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A publication of the American Philological Association Vol. 5 • Issue 2 • Fall 2006
CROSSING THE STYX: THE Shadow Government: AFTERLIFE OF THE AFTERLIFE HBO’s Rome by Alison Futrell by Margaret Drabble ince the box office success of Gladiator hades from the underworld walk in also the name of a Finnish pop group, unexpected places in contempo- founded in 1992, Styx is an American S(2000), television networks have been S trying to find a way to bring the glory and rary culture, and of late I’ve been pop group, Artemesia’s Ashes is a Russ- encountering them everywhere. New ian pop group, and Tartarus is an inter- corruption of ancient Rome to the small moons are still named after old gods. net war game. Charon has also given his screen. HBO’s long-anticipated miniseries The International Astronomical Union name to organizations like Charon Rome (2005) succeeds hugely, presenting approves this practice and discourages Cemetery Management, which boasts a richly visualized and sophisticated work astronomers from calling asteroids after that it has “user friendly software for the their pets or their wives. Pluto’s moon, death care industry.” The imagery of that takes the ancient evidence seriously. discovered in 1978, was named Charon, the ancient underworld has a long and Focusing on the period between 52 and and on All Souls Eve 2005, I heard that adaptable afterlife. 44 B.C., the series dramatizes the deterio- the discovery of two new moons of And classical learning infiltrates con- ration of the Republic into civil war and the Pluto had just been announced. They temporary literature in many ways. establishment of autocracy under Caesar. have not yet been named. (Pluto is Detective and ghost stories frequently called Pluto because he is the darkest, feature professors and detective-profes- smallest, and most remote of the planets sors, epitaphs and inscriptions, Latin – not really a planet at all, some have tags and Greek riddles. English writers always said, and indeed in 2006 he was of the Golden-age of detective fiction, demoted.) Astrophysicists, positing the like Dorothy Sayers and Margery existence of spectral stellar bodies, have Allingham, display a reader-flattering given them names such as Vulcan and familiarity with the classics: the texts of Nemesis – Vulcan is an unseen and Sayers are encrusted with epigraphs and hypothetical planet, Nemesis an imagi- quotations from Elizabethan and nary and deadly twin to our sun. Jacobean literature and from Latin The names of ships echo classical verse. In Gaudy Night (1935), her Fig. 1. Atia (Polly Walker) sits on the themes. Erebus and Terror, last seen in Oxford-based thriller, one of the clues is podium at Caesar’s triumph with Baffin Bay in August 1845, were all too a poison-pen letter quoting Book 3.214- Antony (James Purefoy) in the back- aptly named, and Nelson was familiar 218 of the Aeneid, a passage about the ground. Rome, episode 1.10 with Agamemnon, Theseus, Medusa, Harpies, lines of which a full literal “Triumph,” HBO, 2005. and the French Pluton. Musicians are translation is never given, though it is just as loyal to the classical: Charon is easy enough from the context to pick up From the opening credits, in which continued on page 2 ancient mosaics and graffiti come to ani- mated life, Rome is a feast for the eyes, a Book Review: “The Shadow The Reimagined Getty Villa ...... 12 squalid, vivid reconstruction of the ancient Thieves” ...... 3 Book Review: “Harrius Potter et ambience that has clearly paid much atten- Rome in Prime Time Panel ...... 5 Philosophi Lapis”...... 15 tion to the details of Roman material culture, WHAT’S NEW IN ANCIENT ROMAN PLATO’S “SYMPOSIUM”: A FILMMAKER’S as well as the small elements of social and MAGIC: RECENT ARCHAEOLOGICAL PERsPECTIVE ...... 16 DISCOVERIES ...... 6 political behavior. Best of all, the series Book Review: “The Lock,“ “The Key,” A Pair of Pieces from Book Four of and “The Door in the Wall”...... 18 offers a complex presentation of power rela- “The Gardens of Flora Baum” ...... 8 tions in Rome, one in which class and the Book Review: “Till We Have Faces: National Endowment for the A Myth Retold”...... 20 economics of empire shape competition on Humanities Grant ...... 9 many levels. There is much emphasis on
Inside Ask A Classicist ...... 21 IT WAS THEIR DESTINY: ROMAN POWER perception, on the management of public AND IMPERIAL SELF-ESTEEM ...... 10 The World of Neo-Latin ...... 22 image to create legitimacy in the eyes of a Did You Know ...... 11 Guidelines for contributors. . . . . 24 targeted audience, whether that audience is
APA Speakers Bureau ...... 11 continued on page 4 CROSSING THE STYX: THE AFTERLIFE OF THE AFTERLIFE continued from page 1
a sense that these creatures are foul overtly displayed. Anthony Burgess’s class, public-school-educated readers female monsters of unnatural habits. first novel, A Vision of Battlements, writ- were far more likely to have had a classi- This poison pen letter is also a mislead- ten about 1949 but not published until cal education than now. (Latin ing clue in that it leads heroine Harriet 1965, and set in Gibraltar, is based on remained an entrance requirement for Vane to pronounce, “I’m afraid we can’t the journey of Aeneas – his hero is the older universities until well after my suspect Emily or any of the scouts of called Ennis, and Turnus becomes day.) Harvey’s first edition was full of expressing their feelings in Virgilian Turner – and in his foreword, Burgess references to myth and fable – refer- hexameters” (116) – a sentiment that owns, modestly, “The use of an epic ences which we reduced to save space neatly summarizes the social cachet or framework, diminished and made for contemporary writers. But here was a snob appeal of the Latin tag. comic, was not merely pedantic wanton- dilemma. Because classical allusions (At the end of this novel, addicts will ness, nor was it solely a tribute to James were less current, that did not mean that recall, Lord Peter Wimsey proposes to Joyce; it was a tyro’s method of giving a reference book could omit them, for Harriet in the words, Placetne, magistra, his story a backbone. . . .” Burgess, as a one of the reasons why we need refer- to which she replies Placet: this oblique recent biography by Andrew Biswell ence books is to inform ourselves about approach added for us schoolgirls a revealed, was not a good Latin scholar: the things that our culture may have for- deeper sexual thrill, all the more gotten. So we aimed to include those thrilling for being clothed, as Gibbon major names that are woven through the put it, in the decent obscurity of a fabric of English Literature and to try, learned language.) where possible, to relate them to their One might have expected the con- Classical learning influence, their major translators, and nection between detective fiction and their history in the English-speaking the classics to wane with the teaching of infiltrates contemporary world. We also included brief defini- classics, but it persists, with great suc- literature in tions of terms such as Hellenistic and cess, in novels like Donna Tartt’s The many ways. Augustan, and we cross-referred to the Secret History (1992), which achieved Horatian Ode. These were not easy worldwide popularity and assumes a links or decisions (Senecan