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Newsletter 60 December 2006Mark your CalendarPrometheas Events January 26, 2007. Celebration of Greek Letters Day, St. George Greek Orthodox Church. Oμιλια με θεμα “Η Σημασία των Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών στις Ηνωμένες Πολιτείες” (The Significance of Modern Greek Studies in the United States) by Mr. Yiorgos Chouliaras, Director, Press & Communication Office, Embassy of Greece. More detailed announcement to be included in the January Newsletter.
Saturday, February 10, 2007. Prometheas Annual Masquerade dance, at the DoubleTree Hotel, Rockville, MD. Detailed announcement will be available soon. Buy your tickets early; as always, this promises to be a sell out event.
Prometheas Recent Events
The Folk Painter Theophilos: Capturing Hellenic Spirit and Vision" was the topic of Mr. Thomas Xenakis' lecture on November 10 at St. Katherine Greek Orthodox Church in Arlington, VA. Mr. Xenakis, professor of drawing at Georgetown University in Washington DC -Department of Art, Music, and Theater-, spoke about the works of Theofilos Hadzimichael (1873-1934), and his influence through his paintings on Odysseus Elytis, Georgios Seferis, Ioannis Tsarouchis and others. Professor Xenakis used visual illustrations making the lecture most informative and easy to follow.
Other Events American Hellenic Career Fair, Saint Katherine’s Church Jan 6, 2007
The AHEPA Chapter 438 along with the American Hellenic Institute (AHI) are organizing a Career Fair for young GreekAmerican interested to get assistance in selecting a university or get guidance on a career. For more info click here.
New Lives in a New Land: Somerville Museum, Sept 10, 06 – March 25, ‘07
The Somerville Museum in Massachusetts presents a two-part exhibit on Greek American immigrants. For more info click here.
'Εκθεση για την Αρχαία Ελλάδα Το παιδικό μουσείο του Μανχάταν πρόκειται να παρουσιάσει μια μοναδική έκθεση. Για τις ανάγκες της έκθεσης αυτής αναπαράγει Θεούς και μύθους της Αρχαίας Ελλάδας. Η έκθεση θα είναι έτοιμη για το κοινό τον Φεβρουάριο του 2007. Πρόκειται για μια μοναδική παρουσίαση βασιζόμενη στις τεχνολογικές εξελίξεις που θα μεταφέρουν με την βοήθεια της τεχνολογίας τον επισκέπτη στον κόσμο της Αρχαίας Ελλάδας μεταδίδοντας μάλιστα όχι μόνο γνώση για την εποχή και τον κόσμο της αλλά και συναισθήματα. Παιδιά της Νέας Υόρκης αλλά και της υπόλοιπης Αμερικής θα έχουν έτσι την δυνατότητα να ταξιδέψουν στην Αρχαία Ελλάδα. Mια επανάληψη του ταξιδιού του Οδυσσέα ο οποίος μετά το επικό του ταξίδι έφθασε στον τόπο του, έτσι και οι νεαροί επισκέπτες θα ταξιδέψουν μέσα από τους Θεούς και τους Μύθους της Αρχαίας Ελλάδας μέσα από τις ρίζες του δυτικού πολιτισμού. Αξίζει να σημειωθεί πως το παιδικό μουσείο του Μανχάταν θεωρεί ότι ο Ελληνισμός και το ελληνικό πνεύμα πρέπει να βρίσκεται στην πρώτη γραμμή της εκπαίδευσης στην Αμερική του σήμερα.
