that provides any kind of education on the material culture of the ancient Mediterranean and losing this program would be a huge loss for the classics field here.

This is a bad decision considering the quality of research by Finnish scholars and the amount of outside funding our projects bring to the university. This is a short-sighted decision made by the dean of the faculty of arts. In the long run, this will be detrimental to Finnish scholarship in classics.

Symposion ry, the students' association for students of classical archaeology and classical philology at the University of Helsinki, currently has an open petition that will be presented to the dean. International attention and media coverage would be very, very helpful, so please consider signing! You can also leave a comment if you wish, but that is not mandatory. All comments will also be presented to the dean.

You can read the petition (and also sign it) in English, Finnish, and Swedish here:

https://www.adressit.com/antiikin_materiaalisen_kulttuurin_opetuksen_on_jatkuttava_helsingin_yliopistossa

[antikristvs]

Studying Greek with a cup of coffee 📚

[pianonoita]

Help preserve the teaching of ancient material culture at the University of Helsinki!

If you're a student, a researcher or a teacher of Latin, Greek, or classical archaeology, or just generally interested in classics, this is for you!

University of Helsinki is planning to disband the teaching of Ancient Culture, starting from the summer of 2024. This includes the subjects of Greek and Roman archaeology and material culture of the ancient world; a discipline previously known as classical archaeology. The signatories of this petition demand that the regular contact teaching of Ancient Culture or classical archaeology will continue at the University of Helsinki, and this way in Finland. The optimal solution to this would be the re-opening of the position of university lecturer of classical archaeology, and selecting a new lecturer to this position. This way the continuation of teaching will be ensured in a discipline that ultimately is one of the cornerstones of European civilisation.

The teaching of material cultures of the ancient world supports the studies of philology, other humanistic disciplines, and the understanding of European history of civilisation and cultural heritage. Competent teaching has been a requirement for the high-profile projects taking place at the University of Helsinki, and the research at Finnish Institutes in Rome, Athens, and Middle East. The experts of the field have made it possible to organise various popular exhibitions that have brought research of antiquity and its legacy into the knowledge of larger audiences.  

The teaching of classical archaeology first began in Finland in the 1780s. At the University of Helsinki, the basic studies (15 study points) have been available for students since the early 1980s, and the intermediate studies (30 study points) since the early 1990s. After the discontinuation of the lectureship of classical archaeology in Oulu, the University of Helsinki offered regular contact teaching of classical archaeology as the only instance in the country between 2014-2018. Until 2018, classical archaeology also had the status of an independent discipline. Since then, teaching has been organised with multiple projects from different disciplines, and students have been able to complete two study modules of 15 and 30 study points, or 3-6 courses respectively.

Now the university plans to disband the teaching and discontinue the study modules. The courses have been extremely popular among the students. The arguments used in support of not opening the position of lecturer of classical archaeology in 2018 included the excellent resources of the discipline in relation to number of students. Now the decision to discontinue the teaching is supported by claims that the discipline is unable to provide a long-term solution to the unstable teaching situation, and students do not complete the entire study modules, only isolated courses. Re-opening the position of lecturer of classical archaeology is the only long-term solution that benefits both students and the university; it secures competent teaching, enables the completion of study modules, and brings stability to the uncertain situation that has lasted for years.

By discontinuing the teaching of ancient material culture and disbanding the study modules, the University of Helsinki debases both teaching and research, and erodes its own status as a European elite university that regards sophistication and civilisation as its key values. This decision will drive away both students and international experts, as well as funding for research projects. By opening the position of lecturer of classical archaeology and selecting a new lecturer to this position, University of Helsinki can ensure the continuation of expertise appreciated in the academic world, in Finland, and in the international arenas.

More information on the history of teaching ancient material culture and classical archaeology in Finland: http://www.taidehistorianseura.fi/tiedotteet/taidehistoriallisia-tutkimuksia-50/

Statement by the student organisation of Ancient Languages and Cultures, Symposion ry: https://rostrasymposion.wixsite.com/rostra/post/symposion-ry-n-kannanotto-antiikin-kulttuurin-opetuksen-puolesta

Please consider signing the petition and spread the word! This would be a huge tragedy for the teaching of classical philology and archaeology in Finland! The decision is not yet final, so we still have a chance to make a difference!

The petition site is unfortunately only in Finnish. The site will ask your name and email address to sign the petition, but you can choose not to share your name publicly. Your email address will not be published anywhere. You can also leave your own comments.

Thank you so much for helping! <3

-Sofia, the chair of Symposion, student organisation of classics at the University of Helsinki

[miss-nymphetamine]

Out of nowhere, there's a possibility that I might be teaching Ancient Greek again next year, this time fully professionally (I mean, with a real salary and benefits).

