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Peter Gainsford

@kiwihellenist.bsky.social
406 followers 102 following 400 posts

Kiwi Hellenist, Homerist, classicist, NZ. He/his/him/ia.

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Peter Gainsford @kiwihellenist.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
A minor point in an otherwise solid video: image is from Reading Greek, 2001 edition, chapter 1, p. 37. John 1.1 θεός _cannot_ have an article, because it's a complement. There are no other implications. (See similarly Cambridge Grammar §28.9; Smyth §784-786.)
Image from the pedagogical textbook Reading Greek, instructing that in an 'A is B' sentence in ancient Greek, the subject is the substantive with an article; the complement is the substantive without an article.
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Peter Gainsford @kiwihellenist.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Today is the day that Pliny the Elder thought was the equinox in the mid-1st century. He was wrong, of course. But nowhere near as wrong as the Cornell University leadership for brushing a rape conspiracy under the rug and shielding the rapists from consequences.
Diagram showing the dates for the equinoxes and solstices as stated y Pliny the Elder, Natural History 18.220-221. Pliny assigns the winter solstice to 25 December, and states that the autumn equinox was 88 days and 3 hours earlier.
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Peter Gainsford @kiwihellenist.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
I'm starting to feel like the manuscript of pseudo-Symeon (cod. Paris. gr. 1712) is trolling me with how many ways it can spell 'Iphigeneia'.
Four snippets of cod. Paris. gr. 1712, reading ᾿Υφιγένειαν, Ἠφιγένειαν, Ἠθηγένειαν, and Ἰφιγένεια.
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Peter Gainsford @kiwihellenist.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
I meant this literally, by the way.
Still from Troy: the Odyssey (2017): the Dragonborn from Skyrim attacking one of Odysseus' companions with a two-handed hammber
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Peter Gainsford @kiwihellenist.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Out of curiosity I decided to watch Troy: the Odyssey (2017). One minute into the sack of Troy and I'm laughing out loud. Troy looks a bit like the classicising architecture you'd see in central Berlin today. A head is being randomly chucked around, and no soldiers are wearing any armour.
A CGI cityscape of Troy as depicted in Troy: the Odyssey (2017)
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Peter Gainsford @kiwihellenist.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Here for reference is the view in the other direction. About 400 m above sea level here. (And some spots are definitely gusting 60 km/h. Brrrr)
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Peter Gainsford @kiwihellenist.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
First hill walk after the equinox. Can still see snow on the mountains of the South Island. Down at street level I was concerned it was going to be super windy up here today, but it's actually pretty calm - wind speed not much over 40 km/h.
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Peter Gainsford @kiwihellenist.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Ah yessssss
Photo of a freshly delivered copy of volume 1 of Wilson's new edition of Photius
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Peter Gainsford @kiwihellenist.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Spring is here. Altogether too long since I last took a walk in the hills around Wellington.
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Peter Gainsford @kiwihellenist.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Historically, the idea comes from Kerényi in 1960 (a) splicing together individual words from separate sources talking about different things; (b) mistranslating _phasmata_ ('things shown') as 'phantoms'; (c) blending in a 14th century Christian debate about the afterlife ('visio beatifica').
Excerpt from Karl Kerényi's book 'Eleusis', English translation, pp. 98-99. Kerényi mentions _visio beatifica_, from a mediaeval Christian theological debate, then cites individual words from three separate sources -- '"ineffable" and "holy" "phasmata"' -- as the documentary basis for imagining ecstatic experiences.
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Peter Gainsford @kiwihellenist.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
This bit, in particular, is flat-out false -- these 'numerous accounts of ... ego dissolution' don't exist. The stuff about 'resurrection' is about the literal afterlife. This is the only point offered in this paper cited to support the thesis that initiates experienced psychedelic events.