Source: Omogeneiaka Nea
The History Channel
Lost Worlds: Athens - Ancient SupercityTue December 5th at 12:00am Tue December 5th at 1:00pm Sun December 10th at 12:00pm Sun December 10th at 9:00pm Sat December 30th at 2:00pm Wed January 10th at 12:00pm Wed January 10th at 11:00pm
In this installment of ‘Lost Worlds’, a team of field investigators painstakingly reconstruct the city of Athens as it would have looked in the fifth century BC. Using the latest research, expert analysis and cutting edge graphic technology, our experts take us on a compelling journey through Greek history. Firstly, we embark upon a comprehensive examination of Pericles’ life, assessing the leader’s role in Athens’ ascent to greatness, as well as in the city’s eventual undoing. Described by the historian Thucydides as the ‘first citizen of Athens’, Pericles ruled from 461BC until 429BC. This elected statesman has been credited with leading Athens towards greatness, consolidating the Athenian Empire, and paving the way for western civilization. This programme slowly reassembles the city which Pericles presided over, and examines his considerable architectural legacy. The statesman was responsible for masterminding the most costly and ambitious construction campaign which had ever been undertaken in the western world, as he created a model city of temples, houses, market places, civic buildings and a highly innovative sanitation system. However, Pericles drew the funds necessary to accomplish these feats directly from the Greek alliance’s treasury. Widely seen as one of the largest embezzlements in human history, the decision to use money which had been earmarked for the defense of the city states eventually lead to the downfall of Athens, and of Pericles himself. Two and a half thousand years after Athens was bought down by war and disease, we recreate Pericles’ magnificent city. Impregnable fortifications, the first senate house, and one of the most advanced water systems in the world, are all important hallmarks of the ‘Age of Pericles.’ We also gaze in awe at the Parthenon: a building which is often hailed as the most perfect structure ever completed. An examination of the terrifying power of the Greek navy completes our exciting foray into the breathtaking world of fifth century Greece.
Athens-Sparta’ showcase to open at Onassis Center in New York on December 5
At a press conference this week on the exhibition “Athens-Sparta: From the 8th to the 5th Centuries BC,” which opens in New York on December 5, the Onassis Foundation’s president Antonis Papadimitriou told the journalists, “Churchill once said that reading the Peloponnesian Wars told one all there was to know about the secrets of warfare.” The Onassis Cultural Center, a subsidiary of the Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation, is to host the exhibition of 289 artifacts from the two ancient cities that are being shown abroad for the first time. Athens and Sparta were often at war, but the exhibition shows that even at times of great rivalry, civilization did not stop developing, according to Nikos Kaltsas, director of the National Archaeological Museum of Greece. The exhibition, to which admission is free, will last until May 12, 2007. The cover of the 300-page catalog shows a warrior, his head bent in thought, a detail from a piece of Athenian pottery in the Archaeological Museum. One wonders what the New Yorkers will make of the bust titled “Leonidas,” the warrior who fell with his 300 men fighting against the Persians at Thermopylae, exhibited along with arrowheads and spearheads from the legendary battle. “The exhibition is of historic, cultural and artistic interest that closes a cycle of events marking the foundation’s 30th anniversary, the 30th anniversary of the death of Aristotle Onassis and the 100th anniversary of his birth,” Papadimitriou said. The many valuable artifacts have been brought to New York so that visitors can see the differences between the two Greek city-states at the philosophical and sociopolitical level, whose effects on cultural and human behavior have lasted until this the present. http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/news/civ__1653479KathiLev&xml/&aspKath/civ.asp?fdate=25/11/2006
