Pantes anthropoi tou eidenai oregontai phusei. semeion d' he ton aistheseon agapesis: kai gar choris tes chreias agapontai d' hautas... ("Everyone by nature desires to have knowledge. A sign of this is our love of the senses; aside from their usefulness we love them for themselves..." --Aristotle, Metaphysics I.1) (Illustration: Athens in the nineteenth century, from an old engraving)

WELCOME TO MINERVA SYSTEMS

Welcome to Minerva Systems, an enterprise created by Dr. Cora Angier Sowa. It is a product of the author's longtime search for connections between the aesthetic and the technological. It is also devoted to examining the continuity of influence of Greek and Roman Classical civilization, and to exploring how ancient insights can be applied to today's world. Athena -- the Roman Minerva -- was, we remember, the patroness both of intellectual wisdom and of crafts and technology. This site presents a selection of writings by the author on some interconnected topics: Classical literature, computers and humanities, myths of machines, music, movies, architecture, and technology, and the aesthetic appreciation of the marvels of the built environment.

Dr. Cora Angier Sowa

Athena - the Roman Minerva - was goddess of both intellectual wisdom and technical crafts. Accompanied by her owl, she was also protector of the city of Athens.

NEW! READ MY 2010 HANDOUT FROM THE CHICAGO COLLOQUIUM, "'BUILD-A-BEAR' RESEARCH PLANNING: CLARIFICATION OF DEFINITIONS AS THE KEY TO CHOOSING OR WRITING PROGRAMS"

FOR MY RAILFAN READERS! CORA SOWA'S RIGHT-OF-WAY ("Railroad History of Cora Angier Sowa")

While my professional career is in Greek and Latin Classics and in computers (interests that I combine in the field of digital humanities), I am also a lifelong railfan. I grew up in a house above the old Los Angeles Subway tunnel and trainyards, my father was Head Cost Analyst for the Los Angeles Division of the Southern Pacific, and my grandfather and uncle were civil engineers specializing in railway and highway bridges. I now live in Croton-on-Hudson, New York, overlooking the Hudson River and the historic tracks of the former New York Central, now CSX, Metro North and Amtrak. On the series of Web pages called "Cora Sowa's Right-of-Way: Railroad History of Cora Angier Sowa,", I display some of my collection of rail photos, with commentary about them. Pages called "Engineers (Civil, Electrical, and Mechanical) in the Family," add more archival material about various family members' contributions to the history of railroads and engineering.

Click HERE for "Cora Sowa's Right-of-Way." Click HERE to read "Engineers in the Family."

THE RIGHT-OF-WAY The right-of-way, the stretch of land on which the tracks are laid, is the universe of the train. It is an alternative reality, intersecting but distinct from our usual world of streets and roads. You can go on it if you are on a train, or if you work there, or if you, unseen, trespass. Whether it is the narrow branch or spur disappearing mysteriously between buildings or merging into fields and forests, or the long, straight tangent of the main line, it speaks of something magical, just out of sight. It is the stage, on which an awaited drama will be acted out. It is a space warp, a pointer leading to a place of possibility. An invitation.

QUOTATIONS OF THE MONTH

Every month there will be a new classical or other quotation in this space, appropriate to the season or to current events. Previous quotations (beginning in September, 2004) are archived in "Archived Quotations of the Month". An index to all of these quotations is now located at the head of the first Archived Quotations page. Translations are my own, except where otherwise noted. Do you have a suggestion for a future Quotation of the Month? If so, send me your suggestions at casowa@aol.com.

Women chatting at the public fountain (Athens, 6th cent. B.C., from a hydria, or water jug) What is today's conversation about?

THE QUOTATIONS FOR MARCH AND APRIL APPEAR BELOW

Quotation for April, 2013: For the opening of a Presidential Library, Horace declares his poetry more lasting than the pyramids

The pyramids at Giza, Egypt, depicted on an old postcard. Horace's poems, which he declared were more durable than the pyramids, are still known today, but so are the pyramids!

Presidential pyramids

This April sees the dedication of former President George W. Bush's Presidential Library at Southern Methodist University (SMU) in Dallas, Texas. An invitation-only dedication ceremony will occur on April 25, 2013, followed by a public opening on May 1. According to the official Web site, "The Bush Center, which houses the George W. Bush Presidential Museum and Library and the George W. Bush Institute, combines the nation’s 13th Presidential Library and Museum with a leading-edge policy organization that continues the public service of President and Mrs. Bush." Recent presidents have established official libraries to collect and make accessible their presidential papers and memorabilia when their time in office is over. These libraries also serve the purpose of building a monument to themselves.

