Lampas - Volume 53, Issue 3, 2020

Summary In this paper I point out remarkable similarities between the Orestes myth and the Arabic story of al-Zir. In addition to the parallels adduced by the Egyptian critic Louis ‘Awad (1968) and in my earlier study ‘Blood on the Wedding Bed’ (2017), I argue here that the killing of a she-camel which ignited the Arabic Basus War is a parallel to Agamemnon’s killing of a sacred deer on the eve of the Trojan War. I propose fi Read More

Summary In Rome, Ostia, and other cities of Italy in the imperial period the over-whelming majority of the grave monuments were set up by freed people. Since this predominance does not reflect demographic realities, we may infer that freedmen and freedwomen had strong incentives to set up funerary monuments. This article looks at their tombs from the perspective of freedwomen. How were they portrayed in the reliefs a Read More

Summary This paper discusses the two ‘international’ or ecumenical associations of athletes and artists in the Roman empire, the so-called xystic and thymelic synods. These associations played a key role in the world of Greek competitive festivals (agones). They not only provided practical assistance to their members and protected their professional and economic interests, they also contributed to the organisation of the co Read More

Summary Many vocabulary lists in Dutch coursebooks are indirectly based on frequency research, and on the assumption that any particular selection of Latin literature might benefit from a representative list. However, the selection of merely 50 pages of Latin for Dutch senior high school education exams does not hold up to both linguistic and statistical logic. As a practical work-around a dichotomy is suggested between ‘ Read More

Summary In the spring of 2019, a pilot project of the university of Ghent named Oude Grieken – Jonge Helden (‘Ancient Greeks – Young Heroes’) brought the study of the Ancient Greek language and culture to primary school pupils of years 5 and 6 in the East Flanders area (Belgium). This project brings Greek to pupils from a socio-economically deprived background with the purpose of raising participants’ intellectual aspir Read More