Excerpt from the article: 'We can be reasonably certain of their psychedelic core through numerous accounts of the experience, namely ego dissolution and the “resurrection” of the soul into a higher state of being, where psychedelic and religious dimensions likely converged.'
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Peter Gainsford @kiwihellenist.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
The puzzlement is real. (a) Majority is irrelevant; (b) ignoring manuscript evidence is not an option; (c) this just substitutes one set of problems for another. Bear in mind, with the addition of the Matthew commentary, this is what the early evidence looks like:
Tabulation of variants for Luke 23.45a in early witnesses
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Peter Gainsford @kiwihellenist.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
One of my favourite texts: the 'Odyssey hypothesis' found in one of the Palatinate MSS at Heidelberg and published in the front matter of Dindorf's 1855 edition of the Odyssey scholia. Here Kalypso and Kirke are sisters ruling over the Aeolian Isles, as priestesses of the Sun and Moon.
Part of codex Heidelbergensis Palatinus graecus 45, f. 230r, the start of the 'Odyssey hypothesis'
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Peter Gainsford @kiwihellenist.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
I was reading Alfred Gercke's 1905 article 'Telegonie und Odyssee' today. It is the very worst of old-style Analysis. Totally subjective aesthetic opinions equated with fact; firm adherent to the 'gut ist alt, schlecht ist neu' creed (good = old, bad = new); if any bits of the Odyssey are ...
Part of page 316 in Gercke's 1905 article 'Telegonie und Odyssee'.
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Peter Gainsford @kiwihellenist.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
The consultation of the dead is a very memorable scene in The Odyssey (2026): I'm not sure if the spirits coming up out of the ground have had much notice. That isn't in Homer. But it is how the scene is depicted in ancient vase paintings. See: encounters with Elpenor (left) and Teiresias (right).
Left: Odysseus, accompanied by Hermes, encounters the ghost of Elpenor. Attic pelike, Lykaon Painter, ca. 440 BCE; Boston Mus. Fine Arts 34.79; cf. Odyssey 11.51-83.

Right: Odysseus, accompanied by Hermes and another man, meets the ghost of Teiresias. South Italian kalyx krater, ca. 370 BCE; Paris Bibliothèque Nationale, Cabinet de Médailles 422; cf. Odyssey 11.90-149).
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Peter Gainsford @kiwihellenist.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
The money shot, so to speak, is this compilation of how some scholars have envisaged the set-up of the axes. The set-up used in the 2026 film is based on a 1982 anime series, Ulysses 31. Walter Burkert thought -- and I agree -- that the text has Odysseus' arrow _piercing_ twelve axe-heads.
Diagrams showing the set-up of the axes as imagined by (1) Page 1973: 112, Fig. 6; (2) Page 1973: 101, Fig. 3; (3) Delebecque 1975: 59, Fig. 3; (4) Pocock 1961: 349, Fig. 1.Still from Ulysses 31, episode 24 (1982), showing a further set-up of the axes.
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Peter Gainsford @kiwihellenist.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
Speaking of modern composers setting classical texts to music ... is it at all well-known that Mendelssohn's setting of Antigone works just as well with the Greek text as with the German?
Score of Mendelssohn's Antigone, first page - piano reduction including both Greek and German lyrics
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Peter Gainsford @kiwihellenist.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
I can't help wondering if elision played a part in choosing between homophony and free rhythm. There are no elisions in the first six lines of Eclogue 1. Part 2 of the motet goes back to homophony, but at line 7, Lassus switches to polyphony as soon as Tityrus says 'namque erit'.
Score of Lassus' 'Tityre, tu patulae', part 2, measures 15-21
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Peter Gainsford @kiwihellenist.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
Another intertext: in the 2026 film, the set up for the trial with the axes (which are supposed to be made of iron, by the way) is borrowed from the 1982 anime series Ulysses 31.
Still from the 1982 anime series 'Ulysses 31', showing the axes set up for Ulysses to shoot through
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Peter Gainsford @kiwihellenist.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
[SPOILERS FOR 'THE ODYSSEY' (2026) AND 'ULYSSES' (1954)] It just occurred to me that the recognition between Odysseus and Telemachos happens exactly the same way in The Odyssey (2026) as in Ulisse (1954): Telemachos deduces his father's identity from the recognition scene with the dog Argos.
Still from the film 'Ulisse' (1954). Ulisse (Kirk Douglas) embraces Telemaco (Franco Interlenghi)
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Peter Gainsford @kiwihellenist.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
I'm afraid so. It isn't exactly a case of saying the movie title, but it certainly has that kind of drivellous energy.
Still from the film Star Trek: First Contact (1996). Dr Zefram Cochrane says to Will Riker, 'And you people, you're all astronauts on some kind of star trek.'
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Peter Gainsford @kiwihellenist.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
This news makes me sad. I normally don't pay much attention to celebrities but Sam felt a bit more like a neighbour. Requiescat in pace.
Still from the film Dean Spanley (2008): Sam Neill as Dean SpanleyStill from the film  'Hunt for the Wilderpeople' (2016): Sam Neill as Uncle Hec
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Peter Gainsford @kiwihellenist.bsky.social · 12/07/2026
(Bear in mind several of these are parodies - fairly distant parodies in some cases.) The only Greek actor I can find for the main three characters is Irene Papas, who played Penelope in L'Odissea, a 1968 Italian TV adaptation.
Still from the TV series L'Odissea (Italy, 1968): Irene Papas as Penelope, Bekim Fehmiu as Ulisse
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Peter Gainsford @kiwihellenist.bsky.social · 12/07/2026
- 5 French actors (Georges Méliès, Paul Mounet, Georges Machal, Michel Piccoli, Alexis Loret) - 4 Italian actors (Giuseppe De Liguoro, Luciano Albertini, Giuliano Gemma, Luigi Mezzanotte) - 2 English actors David Thewlis, Ralph Fiennes) - 1 German actor (Bruno Decarli)
Still from the film 'Naked' (1993): David Thewlis as Johnny Fletcher
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Peter Gainsford @kiwihellenist.bsky.social · 12/07/2026
There have been 17 film adaptations of the Odyssey, or parts of it. No Greek actor has ever played Odysseus, Penelope, or Telemachos in any of them. Odysseus has been played by: - 5 American actors (Kirk Douglas, Harvey Keitel, George Clooney, Jason Patric, Matt Damon) ...
Still from the film 'O Brother, Where Art Thou?' (2000): Holly Hunter as Penny Wharvey-McGill and George Clooney as Ulysses Everett McGill
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Peter Gainsford @kiwihellenist.bsky.social · 05/07/2026
No, that's reversed. Witnesses up to the 5th cent. _unanimously_ read an eclipse: Tertullian Apol. 21.19; Africanus F93 Wallraff; P75; א; B; C; Origen adv Celsum 2.33; Eusebius Chron. 173-175 Helm ≈ 213 Karst. For reference here's Nestle-Aland ad loc. (they omit Tertull., Africanus, and Euseb.).
Text and critical apparatus for Luke 23.44 in Nestle-Aland 28
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Peter Gainsford @kiwihellenist.bsky.social · 21/03/2026
I haven't got a Zipf graph for the Iliad at my fingertips, but here's one for the Odyssey! :-) (Bottom axis = rank by frequency of a given word, vertical axis = number of occurrences; the line at the bottom right is all the hapaxes in the epic)
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Peter Gainsford @kiwihellenist.bsky.social · 15/03/2026
Well that's nice - episodes 1 and 3 of The Daleks' Master Plan (1965-66) have been recovered. 5 of the 12 episodes are now intact (episodes 1, 2, 3, 5, and 10). (I have a vested interest since one of the Doctor's companions in these episodes was an ancient Trojan)
Still of a clip shown on BBC, 13 March 2026
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Peter Gainsford @kiwihellenist.bsky.social · 16/02/2026
In case it's of any use to anyone: a couple of metrical diagrams, showing (a) the main bridges (and caesuras) in Homeric hexameter, and (b) an explanation of two ways of envisaging Hermann's Bridge/Wernicke's Law.