Rulers and leaders (or their followers) have always erected monuments to their prowess, from the pyramids of Egyptian pharoahs and Aztec kings to bronze statues of emperors to today's presidents. Sometimes the ruler becomes the monument, like the preserved bodies of Lenin and Eva Peron. There is talk of similarly preserving the remains of Venezuela's Hugo Chavez. This behavior is a manifestation of the natural desire for something of us to remain when we are gone. For some, it is the soul that goes to heaven after death, for others it is the presence of children and grandchildren. Non omnis moriar, "I shall not entirely die," says Horace. But where the result assumes an aura of grandiosity, Horace offers a corrective.

The poem is mightier than the pyramid

In 23 B.C., Horace published Books I-III of his Odes, to which he appended Ode 30 as an epilogue. In it he brags that his poems are more enduring than bronzes and pyramids, not subject to rain and wind. Through them he will live forever. His time frame is strangely local: "As long as the pontifex (chief priest) ascends the Capitol with the (Vestal) virgin, I shall be known," he says, and his geographical frame is small, too, extending to "the torrent of the Aufidus and the land ruled by Daunus," spots near his home in Apulia. The Vestal Virgins are gone, and so is the Pontifex. Or is he? The Pope is commonly called the Pontifex Maximus, though he ascends the steps of the Vatican unaccompanied by Vestal Virgins. Horace's poetry is read by all who study Latin, but the Pyramids are still there, too.

Below, in Latin and English, is Horace's poetic boast. The regali...situ pyramidum, which I translate as the "royal pile of the pyramids," can either be the "site" or "situation" of the pyramids, or their "decay," that is of something left lying around too long! Aquilo is the destructive north wind, and Libitina was the goddess of burials, in whose temple equipment for funerals was kept and death records registered. "Aeolian song" refers to Horace's adaptation of the metres of Sappho and Alcaeus to the Latin language. Melpomene, the Muse of tragedy, stands here for any of the Muses.

Horace Carmina III.30 Exegi monumentum aere perennius regalique situ pyramidum altius, quod non imber edax, non Aquilo impotens possit diruere aut innumerabilis annorum series et fuga temporum. Non omnis moriar multique pars mei vitabit Libitinam; usque ego postera crescam laude recens. Dum Capitolium scandet cum tacita virgine pontifex, dicar, qua violens obstrepit Aufidus et qua pauper aquae Daunus agrestium regnavit populorum, ex humili potens, princeps Aeolium carmen ad Italos deduxisse modos. Sume superbiam quaesitam meritis et mihi Delphica lauro cinge volens, Melpomene, comam.

My fame will live forever I have completed a monument more lasting than bronze, more exalted than the royal pile of the pyramids, which neither devouring rain nor violent Aquilo can demolish, nor the countless succession of the years and the flight of time. I shall not entirely die, and a great part of me will escape Libitina. On and on I shall grow afresh with posthumous fame. As long as the pontifex ascends the Capitol with the silent virgin, I shall be spoken of where the violent Aufidus resounds and where Daunus, poor in water, ruled over an agrarian people, risen from humbleness to power, for I was the first to bring Aeolian song to Italian rhythms. Accept the pride won by your merits and willingly bind my hair with Delphic laurel, Melpomene.

A stern looking chief Vestal Virgin, from Rodolfo Lanciani, Ancient Rome, in the Light of Recent Discoveries, 1898.

Quotation for March, 2013: Springtime is growing season, as described in Hesiod's Works and Days

Plowing with oxen, detail from the Papyrus of Ani, British Museum. Ani's life in a blessed hereafter is represented in this papyrus, as he plows, reaps, and worships the gods. (Image from The Book of the Dead, English translation by Sir E.A. Wallis Budge, second edition, 1949.)

Plant early, or hope for soaking rain

Spring has come to the northern hemisphere, and with it planting and growing season. Even urban dwellers have gotten into the back-to-the-earth movement. Gardens sprout on rooftops, and composting and hydroponic kits are available for those who want to practice windowsill gardening. Some Brooklyn residents are even raising chickens for their eggs. We ourselves will soon be starting our tomatoes in the back yard.

This month, we offer Hesiod's description of how and when to plow, sow, and reap a good crop of grain, in a passage taken from his Works and Days (Erga kai Hemerai).

In the Mediterranean climate, the rainy season is in winter, so plowing must be done at the beginning of winter, "when the cranes call." There appear, however, to be three seasons for plowing: fall, spring, and summer. We are reminded of the goddess Demeter, who "lay in love with Iasion in a thrice-plowed fallow field," bringing fertility to the crops (Theogony 970-971). If you plow too late, Hesiod tells us, you can hope that Zeus will send a heavy rain. Then even the late farmer can match the early planter in output. Hesiod pictures the farmer working side-by-side with his slaves (dmos, literally "one taken in war," a frequent cause of servitude. Later philosophers began to decry the practice).

