Peter Gainsford

kiwihellenist.blogspot.comSibyls and Sibylline oracles. 3. The <i>Sibylline oracles</i>Prophets and apocalyptic poetry: how Jewish and Christian poems came to be mistaken for the sacred books of Rome's Sibyls.

The 'Sibylline oracles' are a collection of eleven Jewish and Christian poems written over eight centuries. They cover the Creation, the Tower of Babel, Nero, and the end of the world. Part 3 of an ongoing series on Sibylline material, looking at how these poems became part of the story.

thecivilian.co.nzFears grow that human content could pose enormous threat to AI creatorsFears continue to swirl around the potential implications of so-called human-generated content (media produced by sentient beings as opposed to self-trained artificial intelligence), with many expe…

'Many experts and whistleblowers warn that by the year 2030, human activity could make up as much as 20% of all internet traffic.'

kiwihellenist.blogspot.comSibyls and Sibylline oracles. 2. The Sibylline booksProphets and apocalyptic poetry: the Sibyl's bargain with Tarquin and the surviving fragments of Rome's lost sacred books.

An ancient fable. An old woman comes to Tarquin, king of Rome, offering books for sale. He laughs at the price she asks, and she burns some of them. The story is a myth, but the books were real. Part 2 of an ongoing series: the lost Sibylline books, Roman state ritual, and the surviving fragments.

Peter Gainsford reposted

@NewsJennifer (Jennifer Schulze)

@newsjennifer.bsky.social

I think it’s fair to say that the student journalists at Cornell are braver than the news networks who just gave up on their WH pool ban even though CNN is still being denied access. www.cornellsun.com/article/2026...

cornellsun.comEDITORIAL | Cornell Won’t, We WillThe Editorial Board demands that Cornell stops protecting the alleged Chi Phi rapists through the University's opaque sexual assault policies.

Today is the day that Pliny the Elder thought was the equinox in the mid-1st century. He was wrong, of course. But nowhere near as wrong as the Cornell University leadership for brushing a rape conspiracy under the rug and shielding the rapists from consequences.

I'm starting to feel like the manuscript of pseudo-Symeon (cod. Paris. gr. 1712) is trolling me with how many ways it can spell 'Iphigeneia'.

Out of curiosity I decided to watch Troy: the Odyssey (2017). One minute into the sack of Troy and I'm laughing out loud. Troy looks a bit like the classicising architecture you'd see in central Berlin today. A head is being randomly chucked around, and no soldiers are wearing any armour.

One of Odysseus' men made the mistake of eating food provided in the Paths of the Dead and now he's being attacked by the Dragonborn from Skyrim.

I meant this literally, by the way.

Was it as good as Nolan's Odyssey? Hell no. Was it as good as the 1997 Odyssey with Armand Assante? Also no. But I find the Assante one quite tedious. This was terrible, but it was a lot more fun. Only now do I realise it was actually filmed in Thailand. That explains the casting.

Final sad note at the end of the credits: the film is dedicated to the memory of the actor who played Thelonious, Torstein Olaussen.

Oh wait now she's back again, to say one final 'you are my friend' to Odysseus. For some reason Odysseus is carrying her along the beach instead of back to his house.

Naughty naughty anachronism! Odysseus places coins on Circe's eyes at her funeral -- 500 years before the invention of coins. And that's the end.

Now that the suitors are dead, the kraken has finally awakened, to take vengeance for the ruins of Troy!

At first it was half the size of Ithaca, but now it's about the size of a van. Oh well. Circe kills it by getting eaten and cutting it open from the inside. This is naturally fatal to Circe as well, for some reason. Now she's dead.

Circe turns up in the middle of the slaughter of the suitors to save Odysseus from Antinous!

Lots of screen adaptations of the Odyssey have had an American Odysseus, but only this one has a Thai Penelope and Telemachus.

To be fair shooting an arrow through the five rings is a pretty touch task considering the holes are about half an inch wide. How are you supposed to tell whether the arrow went through, though?

Odysseus and Telemachus didn't hide the weapons in advance, which is poor planning. Antinous gets to kick Odysseus in the chest a lot, which is a huge advantage -- Odysseus can't kick him back because it'd break the plastic armour.

Odysseus announces his name to Telemachus in the street while people are walking past nearby. Even more indiscreet than in Nolan's Odyssey. There's no dog!!!

Odysseus' beggar outfit (where did he get it?) looks really out of place in the hotel foyer.

