Modern people have often found ancient Egyptian depictions of their gods perplexing and strange, since many of them bear the heads or other features of animals. If you’ve ever wondered why the Egyptians did this, you’re certainly not the first. Even in ancient times, Greek, Roman, and early Christian writers mocked their Egyptian contemporaries for … Continue reading "Why Do Ancient Egyptian Gods Have Animal Heads???"| Tales of Times Forgotten
Hello everyone, I’m sorry that I haven’t written much the past few months. I have been seriously rethinking my career plans ever since I did not get into a PhD program last year and have been doing so even more since I learned that I will not be admitted to a classics PhD program with funding this year either. For at least a decade now, I’ve known that it was extraordinarily unlikely that I would ever land a tenure-track professorship in ancient history, but I was just so stubbornly, st...| Tales of Times Forgotten
A constructed language or “conlang” is a language that an individual or group has deliberately created with a purpose in mind, as opposed to languages that have arisen naturally. Today, when most people today hear this term, they think immediately of languages used in works of fiction, such as J. R. R. Tolkien’s Elvish language … Continue reading "What Was the First Conlang?" The post What Was the First Conlang? appeared first on Tales of Times Forgotten.| Tales of Times Forgotten
Hello everyone, I’m sorry that I haven’t written much the past few months. I have been seriously rethinking my career plans ever since I did not get into a PhD program last year and have been doing so even more since I learned that I will not be admitted to a classics PhD program with … Continue reading ""| Tales of Times Forgotten
Generally speaking, a professor at the English universities of Oxford or Cambridge, a Catholic priest or abbot, and a crime boss don’t have much in common—but they do at least share one thing: the title don or dom (which has one etymological root). To some, it may seem confusing why people from such radically different … Continue reading "Why Are Oxbridge Professors, Catholic Priests, and Crime Bosses All Called ‘Don’?"| Tales of Times Forgotten
When most people hear the words “lost ancient cities,” their first thought is of Atlantis, which, as I discuss in this post I made back in 2019, is definitely fictional and never really existed. There are, however, many very real and highly significant ancient cities whose exact locations are still unknown or disputed. Perhaps the … Continue reading "Lost Ancient Cities That No One Has Ever Found"| Tales of Times Forgotten
The Odyssey, an ancient Greek epic poem, is one of the most famous works of world literature. Countless adaptations of it have come out over the years in virtually all forms of media including books, stage plays, films, television series, video games, and musicals—but one thing most of these adaptations have in common is that … Continue reading "Everything I Liked and Hated about Uberto Pasolini’s ‘The Return’ (2024)"| Tales of Times Forgotten
Hello everyone, unfortunately, I have bad news, which is that I have been informed that the classics PhD program at the University of Washington has made their two offers of funding for this year to other applicants. I am on the waitlist for funding, but I don’t know where I am on the list at … Continue reading ""| Tales of Times Forgotten
Hello everyone! Amid all the awful and distressing events that continue to batter our world each day, I do have some tentative good news pertaining to my personal future, which is that—after four years, three rounds of applying, and a total of eighteen applications—I have finally received my very first real, official offer of admission … Continue reading ""| Tales of Times Forgotten
Hello everyone and happy New Year! I am still working very hard on my novel and making progress on it, although progress in recent months has been slower than I had hoped. Despite being focused on writing my novel, I have also been working on a few drafts of posts for this blog, which I … Continue reading ""| Tales of Times Forgotten
Hello folks! As I have mentioned in previous posts, I am applying to PhD programs yet again for a third time this year. I have already submitted my applications to the classics PhD program at Ohio State University, the Interdepartmental Program in Ancient History at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, the Graduate Group … Continue reading ""| Tales of Times Forgotten
On August 24th, 2024, Elon Musk, who is currently one of the richest, most powerful, and most influential human beings on the planet, tweeted, “Can’t recommend The Iliad enough! Best as Penguin audiobook at 1.25 speed.” He accompanied these words with a link to the audiobook edition of E. V. Rieu’s 1946 prose translation of … Continue reading "What’s the Problem with Elon Musk’s ‘Iliad’ Advice?"| Tales of Times Forgotten
Almost every tourist who has ever visited Athens has at some point thought about how amazing it would be if the city’s monuments were restored to how they looked when they were new in classical antiquity. A couple of months ago, the website UnHerd, which has right-wing and libertarian political leanings and specializes in what … Continue reading "Why Greece Hasn’t Rebuilt the Agora"| Tales of Times Forgotten
As I previously discussed in this post I wrote back in 2021, the vast majority of ancient Greek drama has not survived to the present day. Of the hundreds of Greek tragic playwrights who flourished in antiquity, only three have any plays that have survived to the present day complete under their own names: Aischylos, … Continue reading "New Fragments of Euripides Discovered!"| Tales of Times Forgotten
I apologize again for my dearth of recent posts. I am hoping to get at least one real post published before the end of this month and eventually to get back to posting more regularly. There are various reasons why I haven’t been posting as much lately as I used to, but a major part … Continue reading ""| Tales of Times Forgotten
