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A publication of the American Philological Association Vol. 11 • Issue 1 • Spring 2014

Labors and Lesson Plans: Book Review: Educating Young Hercules in The Classical Cookbook by Larry Ball Two 1990s Children’s Television Andrew Dalby and Sally Grainger, The Programs Classical Cookbook: Revised Edition. Los by Angeline Chiu Angeles: Getty Publications, 2012. Pp. 160. $24.95 ISBN 1606061100. ero to Hero, in no time flat … Zero to Hero, just like that!” he field of ancient cookery, as a schol- “ZThe Muses’ song from the Tarly and popular publication topic, has Disney film Hercules could apply equally a long and proud tradition. Study of the well to the sudden, spectacular rise of subject works like field archaeology, in so Hercules in pop entertainment of the far as the scholar must dig up (literally or late 1990s. Those proved lively years for figuratively) what information there is, rec- the hero in American film and TV, spearheaded by the 1997 Disney ani- ognize its usually egregious gaps, and fill mated movie and by television’s Her- them in as best he or she can. The latter is cules: The Legendary Journeys, starring commonly achieved via comparison with Kevin Sorbo (1995-99). The two quickly better preserved examples from related spun off more TV series: Disney’s Her- fields or sites, with a lot of (usually) logical cules: The Animated Series (1998-99, 65 ratiocination to sew it all together. In this episodes of 30 minutes each) and Young Hercules (1998-99, 50 episodes also of 30 regard, the field archaeologist has a slight- minutes each) starring Ryan Gosling.* ly easier row to hoe, in that irremediable Both spinoffs reimagined the mytholog- gaps in the information can simply be left ical hero specifically for younger viewers books and, increasingly, film and televi- as unanswerable questions. Scholars of and gave him unprecedented exposure sion.§ These early interactions are often ancient cookery, in contrast, usually hope in children’s weekday TV.† formative for how young people perceive to recreate the cuisine of antiquity. Here a In terms of the target audience, grade and relate to mythological figures, so with school and middle school years are very gap in the information can be disastrous, that in mind, a closer look at Hercules: The resulting in concrete, sludge, or flavors so impressionable times for encounters with Animated Series and Young Hercules abominable that not even the Romans cultural influences. Every spring I teach a becomes an illuminating excursion into large myth course, and my students often often-unappreciated aspects of classical could figure out a way to enjoy them. This reminisce about their first contact with reception in children’s entertainment. powerful caveat must be kept in mind, mythological stories: it almost always Both shows focus on the education of since it explains why so much speculation, comes at that age and in the form of teenage Hercules before he becomes substitution, and invention are both justified entertainment geared for children— continued on page 6 and necessary. If we adhere strictly to available information, we would end up My Path to Classics: My Teacher, Flipping a coin: building a Alfred V. Morro...... 2 numismatic database with only with translations of terse ancient texts, undergraduate researchers ...... 12 few of which provide enough information A New Incarnation of Latin in China ...... 3 where do we come from? to allow anything appealing to be cooked

e what are we? Where are The Kids Are Alright, or, Nobody we going? ...... 17 today. Killed the Liberal Arts ...... 4 The authors of this book are well aware Linking Course to Production: The Stakes are High: Tragedy and The “Oresteia” Project ...... 19 of the challenges, of course. The division of Transformation within Prison labor between them exploits their respec- Walls ...... 5 The APA Blog opens for business . . 21 Insid tive expertise, the translations of ancient lit- Capital Campaign News ...... 9 From Your Editors ...... 23 erature being by Andrew Dalby and the Vera Lachmann, the Classics, and GUIDELINES FOR CONTRIBUTORS. . . . . 24 actual cookery the work of Sally Grainger. Camp Catawba ...... 10 continued on page 8 My Path to Classics: My Teacher, Alfred V. Morro by Adam Blistein

became a Classicist because of IAlfred V. Morro (1920-2005, Fig. 1). Almost everyone in the state of Rhode Island above a certain age would (a) recognize Al’s name, and (b) be sur- prised by my statement because he was almost exclusively known as a football and track coach of great success and rare ferocity at Providence Classical High School. If you can remember what col- lege football fans outside of Ohio State thought about the late Woody Hayes, or, more recently, what college basket- ball fans outside of Indiana University thought about Bobby Knight in his chair-throwing days, you have some idea of Al’s reputation in Rhode Island. In the background of Fig. 2 you can see him haranguing his troops in a pose that was familiar to all who knew him. In fact, Fig. 2 shows me becoming familiar with that pose because I was an assis- tant manager on the football team, and I am the young man in the gray sweat- shirt with his back to the camera. In the late 1930s and early 1940s Al was a legendary football player and track and field athlete first at LaSalle High School in Providence and then at Boston College. In consecutive years he played in the Cotton and Sugar Bowls for B.C., and he was captain of its Fig. 2. Classical High School’s football team on its sidelines, Fall 1966.

football team in 1941. He went on to a read a classical author in translation for successful career as a football and track 30 minutes outside of class. That extra coach in Providence and was athletic credit—especially extra credit so easily director at Classical for many years. The earned—was pretty attractive. Al also School’s athletic complex is named for offered extra credit for short reports on him. His citation in the Hall of Fame of ancient civilization, but I rarely took the Rhode Island Track and Field him up on that offer even though the Coaches Association reads in part: “The report could be nothing more than an State’s most successful coach of all time. article copied out of an encyclopedia. His Classical H.S. teams were virtually Instead, since he was good enough to unbeatable over his many years of give me an additional reward for some- coaching.” thing I’d be doing anyway, i.e., reading, Despite this eminence, the School that year I went through every Penguin District of the City of Providence and Loeb I could lay my hands on, usu- required him to do more than coach in ally in thirty-minute segments. In some return for a full paycheck. For many cases, however, I kept on reading long years that additional work was to teach past the point that the book generated ancient history to ninth graders, and in extra credit, just because I couldn’t put that position in 1963-64 he introduced it down. For example, in Al’s system, me to mens sana in corpore sano. I can’t you could get a credit for each play of think of a better person to have done Euripides you read, but exactly one Fig. 1. Teacher/Coach Alfred V. Morro this. Al taught ancient history as he did credit for all of the Iliad or of Herod- in the former Classical High School everything—forcefully and idiosyncrati- otus. I still read all of Herodotus. building, circa 1965. cally. Among his idiosyncrasies was to That’s how I became addicted to offer extra credit to anyone who would classical literature and how, after a 2 number of detours, I became Executive Director of the APA. My high-school A New Incarnation of Latin teachers ranged from competent to inspiring, but it was Al’s encourage- Latin in China ment that I sample the entire smorgas- by Yongyi Li bord of classical literature that made me want to keep reading Latin, which I n a wintry day in 1996, I was began the same year I studied history thumbing through catalogues in with him, and to start reading Greek O a deserted corner of the library once I got to college. As I told him of Beijing Normal University when my while I was still in graduate school, “I attention was suddenly seized by some wanted to be a history teacher until I titles in a language strangely familiar. I met you.” could easily decipher them because of The conventional wisdom is that their resemblance to English words, and coaches cannot make the transition I knew the names of the authors as I from the field, court, or rink to the class- had read them in translations. Latin! room. I’ve heard my colleagues who My instinct told me. I relayed this dis- manage learned societies for historians covery to my teacher of Shakespearean despair of coaches teaching their sub- plays, a BA in Classics who had just ject in high school. For years the comic graduated from Oxford. The next morn- Yongyi Li. Photograph courtesy of the strip Funky Winkerbean made a running ing saw us standing in front of a counter author and Dept. of Classics, University joke out of the football coach who in the most secluded part of the library, of Washington. shows films in health class because he’s after spiraling flights of gloomy stairs. A incapable of teaching the actual subject long silence ensued before the books Eight years later, already a faculty matter. Al was twice as fearsome as were fetched from a bank ten stories member at BNU, I was assigned to Funky’s coach, but as a teacher—in a above and presented before us. In a work with a visiting professor from Fu far more complicated subject—he was thrilled voice, my teacher began to read Jen Catholic University (not the original more than competent. He brought a a Latin passage aloud to me. We had institution in pre-Communist Peking, then fifty-year-old textbook to life, and been the first in decades, the librarian but its heir, founded on its model in he developed a system that would told us, to borrow these books, and Taiwan). This American professor had entice your average grade-grubbing there were many more such books sim- studied Chinese literature for many fourteen-year-old to develop a familiari- ply locked in some rooms, as no one had years, but he was also a Catholic monk, ty with the ancient world that no text- the expertise and the energy to cata- so Latin was air to him. Fu Jen Univer- book, and especially not that moldy logue them. I quickly found out, with sity had started a summer program in one, could provide. the available catalogues, that the uni- Western Classical and Medieval Stud- Why did he bother? He was a fixture versity had a substantially larger collec- ies, and one of the American professor’s in the school and could have time-served tion in Latin and Greek even than that missions was to look for mainland Chi- his way through those ancient history of the National Library. Stunned, I nese scholars who might be interested classes. In fact, a few years after he tried to explain to myself this peculiari- in it: in the first decade of the twenty- taught me, he moved on to an adminis- ty. Then it dawned on me that most of first century, there was great enthusi- trative job whose purpose I never com- these titles must have been acquisitions asm in the academic world for exploring pletely understood, which took him out of Fu Jen Catholic University, out of the history of Christianity and mission- of the classroom altogether. I’m sure part which Beijing Normal University grew. ary activities in early modern China. of the explanation was that he valued his At least five centuries ago, Italian mis- This zeal rapidly increased, and young Italian-American heritage, but he didn’t sionaries, following Marco Polo’s foot- students attracted to the Catholic emphasize Roman history or culture over steps, first brought that elegant lan- church were increasingly eager to learn Greek. I suspect his own good solid guage of Latin to Chinese scholars who Latin so that they could attend Latin Catholic classical education, first at were still writing in equally elegant masses and read the Vulgate and other LaSalle and then at B.C., gave him a spe- classical Chinese. In the thirty years books in the theological canon. The cial appreciation for the subject. Mainly, after 1949 when the Communist Party professor flew to BNU once a month, however, I think he was a man who came to power, both languages were teaching a course and teaching Latin to demanded excellence of both himself buried, the former suffering from the scholars, including myself, who were and of his students, wherever he or they stigma of decadent bourgeois culture, ready to enroll in that program. Each happened to be. That’s not a bad lesson the latter taken as a leftover of China’s time he would bring a new Latin text- to have picked up along with a taste for monarchic past. Though I knew no book for me to conquer. I did not make Aristophanes, Herodotus, and Tacitus. Latin at the time, the very survival of the trip to Fu Jen in the end, but my these books was a miracle for me, con- confidence in my Latin grew. Adam Blistein ([email protected]) sidering especially the systematic dem- In 2006, my application for teaching is the Executive Director of the American olition of ancient heritage in the Cultur- the first Latin course at BNU was Philological Association. He presented an al Revolution (1966-76). Motivated by a approved. Before I launched my project, earlier version of this article at the Fall veneration for antiquity, I began to I had conducted research on the situa- 2003 meeting of the Classical Association of learn the language, although my efforts tion of Latin teaching in China. There the Atlantic States. were continually interrupted by my were no Chinese institutions conferring other pursuits. academic degrees in Western Classics, continued on page 14 3 (ISSN 1542-2380) is pub- ® lished by the American Philological Association The Kids Are Alright, or, Nobody Killed the (APA). The APA, founded in 1869 by “profes- sors, friends, and patrons of linguistic science,” Liberal Arts is now the principal learned society in North America for the study of ancient Greek and Michael Broder and Daniel Tompkins Discuss Joseph Epstein Roman languages, literatures, and civilizations. It is a dynamic, diverse multi-generational MB: I think you had more patience with membership organization that works to sustain n September 2012, Joseph Epstein pub- and advance the field of Classics and the peo- Ilished an essay in the Weekly Standard Epstein that I did, and I’m eager to hear ple involved in it. While the majority of its called “Who Killed the Liberal Arts?” your assessment of his ideas, especially the members are university and college classics teachers, members also include scholars in (http://www.weeklystandard.com/arti- ones you think are not bad. To me, other disciplines, primary and secondary school cles/who-killed-liberal-arts_652007.html) Epstein’s lament for the liberal arts is less teachers, and interested lay people. The APA about college curricula than it is about a produces the journal Transactions of the American The piece provoked lively response on the Philological Association and holds an annual Classics List and at least one rapid, articu- generational, even epochal change in cul- meeting each January in conjunction with the late response, by Katie Billotte in Salon tural subjectivity. He’s really talking about a Archaeological Institute of America. It also operates a variety of programs that improve (http://www.salon.com/2012/09/14/co major transformation of the entire humanist conditions for its students and teachers, and it nservatives_killed_the_liberal_arts/). project over the past century, although he participates in several important projects gen- erating new resources for scholars. Epstein’s argument is of more than pass- doesn’t put it in those terms, and in my esti- All of the APA’s programs are grounded in ing concern to academics, scholars, stu- mation he puts himself on the wrong side of the rigor and high standards of traditional history as far as these issues are con- philology, with the study of ancient Greek and dents, and members of the general public Latin at their core. However, the APA also interested in current debates about the cerned. But let’s start with what you refer to aims to present a broad view of classical cul- value and vitality of the humanities and as Epstein’s attack on the usual suspects. tures and the ancient Mediterranean world to a wide audience, seeking to preserve and trans- humanistic education, not only because he What do you mean by that? mit the wisdom and values of those cultures claims that the so-called liberal arts are DT: Yes, that’s one way to describe while also finding new meanings appropriate to Epstein’s predictable and ritualized remarks the complex and uncertain world of the twen- dead, but also because he accuses human- ty-first century. After a major capital campaign, ists themselves of the murder. Moreover, it about “subjects that have no place” in his the Gateway Campaign for Classics, and a is important not to let his ideas go unchal- view of things: journalism and business strategic planning process carried out by its Board in 2012, the Association reconfirmed its lenged, both because they are so often school, which he pronounces on without commitment to sharing its members’ apprecia- flawed, and also because they are part of much analysis; African-American studies; tion of and enthusiasm for classical antiquity. As part of that commitment, it adopted a new a broader pattern of similar laments that “the multicultural”; “popular culture” as name for the Association, the Society for Clas- collectively seek to push back against what opposed to Joseph Conrad, and race, gen- sical Studies, that will become official later this der, and class. These are the standard year. Through both this new name and a vari- is really not a death of humanism, but an ety of activities, including Amphora, the APA inevitable, and not at all undesirable, his- gripes of the New Criterion/Weekly Stan- strives to be a welcoming and readily accessible toric evolution. dard crowd, anxious about their own loss source of expert information about classical civilizations. Amphora invited Michael Broder and of standing, and they’re expressed without The APA welcomes everyone who shares Daniel Tompkins to collaborate on a any effort at argument. this vision to participate in and support its pro- MB: Oh, so you mean “paying his grams. All APA members can receive Amphora response to Epstein. In consultation with the as a benefit of membership. In addition, the editors, Broder and Tompkins decided on a dues” in the sense of taking a bunch of Association has recently created two new cate- dialogic approach. The following is the obligatory swipes at favorite targets of the gories of membership, “Friends of the Clas- sics” and “Associate Membership for Precolle- result. conservative punditocracy? giate Teachers,” for individuals who want to Michael Broder: On one level, Dan, I DT: Indeed. Harry Levin voiced the participate in our conversations about classical antiquity but who do not need some of the pro- think we can respond to Epstein by saying same complaint about African-American fessional benefits of membership such as use that nobody killed the liberal arts; they just studies to me à propos of the Harvard Core of the APA’s placement service or delivering Curriculum a third of a century ago. We’re talks at its annual meeting. Both categories of updated the syllabus. But that kind of membership are available for an annual fee response does not really address the bigger beyond that now. And the dues-paying con- of $35 and include Amphora as a benefit of and darker issues lurking, not always so tinues with the obligatory, evidence-free membership. Non-members who wish to subscribe to clearly stated, behind Epstein’s lament. swipes at English department colleagues Amphora (for a very modest annual subscription Daniel Tompkins: I agree, Michael, (“tendentious clowns,” “guys in the next fee of $10 U. S. in the U. S. and Canada for two room”). The self-assured vagueness of these issues; $15 elsewhere) or who wish further that to some degree, the syllabus has mere- information about the APA may write to The ly been updated. I also agree that there are remarks signals that Epstein assumes any American Philological Association, 220 S. 40th darker issues afoot. But one thing that com- intelligent reader gets the point. Street, Suite 201E, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104-3512, plicates any response to Epstein is that his MB: Yes, I think the real crux of [email protected]. The APA web site essay is loosely organized to say the least. Epstein’s complaint is his contempt for those is www.apaclassics.org. Members attending meetings of or making On the other hand, while he attacks the he calls "the guys in the next room," by presentations to interested non-members are usual suspects and makes some uninquisi- which he means his English Department col- urged to request sample copies of Amphora leagues who did not persist alongside him from the APA office for distribution to these tive claims, not all his ideas are bad. I was audiences. glad to see Paul Goodman appear, half- in practicing a nineteenth-century peda- way through, like Alcibiades. gogy into the late twentieth century and continued on page 15 4 The Stakes are High: Tragedy and Transformation within Prison Walls by Elizabeth Bobrick

