the journey to ithaka
give it first to Homer and then, 2600 years later, to Kavafis and you get something that rises above all of us.
1 min read
classics
thoughts, observations, snippets of (mostly) classic literature and historical wisdom as lenses for modern life
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the selfish gene | richard dawkins
this is the first book that I have finished from the re-reading list I compiled a while ago. And this is the book, the one I would take with
3 min read
meditations | marcus aurelius
marcus aurelius, the last of the Five Good Emperors, wrote one of the final classical books of stoicism. The Greek title, Ta Eis Heauton, simply means “To Himself”. Someone, somewhere,
7 min read
byzantium: the decline and fall
and then, gradually and inexorably, the fire begins to fade, and worse: the flames are not extinguished by themselves or by the Islamic powers of Asia but by their Christian brethren of Europe
11 min read
byzantium: the apogee
this is volume II of III of the history of the Byzantine Empire. This volume, unlike the first one, covers a relatively short period of time: from the year 800
10 min read
byzantium: the early centuries
"our civilization has never adequately acknowledged the debt it owes to the Empire of the East," writes John Julius Norwich in the introduction of this magnificent book. In
12 min read
the odyssey
It was a long overdue debt with “literature.” A checkmark on a list of titles that the scholarly-bent reader thinks is required to enter the dignified club of literarte.
5 min read