Diagram of the main bridges in the Homeric hexameter, using modern musical notationDiagram illustrating Hermann's Bridge, using metrical notation
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Peter Gainsford @kiwihellenist.bsky.social · 04/02/2026
Odyssey habits. Left, a cut from Trojan War scenes to Odysseus' house from Andrei Konchalovsky's Odyssey (1997); right, from a trailer for Christopher Nolan's Odyssey (2026). Both with the slow zoom-in on the hilltop. The idea of the house being on a hilltop is directorial - it isn't in Homer.
Still from the Odyssey, dir. Andrei Konchalovsky (1997)Still from the Odyssey, dir. Christopher Nolan (2016)
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Peter Gainsford @kiwihellenist.bsky.social · 04/02/2026
'Mr Worf, ffff-'
Acting Captain W. T. Riker of the Enterprise, facing Locutus of Borg, in the midst of commanding Tactical to ffff-
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Peter Gainsford @kiwihellenist.bsky.social · 22/01/2026
OK this is good. (from reddit.com/r/explainitpeter)
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Peter Gainsford @kiwihellenist.bsky.social · 20/12/2025
History of Santa #15 Chicago, 1939: Robert L. May writes the story of Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer New York, 1949: Johnny Marks publishes the song 'Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer', and Gene Autry's recording becomes a Christmas No. 1
Cover of 1950 edition of R. May, Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer; source: abebooks.com
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Peter Gainsford @kiwihellenist.bsky.social · 20/12/2025
History of Santa #14 New York, 1860s-1880s: Thomas Nast's famous sketches of 'Santa Claus' for Harper's Weekly: living at North Pole, and Santa holding a bundle of toys and a pipe
Image sources not recorded
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Peter Gainsford @kiwihellenist.bsky.social · 20/12/2025
History of Santa #13 Pennsylvania, 1840s: fusion of 'Kriss Kringle' and St Nicholas
P. Restad, Christmas in America (1995), pp. 50-51 (see Restad for sources)
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Peter Gainsford @kiwihellenist.bsky.social · 20/12/2025
History of Santa #12 New York, 1823: St Nicholas now rides a sleigh drawn by eight named reindeer; sleigh can hop up from ground level to rooftop; motifs of Santa as miniature, smoking a pipe, gesture with finger by nose, laugh, wobbly belly
Anon., 'A visit from St Nicholas', The Troy Sentinel, 23 Dec. 1823 (authorship later claimed by Clement Clarke Moore)
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Peter Gainsford @kiwihellenist.bsky.social · 20/12/2025
History of Santa #11 North Carolina, 1821: the 'Christkindel' or 'Christkinkle' visits in masquerade on Christmas Eve and delivers gifts of nuts and cakes, or a rod, amid prayers in German (reported as 'Dutch')
P. Restad, Christmas in America (1995), p. 50; see Restad for sources
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Peter Gainsford @kiwihellenist.bsky.social · 20/12/2025
History of Santa #10 New York, 1821: 'Santeclaus' now rides in a sleigh drawn by one reindeer, on rooftops by the chimneys, wearing a fur coat (red on page 1, green on page 2), and now visits at Christmas
Anon., The children’s friend. Number III (1821), p. 1 'Old Santeclaus with much delight'
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Peter Gainsford @kiwihellenist.bsky.social · 20/12/2025
History of Santa #9 Indonesia, 1815: eruption of Mt Tambora has global effects; several years of harsh winters New York, 1817-1820: Hudson River closed by ice for nearly a third of each year 1800-1820: children learn in school about people in Sápmi ('Lapland') using sleighs drawn by reindeer
Anon., The New York Almanac and Weather Book for the Year 1857, p. 128; J. Willetts, An Easy Grammar of Geography for the Use of Schools, 1815 edition, p. 51
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Peter Gainsford @kiwihellenist.bsky.social · 20/12/2025
History of Santa #8 New York, 1809-1812: in Washington Irving's satirical history of New Amsterdam in the 1600s, St Nicholas rides in a horse-drawn wagon that can go across treetops; smokes a pipe; has a characteristic gesture of placing a finger to the side of his nose
W. Irving, A history of New York: 1809 edition vol. 1 p. 79; vol. 2 p. 252; 1812 edition vol. 2 pp. 106-107
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Peter Gainsford @kiwihellenist.bsky.social · 20/12/2025
History of Santa #7 New York, 1810: publication of engraving by Alexander Anderson, and poem by John Pintard about 'Sancte Claus, goed heylig Man' (in Dutch and English), reconstructed from Dutch (or American-Dutch) folk memories
Image source: wikimedia.org
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Peter Gainsford @kiwihellenist.bsky.social · 20/12/2025
History of Santa #6 New York, 1770s: 'St. a Claus' makes his visit later than 6 December - possibly on the following Monday, possibly later still
P. Restad, Christmas in America (1995), p. 45; see Restad for sources
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Peter Gainsford @kiwihellenist.bsky.social · 20/12/2025
History of Santa #5 Netherlands, 1720s: St Nicholas rides a horse, and can go down chimneys on it because they're both miniature
C. Tinman, De oorsprong en uitlegging van dagelyks gebruikte Nederduitsche spreekwoorden (1720), vol. 1 p. 162
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Peter Gainsford @kiwihellenist.bsky.social · 20/12/2025
History of Santa #4 Netherlands, 1660s: on 6 December, St Nicholas comes down chimney to deliver gifts or birches in shoes that children leave out
J. Steen, Het Sint-Nicolaasfeest (1668)
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Peter Gainsford @kiwihellenist.bsky.social · 20/12/2025
History of Santa #3 Europe, 1500s: introduction of Christkind in Germany; outlawing of veneration of saints in some countries, including St Nicholas' Day (6 December)
Christkind illustration in H. Hoffmann, Struwwelpeter (1845); source: www.atlasobscura.com
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Peter Gainsford @kiwihellenist.bsky.social · 20/12/2025
History of Santa #2 Netherlands, ca. 1000s onwards: St Nicholas as patron saint of Amsterdam (NB: this basilica is more recent, dating to the 19th century)
Co-kathedrale basiliek van de Heilige Nicolaas, Amsterdam; source: wikimedia.org
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Peter Gainsford @kiwihellenist.bsky.social · 20/12/2025
History of Santa #1 Anatolia, 325 CE: St Nicholas punches Arius at Council of Nicaea, rescues children from mad butcher, provides dowries, etc (For sources, where not easily found, see alt text on images)
Fresco at Somelá Monastery, Travzon, Turkey (18th cent.); source: lc.nl
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Peter Gainsford @kiwihellenist.bsky.social · 01/10/2025
Greek chorus vs Oompa-Loompas.
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Peter Gainsford @kiwihellenist.bsky.social · 26/09/2025
Lately my teenage son and I have been playing chess just before bedtime. Tonight I got the first ever en passant mate in my life. After ..Bh5, the final moves were g4 hxg4#.
Image of a chess game, with the board flipped to show black's point of view. The FEN for the position is: 1k2r3/1pp5/7b/1N1p1p1b/1N5p/8/PPPP2PP/R1BK4 w Q - 0 1
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Peter Gainsford @kiwihellenist.bsky.social · 23/09/2025
Some days are just like this.
Jacob wrestling with the angel, by Gustave Doré. Caption: 'And the angel said unto him, "Stop hitting yourself." But he could not stop hitting himself, for the angel was hitting him with his own hands.
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