The bow contest doesn't involve iron axes: the winner has to shoot through five rings. Pity, I was looking forward to seeing which set-up they'd choose for the axes.

Odysseus and Circe have made it to Ithaca! Circe refuses to stay, though, because if she did we'd have to wonder whether Odysseus should choose Circe or Penelope. She's going to keep on sailing the sea in the wee rowboat.

There are a couple of shots with Odysseus composited in front of the Cyclops. Half of the budget must have gone on that shot. Odysseus beats him by feeding him opium instead of wine.

Odysseus has finally made it back to his little rowboat! Back to the suitors in the hotel foyer. Really blowing the budget now: this scene has seven suitors.

Penelope is announcing the bow contest to an assembled crowd of one suitor.

Odysseus' one remaining companion has a strong Irish accent. The Cyclops appears! CGI of course. The designer only has him walking in straight lines. Are curved paths too difficult in Blender?

It's ok though, Circe (who is about a quarter his size) can use a dagger to beat him and turn him to stone.

Odysseus has made it through the Paths of the Dead but still has to reach the Heart of the Mountain. Telemachus appears! He has an English accent for some reason. Also he's onscreen for only a couple of seconds before Antinous decks him in the middle of the hotel foyer.

Not sure what makes Circe tick. In terms of writing, obviously her purpose is to look good standing next to Odysseus while Penelope's not there. No idea why she's supposed to be happy to be along for the ride though.

Oh, we're 'walking the Paths of the Dead'. Apparently we're now in LotR The Return of the King.

Now we're doing ageism. Sirens as young women are alluring temptresses, but as old women they're deceitful hags. Sigh Thelonious is quite right to stay with them.

Now they've found a Bigfoot footprint next to a dirt road. Oops I mean Cyclops footprint. Remarkably well kept road considering they're in wilderness.

One of Calypso's pet warriors has now turned into Circe. Circe vs Calypso fight! Very reminiscent of Dictys of Crete.

In a dramatic turnaround, Calypso is giving Odysseus and Circe instructions on how to reach the land of the dead. This is actually one of the more successful episodes so far. I can almost believe Odysseus is sad to be leaving.

Interesting development: the Siren is Calypso. That's a reasonable way of compressing the story I guess. She's entertaining Odysseus by staging a fight between two guys who, again, are just wearing clothes made up to look a bit armour-ish. Their swords are made to look like iron, though.

She's offering him bananas too.

Unforgiveable anachronism! A Siren has provided Odysseus with green apples. But as we all know, apples didn't arrive in the Mediterranean world until after the time of Alexander.

Penelope isn't waving Laertes' funeral shroud, she's randomly stabbing it with a needle. It's roughly the size of a handkerchief.

I see Odysseus' actor moved into gay porn after this. I hope that was a choice and not a forced career move. He's really working hard at this role. Oh, one of the silent companions just spoke. It seems they can all hear each other perfectly well, in spite of having wax in their ears.

Now I'm having a hard time getting past the mock-marble staircase in Odysseus' house.

That's nice, Odysseus' fleet consists of one small rowboat with four crew. His house on Ithaca, however, appears to be a four-star hotel. Oh, Antinous is wearing armour! It's just plastic -- 3D printed, I think? -- but still. And it turns out this Trojan priestess isn't Cassandra, she's Circe.

Odysseus has an elderly companion called Thelonious. I wonder if he plays piano. Odysseus' actor is trying very hard. It's not working, but it's a noble effort. Odysseus' four companions keep putting on meaningful facial expressions in the background, but only two of them ever speak.

I can't get over the fact that all the soldiers are just wearing clothes. Scrappy torn clothes, in Odysseus' case. Except Achilles. He's always got a bare chest. Agamemnon's entry into Troy reminds me of the same scene in Nolan's Odyssey, except that here there are only about a dozen Greeks.

Oh, now Cassandra(?) has killed Achilles. She's still going on about the kraken. Yeah, not going to finish this.

It's bizarrely bad. Agamemnon's actor has no idea what to do onscreen (he was arrested two years later for running a drug lab in his kitchen). Priam has a thick Russian accent. The other Trojans don't. Cassandra(?) keeps wanting to summon the kraken. I guess she wandered in from the wrong film.

First hill walk after the equinox. Can still see snow on the mountains of the South Island. Down at street level I was concerned it was going to be super windy up here today, but it's actually pretty calm - wind speed not much over 40 km/h.