The Endless Knot
We discuss etymology, history, literature, science, and language, and the connections between them.
Happy (?) April Fool’s Day! We talk about the origins of the holiday, its connections to the Tom Collins cocktail, and hoaxes throughout history, from Athenian tyrants to the ‘Scratching Fanny’ ghost to the Da Vinci Code.
Zoo Hoax newspaper image
Hogarth’s Cunicularii or The Wise Men of Godliman in Consultation
We talk about names for countries — endonyms and exonyms — and the trade goods named after the places they come from, in a discussion that ranges from Japanese guns to the connection between Wales and roosters to the colour of the phoenix, and much more. If you can make it to the end of the podcast, you’ll never look at porcelain the same way again!
Jabzy’s Japan videos: Europeans in Japan and Guns in Japan
Cynical Historian’s video on gun history
Eidolon article about cooking sows’ vulvae (I’m afraid I said “vagina” not “vulvae” in the podcast, mea maxima culpa!)
Schork, R. J. “Egyptian Etymology in Vergil.” Latomus, vol. 57, no. 4, 1998, pp. 828–831. JSTOR
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We talk to Edward Watts about his new book Mortal Republic: How Rome Fell into Tyranny, which covers the history of Rome from the 3rd century BCE to the rise of Octavian to princeps. Our conversation ranges across questions of Roman identity, our fascination with transitional periods, and the connections between Roman history and contemporary politics.
Ancient Greece Declassified episode 19 “America's Greco-Roman Legacies w/ Caroline Winterer”
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Amalia Dillin is an author of mythic fantasy and historical fiction set in the ancient and Viking worlds. Among other books, she’s written the Fate of the Gods trilogy, about Eve and Adam (and Thor and Athena and more!), and the Orc Saga, beginning with Honor among Orcs. She also writes, as Amalia Carosella, about Bronze Age Greece (Helen of Sparta & sequels, about the love between Helen & Theseus) and the Viking Age (Daughter of a Thousand Years, about Freydis, daughter of Erik the Red, and also a modern women wrestling with her newly found pagan faith).
We spoke to Amalia before the holidays about her love of mythology, the complexities of writing historical fiction, and goats!
And hey, the Kindle of Daughter of a Thousand Years is on sale for $0.99, and the paperback is also on sale!
Amalia’s website with links to her blog and all of her books.
Freydis, in the Saga Museum, Reykjavik
Time for a holiday episode! This time we’re talking about how Santa’s reindeer got their names, including some of their classical ties to Roman religion and Greek myth, the Reindeer Rule in US law, and NORAD’s Santa Tracker. And we have a quiz about the animals that bring the winter gift giver around the world!
Our video “Who are Santa’s reindeer?”
Episode 25: The 12 Days of Christmas
The two versions of Eros: Protogenos & Ouranios
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While at the Sound Education conference we had the chance to sit down with Kevin Stroud, host of the History of the English Language podcast. We talked about his passion for language, his experiences with enthusiastic but pedantic listeners, his project to gather a database of accent samples from around the world, and much more. Thank you Keven for chatting with us, it was great fun to meet you and hang out!
The History of the English Language podcast
Our video “What’s the Earliest English Word?”
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From modern words for ghost, to Latin and Greek terms for spirits, to ghost words that haunt dictionaries, we explore some spooky etymologies and tell some ancient ghost stories.
Pliny’s letter 7.27 in English
VIdeo of a performance of the Latin version of Pliny’s ghost story
List of ancient ghost stories sourced from Twitter
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In this episode we talk about the history of education in Europe, from classical Greece to the 19th century, covering the origins of many education-related words. Then we turn to the history of second-language teaching of Latin, from Roman Egypt to today’s Living Latin movement.
DSM (channel about language and etymology)
Learning Latin and Greek from Antiquity to Present, chapters on teaching Latin to Greek speakers (Dickey) & Latin in Anglo-Saxon England (Fisher)
“Medieval and Modern Views of Universal Grammar and the Nature of Second Language Learning” by Margaret Thomas
“Inside the Anglo-Saxon Classroom“ by Kate Wiles
“Grasping Sentences by Wholes: Henry Sweet’s Idea of Language Study in the Early Middle Ages” by Mark Atherton
Learn Latin from the Romans: A Complete Introductory Course Using Textbooks from the Roman Empire by Eleanor Dickey
Learning Latin the Ancient Way by Eleanor Dickey
“The MovieTalk: A Practical Application of Comprehensible Input Theory” by Rachel Ash
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We report on our trips to EduCon, VidCon, Iceland, & England. Lots of museums and historical places, and check out the web page for pictures of some of our favourite artifacts and images.
Sound Education podcasting conference
Travelling Etymologies: Names in Iceland and England
Golden Circle Tour
Volcano House
Rodin and the Art of Ancient Greece
Earliest English Word video
Episode with James Andean
Sator square
Our friend Michael (Wombat)’s blog post about the Battle of Towton
The view from our hotel room at VidCon in Anaheim, CA
Just a note to explain our plans for the summer.
The etymology of 'sublime' takes us through a discussion of the Gothic, Neo-Classical, and Romantic periods, the origins of the Romance languages, the roots of romantic love, and more.
Mats Malm “On the Technique of the Sublime”, Comparative Literature, Vol. 52, No. 1 (Winter, 2000), pp. 1-10.
Sarah Bond on Polychromy in Ancient Statues
Alex Potts, Flesh and the Ideal: Winckelmann and the Origins of Art History
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Columella's Mead
Paul
Matt, Vicky, Conor, & Kevin
Alison, Melanie, & Melissa
Mary, Peter, & Amber
Rachel Mazzara, Chiara Graf, Drew Davis, Matthew Watton, & Jesse Hill
This episode, we travel to Calgary, Alberta for a conference, and try some very questionable "ancient" potables! Aven takes a microphone on the road, and chats with a bunch of classicists about Roman beer, barley water, Homeric kykeon, conference papers, social media, and more!
Matt Gibbs' article in The Conversation
The slides & papers & resources from the Public-Facing Scholarship panel
Our previous episode about ancient and medieval beer brewing
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We sail the high seas and surf the interwebs for this episode all about the etymology of pirate-related words and the coinage of a new term for stealing videos. We also cover the development of copyright law, the reasons pirates say "Arrrr!", and what Julius Caesar did to his kidnappers.
The Academic Podcast by Sam McLean
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We have the great pleasure to be joined by Megan & Carrie from the Vocal Fries podcast to talk about linguistic discrimination: what is it, why is it bad, what is its history, and how can we combat it?
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In part two of our miniseries on pets, we cover cats, monkeys, birds, and more. Find out the surprising origins of the word for parrot, what medieval people named their cats, and what bird was symbolic of the Virgin Mary.
Show Notes
@AllEndlessKnot on Twitter
Medieval Pets by Kathleen Walker-Meikle
"Greek and Roman Household Pets", Francis D. Lazenby
Animals for Show and Pleasure in Ancient Rome, George Dennison
Mosaic from Istanbul (from Caitlin Green's blog)
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Read MoreThe Lady and the Unicorn, Desire (Musée de Cluny
Federico II Gonzaga by Titian
What makes an animal a pet? Who kept pets in the ancient and medieval worlds? What kinds of animals were they? And why are all the words for pets in English of (mostly) unknown origin?! We start a mini two-part series with a general discussion of ancient and medieval pets, and then some great stories about some Very Good Dogs.
@AllEndlessKnot on Twitter
Medieval Pets by Kathleen Walker-Meikle
"Greek and Roman Household Pets", Francis D. Lazenby
The Lady and the Unicorn, Desire
Animals for Show and Pleasure in Ancient Rome, George Dennison
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This podcast is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License
We head back to the Endless Knot Cocktail Bar to talk about the history of the Mai Tai, the Tiki craze, Polynesian mythology, cultural appropriation, and World's Fairs. And then we turn to Rome's relationship to Greece, and discuss whether Horace wrote the Exotica music of the ancient world!
