Isabel Köster
@iotasubscript.bsky.social
PhD; associate professor of Roman history and literature; particularly enthusiastic about Roman religion and insults; author of Stealing from the Gods: Temple Robbery in the Roman Imagination (Michigan, 1/2026); never speak for my employer
The what now opera? Sign me up!
Well, 71 browser tabs closed so far in #TabClosed2026! And I've chosen a new wallpaper, from the Giancarlo Menotti opera A Bride From Pluto. So, on to my third thread of closed tabs. Trying to stay ruthless.
December 26, 2025 at 12:08 PM
The what now opera? Sign me up!
A Christmas surprise: if you want to download the open access copy of Stealing from the Gods, you now can... The official birthday is in a couple of weeks, but time is an arbitrary construct. (Oh, and we'll be PA6029.T46 K67 2026 at the library. An actual real call number!)
Stealing from the Gods
Stealing from the Gods investigates how authors writing between the first century BCE and second century CE addressed the issue of temple robbery or sacrilegium. As a self-proclaimed empire of pious p...
press.umich.edu
December 25, 2025 at 4:39 PM
A Christmas surprise: if you want to download the open access copy of Stealing from the Gods, you now can... The official birthday is in a couple of weeks, but time is an arbitrary construct. (Oh, and we'll be PA6029.T46 K67 2026 at the library. An actual real call number!)
One of these years I'll pull off a proper Icelandic Christmas celebration because this sounds like absolute joy.
December 24, 2025 at 3:45 PM
One of these years I'll pull off a proper Icelandic Christmas celebration because this sounds like absolute joy.
Reposted by Isabel Köster
This guy has got the hump with you for literally no reason at all. That’s right: it must be Christmas! Have fun with your families, everyone 😉
Ancient Animal Advent Day 24! The last day. Thanks for joining in the festivities!
Ancient Animal Advent Day 24! The last day. Thanks for joining in the festivities!
December 24, 2025 at 9:00 AM
This guy has got the hump with you for literally no reason at all. That’s right: it must be Christmas! Have fun with your families, everyone 😉
Ancient Animal Advent Day 24! The last day. Thanks for joining in the festivities!
Ancient Animal Advent Day 24! The last day. Thanks for joining in the festivities!
And Felice Vinci, who proposed that the Odyssey is mostly set in the Baltic, goes “yeah!”
All the Odyssey movie “inaccurate” versus “who cares” arguments are both fun and exhausting. But the trailer shows them rowing a clinker built Viking ship. That is like depicting Columbus crossing the Atlantic in a Chinese junk.
December 22, 2025 at 10:56 PM
And Felice Vinci, who proposed that the Odyssey is mostly set in the Baltic, goes “yeah!”
What is happening in France?! Also, "A third man... was arrested a day later, accused of receiving stolen goods. His "passion" for rare antiques has been put forward by his lawyer as being behind his alleged involvement... [H]e was working as a guard at the Louvre at the time."
Élysée Palace staff member to stand trial over theft of precious tableware
Thomas M is accused of stealing solid silver and porcelain used for state banquets from France's presidential palace.
www.bbc.com
December 22, 2025 at 10:14 PM
What is happening in France?! Also, "A third man... was arrested a day later, accused of receiving stolen goods. His "passion" for rare antiques has been put forward by his lawyer as being behind his alleged involvement... [H]e was working as a guard at the Louvre at the time."
On the Classics job front, 1-year job at Wabash (alas, no visa sponsorship, but I don't think that's unusual for VAPs this year with all the uncertainty). It's the current version of the job that was my first gig post-grad school, so I have quite a bit of fondness for it.
Visiting Assistant Professor of Classics | Employment | Wabash College
Wabash College is a small, private, liberal arts college for men, located in Crawfordsville, Indiana, United States.
www.wabash.edu
December 22, 2025 at 9:02 PM
On the Classics job front, 1-year job at Wabash (alas, no visa sponsorship, but I don't think that's unusual for VAPs this year with all the uncertainty). It's the current version of the job that was my first gig post-grad school, so I have quite a bit of fondness for it.
Wow, Apuleius' Apology now has a Dickinson Classical Commentaries edition in case you need some ancient magic goodness with weird Latin... (I strongly prefer a paper text I can scribble around in, but the DCC's are a superb project)
Preface | Dickinson College Commentaries
dcc.dickinson.edu
December 22, 2025 at 8:03 PM
Wow, Apuleius' Apology now has a Dickinson Classical Commentaries edition in case you need some ancient magic goodness with weird Latin... (I strongly prefer a paper text I can scribble around in, but the DCC's are a superb project)
I'm in so many "Gen AI is a nonsense machine" threads right now that I feel the need for a visual.
This was posted yesterday by a retired senior officer and now corporate leader. If AI cannot even generate a map of the US accurately what is it all about?
Lunacy.
Lunacy.
