By: Cassandra Gill,
on 8/19/2016
The latest film adaptation of the story of fictional Jewish noble Judah Ben-Hur is premiering in theaters today. You’ve probably seen the 1959 film version starring Charlton Heston, but do you know about the story’s rich history and impact over the last 136 years?
The post Ben-Hur: tracing the iconic novel and films through history appeared first on OUPblog.
By: AlyssaB,
on 1/4/2016
Many people assume that repentance is and always has been a substantial part of the Bible, but that was not always the case. In the following interview between Luke Drake, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and David Lambert, an assistant professor of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and author of How Repentance Became Biblical: Judaism, Christianity, and the Interpretation of Scripture, the two discuss how repentance came to be seen as a part of the Bible and the early history of repentance as a concept.
The post Repentance and the Bible: A Q&A with David Lambert appeared first on OUPblog.
By: KatherineS,
on 11/6/2014
This selection of ancient Greek literature includes philosophy, poetry, drama, and history. It introduces some of the great classical thinkers, whose ideas have had a profound influence on Western civilization.
Jason and the Golden Fleece by Apollonius of Rhodes
Apollonius’ Argonautica is the dramatic story of Jason’s voyage in the Argo in search of the Golden Fleece, and how he wins the aid of the Colchian princess and sorceress Medea, as well as her love. Written in the third century BC, it was influential on the Latin poets Catullus and Ovid, as well as on Virgil’s Aeneid.
Poetics by Aristotle
This short treatise has been described as the most influential book on poetry ever written. It is a very readable consideration of why art matters which also contains practical advice for poets and playwrights that is still followed today.
The Trojan Women and Other Plays by Euripides
One of the greatest Greek tragedians, Euripides wrote at least eighty plays, of which seventeen survive complete. The universality of his themes means that his plays continue to be performed and adapted all over the world. In this volume three great war plays, The Trojan Women, Hecuba, and Andromache, explore suffering and the endurance of the female spirit in the aftermath of bloody conflict.
The Histories by Herodotus
Herodotus was called “the father of history” by Cicero because the scale on which he wrote had never been attempted before. His history of the Persian Wars is an astonishing achievement, and is not only a fascinating history of events but is full of digression and entertaining anecdote. It also provokes very interesting questions about historiography.
The Iliad by Homer
Homer’s two great epic poems, the Odyssey and the Iliad, have created stories that have enthralled readers for thousands of year. The Iliad describes a tragic episode during the siege of Troy, sparked by a quarrel between the leader of the Greek army and its mightiest warrior, Achilles; Achilles’ anger and the death of the Trojan hero Hector play out beneath the watchful gaze of the gods.
Republic by Plato
Plato’s dialogue presents Socrates and other philosophers discussing what makes the ideal community. It is essentially an enquiry into morality, and why justice and goodness are fundamental. Harmonious human beings are as necessary as a harmonious society, and Plato has profound things to say about many aspects of life. The dialogue contains the famous myth of the cave, in which only knowledge and wisdom will liberate man from regarding shadows as reality.
Greek Lives by Plutarch
Plutarch wrote forty-six biographies of eminent Greeks and Romans in a series of paired, or parallel, Lives. This selection of nine Greek lives includes Alexander the Great, Pericles, and Lycurgus, and the Lives are notable for their insights into personalities, as well as for what they reveal about such things as the Spartan regime and social system.
Antigone, Oedipus the King, Electra by Sophocles
In these three masterpieces Sophocles established the foundation of Western drama. His three central characters are faced with tests of their will and character, and their refusal to compromise their principles has terrible results. Antigone and Electra are bywords for female resolve, while Oedipus’ discovery that he has committed both incest and patricide has inspired much psychological analysis, and given his name to Freud’s famous complex.
Heading image: Porch of Maidens by Thermos. CC BY-SA 2.5 via Wikimedia Commons.
The post A reading list of Ancient Greek classics appeared first on OUPblog.
By: Alice,
on 3/15/2012
“Beware the Ides of March,” warns the soothsayer in Act 1, scene 2 of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, and by the end of the play, the Roman dictator, having ignored the soothsayer’s prophecy, is dead at the hands of a conspiracy of foes. The 15th of March was made famous by this single historical event, described in Plutarch’s history of Caesar’s life and made part of our contemporary Western vocabulary by Shakespeare’s tragedy and, more recently, by last summer’s political drama starring Ryan Gosling and George Clooney.
The messages seem clear. No matter how powerful you are, destiny will have her due, and you ignore the soothsayer at your peril. But our contemporary era is remarkably bereft of reliable soothsayers. A true gift of prophecy would be a wonderful gift indeed. Equivalent to the superhero powers of invisibility and flight. A modern day seer could pick winning stocks and lottery numbers, anticipate successful and unsuccessful romantic pairings, and dress appropriately for the weather every single day.
There is no shortage of people vying for the job of prophet. American preacher and radio personality Harold Camping gained wide publicity last year by predicting the arrival of judgment day on May 21, 2011. When this appointment did not pan out Camping came up with a revised end of the world date of October 21, 2011. I was invited to a “Rapture party” in honor of the event, and, thanks in part to Camping’s second miscalculation of 2011 (he also predicted the end of the world in 1988 and 1994), I managed to get home safely. This year, we will endure the 2012 Mayan calendar apocalyptic legend, which has been aggressively promoted by movie and television producers hoping to cash in on a manufactured hysteria that will only intensify as the the latest dooms day date of December 21, 2012 approaches.
The motivation for our interest in predicting the future — particularly with respect to dire events — is quite clear. Many of life’s most important episodes — the moment and manner of our death, for example — are utterly unpredictable. Even when we cannot do anything about these calamitous happenings, we would often like to know if and when they will occur. Laboratory rats will learn to press a lever to be warned about when an electric shock is coming, even when the shock cannot be avoided.
If, on the other hand, armed with a glimpse of the future, we were in a position to avoid the disasters that have been assigned to us, the gift of prophetic knowledge would be invaluable. We would have the power to change our destinies and make life immeasurably happier than it was originally designed to be.
Unfortunately, the future hides its secrets jealously. Some years ago, Alan M. Tuerkheimer and I conducted a study of predictions made by psychics and by experts in various fields. We found that neither experts nor psychics were very good at predicting the future and that psychics were significantly worse at their chosen profession than the experts.
Not only should despotic dictators beware, but ordinary consumers of the services of self-proclaimed soothsayers — be they psychics, financial analysts, or political prognosticators — should also take heed. The future’s not ours to see. 0 Comments on The Ides of March and the enduring romance of prophecy as of 1/1/1900