t the entrance of the maximum with before everything spun out of Asecurity prison where I taught control.” Greek tragedy was a wooden The room went momentarily silent. plaque in the shape of a shield. It was Those silences—and there were others emblazoned with a motto: Non sum —told me when something had hit qualis eram. Apart from its incongruity in home. this place of no Latin and less Greek, Ajax resonated deeply with the men, the motto struck me as equally a decla- but not in the way I had imagined. ration of failure and of hope. The men Interestingly, they had little sympathy inside were not what they once were. for the wronged hero. Unlike typical What were they now? undergraduates, my students were not I knew very little about my students impressed by the heroic way of dealing at Cheshire Correctional Institute. I’d with obstacles. A number of the men been told that over 100 inmates had were serving 20 years to life for murder. applied to take classes through Wes- Killing someone because they disre- leyan University’s Center for Prison spected you; because they were physi- Education (CPE).* Only eighteen had cally in your way and wouldn’t back been accepted after tests and interviews down; committing any number of out- with Wesleyan faculty members, CPE rages so that others would be afraid of staff, and prison administrators. The you—this was a life they knew. They’d men had widely differing educational done these things, or seen them done. backgrounds, but had proved that they My students focused instead on the could succeed at Wesleyan course work: chorus and on Ajax’s “spear-won bride,” biochemistry, essay writing, sociology, Tecmessa. They scorned Ajax’s over- and philosophy. By the second year of whelming concern with his lost honor, the pilot program, 2011, when I taught, because it made him blind to the pleas the cohort had lost only two. Of the of those who relied on him for survival. remaining sixteen, thirteen were Ajax preparing to fall on his sword. The students were clearly moved by the African-American. Bronze, 720-700 B.C.E. British Museum panic of Tecmessa and the chorus. I’d been told that most of the men 1865,1118.230, used by permission. Ajax’s choice to leave them to face his were serving long sentences for violent enemies without his protection struck a crimes. I didn’t ask for the particulars of heavily charged once we got past the chord. who had done what. I would learn some Oresteia and into dramas of the individ- I had never read the chorus’ initial details later, but for now that was ual. Ajax was next on the syllabus. How response to Ajax’s threat of suicide as enough. I wanted to think of them as would they respond? After all, weren’t anything but standard issue woe-is-me. students first and prisoners second. their lives the stuff of Greek tragedy- But the men saw it as deeply revelatory All well and good, but that they were violence, suffering, punishment, misfor- of Ajax’s character. His suicide was the prisoners was both impossible and tunes of birth, crushing regret? ultimate mark of hubris to which big pointless to ignore. I was escorted I’d emphasized that the tragedies men fall prey: they ignore the innocents through nine locked gates and doors to were not just entertainment, although they leave behind, the family and com- my classroom, where a guard watched the performances were assuredly spec- munity, who will suffer because of their outside. The men wore identical beige tacular. When we read the Oresteia, I’d disregard for everything but status. scrubs with immaculate white t-shirts talked about tragedy’s civic function as One of the men slammed the book underneath. They ranged in age from a representation of broken societies and on his desk. I was startled, because he early 20s to mid 50s. They wore their ruling families. When we’d finished was one of the most gentle in demeanor. hair in cornrows, or buzz cuts, or dreds. Eumenides, and Ajax was up next, one “They ought to teach this in schools. Even so, after the first four classes I was student asked, “What is the relevance Every one of us has had a woman beg- still confusing their names—Mr. Morris of this play to what we’ve been talking ging us not to do something all our lives, with Mr. Grey, and so on.§ I was embar- about?” but we didn’t listen, and here we are.” rassed. When I apologized, one of them Because we were out of time, and the Another silence. said, “That’s the idea, with the uni- guard was waiting to walk them back to Needless to say, I’d never read the forms and all. It works. They don’t want their cells, I gave a pared-down answer. plays with students whose lives turned us to stand out as individuals. We’re “It’s about a man who was very power- on the outcome of trials. Reading the numbers here, not names.” ful in his community, but then was Oresteia with this group, in particular the That response was typical of their deeply disrespected. He did something Eumenides, was a revelation. Although courtesy, humor, and remarkable ease terrible in revenge. He didn’t get away most of my students were in for murder, with me. Still, I was a bit worried that with it. His enemies were happy, and many were involved in appeals regard- the atmosphere would become more their desire for revenge had to be dealt continued on page 18 5 Labors and Lesson Plans: Educating “Hercules and the Poseidon’s Cup Young Hercules in Two 1990s Children’s Adventure”) with Hercules letting self- ish ambition get the better of his alle- Television Programs giance to his friends. In both instances, continued from page 1 he abandons his friends’ athletic team and joins another that he thinks will win; the famous hero of myth. Ancient backfires, giving everyone in Greece disaster, with the realization that his new sources mention his adolescent training, insomnia with catastrophic effects. teammates are not his true friends, but there he mostly trains one-on-one There is no substitute for good old- drives home the lesson about loyalty, with Chiron or a number of different fashioned time management and honest and Hercules learns to apologize and tutors, each teaching a particular spe- diligence in studying, as Hercules and patch things up with his buddies. cialized physical skill.‡ Some accounts his audience learn. It’s a lesson similar- The recognition of social anxiety also note a moral aspect to Hercules’ ly depicted in the live-action episode takes center stage in other episodes as education; the story of his choosing “Cram-ped,” in which Hercules helps Hercules tries to make himself someone between a life of Pleasure or Vice and a his friend (and reforming juvenile else for the sake of being popular. In the life of Virtue is the most famous exam- delinquent) Iolaus study for finals and live-action “Forgery,” Hercules, stung ple, but again Hercules is on his own.** resist the temptation to cheat. by classmates’ remarks that he worries The animated series and Young Hercules too much about responsibility and so is reimagine the demigod in a different “no fun,” decides to turn himself into context entirely: readily recognizable the careless, flashy life-of-the-party by school settings with courses, classmates, means of a magic flame. It works, but teachers, and modern campus events only for a while, and ultimately it would like Homecoming. The narrative Hercules and his friends have destroyed him if not for his friends’ emphasizes the challenges of being an may bicker and argue, but intervention. In the animated “Hercules awkward teenager; they are as much and the Complex Electra,” he pretends emotional, social, academic, and moral they always reconcile. to be a cynical hipster in order to as physical.†† The “Hercules in high impress a countercultural Goth girl who school” context imposes certain limita- hates the very idea of heroes. This cre- tions on storytelling: he can’t complete ates an existential impasse, and Hercules his most famous canonical Labors, for learns not only to embrace his own iden- instance, because he must perform The shows’ new mythmaking also tity but to resign himself to the fact that them as an adult. On the other hand, engages a topic that is evergreen for some will reject him for it. Popularity is the showrunners are now free to create young students: relating to classmates. a fleeting goal, he learns in a lesson for new stories that creatively adapt Her- Hercules has his friends, but he is not a modern teens, and true friends accept cules to modern concerns. As he faces ringleader as much as he is just one you for who you are. challenges, the audience learns with among peers. In the live-action version, In another nod to contemporary him: he is never presented as an infalli- Hercules’ companions at Chiron’s Acad- schools, both shows offer episodes fea- ble hero, and it is his foibles and strug- emy include Jason the Prince of Corinth, turing Parents’ Day / Weekend. Accord- gles that make his moral education Iolaus, and Lilith, a sometime Amazon ing to my students, the prospect of par- relatable and relevant. and the only female cadet. Accepted by ents visiting campus can be utterly terri- Occasionally the lessons to be his peers yet feeling out of place, Her- fying, and Hercules and his friends learned are literal. Hercules: The Animat- cules finds himself often in the role of must cope with relating to parents and ed Series and Young Hercules both devote being a peacemaker. In the animated guardians and the weight of their expec- time to academics and the importance series, Hercules is the socially awkward, tations. Even so filial a son as the live- of studying. Clearly in the ancient physically strong but hopelessly clumsy action Hercules is mortified to see his sources the mythological hero never has youth who had appeared in the film; his mother on campus, and Iolaus’ desper- to worry about homework and exams, friends at the co-ed Prometheus Acade- ate gambit of hiring two actors to be his but his modern counterparts, like his my are Icarus, rather the worse for wear “parents” because he is too ashamed to audience, do. The cartoon series regu- after surviving his wax-wing disaster, face the real ones dedicates the plot to larly notes classes in session (e.g., and Cassandra, here not a Trojan this quintessential source of student geometry with Mr. Euclid, history with princess but a quietly sardonic girl given stress. In the cartoon series, Hercules is Mr. Herodotus, theater arts with Ms. to unpredictable visions. The three are embarrassed when his humbly rustic Thespis, shop with Mr. Daedalus, art oddballs and outcasts, constantly dispar- mortal parents Amphitryon and Alcme- with Mr. Pygmalion, gym with Coach aged by the popular elite (e.g., the posh, na arrive instead of Zeus, prompting Physedipus), including the hero-to-be condescending Adonis, Prince of cruel jibes from Adonis and his royal facing the all too common student fear Thrace); their experiences reflect the clan. The lesson in appreciating one’s of public speaking, when he must give social anxiety and adolescent alienation family, warts and all, soon becomes clear a class presentation in “Hercules and of high school (“the Underworld on as the monster Ladon abducts Amphit- the Epic Adventure.” The academic earth,” Cassandra says) even as they ryon and Alcmena and Hercules races to theme culminates with a cautionary tale consistently emphasize the importance save them. At episode’s end, Zeus him- in “Hercules and the All Nighter.” of friendship. Hercules and his friends self makes an appearance to declare his During exam week, Hercules wants may bicker and argue, but they always approval of Hercules’ recovered regard more time to cram, so he asks Mor- reconcile. The lesson appears most for his mortal, loving family. pheus, here the god of sleep, to make clearly in episodes (“Winner Takes On a related note, both series also him impervious to sleep. The plan All” in Young Hercules and Disney’s depict the challenges of stepfamilies, 6 especially the emotional difficulties of myth by sculpting a clay girl in the art parents’ divorce and remarriage. There classroom. When Aphrodite brings the is no precedent for such narratives for statue to life, she asks what personality Hercules in mythology, but this is a Hercules would like for her, and he clear adaptation to the experiences and says, “Just make her crazy about me.” concerns of the modern audience. In As the episode progresses, Galatea turns Young Hercules’ “Home for the Holi- into a violently obsessive clay monster, days,” Hercules is dismayed, angry, and and resolution comes only when the jealous to find that his single mother chastened Hercules asks Aphrodite to Alcmena is seeing someone. In the ani- give her a mind of her own because she mated “Hercules and the Green-Eyed “deserves to be her own person.” At this Monster,” a jealous Icarus has difficulty point, he, the goddess, and his friends dealing with his father Daedalus’ all agree that he has been “stupid, self- impending remarriage, and Hercules ish, shallow, sexist” (and the final come- must save him—and everyone else uppance comes when the now-inde- too—when Icarus opens Pandora’s Box pendent Galatea leaves him for Ajax). in an attempt to break up the wedding. Even in this brief survey, it is clear Both episodes ultimately trace an arc of that the education of Hercules in chil- understanding and reconciliation among dren’s TV takes on a contemporary cast all parties, with Hercules and others that yet adheres to the ancient idea of working through their complicated emo- his standing as a hero and helper of tions to model a resolution. humanity. Episode by episode, Young The late 1990s versions of Hercules Hercules and Hercules: The Animated Series audience—and both series are now occasionally engage in narratives that take creative liberties, some small and readily available streaming online and are unmistakably in sync with modern others sweeping, to reimagine the reaching new viewers. trends such as wildlife conservation and ancient hero as a young student who ‡See, for instance, Ps.-Apollodorus, environmentalism. In the Young Hercules faces other kinds of labors in school— Bibliotheca 2.4.9: “Hercules was taught episode “Hind Sight,” the Golden Hind labors teaching valuable life lessons. His to drive a chariot by Amphitryon, to is not only a magical creature sacred to struggles and growing pains set an wrestle by Autolycus, to shoot with the Artemis (as in the apparent source myth example for his audience and involve it bow by Eurytus, to fence by Castor, and of the Ceryneian Hind), but also a in his story by analogy to modern child- to play the lyre by Linus. This Linus member of an entire endangered hood concerns. Though often departing was a brother of Orpheus; he came to species. Initially Hercules joins his from mythological sources in terms of Thebes and became a Theban, but was peers Jason and Iolaus in the hunt, but details, these often-humorous 1990s killed by Hercules with a blow of the Kora, a follower of Artemis, explicitly reinventions of Hercules adhere to a lyre …” (Loeb translation) warns him off, underscoring the point deeper, consistent feature of the hero: **Diodorus Siculus, Library of History that Hinds had been nearly wiped out. his endless adaptability and applicabili- 4.10.2: “Heracles, in his rearing and edu- The animated “Hercules and the Cale- ty and his enduring ability to capture cation and especially in the thorough donian [sic] Boar” takes the same tack. the imagination of both the young and instruction which he received in physical Hercules and his satyr trainer Phil join a young at heart. exercises, came to be the first by far in number of famous warriors to go hunt- bodily strength among all the rest and ing, but the boar is not the one-off mon- References famed for his nobility of spirit. Indeed, ster of myth. Instead it is a member of while he was still a youth in age he first of an endangered species, and Artemis *Disney’s animated series aired new all restored the freedom of Thebes …” herself tells Hercules that he can (and episodes from August 31, 1998, to March Hercules’ choice appears in Xenophon, should) be a new kind of hero—“an 1, 1999. Young Hercules aired first-run Memorabilia 2.1.21-34. eco-hero,” she says—who protects the episodes from September 12, 1998, to ††The animated series makes an wilderness and does not need to hunt a May 14, 1999. Accordingly, from Sep- explicit distinction between Hercules’ species to extinction to prove his worth. tember 1998 to March 1999, three differ- schoolwork at Prometheus Academy (Hercules and his friends finally decide ent concurrently airing U.S. television and his physical “hero training” with to go bowling instead.) Both episodes programs featured Hercules as the pro- Phil the satyr that he pursues before also make the explicit distinction tagonist (i.e., the two children’s shows and after classes. between hunting for food and hunting along with Hercules: The Legendary Jour- for sport and trophies. neys). I can’t recall another time in recent Angeline Chiu ([email protected]) studied A distinctly contemporary sensibility TV history when this kind of mythologi- classics at Baylor University, the University appears in episodes that consider gen- cal concentration has happened. of Vermont, and Princeton University. Hav- der roles, expectations, and relation- †The Disney animated series has an ing published articles on Euripides, Lucan, ships. Young Hercules devotes a number FCC rating of TV-Y, i.e., suitable for all and Silius Italicus, she is finishing her first of episodes to the Amazons, along with ages. Young Hercules is not rated but has book, a study of Ovid’s Fasti (University of Lilith’s quest both to fit in and be her- content consistent with the TV-Y7 rat- Michigan Press, forthcoming). When she isn’t self. Perhaps the most striking example ing, e.g., suitable for children age 7 and teaching Shakespeare, mythology, and all in the Disney series is “Hercules and above. Its main competitor during its levels of Latin, she is watching too much TV the Dream Date,” when Hercules can’t run was Power Rangers, rated TV-Y7. in the name of research. find a date for a school dance (“Fighting §The two TV series in question first monsters is easy; getting a date is hard!” aired fifteen years ago—when current he moans) and reenacts the Pygmalion undergraduates were part of the target 7 Book Review: tant ingredients—in that the most The Classical Cookbook common foods would never be the subjects of recipe books in the continued from page 1 first place. While modern cook- As far as functioning as an actual cook- books abound, they are hardly book is concerned, therefore, this book is needed for assembling many of primarily the work of the latter. Grainger’s the most famous and popular credentials certainly qualify her for this Greek or Italian recipes, which endeavor. She is a chef in her own right, commonly have just a handful of as well as a historian of ancient bakery (in ingredients, and whose prepara- the substantive form of the word). Most of tion can be taught by a mother to this review will concentrate on her contribu- a daughter in a matter of minutes. tion. Apicius, in particular, was think- Dalby’s challenges are not to be under- ing in more elaborate gastronom- estimated, however. He works from notori- ic terms, ignoring commonplace ously obscure and incomplete texts. Many foods like grilled fresh fish driz- of his sources were not trying to act like a zled in oil and vinegar. One par- modern cookbook in the first place, but tial solution to this incomplete pic- those that were are hardly better. Ancient ture of ancient cooking is to cookery authors knew contemporary read- exploit literary sources that were ers were already perfectly familiar with the never intended as cookbooks, “obvious” things under discussion, so they such as off-hand mention of foods commonly leave out key details, or else in, say, Homer. These references they use obscure words whose meaning faced in the overall endeavor, as well as give a clearer sense than Apicius would have been common knowledge in the methods by which they will be of what was eaten commonly, although antiquity, but that can only be guessed addressed in the recipes to follow. Readers with little hint of actual recipes. Grainger from context today. This makes it difficult to actually wanting to try out the recipes more or less invents plausible substitutes turn their words into usable recipes. This is should read this introduction carefully, from scratch, which she can do validly even true of the most famous ancient author because many of the ancient texts are so enough, given her knowledge of ancient in this field, “Apicius,” whose gastronomic fragmentary that following them literally ingredients and procedures. text vaguely purports to be something like a would be folly. Grainger explains a num- Of particular interest are the ancient “how-to” cookbook, whereas modern read- ber of substitutions, presumptions, and tech- ingredients now no longer popular. Some ers almost invariably find that “how-to” is nical procedures that can be exploited of these are predictable, most notably the precisely what this author does not include. today to make tasty dishes clearly associat- family of fish sauces now commonly called For a translator, this challenge is com- ed with the ancient “recipes,” as well mak- “garum.” There was, indeed, a Roman fish pounded by the fact that Apicius refers to ing clear many of the ways where a mod- sauce called “garum,” but there were oth- equipment and ingredients not familiar or ern cook simply has to improvise. ers too. They were made differently and not readily available today. Dalby fills in called different things, and, Grainger gaps as well as possible, making many of notes, were also generally employed differ- the translations obviously anachronistic, but ently, either in cooking or at the table. Thai if, for instance, a “saucepan” is the closest fish sauce is the common substitute, a useful a modern reader’s kitchen will come to the A gap in the if simplistic surrogate for a more complex vessel an ancient author requires, in a prac- information can be situation that we can no longer reconstruct tical book like this it makes sense for Dalby disastrous, resulting in in detail (and, in the case of some of the to use the word “saucepan” in his transla- concrete or sludge. sauces, probably wouldn’t want to). tion. From the point of view of a purely Other spices popular then and obscure academic scholar, therefore, many of now can be found, often, in larger urban Dalby’s translations are somewhat grating, centers. These tend to be bitter herbs, no but it should be easy for a more broad- longer popular because more appealing minded reader to appreciate the method in alternatives have become available in the the madness. There is, most importantly, a discussion meantime. The bitter herbs—lovage most The rest is up to Sally Grainger. The of ancient cooking equipment—or lack of saliently, but rue too—and other strong fla- book is logically organized for a reader it—and ingredients. One key caveat is the vors—such as asafoetida, for good or ill— hoping to cook up some dishes based on fact that most ancient cooking worked make good sense in the same way that ancient prototypes. The introductory chap- approximately like modern Mediterranean black pepper or extremely “aromatic” ter lays out a number of the challenges cooking—without the more recently impor- cheeses do today, and, indeed, black pep- 8