Under the Auspices of The Honorable Representative Tom Lantos The Honorable Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen
H. E. The Ambassador of Greece & Mrs. Alexandros P. Mallias The American Friends of the Jewish Museum of Greece
cordially invite you to the opening of
Hidden Children in Occupied Greece A Traveling Exhibit of the Jewish Museum of Greece
December 11, 2006, 6:30 to 8:00 pm
Introduction by Solomon Asser, American Friends of the Jewish Museum of Greece
Official inauguration by H. E. Minister Fanny Palli-Petralia Minister of Tourism Development of Greece
Remarks by The Honorable Richard Ben Veniste Moses K. Constantinis, President, Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece
The Embassy of Greece 2217 Massachusetts Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20008
followed by cocktails RSVP at rsvp@greekembassy.org 202-939-1311/ 1335
Misc news
GreekAmericans are elected in US Elections
Οι Δημοκρατικοί είναι οι μεγάλοι νικητές στις εκλογές της Τρίτης 7 Νοεμβρίου, στις ΗΠΑ, κερδίζοντας την πλειοψηφία στη Βουλή των Αντιπροσώπων και στην Γερουσία. Η γερουσιαστής Ολυμπία Σνόου, με ποσοστό 73%, επανεκλέγεται για τρίτη συνεχή εξαετία στην πολιτεία Μέιν. Στη Βουλή των Αντιπροσώπων εκλέγονται οι: Τζον Σαρμπάνης, Δημοκρατικός (Μέριλαντ), με ποσοστό 65%. Είναι γιος του αποχωρούντα γερουσιαστή Πολ Σαρμπάνη. Γκας Μπιλιράκης, Ρεπουμπλικανός, (Φλόριδα), με ποσοστό 56%. Είναι γιος του αποχωρούντα βουλευτή, Μάικλ Μπιλιράκη. Ζακ (Ζαχαρίας) Σπέις, Δημοκρατικός, (Οχάιο), με ποσοστό 62%. Ο Ρεπουμπλικανός Τσάρλι Κριστ κυπριακής καταγωγής, εκλέγηκε κυβερνήτης στην πολιτεία Φλόριδα. O Αλέξης Γιαννούλιας, εκλέγηκε υπουργός Οικονομικών της Πολιτείας Ιλλινόις, ο Λεωνίδας Ραπτάκης, πολιτειακός γερουσιαστής στο Ροντ 'Αιλαντ, ο Δημήτρης Γιάνναρος, πολιτειακός βουλευτής στο Κονέτικατ και οι: Τζιμ Μπακάλης, Μιχάλης Γιάνναρης, Ντην Σκέλος, πολιτειακοί βουλευτές στη Νέα Υόρκη. Στην Καλιφόρνια απότυχε ο Δημοκρατικός Φιλ Αγγελίδης, αφού ο Α. Σβαρτζενέγκερ επανεκλέγηκε άνετα. Bobby revisited By David Brooks, New York Times
“Emilio Estevez's movie, "Bobby," introduces the martyrdom of Robert Kennedy to another generation of Americans, but it was Robert's reaction to his brother's death that is really most instructive to the young.
Robert Kennedy was dining at home on Nov. 22, 1963, when J. Edgar Hoover called. "1 have news for you," Hoover began coldly. "The president's been shot" Kennedy turned away from his lunch companions, his hand to his mouth and his face twisted in pain.
In the ensuing months, he was devoured by grief. One of his biographers, Evan Thomas, writes: "He literally shrank, until he appeared wasted and gaunt. His clothes no longer fit, especially his brother's old clothes — an old blue topcoat, a tuxedo, a leather bomber jacket with the presidential seal — which he insisted on wearing and which hung on his narrowing frame."
But during March 1964, he visited Bunny Mellon's estate in Antigua, and spent the vacation in his room, reading a book Jackie Kennedy had given him, "The Greek Way," by Edith Hamilton.
"The Greek Way" contains essays on the great figures of Athenian history and literature, and Kennedy found a worldview that helped him explain and recover from the tragedy that had befallen him. "When the world is storm-driven and the bad that happens and the worse that threatens are so urgent as to shut out everything else from view," Hamilton writes, "then we need to know all the strong fortresses of the spirit which men have built through the ages."
Classical scholars often .scorn Hamilton because she wrote in a breathless "all the glory that was Greece" mode, but her book changed Robert Kennedy's life. He carried his beaten, underlined and annotated copy around with him for years, pulling it from his pocket, reading sections aloud to audiences in what Thomas calls "a flat, unrhythmic voice with a mournful edge."
