Lauren Murphy
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ouroboros81.bsky.social
Lauren Murphy
@ouroboros81.bsky.social
PhD candidate at La Trobe University. Writing a thesis about early modern collections of antiquities. Art/ancient historian, artist.
This is a wonderful project and I am so glad to be a part of it. I look forward to seeing my entry about Scylla alongside the work of so many other passionate classicists.
ANNOUNCING...

A Periodic Table of Greek Mythology - our first book! 🎉

📅Available 5th Feb 2025 (but you can preorder now)
🤝 In collaboration with @contubernales.bsky.social
✍️ 117 different writers
🖼️ Periodic Table Poster by @corabeth.bsky.social
👇 Read more...
January 2, 2025 at 8:27 PM
This is exciting news (and I'm a part of it!).
We're announcing something big on the 2nd of January 2025, so once you've recovered from your Hogmanay celebrations check back for a surprise 👀

IYKYK...
January 1, 2025 at 7:06 PM
Reposted by Lauren Murphy
You guys, I was teaching the Aeneid today, and I mentioned how Vergil used condere as the verb for planting the sword in Turnus' chest and how the verb was used for founding a city in book one. One of my students then wrote in the chat eSTABlished. I am dead 💀. #classicsbluesky
December 3, 2024 at 12:36 AM
Someone, at some time, said something about ancient vases being too primitive for collectors during the Early Modern period. Don't mind me while I spend the next few days fixated on it.
January 7, 2024 at 3:12 PM
Reposted by Lauren Murphy
You'd have to be *very* careful about who you gifted it to, but whoever came up with the idea of putting the frontispiece of Swift's Modest Proposal on a babygro was having a *day*.
A Modest Proposal Babygro
A Modest Proposal is widely held to be one of the greatest examples of sustained irony in the history of the English language. Much of its shock value derives from the fact that the first portion of t...
www.presentindicative.com
December 10, 2023 at 6:09 PM
Reposted by Lauren Murphy
If you're poor, you probably have more of your stability coming from your social capital than your monetary capital. If you "just move," you throw a lot of it away.
December 7, 2023 at 11:45 PM
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'Despite frequent remonstrations, Persephone never accepted that she could not photocopy a whole book in one go".
December 6, 2023 at 4:26 PM
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December 2, 2023 at 1:39 AM
Reposted by Lauren Murphy
This observation aside, I helped run a session on time management for PhD students last week. A quick summary thread of the big discussion points, in case others might find them useful: 1/
The more sessions I do re: PhD student support and advice, the more I realize that my own ways of managing grad school were "unspecified neurodivergent brain shit" as opposed to something systematic others could conceivably adopt, which is super fun and makes me feel kind of useless! 🙃
November 28, 2023 at 3:35 PM
Reposted by Lauren Murphy
🗃️The JWH has been migrating from that other site to this one. Could you please give us a boost here (and there) to move our followers to this more pleasant place? Thank you!
November 1, 2023 at 12:44 PM
Reposted by Lauren Murphy
I will never recover from this student email.
November 27, 2023 at 9:48 PM
See if you can avoid thinking about it. Sometimes research is... uncomfortable.
November 27, 2023 at 3:33 AM
Reposted by Lauren Murphy
You can't write without a cat. This is just a fact. Even if you don't think you like cats or don't think you have a writing cat you actually do. It's out there, watching, waiting, stalking. It will find you. It can't be bargained with, t can't be reasoned with and it absolutely will not stop.
November 26, 2023 at 5:49 PM
Reposted by Lauren Murphy
gimme yule
gimme fire
don me now with gay attire
November 16, 2023 at 12:56 AM
Francis Bacon, 1605. Epitomes are bad, detailed study of the relics of history is good.
November 23, 2023 at 5:21 PM
In very, very late realisations: I've been researching the antique vases owned by Niccolo de Niccoli and saw a note that he tilted the writing when he made copies from ancient texts. When printers used it, it became 'italics'. I never connected that with being Italian because I am an idiot.
November 22, 2023 at 2:57 PM
One day I will back on my post history here and this stupid thing will be behind me. One day.
November 18, 2023 at 5:47 PM
In today's thesis gripe, it took me five hours to find the original texts for quotes I had in translation from secondary sources. They were all from the sixteenth century: two in Latin and one in Italian. My word count has actually gone down but perhaps someone will appreciate the original words? :(
November 18, 2023 at 5:47 PM
Reposted by Lauren Murphy
Me. *Misses one day of duolingo.*
November 18, 2023 at 2:47 PM
Reposted by Lauren Murphy
The greatest story ever told
November 5, 2023 at 8:16 AM
Boo to the French scholar who independently made the same discovery and attribution as me, only in 1996. Off to correct that section in my thesis now. Sigh. It serves me right for feeling smug when I worked it out last year.
November 17, 2023 at 3:33 PM
Okay, now I know why so many people are talking about skydiving Christian babies on bsky.
Given the very specific circumstances, I'd either check to see if I'm on drugs or if the baby is on drugs and if the latter find out where I could get some because clearly those are some gooooood drugs.
November 15, 2023 at 3:07 PM
Some of my research process involves cursing long-dead scholars who have footnotes like 'so-and-so informed me that he read about this super interesting thing that happened' and then there is nothing about the text they saw it in, who wrote it, where is it, how do I find it? I am a tired scholar.
November 14, 2023 at 3:59 PM
Vale Groot, our beloved crowned stick insect. She was a very good bug.
November 14, 2023 at 10:38 AM
Reposted by Lauren Murphy
November 5, 2023 at 10:22 AM