per is a common companion to the archaic span the lacunae. The result is a relish cial kinds of foods that an ancient author spices in ancient Roman cooking too. Used whose association with Homer is close to would regard as worth writing about at all. in due proportion and associated with com- nil, but tasty, and with enough pedigree If, in contrast, the reader is inclined to think plementary flavors, the bitter herbs provide from antiquity somehow or other to make it in terms of “sweetbreads, kidneys, and brightness, piquancy, and character, so worth discussing at a dinner with pleasant meat,” this book will be considerably more long as one minds the author’s terse warn- company. appealing as a practical tool in the kitchen. ing not to overdo them. One does wish The more Roman the topic, the more Even so, there is still plenty of interesting something could be done to resurrect the likely Apicius is to be the source—Grainger cookery for the likes of me, especially long lost spice “silphium,” but that seems a is a published scholar on Apicius specifical- baked dishes with interesting ways of vain hope. Grainger does cite an available ly—and therefore the more closely exploiting eggs, honey, grape must, pine substitute, but it sounds inadequate and she Grainger’s modern recipe is likely to resem- nuts, or cheese. Enjoy. wisely veers away from recipes that partic- ble what the ancient source actually says. If ularly depend on it. one is a stickler for greater accuracy in the Larry Ball ([email protected]) is Professor The majority of the book, naturally, con- resemblance between modern and ancient, of Art History at the University of Wisconsin sists of actual cookery, in the form of an then the later period chapters are the obvi- at Stevens Point. His publications concern amusing if imaginary romp through classi- ous place to focus. Perfection isn’t possible, the Domus Aurea in Rome (Cambridge Uni- cal culture. Chapters are based (very loose- but an amusing enterprise and a tasty meal versity Press, 2003) and Pompeii (AJA July ly indeed) on popular themes, including the certainly are. 2013), where he has been assistant direc- banqueting upon the homecoming of I have just one caveat: being a vegetari- tor of the Pompeii Forum Project since Odysseus, a wedding feast in the Hellenis- an, my own impression is that this book 1994. His fondness for homemade Pizza is tic era, Republican-era rural cuisine, foods heavily favors “brains, guts, and dead notorious. that might be associated with Roman things.” That is not a slur on the authors, Britain (fair enough, given the nationality of but rather it accurately reflects ancient the author), and “Supper at the Baths” tastes in these matters, at least for the spe- (essentially “eating out”). Many of these themes are extremely imaginative, with scant direct association between the Capital Campaign News ancient texts quoted and the recipes that appear in the chapters, but it should be obvious to any reader that expecting scien- n 2005 the American Philological Association (APA) launched its Gateway tific scholarship would be the fault of the ICampaign for Classics in the 21st Century. The goals of this Campaign were to build an endowment that would permit the Association to critic. Ancient cookery is a theme in this book, not a science, and that is validly the • create sophisticated and accessible research tools for classics teachers and most anyone could do with the topic. scholars Each topical chapter paints a charming • develop the next generation of inspired, diverse teachers of classics and classical languages picture of the imagined setting for its • support wider public understanding of and appreciation for classical civilization recipes, and then individual quotations are used as the launching pads for the culinary Thanks to a challenge grant from the National Endowment for the Humani- excursion that ultimately results in some- ties (NEH); major grants from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and The thing a modern reader can actually cook. Classical Association (UK); and gifts from over 1,200 individuals and founda- Here is one example, from the chapter tions, including one third of the members of the APA, the Association success- fully completed the Campaign in 2012. It raised over $2.6 million to match the associated with Odysseus. First, there is a $650,000 offered by the NEH and despite the fact that income from the quotation from the Odyssey that mentions endowment has been supporting relevant programs since late 2011, the fund’s the concept of “relish.” There is no recipe, value now stands at over $3.7 million. of course, not so much as a single ingredi- The endowment now underwrites the American Office of L’Année ent. Then there is the elder Cato’s generic philologique, awards and fellowships for classics teachers, a summer fellowship recipe for olive relish from the Late Republi- for a minority undergraduate studying classics, and the APA’s Fellow to the Thesaurus Linguae Latinae in Munich. Starting this year it will support the can era of Rome. Cato’s recipe probably Association’s efforts to share its members’ commitment to and appreciation for lists most or all of the ingredients needed to classical antiquity with the widest possible audience. make a relish, but not proportions and not Although NEH matching funds are no longer available, it is still possible to enough detail for the real recipe to be make a donation to the Gateway Endowment, and each year the Association reconstructed specifically. But the list is solicits donations to its annual fund that allow to offer regular programs at the evocative, and Grainger then assembles lowest possible cost. Read about current needs on the Association’s web site her own modern recipe for olive relish, (http://www.apaclassics.org/support-the-apa). using most of the ingredients Cato notes, with some substitutions and presumptions to 9 Vera Lachmann, the Classics, and Camp Catawba by Charles A. Miller