Kennedy found in the Greeks a sensibility similar to his own —- heroic and battle-scarred but also mystical. He shared the awful sense of foreboding that pervades the work of Aeschylus and Sophocles, and that distinctly Greek awareness of the invisible patterns that connect events to one another, bow the arrogance men and women show at one moment will twist back and bring agony later on.
Hamilton is at her best describing the tragic sensibility, the strange mixture of doom and exaltation that marks Greek drama. It was based on the conviction that good grows out of bad, virtue out of hardship, and that wisdom is born in suffering. Kennedy memorized a passage from Aeschylus, which Hamilton quotes twice in her book;
"God, whose law it is that he who learns must suffer. And even in our sleep pain that cannot forget, falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despite, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God."
Kennedy, recovering from his brother's murder, found in the ancient Greeks a civilization that was eager to look death in the face, but which seemed to draw strength from what it found there. The Greeks seemed more convinced of the dignity and significance of life the more they brooded on the pain and precariousness of it.
Kennedy underlined a passage of Hamilton's book in which she summarizes the rippled nature of Greek optimism: "Life for him was an adventure, perilous indeed, but men are not made for safe havens. The fullness of life is in the hazards of life. And, at the worst, there is that in us which can turn defeat into victory" If they were doctors of the spirit, the Greeks' specialty was to take grief and turn it into resolution.
The story of Kennedy's grief is the story of a man stepping out of his time and fetching from the past a sturdier ethic. He developed a bit of that quality, which greater leaders like Churchill possessed in abundance, of seeming to step from another age. Kennedy became a figure in the 1960s, but was never really of the '60s.
And the lesson, of course, is about the need to step outside your own immediate experience into the past, to learn about the problems that never change, and bring hack some of that inheritance. The leaders who founded I the country were steeped in the classics, Kennedy found them in crisis, and today's students are lucky if they stumble on them by happenstance.”
Douka wins Balkanika;
new fiction
Greek Museum and
Cultural Centre in Chicago
The museum collection also includes replicas of Greek antiquities, old coins, fabrics, embroidery and knitwear dating back to the 18 and 19 centuries, while in the library the visitor can find numerous contemporary Greek books, newspapers and magazines.
Thessaloniki's White
Tower to serve as museum
Ancient Moon 'computer' revisited
The delicate workings at the heart of a 2,000-year-old analogue computer have been revealed by scientists. The Antikythera Mechanism, discovered more than 100 years ago in a Roman shipwreck, was used by ancient Greeks to display astronomical cycles. Using advanced imaging techniques, an Anglo-Greek team probed the remaining fragments of the complex geared device. The results, published in the journal Nature, show it could have been used to predict solar and lunar eclipses. The elaborate arrangement of bronze gears may also have displayed planetary information. "This is as important for technology as the Acropolis is for architecture," said Professor John Seiradakis of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece, and one of the team. "It is a unique device." However, not all experts agree with the team's interpretation of the mechanism. Technical complexity The remains of the device were first discovered in 1902 when archaeologist Valerios Stais noticed a heavily corroded gear wheel amongst artefacts recovered by sponge divers from a sunken Roman cargo ship. A further 81 fragments have since been found containing a total of 30 hand-cut bronze gears. The largest fragment has 27 cogs. Researchers believe these would have been housed in a rectangular wooden frame with two doors, covered in instructions for its use. The complete calculator would have been driven by a hand crank. Although its origins are uncertain, the new studies of the inscriptions suggest it would have been constructed around 100-150 BC, long before such devices appear in other parts of the world. Writing in Nature, the team says that the mechanism was "technically more complex than any known device for at least a millennium afterwards". Although much of it is now lost, particularly from the front, what remains has given a century's worth of researchers a tantalising glimpse into the world of ancient Greek astronomy. One of the most comprehensive studies was done by British science historian Derek Solla Price, who advanced the theory that the device was used to calculate and display celestial information.
