A publication of the American Philological Association Vol. 1 • Issue 1 • Spring 2002

What’s in a Name? Unanswered Questions What’s in an Amphora? by Margaret A. Brucia and by Father M. Owen Lee Anne-Marie Lewis, Editors

eep in the vaults of the Vatican wary of entrusting one of their deathless e are pleased to introduce the first DLibrary there rests a lordly, treasures to my mortal hands. They Wissue of Amphora, the new Ameri- venerable manuscript called the looked on me suspiciously as one who Codex Palatinus. It is the oldest manu- was in pursuit of an esthetic experience, can Philological Association (APA) out- script to contain virtually all of the writ- not a scholarly one. Well, they were reach publication. In selecting and solicit- ings of the poet Vergil, who lived out right. ing articles, we have used our mission his lifetime in Italy just before the birth But in the end, they brought the statement as our guide: of Christ. Usually, with a Latin author fourth-century tome to my assigned from antiquity, we are lucky if we have desk and carefully placed it on my This publication aims to convey the a manuscript as close to him as the assigned lectern. I was given detailed twelfth century. But with Vergil, the instructions, which I was careful to fol- excitement of classical studies to a most quoted and loved of all ancient low. My hands trembled as they broad readership by offering accessi- writers, manuscripts from the sixth and touched, my eyes misted as they ble articles written by professional fifth and even the fourth centuries have scanned, those ancient pages. The scholars and experts on topics of survived. Florence and Verona and familiar Latin lines, in beautifully clear classical interest that include litera- Sankt Gallen have some of them, but capital letters, looked out at me search- ture, language, mythology, history, the others rightly reside in Rome, in the ingly across the centuries. library of the popes. Rightly, for Vergil’s Here first were Vergil’s Eclogues: culture, classical tradition, and the greatest work, the Aeneid, is the epic of Titure, tu patulae. The words whispered arts, and by featuring reviews of rele- Rome, of its ambivalent past and its and rustled and sang in their hexame- vant books, films, and Web sites. long future. It is also an epic of spiritual ters. These are the young Vergil’s little Sponsored by the Committee on Out- fatherhood, of the pius Aeneas, the faith- pastoral poems, half set in a never-never reach and supported by the APA, ful Aeneas. So it is fitting that the land he called Arcadia, half set in the this new, semi-annual publication will noblest copies of the poem rest in the devastated Italy of his own day, a land library of the spiritual leader whom his torn apart by a century of war. The be for everyone interested in the people call father, who has sometimes Eclogues are an invitation always to read study of ancient Greece and Rome. been named Aeneas, and who has Vergil as a metaphor. In them, the Engaging and informative, this eight twelve times chosen for himself the young poet wonders, “Will our world to sixteen-page publication is intend- name Pius. And it is fitting that the heal itself, or will it give way to the self- ed for a wide audience that will Codex Palatinus lie in the heart of the destructive forces within it?” Beneath include professional classicists, pres- city it proclaims will live forever. their delicate surfaces, the ten Arcadian One year I taught in Rome. In fact, I miniatures of shepherds and satyrs and ent and former classics majors, inter- taught Vergil’s Aeneid there, to young swains dramatize a great moment in his- ested academics and professionals in American students. And that year I real- tory, a time between war and peace. other fields, high-school teachers and ized my ambition to see the Codex They all but predict the imminent birth students, administrators in the field of Palatinus. Doing so was not exactly of Christ. But we can never be sure of education, community leaders, and easy. I had to convince the serious what they mean. They are elusive and anyone with a strong interest in or librarians in the Vatican that I was, if not subtle and sad. The promise of rebirth a serious scholar, serious at least about is there in Arcadia. Death is there too. enthusiasm for the classical world. seeing the great Vergilian manuscript. And here, before my eyes as the The librarians were understandably continued on page 2 Our mission statement explains the purpose of our publication, but our one-word The Amphora and Ancient Building on Sand? Literary title reveals more. Why (besides the play on Commerce ...... 4 Interpretation and Textual Criticism ...... 10 Elpenor’s Last Exit ...... 4 AmPhorA and American Philological Associ- Film Reviews: Teaching and Reading ation) have we selected this name? “Ulysses” (1954)...... 10 Classics after 9/11 ...... 6 As familiar to the Greek world as to the Web Site Reviews: Book Reviews: The “Dir”: An Adventure in Roman, the ubiquitous and versatile Classics and the Cinema...... 7 Imperial Biography...... 12 continued on page 3

Inside Let the Music Be Heard: The Case Guidelines for for the Oral Performance of Contributors...... 12 Greek and Latin Literature...... 8 Unanswered Questions continued from page 1 cate their ambivalent sense of history. Berlioz, named for Hector, the great- pages turn, are Vergil’s Georgics: Quid and wept the world’s tears, the lacrimae est Trojan of them all, caught some- faciat laetas segetes. Instructions on plow- rerum, prophetically for them. It also thing of Hector’s Asiatic spirit in that ing, tending vines, breeding livestock, knew, this song, that the tears it wept remarkable march with its swirling caring for bees. Love of the land. A would always be inanes – insufficient. triplets. Surely he had the sound of belief that a providential power is alive Vergil’s Aeneid shaped the poetry of Vergil in his head when he wrote it. in the world, a power that needs man to Ovid and the prose of Tacitus. Augustus Vergil’s meter is fashioned from a kind work its purposes. Vergil, now in his used it as his conscience, Hadrian to tell of triplet, the dactyl. Three syllables – thirties, thinks he may have been too the future. One book of it moved Saint a long followed by two shorts, as in the pessimistic before. Rebirth is a possibili- Augustine to tears, one line of it sent names Jupiter, Romulus, Hannibal. The ty. Civilization can survive the destruc- Savonarola into monastic orders. Some dactylic hexameter is a rhythm that in tive impulses in man. World peace has of it found its way for a while into the Vergil’s hands can be made to sound been won, and Italy has begun to rework canon of sacred Scripture itself. For barbaric and quick, as when the Trojan its countryside. But then, to end his Dante, the author of the Aeneid was cavalry thunders across the dusty plain: Georgics, Vergil tells a story we opera maestro and autore, a guide through the quadrupedante putrem sonitu quatit ungula lovers know well: how Orpheus past and the world beyond. Michelange- campum. It can also suggest processional descended to the world of the dead to lo, painting the Sistine Chapel, gave grandeur, as when Vergil says: tu regere bring back his Eurydice, and won her, Vergil a parallel place with the Bible in imperio populos, Romane, memento. That and, through human frailty, lost her. The telling of man’s fatal flaw and his future line means “Remember, O Roman, it poet uses myth to wonder again about promise. Siena and Florence shaped will be your mission to rule the world.” rebirth and survival, and he finds, again, their histories, Milton and Tasso fash- When Berlioz first parades his royal mostly sad and ambivalent answers. ioned their epics under Vergil’s influ- Romans-to-be, the Trojans, across the (And here pages of the manuscript have, ence. Young Bernini, helped by his stage, the music is truly Vergilian. It I see, fallen away across the centuries.) father, sculpted Aeneas escaping from suggested to one critic “the warriors Finally, before my eyes, there is the Troy with his father on his back. Young who march in angular profile across great Aeneid. The panoramic story of the Berlioz, helped by his father, trembled some ancient sculpted frieze.” True Trojan hero Aeneas, who survives the with emotion when he read, in Latin, of enough, but as Berlioz has his Trojans fall of his city and leads his followers Dido gazing upward, searching for the sing at the moment, Attendez les accents! – over the sea to Carthage and then to light before she dies, and finding it. that is to say, “Listen to the rhythms!” Italy, who descends to the world of the All his life Berlioz was haunted by The music is not just sculpture. It is dead to glimpse his future, and then the Aeneid, and near the end of it (from meter. It is the rhythm of Vergil’s fights long, agonizing wars to win his 1856 to 1858), he wrote, as an act of prophetic line: Tu regere imperio populos peace. This longest and last of Vergil’s homage, Les Troyens. Not all of the … It is the rhythm of the very first line works is the saddest and most ambiva- Aeneid, just incidents chosen from little of the Aeneid, a line you may still have lent of all. No hero is so flawed, so failed more than three books of Vergil’s by heart from your high school Latin as the pius Aeneas. No universe is so full twelve. Not much at all of Vergil’s class: Arma virumque cano Troiae qui of chaotic forces and senseless suffering searching for answers, of his theological primus ab oris – “Arms and the man I as the world through which he moves. sense of history, of his majestic “sadness sing. Troy’s shores he once left forever.” No century, until perhaps our own, was at the doubtful doom of humankind.” Dactylic hexameters can also, in so much in need of absolving its person- Les Troyens is mostly juxtaposed surfaces Vergil’s hands, be made to sound as al and national guilt as the century in and contrasts, grand themes and noble, light and whispery as the darkness he which Vergil was writing, a century of stylized feeling. In the tradition of the made visible. In Vergil, sleep comes war. Aeneas is a figure for a man of that French lyric theater, Berlioz provides a lightly, gliding down from the silent century, a man who took up arms and series of tableaux vivants. The long stars: cum levis aetheriis delapsus somnus ab won peace for the world, but at a terri- speeches of his opera seem to me a little astris. Berlioz conjures up the sound of ble cost, a man called Caesar Augustus. chiseled and cold, classicism in the that line in “Nuit d’ivresse,” his whis- The Aeneid was written for him. Arma wrong sense. But most of Les Troyens is pering nocturne, his sleepy moonlit virumque cano, it begins. The words are quick and tense with feeling, as a real seascape, his love duet for Dido and perhaps the most famous ever written in classic must be. Gradually we are com- Aeneas. In the words of “Nuit Europe. “Arms and the man I sing” – ing to see it as the classic of French d’ivresse,” he borrows from Shake- the warlike arms of the man who made opera. A lesser composer would have speare, turning English to French. But half the map of Europe Latin, and half equipped his Trojans, destined out of he was only following his master: Vergil, of the whole world Western, forever defeat to found the greatest city in his- when he wrote his Aeneid, turned parts after. tory, with an unequivocal, rousing of Homer and Greek tragedy and Greek And the song? There it is before my theme, like the one Gounod gave his philosophy into Latin because he want- eyes: the Aeneid. T. S. Eliot declared it a soldiers in Faust, or Meyerbeer his ed his poem to be, among other things, song more civilizing than any that ever Huguenots, or Saint-Saens his Israelites. a compendium of the wisdom of the had been, ever would be, ever could be But Berlioz’s Trojans are unique. They past. Berlioz introduces, for his moon- – because it pondered that ever after, are tough warriors from an exotic, fallen washed moment, that moment from the including our century, and counted the city, charged with a civilizing mission last act of The Merchant of Venice where cost. Eliot called the Aeneid “the classic they do not fully understand. They are Lorenzo says to Jessica: “The moon of all Europe.” Though it did not pre- grandly barbaric, like wolves, and, in the shines bright . . . In such a night / Stood vent Dachau and Dresden from hap- “Trojan March” that recurs throughout Dido with a willow in her hand / Upon pening, you could say it foresaw them the opera, thick-tongued trumpets indi- the wild sea banks, and waft her love / 2 To come again to Carthage.” The Eclogues and the Georgics. What’s in a Name? English “in such a night” becomes the Another sailor drowns famously in French “par une telle nuit,” and Berlioz the Aeneid. He falls asleep at his post. A continued from page 1 accents his 6/8 time so that Shakespeare god sends him a dream, and when it amphora continues to provide clues about in French comes out sounding like comes gliding down to him from the life in the ancient world (as Mark Lawall Vergil’s hexameters. silent stars – cum levis aetheriis delapsus informs us in his article on page 4). Berlioz knew that he could not put somnus ab astris – he too drops to his all of the Aeneid on the stage. Even at death in the sea. In Vergil, the young Appealingly anthropomorphic in form, with the prodigious length he opted for, he and the innocent die. Vergil does not its narrow neck, rounded belly, and had to sacrifice Vergil’s greatest book, know why that must be, except that tapered foot, this two-handled vessel, the sixth, the hero’s descent to the there are always wars. That is the way whether plain or artfully decorated, served world of the dead, passing through the the world turns. Vergil wonders and to transport and distribute a variety of use- darkness with a golden bough. Berlioz weeps over that world. ful and highly valued commodities. also had to sacrifice all the wars in Italy And as Vergil’s pages turn, I come to and the characters he loved most after the end, in the Vatican Library, of his The name Amphora captures the spirit of Dido: Camilla, the Italian Joan of Arc, twenty-centuries old poem. Aeneas our publication. The two handles at the and Turnus, the Italian Lancelot. But stands on the last page, caught agoniz- neck symbolize the Greek and Roman he used what he could. Some things ingly in the act of killing so that civiliza- world that produced the amphora, while from the end of the Aeneid he knew he tion can survive. He has been assured the third “handle” at the base represents had to use. He took from there the that this is the will of god. But is it? The poignant words Aeneas speaks to his lit- Aeneid ends ambivalently, abruptly, our world today. One needs a firm grip on tle son, as he kisses him through the shockingly. Its words stare out at me both the top and the bottom to release the visor of his helmet and leaves for war: now across a hundred generations of contents. Just as an amphora held many “Learn from me, my son, what it is to men. Vergil’s unanswered questions types of food – olive oil, wine, fruit, meat, be a man and to suffer. Learn from oth- crowd in on me. What is God? Why is and fish, for example – our publication ers what it is to be happy.” there evil in the world? Why, in order offers a wide range of articles on classical Berlioz also knew he had to use that good may come, must the innocent Vergil’s young poems, the Eclogues and suffer? What is the fatal flaw in man that antiquity, designed to nourish the mind in a the Georgics. He wrote echoes of both makes him destroy? If we are so given variety of ways. People from all walks of into the song his Iopas sings at Dido’s to violence, what can the future hold for life used amphoras. So too, our publication court: “O golden Ceres, you bless the us? Will our world survive, or will we is designed to be used by everyone with an fields and bring happiness abounding to destroy ourselves? interest in the classical past. the young shepherd and the old These are, of course, contemporary We look forward to receiving submis- farmer.” And he achieved his subtlest questions. But they were posed twenty combination of literary and musical centuries ago. Something of them is in sions that are engaging, informative, and effects in the offstage song of a charac- Les Troyens, which the Metropolitan intended for a wide audience with an ter of his own invention, a young sailor chose, most fittingly, to open its second enthusiasm for all things classical. We look singing high in the mast as his Trojan century. As we face the future, Vergil’s forward to hearing your responses to this ship lies at anchor. The boy wonders unanswered questions are questions we first issue, and we welcome any sugges- whether he will ever sing again beneath all must ponder. tions that you may offer as we continue to the great trees of his Trojan mountain, where he bade his mother good-bye. He Father M. Owen Lee is Professor Emeri- edit and shape our new publication. calls on the sea to be his mother now, tus of Classics at St. Michael’s College, Uni- and rock him on her breast. His sea song versity of Toronto. He is a Basilian priest Margaret A. Brucia teaches Latin at Earl becomes a cradle song. When Berlioz and the author of twelve books, including L. Vandermeulen High School in Port Jeffer- wrote that song, his own son was away three on Vergil, one on Horace, and one on the son, New York. A former chair of the from home, serving in the French mer- quest myth. He is also widely known as pan- Advanced Placement Latin Committee, she chant navy. “I thought of you, dear elist and commentator on the Metropolitan Louis, when I wrote it,” he said in a let- Opera broadcasts. “Unanswered Questions” has also served on the APA Committees on ter. But the song is more than just a per- was the first commentary ever given by Father Education and Outreach. Her scholarly pur- sonal touch. It is truly Vergilian – Lee during the intermissions of the Saturday suits include Augustan literature and Roman prophetic and pessimistic. Berlioz has afternoon performances that, for more than topography. two plain-spoken soldiers hear it: “He’s sixty years, have been broadcast from the Met- dreaming of his homeland,” says one. ropolitan Opera House in New York. The Anne-Marie Lewis has taught Classics “Which he’ll never see again,” says the date was February 18, 1984. The Metropoli- other. Then, under the song, the tan was beginning its second century. Father and Humanities at York University in Toron- orchestra surges ominously, like the sea. Lee was invited to speak on the opera that to, Ontario, since 1987. She is currently The young sailor falls asleep. We never opened the season – Hector Berlioz’s Les working on a book dealing with astrology hear of him again. But those who know Troyens – and the debt it owed to Vergil. in Roman politics and on an edition of the Berlioz’s way with his orchestra suspect This commentary (here slightly revised) was translation of Aratus’ Phaenomena by the that this young sailor will be drowned at originally published in First Intermissions Elizabethan poet Nicholas Allen. sea. And those who know Vergil are sure (1995). of it, for Berlioz has named the boy Hylas. And Hylas is the name of a mythical boy drowned in both the 3 Elpenor’s Last Exit The Amphora and by Lois V. Hinckley Ancient Commerce lpenor was a young sailor on Odysseus’ by Mark L. Lawall Eown ship that reached Circe’s island, mphora (or amphiphoreus) literally third “handle,” to lift it. where he, like the rest of the advance Ameans “carried on both sides” Prices marked on amphoras can be party, was turned into a pig. The night and refers to a distinctively important indicators of the value of their before they left Circe’s island, human shaped, two-handled, clay jar with a bot- contents. An amphora dating to the fifth again, they feasted. Elpenor, having drunk tom that tapers to a point. In ancient art, century B.C. and discovered in the mar- too much, climbed to sleep on the flat scantily clad young men carry amphoras ketplace at Athens, once containing to symposia, hairy satyrs fill them with twenty to twenty-five liters of highly rooftop. Waking the next morning, he for- wine, and erotes even use them as regarded Chian wine, cost between four- got where he was and fell off the roof, shields to fend off beasts along the Nile. teen and twenty-one drachmas (accord- breaking his neck. Odysseus encountered Although some amphoras were finely ing to Thucydides, History of the Pelopon- his shade during his trip to the underworld. decorated vases, the far more common nesian War 3.17, an Athenian hoplite and Sing now, Elpenor, your own amazing tale. sort of amphora, and the topic of this his attendant in the garrison at Potidaea article, was a plain, undecorated jar in 428 B.C. earned two drachmas per designed for shipping and storage. Most day). Of course, it was not necessary to I didn’t especially like being a pig. often, amphoras contained wine or oil, purchase an entire jar; a portion could Sudden too. but meat, fish (including tuna and dol- have been decanted into a smaller jug. I was halfway down my first drink – phin!), fruits, and even pine resin are Again, the toe of the amphora served as a fellow doesn’t expect hallucinations attested as well. Indeed, these jars were a handle, this time for pouring. Clay or that soon. I remember blinking so ubiquitous that the general terms ker- wooden stands held amphoras upright again and again, like trying to wake amos or keramion, “clay vessel,” often while they awaited customers. replaced the term amphora. What sorts of questions do archaeolo- from a bad dream. Amphora workshops dotted the gists of ancient commerce hope to No change. Mediterranean, from the Atlantic coast of answer from references to and evidence The view remained Morocco to the north shore of the Black from amphoras? A passage from De eye-level, just below the benches. Sea, and each region produced its own tra- Mirabilibus Auscultationibus (104 [839b])

