#Simonides of Ceos

[arctic-hands]

i really don't want to try and translate into English a German translation of Latin even if I still do somewhat remember how to read auf Deutsch, but that's all my libraries have in the way of modern translations of Rhetorica ad Herennium. Archive has a scanned copy of an English translation, but it's from the fifties and still credits Cicero as the author and I'm not sure if a more recent translation would be more accurate. All other free english translations I could find are all of the same source too. Do translators get to keep copyright? One would expect that after two thousand years and no identifiable author that Rhetorica would be in public domain

[very-grownup]

Book 53, 2023

Like every standard issue child, I went through a phase from ages 9 to 14 where I was obsessed with Greek mythology, the Trojan War, and Alexander the Great. When I reached higher education, though, I didn't study any history, and my dead language and oral tradition storytelling went Anglo Saxon and Nordic.

So I own a number of Mary Renault novels, although I've only started to dip into them because you may have seen my bookshelves, but I hardly have the knowledge of the language or history to know much, if anything, beyond what she presents in "The Praise Singer", her historical fiction novel about Simonides, a real 5th Century BC Greek lyric poet. But it's a well-written novel of biographic episodes that doesn't handhold you through the history or culture but also doesn't feel obtuse. I think if you read enough older fiction, especially that written by authors with a background in academia, you can develop the skill of surfing along with the narrative, letting context fill in gaps of your knowledge and knowing that if it's important it will be elaborated on in a way that you'll come to understand.

I recognize that this may seem hypocritical after the paragraphs I spent recently trying to express myself about Alexandra Rowland's "A Taste of Gold and Iron" but I think it's disingenuous to pretend all novels are interchangeable in terms of what's expected from the author and what the reader brings to the table. A romantic fantasy from the 2020s is not making the same choices as a work of historical fiction from the 1960s.

Mary Renault was known for her Greek historical novels for a reason; they're just damn solid.

This one also lead to me seeing this Artemis "hung all over with breasts" from Kyuuyaku Megami Tensei and now you're also seeing it. You're welcome.

[valentina-lauricella]

Per i morti alle Termopili

Di quelli che giacquero alle Termopili gloriosa e bella è la sorte: la loro tomba è un'ara, una memoria degli avi; la loro morte è un elogio. Una tale iscrizione né il muschio, né il tempo distruttore mai la cancellerà: è l'epitaffio de' bravi. Quel sepolcro racchiude la gloria degli abitanti della Grecia.   Testimone Leonida, il re di Sparta, che ha lasciato un grande monumento di virtù, una gloria eterna.

(Simonide)

[Non mi è mai importato nulla delle battaglie né sono mai stata sensibile al cosiddetto valor militare; ma sempre mi è piaciuta questa poesia (forse, un frammento?), perché, essendo sensibili alla poesia, si palpita, attraverso di essa, anche per ciò su cui, nella prosa della realtà, non si poserebbe lo sguardo.]

[deathlessathanasia]

„The idea of Ares as a boorish young warrior, his violent simplicity contrasting with the crafty skill and cunning of Hephaestus (or Odysseus), which is central to the way in which the Song of Ares and Aphrodite is woven into the framework of the Odyssey as a whole, contrasts strikingly with an epithet given to Ares by Simonides, a poet from Iulis on Ceos active in the final quarter of the sixth century, and the first half of the fifth,498 as quoted by a scholiast on Apollonius Rhodius.499 In Simonides poem, Eros, Love, is addressed as the “cruel child of guileful Aphrodite, whom she bore to trick-devising Ares.” Ares, undone by a δόλον, a trick, in the Odyssey,500 is here described as δολομηχάνῳ.501 The erotic context suggests that this may be a direct reference to the story of Ares’ affair with Aphrodite, and the ‘trick’ of the adulterous seduction itself. Similarly, when Ares is said to have seduced Astyoche in the Iliad, we learn that he did so λάθρῃ, ‘in secret’, acting stealthily rather than taking the woman by force.502 In the Odyssey itself, Ares, although tricked, himself acts stealthily, approaching Aphrodite in secret with gifts. The adjective used by Simonides further undermines the idea that Ares was conceived of purely as a crude, savage god, and with it the idea that he represented personality to whom tactics and strategy, subtlety and deceit, were altogether alien. This further undercuts the long-established dichotomy between Ares and Athena.503”

