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A publication of the American Philological Association Vol. 2 • Issue 2 •Fall 2003

The Palace of Fine Arts: MYTHS FOR MILLIONS Classical Architecture in San Francisco by Marie Cleary by Mary-Kay Gamel

n 1853, Thomas Bulfinch was fifty- family had been wealthy and renowned hen we think of architecture in San Iseven years old, a full-time bank in Boston, he himself grew up in some WFrancisco, what usually comes to clerk in Boston’s financial district, financial difficulty because, in the year mind is nineteenth-century houses in various living as a bachelor in a respectable of his birth, his father lost his own and styles – Queen Anne, Eastlake, Stick, Ital- boarding house. His formal academic his wife’s sizable fortunes in a daring ianate – now often painted in bright colors, life as a member of Harvard’s Class of building project of his own design, the 1814 and, briefly, as a teacher at Boston Tontine Crescent, which aimed at or the Beaux-Arts buildings in Civic Center, Latin School had ended almost forty bringing Boston to the aesthetic level of such as City Hall and the War Memorial years earlier. Nevertheless, in 1853, contemporary London. Opera House. A few significant buildings Bulfinch made up his mind to write the In spite of little money, his family in San Francisco, however, are inspired by book that made him famous, The Age of helped him receive a gentleman’s edu- Greco-Roman architecture. Two are tem- Fable; or, Stories of Gods and Heroes. In cation. Bulfinch had learned classical ples to commerce. The Old Mint at the cor- this work, Bulfinch democratized classi- mythology along with a great deal of cal mythology, a branch of knowledge Latin and some Greek at Boston Latin ner of Fifth and Mission Streets was one of traditionally reserved for members of School, Phillips Exeter Academy, and the last Greek Revival buildings in the Unit- the small minority who had studied Harvard College. In the standard course ed States. Completed in 1874, it survived Greek and Latin. A public-spirited man, of readings in the ancient languages, the great earthquake and fire of 1906 and he aimed to give to Americans (both prose predominated, but boys in Latin for years was one of only three mints in the men and women) in the middle and school and college typically read four country, as late as 1934 holding one-third lower classes knowledge they lacked for ancient poems – Vergil’s Aeneid and the cultural activities to which they Ovid’s Metamorphoses in Latin, and of U. S. gold reserves. Its severe exterior of aspired. The Age of Fable became one of Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey in Greek. the most popular works ever published They learned their mythology above all in the United States. For the rest of the through the Metamorphoses of Ovid. For nineteenth century, and well into the centuries, Ovid’s long poem was the twentieth, the words Bulfinch and main repository of stories from the clas- mythology were inseparable because of sical myths. People who knew Ovid had the alternate name of his book, a great advantage in understanding Bulfinch’s Mythology, given to it after he Western literature and art, which died. Today the book is still being reis- abounded in mythological images and sued and sold. references. Bulfinch was born in 1796 in New- When Bulfinch was entering college ton, Massachusetts, the son of Hannah at age fourteen (the usual age at the and Charles Bulfinch, the architect of time), his expectation and that of his Fig. 1. The Palace of Fine Arts in San the Massachusetts State House, Univer- family had been that he would enter Francisco. Looking over the lagoon sity Hall at Harvard College, and the continued on page 2 towards the peristyle and the rotunda. Capitol in Washington. Although his Photo credit: Thomas A. Vogler. On Hannibal and Elephants ...... 4 Notable Web Site: “Dr. J’s Illustrated Guide to the Classical world”...... 12 Book Review: “Route 66 A.D.: On the granite and sandstone features a pediment- Trail of Ancient Roman Tourists”....5 Ralph Ellison, Ulysses, and ed central temple façade with Doric “Invisible Man” ...... 12 Book Review: “Literature in columns. The Bank of California at 400 the Greek World” ...... 7 A Note on the Transmission of Catullus ...... 15 California Street, completed in 1908, fea- Agamemnon, Achilles, Odysseus: Homer on Military Leadership ...... 8 From Italy to India: Mediterranean tures six huge Corinthian columns on each Amphoras and Roman Economic Book Review: “Literature in History...... 16 of its three unpedimented façades. When the Roman World” ...... 9 Inside Film Review: “Barabbas” ...... 17 expansion of the bank became necessary Myth in the MirroR: Journeying With Aeneas ...... 10 An Operatic “Agamemnon” PremierEs in 1967, the original structure was not in Washington, D.C...... 19 continued on page 3 Myths for Millions continued from page 1 one of the “learned professions.” Pro- With its publication, for the first time in fessional training, however, required the his life, he became prosperous and well financial stability his family would only known. attain later when his father became Why would a man of Bulfinch’s age, Architect to the Capitol. Alternatively, with a “day job,” spend his free time Bulfinch might have chosen to be a writing a mythology book? The answer writer. In that era, however, few Ameri- is that he knew Americans needed such cans earned a living in that field. a book and that he was uniquely quali- In 1815, he found himself at a cross- fied to write it. He tried with his book to roads. Under pressure from his parents, solve a vexing cultural problem: most and wanting to spare them the expense Americans did not know the classical of further education for him, he went myths. Although images and references Fig. 2. In this illustration from an 1875 into his older brother’s hardware busi- from those tales permeated the culture edition of Bulfinch’s The Age of Fable, a ness. In an autobiographical sketch in literature and the decorative arts, modestly clad Icarus drops from the sky. found among the family papers at the most people had only vague knowledge The same illustration appears in the first Massachusetts Historical Society, he of the myths as told in ancient litera- edition (1855). describes this choice as “the great mis- ture. Bulfinch wrote for a rapidly take of my life.” His “great mistake” expanding and enthusiastic audience of calls it “a Classical Dictionary for the led to a long period of stops and starts in readers, many of whom were acquiring parlor.” The Age of Fable contains, in the ways he earned his living. After education at a rate never before forty-one chapters, mythological stories repeated business failures, he finally attained. Along with this trend came a in prose, and quotations from English found employment, in 1837, as Collec- hunger for refinement and gentility. and American poetry that allude to tions Clerk at the Merchants Bank of In his Preface, Bulfinch describes his those stories. Thirty-six chapters consist Boston, which guaranteed him a steady anticipated readership and his mission. of Bulfinch’s narratives of classical income and peace of mind. He would Knowledge of the classical myths was myths, chiefly his own translations from hold that position until he died in 1867. vital for understanding literature and Greek and Roman authors, especially The life he led as a bank employee also, although Bulfinch mentions this Ovid, as well as explanations of related was seemingly placid, but inwardly he only in passing, painting and sculpture. material, such as oracles, sculpture struggled with an idea that had been Formal instruction about the Greek and based on myths, and mythical monsters. taking shape in his mind. Throughout Roman myths was generally included The remaining five chapters consist of his adult life, Bulfinch had continued on only in classes in Greek and Latin, what accounts of Asian and Norse myths and his own the studies of history and litera- he calls in his Preface “the languages of information about the Druids. In addi- ture he had loved in college. In the Greece and Rome.” People who did not tion to an “Index of Names” at the end 1840’s, however, his mind branched out know those languages – he would have of the book, Bulfinch includes a short in new ways. Boston was churning with known this was the great majority – section, “Proverbial Expressions,” of ideas. Scientists were launching new could not be expected, he says, to study brief quotations from Ovid and Vergil, fields, a process he chronicled as mythology on their own as a separate in Latin with English translations. Recording Secretary, 1842-1848, of the subject; there was too much else to From the start, he figuratively takes Boston Society of Natural History. The study of “sciences of facts and things” readers by the hand and reassures them Transcendentalists – some people in that “practical age.” He rejects the that ignorance of mythology is nothing active in the group were among his idea of people learning the myths by to be ashamed of, information is close at acquaintances – were creating contro- reading translations from the classics as hand, and acquiring it will be a pleasant versy with their philosophy. People in those are full of allusions difficult to experience. For instance, readers mysti- the Unitarian circles he frequented, understand. A classical dictionary is too fied by the name “Daedalus” in a poem such as Margaret Fuller, Elizabeth dry and the accounts too condensed. or story would first consult the “Index Palmer Peabody, and Bulfinch’s close Readers needed the stories from the of Names.” Looking at Bulfinch’s list of friend George Barrell Emerson, were myths told in the manner of the ancient mythological names, with accents breaking ground in education, including poets, “with the charm of a storybook.” included, readers would see that the improvement of education for He cites Vergil and Ovid as his main Daedalus is accented on the first sylla- women. Intellectuals were lecturing for sources. He writes for both men and ble. Turning to the specified page, they the general public in lyceums, and pub- women, he says, and he is careful to would find the story, beguilingly told, of lic libraries were gaining strength. A heed the gender conventions of his Daedalus and his son Icarus who mass audience for knowledge was time, leaving out details “offensive to escaped from their prison in Crete, on expanding. During this exciting time, pure taste and good morals.” Also, con- wings the father made from feathers, for several years before he wrote The Age sistent with the book’s purpose, he thread, and wax, only to have the son of Fable, he had thought of writing a includes translations from modern Eng- die tragically while flying too close to book of stories from classical mythology. lish poetry. the sun (see Fig. 2). To impress the He probably started working on it in Not simply a manual, The Age of Fable myth on his reader’s memory, Bulfinch earnest around the beginning of 1853. is really a blend of storybook, myth- added a quotation from the nineteenth- The book came out in 1855. With this related passages from poems, and classi- century poet, Erasmus Darwin, which book, Bulfinch became a teacher of cal dictionary. In his Preface, Bulfinch reads in part, “. . . with melting wax and mythology for a vast American public. pinpoints the book’s nature when he continued on page 20 2 The Palace of Fine Arts: Classical Architecture in San Francisco continued from page 1

destroyed (as were other handsome classi- restoration were successful, cal structures in the city); instead a tower and the Palace was rebuilt was designed to complement it. in concrete at ten times the Another, more exciting, example of clas- original cost. sical architecture in San Francisco is the At the urging of physicist Palace of Fine Arts, which was designed in Frank Oppenheimer, the 1915 by Bernard R. Maybeck (1862- Palace of Fine Arts became, 1957). Maybeck, now considered one of in 1969, a museum of sci- the pre-eminent architects of the Bay Area, ence and technology called produced primarily domestic architecture in the Exploratorium. Today, various styles, often with Craftsman-type the Exploratorium provides features including exposed beams, unfin- interactive exhibits to over ished wood, and huge fireplaces. Yet May- 500,000 visitors a year and beck also designed public buildings with sponsors concerts, films, and classical features, including an automobile publications. Today’s Palace Fig. 3. The Palace of Fine Arts in San showroom at 901 Van Ness Avenue (com- Francisco. One of the many funerary of Fine Arts is not Maybeck’s romantic ruin pleted 1926); its design, with huge urns. Photo credit: Thomas A. Vogler. but a lively institution that looks both back Corinthian columns, supposedly reflected to the past and forward to the future. ment of Maybeck’s design. The colonnade the aristocratic quality of the Packard cars Attendees at the upcoming 2004 meet- was punctuated by groups of four columns inside. ing of the American Philological Associa- supporting huge planter boxes, intended to In 1915, eager to demonstrate its rebirth tion in San Francisco will be able to visit be filled with trailing vines. following the earthquake and fire of 1906, the Palace of Fine Arts and the Exploratori- Maybeck saw his design as “an old San Francisco prepared to host the Pana- um on both Saturday, January 3, and Sun- Roman ruin, away from civilization, which ma-Pacific Exposition, which celebrated the day, January 4, during a “Highlights of San two thousand years before was the center completion of the Panama Canal. The Francisco Tour.” For details, see the tour of action and full of life, and now is partly exposition site was created by filling in descriptions in the insert bound into the overgrown with bushes and trees.” Instead land along San Francisco Bay, an area August 2003 APA Newsletter or visit the of the triumphalism associated with a now known as the Marina District. May- APA Web site (www.apaclassics.org) and world’s fair, Maybeck emphasized van- beck was chosen to design the Palace of click on “Annual Meeting” and then “Janu- ished grandeur and melancholy: “The Fine Arts, the most important of ten exhibi- ary 2-5, 2004 135th Annual Meeting, San keynote should be that of sadness modified tion palaces and his first large commission. Francisco.” For further reading before your by the feeling that beauty has a soothing The central elements of the Palace are its visit, see the Web site for the Palace of Fine influence.” Funerary urns are used through- circular rotunda and two elliptical peristyles Arts at http://www.exploratorium. out (see Fig. 3) and, at the corners of the curving out on either side. The gallery edu/palace. huge planter boxes, Maybeck placed where paintings and sculptures were exhib- female figures leaning inward as if weep- ited lies behind the colonnade. With its Mary-Kay Gamel teaches Greek, Latin, ing and watering the (never installed) plant- domed roof, the rotunda somewhat resem- and theater at the University of California, ings with their tears. bles the Pantheon in Rome, but it is punctu- Santa Cruz. She stages annual productions An instant, hugely popular success, the ated by eight large arched openings. May- of ancient drama on the UCSC campus, Palace of Fine Arts was not torn down beck turned the marshy site to his design’s often in her own translations or adapta- when the Exposition ended. As the years advantage by creating a large lagoon that tions. She is the author of articles on Roman went by, the steel-beamed gallery was used surrounds the rotunda on three sides, literature and on ancient drama in perform- in various ways – as tennis courts, as stor- reflecting it and the colonnade (see Fig. 1). ance and co-author of Women on the age for trucks and jeeps, and as a tele- Academic critics condemned his design Edge: Four Plays by Euripides (Routledge, phone book warehouse. By the mid-fifties for violating the “rules” of architecture. 1999). the rotunda and peristyles, made of wood Maybeck boldly used a variety of classical covered with burlap and stucco, were crum- elements, combining Roman arches and bling. Maybeck suggested that the gallery dome with Greek friezes. The columns of be torn down and redwoods planted the peristyle are eight rather than eleven around the rotunda so that the Palace diameters tall and have almost no base. would “die behind those great trees of its This last detail, however, makes the struc- own accord, and become its own ceme- ture seem to float on the water of the tery.” But, in 1962, efforts to fund a lagoon. Landscaping was an integral ele- 3 ON HANNIBAL AND ELEPHANTS by Keith G. Hart, B.V. Sc.

