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A publication of the American Philological Association Vol. 8 • Issue 1 • Spring 2009

Metabolizing The Book Review: Pots & of Ovid Plays METAMORPHOSES By A. J. Podlecki By Micheline Klagsbrun Oliver Taplin. Pots & Plays. Interactions o open Ovid’s Metamorphoses is to step into a continuous and time- between Tragedy and Greek Vase-painting T of the Fourth Century B.C.E. The J. Paul less narrative, a “seamless song” that echoes back to the caveman’s fire Getty Museum, Los Angeles, 2007. Pp. and forward to our lives today. Over the 304, 94 color and 85 b/w illustrations. centuries countless visual artists have Cloth. $75.00. ISBN 978-0892368075. been inspired by his intensely- described scenes, in all their drama, pas- sion and shape-shifting surrealism. As t is hard to imagine a more thorough and just one of these artists, working with Iconvincing treatment of this intriguing these stories for over two decades, I topic than Taplin’s monumental study. have been reflecting recently on how What is more, it is a sheer joy to read (and Ovid enters into my creative process. review): sumptuously produced with numer- I believe the groundwork of Ovid’s ous large, clear, well-captioned illustrations influence was laid in my childhood, and an accompanying text to match, which when I perceived the world (mostly the Fig. 1. Daphne begins her transformation presents, vigorously and magisterially, the park I played in daily) as peopled by into a tree. ducks, rabbits, swans, and, my favorite author’s mature thought on a subject to companions, trees, all capable of human creeping up her soft torso (see Fig. 1). which he has devoted a good portion of interaction. The gnarled ancients that How to render the physicality of her his scholarly life. managed to ripple the London side- transformation, its creepy horror yet at Pottery imitative of Attic red-figure was walks with their hidden limbs were the same time the sensuality and pre- being produced in the Greek West from c. beings from another world. No wonder sumed relief of her submission to being then that the first of Ovid’s stories to ‘rescued’? How to express the irony and 430 B.C.E. and about 25,000 pots survive, capture my imagination, years later, was desperation of her compromise – she the most interesting and abundant category that of Daphne. A crumbling statue in escapes her unwanted suitor forever, yet being Apulian, (from the southeastern coast of Collodi, Italy, led me to the Bernini only by becoming permanently impris- Italy) of which we have about 15,000 exam- version in Rome, and I found myself oned. Liberty at the price of – liberty? ples. Of the total some 2,000 are what Taplin painting over and over the details that And what about the implications of terms “grander works” and of these he judges fascinated me the most – her fingers and being rescued by her father? Over- toes in the process of turning into protective paternalism? How do I feel between 300 and 450 to be tragedy-related. branches and roots, the rigid bark continued on page 2 He has selected for presentation here 109 vases, 5 Athenian and the rest from the south-

Book Review: “Superheroes Book Review: “Etruscan Myths”. . . . . 14 ern part of Italy known as Magna Graecia. and Greek Tragedy: Comparing There is an interesting but so far unexplained Cultural Icons”...... 3 Greek and Roman Kissing: Occasions, Protocols, Methods, tendency of the Greek West pots to depict Euripides on the Modern Stage: and Mistakes...... 16 individual actors “offstage,” with the main- “The Women of Troy”...... 4 Did You Know...... 18 land vases showing mainly choruses (32; Book Review: “Rome: Empire of the Eagles, 753 BC – AD 476”...... 6 Terence Awards Honor Taplin thinks this may indicate that in the Student Filmmaking...... 20 West the chorus was “regarded as a second- Podcasting for Classicists: A Modern Path to the Ancient “IT WASN’T LIKE THAT”: ary feature,” 39). About a third of the total World ...... 7 DEMETER AND PERSEPHONE, FICTION-WRITING AND MYTH IN are related to extant dramas, the rest being Ask A Classicist...... 10 MARGARET DRABBLE’S divided (not quite evenly) between pictures “THE PEPPERED MOTH”...... 22 Inside capital campaign news...... 11 apparently connected with lost plays about GUIDELINES FOR The Art of Medicine and CONTRIBUTORS ...... 24 which something is known and those that can the Lowly Foot: treating aches, only be matter for speculation. Aeschylus gets sprains, and fractures in the Ancient World...... 12 continued on page 19 separated them was the thinnest shim- Metabolizing The METAMORPHOSES of Ovid mer of the water’s surface. I explored continued from page 1 this illusion in other pieces that used about her desire to preserve her chastity superimpositions, iridescent fabrics, – a feminist ideal? Or is it a virgin’s fear even snakeskin (itself a symbol of trans- of life, keeping her fixed in place, formation) to embody the theme of unable to move forward? reflection and refraction. In the case of Intoxicated with this drama, I bought Narcissus and Echo, it also took an my first copy of the Metamorphoses and installation, a room filled with layers and plunged into the stream. Later came echoes in three-dimensional space, to other translations, which often differed convey my sense of the story. At other from each other in the rendering of times, rather than try to convey the details. The realization that translation whole narrative in a single piece, I use a is itself a creative interpretation series or group of works. ‘SeaChanges,’ emboldened me to be more freely inter- In my 2006 exhibition pretive in my own work. My creative inspired by the story of Ceyx and process, which I think of as ‘metaboliz- Alcyone, a number of works depicted ing,’ consists in reading and re-reading, moments in the story, while others were mulling, free-associating, allowing peripherally related to it. Alcyone, images to emerge without conscious beloved wife of King Ceyx of Trachis, control. (Sometimes I imagine an had premonitions of terrible storms and unconscious communication connecting begged her husband not to depart on his sea voyage to Claros. She dreams of bro- all of us readers of these stories, span- Fig. 2. Alcyone is transformed into a ken planks on the beach, of reading the ning centuries.) What emerges onto the bird, to share her life with her husband names of sailors on empty tombs. And canvas can relate to Ovid’s text in sever- Ceyx who has also become a sea bird. al different ways. indeed his ship is caught in a violent The most direct re-imagining of an describes? Or is she overcome by awe, storm and destroyed. Ceyx murmurs Ovidian story involves trying to capture grief-stricken for the loss of her family, Alcyone’s name into the waters as long its emotional essence, or sometimes the or driven mad by the gods? as he has breath. Meanwhile, Alcyone essence of the protagonist. Often sever- Sometimes I focus on the formal prays daily to Juno for her husband’s al elements of the tale will be synthe- aspects of a narrative as a complement safety, until Juno, tired of unanswerable sized into a single painting, and combined to its content. In my first exhibition to prayers for a man already dead, sends with allusions to personal experiences or focus solely on the Metamorphoses, I took her messenger Iris to the house of to current events in a way that adds lay- Echo and Narcissus as my central Sleep, asking that god to send Alcyone a ers of meaning. theme, and used multiple media to dream that will reveal the truth. Mor- In 2002 I was drawn to the story of investigate qualities of surface and pheus appears to Alcyone as her Medea. Aware that few people know reflection, with visual and verbal echo- drowned husband. On waking she runs anything about her beyond the grim ing. Their dialogue was inscribed on a to the shore where she sees far off a infanticide, I felt a need to redress the series of translucent papers, hung so floating figure. Realizing that it is Ceyx, balance of her reputation. In a time of that it could be read from different she runs along a jetty and leaps into the personal turmoil and impending angles. A series of drawings of Echo ocean – yet in her leap she is trans- divorce, I empathized with her narra- showed her in the process of turning formed into a bird . . . she soars, dives, tive: her abandonment of country and into thin air. We tend to think of wast- and skims the ocean surface on new- family in order to devote herself to a ing away as a process of shriveling or found wings . . . with her mouth, now a husband who eventually betrays her. In shrinking, but I had the opposite con- slender bill, she kisses Ceyx, who rises addition, my imagination was fired by cept. With medical illustrations of osteo- back to life. As sea-birds they are never Ovid’s detailed description of the magic porosis in mind, I conceived of the parted (see Fig. 2). rituals she uses to restore Jason’s father pockets of air in her bones expanding In “Alcyone dreams of broken planks” to health and youth. I depicted her in into passages of blue sky, until flesh and in“Alcyone’s long dark night” I use her young glory as a sorceress, an incar- became voice. deep shifting colors layered with silvery nation of female power, hands thrown Narcissus, moreover, was portrayed strands that evoke a starry night sky, yet up and hair flying. She is clothed, liter- at the very moment in which he realizes also entangle and trap Alcyone’s reaching ally, in magic invocations, which I had that the reflection he adores is himself. Fig. 3. In Alcyone’s leap of grief, she tries inscribed using special inks, twigs, and He simultaneously reaches out to his to join her husband Ceyx who has leaves onto translucent papers which I beloved, and tries to push away the drowned at sea. oiled until they resembled skin. Magic knowledge that he is doomed: he tries elements surround her, composed into a to hide his eyes, yet a spectral reflection circle of power: the flaming altar, the reaches forth to drag him down. river into which she dips her hair, the Between them I installed their earlier moon. But there are also intimations of dialogue, painted on translucent paper the future. A shadow spreads behind hangings in such a way that Echo’s her – it is dark green, yet its form sug- responses could be read through the gests blood. A second Medea crouches previous page, providing a visual echo. at her feet, head in hands. Is she wash- Narcissus believed that he and his ing her hair, as Ovid (7.188-90) beloved were about to touch – all that 2 hands, along with Alcyone’s blank Book Review: Superheroes and Greek Tragedy: watery blue stare, to evoke both an anx- ious foreboding and a primal ocean from Comparing Cultural Icons which some magic may emerge. I see By John Gruber-Miller “Alcyone dives to Ceyx” as the climax of the story. It is the moment of truth, in Sally MacEwen. Superheroes and Greek which she takes a leap into the Tragedy: Comparing Cultural Icons. Lewiston, unknown (see Fig. 3). In her leap, she is NY: The Edwin Mellen Press, 2006. Pp. 545. transformed. No longer earthbound, she Hardcover. $139.95. ISBN 978-0773457768. becomes a creature who can fly. Her courage enables her partner to become t is not uncommon, when I am teaching transformed and the two of them move into a new life. IGreek tragedy, that some time during the In ‘SeaChanges,’ I altered my level course I will be asked, “Who is the hero in of focus, zooming in on change itself, on this play?” Sally MacEwen’s study begins moments of chaos when all is in flux and with this very question, rarely asked in the new forms are born. I depicted transfor- many interpretations of Greek tragedy that Fig. 4. This statue of Superman, one of mations from human to bird, from arm have been published in the last several to wing, from male to female, from larva the great modern heroes, stands out- to dragonfly, from dream to knowledge. decades, but fundamental to an understand- side the courthouse in Metropolis, IL. Most of these pieces contain a more ing of Greek tragedy and Greek culture. Image used under the terms of the powerful mix of emotions than my pre- While MacEwen begins with this ques- GNU Free Documentation License. vious work. The splashes of red, the tion, she takes an interesting turn in answer- Image source: Photo by Scott Goodhart at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki sharpness of beaks, the oddness of some ing it. Rather than simply look at Aristotle /File:MetropolisIL_Courthouse.jpg. of the images, all speak to the pain and yet again (although she does consider The conflict that is an essential part of Poetics), she asks us to think about heroes change. In my own life, a new chapter be a hero, one must be born to an elite fam- had begun. After much conflict and in Greek tragedy in comparison with our ily with an honored lineage, whereas in pain, I had come through my divorce, culture’s idea of a hero visible in Holly- American adventure films, birth is not impor- re-established a life of my own, and wood westerns, sci-fi thrillers, and comic tant: Shane, Peter Parker, Han Solo, and committed myself to a new partner. book remakes (see Fig. 4). In using Holly- Frodo are “unlikely” heroes because there is Like Alcyone, I had taken a leap, grown wood movies, she reminds us that seeing no one group or type from which the hero wings, escaped one life, emerged into a tragedy or film is first and foremost a viscer- would have to arise to be heroic. Second, new self. One of the paintings in al experience. We cheer for the hero, feel while ancient and modern heroes are both ‘SeaChanges’ opened up a new fear, and if all goes well, even identify with outsiders, the modern hero will frequently avenue of development for my work the hero. When people are in trouble and “ride into the sunset” rather than be reinte- through elaborating the story of Caenis. disaster is close at hand, the hero is the grated into the community as the ancient Famous for her beauty, Caenis refused person in whom the audience places their one is. Finally, Greek heroes always save all offers of marriage, preferring inde- hopes for safety and security, with whom “someone” whom they know as part of the pendence and lonely walks on the beach, until Neptune seized and raped they resonate on an affective, pre-cognitive community and can have reciprocal rela- her there. Filled with pleasure and in a level. Why? Because the hero enables the tions with, while modern heroes save “ generous mood, he offered to grant her spectators to cope with conflicts within their anybody,” even people they don’t know, any wish. She replied that her greatest system of cultural values. “The construction especially the innocent. desire was never to be hurt again in the of a hero is so close to the heart of a cul- After MacEwen delineates the major char- same way and therefore not to be a ture,” MacEwen argues, that the hero is acteristics of a hero, she then looks in detail woman. Neptune transformed her into a “the place where its fundamental problems man and in addition, aptly enough, at ten Greek tragedies by Euripides and made him impervious to any penetra- will be mediated” (321). Sophocles, developing a historical account tion. Now named Caeneus, he became a The heart of MacEwen’s study is Chapter of what it means to be a hero in Greek celebrated warrior – spears bounced off 3, in which she lays out five aspects of what tragedy over the final four and a half him, sword blades shattered and left it means to be a superhero, either in Greek decades of the fifth century. The earliest him unwounded. This infuriated his tragedy or in Hollywood movies: prowess, plays, such as Oresteia, Antigone, Alcestis, enemies, the Centaurs, who were dis- autonomy, ability to save someone, vision to and Ajax, all express a basic optimism that graced that they could be mocked by one who had been a woman. In a final do the “right” thing, and congruence with dike (justice) will win out and that any con- battle, the Centaurs piled mountains of the cosmos. While each of these five major flict between the oikos (home) and polis (city) rocks and uprooted trees upon Caeneus characteristics remains the same whether in will be resolved. Her stereotypical hero is until he could not breathe. When he fifth-century Athens or twentieth-century Heracles in Euripides’ Alcestis, who rescues tried to lift his head, the mountains America, each culture defines them based Alcestis and restores the correct hierarchies shifted as in an earthquake, and from a on different cultural values. In the process of and reciprocal relationships in the oikos crevice flew a bird with golden wings, the like of which has never been seen discussing each of these five elements, (Admetus’ relationship with his wife) and the before or since. MacEwen makes a number of important polis (his relationship with his guest friend). continued on page 11 insights. For example, in ancient Greece, to continued on page 9 3 Euripides on the Modern Stage: THE WOMEN OF TROY By Anastasia Bakogianni

