What would Plato do? Greek Thought in US Politics
June 17, 2016
As the 2016 US Presidential election campaign continues to confound forecasters, recent PhD student and Teaching Affiliate John Bloxham discusses classics and American politics. Looking at American politics through the prism of Greek philosophy probably struck a few people as a waste of time when I started my PhD on the reception of Greek thought in …
Long-lived monarchs, ancient and modern
May 11, 2016
In light of the Queen’s recent 90th birthday, Nicholas Wilshere discusses long-lived monarchs ancient and modern. April 21st marked the 90th birthday of Queen Elizabeth II, an event which prompted royal reporters to make comparisons with other long-lived and long-reigning rulers, and to point out that she is both the longest-lived and longest-reigning British monarch, …
Oedipus showing at the Lakeside
April 20, 2016
Lynn Fotheringham attends a rehearsal of the Lakeside production of Oedipus and considers the process of fragmentation in modern approaches to tragedy. After the Greek tragedy film season, Lakeside Arts is putting on another Greek tragedy this week: this year’s annual collaboration with the Nottingham New Theatre is Sophocles’ Oedipus (Steven Berkoff’s version) http://www.lakesidearts.org.uk/theatre/event/3172/oedipus.html. The project, which gives New Theatre students the opportunity to …
Gout: the heroic malady?
January 26, 2016
Nick Wilshere muses on a ‘humorous’ painful disease: Painful chronic disease is not something that we generally consider a source of humour. Yet gout – inflammation of the joints, especially in the feet, caused by the formation of monosodium urate crystals – has a long history of being discussed in playful and humorous ways. As long ago …
Queen of the Silver Arrow competition
January 24, 2016
Prize: copy of Queen of the Silver Arrow, signed by Caroline Lawrence. Write a tweet or a blogpost (up to 500 words) to tell us how children’s literature or media has influenced your understanding of or enthusiasm for the Greeks and Romans. Were you inspired to become a classicist by reading Harry …
The challenge of Virgil as children’s literature
January 23, 2016
Helen Lovatt explores Virgil as YA literature: Caroline Lawrence has just published Queen of the Silver Arrow, an excellent retelling of Virgil’s Camilla episode, with Barrington Stoke, aimed at reluctant teenage readers. It is simply written, with a reading age of about 8, but contains challenging content more suitable for 12+. This makes it really …
From Aulis to Game of Thrones
January 22, 2016
Lynn Fotheringham tells us about the story of Iphigenia: I became fascinated with the story of the sacrifice of Iphigenia when I was a little girl. I first saw Cacoyannis’ 1977 film, Iphigenia, when taking a Greek-tragedy-in-translation course at Iowa State in what would now be called my ‘gap year’ in 1986—thanks, David Roochnik and …
Stagestruck: Interviewing Robert Icke
January 6, 2016
Lynn Fotheringham reports on an exclusive interview with Robert Icke: Recently I went down to London to interview Robert Icke of the Almeida Theatre for my forthcoming conference, Sacrificing Iphigenia Through the Ages. His mind-blowing modernisation of Aeschylus’ Oresteia (which he both wrote and directed) wowed London theatre-audiences this summer, first at the Almeida and …
Chorus girls – and boys
November 18, 2015
Lynn Fotheringham tells us about the creative challenges and opportunities of the Chorus. In the Horrible Histories Groovy Greeks[1] theatre-show, a family of supposedly late-arriving theatre-goers are sucked into the action to learn about ancient Greek culture. They are informed that the Greeks had democracy, the Olympics and theatre: that the actors (all male) wore masks, …
Classical inspirations
November 6, 2015
This November each department in Humanities is running a Twitter campaign where members of the school post images representing themselves with a favourite aspect of their discipline. In Classics, our hashtag is #itsaclassic, and our particular theme is what inspired each of us to take up studying the classical world at university. As Admissions Officer, …
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