Farewell to Io Saturnalia! I hope your feasts, ceremonial unbindings, and sigillaria-giving went well.
While your chestnuts are roasting and the jingle bells are still rocking, here are a few happenings in the Classics world to distract you from the lovely chaos that is the Holiday season.
The first trailer for Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey dropped this week. Cue helmet debate.
On the subject of movies, Turner Classic Movies educated me this week on the origins of “Baby, It’s Cold Outside”. Originally written by a couple to alert their party guests that it was time to leave, the song was sold to MGM for the 1949 movie Neptune’s Daughter. While I haven’t watched the movie yet, I am sure Odysseus could tell you that anything relating to the sea god has a certain amount of . . . shenanigans . . . attached to it.
The Colosseum metro station in Rome has been expanded and now includes exhibits of relics uncovered during the reconstruction. Now that is certainly a way to promote the use of public transportation.
On the island of Hispaniola, situated nicely atop Poseidon’s domain, bee nests were discovered for the first time inside fossilized bone cavities. Previous evidence of bees using bones for their nests showed bees drilling into bones, not taking advantage of pre-existing nooks and crannies in the bones. A late Saturnalia/Kronia gift to Aristotle, Vergil, Pliny and many other bee-obsessed ancient authors.
For your afternoon reading time, turn your eyes (and ears) to Bhion Achimba’s Winter With Ovid – a reimagining of Ovid’s banishment, in which the poet seeks political asylum in the US from Romania.
In Piedmont, California, 5th graders will be receiving 60 minutes of weekly Latin instruction in the coming school year in a push to bring foreign language to elementary schools. Read more about the reasons why Latin was chosen here. Like bees, Latin is making its home in all the nooks and crannies it can find.
In proximum annum, sodales, from the MCA.