It was hard to look up, more natural to look ditional forms of amphoras. For example, provides a good starting point:

˘

down and grunt. I tried to move – those potted on the island of Chios (see ˘

Fig. 1) during the late sixth and much of ειναι’ δε` και τινα` τοπον` εν’ τοις ανα’ ˘ `

well! I moved all right – with an all-fours ˘

the fifth century B.C. had such a distinc- µεσον` διαστηµασιν,` εις’ ˘ `ον’ αγορας’

˘

lurch and waddle. . .WHAT was I doing on tive bulge at the neck that Chian coins κοινης ˘ γινοµενης` πωλεισθαι παρα`

hands and used these jars as a symbol for the city. Jars µεν` των εκ’ του Ποντου` εµπορων’ ` ˘ – feet? Where did all these from Thasos (see Fig. 2), in contrast, had a αναβαινοντων’ ` τα` Λεσβια` και` Χια˘˘ much more angular shape. Some types of ` ` ` ` ’

PIGS come from? I was surrounded – oh και Θασια, παρα δε των.. εκ του ` ˘ ` ` gods! – amphoras bore stamps impressed on the ’Αδριου τους Κερκυραικους handle before the jar was fired (see Fig. 3). αµφορεις.’ by my own kind. The illustration shows a common symbol Enough of the man remained – an aching of the city of Rhodes, the head of Helios, There is a place in the middle itch behind the eyes – along with the words επι’ ` Σωστρατου` . between them [the Black Sea and to turn my stomach at the slop and trough. The inscription indicates that the amphora the Adriatic] at which there is a Milling around, we grunted in terror. was made in the year that Sostratos held public market where the merchants the priesthood, perhaps of Helios, proba- coming up from the Black Sea sell At last, bly between 196 and 187 B.C. (according Lesbian, Chian, and Thasian jars, we collapsed on our sides. to the most recent studies by G. Finkiel- and those coming up from the sztejn of the Israeli Antiquities Authority). Adriatic sell Corcyrean amphoras. Then it was over. Once an amphora was filled with wine or some other commodity, it was What were the common routes of ancient I was hauling myself to my two plugged with a wood, chipped stone, or merchants? Were certain markets espe- clay stopper, which was then sealed cially popular for the merchants of a feet; all over the room, the others were with pitch and secured by a cloth cover. given region? How did political rivalries straightening . . . Amphoras for export were loaded onto and tensions affect trade? Literary refer- Our heads went round to the door and ships, stacked with the pointed toe of ences like the one above offer some there he stood, one wedged between the rounded help, but knowledge gleaned from the with the witch a little behind him, shoulders of its neighbors, and then pro- archaeology of amphoras can contribute gazing at him, not us. tected with a blanket of straw. Typical- important additional information. ly, a ship made many stops, unloading The passage implies that merchants We ran to him, touching his arms and part of its cargo of amphoras and taking tended to operate in specific regions, shoulders, his head, on a new supply. To unload an amphora and the archaeological remains support in greeting – he was real! – touching our at the port, a dockworker grasped one of this view of ancient commerce. Corcyre- its two handles and its knob-like toe, a an amphoras are commonly found along continued on page 5 4 Elpenor’s Last Exit continued from page 4

