Nadya Williams

1 week ago | thegospelcoalition.org | Nadya Williams

Sometime in the seventh century BC, Semonides of Amorgos wrote a poem providing a systematic and quasi-scientific classification of wives primarily as animals. Among the 10 types are the sow (her home, clothing, and body are always filthy), the horse (pretty but there’s nothing more to her), and the dog (who’s begging to be kicked). The bee alone of the 10 types is good. This kind of scientific misogyny reached its height in the writings of Aristotle.

2 weeks ago | nadyawilliams.substack.com | Nadya Williams

It seems appropriate that it is for Memorial Day weekend that we’re getting to one of the most famous portions of Thucydides—the magnificent Funeral Oration that Pericles delivered in winter 431/430 BC to commemorate the war dead from the first year of the Peloponnesian War. But first, in this week’s reading, we get into the war in earnest at last. We are reading Book 2, sections 1-47 (pages 89-118 in this edition, if you’re using it).

3 weeks ago | nadyawilliams.substack.com | Nadya Williams

Traveling through Greece, one cannot escape the constant collision of the ancient and the modern—or, to be more precise, the hiding of the ancient under the modern. Ancient battle site after battle site, in particular, looks kind of like the serene image above—a large grassy space populated by grazing sheep or goats. But then, that is what many of these fields looked like in antiquity. After the battle, eventually the grass covered up the horrors yet again, and the sheep came back to graze.

3 weeks ago | fairerdisputations.org | Nadya Williams

In 1951, archaeologists excavating a thirteenth-century-BC tomb at Mycenae in Greece accidentally stumbled on another burial. This one was even older, dating from about seventeen hundred years BC. In that older burial site, a woman’s remains were found, clothed in all the finery befitting a princess. She was buried with a man, presumed at first to be her husband.

3 weeks ago | rlo.acton.org | Nadya Williams

In 1991, my family faced a choice for the first time: We could remain in Russia or take advantage of the temporarily loosened borders and immigrate to Israel. There was a significant hurdle to overcome, however. To be allowed to leave, all aspiring emigrants were required to secure permission from their parents. Being nearly 40 years of age did not make a difference, although exemption from this requirement was graciously granted to those whose parents were deceased.