annibal’s extraordinary elephants. Because of the width of the and elephant is lifelong and character- Hachievement in leading his Rhone and the strength of its current, ized by mutual trust and understanding. army, including horses and ele- swimming them across was not an option. Elephants and humans have similar life phants, over the Alps in autumn, against Polybius informs us that Hannibal built expectancies, and elephants may grow hostile tribes and through snow on the piers jutting out into the river, to which old with their mahouts. Elephants are highest passes, has been a source of fas- he attached dirt-covered rafts (Polybius, loyal and highly intelligent (comparable cination for me for many years. Where Histories 3.46). After two female elephants to chimpanzees and dolphins in their did these elephants come from? Why were led onto the rafts, the males fol- mental capacity). In Asia, a mahout did the Carthaginian Hannibal use them lowed calmly. But when the towed rafts often has an assistant (trainee) mahout, against the Romans? How many sur- began to move, some elephants became both of whom work with the same ele- vived the rigors of water, snow, hunger, frightened and overturned them. phant. Hannibal must have had a back- cold, and ancient battle? Polybius suggests that some of the up system to provide his elephants with The use of elephants in battle was elephants saved themselves by walking a rider they knew and trusted should not original to Hannibal. Before Hanni- on the river bed and raising their trunks the regular mahout be killed or injured. bal, the Carthaginians had already above the water to breathe. Although this Although Hannibal suffered enor- faced, in Sicily, the Asian war elephants makes a good story, it probably is not mous losses of men and horses during of Pyrrhus of Epirus (the Greek king true. If the depth and current were such the crossing of the Alps, as Scullard who invaded southern Italy in 280 that an elephant could safely walk across reminds us, not one of his elephants is B.C.). They had probably decided, like on the river bed, Hannibal would have recorded as lost (159). Why did ele- Alexander the Great, who had faced the swum his elephants across. Elephants are phants survive when men and horses Asian elephants of the Indian King superb swimmers, and swims of twenty- died in droves? First, elephants are Porus on the Hydaspes River in 327 four hours or more have been recorded. unusually surefooted. They will not go B.C., that this new arm of warfare was a What Polybius and his informants may where they cannot walk in safety (hence strategic necessity. The Carthaginians not have known is that when elephants the elaborate deception required to get probably obtained trained elephants, swim in deep water, only the top of the them onto rafts at the Rhone), and mahouts (elephant “drivers”), and oth- head and trunk (and sometimes the mountains are not unfamiliar terrain. In ers skilled in capturing and training ele- trunk alone) are visible. It would be easy, fact, elephants have been found on phants from the Egyptians, with whom therefore, to assume that they were actu- Mount Kenya and Mount Kilimanjaro at they had excellent trade relations. They ally walking on the bottom. significantly higher altitudes than the transported, in 262 B.C., about fifty ele- There is some doubt about the Alpine passes traversed by Hannibal, phants from Africa to Sicily for use in details, but all thirty-seven elephants and North African elephants probably the First Punic War against the Romans. reportedly reached the opposite bank. climbed the high slopes of the Atlas When Hannibal launched his own Some of the mahouts, however, were Mountains in northwest Africa. Hanni- expedition against Rome in 218 B.C., he drowned, which was a significant set- bal would have known about the capaci- also took along elephants. H. H. back. The relationship between mahout ty of elephants to traverse mountain ter- Scullard in The Elephant in the Greek and Roman World (1974) has shown that Hannibal’s elephants were almost exclusively of North African origin. There are two subspecies of elephant in Africa today – the African Savannah Elephant, which is four to seven tons and up to thirteen feet tall (see Fig. 4), and the lesser known African Forest Elephant, which is two to four tons and up to eleven feet tall. In Hannibal’s time, there were elephants and forests in North Africa, and a number of writers have suggested that the North African Elephant (now extinct) was a separate subspecies intermediate in size between the two existing African subspecies. Hannibal faced a number of difficul- ties in getting his North African ele- phants to Italy. He took a land route but also faced the challenge of water. While there is some dispute about where Han- nibal crossed the lower Rhone River, there is no doubt that he had consider- able trouble transporting his thirty-seven Fig. 4. African Savannah Elephant, Aberdare National Park, Kenya, 1989. Photo credit: Keith Hart. 4 rain. Second, elephants inspired fear in Book Review: the enemy. Hannibal’s foes along the Route 66 A.D.: On the Trail of Ancient Roman Tourists way were skilled at attacking men and horses but probably chose not to take on by Norma Wynick Goldman elephants. Hannibal’s biggest problem during Tony Perrottet. Route 66 A.D.: On the Trail of tus) exhibited for the people in Rome. After the crossing of the Alps must have been Ancient Roman Tourists. Random House an abbreviated visit to Pompeii and an Ital- feeding his elephants. Elephants con- (1-800-733-3000), 2002, Pp. 391. Generous- ian McDonald’s, he continues with a descrip- sume (depending on their size) 250-500 pounds of feed a day. In the wild in ly illustrated in black and white. Hardcover tion of the kinds of material that will make up Africa, elephants will graze for sixteen or $25.95. ISBN 0-3755-0432-X. Reprinted as his ancient sources: memoirs, travel guides, more hours a day. Their digestive sys- Pagan Holiday: On the Trail of Ancient Roman poetry, plays, and letters home from tourists. tems are not efficient (80-90% of what Tourists. Random House, 2003. Pp. 416. The heart of the tour and the adventures, goes in passes out again as droppings). Paperback $12.95. ISBN 0-3757-5639-6. both ancient and modern, begin in Rome. Elephants eat a wide range of plant The reader then travels with Tony and Lesley material and, although they have an excellent ability to “live off the land,” f you enjoyed touring the ancient classical from Rome down to the Bay of Naples (Pom- this would not have been possible in the Iworld with Marcus Didius Falco and his peii, Pozzuoli, Baiae, and Capri) using high passes above the snow line. It is pregnant fellow-traveler Helena, the imagi- what the author calls “double vision,” seeing unlikely that Hannibal carried enough nary Roman characters created by Lindsey the same sights that the ancient tourists saw, fodder (500 pounds per animal per day) Davis in her novels, you will enjoy the mod- and quoting from what they had written to sustain their needs. It is a tribute to the resilience of the animals themselves ern-day romp through classical geography about their experiences. Perrottet follows the that they survived their ordeal. in the book Route 66 A.D. with Tony Perrot- style of Lionel Casson, who had recreated Hannibal probably spent fifteen days tet and his real-life pregnant fellow-traveler the trip from Rome to Brundisium that crossing the Alps and emerged with his Lesley. What makes Perrottet’s adventure a Horace took in 37 B.C. and described in battered army in the vicinity of Turin. double treat is that he records not only his Satires 1.5 (see “Ex Itinere Lux: The Trials of With a Roman army moving up the Po own present-day experiences but also the Travel in Ancient Italy,” in New Light from valley to engage him, it was now time for Hannibal’s elephants to justify his reactions and quotations of the ancient Ancient Cosa, 2001, 219-225). Horace decision to bring them. Besides the ter- tourists who wanted to see the same histori- had described his trip via metal wheels ror their physical appearance was sure to cal and mythological monuments that we bumping over basalt stones on the Appian inspire, the devastation they could visit today: Delphi, the walls of Troy, the Way and his suffering from mosquitoes, bad cause was formidable. War elephants Pyramid tombs of the god-kings of Egypt, food, worse wine causing “traveler’s could crush soldiers underfoot, transfix and the Nile on which Cleopatra and her tummy,” and flea-bag hotels full of bedbugs. them with their tusks, or pick them up in their trunks and dash them to the lovers, first Julius Caesar and then Mark Perrottet follows similar routes south in Italy. ground. Alexander’s troops, in their Antony, cruised in palatial pleasure craft. He then continues on to the ancient Grand struggle against King Porus, used suc- Perrottet was born and educated in Syd- Tour – Greece, the Greek islands, the Coast cessful defense tactics. They let Porus’ ney, Australia, where he was taught both Latin of Asia Minor, with Troy as anti-climax, and elephants charge past as the archers and Greek by the Jesuit fathers. He grew up Egypt. It is a journey filled with the perils of picked off the mahouts. They used with a healthy respect for classical history and both ancient and modern travel: filthy inns, spears and javelins in the most vulnera- ble parts of the elephant’s anatomy literature, but his own travels around the world gouging landlords, insane hotel keepers, (neck, belly, and under the tail) and were to places like India, Zanzibar, Pago guides who give false information, poor used axes or scimitars to cut off the end Pago, Iceland, Tanzania, and the Amazon, roads, dangerous sea voyages, and money- of the trunk or to hamstring the animal places off the beaten tourist tracks. He had stu- grubbing natives who try to sell services and by cutting it behind the leg. Attempting diously avoided Mediterranean lands as too souvenirs. Perrottet notes the ironic resem- such tactics required courage, experi- crowded, too touristy, too noisy, and too blance of modern to ancient travel, but his ence, and the right equipment. The Romans would not have lacked the first expensive. But two factors changed his per- own trip is on a shoestring compared to the quality, but they probably came up spective: in the New York Public Library in experiences of far wealthier ancient travel- short in the other two. Manhattan, he had discovered a wealth of ers, who had the money, status, and leisure Hannibal engaged the Romans on graphic descriptions of ancient maps and to make these trips. ground of his choosing, on his side of the ancient tourism, and he had learned that he His sources for Italian travel include Trebia River. The battle took place in and Lesley were six months away from Vergil, Ovid, Horace, and Petronius. For late December, 218 B.C., in very poor weather conditions, and the Roman becoming parents. If they were to see the mainland Greece, Pausanias’ complete sur- forces had to ford several branches of the Colosseum, the Acropolis, and the Pyramids viving guidebook, the Description of Greece, icy river, without breakfast, before they unencumbered, it would have to be soon. is one of his best guides. In Asia Minor, he clashed with Hannibal’s army. The ele- No maps of the ancient world are extant relies heavily on the writings of Aristides, a phants were arrayed on the wings of today but, based on his library research, Per- second century A.D. orator and essayist Hannibal’s infantry, and their charge fell rottet recreates the map that Marcus Agrippa who, plagued with illnesses, traveled to spas mainly on the allied troops rather than (friend, supporter, and son-in-law of Augus- seeking cures. Perrottet seeks the same sites. continued on page 6 continued on page 6 5 Book Review: On Hannibal and Elephants Route 66 A.D. continued from page 5 continued from page 5 the Roman legions, which formed the Iraq) once harbored the largest Asian In Egypt, Perrottet consults Strabo, Herodotus, center of the Roman line. The elephants subspecies (now extinct) hunted by the helped to drive the Roman army and the pharaohs 3,000 years ago. It is possible and Pausanias as his guides to many of the remnants of their cavalry into the river. that the Ptolemies in Egypt were still areas. Today, tourists ascend upwards with- After Hannibal’s decisive victory on able to obtain Syrian elephants in Han- in the Great Pyramid to the present-day tomb the Trebia, we hear little about the fate nibal’s time, and this may have been the room but, because of a reference in Strabo of his elephants. Although there is no original source of Hannibal’s one surviv- to an off-limits subterranean tomb, Perrottet report of the deaths of elephants in bat- ing animal. In any case, while the major- repeats Strabo’s dangerous descent under tle, Polybius informs us that all but one ity of Hannibal’s elephants were proba- elephant died from the cold (Polybius bly of North African origin, at least one thousands of blocks of stone crawling 3.74). Livy, on the other hand, says that may have been an Asian elephant. through a narrow tunnel to find the same almost all perished and that later, when It is highly likely that the surviving chamber Strabo described. We all suffer the Hannibal was crossing the Apennines in elephant, emerging from the Apennines anguish of Lesley that he may not return. In arctic conditions, he lost the seven ele- with the great Carthaginian on his back, Alexandria, Perrottet tries to get a permit to phants that had survived Trebia. This, was none other than Surus. Pliny the dive into the harbor to observe firsthand the according to Livy, left him with one sole Elder tells us that he was not only the survivor. (Livy, The History of Rome from bravest of the elephants but that he also remains of the lighthouse, despite warnings its Foundation 21.58). had one broken tusk. Scullard suggests that the harbor is heavily polluted. Hannibal, however, succeeded in that this elephant, which could have If the reader has taken trips to these winning even greater victories without been a large, male, Asian elephant from places, Perrottet’s book is a warm reminder his elephants. Carthaginian attempts to Syria, was a gift from Ptolemy to his of the wonders already seen; if Perrottet reinforce him were often unsuccessful, ally, the great Carthaginian general but he did receive an unspecified num- Hamilcar Barca (174). Hannibal was goes into new territory, such as Crocodilopo- ber of elephants sometime after 215 Hamilcar’s son and may have formed a lis in Egypt, the book provides a new experi- B.C. The most spectacular reinforce- relationship with Surus from childhood ence. The author has provided a map of the ment attempt was made by his brother (as did Toomai and his father’s great Mediterranean lands with Egypt as inset, as Hasdrubal, who followed the same route tusker, Kala Nag, in Rudyard Kipling’s well as three valuable appendices at the as Hannibal across the Alps with an army The Jungle Book). end: a Timeline, a Who’s Who in the and ten elephants. In his attempt to In a flight of fancy, I like to think that effect a junction with his brother’s Surus, possibly the only Asian elephant Ancient World, and a valuable bibliography forces, Hasdrubal was caught and defeat- in Hannibal’s team, may have survived of Sources. In the bibliographical preface, ed by a Roman army at the Metaurus the rigors of the Italian winter that felled Perrottet acknowledges two basic works: River on the Italian east coast. In his African colleagues because of a Ludwig Friedlander’s Life and Manners recounting the episode, Livy provides a genetic trait for cold resistance passed under the Early Roman Empire (1965) and fascinating insight into the “double- down from a distant ancestor (the Asian Lionel Casson’s Travel in the Ancient World edged sword” the elephant weapon elephant is more closely related to the could be. When faced with robust cold-resistant Woolly Mammoth than to (1974) whose “chapters on the Pax Romana infantry defense, elephants might turn the heat-adapted African elephant). I remain the finest – and wittiest – modern and stampede back through their own visualize Hannibal riding Surus into account of the tourist landscape in the impe- troops in a gruesome “own goal” sce- Etruria at the head of a bedraggled but rial era. Indeed, without the groundbreaking nario. To prevent this, Hasdrubal issued victorious army. Scullard sheds one final work of Casson’s oeuvre, which covers his mahouts mallets and chisels, which light on the scene by turning our atten- ancient sea travel, trade, communications, they were to drive into the elephants’ tion to Etrurian bronze coins issued spines if they got out of hand. Livy around 217 B.C. when Hannibal passed and exploration, this book could not have reports that six elephants had to be through (176). The coins clearly depict been written” (375). killed that way (Livy 27.48). The ele- an Asian elephant. As Scullard points Perrottet’s rousing romp through the phant’s fall would have been immediate out, the coins could have nothing to do ancient world is delightful. I look forward to and the “dismount” of the mahout with Pyrrhus and his Asian elephants, reading his next travel adventure. would have been life-threatening, to say who failed to reach as far north as Rome. the least. The remaining four elephants, The only other reasonable explanation is which had broken through the Roman that the coins depict Surus, as he passes Norma Wynick Goldman is an adjunct ranks and lost their mahouts, were later through Etruria and disappears into the faculty member in the Department of Interdis- captured by the Romans. mists of history. ciplinary Studies at Wayne State University in We do know, from both Livy and Detroit, Michigan, retired after forty years in Polybius, that by the time Hannibal Keith Hart is a veterinarian who special- the Classics Department. She is co-author of crossed the Apennines in 217 B.C. after izes in farm animal medicine near Sydney, Cosa: the Lamps, Volume 39 of the Memoirs the battle at the Trebia, he had only Australia. He recently completed a Masters one elephant left, which he himself degree in Environmental Law. He has had a of the American Academy in Rome; Latin via rode. Pliny the Elder tells us (Scullard lifelong fascination with elephants and has Ovid; and English Grammar for Students of 174) that the elephant was called observed them in both Africa and Nepal. He Latin. Her study with Lionel Casson resulted in “Surus” (the Syrian). The Tigris- also has an interest in both ancient and the BBC/NOVA documentary Colosseum. Euphrates valley in ancient Syria (now modern military history.

