"If someone resists what is clearly true..."

I had a long discussion with someone yesterday, and despite having objective examples, research to back up my claim, and other people agreeing with me, the other party refused, or was simply unable, to change their opinion. The discussion went on for over an hour, and then I decided to end it in in kindness before I would get upset. A Hellenic friend, who had taken part in the linked me to Epictetus to calm me. It worked, so I'd like to share the text with you. If you ever find yourself in a discussion with someone that you seem unable to convince despite knowing you are in the right, step back and remember Epictetus.

“Epictetus said that if someone resists what is clearly true, then it is not easy to devise an argument to persuade him to change his mind. This is due neither to the man’s strength or the teacher’s weakness, but instead because once someone has been assailed and hardens to stone, how could anyone prevail upon him with reason?

Men are hardened to reason in two ways: one is the petrification of thought; the other comes from shame, whenever someone is deployed in battle to such a degree that he will not acknowledge what is obvious or depart from his fellow combatants. Most of us fear the necrosis of our bodies and we will do anything to avoid having this happen in anyway; but we don’t think at all about the mortification of our mind. By Zeus, if a man is disposed in such a way concerning the mind itself that he can’t follow any argument or understand anything, we believe that he is ill. But if shame or self-regard hardens a man, we still persist in calling this strength!”

[The Discourses - 1.5]

Translation by Sententiae Antiquae.

• Sunday, January 14, 2018
  ancient Hellenic culture Epictetus personal

Paula Artal-Isbrand on master vases of ancient Hellas

While browsing YouTube for new content yesterday, I came across this video, featuring Objects Conservator at the Worcester Art Museum, Paula Artal-Isbrand. She delivers a talk about ancient vase creation, and it contained quiet a few details I did not know about. I figured you'd like to watch it too.

 

This Master Series lecture focuses on three exquisite ceramic vases made in Athens over 2,500 years ago. Each vase has a unique shape and is representative of one of three major Attic painting techniques. Paula Artal-Isbrand, discusses how these masterpieces were shaped, decorated and then fired using an ingenious and mysterious method that potters were not able to replicate until recently. She also shares highlights of discoveries made during the lengthy conservation campaign, including finding a secret inner vessel within one of them. Amanda Reiterman, an archaeologist, brings these rich depictions to life and explains the function and relevance of these finely made objects in the context of the thriving metropolis of Athens.

• Saturday, January 13, 2018
  ancient Hellenic culture archeology current affairs

Greece seeks Parthenon sculpture from German museum

Sorry, sorry, I knew I said no more news, but the whole "Parthenon Marbles" discussion is my catnip! Greek Reporter reports that Greece has taken action to reclaim a Parthenon sculpture from a German museum.

An international group advocating the return of marble sculptures taken from Greece’s historic Parthenon temple has been actively seeking the repatriation.Greece’s government is now officially asking a German museum for the return of a head sculpture which once graced the Athens Parthenon. The sculpture, a centaur’s head which was located in the metope of Parthenon, has been an exhibit at the Martin Von Wagner museum in the University of Wurzburg for the past 160 years. It is 2,400 years old and was part of the Parthenon metope piece which has been in the British Museum in London for the past 200 years.

The piece came into Martin Von Wagner’s possession in the early 19th century from a private Italian art collection. The German painter, sculptor and art collector had no idea that the sculpture was part of the Parthenon when he acquired it.

The Greek government is now officially asking for its return but University of Wurzburg archaeology professor and museum director Jochen Griesbach refuses to comply with the request. Griesbach claims the museum has been receiving letters from a Swiss committee for the reunification of the Parthenon sculptures for years, but he also refuses the requests.

“We receive letters regularly from Switzerland, but the answer is always the same: Unfortunately we cannot return the object.”

The main argument for the German university refusing any such request, is that the sculpture was a donation by Wagner who, in an 1858 manuscript, had implicitly stipulated that it is not to be sold, transported or donated.

• Friday, January 12, 2018
  archeology current affairs modern Greece

Etruscan settlement found in Sardinia for first time

Sorry, two news items in a row, I'm swamped. An Etruscan settlement that dates back to the 9th century BC has been found on the Sardinian coasts near Olbia. The presence emerged during a review of the findings of recent years by the archaeological superintendency for the Sassari and Nuoro provinces.

The area of the settlement - according to a statement issued by the superintendency - is on the Tavolara isle, a position that enabled a certain degree of caution in contact with coastal inhabitants and those further inland.

