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Articles on Ancient Greece

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A fragment of a wall painting showing two lovers in bed from the House of L Caecilius Jucundus in Pompeii, now at Naples National Archaeological Museum. Wikimedia Commons

Friday essay: the erotic art of Ancient Greece and Rome

From phallus-shaped wind chimes to explicit erotica on lamps and cups, sex is everywhere in ancient Greek and Roman art. But our interpretations of these images say much about our own culture.
Pamphlets for participatory budgeting processes in New York , a system that does back to ancient Greece. Daniel Latorre/Flickr

When citizens set the budget: lessons from ancient Greece

Politicians assume that voters cannot face the financial truth. To democracy experts this is just wrong. Involving voters results in better budgets as shows history from ancient Greece.
Fresco showing a woman called Sappho holding writing implements from Pompeii Naples National Archaeological Museum. Wikimedia Commons

Guide to the classics: Sappho, a poet in fragments

Sappho sang of desire, passion and love – mostly directed towards women. As new fragments of her work are found, a fuller picture of her is emerging, but she remains the most mysterious of ancient poets.
Current IOC President Thomas Bach touches a monument to Olympic founder Pierre de Coubertin in ancient Olympia, southern Greece, in 2016. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

Would the founder of the Olympics approve of the Games today?

As the Olympics get underway, what would the man who founded the modern Olympic movement think? Pierre de Coubertin’s vision of the Olympics as a tool of peace and faith in youth still resonates.
The Fall of the Titans, Cornelis Cornelisz van Haarlem, circa 1590. Wikimedia

Friday essay: the myth of the ancient Greek ‘gay utopia’

The dream of a “gay utopia” is a constant in gay and lesbian historical imaginings over the last 200 years. But the Greek attitude to same-sex attraction was not nearly as permissive as many have assumed.
A statue of Pericles outside Athens City Hall. Like Trump, Pericles used war to deflect from bad news. (Shutterstock)

‘DO SOMETHING!’ Trump, Pericles and the art of deflection

Does ancient Greek war hawk Pericles provide clues to a besieged Donald Trump’s next move? War has always been a helpful distraction for cornered world leaders.
Odysseus and his crew escape the cyclops, as painted by Arnold Böcklin in 1896. Wikimedia

Guide to the Classics: Homer’s Odyssey

The story of the Odyssey is a quintessential quest that relates to the passage through life and the importance of love, family and home. Odysseus’s adventures have influenced everyone from Batman to Bob Dylan.
The Greeks defend their ships from the Trojans in Alfred Churchill’s Story of the Iliad, 1911. Wikimedia

Guide to the classics: Homer’s Iliad

A central idea in the Iliad - a poetic work focused on the war for Troy - is the inevitability of death. The poem held a special place in antiquity, and has resonated in the millennia since.
Prometheus statue at Rockefeller Center, Manhattan. The inscription behind it is a paraphrase of Aeschylus that reads: “Prometheus, teacher in every art, brought the fire that hath proved to mortals a means to mighty ends”. Wikimedia

Internet of Things: between panacea and paranoia

How the idea of a hyper-connected society could quickly go from utopia to dystopia and why neither scenario is likely to last.

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