Splash Biography

AIDAN GRAY, Princeton grad interested in Classical History

Major: Classics (Ancient History)

College/Employer: Princeton

Year of Graduation: 2018

Brief Biographical Sketch:

Hi all! My name is Aidan and I was born in Maryland, grew up in Chenai, India; Warsaw, Poland; and Baku, Azerbaijan. After that I came back to the US in 2011 and went to St Albans School in DC. I was a Princeton undergrad from 2014-2018, graduating magna cum laude with a degree in classics, focusing on ancient history and historiography. I also did a certificate in creative writing, while spending most of my team on an improv comedy club, performing stand up comedy for the tonight show, or writing plays. I'm currently Princeton staff, and I'll be attending Trinity College Dublin in Ireland to get my Mphil (Master's) in Classics. I'm teaching my favorite ancient author--Herodotus, a man with a flair for storytelling that I wish I had.

Past Classes

(Clicking a class title will bring you to the course's section of the corresponding course catalog)

H539: When Legends were History: Herodotus and What Even Is Truth Anyway? in Splash Spring 2019 (Apr. 27, 2019)

This is not your third period AP Us History textbook. In here, the primary sources have gone rogue and are telling hilarious anecdotes about people cracking snarky comebacks, an entire country that does everything backwards, strange plants and animals, and fathers getting way too drunk at their kids’ parties. Amidst the chaos there are tragic heroes, wise philosophers, powerful kings, and the deeply unnerving realization that truth is subjective and figuring out “what really happened” is a lot harder than it seems.

H504: The Age of Bronze: Greece before Ancient Greece in Splash Spring 2018 (Apr. 21, 2018)

Anyone who's read the Iliad or the Odyssey has heard of Bronze Age Greece, buried somewhere in the distant past; a world of death-masks and epic poetry, convoluted mythology and difficult to read pictographs. The period between about 1650 BC and 500 BC is rather murky, but the few tantalizing clues about long-lost civilizations available to us have captivated historians for generations. Come and find out who the Mycenaeans were! Whether or not there was a Trojan war! And what went on in the Bronze and Dark Ages to create the Ancient Greece we know of.

H398: Egyptian Mythology 101 in Splash Spring 2017 (Apr. 29, 2017)

Egyptian mythology contains some of the oldest and most fascinating stories in the entire history of civilization. Come learn the answers to vital questions such as: What is the Set beast? Who's holding up the sky? Will Ammit the devourer eat my heart? What exactly is written in the "Book of the Heavenly Cow"? Find out the answers to all this and more in Egyptian Mythology 101!

X331: Mind = Blown 101 (Elementary Paradoxes and Logic) in Splash Spring 16 (Apr. 30, 2016)

\textit{If you replaced every word in this course description over the course of a year, would you still have the same course description one year later?}\\ If questions like this keep you up at night, then stop by our brief course on Paradoxes! We will begin with an overview of the field of logic, and then dive right into discussing some of the most intriguing, baffling, and mind blowing paraxodes ever conceived. Come to discover the limits of rational thought, stay because of the crippling existential despair!