6 Book Review: Literature in the Greek World literature is irretrievable, seminal works sur- vive that are among the greatest achieve- by John C. Warman ments of their own, or any, time or place, Oliver Taplin, ed. Literature in the Greek was for, and, indeed, for whom it was and still have much to say to us. World. Oxford University Press (1-800-451- made. The last, he believes, is particularly Mention should be made of this vol- 7556), 2001. Pp. xxvii, 299. 5 maps, 20 significant, given the symbiotic interaction ume’s many appealing and user-friendly illustrations. Paperback $16.95. ISBN 0- he sees between makers and receivers. Just features: evocative photographs of ancient 19-289303-3. as we all have the daily experience of our artifacts related to literature; maps shaded audiences influencing what we say and to show the geographical extent of literary his collection of essays invites those who how we say it, Taplin maintains that, on a production and reception in various peri- Tknow a little about ancient Greek litera- grander scale, the public helps shape its lit- ods; timelines; place-finding subheadings ture to learn more, and the more knowl- erature. Hence, along with the customary and copious cross-references within the edgeable to consider a fresh perspective. discussion of works and makers, Taplin and essays; suggested further reading, including For all those whose interest in classical liter- his co-contributors focus on the original translations; a parallel chronology of histor- ature is primarily Greek, it has been conve- receivers. ical and literary events in the ancient world; niently spun off, as has its counterpart on This approach raises a series of ques- and an index. On a closing note, besides Latin literature, from Literature in the Greek tions. Were these receivers an elite or a meriting the attention of both general read- and Roman Worlds (hardcover, 2000) into broader public? Local or cosmopolitan? Cit- er and scholar, this book could well serve an attractive paperback that can be izens only or slaves as well? Male, female, as an adjunct text for a survey course in acquired at a substantial saving over the or both? Literate or, as is possible with Greek literature or an introductory course in original, even with the addition of the aural reception, illiterate? In cases of aural classical Greek. Roman volume, which is also being reception, in what sorts of gatherings? reviewed in this issue (see page 9). What the essayists essentially do is apply John C. Warman has taught Greek and On one level, it forms a survey, remark- such questions to each instance of litera- Latin at Gonzaga College High School in ably comprehensive for its compactness, of ture, and, with a judicious combination of Washington, D.C. since 1967 and is also the Greek literature from the mid-eighth century internal textual evidence (trusting in the rea- school theater’s musical director and a B.C.E. to the end of the fifth century C.E. sonable authenticity of the texts as known church organist and choirmaster. He earned The first six essays are arranged more or and construed), external textual and his B.A. in philosophy and classics at less chronologically and defined by genre: archaeological evidence, previous scholar- Georgetown University and did graduate editor Oliver Taplin on epic, Leslie Kurke on ship, and what they admit is scholarly con- work at the University of Toronto and the Pon- lyric, Peter Wilson on drama, Kurke on his- jecture or historical imagination, suggest tifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies. In 1986, tory, Andrea Wilson Nightingale on philos- answers. While the male elite clearly Georgetown awarded him the degree Doctor ophy, and Chris Carey on rhetoric. The emerge as the predominant receivers, there of Humane Letters, honoris causa. final two essays are by Jane L. Lightfoot, are enough occasional hints of a more who has the formidable task of covering diverse reception to provide a little sus- eight centuries of Hellenistic and later pense and a few intriguing surprises. There are also recurring themes. One is ancient Greek literature. These six British TM and American scholars manage impressive- that much of the original reception of Amphora ly, in essays of twenty-three to forty-five ancient Greek literature was by audiences Submissions to the Editor pages, to treat in some detail each genre’s and spectators rather than readers. The origins, development, and major extant plays were written to be seen and heard, Submissions (and enquiries) may works (often quoting them in translations of many of the poems and speeches were be sent either by mail to the postal their own) and to allude to numerous works composed and performed orally before address below or electronically to the e-mail address below: known only in fragments or by attestation. they were ever written down, and even some of the historical and philosophical The collection’s deeper level lies in its Anne-Marie Lewis distinctive point of view, reflected in its prose was likely the written record of origi- Editor: Amphora carefully chosen title. The “Greek world” of nally oral discourse. Another theme is the Program in Classical Studies the title is the people whose language was kinship among the newly-invented genres. 262 Vanier College ancient Greek, by and for whom the litera- The epic, lyric, and dramatic poets were all York University Toronto, ON M3J 1P3 ture in that language was made, and the composers of songs; and epic and lyric CANADA essays are ultimately about how that litera- converged in drama. The epic poets, ture functioned within that world. In his dramatists, and historians were all story- [email protected] lucid and persuasive introduction, Taplin tellers; and the dramatists, philosophers, argues that fully appreciating an ancient lit- and orators were all, in a sense, dramatists erary work ought to take into account its of ideas. Finally, there is the overarching context, what motivated its maker, what it theme that, although much ancient Greek 7 AGAMEMNON, ACHILLES, ODYSSEUS: HOMER ON MILITARY LEADERSHIP by Jonathan Shay

or the last sixteen years, I have blood (on both sides, potentially) and of from the ethical and professional per- Fworked in a clinic with combat vet- “do unto others,” these three qualities – spective of today’s military officers. erans and, for about ten of those cohesion, leadership, and training – are In The Mourner’s Song: War and years, I have also spoken extensively ethical mandates for military institutions. Remembrance from the Iliad to Vietnam with active and retired military service I speak to these audiences for the veter- (2003), James Tatum offers the novel members at all ranks. Dialogues with ans I serve: they do not want other young argument that the Iliad’s point of view active military people have partly been kids wrecked the way they were wrecked is that of the excellent leader, from in an official capacity – performing the in Vietnam. whose perspective both Agamemnon and Commandant of the Marine Corps Trust My focus in this article is on military Achilles fall short. I was not convinced

Study or as Visiting Scholar-at-Large at leadership. When I use the English of this thesis until rereading Haubold’s

’ the Naval War College or conducting word,’ “leader,” do I mean the Homeric Homer’s People, in preparation for this invited Professional Military Education ηρως,` αναξ,’ ` βασιλευς` or ηγαµων` ? Hans article. The key is the fiduciary duty sessions – and partly serving as a “mis- van Wees’s Status Warriors: War, Violence embodied in the expression “shepherd sionary” from the veterans I serve as a and Society in Homer and History (1992) of the people.” Haubold quotes psychiatrist. What I can say from my and Johannes Haubold’s Homer’s People Xenophon’s Socrates, who expresses encounters with present and former mil- (2000) open doorways into such philo- this duty succinctly: itary personnel is that the great Homeric logical research that I, an enthusiastic narrative fictions are experiments with amateur, can only glimpse from the out- One day Socrates met a man who had the moral materials of the human condi- side. But philological arguments aside, just been appointed general. “Why do tion. Some elements of the human con- Haubold, in his fascinating monograph, you think Homer called Agamemnon dition are universal to all times and goes so far as to say that the relationship ‘shepherd of the people’? Was it climes, but others are contingent on of leader and his people is the common because it is the shepherd’s duty to see to it that his sheep are safe and social practices. So long as humans theme linking the Iliad and Odyssey. have their food, and that the purpose engage in the social practice of war, and “People” here refers to the key term for which they are kept is achieved, ` of returning to domestic life afterward, λαος (laos). He says in the book’s con- and in the same way it is the general’s the Homeric experiments will offer sub- clusion: “Early Greek epic sings about duty to see that his soldiers are safe stantial insights. It has been my privi- the incurably vulnerable nature of the and have their food and that the pur-

lege in two books on the Homeric epics laoi. Their defining structure, encapsu- pose for which they are serving is to show how these experiments carry liv- lated in the metaphor of ‘the˘ shepherd achieved – this purpose being [to ing information to us today. I am pro- of the people’ (ποιµην` λαων), fails; . . . defeat] the enemy?” (Xenophon, foundly grateful for the large-spirited- the leaders are said to have ‘destroyed Memorabilia 3.2.1, quoted and dis- ness and kind generosity with which the people’” (195). The Iliadic troops cussed by Haubold 21) professional classicists have responded are almost always the laos, for which the Possibly anticipating the cry, to the observations contained in these leaders Agamemnon, Achilles, and Hec- “anachronism!” that this article must two books, my labors of love. They tor have a shepherd’s fiduciary responsi- bring to mind when I attribute a fiduci- examine, in particular, the social and bility, and all three fail catastrophically ary duty to the Homeric military leaders, ethical world of soldiers within the ecol- in their separate ways and for their sepa- Haubold then meticulously documents ogy of power in their own forces. rate reasons. The Odyssey uses the word textual evidence that the moral world of Modern forces have no lessons to learn laos only rarely outside Books 2-4, refer- the Homeric poems held leaders to obli- from the epics on weapons, planning, ring instead to Odysseus’ Ithacan gations of a fiduciary nature (24ff.). communications, tactics, organization, troops/crew as “companions” and to the The Iliad and Demodokos’ first song training, or logistics. But, for those who go Ithacans remaining behind as “suitors.” in Odyssey, Book 8, show Agamemnon as to war and return today, the epics still Tellingly, the suitor Eurymachus pleads an almost perfectly bad leader – with vibrate with current meanings on cohe- for the lives of the suitors, using the one important exception, that he was sion and leadership. I speak many times a word laos, the moment after Odysseus personally brave and shared the lethal year with professional military audiences, puts an arrow through the neck of the risks of combat with the rest of his usually on what might be called jus in mil- most villainous and overreaching suitor,