own, thanking him, begging to leave – and maybe it would’ve been better – but he reassured us. She was courteous, too, faintly apologetic. And from then on, nothing but the best. We were kings and princes in a ship- Left (Fig. 1). Amphora from Chios, ca. 430 B.C. (P2371) wrecked sailor’s dream. Middle (Fig. 2). Amphora from Thasos, ca. 340 B.C. (SS 14825) A wave of her wand and we lolled at our Right (Fig. 3). Amphora stamp from Rhodes, naming Sostratos as eponym, early ease. second century B.C. (SS 7584) Royal food and drink, in royal quantities; All photos are by Craig Mauzy and are reproduced with permission of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, Agora Excavations. hunting, new clothes, games, whatever a fellow could wish for. the Adriatic coast, the Peloponnese as Corinth en route to Athens appear in But it wasn’t home. far east as Corinth, and westward to Athens during times of hostility and Italy and Sicily. This type of amphora is friendship between the two cities. Even After the first relief – rarely found east of Corinth. On the the frequent tensions between the Per- other hand, Chian, Lesbian, and sian Empire and the Greek world did free of the troughs, and of all those salty Thasian amphoras, dating to the sixth not deter merchants from transporting miles – through the fourth centuries B.C., are Aegean amphoras far inland to the Per- smells and sounds began to trickle through, far more common in the north Aegean sian provincial capital at Gordion (near like and northern Asia Minor than they are modern Ankara). Barring the destruc- rain on a sleeper’s face, pricking memory in the south. One merchant might have tion of a city of origin or a city along the awake: goats ringing home taken an amphora from Chios to Lem- trade route, it appears that trade in nos (an island near the entrance to the wine, oil, and other commodities con- at sunset, smell of my new-cut hay. Black Sea); another, on his way up the tained in amphoras was quite unaffect- The trickle swelled to a stream: pigs Hellespont, might have carried it to a ed by political affairs. coming out for feeding, our own dogs port on the Black Sea; from there, a In many ways, this plain and common chasing rabbits in familiar fields, and Pontic merchant might have transported container from antiquity provides a wealth our familiar sons – and parents – wives. the same jar to the central Balkan mar- of information to the modern researcher. ket referred to in the passage. Although the wine it may have contained A market like Athens was clearly a has disappeared, consumed, we might Finally we went to him – a few of the older popular transfer point, as both literary and imagine, by Socrates and his companions ones archaeological evidence confirm. Isocrates after hours of dialogue, or turned rancid – reminded him (Panegyricus 42) and Xenophon (de Vecti- after centuries under the sea, for the stu- where we’d been heading. galibus 1.7 and 3.2) inform us that Athens dent of antiquity there is still plenty con- They said their piece and waited in the fifth century B.C. was a hub for tained in an amphora. while he sat silent. Then he shook himself Aegean commerce. Amphoras found in Athens in the fifth and fourth centuries Further Reading: like a dog coming out of water, agreed: he B.C. represent a wider mix of types than V. R. Grace, Excavations at the Athen- would tell her. We those discovered at other Aegean sites. ian Agora Picture Book 6: Amphoras and should launch and load the ships. The port of Athens was the ancient the Ancient Wine Trade (revised edition, Of course we had a last feast, equivalent of a shopping mall, whereas Princeton, 1979). and of course some of us drank too much: the ports of many other cities were mere C. G. Koehler and P. M. W. Mathe- relief at leaving, regret at the left-behind, convenience stores in comparison. son, The Amphoras Project Web site It appears that jars changed hands fre- http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/amphoras/ reluctance for the sea. I wandered up to the quently, moving among merchants from project.html roof, many different cities, before arriving at climbing carefully, looking for cooler air. their final stopping point. The original Mark Lawall is an Assistant Professor in I lay on my back to watch the stars, exporter may never have known the the Classics Department at the University of like islands in a sea of sky – final destination of his wine or oil. Given Manitoba. His research involves the use of one of them mine, and I was heading this situation, could ancient political transport amphoras as evidence for ancient rivalries have turned into trade wars? trade and economic history. He is currently home. The evidence provided by amphoras studying finds from sites in Turkey (Ephesos, I fell asleep there, dreaming of my arrival. sheds some light on this question. Both Troy, Gordion) and Greece (Athenian Agora). The trumpet Corinthian amphoras and amphoras from the Adriatic that passed through continued on page 6

5 Elpenor’s Last Exit Teaching and Reading continued from page 5

woke me sharp, and shouts in the bo’sun’s Classics after 9/11 voice. by Nancy Felson I leapt up, not to be left behind, n the wake of the attacks on Sep- Xerxes’ excesses in Greek terms, as if and stepped out smartly, eager to be gone. Itember 11, 2001, many academics, these cherished Greek values are in fact like me, struggled to find a public trans-cultural, enables Aeschylus to pres- That’s where I can’t remember any more. voice within the framework of our own ent on stage the critical issues of his own discipline in order to try to make sense day. Yet he does so indirectly, never rais- I keep going over and over it of the changed world. On campuses and ing the possibility of an eventual Athen- as I wander through this gray mist endless- at professional meetings, we engaged in ian decline. And so his compatriots can ly. I keep seeing discussions and turned to the texts we safely empathize with their defeated foe friends that I shouldn’t see; I buried them at knew best. I sought inspiration in fifth- and lament along with Atossa and Dar- Troy. century Athens, hoping to identify some ius; they can affirm their superiority to I can’t find the bo’sun anywhere. Oh gods – of the terms of analysis and debate that Xerxes’ Persians and repudiate such preoccupied participants in the first hubristic behavior. By distancing the there is western democracy. What could these universal human experience of defeat, Odysseus – large as life … but texts offer us now in such painful and humiliation, and grief for a generation of WHAT is he saying? uncertain times? I was teaching the Per- warriors lost in battle from Athens, I FELL? From Circe’s roof? I’m DEAD? Oh, sians of Aeschylus, a tragedy produced Aeschylus can freely stage for them what please NO! in 472 B.C.E, just eight years after the they have just narrowly escaped in the Take me with you, master, I beg you – Athenian victory at the Battle of real world. The suffering in the play rep- Salamis. Aeschylus (525-456 B.C.E.) resents what could happen to the Athe- take me lived through a formative phase of nians, if they were to behave autocrati- HOME! Athenian democracy, when it was con- cally, like the hubristic and tyrannical My clutching hands solidating itself after the war, in opposi- Xerxes, and betray their own emancipa- pass through his all too solid arm. tion to the tyranny it assigned to Persia tory principles. Aeschylus prods his He’s gone. . . and other “barbaric” empires. His dra- Athenians not to follow in the Persian I turn away, mas spoke to a body of citizens acutely pathway. attuned to the principles of freedom and sick with despair – never again democracy. In that world, certain hum- the smells of home – bling sentiments, such as the vicissi- Ancient reports of even the heaving oars, the sore-lipped tudes of fortune and the precariousness debates on values and salt would be food and drink to me now – of success, pervaded public discourse. principles of fifth-century never again, With my students I marveled at how the my woman’s gentle greeting … Athenian playwright could, simultane- Athens illuminate issues ously, have fought in the Persian War From a dream of home, this is a bitter of our times. and still empathize with his enemies, waking. enough to represent their sufferings on If wishes were winged, stage. The world at Susa in the drama, even dead pigs might fly. Aeschylus made the characters of his because it is sealed off from contempo- historical play both “same” and “other” rary Athens, can serve as a relatively pain- Lois V. Hinckley, received her Ph.D. for his Athenian audience. He placed less image of what to avoid. It is a blue- them at the Persian court, at a dramatic print for the young Athenian democrats from the University of North Carolina, moment right after their defeat at in the audience, warning them against a Chapel Hill, in 1972. She has been a clas- Salamis. Through the ghost Darius, the practice that will in fact come to prevail in sics teacher for thirty years (Princeton, West previous ruler of Persia, he introduced the age of Pericles and thereafter, espe- Virginia University, and University of South- the theme of the decline of a culture cially in the course of the Peloponnesian ern Maine). She is also a folk singer, poet, that betrays its own values. Darius, War (431-404 B.C.E.). The lesson has to and songwriter (CD coming out in 2003). raised from the dead through the invoca- do with how Athens conducts her foreign tions of Queen Atossa, characterizes the policy after becoming an empire: will the “Elpenor’s Last Exit” is one of the poems in defeat of his son Xerxes as “payment for Athenians heed the warnings articulated Through a Glass Darkly: Bridges to Homer, his pride and godless arrogance” (806- by Darius? Indeed, the double standard being readied for publication. Her major 807). He thus locates the defeat within of democracy at home and tyranny abroad classical interests are mythology, Homer, the divine scheme of things, in which was soon to become almost natural (and Horace, and Greek lyric. transgressors suffer a just requital. hence unquestioned). Invoking Zeus, the god of just retribu- Aeschylus’ Persians was produced tion, he blames Xerxes for betraying the shortly before Athens embarked on an principles of self-restraint and due meas- imperialist track, which was so successful ure and for leading the Persians from that, as Thucydides (460/455-ca. 400 civilization to barbarity – father attack- B.C.E.), in his History of the Peloponnesian ing son in an inter-generational culture War, makes Pericles say to the Athenians war. The fact that Darius describes “. . . there is no power on Earth – not the

