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Dr Christine Plastow

@chrissieplastow.bsky.social

1.2K followers 920 following 480 posts

Senior Lecturer in Classical Studies at the Open University | Co-artistic director of Theatre of the @GentleFuries | researching Athenian forensic oratory & theatrical receptions of myth | she/her | catposting

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Dr Christine Plastow @chrissieplastow.bsky.social · Mar 18

Because I'm updating them today, I'd like to remind #AncientBluesky that we have *FREELY ACCESSIBLE* Ancient Greek resources at the Open University! 🏺

First, we have a 16 hour free OpenLearn course, which takes you from learning the alphabet to reading simple sentences: www.open.edu/openlearn/hi...

Getting started on ancient Greek

This free course, Getting started on ancient Greek, offers a taster of the ancient Greek world through the study of one of its most distinctive and enduring features: its language.The course ...

www.open.edu

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Dr Christine Plastow @chrissieplastow.bsky.social · 2h

Day 12: Styx.

Your bedside was a dock
And from it I saw you were preparing your fare,
Checking departure times.
When the ferry pushed off we waved and smiled.
The water was flat as glass.

#ClassicsTober #ClassicsTober25

Dr Christine Plastow @chrissieplastow.bsky.social · 4h

Day 11: Torch

Lighting a candle on an autumn evening
I cast the same old ancient spell:
Fire against the dark.

#ClassicsTober #ClassicsTober25

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Dr Christine Plastow @chrissieplastow.bsky.social · 4h

Day 10: Hekate

At the crossroads I met a woman with three faces.
One smiled, one turned away toward the west.
She handed me a key and the third face said:
'To keep you safe'.
Her dog licked my hand.

#ClassicsTober #ClassicsTober25

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Dr Christine Plastow @chrissieplastow.bsky.social · 4h

Day 9: Lampades

She comes with lights
Stars around the moon
We glint in her wake
Like night-water

#ClassicsTober #ClassicsTober25

Dr Christine Plastow @chrissieplastow.bsky.social · 1d

Cannot recommend having constant vertigo at all, but especially while trying to meet an imminent funding deadline

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Dr Christine Plastow @chrissieplastow.bsky.social · 3d

Day 8: Erebos

Out of chaos: you and I,
Shaping the edges of things,
Marking out spaces for day, life, light.
Drawing existence in chiaroscuro.

#ClassicsTober #ClassicsTober25

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Dr Christine Plastow @chrissieplastow.bsky.social · 3d

Day 7: pharmakis/witch

Take my advice:
A solitary island life isn't lonely
If you keep friendly animals around
And salt water to wash the nightmares from your hair.
But beware lost heroes. They can be pigs.

#ClassicsTober #ClassicsTober25

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Dr Christine Plastow @chrissieplastow.bsky.social · 3d

I've been feeling rough all week (some kind of mystery infection + inner ear stuff so I feel seasick all the time) but I'm sitting down now to make progress on catching up with #ClassicsTober!

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Dr Christine Plastow @chrissieplastow.bsky.social · 8d

Day 6: Moirai (a haiku)

Paying out the thread,
The sisters, like carpenters:
Measure twice, cut once.

#ClassicsTober #ClassicsTober25

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Dr Christine Plastow @chrissieplastow.bsky.social · 8d

Ok that is a lot of curtain!

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Dr Christine Plastow @chrissieplastow.bsky.social · 8d

I only know this because I used to sell curtains, but it's so that when you pull the pleats together/loop the eyelets onto the pole, the curtains are still wide enough to cover the whole window!

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Dr Christine Plastow @chrissieplastow.bsky.social · 8d

Day 5: Hermes Psychopompos

In the taxi the driver tells outrageous stories
About killing giants, rustling cattle,
Business ventures and sailing and travels here and there.
I forget to look out the window.