drama and familiarity with Greek myth and Lucan are not very elegantly connect- Dionysian ecstasy. Carol Goodman’s The ed), and we were aware that while you Lake of Dead Languages (2001) has a simi- can look up Ovid anywhere, it is not so lar background of death and the school- at Manchester University he passed his easy to find the provenance of legendary room. And classical detective fiction courses in English, History, and French, figure Hermes Trismegistus. isn’t wholly an English language obses- but failed the subsidiary but compulsory The selection of classical entries was sion: in the year 2000, Cuban writer José General Latin paper. He was granted a overseen by Dr. Robert Bolgar, editor of Carlos Somoza published The Athenian respectable Upper Second class degree Classical Influences on European Culture, Murders (originally in Spanish entitled in his Finals, thanks to the grace of a A.D. 1500-1700 (1976), whom I never La Caverna de Las Ideas, or The Cave of viva (an oral examination, or interview) met, though I enjoyed our copious cor- Ideas), which involves the mysterious – so we know that his Virgil came to respondence. I had one letter from him, death of one of Plato’s pupils, a plump him in translation, and courtesy of the which has given me much thought over detective called Heracles, and many inspiration of Joyce. the decades, about the survival of litera- scholarly jokes about textual misinter- The tradition continues: the South ture. He said that while he could specu- pretations, defective manuscripts, foot- African born novelist Lynn Freed uses late with reasonable confidence about notes, and translator’s errors. The novel the Demeter-Persephone myth in House which classical authors would still be is presented as an authentic Greek text, of Women (2002), a lyrical, female explo- familiar in two or three hundred years, written shortly after the Peloponnesian ration of the story. Here, a daughter at least as names and in translation, he Wars, and baffled and delighted even struggles to free herself from her over- could not begin to imagine what the those who knew the period. protective mother, only to find herself human race, if it survived, would be Classicists have always been good trapped in another form of hell and sex- reading in two to three thousand years. code-breakers: at Bletchley Park, the ual subjugation with her husband, the Let us now plunge into the “under- centre of British intelligence during “Syrian,” whose name is Naim – an world” of composition. When I began World War II, many Oxbridge dons unusually anti-maternal interpretation writing fiction I had just left university were employed decoding messages of the myth and the Homeric Hymn to and was eager to enter what I naively about the movements of German sub- Demeter. How, one wonders, would this thought of as the real world. Almost by marines, and some of these also turned strike a reader who did not recognise chance, I hit on a chatty, first person, their attention to detective fiction – as the source? Which sources are familiar girlish narrative voice, which served me did the poet Cecil Day-Lewis, translator to contemporary readers, and why? well through several novels. This was a of Virgil, writing as Nicholas Blake. On A brief aside here about the editing voice that tried to hide erudition, to a higher plane of literary ambition we of the 1985 edition of The Oxford Com- refrain from too much quotation, and to find Joyce’s Ulysses, with its reworking panion to English Literature and our poli- wear its learning lightly. Ars est celare of Homer’s Odyssey, and its many lin- cy for including entries on Greek and artem was my motto. But I succeeded, guistic games, puzzles, and devices. Roman authors. The original Oxford perhaps, too well, and in recent years, I Homer and Virgil are and remain a rich Companion, edited by Paul Harvey, have felt the need for a greater connec- source, sometimes hidden, sometimes appeared in 1932, when male middle- tion with literary sources and structures. 2 In my novel The Peppered Moth (2000), I Book Review: The Shadow Thieves made conscious use of the Demeter- Persephone story, in my attempt to by Sally Davis reach my dead mother. In writing about my mother, I felt that I was indeed Anne Ursu. The Cronus Chronicles, Book I: ghosts are thoroughly Homeric and Virgilian. crossing the Styx of hatred and ill-will The Shadow Thieves. Atheneum Books for The dark journey takes them through black and entering an underworld in search of Young Readers (http://www.simonsays. caves and tunnels where they are threatened reconciliation and enlightenment. As I com), 2006. Pp. 424. Hardcover $16.95. by bats, rats, huge beetles, and live bird- say at the end of the novel, I don’t think I found them. The shade of my mother ISBN 1-4169-0587-1. skeletons. They are shocked to encounter Mr. is still waiting somewhere across the Metos there, chained to a crag, like river. fter two prize-winning adult novels, Prometheus, with blood on his stomach! Writing that novel was difficult, and Anne Ursu has written her first book Charlotte is captured, then ferried by when I began the next, The Seven Sisters A for children (ages 9-12+). Interweaving ragged, greasy Charon; she escapes, slips (2002), I needed to look elsewhere. I by Cerberus and the stinking pit of Tartarus, remember thinking that if I used the Greek mythology with irresistible characters conceit of a Reading Group studying and a lively plot line, she delivers a sure and heads for the Iron Gate of Hades’ Virgil I could give myself the pleasant winner for middle-school readers. The writ- Palace. On to Demons, Hydras, Harpies, task of re-reading the Aeneid and re- ing is snappy and informal: Ursu has been and the Giant Elm of False Dreams. The acquainting myself with a familiar but very successful in echoing the conversation- creepy descriptions of these Stygian depths largely forgotten story – a task from al tone of children that age. Her protago- will surely inspire our young readers to which I could surely find sustenance. delve more deeply into the mythic under- From this project, my novel took shape, nists are Charlotte and her cousin Zee. The and I found myself reworking the villain, Philonecron, is a power-hungry world of the Greeks and Romans. When underworld myth in a lighter vein. My underworld rebel who commands an army Charlotte finally arrives at Hades’ black Virgil class sets off on a largely happy of thousands and schemes to overthrow throne, he calls Charlotte by name. When voyage in the wake of Aeneas and Hades. The naming of Philonecron (the she asks, “How do you know my name?” enjoys a splendid meal on the bird- corpse lover) heightens the suspense as we he responds, “I know everyone’s name. infested shore of Lake Avernus. You all belong to me.” Novels develop themselves and tell watch these characters act out their des- stories that their authors do not intend. I tinies. This additional level adds depth to The final battle between the forces of had intended, in The Seven Sisters, to the story and piques the reader’s curiosity Hades, Thanatos, and Hypnos (with Charlotte describe the lasting joys of reading and about the underlying mythology. and Zee as allies) against Philonecron and the to sing the praises of intellectual com- Charlotte is a funny, savvy, middle- Shadow Thieves ends in destruction: “a