So, you want to know what happens in the Odyssey, but don't have 13 hours and 32 minutes to listen to the Audiobook version of Emily Wilson's translation? Then allow me to give you the tl;dr version.

Latin is known for its difficult grammar and for its verb conjugations, but what exactly is a conjugation? Here's a list of useful grammatical terms. If you want to start learning Latin, you may find it useful to learn these or at least write them down. This isn't a complete list, and I'll be adding more to it as I come across more terms in my Latin learning. Adjective - An adjective is a word that describes a noun. "big" "quick" Comparative - The form an adjective takes whe

Ethnie (pl. ethnien) is a neologism (a new word) which has come into use in academia. I came across it while studying Classical Greece. It is borrowed from the French word 'ethnie', which means 'ethnic group', and I believe it is pronounced 'et-ni' (I have just started learning the IPA, so be gentle). Anthony D. Smith proposed six criteria for defining an ethnie, which are: A proper name Myths of ancestry held in common Shared memories Cultural distinctiveness A link with a h

Good day, Nooklings, it's your friendly neighbourhood classicist here to join the discourse about the Odyssey because apparently that is what we are all doing now.

A few months ago, a friend and I went hunting for benchmarks. Thankfully, we weren't going in blind; there are maps online. We used https://www.bench-marks.org.uk/maps/lr54 A benchmark is a small chiselled mark used by surveyors. An angle rod would be placed into the mark, creating a stable position for a levelling rod. Carving these symbols into masonry meant the rod could always be positioned in exactly the same place. You can usually spot them in older buildings and walls.

Renku is a form of collective Japanese poetry, an artistic collaboration. I believe Renku translates into English as 'linked-verse' and in its most basic form, that is exactly what a Renku is. Individual verses written by different poets that are linked in some way. Renku and its predecessor, renga, have a long history, stretching back almost a thousand years, all the way to the folk hero Yamato Takeru, and are also the origin of haiku. I had originally planned to cover both

A commonplace book is a type of journal where you gather quotes, interesting facts, poems, recipes, sketches, passing thoughts, the kind of things you want to hold onto. Think of it as an external hard drive for your brain.

It was purely by accident that I decided to go to the Design and Disability exhibition at the V&A on the first day of Disability Pride Month, but also rather fitting. For those who are unaware, my list of medical issues is about as long as my arm, but the ones that impact my life the most on a daily basis are my visual impairment and the chronic pain and fatigue caused by fibromyalgia. I very much enjoy seeing some disabled representation, so of course I was going to check ou

Construction began on HMS Dreadnought in October 1905, and she was completed on the 10th of February 1906. She was the sixth Royal Navy vessel to bear the name, but this time, the name would redefine naval power. Entire classes of ships are now remembered as pre-Dreadnought battleships, divided by the line she drew. I could sit here and list her armaments, but that’s not really what we do at the History Nook. Suffice it to say: she had a lot of big guns, with the emphasis fir

This post was inspired by a conversation I had with my partner. We were chatting about the mythological beings that the planets and their moons are named after. I mentioned that I thought it was funny that NASA sent a probe called Juno to Jupiter. NASA sent the wife to check on the husband, and I think that is hilarious, Mercury and Venus have no moons (that we know of). Mercury is named after the Roman god of communication, travel, and trickery, and the Roman counterpart to

I like musicals, and I like roleplaying games, so when I learned about Stray Gods, I got very excited. Then I learnt that it was inspired by Greek mythology, and my heart sank a little. Usually, media inspired by a mythology fails to hit the mark. This can be due to several factors: different interpretations of the source material, adapting the stories to make them more accessible to a modern audience, a lack of deeper research - you get my drift. I am well aware that I can b

Good afternoon. Nooklings, You probably know by now that I love a good etymology, and so when I found a free copy of The Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue by Francis Grose, I could not refuse. I found myself giggling so much that I wanted to share some of my favourite words with you. I've rewritten and expanded some of the definitions to suit the modern day, but don't worry, I'll provide the original definition in brackets. I didn't include anything too vulgar in here, but I ma

The concept of the Four Humors dates back to ancient Greece and Rome, with some evidence that it may be older than that.

This photo shows a replica of a Roman Dodecahedron. These are objects that have 12 sides of equal size, like a 12 sided die. At each corner there is a small ball. Each side has a hole in the middle and each hole differs in size. It is unknown what these objects were used form though there are many theories ranging from calendars, to games, to knitting tools.