Below, in Greek and English, is Hesiod's advice on the necessity for timely plowing and planting.

Hesiod Works and Days 448-492

Advice on plowing and planting Consider, when you hear the voice of the crane, as it cries out every year from the clouds above, for she gives the signal for plowing and points out the season of rainy winter. But she afflicts the heart of the oxen-less man. Then is the time to feed your horned oxen indoors. It is easy to say, "give me a pair of oxen and a wagon." It is also easy to refuse: "There is work for my oxen." The man who is rich in his own mind claims he has built his wagon, the fool! He doesn't know there are a hundred planks in a wagon. Take care to lay these up at home ahead of time. When plowing time first appears to men, then make haste, your slaves and yourself alike, plowing in the season for plowing whether dry or wet. Get going early in the day, that your fields may be full. Plow in the spring, but ground tilled in summer will not cheat you. Sow fallow land when the soil is still light. Fallow land is a guard against harm and a soother of children. Pray to Zeus of the Underworld and to pure Demeter that Demeter's holy corn be ripe and heavy, as you first begin plowing, when taking in your hand the end of the plow handle, you bring down the stick on the backs of the oxen as they pull on the yoke harness. A little behind you, let a slave with a mattock make trouble for the birds, hiding the seed. Good management is best for mortal men, and bad management is worst. Thus your ears of corn will bow to the ground with ripeness if the Olympian himself later gives a good result and you will sweep the cobwebs from your storage jars. And I hope you will rejoice as you partake of the sustenance within. Enjoying plenty you will arrive at gray spring, and you will not gaze at others, but another man will be in need of you. But if you plow the divine earth at the solstice, you will reap sitting down, grasping a little in your hand, binding it askew while covered with dust, taking no pleasure. You will carry it in a basket, and few will admire you. But the mind of Zeus is different at different times, and difficult to discern for mortal men. If you plow late, there may be a remedy. When the cuckoo cuckoos in the leaves of the oak for the first time, and gladdens mortals on the boundless earth, and then Zeus rains on the third day and does not cease, rising not above an ox's hoof nor below it, then the late plowman will be a match for the early plowman. Keep all of this in mind, and let neither the beginning of gray spring nor rain in its season escape your notice.

The old ways have persisted in modern times. The photo above of a couple with their new plow was taken on one of the trips in Mexico that I took with my father as a teenager in the 1950's.

Archived Quotations Earlier quotations, appropriate to the seasons or to current situations as indicated, are available in the pages of "Archived Quotations." The index of all archived quotations, formerly in this space, having grown very large, has now been moved to the head of the main Quotations page. The quotations themselves now occupy separate pages for each year, but all can be accessed from the index on the main Quotations page.

MINERVA participation in the Chicago Colloquia on Digital Humanities

The Chicago River, from the Michigan Avenue Bridge, January, 2008. (Photo by C.A. Sowa.)

NEW! READ MY 2010 HANDOUT, "BUILD-A-BEAR" RESEARCH PLANNING: CLARIFICATION OF DEFINITIONS AS THE KEY TO CHOOSING OR WRITING PROGRAMS

CHICAGO COLLOQUIA ON DIGITAL HUMANITIES AND COMPUTER SCIENCE

Since their inception in the fall of 2006, I have been attending the Chicago Colloquia on Digital Humanities and Computer Science (DHCS), held at a rotating group of universities around Chicago. These Colloquia now draw participants from all over the world, who present projects covering many fields, including such interests as visual arts, archaeological reconstruction, musical composition, literary criticism, social trends, popular culture, history, and many fields yet to be discovered. Of the projects I have submitted under the name of Minerva Systems, a couple have been presented as poster exhibits. Whether accepted for presentation or not, my ideas find their way into handouts which I circulate (in exchange for handouts that I get from other participants!). Workshops and discussion groups, too, are well worth while.

The seventh DHCS Colloquium will be held on Novermber 17-19 at the University of Chicago at its Hyde Park campus.

For information about the Colloquium, visit the DHCS Web site at "http://chicagocolloquium.org". Information about all previous Colloquia (2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011) can also be accessed from there.

