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 […]

Themistocles’ Fighting Birds: Allison Semele Blair’s “Wooden Walls/Second Ships”

12th April 2017Allison Semele Blair, birds, Herodotus, Minus Plato Today, ThemistoclesAllison Semele Blair, birds, Herodotus, ThemistoclesMinus Plato

Today I had coffee with a Graduate student in the Department of Classics at Ohio State, where I teach, and not for the first time I found myself confronted with an impressive, articulate and engaged Classicist, with a novel and timely research project, who nonetheless was seriously contemplating leaving the discipline and working outside of academia. During this conversation our discussion […]