Matthew Scarborough 𓀀
@mattitiahu.bsky.social
Philologist and historical linguist. Formerly UCPH, MPI-SHH, and Cambridge. Mostly Ancient Greek, comparative Indo-European, and nonsense. (ⲛ̄ⲧⲟϥ/ⲛ̄ⲧⲟⲟⲩ) https://orcid.org/0009-0001-1782-5223 https://brill.com/display/title/57781 https://iecor.clld.org/
Stumbling through head-over-heels through the Albanian internet trying to figure out whether some Greco-Albanian periodicals published in 19th century Alexandria have ever been digitised while still not *really* knowing how to read this stuff has been one way to spend my evening, I guess.
Greek verbs always have nice surprises: (ὀρύσσω, deep into the entry) "of a wrestler, dig into, gouge a tender part, τὠφθαλμώ Ar. Av. 442, cf. Pax 899, Philostr. VA 8.25; gouge out, ὀφθαλμὸν ὤρυττέν τις ὥσπερ ἰχθύος Antiph. 119." ==> Ready for anything the day may bring. 😎
I wrote a Lycophron joke but nobody knew what it meant.
Magistra Cohen (she/her)@magistracohen.bsky.social · 3w agoI wrote a Polyphemus joke but nobody laughed.
So weird being an out of work Hellenist watching all of this.
Mateusz Fafinski@calthalas.bsky.social · last wk.Half the planet is having a massive fight about how to correctly interpret an Ancient Greek poem but go ahead, close some more humanities departments.
Half the planet is having a massive fight about how to correctly interpret an Ancient Greek poem but go ahead, close some more humanities departments.
The Odyssey is myth. It can take a beating. Unlike your 300s or Gladiators or Bravehearts or the like, "historical accuracy" is not a relevant parameter here. "Doing interesting things with the text" is.
Doing an inventory of my CDs that have been sealed away in storage boxes since I moved to Britain in 2011 and EYYY I was wondering where those ended up.
Currently picturing all the long-time John Milton stans quietly fuming that they can't reach this level of cultural saturation for their poet.
188 μήδεα δ᾽ ὡς τὸ πρῶτον ἀποτμήξας ἀδάμαντι /mɛ́ːde̞a d ʰɔːs tò̞ prɔ̂ːto̞n apo̞tmɛ́ːksaːs adámanti/ And when at first having cut off the genitals with the adamant | – ⏑ ⏑ | – – | – ⏑ ⏑ | – – | – ⏑ ⏑ | – ⏑ |
187 Νύμφας θ᾽ ἃς Μελίας καλέουσ᾽ ἐπ᾽ ἀπείρονα γαῖαν. /númpʰaːs tʰ ʰàːs me̞líaːs kaléɔːs e̞p apéːro̞na gaîan/ And the Nymphs whom they call the Melians on the boundless earth | – – | – ⏑ ⏑ | – ⏑ ⏑ | – ⏑ ⏑ | – ⏑ ⏑ | – – |
Me: I wonder what Holger Pedersen was up to just before he went to Korfu to do fieldwork on Albanian... Ah yes, he's casually writing to Karl Verner about how he's just formulated what's nowadays called the RUKI rule in Slavic.
A është ky djathë? Jo ky nuk është djathë, ky është një gur. "Is this cheese? No this is not cheese, this is a stone." (Albanian, Camaj 1984: 12)
Someone who recently followed me but has disabled quote posts recently posted this KotH dub into Tocharian and I don't know what to do with this knowledge.
King of the Hill in Tocharian (Fandub)
YouTube video by Anson
youtube.com
Just going to say here, I think I've said this before, a 'historically accurate' version of the Odyssey is not possible because the Odyssey does not take place in a historical setting - it takes place in a fantastical pastiche of four centuries, mixed in with gods and monsters.
Watcher Guru@watcher.guru · 2w agoJUST IN: Elon Musk says Grok will make a "full-length movie" of The Odyssey that is "historically accurate" by the end of this year.
Look I'm glad Homerists are having fun with it, but I'm disappointed that Indo-Europeanists didn't get nearly as much attention when the Fassbender-Robot got his head torn off while reconstructing some PIE sentences to communicate with some rather aggressive aliens in Prometheus (2012).
the most realistic scene in Jurassic Park is when two scientists make a questionable decision — traveling to an undisclosed location with a strange man — on the promise of three years of modest funding
Local plumbers two steps ahead of every university administrator in america 👏
Metin Seven (Moon Child's dad 🌝)@seven.eurosky.social · 2w ago
a) that's modern greek; and b) yes.
InfoWars@realinfowars.bsky.social · 3w agoIt all goes back to the Greeks.
"you'll never be bored again...E V E R !" feels pretty ominous in hindsight.
WebDesignMuseum@webdesignmuseum.org · 3w agoOn July 15, 2006, the full version of Twitter was introduced publicly. #InternetHistory
Carney calling Lindsey Graham a defender of democracy and freedom when the man made jokes on his official X account about taking over Canada is just the last straw of many last straws for me.
For me the real intergenerational trauma I experience might be that I fear I won't be able to pass down my skills to the next generation because of how international university systems have decided to simply jettison entire disciplines of knowledge for being unprofitable.
