Armchair Classicist (Ryan Schaller)
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armchairclassicist.bsky.social
Armchair Classicist (Ryan Schaller)
@armchairclassicist.bsky.social
3K followers 4K following 2.1K posts
Ancient history and lit, photos of my cats. Writer, reader, fantasy, sci-fi, 🏳️‍🌈Ally, No🚫GenAI content. Lawyer by day.

Probably followed you for mentioning reading, history, or writing in your profile.

"Armchair Classicist: The Page" on FB
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armchairclassicist.bsky.social
Armchair Classicist (Ryan Schaller) @armchairclassicist.bsky.social · Sep 3
1/4
One of my posts earlier this week has been shared 500+ times over the past few days. So if you're looking at the page for the first time, here's a pin status explaining what this page is:

I am not a professional Classicist or historian. I am an enthusiastic amateur who works by day as a lawyer
armchairclassicist.bsky.social
Spear and shield wielding heroes get most of the attention in Homer's Iliad, but the poet also gives a description of the Locrians who fight with bow and sling.

#Classics #Mythology
“But no Locrians followed the hearty Little Ajax. They had no love for stand-and-fight encounters— had no crested bronze helmets to guard their heads, no balanced shields in their grasp, no ashen spears, only their bows and slings of springy, twisted wool. Trusting these, they followed their chief to Troy, shooting with these, salvo on pelting salvo., they tore the Trojan battle lines to pieces. So the men in heavy armor fought at the front, they grappled Trojans and Hector helmed in bronze while Locrians slung from the rear, safe, out of range.” —Homer, Iliad, XIII.823 Translated by Robert Fagles
January 24, 2026 at 11:13 PM
armchairclassicist.bsky.social
Happy #Caturday from Zora
#CatsOfBlueSky
🐈📷
Brown tortoiseshell long haired cat in front of a shelf of books.
January 24, 2026 at 9:51 PM
Reposted by Armchair Classicist (Ryan Schaller)
xingwu.bsky.social
In the myths of ancient China, deep in the land of the Baimin, dwells the Cheng Huang, a horned, fox-like beast with yellow fur, etched into the Shanhaijing.
Fierce and untamed, it’s no docile mount. Yet those who ride it gain a staggering gift: 2,000 extra years of life.
🎨 Lu Mingshan
#mythology
🎨 Lu Mingshan (鹿溟山)
January 24, 2026 at 5:30 PM
armchairclassicist.bsky.social
More from the Fagles translation of Homer's Iliad.

#Classics #Myth 📚💙
“Weighing it all, heart and soul, as on they came, waves of Trojan shields men crowding him tighter, closing in on their own sure destruction… like hounds and lusty hunters closing, ringing a wild boar till out of his thicket lair he crashes, whetting his white tusks sharp in his bent, wrenching jaws and they rush in to attack and under the barks and shouts you can hear the gnash of tusks but the men stand firm— terrible, murderous as he is—so the Trojans ringed Odysseus dear to Zeus, rushing him straight on.” —Homer, The Iliad, XI.487 Translated by Robert Fagles
January 24, 2026 at 9:45 PM
armchairclassicist.bsky.social
Nothing profound to say about this one. I'm just a fan of the figurative language Fagles uses here in his translation of Homer's Odyssey.

#Classics
#Greek
“The Trojans streaked in flight past Ilus’ barrow, ancient son of Dardanus, past the mid-field mark of the plain and past the wild fig and struggling … Yet stragglers still stampeded down the plain like cattle driven wild by a lion lunging in pitch darkness down on the whole herd but to one along a sudden death comes flashing— first he snaps its neck, clamped in his huge jaws, then down in gulps he bolts its blood and guts.” —Homer, The Iliad, XI.193 Translated by Robert Fagles
January 24, 2026 at 8:42 PM
Reposted by Armchair Classicist (Ryan Schaller)
wolftwinthomas.bsky.social
power outage
the stars resume
their old jobs
#haiku #poetry
January 21, 2026 at 3:11 PM
armchairclassicist.bsky.social
The importance of a free and fair elections is not new.

#Classics #Democracy #History
White text over a black and white photo of the Athenian Acropolis: "For when the people have power over the vote it has power over the political regime." The Athenian Constitution, From the School of Aristotle. Translated by P.J. Rhodes.
January 23, 2026 at 3:04 AM
armchairclassicist.bsky.social
“Achilles Displaying the Body of Hector at the Feet of Patroclus ” by Jean-Joseph Taillason (1745-1809), a French neoclassicist painter. This oil painting is in the Bow Gallery of the Krannert Art Museum at the University of Illinois.

