3 aWhich were practically the only famous ladies anyone knew about,
4 And so the Giants of the Renaissance rediscovered the "Classics,"
5 Which was the Renaissance word for the old Greek and Roman stuff.
6 The Classics turned out to be pretty perfect for what the Giants had in mind,
7 Because Christians didn't get nearly as hot under the collar about pictures of naked bGreek and Roman goddesses as they did about naked pictures of the cVirgin Mary.
8 And so all of the schools dipped pretty heavily into the old classic literature,
9 dAnd painted lots of pictures of naked Aphrodites and naked Artemises and naked Heras and even, now and again, a naked Apollo,
10 eAnd quite by accident stumbled on a bunch of other stuff they hadn't known anything about,
11 Like science,
12 And philosophy,
13 And history,
14 And comedy,
15 And tragedy.
CHAPTER 41 The fClassics caused pretty much of a stir when the Giants rediscovered them,
2 gBecause it looked like the ancient Greeks and Romans had invented an almost unlimited number of ways to have fun,
3 hWhat with both of them having invented comedy and all,
4 As well as all that other stuff.
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5 And so the Giants decided to try it all out,
6 Just for ifun,
7 And to have something to do while the naked ladies were eating,
8 jWhich, to tell the truth, was quite a lot of the time.
9 Some of the Giants thought it would be fun to try science,
10 kEspecially anatomy,
11 Which was on everyone's mind,
12 lFor some reason.
13 Other Giants thought it would be fun to try writing comedy and tragedy and poetry,
14 Since about the only kind of writing anyone had done lately,
15 Say, for the last thousand years,
16 Was recopying the mBible and making up the nLives of the Saints,
17 Which wasn't very exciting,
18 oFor some reason.
19 Some of the other Giants thought it would be fun to try pphilosophy,
20 Which means "love of knowledge" and was a wide-open field,
21 qSince no one had any knowledge at all about anything,
22 Unless you count the church,
23 rWhich, according to the priests, knew everything,
24 sBut was keeping its mouth shut.
25 And some of the Giants thought that thistory might be fun,
26 But they couldn't tell for sure,
27 uBecause nothing had happened for quite a while,
28 Unless you count vDark Ages,
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