Tag Archives: Ancient Sites of New York City

Ancient Sites of New York City 7: Like the last Trojans leaving Manhattan

24th April 2017Ancient Sites of New York City, Minus Plato Today, Statue of Liberty, TroyAncient Sites of New York City, Statue of Liberty, TroyMinus Plato

Yesterday we returned home to Columbus, so it seemed fitting to end this week of posts on the ancient sites of New York City (inspired by Kenneth Goldsmith’s Capital) with the following excerpt from Adam Gopnik’s Through the Children’s Gate: A Home in New York: We will somehow escape Manhattan, fleeing like the last Trojans, […]

Ancient Sites of New York City 6: Cave-shops of Brooklyn Bridge

23rd April 2017Ancient Sites of New York City, Brooklyn bridge, Minus Plato Today, Theater of MarcellusAncient Sites of New York City, Brooklyn bridge, Theater of MarcellusMinus Plato

Ancient Sites of New York City 5: The lost rooftop nymph

22nd April 2017Ancient Sites of New York City, Greek nymph, Lenin, Minus Plato Today, UncategorizedAncient Sites of New York City, Greek nymph, LeninMinus Plato

Goldsmith records the following source-less entry early in his “Antiquity”: On an Upper East Side roof top in 1956 a Greek nymph, clutching her lyre as she surveys the city, her terrace is a chapel, sacred to a Mediterranean cult of physical delectation.NJ I was unable to find an image of this rooftop numph, so […]

Ancient Sites of New York City 4: Murmurs of the Eternal City at Penn Station

21st April 2017Baths of Caracalla, Minus Plato Today, Penn Station, Tom WolfeAncient Sites of New York City, Baths of Caracalla, Penn Station, Tom WolfeMinus Plato

In his “Roman” section of “Antiquity”, Goldsmith records five entries on the grandeur of old Penn Station. (I visited the ‘new’ station this morning and there is nothing there to write home about!). One entry describes the design of the great Hall as a response to the Baths of Caracalla. Another singles out the ‘soot-stained […]

Ancient Sites of New York City 3: Minotaur on the Subway

20th April 201742nd st shuttle, Ancient Sites of New York City, Ariadne, Minotaur, Minus Plato Today, subway, Theseus42 st shuttle, Ancient Sites of New York City, Ariadne, Minotaur, subway, TheseusMinus Plato

On August 1st, 1918 the 42 st shuttle opened between Union Station and Time’s Square. IT was closed the next day due to chaos described in The New York Times as follows: One of the reasons for the confusion was that there was no way of passengers knowing which direction they needed to go out […]

Ancient Sites of New York City 2: Herodotus at the Post Office

19th April 2017Ancient Sites of New York City, Herodotus, Kenneth Goldsmith, Minus Plato Today, Post Office, UncategorizedAncient Sites of New York City, Herodotus, Kenneth Goldsmith, Post OfficeMinus Plato

The same architect firm who designed the penthouse Greek temple on Wall Street, McKim, Meade & White, also created the General Post Office on 8th Avenue. According to Meyer Berger’s New York (p. 202) it was William Mitchell Kendell, senior architect at the firm, who translated a passage from Herodotus to make the comparison between […]

Ancient Sites of New York City 1: A Greek Temple in the Sky

18th April 2017Ancient Sites of New York City, Greek temple, Kenneth Goldsmith, Minus Plato TodayAncient Sites of New York City, Greek temple, Kenneth GoldsmithMinus Plato

I am heading to New York City today and so for the next week I will be posting about how this great American city has appropriated ancient sites illustrating the entries on ‘Antiquity’ in Kenneth Goldsmith’s epic New York: Capital of the 20th Century. (Here is an earlier post on the same work) Here is […]