And it feels... a bit surreal.

One of these days I'll tell you how I just walked away from academia and how it was something I had made my peace with but missed anyway, so this is a surprise but I think a nice one.

Yeah. It's definitely nice.

[literarydesire]

Me when Roman poets contract verb conjugations to make it fit with the metre but the contraction coincides with another, pre-existing conjugation so you just kinda have to guess

Leonid Pasternak  (Ukrainian, 1862–1945) - The Torments of Creative Work

[dainty-autumn]

Italian uni is truly the most energy depriving crap ever

[literarydesire]

That thing when you ask your professor a question and they get that distant look in their eyes and stare into space for a while and you can see them racking their brain for an answer and then, they get really excited when they realize that they dont know so now they have an excuse to research something new >>>

[thebellekeys]

Recommendations for media about translation, interpreting, and foreign languages

Movies and TV

Quo Vadis, Aida? (2020) The Interpreter (2005) The Last Stage (1948)

Books

Babel: An Arcane History by R.F. Kuang The Centre by Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi Translating Myself and Others by Jhumpa Lahiri The Interpreter by Suki Kim Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok Translation Nation by Héctor Tobar Alphabet of Thorn by Patricia A. McKillip Translation State by Ann Leckie

Other Important Topics and Subjects

La Malinche The Rosetta Stone The Tower of Babel The Adamic Language Esperanto Philology Goethean World Literature

Documentaries and History

The Interpreters: A Historical Perspective The Nuremberg Trials Biblical Translation St. Jerome - patron saint of translators Shu-ilishu's Seal (first depiction of an interpreter)

[mauveastrum]

Nightly translation sessions

[pianonoita]

Classical philology and F1 go actually perfectly hand in hand: whether I'm writing my dissertation or watching F1, it's always just some Italian boy giving me a headache

[skyeventide]

codex unicus is an insane concept. it means this text survived in a single copy, a single manuscript. any other copies went lost, were destroyed, were scraped clean, burned, rotted, or, in the most fabled and most comforting option, are still hidden somewhere in a cellar, in an archive, in a private collection never accessed before. do you want to check if a word really is an error? you can't. you want to confront a sentence with the one in another copy? you can't. you want to find out what the illegible ††† part means? you can't. it's lost. unknown. because the manuscript only exists in single copy, and we are so lucky we even have that.

[foreststarflaime]

Does Genesis have a name for his sword?

If so, what is it?

Disregarding that the canon name is Rapier bc cmon Genesis. You’re the poet one. You can do better than that surely…

Indulging my Genesis as Achilles obsessed brain: κεκλυτε keklute, (pronounced phonetically, kek-lute-eh) essentially meaning (in ancient greek) hear or listen (as a plural command). It’s related to the word κλεος kleos, which is a difficult word to translate but essentially means something like glory. I go into it (and Genesis’ connection to it thematically) in more detail here. It’s a flashy as hell sword, he’s a flashy as hell guy, he wants to be noticed, to have his achievements heard and appreciated—and so he names the thing that he intends to make people listen to him with a name that encapsulates that idea.

Me waffling about runners-up and extra linguistics nerd stuff under the cut

Added the reduplication to keklute because I can and because it sounds a bit better than just klute—although that’s a strong runner up because it can be read both as the plural command or as the adjective for renowned and I like the way you can doubly twist that.

Kluthi κλυθι was also an option because I thought that sounded cool too, but it’s only a singular imperative, and I thought he would be more likely to yell at the whole world than just one person—although there is the potential for that with his rivalry fixation on Sephiroth. Could be pretty gay poetic, him trying to get at least one person, the only person who mattered, to listen and feeling like he couldn’t.

Also high in the running was κλυετε kluete, because it’s the present plural imperative of the same verb. I actually like this kinda better, only reason I didn’t put it up there as the main answer was because I thought keklute sounded better. Reason I like this one better grammatically is that the present imperative in ancient greek is used as a universal command, something you should always do, whereas the aorist imperative (klute) is used as a one-off command, like “pass me the salt” or something like that. I feel Genesis would absolutely go for the more dramatic “you should always hear of me” route—and it fits more with the Achilles theme of kleos aphthiton, undying fame, to have the tales of your heroic exploits be heard of forever.

Also all these e’s are pronounced eh bc they’re all episilons and not etas and greek is a phonetic language, unpolluted by the french like English. Blame the Normans for us never knowing how things are pronounced btw

[goingtothebes]

[zoebelladona]

me trying to explain platonic readings of clarisse & silena are just as valid as romantic ones because if you think you have to be in love with someone to kill a giant dragon then you clearly don't love your friends

[literarydesire]

!!!!

HELLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO