Literature Archives - Page 6 of 6 - Tales of Times Forgotten

Misunderstood Ancient Quotes

Modern people are obsessed with ancient quotes. People assume that, if an ancient philosopher said something, it must automatically have some sort of profound meaning or significance. This is part of the reason why there are so many quotations floating around on the internet that have been misattributed to famous people from ancient times. (I have written an article debunking a few of the more popular misattributed ancient quotes, but there are many others that I haven’t covered.)

Unfortunately, even many of the quotes people use today that genuinely come from ancient authors have been greatly misinterpreted or taken out of context. A few of the most popular misinterpreted ancient quotes include “Know yourself,” “Love conquers all,” “I fear the Danaans, even bearing gifts,” and “the face that launched a thousand ships.”

Fascinating Ancient Artifacts

It is true that very little has survived from our classical past, but sometimes the objects that have survived can amaze us. When we see ancient artifacts in museums, we often like to imagine that they might have been touched by someone truly famous, but, with a few rare objects, we know that they were.

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How the Ancients Greeted Each Other

In modern films and television shows, people from the ancient world are commonly shown greeting each other with a rather peculiar handshake in which, instead of merely clasping hands, each person grasps the other’s forearm. Films and television shows tend to most frequently associate this gesture with Roman men, but it has been portrayed in other contexts as well.

Many people will be disappointed to learn that the forearm handshake is not shown in any extant work of ancient art, nor is it ever referred to in any surviving work of ancient literature. We have no evidence that anyone ever used this handshake in antiquity and it appears to be purely a modern invention. This, however, raises a very interesting question: How did ancient people really greet each other?

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The World’s Oldest Surviving Joke Book

We are all familiar with joke books in some form or another, but did you know that the oldest surviving one was written around 1,600 years ago? It is called Philogelos (Φιλόγελως; Philógelōs), which means “The Laughter-Lover” in Ancient Greek. It was probably written in the late fourth or early fifth century AD and contains 265 jokes written in a crude dialect of Ancient Greek.

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Debunking Common Myths and Misconceptions about William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare is a legend in our culture. His plays are more often performed than those of any other playwright and his works have become defining hallmarks of English literature. Most students were required to read at least a few of them in high school and many of us lovers of literature have gone on to read many more of them. Shakespeare has a pop culture presence unlike that of any other writer; his image is instantly recognizable and he continues to appear in books, films, television, and even modern theatrical productions. Unfortunately, many of the things we think we “know” about William Shakespeare are wrong.

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The Origins of the Zombie Legend

Since today is Halloween, we will probably be seeing lots of small children dressed as zombies wandering out and about later tonight. You may be surprised to learn, however, that zombie legends are nearly as ancient as writing itself and the earliest references to them come from some of the oldest literature known to man. Continue reading “The Origins of the Zombie Legend”

The Most Depressing Book Ever Written: Death by Starvation by Hegesias of Kyrene

When they hear the words “most depressing book ever written,” most people probably think of a novel by Fyodor Dostoevsky or Émile Zola. While works by these writers are well-known for being depressing, just wait until you hear about a book written by the early third-century BC Greek Cyrenaic philosopher Hegesias of Kyrene. The book was called Death by Starvation or The Death-Persuader. According to the Roman orator Cicero (lived 106 – 43 BC), the entire book was essentially an argument for why everyone should just give up on life and kill themselves.

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Caesar’s Real Last Words

On 15 March 44 BC, an event happened that changed history forever: a group of over thirty conspirators led by Gaius Cassius Longinus, Marcus Junius Brutus the Younger, and Decimus Junius Brutus Albinus assassinated the Roman politician and general Gaius Julius Caesar in the Theater of Pompey. It is an assassination that has gone down as one of the most famous in history. The assassination of Julius Caesar has been the subject of countless plays, books, films, television shows, and even video games.

Partially reinforced by these takes on Caesar’s assassination in popular culture, many people mistakenly believe that Julius Caesar’s last words were, “Et tu, Brute?” which means, “And you, Brutus?” in Latin—allegedly an expression of shock and horror at Marcus Junius Brutus’s betrayal. In reality, however, the historical Julius Caesar never uttered these words; no one knows what Caesar’s real last words were, but ancient writers attribute a number of different phrases to him in the moments leading up to his death.

Hades: Not Such a Bad Guy After All

There is an interesting trope common in films based on Greek mythology in which Hades, the ruler of the Underworld, always seems to be the villain. It is a trope seen in films such as Walt Disney Pictures’ Hercules (1997), Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (2010), and Wrath of the Titans (2012). It seems that every movie that includes Hades always seems to uniformly portray him as a maniacal, conniving scoundrel, constantly seeking to overthrow Zeus and claim supreme power for himself. The problem with this picture is that it really does not come from the myths themselves.

In ancient times, the Greeks did not think of Hades as being evil. He was neither regarded as some sinister, fast-talking, flamy-haired cartoon villain, nor a fifteen-foot winged fire demon. They did not consider him decidedly malevolent, but rather merely reclusive, coldhearted, and somewhat aloof to the misery of the people residing in his kingdom.

The Fascinating Evolution of the Word Silly

Some words seem to almost insinuate their meanings just by the very way they sound. I have always felt the word silly is one such word. There is something that seems almost inherently silly about the sound “illy” in English. Perhaps I only feel this way because I have heard comic expressions containing this sound, such as “silly billy” and “willy-nilly,” too many times. In any case, the word silly has quite an unusual and fascinating history. Indeed, of all the words in the English language, the word silly is perhaps the word with the strangest, most convoluted history of meanings.