era Lachmann was born in Berlin grounds of Catawba twittered with the And he stirred up the sea in his hands, in 1904 into a family of the songs of birds: Toro-toro-toro-toro-tinx! having the trident. And he raised all German-Jewish aristocracy. She They rumbled with the croaks of frogs: the whirlwinds, all sorts of winds. And V he hid the sky and the earth at the attended a private school for girls, fol- Brekekekex, co-ax, co-ax. Brekekekex, co-ax. lowing which she studied philology at As the chorus of Persian elders, the boys same time, with clouds, and the sea. And night fell down from the sky. the Universities of Berlin and Basel and chanted a lament that, for the sake of And there was the East Wind and the received her PhD from the University her actors, Vera abbreviated to, “Where West Wind, and they fell upon the of Berlin in 1931. Although she expect- are our leaders . . . where?” They heard South Wind—that is a dreadful one— ed to teach at a German university, the Philoctetes cry out in pain, “Papai! and the North Wind, that creates hor- bias against women led her to take the apappapai! papap-papap-papap-papai!” ror. And they stirred up tremendous examinations that qualified her to teach Equally memorable was the evening waves.” Now let me say it in Greek, as at the Gymnasium level. In April 1933, story. Over the eight-week camp season, if it were music. with Hitler in power, she established a Vera told the Iliad and the Odyssey in private school that was held on the alternating summers. First she reviewed What did the parents of the campers grounds of relatives. The Nazis closed Homer’s Greek to herself and then called learn about Vera, the plays, the drama- the school shortly after Kristallnacht. the campers together. Her achievement tists, and Homer? Every week she wrote With the aid of friends in Germany and was telling the epics. It never occurred to to tell them. Here are excerpts from let- the United States she was able to leave her to read a translation. ters ranging from 1952 to 1970: Germany in November 1939. On arriv- Once in a while she interpolated her ing in the United States, she taught first own response into the telling. The bard You should have seen the circle of lit- at Vassar. Soon after, she taught for two Demodocus performs at a feast tle imps around the tall flame of the years at Salem College in North Caroli- (Od. viii.83-95): campfire, sticking their marshmallow sticks into the fire and listening to the na, one academic year at Bryn Mawr, fate of poor Prince Telemachus. and two years at Yale. Her most sub- And then he started singing, of all stantial employment was at Brooklyn subjects, about the wooden horse and The Persians is quite a bold experi- College, where she taught large courses the fall of Troy. Now—can you under- ment, and would be, even for any in classical civilization and Greek drama stand that?—when Odysseus heard grown-up group of amateurs: an archa- in translation, and smaller courses in this, that something that he had lived ic Greek tragedy, in a somewhat clum- through, that was part of his life, had sy, heavy-worded eighteenth century Greek: Antigone, Oedipus at Colonus, and already become the subject for litera- the Iliad. Castrum Peregrini Press of translation. The chorus has twelve ture, for a song, or an entertainment members, as was usual in Athens, the Amsterdam published three books of among other people—that was a very her poetry, German and English on fac- entire cast numbers twenty-one, so strange sensation. He put his cloak the majority of the campers partici- ing pages. A considerable number of her over his head and quietly cried. I can pate and the rest will help with cos- poems are on themes from ancient understand that very well; I don’t tumes, props, makeup, and lights. For Greece. She died in 1985. In 2004 I know whether you can. Some things I the actors, the task is to memorize 3-5 edited Homer’s Sun Still Shines: Ancient have lived through have already pages of heavy verse. Yet believe Greece in Essays, Poems and Translations become subjects for drama or for his- me—it’s coming! The dignity of the by Vera Lachmann. tory or for a movie. And I can’t really play, the pathos of a queen mother stand hearing it. And it moves me In the mid-1940s Vera Lachmann trembling for her son, a messenger strangely. And that was the way who brings the eyewitness report from founded a camp for boys in the moun- Odysseus felt. He just cried. tains of North Carolina, which she the greatest minority victory in antiq- named Catawba. Although the boys uity, the ghost of the former king She told the boys about the winds of advising the living to enjoy the pres- played sports, rode horses, and swam in a Poseidon (Od. v.291-96): ent day, and a defeated king coming spring-fed pool, Camp Catawba was dis- home in rags and frantic with tinguished by Vera’s gifts as a classicist. Now some of you seemed to be inter- despair—all that begins to take on Over the twenty-seven years of the ested in that morsel of Greek that I shape in our rehearsal. We know that camp’s operation Vera directed boys gave you. So I copied out a few more putting on The Persians means inviting ages six to twelve in dozens of great lines. It’s that place, if you remember, our youngsters to the heights of art plays, Shakespeare in the lead. Four when Poseidon comes back from instead of playing down to them and plays, however, were by the Greeks, two Africa and says, “Now see what we their usual range of superman, televi- tragedies and two comedies. The have here: my enemy is almost out of sion, and comic strips. tragedies were The Persians by Aeschylus danger.” And as you may remember, there was a terrific storm that he I admit it is rather daring to infect a and Philoctetes by Sophocles (in her own raised, with all the winds going against six- to twelve-year-old group with translation). The comedies were The each other. If you just take it in like Aristophanes, but the Old Athenian Birds and The Frogs, by Aristophanes. music it will show you about the can be proud of his 2400-year-old For the plays she left crucial lines in winds being so wild. First I translate jokes which still work and make peo- the original or modified the English for it: “Having said this, he (that means ple—even very young people— the sake of her actors. The small Poseidon) drew together the clouds. chuckle at every rehearsal. 10 What about the counselors at Catawba? Few at the camp were classicists, but one of them assisted Vera in translating Philoctetes. Another learned enough Latin from her to enter a graduate pro- gram in English and comparative litera- ture. In a reverie that he later wrote describing his experience, one sentence, repeated several times, stands out: “A Hellenist she said she was, not really a Latinist.” A third counselor, with no particular interest in the classics, was a lanky Eagle Scout who played the role of the Trojan horse at a campfire skit. A fourth was an American who had learned Greek from Vera in Germany and helped her escape. It was she who in the mid-1940s wrote out a line from Heraclitus (by way of Aristotle) with a crayon and constructed a frame for it: KAI ENTAUTHA THEOI. The sign, which Vera seldom explained (was Catawba a divinely inhabited place?), was dis- played in the camp’s small office until her death. Vera Lachmann tells Homer. Image copyright © Ron Blau. Used by permission. A former camper who spoke at her memorial celebration brings our narra- tive to its close. “For those of us who In the evening story I have reached EPIPHANY began young at Catawba, whose life . . . the tragic turning point of the Iliad. before Telemachus and Athena, whose Achilles has decided not to go back life before Catawba is hard to recall, for into battle, but does not know yet that Yesterday I met God. And I am still that will cost him dearer than his life, shaken. those of us who were with Vera at camp that his best friend has to die for him. over many summers—we can no more I sat in the summer meadow where it forget her than we can forget ourselves. We gave permission to the campers to most silverly trembles. She is like the hydrangea bushes on the quote the very daring Aristophanes slope next to the Mainhouse: so many lines [from The Frogs] if they properly Nourishing odor of herbs arose from the blossoms; so long enduring.” say “quote” and “unquote.” We had warmed soil. another full reading rehearsal which Charles A. Miller ([email protected]) impressed an accidental guest, a Har- My book lay open, Pindar’s Olympic Odes. was educated at Swarthmore College, the vard graduate classics student, beyond University of Freiburg in Germany, and words. Odysseus has by now come to his home as a beggar. A pair of butterflies of dotted brown silk Harvard University. He is the author or edi- pursued each other - tor of A Catawba Assembly (New Market, I had them all together at bedtime in VA: Trackaday, 1973); Homer’s Sun Still the front room of the Citadel and told their flight zig-zag - and plunged into Shines: Ancient Greece in Essays, them about Mother Earth giving Del- the sea of grass. A bird Poems and Translations by Vera Lach- phi to Apollo as a birthday present. As mann (New Market, VA: Trackaday, 2004); I have been to Delphi recently the steadily repeated its decorously orna- The Supreme Court and the Uses of story had a vivid meaning to myself mental phrase. Leaves History (Harvard Univ. Press, 1968); and and, it seemed, also to the boys. fluttered on high in the midst of blue Jefferson and Nature: An Interpretation (The Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, 1988). Vera Lachmann was also a poet. She ecstasy. wrote only in German. The literal trans- A black speck of dust blew onto the lations may obliterate some of the beau- open page between Pindar’s ty of the original, but one can still understand the scene and feel the pas- mighty lines. I started to wipe it away. sion. Here she is, sitting in a field at No dust! A tiny insect. It Catawba reading Pindar. (The poem was published in 1982 in Grass ran, wanted to live, did live. Diamonds, the third of her three bilin- gual volumes of poetry.) Then the bug became God. And my soul shivered.

