Out with the New (New Comedy, that is)
December 20, 2013
Announcing, at last, the publication of Menander in Contexts, the book of the Nottingham conference of July 2012, containing sixteen papers on the comedies of Menander seen in the contexts of the society and thought of his day, of earlier literature, and of subsequent receptions and responses. My edition (with introduction and commentary) of one …
Connected
October 22, 2013
In last week’s post, I asked: “How does Menander connect a Japanese warlord, a world chess champion, a British prime minister, a Native American chief, and a song about a lamp-post?” The answer will be found in Mario Lamagna’s chapter, “Military Culture and Menander”, in my forthcoming edited volume Menander in Contexts (London: Routledge, 2014). …
Connections
October 15, 2013
“Menander is a vital connecting link. He connects the society of classical Athens … with the era of Hellenistic kings and of mercenary armies; he connects, too, the language of classical Athenians with that of later Greeks; he connects the arguments and theories of medical men and [philosophers of Aristotle’s school] with the life and …
Two upcoming talks …
September 4, 2013
… organized by Nottingham’s Classics Research Workshop in conjunction with the Centre for Ancient Drama and its Reception (CADRE). Both will be held on Tuesdays at 5 pm in room A3 (unless otherwise notified – any change will be posted on this blog), Humanities Building, University of Nottingham. October 8 – Johanna Hanink (Brown University) …
Very Brief Comic Quiz – the answer
August 16, 2013
Of the six assorted celebrities named in my Very Brief Comic Quiz three weeks ago, the one who won’t have an entry in the Encyclopedia of Greek Comedy is William Shakespeare. There is no good evidence that Shakespeare ever had any direct contact with Greek comedy, though he was certainly familiar with Roman comedy (in …
Very brief comic quiz
July 26, 2013
Having been appointed editor of the Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Greek Comedy, I have been drawing up the list of entries. Which one of the following is NOT going to have an entry? Claudius (Roman emperor) Niccolò Machiavelli Pablo Picasso Franz Schubert William Shakespeare Mikis Theodorakis The answer will be given when this blog comes back …
Song, dance, drama
April 24, 2013
This post is by Richard Rawles. Since attending a conference in London during the Easter vacation, I have been thinking about Greek tragedy as a form of music drama, and how hard it is for us as modern readers to grasp this. If we watch a musical or an opera, one of the things which …
Thoughts of a serial translator
April 10, 2013
Here … is the text of the plenary lecture I gave at the annual conference of the Classical Association at Reading last Wednesday. Next year’s conference is in Nottingham. It will be a bit later in April, and we hope the weather will be better! Alan Sommerstein
In honour of a spiritual heir of Aristophanes
February 21, 2013
I don’t know whether the late Jim Henson, creator of the Muppets, ever sought inspiration directly in the comedies of Aristophanes, but there are certainly some ideas of his which might well have made the Greek poet’s ghost exclaim “Now why didn’t I think of that first?” One of these would certainly be the all-vegetable Singing …
Lysistrata in Liberia
February 6, 2013
Her name is Leymah Gbowee, and she shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 2011 for (among other things) her role, as leader of a mass women’s movement, in bringing an end to the Liberian civil war in 2003. The tactics employed by the movement included at least three that are strongly reminiscent of Aristophanes’ Lysistrata: …