Previous DHCS Colloquia and MINERVA offerings: Click on the buttons on the right to read the MINERVA presentations. 2006 The theme of the first Colloquium (2006)was "What to do with a Million books," posing the problem that, now that all the world's libraries have been put in digital form, what do we do with them? MINERVA Systems presented a demonstration showing the capabilities of MINERVA as a set of tools for carrying out a project to study a work of literature, using digital methods. The first Colloqium was held at the University of Chicago at its Hyde Park Campus. 2007 The emphasis of the second Colloquium (2007) was on using digital materials in a collaborative environment, and on discerning what studies are better undertaken by using digitized versions of materials such as images and text than by using the original non-digitized sources. The MINERVA demonstration for 2007 highlighted new additions to the Systems Analysis Tutorial/Project Planner, which aid the user in steps to planning and carrying out a project in an organized way. These techniques are adapted from the commercial and scientific fields, where teams of persons who may be working in distant locations must coordinate their efforts. The second Colloqium was held at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. 2008 The theme of the third Colloquium (2008) was "'Making Sense'- an exploration of how meaning is created and apprehended at the transition of the digital and the analog." "Sense-making" is a field concerned with finding meaning in vaguely defined material. As usual, this third Colloquium brought together a terrific group of diverse scholars and students working in different areas of computer applications. These included not only literary and sociological studies, but such inventive applications as a study of different musical genres (country, gospel, blues, hip hop, heavy metal, etc.) to see which body parts (head, heart, hand, etc.) are mentioned most often, and three-dimensional recreations of archaeological and historic sites, including a study of pedestrian traffic patterns in an ancient Turkish town destroyed by Cyrus the Great. Minerva Systems submitted a paper to the third Colloquium, "A Bridge Across the Culture Gap: Build Your Own Project Using the Minerva System for Study of Literary Texts", which was given as a handout to all who were interested. Additions to the MINERVA System emphasized the need to serve "the great unserved middle," between the Luddites and the Rocket Scientists, of scholars and students, who would like to be introduced to elements of logical analysis and computerized methods. The third Colloqium was held at the University of Chicago. 2009 The theme of the fourth Colloquium (2009) was "Critical Computing", seeking to explore how productive research collaborations between computer scientists and humanists can be most effective. How might computation provide new critical tools for humanists? How might humanists help us understand the real meaning and import of computational results? The fourth Colloquium was held at the Illinois Institute of Technology. 2010 The theme of the fifth Colloquium (2010) was "Working with Digital Data: Collaborate, Curate, Analyze, Annotate." Emphasized in particular were papers or poster sessions about annotation, scholarly crowdsourcing, and challenges of human/computer interaction. How to create better texts from OCR may be a problem in which new forms of human/computer interaction hold particular promise. I submitted a Minerva Systems paper on using "Build-a-Bear" analytical methods to help the scholar/user analyze his or her own research problems sufficiently to choose or design an appropriate computer solution. The fifth Colloquium was held at Northwestern University. 2011 The sixth Colloqium (2011) was held at Loyola University at its Water Tower Campus. Minerva Systems was again in attendance.

Read the MINERVA demos and handouts from the 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2010 Colloquia. Click on the buttons below to see the complete MINERVA handouts.

The Reliance Building, at State and Washington Streets in Chicago, January, 2008. (Photo by C.A. Sowa.) The Reliance Building, like the MINERVA System, was built on principles of modularity and extensibility.

The Reliance Building, an incredible little jewel in the middle of Chicago's Loop, was not all built at once. When the developer acquired the site in 1882, it was occupied by a five-story building. The leases on the lower two floors expired in 1890, those on the top three in 1894. So, as the first leases expired, the architects Daniel H. Burnham and John Wellborn Root demolished the first two floors, and, jacking up the top three storeys, replaced the demolished floors with the first two floors of the new building. When the remaining leases expired, the top floors of the old building were demolished, and replaced with new floors, designed by Charles Atwood, Root having died. The number of floors eventually grew to fifteen, made of identical structural modules and clad in graceful terracotta, giving the building the perfect proportions that it has today, somewhat overwhelmed, unfortunately, by the gigantism of the surrounding modern buildings.

Today, the Reliance Building, after years of neglect (shabby but still showing her noble "bones"), has been reborn as a boutique hotel, called the Burnham, with an excellent restaurant, the Atwood, on its ground floor, the names being chosen as an homage to its architects.

THE MINERVA SYSTEM FOR STUDY OF LITERARY TEXTS, INTRODUCED A IN SELF-STUDY CD The Loom of Minerva: An Introduction to Computer Projects for the Literary Scholar

The Loom of Minerva is a self-study CD that introduces the Minerva System for Study of Literary Texts, which is a set of tools, some automated and some semi-automated, for planning and carrying out a project in literary study. The Loom of Minerva contains both text chapters and a set of programs. The first chapter, "A Guide to the Labyrinth" (now much revised), can be read on this Web site, and images of two (earlier) demonstrations of the system from 2006 and 2007 can also be seen. More revisions are to come, including an on-line version. Illustrations: Statue of Minerva, Helsinki, Finland (photo by J.F. Sowa); "Palace of Minos," Knossos, Crete, the building that was perhaps the original Labyrinth (photo by C.A. Sowa).

