The startling wanderings of a Greek hero, who wants to go home from the battlefield but is opposed by the god of the sea. This is what Homers Odyssey is about. The story has been published many times before in Dutch, but never translated so beautifully as by the Flemish classicist Patrick Lateur. A
The first president of the modern republic of Turkey, Mustafa Kemal (1881-1938) aka Atatürk, partly owes his mythical status to film. Through this modern medium, the Father of all Turks showed the world a civilized, democratic and western-oriented country. Atatürk and his supporters used film to sh
December 10 is International Human Rights Day. The Spaniard Bartolomé de las Casas was a slave owner in New Spain during the sixteenth century. He soon saw no point in the forced employment of the colonized population and he stood up for their rights. Bartolomé de las Casas has engaged in practices
One mutation in our ancestors genes may be responsible for the large brains that humans have. That one change resulted in a cerebral cortex twice as large and with it what transformed the great ape into a human being. In this variant, the gene only occurs in modern humans, in Neanderthals and other
The exciting idea that everyone was just rolling around in late medieval Italy is wrong, according to historian Marlisa den Hartog. She won the annual Volkskrant IISH thesis prize for her research into sexuality in late medieval Italy. “Everything is about sex, except sex itself, which is about pow
They vacuum houses, point the way at airports and help surgeons operate. The robots are not coming, they are already there. In a new series of articles, NEMO Kennislink dives into the world of robotization. What does this mean for me? And for you? And for all of us? Ask your question and we will inv
Bildts is not a dialect of Frisian or Dutch, but an independent language. This is what three linguists from the Fryske Akademy advocate. It is a mixed language with a predominantly Frisian grammar and a Dutch vocabulary. In addition, the inhabitants of the Bildt do not feel like Frisians, but Bildtk
Have you ever been to the battlefields at Waterloo? Or would you like to visit the place where the Twin Towers . first were standing? Then you are a so-called dark tourist. This form of tourism is very popular. But why do people visit places full of atrocities? Going on vacation to concentration ca
During the French occupation, one percent of the Dutch population died on the battlefield before Napoleon. A huge number, yet there is little recent research on the military apparatus during this period. Did Dutch soldiers slavishly follow the great general Napoleon or did they resist this French oc
Discolored facades, rebellious workers and an overgrown viewing garden. No, the day-to-day reality of homes, schools and offices is often different than the architect ever imagined. That is why architect Marlies Rohmer goes on a journey through her own buildings and talks with the users. This result
It is the birthplace of the compact disc, chip machine maker ASML and chip manufacturer NXP. The Physics Laboratory, or Natlab for short, has been the research department of Philips for more than a hundred years. In their book Natlab, Paul van Gerven and René Raaijmakers delve into the rich history
Archaeologists have mapped the use and distribution of dairy throughout prehistoric southern Europe. Since almost everyone became ill from unprocessed milk during that period, with the exception of small children, cheese, yogurt or butter were made from it to be able to digest it. The prehistoric Gr
Powerful women star in the new exhibition Queens of the Nile. You see beautiful jewels, luxurious utensils, statues of queens and goddesses. In addition, Egyptologist Olaf Kaper and his PhD students provide in-depth information by showing new research results in the exhibition. Women are an underex
Nehalennia is a pre-Christian goddess, invoked to protect sailors on perilous voyages. Several linguists have tried to explain her name. According to the most recent theory, the tracks are in Welsh. Nehalennia can be traced back to she who is by the sea via Celtic. Two thousand years ago, people in
Electricity is almost as natural as the air we breathe. You quickly forget that there are hundreds of years of science and innovation behind it. The book Electricity, the world behind the socket tells this story, from the first bizarre experiments with that curious electricity to the development of
August 23, 2018 marked the 400th anniversary of the death of the famous writer Bredero. To commemorate, Dutch scientist Jeroen Jansen put together an exhibition and a walking tour. He drew on his own research for this. He was a true Amsterdammer and comparable to André Hazes, king of the song of li
The famous King Arthur, did he exist or not? Scientists still disagree. Jozef Janssens has his own opinion and describes the development of a Celtic warrior into a courtly king on the basis of historical texts. He is one of the most famous literary figures:King Arthur with his Knights of the Round
During a total solar eclipse, the moon slides right between the earth and the sun. In a short time, day turns into night and from the sun only the hot atmosphere can be seen. This relatively rare astronomical event is one of the most spectacular you can experience on Earth. A few times a year the e
Viewed from the Netherlands, French political culture is a distant, exotic island with archaic rituals. The absolutist monarchy disappeared in 1789, but French politics has remained essentially a court culture. Peter Burke wrote in his masterly work Louis XIVs propaganda :Politics during the Sun Ki
How did the Dutch see themselves in the twentieth century? Jesper Verhoef examined our identity on the basis of the public debate about new media from America. What seems? The Dutch didnt like those modern frills. The public debate is still regularly about the Dutch identity. We are afraid that it
He was said to be madman and fascist. He was insulted. When he predicted the events of September 1939 with shocking precision, care was taken to prevent his prophecy from seeing the light of day. All because he dared to criticize the Polish government - and called for an alliance with Hitler. Th
It is hard to imagine a Renaissance without glass mirrors. Could a man begin to think of himself as an individual if he were not able to see his own face? Could he invent humanism and individualism? Of course, it was always possible to look in the pond or use a mirror made of polished metal. However
Lady with an Ermine by Leonardo (details) Leonardo da Vinci she loved to embed images and words in his paintings, giving life to intricate rebus still largely mysterious today:the Lady with an Ermine is no exception ( see: https://www.pilloledistoria.it/8136/storia-moderna/la-collana-di-
The European football championship is full of interesting threads. It is difficult to describe them all in one article. That is why we have selected five amazing facts about the historical origins of Euro, about politics and about fathers for whom things were more important than football. Why so