- War and the Warrior: Functions of Ares in Literature and Cult by Alexander T. Millington

[deducter]

Mind palace

Here is the post I promised (which is one of the most requested ones): 'mind palace' also known as 'the method of loci'

I'm going to write a brief history and then jump to the most important parts, which are not monotonous and are actually useful.

This memory method originated in ancient Greek. According to the available data, (a Greek poet) Simonides of Ceos invented a way to remember information (where each person was, etc) after attending a fatal banquet. Simonides stepped outside the banquet (hall), then it collapsed behind him.

Okay, boring, I know. It's time for the actual part of the post: how to do it!

This is the most brilliant part, so keep reading.

Step one: pick a mind palace:

So the first thing you have to do is picking a place as your mind palace, it can also be an unrealistic place, but you have to be able to visualise that place perfectly (note: it doesn't need to be a gigantic place, you can start with a small room). If you are new to this method, and you don't have good visualising skills, pick a real place that you are familiar with; like your own room, house, etc. In the future, you may also have more than one mind palace like me; to use them for different proposes.

Step two: Visualise and enter the mind palace:

Walk, I repeat, walk in the place, get familiar with it, do NOT jump from a room to another. You must have a proper walking pattern in the mind palace. Note: it takes 5–6 times for the average human brain to remember every detail/ pattern of the mind palace correctly, so repeat.

Step three: Pick the storage spots:

For remembering stuff, pick spots in the mind palace that are not similar to each other (if you pick a sofa, don't pick another sofa). You are going to store information in these spots (stations).

Step four: Draw a simplified map of your mind palace: this is obvious, so I'm not going to say anything about it.

Step five: Pin every station for yourself:

We want the memory stations to be better defined, so it's better to pin them. What does it mean? By using the size, colour, smell, and other characteristics of the mental stations, to make them different and special, by doing this, when you connect certain information to that place, a greater connection is created between them.

Now, I'm going to answer the questions you asked before that are related to this topic:

Q: can you please tell me how is it done?

A: I already answered that in this post.

Q: how long have you been doing this?

A: More than 5 years.

Q: How do you visualise everything perfectly? I know you and in maths classes you could visualise everything like a piece of cake! It's so hard for me to do it...

A: hyperphantasia.

Q: do you visit your mind palace often?

A: More than 29 times in a day.

That's all for now.

-ND

[bizarrequazar]

Fragment 542, Simonides of Ceos, translation by Adam Beresford

wenzhou + literary quotes (10/∞)

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

“When you go home Tell them of us, and say For your tomorrow, We gave our today.”

― Patrick O'Donnell, 'Into the Rising Sun: In Their Own Words, World War II’s Pacific Veterans Reveal the Heart of Combat'

+

This verse (The Kohima Epitaph) is engraved on the Memorial of the 2nd British Division in the cemetery of Kohima (North-East India). The verse is attributed to John Maxwell Edmonds (1875-1958), and is thought to have been inspired by the epitaph written by Simonides of Ceos to honour the Greeks who fell at the Battle of Thermopylae in 480BC. (Source: British Legion)

[thequietabsolute]

According to Cicero, this technique was invented by a Greek, Simonides of Ceos, who had just left a dinner party full of important men when the roof fell in and killed everyone. When he was asked who was there he managed to identify all the dead by remembering where they had sat at the dinner table. In the Rhetorica it's called by the same name, the memory palace. You build a building in your head, you learn your way around it, and then you start attaching memories to its various features, its furniture, its decorations, whatever you choose. If you attach a memory to a particular location you can remember an enormous amount by walking around the place in your head.