#ClassicsTober #ClassicsTober25

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Dr Christine Plastow @chrissieplastow.bsky.social · 10d

Day 4: shroud

Winding a shroud as an act of love
For the place you used to live
Like pulling cloths over old furniture
To keep the dust off
Like tugging up a blanket
Over my tired, sad heart
Like the flat grey sheet of cloud
On the earth without you in it

#ClassicsTober #ClassicsTober25

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Dr Christine Plastow @chrissieplastow.bsky.social · 11d

Only three days in but I'm finding writing for #ClassicsTober25 so rewarding. Turns out if you enjoy doing something and you do it a little bit every day (/whatever level of regularity), that feels good. #TinyJoys

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Dr Christine Plastow @chrissieplastow.bsky.social · 11d

Day 3: Graiai

#ClassicsTober #ClassicsTober25

When we were new made, old-young,
We’d squabble for our turn with the eye.
Who cares about the tooth? One’s little use
But glimpses at the world were worth yanked grey handfuls.
Now we are old-old we let the eye roll away
All sights worth seeing already seen.
There is better knowledge in the twining of sisterly fingers
Than in the play of light on Perseus’ hair.

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Dr Christine Plastow @chrissieplastow.bsky.social · 12d

Day 2: Thanatos (best read with his brother from yesterday)

Thanatos is the older by one minute,
Always arriving sooner than he should.
At least he sticks around, unlike his twin
Who’s ever fleeing in the rosy dawn.

#ClassicsTober #ClassicsTober25

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Dr Christine Plastow @chrissieplastow.bsky.social · 13d

Waffle and I are enjoying tuning in online this afternoon to the launch event for Women Creating Classics and Women Re-Creating Classics!

A tabby cat resting his front paw on a copy of Women Re-Creating Classics: Contemporary Voices

Dr Christine Plastow @chrissieplastow.bsky.social · 13d

Waffle sends slow blinks of support!

Tabby cat lying on a desk doing slow blinks.

Dr Christine Plastow @chrissieplastow.bsky.social · 13d

Day 1: Hypnos (with a visit from Day 2: Thanatos)

To die, to sleep: the two are brothers,
Twins, fraternal, not identical.
You can see the resemblance, though the eyes are different.
One looks on darkness, one on bright dreams.

#ClassicsTober #ClassicsTober25

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Dr Christine Plastow @chrissieplastow.bsky.social · 13d

After faffing around with the usual mild terror at the idea of sharing anything creative in public, I've settled on taking this year's #ClassicsTober prompts as creative writing prompts and will be sharing poem fragments of uneven quality. Here we go! #ClassicsTober25

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Dr Christine Plastow @chrissieplastow.bsky.social · 14d

These are just the ones that are still ripening.

Lots of pears laid on plates and in a bowl on a table.

Dr Christine Plastow @chrissieplastow.bsky.social · 14d

I wish you could! And that's so sad - an unjuicy pear is such a depressing object.

Dr Christine Plastow @chrissieplastow.bsky.social · 14d

Oh how annoying! I should have said I've only tested it in Chrome.

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Dr Christine Plastow @chrissieplastow.bsky.social · 14d

If you're trying to access things in the browser, I've found using browser profiles works - you can be logged into the different accounts in different profiles and they don't conflict with each other. Works well for external examining at other unis that use the same system too!

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Reposted by Dr Christine Plastow

Greek Myth Comix @greekmythcomix.bsky.social · 14d

A reminder that #ClassicsTober starts tomorrow on @classicstober.bsky.social and the overall theme is KATABASIS.

ClassicsTober25: Katabasis

1. Hypnos
2. Thanatos
3. Graeae
4. Shroud
5. Hermes Psychopompos
6. Moirai
7. φαρμακίς (pharmakis) - witch, sorceress
8. Erebos
9. Lampades
10. Hekate
11. Torch
12. Styx
13. Empousa
14. Cocytus
15. Τέρατα (Térata) - monsters
16. Typhon
17. Echidna
18. Kharon
19. Shade
20. Acheron
21. Kerberos
22. Judge
23. Lamia
24. Phlegethon
25. Tartarus
26. Punishment
27. Erinyes
28. Phobos & Deimos
29. Mysteries
30. Lethe
31. Elysian Fields

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