great panionship. But I had not consciously schooler with red hair and freckles who crack splintered through the air – Philone- set out to recreate a yearning for the cron’s mouth opened, his eyes bugged . . . he schoolroom, or a nostalgia for the expe- “has no patience with twits or nerds"; her rience of Latin lessons. This backward- best friend is her foundling kitten Mew. tumbled backward, his bottom hitting the looking desire emerged of its own When her English soccer-playing cousin, ground. . . . His feet started smoking, they accord, as I revisited old texts and mem- Zee, comes to live with her family, strange burst into a blood-red flame. The fire traveled ories. It has since occurred to me that things begin to happen. A mysterious, incur- up his legs, and screaming, he propelled him- for many of us whose lives have not able illness visits anyone whom Zee touches self onto the litter – leaving a pile of ash maintained a continuous contact with classical studies, the recollection of – something to do with missing shadows. . . . where his legs had once been” (392). those old struggles with a dead language Charlotte, who usually finds school annoy- This kind of gripping action, the lively and encapsulates, paradoxically, the spirit of ing and dull, gets a creepy new English engaging characters, an intricate plot, and a youthful enquiry. Remembering the teacher, Mr. Metos, who introduces an in- fantastically atmospheric setting are bound to class room and the set texts, remember- depth unit on the Underworld. The threads capture the imaginations of readers aged nine ing Mrs. Jerrold or Mr. Crocker Harris – now come together: at the same time of to twelve (and beyond). The way Ursu has these memories convey us into our own past. Unkind critics may read regression Zee’s arrival, Mr. Metos’ lessons come to placed the world of homework and soccer so into these sentimental journeys: others life, and Philonecron’s minions begin to close to the darkness of the Underworld cre- may see them as a return to an unsullied escape to the upper world and steal more ates a sense of apprehension and excitement. source. shadows for his army. Charlotte and Zee She succeeds in whetting the appetites of For women in particular, the study of must find a way to thwart Philonecron’s young readers for more of the story (Book II) – classics has had a symbolic and polemic Shadow Thieves and save their friends. and for a deeper taste of ancient mythology. significance. For centuries, most girls were denied what their brothers often The heart of the story is when Charlotte saw as a mixed blessing – the dubious and Zee pursue the thieves to the Underworld. Sally Davis ([email protected]) has privilege of learning Latin and Greek. It’s not Lake Avernus in Cumae, not Taenarum taught Latin in Arlington, Virginia, for thirty In George Eliot’s The Mill on the Floss, in Laconia: the entrance to the Underworld is years and is the author of several textbooks Maggie Tulliver is jealous of her brother a nondescript door marked “No Admittance,” for Latin, including Cicero’s Somnium Scipio- Tom’s access to learning: she has an hidden in plain sight, where vast crowds of nis: The Dream of Scipio (co-authored with eagerness for knowledge which he, a practical outdoor boy, completely lacks. people congregate – in the Mall! Gilbert Lawall, 1988). She is also a co- The sights and sounds, the monsters and founder of the National Latin Exam. continued on page 14 3 Shadow Government: HBO’s Rome continued from page 1
a badly-duped Brutus, believing Caesar’s They were also misinformation about troop morale in Gaul; resolved to incorpo- or the troops themselves, following Caesar rate female charac- across the Rubicon when roused by the ters in behind-the- alleged manhandling of Antony by Pom- scenes deal making, pey’s minions; or the Senate, driven to fist- as key figures in fights when Cicero surprisingly takes a pro- Rome’s “shadow gov- Pompey stance he has openly disavowed. ernment.” Indeed, the Fig. 2. Servilia (Lindsay Duncan) lies in While the corruption of power is an operat- dramatized feud between Atia and Servilia the street after an attack by Atia’s ing cliché for filmic Rome, here there is drives much of the action in the miniseries, henchmen. Rome, episode 1.9 “Utica,” much nuancing of ambition. Characters dis- powering developments on the “home HBO, 2005. cuss the implications of Caesar’s new sella front” and eventually leading to the assassi- tribution creates an atmosphere redolent of curulis, the consul’s magisterial seat in the nation of Julius Caesar. the possibility of tyrannicide. Curia, now provided with a back: Caesar Heller, on the official Web site, rightly What are the aims of Rome’s female declares it “much more comfortable”; for claims a historical basis for this emphasis rulers? On one level, maternal ambition of Cassius “it is a throne!” while Brutus demurs on women as dramatic agents, pointing to a traditional type fuels their efforts. This that “thrones are generally much more deco- the absence of male elites during conquest ambition is overtly connected to family duty rative. That is decidedly plain and chair- and civil war in the later Republic and to by Servilia, who encourages Brutus to like” (episode 1.11, “The Spoils”). the deterioration of institutions that tradition- become politically engaged in emulation of There is clear evidence throughout of the ally excluded women from the political the high standards in achievement set by series’ deliberate effort to break with some sphere. Some of the actions of Rome’s his Junian ancestors for five hundred years. traditions of representation; creator Bruno female characters are consistent with the Power and status, guaranteed by public Heller wanted to embed Rome within an customary roles documented especially for recognition, are also feminine goals, ethical fabric that does not depend on elite matrons. Women act as representa- although a distinction is made here Christian values. Although the publicity for tives of their families; among the patricians, between power and politics. Atia claims the series emphasizes the subordination of this duty has a fairly explicit political signifi- (episode 1.12, “The Kalends of February”) morals to power, the audience is witness to cance. Atia is recruited by Caesar to renew that “politics is for the men” but is very sen- strong connections drawn between polythe- the marital alliance between the Julian fami- sitive to the performance of status: who istic belief and behavior. Characters find ly and Pompey, following the death of attends her dinner parties, who is seen by solace in seeking the help of divinities; they Julia. Atia hosts a secret meeting of mem- her side at public ceremonies – all the visi- casually interact with deities as they move bers of the senatorial Old Guard, the mod- ble symbols of privilege (see Fig. 1). Atia’s through life; they experience the power of erates, and Antony as Caesar’s agent. Less initial actions against Servilia are motivated ritual: in “The Stolen Eagle,” the opening traditional, perhaps, is Atia acting as by jealous fear that her romantic relation- episode of season one, Atia is drenched in patron during the tension of Caesar’s ship with Caesar endangers Atia’s status as bovine gore as she participates in the ritual impending arrival. Her morning salutatio, the new