reek tragedy is alive and well on Gilbert Murray (1866-1957). Murray Gthe London stage, with Euripi- interpreted Euripides as condemning des currently enjoying a great war in his plays, propagating this view of wave of popularity (see Fig. 5). The the tragedian not only in his scholarship wealth of recent productions of Euripi- but also in his popular translations of des’ dramas staged in British theaters the plays for the stage (for more infor- (Iphigenia at Aulis in 2004, three versions mation on the life and work of Murray of Hecuba in 2004/5 and the Bacchae in see Gilbert Murray Reassessed, edited by 2007, to name but some of the most Christopher Stray and published by talked-about of these productions) gave Oxford University Press in 2007). Mod- rise to fears among some members of ern directors often choose to follow in the academic community that a back- Murray’s footsteps by highlighting the lash was imminent. In a conversation I political dimensions of the ancient play- had at the time with Lorna Hardwick wright’s oeuvre. Recent productions of (Professor of Classics at The Open Uni- Euripides’ plays capitalize on his image versity and Director of the Classical as an anti-war playwright to comment Receptions in late Twentieth-Century on contemporary events through the Drama and Poetry in English Project), Fig. 5. This statue of Euripides, found on medium of Greek tragedy. The high she expressed a fear that the great num- the Esquiline Hill in Rome, includes a list status of Greek tragedy as the founda- ber of productions based on Greek of many of his plays. Image source: tion of Western theater, coupled with drama would eventually alienate audi- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki the distancing effect that Greek drama ences and cause them to flock to more /File:Seated_Euripides_Louvre_Ma343.jpg. has on audiences, allowing them to view modern plays that deal with contempo- Greece: the Trojan War. The immedi- the issues raised by these plays more rary issues. The negative reviews of ate aftermath of the war is portrayed in objectively than those presented by a British playwright Tony Harrison’s ver- his The Trojan Women and Hecuba, while contemporary work, can – in the hands sion of Hecuba with Vanessa Redgrave in his Iphigenia at Aulis focuses on the of a talented director – produce exciting Britain, for example, seemed to suggest events leading up to the preparation of results. that the backlash had started by the end the Greek fleet before the war. His Contemporary directors are also of 2005. This production was better Andromache, Electra, and Orestes repre- attracted to Euripides because of his received in the United States, however, sent the longer term consequences of stark portrayal of war and his tendency partly because in London the produc- the war for both Trojans and Greeks: to demythologize his characters, making tion followed so closely after the very the dissolution of family units and the them more accessible to a modern audi- popular and acclaimed Hecuba of Irish pain of those affected on both sides. His ence. Euripides’ plays engender more playwright Frank McGuinness and part- action-packed escape plays Helen and questions than answers, adopting an ly because the American version of the Iphigenia at Tauris also raise these issues. approach that is perhaps more in line production was improved after its nega- War and its human cost have become with the Zeitgeist of our own times. tive reception in Britain. Fortunately, a topic of particular relevance at the The best of the recent performances of such fears that the theater going public moment, given the ongoing public Euripides’ work on the modern stage would tire of Euripides proved ground- debate over the involvement of both the demand a balancing act. On the one less. The popularity of Katie Mitchell’s United States and Britain in the war in hand, they must not lose sight of the production of The Women of Troy for the Iraq. Over the course of the twentieth classical text; on the other hand, they National Theatre is a recent example century, Euripides became associated must also engage the audience in the that clearly demonstrates that Euripides on the British stage with anti-war senti- action of the play by making it relevant, still ‘speaks’ to modern audiences. Let ments. In this turbulent century of two but not allowing it to degenerate into us consider some of the reasons why in world wars and countless other conflicts, mere propaganda. Although this is a dif- productions such as Mitchell’s, which Euripides’ war plays offered directors ficult balance to achieve, some of the premiered in November 2007 and the opportunity to debate thorny issues best theater directors have taken up this ended in February 2008, Euripides con- related to war in a remote setting that challenge. tinues to be popular with both theatrical allowed them to voice a relevant mes- Katie Mitchell is one of the most directors and the theater-going public. sage without hectoring, as it were. (The prominent directors who has embraced One might argue that Euripides’ cur- dictionary definition of the word hector- this challenge with great vigor. rent popularity with British directors ing is to treat with insolence; to bully; to Throughout her career she has been and theater audiences rests on the per- torment. Its root is the name of Hector, involved in several productions of ception that he is the most modern and which hardly seems fitting as he is one Greek drama for the Royal Shakespeare relevant of the three tragedians. This of the noblest of the Iliadic heroes.) Company and more recently for the perception rests in part on the fact that This impression of Euripides among National Theatre. Her Iphigenia at Aulis so many of his surviving plays deal with the general public as a playwright who produced in 2004 garnered her great events surrounding the most famous condemns war owes much to the work acclaim. The production achieved the war in the literary corpus of ancient of the British scholar and public figure desired balance between accurately 4 representing the source text and engag- makes his translation very performable. ing a modern audience emotionally in Mitchell recognized this strength in the plight of the heroine. Her produc- Taylor’s work (she had also used his tion succeeded as theater because the translation of Iphigenia at Aulis at the audience viscerally felt the full horror National Theatre in 2004). of killing a young girl for the sake of a Taylor’s translation of The Trojan foreign war. Women was originally published in 1990 In her version Mitchell made it clear in Euripides: The War Plays by Methuen that Iphigenia dies at the end of the play, Drama. In his introduction he stressed reinforcing the horror of Agamemnon’s the political aspects of Euripides’ play, actions. Her Oresteia of 1998-99 based on reading it as an indictment of Athenian Ted Hughes’ version of the trilogy was, foreign policy during the Peloponnesian however, less successful. Despite her War, faulting in particular the sack of efforts, Aeschylus remained too remote the island of Melos by Athens in 416- for an audience unfamiliar with the con- 415 B.C. In this incident, after the ventions of fifth-century theater. What inhabitants of the island had refused to stood out for me in my own experience join the Athenian-led Delian League, of watching this production was a long Athens attacked in retaliation, laid siege discussion I had with several fellow audi- to the island, killed all the men, and ence members during the intermission, enslaved the women and children. in which I tried to explain the role of the Inspired by Euripides’ play, Taylor also kommos (Orestes and Electra’s long wrote a poem in 1994 called Return to prayer) in the play. My fellow audience Sarajevo, linking its scenario to the war members found that section too long and in the Balkans sparked by the collapse Fig. 6. Taylor’s translation of The difficult to follow, even though Hughes of Yugoslavia. Both Taylor’s poem and Women of Troy provides the text for had already cut down the original text part of his introduction were reprinted Mitchell’s 2008 production. (Cover image out of similar concerns about the pas- in the program that accompanied for the 2007 reprint by Methuen Drama.) sage’s length and function. Audiences, Mitchell’s production. on the whole, found it hard to engage What makes Taylor’s version of the Neoptolemus, the son of the man who with the production. play particularly suited for the modern killed her beloved Hector. This series But we should not assume for this stage is its evocation of contemporary of catastrophes reaches its tragic climax reason that Aeschylus or Sophocles are events and its use of a modern idiom to with the decree ordering the death of not relevant for a modern audience or express Euripides’ immortal tragedy Astyanax, Hecuba’s grandson, the son of that they cannot be staged successfully. about the aftermath of the war at Troy. Hector. It is this child, the last male heir A recent version of Sophocles’ Oedipus Taylor’s introduction, following in the of Troy, who in this play is torn from his by the Irish playwright and poet Frank tradition of Gilbert Murray by empha- mother’s arms and thrown down from McGuinness and with Ralph Fiennes as sizing the political aspects of the play the walls of Troy. the tragic king proved very successful at and their contemporary relevance, had a Even classicists familiar with this the National Theater in the autumn of major impact on Katie Mitchell’s staging story of extreme grief and loss cannot 2008. Yet Euripides’ plots and charac- of the play. For me, watching Mitchell’s help but be moved by this production, ters do make him easier viewing for a reworking of Euripides’ Troades (Trojan with its vignettes that underscore the contemporary audience. Frank McGuin- Women) was an uncomfortable experi- humanity of the characters Euripides ness’ version of Hecuba (2004) produced ence in more than one way. It was inherited from Homer and re-created for the Donmar Theatre was both rele- Greek tragedy made relevant for today’s over two thousand years ago (in 415 vant and powerful without losing sight unsettled world. B.C.). Andromache brings Hecuba a of his classical source. His enslaved Taylor’s translation of the play also supermarket bag containing Polyxena’s queen was powerful and tragic and had inspired Mitchell to locate the Trojan handbag, shoes, and hair clips. As Hecu- audiences flocking to see the produc- women in an industrial port of a war- ba reverently touches each token of her tion. In the best tradition of an avid the- torn city. The set resembles a ware- dead daughter she becomes a symbol ater-goer I spent over three hours in line house, an iron prison where the women for all grieving mothers who have lost with a fellow classicist in order to obtain are locked in, awaiting their fate. their children in war. a much sought after ticket and, once I Mitchell, however, omits the prologue, In her production, Mitchell chose to purchased it, I refused all offers to sell it included by Taylor, where Poseidon portray Astyanax as a baby rather than as on. Mitchell’s production also played to and Athena discuss the future punish- a small child. His pitiful crying caused packed audiences and I was only able to ment of the Greeks for their impiety. Anastasia Hille’s portrayal of Andro- buy a ticket after another long queue. Instead she focuses on the pain and suf- mache to be all the more moving. A crucial element of Mitchell’s pro- fering of the women and in particular Mitchell’s Hecuba and Andromache are duction is her choice of Don Taylor’s the tragic figures of Hecuba and both brutally restrained as their children translation as the basis of her script (see Andromache. are taken away from them. This is a Fig. 6). Donald Victor Taylor (1936- A catalogue of disasters follows: physical play where the consequences 2003) was an English director who Hecuba is to be the slave of the of slavery for the women are made horri- worked in television and radio, as well unscrupulous Odysseus; Cassandra is to fyingly visible to the audience; from as the theater. He also wrote plays of his become Agamemnon’s concubine; Agamemnon’s perverse sexual desire for own and translated some of Euripides’ Hecuba’s other daughter Polyxena is Cassandra, to the rough manhandling of plays. His intimate knowledge of both sacrificed at the tomb of Achilles; the women. The chorus also bears the the theater itself and of a director’s craft Andromache is to be the slave of continued on page 18 5 Book Review: realities that life in the ancient world or his presentation of aspects of Roman history Rome: Empire of the entailed. in terms of economic and political class con- Eagles, 753 BC – AD 476 Faulkner is frank and up-front about his flict, is necessarily incorrect or flawed. own background and biases; in the introduc- Rather, it is unfortunate that Faulkner chose, By Aaron Irvin tion he clearly presents himself as coming in making this a non-academic work, not to Neil Faulkner. Rome: Empire of the Eagles, from a Marxist background in his own analy- present his own reasoning and his own 753 BC – AD 476. Harlow, UK: Pearson sis, his primary field of study being archaeolo- analysis of Roman history and historical evi- Education Limited, 2008. Pp. 400. Hard- gy and not history per se. This Marxist bias by dence. We have the end result, his conclu- cover. $45.95. ISBN 978-0582784956. no means eclipses the narrative, nor does sions; but we cannot see the reasoning and Faulkner attempt to force all of Roman history the thought process behind why Faulkner t was Rome’s mission, nay its destiny, to into a Marxist dialectical model. On the con- presents episodes of history the way he does, Iconquer the world, drive back barbarism, trary, the flow of the narrative is excellent and or why he dismisses some evidence while and bring light and civilization to the dark the book is a pleasure to read, an outstanding emphasizing other evidence. For example, places of Europe; so states Vergil in the accomplishment if one takes into account the he points to conquest as the source of the Aeneid. (6.851-3): fact that Faulkner is attempting to cover some wealth Augustus used to grant largesse to the 1200 years of history in a little over 300 troops and provide games and circuses for tu regere imperio populos, Romane, memento pages. Faulkner’s ability to highlight and the people, and he presents the conquest of (hae tibi erunt artes), pacique imponere morem, expand upon those aspects of Roman history Egypt as a primary source of this wealth. Yet, parcere subiectis et debellare superbos. that are key to understanding important events in the same paragraph, he also highlights the and time-periods make the book accessible to conquests of Moesia, Thrace, Illyricum, and On Christmas Day 800 A.D., for his servic- a wide audience. Faulkner’s talent for com- the interior of Spain as sources of wealth. It es to the church and his campaigns against pressing a tremendous amount of material may be that these campaigns provided signif- the “heathens,” Pope Leo III saw fit to crown while still maintaining coherence and narra- icant revenue, but at face value it is hard to Charlemagne “Emperor of the Romans,” tive cohesion is exceptional. believe that tribes in the Thracian or Spanish some 324 years after the deposition of the Although Faulkner’s overall narrative and wilderness provided anything significant at last Roman emperor in the west, Romulus style are beyond reproach, his attempt to all when compared to the wealth of Egypt. Augustulus (475-6 A.D.). In formulating their “tell” Roman history in such a way as to The same can be said for his dismissal of Late own imperial ideology, the British likewise prove his argument is problematic. For Antiquity (300-600 A.D.) as anything more looked to Rome as their example: Rome had example, despite establishing the late repub- than a period of decline on the edge of civilized Europe, and it was the British lican politician Tiberius Gracchus (168-133 chaos, or his view of Christianity as part of a “White Man’s Burden” to continue this B.C.) as a steadfast member of the Roman counter-revolutionary program under Con- “great commission” and civilize the world. aristocracy, Faulkner insists on painting him stantine (272-337 A.D.). It is possible to dis- More recently, U.S. Secretary of Defense as a type of progressive reformer fighting for agree with his points on principle, but not on Donald Rumsfeld, British diplomat Robert the Roman people. Indeed, Faulkner presents the basis of any analysis or evidence: Faulkn- Copper, and left-wing intellectual Alex Call- much of the conflict at Rome during the late er simply doesn’t present any. inicos have all called for a look back to Republic in terms of reform versus reac- Although the book is entertaining to read Rome as a type of “good” empire that could tionary movements, ascribing to each an and, by presenting an alternative point of serve as a template for empires and imperi- ideological coherence that most Roman histo- view, offers a sometimes intriguing new alism in the modern world. rians would agree was simply not present. angle from which to examine an ancient Neil Faulkner’s recent work, Rome: As such, historical characters of the late empire far too often viewed with “rose-colored Empire of the Eagles, was written not for Republic (133-45 B.C.) like the brothers glasses” by academics and lay-persons alike, the academic community, but rather for Tiberius and Gaius Sempronius Gracchus, the narrative of Rome it contains is finally frus- Leo, Charlemagne, Rumsfeld, Copper, Lucius Appuleius Saturninus, Gaius Marius, trating, for, while Faulkner has indeed retold Callinicos, and others who, throughout the Lucius Cornelius Sulla, Lucius Cornelius Roman history, he has not provided a solid ages, have looked to Rome and the Roman Cinna, and Gnaeus Papirius Carbo all play scholarly basis for his conclusions, and offers empire as a force of good and civilization their reform or reactionary parts in Faulkner’s no reason why we should accept his view- in a backward world of violence and bar- narrative. Yet Faulkner doesn’t seem to know point as any more valid than that of Leo, barism. Faulkner asserts that the Roman how Pompey the Great fits with the rest, and Callinicos, or Rumsfeld. empire was, in its purest form, a predatory thus Pompey becomes a self-interested, self- state built upon extortion and exploitation, seeking individual. Yet the dialectic returns Aaron Irvin is currently a Teaching a system maintained by violence, geno- when Faulkner turns to Caesar, who is pre- Fellow and Ph.D. candidate at UCLA. He cide, rape, plunder, and slavery. In this sented as a reformer with conviction at the received a B.A. in History from Western way, his work is a valuable contribution to head of a “reform party.” Faulkner devotes a Washington University in 2005, an M.A. the study of the history of Rome, a type of page and a half to Caesar’s actual rule, with from UCLA in 2007, and a C.Phil. from “reality check” for those of us who occa- no mention of any sweeping reforms enacted UCLA in 2008. His areas of study include sionally fail to glance past the baths, by the dictator. Romanization and internationalism in the 6 arenas, and marble statues into the gritty This is not to say that Faulkner’s argument, ancient world. Podcasting for Classicists: A Modern Path to the Ancient World By Jennifer Sheridan Moss