6 king of Persia nor any people under the now because of the injuries you Book Reviews: sun – which can stop you from sailing have done us. . . . the strong do Classics and the Cinema where you wish” (2.62, trans. Rex Warn- what they have the power to do er). Thucydides presents Pericles as a and the weak accept what they by Kerill O’Neill spokesman for the view that Athens was have to accept. (5.89) entitled to her empire, and in any case Martin M. Winkler, ed. Classical Myth and unable to give it up: When Melos refused to become an Culture in the Cinema. Oxford University Athenian ally, Athens, in a culmination Press, 2001. Pp. 360. 15 halftones. Paper And do not imagine that what we of her imperialist policy, killed its men $24.95, cloth $45.00. are fighting for is simply the ques- and enslaved its women and children. tion of freedom or slavery: there is Momentous events of 2,500 years also involved the loss of our ago, with their accompanying debates at Jon Solomon. The Ancient World in the Cin- empire and the dangers arising critical junctures, offer parallels to what ema. Yale University Press, 2001. Pp. 384. from the hatred which we have we experienced as a nation and as indi- 205 illus. Paper $22.50, cloth $40.00. incurred in administering it. Nor is vidual citizens on September 11 and it any longer possible for you to continue to experience in its wake. give up this empire, though there While history and its stories cannot pre- oth these books explore the intersection may be some people who in a dict what lies ahead for us, they can Bbetween ancient cultures and modern mood of sudden panic and in a make us reflect on how others – equally cinema and are extensively revised and spirit of political apathy actually tormented and challenged, provoked, updated editions of books that first think that this would be a fine and betrayed, and maligned – managed to appeared in 1991 and 1978, respectively. noble thing to do. Your empire is live courageously under difficult and Their character and objectives, however, now like a tyranny: it may have threatening circumstances. Tragedies been wrong to take it; it is certain- such as the Persians of Aeschylus and are quite different. Winkler’s Classical Myth ly dangerous to let it go. (2.63) those of the other great tragedians, as and Culture in the Cinema, including four well as the histories of Herodotus and new chapters, encompasses a collection of After expelling the Persians from Thucydides, can enlighten and deepen essays with widely diverging approaches to Greece, Athens became the leader of a our own debates. As contemporary film. Solomon’s The Ancient World in the pan-Hellenic defensive alliance against Americans, as citizens of a democracy at Cinema, on the other hand, has a more uni- the invaders but soon came to dominate the height of its power (a superpower her allies. By 454 B.C.E., Athens had that often acts as unilaterally as the fied focus, offering an encyclopedic survey made a unilateral decision to transfer Athenians), we have new kinds of of ancient-world material in hundreds of the treasury of the League from the adversaries and daunting new chal- films. neutral island of Delos to Athens and lenges. Ancient reports of debates on The disparate character of Winkler’s began using it for her own civic purpos- values and principles of fifth-century book illustrates how film can provoke schol- es. Whenever an ally revolted, Athens Athens illuminate issues of our times. arly insight in different ways. Several chap- punished this disloyalty by military con- They speak to such topics as the use quest, imposing a government favorable and abuse of power, cycles of violence ters examine a particular film in conjunction to her policies. In one instance, follow- and reactive rage and their containment, with an ancient literary genre or particular ing the revolt of Mytilene (428/427 mediation and moderation, treatment of text. Not surprisingly, intertextual readings B.C.E.), Athenians were so angry at the war captives (or “detainees”), and the enrich our appreciation of the films, but rebellion that they at first voted to anni- resilience of democracy. These ancient these essays also offer new ways to inter- hilate the male population and enslave Athenian voices guide us, if we are will- pret the ancient texts. Thus, Winkler reads the women and children, as Xerxes had ing to listen, to a more profound, less done over fifty years earlier to the Ion- facile understanding of the various John Ford’s The Searchers (1956) in terms ian Greeks of Miletus. Then, reconsid- forms of extremism that threaten our of the elements of Greek tragedy (hubris, ering, they recanted their vote, and democratic society and our very lives. peripeteia, catharsis, anagnorisis, for exam- spared the Mytilenians (3.36-49). But ple) but uses that reading to offer fresh about ten years later we see how far Nancy Felson is Professor of Classics at the insight into the heroine’s abrupt change of Athens has fallen from her original prin- University of Georgia. She edited Semiotics mind in Euripides’ Iphigenia in Aulis. Aristo- ciples when she brutally attacked the and Classical Studies (Arethusa, Vol.16, neutral island of Melos for refusing to 1983), which helped introduce classicists to phanic comedy, and Lysistrata, in particu- support the campaign against Sparta. At the theory of signs. Her book Regarding lar, illustrate James Baron’s contention that this point Athens made not even a pre- Penelope (Princeton, 1994; reissued in 9 to 5 (1980) is a modern example of the tense of high-minded values. In Thucy- paper, 1997) explores the complex web of hero’s transformation “from frustrated victim dides’ account of the debate, the Athen- possible and actual plots in the Odyssey to triumphant, uninhibited fulfiller of ian envoys tell their Melian counter- and combines a narratological with a cogni- fantasies.” parts why Melos should accept Athen- tive, reader-response approach to Penelope’s ian domination: character. Professor Felson is currently Hanna Roisman (whose review of working on a book, Vicarious Transport in Ulysses appears on page 10) pairs The Then we on our side will use no Pindaric Epinician Poetry, which uses Usual Suspects (1995) with the Odyssey, fine phrases saying, for example, deictic analysis to show how the poet trans- not only to give a particularly insightful that we have a right to our empire ports his live audience from the performance review of the film, but also to illustrate how because we defeated the Persians, site to various elsewheres, and then back or that we have come against you again, and to what poetic effect. continued on page 8 7 Book Reviews Let the Music Be Heard: continued from page 7

Odysseus skillfully manipulates his audi- The Case for the Oral ence. She ends by reflecting more broadly Performance of Greek on truth as a construct in ancient and mod- ern times. The nature of truth resurfaces in and Latin Literature Mary-Kay Gamel’s essay. She turns to tragedy to interpret Roman Polanski’s Chi- by Stephen G. Daitz natown (1974) and offers a theoretical hen Augustus wanted to know The Pronunciation of Classical Latin). The framework for reading the film against “the Whow Vergil was coming along authentic pronunciation derived from first detective story,” Oedipus the King. Jan- with the composition of the these works is generally referred to as Aeneid, Vergil did not send him a copy of the “restored pronunciation.” ice Siegel makes a bold but persuasive the latest verses he had composed. What are silent readers of classical argument for a direct debt to Ovid’s story Instead he went to the emperor’s home Greek and Latin literature missing in of Procne and Philomela in Peter Green- and read to him those verses out loud. terms of esthetic experience? The sub- away’s The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Why? For the simple reason that all of ject is vast, but I will mention a few Her Lover (1989). In another contribution classical Greek and Latin literature was important elements. Writers in classical by the editor, Winkler reads the Star Wars composed with the intention of it being antiquity (including poets, orators, his- heard, and not read silently with the torians, and philosophers), because they trilogy (1977-1983) against the backdrop eyes alone, in the modern manner. were creating their works for listeners, of Roman history as adapted by Isaac Asi- When classical literature was com- were particularly sensitive to the sound mov in his Foundation trilogy of science fic- posed, relatively few people owned patterns of the words they were com- tion novels, and as presented by Anthony books. The process of poetic and orator- posing. Two stylistic phenomena com- Mann’s The Fall of the Roman Empire ical communication consisted of the mon in classical literature are alliteration (1964). flow of sound from the lips of the poet and assonance. In Latin, for example, or the orator to the ears of an assembled when Vergil (Aeneid 2.9) wants to elicit Three essays attest to the impact of audience without the intermediary of the soothing effect of night and sleep Michael Cacoyannis’ screen adaptations of the written word. And it should be with assonance of the syllable -dent-, tragedy on our appreciation of Euripides. remembered that even in those cases and alliteration of the letter s, he says, In interviews conducted by Winkler and where someone did own a book, the Suadentque cadentia sidera somnos, “the Marianne McDonald, Cacoyannis and his owner would always read the contents setting stars call us to sleep.” Similarly, favorite star, Irene Papas, offer refreshingly to himself out loud. It was only many when Lucretius (De Rerum Natura 4.13) hundreds of years later that our practice wishes to suggest the sound of a liquid different perspectives on Greek tragedy. of silent reading began. In antiquity, a flow, he says, with alliteration of the liq- Then McDonald uses the prism of Cacoyan- book, just like a musical score, was uid letter l, Contingunt mellis dulci nis’ film to examine the culpability of the intended to be performed. flavoque liquore, “they surround [the characters in both Euripides’ Iphigenia in Unfortunately, the traditional teach- cup’s edge] with a sweet and yellow Aulis and the filmmaker’s Iphigenia. Finally, ing of Greek and Latin in the United flow of honey.” Cacoyannis composes a visual essay, com- States and in Europe has paid little attention to the performance or the prising fifteen stills from his Iphigenia, to reading aloud in an authentic manner of illustrate his approach to adapting ancient these languages. Greek and Latin have In antiquity, a book, drama. often been labeled “dead languages,” just like a musical score, The remaining essays are an eclectic and therefore it was thought, as befit- was intended to be ting the dead, that they should remain bunch. Erling B. Holtsmark presents a fasci- performed. nating analysis of the katabasis theme from silent. Now there may have been some excuse for the neglect of the sounds of ancient literature through various film gen- classical Greek and Latin in past cen- res. Examination of modern film’s frequent turies when there was so much uncer- departures from the traditional elements of tainty concerning the authentic pronun- In Greek, we can find similar effects katabasis illuminates both the classical ciation of these languages and when the of alliteration and assonance. When models and their cinematic heirs. In one of various local pronunciations gave little Sophocles (Oedipus the King 371) has the the less convincing essays of the collection, insight into the aural beauty of the liter- enraged Oedipus taunt the blind