first lady of Rome. Outwardly, of the taurobolium, hoping to ensure the the regular “open house” that was a major however, Atia rails against Caesar’s neg- safety of young Octavian. venue for the operation of patron-client rela- lect of the Republic’s best interests. Servilia Contemporary television tends to be tions, is crowded with frightened business- conceives her vengeance initially for per- uncomfortable with the “epic” value of men from whom she extracts financial sonal reasons: politics has caused her antiquity, always concerned that a modern pledges in exchange for the guarantee of intense pain, as Caesar coldly justified his audience find some means to connect with Julian protection in the days after the cross- cutting off their relationship by claiming that the distant past. Focus on personal, even ing of the Rubicon. he “must do what is right for the Republic” petty, motivations gives the grand themes of How does this shadow government oper- (episode 1.5, “The Ram Has Touched the historical transformation an intimate scale. ate? These clandestine rulers use the same Wall”). Servilia’s motivation only becomes Heller and the production team acknowl- techniques of manipulation deployed by political after she, and her family through edge in the DVD commentary that they their male counterparts. Atia shapes popu- her, suffers a devastating loss of status in were determined as well to present an lar feeling with graffiti, creating public pres- the shifting balance of power in Rome. This “everyman” perspective through the charac- sure on Caesar to end his relationship with shift in purpose is demonstrated at the end ters of Titus Pullo and Lucius Vorenus who Servilia. This maneuver has the secondary of the first season’s ninth episode, “Utica,” serve as inadvertent catalysts for climactic effect of pushing him to pursue a show- when Atia’s minions destroy the outward moments in the Late Republic, creating a down with the Senate. Servilia’s sponsor- signs of Servilia’s status in a public assault. kind of Forrest Gump thread for the series. ship of graffiti and pamphlets for public dis- Half-naked and screaming, her slaves lying 4 dead beside her ruined litter, Servilia is ren- The flames behind the ancestral masks flick- the major primary evidence, which empha- dered quite visibly powerless (see Fig. 2). er in a sudden gust of wind but do not die sizes seduction and sentiment as key factors Her recovery begins when she claims an out. shaping the goals and motivations of ideological motivation for her ruthless The eighth episode of the first season, Antony and Cleopatra, thus legitimizing efforts to destroy Caesar; now it is she who “Caesarion” (the Cleopatra episode), was Octavian’s leadership as representative of defends the best interests of the Republic. the last to be filmed and, in many ways, the traditional devotion to responsible Servilia brings intense pressure to bear on sets an interesting direction for season two. authority of the Roman male. Rome has her son Brutus to fulfill his duty to his family The choices made by Heller, director Steve already established the Octavian character and to Rome by taking action against the Shill, and the production design team were as an articulate deconstructionist of covert tyrant. She assembles the conspiracy meant to establish Egypt as an utterly alien political operations, capable of making against Caesar, guiding the cabal through- culture. In combination with the series’ explicit sneaky schemes to win the hearts out the planning process, reminding them demonstrated interest in depicting the and minds of the people. At the very least, of the crucial support of the people, and manipulation of popular will, this represen- one might expect the second season to making the critical connections to enable tation of Egypt lays the ground work for an heighten the usual highly-gendered spin on them to carry out the assassination. And it exploration of the contemporary construc- the Second Triumvirate by foregrounding is she who, in the pre-dawn hours of the tion of the Cleopatra legend as propagan- the complex layers of power held by Ides, invokes the ancestors of the Junii to da, a perspective that would certainly sepa- Rome’s female characters. help Brutus in his honorable task: “Let his rate Rome’s Cleopatra from the substantial The final scenes of “Caesarion” offer a arm be strong, let his aim be true, and let corpus of previously filmed Cleopatras. Typ- foreshadowing of the proscriptions that his heart be filled with sacred rage” ically, cinematic treatments of the Egyptian start, historically, in 43 B.C. Cicero worries (episode 1.12, “The Kalends of February”). queen buy into the pro-Octavian stance of that the death of Caesar might give “that bastard Antony” free license in Rome. Antony then justifies Cicero’s concerns by Rome in Prime Time: Panel on HBO’s Rome at the forcing him to his knees, promising, should Annual Meeting of the American Philological Cicero ever sway from his support of the Association in San Diego regime, to “cut off these soft pink hands and nail them to the Senate door.” The Sponsored by the Committee on Outreach interaction hints at the increasing darkness ike Gladiator (2000) and Troy (2004), HBO’s series Rome, which first aired in of Roman politics that we can anticipate LFall 2005, has influenced contemporary audiences’ understanding of the from the second season, which is likely to ancient Mediterranean world. continue with an ever more shadowy gov- Organized by Mary-Kay Gamel (University of California, Santa Cruz), the ernment. This is, after all, a time when sur- panel, which takes place on Friday, January 5, 2007, from 8:30-11:00 a.m. in viving source material is littered with female Marina Ballroom G, will address various aspects of the series. The speakers are agents, a time when historical women are Kristina Milnor (Barnard College) on “‘Do You Have an Ubuan Dictionary?’ or What I Learned as a Consultant for HBO’s Rome,” Holly Haynes (The College literally and symbolically acknowledged in of New Jersey) on “Rome’s Opening Titles and the Triumphal Tituli of the Late the rhetoric and monuments of Roman Republic,” Robert Gurval (UCLA) on “Cast(igat)ing Cleopatra: HBO’s Rome power. Indeed, it is the prominence of Atia and an Egyptian Queen for the 21st Century,” Gregory Daugherty (Randolph- and Servilia in the months following Cae- Macon College) on “Titus Pullo of the Thirteenth,” and Alison Futrell (Univer- sar’s assassination that likely inspired sity of Arizona) on “Not Some Cheap Murder: Caesar’s Assassination.” The Rome’s creators to select these women to respondent is Sandra Joshel (University of Washington). In anticipation of the second season, which will air in early 2007, we hope you will join the discussion! drive their intriguing dramatization of the past. Atia’s daughter Octavia and Cleopa- Fig. 3. Titus Pullo tra, traditional rivals for Antony’s affections, (Ray Stevenson), are poised to emerge from the shadows in on the left, with the twilight of Rome’s Republic. Lucius Vorenus (Kevin McKidd). Alison Futrell is an associate professor of Rome, episode 1.7 “Pharsalus,” Roman History at the University of Arizona. HBO, 2005. She is currently spending her sabbatical as a Fellow at the Center for the Humanities at Oregon State University, working on a monograph on barbarian queens.