Archaeologists note that other settlements might be found in the Gallura area, on the opposite shore from Etruria. Etruria's cities such as Populonia, Vetulonia, Vulci and Tarquinia sprung up during the era in question, the first phase of the Age of Iron. The Monte Prama statues in Sardinia also date back to those times. Archaeologist Francesco di Gennaro said:

''The exchanges between 'nuraghic' Sardinia and the cultural aspect of the first Age of Iron of Ertruria, known as 'villanoviano' are well known and have been studied in depth. However, the presence of a community coming from the Etruscan shore that settled in Sardinia and prospered had not previously been found. It is an absolute first and constitutes a leap forward in the reconstruction of relations between the two shores of the Tyrrhenian in protohistory.''

Helping to shed light on the dynamism and the sailing habits of those living in Etruria in the first Age of Iron (9th-8th century BC) is the presence of a coastal line of inhabitants in northern Lazio and Tuscany with clear similarities with the settlement discovered in Tavolara.

The results of the excavations will be published by Superintendent Francesco di Gennaro with zone chief Rubens D'Oriano and Paola Mancini, who led the excavations in 2011 and 2013, after the finding of shards by Giuseppe Pisanu.

• Thursday, January 11, 2018
  ancient Hellenic culture archeology current affairs Italy

US billionaire caught with stolen Hellenic antiquities

According to US media, police discovered stolen Hellenic antiquities after raiding the home of billionaire Michael Steinhardt in New York.

Several of the artifacts seized from the home of Michael H. Steinhardt as part of an investigation
by the Manhattan district attorney’s office. The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office has been in contact with Greece’s Ministry of Culture over the incident. The Ministry’s general secretary Maria Andreadi-Vlazaki told the Athens-Macedonian News Agency stated:

“The Ministry of Culture and Sports is in contact with the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office and we are waiting for the official briefing so that we can see which objects we will request to be returned. For the lekythos, the necessary procedures were imitated since last month.” 

According to prosecutors Steinhardt had in his possession ancient artworks that prosecutors say were looted from Greece and Italy. Among them is a Greek white-ground attic lekythos – or oil vessel – from the fifth century BC, depicting a funeral scene with the figures of a woman and a youth, and Proto-Corinthian figures from the seventh century BC, depicting an owl and a duck.

• Wednesday, January 10, 2018
  archeology current affairs

The philosophy of cold

I don't know how things are in your neck of the woods, but it's cold here. It finally feels like winter has arrived. I read some Plutarch today, as a little pick-me-up. He was a Hellenic historian, biographer, and essayist, who later in his life became a Roman citizen and he wrote a lot about a lot of things. Of course, he also wrote about cold, in his "Moralia." Well, about the philosophy behind cold.

"Is there, then, Favorinus, an active principle or substance of Cold (as fire is of Heat) through the presence of which and through participation in which everything else becomes cold? Or is coldness rather a negation of warmth, as they say darkness is of light and rest of motion? 

Cold, indeed, seems to have the quality of being stationary, as heat has that of motion; while the cooling off of hot things is not caused by the presence of any force, but merely by the displacement of heat, for it can be seen to depart completely at the same time as the remainder cools off. 

[...] It is the nature of coldness, however, to produce affects and alterations in bodies that it enters no less than those caused by heat. Many objects can be frozen solid, or become condensed or made viscous, by cold. Moreover, the property whereby coldness promotes rest and resists most is not inert,

but acts by pressure and resistance, being constrictive and preservative because of its strength. This explains how, though negation is a disappearance and departure of the contrary force, many things may yet become cold while all the time containing within themselves considerable warmth.

[...] Furthermore, we find that cold can be perceived as well as heat; but mere negation cannot be seen or heard or touched or recognized by the other senses. [...] If, therefore, cold were a privation of warmth, we ought not to be able to feel it, but only to infer it from the deficiency in warmth; but if cold is perceived by the contraction and condensation of our flesh (just as heat is by the warming and loosening of it), clearly there is some special first principle and source of coldness, just as there is of heat.

