We're translating some of Theocritus's Idylls in Greek class over the next couple of weeks, and bucolic poetry is great fun, I must say.
Idyll 11, our assignment for today, is all about the love Polyphemus (if you remember, the cyclops from the Odyssey) has for Galatea, a sea nymph. Which of course led to superprof!Sonia introducing us to a question raised by Aristotle himself: since Poseidon (his father) had two eyes and Thoosa (his sea nymph mother) had two eyes, how did Polyphemus end up with only one eye?!?! We came to the conclusion that maybe Aristotle should have had a good long chat with Gregor Mendel.
It almost sounds like a bad (or awesome?) joke: Aristotle and Mendel walk into a bar....
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