11 Flipping a coin: building a numismatic database with undergraduate researchers by Julie Langford

hat sinking feeling when you real- objectives, are based upon this one sim- alone and certainly not without techno- Tize you’ve completely underesti- ple acknowledgement: we work better logical tools. A database, yes, that could mated the scope of a project? I’m together than alone. Collaboration is not help me to analyze my evidence sys- far more familiar with it than I’d like to just a question of hatching an idea and tematically. But I knew that I was star- admit. working with your IT people to build a ing down about 2,300 different provin- It was what I felt when I began ana- framework through which to publish cial coins and hundreds of imperial coin lyzing the data I gathered in the library your data online. The best digital types. Keying in that information and and vaults of the American Numismatic humanities projects are from their then analyzing it and writing up my Society on provincial coinage minted inception both collaborative and inter- findings while maintaining my teaching under the Severan dynasty. I’d received disciplinary. They tap into the marvels schedule was out of the question. On a grant from my home institution to of modern technology to visualize and top of that, I wasn’t entirely confident in place the images and legends on provin- sort our data in such a way that we can my methodology. Wouldn’t it be great if cial coinage in conversation with that of still pursue the types of questions that I could share my ideas and data with imperial coinage. I thought by doing so, have characterized our discipline for other scholars who specialized in the I could bring to life the negotiations of centuries, but we can do so in a less Severan period or imperial ideology, to ideology between local concerns and compartmentalized way. The informa- get their feedback before I’d invested imperial propaganda. tion culled from these projects frees us so much time and energy in the project? It was a good idea, an exciting new from anecdotal generalizations and That was my conundrum when I met methodology. What I failed to realize is allows us to work more systematically. Susan Stevens, an archaeologist at Ran- the quantity of data I had to consider in I wish I’d had those insights back in dolph College who had come to our uni- analyzing provincial and imperial 2007. They would have perhaps allowed versity to discuss her findings from the coinage. My philologically focused grad- me to sidestep some of the blunders excavation she conducted in Carthage. uate school training had not prepared that I made along the way: not backing Her presentation reminded me how me for this—in order to analyze the rela- up my data properly and losing hun- skillfully archaeologists manage and tionships in any systematic way I would dreds of hours of work; not seeking the interpret mountains of data. And so I need to keep an impossibly large body guidance of other people who were spoke with her over coffee the next of data in my head. more advanced in like projects; not morning to find out her secret. “Under- I don’t remember whether I’d heard making my data linkable to other digital graduate researchers,” she said, and the term “digital humanities” in the fall humanities projects like Perseus or smiled at me as I first balked and then of 2007 when I faced the mountain of Pleiades. “Fools rush in,” as the saying ticked off on my fingers all the reasons unwieldy evidence I’d gathered, but if I goes. why undergraduate researchers were a had, my response was likely negative. But I had to start somewhere, even if terrible idea. Then, classicists might have used com- for the first two years I was groping my I’d never heard of humanities puters to gain easy access to ancient way through the darkness. I knew that I professors working with undergraduate texts and journal articles. We might just couldn’t do what I wanted to do researchers beyond the individual the- even have used technology to compile sis, but I’d witnessed firsthand how it vocabularies from online texts and com- worked in the STEM disciplines and prehensively analyze the contexts of my impression was largely negative. For particular words, but we did so in isola- instance, when my husband wrote his tion. Ours is a solitary discipline. We engineering thesis, his professor work alone, wrestling with our ideas in assigned him a topic, but related to his the silence of our offices and only own research, of course. My husband unveiling our analyses in paper presen- had done all the experiments, interpre- tations that sometimes echo through tation, and writing, but nevertheless, his conference rooms without any satisfying professor was listed as first author in the response from our audience. We might resulting publication. To me, this was speak to a colleague about an idea and I exploitation, pure and simple. think we all dream of engagement with And then there was the issue of find- the profession once our conclusions are ing an undergraduate whom I could in print, and we might even discuss an trust to enter my data accurately and idea with a colleague before we submit analyze it with any degree of sophistica- an article, but finding our evidence, tion. The data I’d gathered came from testing our theses, writing our findings, Aureus of Septimius Severus, 198-200 Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum catalogs, these things we do alone. CE, ANS 1944,100.50174. Used with which listed the contents of coin cabi- Digital humanities projects for all permission. nets around the world. They were writ- their varied formats, contents, and ten in German, French, Italian, and 12 Spanish. It was hard enough to find an undergrad whom I trusted with the ancient Greek legends on the coins, but where would I find one who could mud- dle through all those modern languages, too? And then there was the question of interpretation. To say anything intelli- gent about these coins, a researcher would need a solid grounding in iconog- raphy, the historical context, and impe- rial propaganda. My researcher would also need to know something of Roman imperial numismatics. That’s a pretty tall order for an undergraduate researcher. Susan listened patiently and then explained that she checked over the information her students entered, but that the students did her a great service in simply entering the data. By doing so, they became familiar with the informa- tion and then used the database to ask and answer their own questions. “All fine and good for an archaeologist who doesn’t have to rely so much on written texts,” I thought. Using undergraduate little Latin and no formal training in Front page of the Severan Database researchers simply couldn’t work for my Roman history, numismatics, or iconog- Project, http://web3.forest.usf.edu/ project. It would be more hassle to train raphy managed such a sophisticated main/other/severan/ them than it would be to do the work interpretation. Suddenly, undergraduate myself. researchers making a meaningful contri- had employed what he’d learned from And then one day in my sophomore- bution both to my own work and to the last several weeks, from his regular level survey course on the Roman scholarship in general didn’t seem like exposure to numismatic interpretation Empire, I placed an image of a coin of such a laughable idea. But how—how of legends and iconography. He had the emperor Septimius Severus before had this young man come to his inter- learned the historical context of the coin the students (RIC 4a.168b, 113). I was pretation? The answer eluded me until he had interpreted from (gasp!) doing just about to explain the propagandistic one night the very simple answer pre- his readings the night before class. messages that the coin conveyed to an sented itself as I was drifting off to Upon reflection, I realized that I should informed Roman audience when I sleep. That student knew how to inter- have been more surprised if he hadn’t heard a student laughing in the back of pret the coin because he’d watched me known how to interpret coinage. the classroom. I turned to see what the do it in class for the last ten weeks. He The language issue? When I was commotion was about. He was laughing knew how to do it because I had taught honest with myself, I realized that it at the coin. him how. And if I’d taught him how, pre- doesn’t require much language training “It takes real balls to make a state- sumably anyone who had taken my to read the Latin and Greek legends on ment like that,” he said, pointing to the sophomore-level class, provided they imperial and provincial coinage. Really, reverse image on the coin. were interested and motivated, of it takes about a week to train someone In fact, he was right, though I hoped course, could do the same thing. to learn the Greek alphabet, some that I would have explained it in a This one experience so humbled and declensions, and numismatic abbrevia- slightly more sophisticated manner. excited me (maybe my work is not so tions. From there, a researcher could The image showed the emperor on obtuse or specialized? maybe I can get consult a dictionary if she ran across a horseback, trampling a Persian foe, sur- that student to help me build the data- word she didn’t recognize. Modern lan- rounded by the inscription VIRTVS base!) that I spent the next several guages required more thought on my AVG, which translates to something like weeks figuring out how to address the part. I learned, however, that my uni- “the manliness / courage / masculinity various obstacles to undergraduate versity has an entrance language of the Emperor.” The student was research that I ticked off to Susan requirement, and many of my students laughing, he explained, because the his- Stevens on my fingers. had already a basic familiarity with a torians of the period belittled the Historical context? Interpreting mes- modern language. Their skills were emperor’s Persian campaigns, portray- sages and iconography? I had assumed good enough that they were able to ing them as ineffectual and self-destruc- that the students in my sophomore- translate the catalog entry, especially tive. This coin, he concluded, was dam- level course required me to contextual- with the aid of the image of the coin age control that attempted to portray ize a coin for them, that they needed and a dictionary to help them. Once the campaigns and the emperor in as me to tell them what they were seeing, they had translated the catalog entry flattering terms as possible. what the iconography meant, and how into English and entered it into the “Yes, exactly!” I managed to sputter that message fit into an emperor’s over- database, the language difficulties dis- out, amazed that this student who had all propaganda program. That student continued on page 22 13 A New Incarnation of Latin in China groups of honors students are required to continued from page 3 learn Latin and Greek, together with classical Chinese, as main subjects. Sec- ond, decades of Westernized education but some Latin courses had been For myself, Latin brought me and exposure to the outside world have introduced. Leopold Leeb, a legendary another stroke of fortune. I won a created a large class of youths who are Austrian with a Ph.D. in Chinese philos- Fulbright Visiting Scholarship for 2012- proficient in English or other modern ophy, was teaching Latin, Greek, and 13, and I was hosted by the Department European languages, and who are now Hebrew single-handedly at Renmin of Classics at the University of Washing- eager to push the frontiers of their learn- University (Beijing); since then he has ton. I was finally able to submerge ing into the depths of the Western past. translated and compiled more than ten myself in a milieu congenial to studying Latin and Greek are powerful weapons books related to Latin teaching. At Latin poetry. In the year before my trip in their intellectual expeditions. Peking University, Latin was offered by to the United States, a series of events Most importantly, this outburst of two teachers, one in philosophy and one dazzled me in quick succession. The passion for the Western classics has been in world history. At other universities, first conference on Latin Teaching at parallel to, and following a similar histori- Latin classes were mostly of a practical Chinese Universities was held in June cal logic as, our belated reconciliation nature, required of students majoring in 2011; five months later, the first Center with our own ancient tradition. After a botany, zoology, or medicine. I named for Studies in Western Classics was century’s sterile radical nihilism regard- my course “Introduction to Latin and founded at Peking University; in April ing our heritage, many of us have begun Selected Readings,” using Wheelock as 2012, a symposium titled “The Western to treat our classics with the respect and the textbook and supplementing it with Classics in Modern China” was held at care they deserve, refraining from simpli- excerpts from other sources. I had the University of Chicago Beijing Cen- fied assumptions and searching through intended to run it as a two-year course, ter; another institute devoted to Latin painstaking negotiations with the texts but it turned out that I had to reshape it studies, Latinitas Sinica, was estab- for intelligent readings that are relevant to a one-year frame and teach it twice. lished in June at Beijing Foreign Stud- both to the original contexts and to our For students to become proficient in ies University. During my stay at UW, I contemporary concerns. Likewise, we Latin, I was led to think, such a pattern missed out on a landmark event: the believe that it is high time we discarded of optional courses with half-hearted stu- Association for Comparative Studies of stereotyped generalizations of Western dents seemed not viable; it is essential to Western and Chinese Classics was values, ceasing to take modern Euro- have the backing of a dedicated institu- launched in Guangzhou. I could only American civilizations as the “medicine” tion that can draw enthusiasts who rec- ascribe it to magic that all of a sudden for the “diseases” of an “inherently” ognize a destiny in learning a language. we came to have our own organization defective Chinese culture, a conviction That same year, I received a grant and the attention of the whole nation. shared by most advocates of the May from China’s Ministry of Education for Fourth Movement in the 1910s and car- a project on Catullus. I was determined ried to catastrophic extremes by the Red to create the first Chinese version of his Guards half a century later. Studies of Carmina. By then only six volumes of Western classics help us understand the Latin poetry (and a meager anthology) We had been the first roots and ramifications of this drastically had been translated into Chinese: one different tradition, and reveal ways in by Virgil (Aeneid), three by Ovid (Meta- in decades, the librarian which any tradition can be questioned, morphoses, Ars Amatoria, Heroides), one told us, to borrow revised, and transformed in an ongoing by Lucretius (De Rerum Natura), and these books. dialogue that steers clear of both servile one by Propertius (Elegiae). Most of dogmatism and arrogant dismissal. these were done either in the pre-Com- Therefore, this new life of Latin in munist era, or during the short-lived China is not a pale ghost shunning the boom in the 1980s when Latinists of vital energies of the sun, or a mummy in older generations raced against time in the museum holding interest only for their final years to make up for the trag- But more than that: when attending the curious. Rather, its pulsing arteries ic waste of their talent in earlier the 144th annual APA meeting in January and flexing muscles promise active decades. A generous sum from the Loeb 2013, I learned that there was going to be engagement in a labor of love, the Classical Library Foundation enabled a panel the next year dedicated to China, building of a bridge across times and tra- me to publish my translation of Catullus called “Classics and Reaction: Modern ditions, spanning the bitter divide that and a monograph on him as well. The China Confronts the Ancient West.” So, has stranded people in the cultural East warm reception of the Chinese Catullus this new incarnation of Latin is sending and in the cultural West. astounded me, prompting me to take waves across the Pacific Ocean. another view of Latin in China. I Several trends are now converging. Yongyi Li ([email protected]) is Profes- noticed that all the old translations of First, an elitist turn combined with a sor of English at Chongqing University, Latin poetry were being reprinted, that new emphasis on liberal education at Chongqing, China. His major fields of a Chinese version of Wheelock had China’s top universities has naturally led inquiry include Anglo-American modernist appeared, and that more than ten uni- to the incorporation of Western classics poetry, Roman poetry and classical Chinese versities were regularly offering Latin into their curricula, resulting in an explo- poetry. An active literary translator, he has courses. All these changes had taken sive need for scholars who can teach rendered fourteen books into Chinese from place within just two or three years. Latin and Greek. At Sun Yat-sen Uni- English, French and Latin, of which Catul- Latin, long committed to oblivion, was versity (in Guangzhou) and my home lus’ Carmina signaled the first full presenta- being revived. institution Chongqing University, small tion of the Roman poet in China. 