The eruption of the Vesuvius in the afternoon of the 24th of August of the year 79 (such an accurate date is in dispute) destroyed the lively and jovial city of Pompeii, near Naples (Neapolis = new city) and paradoxically preserved its ruins for centuries, until the year 1748.
Learning to count was not easy
The study of the language sometimes has to face questions or issues of difficult explanation that are lost in the mists of time.
The couvade
“Couvade” is a word derived from the French “couvade”; “couver” means “incubate” “brood.” This ethnographic term designates a rite of sympathetic magic or formula for newborn recognition of newborn, practiced in some villages at the time of the birth of a son; that is a kind of simulation of birth by the father, who lies in the bed with the baby.
The drunkenness begets deformed creatures
The philosopher, politician and writer Henri-Benjamin Constant, Swiss-born French (1767-1830) wrote in 1816 a famous speech or treatise entitled ‘The Liberty of the Ancients Compared with that of the Moderns’ (1819).
Apollonius of Rhodes, Giovanni Papini, Luis Buñuel
Is it possible to establish a connection between Apollonius of Rhodes, the writer Giovanni Papini and filmmaker Buñuel? Was Buñuel inspired by Papini in a famous sequence of a famous film of his? Had Papini read Apollonius?
Lynceus eyes
“Lynx eyes” is an Spanish phrase (equivalent to “eagle eyes”) that applies to a person of view particularly acute or especially clever and insightful understanding, ie. a crafty person.
Greek masters studied with Egyptian teachers
The “classical” Greek culture is the result of plentiful and different historical influences.
Man is the measure of all things
The Greek philosophers were concerned to explain the nature of things and also tried to explain human own nature.
A body without a name (sine nomine corpus)
One of the more intensely poetic passages of the Aeneid is one in which Virgil (70-19 BC) tells us the death and the end of Priam , the aged king of Troy, in the Book II.
Spartacus: “Freedom or death”
Throughout History, the slavery of human beings by others has been an omnipresent reality. The slaves came mainly from wars, which were so usual.