Jay-Z 4 Odysseus?

According to Perez Hilton (don't'cha just love my impecable journalistic sources?), American rapper Jay-Z has cited Homer's Odyssey as one of the six books that have "made a difference in his life" in O, The Oprah Magazine of all places.

"This epic poem was kind of difficult for me to get through, but it has a beautiful rhythm. I got lost in reading about Odysseus’ struggle to get home and his longing for someone so strong, as his wife was, waiting for him. That’s like a dream—that kind of strength, love, loyalty."

Nothing about his philandering, cheating and flirting with underage young ladies (Nausicaa, I'm looking at you), then?

Mantyhose....really?

Ok, so I'm all for fashion, but this - to my taste - is going a bit too far:


A company called Unconditional are producing tights for men - or 'mantyhose' - and claiming them to be the hot tip for the man about town this winter. I'm just not feeling that at all.

Classical Nomenclature

The boy's place of work recently held a competition to name a previously unnamed building. The winning name was the 'Minerva Building' - somewhat predictable, I suppose, but with suitable connotations of wisdom and bellicosity. (Is that a word?)

The boy, however, is most disappointed.

He wanted to call it 'Ian'.

Which made me laugh. Very loudly.

Ooh, Ooh, Ooh: Christopher Kane for Topshop

Look! The new Christopher Kane line has landed at Topshop! And I think I want them all - so it's probably a really good job I don't have any money right now, huh? And also that you can only buy 5 items from the collection.

Mesh, gems, eyelets and big crocodile teeth feature highly. Damn that Topshop website, they've disabled the copy function and I don't know how to get around that (and it's probably illegal, anyways), so I shall just link to my faves:

Crocodile teeth T-Shirt, £45.
Navy gem bust cup dress, £125.
Embellished leggings, £75. (Love!)
Pink embellished body, £75. (Also comes in black, but was getting bored of black by this point)
Mesh boots, £150.

Where would I wear them? Does it matter?

Recognition, My Dearests

Two posts in one day!

Apologies for not acknowledging this earlier: our friends at Farrago have name-dropped us, so it is only fair to do the same back. My darlings, your labels are an art-form in themselves! Love and kisses to you all, but I'm afraid I don't have suitable quote to recite back.

So instead, I shall offer a picture and promise to add you to our faves now that I've finally managed to find you on blogger.


Eros and Psyche from the Capitoline, Roman copy of a Hellenistic original (2nd century, BC).

P.S. After some experimentation, Classicae et Fashionistae is now 'following' Farrago here on Blogger! xxx
P.P.S. That picture seemed like a good idea at the time, because I love the romance of that sculpture, but on reflection it's a tad too pornographic to truly represent our relationship, isn't it? Sorry guys... xxx

Spend a Penny

Finally, a post that mixes Classics and Fashion! Isn't this pendant a lovely idea? A cast of an ancient coin on a chain, so simple but so effective. I actually think that this might have to go on my birthday/christmas list this year...



And, in case you were worried, I quote the words of the crafter:
"**No actual ancient coins were harmed in the making of this necklace**"

The necklace is on Etsy and is priced at $45, by seller SmartBird.

[EDITOR'S NOTE: I lie: I have actually already posted on Classics and Fashion when I went off on one about Medea...]

Fancy Pants

I have been procrastinating all morning instead of working, although I fully hope that the situation will change this afternoon. My time wasting brought me to the Urban Outfitters website (I really wish I lived near a store, why did they open one in my last city of occupation just as I was leaving? Not fair.).



Cheap as ever, my perusals took me to the sale pages rather than the full price ones. Now I want these flowery shorts - I just love the fact that they describe them as 'fancy pants'! Such appropriate and amusing nomenclature.



If I had any money - a situation that will not be remedied until the end of October, alas and alack - I would also be putting this drapey dress in my virtual basket. I like the casual cut and the racer back, but especially the print of the fabric; they describe it as "plaid graph", a kind of pixelated (sp?) plaid, but I think it also looks like a map! Or is that just me...?

But, since I am poor, I shall just have to console myself with the jeggings I got for £9.99 in the Leeds store.

Body Histories

Check out this beautiful video slide-show for the Assembling Bodies exhibition at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in Cambridge (I'm not entirely sure how to insert a video; I suppose I could find out, but that would take effort). It looks fantastic.

The exhibition is part of a huge Leverhulme project on 'Changing Beliefs in the Human Body', which is finally coming to a close. It brings together researchers in a number of disciplines and periods to investigate the human body in time.

As something of a last hurrah before the participants put the finishing touches on their learned monographs, there's a big conference on 'Body Histories' in Cambridge this weekend.

Murderous Medea: A Recipe for Wedding Disaster?

Who on earth would name a wedding dress after Medea?!



Elizabeth Fillmore, apparently. The above dress is cccccrrrraaaaazy in an eccentrically beautiful kind of way, but even if I had the necessary funds ($19,580, apparently - which is, what, the best part of £12,000?) I don't think I could bring myself to wear a dress worn by such an ill-starred mythological figure.

