Fall 2013 Season

[hanbran]

Quick poll to satisfy my curiosity:  are any of you exclusively dedicated Hellenists or Latinists?

[ciistai]

I feel like a bit of an odd one out in this thread but I'm on the archaeological side of things myself.

[hanbran]

I feel like a bit of an odd one out in this thread but I'm on the archaeological side of things myself.

Any particular region, era, or culture?

[ciistai]

Any particular region, era, or culture?

 

Mainly Lucania 4th-1st centuries BCE but more broadly I am interested in anything pre-Roman, esp. identity, state formation, urban growth/ structure. I feel like my thoughts about this are still very abstract which is causing me problems... I think my SOPs for arch programs all say something slightly different. I'm currently enrolled in a colloquium on archaic Latium so I'm starting to develop a lot of interest there... and, of course, like anyone with intrest in Italic peoples, I do have a soft spot for Samnites. But Lucania is so interesting to me because its geographical position resulted in a lot of influence from other surrounding cultures, lots of getting caught up in Roman political affairs.

 

I was actually supposed to dig in Lucania last summer, in Roccagloriosa, during the last two weeks of my field school, but they had some anomalous readings for the site where we planned to start (and leave after the first two weeks), so the Town of Cortona gave extra funding on the condition we'd stay there to work on the new area of the site for the full four weeks. Would have been nice; hoping to get more field experience during my graduate career... or if I don't get in anywhere, then before that!

 

I've also applied to some history programs but I would likely still focus heavily on regional identities in ancient Italy.

 

What about you?

Edited January 23, 2013 by ciistai

[Fockatar]

Hellenist, I can sympathise with your love of non Roman Italiotes though, one of the best courses I took was on the non Latin languages of early Italy, Oscan and Umbrian were fun to learn, it made Livy etc more interesting. A friend of my mine is writing their thesis on archaic funerary customs so I occasionally get referred to some interesting stuff.

[hanbran]

Oscan and Umbrian were fun to learn.

Any books you could recommend?

[ciistai]

Any books you could recommend?

 

I think I might have a PDF of an Oscan text on my computer somewhere if you're interested... ditto Umbrian... I can have a look, although I'd like to see what Fockatar recommends! I took out these massive books on Italic dialects from my uni library but it was at a bad time and I didn't manage to get through them.

[hanbran]

I found this online:  http://ia600304.us.archive.org/17/items/grammarofoscanum00buckuoft/grammarofoscanum00buckuoft.pdf

[videro]

I'm a Hellenist by trade, not by heart. No preference.

[hanbran]

I'm a Hellenist by trade, not by heart.

That is a statement which I have never before heard uttered by a Classicist XD!

[videro]

That is a statement which I have never before heard uttered by a Classicist XD!

 

Let's discuss what we call ourselves. In public. For instance, when someone asks you what you do, what do you tell them? I generally skip the word classicist, and say I study Greek and Latin. Sometimes, I drop the word philologist, because it seems to impress people because they have no idea what it means, or they think I'm a linguist, which is off the mark, but I wouldn't be ashamed to be a linguist.

Edited January 24, 2013 by rsmease

[hanbran]

I have the advantage of being able to say that I am (attempting to become) a historian of ancient Greece and Rome.  I sometimes say that I am a graduate student in the Department of Classics.  People rarely ask me to define "Classics," but I have done so.  In terms of research methodology, I suppose that I'm a classicist with predominantly historical interests.  

 

I used to call myself an amateur philologist (my undergraduate degree is in history), but I technically get paid to study philology now, so I have the great delight of telling people that I am a professional philologist.  I simply do not tell them how dreadfully poor I am.

[Fockatar]

Italic: Buck's book is a good start, we mainly had brand new handouts though to be fair and recourse to the typical comp phil handbooks is suggested for your sanity's sake. The trick is to take a deep breath, spend a few hours ganetting the information down and then keep reading/revising the specifics as you forget them. Its how I forced Old Persian down my throat too. Incidentally, also a great strategy for meeting one's prospective in-laws.

I just call myself a Classicist in public, a Philologist amongst other Classicists and someone who needs to be sectioned around students from other disciplines.

[hanbran]

Thanks, everyone!  Now, what about Coptic?

[videro]

When I use the term classicist, people generally assume I study The Grapes of Wrath and Oliver Twist.

 

Once, and only once, someone in my back-of-the-woods-but-famous-because-of-it's-football-team hometown thought that it meant I studied classic cars.

 

In a related field of awkward, I take public transit to the grocery store, so when I have a book with me, I often leave it at the bottom of the shopping basket while I get my groceries, and then the Trader Joe's cashier pulls it out during the bagging process, and I have to explain what the Cratylus is. That's always fun.

Edited January 24, 2013 by rsmease

[hanbran]

I was once reading Phaedo on the bus, and a man who was registering voters walked up to me, noticed that I was reading Greek, and, assuming that I could not speak English, walked by me.  He asked literally every other person on the crowded bus to register to vote.

[Fockatar]

Reading Greek, someone was exclaimed in surprise that I could read Russian.

[ciistai]

This is probably the oldest one in the book but while in Prague this past summer I told someone I study Latin and he asked if that makes it easier to travel through Latin America... and he was being sincere!!

[hanbran]

There were several students in my first year high school class who did not realize, until week three, that they were not, in fact, learning Spanish.

[videro]

 

 

[ciistai]

 

Bahahahahaha I love this.

 

Am I the only one obsessively refreshing the results page? Even though I know my decisions probably won't come for another few weeks.

[videro]

Am I the only one obsessively refreshing the results page? Even though I know my decisions probably won't come for another few weeks.

 

I wouldn't say obsessively. The way I see it, the graduate schools will get to me before the graduate students get to the results page. I'm much more nervous about my inbox. In my case, historically, two of my top choices released their decisions within the next week. I'm not sleeping well. This is that 'darkest before the dawn' period in my life. Let's just hope it's not a red dawn...

 

Theme of my weekend:

Edited January 25, 2013 by rsmease

[hanbran]

The wait is worse than the rejection.  Happy weekends to all.  Remember the words of Solon:  

 

"Μοῖρα δέ τοι θνητοῖσι κακὸν φέρει ἠδὲ καὶ ἐσθλόν,

δῶρα δ᾿ ἄφυκτα θεῶν γίγνεται ἀθανάτων."

[kaloskagathos]

Not to put you guys more on edge, but Columbia's Classical Studies program has started making interview requests.  (Based on last year's dates, I think this might be a multiple-round process?)

[hanbran]

I think that it's very common for larger departments to stagger interview requests and even offers of admission, particularly those departments which offer various funding packages.