This would have been important for timing agricultural and religious festivals. Some researchers now also believe that it could have been used for teaching or navigation. Although Solla Price's work did much to push forward the state of knowledge about the device's functions, his interpretation of the mechanics is now largely dismissed. A reinterpretation of the fragments by Michael Wright of Imperial College London between 2002 and 2005, for example, developed an entirely different assembly for the gears. The new work builds on this legacy. Eclipse function Using bespoke non-invasive imaging systems, such as three-dimensional X-ray microfocus computed tomography, the team was able to take detailed pictures of the device and uncover new information. The major structure they describe, like earlier studies, had a single, centrally placed dial on the front plate that showed the Greek zodiac and an Egyptian calendar on concentric scales. On the back, two further dials displayed information about the timing of lunar cycles and eclipse patterns. Previously, the idea that the mechanism could predict eclipses had only been a hypothesis. Other aspects are less certain, such as the exact number of cogs that would have been in the complete device. However, what is left gives an insight into the complexity of the information the mechanism could display. For example, the Moon sometimes moves slightly faster in the sky than at others because of the satellite's elliptic orbit. To overcome this, the designer of the calculator used a "pin-and-slot" mechanism to connect two gear-wheels that introduced the necessary variations. "When you see it your jaw just drops and you think: 'bloody hell, that's clever'. It's a brilliant technical design," said Professor Mike Edmunds. Planetary display The team was also able to decipher more of the text on the mechanism, doubling the amount of text that can now be read. Combined with analysis of the dials, the inscriptions hint at the possibility that the Antikythera Mechanism could have also displayed planetary motions. "Inscriptions mention the word 'Venus' and the word 'stationary' which would tend to suggest that it was looking at retrogressions of planets," said Professor Edmunds. "In my own view, it probably displayed Venus and Mercury, but some people suggest it may display many other planets." One of those people is Michael Wright. His reconstruction of the device, with 72 gears, suggests it may have been an orrery that displayed the motions of the five known planets of the time. "There is a feature on the front plate that could have made provision for a bearing with a spindle, that carried motion up to a mechanism used to model the planets of Mars, Jupiter and Saturn as well," he told the BBC News website. "That's how I see it and my reconstruction shows it works well." Intriguingly, Mr Wright also believes the device was not a one-off. "The designer and maker of the device knew what they wanted to achieve and they did it expertly; they made no mistakes," he said. "To do this, it can't have been very far from their everyday stock work." The Antikythera Mechanism will be explored in an episode of Unearthing Mysteries on BBC Radio 4 on 12 December
Story from BBC NEWS:
[Note: The complete article from Nature magazine is also attached.]
Overseas Greek journalists hold 10th Meeting ATHENS, 28/11/2006 (ANA/MPA) The 10th Meeting of journalists of Greek origin in foreign media opened in Athens on Monday -- the theme of which this year is "Image of Modern Greece" -- with an address by minister of state and government spokesman Theodoros Roussopoulos. "Your Greek origin is not only an inexhaustible fountain of wealth but also a useful tool in your work. We want to help you utilize this tool in the best way possible," Roussopoulos said in greeting the journalists, whom he urged to see the staff at the General Secretariat for Information as collaborators in their work and to submit their own proposals for a more efficient and effective cooperation. "You, better than anyone else, can convey Greece's voice to the world. That of the modern-day Greece that is developing and prospering, the Greece which, after many years, is formulating a new secure framework for foreign investments and business activity, the Greece that is working towards the goal of becoming once again the international centre of education and culture and which, in the international environment, demands only respect of the international law and treaties," he said. "The Greek state will continue to actively support the efforts of the Greeks all over the world," Roussopoulos added. The one-day event is being coordinated by Information Secretary General Panos Leivadas, who stressed the role of the Greek diaspora particularly in defending Greece's national interests from within the international mass media. On Greece's contemporary image, he stressed the country's role as a "gateway to Southeastern Europe due to its economic performance, comparative advantages and geostrategic position". Other speakers at the event include development minister Dimitris Sioufas, finance minister committee of experts chair-man Ploutarchos Sakellaris, transport and communications ministry representatives Panayotis Kontoyannis and Lefteris Andritsakis, foreign ministry spokesman George Koumoutsakos, culture ministry international relations director Alkistis Souloyanni, tourism development ministry special secretary Harris Kokkosis, and Athens Tourism and Economic Development Agency managing director Alexis Galinos.
