Thoughts on Antiquity, Patristics, putting things online, information access, and more
It’s that time of the year, when the malevolent delight in posting wild claims that Christmas is “really” – in some undefined sense of “real” – the festival of Sol Invictus, recorded only in the Chronography of 354. Few of us know much about Sol Invictus, the state cult created by Aurelian in 274 AD. […]
A correspondent Csaba Szabó has kindly written to tell us about a new discovery of what seems likely to be a Mithraeum in Switzerland, at Kempraten near Zurich. Interestingly the site is by a lake. Somewhat ominously, the remains of three large lime kilns were also discovered nearby. The newspaper article in Zurichsee Zeitung is here. An exhibition […]
I’m trying to push forward a couple of projects. I’ve written to the translator for the Encomium on St Nicholas of Myra by Andrew of Crete, to see if the sample is available yet. I have also changed my plans slightly for the translation of Methodius from Old Slavonic. The lady who was to do the […]
There is an article published by the Guardian Newspaper in London in 2010, written by a certain Heather McDougall, which gets trotted out at this time of year. It rejoices in the title The Pagan Roots of Easter. Easter is, of course, the festival of Christ’s death and resurrection. Malicious or dishonest – but unscholarly […]
A new job at the start of November, so I have been rather preoccupied. But a little progress has been made. I’ve commissioned a translation of the fragments of Theodore of Mopsuestia on Genesis. The main part of this was published by Sachau from the Syriac, but there are also Greek fragments. The tendency towards […]
One of the most famous discoveries in Mithraic studies is the text painted on the wall of the Mithraeum of Santa Prisca in Rome which reads “et nos servasti eternali sanguine fuso” – “and you have saved us through the shedding of the eternal blood.” This has been widely compared to Christian ideas, and, outside […]
The first complete draft of Severian of Gabala, De Spiritu Sancto, has arrived. More to the point, I have now read through it all and given feedback. One section of it is distinctly hard to follow in the original, because Severian is not being as clear as he might be. In consequence he has to keep asking […]