Carthago-Delenda-Est

i've seen people saying neural net generators like dall-e and artbreeder are going to replace artists. and they might be able to produce cheaper work in certain contexts, taking away some as-yet-to-be-seen amount of jobs.

but i've seen a lot more artists using those generators themselves, then painting over the results.

like, seriously, this is one of my favorite topics. we're living in a golden age, a space age, an absolutely historically unprecedented explosion of creativity. the internet hasn't delivered every promise of its baby days when we thought we might get to live in an egalitarian utopia. the internet has turned out to be one more communication tool, and a lot of what humans communicate is dumb shit. but it gives us the ability to communicate with everyone, all the time, everywhere, and holy shit, are we making some incredible work in and around all the dumb shit.

Prayers to Venus:

Hera, Queen of the Undying whom Rhea bore, Protect us as you protect all women, as varied As the stars among your court.

Artemis, shining daughter of Leto, wielder of the golden bow Let your arrows loose to protect our girls And let the wild forests be their sanctuary.

Goddess of the battlefield, Athena, May your aegis protect us when we are vulnerable And let your spear free us when we are strong.

Lady Aphrodite, splendid among the gods, Who knows what it is to be made flesh from blood and salt and air Be an ally to your daughters in love  and loneliness.

Queenly Demeter, sustainer of mortals, Bring food to those whose mouths are empty By neglect from family, friends, and city.

Hestia, who tends the august hearth of Olympus, May those who’ve lost their sires’ warmth Find new fires among more friendly homes.

Dread Hecate, guide those lost who seek asylum At your crossroads, for who would deny us womanhood Under your threefold gaze?

they’re all following this jesus nonsense instead of the old roman religion

they only know what it’s like under the empire and not the glory of the res publica

all of them want to follow weird greek fashions like writing poetry and growing beards instead of following the mos maiorum and wearing togas

they’re all so used to this cushy “pax romana” nonsense that none of them want to conquer anything like their ancestors did, and they probably don’t even remember carthage

they have no idea what it was like living before the common era

Today is National Cookie Day in the US, so enjoy these ancient Greek coin cookies!

Roman Intaglio Ring with Head of Alexander the Great as Heracles, 2nd-Early 3rd Century AD

Engraved in this Roman intaglio is the effigy of Alexander the Great wearing a laurel wreath and portrayed as his role model, Heracles, with a lion skin tied around his neck with by its paws. Alexander saw himself as the son of Zeus or Heracles (Hercules), who was famously known for his strength and the twelve labors, often depicted in Western art. Here Alexander wears the hide of the Nemean lion, the vicious monster slain by Heracles. The image probably signified bravery and strength to the wearer.

Ancient Iranian Windmills at Risk of Falling into Disrepair

In the village of Nashtifan in northeastern Iran, Mohammad Etebari serves as the last keeper of an ancient tradition. Now elderly, Etebari has dedicated his life to keeping the town’s few dozen historic windmills turning.

Made of natural clay, straw, and wood, the windmills have been milling grain for flour for an estimated 1,000 years. The vertical axis design is probably similar to the windmills that were invented by the Persians around 500 C.E.—a design that slowly spread through the world and which was later adapted by the Dutch and others. Each of the windmills of Nashtifan is comprised of eight chambers, with each chamber housing six blades. As the area’s strong, steady wind enters the chambers it turns the blades, which then turn grindstones. The structures reach up to about 65 feet in height.

‘Crassus gets given command of Syria and high fives everyone in the senate.’

‘Catullus was very pithy, very hellenistic in style. unlike the Iliad, which is 24 books of tedium.’

‘An Afternoon at Carrhae: the Romans being shot at repeatedly by Parthian cavalry because if there’s one thing the Romans aren’t good at, it’s having a cavalry.’

‘It’s good to have fast legs in war. Caesar moves very fast, not unlike Napoleon. The Usain Bolt of ancient warfare. I’m not sure why I said that, it’s an atrocious analogy.’

‘Athens is the Edinburgh of the ancient world; it has nothing to offer but education and pretty buildings.’

‘Shout out to those of you who spent your teenage years playing Rome: Total War.Which is what I did.’ 

‘The senate go into a panic and they decide to flee Rome at dawn, but some idiot forgets the treasury. I know. Ridiculous.’

‘Again: don’t use elephants during warfare. They’re not as cool as they look. And given they’re now endangered, it’d just be mean.’ 

‘I had to use this meme, I’m sorry. You’re all aware of the one does not simply walk into mordor meme right? I’m sorry, we’ll move on.’

‘I put this photo in for dramatic effect but I realise that it’s just a field. I don’t know why people bother going to see battle sites, they’re all really boring. I saw bones once, they were quite interesting. But most battle sites: boring.’

‘Caesar doesn’t tell Rome anything while he’s away in Egypt for a year, so they have no idea Pompey’s dead. All they know is that Antony is being a pain in the ass, which is, in all honesty, not unusual for Antony.’

“Paper towns” of the Roman Empire. The caption of each image has a link to its source, which is the subreddit /r/papertowns. They are constantly sharing more awesome illustrated maps of cities, and not just Roman ones.

I love how these paper towns really give you a flavor for ancient urban life. I can imagine myself walking through the streets, attending plays at the amphitheater, congregating the forum to hear a speech, or boarding a ship in the harbor and sailing off to the next city. Also, these should be great references for whenever I find the time to run a Greco-Roman D&D campaign.

For quick reference, the cities here are (in order):

Constantinople (duh)

Vindobala (fort on Hadrian’s Wall)

Pompeii (RIP)

Tarraco (modern Tarragona)

Tergeste (modern Trieste)

Augusta Raurica (modern Basel)

Aquae Sulis (modern Bath)

Segedunum (fort on Hadrian’s Wall)

Barcino (modern Barcelona)

@jstor just sealed itself in my heart as the coolest resource ever by combining my two greatest loves - Digital Humanities and Shakespeare - to create an AMAZING site called Understanding Shakespeare.

It works like this (hold on to your seats, this is so cool):

Say you reach a line in a Shakespeare play where there’s a reference or symbol you don’t understand and/or would like to know more about. Usually, it would take a substantial amount of time to figure out the meaning, find the key theme, search through research databases, and maybe hit something that references your line.

But no longer!

Because with Understanding Shakespeare, you can go to the line and look at all the scholarship published on JSTOR that features or references to it! Oh my god!!!

An example:

So I really love Richard II’s “graves, worms, and epitaphs” speech, it’s one of my very favorites, and I’d love to learn more about it and the symbols of death and historical references contained within it. So I go to the line in Richard II:

Click on the first line and voila! There’s a ton of articles that quote this line, and several of them look really interesting and relevant!