Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Ancient Bling

Bracelet of rock crystal with gold rams heads Greek part of the Ganymede Jewelry collection 330-300 BCE

From the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Greek and Roman collection:

"The pieces in this group are said to have been found together in Macedonia, near Thessaloniki, before 1913. The assemblage forms an impressive parure (matched set) - earrings, necklace, fibulae (pins), bracelets, and a ring - but it is not certain that they belong together, for the pieces do not show a clear uniformity of style....

The rock-crystal hoops of the bracelets (ca. 330-300 B.C.) have been carefully cut, carved, and polished to produce a twisted appearance, highlighted by wire bindings fitted into the valleys. The rams' heads emerge from long elaborate collars decorated with three friezes enclosed within bands of darts and bordered by plain beaded wire. The upper frieze, an ivy chain on a vine, is tied at the center with a Herakles knot and bears four bunches of grapes; the middle frieze has palmettes with pointed leaves; the third frieze, a palmette complex."

For more images and information, please click ganymede jewelry.

Monday, February 1, 2010

Mary Renault on "Lost Booker" Longlist!

Great news! Mary Renault's fabulous 1970 novel Fire From Heaven , about Alexander the Great's early years, has been longlisted for the so-called "Lost Booker". According to the Man Booker Prize website:

"In 1971, just two years after it began, the Booker Prize ceased to be awarded retrospectively and became, as it is today, a prize for the best novel in the year of publication. At the same time, the date on which the award was given moved from April to November. As a result of these changes, there was whole year's gap when a wealth of fiction, published in 1970, fell through the net. These books were simply never considered for the prize.

Now, 40 years on, a panel of three judges - all of whom were born in or around 1970 - has been appointed to select a shortlist of six novels from those books. They are journalist and critic, Rachel Cooke, ITN newsreader, Katie Derham and poet and novelist, Tobias Hill."

For more information, please click here.

Sunday, January 31, 2010

Upcoming Talks and Readings

On Friday, February 5th at 4:00PM, I'll be giving a talk in Special Collections (WAC Bennet Library, 7th floor, room 7100) at Simon Fraser University about the uses and abuses of a philosophy degree, and how having that degree played into the writing of The Golden Mean. For more information, please click here.

On Saturday, February 6th at 8:15PM (doors open at 7:30PM), I'll be addressing the Vancouver Institute, reading from and discussing The Golden Mean. (Woodward Instructional Resources Centre, UBC, Lecture Hall 2). For more information, please click here.

On Sunday, February 7th, 4:00-5:30PM (3313 Peak Drive on Blueberry Hill, Whistler), I'll be in Whistler for the 28th Whistler Reads book club discussion. For more information, please click here.

Thursday, January 28, 2010

All Things Said and Done


To read my interview with Marita Dachsel on her blog about writing and motherhood, All Things Said and Done, please click here.

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Dionysian Rant

From YouTube: "'Dionysian Rant' - a realisation by Michael Atherton, performed Melismos (Philip South, Mina Kanaridis & Michael Atherton). Melismos was formed by Michael Atherton, Mina Kanaridis and Philip South to investigate the performance of ancient Greek music. The songs and instrumentals have been realised from surviving fragments by Michael Atherton and are performed on copies of original instruments. This item is conjectural dance music from Classical Greek Theatre. The double auloi (ancient oboes) were turned in maple by Harry Vatiliotis, Australia's master luthier."

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Hello Ottawa!


I'm so pleased to be delivering Carleton University's Annual Rose Maguire Lecture (College of the Humanities), entitled "Contemporary Resonances from the Ancient World: Annabel Lyon Discusses The Golden Mean".

Wednesday, January 27, at 7:30 pm.
302 Azrieli Theatre

Sunday, January 17, 2010

A Handy-Dandy Map



To see the full-size version of this map (including such Golden Mean settings as Stageira, Pella, Mieza, and Aegeae), please click here.