Donna Zuckerberg

What Happens When Gen Z Encounters Catullus’s Filthiest Poem? In this moment of especially rabid book banning, my high school senior has been translating Catullus in her Advanced Track (AT) Latin class. Catullus’s poems disappeared from the Western canon for …

this article was a total delight, I only want to read translations of Catullus by Gen Z from now on

I felt so called out by this post that I had to put it in my sketchbook

For the record, Eidolon isn’t dead! We stopped publishing new content but every single thing we published is right there on Medium for free, still

Erasing History? The Roman Way to Memorialize a Painful Past

Is it this article? eidolon.pub/erasing-hist...

what we talk about when we talk about thinking about Rome An interview with Rhiannon Garth Jones

I'm SO excited about @rhigarthjones.bsky.social's new book that I had to get her on Zoom and pick her brain about why we can't stop talking about thinking about the Roman empire! donnazuckerberg.substack.com/p/what-we-ta...

this looks amazing, and as someone who gets asked all the time about why tech people won't shut up about the Roman Empire: thank you so very much for doing this. if you'd be interested, I'd love to interview you for my newsletter!

this was so fun to revisit! your voice is so funny. I would definitely have edited this differently, ten years later - how did I let that penultimate graf stay so long?! - but I really loved this piece and it totally holds up

sorry, @logeiongklat.bsky.social

Hubris Maximus: The Shattering of Elon Musk The Shattering of Elon Musk

(whispers into the void: "hubris is feminine in ancient Greek")

Don’t forget the Iliad deodorant!!

some heroes from myth I'd recommend seek an adult ADHD diagnosis I’ve recently started reading the first Percy Jackson book to my kids in the morning before they get ready for school, and they’re loving it.

As a former Harry Potter kid who now refuses to spend a cent supporting a rabid TERF, I was worried that the Percy Jackson books just wouldn’t have the same magic for my kids. But they do! AND I can be a pedant.

ΜΥ ΕΥΕΣ

Forsan et haec read to the end for the things that are giving me life right now

some thoughts on finding joy in difficult times: donnazuckerberg.substack.com/p/forsan-et-...

Do Not Comply In Advance: bossy, already a cliche, implies permission to comply later

Fuck You, Make Me: leads by example, directs yelling at opposition instead of allies, easy to chant at a protest or put on a banner

ancient Greek things I've seen on TV that haunt me As a classical scholar, it’s important not to be too precious and pedantic about common mistakes with the material you’ve made it your life’s work to study.

some bad TV ancient Greek that lives rent-free in my head:

bad history aside, Sulla does feel like an especially sinister choice - a real slippery slope to the end of the the Republic.

The Swirling Charybdis of Motherhood Or: why I decided to start a newsletter now

to anyone with questions about my family - I answered quite a lot of them in my first newsletter, for which I chose a hero image that a friend dubbed "a wet sarlacc":

I regret to say that I like this "Iliad-inspired" deodorant plus, some scholarly musings on how the Iliad smelled (ie: bad)

what does it even mean for a deodorant to be "inspired by the Iliad"? I'm still not sure.

I missed this conversation when it was happening! Just to clarify some misconceptions - my ex and one of my kids are both trans, and my newsletter is about myth, literature, and parenting.

I'm OBSESSED with this octopus plate from the latest Pasts Imperfect (pastsimperfect.substack.com/p/pasts-impe...)

The Revisionist History of the Nazi Salute Elon Musk’s defenders were quick to claim that his hand motion was actually an ancient “Roman salute” — but that gesture never existed.

Obviously the whole "Roman salute" excuse is bullshit, but in case you want the whole explanation why, @sarahebond.bsky.social explains:

What the Puff? A catabasis into the world of people who really, REALLY love their pastry plushes

I discovered the meaning of life in the reviews on the Jellycat website: