Comments on: Ancient Greece : Themistocles

By: Melissa

Melissa — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 13:42:45 +0000

Amendments made with much gratitude to our ancient blogger

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By: Melissa

Melissa — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 10:17:39 +0000

Dear Pericles

Well spotted you perfectionist! This was written by one of our able volunteers and we are happy to make the necessary amendments in our continuing striving for excellence.

Webmaster

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By: Pericles

Pericles — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 09:12:18 +0000

“The rule applies throughout, so it is “Themistocles’s fleet”, “Socrates’s writings”. …” — angela

Both grammatically right, of course, but an unfortunate choice — semantically — in the latter case.

“… Boris Johnson is red hot on accuracy in spelling and punctuation …” — ad loc.

Must admit that, knowing him to be a devout classicist, I was surprised to hit a floating participle (“Made of soft woods, … larch and plane were …”), “divided equally between each Greek citizen” and “convinced … to build” in his article.

London’s mayor is, nevertheless, an admirable man and ought to be the next British P.M.

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By: difiance

difiance — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 11:27:48 +0000

The triremes in that film did look fragile. They were also easily destroyed – you saw in the film, it only took a load of fireballs to set fire to all the triremes in the harbour. It must have taken huge courage on the part of the Greeks to fight the massive Persian warships from such flimsy crafts.

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By: angela

angela — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 10:26:12 +0000

On ITV2 last night, a hammy film starring Brad Pitt as Achilles. He had the girly bit down cold though (the mother of Achilles, the nymph Thetis, to protect her son from a prophesy, dangled him in the River Styx so he would become immortal. The only bit of him that was not immortal was his heel, the part she had to hold). She also disguised him as a girl for the first thirteen years of his life, possibly this is why Brad Pitt pouted aand flounced his way through the film, smoothing his girly braids, it must have been method acting.

The one thing that was amazing in the film was the fleet of Triremes! They glided like swans across the water. Closeups showed all the different types of wood that went into making them and you could see how light, fragile, speedy and manoevrable they were. Watching them brought the story of Themistocles to life.

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By: dave

dave — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 17:17:59 +0000

The general standard of English nowadays is just appalling. Boris has already made the point about the ridiculous signage we are forced to endure.

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By: Ed

Ed — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 15:40:22 +0000

There are some who feel puritanical about grammar issues and Boris is no exception – of course there are exceptions for biblical and classical names but the general rule is apostrophe ‘s’ for the singular possessive form (not so in the plural) so in Boris spirit we will be as accurate as possible.

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By: angela

angela — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 14:55:43 +0000

Learnt an interesting grammatical fact from our Editor. There is often confusion about apostrophes in the national press.

I knew that you say “St. James’s Park” and “Boris’s bike”. However, dopily, I did not realise that “Themistocles’s fleet” is correct. It sounded funny to me, but it is correct. On the internet, you frequently read “Themistocles’ fleet” but this is wrong.

The rule applies throughout, so it is “Themistocles’s fleet”, “Socrates’s writings”. Boris Johnson is red hot on accuracy in spelling and punctuation, so it is good to learn these things.

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By: Marsh Folks

Marsh Folks — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 18:51:40 +0000

Those are not cannabis plants. They are hemp plants whose fibre is used to make fine cloth and ropes. We are very self sufficient people. We are on broadband, too. We can check what other people say about us on the internet.

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By: Ed

Ed — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 15:20:30 +0000

“…… more Aristotle on these pages!” Give us time!

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