Catching up with the Classics

Sometimes I get so caught up in current events (and distracted by immature ideas about peace) that I forget all about Classical Values. Now I see that while I was doing that, one of the most recent bloggers to link to me, Tim Sandefur has been doing a better job of citing the classical authors than I am:

“If she enquires the names of conquer’d kings,
Of mountains, rivers, and of hidden springs,
Answer to all thou know’st; and if need be,
Of things unknown seem to speak knowingly:
This is Euphrates, crown’d with reeds; and there
Flows the swift Tigris, with his sea-green hair.
Invent new names of things unknown before:
Call this Armenia, that the Caspian shore;
Call this a Mede, and that a Parthian youth;
Talk probably,—no matter for the truth.”

I love Ovid -- who was of course censored in ancient times, in Renaissance times, and in more recent times.

The Roman poet Ovid was banished from Rome for writing Ars Amatoria (The Art of Love). He died in exile in Greece eight years later. All Ovid's works were burned by Savonarola in Florence in 1497, and an English translation of Ars Amatoria was banned by U.S. Customs in 1928.

In another post, Tim speculated about the bust in the upper right hand corner of my blog -- making a remark which continues to crack me up:

I think it’s cool how he found a Greco-Roman bust of Micky Dolenz.

The tie-in to Mickey Dolenz clinched it for me.

Tim Sandefur, by the way, has distinguished himself as a journalist, attorney, and political gadfly, and I am delighted to report that he similarly excels as a Classical scholar.