“Ekphrasis” o “ephrasis” is a Greek word ἔκφρασις (ek and phrasis, ‘out’ and ‘to talk’), (from the verb ἐκφράζο, ekphraso, from ek, out, and phraso, to explain with signs and words) that therefore means “exhibition in detail, explanation, description from outside or from the beginning or till the end,” to make intelligible, discover, uncover, …. It is a vivid description placing the object or event before the eyes.
Mundus (World) / cosmos: the creation of a new scientific language in Latin
The legendary and mythical foundation of Rome is dated 753 BC; then the Greeks recited the two great epics of the West, the Iliad and the Odyssey. One hundred and fifty years after the death of Alexander the Romans conquered Greece and declared it a Roman province, although a hundred years earlier they had already made contact with the Greeks of Sicily, the Magna Graecia, the Great Greece. Among the cultural contributions of Greece to the Romans highlights the Filososfía. But Latin lacks sufficient scientific terminology.
The appeal of historic places
Why are we excited by the places where lived the great men, great artists?
Summum ius, summa iniuria. Rigorous law is often rigorous injustice
The meaning of this Latin phrase, which has become a proverb, is warning of how an application of the law strictly to the letter can become a huge injustice.
“Violet-haired, pure, honey-smiling Sappho
Sappho was the first major poet of the West and one of the creators of the lyrical, personal and intimate poetry.
Animals should not be treated badly
Respect for animals and nature in general is a very modern concern. There are numerous ancient texts that involve explicit reflection on the need to respect the “environment”, among other reasons because the ability to destroy or modify was much lower and this probably makes unnecessary that reflection.
The Death of Socrates: his last day.
One day in 399 B.C. at dusk after sunset, Socrates, the wisest and best of men, hurried the glass of hemlock (a well common plant in our geographical area) that will produce death, in the presence of his close friends who desolate attend the moral fortitude with which he faces the judgment. Socrates was 70 or 71 years old. An unjust sentence, following the infamous complaints of three opportunist, envious and resentful citizens with their teacher, made in a favorable overall environment for it, killed the teacher and gave him everlasting fame that in no way could suspect his contemporaries.
Why Socrates was condemned to death?
The question has often been raised. Plato in his “Apology” or “Defense of Socrates” and in some dialogues and Xenophon in his “Defence of Socrates,” give us enough information about how the negative environment was generated to condemn the most wise and just man by the the apparently inconsistent reporting of three mediocre and envious fellow.
And it is precisely this failure and injustice that keeps alive the interest in understanding the contradiction that the first democracy in history condemned unjustly the most wise and just man who courageously accept the death penalty.
Now, as a general rule it can not be interpreted past with social values of the moment.
Quinquennial, decimal, duodecimal, vigesimal, sexagesimal
Samuel Noah Kramer (1897-1990) published his work “The story begins in Sumer”, worldwide famous, in 1956. Certainly, many things started before, but the first written records are found in Sumer and so that’s where we first talk about “History”.
A tunnel in Babylon under the River Euphrates
Babylon, even phonetics of the name, has a great capacity for suggestions, even now, the area stricken by war and ongoing violence. So it must also occur in antiquity.