Visual and verbal revulsion: Titian and the Younger Philostratus
Visual and verbal revulsion: Titian’s Perseus and Andromeda and the Younger Philostratus’ Hesione and Heracles* Charlie Pemberton,...
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Welcome to TOPICA, a collaborative blog for the all the graduate students in the Faculty of Classics at the University of Cambridge, UK.
This is the space where we document the thoughts, conversations and questions that have come up during our research and lunch breaks, in order to share them among ourselves and everybody else interested in the classical world.
Click the logo above, or scroll through the banner below for the site sections. Scroll down for the latest blog posts.
TOPICA
- Nov 17, 2020
- 8 min
How many circuits?
The name is Orestes On the track, on the track again, on the track, how many times around, how many bloodied laps, how many black rows;...
99 views7 comments
Joe Grimwade
- Nov 17, 2020
- 4 min
Building the classics: the LEGO Colosseum
The worlds of Lego and Classics have collided and now thrive, most conspicuously online in numerous noteworthy corners of the net.
349 views3 comments
TOPICA
- May 18, 2020
- 5 min
Perfume and power: Killing Eve and the Roman emperors
Brian Theng Spoiler alert: I refer to a little snippet of episode four in the ongoing third season of Killing Eve and the 2019 film...
854 views6 comments
TOPICA
- Feb 29, 2020
- 4 min
Ugly modernism?
Sofia Greaves The recent article from the Guardian confronts the dangers of combining neoclassical architecture with white power, ideals...
235 views5 comments
TOPICA
- Feb 7, 2020
- 11 min
Paraklausithyron
Nir Stern The paraklausithyron across time and space: songs and poems of Mediterranean sub-cultures This blog post is meant to offer a...
238 views2 comments
TOPICA
- Jan 19, 2020
- 5 min
Epic Rap, Rapping Epic
Brian Theng I am no music connoisseur. But put a scholarship application and a bar conversation together, and we get a blogpost about...
144 views3 comments
TOPICA
- Dec 31, 2019
- 4 min
Sing, Muse, of the Man Who Once Learnt Something by Rote
Sarah Sheard It happened a few days ago now, and yet the tremendous feat will not leave my Twitter feed. It is even more galling given...
224 views3 comments
TOPICA
- Dec 14, 2019
- 4 min
Classics, Political class, and the MMXIX election
Jesse Hala Pro Iuppiter, efficiamus Brexit. - Jacob Rees-Mogg, 6/12/19. It’s only been a couple of days, but the results of Britain’s...
290 views3 comments
TOPICA
- Dec 8, 2019
- 6 min
Epic without Kleos: a Troy Story for our times
Zach Case A Review of Troy: Myth and Reality, at the British Museum until 8th March 2020. Get yourselves down to the British Museum and...
250 views1 comment
TOPICA
- Nov 10, 2019
- 5 min
My first supper at Pompeii
Brian Theng Earlier this week I managed to sneak away from the autumnal idyll which is the Cam to the dreaming spires of Oxford to visit...
200 views1 comment
TOPICA
- Jul 16, 2019
- 7 min
Peter and Pan: From Ancient Greece to Neverland, via Jerusalem
Nir Stern Modern Israel is dotted with remnants of antiquity, and not only of the biblical kind. From the Hellenistic palace of Herod the...
208 views1 comment
TOPICA
- Jun 19, 2019
- 6 min
The Silence of Time: The Spaces In-Between
Albert Bates The footboard of an old piano is nailed to the wall. A pair of hands offer forth its copper strings like entrails pulled...
187 views1 comment
TOPICA
- May 24, 2019
- 9 min
Unthroned: the Politics of Westeros and the Limits of Classical Reception
Zack Case Note: this article contains spoilers Disclaimer: this article is not another complaint about season eight of Game of Thrones...
306 views1 comment
TOPICA
- May 22, 2019
- 6 min
‘I am Ashurbanipal’ – A Retrospective on an Exhibition
Tom Langley Between 8th November 2018 and 24th Feb 2019, the British Museum held an exhibition devoted to the last great Assyrian King,...
201 views1 comment
TOPICA
- Mar 22, 2019
- 5 min
Poliziano's Nose
Nathaniel Hess Classical scholars are fairly disembodied beings, one might think, withering at lonely desks as they cultivate the...
145 views1 comment
TOPICA
- Mar 11, 2019
- 2 min
Garni Temple: Visiting Armenia’s Ancient Past
Kyriakos Velos Nestled on a plateau overlooking precipitous ravines and ragged mountains in the Armenian Highlands lies Garni....
86 views2 comments
TOPICA
- Feb 23, 2019
- 5 min
Julie Mehretu and 'the classical eye'
Sofia Greaves Julie Mehretu is considered to be among the foremost artists of her generation, and is currently on show at Kettle’s Yard....
192 views1 comment
TOPICA
- Feb 7, 2019
- 8 min
Democracy, Referendums and Brexit: A Classical Perspective
Zack Case “Democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.” Winston...
212 views3 comments
TOPICA
- Jan 30, 2019
- 1 min
BLogeion. 1. Yeet
Krishnan Ram-Prasad Corruption of third person singular of Lat. i ēre, itself a corruption of Gk Ιἔεμαι, borrowed into English via Low...
46 views1 comment
TOPICA
- Jan 21, 2019
- 2 min
Quiddity. n.
Joe Grimwade Quiddity: n. 1. The essence of a thing. 2.a. A quibble. 2.b. An eccentricity; a distinctive feature. Two second-rate...
42 views1 comment
TOPICA
- Jan 16, 2019
- 3 min
Nikandre Kore
Michael Loy The Nikandre Kore is one of the most quietly fantastic pieces of sculpture to survive to us from Greco-Roman antiquity....
262 views3 comments
TOPICA
- Jan 6, 2019
- 7 min
Gellius teaches us to fight against the algorithm
Nir Stern The amount of knowledge in our world is amazing, staggering really. Knowledge of any kind is being developed and expounded by...
73 views2 comments
TOPICA
- Jan 4, 2019
- 8 min
Walls and Empires
Tom Langley Walls and Empires, Ancient and Modern Borders, and particularly border walls, dominate the current news cycle. The United...
170 views3 comments
TOPICA
- Nov 29, 2018
- 2 min
An introduction to... the Platanus:
Nir Stern It was claimed by Marco Polo that out in the vast desert of Persia there grew a single ‘dry tree’ right at spot of the battle...
41 views1 comment
TOPICA
- Nov 29, 2018
- 4 min
Edward Burne-Jones, “The Pre-Raphaelite Visionary”
Sofia Greaves Edward Burne-Jones review – an endless procession of the living dead. So says Laura Cumming, at The Observer. She has a low...
76 views1 comment
TOPICA
- Nov 29, 2018
- 3 min
Ruins of Conimbriga, Hispania Lusitania
Joe Grimwade The ruins of Conimbriga comprise one of the largest and most impressive archaeological sites in Portugal. The majority of...
54 views1 comment
TOPICA
- Nov 23, 2018
- 1 min
Imbricate: v.
Joe Grimwade Imagine: you’re standing at the local bus stop when a man sporting a toga and a proud aquiline nose appears beside you. It...
41 views1 comment
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