Spencer McDaniel

@spencermcdaniel.bsky.social

2480 Followers 257 Following

Studies ancient Greek cultural and social history, BA history and classical studies @IUBloomington, MA @BrandeisCLAS, she/her.

[1.5] For in early times the Hellenes and the barbarians of the coast and islands, as communication by sea became more common, were tempted to turn pirates, under the conduct of their most powerful men; the motives being to serve their own cupidity and to support the needy. They would fall upon a town unprotected by walls, and consisting of a mere collection of villages, and would plunder it; indeed, this came to be the main source of their livelihood, no disgrace being yet attached to such an achievement, but even some glory. An illustration of this is furnished by the honour with which some of the inhabitants of the continent still regard a successful marauder, and by the question we find the old poets everywhere representing the people as asking of voyagers--"Are they pirates?"--as if those who are asked the question would have no idea of disclaiming the imputation, or their interrogators of reproaching them for it. The same rapine prevailed also by land.

[1.6] And even at the present day many of Hellas still follow the old fashion, the Ozolian Locrians for instance, the Aetolians, the Acarnanians, and that region of the continent; and the custom of carrying arms is still kept up among these continentals, from the old piratical habits. The whole of Hellas used once to carry arms, their habitations being unprotected and their communication with each other unsafe; indeed, to wear arms was as much a part of everyday life with them as with the barbarians. And the fact that the people in these parts of Hellas are still living in the old way points to a time when the same mode of life was once equally common to all. The Athenians were the first to lay aside their weapons, and to adopt an easier and more luxurious mode of life; indeed, it is only lately that their rich old men left off the luxury of wearing undergarments of linen, and fastening a knot of their hair with a tie of golden grasshoppers, a fashion which spread to their Ionian kindred and long prevailed amon…

Roman wall painting from Pompeii depicting Odysseus as a man with dark skin and curly black hair wearing a cone-shaped helmet

The casting in The Odyssey is really bad.

The ancient Greeks would never have cast a woman as Helen of Troy.

Philosophers ranked by their punk credentials

Collection of humanoid figurines from the Cult Center at Mycenae

Attic red-figure vase painting showing the Lydian king Kroisos sitting on a pyre about to be burned alive by Cyrus the Great after he went to war with the Persians and lost, destroying his whole kingdom in the process

Painting by Fra Angelico of the conversion of Saint Augustine as described in his 'Confessions'

Painting of a clean-shaved, short-haired man wearing a white tunic holding out his arms

Painting of a brown-skinned man with short, dark hair and a short, well-trimmed beard. The man is wearing a white tunic with a bluish-purple trim. He is barefoot and a pair of boots are sitting on the ground beside him.

Screenshot of a tweet by Ezra Klein linking to his own op-ed in 'The New York Times' with the headline "Charlie Kirk Was Practicing Politics the Right Way"

Photo of a monument in Liqian (formerly Zhelaizhai) with statues of a Hui Muslim woman, a Han scholar-official, and a Roman soldier

Screenshot from Dove Cameron's music video "Breakfast" of the line "I eat boys like you for breakfast" edited to say "I eat gods like you for breakfast."

Unas is he who eats people, who lives on the gods.
Unas is he who eats their magic, swallows their spirits.
Their big ones are for his morning meal;
their middle ones for his evening meal;
their little ones for his night meal;
their old ones and females for his burnt offerings.

Screenshot of text from one of Trump's executive orders, which reads: "However, previous administrations have allowed so-called “independent regulatory agencies” to operate with minimal Presidential supervision. These regulatory agencies currently exercise substantial executive authority without sufficient accountability to the President, and through him, to the American people. Moreover, these regulatory agencies have been permitted to promulgate significant regulations without review by the President."

Screenshot of a tweet by Ashley St. Clair in which she announces that she has given birth to Elon Musk's thirteenth child with the Latin phrase "Alea iacta est," meaning "The die is cast."

Roman gravestone showing two men shaking hands

Image of a scene on Trajan's column showing a man greeting the emperor with a raised palm held perpendicular, rather than horizontal

Attic red-figure kylix tondo depicting King Aigeus consulting the Pythia, who is shown seated on a tripod holding a bowl and a branch of laurel

Photograph showing the museum of Ennigaldi-Nanna amid the ruins of the ancient city of Ur with the reconstructed Great Ziggurat of Ur looming in the background

If you are tired of the drumbeat of inevitability that insists English faculty adopt AI into our teaching practices, I am here to tell you that you are allowed to object. Using an understanding of human writing as a means to allow for-profit technology companies to dismantle the imaginative practice of human writing is abhorrent and unethical. Writing faculty have both the agency and the academic freedom to examine generative AI’s dishonest training origins and conclude: There is no path to ethically teach AI skills. Not only are we allowed to say no, we ought to think deeply about the why of that no.

Painting of a man (J. J. Winckelmann) sitting at a desk wearing a robe of red silk and fur with his hand resting directly next to a drawing of a statue of Antinous, the adolescent boy lover of the Roman emperor Hadrian