he pressures of the modern world took through the Alps. The podcasts Tleave little time for relaxation or provide a detailed history of this most reading for pleasure. Luckily, famous Carthaginian and his accom- technology now allows us to learn while plishments, and would be an excellent we’re on the run. All you have to do is supplement to a course on Roman put on the ubiquitous white head- Republican history. phones of an iPod (see Fig. 7), down- Other podcasts take us back to famil- load some free podcasts, and soon you iar and comfortable places. My favorite can be learning about Greek history Latin podcast is Chris Francese’s “Latin while stuck in a traffic jam, or Latin Poetry Podcast.” These brief podcasts, literature while sitting at your child’s most under five minutes, include the soccer practice. familiar (Vergil, Ovid) and the not-so- Podcasts are digital recordings of familiar (Claudian). In each podcast news, information, or entertainment Francese contextualizes the poem he is developed for playing on Apple’s iPod. reading, and often provides a transla- Some podcasts are audio-only, but some Fig. 7. Augustus jams to the sounds of tion, making the material accessible to include images, either slide shows or Livy’s History of Rome and Vergil’s those who are not fluent in the lan- video. Thousands upon thousands of Aeneid. Image supplied by David Moss. guage. Francese’s comfort and delight podcasts are available free of charge in each poem is contagious; it is easy to the variety of classical podcasts that now from Apple’s iTunes Store, and every imagine that you are sitting with him, exist. Because there seem to be new day more classical podcasts become sharing a glass of wine, reveling in the podcasts every day, and I can’t possibly available. Once you begin downloading beauty of Latin poetry. His pronuncia- list them all, I will point you in the and listening to podcasts, you will see tion is also lovely, and an excellent direction of some of my personal the great potential of this technology as model for students. favorites which should be of interest to an educational tool. Whether you are a The majority of podcasts on topics anyone, and then will review some of Latin student, a classics aficionado, or within Classics that are currently avail- those which will help certain types of even a professional classicist, spending able are supplementary lessons for classics students. some time each week with classical pod- Latin classes. Many correspond to stan- casts will teach you things you don’t Classical Podcasts dard Latin texts that are used by high know, or at least help you brush up on schools and colleges. Teachers and stu- things you’ve forgotten. And it will The number of classical podcasts avail- dents will also find podcasts that can require little effort from you. able today is small but growing. Here supplement language learning with To load and listen to podcasts, you are a few that are likely to interest any- material that provides cultural back- must install no-cost iTunes software one who studies the ancient world. ground, such as mythology or history. (http://www.apple.com/itunes) on your A podcast can sometimes take us just Elementary Latin students can hear computer (PC or Mac) and open an beyond the world we know. Byzantium 38 Latin Stories and some selections account in the iTunes Store. Don’t be is a direct descendent of the classical from Wheelock’s Latin read aloud discouraged if you don’t own an iPod; you world, yet most classicists know little (Madeleine Henry’s “Latin Stories”), or can listen to podcasts on your computer’s about it. If you would like to learn more, can listen to the vocabulary lists from speakers or burn them to a CD. Used and I recommend Lars Brownworth’s podcasts, each chapter of Keller and Russell’s refurbished iPods are widely available as “12 Byzantine Rulers: The History of Learn to Read Latin (K. Baratz et al.’s well. Owners of other brands of MP3 the Byzantine Empire.” In eighteen “Vocabulary for ‘Learn to Read players may have to import the podcast short episodes, none longer than half an Latin’”). There are more general vocab- files into their proprietary software. hour, Brownsworth traces this period ulary lessons by M. Fletcher entitled One note of caution: podcasts are not using both primary and secondary “Latin & Greek: Listen and Learn.” peer-reviewed scholarship. Anyone can sources. What makes these podcasts Intermediate Latin students will publish on iTunes, and so the quality of stand out is Brownworth’s fascination benefit from reviews of grammar pre- both the sound and the material pre- and enthusiasm for a world he discov- sented in “University of Kentucky Clas- sented varies. Listeners, therefore, ered only recently. The production sics 102 Podcast.” Students who are should exercise the sort of caution they quality is also extremely high. “12 reading Latin literature have many normally would with web-based materi- Byzantine Rulers” has received atten- excellent podcasts to choose from. They als. Also, since the iTunes Store lists tion from the national media, and has can listen to Caesar’s Bellum Gallicum or podcasts that are stored on other servers, earned high scores from listeners on Cicero’s Pro Caelio read in Xander it is not uncommon to find dead links or iTunes as well. Subashi’s “Classics Texts” or in Bret to have podcasts disappear from the Another classically-related series of Mulligan’s “LATN101a: The Late site. Always check back later if your podcasts is Patrick Hunt’s “Hannibal.” Republic.” “Mulligan’s ‘vcast’” (video favorite podcast series is temporarily Hunt’s archaeological endeavors, fund- podcast) of Catullus 1 is a mini lecture unavailable. ed by National Geographic, have traced that includes a lesson on how to translate In this article I will introduce you to the route that Hannibal and his army the poem as well as an interpretation of continued on page 8 7 Podcasting for Classicists: A Modern be illegal to simply record a reading of Path to the Ancient World the entirety of it. Images from museum websites are copyrighted; your own continued from page 7 slide collection is not. When in doubt, the poem in its context. them as a substitute for reading. If your consult one of the many websites that Oral Latin fans have many podcasts to podcasts are interesting enough, they explain the use of copyrighted materials choose from; this medium is ideal for may spur your students to read more! (such as http://www.umuc.edu/library audio learning. Evan der Millner’s “Lat- Or your students may want to make /copy.shtml) and find out your own inum” podcast now boasts more than their own podcasts! school’s policies. three hundred episodes (for a review of If you create some podcasts, there are If you think you will create more this site, see Amphora 7.2). And don’t for- some basic rules to follow. First, pod- than one podcast, it is nice to have a get the ever-popular news reports in Latin casts are best kept brief. The best visual cover page for your podcasts, and from Finland, “Nuntii Latini.” These too model is the NPR news story – a an introductory jingle. This will give are now available in podcast form. focused broadcast of five to ten minutes. your podcasts a more professional quali- There are podcasts to aid students There are interesting podcasts created ty and stamp them as yours. Images can who are studying Vergil for the during classroom or scholarly lectures, be created in photo-editing software. Advanced Placement exam. Noted but they tend to have poor quality For a jingle, either record something Latin scholar Susanna Braund presents audio, and are often interrupted by you have composed yourself (students a series of lectures on the Aeneid in “Vir- classroom activities or by extraneous are often fantastic composers too), or gil’s Aeneid.” The specific passages that noise. Keep in mind that the average use a few seconds of someone else’s appear on the Advanced Placement human attention span is short, and, recording, legal under fair use. Exam are translated and reviewed in more importantly for this medium, that Recording a podcast is easy. You will Henry Bender’s “Vergil AP Podcast.” your listeners are likely to be listening need a computer, Mac or PC, and a Latin teachers and students can sup- to podcasts while doing something else. microphone. There are good quality plement language learning with podcasts Second, create a video podcast when USB microphones available for under on related cultural material. These pod- visual materials will enhance your pres- $50. Alternatively, you could use a digi- casts will also be of interest to the general entation. But the production of video tal voice recorder, or add a voice- public or to students taking broad survey podcasts is more complicated, and recording microphone and software to classes which may be rushing through requires a more expensive iPod to view. your iPod. On a Mac, use Garage Band the classical world at too quick a pace. Don’t bother with visuals unless the (which comes free with every Mac) to For example, John A. Bruzas reads podcast centers on them. record and edit your podcast; instruc- Cicero’s Philippics and related selections Third, respect all copyright laws. tions are available on the Apple website. from Plutarch in translation in “Ancient Since your podcasts will be educational On a PC, use no-cost Audacity software Voices and the Roman Revolution.” and free, fair use provisions should (www.audacity.sourceforge.net) for Need to brush up on Greek mythology? apply. It is fine to quote a few lines of recording. Both software packages are John Hughes of Missouri State Univer- someone else’s translation, but it would easy to use. Find a quiet recording spot; sity presents his entire Morford and Lenardon-based course, “Classical Selected Classical Podcast Links Mythology,” in a series of video pod- casts. Mike Duncan’s “History of Latin: Rome” follows Rome from its founding “Nuntii Latini” (http://yle.fi/radiosoitin/podcast.php?channel=35&program=392). through the end of the Republic. Henry Bender’s “Vergil AP Podcast” (http://vergil.hilltech.org/). If you find that you love podcasts, search frequently for new material. Key- “University of Kentucky Classics 102 Podcast” (http://www.uky.edu/~mskrau2 word searches using the “power search” /Classics102.xml). tool in the iTunes Store will lead you to “Latin & Greek: Listen and Learn.” (http://latinandgreek.blogspot.com/). more material, and many search results Keller and Russell’s Learn to Read Latin (K. Baratz et al. “Vocabulary for ‘Learn to Read will show a cross-indexing feature that Latin’” (http://www.haverford.edu/classics/audio/krlatin.xml). will call your attention to related podcasts. Chris Francese’s “Latin Poetry Podcast” (http://blog.dickinson.edu/?cat=815). Make Your Own Podcasts Madeleine Henry’s “Latin Stories” (http://www.language.iastate.edu/latinPreview /unit00/07podcast.html). As a teacher, you may want to create some of your own in your field of Greek: expertise, or to supplement the courses “Classical Podcasts” (http://www.haverford.edu/classics/audio/). you teach. Podcasts are excellent for reviewing or supplementing materials Culture and History: that are presented in a class, for going John A. Bruzas’ “Ancient Voices and the Roman Revolution” off on a tangent, or for discussing (http://www.owlhaven.com/ancientvoices/ancientvoices.xml). intriguing topics that you just can’t fit John Hughes’ “Classical Mythology” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XU_MmbtL0Eg). into regular class time (high school teachers restricted by state-mandated Bret Mulligan’s “LATN101a: The Late Republic. (http://www.truveo.com/show curricula might find this particularly /LATN101a:%20The%20Late%20Republic). attractive). Plan your podcasts so that a Patrick Hunt’s “Hannibal” (http://www.patrickhunt.net/index.html). student who follows your syllabus will Lars Brownworth’s “12 Byzantine Rulers: The History of the Byzantine Empire” learn more from the podcasts, not use (http://www.12byzantinerulers.com/). 8 be cognizant of ambient noise like Book Review: Superheroes and Greek Tragedy buzzing fluorescent lights and heating and air conditioning units, and be sure continued from page 3 to turn off your computer speakers MacEwen then outlines three more phas- in Chapter when you record, or you’ll pick up the es in which the notion of the ancient hero 3, further- sound of your incoming e-mail. Experi- progressively loses the positive effect that more, ment with your microphone for the best sound quality. Heracles has in Alcestis (see Fig. 8); the MacEwen You will find that reading from a hero’s vision becomes more and more limit- assumes script is easier than speaking extempo- ed, and he is increasingly driven by forces that the Fig. 8. Wall painting of raneously. When composing the script, outside of his control. In the second phase, characteris- Heracles and Alcestis. Image keep your audience in mind. Short sen- roughly the outbreak of the plague at the tics of a source: http://commons tences and jargon-free vocabulary make start of the Peloponnesian War through the hero are .wikimedia.org/wiki/File: better podcasts. This is not a place for uneasy peace of Nicias (430-415 B.C.), well under- Alcestis-Catacomb.jpg. your best scholarly prose. Speak slowly and clearly with normal inflection. Oedipus in Sophocles’ Oedipus the King stood and uses these terms again and again There are many websites devoted to and Theseus and Heracles in Euripides’ throughout the rest of the book. Yet the dis- podcast production, and even podcasts Suppliants and Heracles, respectively, can- cussion in Chapter 3 is so long (130 pages) on how to make a podcast. A recent not save their community (Theseus), their that many readers may lose the essence of APA panel was devoted to producing household (Heracles) or even themselves the five-fold definition. While generally- and using podcasts, and you can hear (Oedipus). educated readers may know many (but not the lectures themselves (http:// podcasting-apa2009.blogspot.com/) and The third phase, coinciding with the cyni- all) of the films that are cited, they are even learn from those who have already pro- cal opportunism of Thucydides’ Melian Dia- less likely to know the plots of each tragedy duced academic podcasts. logue in 415 until just before the oligarchic discussed. Some further guidance and sum- Podcasts are not just the latest fad. coup in 411, constricts the idea of heroism marizing of both films and tragedies would They are easy to create, and, unlike even further. In Euripides’ Trojan Women and help these readers. Finally, after Chapter 3, textbooks, cost nothing for students, his tyche (chance) plays, such as Iphigenia the discussion of Hollywood films is limited most of whom already own a computer or MP3 player. Podcasts can be used to among the Taurians, a world governed by to short allusions here or there rather than reinforce students’ knowledge as they tyche constantly reverses what one feels and extended comparisons. The focus switches do the regular work of a class. They have creates a sense of helplessness. The hero’s to Greek tragedy. A clearer understanding great potential to teach students more vision means merely recognizing people’s sta- of the intended audience and a tighter struc- without overloading them with additional tus based on their manners and restoring them ture would have resulted in a book read reading that they are unlikely to do. to their family, but not doing anything good and discussed by more people both inside Like all good pedagogical tools, pod- casts can be shared with other teachers for the community as a whole. and outside the field of classics. teaching similar courses. A particular pod- The last phase of the hero in Greek In short, this is certainly a book that cast may not cover exactly what you tragedy – the plays of the last decade after makes us rethink our notions of heroism, would have taught in your own class, but the oligarchic coup – reflects an even that asks us to reflect on how Greek your students are likely to benefit from greater tone of despair. In plays like tragedy (and film) affects us at a subcon- someone else’s presentation or interpreta- Orestes, Philoctetes, Oedipus at Colonus scious emotional level, that encourages us tion of the material. I urge all teachers (OC) or Iphigenia at Aulis (IA), heroes do to consider how our values may or may not who create podcasts to share them via the iTunes Store (instructions are available at not save anyone, think only of themselves, parallel the values of fifth-century Athens, http://www.apple.com/itunes/whatson are driven to act by anangke (necessity), and that drives us to consider what the /podcasts/creatorfaq.html). and have only a desire to escape this plays of a certain time period have in com- Finally, podcasts provide an avenue world. In fact, in OC and IA, spectators are mon. Although I disagree about her inter- for professional classicists to share what asked not to mourn for the protagonists. pretations of particular plays, such as we know with the general public at a One would assume that a book entitled Philoctetes, MacEwen asks good questions time when people seem increasingly interested in the ancient world. As clas- Superheroes and Greek Tragedy would and provokes us to reevaluate our ideas of sicists, we can reach out to today’s busy appeal to a wide range of readers who are heroism and Greek tragedy. Even if gener- but tech-savvy classics enthusiasts in curious about the definition of heroism and al readers may find the book daunting, I ways that were never possible before. about the intersection of the heroes of Greek hope that those who teach Greek tragedy tragedy and Hollywood movies. And Chap- will find it as provocative as I have. Jennifer Sheridan Moss (aa2191@ ter 2 offers these non-specialist readers a wayne.edu) is an associate professor of Clas- sics at Wayne State University in Detroit. long excursus outlining developments in John Gruber-Miller (jgruber-miller@ Her research focuses on the socio-economic Greek history within which they can under- cornellcollege.edu) teaches classics at Cornell history of Roman and Byzantine Egypt. stand the transformation of Greek tragedy College where he teaches, among other Her podcasts on various classical subjects over the last half of the fifth century. But I things, courses on Greek and Roman Theater can be found at http://podcast.fltc.wayne think that the generally-educated person will and also directs productions of ancient drama. .edu/weblog/jennifer/. be frustrated by this book. For example, His recent book, When Dead Tongues Speak: sometimes Greek words are translated, but Teaching Beginning Greek and Latin, was often they are not. Once the hero is defined published by Oxford University Press. 