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hawkwing_lbBooks 2010: 56
non-fiction
56. Valerie M. Hope, Eireann Marshall, Death and Disease in the Ancient City, London and New York, 2000.
A series of essays on responses to death and disease in ancient Greece and Rome. The first half of the volume concerns primarily Greek matters, the latter half Roman: but it's a short volume, less than two hundred pages.
I wasn't especially impressed with the Greek papers, but they provided information which was largely, if not stunningly new to me: I knew a little about the Greek concern with pollution but not in detail, nor the way in which concerns for pollution can be put aside for high-status dead, such as heroes. And the chapter comparing the description of plague in Thucydides to the plague in Homer was illuminating.
The Roman papers, on the other hand, were quite fascinating. They focussed on death rather than disease, and the essays by Patterson and Bodel in particular concentrated on the experience of the lower classes; unclaimed bodies, public graves, mass graves, the status of funerary workers and executioners - really, truly, honestly fascinating. Bodel's essay, "Dealing With the Dead: Undertakers, Executioners, and Potter's Fields in Ancient Rome" is a tidy, well-researched little piece of social history which I especially recommend.
BMCR review here, for anyone who wants more in-depth analysis.
(I may, in fact, be in love with the BMCR. They are most marvellously useful.)
In other news, apparently not taking my fish-oil pills turns me crazy. This is good to know, if a rather belated realisation: I could've done without the week of bad brain chemistry. But, having taken my fish pills, I managed to get me to the gym and actually exercise for the first time since I buggered up my shoulder. 22 minutes for 2 miles: not bad, but still not a marathon.
I'm also reading Aristophanes. You know something? People really haven't changed. Politicians, especially. Also the electorate.
non-fiction
56. Valerie M. Hope, Eireann Marshall, Death and Disease in the Ancient City, London and New York, 2000.
A series of essays on responses to death and disease in ancient Greece and Rome. The first half of the volume concerns primarily Greek matters, the latter half Roman: but it's a short volume, less than two hundred pages.
I wasn't especially impressed with the Greek papers, but they provided information which was largely, if not stunningly new to me: I knew a little about the Greek concern with pollution but not in detail, nor the way in which concerns for pollution can be put aside for high-status dead, such as heroes. And the chapter comparing the description of plague in Thucydides to the plague in Homer was illuminating.
The Roman papers, on the other hand, were quite fascinating. They focussed on death rather than disease, and the essays by Patterson and Bodel in particular concentrated on the experience of the lower classes; unclaimed bodies, public graves, mass graves, the status of funerary workers and executioners - really, truly, honestly fascinating. Bodel's essay, "Dealing With the Dead: Undertakers, Executioners, and Potter's Fields in Ancient Rome" is a tidy, well-researched little piece of social history which I especially recommend.
BMCR review here, for anyone who wants more in-depth analysis.
(I may, in fact, be in love with the BMCR. They are most marvellously useful.)
In other news, apparently not taking my fish-oil pills turns me crazy. This is good to know, if a rather belated realisation: I could've done without the week of bad brain chemistry. But, having taken my fish pills, I managed to get me to the gym and actually exercise for the first time since I buggered up my shoulder. 22 minutes for 2 miles: not bad, but still not a marathon.
I'm also reading Aristophanes. You know something? People really haven't changed. Politicians, especially. Also the electorate.