forces. He did not orbit in his helicopter itaribus, “right conduct in (internal) mili- Antinous:˘ “Then spare your people at 6,000 feet, yelling instructions into tary matters.” My pitch is clear, simple, (λαων), your own ones” (Od. 22.54). And the radio for his people down in the and not at all new. I say that three things just before the brief final battle of the mud. A ripe example of Agamemnon’s protect the mind and spirit of persons Odyssey, Eupeithes, the father of Anti- leadership is the Diapeira in the second sent into combat: (1) positive qualities of nous, whips up his posse with the book of the Iliad, his “test” of the army. community of the face-to-face unit that words, “First he took many excellent The army flunks the test, and Agamem- create “cohesion”; (2) expert, ethical, and men away in the vessels with him [to non has flunked as a leader, both properly supported leadership; and (3) pro- Troy], and lost the hollow ships and through his (mis-)conduct the day longed, cumulative, realistic training for destroyed the people (λαους` )” (Od. before and this “test.” The whole what they actually have to do and face. I 24.427ff.). Haubold comments, “Eupei- tragedy of the Iliad had been kicked off explain why, on both utilitarian grounds thes’ version of the events is by no in the first book by Agamemnon’s of winning fights with the least spillage of means absurd” (108). Nor is it absurd breathtaking twin violations of his 8 army’s moral order. First, he impiously Book Review: Literature in the Roman World refuses ransom for the captive girl Chry- seis from her father, the Priest of Apol- by Viola Stephens lo. Then, he publicly dishonors his most Oliver Taplin, ed. Literature in the Roman have read the text through the centuries. esteemed, most effective subordinate commander, Achilles, in front of the World. Oxford University Press (1-800-451- Some of the essays explore the ways in troops by seizing Briseis, Achilles’ geras, 7556), 2001. Pp. xxvi, 293. 6 maps, 20 which readers are affected by their aware- his “Medal of Honor.” The next day, illustrations. Paperback $16.95. ISBN 0- ness of the “internal audience,” figures Agamemnon was so obtuse that he 19-289301-7. within the text who witness the deeds and demanded the following bizarre demon- hear the words of other characters, for stration of the army’s loyalty: he tells his his volume is a re-edition of the Roman example, Dido, who hears Aeneas’ account officers that he is going to pretend to give up the war. It is the day after he has dis- Tportion of Oliver Taplin’s earlier Litera- of the fall of Troy along with the reader. honored Achilles, and Agamemnon does ture in the Greek and Roman Worlds (hard- Several devices in the collection link its one of the nuttiest things in the annals cover, 2000). The shorter edition, which cov- myriad parts. The end of a chapter often of military leadership, real or fictional. ers the major Latin authors and literary peri- anticipates the subject matter of the next He says to his officers: ods from roughly 250 B.C.E. to 500 C.E., is, chapter. Many cross-references in later along with the editor’s introduction, a collec- chapters refer to earlier discussions of the We’d better move if we’re going to get the men [ready]. tion of nine essays by six distinguished same authors or of similar themes (and there But I’m going to test them first with a British and American scholars. The essays, are some errors in pagination here, doubt- little speech, as expected, deal with information common less the holdovers from the text’s former life The usual drill – order them to beat a as a larger volume). Several of the chapters retreat in their ships. to literary surveys: details of the authors’ It’s up to each one of you [officers] to lives and times, and discussions of genre. overlap in the periods and authors exam- persuade them to stay. What distinguishes this survey from others ined, dealing, for example, with different (Iliad 2.77, translation by Stanley is an overriding perspective that unifies works by the same writer or different genres Lombardo, my emphasis) essays by six different and inventive minds from the same time frame. The essays seem Apparently he has done this before at work on the task set by the editor. This to have been written with an awareness of enough times that it seems normal, and task is to examine Latin works largely famil- and concern for what the other contributors nobody says to him, “That’s a really bad iar to most serious readers of classical liter- have had to say. This editorial care makes idea!” Staff officer Odysseus never says, ature by focusing on the audiences for the necessarily dense content far easier to “Boss, you sure you want to do that?” grasp as a continuous history. Then, with the whole army mustered, whom they were written or performed or, Agamemnon stands before them and as often the case, both. Inherent in this All the essays in this volume emphasize the says that, even though they came ashore approach is the notion not only that the influences of literature in the long life of the with a ten-to-one advantage over the author (in Taplin’s words, the maker) seeks Roman state, the ways in which it responded Trojans, Zeus has decreed their failure to influence and change his audience (the to the needs and interests of its contemporary after so much struggle and sacrifice: receiver), but also that the audience influ- audiences, and the important part it had in the lives of the political and military figures in Now this is what I say, and I want us ences and molds the author. Taplin writes all to obey: in the introduction: Roman history. Whatever form or tone it took, Let’s clear out with our ships and literature was always a major player in the head for home. The preferences and responses of the drama of Rome because, throughout her histo- There’s no more hope we will take receivers have been assimilated by the Troy’s . . . town. ry, particularly for the Roman elite, it helped (Iliad 2.150ff., Lombardo translation) makers, who have tried to meet them. And form a consciousness of what it meant to be a the makers, in their turn, have affected Roman and to act as a Roman. their audiences, have pleased them, and As one, the whole army stampedes The essays also deal with the way in which for the ships, a mad rush that takes have led them to see things that were not the audience influences the writer in many sub- everyone by surprise. Apparently, in the already familiar and respectable. (xvii) past, when Agamemnon had pulled this tle and not so subtle ways. The audience in dumb trick, the troops had stood fast The concept of reception throughout the attendance at speeches and theatrical perform- and said, “Hey, we’re here for the dura- essays in this volume encompasses not just ances and the ever-watchful emperor are all tion!” When the army bolts for the the aesthetic response of the receivers to familiar literary censors, and the varied and ships, Agamemnon is surprised and the the literature in question but also the politi- complicated roles such critics play in the gene- Greek officers are surprised. cal and social complexities of the relation- sis and success of literature are carefully But should we be surprised? No, we should not be, because this is the pre- ship between literature and audience. The explored. The changing tastes of audiences dictable result of Agamemnon’s betrayals notion of audience is broad and fluid and and the evolving relationship between patron of “what was right” the previous day includes the patron, the addressee, the inti- and writer and writer and audience from with Achilles and with the priest. Moti- mate circle of like-minded men and women, Republican times to the late Empire are part of vation, loyalty, and perseverance go the wider literate public, the emperor in this creative relationship between maker and whooshing out of the troops like air from post-Republican times, the later audiences receiver. Cicero, for example, was a political a balloon. They desert psychologically of schoolboys, and modern audiences who continued on page 15 continued on page 10 9 Book Review: Literature MYTH IN THE MIRROR: in the Roman World continued from page 9 JOURNEYING WITH AENEAS force through the success of his oratory, Vergil by Lois V. Hinckley and Horace were sustained by powerful men like Maecenas, and they wrote primarily to be ow should we read myths? As if tract or seduce any traveler to a “false” read by an elite audience as did earlier poets Hthey are paintings in a gallery, or stop. On the western edge of Greece, like Catullus. Later epic and particularly oratory objects in a museum? Or as if Aeneas is amazed to find familiar Tro- they are windows through which we jans, who escaped their Greek captors became public entertainment, and oral literary climb into a different world for explo- and are building a miniature Troy in contests became commonplace, but now the ration or momentary escape? Or as if they Epirus. In addition to brooks named for writer had to please not only the emperor but are mirrors, reflecting our own struggles, Troy’s rivers and miniature Scaean the judges if there were to be any financial longings, failures, and successes? Our gates, they have erected a cenotaph for return. Literary culture had changed into a “cul- first read of a myth, as I have observed in the Trojan prince Hector, slain and ture of recitation,” and poets such as Statius, the classroom, is usually from the “por- buried at Troy. What an impact the trait” perspective: an entertaining story, sight of familiar faces and familiar struc- who participated in contests like the Alban and we might say, but irrelevant to our “real” tures must have had, and how hard it Capitoline games instituted by Domitian, vied lives. Yet it is not difficult, as my many would be to break away! Aeneas’ in the literary marketplace for their living. The students have helped me discover, to farewell words convey his wistful envy, ongoing story of this transformation ends with transform such “portraits” into mirrors even while Vergil suggests to us, his an essay by Michael Dewar, both wry and and see ourselves. audience, the wrongness of such an poignant, that describes the slow fading of the The Aeneid, the epic poem written attempt to climb back into a lost two thousand years ago by the Roman past. When I was changing jobs and pagan world, with its sophisticated literary sen- poet Vergil, is, despite its distance in locations and making plans to buy my sibilities and broad scope, before the time and space, an illuminating mirror first house, a friend remarked, as I onslaught of the formidable Christian Fathers. for the twenty-first century. In this described the sort of house I hoped to It is fitting, finally, to consider the intended poem, Vergil tells, in twelve books, the find, “Sounds a lot like the one you receivers for this volume of essays. The lack of story of the Trojan hero Aeneas: his grew up in!” The comfort of taking footnotes and the frequent explanations of journey and his struggles to find a place refuge in the familiar can beach us per- where his people may settle anew and manently in yesterday. things familiar to professional classicists like form the foundation for the future city From Epirus, however, Aeneas sails the plot summary and general characteristics of Rome. Come, travel with Aeneas for a with the tide. His encounter with Dido, of the Aeneid, for example, and the useful few minutes, and see how some of the queen of the new town of Carthage, in time lines and chronological tables are fea- poem’s mirrors can equip you to read the first and fourth books, is a more tures designed to help the neophyte. And so and “reflect” on your own. seductive temptation, and not just they do. Nonetheless, the book is pretty Aeneas had to leave Troy, in the sec- because Dido invites the Trojans to ond book of the poem, after its destruc- make one city with her Tyrians, nor heavy going for anyone not fairly well read tion by the Greeks. He would rather because Dido falls in love with in the classics. It is hard to know, for instance, have remained there to die, but he was Aeneas. Weary from seven years of wan- towards whom the rather spare and selective commanded in a dream to find a new dering, Aeneas is now, following the bibliography on Vergil is directed since more home for the remnants of his recent death in Sicily of his father basic works might be more informative for people. Although, at first, he refused Anchises, the “older generation,” those new to Roman literature. There are this “call to adventure,” in the end he which, as many of us know, is a chilling leaves his burning city. My students time to reach. In Dido, Aeneas encoun- many things, however, that should be illumi- often see “leaving Troy” as reflective of ters not only a generous woman but also nating for students. As an undergraduate their own leaving home to come to col- a comrade: like himself, Dido is a grappling with the strangeness of the Geor- lege. There are, of course, obvious, refugee, a leader burdened with respon- gics or of the poetry of Lucretius, I would have important differences. For example, in sibility as she tries to establish a new benefitted from reading Llewelyn Morgan’s most cases, their homes were not in home. But her city is already well discussions of these works. There are even flames, as Troy was, yet separation, begun, and Aeneas exclaims at the sight search, and resettlement are necessary of its new walls, “Oh fortunate people more things to interest scholars: imaginative, parts of growing up. whose walls already rise!” Women in often brilliant, insights and compelling discus- Once out of Troy, in the third book, my generation, who set off for further sions not usually found in literary histories. For Aeneas receives mixed signals and training but chose instead to marry into this audience and for those expanding a fair- ambiguous advice on where his Trojans the profession they had meant to join as ly strong grounding in classical literature, this should settle. How many of us get it colleagues, can recognize “the Carthage is an agreeable and very rewarding book. right the first time? We, too, may take temptation” as could, for example, an the wrong road, misinterpret even good artist who goes into advertising. Such advice, and ignore our own intuition. choices are not wrong, of course, but Viola Stephens has recently retired from Two settlements are begun, and fail, they may preclude finding your own teaching in the Program in Classical Studies before Aeneas’ destination, Italy, identity as a creative professional or as at York University. Her interest is Augustan becomes clear, and Italy is still far an artist. poetry, particularly Vergil. away. Unexpected encounters can dis- To dislodge Aeneas from Carthage,