9 Ask A Classicist in Latin”) chapter: here Greek gnomes and proverbs are provided with Latin equivalents Fig. 9. and alphabetically arranged by themes Cornelius How did students look up Greek (e.g. temperance, justice, labor, pain, hope, Schrevelius and Latin vocabulary words (1608-1661) etc.): one can imagine the use such a before they had the Liddell, Scott, Q was a med- wealth of quotations would provide a student Jones Lexicon, the Lewis and Short Latin ical doctor, composing a paper, a professor a lecture, Dictionary, and the Oxford Latin as well as a or a pastor a sermon. Dictionary? classical While in the seventeenth and eighteenth scholar centuries Latin students working their way from the Once Greek and Latin students are Netherlands. Image source: through the early stages of language acqui- past their first-year textbooks, in http://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php? sition had a variety of manuals featuring A which they are provided with ver- title=Datei:Cornelius-schrevelius vernacular equivalents of Latin vocabulary, nacular definitions of relevant Greek and .jpg&filetimestamp=20090413200410. none of these more convenient works was Latin vocabulary, they turn to resources that as popular, when it came to serious philo- provide them with a greater depth of infor- upon the original dictionary of Johann Gott- logical work, or as successful as the Latin mation about the meaning of words. The lob Schneider (1750-1822). L&S adapted lexicon of Egidio Forcellini. This extraordi- most important works available are three: and expanded E.A. Andrew’s English trans- narily hard-working scholar was a Roman Liddell, Scott and Jones’ (LSJ) Greek Lexicon lation of Wilhelm Freund’s four-volume lexi- Catholic priest assigned to pastoral duties is a British work, the first edition appearing con, published in Leipzig between 1834 in the Venetian Alps. Forcellini’s four-volume in 1843. Lewis and Short’s (L&S) Latin Dic- and 1835. lexicon, Lexicon totius latinitatis, didn’t tionary (First edition 1879) was the work of The Greek and Latin lexica available to appear until 1771, six years after the death American scholars: Charles Short was a classics students of the eighteenth and sev- of its creator. The work is still in print: my professor at Columbia; Charlton Lewis was enteenth centuries were certainly less scien- library’s copy is of the fourth edition, print- an attorney in New York City. The Oxford tifically and linguistically endowed (the ed in 1965 at Padua. A glance at any Latin Dictionary (OLD), after appearing in entire field of comparative Indo-European page of this beautiful work reveals that it parts, was first published as a single volume philology was barely getting underway at can still compete with the new kids on the in 1982. Although all three first appeared the end of the eighteenth century). In some block, not, of course, because it reflects in traditional book form, today students may respects, however, these older lexica prove “scientific principles” but because it meets also consult LSJ and L&S by connecting to more useful to the present-day Classics just about every need an advanced high- the Perseus internet site (http://www major willing to take a chance with his or schooler or undergraduate can have: each .perseus.tufts.edu), utilizing their iPhones her developing philological skills. Latin vocabulary entry is given a Latin defi- and iPods, or in CD format. Cornelius Schrevelius (see Fig. 9) of nition and set of synonyms, followed by an As far as Greek and Latin dictionaries Leiden first published his Lexicon Manuale equivalent in Italian, French, Spanish, Ger- go, LSJ, OLD, and L&S are relatively recent Graeco-Latinum et Latino-Graecum in 1654. man, and English. If the term has a Greek phenomena. All three are “based upon sci- Providing Latin equivalents of Greek vocabu- origin, Forcellini discusses the manner of its entific principles”: that is, not only do they lary and Greek equivalents of Latin vocabu- derivation from that language. Ample quo- provide vernacular equivalents of Greek lary, this manual was for its time an instant tations from Classical, post-Classical, and and Latin terms and demonstrate each success: it was the kind of text a student Ecclesiastical authors are given in abun- term’s usage by quoting passages from a could carry in his pack or a teacher keep in dance. If the classical scholar has ever range of sources, they also explain the ety- the classroom, unlike the more prestigious thought about what books he or she would mologies of words by listing, where possi- but huge and expensive Thesaurus Linguae want to take along to some desert island ble, each word’s Indo-European cognate Graecae of Henri Estienne (a work, howev- for a long stay without internet access, and other data relevant to its derivation. er, still respected in the nineteenth century, Forcellini’s lexicon would have to be high Composing a dictionary from scratch is when it underwent two new editions). on the list. a huge undertaking, requiring the careful Schrevelius’ Greek-Latin Latin-Greek diction- For a fascinating and very readable perusal of ancient texts, the collecting of ary appeared in the United States in 1808, description of the romance of lexicography, note-cards, the formatting of entries, and undergoing multiple reprints in New York see Simon Winchester’s The Meaning of the consulting of authorities in historical lin- and Boston (under the title The Greek Lexi- Everything: the Story of the Oxford English guistics. Of our classical dictionaries, only con of Schrevelius) and clearly intended for Dictionary (Oxford University Press 2003). the OLD claims to be a work of wholly orig- the student market. Classics students interest- Thumbnail sketches of eighteenth and inal lexicographical scholarship. Neither ed in trying their hand at this non-Englished nineteenth century authors of our familiar LSJ nor L&S were original works in this Greek lexicon may still do so: one can find classical dictionaries can be found in the sense, but took as their basis previous dic- old copies of Schrevelius on ebay and rare second and third volumes of J.E. Sandys’ tionaries. In the case of LSJ, this earlier text books internet sites. A delightful feature of History of Classical Scholarship, available was the Greek lexicon of Franz Passow this old lexicon is its Breves Sententiae Grae- for downloading on the Internet Archive 10 (1786-1833), which was in turn based cae Latine Explicatae (“Short Greek quotes (http://www.archive.org). Capital Campaign Metabolizing The METAMORPHOSES of Ovid News continued from page 3 he APA’s Gatekeeper to TGateway Campaign will When I first read this story, I was They also derive from a primitive establish an Endowment for Clas- struck by how modern it is, by the notion, still present in many cultures sics Research and Teaching and poignancy of the abused woman who and in the Western unconscious, that obtain the gifts necessary to adopts an impervious masculinized self animals, plants, human, gods, rivers, and receive $650,000 offered in an as a form of protection against the rocks are composed of the same sub- NEH Challenge Grant. The Asso- world, and by the fear of the unknown stance in different forms. For my most ciation is undertaking this Cam- ‘Mirar/Mirror: An that can lead to mob violence. I thought recent exhibition, paign to ensure that its members Exchange of Gazes,’ of the horrible ending of the film Boys sponsored by the will have the scholarly and peda- Don’t Cry and the persecution suffered Embassy of the Bolivarian Republic of gogical resources they need to do by the Hilary Swank character. I painted Venezuela, I spent last year researching their work for decades to come. ‘Caenis/Caeneus,’ in which I envisioned indigenous myths of Venezuela, discov- The Campaign also shares with a Caenis shucking off her male cocoon/ ering stories that parallel those of the wider public the excitement and disguise as she transforms into the bird, Metamorphoses. The title of the exhibi- commitment that APA members a spirit liberated from her suffocated tion reflects some surprisingly similar have for their subjects. body (see Fig. 10). themes that appear in both New World That painting was included in the and Old World myths: the chaos and • The Association has received ‘SeaChanges’ exhibition, where it was dangerous undifferentiation symbolized over $1.4 million in pledges seen by my son Abe Frank, a classics by doubling and reflection, the power of from over 350 donors and has scholar and writer, who was inspired by the gaze, the magic of the shape-shifter claimed $460,000 of the my reimagining of this tale to send me who eludes the eye, the possibility of $650,000 available from the his own original translation of Ovid’s rebirth through water. Even species NEH Challenge Grant. poem. His words brought out another matched, for example, the crimson- aspect of the story: the militaristic postur- crested woodpecker: known as Picus to • Garrison Keillor, radio host and ing, the heedless destruction of the land- Ovid, Wanadi to the Indians of the author, has joined Erich Segal, scape, the ruin of war. In response I Orinoco. These reflections between dif- Leonard Slatkin, and Garry produced the seven pieces that made ferent ancient worlds are just some of Wills on the Campaign’s Hon- ‘Collateral up a subsequent exhibition, the countless examples of the mystery orary Advisory Committee. Mr. Damage.’ The centerpiece was ‘Caenis: and universality of myth. Yet it is not Keillor presents A Prairie Home Wasteland,’ in which Caenis is seen these specific examples that fascinate Companion and The Writer’s “buried beneath the monstrous body of me the most, but the underlying con- Almanac on public radio stations trees” amid “. . . a desert of stumps and cepts of shape-shifting and transforma- across the United States and has snapped-off trunks, a wasteland stretch- tion. In my latest work, I find myself written more than a dozen ing shadowless across the sun-stained moving away from narratives, becoming books, including Lake Wobegon hills” (Metamorphoses 12.507-9, translation increasingly focused on the process of Days, The Book of Guys, Love Me, by Abraham Frank). Other aspects of the transformation itself. In this I feel I and Homegrown Democrat. He is story appeared in the surrounding works, have not abandoned Ovid, but remain a member of the American notably the Centaurs, which I saw as true to his spirit and to the fluidity and Academy of Arts & Letters. embodying a long tradition of soldiers, seamlessness of his “perpetual poem.” not just cavalry but a modern desert • It is now possible to make a Micheline Klagsbrun army, human from the waist up, tank (mklagsbrun@ pledge online. Visit the secure from the waist down. As I painted Caenis gmail.com) studied art in Paris with Alfredo website listed below to make a drowning “in a tidal wave of trees,” the Echeverria and at the Corcoran with Bill new pledge and partial payment news reports of Abu Ghraib and water- Newman. She has exhibited widely, and is in or make payment on an existing boarding gave the work new relevance. private collections nationally as well as in pledge using your credit card: Myths carry us beyond the familiar. Europe and the Middle East. Before devot- https://app.etapestry.com/hosted Metamorphoses can be an expression of ing herself full-time to art, she was a clinical /AmericanPhilologicalAssociat those moments of extreme emotion or psychologist. For many years she co-chaired /OnlineDonation.html. passion in which we transcend our bod- the Forum for the Psychoanalytic Study of ies, or when our being-in-the-world is Film, edited the journal Projections and • See the main Campaign page on altered in some irremediable fashion. was a mentor at the Corcoran School of Art. the APA website (http://www She is co-founder and President of .apaclassics.org/campaign CrossCurrents Foundation (founded /campaign.html) for links to the in 2006) which as part of its revised, professionally produced mission sponsors art to promote version of the demonstration of social justice. the digital portal that this Cam- paign will make possible in both Windows Media and Quicktime formats. Fig. 10. Caenis/Caeneus begins the process of transformation. 11 The Art of Medicine and the Lowly Foot: treating aches, sprains, and fractures in the Ancient World By Georgia Irby-Massie “Because of the water, everyone in describe treatments for many common Troezen experiences foot maladies.” podiatrical complaints, including sore Pliny the Elder Natural History 31.11 and swollen (or gouty) feet, callused and cracked feet, sprains, and dislocations. ith 26 bones, 33 joints, over Rubs and plasters for achy feet were W100 muscles, tendons, liga- compounded from ingredients chosen ments, and a delicately bal- for their perceived medicinal properties. anced system of nerves, the human foot Amarantos the Grammarian (first centu- is a mechanical marvel. No less than we, ry B.C.) recommends a sore foot remedy Greek physicians were concerned with that employs thirty-two ingredients what could so easily go wrong with the including, analgesics (frankincense; foot. Consequently, the anatomy and Fig. 12), astringents (gentian), anti- pathology of the foot received attention inflammatories (butcher’s broom, St. in most Greek medical treatises, organ- John’s wort), and warming botanicals ized systematically, a capite ad calcem, (yellow iris, cardamom, eryngo, ginger: beginning with the head and methodi- Galen About Remedies 2.17 [14.208-209 cally working down the body to the feet Kuhn]). Celsus preserves a twenty-one (see Fig. 11). ingredient emollient attributed to From the Hippocratics onward, Andreas (third century B.C.), recom- hands and feet were considered analo- mended for relieving pain of all kinds, Fig. 11. The health of the foot was of gous in construction and purpose, as including achy joints and painful feet great interest to the Greeks and Romans. instruments of prehension. Just as con- (pedibus dolentibus: 5.18.7). Pliny reports This colossal foot is part of the remains of cavity and variety of articulations allow simpler remedies for sore feet: snails a statue of Constantine. Used according the hands to clasp objects of every ingested as an analgesic drink (30.77); to GNU Free Documentation License. shape easily, so human feet, similarly ashed remains of burnt hen or pigeon Image source: http://commons flexible and concave, “can stand firmly dung, presumably rubbed on the sores .wikimedia. org/wiki/File:Foot_of in every sort of place” (Galen, On the (30.80); plasters of cypress leaves _colossal_statue_of_Constantine_I.jpg. Usefulness of the Parts 3.5). The human pounded with soft bread and Aminean foot “is specially suitable for an intelli- wine (a northern Italian variety Clement even employs etymological gent animal” (Galen 3.4), and the anato- described by Cato and recommended wordplay to connect the Christian god my of both leg and foot contributes to for a variety of health complaints includ- to analgesic oils: “the oil (ελαιον’ ` ) is the practicing technae (technical skills) – ing kidney stones) for sores on the feet Lord Himself, from whom comes the building, scrambling up yardarms, (24.15); and elm leaves crushed and mercy (ελεος’ ` ) which reaches us” (The blacksmithing, etc. Round, hard feet mixed in water as a plaster for swollen Schoolmaster 2.8). Oils used medicinally (hooves) might render our feet swifter feet (24.49). to rub achy feet are agents of the Christ- and less liable to injury, but the elon- Clement of Alexandria (third century ian god whose mercy alleviates pain in gate, broad, soft character of the human A.D.) commends the beneficial effects the feet. foot, divided into toes, is suitable for of ointments for the feet according to For cracked and callused skin on the walking on a variety of surfaces. Even Christian ethics: “Rubbing the feet with feet several treatments are recorded. softness is advantageous, since sandals, warming or cooling unguents is prac- The pharmaceutical encyclopedist which protect feet like “solid hooves,” ticed because of its beneficial effects” Dioscurides (first century A.D.) includes exist for every situation, tattered (The Schoolmaster 2.8). According to healing cracked skin (ραγαδες’ ` ) on the footwear is easily replaced, and it is Clement, ointments applied for practical feet as among the medicinal effects of occasionally better to go barefoot. The reasons do not per se provoke passion raw pitch (1.72.2), chaste-tree (1.103.3), foot’s length and breadth help support since the art of healing is divinely mani- and common polypody, a “many foot- the bipedal body when standing, walk- fested (early Christians strove to avoid ed” fern whose very name may have ing, and running. Even the humble toes pleasure for its own sake): recommended it as an effective treat- are useful in maintaining balance. Galen ment for foot complaints (4.186). To observes that frostbite victims who have unguents have been given manifestly thin calluses on the soles of the feet, lost toes might be able to walk with dif- for utility, not for voluptuousness. For Dioscurides suggests a poultice of anti- ficulty on smooth ground but they can we are by no means to care for the inflammatory wheat (2.85.2). The never walk over rough terrain (3.5). exciting properties of unguents, but to Roman medical encyclopedist Celsus Although the complex and flexible choose what is useful in them, since (first century A.D.) endorses a soothing, God permitted the production of active, and repressant (lene, vehemens, design of both hands and feet con- (soothing) unguents for the mitigation tribute to intelligence in humans, this of men’s pains. (The Schoolmaster 2.8) reprimens) plaster compounded from same complexity renders the foot prone copper scales, lead heated but not melt- to mishaps, and Greek physicians