14 The Kids Are Alright, cedes that his own generation was as go, but doesn’t think there should be any or, Nobody Killed the careerist as today’s, and his chosen author- actual Marxists in the academy, let alone Liberal Arts ity on the meaninglessness of college any earnest application of Marxism, or of today, Paul Goodman, died in 1972, close related approaches like the cultural materi- continued from page 4 to half a century ago. Students cheated alism of Raymond Williams or Alan Sin- then too, but lacked today’s technological field. I’m sure he’d say the same thing beyond. These colleagues, Epstein com- tools and were detected less often. Atempo- about Freud, lauding the fact that his own plains, undermine the liberal arts curriculum ral tempora! Oblivious to the published undergraduate curriculum included Totem by teaching literature written since World research, Epstein ignores reports that and Taboo, but indignant that anybody in War II, some of it by women, people of today’s Americans cheat and plagiarize the academy should actually apply psycho- color, and perhaps even homosexuals, as less often than many others. I don’t suggest analytic approaches to literature or culture, well as by teaching theoretical texts and we should ignore plagiarism—I’ve worked and God forbid there should be any men- perspectives from this same stigmatized hard to show teachers how to detect it—but tion of Lacan! postwar era. He doesn’t give a satisfactory the data definitely undermine Epstein’s DT: To be fair, I applaud Epstein’s insis- account of why the liberal arts curriculum anathematization of America. tence on reading modern classics—Freud— may not extend beyond the Second World MB: So his protestations are not only rather than books about them. He does War; nor does he explicitly reference the anxious but also unfounded. I want to move seem hostile to recent work. Educationally, war as any kind of line in the cultural sand. past the nostalgia, past the calls to revive we all gain from encountering, decipher- But that’s clearly what he’s getting at, since traditional approaches to Great Books, ing, and responding to unfamiliar reason- all his examples of "second-rate authors" which nearly always come hand in hand ing: not just as students but as citizens. The and texts are from the postwar period. with attacks on critical theory and postmod- work of mastering unfamiliar discourses— DT: Well, that’s a good transition to my ern concerns with race, class, sex, gender, Plato and Locke—is continuous with the second topic, uninquisitive claims, by which postcolonial self-determination, and so on. need of adult Americans to comprehend I mean Epstein’s own anxiety-free judgment You and I have talked about this before, and respond, not only to political argu- of others. Too often these reveal his refusal back in 2009, when some of our col- ments but to the contracts and proposals of to inquire beyond the headlines. He claims leagues were vexed about the Higher Edu- all sorts that are part of modern life. that “we still don’t know how to assess cation Research Council’s findings that col- On the topic of student careerism, teaching” despite the fine work on teaching lege professors were more concerned with Epstein ignores the fact that Dartmouth, for portfolios by his fellow Chicagoan Lee Shul- encouraging students to become agents of instance, sends as many graduates to life- man or by the Carnegie Foundation for the social change than they were with teaching shaping work in the Peace Corps and Advancement of Teaching. He seems classic texts (http://chronicle.com/arti- Teach for America as to investment bank- unaware of the demonstrations by Kenneth cle/Social-Change-Tops-Classic/1564/). ing. He complains, “students with college Feldman and others that student teaching To some extent, this relates to my argu- degrees are finding it tough to get decent evaluations correlate with actual student ment about replacing tradition with recep- jobs,” but fails to ask, what about students learning. And he seems persuaded that tion as a pedagogical approach, at least without college degrees? The Bureau of we’ve only recently taken to “listing” (“six vis-à-vis the Greco-Roman “inheritance.” In Labor Statistics gives the following informa- reasons for Athens’ decline”): this was a fact, in my letter to the Chronicle of Higher tion for level of participation in the 2012 hallmark of Gilbert Highet’s teaching fifty Education about that survey (http://chroni- workforce (http://www.bls.gov/ years ago—“There are five things you must cle.com/article/Classicists-Must-Chal- news.release/empsit.t04.htm and http:// know about Vergil.” lenge/3260/), I mentioned a wise col- www.bls.gov/emp/ep_chart_001.htm): MB: I just think the whole emphasis on league’s use of the term “counter-classi- higher education is a red herring. Epstein’s cism,” and now I can reveal that the wise Without high school diploma: 45.3% essay, the very idea of the “death of the lib- colleague was you! With high school diploma: 59.8% With some postsecondary eral arts” or, as Victor Davis Hanson put it, DT: Thanks. Serious social scientists education: 69.3% the death of Homer, points to something have addressed many of Epstein’s com- With bachelor’s degree: 75.7% larger in society and in history, the urgent plaints and have sometimes pointed toward need for a redefinition of humanism in the solutions. Epstein’s disinclination to test his So, while college graduates are hurting, postmodern era. Dan, you say Epstein’s claims against the research signals a disre- they’re better off than others. The problem judgments are anxiety-free, but I think his gard for social science, which in fact he here is not education, but the massive judgments are very anxious expressions of never mentions. Similarly, Epstein waves income inequality in the current economy. loss, expressions of a kind of nostalgic belief away computerized research on literature MB: Ah, now you’re talking, Dan. As I that a need once satisfied—a social, cultural, without analysis. Does he really believe a said, the issue here is not just higher educa- historical need—is satisfied no longer. single office at Stanford University threatens tion or some kind of liberal arts-versus- DT: That’s a good point. I meant only the practice of reading? STEM smackdown. The issue is a funda- that he seems confident about judging oth- MB: Well, what do you want from a mental transformation in society and culture ers. Too, his O Tempora, O Mores pose guy who is so proud of the fact that he over the course of the twentieth century, conflicts with his examples: Epstein con- read Marx as an undergraduate at Chica- continued on page 16 15 The Kids Are Alright, its place in history. I’m not claiming this is blessed with an endowment of $19 billion, or, Nobody Killed the an easy thing to deal with in the undergrad- i.e., well over $1 million for each under- uate classroom. My own students are dis- graduate. That can pay for a lot of confer- Liberal Arts mayed by the idea of the "End of Western encing and “re-visioning.” continued from page 15 Civilization" (I use the word “end,” not Although he disparages student evalua- “death”). They want me to give them per- tions, Epstein later acknowledges that one encompassing class issues like income mission to understand it as an “evolution” learns from one’s fellow students. Here he inequality, but also issues of race, sex, gen- rather than a sharp break, because they agrees, likely without knowing it, with the der, the end of colonialism, the emergence are so uncomfortable with the idea of the great left-wing students of the 1930s: of postcolonial cultures, and of course the Western tradition having closed and left Moses Finley, Daniel Thorner, Charles emergence of new technologies, all of them on the other side. So there is an Trinkaus, and others, at least two of whom which demand of us a new humanism. urgent need for a humanism that can were later deprived forever of academic DT: Well, on that note, let us turn now explain multicultural subjectivity to itself, to work in America. Thirty years on, Finley to consider other worthwhile points in those who live inside it, the citizens of post- recalled the 30s: Epstein’s essay. modern culture. First of all, like his source Andrew Del- DT: That is a really serious topic, and I have the firm impression that the lectures banco, Epstein cares about good teaching. teachers as well as students may have prob- and seminars were pretty severely locked in an ivory tower…. I…refer…to the irrele- He raises but does not explore the underly- lems dealing with the implications. You’re vance of [our professors’] work as histori- saying—I think—that the recognition of non- ing question of how to recognize teaching ans. The same lectures and seminars with appropriate “roles and rewards.” There white, non-male, non-“straight” subjects could have been given—and no doubt are ways to judge teaching effectiveness, entails changes in consciousness: we can- were—in an earlier generation, before the and they got considerable attention in the not just slot them in without revising the First World War…. We, who were grow- 1990s. Ironically, the research produced in way we think. How sharp the break is, will ing up in a difficult world…sought expla- nation and understanding…. And so we that decade and earlier (some of it, like require serious study. went off on our own to seek in books Mina Shaughnessy’s classic Errors and Coming back briefly to teaching: Epstein what we thought we were not getting in Expectations, a direct outgrowth of open invokes the provocative recent book, Acad- lectures and seminars. admissions at City University) is now widely emically Adrift, in which Richard Arum and We read and argued about Marc Bloch known. What is lacking is full institutional Josipa Roksa argue that today’s colleges and Henri Pirenne, Max Weber, Veblen and the Freudians…Marx and the Marx- commitment to the good teaching that helps aren’t inculcating critical thinking or com- ists…not just Das Kapital, not even prima- produce student learning. Epstein’s heart is plex reasoning. He ignores the successful rily Das Kapital, but also Marxist historical in the right place here, but he hasn’t done efforts of the Carnegie Foundation, the and theoretical works. [M.I Finley, “Class the heavy lifting required to turn his case Association of American Colleges and Uni- Struggles.” The Listener 78.1 (1967): from lament into productive argument versities (AACU), and the now (sadly) 201-2] (http://www.amazon.com/Errors-Expecta- defunct American Association for Higher tions-Guide-Teacher-Writing/dp/ Education (AAHE) to focus on these very MB: It seems like these left-wing intellec- 0195025075). topics over the past two decades, especial- tuals of the 1930s were already moving MB: I’m concerned about teacher effec- ly at nonelite institutions. past nostalgia for the old humanism of tiveness, but I’m more focused on recogniz- Ironically, when we actually read Arum "Western Civilization" and towards an ing and responding to fundamental and Roksa, we find that they refer to understanding of what it means to live in a changes in the culture that have already led Carnegie’s Lee Shulman and emphasize, postmodernity of which one cannot even to corresponding changes in the humani- like Shulman, the ways in which student quite grasp the existence, especially since it ties. Part of this new humanism is an under- writing and revision, conferencing, and is so often posited as a kind of failure of standing of the historical specificity of the time on task lead to student success. Epstein civilization rather than as an emergent form White Male Christian Subject of Western also misses that these practices, under great of culture within which meaning may exist, Culture. In other words, there is nothing pressure elsewhere owing to lack of funds, albeit in new and unfamiliar forms. This wrong with the Great Books that Epstein remain in place in precisely those elite insti- new understanding is not a matter simply of wants us to keep at the core of the liberal tutions he criticizes. Believe it or not, the one sentence or one paragraph or one arts, but there may be something wrong elites seem to be doing something right, essay, but rather an entire discourse, only with the uncritical model of western civiliza- and their students are the beneficiaries. now unfolding, a humanism of postmoderni- tion that he insists on retaining as the con- Now, are the liberal arts “losing pres- ty. What we need is a new kind of human- text for teaching these texts. tige”? If that were true, would students be ism that views postmodernity from a more In a sense, a Multicultural Subject of clamoring for admission to Brown and psychically integrated perspective—a post- Postmodern Culture has replaced the White Wellesley? The question has to be ana- modern humanism that has undergone a Male Christian Subject of Western Culture. lyzed, and analysis, tragically, reveals the necessary psychotherapy, and come out the As a society, we have an emergent cultural bimodal distribution of educational other side of cultural neurosis. We need a subjectivity that is still struggling to define resources in America. Yale students are postmodern humanism that accepts itself for 16 Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Goodman was proudly bisexual. Praising Where Are We Going? him is a major step forward from a writer once notorious for saying, in 1970: by Ellen Bauerle There is much that my four sons can do in n this issue we are fortunate to have But even so, many of the responses their lives that might cause me anguish, Iour Executive Director Adam Blistein’s tend to fall into interesting and sugges- that might outrage me, that might make account of his introduction to classics tive patterns, and we at Amphora are [me] ashamed of them and of myself as through a particularly gifted high school working to bring you a series of short their father. But nothing they could ever teacher and coach, Alfred Morro, and biographies that we hope will illuminate do would make me sadder than if any of Adam’s comments on what that experi- these patterns. One of the most interest- them were to become homosexual. [“Homo /Hetero: The Struggle For Sexual ence has meant to him. It was serendipity ing characteristics we think you’ll see is Identity,” Harper’s Magazine (September, that Adam proposed his article to your just how young most of us were when we 1970), 51] Amphora staff for this issue, but his essay first thought seriously about the ancient also fits nicely with another topic that has world. Many in academia tend to regard Is Goodman invoked here simply by been under discussion among the APA’s capturing students as majors in the first chance, or might it be that reading him has Outreach division: thinking about our semester or so of college as an important origins, about our path to classical studies, goal. Some investigation into these short achieved, for Joseph Epstein, what he and what that tells us. biographies will suggest instead that the described as the goal of the Great Books, As I was getting to know social media Aha! moment happens a lot earlier, and to “take students out of their parochial a while back, and mindful of the colorful that probably those of us at the level of backgrounds”? We can hope. situations that people sometimes get college or even high school should be MB: That’s a nice note to conclude on, themselves into with unfamiliar technology, working in much closer conjunction with Dan. As a same-sex married gay man, I I was looking for some safe, mild topics of middle school teachers, in order to create appreciate your calling that 1970 quote to discussion and posting. I got to talking a thriving classical ecosystem. with the smallish group of social media In any case, Adam’s thoughts on his my attention. I didn’t know about it, and friends I had at the time about how they mentor will get us off to a promising start, while it may seem uncharitable to take happened to reach the positions they and in coming weeks and months on the Epstein to task for something he said forty- held as adults—most but not all were col- blog and in these pages, under the tag three years ago, such comments do add to lege or university professors, and most of “My Path to Classics,” you’ll hear from our understanding of his character. Even in them were in North America. Was it a teachers at different levels and varied 1970, when there was so much less under- decisive college major? an accident of cir- schools, from research professors, from cumstance? a beloved teacher? APA officers, and from a few of us with standing of sexual diversity, it’s alarming to It’s true I had what the social scientists nonprofessorial jobs, in museum studies think that Epstein would be more devastated would regard as an iffy sample: it was of or publishing or similar. Our hope is that to learn that his son was gay than to learn course drawing from only those folks who by giving thought to where we have come that he had committed an act of unjust vio- were active on social media, and whom I from and who we are, we will be better lence or discrimination against a fellow knew personally, and it was strongly placed to consider where we are going. In human being. But as you say, we can hope. skewed toward 1980s and 1990s MAs or an era in which national figures can use PhDs in classical philology or classical the humanities as a humorous punch-line, Michael Broder is a man of learning and archaeology from the University of Michi- having a clearer roadmap in hand seems a gan. That is, really not a random cross- wise step. letters whose poems, essays, and reviews section of the APA, or classicists at large. have appeared in numerous journals and Since then I’ve tried to incorporate the Ellen Bauerle ([email protected]) is anthologies, including his first collection of same question in conversations with some Senior Editor of Amphora. She is Executive poems, This Life Now (2014). You can of the many classicists I work with on a Editor at the University of Michigan Press, learn more about Michael’s publications, daily basis—authors, referees, series editors, where among other things she acquires titles in readings, and other events at scholars at nearby schools including big uni- classical studies, ancient history, and classical versities like Michigan State and Chicago, archaeology. An Oberlin undergrad, she www.mbroder.com. Michael Broder can be and smaller schools like Kenyon or Oberlin. received her MA and PhD from the University reached at [email protected]. I’ve managed to broaden the age cohort of Michigan, and also enjoyed her time at the and school of origin a little, include those ANS and ASCSA. Daniel Tompkins ([email protected]; with recent PhDs, and involve people from BA Dartmouth College, PhD Yale University) more graduate programs. taught in the Department of Greek and Roman Classics at Temple University, retir- who and what it is, rather than grieving for part. He invokes as an authority “Paul Good- ing in 2010. He also taught at Wesleyan what it is not, for what it wishes it were, for man, one of the now-forgotten gurus of the University, and Swarthmore and Dartmouth what its parents wanted it to be. We need 1960s, [who] used to argue that what finish- Colleges. He has written on M. I. Finley, a postmodern humanism that repairs the ing college really meant is that one was will- Thucydides, Homer, the ancient city, Wal- trauma of its own birth and values its own ing to do anything to succeed in a capitalist lace Stevens, just war theory, and various existence. society.” Whether Epstein’s friends are as topics in higher education; his current proj- DT: We can end this very stimulating dia- critical of capitalism as Goodman was ects include the intellectual development of logue by noting a mild paradox that seems seems quite dubious, but credit is all the M. I. Finley and language and politics in to reveal at least some progress on Epstein’s more due for that reason. And there’s this: the speeches in Thucydides. 