Posts from — in the wee hours

I am currently translating scholia and lexica for a handful of Alexandrian poets (Callimachus and Apollonius of Rhodes among others) and am somewhat dismayed to find a shortage of material to help the classical scholar in this task. The APA has a fine book, Understanding Ancient Greek Scholarship, and Scribes and Scholars is a threadbare introduction. I might spend a few days – in my spare time – and at least create a brief manual to assist my colleagues in reading the critical apparatus.

This manual must include the common Latin abbreviations and a glossary of Greek and Latin terminology explicit for the work. Any ideas of other useful inclusions (perhaps target examples)?

I am finding the scholiasts to be at least as interesting as the poets themselves. Given the intellectual level of the Alexandrians (most of the works were written during breaks in research within the Great Library), further scholarly commentary forms a conversation.

I did just decide to learn Italian, once I get my French down better and start my German rolling. Then, Coptic?

My book buying has slowed considerably, though someday I hope our den looks like this:

My advice for those who will one day pursue advanced degrees in the arts and humanities: never think that the jump is the same as it is from one undergraduate grade to the next, or even from high school to college. Going to grad school is much like leaping from elementary school to the first year of college. No matter what you have heard about the workload, it does no justice to the massive volume you are given. I am in my second day, and already swamped. A message written on the blackboard upon my arrival at the U states it best: “Welcome to graduate school, where every week is finals week.”

That said, it is a professional environment, and worth every sleepless night, every coffee drink, every bout of dread, every fear that you are simply an interloping imposter who will be discovered and weeded out (it happens to everybody at some point; I was ‘lucky’ enough to have it happen to me right away). You are surrounded by your peers. You are all struggling with the texts. You are continuing the great conversation of the mind, scholarship. You are now a part of the puzzle. Undergraduates will soon be reading you along with the primary sources.

Dive in, and never give up.

Here is the much-promised review of books for 2007. Thank you so much to my guest bloggers for both their time and intelligence. All brilliance I jealously acknowledge comes from them. If there are any mistakes, be assured that they belong to me alone.
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