ed (calcined), cadmia (zinc oxide), and 12 wax, with “enough rose-oil” to yield a Scientists, edd. Keyser and Irby-Massie, and appropriate” bandages applied by soft consistency (5.28.5). For a particular 2008: 429-30). an experienced bandager. A poor band- strain of the skin infection impetigo – Sprains, dislocations, and fractures of aging job may result in gangrene, “an which attacks the nails, renders the skin the feet were treated similarly with impediment for life.” Meticulously on the feet hard, chapped, white, and plasters, compresses, and bandages, explicated is the procedure for wrapping scaly, and is altogether “quite incur- secured tightly, with dressings replaced a severely sprained ankle (Fractures 11): able” (fungus?) – Celsus records two on the third day. Patients were urged to therapies based on a treatment for sca- report their bandage’s relative slackness making many turns of the bandage bies and compounded from lupin meal, or tautness. Those who disregarded around the heel, sometimes carrying it nitron, liquid pitch, liquid resin, and medical advice failed to recover fully. to the edge of the foot, sometimes to vinegar (5.28.16-7). Pliny cites numer- the middle, and sometimes around the ous outlandish remedies: pastes of pitch leg; and, in addition, all the surround- ing parts are to be bandaged in this and ashes of burnt scorpion shells for direction and that. . . and the compres- cracked and abscessed feet (24.39, sion should not be too tight, but we 32.34); green lizard’s blood for chafed Footcare has changed should use many bandages, and it is feet (30.80); raw oysters for toes aggra- better also to administer hellebore the vated by cold or humidity (chilblains: little from the techniques same day or the next; and the bandag- 32.65); and for corns (clavi pedum), an used in the ancient es should be removed on the third day application of mule’s urine, sheep’s and reapplied. dung, green lizard’s blood, earth worms, world. or spotted lizard’s heads (30.80). Further, the foot should be kept elevated Medical treatises preserve numerous “generally raised a little higher than the gout-therapies, likely because gout was rest of the body.” The regimen has considered a disease of affluence. Rich remained unchanged for 2,500 years. diets and lack of exercise among the Dioscurides cites narcissus root, crushed Often the pain puts (some patients) in with honey and applied topically, Roman elite contributed to the accre- mind of the injury; and deservedly, for tion of uric acid around the joints, espe- explicitly to treat sprained ankles the feet sustain the weight of the στεµµατα` σφυρων~ cially the ankles. This in turn resulted whole body. When they walk about ( : 4.158.2) but else- ~ in painful swelling. Ποδαγραν (poda- before they are whole, the joints which where catalogues remedies for sprains in gran, “to suffer from gout”) derived have been dislocated are cured incom- general: analgesic calamus (1.85); anti- from the Greek noun for foot (πους,` pletely; hence, while walking about, inflammatory walnuts plastered with ποδος` ) further emphasizes the disease’s they have pains in the leg from time to honey (1.25.1); pungent, warming (and virulence on the feet. Gout afflicted time. (Hippocratic Fractures 9) aphrodisiac) red Purse tassels (muscari Sulla who visited the hot springs “suit- comosum, a variety of grape hyacinth) ed to the cure of diseases” in Euboea One Hippocratic author graphically from Libya (2.170.1); cooling fleawort (Strabo Geography 10.1.9; Strabo does recounts sprains resulting from violent (4.69.2); diuretic black bryony (tamus not here specify gout), as well as Agrip- jumping (Fractures 11): “the bones are communis L., a poisonous climbing pa, who soaked his painfully swollen separated, and the veins pour forth their woodland plant; 4.183.2). gouty feet in hot vinegar (Pliny the contents, owing to the contusion of the Dislocations and fractures were Elder Natural History 23.58). Neither flesh surrounding the bone, and potentially lethal, and setting them was author indicates whether or to what swelling and much pain ensue.” The especially troublesome in the case of degree the cures worked. Dioscurides’ relatively large heel bone extends fingers, toes, feet, and hands (Celsus litany of substances to allay the symp- beyond the line of the leg, connects 8.25). The anonymous author of Hippo- toms of gout include common and exotic with important veins and tendons, and cratic Joints blithely declares: “if the leg ingredients to relieve pain (cardamom: joins the leg’s back tendon to the foot. is dislocated and projects through at the 1.15.2; Fig. 13), reduce swelling (willow: The injury should be treated carefully ankle, the patient usually dies; don’t 1.104; land snails: 2.9.2; gillyflower: with compresses and “particularly good bother reducing the lesion. Few 3.123; opium poppy: 4.64.4; henbane: patients last more than seven days, and 4.68.4), draw fluids away from the joints Fig. 13. Cardamom was they die from spasm (tetanus). Gan- (cyclamen: 2.164.3), or one of a number of plants grene might set in” warm the affected area used by the Greeks and (Joints 63). (pennyroyal: 3.31.2; Romans to reduce pain. The Hippocratic Fig. 14). Jacob Psy- method of correcting chrestus, “The Cool- congenital club-feet in er,” who prescribed young children resem- cold baths for numer- bled their procedure for ous diseases (fifth setting dislocations. century A.D.), signifi- With pressure and cantly employed counter-pressure autumn crocus, the applied to the bones, source of colchicine, the the feet were manually fundamental drug of realigned and then modern gout-therapy Fig. 12. Frankincense Fig. 14. Pennyroyal is dressed with cerate (Scarborough Encyclo- comes from the Boswellia a member of the mint (with a consistency pedia of Ancient Natural scara plant. family. between an ointment continued on page 15 13 Book Review: Etruscan Myths (44). Such reinterpretations of Greek mytho- logical subjects suggest the imaginative, By Samantha Toman inventive capacity of the Etruscan people to Larissa Bonfante and Judith Swaddling. tradition. Equal attention is given the dis- recycle an old topos in a new value-mold: Etruscan Myths. London: The British Muse- tinctly Etruscan concepts of blood sacrifice, small practical details (such as the render- um Press, and Austin, Texas: University of prophecy, and the Evil Eye. The authors’ ing of the Trojan Horse on the back of a Texas Press, 2006. Pp. 80. Paper. $14.95. discussion centers around particular pieces bronze mirror, coming alive even while he ISBN 978-0292706065. of art as vehicles of myth, generally accom- is being constructed, for in the image his panied by a photograph or drawing to feet must be tethered [fig. 27]) or complete arissa Bonfante and Judith Swaddling’s help the reader follow along. This format re-imaginings of figures (such as the baby LEtruscan Myths comprises part of the makes the text enjoyable to read as the Minotaur) paint new meaning into an old Legendary Past series co-published by the authors, progressing from piece to piece, tale. Also notable is the frequency of scenes British Museum and the University of Texas examine material details in the art objects from Greek legends on quotidian objects, Press. There are currently a dozen texts in while providing critical commentary on the such as the backs of Etruscan women’s mir- this series, designed to introduce world mythological content. The balance of visu- rors (see Fig. 16), objects used regularly in mythologies through art to the non-specialist als and text lends the book a lightweight, daily life and which accompanied their reader. easy-reading feel suitable to a work owners to the grave (9). Even darker Perhaps the most striking feature of Bon- designed to introduce interested amateurs themes such as death and the Underworld fante and Swaddling’s slim volume is its to this burgeoning field. (with which the Etruscans, like the ancient title – a cursory perusal of the book, with The reader will find the authors’ prose Egyptians, seem to have been greatly pre- every page displaying works of art largely concise and informative. A general familiar- occupied), while appearing largely in tomb Etruscan in origin or inspiration, may lead ity with the classical world is assumed. The art, still grace the backs of many a bronze one to believe that the book is, in fact, a distinctively Etruscan interpretation of well- mirror. The Theban cycle, for example, is survey of Etruscan art. Yet the title is no mis- known Greek figures and stories (briefly represented mostly by images of unnatural nomer, for while the book provides an recounted to refresh the memory of the death: Polynices and Eteocles committing ample serving of Etruscan art and critical reader where such lore is initially refer- simultaneous fratricide (fig. 9, p. 22), artistic analysis within its 80 pages, the enced) will prove intriguing. One finds in Tydeus gnawing on the head of Melanip- analysis itself is directed toward a different, Etruscan artistic styling a surprising depar- pus who is depicted as still living (fig. 10, more challenging task: as no Etruscan ture from the traditional Greek depiction of p. 23), Capaneus falling headfirst from the mythological literature is extant, the wealth figures such as the Minotaur, limned on an walls of Thebes after being struck by Zeus’ of Etruscan art itself must be read as a text. Etruscan wine cup as a horned, cow-eared thunderbolt (fig. 12, p. 24). Apotropaic Etruscan mirrors, tomb-frescoes, and sar- infant nursing at the breast of Pasiphae images abound as well, disguised some- times in the form of erotic scenes, yet able cophagi feature mythic characters and Fig. 15. This sarcophagus features the to be interpreted as such due to their pres- motifs (see Fig. 15), revealing what these myth of the beginning of the Trojan mysterious people, who flourished during War: Paris sits on the ship on which ence on votive objects and sarcophagi. The the time of classical Greek civilization in an Helen is being led. Second century B.C., link between eroticism and magic is one area “in the centre of a world in rapid evo- Volterra. Vienna: Kunsthistorisches that the authors touch on briefly, suggesting Museum. Credits: Ann Raia, 2006. lution” (7), revered most. that “the shock effect of certain images Image source: http://www.vroma.org could serve to ward off evil, and fulfilled a Etruscan Myths is cleanly structured and /images/raia_images/etruscan specific ‘ritual’ or psychological function in cleanly written, opening with a brief histori- _sarcophagus.jpg. cal overview followed by a discussion of the context of religious and funerary art the sources which form the bulk of our and space” (70). knowledge about a civilization considered Indeed, the complexity of Etruscan cul- to have been “extremely literate” (8), of ture compels contextual “spaces” and the such reputation and artistic influence that art that occupies them to bleed together, neighboring, non-Etruscan city-states assimi- and the unique artistic stylings attributed to lated much of its art and culture (became them stuck in Italy’s aesthetic consciousness “Etruscanized”). The Etruscans themselves long after the Romans assimilated Etruria delved into Greek lore, adapting the Greek and the Etruscan kings. In their eighth chap- alphabet around 700 B.C. along with ter, for example, Bonfante and Swaddling entire cycles of Greek mythology and the explore some of Rome’s adaptions of Etr- Greek pantheon (8). Successive chapters uscan culture (and, of course, Greek culture treat topics in the Etruscans’ mythology: the through the Etruscans), not only in their Trojan War, Theban Cycle, depictions of depictions of their own Roman deities such the Underworld and heroes such as Her- as Venus Genetrix but in some of the myths cules and Perseus echo strongly the Greek of early Rome. This chapter also includes 14 The Art of Medicine and the Lowly Foot: treating aches, sprains, and fractures in the Ancient World continued from page 13

and a plaster) and bandages, which bizarre for soothing achy feet or assuag- acted like casts or braces to restore the ing swollen ankles, but they rarely bones to proper alignment (On Joints remark on the efficacy or popularity of a 62). Moulds, cerates of resin, lard, and specific treatment. Greek medicine, yellow wax, and bandages or sandals fit- nonetheless, was deeply informed by ted with sheets of lead were also theory and observation, and foot thera- employed to ease the bones of the feet pies reflected both approaches. back into natural arrangement (Hippo- Humoral theory dominated gout thera- cratic Instruments of Reduction 32). py and treatment of skin complaints. Although treatments for sandal- Meticulous knowledge of anatomy gov- Fig. 16. Etruscans decorated the backs of chafed feet are noted (ashes of old erned the rehabilitation of sprained, mirrors with many images. This Etruscan shoes: Pliny the Elder Natural History fractured, or broken feet and ankles. mirror features Hercules and Athena on 30.80) and although Greco-Roman san- Remarkably, little has changed regard- the reverse. Madrid, Archaeological dals provided no arch-support, the ing attitudes about feet and regimens of Museum. Credits: Barbara McManus, open-weave and ventilating nature of foot care: modern medicine employs 1985. Images source: http://www ancient footwear helped protect against rubs, wraps, and splints strongly resem- .vroma.org/images/mcmanus_images infections such as athlete’s foot and bling those found in the pages of /herc_mirror.jpg. trench foot. Bunions may also have Hippocrates and Galen; and these hard been less common because ancient working appendages usually receive lit- an intriguing examination of echoes of footwear was flat-heeled and open-toed. tle attention until something goes awry. Etruscan art in Renaissance artwork. The The textual evidence is vague on these and other questions. How, for example, Georgia Irby-Massie ([email protected]) authors suggest, for example, that one can did Roman soldiers, who marched long studied Latin and Mathematics at the Uni- trace Etruscan mythic concepts in the work distances with heavy packs, treat fallen versity of Georgia, Athens, and she holds a of such later artists as Michelangelo (1475- arches? Even in his guidelines for mili- Ph.D. in Classical Philology from the Uni- 1564) and Signorelli (1445-1523). tary medicine (Epitome of Military Science versity of Colorado at Boulder. She is an An appendix detailing the Etruscan pan- 3.2), the fifth century A.D. writer Associate Professor of Classics at the College theon arranged according to the gods’ Vegetius is silent. Nonetheless, concern of William and Mary where she teaches with universal and timeless complaints broadly. Her areas of research include the Etruscan names and Greek equivalents (if about feet is clear. Sore feet, calluses, history of science, and the popular reception these exist), is included. Supplied with swelling, sprains, and fractures were of science, and its presentation in literature. additional illustrations, this useful addition treated with emollients intended to summarizes what is known of each deity restore humoral balance (removing from Greek sources, then provides data on excess liquid, restoring heat), splints, his or her Etruscan persona along with ref- compresses, bandages, and medicated Share Amphora erences to the places in the text where the wraps. Remedies focused on treatment with your students, deity is depicted. A tabulated chart of rather than prevention, and they varied friends, and family! gods’ names follows: the Etruscan, Greek widely, ranging from simple to complex, and English versions of Latin divine names. from sensible (elevation of sprained re you looking for that unusual The authors have also provided a brief ankles) and proven (vinegar soaks) to Agift for a friend or that gift “Suggestions for Further Reading” contain- magical (ashes of old shoes). Greek appropriate for an outstanding student? Consider giving a sub- ing some excellent introductory studies for physicians treated symptoms rather than causes. Thus, while Pliny the scription to Amphora! For just $10 the interested reader. A thorough index Elder may have observed that foot mal- U.S. in the U.S. and Canada and concludes this very well-written and adies were caused by the water at $15 elsewhere, you can share the informative text. Troezen (on the northeastern edge of articles, reviews, and surprises of a the Peloponnese), he does not explain year of Amphora with others. Samantha Toman how these ailments occurred, whether ([email protected]) is an artist by drinking the water or wading in it, Subscription forms are available nor does he expound upon which foot on-line at http://www.apaclassics and writer who earns her living as a chef ailments are particularly noted at .org/outreach/amphora/Nonmember de cuisine. She has written on Statius’ The- Troezen, nor does he comment on the _Sub_Form.pdf. baid and Roman religion. She divides her real or imagined potency of cures listed time between Bellingham,Washington and throughout his encyclopedia. Instead, Pass Amphora on and make the wilder regions of Montana. Greek medical writers and encyclope- someone smile! dists tantalize the modern reader with seriatim cocktails compounded with ingredients from the common to the 15 Greek and Roman Kissing: Occasions, Protocols, Methods, and Mistakes By Donald Lateiner ntroduction. Touching another proper procedures for “greeting up or because royalty was too exalted (Valerius Ibody or thing with the lips, by pres- down” requires intense education. The Maximus Memorable Doings and Sayings sure, suction, shaping, or bite, con- part of the body osculated reflects the 2.6, 17). veys a panoply of (nonverbal) messages. hierarchies of greeting in welcome and Kissing gestures of affection can It sends physical, emotional, social, and in parting – kissing rights. The reticent extend to a pet, or even something even political information. Indeed, the Greek might kiss the cheek or head of inanimate, such as a bow (Sophocles kiss has more often conveyed some def- an equal, but rarely his lips. Inferiors Philoctetes 656-7) or the land. After erence than equality. Darwin noted might kiss their betters on head and Odysseus returns to Ithaca after twenty (Expression of the Emotions, 1872) that hands. Odysseus’ slaves kiss the hero’s years, Athena persuades him that he is not all cultures kiss. When did ancient hands, shoulders, and head, when they truly home. Once convinced, he kisses Greeks and Romans kiss, and how did recognize their home-come master. his native earth (13.354), as do several their oscular etiquettes differ? Occa- These kisses express respect – even tragic heroes (Philoctetes in Phil. 533, sions for kissing divide into erotic, pseudo-relation – and Odysseus offers 1408; Theseus in Oedipus at Colonus familial, social, especially deferential. mutual affection (Homer Odyssey 21.223- 1654). American soldiers returning from ‘Mouth’ identifies an organ of many 5, 24.478). Eumaeus the swineherd, a danger have expressed their pleasure parts: lips, tongue, teeth, saliva, blood, foster-father, kisses Telemachus’ eyes, similarly (New York Times, p.1: 3 nerves, and several sensitive mucous just as Odysseus’ grandmother had November 2007). membranes. (One hundred fifty facial kissed his eyes (16.15, 19.417). A Pom- A less familiar kissing protocol – the muscles lie beneath the surfaces that peian fresco (Naples Museum) repre- suppliant’s kiss – appears when father participate in kissing.) The mouth is a sents the gratitude of children, whom Priam kisses the hands of his son’s killer complicated and dangerous organ. A the hero Theseus had saved from the (Homer Iliad 24.506), his enemy host of other nonverbal behaviors Minotaur’s snacking, by their kissing Achilles. His kiss supplicates this fero- require the mouth, such as smiling and the hero’s hand. The freshly dead cious enemy for the corpse’s honorable frowning. The lips pout, pucker, and receive a farewell kiss expressing an release. His kiss and kneeling position purse in exchanges that are not only affection that sometimes hoped for a express extreme but not redundant visual, but also aural, olfactory, and tac- transfer of the soul or spiritus (Euripides deference. tile. The entry site of tastes, touch, and Medea 1207; Vergil Aeneid 4.684 [riffing The Greek comic playwright Aristo- odors, the versatile lips also expedite on Medea in Apollonius Argonautica: phanes names many exotic, lascivious vocal and salivary expulsions. The 3.150]; Heliodorus Ethiopian Story 2.8). kisses. Specified kisses include the Romans had a mouth fixation; further, Barbarian osculation was equally “Spread-outer,” the “Doorbolt,” the few acquaintances met their oral ideals. nuanced. Herodotus reports in his Persian “Doorhinge,” the “Weaver,” the Romans focus praise and blame on the ethnography (1.134) that Persian eti- “Potkiss” or Chutra, and the puzzling mouth: os purum (a clean mouth) and os quette demands that one kiss an equal “Limper” (J. Henderson, Maculate Muse, impurum (a polluted mouth; cf. A. Cor- on the mouth, an inferior on the cheek, 1991 2nd ed.). Two-dimensional Greek beille, Controlling Laughter, 1996). but the vastly superior person expects arts show few erotic kisses. Red-figured The data. ‘Classical Kissing’ the inferior to prostrate himself and send pots present two males kissing, the paed- sketches one thousand years of literary a respectfully remote kiss. This self- erastic bonding of aristocratic Athenians, texts (prose and poetry, polite and subordinating posture constituted court a bearded lover and beardless beloved obscene) and visual images (vase- and ceremony in the ancient Near East. Cer- (Louvre). A fifth-century Athenian tomb- wall-painting, sculpture and metal- emonial pros-kunesis (usually translated stone commemorates a young girl kissing work). It largely reports the leisured “kneeling before”) elsewhere consisted her pet birds (Metropolitan Museum). A elite’s behaviors and the products that of a lesser abasement, “blowing a kiss red-figured vase shows a bird kissing, at that elite enjoyed (cf. W. Kroll’s survey, toward.” Remote, deferential kissing, least pecking, an ithyphallic herm “Kuss,” Pauly-Wissowa-Kroll, Real Ency- seen on Persepolis reliefs (Darius relief, (Berlin). Many images show sympotic clopaedie Suppl. 5 [1931] 511-20.) Two Teheran Museum), co-exists with kow- orgies advanced far beyond kisses. millennia of self-censorship and violent tow prostration (Shalmaneser relief, Romans. The Romans perhaps religious destruction of the visual evi- British Museum, 7.13.3, 8.118.4). The kissed more, and worried more about dence for kissing skew the record, but Histories’ inclusion of barbarian kissing their kisses, than the reserved Greeks. the paucity of images of lips sharing a protocols indicates that Herodotus found The Latin lexicographers catalogued kiss still surprises. The absence arises Persian habits noteworthy and suggests and distinguished with incorrect inge- partly from ancient artists’ technique: that Greeks disapproved. Egyptians, nuity three Latin words for kiss: one encounters fewer close-up focus however, do not kiss Greeks on the osculum, basium, and savium (Philippe moments on ancient Attic pots and mouth, because the former reverence the Moreau, Revue de Philologie 1978: 87-97; Pompeian frescoes than in “the head cow, while the latter eat beef. Touching Isidore Dictionary of Synonyms 1.398). shots” of art and cinema today. the mouth of such carnivores would pol- The various gradations offer more than Greeks. The love-kiss does not lute Egyptians (2.41.3). A subject might a “distinction without a difference,” but appear in Homer. The salutation-kiss kiss the foot of a Persian shah or Ethiopi- the evidence eludes their prissy pigeon- was not rare in ancient Greece, but the an king in reverence, or at least in pru- holes. The allegedly puritanical Cato Greeks reserved it for close relatives dent deference (Heliodorus 10.6). joked that returning Romans should 16 and dearest friends. The mastery of Numidian kings kissed no one at all, kiss their wives – a primitive form of ‘breathalyzer’ (Pliny the Elder Natural common (Dialogues 4.24.1; Epistles 75.3). ate gestures characterizes the decline of History 24.13; Plutarch Roman Questions (Recall that mouthwash and the tooth- civilized behavior. Apuleius’ novel con- 6). Social kissing became more common brush were yet rare.) Juvenal (6.51) and tains an unexpected spectrum of kisses by Cicero’s day (Catullus 79.4; Cicero Martial invert the amicable kiss’s mean- (e.g., Metamorphoses 2.6, 4.26, 5.23, 8.29, Letters to Family and Friends 1.9.10). The ing and intention. Martial invokes these 10.21: Photis’ sexy kisses, Charite’s kiss adult Caesar openly kissed his mother kissers’ imagined contacts with the vagi- of the crone’s hand, Psyche’s lascivious- farewell when departing for the elec- na, or penis, and/or anus of countless ly kissing Cupid, the catamite’s slobber- tions for Pontifex Maximus (Suetonius third parties. He pities a friend, a man ing over their captive peasant, the lady Caesar 13).The archaic Romans other- absent from Rome on business for fifteen and the ass Lucius). wise disapproved of kissing one’s wife years (12.59). This friend must now Visual images of ancient Roman kiss- or daughter before others – a point that endure his many neighbors’ kisses. ing rarely offer face-to-face positions. surprised later ancient Greek and These render his return home a gross Such postures for kissing obscure more Roman writers. mistake. He will have to kiss a hairy personality, faces and other organs, than Roman poets present erotic kisses farmer, the fuller dealing in urine, the they reveal (cf. J. Clark, Looking at Love- between both heterosexual and homo- cobbler, the man afflicted with “barber’s making, 1998, e.g., on frescoes and sexual couples. Catullus portrays both itch” or mentagra (an inflammation of the mirror-backs). Genital penetration from his girlfriend Lesbia (5, 7) and his skin in the beard area), and the fellator the rear or a woman sitting atop a reclin- boyfriend Juventius (99) as stingy with and the cunnilinctor ‘fresh’ from their ing man, however, allows good glimpses their kisses. This complaint is part of tasks. Martial wrote sixty epigrams men- of many sexually stimulating actions the needy, sexually frustrated erotic ele- tioning oral sex, and the content of none other than kissing. giac, not the aggressive and abusive ele- of them fails to insult the mouther, the Kisses bestowed on tangible objects giac tradition. Lucretius celebrates the polluted lips of the object of Martial’s ire. – sacred images or secular symbols – familial oscula of children greeting Superiors bestowed kisses on inferi- convey reverential deference. Some homecoming fathers (On the Nature of the ors, emperors on favored subjects, and ceremonies expect worshippers to kiss Universe 3.895). Vergil has Jupiter smil- patrons on clients – kissing down (Sueto- divine images, for example, kissing ingly reassure his impatient daughter nius Tiberius 10, Otho 6; Martial Epigrams statues of gods and heroes, e.g., Sicilian Venus with a kiss (Aeneid 1.253-5), has 8.44, 11.98, 12.29). The emperor Heracles (Cicero Verrine Orations 4.94; Aeneas kiss his son Ascanius (12.434), Tiberius allegedly promoted a law pro- Plutarch Sulla 29.11, Apuleius Metamor- and has Venus command Cupid to hibiting daily kisses among mere phoses 11.17). Similarly, certain Christians incline hungry Dido to kiss that mother- acquaintances (Suetonius Tiberius 34), express veneration on Good Friday by less child while obsessing over his father although his motive is unrecorded. The kissing the wounds or foot of images of (1.687, cf. 1.718). Ovid imagines wel- father of Vitellius begged to hold the Jesus. (This paper cannot address come familial, funereal, friendly, and rit- shoe of Messalina, the Emperor ancient Hebrew and early Christian ual-religious examples but more fre- Claudius’ wife. The favor-seeker fon- kisses of love, greeting, and betrayal, quently explores the erotic ones (e.g., dled and would occasionally kiss the e.g., Judas’ kiss [‘of death’].) Loves 1.4.39; Art of Love 1.424, 663; Cal- soiled object (Suetonius Vitellius 2) – Conclusion. Philematologists usually endars 2.714-19; Metamorphoses 2.357, kissing up – if one believes Suetonius. (J. privilege the erotic kiss. Certainly 3.24, 4.75, 10.256, 13.420, 14.658; Sad Hall, Maia 1998, analyzes Roman defer- advertisers do. The parental-infantile, Poems 1.3.58, 3.5.16). ence greetings.) In Claudius’ reign (41- asymmetric kiss may anticipate the two- One hears less, however, about 54 A.D.), an outbreak of mentagra parasit- way erotic forms, as Freud suggested. pleasant Roman kisses than about the ica struck the Roman male upper classes. Both these intimate kisses may ante- dark side, the dubious slips of Roman This version of a contagious ringworm date the more metaphoric social kisses lips. Satirical texts abuse other men’s disease, trichophytosis barbae, is spread by of salutation, respect, and reconciliation, visible, facial mucous membranes for Trichophyton tonsurans, a common der- but those latter signals of polite hierar- telltale signs of impure activities. matophyte and an anthropophilic fungus chy are the most frequently recorded Impure lips had touched other delicate that infects human beards. Mentagra, and arguably the most important. Cere- but (almost) unmentionable human pas- extremely disfiguring, starts from the monial kisses in the oscular economy sages. Liminal orifices (e.g., nostrils, chin and produces pustules and papules convey nuances of status. The charlatan ears) and visible mucous membranes (Pliny the Elder Natural History 26.2). cult-founder Alexander of Abonuteichus (e.g., lips) may have been biologically The Romans did not know how this dis- (second century A.D.) designated his selected for trapping germs (pathogens) ease spread, but they guessed. Martial enthusiasts as followers “within the and attracting mates, but they also recommends applying plasters and oily kiss” (Alexander, the False Prophet 41). anchor biting Latin humor and pollut- salves to the face, both to treat the dis- The origin of human kissing remains ing invective. Catullus compares Aemil- ease and, for the healthy, to discourage speculative among scientific colleagues, ius’ foul openings, his mouth to his anus (10.22) promiscuous kissers. but few ancient or modern kisses have (os/culus), before he launches his really Sexual slanders circulated in all been entirely spontaneous. Every kisser offensive obscenity. He compares the media and over the slippery Roman must learn the calculus of his or her object of this invective – Aemilius’ social ladder. Cicero called Rome culture’s oscular conventions. mouth – to the vagina of a pissing mule “Abuse City” (maledica civitas; For in heat (97.5-8: in aestu meientis mulae Caelius 38). Oral-genital contact perme- Donald Lateiner, John R. Wright cunnus; see also poems 98-9). ates Latin humiliation and invective. Professor of Humanities-Classics at Ohio Reports of social deference greetings Petronius’ Satyricon exhibits many slob- Wesleyan University ([email protected]), by kiss increase in the early empire. The bery and unwelcome kisses (e.g., 23, 24, was invited by the American Association for philosopher Seneca, Nero’s tutor, men- 67, 74: Quartilla’s catamite, Fortunata the Advancement of Science to participate in tions this haptic or tactile custom of and Scintilla, Trimalchio’s handsome Chicago this past Valentine’s Day on a panel greeting by the lips as unfortunately servant). The cheapening of affection- examining “The Science of Kissing.” 17 Did You Know… Euripides on the Modern Stage. THE WOMEN OF TROY The Philoctetes Project and a related continued from page 5 project called The Theater of War use Sophocles’ plays Ajax and Philoctetes to bruises of their treatment by the Greek masterpiece abounds with noise, fire, tackle the issues of health care, chronic ill- soldiers. Mitchell humanizes the smoke and abrupt movement. The ness, and the psychic wounds that result chorus by giving them names and by women run around the stage like mad- from war. Bryan Doerries, the translator integrating them fully into the action of dened animals locked in a cage. The the play. By singing and dancing in audience is never allowed to grow com- and director of the readings, has brought accompaniment to Hecuba’s sufferings, placent; instead it is deliberately discon- these works of Sophocles to medical stu- they partake of her misfortunes. certed by harsh noises, explosions and dents, doctors, and now military men and Even Helen is thrown about the abrupt changes of mood as the conse- women to help these different communities stage, and a Greek soldier puts a hand quences of war on the Trojan captives understand the needs of patients, both over her mouth to prevent her from talk- unfold before its eyes. those who have returned from war and ing. It is perhaps the ultimate injustice that Helen, the cause of the war, will those who are suffering with chronic pain escape punishment because of and long-term diseases. To learn more Menelaus’ lust for her. This happens about these programs, go to despite all of the evidence that Hecuba http://www.philoctetesproject.org. provides against Helen in their debate. Mitchell succeeds in Menelaus’ obsession with Helen is made bringing Euripides to The debut EP of patently obvious. He speaks of morality and chastity but then forcibly kisses a modern audience. the band Violet Hecuba. He is a supercilious and cruel Vector and man who obviously enjoys his power the Lovely over the women. Clearly no justice is to Lovelies con- be expected from that quarter. tains three songs All that is left is to bury Astyanax’s with classical visibly torn and bloody small body, The audience, which included three wrapped up in Hecuba’s dress, in a busloads of school students on the day I content: “Can Fig. 17. This double cardboard box. There is no shield of attended, was noisily appreciative of the You Dig It?” is axe comes from the Hector for Mitchell’s Astyanax; instead director’s efforts, audibly demonstrating partly about Minoan culture. he is given to Hecuba in a suitcase and the relevance of Greek tragedy as well archaeology; the Image source: he is taken out to be buried in a card- as its pedagogical value. On this day title “Double http://commons board box. His mother Andromache has Greek drama defied all negative predic- Axe” refers to the .wikimedia.org/wiki already been forcibly taken away, but tions about its future. It is far from /File:Labrys.jpg. type of Minoan she appears in a dream sequence heavi- dead; it is in fact experiencing a renais- ly pregnant, a reminder of happier times sance on the modern stage because it axe that appears on the EP’s cover (see and the promise of the bright future this addresses such fundamental issues as Fig. 17); and “Serva ad Manum” (“Slave at little boy might have brought to Troy war and its consequences on the survivors, Hand”) is told from the point of view of an before the Greeks descended on the who are usually women and children. academic secretary. (Lead singer and song- city. A horrific explosion ends the play Relating Euripides’ play to contempo- writer Amanda Brooks is a former secretary as part of the set is destroyed and the rary events is not a betrayal of the in the Classics Department at The University women are hastily herded away. Troy is original but a necessary tool for making no more. A single chorus member Euripides speak to a modern audience. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.) The EP is escapes unnoticed and sits putting on Taylor and Mitchell understood this. available from Holidays for Quince Records her makeup, a lone survivor desperately (http://www.holidaysforquince.com) and trying to cling to her dignity among the Anastasia Bakogianni (a.bakogianni@ from iTunes and Amazon.com. ruins of the once proud city. open.ac.uk) is a post-doctoral research asso- The dust of the explosion marking ciate at The Open University in the United Looking for truth in advertising? For those the end of Troy fell on the first rows of Kingdom. She is currently working on a the audience, a tangible reminder that monograph about the reception of the classics who prefer Latin, truth comes in the form of war and its consequences are every- in popular culture for the Reception of Clas- Veritas Coffee. Billing itself as the “true body’s business. Dusting it off after- sical Texts research project. She is also an coffee,” Veritas offers a wide variety of wards made one feel complicit in the Honorary Fellow of University College organic coffees on its website (http://www destruction of the city and the tragic London, where she teaches at the postgradu- .veritascoffee.com). For those who prefer fate of the women. The production was ate level. Her interests include Greek drama Greek, you have your choice of Aletheia a memorable theatrical experience that and its reception, particularly modern Greek Consulting Inc., (http://www.aletheia.com) reminded us that no matter how many receptions, women in antiquity, and classical times one has read the rich texts of mythology. Previously she worked as a a technology consulting firm or Aletheia Greek tragedy there is always another Research Fellow at the Institute of Classical Research and Management, Inc., layer to discover in them, especially Studies at the University of London. She (http://www.aletheiaresearch.com/) an when experienced on the modern stage. holds a Ph.D. from the University of investment advising company. Even prior to the final explosion, London. Mitchell’s version of Euripides’ 18 Book Review: Pots & Plays particular tragic narrative to inform them” called it totally implausible) earlier position (25). Taplin suggests a variety of icono- that the work with which he (rightly) con- continued from page 1 graphic “signals” to alert the viewer that nects the vase, Prometheus (Released), is twenty-one items, Sophocles only eight. Euripi- this is not just a story but a staged version authentically Aeschylean but that its com- des is the clear winner with fifty-two (probably of that story. The most persuasive seemed panion, the extant Prometheus (in Fetters), reflecting his immense popularity in the fourth to me some details of costuming, elaborate was composed by someone else in imita- century), the remaining twenty-eight perhaps detailing on robes and sleeves, or men tion of it. In any case, “this fascinating pic- related to otherwise unknown tragedies. Of wearing cothurni (high boots sometimes ture” (Taplin’s term) shows Prometheus with the 104 non-Athenian specimens the vast with ornate flaps), and structures that may his arms bound to a rocky arch which majority (about 76) are Apulian, with the have been carried over from the stage such appears to “signal” that the skênê door rep- related Lucanian and then Sicilian, Paestan as porticoes supported by slender pillars or resented a cave-entrance. There is a dis- and Campanian far behind; that is, the south- arches painted in a “squiggly” manner to tressed female figure in an almost identical eastern area of Italy produced many more represent a cave or rocky outcrop. A few pose, hands bound to a rocky arch, in no. than Sicily and the southwest coast of Italy. vases show tripods, elevated in the scene 61, a lively scene on an Apulian The time spread is c. 420 to c. 310 B.C.E. or on pillars, possibly marking a dramatic loutrophoros (a ritual vessel) from the 340s with only five pre-400 B.C.E. and the greatest victory or dedication. formerly in the J. Paul Getty Museum in number (fifty-eight by my count) coming in the Not every reader will be convinced that Malibu that may “possibly” be related to quarter-century after 350 B.C.E. Taplin has made an airtight case for all his Euripides’ Andromeda. A somewhat Why were the grave deposits in the examples. He uses an array of descriptions apprehensive-looking Perseus has his sword Greek West such a rich source of these to mark degrees of certainty (or rather, drawn against an “exotic and colorful” sea- pots? Drama, both serious and comic, was uncertainty), the most frequent being “relat- monster which seems to be being urged on an art-form that crossed social boundaries. ed to,” “closely (or “quite closely”) related (presumably to defeat) by a winged Nike. If children, slaves and – as I firmly believe – to;” then, on a diminishing scale, “plausi- Readers-at-large will be grateful for a females could attend, it has to be consid- bly” (or “very plausibly,” “plausibly related very clear map (ix), full Glossary (292 ff.) ered the most “populist” of the ancient quite closely;” the designation “may be and a detailed Index, while specialists will Greek arts. It spread westward when plausibly related to” for no. 54 is a little appreciate the Vase Concordance on p. troupes of actors made their way there puzzling); “more than probably” and 268. I noticed just a few misprints: bought (and presumably elsewhere in the Mediter- “probably;” “possibly” or “quite possibly.” for brought (213), Athenianess (222). ranean) and found appreciative audiences There is a scattering of other phrases to There is some ambivalence between especially in Sicily (8 with n. 33: remains mark some degree of reservation on the tragedy-related (the vast majority) and of twenty theaters there). That only nine author’s part, but it would perhaps have tragedy related (about five occurrences), have so far been discovered in Italy can been easier for the reader if Taplin had nor am I very happy about child carers perhaps be explained on the assumption been able to bring himself to rank each (218) and asylum seeking (126). As for that the actors’ troupes “probably set up vase, say on a scale of 1 to 10, the higher neologisms, I applaud teratomorphic (“mon- their temporary stages and seating wherever the ranking, the likelier the picture, in his strous in shape,” 286 n. 81), but deplore the local city allowed” (10). estimation, to be “related to,” “connected monodisciplinarian (279 n. 38). And what The biggest problem in a study of this with,” a theatrical production. of chorality (179)? kind, and one which Taplin faces head-on, Readers will come up with their own Those of us who have been tempted by is challenging the position of those who favorites in this rich collection of beautiful the Sirens’ call to try our hand at this kind maintain that the scene in question is only and intriguing vases, but three appealed to of mytho-iconographic decipherment can generically mythographical and not con- me because of my own particular dramatic only be amazed at the ease with which nected with a dramatic performance. Taplin interests. No. 7 is an Apulian volute-krater Taplin navigates these treacherous waters, dubs these folk “iconocentrics” and their from the 360s in Naples, the name-vase of and grateful to him for the charts he pro- opponents, among whom he numbers him- “The Black Fury Painter,” showing a terri- vides (metaphorically speaking) for future self, “philodramatists,” those who contend fied Orestes holding on to a very credible voyages. that the pot-painters have been influenced omphalos (“navel,” a sculpture marking the to a greater or less degree by a theatrical center of the world) as an armed Apollo Tony Podlecki ([email protected]) rendition of the story in question. He argues warns off a dark-skinned Erinys whom taught at Northwestern and Penn State (rightly, in my opinion) that the picture does Taplin aptly describes as “quite spooky.” before moving to Vancouver in 1975 as not have to be understood as reproducing A statuesque Artemis is at the right, not Head of the Dept. of Classics at the Univer- a definite moment from a specific produc- because she appeared in an actual re- sity of British Columbia. After retirement in tion of a particular drama, but that in more mounting of Eumenides, but simply “as a 1998 he held visiting appointments at general terms a definite theatrical mounting kind of companion figure to Apollo” (62). Swarthmore College, and the Universities “lies behind,” and hence “inspires” or In discussing no. 18, an Apulian calyx- of Nancy and Grenoble in France. He con- “informs” or “enriches” the picture; “the krater attributed to the Branca Painter from tinues his research interests in early Greek interest for the viewer of some of the paintings the 340s now in Berlin, Taplin reverts to his poetry and history and classical drama, in question is severely curtailed without a own “more than possible” (I would have especially Aeschylus. 19 Using an all-Latin script forces stu- Terence Awards Honor dents to not only write their words in Latin but to think in a dialogue, rather Student Filmmaking than simply translating word by word. . . . When Latin students put their By Andrew Reinhard heads together, creative and intellec- tual juices start flowing, creating ampadarii. Camescopium. Actus! a Film and Best Picture, however, came clever word play, humorous scenarios, (Lights, camera, action!) Latin from the students of Cedar Crest High and inventive takes on classic stories. students are making films. Lots of School in Lebanon, Pennsylvania. Bella L Gallica introduces viewers to life in Reitnouer stressed the fact that creating them. Query YouTube (www.youtube .com) for “Latin class project,” “latini- Julius Caesar’s army in a comical romp digital films is one important way of tas,” or even “Cicero” and you will against a tribe of Belgians. The entire both preserving and promoting classical receive hundreds of hits, mostly for stu- ten-minute film is written completely in languages: “One of the best ways to dent-produced videos. Over the past original Latin by Nate Deysher, one of ensure these languages continue to be three years, digital movies produced as the Latin IV students of magistra taught is by supplementing traditional Latin class projects have increased dra- Catherine Zackey. Tim Reitnouer styles of teaching with new and inven- matically. YouTube posts new ones filmed the action and edited the movie. tive projects like student films,” from students and teachers several The remaining cast included Erika Reitnouer said. times a week. Lawson, Brent Miller, Aston Dommel, Zackey agrees. “Putting the videos Nearly 300 of the best, funniest, and and Tyler Chanas. View the movie at on YouTube should encourage more strangest of these videos appear on the http://www.youtube.com/watch?v students to pursue Latin studies. One of eClassics social network for teachers and =2gJwuqyUcRE. our main aims is proving that Latin is students of Latin and ancient Greek Honored by receiving both Terence not a dead language.” In the seven years (eclassics.ning.com). Some of the videos Awards, Zackey’s students quickly that Zackey has taught Latin, she has contain spoken Latin. Others feature responded to the news by writing an seen many student films: Latin subtitles. Much of the Latin is origi- acceptance speech: nal. Many of the films boast special effects, One of my favorites was created by soundtracks, earnest acting, and even out- As Catullus once said, “Of all men my first Latin IV class, Jackie Chan Goes to Rome. It was made, not even as takes one might find as DVD extras. (and women) more blest than others, who is more glad, more blest, than I?” an assignment, but just for fun, by six After eighteen months of collecting We are elated to have been chosen as boys . . . and featured a time-space and being entertained by these films, I the winners of these awards and are displacement machine (microwave wanted to do something both to honor thankful for the opportunity to have oven) so the characters could return to excellence in student filmmaking and to presented a culmination of our Latin ancient Rome, meeting Romulus and promote the use of Latin in videos pro- studies. Although many people are Remus and Spartacus along the way, duced for class projects. 2008 inaugurated unaware of its importance, Latin looking for a kidnapped woman the annual Terence Awards, so named forms the foundation of our own mod- (played by one of the boys). after the Roman comic playwright Pub- ern language. We also wish to thank lius Terentius Afer (195/185-159 B.C.). our wonderful teacher, Mrs. Zackey, Not all of Zackey’s students opt for a American students, enrolled in either for her constant help and support! We video project. In the past, some have hope that this competition will contin- produced puppet shows, PowerPoint junior high or high school, or as home- ue to allow future Latin students to schoolers, were encouraged to submit presentations, and dioramas. Regardless express their mastery of Latin as well of the project format, Zackey does use a their best digital films for consideration as their personal creativity! in two categories: Best Picture and Best rubric for grading the group-work that is done in Latin III and Latin IV. “It is Use of Latin in a Film. Bolchazy- Zackey was thrilled with the news that difficult to be fair, as often one or two Carducci Publishers and eClassics spon- her students had been recognized. “I students do most of the work, but they sored the $100.00 Best Picture prize. was delighted that my students won must also grade themselves on effort, so The Classical Association of the Middle your first Terence Awards! The timing they all participate,” Zackey said. West and South’s (CAMWS) Committee was right, as we had done a unit on Cae- Zackey is not the only Latin teacher for the Promotion of Latin (CPL) spon- sar’s Gallic Wars in November, and this who encourages digital video projects as sored the award for Best Use of Latin in was the culminating assignment, filmed an option for students. Many other a Film through a grant of $250.00. over Thanksgiving break.” Latin teachers are engaging their classes Some of the best films submitted Student filmmaker Reitnouer will and boosting Latin enrollment by sug- included the story of the Aeneid recast as attend Belmont University in Nashville gesting or even helping to create Latin a film noir epic, Polyphemus’ tale from in Fall 2009, pursuing a degree in audio movies that are broadcast online and Ovid’s Metamorphoses with Ovid as a engineering technology with a music even shown at school assemblies. One pith helmet-wearing, Loeb-toting aca- minor. He commented on his experi- such teacher is Charles Umiker. demic, and a comic retelling of the ences with both Latin and movie pro- Umiker teaches Latin to students at Aeneid cleverly featuring Google Earth duction. “My four years of studying the Pennington School in Pennington, animations tracing the voyage of the Latin have provided insight and allowed New Jersey. Prior to coming to Pen- hero. One film even had bona fide Holly- me to make connections that have nington, he taught Latin to middle wood talent in the person of Tony enhanced my style of thinking and schoolers for four years at Dutchess Day Plana, the actor whose roles include made me a swifter and more engaged School in Millbrook, New York. It was Ugly Betty’s father and Omar on 24. learner,” Reitnouer said. He continued, The winning film, which received during his first year of teaching in 2003 both the award for Best Use of Latin in that his love of merging the kinetics of 20 filmmaking with classical mythology and they gave it a sort of mystical aura.” (ISSN 1542-2380) is and Latin developed. Taking this guerilla approach (Umiker ® published twice a year describes this as his “school-of-rock”), by the American I was looking for a way to incorporate Umiker believes that the promise of Philological Association (APA). The APA, mythology into the curriculum. My making a movie epic “brought many stu- founded in 1869 by “professors, friends, idea was to have different students dents to Latin who probably wouldn't and patrons of linguistic science,” is now write short plays based on myths and have found it otherwise. I was able to the principal learned society in North perform them, and, as a sort of fun build a serious and robust middle school America for the study of ancient Greek experiment, maybe film the skits. I and Roman languages, literatures, and envisioned doing a series of these program that prepared students for excellent high school Latin careers, and civilizations. While the majority of its throughout the year, and so we decided members are university and college to start with the Greek creation story. the movies were my secret weapon.” Umiker never graded the students or classics teachers, members also include scholars in other disciplines, primary and Umiker recounted how one of his stu- offered extra credit on the productions. secondary school teachers, and interested dents, Matt Constantino, delivered the He did find the movies to be excellent lay people. The APA produces several first script, and how the students motivators. “I found that the movie pro- series of scholarly books and texts and the brought in costumes, and how he vided a good incentive for students to journal Transactions of the American Philo- tracked down the school’s video camera focus on their work. They needed to logical Association. It holds an annual that he found in the science teacher’s learn their stuff so that we could get meeting each January in conjunction with closet. The project lasted the entire back to the movie,” Umiker said. the Archaeological Institute of America. year, becoming what his class called The Umiker’s students’ films have a growing All of the APA’s programs are grounded in the rigor and high standards of tradi- Latin Movie. Umiker taught himself how international fan-base and can be found on YouTube and will soon be posted on tional philology, with the study of ancient to edit digital video. “This was in the Greek and Latin at their core. However, early days of home editing, and we were TeacherTube (www.teachertube.com). the APA also aims to present a broad view pretty limited in terms of computer These films, plus the Terence of classical culture and the ancient software and hardware at my school Awards, are drawing world-wide inter- Mediterranean world to a wide audience. then,” Umiker said. est. When the Terence Awards were In short, the APA seeks to preserve and announced, I received several messages transmit the wisdom and values of I remember that the only computer I from students and teachers studying classical culture and to find new meanings could use was in the after-school day- classics in Spain and England asking if appropriate to the complex and uncertain care room, so I would go there after the competition would be open to stu- world of the twenty-first century. classes and edit with kids running all dents outside of the United States. I The APA’s activities serve one or more around, teaching myself how to do also received email from professors of these overarching goals: this from scratch. . . . It was definitely interested