Official blog of G. A. Lodise

I’m reading an old book. It’s 126 years old to be exact and came from the library of Charles Atwood Kofoid a renowned zoologist who died in Berkeley in 1947. Written as a condensed version of the original, and intended as a text book, A Smaller History of Greece is in fact small enough to fit in the back pocket of my shorts. So, it is perfect for the beach which is where I do most of my reading these days. William Smith, LL.D. penned and possibly inked the booked. It is beautifully illustrated with wood engravings. It is also very, very interesting.

For instance, did you know that the word ostracize comes from the practice by the Athenian people’s government of voting one of the citizen’s out of the land for a period of ten years. On an appointed date each citizen wrote the name of the person they wanted ejected from Athens on an oyster shell and handed it in. 6,000 were needed to give someone the boot. 

oyster=ostracon=ostracism