It has been frequently noted that there is a conspicuous absence of Jupiter in the last book of Statius’ Thebaid, where the tyranny at Thebes is finally brought to an end through the intervention of Athenian Theseus. In comparison, reconciliation on a divine level is almost as significant as that on a human level in … Continue reading Statius’ Twilight of the Gods →

Aristotle famously remarked that humans are “political animals”. Since the word “politic” refers to that which is related to polis “city”, this remark claims that a definitive feature of humanity is the formation of a civic community where people lead lives as “citizens”, as opposed to barbaric societies where people are governed by their primitive … Continue reading Beyond the Household and the City →

There are two distinct utopias in Aristophanes’ Birds that both find their realization in Cloud-cuckoo-land. One is the utopia conceived by the Athenians (mostly Peisthetaerus), which is, in appearance, a community for social outcasts, where base desires such as gluttony and molestation go unchecked (ll. 128-143). The other is the utopia of the chorus of … Continue reading Dystopia in Aristophanes’ “Birds” →

In Ted Chiang’s science-fiction short story The Story of Your Life (adapted into the Denis Villeneuve film Arrival), earthlings are visited by a kind of mysterious extraterrestrial species called “Heptapods”. The protagonist of the story is a linguist trying to decipher the only legible traces of communication between them and humans—messages in a complex, circularly-shaped … Continue reading Heptapods and “Prometheus Bound” →

(First in a series of old response essays I wrote for the General Examination in Classical Literature class in college) According to Herodotus’ account, all Persian kings after Cyrus are characterized, to a greater or lesser extent, by the transgression of their customs. Cambyses’ madness has been well-noted, since he disrespects the nomoi of both the … Continue reading Herodotus: Royal Transgressions →