17 The Stakes are High: Tragedy and men had ever been capable of what Transformation within Prison Walls they had done. How had they trans- formed themselves? “Becoming hum- continued from page 5 ble” or “achieving humility” were phrases the men used often when dis- ing the lengths of sentences, or serving the authorities were dangerous. cussing the tragedies. Perhaps there was out their terms at prisons that were not Things came to a head one day in another interpretation of the prison’s maximum security. They knew a trial class. We had a lengthy take-home test motto, non sum qualis eram: I have when they saw one, even in ancient and coming up. I was trying to move away changed. I have become humble. mysterious garb, and they read it like from time-consuming, anxious ques- Once my students asked me if I was the experts they were. tions and back to the play we were read- scared, coming into a prison. “Of you At one point I asked the class what ing. “You’ll do fine,” I said. “The stakes all? Nah, come on.” I said. They they made of Apollo’s argument that are not that high. Tests are only part of laughed. “But why do you even want to the female was simply a vessel for the your grade.” One of the men, an excel- come into this place?” one persisted. male seed. “Oh, you know, lawyers,” lent writer who had done beautifully on “It’s a nightmare.” shrugged one of the men, a former gang his papers so far, all but exploded. It Of course, it wasn’t a nightmare for leader, in for felony murder. “They was the first time anyone had raised his me. I got to leave. But why did I want have to pull out whatever they can for voice in class. “You all don’t under- to come in? Because in the prison, I their guy.” It was funny, but it was stand, you and the TAs. It’s not the learned how powerful education could insightful as well. Apollo had a weak same for us as it is for the Wesleyan be. I’d lost sight of that, in the years I case. He was playing the misogyny card. kids. The stakes are high. I send every spent teaching more privileged stu- He only managed to convince half the one of my papers and tests to my 19- dents. With the men, I saw what it was Athenian jury on stage, even though year-old son. I want him to see what I like not to have an education, and to they knew they were voting against am doing. I need to do well, so that he want it enough to risk failure and humil- Athena herself, and none of them would can see that he can do it too, that he iation. When I left each class, having have been fans of husband-killing doesn’t have to do what I did. I want taken questions from every direction at women. him to stay in school.” The class looked top speed about everything I knew, I Euripides’ plays were the most trou- at me apprehensively. I did my best to was equally exhausted and exhilarated. bling to the men and the hardest for acknowledge that I had heard him, and I remembered why I wanted to become them to relate to. These criminals then steered us back to the play. a professor in the first place, when I was believed passionately in justice and in 18 and decided to major in Classics. the personal and political significance of The men at Cheshire gave me a suffering. Euripides presents a world in renewed awareness of why we continue which justice was perverted, at best, if to read the dead white men’s plays, and not completely meaningless. Human I continue to marvel at how these mas- suffering was depicted in painful detail; terpieces show themselves differently divine indifference was complete. For That they were prisoners to every reader. Non sum qualis eram. example, the men were horrified by the was both impossible and References punishment visited upon Cadmus in the pointless to ignore. Bacchae. What purpose did it serve? *I taught in 2010, in the early days of What had the old man done wrong? The Wesleyan University’s Center for Prison nihilistic universe of Helen shocked Education, part of the Consortium for them too: the deaths of countless war- the Liberal Arts in Prison at Bard Col- riors and, as we say now, non-combat- lege; go to www.wesleyan.edu/cpe . ants, all because of a divine shell game. Since then, the number of participants Our class was not just a discussion This man and I got to talk privately, and course offerings has doubled, and group in which the students shared later. (“Privately” in a prison means the program has extended to York Cor- their responses to the readings. They standing in a corner of a crowded room, rectional Institution for Women. had to take exams of the same difficulty out of earshot.) He apologized for rais- §These are pseudonyms, not the real as those assigned to Wesleyan students. ing his voice; I apologized for seeming names of any student in my class. These panicked even the most confi- to make light of his concerns. “I am just †Unfortunately, I’m unable to give dent. A bad grade might lead to having so frustrated,” he said. There was no examples of the high quality of their a professor think less of you. More than point in my saying that I understood, work. Connecticut’s Department of one bad grade might lead to getting because I could never understand. Correction regulations bar me from pub- kicked out. Poor performance would Most of us go into teaching believing lishing any inmate’s work. make the entire program look bad, and that education will change our students’ then it would be closed down. lives. But few of us imagine that they Elizabeth Bobrick has taught at the Uni- I couldn’t calm them down. I finally will use what they learn in our class- versity of Virginia, the University of Mis- realized that it was the men’s work to rooms to save their children from souri, and at Wesleyan University, where she face their anxieties. This was part of repeating their mistakes. We don’t is a Visiting Scholar in the Department of being a student: do your best and hope think that a student will ever say to us, Classical Studies. Elizabeth Bobrick can be for the best.† But their lives had shown as one did to me, “This is the one place reached at [email protected]. them that it was foolish to assume that where I feel really human.” things would turn out okay. Statements I have no idea how these intelligent, that might not meet with approval from and, in many cases, deeply religious 18 Linking Course to Production: The Oresteia Project duction of a biographical play about Turing, The Lovesong of the Electric Bear) by Ruth Weiner and Clara Shaw Hardy as well as Classics (for a production of Euripides’ Iphigeneia at Aulis as well as, he Oresteia demands a large canvas. productions we have ever done. For the most recently, the Oresteia). Classics, how- TIts trajectory, from the end of the Trojan script we commissioned a new adaptation ever, has a unique relationship with the- War to Athena’s creation of the first trial by of the trilogy by Rob Hardy (classicist and ater. The surviving tragedies and Aristo- jury, is huge. It is the story of the movement poet, as well as Clara Shaw Hardy’s hus- phanes’ comedies are primary texts in the from a tribal cry for blood revenge to a sys- band); the production incorporated an origi- study of the ancient world. They are also tem of justice designed by a god but car- nal score by composer Mary Ellen Childs, basic to the history of the theater and the ried out by men. It addresses the struggle ten choreographed choral dances, video study of dramatic literature. Just as Classics between male and female, chthonic and imaging, a World War II jeep and an ambi- is an essentially interdisciplinary field, so Olympian gods, tribe and polis, law and tious and beautiful lighting plot that at one theater relies on collaboration—the two tradition, justice and revenge. When we point flooded the stage with graffiti in make ideal partners. The idea of going first contemplated the notion of staging the ancient Greek. There were thirty-three stu- back to a foundational text like the Oresteia at Carleton College we were of dents in the cast including three speaking Oresteia for the inaugural year in our course aware of the scale of this undertak- and sixteen dancing members of the chorus, new theater, therefore, was appealing to ing. But even so, the full magnitude of the and more than ten students working behind both of us, and we knew that a project production that resulted, and its impact on the scenes, as well as those who worked on course linked to the production would be our campus and community, ended up tak- costumes, sound, lighting, props, set con- a productive way of leveraging contribu- ing us by surprise. struction, and more. By the middle of the tions from students and faculty in both The Oresteia was performed in the inau- spring term, it felt to us like most students on departments. gural season of Carleton’s new theater, and campus were either working on the show or The production was an ambitious one. was one of the largest and most ambitious knew someone who was. We knew we couldn’t perform the full three At the heart of this plays of Aeschylus’ trilogy, but we didn’t massive endeavor was a want to sacrifice the overall scale and tra- structure invented by Ruth jectory of the original work. We therefore Weiner, theater director commissioned a new translation / adapta- and professor of Theater tion of the text, which telescoped Aeschy- and Dance: the project lus’ three plays into a single two-hour course. This innovative drama. system links a team-taught The set had to represent Argos both at course (taught in this case the time of Agamemnon’s return for the first by Ruth together with part of the first act, and under the tyranny Clara Shaw Hardy from of Aegisthus and Clytemnestra’s rule in the Classics) to the term’s pro- second part, then Delphi and Athens in act duction by the Carleton two. While we never wanted to recreate Players (directed by Ruth). the space of the Theater of Dionysus in The course focuses on which the trilogy was first performed, Ruth material centrally related did want to incorporate important elements to the production, and stu- of that space: the strong central doors, the dents enrolled in the long entering crosses and the strong verti- course are required to cal axis of the ancient theater. This design participate in the produc- was organized around a clear central area tion in some capacity (act- that provided room for the choral dances. ing, dramaturgy, stage Joe Stanley’s very large set was built in an managing, designing and L formation with the doors at the bend of executing associated the L and a long system of platforms of events, writing essays for varying heights extending to stage left and the program, etc.). across the upstage area. Ruth has linked pro- A central element in the production was ductions to project cours- our collaboration with the Dance depart- es in collaboration with ment. Carleton’s faculty-directed dance Production image by Linnea Bullion. faculty in the departments company, Semaphore, along with three Used by permission. of English (for productions of Hamlet and speakers, made up the chorus, and dance The Country Wife), Mathematics (for a pro- continued on page 20 19 Linking Course to Production: The Oresteia Project plice…. I am so grateful to have been able to take this course in conjunction with continued from page 19 the performance. As you can probably tell from the previous entries, taking this course has forced me to look deeper into contributed greatly to the energy of the per- sions had taken place in the shadow of the each aspect of the production of this formance. The dynamism and sensitivity of Arab Spring as it unfolded through 2011. Greek tragedy as we layered in each ele- the dancers’ work resolved major questions In this context the Oresteia’s concerns with ment step by step… that came up in the Oresteia course about the birth-pangs of democracy and the move the function of the chorus and whether the from tribal to civic justice felt urgently While making these connections was choral segments would detract from the lin- contemporary. more challenging for, say, the stage hands ear plot. The sound score was entirely com- What was extraordinary to us, though, than it was for the actors, it was clear from posed of music that accompanied the was the range of ways in which the stu- the journals both that the production deep- dances and underscored much of the dents found the text relevant to their world. ened their understanding of the more spoken text. By the spring of 2012 the acute repercus- abstract discussions we had in class, and The course (“Visualizing Greek Tragedy: sions of Greece’s debt crisis had started that the class enabled a much more thor- The Oresteia Project”) focused on problems casting a somewhat different light on the oughly informed and thought-out produc- around the production of Greek tragedy. tragedies, making us all more attentive to tion. We used Simon Goldhill’s How to Stage Aeschylus’ repeated concern with the rela- The structure of linking course and pro- Greek Tragedy Today (University of Chica- tion between wealth and justice, as well as duction enabled us to mount a much more go Press, 2007) as our central text, and we reminding us of the fragility of those institu- ambitious Oresteia than the Players on their read a selection of extant tragedy, Aristo- tions whose foundations Aeschylus staged. own could have produced, and gave it an tle’s Poetics, and some secondary material Many students also were struck by the fact intellectual weight that would have been on the plays. While we did have some that our country, too, had just finished a impossible otherwise. At the same time the Classics students in the course, it enrolled a ten-year war, and was coping with the theater adds a self-evaluating dimension for wide variety of students in related fields repercussions of the sacrifices that war had students involved in the production, making (e.g., English, Philosophy, Women’s and required. them actors in their own education. Gender Studies, and History, as well as of While many of the decisions about the The combination of course and produc- course Theater). With each tragedy we production, by necessity, had been made tion, the collaboration with the Dance pro- read, students needed to confront the ques- before the course began, there were also gram, and the large scope of the project tion of how to make use of informed under- practical ways in which what the students generally guaranteed that the Oresteia had standing of the original performance con- were learning in the classroom percolated a wide impact across campus. The produc- text to bring the text to life most effectively into the performances. One of Goldhill’s tion also reached into the Northfield com- for a modern audience. Throughout the chapters centers on the challenges of pre- munity and the Twin Cities region. During term we circled back again and again to senting supernatural figures on stage. The the spring, Rob Hardy participated in a the Oresteia, and our production of it, as a students playing Apollo, Athena, and one drama class at a local high school (Arcadia test case. As a final project at the end of of the Furies were all in the class, and they Charter School), and taught a class on the term, groups of students presented their were naturally particularly interested in this ancient drama to senior citizens in the Can- versions of a production plan (including set, issue. In class one day we had them per- non Valley Elder Collegium, so that the pro- lighting, and costume design) of a number form a section of the trial scene from the duction attracted a wide and multigenera- of different tragedies, explaining how their Eumenides, and then the class engaged in tional audience from Northfield. Classicists decisions sprang from their understandings a lively discussion of the stakes of the trial, and theater faculty from surrounding col- of the core issues in the texts themselves. the power relations between Olympian and leges (St. Olaf, Gustavus Adolphus, St. The presentations showed the ways in chthonic gods, and the extent to which the Thomas, Macalester, etc.) attended and which the students had internalized the outcome was fixed in advance. The conclu- brought students. Eric Dugdale reviewed necessity of understanding the ancient sions we reached that day in class in turn the production for the online journal bones that are the texts of tragedy and colored the performances of all the actors Didaskalia, and he ends his review saying: making them intelligible to and meaningful involved in the play’s finale. for a modern audience. We asked the students to keep journals My colleague Yurie Hong and I brought a In their culminating projects our students in which they reflected on the relationship group of seven students to the first night of the show; most of them had just acted in were replicating the process that we and between the coursework they were doing their own performances of Greek drama. our many collaborators had been through and their work on the production. The stu- The elation that they exuded at seeing with the central production itself. We had dent who played Electra, for instance, said: Greek tragedy come alive and the flurry chosen the Oresteia, and begun talking of energetic discussion that the perform- about what a course and production might …. After reading the other Electras… it ance provoked are testimony that it had succeeded in offering audience members look like, a full eighteen months earlier in became clear to me that Electra isn’t just glad to see her brother after all these “some juicy food for thought,” to quote a the fall of 2010. Many of our initial discus- years, she’s thrilled to have an accom- line from the program. 20 Both of us continue to hear from col- leagues around the region about how mem- orable they found the performances. We as well as our students learned a great deal from the Oresteia production. This huge work still holds enormous appeal for us. We know from the experience of doing it that this work closely and effective- ly examines the struggles between the per- sonal and the political, between the family and the state, between men and women. These struggles have not been resolved and continue to generate important questions to this day. The Oresteia’s close examination of channeling a fierce personal sense of right and wrong to the state, of justice, con- tinues to be enormously resonant to us.

