/m/ - media

Yes, I had latin mandatory in my high school and I loved it so much that I went on various competitions. During that time I had read so many excerpts from books but sadly after high school my habit of reading in latin dropped because of other obligations.
I've read Meditations by Marcus Aurelius albeit he wrote it in koine greek originally. And also De Bello Gallico because I was obsessed with Julius Caesar.
I really thought of getting back to reading latin works but I hardly find time anymore.
I also wanted to learn ancient greek but unlike latin, it seems to be a lot harder to do as a self study.

>>105142
Anyone read The Monk? It’s awesome.idk if it counts as ancient literature. Was published in 1796.

>>105152
are you american

>>105152
> ancient literature
> 1796
I’m just gonna pretend I didn’t see that

>>105151
I've been doing bits of ancient Greek on my own in quarantine (never studied it before but have done Latin) and I think it's doable if you're consistent, the grammar is very similar to Latin with a few additions (aorist, middle voice) so not super confusing. I've been reading and annotating little passages of the Odyssey now I've gone through a beginner textbook and it's pretty fun, although vocab is still a struggle.
When I was studying Latin my favourite author was Ovid, I love his creativity and his parodies of other genres! Also have been reading some Tang/Song poetry (I can read Mandarin to an ok standard and didn't find it a massive leap) and have been really enjoying it, especially Bai Juyi and the female poet Li Qingzhao. It's nice to find something beautiful from a period without much Western literary output.

>>105161
That's impressive! How much time did it take you to learn Mandarin?
And thanks, I think I might give ancient greek another try because there are so many works that were written in it and I know I'm missing a lot by not reading them in the original.

Why not general ancient thread instead narrowing it down to literature? We could also discuss art, architecture, new archeological discoveries and how dumb Commodus was.

Okay so this might be off topic but there was a Tumblr blog about aincent Rome I used to read about 2 years ago, it was run by a woman, I remember it was really fun to read but I can't seem to remember the name of the blog

Could anyone help locating it ?

i've wanted to start learning latin. any suggestions? i've heard aboout the lingua latina books being a good starting point but they're kinda pricey where i live and i don't have that kinda money atm. any good free resources i can use in the meantime?

>>105187
Lingua Latina per se illustrata is really a top notch resource and it would be a shame if you missed out on it.
Here's a link to libgen.is where you can find the books and download them for free:
https://libgen.is/search.php?req=lingua+latina+per+se+illustrata&lg_topic=libgen&open=0&view=simple&res=25&phrase=1&column=def

>>105189
this is awesome, thank you so much anon!

>>105161
Thanks anon! I've been doing Mandarin for about 4 years now but only made massive progress this past year due to taking uni classes
>>105177
Could it have been thoodleoo by any chance?

>>105167
I love memes like this

>>105199
You're welcome, anon.
Bonam fortunam!

>>105189
I agree with this.

I am getting my PhD in ancient languages (please don't needle me about jobs right now thx), and I'd love to discuss or help people with things here.

I know Greek, Latin, Old English, Old French, and Middle High German.

I'd like to learn Hebrew next, and eventually Coptic.

>>106318
I'm extremely jealous of you anon, ancient lanugages and linguistics in general are pretty much my favorite subjects. never pursued ancient languages because I don't know how, I'd have to move because none of the universities around me do that, so I opted for a computer science degree (which I'm only now just starting). can I ask what country you're in? I want to know what university you're going to but I don't know if that would be too much information to give away.

>also some of my fav old languages are old english and welsh

>>106327
coming back to this super late
I'm in Germany

>>106327
not sure if I'll cop a ban for bumping this but shortly after posting here I got really sick. I'd like to keep talking if anyone wants to.

I didn't study all my ancient languages in Germany but most of them are available here. I think it's better to do Old English and Welsh in the UK (ideally). There are good places to study Old English in Scandinavia, the US, and Canada as well, but Welsh - you need the immersion of Wales if you want to speak it.

>>106327
and yeah, it's my third post but oh well

Because of Covid there are a lot of "new" ancient language programs online. If you're interested in one specific language or skill (like reading handwriting in an ancient language), post and I'll try to help you find something good for self study. I can't lie, some of the people posting ancient history or language content suck - they either get stuff wrong or put little thought into the way they are presenting the material to people. (It's not cute to be using clip art powerpoints on youtube. it's not cute to be holding up posterboard with your shitty handwriting on it. Take a few hours and put together a decent video, it's not that hard.)

