Here's to the aorist optative

[starlady]

Oh man, it's been years since I'd thought about the aorist optative. I'm such a bad lapsed Classicist. But here's a line from this week's Economist about the study of ancient Greek that I thought was too damn good not to share:

Intellectual elitism, as much as an appreciation of Aristophanes’s bawdy humour, is the glue that binds Hellenists together—stoked, in some schools, by a feeling of official neglect or hostility from peers.

The article concludes by saying that the real threat to the classics in general and Greek in particular is not modernity but globlization. I could see that. In the meantime, off to the grocery store.

Comments

[olewyvern.livejournal.com]

*toasts the aorist optative*

Yep, I pretty much agree with all of that, except that Aristophanes has to be humorous to others beyond Classicists. I mean, really. Frogs is just hilarious.

Of course, one of the 'impractical' things about Classics is that despite the fact that I 'know' three modern languages other than English, that knowledge only extends to reading philological junk. John asked a while back if I'd like to study in France or Germany (and work on those spoken languages). I said not really; I don't think that's the answer he's used to. I guess I'm just a homebody stuck in a globalizing world. Or something.

[socair.livejournal.com]

Wow. It's been ages since I thought much about anything Greek... sad! I should brush up, my brother just finished a year of it and he's going to make me look like a load.

And yeah, I can kind of see that, though I agree that Aristophanes can't just be us. Incidentally, did it please anyone else that they put hoi polloi, without a the in front? That I will never forget...