ature. But in the last century, interna- prophet, Tiresias, with a ninefold allit-

J. K. Newman argues that the Soviet direc- ˘ ˘ tional linguistic research has progressed eration of the plosive letter˘ tau, he says, tor Sergei Eisenstein’s film theory adopts to the point where linguists now are in τυφλος` τα ` τ’ωτ’ α τον` τε νουν τα ` τ’οµµατ’ ει’ Aristotelian criteria, transmitted as part of a general agreement about the correct “you are blind in your ears, in your cultural legacy from Athens via Alexandria pronunciation of classical Greek and mind, as well as your eyes.” When and Byzantium to Russia. Fred Mench main- classical Latin. In English, the results of Homer (Iliad 23.116) wishes to convey tains that the Aeneid can be read almost as this research are most conveniently and the repeated upward, downward, and authoritatively found in the two works sideward trotting of mules, he says, with a scenario for a film complete with stage of W. S. Allen (Vox Graeca: The Pronunci- alliteration of the letters tau, theta, ation of Classical Greek and Vox Latina: delta, and assonance of the syllable continued on page 9 8 -anta, πολλα` δ˘ ’αναντα’ ` καταντα` παραντα` ` Book Reviews no attempt to disguise his personal prefer- τε δοχµια` ` τ’ηλθ’ ον, “repeatedly they continued from page 8 ences, quirky sense of humor, and love of trotted upward and downward and side- films about the ancient world. He confesses, directions but, in the end, it was not clear ward.” To experience the full effect of in the preface, that his lifelong interest in to me what if anything we gain from this the alliteration, the Greek letter theta classical studies comes at least in part from must be pronounced with the restored approach to the Aeneid. The late J. P. Sulli- his preteen viewing of such movies. Cer- pronunciation as an aspirated t. van traces the ancient literary and historical In addition to the stylistic elements tainly, a sense of boyish delight pervades sources for Fellini’s innovations and addi- of alliteration and assonance, many clas- even the most detail-oriented passages, and tions to Petronius’ Satyricon. This is a mean- sical authors, particularly poets, employ that is precisely what makes this book so ingful endeavor because he persuasively the device of onomatopoeia. In Latin, accessible. On the difficulty of portraying contends that Fellini’s film has now become when Vergil (Aen. 8.596) wants to the life of Christ, Solomon comments, “Too describe with sound the swift hoofbeat “part of the Satyricon’s ‘literary history’ and much bland reverence yields a dramatic of a horse racing across the plain, he of its meaning for the modern reader.” uses a hexameter of five rapid dactyls void. The transfiguration of Christ into a Peter Rose blends a polemic against “the combined with alliteration of the plo- glowing god on earth has spiritually satis- right-wing assault on education and culture” sive sounds of qu-, g, and c, and writes, fied millions of humans for centuries, but it with a pedagogical rationale for using film quadrupedante putrem sonitu quatit ungula will leave a cinematic audience flat” (178). to teach mythology. Rose’s interrogation of campum, “with clatter of hammering Assessments of authenticity are blended hooves they go galloping across the dry this rationale is a timely contribution given throughout with details of studio politics flats” (trans. C. Day Lewis). the widespread incorporation of film in the In Greek, when Homer (Odyssey 9.71) and finance, casting and location, costum- curriculum of many classics departments. wishes to convey the sound of a ship’s ing, and script. Meticulous appendices and Finally, Jon Solomon tenders an erudite and sail being ripped into pieces by a blast- copious illustrations complement Solomon’s engaging study of ancient music and its ing wind, he combines alliteration and book. While Winkler’s volume will stimulate representation in film. Winkler’s collection assonance of the harsh plosives chi, a more scholarly audience, Solomon’s book kappa, the fricative s, and the liquid r of essays may not enjoy unity of approach, is open to anyone with a love of classics or with four rushing dactyls and writes but the heterogeneity of the book is also a ` ` ` ` ’ ` film. τριχθα τε και τετραχθα διεσχισεν ις strength. His deliberate selection of the ανεµοιο’ ` , “the violence of the wind widest possible cross section of approaches ripped the sail into three, even four Kerill O’Neill, a native of Ireland, earned to the interface of classical culture and cine- pieces.” To experience the full effect of his B.A. at Trinity College, Dublin. He ma ensures that the reader will find some- this onomatopoeia, the Greek letter chi earned his Ph.D. from Cornell University must be pronounced with the restored thing among the diverse essays to inspire and is now the Taylor Associate Professor pronunciation as an aspirated k. new readings and fresh insights in film and These examples are only a small of Classics at Colby College. His research ancient text alike. sample of the intimate connection interests include Latin love elegy, ancient The encyclopedic nature of Solomon’s between sound and sense in Greek and magic, intertextuality, and film. Latin literature. Unless we begin to book makes it both harder and easier to hear this literature as it was intended to summarize in a review. Solomon’s scope be heard, we will be deprived of the full embraces the ancient world in film from Amphora is published twice a year by the esthetic pleasure that can be experi- classical myth and history to biblical American Philological Association (APA). enced from the study of Greek and The APA, founded in 1869 by “professors, themes, Babylon, Egypt, Persia, and the Latin. And so, I would strongly urge friends, and patrons of linguistic science,” is Orient. The chapters are named after the now the principal learned society in North teachers of Latin and Greek and classi- America for the study of ancient Greek and cists at all levels to read orally, as much nine Muses. Thus, Clio presents a survey of Roman languages, literatures, and civiliza- as possible, and to replace the tradition- 110 films about Greek and Roman history, tions. While the majority of its members are university and college classics teachers, al (and incorrect) pronunciation with the organized by historical period, while Terp- members also include scholars in other disci- restored pronunciation, the pronuncia- sichore is subtitled “The Muscleman Epics.” plines, primary and secondary school teach- tion that is most authentic in accordance ers, and interested lay people. The APA pro- Its unified approach, coupled with its logi- duces several series of scholarly books and with the latest linguistic research. So, let cal structure, facilitates brief description, texts; the journal, Transactions of the American the music be heard! Philological Association; and an annual meet- but the strength of the book lies in its wealth ing each January in conjunction with the Stephen G. Daitz, Professor Emeritus of of detail and insight. Solomon communi- Archaeological Institute of America. In addi- tion, the APA fosters programs to Classics, City University of New York, is cates not only his prodigious knowledge of • Reassert the importance of primary President of the Society for the Oral Reading film and the ancient world but also an infec- of Greek and Latin Literature, an affiliated and secondary school teaching and tious enthusiasm for the silver screen and a provide more support for improved group of the American Philological Associa- pedagogy at all levels of teaching. witty delight in the foibles of human nature. tion. He has published several recordings in • Improve working conditions and classical Greek and Latin for Audio Forum After quoting Kubrick on his disappointment scholarly opportunities for university (Guilford, Connecticut), including complete in Spartacus, Solomon reminds us that and college teachers. recordings of the Iliad and the Odyssey. Vergil had wanted to burn the Aeneid (55). • Increase communication with audi- Professor Daitz welcomes comments on his This book is clearly the product of many ences beyond its membership. article. You may write to him at [email protected]. years of serious study, yet Solomon makes 9 Film Reviews: Building on Sand? Ulysses (1954) by Hanna M. Roisman Literary Interpretation and Textual Criticism he Lux-Ponti-De Laurentiis co-production Tof Ulysses (1954), directed by Mario by Martin Helzle Camerini, is regularly hailed by critics. s modern consumers, we are used scripts is necessary to reach a conclu- Filmed in the Mediterranean, its scenery is to machine-produced goods that, sion. A more complex example of the absolutely captivating. It is one of the Ital- A at least for a short period after interdependence between literary and ian movies seen in the United States in the purchase, are next to perfect. Books are textual criticism occurs at Pont. 2.3.83-4. 