Read about it!

My thanks to all those who have reviewed and used my self-study CD course on using computers and quantitative methods in the study of literature, The Loom of Minerva: An Introduction to Computer Projects for the Literary Scholar, and my thanks to those who continue to give me comments.

You can read Chapter 1, "A Guide to the Labyrinth: The Problem and Its Solution" on this Web site. (Note: this chapter now describes a greater variety of ways to structure a project, e.g., top-down, bottom-up, etc. It will continue to be revised.) You can also see images from two demonstrations of the MINERVA System, from 2006 (emphasizing individual applications programs), given at the First Chicago Colloquium on Digital Humanities at the University of Chicago and 2007 (emphasizing new project planning programs) given at the Second Chicago Colloquium on Digital Humanities at the Northwestern University.

The MINERVA System

The MINERVA System for Study of Literary Texts is a set of tools, some automated, some not automated, for planning and carrying out a project in literary study. Methods of Systems Analysis, borrowed from the scientific and commercial world, are adapted to the study of literature. This methodology emphasizes the use of diagramming techniques and modular design, offering a way to construct a project as a set of units or modules that can be worked on separately and moved around without disturbing the whole. A project is defined as an enterprise that has a goal and an organized way of achieving that goal.

The Loom of Minerva combines the methods of Systems Analysis with the insights of traditional belles-lettres literary criticism. All analysis takes as its point of departure the value of the piece of literature itself to the critic and the reader, as well as the historic, social, or aesthetic qualities attached to it. These alone confer significance on any work of scholarship. Examples grow directly from study of various works of literature, from Vergil to Coleridge to Baudelaire to Victor Hugo to Edna St. Vincent Millay and Gertrude Stein, and works of criticism from Sainte-Beuve to Swinburne to Gertrude Stein (criticizing her own work).

Emphasis is placed on analyzing the language of criticism itself, analyzing exactly what we mean by such terms as "beautiful," "ugly," "pompous," "like a spring garden," etc. By defining our terms with an exactness that can be quantified, we learn to give precision to our thoughts, whether using a computer or not.

What is in The Loom of Minerva

The CD contains both a set of narrative chapters and a set of programs, called the MINERVA System for Study of Literary Texts. The narrative chapters explain and amplify the programs, and the programs illustrate the chapters. The programs are provided in both executable form and source code, to satisfy both non-programmer scholars and programmers who want to play with the code.

• The programs.

  The programs are in two groups, The Tutorial in Systems Analysis and the MINERVA Program Suite. The Tutorial in Systems Analysis takes the student through the steps to plan and design a project, beginning with the Selection of a Topic, going through the activities of drawing hierarchical and flow charts, and continuing to the final Evaluation of Results. The screens are interactive, so that the student can practice designing his or her own project.

  The MINERVA Program Suite is an interactive suite of programs designed for use by scholars and critics of literature. These programs, which can be used with texts of English, Classical, or other literatures, currently contains sixteen programs: eight to perform different types of literary analysis, and eight "OwlData" programs that the scholar can use to create or adapt data for the analytical programs. Currently available are programs to make concordances, search for words and cooccurring words, do statistical studies, perform cluster analysis, and compose original paragraphs. Developed in modular fashion, MINERVA is intended to be expandable, so that in the future more modules can be added to do more things. The latest to be developed is a program to perform cluster analysis based on the program described in Sowa and Sowa "Thought Clusters in Early Greek Oral Poetry."

• The narrative chapters

  The narrative chapters can be read like a book, or they can be entered directly from the programs by clicking on links on the screens.

  The first four text chapters of The Loom of Minerva introduce the MINERVA System. They demonstrate the steps for planning and developing a project, and provide many literary examples for using the programs. Historical chapters of The Loom of Minerva analyze projects past and present, that have used computers and other mechanical devices in the study of literature (including the Eureka Machine for composing Latin hexameters). Also described are works of literature that were inspired by machines, like the short story "Moxon's Master" by Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914), in which a chess-playing robot murders its inventor. Four final chapters of the book are for techies only: a programming manual of Visual Basic, using literary examples, for those gung-ho readers who want to understand the arcana behind the MINERVA programs included with the book.