#Mythology #Classics #Art #Painting
The described painting.
January 23, 2026 at 3:02 AM
armchairclassicist.bsky.social
Anything can be a pillow if you’re fluffy enough. 🐈‍⬛📷
Zora the #MaineCoon
🤷‍♂️ I promise she’s well groomed despite all appearances to the contrary.
#CatsOfBlueSky
A brown tortoiseshell large longhaired cat using a lamp stand as a pillow
January 22, 2026 at 10:07 PM
armchairclassicist.bsky.social
These two look like they're up to something this morning...
#CatsOfBlueSky #Cats #CatPhotos 🐈📷
Two large long haired cats next to one another on the floor.
January 22, 2026 at 1:40 PM
armchairclassicist.bsky.social
His royal floofness, Chaucer, enjoying a sit on the couch.
#CatsOfBlueSky #Cats #Fluffy
Large gray longhair cat sits.
January 21, 2026 at 10:34 PM
armchairclassicist.bsky.social
January 21, 2026 at 10:30 PM
armchairclassicist.bsky.social
Zora enjoying some packing material this morning. #CatsOfBlueSky
🐈‍⬛📷
Brown tortoiseshell long haired cat on floor
January 21, 2026 at 3:14 PM
armchairclassicist.bsky.social
2026 Mood:
Text on a white background: God: I have made mankind. Angels: You fucked up a perfectly good monkey is what you did. Look at it. It's got anxiety.
January 20, 2026 at 6:18 PM
armchairclassicist.bsky.social
Starting another read - Urgunge Onon’s translation of “Chinggis Khan: The Golden History of the Mongols.” This is the same text that is sometimes translated with the name “The Secret History of the Mongols.”
#History
💙📚
Title page of book Side of book and a cat Front of book
January 19, 2026 at 11:54 PM
armchairclassicist.bsky.social
Time to bring this quote out again.
January 19, 2026 at 10:54 PM
armchairclassicist.bsky.social
Panzoologicomineralogia is one hell of a title.
Screenshot of the word described in the post.
January 19, 2026 at 4:32 PM
armchairclassicist.bsky.social
Lol.
January 19, 2026 at 3:15 PM
armchairclassicist.bsky.social
1/2
Finished reading the Gesta Romanorum for the first time this weekend. It's a medieval collection of folktales and fables attributed to anonymous monks. Explanatory passages at the end of most tales provide a moralizing gloss.

#folklore #myth 📚💙
Photo of the title page of "Gest Romanorum" with an image of a mischievous looking monk pointing at text in an open book.
January 19, 2026 at 4:14 AM
armchairclassicist.bsky.social
Zora looking all majestic
#CatsOfBlueSky
#MaineCoon
🐈‍⬛📷
Brown tortoiseshell Maine Coon cat on floor
January 19, 2026 at 1:07 AM
armchairclassicist.bsky.social
Shakespeare - Sonnet 4
#Poetry 📚💙
Unthrifty loveliness, why dost thou spend Upon thyself thy beauty’s legacy? Nature’s bequest gives nothing, but doth lend, And being frank she lends to those are free: Then, beauteous niggard, why dost thou abuse The bounteous largess given thee to give? Profitless usurer, why dost thou use So great a sum of sums, yet canst not live? For having traffic with thyself alone, Thou of thyself thy sweet self dost deceive: Then how when nature calls thee to be gone, What acceptable audit canst thou leave?     Thy unused beauty must be tombed with thee,     Which, used, lives th’ executor to be.
January 18, 2026 at 10:59 PM
armchairclassicist.bsky.social
Current non-fiction read is this 100 year old text by Jeremiah Curtin narrating his travels in Mongolia and including descriptions of several rituals and myths.
#history 📚💙
Cover of the book "The Mongols, Their Religion and Their Myths" by Jeremiah Curtin.
January 18, 2026 at 8:19 PM
armchairclassicist.bsky.social
I may have to try this strategy
#writing
January 18, 2026 at 8:12 PM
armchairclassicist.bsky.social
Euripides.
#Classics
Text over a photo of an amphitheater: "The word of trust is single in its nature; and a just cause needs no interpreting. It carries its own case. But the unjust argument, since it is sick, needs clever medicine." Euripides, The Phoenician Women. Translated by Elizabeth Wyckoff.
January 18, 2026 at 8:06 PM
armchairclassicist.bsky.social
One of the cats calling me out for not cleaning the table in a while.
Cat paw prints in dust.
January 17, 2026 at 10:39 PM