1950’s; the cast and crew are Italian, but no exception. The temptation is there- Here Ovid invokes his longstanding the film features Kirk Douglas as Ulysses fore great to assume that an edition of a friendship with Cotta Maximus, the Latin text is error free. We know that adopted son of the renowned orator and was dubbed in English. the text has come down to us through Messalla Corvinus, by means of the fol- The script is based on the Odyssey and, medieval manuscripts, but we trust that lowing observation: although it modifies the poem in many an expert textual critic in a rarefied aca- places, when it is faithful to the original, it demic environment has looked at these, ultima me tecum vidit maestisque cadentis rings wonderfully of the ancient line. The weighed the arguments for or against excepit lacrimas aethalis Ilva genis screenplay writers (Franco Brusati, Mario certain readings, and printed something very close to what the author wrote. We Smoky Elba was the last place to see Camerini, Ennio de Concini, Hugh Gray, are interested in the literary qualities of me and you together and to receive Ben Hecht, Ivo Perilli, and Irwin Shaw) a text or maybe its historical reliability, my tears falling from my sad cheeks. managed to write a tersely cogent and yet but a critical apparatus looks like clutter entertaining script which captures the spirit at the bottom of the page that only gets Aethalis Ilva, “smoky Elba,” is found in of fantasy and adventure of the ancient in the way, unless it contains a reading none of the medieval manuscripts in epic. Within its briefer parameters, the film that supports our latest imaginative which these poems survive but is a com- interpretation. monly accepted conjecture supported also manages to ask some of the thematic Acquiescing in this attitude, however, by the astute Renaissance critic Hein- questions explored by the Odyssey on the is like building on sand. Textual critics sius who attributed it to his colleague nature of fame and identity, the meaning often subscribe to different approaches, Rutgers. The oldest manuscript in and limits of hospitality, the pain and and even the readings reported in criti- Hamburg (A, eleventh century) has aei- importance of memory. The movie consists cal apparatuses are not necessarily cor- thali silva; in one of the other two older of roughly eight episodes: the house of rect. In my own study of Ovid’s Epistu- ones (B, twelfth/thirteenth century) in lae ex Ponto (Letters from Pontus), I have Munich we find a space where two let- Ulysses in Ithaca, Ulysses’ amnesia in the come across a line about which editors ters have been erased, then the word court of Alcinous, Antinous – the new suit- differ widely. At Pont. 1.5.71, John Rich- ithalis followed by ora, in a second hand, or, Polyphemus’ cave, the Sirens, Circe’s mond, in his 1990 Teubner text, reports written over an erasure. The other island, the beggar at home, the bow con- that one of the Munich manuscripts (C, Munich manuscript (C) reads aut holis test. Transitions between the episodes are twelfth/thirteenth century) reads istunc ilva. Sample readings in the younger seamless and effortless. The movie starts in instead of istinc. Friedrich Lenz, in his manuscripts include italis ora (Codex hard-to-find 1938 Paravia edition, Etonensis), itala silva (Codex Argen- a gloomily lighted Mycenaean/Geometric- remains silent on this point but reports toratensis) and thessalis ora (Codex period megaron in Ithaca. The sad and that the word before the word in ques- Lentiensis). beautiful Penelope (Silvana Mangano) inter- tion in C is hunc. I have looked at the The word aethalis, “smoky,” has the rupts the blind bard (Homer?) who sings original manuscript and found that it has advantage of being the most difficult before the suitors about Ulysses’ exploit huc and illuc with the usual dash over reading and therefore the one most like- with the Trojan horse and Cassandra’s the letter u that serves as an abbrevia- ly to be corrupted in the textual tion for n. The next word is nostris, tradition; however, aethalis occurs only curse upon him for violating the temple of about which Richmond’s apparatus is Neptune. We meanwhile watch the content silent, but Lenz notes that it is hard to of the song happening as Troy is set ablaze tell if it is not vestris. This word is also at night. Next we move swiftly to Nausicaa abbreviated as uris, with the dash over playing with her friends on the shore of the u indicating, this time, omission of Scheria and finding a grimy Ulysses sleep- the letters est. When I looked at C in the original, I concluded that Lenz was ing at the edge of the waves. She of course right. When I look at my microfilm of falls in love with him immediately. He has the original, it is impossible to tell. no recollection of his identity, which he Alternate readings like these may not recovers only on the day he is supposed to seriously affect the meaning of a text. marry the sweet princess. A wonderful bal- They do, however, serve to emphasize ance is thus set up in the plot by the that literary criticism can never be detached from textual criticism and that “almost remarrying” of both husband and sometimes scrutiny of original manu- continued on page 11 10 here in Latin literature. I find it most Film Reviews Telemachus when he hears the Sirens; his unsatisfactory to solve a textual problem continued from page 10 reunion with Argus; or his attempt to save by means of a neologism, even if it is Leiodes’ life. At the very end, the film deliv- derived from a Greek equivalent. wife. While Penelope is introduced to a ers to the audience a Ulysses that many Furthermore, if Ovid met Cotta Max- newly arrived suitor, Antinous (Anthony imus after the sentence of exile was readers of the Odyssey would like so much Quinn), who is objectionably pushy, passed on him and before he left Italy, to have, but that the Homeric muse was less Elba would have been an unlikely stop aggressive, and deceitful, we share inclined to give, a hero who says he is on his way to Romania. The obvious Ulysses’ recovery of memory. We see his sorry to bring so much death in his house route would have been to follow the Via rash arrogance and cleverness in the on the day of his return. Appia to Brindisi on Italy’s southeast Cyclops’ cave. We watch how the Cyclops Kirk Douglas’s performance gives the coast and then sail across the Adriatic gets drunk on unfermented purple grape and the Aegean, through the Helle- ultimate quality to the movie. The scenes, juice produced by the company’s stamping, spont, and into the Black Sea. The whether sad, arrogant, comic, or moving, island of Elba, on the other hand, lies in his own cave, on the grapes he himself depend completely on his performance. six miles west of the coast of Tuscany has plucked, and we see how he is brutally Music and scenic backgrounds are used to and thus northwest of Rome. blinded. The Sirens episode chooses to a minimum in developing emotion, but Dou- Moreover, Cotta Maximus has no expose Ulysses’ well-hidden vulnerability glas manages to deliver the vitality the char- associations with Elba that we know of. when the Sirens are heard calling him and However, his father Messalla Corvinus acter of Ulysses must have in order to be is known to have restored the Via Lati- lamenting (to the accentuating choral music cinematically convincing. We are continual- na, which runs in a southeasterly direc- of Alessandro Cicognini) in the voices of his ly surprised at what this Ulysses would say tion from Rome through the Alban hills wife and son. Ulysses’ human weakness or do; never boring, never repeating him- and joins the Via Appia after about a resurfaces once more when he is exposed self, he is utterly unpredictable. It is not an hundred miles. Roman aristocrats had to Circe’s (Silvana Mangano again) charms easy task to give life to the multi-faceted built numerous country retreats along and luxurious hospitality and seems to like the Via Latina, especially in Tusculum, and elusive ancient hero, but Kirk Douglas but also along the eastern ridge of the both. The screenplay conflates the successfully balanced between the bound- Alban hills in an area known as Mons Odyssey’s Circe and Calypso episodes. In less striving for adventure and the humanity Algidus. We know that Cotta’s father order to convince him to accept her offer of the script prescribed for him. was buried along the road that he had immortality, Circe resorts to showing The dimness in which most interior restored. It is more likely that Ovid took Ulysses the miserable existence of his long- scenes or those taking place at night are a slight detour to the south along the gone comrades in the Otherworld, but Anti- Via Latina in order to see his friend filmed gives the film a somewhat archaic Cotta, presumably in his father’s coun- cleia’s shade interferes with her plans. She flavor. The decor in Ithaca is a rather try retreat somewhere in the vicinity of comes, uninvited by Circe, and tells her son authentic Mycenaean. The Phaeacians are his road and his tomb. I therefore sug- to go home. Next we find Ulysses back at colorfully dressed as Minoans with tight- gest replacing the abstruse conjecture his megaron in Ithaca, disguised as a beg- waisted pleated skirts for women and long aethalis Ilva with Algida terra, thus gar meeting Penelope who bitterly laments robes for men. changing the meeting place of the her own lot. There is a moving scene friends from Elba to Algidus. In addi- This is one of the best film versions of the tion to making much better sense geo- between the hero and his aged dog Argus. Odyssey. graphically and historically, it is also In a clever maneuver, the screenwriters better stylistically since Ovid, at Fasti make Telemachus identify the beggar as his Hanna M. Roisman, is a professor of 4.622, refers exactly to this area as Algida father by overhearing his warm, if sad, Classics at Colby College. She is the author terra and the phrase appears in the same words to Argus, “but you recognized me, of Loyalty in Early Greek Epic and Tragedy position in both verses. Furthermore, didn’t you? Yes, at least that’s something of algidus means “cold” and Ovid consis- (1984), The Odyssey Re-Formed (with Fred- tently (but incorrectly) complained of a homecoming.” There follows the final erick Ahl) (1996), Nothing Is As It Seems: the perpetual winter that beset him in episode, the bending of the bow and the The Tragedy of the Implicit in Euripides’ exile. What better place for Ovid to slaughter of the suitors. Hippolytus (1999), and forthcoming from make a first stop on his way to the The screenwriters focus intensely on the the University of Oklahoma Press (with C. Romanian permafrost than on “Cold humanity of the hero. Although they portray A. E. Luschnig) Euripides’ Alcestis: A Com- Mountain”? him at times as reckless, disdainful, passion- In short: text matters! mentary for Students. She is also the author ate, revengeful, implacable, arrogant, bru- of numerous articles on the epics of Homer Martin Helzle, Associate Professor and tal, or inquisitive, he comes across as a and Hesiod, Greek Tragedy, and classics Chair of the Classics Department at Case very human character. They also allow him and cinema. Western Reserve University, is currently scenes and utterances where his sensibility working on a commentary on Ovid’s Epis- comes out; the Homeric muse was less kind tulae ex Ponto. In 1997-98, he was a in this regard. Thus, for example, his touch- Humbolt Fellow in Munich where he read manuscripts and raided the archive of the ing reference to Telemachus as an infant Thesaurus Linguae Latinae. sucking his thumb, smiling and sleeping; his ardent desire to join Penelope and