Ruth Weiner ([email protected]) is the Class of 1944 Professor of Theater and the Liberal Arts at Carleton College. This is her second collaboration with Rob and Clara Hardy. The first was on the 2000 production of Rob’s new translation of Euripides’ Iphigeneia at Aulis, central to a course on Greek tragedy.

Clara Shaw Hardy is Professor of Classical Languages at Carleton College, where she has taught since 1990. Her interests include the performance of Greek and Roman drama, gender studies, and the Production images by Linnea Bullion. Used by permission. scholarship of teaching and learning. Clara Shaw Hardy can be reached at [email protected].

The APA Blog Opens for Business Share Amphora! re you looking for that unusual gift for a s part of its ongoing site redesign being carried out Afriend or that gift appropriate for an out- Aby Information Architect Samuel Huskey, the APA is standing student? Consider giving a delighted to bring to you the new APA Blog. You can follow the subscription to Amphora! For just $10 U.S. blog at http://apaclassics.org/apa-blog to stay up to date with in the U.S. and Canada and $15 elsewhere, announcements, calls for papers, and other news of general, you can share the articles, reviews, and sur- academic, and pedagogical interest. As your print Amphora is prises of a year of Amphora with others. Sub- scription forms are available online at going to press, the blog is announcing the CANE Summer Insti- http://www.apclassics.org/ee/images/uploads tute, an upcoming conference at Indiana University on “Minia- /documents/amphora/ ture and Minor,” next year’s Winter Tour sponsored by the Nonmember_Subs_Form.pdf. Vergilian Society, and much more. You may find pieces on the blog to share with students or friends, just as you may want to share your print Amphora.

—Your Amphora Editors

21 flipping a coin: building a numismatic posia, my researchers consistently database with undergraduate sweep top honors in the humanities division. But they have also presented researchers their work at nationally competitive continued from page 13 undergraduate research symposia like Sunoikisis, as well as at regional profes- appeared. The student who read Ger- office with five researchers, fifteen sional conferences like the meetings of man but not French could read all the cities, promises for equipment, licenses, the Classical Association of the Middle German entries, and vice versa. My big and opportunities for my researchers to West and South. Along the way, they realization, in other words was this: my train the next generation of researchers- have made genuine contributions not student researchers didn’t need to have something to the tune of ten times the just to my own work, but to scholarship all the skills that I did—they only need- amount I’d asked. Her only require- in general. Indeed, I am currently pub- ed some of them. If I sliced and diced ment was that the researchers create lishing an article with one of my under- my project, broke it down into more their own projects based upon what graduate researchers in a forthcoming easily digestible chunks, my students they had learned from the experience collection of essays on women and the could do the work. of working with me and present them Roman army. And she will get top The final piece of the puzzle, the at our Undergraduate Research billing because the work that she did is responsible mentoring of undergraduate Symposium. her own, but she couldn’t have done it researchers in the humanities, fell into Five years later, the Severan Data- without my guidance and support. place after a conversation with our Dean base Project (http://web3.forest.usf.edu/ Because I came to know these stu- of Undergraduate Research. She is a main/other/severan/ ) consists of four dents and their work so well, I was able Renaissance scholar by training and so databases, three of which were com- to write meaningful letters of recom- she was open to a humanities project piled by my undergraduate researchers. mendation to prominent MA and PhD and was willing to invest in equipment The fourth, “Severan Hoard Analysis,” programs around the country. It was and software, and even reward students was compiled by my colleague and their own work, however, their determi- with academic credit and a stipend to friend, Clare Rowan, but expanded by nation and perseverance that earned work with me. Thankfully, she also had my researchers. Clare employed this them full fellowships in those programs. the vision of someone who had learned database in her recent monograph Not all choose our profession, but they much from the STEM approaches to (Cambridge University Press, 2012) and have been nonetheless enriched from undergraduate research, especially in because of her collegiality, I also used it the experience—I know this because terms of collaborative learning. And she in my own (The Johns Hopkins Univer- we’re all still friends on Facebook and I thought big and pushed me to do the sity Press, 2013). The undergraduate took a poll. They cite their undergradu- same. I asked for two FileMaker licens- researchers? I have worked with over ate research as one of the primary fac- es and stipends for two undergraduate twenty in the past five summers, most tors in help them land paid internships researchers ($1200 each for 120 hours) of whom have indeed hatched their own at the Smithsonian and funding for law to help me key in the data for five research projects that were in conversa- school, MA degrees in education, muse- provincial cities, really about $3000 tion with Clare’s or mine. At our univer- um studies, and information sciences. worth of support. I walked out of her sity’s own undergraduate research sym- So, that feeling when you realize that something really good came out of a totally overwhelming situation? When you’ve helped yourself and someone else by rethinking the way our disci- pline has traditionally worked? That’s amazing.

Julie Langford ([email protected]) is Associate Professor of Roman History at the University of South Florida and author of Maternal Megalomania: Julia Domna and the Imperial Politics of Motherhood (The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013).

Database interface for Severan Provincial Coinage database. A coin can be searched by ancient region and city name, by its home collection or “cabinet,” and the types, or designs, depicted on each obverse and reverse of a given coin.

22

From Your Editors A Virtual New Page for “Sharing” and “Liking” one of the APA blog editors. The APA blog, Amphora, and all of our association’s elec- Amphora ast month the Amphora editorial board tronic outreach initiatives give APA mem- he editors and editorial board of enjoyed a spirited conversation about L bers more ways to show that classics is part Amphora are very pleased to announce the future of footnotes. Will they become— T of our personality, daily lives, and world- that this publication is making itself yet have they perhaps already become—the view. By sharing classical links outside the more available to its readership. In coming “slide rules of the humanities,” legendary, academy, off campus, and in the same weeks, in addition to this, its annual print nostalgia-evoking, but outdated, tools? places where we celebrate all that is inter- appearance, Amphora will also publish its The world in which footnotes vanish, hav- esting, relevant, important, and fun in life articles and reviews via the APA’s blog. ing been fully supplanted by links, mouse- we let classics bask in the same light as the You’ll find the blog on the APA’s website overs, pop-ups, and the like, is that not-so-dis- other facets of our nonacademic selves. under the heading World of Classics, at the tant future world in which print has been And just as “sharing” classics can be the far right of the main page. replaced by all the various forms of digital result of a “post,” or something as simple as Articles and reviews will each have a tag communication that surround us today—and handing on the traditional paper Amphora, of Amphora, to help readers determine which probably by many forms that most of us can- so we have new opportunities to “like” (or content stream is which, just as usual for the not yet imagine. But that day has not yet “plus” or “Thumbs up,” etc.), the work of blog. Such tagged pieces will also appear in come. That Amphora would continue to pub- others. As we were reminded many times at the print version of the publication, with occa- lish a print version alongside its new pres- the APA/AIA joint colloquium called “Get- sional minor modifications as are called for ence in the APA blog and soon-to-emerge ting Started with Digital Classics” at our by a switch from one format to another. increased visibility on the APA website is not recent Chicago meeting, some of our best This improvement in the availability of a choice the editorial board made without ideas come from cooperating with folks from Amphora means we will now be able to considerable conversation and thought. Put other disciplines. Methods toward ideas in work with authors who might have a contri- very simply, the argument for keeping the other fields can include, among other activi- bution with digital elements—images, per- print version was that the editorial board ties, attending some science or business haps, or film or sound clips, or a desire for wanted Amphora to remain a physical pres- symposia and meetings. Showing interest in a discussion thread or feedback-as well as ence that is easy “for us to share, and for the work of others is one way to invite oth- with contributors whose works benefit from others to pass along to their friends.” That ers to venture into classical things. When we a print treatment. Amphora should be easily shared and re- show that we, as nonexperts, are truly inter- As always, your Amphora editors wel- shared is a sentiment that all of us on the edi- ested in the work of researchers in other come submissions, including submissions torial board warmly embrace. fields, we invite them into ours. For exam- that take advantage of this new presenta- Sharing and passing along our interest ple, I frequently attend drama and theater tion. These are important days for the many in all things classical is, of course, the heart conferences, tagging along with my wife, outreach activities by our professional asso- of outreach. Furthermore, the easy sharing who happens to work in that field. At these ciation, and the Amphora and Outreach and re-sharing of information is also the dis- meetings, I never fail to meet nonclassicists committees believe this new format will tinguishing feature of the much-touted with wonderful ideas about classics (at least enable us all to reach a yet-larger group of socialization of the web. As Amphora one of whom has since published a piece in people and institutions. grows into its new also-digital self, all the Amphora). Likewise, when wearing my busi- Amphora welcomes submissions from members of the association will have new ness-development hat, I attend meetings professional scholars and experts on topics ways to share and pass along our outreach about marketing and leadership. At almost dealing with the worlds of ancient Greece magazine. And, importantly, we'll have every such meeting, I meet at least one per- and Rome. Submissions should not only more ways, and, arguably, more responsi- son who is busy applying something classi- reflect sound scholarship but have wide bilities, to “do outreach,” if you will. As cal to modern sales and business. Those appeal to our outreach audience. Submis- Ellen Bauerle has noted elsewhere, every meetings are an opportunity for me to hear sions pass through blind peer review; they APA member’s social media feed can a fresh perspective, and an opportunity for are typically about 1800 words in length become an outreach vehicle. Every time we me to mention the APA and Amphora. And for articles, and 1000 words in length for share something at once classical and rele- of course, I sometimes ask my new friend to reviews of books or movies. You’ll see addi- vant to the modern world in our feed, our submit something to Amphora. tional detail on submissions on the last friends in other walks of life see it. Recom- Ellen Bauerle, the editorial board, and I page of this issue. mending an article on the APA website to a hope that Amphora, on the web and by the All of us who bring you Amphora are like-minded but differently employed friend hand, will be for all members an important delighted by this opportunity and hope you is an important way that we can all do out- part of our daily “sharing” and “liking” are as well. reach. When we hear an interesting new outreach activity. perspective on a classical topic, we can do Dr. Ellen Bauerle, Editor some outreach by passing on the speaker Dr. Wells Hansen, Assistant Editor The University of Michigan Press or author’s name to the Amphora editors or Ridgeland Research 23 American Philological Association ® Non-Profit Org. University of Pennsylvania U.S. Postage 220 South 40th Street PAID Suite 201E Permit No. 2563 Philadelphia, PA 19104-3512 Philadelphia, PA A Publication of the E-mail: [email protected] American Philological Web site: www.apaclassics.org Association

Editor Dr. Ellen Bauerle University of Michigan Press [email protected]

Assistant Editor Dr. Wells Hansen Ridgeland Research [email protected]

Editorial Board

Adam Blistein Executive Director, APA (ex officio) [email protected]

Mary-Kay Gamel Vice President of Outreach (ex officio) [email protected] GUIDELINES FOR Molly Pasco-Pranger University of Mississippi CONTRIBUTORS [email protected]

Paul Properzio Sponsorship and Readership: Boston Latin Academy Amphora, a publication sponsored by Suggested Length of Submissions: [email protected] the Committee on Outreach of the Articles (1500-1800 words), reviews Andrew Szegedy-Maszak American Philological Association, is (500-1000 words). Amphora is footnote Wesleyan University published once a year. Amphora is free. Any pertinent references should [email protected] intended for a wide audience that be worked into the text of the includes those with a strong enthusiasm submission. Ward Briggs for the classical world: teachers and stu- University of South Carolina, Emeritus dents, present and former classics Offprints: Authors receive ten free [email protected] majors, administrators in the field of copies of the issue that contains their education, community leaders, profes- submission. Judy Hallett sional classicists, and interested aca- University of Maryland demics and professionals in other fields. Address for Submission [email protected] of Articles: Submissions: Amphora welcomes Patrick Paul Hogan submissions from professional scholars Dr. Ellen Bauerle Independent Scholar and experts on topics dealing with the Editor, Amphora [email protected] worlds of ancient Greece and Rome [email protected] Jane Cahill (literature, language, mythology, history, University of Winnipeg culture, classical tradition, and the arts). [email protected] Submissions should not only reflect Address for Submission sound scholarship but also have wide of Reviews: John Gruber-Miller appeal to Amphora’s diverse outreach Cornell College audience. Contributors should be will- Dr. Wells Hansen [email protected] ing to work with the editors to arrive at Assistant Editor, Amphora a mutually acceptable final manuscript [email protected] Keely Lake that is appropriate to the intended audi- Wayland Academy ence and reflects the intention of [email protected] Amphora to convey the excitement of classical studies. Submissions will be refereed anonymously.

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