December 22, 2025 at 5:53 PM
I'm in so many "Gen AI is a nonsense machine" threads right now that I feel the need for a visual.
Reposted by Isabel Köster
In response to recent posts about fabricated citations, someone was telling me how awesome Gemini is, and implied that because it's Google there's some kind of secondary checking of sources happening.
Anyway I asked for recent books about AI published by academic presses. This was quite a ride. 🧵
Anyway I asked for recent books about AI published by academic presses. This was quite a ride. 🧵
December 12, 2025 at 6:40 PM
In response to recent posts about fabricated citations, someone was telling me how awesome Gemini is, and implied that because it's Google there's some kind of secondary checking of sources happening.
Anyway I asked for recent books about AI published by academic presses. This was quite a ride. 🧵
Anyway I asked for recent books about AI published by academic presses. This was quite a ride. 🧵
Reposted by Isabel Köster
Despite frequent remonstrations from digital archivists, Persephone never accepted that she could not photocopy a whole book in one go.
December 21, 2025 at 8:03 AM
Despite frequent remonstrations from digital archivists, Persephone never accepted that she could not photocopy a whole book in one go.
A very good book!
Mandarins, Italian paired with Index, a History of the by Dennis Duncan
Day 19 of #BooksAreMyJam, in which I pair a language-y book from my shelves with today's jam from the Bonne Maman jamvent calendar
Day 19 of #BooksAreMyJam, in which I pair a language-y book from my shelves with today's jam from the Bonne Maman jamvent calendar
December 20, 2025 at 7:41 PM
A very good book!
I’m watching a pretty fabulous German documentary on art crimes and we’re finally at Beltracchi (so, back to “rediscovering” lost work, time in the visual realm)
Wolfgang Beltracchi - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
December 20, 2025 at 7:37 PM
I’m watching a pretty fabulous German documentary on art crimes and we’re finally at Beltracchi (so, back to “rediscovering” lost work, time in the visual realm)
Yeah, I feel like I've learned a little too much about differing disciplinary standards in the past 24 hours.
I know disciplinary standards differ, but I've been at this for decades and I've never cited a paper I didn't read. Didn't like, sure; didn't understand, often; kind of drifted off in the middle there, it happens. But didn't read at all? Nah. Come on.
December 20, 2025 at 2:10 PM
Yeah, I feel like I've learned a little too much about differing disciplinary standards in the past 24 hours.
Reposted by Isabel Köster
Reposted by Isabel Köster
I once heard a cutting assessment of someone’s intellect in Argentinian Spanish that went jugas al tetris y giras el cuadradito. It means “you spin the square tile on Tetris.”
December 19, 2025 at 1:07 PM
I once heard a cutting assessment of someone’s intellect in Argentinian Spanish that went jugas al tetris y giras el cuadradito. It means “you spin the square tile on Tetris.”
The AI papers did not infest things on their own. Some folks are being too sloppy to get their stuff published.
Academics and technologists are sounding the alarm about a growing crisis in scholarship as we know it: AI-generated citations of nonexistent papers that have infested real journals. Despite being fake, the sources are widely assumed to be authentic the more they appear in published literature.
AI Is Inventing Academic Papers That Don't Exist -- And They're Being Cited in Real Journals
Academic articles from authors using large language model are creating an ecosystem of fake research that threatens human knowledge itself.
www.rollingstone.com
December 20, 2025 at 9:24 AM
The AI papers did not infest things on their own. Some folks are being too sloppy to get their stuff published.
The Latin word of the year is rhonchissator, snorer. Once again I didn't vote for the winner, but I'm pleased with the outcome. Better luck in 2026?
🥁 And the winner is … 🥁
💤 rhonchissator 💤
Das Lateinwort des Jahres 2025 bezeichnet eine schnarchende Person. An der Wahl, die der Thesaurus linguae Latinae organisiert, haben sich 1.374 Lateinfans aus aller Welt beteiligt.
parerga.hypotheses.org/4320
@thesaurosaur.bsky.social
💤 rhonchissator 💤
Das Lateinwort des Jahres 2025 bezeichnet eine schnarchende Person. An der Wahl, die der Thesaurus linguae Latinae organisiert, haben sich 1.374 Lateinfans aus aller Welt beteiligt.
parerga.hypotheses.org/4320
@thesaurosaur.bsky.social
December 19, 2025 at 6:19 PM
The Latin word of the year is rhonchissator, snorer. Once again I didn't vote for the winner, but I'm pleased with the outcome. Better luck in 2026?
Reposted by Isabel Köster
Ahead of Christmas, it feels fitting to share this Roman fibula - a decorative pin once used to fasten garments - shaped like a stag.