November 27, 2006 A Layered Look Reveals Ancient Greek TextsBALTIMORE — An ambitious international project to decipher 1,000-year-old moldy pages is yielding new clues about ancient Greece as seen through the eyes of Hyperides, an important Athenian orator and politician from the fourth century B.C. What is slowly coming to light, scholars say, represents the most significant discovery of Hyperides text since 1891, illuminating some fascinating, time-shrouded insights into Athenian law and social history. “This helps to fill in critical moments in ancient classical Greece,” said William Noel, the curator of manuscripts and rare books at the Walters Art Museum here and the director of the Archimedes Palimpsest project. Hyperides “is one of the great foundational figures of Greek democracy and the golden age of Athenian democracy, the foundational democracy of all democracy.” The Archimedes Palimpsest, sold at auction at Christie’s for $2 million in 1998, is best known for containing some of the oldest copies of work by the great Greek mathematician who gives the manuscript its name. But there is more to the palimpsest than Archimedes’ work, including 10 pages of Hyperides, offering tantalizing and fresh insights into the critical battle of Salamis in 480 B.C., in which the Greeks defeated the Persians, and the battle of Chaeronea in 338 B.C., which spelled the beginning of the end of Greek democracy. The palimpsest is believed to have been created by Byzantine monks in the 13th century, probably in Constantinople. As was the practice then, the durable and valuable vellum pages of several older texts were washed and scraped, to remove their writing, and then used for a medieval prayer book. The pages of the older books became the sheaths of a newer one, thus a palimpsest (which is pronounced PAL-imp-sest and is Greek for “rubbed again”). After the Christie’s sale the manuscript was left at the museum by the private collector for conservation and study. This year imagers at Stanford University used powerful X-ray fluorescence imaging to read its final pages, which are being interpreted, transcribed and translated by a group of scholars in the United States and Europe. The new Hyperides revelations include two previously unknown speeches, effectively increasing this renowned orator’s body of work by 20 percent, said Judson Herrman, a 36-year-old professor of classics at Allegheny College in Meadville, Pa. He is one of a handful of classicists who have written doctoral dissertations on Hyperides. Hyperides lived from 390 or 389 B.C. until 322 B.C. and was an orator who made speeches at public meetings of the citizen assembly. A contemporary of Aristotle and Demosthenes, he wrote speeches for himself and for others and spoke at important political trials. In 322 B.C. Hyperides was executed by the Macedonians for participating in a failed rebellion. “It’s a spotlight shining on an important moment in history,” said Mr. Herrman, currently a fellow at the National Humanities Center in Research Triangle Park, N.C. Until the new leaves were found in the palimpsest, most scholars believed only fragments of Hyperides survived beyond the Classical period. The mystery of Archimedes’ treatise on combinatorics, the Stomachion, was solved in 2003 by deciphering the palimpsest. Now W. Robert Connor, the president of the Teagle Foundation, which provides education and financial resources for education, called the discovery of new Hyperides text a “tour de force of the first order.” A combination of high-tech imagery and old-fashioned deciphering, sometimes letter by letter, was used to resurrect the older text, revealing a slice of Athenian history in the days after its devastating defeat by Philip II, king of Macedonia and the father of Alexander the Great, Mr. Connor said. “The number of times you get a new text is very small,” Mr. Connor, a former professor of classics at Princeton said. “It’s like hearing an old violin played at a superb level.” Cecil Wooten, a professor of classics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, who attended a Hyperides presentation by Mr. Herrman on Nov. 13, called the discovery “interesting and significant.” “Although Hyperides is a very important fourth-century Greek orator, one of