10 the gods send a direct message. Finding regroup” moment. The games offer the last six books of Vergil’s poem, is equal- Aeneas overseeing the building of partial closure of ceremony to the loss of ly rich in insights applicable to our own Carthage in a Tyrian outfit, Mercury’s Anchises’ death, and, momentarily at lives. When Aeneas emerges from the words accuse Aeneas of forgetting his home among Trojans, Aeneas and most underworld, he still has a long way to duty and destiny to reach Italy so that of his band take vicarious courage from go, not in geographical terms, but in Rome may be founded: “If you don’t their fellow Trojans’ success at having terms of roots, relationships, and com- care about your own glory, remember done what they themselves are still munity. In Italy, only one person, the what you owe to your son!” Aeneas’ striving for. Imagine yourself visiting a kindly but not very strong king of the duty and destiny to become the founder couple of friends from your school years; Latin settlement, welcomes the arrival of what would become, first, Rome and they are making a go of their own small of a stranger and his band of refugees. then the Roman Empire – an empire business, just as you all used to talk of Aeneas must begin settling the Trojans that began, under Octavian Augustus, doing. Re-energized, you return home in Italy; he must identify allies and ene- more than a thousand years after Aeneas with specific plans to launch your own mies, expected and unexpected; he and that Vergil is both celebrating and agency over the next two years. must find ways to thread this band of questioning – is an important aspect of Each of the three settlements that foreigners into Latium’s already woven Vergil’s portrayal of Aeneas. It is not an Aeneas visits – Epirus, Carthage, and fabric of relationships. It is a long and aspect in which it is easy to see our- Sicily – can be, as we have seen, a use- laborious process. As with our own lives, ful mirror for different life choices we the arrival itself – getting the job, get- have to make or avoid. But before ting married, or buying land for a The Aeneid, the epic poem Aeneas reaches the mouth of the Tiber home – is not enough; it is not the “hap- written two thousand years River, he has one more stop, in Cumae, pily ever after” moment, either for ago by the Roman poet where, in the sixth book, Apollo’s Aeneas or for us. Whatever our new priestess, the Sibyl, will guide him to “world” is, it will take patient effort to Vergil, is, despite its dis- the underworld to get counsel from his get rooted there. tance in time and space, an father’s shade. This journey will offer In this short article, I chose to linger both farewells to Aeneas’ past and on the “mirror insights” of the first six illuminating mirror for the glimpses of the future that his mission books of the Aeneid for two reasons: first, twenty-first century. will make possible, if all goes because that part of Aeneas’ story may well. Anchises is the pivot or doorway be already a little familiar to you and, between Aeneas’ past and Aeneas’ second, to suggest some ways that selves reflected. Vergil, however, is also future. Meeting his father is the climax attentive readers can learn to shift from portraying an individual who can make of Aeneas’ encounters in the under- a “portrait” to a “mirror” perspective. mistakes, or who can, for example, turn world with various figures from his past, Such a shift of perspective works with away from his mission, as he is doing in and it is Anchises who shows his son the any myth. One frequent reason for the Carthage, or who may fail while trying crowd of souls who will be major figures survival of old myths is that they had to fulfill it. Yet error, refusal, or failure in the founding and development of powerful tellers – Vergil, Homer, Ovid, will alter a thousand years of history. We Rome. and many more, named or anonymous. can see that a thousand-year responsibil- In literal terms, very few of us are But the core reason for this survival is ity, lived out in hundreds of choices granted such a vision, but we do have that myths offer universal truths about each day, is an appalling burden. And similar moments of re-visioning, and human efforts, longings, failures, and one of my students found a deeper mir- they are often triggered by experiences successes, and the limitations and the ror in Aeneas’ destiny by pointing out of death or near-death. A near-fatal possibilities of human life. that we ourselves have our own thou- heart attack, a battle with cancer, the sand-year, or longer, responsibility nei- death of a parent, child, or partner, even Lois V. Hinckley received her Ph.D. from ther to pollute our planet nor to destroy being down-sized – any one of these can the University of North Carolina, Chapel its resources. We could rephrase Mer- serve as our own “trip to the under- Hill, in 1972. She has been a classics teacher cury’s exhortation to Aeneas with one world,” jolting us loose from our for thirty years (Princeton University, West for ourselves: “If you don’t care about assumptions or habits, inviting or forc- Virginia University, and University of your own quality of life, remember that ing a re-evaluation of what matters to Southern Maine). She is also a folk singer, you owe your children a place to live!” us, who we are, or who we feel called to poet, and songwriter (with a CD coming out Aeneas’ temptation to linger with be. As we watch Aeneas moving in 2004). Her poems on Elpenor and Dido is matched by Dido’s own tempta- through the underworld, our view of Medusa were published in past issues of tion to abandon her duties as queen; him also changes: he descends as an Amphora. Her major classical interests are when Aeneas chooses, with grief and exiled Trojan survivor, but he returns as mythology, Homer, Horace, and Greek lyric. pain, to follow his appointed path, Dido the proto-founder of Rome. Such re- commits suicide and curses his descen- visioning experiences usually sink into dants. After leaving Carthage, Aeneas the background of our minds (Aeneas revisits, in the fifth book, a group of never refers directly to his experiences Trojans who have resettled in Sicily; in the underworld), but they lead us to with them, he celebrates funeral games greater confidence, to different values, for his father who died there just a year or to different actions. After this jour- before. It is the first time Aeneas has ney, Aeneas acts and speaks with gone back to any previous stop, but greater deliberation and determination Vergil makes it clear that this revisit is than we have heard before. not a retreat but a “fall back and The second half of Aeneas’ story, the 11 Notable Web Site: RALPH ELLISON, ULYSSES, Dr. J’s Illustrated Guide to the Classical World AND INVISIBLE MAN http://www.drjclassics.com by Patrice D. Rankine by Janice Siegel

r. J’s Illustrated Guide to the Classical yth, in the Greek sense of laws instituted in Oklahoma were for D World is a collection of Web pages I Mmythos as “story” or “tale,” “separate but equal” schools. At four structures our daily lives, our years old, Ellison’s mother told him that have been writing and illustrating with my practices, and our beliefs. From morn- he would not be able to attend Bryant own photographs since 1998. With a care- ing to night, stories of other men and Elementary in Oklahoma City because ful integration of text and image, I seek to women who have traveled similar paths, the school was only for whites. Yet Elli- make the ancient world come alive for my whether from storybooks or the nightly son’s family did not succumb to the students as my trips abroad and schooling news, shape our imagination. A con- social limitations imposed upon them. have made it come alive for me. It all began sciousness of this aspect of culture led His father Lewis, who died in 1916, had the African-American writer Ralph Elli- given his son a literary name (after with the posting of a single Web page son to embrace classical mythology as Ralph Waldo Emerson) and, by 1918, about my hike up Mount Olympus. Still my one of the central structuring devices for Ralph was attending kindergarten at sentimental favorite, that page today joins many of his works, including Invisible Avery Chapel African Methodist Epis- more than 5,500 files (including 3,200 Man. This watershed novel, which was copal Church. At five years old, Ellison’s images and counting). published in 1952, became the first family moved into the parsonage. Young The whole can be divided into three work of fiction by an African-American Ralph took full advantage of the author to win an American Book Award. church’s extensive library. Beginning main parts: “Sites,” “Texts and Lectures,” Many critics still regard it as one of the with first grade, he attended the segre- and “Course Materials.” Over 13,000 best novels any American author has gated Frederick Douglass School in internal hyperlinks have turned it into a self- written in the past century. Although Oklahoma City until college. contained nexus of information about the Ellison’s commitment to the classics has Although Ellison was never a stellar ancient world. (External hyperlinks also pro- always been clear to critics, no one has student, his lackluster performance vide access to much useful material avail- taken a look at his own classical educa- within the classroom belied his broad tion or the extent to which mythological reading and sharp intellect. He showed a able elsewhere on the Web.) The design of figures, such as Ulysses (the Greek strong interest in music, and he would the Web site attempts to reflect the intersec- Odysseus) and the Cyclops, permeate later transfer the idea of mastering one’s tion of myth, history, politics, science, reli- Invisible Man. craft, which he learned from his music gion, philosophy, and topography that fla- Ralph Waldo Ellison (1914-1994) was teacher Hazel Harrison, from the trum- vors the literature, art, and architecture of raised in Oklahoma during difficult pet to literature. At Douglass, Ellison the ancients. The content of the Web site is times. The Civil War had concluded studied Latin for four years under Henry just forty-nine years before his birth. Berry, a man who also knew Hebrew wholly determined by my experiences as a Slavery in America had officially ended, and Greek. Ellison graduated from Dou- student and teacher of classics. but the closing decades of the nine- glass in 1932 and went on to study music “Illustrated Sites” began as an opportuni- teenth century saw the rise of segrega- for three years at Tuskegee Normal ty for me to collate photographs and notes tion and open hostility towards African- School and Industrial Institute, the concerning a large number of archaeologi- Americans throughout much of the school founded by Booker T. Washing- cal sites from several extended tours of country. Experiences such as observing ton in 1881 for the vocational training of the white children of the local corner African-Americans. Ellison studied Greece (including one summer with the grocer dressed in white sheets and music at Tuskegee but, in the face of a American School of Classical Studies in hoods for a mock parade shaped Elli- declining music program, he left college Athens). Each illustrated lecture provides a son’s childhood. Ellison biographer for work in New York City in 1936. In virtual tour of the site, and thumbnails of Lawrence Jackson reports that the first New York, Ellison’s ongoing interest in photos are linked to larger, captioned literature, which began at the African images. Each lecture details the site’s exca- Fig 5. Temple of Apollo at Delphi, August Methodist Episcopal Church library and 1998, © 1999, Janice Siegel. was nourished by Morteza Sprague, his vations and finds but also connects the literature professor at Tuskegee, now place with historical, mythological, and lit- flourished under the tutelage of Richard erary references to it. Wright, author of Native Son (1940). Elli- Sites particularly germane to the study son read and discussed such books with of Greek literature, such as Athens, Myce- Wright as The Tragic Sense of Life (1913), nae, and Delphi, have extensive and multi- the work of the Spanish existentialist and classicist Miguel de Unamuno. T. S. ple illustrated lectures (see Fig. 5). Visitors Eliot’s The Waste Land (1922), a poem may choose whether to take the scientific that uses classical themes and languages approach or a more fanciful one. “Dr. J’s to represent modern life, also influenced Illustrated Mycenae,” for example, pro- Ellison profoundly. vides all the details concerning the archi- In the area of classical mythology, Ellison’s primary influence was what he continued on page 13 12 and others at the time called the Cam- Notable Web Site: Dr. J’s Illustrated Guide to the bridge School, or the ritual approach to Classical World continued from page 12 myth. This approach to myth, most exhaustively articulated in Sir James tecture of the citadel and the tombs and show how it is relevant. For example, “Dr. George Frazer’s The Golden Bough their treasures. But as they scroll through the J’s Illustrated ‘Pericles’ Funeral Oration’” (1890), linked the customs and beliefs pages, visitors can also imagine that they shows the source of fifth-century Athenians’ of a number of traditional, pre-modern are following in King Agamemnon’s foot- pride and determination. “Dr. J’s Pericles societies to underlying patterns in myth steps after he returns from the Trojan War: and America” then explores the similar and religion. Frazer’s ritual approach to myth was pivotal to Ellison’s thinking through the Lion Gate lined by Cyclopean ways two nations, ancient and modern, on myth and ritual in American society. walls, past the royal grave circles, up the honor their war dead, with visits to Arling- As Ellison reveals in a lecture he deliv- rocky steps, over the threshold into the ton National Cemetery in Washington D. C., ered at West Point Military Academy in king’s megaron and, beyond, into the pri- the tumulus at Marathon, and the Tomb of 1969, he was interested in using myth to vate royal quarters and bath, where the Unknown Soldier in Athens’ Syndagma “enlarge” characters in Invisible Man. Aeschylus tells us the king was murdered by Square. My own service as a juror inspired This is an important point because, in Ellison’s reasoning, exploring the myth- his wife Clytemnestra. After reading the “Dr. J’s Illustrated Pericles and Philadel- ical dimensions of characters helped Agamemnon, even a virtual tour through phia” and concerns the dichotomy of free- him to come to terms with “the nature modern Mycenae-town takes on new mean- dom and responsibility inherent in the prin- of leadership, and thus with the nature ing. It would take a daring soul indeed to ciple of citizenship. of the hero” (“On Initiation Rites and spend a night at the local establishment I write my Web pages for my own students Power: Ralph Ellison Speaks at West advertised with this sign: “Hotel Klitemnis- (my most recent additions are Latin Grammar Point,” in Going to the Territory 44). In the speech at West Point and tra: Rooms With Bath”! Pages and Mythology) and post them on-line throughout his other essays, Ellison pro- Because essays overlap in content, for their easy access. But a constant stream of vides the framework for our reading of students can explore a single aspect of the mail from teachers and students alike provides classical mythology in his novels, and culture in multiple contexts. For example, the evidence of the pedagogical effectiveness of specifically the theme of Ulysses and Battle of Plataea appears in its appropriate these materials for others as well. From July the Cyclops. In the essay “Change the chronological place in the “Illustrated Classi- 2002 to July 2003, my single-authored Web Joke and Slip the Yoke” (Shadow and Act), Ellison writes about his own attach- cal Age Timeline.” The details of the battle site logged 377,546 visits made by 154,141 ment to Ulysses: are discussed in “Dr. J’s Illustrated Persian “unique visitors,” 20% of whom surfed over Wars” essay. The Tripod of the Plataeans, from foreign shores. 21,121 people visited I knew the trickster Ulysses just as the monument dedicated at Delphi by the multiple times. The average number of visits early as I knew the wily rabbit of thirty-one Greek city-states who worked per day was 1,034, and the average visit last- Negro American lore, and I could easi- ly imagine myself a pint-sized Ulysses together to defeat the Persians, is shown in ed nine minutes. but hardly a rabbit, no matter how situ in “Dr. J’s Illustrated Sacred Way.” The The internet breaks down the traditional human and resourceful or Negro. (72) temple whose frieze was inspired by the bat- walls that isolate similarly interested parties Ellison embraced Ulysses as he did tle is described in “Dr. J’s Illustrated Temple from each other, vastly increasing the no other hero in Western literature. In of Athena Nike,” and the frieze itself, unusu- potential audience of any teacher. It is both doing so, he engaged himself in a mod- al because it depicts a historical and not a great opportunity and responsibility for ernistic tête-à-tête with the novelist mythological event, appears among my pho- the professional classics community to pro- James Joyce, but he also pointed to the tos of artifacts in the British Museum. Internal vide reliable, accurate, and engaging on- broader significance of the hero in rep- hyperlinks provide instant interconnections line pedagogical resources. It is my privi- resenting both the individualistic nature of early European society and the deep- among the essays. lege to contribute to that effort. er spiritual cravings in the hero’s long- Illustrated lectures such as “The Ancient ing for home. Greek Theater” and “The Mythic Hero” Janice Siegel (Dr. J) is an Assistant Professor There are general similarities in over- explore particular themes or topics by using a of Classics at Illinois State University in Nor- all plot between Ellison’s Invisible Man wide assortment of photographs. Colored text mal, Illinois. She received all her degrees in and Homer’s Odyssey. Similar to Ulysses, is another way to make presentations memo- Comparative Literature (B.A. and M.A. from who encounters many people and places on his journey home from Troy, the pro- rable. In my “Illustrated Classical Age Time- Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, tagonist in Invisible Man travels through- line,” accomplishments of dramatists (in green) and Ph.D. from Rutgers University in New Jer- out America, from an unnamed place in and philosophers (in orange) are presented in sey). She is currently tracing the literary reso- the South to Harlem in New York City, the context of politics (in black) and war (in nances that Ovid’s poetry shares with Euripi- in search of “home,” a physical and red). Here color-coding allows students to des, Vergil, Catullus, and Horace in a book- emotional space of belonging. In the mark important singular events as well as to length project tentatively entitled Ovid’s “Proc- Odyssey, Ulysses is displaced from home by war, wandering, and the upstart suit- recognize patterns (the swath of green cutting ne”: A Case Study in Intertext. Initial Web site ors of his wife Penelope. In Invisible across the middle of the fifth century, the stain development was funded by a 1999 Public Man, the unnamed protagonist – he is of red at its beginning and end). Programs grant from the Classical Association invisible because the social construct of But, in addition to making the ancient of the Atlantic States. Further funding was pro- world accessible to students, I also want to vided by Illinois State University. continued on page 14 13 to the underworld) and return leads to RALPH ELLISON, ULYSSES, AND INVISIBLE MAN the protagonist’s realization that “even continued from page 13 an invisible man has a socially responsi- ble role to play” (Invisible Man 581). race prevents people from understand- grandfather’s statement that he lived as Ellison’s approach to classical ing who he really is – cannot fully enjoy a “spy in the enemy’s country” parallels mythology brought him a great deal of America as his homeland because of Ulysses’ concealment of his identity at criticism. Some critics felt that African- shortsighted antagonists who practice various points in the Odyssey and his Americans should reject European distinctly American rituals of exclusion identification of himself to the Cyclops philosophical, aesthetic, and cultural within a segregated society. An example Polyphemus as “Nobody.” The grand- models as former sources of oppression. of this is the battle royal, the ritual father’s ironic instruction to his grand- Other critics, notably classicists, tended described early in the novel in which son to “let ‘em swoller you till they towards more systematic, structured black boys, including the protagonist, vomit or bust wide open” suggests per- approaches to the field, handling out- are forced to fight against one another haps that his grandson (unlike siders with great scrutiny. As a self- for the entertainment of whites. Similar Odysseus’ unfortunate crewmen) will made intellectual, uninitiated into the to Homer’s drunken Cyclops, one of be the destroyer of those who would tribe of readers and preservers of Greek these men expresses the desire to “tear” “devour” him. and Latin, Ellison was, for a good por- the “ginger colored” protagonist “limb Throughout the novel, Ellison uses tion of his life, a classical outsider. Nev- from limb” (Invisible Man 21). the story of Ulysses and the Cyclops to ertheless, Ralph Ellison has much to Ellison’s representation of the pro- come to terms with the American expe- offer classicists of our generation. tagonist’s grandfather at the beginning rience of slavery, racism, and the protag- Between 1955 and 1957, Ellison studied of Invisible Man sets up the entire novel onist’s own struggle for freedom (which at the American Academy of Arts and as a rewriting of Homer’s Odyssey. The foreshadows the incipient Civil Rights Letters, in Rome, Italy, as a winner of grandfather is a pivotal character who movement in the United States). The the Prix de Rome (the Rome Prize). In had been a slave and had experienced grandfather tells his grandson to “keep his correspondence during those years but a brief freedom. To him the United up the good fight” (16); we think of with fellow novelist Albert Murray, States of the late nineteenth and early Ulysses, described in the opening line Ellison writes about the strong presence twentieth century must have seemed to of the Odyssey as the man who suffered of classicists at the Academy, noting, be a frightening Cyclops’ cave. Like many things, including near death in somewhat pointedly, that “some of the Polyphemus in Homer’s poem, who the Cyclops’ cave. The Cyclops story is classical people here are snobbish about bashed out the brains of his guests and also used to illuminate further the story this mess but it belongs to anyone who then ate them, some Americans during of the protagonist himself. After an can dig it” (Letters 99). As the United the period after emancipation practiced episode in which rigged machinery mal- States struggles against fragmentation cruel, horrific rituals against African- functions and causes Invisible Man to and tribalism along racial and class lines, Americans, like lynching. For African- be “shot forward with sudden accelera- Ellison offers for our consideration, the Americans of the grandfather’s genera- tion into a wet blast of black emptiness” binding, universal force of a powerful tion, the Civil War and the subsequent (230), he lands in a hospital (well off- Greek myth that, whether we know it or reconstruction of the South led only to a course) and sees the reflector of a doctor not, structures who we are and how we kind of cave from which there was no as the “bright third eye” (231), a refer- think about who we are. escape, a cave of further circumscription ence perhaps to the eye of the Cyclops. of their freedoms by means of segrega- The doctor, following good Homeric Patrice D. Rankine earned a Ph.D. from tion and Jim Crow laws. The protago- etiquette, only later asks Invisible Man, Yale University in 1998 in Classical Lan- nist’s grandfather, on his deathbed, “What is your name?” (239). guages and Literatures. Since then, he has counsels Invisible Man about life in the Through his exploration of classical been Assistant Professor at Purdue Univer- United States: myth in his novel, Ellison undertook sity in the Department of Foreign Languages the shaping of heroic possibilities for all and Literatures, and in the Interdisciplinary Son, after I’m gone I want you to keep Americans. Ellison’s characters are part Program in Classical Studies. His interests up the good fight. I never told you, of an epic struggle. As in the classical include Greek and Roman tragedy, and the but our life is a war and I have been a genre of epic, the hero’s failure at a relationship between classical and modern traitor all my born days, a spy in the given moment does not preclude his literature. He is currently writing a book enemy’s country ever since I give up eventual triumph. Epic characters are that takes Ralph Ellison’s allusions to the my gun back in the Reconstruction. Live with your head in the lion’s involved in an ongoing journey of Ulysses theme throughout Invisible Man mouth. I want you to overcome ‘em adventure, failure, and eventual success. and Juneteenth as a starting point for a with yesses, undermine ‘em with Ulysses was forced to disguise himself study of Ellison’s broader technique of graft- grins, agree ‘em to death and destruc- as a beggar when he returned to Ithaca ing the African-American self onto the classi- tion, let ‘em swoller you till they until he was able to overcome his adver- cal tradition. vomit or bust wide open. (Invisible saries. Ellison’s grandfather character Man, 16) and his grandson, Invisible Man, are involved in an epic struggle (which is at In the essay “Change the Joke and times comic and at times tragic) as indi- Slip the Yoke” (quoted above), Ellison viduals within a broader American story. compares the grandfather, a former Invisible Man’s success is his decision slave, to Ulysses in the Cyclops episode. to emerge from the coal cellar from The novelist’s comparison is borne out which he writes his memoir, the novel in this passage of Invisible Man. The itself. This heroic katabasis (the journey