In my Christmas-influenced imagination, it looks rather reindeerish! 🎄
Is it Dasher, Dancer, or maybe Rudolph? 🎅
From the Roman Villa at Borg, 2nd c. AD
📷Villa Borg
In my Christmas-influenced imagination, it looks rather reindeerish! 🎄
Is it Dasher, Dancer, or maybe Rudolph? 🎅
From the Roman Villa at Borg, 2nd c. AD
📷Villa Borg
December 19, 2025 at 8:57 AM
Ahead of Christmas, it feels fitting to share this Roman fibula - a decorative pin once used to fasten garments - shaped like a stag.
In my Christmas-influenced imagination, it looks rather reindeerish! 🎄
Is it Dasher, Dancer, or maybe Rudolph? 🎅
From the Roman Villa at Borg, 2nd c. AD
📷Villa Borg
In my Christmas-influenced imagination, it looks rather reindeerish! 🎄
Is it Dasher, Dancer, or maybe Rudolph? 🎅
From the Roman Villa at Borg, 2nd c. AD
📷Villa Borg
Yet again I wish these emails came with a preview of the evidence because what a teaser (for the uninitiated, this is a guy who often emails classicists with the news that almost everyone in antiquity was actually the evangelist Mark. I guess he’s branched out to other figures)
December 19, 2025 at 2:06 PM
Yet again I wish these emails came with a preview of the evidence because what a teaser (for the uninitiated, this is a guy who often emails classicists with the news that almost everyone in antiquity was actually the evangelist Mark. I guess he’s branched out to other figures)
Reposted by Isabel Köster
A new open access vol _
Serving the Gods: Artists, Craftsmen, Ritual Specialists in the Ancient World_ is out now. www.harrassowitz-verlag.de/titel_9143.a... Excited to read this but also remembering Alison Burford’s work on the craftsmen at Epidauros. wellcomecollection.org/works/t5b8zjma
Serving the Gods: Artists, Craftsmen, Ritual Specialists in the Ancient World_ is out now. www.harrassowitz-verlag.de/titel_9143.a... Excited to read this but also remembering Alison Burford’s work on the craftsmen at Epidauros. wellcomecollection.org/works/t5b8zjma
Serving the Gods: Artists, Craftsmen, Ritual Specialists in the Ancient World
Buch | Harrassowitz Verlag
www.harrassowitz-verlag.de
December 19, 2025 at 1:10 PM
A new open access vol _
Serving the Gods: Artists, Craftsmen, Ritual Specialists in the Ancient World_ is out now. www.harrassowitz-verlag.de/titel_9143.a... Excited to read this but also remembering Alison Burford’s work on the craftsmen at Epidauros. wellcomecollection.org/works/t5b8zjma
Serving the Gods: Artists, Craftsmen, Ritual Specialists in the Ancient World_ is out now. www.harrassowitz-verlag.de/titel_9143.a... Excited to read this but also remembering Alison Burford’s work on the craftsmen at Epidauros. wellcomecollection.org/works/t5b8zjma
Reposted by Isabel Köster
Today would have been the lovely Joyce Reynolds’ birthday. She was born in 1918 and was one of the earliest female epigraphers and supporters of digital epigraphy. Remember her: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joyce_R... Then enjoy the database of inscriptions from Roman Cyrenaica.
Introducing Inscriptions of Roman Cyrenaica | Libyan Epigraphy Research Network
libyanepigraphy.org
December 18, 2025 at 12:39 PM
Today would have been the lovely Joyce Reynolds’ birthday. She was born in 1918 and was one of the earliest female epigraphers and supporters of digital epigraphy. Remember her: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joyce_R... Then enjoy the database of inscriptions from Roman Cyrenaica.
I always forget that changing the document language in Word also changes the "Read Aloud" voice. Can we talk about why American English by default gets a woman and British English a man?
December 18, 2025 at 5:25 PM
I always forget that changing the document language in Word also changes the "Read Aloud" voice. Can we talk about why American English by default gets a woman and British English a man?
So, Grammarly used to have free version in Word that functioned as a spelling and grammar checker with a much larger custom dictionary and good foreign language handling. No intrusive rewriting, just stuff a word processor does anyway, but better. It's been discontinued in favor of the AI version.
December 18, 2025 at 2:36 PM
So, Grammarly used to have free version in Word that functioned as a spelling and grammar checker with a much larger custom dictionary and good foreign language handling. No intrusive rewriting, just stuff a word processor does anyway, but better. It's been discontinued in favor of the AI version.
My time in college in the early 2000s was all about international calling cards. $15 gave you like 5ish minutes. And then came Skype, which was absolutely revolutionary. RIP Skype.
Tangential, but no one under 40 will ever understand what a big deal long distance phone calls used to be. Expensive in the US and a genuine ordeal for overseas. As late as 1986, ATT could only handle 25 US-UK phone calls simultaneously. 25!
December 17, 2025 at 6:41 PM
My time in college in the early 2000s was all about international calling cards. $15 gave you like 5ish minutes. And then came Skype, which was absolutely revolutionary. RIP Skype.