5 WHAT’S NEW IN ANCIENT ROMAN MAGIC: RECENT ARCHAEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES by Christopher A. Faraone
ike many sub-fields in ancient his- denza Archeologica di Roma, and her the variety of materials that might be Ltory and classics, the sub-field of team of archaeologists excavated a foun- used to construct a “voodoo doll.” ancient magic is often dramatically tain inadvertently uncovered by work- Indeed, prior to the discoveries in the advanced by new archaeological discover- men digging the foundations of a new fountain of Anna Perenna, only metal or ies. And, in fact, in the late 1990’s and the parking garage under the Piazza Euclid, clay examples survived outside of Egypt. early years of this millennium, archaeolo- a spot near the ancient Via Flaminia just And thanks to a fingerprint inadvertently gists working on sites uncovered by new south of the Milvian Bridge. There left while vigorously screwing down the construction in downtown Mainz in Ger- were two surprises. The first was an lid of one of the lead canisters, the many and in the Piazza Euclid in Rome altar and two inscriptions from the sec- archaeologists – with the help of forensic discovered intriguing new caches of ond century A.D., which attest to the experts in the Italian police force – are “voodoo dolls” and curses that greatly rebuilding and dedication of the foun- fairly certain that this magician was a advance our knowledge of local practices tain “to the nymphs of Anna Perenna.” woman. It is, moreover, most probable in the western Roman Empire, which Roman literary sources have a lot to say that this Roman magician created most hitherto were generally thought to imitate about a sanctuary of Anna Perenna near of the other “voodoo dolls” found in the closely Greek cursing rites. The site the Tiber River, where at an annual fes- well, for she seems to have used a similar under the Piazza Euclid revealed some of tival, men and woman drank excessive- technique for each ensemble: a single the most elaborate third-fourth century ly, sang ribald songs in makeshift huts, hand-molded figure of wax placed in a A.D. magical devices ever discovered: and prayed to live as many years as the series of nested lead canisters. human effigies shaped from wax or flour number of cups of wine they drank on The elaborate preparation of these and then imprisoned within a nested that day. But despite this well-docu- devices clearly points to a professional series of three lead canisters – much like mented bacchanal, Ovid (Fasti 3.523- witch. The lead canister with the finger- those famous Russian nesting dolls – and 696) makes it abundantly clear that print, for example, was the innermost of lead curse tablets rolled up and placed Anna was a water nymph, whose name three (see Fig. 4) and was inscribed on like wicks in unburned clay lamps. The means something like “perennial flow,” its outside surface with the figure of a curse tablets from Mainz, on the other and historians have long suspected that man wearing a helmet and cuirass with hand, securely dated between A.D. 70 she was closely connected with fertility. the names of the Egyptian gods Seth and 130, are among the earliest curse These suspicions were, in fact, con- and Mnu added on to the left of him texts in Latin. These tablets were found firmed by the cultic items found in the and the name Decentia to the right. in a shared sanctuary of Isis and the holding tank of the fountain: pinecones, Inside was found a wax effigy of a Magna Mater and provide us with impor- eggs, and a small cultic cauldron of ham- human figure (presumably of the victim tant early evidence for the cult, because mered copper, the first two of which – its gender is uncertain) face to face they invoke or make mention of the point to a fertility cult. with a wax serpent, whose open mouth Mater, her self-castrating attendants (the A second surprise was waiting in the threatens. These two figurines are galli), and various cult items, such as the holding tank of the fountain: a series of bound together by a thin metal band at withering tree of Attis and the sacred human effigies (carefully enclosed in the shoulders, by a metal tablet cistae of the goddess, ritual baskets that lead canisters) and lead curse tablets that inscribed with magical characters and contained secret symbols of her cult. suggest the fountain had been the site of wrapped around the lower body, and by They also reveal Latin cursing formulae cursing rituals. Because these effigies nails inserted at the navel and the feet. that use hitherto unattested magical were triply sealed in lead and then sub- Another of the effigies from the foun- analogies of inversion and dissolution that merged in water and mud, they have sur- tain was a male modeled from wax, seem little influenced by Greek models. vived antiquity in amazingly good condi- which had the bone of a small animal These two sites, then, one from the Ger- tion and offer us many new insights into inserted down into its head and through man periphery of the empire and the its body. Its feet were modeled with the other from its very center, provide inter- rest of the body and then at the end esting new data on the relationship carefully severed, presumably as part of between cursing rituals and female the magical operation designed to pre- deities (the Magna Mater and Anna vent the victim from walking or using Perenna) as well as an important contrast his feet. A third example was molded between “homegrown” Roman forms of from pure beeswax and had Greek let- magic and later forms of the so-called ters inscribed all over its body. It was international magic that are more heavily sealed in its canister with a piece of influenced by Greek, Egyptian, and Jew- parchment (now crumbled) that pre- ish rituals and formulae. sumably had been inscribed. Seven figurines survive thanks to their The Fountain of Anna leaden canisters: five of them depicted Perenna in Rome Fig. 4. Roma. Museo Nazionale Romano. men, one a woman, and one is of uncer- Lead canisters from the Fountain of tain sex. Three had small bones inserted In the year 2000, Dr. Marina Pira- Anna Perenna, Inv. No. 475549. Photo down into the top of the head, and one of nomonte, a director of the Soprinten- courtesy Dr. Marina Piranomonte, these bones is inscribed with tiny and 6 Soprintendenza Archeologica di Roma. still illegible Latin letters. The bones extremities) are placed above the design are, in fact, unique among the magical and seven below. On either side of the devices from the ancient Mediterranean diamond-shaped lozenge we find two basin, and until we decipher the text vaguely circular figures, one labeled dex- inscribed on the one mentioned above, it tru (“right”) and the other sinesteru is difficult to say whether they aimed (“left”). The curse-text itself suggests (like the nails in the other figurine) at that these circular figures represent the binding or disabling the person or eyes of the victim, who is to be blinded: whether they were designed to name the victim. Three of the effigies were placed O sacred, holy FUSAPAERIS and into their canisters upside down, and a angeli, because I ask and beg you
t the climactic moment of Return ken earlier in the poem by Jupiter, the were expressed most poignantly at the Aof the Jedi (1983), the last film of king and father of gods and men: for the end of the next century, when Rome George Lucas’ original Star Wars Romans, Jupiter says, he has “set no was reaching the apex of its imperial trilogy, the Emperor utters some telling limits in time and space” and has given power, by Tacitus, who was writing words to Luke Skywalker. “It is your them “eternal empire, world without about the Britons and the Germans and destiny,” he says, meaning that the end” (Aeneid 1.278-279). their inevitable subjugation at the hands young man is fated to serve the Empire Vergil thus presents an idealized ver- of Rome. These people, Tacitus implies and its Emperor (who, I like to think, sion of the message that had been more than once, possess the very virtues resembles no one more than Tiberius as repeated to elite Roman males since the that once marked the Romans. The the historian Tacitus imagined him). early days of the Republic. Young men Chauci, whom he describes as “the Others in the film – Luke’s father Darth of the Roman ruling class and those noblest people of Germany,” are noted Vader, the Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Keno- aspiring to join it were expected to for their uprightness: “Untouched by bi, and his tutor Yoda – also speak of his internalize the notion that it was their greed or lawless ambition, they dwell in destiny. Luke Skywalker, the hero of duty to win glory in the service of Rome quiet seclusion, never provoking a war, the trilogy, is clearly someone who is and its imperial longings. never robbing or plundering their haunted by destiny. There are, however, some lines of neighbors” (Germania 35). Among the “It is your destiny.” Like Luke, Horace (Odes 3.6.17-20 and 45-48), writ- Germans, Tacitus observes, the “mar- young men and boys of the Roman rul- ten during the very years in which his riage code . . . is strict, and no feature of ing class must have heard much the friend Vergil was at work on the Aeneid, their