In ancient Rome, male followers of the goddess Cybele, known as Galli, some of whom surgically removed their testicles, were often considered feminine.
However exciting the technological developments may be, the task of reading and analyzing the Greek and Latin texts recovered from the papyri will fall to human beings.
Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily BeastThis month, a trio of computer scientists won the Vesuvius Challenge, a competition to use artificial intelligence to reveal four passages of ancient Greek encased for 2,000 years inside a charred scroll. The artifact was found at Herculaneum, a Roman resort town destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D.. This “kind of thing that happens every half century or so,” Richard Janko, a professor of classics at the University of Michigan a
Faith and reason are often treated as opposites. But some philosophers believe they can only strengthen each other, including the Jewish sage Maimonides, who wrote the famous ‘Guide to the Perplexed.’