the canon of 10, we have very little of his speeches, and much of that is fragmentary,” Professor Wooten said in an e-mail message. Michael Gargan, a professor of Classics at the University of Texas at Austin, said, “Every bit we get is important.” Mr. Gargan, a major scholar on ancient Greek law, noted that Hyperides wrote many speeches and had a leading reputation in antiquity, but only about six of his speeches survive. “This obviously will contribute a great deal more,” he said. “I eagerly await seeing the text.” In one recently discovered speech, Hyperides talks about the number of boats (220) — a number not previously clear— belonging to the Greek side in the Salamis battle, Mr. Judson said. In another speech, after the Battle of Chaeronea, he argues that the tragic defeat was the result of chance, not bad policy. In a political case Hyperides supports the Demosthenes policy that led to the Athenian defeat. “For we chose the noblest policy and we believed it necessary to free the Greeks by taking on the risks ourselves, just like before,” Hyperides argues in a passage translated by Mr. Herrman and transcribed by Natalie Tchernetska of Riga, Latvia, a project scholar and specialist in Greek palimpsests, whom Mr. Herrman credits with first identifying the material. “One must assign the start and the suggestion of every risk to those who make the motion, but the outcome of these things is to be assigned to chance,” Hyperides argues in the speech. “Diondas proposes the opposite happen: not that Demosthenes be praised for his policy but that I give a defense because of chance.” Professor Herrman said the material also gives new information about inheritance laws in Athens and suggests a different timing for the Demosthenes case. Historians had always believed that the trial of Demosthenes took place before the battle of Chaeronea, which Athens lost to the Macedonians, but the newly discovered speech shows that it was after the battle, Mr. Herrman said. “We had no idea of what the content of the trial was,” he said. “Now we have an Athenian view of their own defeat.” Mr. Herrman recently visited the Walters, where he was able to look at the small, barely legible pages of the palimpsest under a microscope. He also met with Mr. Noel; Abigail Quandt, the senior conservator of manuscripts and rare books; and specialists in imaging techniques. “Three weeks ago I discovered I can read things in person that I can’t get on the digital images,” Mr. Herrman said. Ms. Quandt said she took almost four years to take the palimpsest apart. The day of Mr. Herrman’s visit, pages of the text were laid on a table where fiber optic lights on either side revealed aspects of the manuscript. Ultraviolet, strobe and tungsten lights were used to enhance the visibility of the text. After computer processing, the hypertext appeared red, and the prayer book text appeared black. The palimpsest contains about 120 printed pages of Archimedes text, in addition to the Hyperides material, a philosophical commentary on Aristotle, a neo-Platonic philosophical text, pages from a liturgical book on the life of a saint and at least five pages so well-erased it is impossible to determine what they are, Mr. Noel said. Most of the palimpsest has been translated, and it will probably be available to scholars by 2008, followed by an exhibition at the museum, Mr. Noel said. The entire list of scholars for the Archimedes Palimpsest project, as well as detailed reports on the finding, can be found at archimedespalimpsest.org. “This book is the most important palimpsest in the world,” Mr. Noel said. “We’re learning about the nuts and bolts of ancient medieval history and gaining a new understanding of the early history of the calculus and of our understanding of ancient physics. The prayer book is made up of five other books. Another of these books seems to be an early Christian — second or third century — commentary on ancient views of the soul and why they were incorrect.”
Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company
Τα μουσεία της Αθήνας Επισκέπτομαι τα μουσεία της Αθήνας μόνο με την ευκαιρία κάποιου φίλου, επισκέπτη που βρίσκεται στην πόλη, είχα δε να πάω σε μερικά από αυτά πολύ πριν από τους Ολυμπιακούς Αγώνες του 2004. Η αλλαγή έκτο` |
