That thing when you ask your professor a question and they get that distant look in their eyes and stare into space for a while and you can see them racking their brain for an answer and then, they get really excited when they realize that they dont know so now they have an excuse to research something new >>>

Help Finnish classicists out! The University of Helsinki is planning on cutting all courses on classical archaeology. The University of Helsinki is currently the only university in Finland that provides any kind of education on the material culture of the ancient Mediterranean and losing this program would be a huge loss for the classics field here.

This is a bad decision considering the quality of research by Finnish scholars and the amount of outside funding our projects bring to the university. This is a short-sighted decision made by the dean of the faculty of arts. In the long run, this will be detrimental to Finnish scholarship in classics.

Symposion ry, the students' association for students of classical archaeology and classical philology at the University of Helsinki, currently has an open petition that will be presented to the dean. International attention and media coverage would be very, very helpful, so please consider signing! You can also leave a comment if you wish, but that is not mandatory. All comments will also be presented to the dean.

You can read the petition (and also sign it) in English, Finnish, and Swedish here:

https://www.adressit.com/antiikin_materiaalisen_kulttuurin_opetuksen_on_jatkuttava_helsingin_yliopistossa

Studying Greek with a cup of coffee 📚

Help preserve the teaching of ancient material culture at the University of Helsinki!

If you're a student, a researcher or a teacher of Latin, Greek, or classical archaeology, or just generally interested in classics, this is for you!

University of Helsinki is planning to disband the teaching of Ancient Culture, starting from the summer of 2024. This includes the subjects of Greek and Roman archaeology and material culture of the ancient world; a discipline previously known as classical archaeology. The signatories of this petition demand that the regular contact teaching of Ancient Culture or classical archaeology will continue at the University of Helsinki, and this way in Finland. The optimal solution to this would be the re-opening of the position of university lecturer of classical archaeology, and selecting a new lecturer to this position. This way the continuation of teaching will be ensured in a discipline that ultimately is one of the cornerstones of European civilisation.

The teaching of material cultures of the ancient world supports the studies of philology, other humanistic disciplines, and the understanding of European history of civilisation and cultural heritage. Competent teaching has been a requirement for the high-profile projects taking place at the University of Helsinki, and the research at Finnish Institutes in Rome, Athens, and Middle East. The experts of the field have made it possible to organise various popular exhibitions that have brought research of antiquity and its legacy into the knowledge of larger audiences.  

The teaching of classical archaeology first began in Finland in the 1780s. At the University of Helsinki, the basic studies (15 study points) have been available for students since the early 1980s, and the intermediate studies (30 study points) since the early 1990s. After the discontinuation of the lectureship of classical archaeology in Oulu, the University of Helsinki offered regular contact teaching of classical archaeology as the only instance in the country between 2014-2018. Until 2018, classical archaeology also had the status of an independent discipline. Since then, teaching has been organised with multiple projects from different disciplines, and students have been able to complete two study modules of 15 and 30 study points, or 3-6 courses respectively.

Now the university plans to disband the teaching and discontinue the study modules. The courses have been extremely popular among the students. The arguments used in support of not opening the position of lecturer of classical archaeology in 2018 included the excellent resources of the discipline in relation to number of students. Now the decision to discontinue the teaching is supported by claims that the discipline is unable to provide a long-term solution to the unstable teaching situation, and students do not complete the entire study modules, only isolated courses. Re-opening the position of lecturer of classical archaeology is the only long-term solution that benefits both students and the university; it secures competent teaching, enables the completion of study modules, and brings stability to the uncertain situation that has lasted for years.

By discontinuing the teaching of ancient material culture and disbanding the study modules, the University of Helsinki debases both teaching and research, and erodes its own status as a European elite university that regards sophistication and civilisation as its key values. This decision will drive away both students and international experts, as well as funding for research projects. By opening the position of lecturer of classical archaeology and selecting a new lecturer to this position, University of Helsinki can ensure the continuation of expertise appreciated in the academic world, in Finland, and in the international arenas.

More information on the history of teaching ancient material culture and classical archaeology in Finland: http://www.taidehistorianseura.fi/tiedotteet/taidehistoriallisia-tutkimuksia-50/

Statement by the student organisation of Ancient Languages and Cultures, Symposion ry: https://rostrasymposion.wixsite.com/rostra/post/symposion-ry-n-kannanotto-antiikin-kulttuurin-opetuksen-puolesta

Please consider signing the petition and spread the word! This would be a huge tragedy for the teaching of classical philology and archaeology in Finland! The decision is not yet final, so we still have a chance to make a difference!

The petition site is unfortunately only in Finnish. The site will ask your name and email address to sign the petition, but you can choose not to share your name publicly. Your email address will not be published anywhere. You can also leave your own comments.

