Thursday, February 7, 2008

Tonight's Lecture on the Etruscan Underworld




What did you guys think? I found it fascinating---except the part where they did human sacrificies--well, at least they weren't Romans. Did I hear correctly what the lecturer said? "All ancient peoples had human sacrifice, except the GREEKS!"

The Greeks rule baby!

(>> gets off high horse....)

I attaching here a lovely picture of that I missed from the lecture tonight---it's the god Turms (Hermes) carrying the soul of a deceased woman into the underworld...I have always found it such a sad and beautiful image; it alludes to the stealing of a bride, I think. The other one she did show us tonight, but I couldn't see the egg she was talking about. I looked it up (Etruscan+ egg) and bingo---don't you just love google?

6 comments:

E Pluribus Unum said...

Lol... I guess the Greeks do rule! I did think that they did human sacrifice though bc of Iphegenia, but you learn something new everyday! I was also surprised at how much they were influenced by Greek mythology. And thanks for putting that pic up of the egg, I couldn't see it either. I did find the lecture fascinating, though.

-Anne

RaeS said...

LOL! Yes, she said everyone except the Greeks and the Hebrews, who rejected the idea of human sacrifice in their mythology... For the Greeks, I think she mentioned the story of Iphaginia, as an example... but wasn't there also another one? Andromeda? And there's also Polyxena... although, I don't know, sacrificing her never seemed like the same sort of thing as sacrificing Iphaginia... Polyxena seemed more excessive and more due to the cruelty of men, rather than the cruelty of the gods.

It was a very interesting lecture. I'm glad I went.

E Pluribus Unum said...

Ah, the miracle of selective hearing!!!

You are absolutely right, she did mention the Hebrews and she did talk about the story of Iphigeneia (although NOT of Polyxena---good going Rachael!). You know how I always complain about my bad hearing? I swear it must be my brain doing this to me!

I am glad that we went---I was so happy to look around the room and see all my Latin peeps from Latin 2,4, and the seminar (not to mention Latin 2007!).

More soon, E.

PS. You guys let me know if Latin 4 and Seneca are getting better, (or worse!)

E Pluribus Unum said...

Or worse! (j/k)

-Anne

E Pluribus Unum said...

you big cry-baby! You are FINE, no worries!

EM.

RaeS said...

I think it's slowly getting better. It's a different kind of class than we've had before, you know? The translation never ends and it isn't broken up by shorter exercises and stuff. So it's different and the translations are more difficult and more complex. So... I think it's getting better for me as I'm getting used to the change...