— Salman Rushdie, The Enchantress of Florence [2008.]

[thegianpieromennitipolis]

SENSI DELL’ARTE - di Gianpiero Menniti 

L'ATTENZIONE

"Ut pictura poesis", da Simonide di Ceo, attraverso Plutarco, giace quest'espressione antica di duemilacinquecento anni: 

«La pittura è una poesia muta e la poesia una pittura parlante».

Concetto contestato nel XVIII secolo dall'illuminista Gotthold Ephraim Lessing. Ma si sa: l'esigenza del sapere scientifico, talvolta, pecca in oziosità, nel tentativo d'imbrigliare il vento. Nei ritratti la pittura racconta la forza poetica della pulsione: la parola manca, presenta la sua inopia, si ritira dietro la luce. Così, ad apparire è uno sguardo. Come il "primo" sguardo che si è posato su di noi, inatteso e sorprendente. Ritorna. E ci smarrisce nella fragilità lasciata in ombra. Scava. E ci precipita nell'abisso senza grida. Inermi, ecco la verità: l'emozione di essere veduti, riguardati, fatti oggetto di attenzione esclusiva. La poesia si fa immagine. Di tutte le parole. Mai ascoltate. Mai pronunciate.  Eppure, sempre sentite nel palpito caotico dei sensi. La certezza di esistere.

Édouard Manet (1832 - 1883): "Berthe Morisot con un mazzo di viole", 1872, Musée d'Orsay, Parigi Amedeo Modigliani (1884 - 1920): "Ritratto di Jeanne Hébuterne", 1917, collezione privata (Giappone)

[tysiaradz]

Cavafy presentation notes

Notes:

Cavafy was the youngest of 9 in an influential greek family of aristocratic Constantinople descent. At 7, his family lost their fortune. 

Has a job as a clerk but due to anxiety always tries to uphold social dignity - leads to a sense of hopelessness 

His return to Alexandria resulted in him feeling like a distanced observer in his environment

He died of through cancer at the age of 70 in 1933

Alexandria was one of the 4 most important centres of hellenism (+Constantinople, athens, smyrna)

Alexandria was very diverse in their population having had many foreigners living there, most notably the greeks who, out of 435 000 habitants altogether, there were 30 000

The greeks of Alexandria had a very evolved community consisting of greek churches, schools, shops, etc making Cavafy think of himself as part of the diaspora while not being drawn to the mainland

Though Cavafy was drawn to “bigger” cities such as London, he grew fond of the cultural hub that was Alexandria, thinking of it as home

Cavafy was fascinated by the hellenistic culture in Alexandria and the cultural and racial fusion that was highly celebrated in the city (especially the Arab ang greek cultures intertwined)

parallels to our own modern society: imperial systems, globalisation, transnationalism, multiculturalism.

Cavafy genially wrote about the hellenistic culture being held onto to keep the ancient history alive

Influences on his writing: British poetry – especially Robert Browning, famous Victorian poet, helped him develop his technique of dramatic monologue + Parnassianism and Symbolism as well as the Decadent and Aesthetic movements

Though most greek poets were partial to the romantic style Cavafy chose to write laconically approaching a more objective, antipoetic, prosaic and antilyrical manner (sketch-like - “not finished/too detailed)

His poems were to the point, not pompous

Interested in history, past dramas, taboo subjects

Purist / demotic greek (no perfect English equivalent), free iambic form (10-17 syllables), rhyme very rarely used (when it appears it is mostly ironic), symbolic (characters + events), darkness and light motif, broken line, end stopped line, apostrophe, enjambment, euphony, caesura, pronouns (philosophical concepts), parentheses (}stage-directions, theatrical quality, dramatic monologue and dialogue, further narrative levels – memory, quote, commentary, sometimes criticism of someone’s character, recapitulation – allowing the speaker to realize (while speaking, describing or meditating) what it is that he has just seen or understood (Morning Sea). 