[...] Is cold, then, so like this sort of privation that it produces no effects that differ? Or is the contrary true: Do not great and useful pleasures accrue to our bodies from the presence of cold, as well as mighty detriments and pains and depressions, before which the heat does not always depart and quit the field? Often, rather, though cut off within, it makes a stand and gives battle. This struggle of hot and cold is called shivering or shaking; and if heat is overcome, freezing and torpor set in; but if cold is defeated, there is diffused through the body a relaxed and pleasantly warm sensation which Homer calls "to be aglow." Surely these facts are obvious to everyone; and it is chiefly by these effects that cold is shown to be in opposition to heat, not as a negation or privation, but as one substance or one state13 to another: it is not a mere destruction or abolition of heat, but a positive substance or force. Otherwise we might just as well exclude winter from the list of seasons or the northerly blasts from that of winds, on the pretext that they are only a deficiency of hot weather or southerly gales and have no proper origin of their own."

• Tuesday, January 9, 2018
  ancient Hellenic culture current affairs personal Plutarch

A digital introduction to Hellenic heritage by Athens University

It’s no secret that the internet is changing the way we travel. So much so that international online travel platforms are racing to meet the demands of tomorrow’s travelers as they search for their next destination. Providing reliable information has always been key, but, increasingly, an appealing presentation seems to be the secret to capturing people’s attention. Music, online tours, panoramic images, videos and interviews allow the user to digitally experience a destination before they travel.
For these online platforms to survive, they need to offer something special, which is exactly the case with the interactive website YouGoCulture. Created by Athens University, YouGoCulture provides a digital introduction to Greek culture and heritage.

The site is designed for international visitors to Greece and is entirely in English. It has been operational for almost a year, currently offering nine digital destinations: Mystras, Lavrio-Sounio, Elefsina, Marathon, Mycenae, Ancient Olympia, Messene, Epidaurus and Athens. Five more are set to be added in the near future (Limnos, Delos, Knossos and Delphi), while another 16 are in the pipeline.

The project has the support of Athens University Rector Thanos Dimopoulos and is funded by the institution’s Supplementary e-Learning program, through which many of its entries are evaluated. Kathimerini asked the man in charge of yougoculture.com, Panagiotis Petrakis, a professor of economics at the university, how the website came about.

"We had the idea in 2016, when we started using online education programs from around the world, in English. We realized the programs with the highest demand were those that showcased Greek civilization, which inspired us to develop a side project with which we would explore how to familiarize foreign visitors with Greek culture. We should add that among the destinations under development are Syracuse in Sicily, Odessa in Ukraine and Alexandria in Egypt, as YouGoCulture is interested in covering the full breadth of Greek civilization, traveling to places of interest around the world where the Greeks put down roots and left their mark. It is for this reason that we are reaching out to people of Greek heritage abroad, as we are doing with the local communities of proposed locations within Greece, looking for collective support."

The website’s advantage over the competition is the guaranteed reliability it has as a project by the university, as well as its pleasing presentation and interesting features. The team leading the project, among whom are professors of classical archaeology Vassilis Lambrinoudakis and Petros Themelis, and theater studies professor Platon Mavromoustakos, makes sure the project only works with reliable partners.

It should be pointed out that all the content used by YouGoCulture is original, created for the website. This includes the texts, images, 360-degree panoramas and the many videos by director Elpida Skoufalou. The videos are beautifully composed, while taking great care as to the way both monuments and people are depicted. With short interviews, YouGoCulture also shows aspects of modern life in the destinations proposed. The site features music composed by Elias Pierrakos and includes an interactive map with which to navigate the various locations.

YouGoCulture is nonprofit, fully funded by the university and donations raised via a crowdfunding campaign. It is also supported by Act4Greece, a National Bank of Greece initiative aimed at promoting social and developmental banking which coordinates with a number of institutions, such as the Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation, the John S. Latsis Public Benefit Foundation, the Bodossaki Foundation, the Hellenic National Commission for UNESCO, and the Hellenic Network for Corporate Social Responsibility.

"The traffic our website is getting is remarkable, especially considering that our advertising campaign to date has depended only on word of mouth and people sharing on social media. YouGoCulture has become well known because people want to talk about it and share it with their friends, and I think that shows how successful it is. We know the project resonates with people because our funding is increasing thanks to donations through the Act4Greece program, which most Greeks don’t even know about. It is an activity that contributes to the university’s efforts to address the community, the ultimate critic, judging whether it has a positive, negative or neutral impact. Reaching as many people as possible has to be the university’s main goal, not just to ensure continued funding, but also to adapt to the modern culture landscape."

• Monday, January 8, 2018
  ancient Hellenic culture archeology current affairs modern Greece