Category Archives: Greece

Remembering Thermopylae – ARGHHHH

Posted on 06/02/2020 by Maria Pretzler

  Right. Long time, no blog. But this one is going to be a heartfelt post that may well put some noses out of joint. But it needs saying. The Greek government is issuing memorial coins for the battle of … Continue reading →

Posted in Cinema, Current events, Europe, Greece, Inventing the Past, Peloponnese, Politics | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

Sing me, Lord Chilcot, of the wrath…

Posted on 23/08/2016 by Maria Pretzler

During this Edinburgh Festival, non-stop from 8th to 20th August, hundreds of volunteers read the whole Chilcot Report on the decision to go to war in Iraq. The event’s producer said: “[The report] wasn’t expected to be read. The establishment … Continue reading →

Posted in Current events, Greece, Myth | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Caster Semenya and women at the Olympics

Posted on 21/08/2016 by Maria Pretzler

I just came across this excellent article about gender and Olympic disciplines or competitive sport more generally, starting with the case of gold-medal winning runner Caster Semenya who has faced so much controversy over whether she should be allowed to … Continue reading →

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Olympic Superstars – ancient and modern

Posted on 13/08/2016 by Maria Pretzler

Some of yesterday’s papers (for example the New York Times and the Daily Telegraph) have a report that Michael Phelps has just beaten a 2167* year-old record which had been held, for all that time, by Leonidas of Rhodes, who … Continue reading →

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What’s a person’s REAL name?

Posted on 02/07/2016 by Maria Pretzler

As Iceland is playing another game in the European championship we shall yet again see the international media struggle with Icelandic names. The typical newspaper article talks of say, Kolbeinn Sigthorsson (Sigþórsson) or Aron Gunnarsson, and then just call them Sigthorsson and … Continue reading →

Posted in Current events, Greece, Roman Empire | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Why Boris should have remembered the Ostracism of Hyperbolus

Posted on 30/06/2016 by Maria Pretzler

UK Politics is just too distracting these days. Today we arrived at a point where both main parties are in the middle of differently shambolic leadership contests. These last few crazy days have brought to mind quite a few ancient parallels … Continue reading →

Posted in Current events, Greece, Politics | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Why we should all get our roofs from Sparta*

Posted on 11/06/2016 by Maria Pretzler

Work on my Peloponnesian League book is finally starting to happen, so it’s time to dust off the blog again. I hope odd little things like today’s discovery will go here. At the moment I am working on what might … Continue reading →

Posted in Archaeology, Greece, History, Peloponnese | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment