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| http://eu.greekreporter.com/2014/01/28/new-poems-of-greek-poetess-sappho-recovered/ |
This week Facebook and other social media were abuzz with two pieces of news that relate to the ancient world. The first is that "the oldest Roman temple" may have been found at the archaeological site near the church of Sant'Omobono. I blogged about this dig back in July (where it was thought to be a sixth-century temple as before). First, I want to point out that the actual dating of this temple remains to be determined; nowhere in the interview between NPR's Sylvia Poggioli and Nic Terrenato, the co-director of the excavation at Sant'Omobono, was it made clear that the temple was from the 7th century BC. The only case made was that the Tiber river ran close to the site in the 7th century and—in a separate sentence—"the temple [to Fortuna] would have been the first things traders would have seen." The final report of the excavation, which will take into consideration ceramic finds from the lever of the temple base, will give us a clear picture of when it was built.
Second, and more importantly, I want to point out that most of the derivative stories about this temple have dropped out the important auxiliary verb "may." This is why it's super important to go back to the original source of the story. Here is the full interview from NPR.
Also in the news is the spectacular news that two new poems of Sappho have been discovered. One of the poems is nearly complete. Read a translation (by Tim Whitmarsh) here.
Those who control ancient sources (and know ancient Greek) can read a preliminary article here.