@AllEndlessKnot on Twitter
Polynesian Lexicon Project Online
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Author Don Hitchcock
In part two of our discussion about racism, we talk about ways to respond to the problems in the field, in teaching, scholarship, and more. Thank you to Katherine Blouin, Damian Fleming, Usama Ali Gad, Rebecca Futo Kennedy, Asa Mittman, Dimitri Nakassis, Helen Young, and Donna Zuckerberg for their generous contributions of time and thoughtful discussion of these difficult subjects. Please join in the conversation with your thoughts and ideas about how to move the fields forward.
@AllEndlessKnot on Twitter
Episode 44: "Us" & "Them" in the Ancient & Anglo-Saxon Worlds
Episode 51: Race & Racism in Ancient & Medieval Studies, Part One: The Problem
Dr. Katherine Blouin
Everyday Orientalism blog
@isisnaucratis
Dr. Damian Fleming
@FW_Medieval
Dr. Usama Ali Gad
Classics in Arabic blog
@Usamaligad78
Dr. Rebecca Futo Kennedy
Classics at the Intersections blog
Sourcebook on Race and Ethnicity in the Classical World
@kataplexis
Dr. Asa Mittman
Inconceivable Beasts: The Wonders of the East in the Beowulf Manuscript
Dr. Dimitri Nakassis
Aegean Prehistory blog
@DimitriNakassis
Dr. Helen Young
Race & Popular Fantasy: Habits of Whiteness
@heyouonline
Dr. Donna Zuckerberg
Eidolon
@donnazuck
The Public Medievalist's series on Race, Racism, & the Middle Ages
In the Middle blog (frequently has useful posts on these subjects)
Hold My Mead: A Bibliography For Historians Hitting Back At White Supremacy by Sarah Bond
Medieval People of Color Tumblr
Pharos -- documenting misuse of the Classics
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What are the problems surrounding race and racism in the fields of Classics and Medieval Studies today? Where did these fields come from, and how does that affect the way we think about the past, and how we construct the present? For this episode (and the next) we interviewed eight scholars and put it together into an exploration of these unfortunately timely topics. Thank you to Katherine Blouin, Damian Fleming, Usama Ali Gad, Rebecca Futo Kennedy, Asa Mittman, Dimitri Nakassis, Helen Young, and Donna Zuckerberg for their generous contributions of time and thoughtful discussion of these difficult subjects. In our next episode, we will hear about possible responses to these problems -- in teaching, scholarship, and more.
Episode 44: "Us" & "Them" in the Ancient & Anglo-Saxon Worlds
Dr. Katherine Blouin
Everyday Orientalism blog
@isisnaucratis
Dr. Damian Fleming
@FW_Medieval
Dr. Usama Ali Gad
Classics in Arabic blog
@Usamaligad78
Dr. Rebecca Futo Kennedy
Classics at the Intersections blog
Sourcebook on Race and Ethnicity in the Classical World
@kataplexis
Dr. Asa Mittman
Inconceivable Beasts: The Wonders of the East in the Beowulf Manuscript
Dr. Dimitri Nakassis
Aegean Prehistory blog
@DimitriNakassis
Dr. Helen Young
Race & Popular Fantasy: Habits of Whiteness
@heyouonline
Dr. Donna Zuckerberg
Eidolon
@donnazuck
The Public Medievalist's series on Race, Racism, & the Middle Ages
In the Middle blog (frequently has useful posts on these subjects)
Hold My Mead: A Bibliography For Historians Hitting Back At White Supremacy by Sarah Bond
Medieval People of Color Tumblr
This podcast episode on YouTube
This podcast is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License
We interview Emily Wilson, whose new translation of the Odyssey for Norton was published in November to great acclaim and critical praise. She tells us about some of her choices in the areas of metre, vocabulary, register, and more, and we discuss the very concept of 'choice' in translation, the notion of a 'faithful' translation, the complicated question of heroic women, and 70's blaxpoitation films!