MINERVA stands for Model INteractive Engine for Recognizing Verbal Artifice.

Advantages of the MINERVA System

The MINERVA programs do not require the use of data that is in a proprietary format. They use plain ASCII text, such as that downloaded from the Internet. The OwlData programs can be used to put downloaded or scanned text in the correct format for the MINERVA programs. The mathematics and statistics used are fairly elementary, such as can be understood as an introduction to basic concepts of what the computer and quantified methods can do. The programs are open-source, as they are intended to be extensible.

For more information:

If you are interested in finding out more about the Loom of Minerva or the MINERVA System, contact me at casowa@aol.com.

Historical chapters of The Loom of Minerva describe projects using the computer in the study of literature, including the author's Traditional Themes and the Homeric Hymns (see below). One of the thematic elements analyzed is "Maidens Dancing and Picking Flowers." Illustration: the Untermyer Fountain, Central Park, New York City, sculpture by Walter Schott, ca. 1910 (photo by C.A. Sowa).

A VICTORIAN COMPUTER LIVES AGAIN! WATCH A REPLICA OF CHARLES BABBAGE'S ENGINE IN ACTION

Reconstruction of one of Babbage's engines at the Computer History Museum, Mountain View, California. Click on the picture to watch it in action. (Photo by J.F. Sowa).

Charles Babbage's Difference Engine and Analytical Engine

Charles Babbage, prolific Victorian inventor, is most famous for two of his inventions, the Difference Engine (1812) and the Analytical Engine (1833), which are perhaps the truest forerunners of the modern computer. The Difference Engine, a mechanical device of rotating gears, was designed to automatically generate mathemetical tables. It was called the Difference Engine because it was based on the principle of computing the differences between successive values of an expression, then the difference between the differences. Versions of the Difference Engine were eventually built and used, but Babbage himself dropped work on it to pursue his real dream, the Analytical Engine. The Analytical Engine was, or would have been, the first "real" computer, capable of performing any kind of mathematical operation, and able to be "programmed," that is, to perform a sequence of operations without human intervention, and to choose, when necessary, between alternative paths of action. It was to be powered by steam, and programs were to be entered into the machine by means of punched cards, an idea borrowed from the then-new Jacquard power looms. Babbage, sad to say, was never able to complete the Analytical Engine.

Ada, Lady Lovelace, "the world's first programmer"

Babbage's collaborator on his Engines was one of history's most remarkable women, Ada, Lady Lovelace, daughter of the poet Lord Byron. These lines from Childe Harold's Pilgrimage are thought to be addressed to her:

Is thy face like thy mother's, my fair child, Ada, sole daughter of my house and heart? When last I saw thy young blue eyes they smiled And then we parted,--not as now we part, But with a hope...

A gifted mathematician in her own right, Ada worked with Babbage until her untimely death in 1852 at the age of 36. In 1842, the Italian engineer Luigi F. Menabrea published a description, in French, of Babbage's Analytical Engine. Lady Lovelace translated Menabrea's article into English, expanding it with commentary so extensive that her "Notes upon the Memoir" are virtually an original work. She provides detailed directions for using the machine to calculate answers to mathematical problems, leading modern writers to call her "the world's first programmer." Her words relate computing to other artistic endeavors:

We may say most aptly that [Babbage's] Analytical Engine weaves algebraical patterns just as the Jacquard-loom weaves flowers and leaves.

A Babbage Engine in London and California

In 1985, the Science Museum in London set out to build a working Difference Engine No. 2, based on Babbage's original designs. It was completed in 2002, and is on public display at the Science Museum. An identical Engine, completed in 2008, is presently on loan to the Computer History Museum, Mountain View, California, where it is on display until May, 2009. Read more about this recreated machine at the Computer History Museum Web site.

Click here or on the picture below to watch the Babbage engine in action, in a video taken by John F. Sowa.

Reconstruction of one of Babbage's engines, detail view. Click on the picture to watch it in action. (Photo by J.F. Sowa).

Read about the 1845 Eureka Machine for Composing Hexameter Latin Verse

Another Victorian machine which could be called an early special-purpose computer was the Eureka machine designed by John Clark in 1845 for automatically composing Latin hexameter poetry. It still survives, in a museum in Somerset, England. Click here to read about it.

TRADITIONAL THEMES AND THE HOMERIC HYMNS IS AGAIN IN PRINT. SELECTIONS AVAILABLE FOR FREE READING ON THIS SITE

One of the mythic themes analyzed in Traditional Themes and the Homeric Hymns is the Epiphany of a God. Illustration: Dionysos in a boat with grape vines and dolphins, cup by Exekias, about 540 B.C., Munich, Staatliche Antikensammlung, from a photo by R. Schoder, S.J. It is reproduced in Chapter 9, "Epiphany of a God and Institution of Rites."

