Dr Guy Freeland

By Dr Guy Freeland* Ding-a-Dong Ding Even if it is those lovely Greek Christmas carols that you are into, you must have heard, if only at your local shopping arcade, that splendid English carol, “Ding! Dong! Merrily on High”, which simulates bells descending down the scale: Glor-or-or-or-or-or-or-or-or-or-or-or-or-or-or-or-or-or-ria! Hosannna in excelsis! (Apologies if I have the wrong number of “or”s.) Written …

Theseus and the Minotaur It is difficult to imagine that there can be any reader of Vema, Greek or (like me) Barbarian, who has not known the story of Theseus and the Minotaur from infancy. But, of course, there is one reader, because there always is. So, briefly, ignoring the many variants and sticking to the bits that will concern …