Classicists' Contributions to The Internet: III

Plato long ago detected a difference between "being" and "seeming to be", and expressed his preference, inexplicably, for the state of "being". In the course of two thousand years we have learned that it is the "seeming to be" which really works, in advertising and marketing, in manufacturing, medicine and science, and above all in education.
From Manual of College Writing, by William Harris

William Harris, the Glorious Generalist
January 20, 1926 - February 22, 2009

Did English translations kill the Classics?

Did I say extensive? I meant overwhelming. Within his main index is an humanities index within which are papers on Classics. Starting there, you'll find

The Intelligent Person's Guide to the Latin Language,
Cybele, the lady of Dindymus (a scenario for ballet),
A Theophrastan Character (a modern version),
Requiem for Philology,
Linguistic Prolegomena to Studying a Language,
What is a "Classic"

But when a Classic thus generated loses its flavor, like the salt of the earth, then it is only an embalmed Classic, preserved in an academic niche reserved for Collectibles, to be handled gingerly with gloves and smelling strangely of formaldehyde.

I have always had, from even my student days, a feeling that Homer was translated in part from another language.... Where? It could be Africa or the Indus Valley world. But it could also be the Far East.

[W H Alexander] invented Classics in English... and so saved our professorships and the day.... the thing to note is that it takes a different kind of Classicist to teach it.... Now we must have someone with naturally fluent speech, good elocution, projection....
A Rare Little Medieval Poem,
Pervigilium Veneris,
Vergil - The Secret Life,
Vergil's Aeneid Book IV, the Latin text
Vergil Aeneid 1 uncial (a look at the text as a Roman would have done)
Vergil Introduction and Comment
Vergil IV: School Notes
Economics in Greece

Poseidon's bull and the Argonautic Golden Fleece represent important stages in economically important animal breeding, and deserve a place in the annals of early history, alongside of the charmingly literary tales into which they are woven.

Under the Classics index

The Sin Of Translating
The Sin Of Silent Reading
Beginning Latin...
The Indo-European Background

Romanian, which comes from the Romanized province of Dacia under the late Empire, can seen as deriving from Latin only by the Linguistic specialist.

A Note on the Latin Language
Latin and Logic?
The Periods of Latin Literature
Phonemic Length In Latin
Latin Poetry and Reading Verse
The Correct Pronunciation?
Romanic Developments from Latin
Stress Accent and Pronunciation
A Thought about the Study of Latin
Problems with Vocabulary and Dictionaries

Preface
Chapter 1: The Heroes and their Deeds
Chapter 2: Women in Various Roles

The way in which Greek sculpture portrays the goddess of Love says important things about the way Greek men envisioned sexually desirable women. The half-ashamed, half hiding, partly covered but partly naked posture of an attractive female must have been pleasing and sexually exciting to men, especially if the face were impassive, calm, willing and (above all) not competitive.

Chapter 3: Domestication of Animals Chapter 4: The Development of Agriculture
Chapter 5: Medicine and Pharmacopoeia
Chapter 6: The Discovery and Use of Metals
Chapter 7: Homo Faber: Man the Inventor
Chapter 8: The Beginnings of Trade and Economics
Chapter 9: Influences From the Near East
Chapter 10: Cult, Belief and Religion
Chapter 11: Psychology and the Inner Mind
Chapter 12: Land and Climate

Also see Classicists Contributions to the Internet: II John Porter.

Discuss in my forum

• william harris
• classicists
• philology