Weekend Reading: A Pontypandy Aeneid

This week I’ve been swamped, again. I’ll spare you the details. Suffice it to say, there’s been a great deal of chaos – and not the interesting kind. That’s why my list of links is a bit short this week. Do let me know if I’ve missed anything good.

But I did find time at the weekend to mess around with toys, in order to produce an entry or two for the Legonium photo competition. (Some of the early entries are on Twitter. Wonder if you can spot which one is mine…?) There’s still time to enter, if you have toys or household objects lying around which put you in mind of the fall of the Roman Republic or the apotheosis of Romulus.

Anyway, my son and I may have gotten slightly carried away. We started out by taking a single photograph, and ended up with an extensive graphic reworking of the Aeneid. This perhaps was not the point of the competition – but it was a lot of fun, and my seven-year-old can now quote Virgil in Latin, which is a pretty cool outcome. So here it is, a world exclusive. Drum roll please…

 

 

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(I should probably mention that your likelihood of appreciating the following work of art will be directly proportional to your knowledge of Fireman Sam vehicles. If you don’t have a four-year-old available to explain, you might as well stop reading now.)

 

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This week’s classical links from around the internet

 

 

News

Teacher develops an Ancient Greece video game – The Brussels Times 

Statements on the Paideia Institute – Classics and Social Justice 

Greek myth poetry wins prize – The Guardian 

Athena at the Acropolis – Greek City Times 

Discovery of street built by Pontius Pilate – The Independent 

Coin petting zoo – The Lawrentian 

More on the papyrus scandal – Brent Nongbri 

 

 

Comment and opinion

Four ancient Greek mysteries – Greek Reporter 

Mark Zuckerberg’s Augustan haircut – Business Insider

Classical reading groups – Society for Classical Studies

Ancient domestic violence – Sententiae Antiquae 

Eumachia of Pompeii – Ancient Herstories 

The fall of Rome was good for Europe – Phys.org 

Greek Avengers – Classical Wisdom Weekly 

Egyptian obscenity – Sententiae Antiquae 

Useless Latin mnemonics – Idle Musings 

 

 

Podcasts, video and other media

Reimagining myths – Spectator Books 

Roman decimation – SandRhoman

The Gracchus brothers – Emperors of Rome

Interviewing the OU’s E-J Graham – Coffee and Circuses

 

 

Courses

Residential undergraduate course – British School at Athens 

Ancient Greek for Beginners (online) – Gina May Events


11 thoughts on “Weekend Reading: A Pontypandy Aeneid

  1. “Fear not! From chaos cosmos.” To paraphrase (massively!) what Jupiter promises Venus. Nice metanarrative: “Order will be restored!” The storm will abate (Virgil). The deluge will subside (Ovid, Noah). The swamp will drain (Trump – although that prophecy’s still to see its fulfilment!). Brexit WILL happen on Hallowe’en (hmmm – Boris Delphinitely has a wonky oracle!).

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  2. This is brilliant! 🙂 you should definately make this into a comic book or online comic or something…  might need to invest in a few more props (toys) for a whole comic book..

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