Thank you so much for helping! <3

-Sofia, the chair of Symposion, student organisation of classics at the University of Helsinki

Eastern Lights’ Guide to Classical Philology Courses

Introduction to Classical Philology - You come to your first class. You are alone. The doors creak. A pile of books enters. “Oh, welcome. I just brought some of the dictionaries I’d recommend getting,” says the prof barely visible behind said pile.

Latin Morphology - You never thought so many suffixes even existed. Turns out the Romans had a verb form expressing a tense you never even heard of.

Latin Syntax - The only place where “I spent the whole night studying all kinds of cum” is not sexual in the least.*

Ancient Greek - lol you thought latin was bad - enjoy learning three asses worth of declensions written in physics formula

Everyday Life in Ancient Rome - You feel kinda bad for the prof with four academic titles having to answer questions like “How did the Romans, like, deal with being gay?”. (The answer was “They had gay sex.”)

History of Ancient Art - witness various artists from multiple cultures go on a millenium long quest to depict the tiniest possible dick. You also get travel recommendations from the prof, down to which metro lines to take.

Greek Mythology - there’s always at least one Percy Jackson smartass who will get their illusions shattered

Greek Literature - go back to a simpler time when “an old lady told me” counted as a valid academic source

Roman Literature - taught by the same man who taught you Intro to Classics and Life in Rome last year. He assumes you’ve become fluent in latin since then. He assumes wrong. He’s not mad, just disappointed.

Reading of Latin Texts - Ovid is the first author you read. Not Caesar. Not Sallust. Fucking Publius Ovidius the-noun-and-the-verb-don’t-even-share-the-same-zip-code Naso. Silver lining is, you now know how to describe a loom in latin.

Interpretation of Latin Texts - Reading on steroids. Taught by the man who taught you Roman Literature. He’s still disappointed. Any attempts to translate Catullus’ profanities with anything less than R-rated language will be taken personally. Leave your euphemisms at the door.

* cum is a conjunction that has a lot of meanings depending on context

Out of nowhere, there's a possibility that I might be teaching Ancient Greek again next year, this time fully professionally (I mean, with a real salary and benefits).

And it feels... a bit surreal.

One of these days I'll tell you how I just walked away from academia and how it was something I had made my peace with but missed anyway, so this is a surprise but I think a nice one.

Yeah. It's definitely nice.

No one should be praised for his goodness if he has not strength enough to be wicked. All other goodness is but too often an idleness or powerlessness of will.

François de La Rochefoucauld, Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims.

Ok, a lot of ancient philosophers were cult leaders. Change my mind

codex unicus is an insane concept. it means this text survived in a single copy, a single manuscript. any other copies went lost, were destroyed, were scraped clean, burned, rotted, or, in the most fabled and most comforting option, are still hidden somewhere in a cellar, in an archive, in a private collection never accessed before. do you want to check if a word really is an error? you can't. you want to confront a sentence with the one in another copy? you can't. you want to find out what the illegible ††† part means? you can't. it's lost. unknown. because the manuscript only exists in single copy, and we are so lucky we even have that.

Recommendations for media about translation, interpreting, and foreign languages

Movies and TV

Quo Vadis, Aida? (2020) The Interpreter (2005) The Last Stage (1948)

Books

Babel: An Arcane History by R.F. Kuang The Centre by Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi Translating Myself and Others by Jhumpa Lahiri The Interpreter by Suki Kim Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok Translation Nation by Héctor Tobar Alphabet of Thorn by Patricia A. McKillip Translation State by Ann Leckie

Other Important Topics and Subjects

La Malinche The Rosetta Stone The Tower of Babel The Adamic Language Esperanto Philology Goethean World Literature

Documentaries and History

The Interpreters: A Historical Perspective The Nuremberg Trials Biblical Translation St. Jerome - patron saint of translators Shu-ilishu's Seal (first depiction of an interpreter)

The Secret History really makes Greek professors out to be mysterious and high-class but my professor is called Dorothy, wears socks in sandals, knits during class, knows 14 languages (including Sanskrit and Proto-Indo-European) and has asked me questions like; “If you were a kitchen cabinet, what kind of cabinet would you be?” during break. Nothing mysterious about that woman but she’s so very talented and so much fun to be around.

me trying to explain platonic readings of clarisse & silena are just as valid as romantic ones because if you think you have to be in love with someone to kill a giant dragon then you clearly don't love your friends

Classical philology and F1 go actually perfectly hand in hand: whether I'm writing my dissertation or watching F1, it's always just some Italian boy giving me a headache

what’s the “once is nothing, twice is always” thing? possibly originally german? “eins ist something zwei ist immer”?? is this a classics thing or have i just happened to hear 2 different older philologists say it? who said it? what does it mean?

hahahahahahahahaha! *Smieje sie histerycznie po czym chwyta twoj nadgarstek i przyciaga cie blizej oatrzac na ciebie jego morderczym wzrokiem* nigdzie nie idziesz kochanie.. zostajesz tu ze mną!