in seeing a category for films • To ensure an adequate number of a labor of love. It was all about doing produced by college students. well-trained, inspirational classics something bold and revolutionary, for It is both my hope and plan to offer teachers at all levels, kindergarten the cause of Latin. through graduate school; new awards in 2010 for Best College • To give classics scholars and teachers Umiker recalled premiering the film at Film, Best Use of Greek in a Film, and Best Foreign Film. American students the tools they need to preserve and the year-end ice cream social. extend their knowledge of classical should be aware that the quality of the civilization and to communicate that The response was pretty sensational. I Latin and Greek language films from knowledge as widely as possible; Europe is outstanding. eClassics fea- remember the audience cheering wild- • To develop the necessary infrastruc- ly over the final credits and people tures some of these movies uploaded by ture to achieve these goals and to being sort of surprised that such a students and teachers in the spirit of a make the APA a model for other soci- thing was possible. The combination thrown gauntlet. eties confronting similar challenges. of the students’ acting, Matt’s script, The call for submissions for the second The APA welcomes everyone who shares the music, the editing, and the sort of annual Terence Awards will be posted at anarchic spirit that pervaded the whole this vision to participate in and support its the start of the 2009-2010 academic year. programs. All APA members receive thing made for a final product that not With the Terence Awards supporting only reinforced lessons about Greek Amphora automatically as a benefit of mythology but sort of summed up student filmmaking in classics, perhaps membership. Non-members who wish to what that Latin class was all about. Umiker’s success in building Latin pro- subscribe to Amphora (for a very modest grams will echo as more departments annual subscription fee of $10 U.S. in the investigate a fun, invigorating, contem- U.S. and Canada for two issues; $15 else- As for how that year-long project affect- where) or who wish further information ed his Latin enrollment numbers, porary way to inject life into ancient lan- guages for new generations of students. about the APA may write to The Ameri- Umiker said that the movie “was cer- can Philological Association, 292 Claudia tainly a boon to the Latin program. . . . Cohen Hall, University of Pennsylvania, Latin enrollment went way up, and I Andrew Reinhard (areinhard@ 249 S. 36th Street, Philadelphia, PA was able to obtain much more hi-tech bolchazy.com) is currently the Director of 19104-6304, [email protected]. software and hardware for editing.” eLearning for Bolchazy-Carducci Publish- The APA Website is www.apaclassics.org. Umiker’s classes continued to com- ers. He also serves as CAMWS’ webmaster Members attending meetings of or plete Latin movies in subsequent years. (beginning on July 1) as well as its Vice making presentations to interested non- “There were three more Latin movies, President for Illinois. He was recently hon- members are urged to request sample copies ored at the CAMWS annual meeting with the of Amphora from the APA office for distribu- and we even manufactured and sold tion to these audiences. DVDs, complete with making-of docu- CPL Award for Outstanding Promotional mentaries and blooper reels. The movies Activity given this year for his creation of the were the flagship of the Latin program, Terence Awards. He is currently searching for the killer app for Latin on the iPhone. 21 “IT WASN’T LIKE THAT”: DEMETER AND PERSEPHONE, FICTION-WRITING AND MYTH IN MARGARET DRABBLE’S THE PEPPERED MOTH by Hilary Mackie

n “Crossing the Styx” (Amphora 5.2, and her granddaughter Faro. York, even. But, as so often before, she IFall 2006), Margaret Drabble dis- Bessie Bawtry is born and raised at cannot face the “effort” ahead, and cusses classical themes in contempo- the beginning of the twentieth century instead dies peacefully in her bed (293). rary fiction, including her own “conscious in the South Yorkshire coal-belt town Where is the Demeter in Bessie’s use” of the Demeter myth in her 2000 Drabble calls “Breaseborough.” Brease- narrative? At least once, Ellen Bawtry novel, The Peppered Moth. She describes borough is represented as a deadly does try to drag her daughter from classical literature in Jungian terms, as “a underworld. “The very earth was death. When Bessie takes to her bed subterranean lake, a collective uncon- mined. . . . The ground might give at before Part I of her Cambridge Tripos scious.” Classical myth, the world of the any moment and let one down into the (final exams), Ellen, alarmed, plans to dead, and the unconscious emerge from darkness . . . the menace beneath would visit the daughter whom, “in spite of all her discussion as analogues and grab one’s ankle and pull one down, lovelessness, she loved.” But Bessie metaphors for one another. All three are however clean one’s ankle socks” (14; abruptly “recovers,” averting the visit; in play when she says, “[i]n writing about page references are from the American she “seals the tomb from within.” The my mother, I felt that I was indeed cross- Harcourt paperback edition). As she narrator then replays the story and imag- ing the Styx of hatred and ill-will and grows from precocious infant to school- ines a different version of the past (yet entering an underworld in search of rec- leaving prodigy, her parents and teach- another underworld) in which the onciliation and enlightenment.” ers have no doubt that Bessie, along “shade” of Ellen Bawtry does go to Cam- I was a bit startled to find the phrase with others of her generation, will fulfill bridge, mingling with “[t]he ghosts of “conscious use” in this context. Surely it her resolve to escape. “The exodus classical scholars and wrangling mathe- is in the very nature of myth and writing, from Breaseborough is part of our plot” maticians.” But these “learned ladies” no less than of the unconscious itself, to (18), but especially Bessie’s. have nothing to say to Ellen Bawtry; resist conscious control? As Drabble her- Yet Bessie fails to leave Breasebor- they “do not speak the same language.” self puts it, “[n]ovels develop themselves ough in a meaningful sense. She does The visit would have been useless; and tell stories that their authors do not move to Surrey in the south of England mother and daughter do not “inhabit intend.” Possibly there is a connection – “another world,” as Faro explains to a the same realm” (112-3). here with the disappointment the author visiting American (140), but only on the Two generations later, Bessie’s thirty- expresses in The Peppered Moth’s non- strength of her husband’s career, not her something granddaughter Faro is also fiction “Afterword” (read “Afterworld”?): own talents. Nor does she “marry out” preoccupied with death, but in rather “I went down into the underworld to of Breaseborough; she “married the boy more modern ways. Faro strikes out- look for my mother, but I couldn't find next door” (140). siders as “obsessed” with her deceased her. She wasn't there.” Some (like Glenda Leeming in her father, whose “unspeakable” funeral My own (conscious) intent here is 2006 study, Margaret Drabble, 101) argue she cannot resist describing to them in twofold: to trace some images and that the novel’s narrator repeatedly tries detail (141-2). She wakes in the small themes from the Demeter myth that are and fails to find an explanation for hours and frets about “the point of all developed in The Peppered Moth, and Bessie’s failure. I disagree. Again and the dead,” wonders whether advances then show how they intersect with again, we are shown how Bessie’s dis- in science herald the death of death themes from another Greek katabasis taste for the “underworld” of Breasebor- itself, and if so, “What of the already (descent) myth: that of Orpheus. I do ough is matched by an equally deadly dead? . . . Shall there be a Harrowing of not know whether Drabble is using the inclination for “inertia, failure, self-pity, Hell?” (147). And she has great difficul- second myth consciously or uncon- collapse” (97). Her scholarly gifts are ty leaving a relationship with a “gaunt” sciously. Either way, the Orpheus myth balanced by a talent for illness, and the and “cavernous” man (130) who lives in seems to address the very perplexities two repeatedly converge. As a young squalor and prefers the dark. When Faro she raises in connection with her use of child, she hides out under the parlor tries to disentangle herself from Seb the Demeter myth. table, a “wooden cave,” in which she Jones, he hooks her back with the ficti- Three women in The Peppered Moth rehearses passages from hymns and the tious announcement that he has been may be identified as “Persephone fig- Bible (8). When she gets the Spanish flu, diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. ures.” Each struggles with an attraction her parents’ four-poster bed provides a Fortunately, no “sealed tomb doors” to death (real, metaphorical, or both), similar interior world (25-6). Studying stand between Faro and her mother (see and to men who have “Stygian” associa- feverishly for Cambridge entrance Fig. 18). Chrissie is able to rescue Faro tions. In each case, the woman’s mother exams, Bessie longs for “the comfort of emotionally from Seb Jones when Faro plays a significant role, for better or illness” and to be “sealed up for all time tells her all (334). Faro also differs from worse, in the daughter’s struggle with behind a large stone, with the grave tro- Bessie in that her Persephone associa- death/“death.” The first Persephone is phies, the offerings, the Virgil, the tions include springtime and renewal, Bessie Bawtry, a fictional character French grammar, and Palgrave’s Golden along with death. The morning after her based on Drabble’s real life mother. Treasury” (72). Her actual death occurs wakeful night weeping for the dead, she The others are Bessie’s daughter on a cruise on the QE II. Now elderly, “uncrumples and unfurls herself like a Chrissie and Chrissie’s daughter Faro. Bessie has the opportunity to disembark revived flower” (148). After an accident 22 My focus here will be mainly on Bessie and set foot in the “New World” of New on the M1 (a British highway), she retrieves her keys from the motorway to the objection the author has already things originate? verge and becomes absorbed in picking made. The worlds of fiction and real Bessie herself is dis- flowers. The “hot breath of the stream life, thanks to the process of writing the appointed in words of cars wafts towards her with a Phle- novel, have come to stand in the same early on. Or rather, graean stink” as she “tugs at hairy relation to each other as the worlds of she is disappointed stems, and woody twines, at hollow the living and dead: they seem like by the reality they culms” (314). In the Homeric Hymn to mutually inaccessible realms. had promised to Demeter, Persephone is abducted while But I also suggest that a solution is describe. When she gathering flowers in a meadow. But we written into the last sentence of the first sees a Rose of do not fear for Faro as we would for a Afterword. “I cannot sing,” Drabble Sharon – the actual Fig. 18. Frederic traditional Persephone. For one thing, writes, “my mother could not sing, and bush, as opposed to Leighton’s (1830- she has already emerged from the acci- her mother before her could not sing. the reference in the 1896) painting por- dent unscathed. Indeed, the car (or But Faro can sing, and her clear voice Song of Solomon – trays Persephone’s “chariot”?) of the other motorist (the floods the valley” (369). She has just it strikes her as a return to her moth- offender in the accident) is far more mentioned “an underworld story from “weedy, untidy, er. Image source: badly damaged than Faro’s own. another mythology” in which a woman scruffy suburban http://commons In the Demeter hymn, Persephone’s smears herself with dead rat to enter undershrub.” She .wikimedia.org/wiki marriage to Hades may be read as a hell in quest of her beloved. In such a wonders: “Maybe /File:FredericLeighton “dynastic” arrangement whereby Zeus context, I suggest, Faro’s singing evokes words are always -TheReturnof allies upper and lower realms of the cos- Orpheus. Specifically, the allusion, once more beautiful than Perspephone(1891) mos. In The Peppered Moth, Faro mediates again “feminizing” Greek myth, identi- things and reality but .jpg. between different worlds, but not fies Faro as a female Orpheus. a pale shadow of the according to a patriarchal paradigm. This Orpheus’ music bends the hearts of word?” (10). Thereafter, Bessie chooses is not the first time Drabble has “femi- the underworld gods; it enables living words over things, reality, and life, all nized” a hero from classical myth. Rober- and dead to cross and re-cross normally her life. She prepares badly for her Tri- ta Rubinstein, in a 1982 article in untraversable boundaries. A scene pos because it never occurs to her that Contemporary Literature, argues that in The towards the end of the novel explicitly bronze axes, Teutonic brooches, and Radiant Way, Drabble “writes woman” in uses music in this connection. After an the relics of the Beaker people have Cixous’ sense, reworking classical tales explosion in the night up north, Faro anything to do with English literature, based on male heroes like Perseus and and her new boyfriend Steve drive out with “The Word.” By contrast, she “has Theseus, creating female characters who to the site. Faro, weeping, at last experi- her Beowulf by heart” (114-5). achieve self-knowledge while “confronting ences a katharsis that feels to her like How, then, to revive words them- the monsters of myth.” the “harrowing of hell” she has been selves, recognizing that they need not be Female connections are strong and sig- longing for. She has a tape of Handel’s lifelessly divorced from things, but have nificant in the Demeter hymn; in Faro’s Messiah in her car, performed by a local the power to interact with life dynamical- story, they predominate even more pow- choral society, and plays it loudly. When ly? In her article on “Crossing the Styx,” erfully. The only character to be “quite a fireman comes over, Faro expects to Drabble also suggests that recalling a fond of her poor old grandma” (306), Faro be told to turn the music down or “fuck childhood struggle to learn Latin and also persuades her (great) Aunt Dora to off back down the M1 back to where Greek can revive a spirit of youthful attend a presentation on tracing the she came from.” Instead, he tells her enquiry. If so, and if classical study can migration patterns of Yorkshire families that his father sang in that very perform- (like Chrissie’s archaeology, 179) retrieve via mitochondrial DNA, which is passed ance, and the two of them “shake hands lost things, these might include a convic- down matrilineally. And the novel ends across the divide” (352-3). tion in words as potent and efficacious. with Faro’s recollection of how she had As outlined above, the myth of Odysseus’ tales, the Sirens’ song, Gorgias always enjoyed spending Christmas at Orpheus is the quintessential myth of the on Helen, Plato on Gorgias . . . these Bessie’s house – how she “had felt safe artist – a figure who dissolves the bound- examples remind us of countless others. there . . . like a proper child” (365). aries between different worlds. Why, in If there is a difficulty about words in clas- Yet Drabble herself objects fiercely its author’s view (many readers would dis- sical literature, it is seldom that they are to this ending in the Afterword to the agree) does The Peppered Moth – the novel unreal or impotent, but quite the oppo- book. “It’s all very well, imagining a itself, as opposed to its character Faro – site: that they are dangerously potent. happy ending, imagining Faro not succeed at “the Orpheus thing”? (Cassandra is a rule-proving exception.) Gaulden’s happy memory of a happy It is suggested that the problem lies Granted, the consequences may be Christmas. It wasn’t like that” (369). in language itself. In the Afterword, problematic, even catastrophic some- She wonders whether she should have Drabble also complains of difficulty times. Orpheus himself does not have a tried to write a “factual memoir” about finding a tone in which to “create or happy ending. Perhaps the point is that her mother instead (367). This seems to describe” the “harsh, dismissive, censo- even if you “cross the Styx” in a “con- me to ignore the real issue. Ideally, rious” mother who “taught her lan- scious” way, you can never be sure what either kind of writing – fiction or mem- guage” (367). In the novel, Chrissie you will find there. This reader cannot oir – would transcend and bridge the elects to be an archaeologist so she can help wondering: did Drabble’s distress, gap between “what actually happened” deal with things, and evade her moth- on completing her novel, really derive and pure, unanchored invention. Even a er’s tyranny over the “Word” (179). from the fact that she did not find her fictional novel should feel “real” and Unlike the author, Chrissie does feel mother, or a language in which to relevant to real life; even a “factual” that words and language are freed for describe her? Or that, in fact, she did? memoir will employ creative license for her on her mother’s death (305). aesthetic effect. I suggest that the real Where does this perceived, but artifi- Hilary Mackie ([email protected]) is Asso- source of discomfort here is analogous cial, distinction between words and ciate Professor of Classics at Rice University. 23 ® GUIDELINES FOR CONTRIBUTORS A Publication of the American Philological Association Sponsorship and Readership: Suggested Length of Submissions: Amphora, a publication sponsored by Articles (1500-1800 words), reviews the Committee on Outreach of the (500-1000 words). Amphora is footnote Editor American Philological Association, is free. Any pertinent references should T. Davina McClain published twice a year, in the spring be worked into the text of the Louisiana Scholars’ College at and fall. Amphora is intended for a wide submission. 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