morality deserves higher praise.” same words from their fathers, grandfa- that seem to brand the Romans as fail- German women “live uncorrupted by thers, teachers, and, perhaps especially, ures: the temptations of public shows or the from their mothers, since the notion of excitements of banquets,” and “no one destiny played an essential role in their Ours is a lineage that knows not the law: in Germany finds vice amusing, or calls lives and the lives of their families. marriages, children, hearths defiled, it ‘up-to-date’ to seduce and be Their destiny, like that of their ances- And from this very source come all seduced” (18-19). Harold Mattingly, tors before them, was to serve and catastrophes, whose translation of the Germania and advance the fortunes of Rome and its vanquishing our people and our Agricola (1970) I am using here, sums it very earth. ruling class. up well: “Tacitus unmistakably con- trasts the virtues of the Germans, which Destiny (fatum), Roman destiny in And a bit further on, at the poem’s end: particular, is the central theme of the recall the uncorrupted morals of old great Roman epic, Vergil’s Aeneid, writ- What has Time left intact? Lesser Rome, with the degeneracy of the ten during the years 29-19 B.C., in the than their own, empire” (Introduction, 25). period following the political transfor- our parents bore children lesser still, Tacitus is startlingly frank about the mation of Rome engineered by the and ours are lesser still than we, and failings of his generation: emperor Augustus. Like Luke, Aeneas, theirs the poem’s hero, is also someone who is than they. And theirs again than they . . . We have indeed set up a record of burdened by destiny. Indeed, Aeneas is (translated by subservience. Rome of old explored characterized in this way as early as the Richard Howard, 2002) the utmost limits of freedom; we have poem’s second line, where he is plumbed the depths of slavery, described as fato profugus, “an exile by These lines suggest that the Romans robbed as we are . . . even of the right were not good enough to fulfill their to exchange ideas in conversation. We destiny.” At one of the epic’s climactic should have lost our memories as well moments, near the end of the pageant exalted destiny, even though they thought it inexorable. Although they as our tongues had it been as easy to of Roman heroes that Aeneas is privi- forget as to be silent. (Agricola 2) leged to witness during his underworld were the masters of many peoples, the journey, his father informs him of his Romans are condemned for being pro- The Agricola, as Mattingly notes, is mission as a Roman (Aeneid 6.851-853): foundly unworthy of their appointed marked by “belief in Rome, in Roman role. All throughout his “Roman Odes” destiny, and in the Roman ways and Your mission, Roman, is to rule the (3.1-6), Horace reminds his readers how standards of life,” but there is also “a world. much better things were back in the note of tragedy in the thought that this These will be your arts: to establish distant past when Romans, then ideal has to live in an unfriendly world, peace, supremely virtuous, struggled and suc- in conditions which make it impossible To spare the humbled, and to conquer ceeded, defeating Carthage, the mortal the proud. for it to achieve perfection” (Introduc- foe, and making Rome the dominant tion, 17-18). I would venture a bit fur- (translated by force in the Mediterranean world (a Stanley Lombardo, 2005) ther: Tacitus is haunted by the sense message also conveyed by the historian that the Romans will never be able to Sallust in his accounts of the war with The Romans, the most powerful people live up to their imperial mission. Jugurtha and the conspiracy of Catiline). At the same time, Tacitus can be on earth, are destined to be rulers of the But perhaps these unhappy thoughts earth. Anchises’ words echo those spo- brutally unsentimental about the fact 10 that the Britons and Germans alike are Did You Know… doomed to subjugation. Telling the story of a German tribe that was nearly annihilated by its neighbors, he notes Sir Elton John’s middle name is Hercules. Charles Mingus, one of the great Ameri- that the Romans were permitted to wit- Born Reginald Dwight, John changed his can jazz artists, entitled his 1959 album ness the slaughter: name in 1967. He chose Hercules, not (recently re-mastered and re-released) Min- because of the Greek hero, but because of gus Ah Um, a play on the -us, -a, -um More than 60,000 were killed, not by Roman swords or javelins, but – more a horse named Hercules in the British come- vocabulary listing of first and second splendid still – as a spectacle before dy series Steptoe and Son (the model for declension Latin adjectives. our delighted eyes. Long, I pray, may the American comedy series Sanford foreign nations persist, if not in loving and Son). The Mask of Atreus, by A. J. Hartley, is us, at least in hating one another; for destiny is driving our empire upon its a murder mystery connecting Atreus and appointed path, and fortune can In the movie Akeelah and the Bee, Nazis. The story, which begins in a muse- bestow on us no better gift than dis- Akeelah succeeds because she is urged by um in Atlanta, is a disturbing look at the cord among our foes. (Germania 33) a college professor (Laurence Fishburne) to black market through a fictionalized Although the insensitivity and cruelty of study Latin, Greek, and French (see Fig. 6). account of the journey of the treasures that such sentiments may seem shocking to In the words of one review, the movie Heinrich Schliemann removed from the site us, they clearly demonstrate how superi- “makes studying Latin-root flashcards seem of Troy and the rumors concerning the fate or the Romans felt to nations and ethnic like a cool after-school activity"! For the of Hilter’s body. groups less fortunate than themselves. importance of Latin and Greek at the annu- Tacitus’ observations about the Britons and Germans bring to mind the al Scripps National Spelling Bee, see Judith C. Jack Ellis, mayor of Macon, Georgia, writings of Thomas Jefferson, who Hallett’s article in issue 4.1 of Amphora declared September 9 to be “William echoes Rousseau in being sentimental (archived at www.apaclassics.org/out- Sanders Scarborough Day” to com- and idealistic about the “savages” both reach/amphora/2005/Amphora4.1.pdf). memorate the eightieth anniversary of his of them felt were doomed by the inex- death. Scarborough (1852-1926) was orable advance of European civilization. author of a Classical Greek textbook First Jefferson, whose Notes on the State of Vir- ginia exhibit a kind of melancholic ide- Lessons in Greek (1881), president of alism about Native Americans (note his Wilberforce University, and the third replies to Queries 6 and 11), could also African American member of the APA. For be ruthless in insisting that they accept more about Professor Scarborough, see The the inevitability of their subjugation. Autobiography of William Sanders Scar- Writing to William Henry Harrison, the borough: An American Journey From Slav- territorial governor of Ohio, Jefferson, here speaking as President of the Unit- ery to Scholarship (2004), edited by Profes- ed States, offers the following: sor Michele Valerie Ronnick (Wayne State Fig. 6. English professor Dr. Larabee University). On November 2, 2006, Mayor our settlements will gradually circum- (Laurence Fishburne) coaches Akeelah in Ellis presented Professor Ronnick with the scribe and approach the Indians, and Akeelah and the Bee (Lions Gate Films, key to the city at the Georgia Literary Festival. they will in time either incorporate 2006). with us as citizens of the United States, or remove beyond the Missis- sippi. The former is certainly the ter- mination of their history most happy for themselves; but, in the whole course of this, it is essential to culti- APA SPEAKERS BUREAU vate their love. As to their fear, we presume that our strength and their weakness is now so visible that they he APA maintains a roster of enthusiastic speakers who are available to must see we have only to shut our Taddress a wide variety of audiences – civic groups, professional societies, hand to crush them, and that all our library and other reading groups, middle schools and secondary schools, junior liberalities to them proceed from and senior colleges, universities, and many other organizations. motives of pure humanity only. The Speakers Bureau can be found by going to the APA Web site at Should any tribe be fool-hardy enough www.apaclassics.org and clicking on Outreach, listed on the left hand side of the to take up the hatchet at any time, the screen of the home page. Under Outreach, you will find the Speakers Bureau. seizing the whole country of that tribe, and driving them across the Mississip- The Bureau lists e-mail addresses of dozens of speakers as well as descriptions pi, as the only condition of peace, of the talks they are prepared to give. A glance through the topics described would be an example to others, and a there will make clear the breadth of presentations that are available, from Med- furtherance of our final consolidation. ical Practices in Pompeii and the Roman Empire to Women’s Letters from (Writings, ed. by Merrill D. Peterson, Ancient Egypt. 1984, 1118-1119.)