Book: Traditional Themes and the Homeric Hymns

Cora Angier Sowa is the author of Traditional Themes and the Homeric Hymns published by Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers, Wauconda, IL (1984).

The book, out of print for a while, is again available by "on-demand" production. Contact the publisher for information.

New selections are available on this Web site for free reading. You can read Chapters 1 ("Introduction") and 10 ("Conclusion: the Place of the Hymns in the Ancient Greek Oral Tradition"), Appendix I ("Outlines of Themes Identified in the Hymns"). You can also see diagrams of the themes as they appear in the Hymns.

Article: "Thought Clusters in Early Greek Oral Poetry"

An article, by Cora Angier Sowa and John Sowa, describes in detail the quantitative and mathematical methods used on the computer to identify thematic elements in Hesiod and the Homeric Hymns. Material from this study was later integrated into into the more comprehensive Traditional Themes and the Homeric Hymns. Click on "Thought Clusters in Early Greek Oral Poetry". A version of the CLUMP cluster analysis program used to identify thematic repetitions is now also being integrated into the MINERVA suite of programs in the self-study CD The Loom of Minerva.

"Verbal Patterns in Hesiod's Theogony"

In orally composed poetry like Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, and Hesiod's Theogony and Works and Days, there was no written text (the alphabet being barely known at the time, around 750 B.C.). The bard, like a jazz musician, recomposed his story each time (to a melody now lost to us), using stock phrases or "formulas" and repeated scenes. Since the story was enjoyed not by reading but by hearing it, there were no punctuation marks or chapter headings to tell listeners where they were in the narrative or its episodes. The skilled singer used, instead, repeated words and phrases to serve as "oral punctuation" to articulate the story and provide emphasis for important themes and concepts.

Reissued here is my article Verbal Patterns in Hesiod's Theogony, which explores the use of verbal repetition in Hesiod's tale of the origins of the gods.

The Eureka Machine for Composing Hexameter Latin Verses (1845)

We think of computers as being very modern, although calculating machines and computer-like devices have been around for a long time. In particular, we think of using such a machine to do such non-scientific tasks as composing poetry as a modern concept. But in 1845, John Clark built the Eureka Machine for Composing Hexameter Latin Verse. It still exists in a museum in England. Read about the Eureka Machine and read the original description of it from the Illustrated London News of July, 1845.

There is more about early computers and their mechanical ancestors in the self-study CD The Loom of Minerva: An Introduction to Computer Projects for the Literary Scholar, described above.

Ships named Minerva

Classically named ships have a long tradition. Illustration: "The PHOENIX and the ROSE, engaged by the ENEMY'S FIRE SHIPS & GALLEYS, on the 16th Augt 1776. Engraved from the Original Picture by D. Serres, from a Sketch of Sir James Wallace's." Lithograph by G. Hayward for D.T. Valentine's Manual 1776.

"Minerva" has long been a popular name for ships. There are cruise ships named "Minerva," including Greek vessels whose owners chose that name as a synonym for their own city patroness Athena. Warships named "Minerva" have graced the navies of Europe from the time of Nelson and Napoleon to the present, whether British "Minerva" or French "Minerve."

It is an interesting choice, considering that Athena, with her gift of the olive, defeated Poseidon, lord of the sea, with his gift of the horse, in the contest to be patron deity of Athens. (See the depiction of Athena and Poseidon below.)

The name "Minerva" for a British warship belongs in the splendid tradition of naming vessels after names from Classical history and mythology. Along with names like "Invincible," "Audacious," "Irresistible," "Insolent," "Victory," and "Dreadnought," we find "Gorgon," "Phoenix," "Achilles," "Apollo," "Dryad," "Endymion," "Hector," "Helicon," "Medusa," "Meleager," and, famously, "Arethusa." The most famous ship named for the Sicilian nymph Arethusa was known for her victory over the French "Belle Poulle" in 1778. Training ships for over a century inherited the name, one after the other.

A frigate "Minerva" participated in the Battle of Cape St. Vincent against the navy of Napoleon on February 14, 1797. The marine painter Thomas Buttersworth (the elder) painted a portrait of "Minerva" in 1810, and the "Minerva" Pub in Hull, England (built in 1831) uses the frigate's symbol, the owl, on its sign. Of course, some ships have been named "Athena" and "Poseidon," too; there was a movie about such a ship called The Poseidon Adventure.

