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Iphigenia and Her Parents

Really happy I got this done I loved sticking to the pottery and bronze colour tones. I originally wanted to copy Nolan's cold sea-vibe colours but felt this warmth was worth it in the end.

Was heavily inspired by Ezio Anichini's lithograph work for this as well as greek pottery :).

These texts contain, sexism, racism, classism, etc, and engaging with them from a metatextual standpoint that focuses in on the understanding and deconstruction of those facets of these texts is important, and a valuable way to interact with them. But wanting to engage with a different literary lens outside of that one does not mean that you are suddenly a horrible person who condones the sexism, racism, classism etc that is present in these texts. Oftentimes you just simply cannot use two different literary lenses at the same time, as they - while both valid reads of the text - can also (and often do) directly contradict each other.

I'll use Polyphemus from the Odyssey as an example. You can look at the encounter from a more metatextual standpoint, one that examines xenophobia and the concept of the monstrous other. In this reading, Polyphemus is presented as a man from a different culture than Odysseus and his crew. He does not abide by the laws of xenia, as they are not his laws. The text does not provide comment on this, but rather more passively sides with the opinion of Odysseus, who demands Polyphemus to abide by the laws of xenia, and then goes on to present Polyphemus as a cannibal, conflating the idea of not participating in xenia, a specific practice of cultural hospitality, with monstrous acts. The text, as such, presents the unexamined idea of the fear of the unknown, placing Polyphemus in the wrong for not abiding by a culture that is not his. I like this reading, it is an interesting way of engaging with the text, that examines biases present in the poem. But it is not the sole reading, nor should it be.

Another reading of Polyphemus could position him as a man that is a part of the (loose and broad) culture that Odysseus and crew are apart of, with him and the other Cyclopes being individuals who tired to remove themselves from said culture, placing them instead as people adverse to community. Polyphemus most of all, who separated himself even further by also distancing himself physically from his fellow Cyclopes, creating a character that becomes the antithesis to xenia, a man who - instead of feeding his guests - eats them for his own meal. He becomes metaphorical -a physical manifestation of what such blatant disrespect for xenia looks like - and how it can be taken to the logical extreme. It can also function as a taste of what Odysseus has waiting for him when he finally returns home - a group of men cannibalizing his home and goods, refusing to give back what they take. Yes, we the audience already know this, so it acts as a reminder for us, provides parallels between the monstrosity of the suitors and Polyphemus. For while the suitors are not as blatant in their disrespect of the gods and of xenia, it is still there, they are still, in a way, monstrous. This is another interesting read of Polyphemus, and again one that I like, that pulls on different threads present in the text. But again, this is not the sole reading, nor should it be.

These are readings that cannot be done at the same time. You would have to pick one or the other to truly break down and examine, due to the contradictory nature of them. And wanting to focus on what Polyphemus' portrayal says about xenia, about the suitors, etc, does not mean that you condone the idea of trying to force a different culture on a foreign group of people in what could be described as proto-colonialist. Nor does wanting to engage with how Polyphemus is presented as the monstrous other who shows the biases of the text and its fear of the unknown negate the role he plays in the thematic through-line of xenia. Both of these readings are simultaneously valid interpretations while also being (in many ways) contradictory of each other. And that is the beauty of lit analysis. There is no one "correct" answer to it. Sure their are definitely incorrect ones, but there is no singular, definite read of the text.

Being able to engage with texts that go against your morals, and being able to hold both the metatextual lens that deconstructs the ideas that go against said morals in tandem with multiple other lens, even when (especially when) they contradict is an important skill to have. The more lens you can view a text through, the better you will understand it. And this of course does not mean that you can't have preferences for particular readings, or even disagree with certain readings (god knows I do). But acting like someone else is somehow morally Bad or Wrong for choosing to engage with a reading that you personally disagree with goes nowhere and achieves nothing.

I've been meaning to make a new pinned post for this blog with a few resources etc. for a million years and now I'm procrastinating so here it is.

Link to old pinned post (articles about racism and white supremacy in classics) here. I highly recommend checking it out.

Under the cut you will find a list of resources that I have found invaluable. Please put your own in the replies and reblogs!

ancient greek texts/linguistics:

the lexicon of greek personal names: ongoing project dedicated to documenting every single person/name found in ancient greek epigraphy/papyri/etc. the search function's pretty good, and i think its invaluable for anyone trying to figure out the popularity of a name in certain regions.

perseus also has a word frequency search so you can figure out how often a word is being used in a particular text/what the most frequent words are.

ToposText: invaluable resource for both ancient greek texts & ancient greek sites. designed as an online collection of ancient greek texts specifically for mobile devices, which is awesome because many databases are formatted specifically for viewing on a computer.

bronze age databases:

eDiAna: digital philological-etymological dictionary for luwian, carian and sidetic (useful for anyone interested in anatolian languages)

AdW & Universität Würzburg's hittitology portal: contains links to texts, ongoing projects, bibliographies, photos, etc. great starting point for anyone interested in studying the hittites. there is also the hittite monuments project, which has a non-exhaustive database of major hittite rock reliefs & other monuments.

LiBER Linear B Database: database containing thousands of published linear b tablets, with transcriptions of the symbols + images. i also recommend using linearb.xyz, mostly because i prefer the search function button over LiBER. DĀMOS (Database of Mycenaean at Oslo) is another good option.

for those interested in linear a (or an exercise in futility): i recommend lineara.xyz (the linear a equivalent of linearb.xyz) and john younger's Linear A Texts and Inscriptions site which is only accessible via the waybackmachine for reasons i cannot understand. if i were the university of kansas this would be a massive flex, but whatever

amarna texts: online corpus on the amarna texts (correspondence between egypt and other bronze age mediterranean states), along with transliterations.

ETCSLcorpus: catalogue containing a bunch of cunieform compositions and accompanying translations (i am not very familiar with ancient mesopotamian databases, so anyone who actually does research in this area please feel free to add more).

mnamon also has a guide to electronic resources for ancient mediterranean writing systems, which i recommend as a good starting point in general.

iron age greek archaeology & archaeological publications:

CVAOnline: other people have mentioned this in the notes, but i think it's also important to note that the cva doesn't just include the pottery but also the museum's publication of it (including plates, which have the measurements & some related information). this has been a MASSIVE help for my dissertation and i highly recommend it if you want to research ancient greek vessels. the search function is a bit of a pain (believe me) (i have 20 tabs open but it now riots when i try and view a different taf) but it is so worth it.

older archaeological publications: have you ever thought "oh boy! i really want to see 19th century archaeological records from athens!"? well lucky for you, the archaeological society has several archives digitized on their website. they are only available on the greek version of the site and (obviously) all the texts are in greek, but that hasn't stopped me nor should it stop you. another useful source for older publications (that i only discovered recently) is HathiTrust's Digital Library, which contains a bunch of old publications now in the public domain (such as the annali dell'instituto di corrispondenza archeologica, which i'm currently using for my dissertation).

Mapping Ancient Athens: a map of modern athens showing ancient landmarks and excavation sites (including bibliographies for their excavations). great if you're trying to research ancient athens & athenian daily life.

arachne: search engine run by the german archaeological institute in athens; i used it for research over the summer and found it immensely helpful.

orbis: people have mentioned this elsewhere in the reblogs so i'm including it here as well - useful if you want to learn more about ancient transportation/communication times (specifically rome).