Forms to remember

Dramatic monologue:

}a poem in the form of a speech or narrative by an imagined person, in which the speaker inadvertently reveals aspects of their character while describing a particular situation or series of events.

}(„Philhellene”)

Epitaph:

}In Maronitis’ book “Ο Καβάφης και οι νέοι”, there is a separation of the epitaph poems of Cavafy in two categories: the funereal poems and the tomb poems.

}The tomb poems are brief poems, in contrast to the funereal which are lengthy and they provide information on the dead hero’s personality laconically.

}a funereal poem may describe the reaction of the person’s familiar environment to the fact of his death.

Epigram:

}gr. epigramma, a (gravestone) inscription

}an ancient form represented e.g. by Simonides of Ceos (6th/5th century B.C.) and mastered by hellenistic poets - e.g. Callimachus of Cyrene (4th-3rd century B.C.), a Hellenistic poet from Libya.

}a mature epigram is a varied genre, often not touching upon the theme of death or treating this as only the starting point. 

}The most important Alexandrian genre – elegiac epigram à

Elegiac epigram:

}„Centuries old, it was no longer used only as it had once been in Greece, on tombs or as commemorative song.

Its central figures were now often imaginary, and, more importantly, the scope of the epigram was enlarged. It began to talk about how men live…. The form came to epitomize Alexandrian style. Later it survived the transfer of Greek life to Byzantium and centuries later found a central place in the poetry of C. P. Cavafy.” (Pinchin, pp.12-13)

Who art thou, shipwrecked stranger? Leontichus found

thee here dead on the beach, and buried thee in this

tomb, weeping for his own uncertain life; for he also

rests not, but travels over the sea like a gull.

Callimachus (310 – c. 240 BC)

Narrative techniques:

}Omniscient narration

}Free indirect speech

}Monologue (directed to a listener)

}Internal monologue

Recurring themes:

}History and politics

}The art of living/ good life (ethically understood)

}Classical legacy

}Alexandria / the city

}Age and aging (in erotic poems)

}Art

}Memory

}Homosexuality

}uncertainty about the future

}expression of sensual pleasures

}search for identity

}the moral character and psychology of individuals

}A fatalistic existential nostalgia/ passage of time

His poems can be divided into three categories: philosophical, erotic, (pseudo)historical - some fit into more than one category

[antonlaub]

Creatio ex nihilo (Bucuresti-Berlin: 1001 Articole), 2024/2015, chromogenic print on photo paper, 80x60 cm, from the eponymous video loop (00:01:00), 2015.

𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗱 𝗦𝗽𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗲𝘀

Artists: David Barreiro, Bogdan Bordeianu, John Divola, Vladimir Florentin, Ion Grigorescu, Lina Ivanova, Anton Roland Laub, Ioana Marinescu, Andrei Mateescu, Alexander Rosenkranz, Emily Ryalls, Nadina Stoica, Anca Tintea

Curator: Laura Bivolaru

Project Coordinators: Claudia Retegan, Mihai Șovăială

Opening: September 5, 2024, at 18:00, Str. Franceza 4, Bucharest

September 6 – October 6, 2024

𝗩𝗶𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗛𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀: Thursday & Friday: 17:00-19:00 // Saturday & Sunday: 12:00-16:00

"Expanded Spatialities" problematizes the uniform image of the globalized city, asserting the human body as a creative agent of urban space. Through photography, collage, video, performance, and drawing, the city becomes a practiced space which residents and visitors alike occupy, build, remember and imagine across history.

The thirteen exhibiting artists use the past, both individual and collective memories, and their own bodies to expand and reinterpret urban space at the intersection of fiction and reality, between cartography and psychogeography. In their practices, the political, economic, and social aspects that impact the city are brought to light, investigated, and destabilised. Thus, the image is understood as more than just a mirror of the existing space; it becomes a tangible extension of past and future possibilities.

