Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Iliad fragment found in Roman-era mummy

thehistoryblog.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

131–140 of 274 posts

Re: Iliad fragment found in Roman-era mummy

#131

Post by markdown »

hungryhobbit wrote: post #105
stingrae wrote: post #101

This reminds me of a piece I just saw at the Legion of Honor (SF) special exhibit on the etruscans. They have a Etruscan manuscript, written on linen, that was used to wrap a mummy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liber_Linteus

Ironically a huge percentage of the historical documents we had came from "the garbage", and/or other cases of people reusing documents for other purposes. In large part this was because paper was incredibly expensive back then, so it got used for one purpose, used again for another, and that continued until you were out of room ... at which point it may get used yet again (for say mummy wrapping). Another classic ex…

Where I grew up, fish and chips was wrapped in actual newspaper.

Re: Iliad fragment found in Roman-era mummy

#132

Post by klausa »

protocolture wrote: post #116
zulux wrote: post #102

>>If Christopher Nolan’s coming adaptation of the Odyssey happens to do well enough to get Hollywood back on its feet, A typical laconic reply works here: "If"

It looks pretty shonky. I dont care about the casting. But the costumes look like ass (One of the extras was saying he had fit into the same armor for a low budget sword and sandal film), they are using a viking longboat as a greek ship (have already seen half a dozen experts spitting chips over the difference in boat design). I just cant bring myself to care about the film. "Oh its a fantasy film" its set in a histo…

> "Oh its a fantasy film" its set in a historical time period, I wouldnt watch a WW2 Zombie movie if the nazi zombies were wearing viking armor driving an Abrams tank either.

WW2 Zombie movie with Nazis in Viking armors and random tanks sounds so much more _fun_ than a "historically acurate Nazi Zombie" movie!

Re: Iliad fragment found in Roman-era mummy

#133

Post by brudgers »

baud147258 wrote: post #100

I am a little disappointed the tomb where the mummy was found is from the time where Egypt was part of the Roman Empire. At this point ancient Egypt had been a colony of Rome for quite some time and beforehand a Greek/Macedonian colony for a few more centuries (under the Ptolemaic dynasty, founded by a general of Alexander the Great). If it was from a previous era, it would have been a much more interesting find (in…

At this point ancient Egypt had been a colony of Rome for quite some time and beforehand a Greek/Macedonian colony for a few more centuries

Before that, Egypt was mostly been ruled by invaders since the end of the New Kingdom around 1000 BCE.

Basically, with few exceptions Egypt was not ruled by a indigenous ruler for about 3000 years until Nassar.

Re: Iliad fragment found in Roman-era mummy

#135

Post by MaxHoppersGhost »

defrost wrote: post #115
vkou wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When a non-trans person stars in a film, nobody calls it a 'straight-cis' ideological hit piece.

It's literally just manufactured faux-concern about a rumour and a very very minor character role: Achilles does not actually appear as a living character in Homer's epic poem The Odyssey (as he dies in the Trojan War before Odysseus' journey home). However, in Christopher Nolan’s upcoming film adaptation, the character is rumored to make a brief appearance as a ghost in the Underworld. Viral rumors suggested Elliot…

Yeah he doesn’t appear as a living character in Homer’s poem but he does appear as a ghost in the poem when they visit the underworld (sorry for the spoilers). Not sure what difference it makes if Achilles shows up as alive or as a ghost but he is in the poem and it would be weird to have a non macho dude play Achilles.

Regardless I think it’s a bullshit rumor and people are running with it. The sad thing is how believable the rumor is.

Re: Iliad fragment found in Roman-era mummy

#136

Post by pmcarlton »

romanhn wrote: post #114

> the fragment contains lines from Book 2’s epic “catalogue of ships,” which lists all the vessels the Achaean army sends off to Troy It's been about 30 years since I've read The Iliad, but I remember that chapter as the worst part of the book. Just pages upon pages of names and where they came from. I wonder what significance it held for the buried individual to have been specifically included so.

Maybe the undertaker agreed with you about it being the worst part, and that's why they used it for the burial!

Re: Iliad fragment found in Roman-era mummy

#137

Post by burnerRhodov3 »

romanhn wrote: post #114

> the fragment contains lines from Book 2’s epic “catalogue of ships,” which lists all the vessels the Achaean army sends off to Troy It's been about 30 years since I've read The Iliad, but I remember that chapter as the worst part of the book. Just pages upon pages of names and where they came from. I wonder what significance it held for the buried individual to have been specifically included so.

probably traced his lineage back to one of those vessels.

Re: Iliad fragment found in Roman-era mummy

#138

Post by defrost »

MaxHoppersGhost wrote: post #135
defrost wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's literally just manufactured faux-concern about a rumour and a very very minor character role: Achilles does not actually appear as a living character in Homer's epic poem The Odyssey (as he dies in the Trojan War before Odysseus' journey home). However, in Christopher Nolan’s upcoming film adaptation, the character is rumored to make a brief appearance as a ghost in the Underworld. Viral rumors suggested Elliot…

Yeah he doesn’t appear as a living character in Homer’s poem but he does appear as a ghost in the poem when they visit the underworld (sorry for the spoilers). Not sure what difference it makes if Achilles shows up as alive or as a ghost but he is in the poem and it would be weird to have a non macho dude play Achilles. Regardless I think it’s a bullshit rumor and people are running with it. The sad thing is how beli…

> it would be weird to have a non macho dude play Achilles.

Odd. Remind me, wasn't it Achilles who spent a couple of years cross dressing as a girl while hiding out to avoid a fight?

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Achilles_on_Skyros

  Buenos noches Senores y Senoras Bienvenidos

  La primera pregunta es: Que es mas macho, pineapple o knife?

  Well, let's see
  My guess is that a pineapple is more macho than a knife

  Si! Correcto! Pineapple es mas macho que knife
  La segunda pregunta es: Que es mas macho, lightbulb o schoolbus?

  Uh, lightbulb?
  No! Lo siento, Schoolbus es mas macho que lightbulb

  Gracias. And we'll be back in un momento
~ https://youtu.be/AY3OgLo8DUc?t=14

Re: Iliad fragment found in Roman-era mummy

#139

Post by bawolff »

nullbio wrote: post #118

I'm sure this is just a giant coincidence, given the timing of Chris Nolan's new movie, and couldn't possibly be fraud.

I mean, this is one of the most important works of ancient literature. The movie probably doesn't move the needle on how important the find is.

Also if it was fraud to capitalize on the movie, wouldn't they use the odyssey instead of the iliad?

Re: Iliad fragment found in Roman-era mummy

#140

Post by airstrike »

brudgers wrote: post #110

Unearthed from a 1,600-year-old Roman-era tomb That's c. 400 AD. Closer to today, than to the time of King Tut...and King Tut was closer to the TFA mummy than to the First Dynasty. Ancient Egypt is really really old. The Great pyramid was 3000 years old at the time of the TFA mummy. The TFA mummy is about equidistant between today and the events of the Iliad and the book was already more than 1000 years old in 400 CE…

Obligatory "Cleopatra lived closer to the creation of the iPhone than she did to the building of the Great Pyramid"
Post reply on HN