14 A Note on the AGAMEMNON, ACHILLES, ODYSSEUS: HOMER Transmission of Catullus ON MILITARY LEADERSHIP continued from page 9 by Mark Possanza even if they cannot desert physically. Odysseus and Diomedes find the Valerius Catullus of Verona, The stampede to the ships carries one of Thracian bivouac, kill the Thracian king your hendecasyllables reprieve me the Iliad’s most important lessons for and his sleeping soldiers, and then race military leaders. “Command climate” is away with the king’s glorious team and from sentences of hierophantic not the weather report of atmospherics chariot, outrunning the hue and cry. discourse; they sparkle from under the in the boss’s office or command post; it is They drive it into the Greek beachhead. bushel the observed trustworthiness of how Amidst all the crowing and congratula- where your slender corpus lay, vocal power is employed. What Agamemnon tions on their flashy prize, amid the artifact. did to Achilles was no private wrong. relief that both Odysseus and Diomedes Imperium Romanum’s high decaying There are no private wrongs in the use have returned safely, nobody remem- of military power. All watch the trustwor- bers to interview them for information walls wanted to swallow down the cloaca thiness of those who wield power over useful to surviving the next day’s fight. of filth and confusion your disciplined them. If any dared to ask, Agamemnon The tenth book ends with the two war- sound, would have said that what went between riors having a hot bath and a stiff drink. but the polished libellus escaped somehow him and Achilles was none of their busi- The next day the Greeks are saved, not the hobnailed beat of calloused legionary ness. When a military leader violates by intelligence from Odysseus’ recon- feet and the herd of headbutting forensic “what is right” in the use of power, the naissance, but by Achilles’ release of injury afflicts everyone. Agamemnon fresh troops under Patroclus, who take bulls out strutting their heroic clausulae. caused Achilles’ desertion yesterday, and the Trojans on the flank by surprise. Your lampoons pricked the tough CEOs of today caused the stampede to the ships, In Odysseus in America, I summarized state: the desertion of his whole army. the case for Odysseus’ court martial, great Caesar’s skin gibed at in zebra If the Iliad’s Agamemnon is an almost using data derived from both epics. In stripes and to famous Marcus Tullius’s perfectly bad leader, and its pre-Book 1 Achilles in Vietnam, I summarized the grave Ciceronian orotundities Achilles (see below) an almost perfectly data scattered throughout the Iliad that good leader, Odysseus displays a mixture Achilles had been an exemplary soldier you gave nice thanks. From east to west of both good and bad leadership in the and leader prior to our first sight of him you followed Iliad. Odysseus is, as Homer says, poly- during Book 1, in which he was so pub- the Republic’s triumphs to share the takings tropos, many-sided, mixed, multi-col- licly humiliated by Agamemnon. The and felt it all shrink to a few unkind words. ored, piebald. He is a mixture of out- experiences of real soldiers and real vet- standingly good and outstandingly bad erans have greatly heightened my abili- Mark Possanza is Associate Professor of military traits. His night reconnaissance ty to hear submerged voices in the com- with Diomedes behind Trojan lines in plex music of these compositions. In Classics at the University of Pittsburgh. the tenth book of the Iliad condenses, in the Odyssey, the in-your-face theme in a single episode, Odysseus’ contradictory the brass is, “Odysseus is not to blame – blend of brilliance and failure. his people brought destruction upon APA Speakers’ Bureau During this exceedingly dangerous themselves.” Only by consciously he APA maintains a roster of mission, Odysseus and Diomedes dis- attending to the other instruments do Tenthusiastic speakers who are cover the Trojan order of battle and you hear, “He destroyed the people!” available to address a wide variety of learn that Hector and his top command- In the Iliad, the announced theme is, audiences – civic groups, profession- ers are conferring unguarded by the “Achilles brought pain, suffering, and al societies, library and other reading tomb of Ilos. We know that Odysseus is death on the people,” but a second groups, middle schools and second- armed with a bow and that he is capable theme in another key weeps, “This was ary schools, junior and senior col- of very rapid, aimed fire of great accura- the tragedy of Achilles at the hands of leges, universities, and many other cy. So why do they not decapitate the the leader Agamemnon.” organizations. Trojan leadership, or even try? The Speakers’ Bureau can be Greed for personal gain gets in the Jonathan Shay, M.D., Ph.D. (jshay@world. found by going to the APA Web site way. Diomedes wants to go after the std.com) is a staff psychiatrist at the Depart- at www.apaclassics.org and clicking tired and newly arrived Thracians for ment of Veterans Affairs Outpatient Clinic in on “Outreach,” listed on the left their booty, but Odysseus never says, Boston. He is the author of Achilles in Viet- hand side of the screen of the home “Whoa! Let’s keep our eye on the ball,” nam: Combat Trauma and the Undoing page. Under Outreach, you will find and wholeheartedly goes for the loot. of Character (Scribner, 1995) and the Speakers’ Bureau. The Bureau Everywhere I turn, I stub my toe on the Odysseus in America: Combat Trauma lists e-mail addresses of dozens of defects of Odysseus’ character. In this and the Trials of Homecoming (2002). A speakers as well as descriptions of case, he has lost sight of the military small portion of this article is excerpted from the talks they are prepared to give. A purpose of the night reconnaissance. He Odysseus in America: Combat Trauma glance through the topics described puts self before mission, forgetting that and the Trials of Homecoming, Copyright there will make clear the breadth of there is a good chance that the next © 2002 by Jonathan Shay, and reprinted with presentations that are available, from morning the Greeks will be thrown out permission of Scribner, a Division of Simon & Medical Practices in Pompeii and of their beachhead and all slaughtered, Schuster Adult Publishing Group. All rights the Roman Empire to Women’s Let- as Nestor has said earlier when propos- reserved. ters from Ancient Egypt. ing this very night reconnaissance. 15 FROM ITALY TO INDIA: MEDITERRANEAN AMPHORAS AND ROMAN ECONOMIC HISTORY by Elizabeth Lyding Will

