The suicide of Cleopatra has bequeathed to western culture one of the most famous and memorable death scenes in literature, drama and the visual arts of painting, sculpture and film. The traditional story derives chiefly from the rich narrative of Plutarch’s biography of Mark Antony. Its action is driven by multiple themes of deception, deliberation, and death. The climactic moment, of course, is the bite of the asp. Surveying the literary and visual representations of Cleopatra’s dramatic death, from Horace’s celebrated Cleopatra Ode to the HBO cable network series Rome, this lecture will explore the potent symbolism of the suicide in classical antiquity and subsequent eras. It will try to answer the question whether her final act of dying by the serpent’s bite redeems Cleopatra and death becomes her.

This talk discusses the historical position of the Bible, reviews its impact as a sacred document, as well as literature. Program Outline I.  Its Historical Position Christianity Judaism II.  As Sacred Document Over 2000 years [changed lives; influenced West civilization] C18th/19th [influenced also the East] C 20th/21st  [Post WW2: from evangelism shifting to dialogue] III.  As a Literature Reconstruction of the TEXT NT & OT Linguistic and Conceptual Characteristic, an Illustration

彭加勒 (Henri Poincaré, 1852-1912) 是法國數學家，他對相對論、混沌學 (chaos)、天體力學、拓樸學 (topology)、三體問題 (three-body problem) 等都有基礎性的貢獻。他是惟一同時在法國科學院 (French Academy of Sciences) 五個學部獲選為會員的科學家。他的著作甚多，既有專業的學術論文，也有科普著作。要認識彭加勒，讀者可以從《科學與假設》(Science and Hypothesis) 入手。這本書共分為四大篇：數與量、空間、力、自然界，內容可說是包羅萬有。他提出了很多最使科學家感到頭痛的問題：究竟數學在甚麼意義上是科學？我們憑藉甚麼把經驗變成數據？既然實驗數據只得有限組，為何科學家仍然敢於把它們概括為適用於全宇宙的原理？他的解答，總是字字珠璣，而且流露科學家的純真，這就是彭加勒的書引人入勝之處。

《尼各馬可倫理學》可說是亞里士多德哲學著述中流傳最廣的作品。書中討論對善的追求，說明至善就是個人美滿的生活，從而論及各種性格和理智之品德，乃至公義和友誼等問題，論説大都合乎情理，平白易懂。但說到什麼才是最美滿的生活時，亞氏那從他自己哲學思想推導出來的答案，初看卻與常理差別很大，不易接受……

薛丁格是量子力學奠基人之一，他在物理學的影響既深且遠。薛丁格後來轉向思考生命的物質基礎，甚至進而思索人的意志及意識的本質。《生命是什麼》一書吸引不少早期的份子生物學家（如發現DNA結構的Francis Crick) 影響至鉅，被譽為廿世紀最有影響力的科學著作之一。從中，我們可以窺探一代物理學大師的精采思路。