As the historian Joseph Ellis puts it, continued on page 19 11 The Reimagined Getty Villa terracotta, marble, silver, bronze, and glass by Mary Louise Hart artifacts. The refurbished and lavish Room of Colored Marbles, original to the 1974 Villa, approximates in its decoration the he Getty Villa in Malibu, California, opulent marble rooms that were fashion- Treopened on January 28, 2006 after able in luxury villas such as the Villa dei undergoing nine years of renovation by the Papiri and holds the Getty’s collection of Boston architectural firm of Machado and ancient metalwork. This small room adjoins Silvetti and the reinstallation of the antiqui- the Basilica, another patterned-marble room ties collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum. designed after Roman architectural plans The collections, buildings, and programs and installed with marble sculpture. Two of the new Villa site support its mission as a galleries – Mythological Heroes and Stories center for the study of ancient Greek, of the Trojan War – are also located on the Roman, and Etruscan culture. The Villa Fig. 8. Men in Antiquity gallery in the J. ground floor, as are two educational gal- Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Villa in building housing the antiquities collection leries. The Timescape Room introduces visi- Malibu. The J. Paul Getty Museum. © lies at the heart of the site (see Fig. 7). tors to the styles and chronologies of antiq- 2005 Richard Ross with the courtesy of Originally opened to the public in 1974, J. uity, and the Family Forum provides learn- the J. Paul Getty Trust. Paul Getty’s Villa is a replica in plan of the ing activities for families. first-century Villa dei Papiri in Herculaneum, The Temple of Herakles lies on axis with leries on both floors, the wide staircase of which was buried by the eruption of Mt. the Inner and Outer Peristyles (see Fig. 9). carved Spanish amarillo Triana marble pro- Vesuvius in A.D. 79. The Malibu site was The renovation of this small circular gallery vides an impressive ascent to the new initially designed and built to display and included replacing the 1974 dome in order upper floor, framing a view of the East Gar- store the entirety of Getty’s collections. to create, in effect, a miniature Pantheon. den on the east-west axis of the Villa. Visi- Antiquities filled the ground floor, while The room, with its intricate circular pavement tors ascending the staircase arrive at a sec- sculpture, paintings, decorative arts, manu- in Numidian yellow and dark gray Lucullan ond floor, which has been completely scripts, and photography were installed in marble (copied from the original Villa dei reconceived from its former design and light-protected period rooms on the upper Papiri) and its new dome, was originally installation. Everything is new: the terrazzo floor. In 1997, the post-antique collections intended to display Mr. Getty’s prized acqui- floors, the skylights, the wood-framed win- were moved to their new home in the gal- sition, the Lansdowne Herakles. After over a dows with views of the nearby mountains leries of The Getty Center in Los Angeles. decade spent in the Getty’s conservation and the Inner Peristyle below, the Getty At the Getty Villa in Malibu, new and labs followed by display at the Getty Center Guide interactive resource room, and the expansive light-filled galleries are now in Los Angeles during the Villa’s renovation, reading room with its view to the Outer installed exclusively with the antiquities col- Herakles has finally come home. Peristyle and Pacific Ocean, in addition to lection (see Fig. 8). Inside, walls were The most remarkable visible change to installations of ancient art. The prehistoric removed, and windows and ceilings were the Villa building itself was the construction collections are installed in the permanent opened to the sun and views of the Santa of a large staircase at the east side of the gallery adjacent to the marble staircase. Monica Mountains and Pacific Ocean. In building. Replacing what had been gal- The major galleries on this floor are Ath- order to provide maximum flexibility for the display of the variety of artifacts contained in the galleries, which range from heavy marbles to delicate glass, new walls were braced with art-support systems. The designs of intricate terrazzo floors incorporate seis- mically protective anchor points for isolator- base pedestals supporting marble statuary and display vitrines. The antiquities collection is now installed thematically. On the ground floor, the large gallery Dionysos and the Theater, with its dramatic Pompeiian-red Venetian plaster walls, flanks the Atrium, together with the gallery devoted to Gods and Goddesses, which is plastered in Olympian blue. The cubicula, small rooms surrounding the Atri- um that are modeled after Roman bed- Fig. 7. The Outer Peristyle at the reimagined Getty Villa in Malibu, California, Septem- rooms, are installed with cases devoted to ber 8, 2005. The J. Paul Getty Museum. © 2005 Richard Ross with the courtesy of the J. 12 Paul Getty Trust. letes, Men in Antiquity, and Women and From this point, visitors can descend to the Children in Antiquity, which together Museum and its new Store and Auditorium. include some of the most important sculptur- The Café, which provides views of the Villa al installations in the museum’s collection. and Pacific Ocean, lies at the top tier of There is also a small gallery containing theater seats. Just beyond it, a small cam- Egyptian artifacts and, overlooking the pus of three interconnected buildings was ocean, an intimate room where visitors can constructed in order to incorporate conser- closely examine selected small objects from vation labs, offices used for scholarly pro- the Villa’s collections of bronzes, gems, gramming, and the UCLA/Getty Conserva- coins, ambers, and ivories, as well as Attic tion Institute Masters Program in the Con- vase fragments – this is the smallest and the servation of Ethnographic and Archaeologi- most densely installed gallery in the muse- cal Material. J. Paul Getty’s 1946 Spanish- um. Two wings of the corridor encircling style Ranch House has been transformed the Inner Peristyle gallery have been into curatorial and scholars’ offices and is installed with Animals and Funerary Sculp- the home of the Getty Research Institute’s ture; the other two connecting corridors Fig. 9. Temple of Herakles gallery, with Villa Scholars Program. Scholarly and cura- alternating triangles of Numidian yel- adjoin Changing Exhibition galleries on the torial research