___________________

Partners: The Institute, Revista–Arta, Photography.Influx

Graphic Design: Vlad Mat

The cultural project is co-financed by the National Cultural Fund Administration (AFCN). It does not necessarily represent the position of AFCN. The AFCN is not responsible for the content of the project or how the results of the project may be used. These are entirely the responsibility of the funding recipient.

-------------------------

When I moved from Bucharest to Berlin, the sight of Karl Marx Avenue (formerly Stalin Avenue) immediately reminded me of the facades of Unity Boulevard (formerly Victory of Socialism Boulevard), so that memories of Bucharest gradually became associated with Karl-Marx-Allee. These memories, sediments, layers and maps still react to each other.

While photographing, I was reminded of Cicero's story of Simonides of Ceos, who discovered a new art of memory after a tragedy struck a banquet to which he had been invited to recite poetry. Just as the poet was called outside, the roof of the banquet hall collapsed, crushing all the guests beyond recognition. But Simonides was able to identify their mangled remains for family members because he remembered where they had sat at the table. Thus was born the mnemonic method of loci - places - which associates memories with specific places.

Karl-Marx-Allee is linked to the history of the former GDR, it was the flagship project of the East German reconstruction programme after the Second World War.  It was here that the 17 June Uprising (the first anti-Stalinist uprising) was bloodily crushed by the Soviet Army in 1953.

In the 1980s, Bucharest had to pay a high price for the ruthless 'systematisation' of the city: the demolition of a third of the old historic area, including buildings in the classicist, art nouveau, modernist and art deco traditions, as well as synagogues and churches. It was one of the greatest urban destructions in the history of Romania, even compared to the destruction caused by the bombs of the Second World War. Thanks to the efforts of the intellectual elite both inside and outside the country, UNESCO was able to intervene in this urban massacre of architectural and collective memory. As a result of the international pressure, sacral buildings were no longer demolished, but the dictatorial absurdity persisted. While the population was surviving on the edge of subsistence, massive efforts were made to put entire churches on rails and move them, sometimes only a few metres from their original location: away from the streets, in the background, behind a series of new propagandistic buildings.

With the ‘systematisation’ programme and the construction of Bulevardul Victoria Socialismului (Victory of Socialism Boulevard) - today Bulevardul Unirii (Unity Boulevard) - the churches and synagogues were no longer visible from the street. They were erased from the official cityscape, but not from the memory of the locals.

[lozco]

Tara and Mind Palaces

Myriad Jaunt Mondays SPOILER WARNING FOR TARA”S ABILITIES. If you haven’t read Myriad Jaunt now, then go read at least to the second arc then come back. If you’re not concerned with mild spoilers, read on. Tara Rockford originally had another name before I settled on Rockford. Tara Simonides. She was to be a long lost relative of Simonides of Ceos. The story goes that Simonides stepped out of a…

[antiqua-lugar]

simonides of ceos was possibly revenged by the gods themselves and his only thought as he stared at a pile of corpses was “i should write a book on how to memorize things” ?

[cupofteajones]

Quote of the Day - April 28, 2022

Quote of the Day – April 28, 2022

[mbuckleydesign]

[vinosities]

"According to Cicero, this technique was invented by a Greek, Simonides of Ceos, who had just left a dinner party full of important men when the roof fell in and killed everyone. When he was asked who was there he managed to identify all the dead by remembering where they had sat at the dinner table. In the Rhetorica it's called by the same name, the memory palace. You build a building in your head, you learn your way around it, and then you start attaching memories to its various features, its furniture, its decorations, whatever you choose. If you attach a memory to a particular location you can remember an enormous amount by walking around the place in your head."

— Salman Rushdie, The Enchantress of Florence