Opa!

I got the part - the Casting office of Providence Pictures called me last night to tell me that they would be delighted to offer me the role of "The Scribe" in not just one but two documentaries that they're currently producing (the aforementioned one about the Trojan War, and this other one apparently about the life and times of Jesus, which means for the one I'll be writing the proem to the Iliad in archaic block letters and in the other in the hand of a Byzantine monk)! They're filming my part(s) on Monday at a studio in Canton, an all-day affair for which my wife has gracious offered to stay home and watch the little one while I live every Classicist's dream of breaking through into the entertainment industry and never having to translate a page of Latin or Greek again! As long as I don't "accidentally" bare my nipple, I should do just fine...

Now this sudden doubling of my acting gig into two separate bit parts has confirmed my suspicions that there might just be a market for my kind of expertise out there. Sure, it's not like I'm getting paid for either role, but I could have easily asked for an hourly rate for the research I did regarding Mycenaean arms and armor - and let's face it, compared to a Ph.D. holder or a celebrated name in the field, any such fee would have been circus peanuts, even to a production company running on a shoestring.

Well, it's a definite - as soon as I am able to rent myself a respectable bit of virtual real estate, I'm hanging out the shingle: Dodona Classical Consulting (est. 2004). If the reference is a tad obscure to you, Dodona was the other major oracle in Greece, aside from Delphi. Situated in a narrow valley just south of the Ioannina on the Greek mainland, the Oracle of Dodona was an ancient oak tree that considered to be sacred to Zeus after a black dove from Egypt landed on its branches. The rustling of the wind through its leaves and other noises emanating from the tree were interpreted by the priestesses of the cult into oracular statements and prophecies, though I also seem to remember something about inscribing a "YES/NO" question on a scrap of metal as well. Dodona may not have had the international cachet of Delphi, but it could boast to being the oldest of the Greek oracles, and it even ended up outlasting its better-known counterpart by a century.

Shucks! Someone's already got Dodona at blogspot.com. Fortunately the author appears to be a hoopy frood, so all is forgiven.