Monday, May 24, 2010

Cambridge Classics misspelling

The Telegraph reports that the Cambridge University Classics Department “is facing embarrassment after misspelling a quote from Aristotle on the doors of a new £1.3 million extension”:

Academics chose the line “all men by nature desiring to know” but spelt the word “phusei,” “by nature,” with an English S rather than the Greek letter sigma. . . .

Professor of Classics Mary Beard, 55, a member of the department, expressed her dissatisfaction in a blog posting about the 5,500sq ft extension which was completed in March.

“Even the gods have shown their disapproval in their own inimitable way,” she wrote.
A related post
“Collage” (Another Cambridge misspelling)

comments: 3

Ben said...

I hope they properly cited Aristotle, too!
-Ben-istotle

Elaine said...

Did the gods smite the extension with a bolt?

Michael Leddy said...

Ben, I knew that this story would amuse you.

Elaine, Mary Beard has various complaints about the building, so she sees the misspelling as the gods’ way of expressing disapproval.