I've always thought this was remarkable

Ancient Greek Computer Had Surprising Sun Tracker

The world’s oldest astronomical calculator is famous for having intricate gear systems centuries ahead of their time. But new work shows the Antikythera mechanism used pure geometry, as well as flashy gears to track celestial bodies’ motion through the heavens.

The device, a 2,000-year-old assemblage of gears and wheels that matched 19th century clocks in precision and complexity, was salvaged from a shipwreck off the Greek island of Antikythera in 1901.

Called the Antikythera mechanism, the machine gracefully kept track of the day of the year, the positions of the sun and the moon, and perhaps the other planets. It also predicted eclipses and kept track of upcoming Olympic games.

Now, due to some new research, it turns out it uses precise geometry to allow for irregularities in apparent speed of the Sun's transit across the heavens due to Earth's elliptical orbit.

Hmmm...

Curator makes a case for Helen the hero: Helen's face launched a spirit of community among the Greeks

"You have to remember that she was half-divine," Schulz says. "Zeus was her father. There were temples dedicated to Helen. Girls and young women worshipped her, and the cult of Helen lasted for quite a long time."

There also was lots and lots of artwork, including some masterpieces, made of the woman held up as the epitome of female beauty.

It's easy to think of other ancient Greek women whose personal accomplishments might be more palatable to a modern, post-feminist audience. There's Hippolyta, queen of the Amazons, that fierce race of warrior women. The princess Antigone was put to death for defying what she felt to be an immoral law that forbade her from burying the brother who'd been slain in war. And the resourceful Penelope kept together a small kingdom and held hostile forces at bay for 20 years while her husband was lost at sea.

Not a weakling among them.

The problem, Schulz says, is that there also isn't a lot of absolutely first-rate artwork among them - at least not in a form that the Walters could get its hands on for the exhibit.

I'm not sure about art availability as the reason for conferring upon Helen the 'hero' accolade (or in her case, it really should be heroine--really, why has our society decided to replace perfectly good feminine forms with the masculine in the name of feminism??? An female poet, editor, author, etc. is a poetess, editrix, and authoress, regardless of modern convention. Otherwise it's the equivalent of emasculating a male in language, in my view, but then I'm rather conservative on this point.) Her aspect as a demigoddess, however, I can see as putting her firmly in the league of someone like Achilles. It sounds like an interesting exhibit; too bad I live nowhere near.

History belongs to everyone, but cultures shouldn't be looted by others

So it was nice to hear that Greece is displaying repatriated artefacts, returned from several countries and museums. They're still butting heads with the British Museum over the Elgin Marbles, but that's rather to be expected--they're a lot bigger than a few coins or a vase.

Who knows what kind of thing is going on in Iraq these days, with its rich Sumerian and Babylonian history? With lawlessness comes looting of antiquities, and with war comes their destruction.

Anyway, I'm glad Greece got back some of their cultural items.

Greece displays repatriated antiquities

Italy is also getting some of theirs back--lost Byzantine frescoes that had been ripped from a church 27 years ago and wound up in a private collection in Greece.

Italy recovers lost Byzantine frescos from Greece

Thanks to Melissa Snell's mediaeval history blog for the links.

File under ingenious ancient inventions

2,100-year-old gadget tracked Olympics

Researchers have found that in addition to calculating astronomical data, the Antikythera Mechanism--which looks much like a clock with gears inside, also kept track of the timing of the Olympics, which is significant in that there is no real need to do complex calculations for a simple four-year cycle; it was a societal, not heavenly, event, but incorporated into the device. It also tracked eclipses and the Metonic calendar. Also, the month names used on the device are similar to those used by Corinthian colonies in Sicily, giving some idea as to its origin.

PS Speaking of eclipses, I didn't mention the total solar eclipse that happened on the 1st because it didn't affect us here in Kentucky (damn the bad luck; I've only seen partial eclipses of the sun and would love to see a total one). It would really have been remarkable in the Arctic, where it was centred, since they've got the midnight sun thing going on right now. Here's a video of the totality, by http://www.astroscopio.com, an astronomy website:

It was an accident, and they were forgiven, but it breaks a 1,000-year-old rule (and Greek law)

Women break all-male Mount Athos ban

Four Moldovan women accidentally violated a 1,000-year-old ban on females entering the all male monastic community of Mount Athos, when they were left on Greek shores by human traffickers.

Cool

An Altar Beyond Olympus for a Deity Predating Zeus

Well, it's not the Battle of Thermopylae I studied in school

but what do you expect of something based on a graphic novel?

Oh, what a lovely war - that hides its violent truth

Go tell of the Spartans (not so much a review, as a commentary of what the 300 meant in the author's family)