Umbrellas in Antiquity

As I was translating over the weekend, I encountered this little bit about Anaxagoras (forgive me for not being able to do accents and iota-subscripts - I haven't figured out how yet):

καιτοι τισ ουκ οιδε τον Αναξαγοραν Ολυμπιασι μεν, οποτε ηκιστα υε, παρελθοντα υπο κωδιω (should be an iota-subscript there)ες το σταδιον επι προρρησει ομβρου.

Which is something along the lines of:

And further, who does not know that Anaxagoras at Olympia, when the least rains fell, came under a sheepskin into the stadium/race course...

For one, I know that I didn't translate the μεν because it corresponds with a τε later on, but I don't feel like translating everything here because it doesn't really have to do with my question.

My question is: Were sheepskins used as ancient umbrellas, or is Philostratus trying to make Anaxagoras look ridiculous here? Does anyone even know about umbrellas in antiquity? To be sure there has to be some unfortunate Ph.D student writing their dissertation on accessories in the ancient world.

The Pope's Cologne

Although this has already been pointed out on other blogs, the comments on this blog are hilarious. Can Bibliobloggers come up with better captions?

"Frankensensantional" is easily my favorite thus far.

Who you gonna call?

Archimedes and Ευρηκα

In his Learn to Read New Testament Greek David Alan Black tells the story of the Greek philosopher Archimedes and his discovery of the law of buoyancy while taking a bath. Dr. Black says, "...he is reported to have scampered (without his clothes) through the streets of Athens shouting, ευρηκα, ευρηκα, 'I have found it, I have found it!' What Archimedes apparently meant by the use of ευρηκα (the perfect of ευρισκω) was that his discovery had become part of his intellectual awareness. If, on the other hand, he had found a drachma on the street and then lost it before he got home, he probably would've used the aorist ευρον, "I found it," which says nothing about the existing state of affairs."

Hurtado's Lord Jesus Christ

Now that I'm back at school I have a bit more free time to get some reading done. One thing I had not yet read and knew I needed to is Larry Hurtado's Lord Jesus Christ: Devotion to Jesus in Earliest Christianity. I had read his The Earliest Christian Artifacts awhile ago and really enjoyed his style, so I knew I'd like this one.

I've just read through the first chapter and there are some interesting points. For one, his emphasis on liturgical practice as a lense through which we can see the theology/ies of the christian community is really convincing. I think (and this may be departing from Hurtado) that the NT documents are primarily focused on orthopraxy, particularly within the setting of liturgy, more than theological orthodoxy. Now, this is not imposing an either or - obviously the NT is concerned with both, but I think the NT has put the accent on the liturigcal syllable more than its concern with doing theology (particularly concerning Christology). Some things that have led me to this have been Scott Hahn's book, The Lamb's Supper which is a wonderful little gem, and taking the class on Hebrews with Fr. James Swetnam, SJ. At any rate, I think Hurtado's emphasis on looking at the historic practices will help us to discern their underlying theologies. Even if they aren't articulated with the precise theological language of later eras, the theology within the liturgy is of utmost importance in understanding the earliest christian communities.

This is probably totally obvious to everyone (or totally bogus) - either way, I felt like this was a cap on an "aha" moment.

SBL Boston - wicked awesome

It is official - I've booked my flight, registered for the conference, and have even found lodging (I'll be staying with Douglas Mangum of Biblia Hebraica fame). I'm extremely excited as this will be my first SBL. I'm trying to figure out which papers I want to go see, what pubs I want to go drink at afterwards, etc. I'm definitely going to visit the Cathedral while there (it's only about a mile away from the hotel).

Oh Classical Greek, why do you hurt so good?

At East Carolina I'm taking a class on Classical Greek and basically our whole class is translating Philostratus' Life of Apollonius of Tyana. If you're unfamiliar, Apollonius was a charismatic miracle-worker from the first century CE who lived in Cappadocia. Philostratus wrote his biography of Apollonius in the early/mid 3rd century. I believe this is the largest surviving biography from antiquity.


What am I learning? That Classical Greek writers anticipated students later translating their works and figured they'd use the most obscure forms of nouns that they could dig up. I'm sure of it. On top of that, they use the wildest verbs I've ever seen. I've been reassured by my professor that the first part of any text from antiquity is always the most difficult to read. Lets hope chapter 2 proves to be easier.