The little white attic

Yesterday I was thinking about killing myself. But weeks ago, I had bought a ticket for Othello at Theatre Royal Haymarket, so today I went...

  Painting by Nathaniel Dance-Holland.  1/ After fleeing Troy, Aeneas and his people wander for some time and stop in Carthage. In Books 2-3...

Attributed to Lucca Batoni Pompeo . 1/ One of the surprising things about the Aeneid is how similar, how well it fits in with Homer’s epics...

Lately, as a break between Greek and Roman literatures, I’ve been reading Flannery O’Connor. Ain’t she just great? When I was reading A Good...

From December 2024 to October 2025  In bold: films and plays I think are good  1/ Až přijde kocour (When the Cat Comes/ The Cassandra Cat - ...

1/ As I’m too ignorant—I don’t even read Greek—to wade into the debate over whether the Iliad and the Odyssey were written by the same perso...

Painting by Jean Joseph Taillason: Akhilleus displaying Hektor’s body at the feet of Patroklos.  1/ One thing I didn’t know about the Iliad ...

As it turns out, this year I’ve seen quite a few monster films, mostly based on or inspired by the myths of Frankenstein or Dracula—let’s no...

Illustration by John Michael Rysbrack.  1/ I’m writing about similes again, as Homer has some of the most vivid and interesting similes I’ve...

Painting by Gavin Hamilton.  1/ Strictly speaking, the Iliad is not quite a realistic depiction of war (I mean, one-on-one combat? with lo...