Let's remind ourselves of her story, shall we? (I'm sticking mostly with Euripides here, I think) Medea is minding her own business on Colchis when along comes the handsome Jason - who doesn't so much sweep her off her feet, as convince her to help him nick the rather valuable and certainly unique golden fleece by murdering and dismembering her own brother. Nice. Then, they get back home to Corinth, and after knocking her up a couple of times Jason announces he's leaving her for a princess (the daughter of the king, not just a spoilt blonde); as if that weren't bad enough, he pretty much tells her it's all her own fault for being different and that, not to worry, she can be an ex-wife with 'benefits', if she wants. In retaliation, Medea is emotionally torn, but decides to punish him by killing the two children she has borne him in cold blood (but off-stage). She doesn't even leave their little lifeless bodies behind for the now-bereft Jason to bury with the proper rites.

Even the myth seems to blame Jason, because Medea doesn't get her comeupance but is carried off on the sun-god's chariot. Ovid has a rather nice line in Medea's point of view, too, in his Heroides (note too that Jason has not one but two letters from scorned special lady friends in the Heroides, the cad!).

So all in all, not the best name for a wedding dress.

People Tree Madeline Jacket

People Tree is one of those brands that I've tended to admire from afar, but have avoided perusing too deeply because I've always been scared of their prices. But the other week their catalogue fell into my mail box and I've been seriously considering parting with some of my well-earned cash ever since (or at least, parting with some of said cash when I finally start earning it again - Oct 31st, here I come!)



Ok, so they've got their fair share of quite grown-up fashion and of shapeless, fair trade bits and pieces, but, like many ethical companies, they are particularly good at tailored outerwear, I think. This Madeline coat is no more expensive than a decent coat from the high street at £90 - which really isn't very much to pay when you consider that the fabric is handwoven - in fact, I've begun to feel that once you start reading up on why the prices are high (hand weaving, hand embroidering, fair wages in very deprived areas offering independence and a lifeline to exploited women workers etc) they start to seem a lot more reasonable.



I also love this Bora Aksu cotton jacket (£75, and the t-shirt beneath, £42!). These are quirky but wearable pieces, and I fully intend to purchase a wide black patent belt to solve the problem that there are no fastenings on the Madeline coat - two looks in one, I feel!

Plus, I've just discovered that you can also collect nectar points online from People Tree, which you can save up and use to buy books - so, I can also further my research by buying fair-trade fashion! I think I'm onto a winner here...

On Wedding Discos; their effect on concentration

We've all been there: a slightly darkened (although not dark enough) village hall/hotel function room, glitterball throwing sparkly lights over the slightly uncomfortable crowd, the rather well-oiled father of the bride throwing shapes on the dance floor, all to the righteous sounds of the Jackson 5, ABBA and other, inoffensive, inter-generational grooves.

In fact, I'm there right now. Rather, I'm outside said wedding disco, trying to write my Phd in my institution's library in a race against time to meet the supervisor's impossible deadline ("of course I can turn it around in three days; in fact, make it two!"). Yet I'm losing that race, due to my institution's lucrative sideline in corporate hospitality/events. Every 20 seconds or so, I get a good blast of Take That delivered to my desk through the open doors of my institution's function room, peppered with whoops and shrieks from rather over-excited children and rather over-indulged bridesmaids.

Not that I'm against weddings or discos. Far from it. I'm just the kind of person who, unfortunately, requires total and extreme silence when they're working. I have been known, in the past, to throw 'looks' at my colleagues who do not adhere to similar policies on noise - I have no control over it, it's just something I have learned to live with. I actually require this level of pure peace and quiet else, for some reason, I end up writing what I hear. And right now I'm hearing Dolly Parton's '9-5'...which is ironic, as I'm going to admit defeat and quit work for the evening.

* p.s I should have mentioned that the Phd is in classics, and that the bride was wearing a truly awful green number, just to fulfil the classics/fashion requirement of this blog.

I want: Whistles pencil sharpener ring

I want, I want, I want! Check out this pencil sharpener ring from Whistles:



I was going to say that since it's just a small accessory, it would be something I could actually afford from Whistles. Then I looked at the price - gutted. That would £35 over budget then...

Augustus Rides Again

Ooh, look, my first post on something ancient! Even better, some bits of a bronze statue found in Germany, or Hesse to be more exact.


[Pic from slideshow at The Local]

Actually that title is a bit of misnomer in several ways. First off, from what I can see, there's not much of Augustus doing any riding left - most of the fragments seem to be bits of horse. And secondly, as the Rogue Classicist points out, given that all that survives of the rider is a shoe, labelling it as Augustus rather than any other emperor may be quite a leap of faith...

I think that horse looks a bit evil, mind. Something around the teeth...

Click though to Rogue Classcism for a more detailed report.

Sequin Leggings

I think it would be fair to say that we love our leggings, yes? Each year, we both pale when various fashion pages say that leggings are finally going out of fashion, because what other fashion item is as flexible as a pair of leggings? We've done plain black and we've done coloured, we've done wet-look (you laughed at me at first, but now you're on side) and I believe we've even done leopard-print (I've got a pair of flowery footless tights, too, but I've not worn them yet...).

So how do we feel about sequined?



Each year, I look at sequined leggings in the sales and I don't like the extreme symmetry of the sequins - too neat, too tidy. But these H&M ones look so cute in the autumn ad campaign! And, even better, they're only £12.99! Love, love, love!

Time for some sparkle, do you think? But how do wear them during the day?