s one stands on top of Monte Tes- rested on each other in the hold. In ian site in order to begin to draw any Ataccio in Rome, 150 feet above the spite of such precautions, storms and solid conclusions about Roman trade. I Tiber River, at the foot of the winds caused many wrecks in the began, in 1974, my study of the long, Aventine Hill, St. Peter’s dome seems to Roman period, and the Spargi recon- thin Roman wine amphoras found at float at eye level in the distance, above struction allows us to appreciate not Cosa, a Latin colony founded in 273 the Janiculum Hill. The graves of Shel- only the loss of human life but also the B.C. and located about ninety miles ley and Keats lie in the Protestant Ceme- labor wasted in producing the amphoras north of Rome, and the adjacent Port of tery across the street, and the showy and the wine they contained. Cosa. I then realized, using the Athenian Pyramid of Cestius is just outside the The profits from seaborne trade were Agora dates, that it was possible to cemetery near the gate that leads to clearly massive enough to justify the reconstruct the economic history of a site Ostia (see Fig. 6). A fascinating area, risks involved. Monte Testaccio and the on the basis of the amphora finds. indeed, especially when one looks down Spargi shipwreck help us to understand Amphoras helped to show that the port and realizes that underfoot lie thousands the general importance of trade and the of Cosa was one of the chief Roman of broken amphoras. Monte Testaccio is, role played by commercial amphoras in Republican export harbors. Wine in fact, entirely composed of amphora the Roman world. But only a rigorous amphoras from Cosa bearing the trade- fragments, remnants of shipping contain- analysis of amphoras – their shapes, mark of Sestius (perhaps the father of ers that were broken because too many dimensions, stamps, and clay – can give Cicero’s friend, Publius Sestius; the fam- of them came to Rome during the Impe- us a clear idea of the economic history of ily owned property at Cosa and also a rial period, when a shortage of olive oil a site, whether it is on land or under fleet of ships) had been reported by forced Rome to import it in bulk from water. I have been engaged in the study Jacques Cousteau in the early 1950’s as Spain and later from Africa. The of Roman amphoras since the 1950’s occurring in large numbers on the upper amphoras that brought the oil would, when I began, in the hope of learning Grand Congloué wreck off Marseilles in when emptied, ordinarily have been more about Roman trade, to catalog and France, and they were also being found reused for storage. In the Roman world, study the Roman amphoras found in throughout France and as far north as where few storage facilities were avail- Athens at the Athenian Agora, the Ker- the Celtic city of Manching, which is on able, householders reused empty ship- ameikos, the south slope of the Acropo- the Danube River near the modern Ger- ping amphoras for the storage of a wide lis, and the National Museum. To set man city of Ingolstadt (see Fig. 7). This variety of items, from fruit to eggs. Pom- these Roman amphoras found at Athens distribution of amphoras gave credence peii is full of jars reused for storage, care- more in focus, I added to my catalog the to Cicero’s statement in De Re Publica fully labeled as to contents. But even a Roman amphoras found at Delos, 3.16 that, in 129 B.C., the Romans did city the size of Rome could not reuse all Corinth, and Alexandria, and other small- not permit the Transalpine Gauls to its amphoras for storage. The Romans, er sites in the eastern Mediterranean. grow the olive or the vine. In other therefore, needed to break into pieces As time went on, however, I began to words, the Romans were practicing pro- the ones that no one wanted. There were realize that I needed to familiarize tectionism. limits also on how many amphora frag- myself with the amphora finds at an Ital- Not long after completing the work ments could be reused in building even at Cosa and confirming that most of the though the building industry depended finds included in the Agora catalog rep- heavily on broken amphoras as a compo- resented amphoras carrying olive oil nent of the cores of walls. As a conse- from Brindisi to Alexandria and from quence, Monte Testaccio, the “eighth Aquileia in the northern Adriatic Sea to hill of Rome,” grew up gradually along Delos in the Aegean Sea, I had the the Tiber just inside the Aurelian Wall. unique opportunity to expand my Another outstanding collection of understanding of Roman trade in the Roman amphoras, this time from a ship east by undertaking the study of the that sank off the island of Spargi just amphora finds of the Roman period at north of Sardinia, illustrates for us how the site of Arikamedu, which is close to amphoras were shipped by sea. They modern Pondicherry, on the Bay of were stored in the hold in layers, in a Bengal in southeastern India (see Fig. herringbone pattern that helped to pre- 8). French archaeologists had conducted vent shifting of the heavy cargo. The excavations there during the 1940’s, Nino Lamboglia Museum of Naval finding quite a number of Mediter- Archaeology at La Maddalena on the ranean amphora fragments. In 1945, Sir island of Maddalena, east of Spargi, Mortimer Wheeler discovered more offers the visitor a reconstruction of the Fig. 6. The eastern slope of Monte Tes- fragments at Arikamedu, a few of which hold of the large cargo ship that was to taccio in Rome, looking toward the he published. My own work at Arikame- become the famous Spargi shipwreck. Protestant cemetery and the Pyramid of du in 1990 and 1992 involved study of Here we can see, at first hand, how the Cestius. Fragments of broken amphoras the amphora finds of the Roman period carefully arranged layers of amphoras appear in the foreground. Photo credit: made by the French archaeologists and Elizabeth Lyding Will. 16 Film Review: Barabbas (1962) by Ruth Scodel

lthough a visit to the Internet Movie begins where the other big ones leave off” ADatabase (www.imdb.com) shows that – which must mean especially Ben-Hur, it certainly has fans, Barabbas, released on which, like Barabbas, deals with a man DVD in 2002, is unlikely to be on many whose fate partially echoes that of Jesus lists of great films. Produced by Dino De and who, after long suffering, eventually Laurentis as an Italian-American co-produc- achieves peace of mind through faith. “The tion and directed by Richard Fleischer, the other big ones” must also include The Robe film is flawed in many ways, but carried by (1953), which also concerns one individ- the hard work of Anthony Quinn in the title ual’s response to the crucifixion of Jesus, role and a solidly professional supporting and Quo Vadis (1951), which, like cast including Silvana Mangano, Jack Barrabas, ends with the great fire at Rome Palance, and Ernest Borgnine. and Nero’s persecution of Christians. The main character, Barabbas, is the In the film Barabbas, the final conversion robber freed instead of Jesus (Matthew of Barabbas is unambiguous, and the audi- Fig. 7. Roman wine amphora of Will 27:16-21 and John 19:39-40). Nothing ence is meant to have a Christian perspec- Type 4a, an early variety of Dressel’s else is known about him. The film is based tive throughout. The film, cleverly, gives Type 1. Manufactured at the Port of on the 1950 novel Barabbas by the Barabbas’ fate a clearer pattern than the Cosa around 100 B.C., the amphora novel: Barabbas, saved in the place of now lacks most of one handle. It was Swedish author Pär Lagerkvist (1891- found in a cistern in the excavations of 1974), who won the Nobel Prize for Litera- Jesus, seems to be unkillable. Barabbas, the Athenian Agora by the American ture in 1951. This is not the kind of novel who has gone back to his career as a rob- School of Classical Studies at Athens. that obviously begs to become a film even ber, is told that he cannot be executed Photo credit: Eugene Vanderpool. though it includes some dramatic events because he has once been freed. He is enslaved in a sulfur mine instead. He under- by Wheeler, in addition to several hun- (and was also filmed in Swedish in 1953). dred fragments from excavations direct- It is an austere little book. Barabbas, pro- stands this to mean that he is immortal. He ed in 1989-1992 by the late Indian- foundly afraid of death, is obsessed with is, however, never saved miraculously; he American archaeologist, Vimala Begley, Christ, but he is unable to believe. Although just seems extraordinarily lucky. In the film, with the collaboration of K. V. Raman of he sees Jesus surrounded by light, he him- for example, the mine burns and collapses the University of Madras. self has just come out of the darkness, and (this is one of the sequences that has given We knew already from their litera- ture that the Tamil kings of southern he thinks that his eyes have reacted to the the film popularity as a mini-disaster India loved Mediterranean wine and sun. He sees the empty tomb, but does not movie). Barabbas and Sahak, the devout praised its fragrance. The Periplus (49, witness the resurrection. A girl who has Christian to whom he is chained, are the 56), which is dated to the middle of the seen it tells him that the crucified rabbi only survivors, and their owner decides first century A.D. by Lionel Casson in taught people to love one another. She is they would make good gladiators because his 1989 edition of the work, also refers stoned to death, and her memory, too, they are lucky. Interestingly, Barabbas is to its exportation to India. The frag- ments from the Roman period found at haunts him. He is drawn to Christians and never a gladiator in the novel, but, after Arikamedu are tangible proof of that repelled by them at the same time. When Spartacus (1960), who could leave gladia- importation. My study of them shows they find out who he is, they reject him. He tors out of a Roman movie? that over half of the fragments came is terribly lonely. Near the end of the novel, The gladiatorial sequence, however, is from the Aegean island of Kos. The when he hears that the Christians are burn- very effective in its own terms. Jack Palance remainder consisted of amphoras from ing Rome, he runs around spreading the does an over-the-top turn as a sadistic glad- the Greek island of Rhodes and the city of Knidos, south of Kos, as well as imita- fire, believing that the end of the world has iator who fights from a chariot against tions, made in Pompeii, of amphoras come. In prison, the apostle Peter pities him opponents who are on foot. Barabbas wins from Kos (known as pseudo-Koan but even then there is no real contact. against him, as he must, but his victory is amphoras). A small number of frag- Dying, he says as if to the darkness, “To won through intelligence. Barabbas hesi- ments (1.5%) came from southern thee I deliver up my soul.” It is not a Christ- tates to kill his fallen enemy. Ben-Hur is France. We now have a possible expla- ian novel. It does not ask its reader to have probably the inspiration here. In that film, nation for why, in spite of the popularity and fame of Koan wine, Koan amphoras or play at having the faith Barabbas lacks. Judah Ben-Hur cannot really receive the are relatively rare finds at import centers It is about the modern nostalgia for faith, Christian message until near the end of the in the Mediterranean. The answer is powerfully transferred to the ancient world. film because he is so consumed with hatred that they were apparently being export- The story of Barabbas must have been for his former Roman friend Messala; the ed in great numbers to India, in partial hard to resist in 1962 after the immense story allows him to have his revenge and payment, one assumes, for the Indian success of Ben-Hur (1959). The trailer for then achieve faith. As so often in Roman continued on page 18 Barabbas called it “The motion picture that continued on page 18 17 From Italy to India Film Review: continued from page 17 Barabbas (1962) continued from page 17 luxuries being sent west. But why all the Koan amphoras at this films, the audience for Barabbas can have site in India? The Roman writers Cato the it both ways. Here, too, the audience can Elder and Pliny the Elder give us recipes want Barabbas to refuse to kill and yet for Koan wine that make it clear that sea- enjoy watching him kill his evil opponent. water was used in its manufacture. The salt in the water would have acted as a Quinn, though, plays the scene with dignity preservative (like the sodium nitrite regu- Fig. 8. Excavation structure and pottery and restraint. He kills, but without emotion- larly added to modern wines) during the sorting area at Arikamedu in 1990. al display. Photo credit: Elizabeth Lyding Will. long voyage to India, an advantage not Barabbas is not an outstanding film. It offered by more expensive wines. Koan to resume excavation during 2004. is, in many ways, typical of the Romano- wine also had medicinal qualities and Roman amphoras are also reported from biblical epic. As with other examples of the acted as a digestive aid. Its exportation to many other parts of India, including type, the movie’s appeal lies mostly in spec- Arikamedu probably began as early as the Gujarat and Maharashtra. Now that we late second century B.C. and lasted into know in more detail the nature of tacle and violence but, because it deals the latter first century B.C. Mediterranean exports to India during with salvation, the audience can pretend Pompeii began to export pseudo- the Roman period, we are in a far better that it is edifying. Although it is much short- Koan wine in pseudo-Koan amphoras position to analyze Roman economic, er than Quo Vadis or Ben-Hur, Barabbas, shortly after Sulla besieged and occu- and even political, history. at 137 minutes, is too long, and some parts pied the city in 89 B.C. Sulla left his As more scholars enter the field, study drag. It is filled with all the clichés of the nephew, P. Sulla, in charge of Pompeii, of Roman amphoras is helping us locate and the earliest pseudo-Koan jars from export and import centers in Italy and toga movie. Barabbas shows, in short, the Pompeii bear the trademarks of P. Sulla. the provinces during both Republic and exhaustion of the Christian epic in Holly- Another important Pompeian exporter Empire. The economic histories of wood filmmaking. If you are curious about of fake Koan wine was L. Eumachius, Republican ports like Cosa and Pompeii the genre and want to see it in its essen- father of Eumachia, the well-known are being reconstructed. Trade routes are tials, this is a good choice. If you enjoy dis- priestess and civic benefactor of the city being clarified. We can also estimate asters and gladiators, fast forward to the of Pompeii. Pseudo-Koan wine was the amounts of trade in a variety of com- wine of whatever area was producing it. modities in different periods, and, exciting parts. But if you can handle the That wine was then mixed, just like through study of trademarks, identify existential angst, read the novel – it Koan wine itself, with “a rather large individuals involved with that trade. The deserves more readers than it has. amount of sea water” as Pliny the Elder addition of India as a market for the puts it (Historia Naturalis 14.78). Cato Mediterranean helps us to see in clearer Ruth Scodel is Professor of Greek and the Elder is more specific (De Re Rustica focus the nature of the economy during Latin at the University of Michigan. Her 112-13): he instructs the reader to fill the period when the Roman Republic about one-fifth of an amphora with sea was giving way to the Empire. Increas- most recent books are Credible Impossibili- water and then add grapes that have ingly, I believe, the abundant archaeo- ties: Conventions and Strategies of been pressed with the hand to soak in logical evidence provided by amphoras is Verisimilitude in Homer and Greek Tragedy the sea water. After three days, the pointing the way to a more complex and, (1999) and Listening to Homer (2002). She grapes are to be removed from the sea at the same time, more accurate and pre- teaches a class on ancient Rome and the water, trodden, and, after several other cise view of Roman history, one in which cinema. recommended steps, stored in the sun the economy was of great importance. in covered amphoras for not more than Did trade follow the flag in Roman antiq- four years. Much later, in the first centu- uity, or was military activity a result of ry A.D., at a time when other parts of the desire to open and protect trade Italy, like Cosa, were ceasing to export routes and markets? How important was and giving way to provincial suppliers, it protectionism during the Republic? Dur- is interesting to note that Pompeii had ing the Empire? Who made decisions taken over the task of supplying India about the economy? Amphoras are help- with pseudo-Koan wine, even coloring ing us answer these questions and, at the the exteriors of its amphora exports with same time, achieve a more realistic view a pale green surfacing, in imitation of of the economic energy of the Romans. the pale greenish surfaces of authentic Koan jars. After the destruction of Pom- Elizabeth Lyding Will is Professor Emer- peii in A.D. 79, a few flat-bottomed itus of Classics at the University of Massa- Gaulish wine jars from France made chusetts at Amherst. She has analyzed their way to India, as noted above, but Roman amphoras found from the Canary by that time Rome’s trade with India Islands and Scotland to the Bay of Bengal. was drawing to a close. Finds at several She is currently completing a volume on the other sites of the Roman period in stamped Roman amphoras from the eastern southeastern India appear to duplicate Mediterranean and a volume on the Roman the evidence at Arikamedu, where Indi- amphoras from the town of Cosa. Her Web 18 an archaeologists are said to be planning site is www-unix.oit.umass.edu/~elwill. AN OPERATIC AGAMEMNON PREMIERES IN WASHINGTON, D. C. by Andrew Earle Simpson

