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My real name is Spencer McDaniel. I made my first edit on Wikipedia on 3 December 2016 when I was a junior in high school. I subsequently became an extremely prolific editor here for about two years, during which time I rewrote many articles and brought them up to "Good Article" status. I eventually stopped editing Wikipedia as frequently in around late 2018, shortly after I started university, but I still edit occasionally. I am one of the main contributors to articles about ancient Greek and Near Eastern religion, philosophy, and literature. I almost single-handedly wrote many of the articles about ancient Sumerian mythology. In addition to editing Wikipedia, since October 2016, I have also been writing my own blog Tales of Times Forgotten, where I discuss a diverse range of topics, which are usually related to pre-modern history in some fashion. Since October 2018, I have also been answering questions on Quora.
I am now an aspiring historian mainly interested in ancient Greek cultural and social history. My research interests include ancient Greek religion, mythology, and folklore; gender and sexuality; race and ethnicity; historiography; and interactions between Greek cultures and cultures of the Near East. I graduated from Indiana University Bloomington in May 2022 with "high distinction" (i.e., magna cum laude) with a BA in history and classical studies (Ancient Greek and Latin languages) and an honors thesis in history about the religious practices of the Galloi of Kybele in Hellenistic Asia Minor in the third and second centuries BCE. Since August 2022, I have been a student in the MA program in Ancient Greek and Roman Studies at Brandeis University.
My username is a reference to "κατολοφύρομαι," which is the first word of the first stasimon from Orestes by Euripides. It is the first-person singular present middle indicative form of the ancient Greek verb meaning "I cry out in lamentation." The reason I chose this word for my username is because the Wikipedia article for the ancient Greek musical composition preserved in Vienna Papyrus G 2315 is entitled "Katolophyromai," which I at the time, with my high-school-aged sense of humor, thought was the most hilarious title for a Wikipedia page ever.
At one time, I was an extremely prolific writer here on Wikipedia. Nowadays I am far less active, since I spend more time writing answers on Quora and articles on my website. Below is a list of some of the Wikipedia articles I worked on the most. Please note that all these articles may have changed drastically in the years since I worked on them.
Pythagoras (passed GA review on 2 February 2018; failed FAC on 23 September 2018)
List of Mesopotamian deities (promoted on 29 May 2018)