>>146657
>>146658
>>146659
thanks. I forgot about this thread until you bumped it, lol, but I appreciate you replying to me. I mostly want to study old english, but the languages before that like proto-indo-european, there seem to be very little sources on it though.

idk why but I find ancient explanations of difference races to be funny in a way like

>Without these, what chance would the inconsiderable numbers of the Roman armies have had against the multitudes of the Gauls? Or with what success would their small size have been opposed to the prodigious stature of the Germans? The Spaniard celts surpassed us not only in numbers, but in physical strength. We were inferior to the Africans in wealth and unequal to them in deception and stratagem. And the Greeks, indisputably, were far superior to us in skill in arts and all kinds of knowledge.
- Vegetius Book I

>Those who live in a cold climate and in Europe are full of spirit, but lacking in intelligence and complex skill; and therefore they retain comparative freedom, but have no political organisation, and are incapable of ruling over others. Whereas the natives of Asia are intelligent and inventive, but they are wanting in spirit, and therefore they are always in a state of subjection and slavery. But the Hellenic race, which is situated between them, is likewise intermediate in character, being high-spirited and also Intelligent.
- Aristotle Politics Book VII

>>146709
Aristotle is such a troll kek

>>146709
The Chinese accounts were even funnier in just how comically racist they were, take this one describing central Asian Iranians

>They are the tallest among the barbarians in the western region. These barbarians of today who have blue-green eyes and red beards, whose appearance is like that of the rhesus monkey
-The Account of Dynasties by Han Shu

>>146709
>>146710
>But the Hellenic race, which is situated between them, is likewise intermediate in character, being high-spirited and also Intelligent.

It's just the same old tale of oh look those other people are soooo dumb but in MY area everyone is perfect!

The Islamic categorization of race before the Ottomans was Interesting, it lumped all white and brown people as being sons of Shem, black people, dark skinned Indians and South East Asians were lumped as sons of Ham and all steppe people and Asian looking were categorized as being sons of japheth

From the "The History" by al-Tabarl
>Noah begat three,each one of whom begat three:Shem ham and japheth,
>Sham begat the Arabs, persians and Greeks, in all of whom is good
>japheth begat the Turks, Slavs, Huns, Gog and Magog, in none of whole their is good
>Ham begat the Copts, Sudanese and Abyssinians

>Ham begat all those who black of skin and curly haired
>japheth begat all those who are full-face with small eyes
>and shem begat everyone who is masculine of face and with beautiful hair

Can we use this thread to rant about dumb Classical literature takes?

I'm a life long Greekaboo, so naturally I've always loved Homer's epics. I'd been seeing people frantically praise The Song of Achilles novel for some time, saying how well written and historically accurate it is, so I gave it a shot, expecting a historical novel-style retelling of the Trojan War focusing on Patroclus and Achille's relationship. Instead I got a fanfic tier, wish fulfilling, anachronistic coming out story that reads like the Iliad word by word, but rewritten by (and for) someone who only has a very surface level knowledge of the Classics and Ancient Greek culture.
I had to close the book and laugh out loud when Achilles takes Briseis with him to save her from the evil rapists Greek soldiers, but otherwise absolutely respected her as a person and woman because he's gay with Patroclus, holy kek.
I had to share this with someone, I know I shouldn't be so mad about this book but I am

>>162950
yeah that part was so unbelievable to me even as a 16 year old when i first read it. despite not having read the iliad i knew enough about ancient greece in general to know the author probably sanitized that aspect of the story to make sure the reader still sympathized with patroclus and achilles, because if she did the more accurate thing which would be to have them use the women as sex slaves whilst still being with each other that would ruin the ship lol. all i can say is there’s going to be some disappointed teens and young adults if they ever venture to read other versions of this story. also i’m certain it was this book that prompted girls who identify as gay men to start calling themselves achillean which is cringe

>>162984
>all i can say is there’s going to be some disappointed teens and young adults if they ever venture to read other versions of this story.
What pisses me off is that a lot of people won't be bothered to read other versions while still calling themselves Classical nerds.
In the last decade or so Greek culture has been making a comeback through to stuff like TSOA, Percy Jackson and the Hades game, and I see a LOT of people online saying they're big on Classical culture, while spewing the same two or three memes taken straight from Hellenistic Teens on twitter.
I'm not even gatekeeping, I think it's perfectly fine for people to use mainstream media as a diving board to get into Greek culture, but at least if you're going to say you're really into that stuff, actually read something related to the culture instead of limiting yourself to derivative works specifically made to resonate with modern audiences. If you aren't gonna look at ancient cultures and take them for what they are, misogyny, homophobia and whatnot included, just say you like the Greek aesthetic or something, idk. Reminds me of those people who only browse through r/HistoryMemes then act like they're history pros, or weebs who say they're experts in Japanese culture because they watch a lot of anime.
Sageing for barely OT rant, lel