There is a further connection between ships and this Minerva Systems site. In the self-study CD The Loom of Minerva (described above), an analysis of Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is used as a case study to demonstrate methods of Systems Analysis and computer techniques.

A feminist note on the gender of ships: Because of the living qualities of ships, I like to refer to a ship as "she" rather than "it." While some may compare a vessel to a woman because of the supposedly capricious nature of both (although there seems nothing wrong with an occasional playful moment), I think that this view overlooks other qualities. Ships, like women, are beautiful, swift, intelligent, and powerful. I am glad to acclaim them as my sisters!

"Attack on Sidon by Commodore Charles Napier." The battle took place in September, 1840. Sir Charles Napier was a lineal descendant of John Napier, inventor of Napierian logarithms, whose mathematical insights led to the invention of the slide rule, itself an ancestor of the modern computer. The ships in the picture are identified along the bottom as H.M.S. "Gorgon" (flag), H.M.S. "Thunderer" (84 guns), Turkish Corvette (20 g.), Austrian frigate "Guerriera," H.M. Brig "Wasp" (16 g.), H.M.S.S. "Stromboli."

Signed vase painting by the Athenian potter/painter Amasis (6th cent. B.C.), depicting Athena and Poseidon. The two figures are labeled ATHENAIA and POSEIDON. The inscription down the middle reads AMASIS MEPOIESEN ("Amasis made me"). Amasis may well have been African. (Illustration from a lithograph by Kaeppelin et Cie., ca. 1840. The actual vase is in the Cabinet des Médailles, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris.)

Myths of landmarks: Pennsylvania Station and Times Square as centers of the universe, the World Trade Center as a Mythic Place

The World Trade Center was a sacred place long before it was blown up by terrorists. Lower Manhattan was the sacred land of the Lenape Indians, who made their community and buried their dead there. The modern World Trade Center, with its iconic double-towered shape (a nation's gateway, a cosmic tuning-fork?) was a symbol to the world of universal aspirations and longings. As a center of communications (with its towering antenna) and of transportation (as a hub of rail transportation) it had the mana or spiritual power of the crossroads, the traditional meeting place watched over by the gods of trade. The WTC is not sacred just because it, along with its inhabitants, was destroyed; it was destroyed because it was sacred. Today, Mercury returns, as the god of communication and of commerce, along with the spirits of all who have lived and died there.

Essays and reviews on building and architecture

Among the selections on this site is the previously published "Holy Places", a study of myths of landmarks. In addition, there is an epilogue to that essay, on "The World Trade Center as a Mythic Place". This piece continues the author's interest in relating ancient ideas to things that we care about in the modern world.

You can also read two of the author's previously published book reviews on architecture, on Alison Sky and Michelle Stone's Unbuilt America and Albert Mehrabian's Public Places and Private Spaces.

About the Author

The author is an aficionado of many kinds of transportation, including railroads, ships, and airplanes. Here I am "at the wheel" of the ferryboat Eureka (rebuilt in 1923 from the 1890 freight-car ferry Ukiah) at the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park.

Cora Angier Sowa has combined humanities and technology for many years. She has a BA in Latin and an MA in Classics from the University of California, Los Angeles, and a PhD in Classical Philology from Harvard University. She spent a year studying archaeology at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. She taught Greek and Roman literature and history at Mt. Holyoke, Vassar, and Brooklyn Colleges. For a number of years, she was a programmer/analyst at Chemical (now Chase) Bank in New York. She has taught classes in computers and humanities at the College of Staten Island and at St. John's University in Queens, New York. She served twice on the Committee on Computer Activities of the American Philological Association, once as chairperson of the committee. She was the recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship (for study in Greece) and of a grant from the American Council of Learned Societies (for work on computers and ancient Greek literature).

In addition to the book Traditional Themes and the Homeric Hymns (described above), Dr. Sowa has published articles and reviews on Classics and on the mythology of architecture and motion pictures. A harp player, she is also on the board of trustees of the International Percy Grainger Society , an organization dedicated to preserving the home and archives in White Plains, New York of Percy Grainger -- composer, piano virtuoso, collector of folk songs, and inventor of an early mechanical music synthesizer. Dr. Sowa is Webmaster for the Grainger web site. Dr. Sowa now lives in Croton-on-Hudson NY, and in New York City, with her husband, Dr. John F. Sowa, an expert in Artificial Intelligence and computer design, and several cats.

The author plays the harp for an appreciative audience (handsome cat-about-town Feliz Sowa).

All selections on this site, unless otherwise identified, are copyright by Cora Angier Sowa.

   Send e-mail to Cora Angier Sowa.

On this Web site, you are visitor number:

Last Modified: