Pappus and Pandrosion:  the curmudgeon and the professor

Pappus and Pandrosion: the curmudgeon and the professor

There is a paper on Acad­e­mia that I post­ed years ago, proud­ly claim­ing that Hypa­tia was the world’s first female math­e­mati­cian. It’s hum­bling what years of research will teach you. It so turns out that Hypa­tia was NOT the world’s first female math­e­mati­cian. Oth­er women taught math­e­mat­ics long before Hypa­tia, includ­ing the math­e­mati­cian Pan­dro­sion. She was one of the first

Read More

The Muses at the Museum

The Muses at the Museum

Dur­ing my vis­it to the Get­ty Vil­la, in Mal­ibu, Cal­i­for­nia, I dis­cov­ered this stun­ning sculp­ture! This is a Roman sculp­ture of three of the nine mus­es. It dates back to the mid-third cen­tu­ry BCE and was part of a large sar­coph­a­gus. The sculp­ture shows four indi­vid­u­als. The orig­i­nal sculp­ture held eight indi­vid­u­als, which includ­ed two more mus­es and two men.

Read More