Classics in Contemporary Culture

The Diogenes Diet

Would include the following theoretical elements:

One day, seeing a child drinking out of his hands, Diogenes cast away the cup from his wallet with the words, 'A child has surpassed me in plain living.'  He also threw away his bowl when, on a similar occasion, he saw a child, who had broken his plate, scoop up his lentils with a rolled-up morsel of bread...

Moreover, according to right reason, as he put it, all elements are contained in all things and pervade everything.  Thus meat is a constituent of bread, and bread of vegetables. [Diog. Laert., tr. Caponigri]

Unfortunately, the EU-sponsored Diogenes Project is named after DIet, Obesity, and GENES. Sigh. There ought to be a law!

Nature vs. (Viti)culture

Ok, one more brand name...even though the primary reference is Mesopotamian rather than Greco-Roman, although one of the wines is designated "Odyssey Vineyard":

Enkidu Wine LLC!!  And in case you thought they just liked the sound of it, here's part of the explanation:

Enkidu’s character was not perfect, nor is wine. But as with Enkidu himself, we look inside and adhere to beliefs that will guide our efforts. We strive to make handcrafted wines of unique character that are the result of passion, art and intelligence, mixed with hard work and a degree of luck. Whereas many producers’ names may not hold a large relevance to the wines they produce, the Enkidu mythological figure is the driving force and guide of our wine production.

And (file under:  "Oh no they didn't!") one of the wines is Shamhat Rosé...Come on now, humbaba.clanlord.net, digg.com user Huwawa, and Polish (?) site Bilgames, you're all going to have to try a little harder now!  Ok, ok, I see that Humbaba the Clanlord did name his child Gilgamesh, so that's a start...

Aw...the founder's dog is named Enkidu too...

Water on the Brain

You've heard of the "Fountain of Youth"?  Well, now there's Aqua Gilgamesh (TM)--or was:  gosh, with a name like that, I can't imagine why it seems to have already disappeared...Darn water-snake, I expect.  Don't think that...er...plain Aqua Bottled Water will have the same effect...More classically still (not without what I'll call "typos"),  the Bottled Water Web's logo has a "Latin" motto:  Puritas - Qualis - Consistere...

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!

Bacchus on the High Seas

A new cruise ship, the Carnival Miracle, has a classically-themed dining room, called the "Bacchus Restaurant"; the restaurant annex is the "Ariadne." Think of the myth, think of what happens on cruise ships...