eschylus’ tragedy Agamemnon, course, in a drama containing more than was given a fully staged production – Awhich relates Agamemnon’s tri- 1,600 lines, significant cuts were neces- orchestra, chorus, dancers, sets, cos- umphant return from the Trojan sary if our one-act opera was to be any- tumes, lighting, and projected superti- War and his subsequent murder by his thing less than four hours in duration! tles for the English libretto – by wife Klytemnestra, projects a dark and But even these cuts were made with an Catholic University’s Benjamin T. unrelenting dramatic power. As a com- eye to preserving Aeschylus’ original Rome School of Music in collaboration poser searching for an operatic subject, I sectional proportions as closely as with professional artists from Washing- was struck by this power at my first possible. ton, D. C. (see Fig. 9). Agamemnon is the reading of the play, in English transla- My principal goal as composer was to first phase of The Oresteia Project, a tion, in 1999. Its scenes of confronta- illuminate Aeschylus’ work, amplifying multi-year enterprise that aims to set tion, jubilation, fury, and murder and extending the inherent power of his the three tragedies of Aeschylus’ great seemed to cry out for musical setting, drama through music. The music of trilogy as one-act operas. The second and I knew that Agamemnon was made Agamemnon is tonal: this gives the opera opera, The Libation Bearers, is scheduled to be an opera. a clear harmonic center, against which for a concert workshop performance What makes Aeschylus’ Agamemnon dissonant chromatic inflections are set March 19-20, 2004, also at Catholic Uni- operatic? First of all, its scale is grand, in strong relief. Agamemnon is also lyri- versity. Work on the final opera, The and many of the tragedy’s scenes trans- cal, in acknowledgment of opera as a Furies (based on the Eumenides), will late well to operatic staging. For exam- singer’s art form: each principal charac- begin sometime in 2004. ple, Agamemnon’s triumphal entrance, ter performs at least one aria. Rich To enable an even wider audience to accompanied by choral acclamations, sol- orchestral textures and sudden shifts of experience the music of Agamemnon, I diers, and spoils (including Kassandra, volume and color lend Agamemnon have also created a song cycle, his Trojan war prize), can accommodate intensity and sonic power. In the man- Klytemnestra Songs, for soprano and piano almost limitless spectacle. The climactic ner of the Wagnerian leitmotif, dramati- (premiered, appropriately enough, at moment in which Klytemnestra enters, cally significant musical ideas create the American School of Classical Stud- exulting over the visible bodies of additional narrative layers. One example ies at Athens in March, 2002), and a Agamemnon and Kassandra to the shock is the opera’s opening chord, heard fre- suite of Agamemnon’s choral music for and outrage of the Chorus, is theatrically quently throughout the work, represent- concert performance. rich. Agamemnon’s operatic nature is also ing the death of Agamemnon. When The opera’s Web site, http://music. inherent in the structure of its text. heard before Agamemnon’s murder, this cua.edu/agamemnon, contains stream- Aeschylus clearly delineates choruses, “death chord” is a prediction; heard ing digital video of all three recent speeches, and dialogues, each of which afterward, it serves as a remembrance of Catholic University performances of has a specific operatic equivalent: dia- that event. Agamemnon, detailed background infor- logues become recitative (a comparative- Four years after my initial encounter mation about the opera, its complete ly free and speech-like form of singing, with Aeschylus’ play, our new one-act libretto, analytical essays on the music, the principal purpose of which is to opera Agamemnon, 100 minutes in lists of performance and production per- advance plot), speeches become arias length, was premiered at The Catholic sonnel, and links to other Web sites on (extended songs for a soloist), and cho- University of America in Washington, Greek tragedy and opera. This site will ruses are simply maintained. D. C., on April 25, 26, and 27, 2003. It be expanded as The Oresteia Project Librettist Sarah Brown Ferrario and I continues, to serve as a working began with a distinct goal: to make our resource for students, scholars, and fully contemporary opera, Agamemnon, interested members of the public, and reflect the spirit of Aeschylus’ tragedy as to share Aeschylus’ masterpiece with as closely as possible, without extensive wide an audience as possible. “adaptation” or “modernization” of the text. Our fundamental belief was that Andrew Earle Simpson, a composer and Aeschylus’ Agamemnon had no need of pianist, is Assistant Professor of Music at modernization to be dramatically suc- The Catholic University of America in cessful; the play was, in itself, powerful, Washington, D. C. His compositions include coherent, and relevant enough to speak opera as well as orchestral, chamber, choral, directly to contemporary audiences. We dance, theater, and film music. Currently, he wished to let Aeschylus “sing” for him- is teaching a new course, “Greek Tragedy self, albeit in English translation, in this and Opera,” with Sarah Brown Ferrario at opera. Fig. 9. From the production of the opera Catholic University. Earlier this year, he Ms. Ferrario translated each line of Agamemnon – Agamemnon returns vic- was named Composer-in-Residence for the the libretto directly from a correspon- torious from the Trojan War with Kas- exhibition “Art in Roman Life” at the Cedar ding segment of the ancient Greek. sandra, who is behind him on his chari- Rapids Museum of Art in Iowa, with com- Furthermore, the order of events, prin- ot. Photo credit: Gary Pierpoint, Office of missions for two new chamber works cipal characters, and each of the Public Affairs, The Catholic University of inspired by Roman antiquity. tragedy’s choruses were preserved. Of America, 2003. 19 Myths for Millions kept women from systematic knowledge Ancient Classics in American Schools continued from page 2 of the myths: the Latin language, which (Ayer, 1990) and is currently writing a few girls knew well, and sexual content. biography of Thomas Bulfinch, which will be loosened strings/Sank hapless Icarus on Many of the stories in The Age of Fable – published by Peter Lang. unfaithful wings.” the best ones – are Bulfinch’s own trans- Bulfinch says in the Preface to The lations from Ovid. He leaves out the incest, the cannibalism, the bestiality, mphoraTM (ISSN 1542-2380) is published twice Age of Fable that his book is “for the Aa year by the American Philological Association reader of English literature of either sex and the adultery in Ovid’s stories, but he (APA). The APA, founded in 1869 by “professors, who wishes to comprehend [mythologi- does not talk down to his audience. He friends, and patrons of linguistic science,” is now bowdlerizes because otherwise he would the principal learned society in North America for cal] allusions” so he intended his audi- the study of ancient Greek and Roman languages, ence to include Latinless men as well not have had an audience. literatures, and civilizations. While the majority of The Age of Fable has an unobtrusive its members are university and college classics as women. Although he wrote the book teachers, members also include scholars in other for both sexes, the author probably had quality and fits comfortably into the disciplines, primary and secondary school teachers, in mind women more than men as his lives of all kinds of people. This lack of and interested lay people. The APA produces sev- pomposity may be one of the reasons eral series of scholarly books and texts and the potential readers. Although his lineage journal Transactions of the American Philological Asso- and schooling qualified Bulfinch to be a Americans took it to their hearts. A ciation. An annual meeting is held each January in member of Boston’s public-spirited reviewer of The Age of Fable in the North conjunction with the Archaeological Institute of American Review for January 1856 wrote, America. elite in his volunteer activities, his daily All of the APA’s programs are grounded in the life set him apart from most men of his “We . . . have, we believe for the first rigor and high standards of traditional philology, time, a ‘Pantheon’ [a famous mythology with the study of ancient Greek and Latin at their social background. His up-and-down core. However, the APA also aims to present a career had prepared him to understand book used in boys’ schools], which broad view of classical culture and the ancient the struggles and hopes of ordinary peo- might hold an unchallenged place in Mediterranean world to a wide audience. In short, the drawing-room, or be read, with no the APA seeks to preserve and transmit the wis- ple, both men and women. He had a dom and values of classical culture and to find new stereotypical woman-like role in his shock to the moral nature, by a child of meanings appropriate to the complex and uncer- family of birth, for much of his life serv- tender years. The book needs only to tain world of the twenty-first century. be known, to be widely esteemed, and The APA’s activities serve one or more of ing his parents and siblings as an emo- these overarching goals: tional support (he never married). As welcomed into general use.” In fact, • To ensure an adequate number of well-trained, Bulfinch made classical myths accessi- inspirational classics teachers at all levels, job-holder and family factotum, he kindergarten through graduate school; crossed barriers of class and gender. ble in a wide range of English-speaking • To give classics scholars and teachers the tools Because of this exposure, he was able classrooms (not just elite boys’ schools) they need to preserve and extend their knowl- and in millions of parlors throughout edge of classical civilization and to communi- better than most to discern the need of cate that knowledge as widely as possible; Latinless readers, including women, for the United States. • To develop the necessary infrastructure to a body of knowledge that had been for achieve these goals and to make the APA a Marie Cleary, M.A., Ed. D., is an inde- model for other societies confronting similar him a birthright. challenges. The Age of Fable, moreover, would not pendent scholar specializing in American The APA welcomes everyone who shares this classical tradition and classics in education. vision to participate in and support its programs. have been such an enormous success All APA members receive Amphora automatically as without the advances in women’s edu- She is a member of the Associates at Five a benefit of membership. Non-members who wish cation in the antebellum years. Begin- Colleges, Inc., Amherst, a program that pro- to receive Amphora on a regular basis or who wish vides a base for qualified independent schol- further information about the APA may write to ning around 1820, secondary schooling The American Philological Association at 292 became more and more available to ars. She has taught classical subjects from Logan Hall, University of Pennsylvania, 249 S. girls. Many girls used their training in middle school to graduate-level and has 36th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6304, or at the directed national, regional, and local pro- e-mail address: [email protected]. The academies and seminaries to obtain APA Web site is at www.apaclassics.org. work as schoolteachers. Although they grams for teachers of classics and the were now able to study many subjects, humanities. She is the author of The girls were still not given the rigorous Bulfinch Solution: Teaching the Latin training available to boys prepar- ing for college. The few girls who American Philological Association learned enough Latin to read ancient Non-Profit Org. 292 Logan Hall, University of Pennsylvania U.S. Postage Roman works in the original did not 249 S. 36th Street have in their curriculum the Metamor- PAID Philadelphia, PA 19104-6304 Permit No. 2563 phoses of Ovid, a work full of salacious E-mail: [email protected] Philadelphia, PA detail. The reason for this omission was Web site: www.apaclassics.org squeamishness about introducing girls to sexual knowledge. Bulfinch’s friend George Barrell Emerson (a distant cousin of Ralph Waldo Emerson) was a reformer in education, including “female education.” Writing about that subject, G. B. Emerson reflects the prevalent view of Ovid, leaving that poet out of the list of ancient authors he recommends for girls. Bulfinch adroitly by-passed the gen- der conventions of his time by success- fully overcoming two obstacles that had 20 Copyright © 2003 by the American Philological Association