11 Web Site Reviews: Guidelines for The DIR: An Adventure in Imperial Biography Contributors by Michael DiMaio Sponsorship: Amphora, a publication spon- Greek and Latin: All original Greek and sored by the Committee on Outreach of the Latin (words, phrases, and block quotations) n August 1996, the Web site De Imperatoribus American Philological Association, is pub- should be translated into English. For Greek Romanis: An Online Encyclopedia of Roman lished twice a year, in the spring and fall. names, use the more common form: I Achilles, for example, not Achilleus. The Emperors (http://www.roman-emperors.org), Purpose and Audience: Amphora welcomes transliteration of Greek names should be based at Salve Regina University in Newport, submissions from professional scholars and consistent within the submission. experts on topics dealing with the worlds of Rhode Island, first appeared on the World Wide ancient Greece and Rome (literature, lan- Illustrations: Amphora cannot publish a Web. Known as the DIR, its purpose is to pro- guage, mythology, history, culture, classical large number of plates to accompany an arti- tradition, and the arts). Amphora is intended cle but will accept a few well-chosen illustra- vide basic information about Roman and Byzan- for a wide audience that includes professional tions if they are deemed necessary and help- tine emperors and their immediate family mem- classicists, present and former classics majors, ful to the article. Illustrations should be in bers. The site features scholarly essays about interested academics and professionals in hard-copy form for the initial submission but other fields, high school teachers and stu- should be transmitted electronically with the nearly all the emperors who ruled from 31 B.C. dents, administrators in the field of educa- final manuscript. to A.D. 741 and includes notes, bibliography, tion, community leaders, and anyone with a Footnotes: Amphora aims to be footnote and some illustrations. Each essay can be strong interest in and enthusiasm for the clas- sical world. Submissions, therefore, should free, so footnotes are discouraged. Any perti- accessed by hypertext links between essays, by not only reflect sound scholarship but also nent references should be worked into the links to and from chronological and alphabetical have wide appeal to Amphora’s diverse text of the submission. lists of emperors, and to and from familial stem- audience. Accepted Submissions: If the submission mata. Additionally, material can be accessed Language of Publication: English is accepted for publication, the author will be asked to submit an electronic copy for from pull-down menus for Eastern and Western Length of Submissions: There is no the final editing. emperors and their spouses. absolute minimum or maximum length, but Editorial Courtesy: The editors of Amphora As the site develops, it continues to acquire submissions of between 500 and 2000 words are suitable. maintain the highest levels of editorial cour- new components, such as the DIR/ORB Ancient tesy. Contributors should be willing to work Anonymous Refereeing: Submissions will with the editors to arrive at a mutually accept- and Medieval Atlas. Consisting of maps of the be refereed anonymously. All indications of able final manuscript that is appropriate to the empire from 31 B.C. to A.D. 1453, plans of both identity should be omitted from the submis- intended audience and reflects the intention imperial capitals, maps of battle sites with descrip- sion itself. of Amphora to convey the excitement of classi- cal studies. tions of the battles, and a compendium of Latin Initial Submissions: Initial submissions sources never before translated into English, the should be in hard copy in finished form and Offprints: Authors will receive ten free should be checked for accuracy and proof- copies of the issue in which their DIR/ORB also furnishes a link to the Virtual Cata- read for errors. Initial submissions should be article/review appears. log of Roman Coins, an associated site at Austin double spaced with ample margins for com- ments. Address for Submissions: Submissions College in Texas. Soon the database on Rome in should be sent to the address below: fictional literature at Richard Stockton College in Style Guide: For general guidance about Anne-Marie Lewis New Jersey will become part of the DIR. stylistic conventions, consult the most recent edition of The Chicago Manual of Style. Editor: Amphora Like the government of the Roman Empire itself, For specific guidance, please request the Program in Classical Studies, Division of Humanities management of the DIR has two headquarters. One Style Sheet for Amphora from the editors. Vanier College 262 editorial board at the University of New England in Preferred Word-Processing Systems: York University Australia operates the Byzantine portion of the proj- Microsoft Word or WordPerfect Toronto, ON M3J 1P3 CANADA ect, while the other at Western Kentucky University Preferred Font/Type Size: Times New controls everything relating to the Western Empire. Roman, 12-point Preliminary Enquiries: [email protected] Named one of the fifteen best free Web sites on the Internet by the Library Journal, the DIR American Philological Association has also received recognition from Encyclopedia 292 Logan Hall, University of Pennsylvania 249 S. 36th Street Britannica and The History Channel. For a Philadelphia, PA 19104-6304 wealth of information on imperial biography E-mail: [email protected] and related topics, visit the DIR. Web site: www.apaclassics.org

Professor Michael DiMaio teaches Latin and Philosophy at Salve Regina University in New- port, Rhode Island. He is managing editor and former chairman of the editorial board of the DIR. He serves on the editorial board of the Online Reference Book of Medieval Studies and has writ- ten extensively on the Neo-Flavian emperors and the Byzantine chronographer John Zonaras. 12