Classics in Contemporary Culture

Jury Cred

Leroy Lounibos Jr. is a whistle-blower, an advocate for prisoners' rights...and moreover, he is the rare kind of attorney who is able to make references to ancient Greek literature without losing juries' interest. Also:

Lounibos is 400 pages into writing a stylized work of nonfiction (including an homage to the Greek chorus) that examines the changes wrought in the prison system during his exposure to it. He calls it "Guardland."

[Santa Rosa Press Democrat]

Aristotle on Relationships

Frank Gannon has a fun parody of Aristotle's Poetics in the New Yorker, apparently inspired by gushing comments of Will Smith concerning the Poetics...Here's a taste:

The emotions of pity and fear can be evoked by a sexual act involving a man and a woman who lie between the two extremes of good and bad. The highest form of fear occurs when a man who is not all good performs a sexual act with a woman who is also not all good, then another character who is also not all good—a character who has taken part in an earlier sexual act with the not all-good woman—enters before the end of the sexual act. This results in the downfall of the first not all-good man. A sexual act that ends with the catastrophe of the not all-good man evokes pity and fear. Aeschylus was the first to introduce lawyers into the scenario, which characters now routinely supply the ending to this type of sexual act.

[Thanks to A&L Daily]

Around the Mediterranean with Athenaeus

Louis Grivetti (food geographer [sic]) and Matthew Lange (computer technologist) are teaming up to create maps of the ancient Mediterranean and its various foodstuffs...using Athenaeus' Deipnosophistae as their guidebook. More power to 'em!

Democracy and Conversation

It's all about Epictetus today! Commenting on politics and talking, this article points to him as a shining example:

To take part in the great conversation, you need to be educated. That does not mean you need a Ph.D., or even a B.A. or a high school diploma. It does mean that you have been drawn out of the sordid world of money, cars and sex that pervades the life of most people. Epictetus held that an afternoon of conversation could educate a man. The Stoic was fond of conversation for a good reason: He, one of the better philosophers of the classical era, was illiterate. And yet he was educated.

Um...illiterate? Sure, he didn't write down his discourses, but...

Messy Democracy

The Ottawa Citizen reviews recent developments in Canadian politics, appealing to the Greeks in general at the beginning and then finishing up with a quotation from Epictetus...whose name is not misspelled!

The Examined Life

This letter from the Royal Bank of Canada, dating back to 1972, encourages its readers to keep stimulating their minds even when no longer within the bounds of an educational system...It's especially keen on Epictetus, for some reason:

The philosophy a wise reader gets from books is not wholly speculative. It relates to life as we live it. Neighbours on a suburban circle set aside one night a week for reading. They took turns reading aloud from Epictetus's Teachings. From the very first evening they were amazed by how relevant the principles were to the world today, and how the thoughts of Epictetus contributed to their understanding of current problems.

Siege of Jerusalem

Just a brief mention of a film now in production, featuring one J. D. Feigelson, on the Roman siege and destruction of Jerusalem. The title: The Sword, The Cross, and The Tomb. The title appears to indicate a particularly (Christian) religious thrust, confirmed by the fact that the article only mentions that the film will be shown in churches.

Ludi

More Rome on the video game screen...for PlayStation2, a new game called "Shadow of Rome" is being announced. Your task: to exonerate your father from the charge of assassinating Julius Caesar. Lotsa fighting and violence...[some details here; details and screenshots at GamePro]

Unconvincing Etymologies

Recently posted at about.com: a history of spas. On the sidebar: "Possible Origins of the Word 'Spa.'" Everyone sitting down?

• From the Latin words 'Espa' (fountain) and 'Sparsa' (from spargere = to bubble up).  
• "Sanus Per Aquam" [S P A] - meaning health by or through water.  
• "Solus Per Aqua" [S P A] Latin for enter by means of water. Other interpretation: "health through water."
• “Salut Per Aqua” [S P A]  Latin for health or relaxation through water. Found in graffiti in Roman baths

This site mentions the real origin (Spa is a place name in Belgium: cf. OED), and then goes on to mention the above, with minor variations, not much better at the Latin, but at least with references to books that make the various suggestions.
Another suggestion I don't believe--Hungarian...

Blame (Well, Jeer at) Canada...

RogueClassicism points out some embarrassing mistakes in the National Library of Canada's website, describing the "Comfort Murals," which depict some figures from Classical (and Christian) antiquity...Yikes.