is supported by a 15,000- low and africano or dark gray Lucullan north and east sides of the building. marble, at the Getty Villa in Malibu, volume library. Because the Villa’s gallery spaces open September 29, 2005. The J. Paul Getty Through exhibitions, conservation, schol- onto the outdoors as well as other galleries, Museum. © 2005 Richard Ross with the arship, research, and public programs, the visitors are often inspired to move outside by courtesy of the J. Paul Getty Trust. reimagined Getty Villa serves a varied an alluring fountain, garden, or view. On the audience interested in the arts and cultures upper floor, bronze doors open onto bal- design process. The Villa’s new front door of ancient Greece, Rome, and Etruria. conies providing dramatic views of the Outer is faced by the semi-circular Lawrence and Admission to the Villa is always free, and Peristyle, Pacific Ocean, and plaza area. Barbara Fleischman Theater, where ancient information about tickets, hours, and events Ground floor galleries on the east, south, and plays are produced each year (see Fig. 10). may be found on the Getty Villa Web site west sides provide access to redesigned and A suite of new buildings and facilities at http://www.getty.edu/visit. newly replanted gardens. The East Garden is was incorporated into the overall site a favorite of visitors, with its plantings of design to improve the visitor’s experience Mary Louise Hart ([email protected]) is acanthus and sycamore trees and its large at the Villa. An Entry Pavilion has been Assistant Curator of Antiquities at the J. shell and mosaic fountain copied from one built adjacent to a new parking structure. Paul Getty Museum Villa. Dr. Hart, an art discovered in the House of the Large Foun- Here, visitors begin their ascent to the historian, specializes in ancient Athenian tain in Pompeii. Garden views of the Inner Museum Path by means of stairs or eleva- vase painting and iconography. Since join- and Outer Peristyles have become emblemat- tors that take them through a terrain con- ing the museum in 1997, she has also ic of the Villa; these garden spaces have structed of levels of banded concrete, become a specialist in ancient and contem- always been favorite strolling places for visi- aggregate, and alabaster, recalling the porary theater, developing the Getty Villa’s tors, as they were for the original inhabitants strata of an excavation. The walk along the program for the performance of ancient of the Villa dei Papiri. They have been rein- path provides views of the Villa and its Greek and Roman drama. A co-curator of stalled with bronze replicas of the original Herb Garden below. The first view of the the recent “Colors of Clay” exhibition, she garden sculptures now in the collection of the combined architectural program comes at is currently curating the exhibition, “The Art National Archaeological Museum of Naples. the end of this path, which leads visitors to of Ancient Greek Theater,” which will open The illusionistic wall paintings of the north the upper tier of the Fleischman Theater. at the Getty Villa in the summer of 2008. wall of the Outer Peristyle have been repaint- ed to conform to the changed requirements Fig. 10. View of the J. Paul Getty of these new spaces. Museum and the The entrance to the Villa, originally new outdoor clas- located at the far end of the Outer Peristyle, sic theater at the has been shifted to the historically-accurate Getty Villa. The J. Roman entrance at the Atrium. The visitor Paul Getty Muse- reaches this entrance after walking along a um. © 2005 Richard Ross with high path framing architectural and garden the courtesy of views between plantings of oleander and the J. Paul Getty olive trees. The idea that the Villa could be Trust. © 2006 J. perceived as an artifact to be viewed from Paul Getty Trust. above, like the ruins at Herculaneum, is a concept the architects developed during the 13 CROSSING THE STYX: THE AFTERLIFE OF THE AFTERLIFE continued from page 3
Poor Tom, described by his teacher as “a bright boy, a pretty boy, a scholar, a ies, I may have a different perspective. I “rather a rough cub,” is appalled by poet and a classicist . . . married to a now feel that our physical, classroom Latin Grammar and Euclid. When his pretty girl, with pretty children, slender, experience of learning a “dead” lan- clever little sister goes to see him at Mr. with curling tendrils of vine about his guage, combined with our continuing Stelling’s small establishment, she tells classic forehead” has grown plump, bit- reading of history and poetry in transla- him she will help him with his Euclid, ter, and censorious, and spends his time tion – “that battered old purple Penguin to which he retorts: berating his old friends about falling Tacitus” – form together a layer that “You help me, you silly little thing! standards in the academic world and the lies beneath our experience of the con- . . . I should like to see you doing one of menace of trendy school teachers, and temporary world and helps to structure my lessons! Why, I learn Latin too! beat poets, and pub poets, and (what we our memory of who we are, as individu- Girls never learn such things. They’re would now call) performance poets. He als and as members of the tribe. From too silly.” believed there is “an anti-clerical con- this subterranean lake, from this collec- “I know what Latin is very well,” spiracy, an intellectual-lobby in high and tive unconscious, we continue to receive said Maggie confidently. “Latin’s a lan- low places in the educational world”: his messages and images and metaphors, guage. There are Latin words in the dic- students, he says, have been “appalling- many of which still belong to a common tionary. There’s bonus, a gift.” ly badly taught . . . none of them had any store of memory, although we may not “Now, you’re just wrong there, Miss solid grounding in grammar, none of always be aware of their source. (The Maggie!” said Tom, secretly astonished. them could write a prose . . . they had all meaning of my use of the Golden “You think you’re very wise. But been corrupted by vague ‘classical stud- Bough in my novel The Seven Sisters had ‘bonus’ means good, as it happens – ies’ and thought that if they knew a few to be explained to me by a reader at a bonus, bona, bonum.” Greek myths and could recognise a literary festival – I hadn’t realised what “Well, that’s no reason why it piece of Ovid or Homer and make some I was doing with this image until she shouldn’t mean ‘gift,’” said Maggie approximate sense of it, that that would told me, and indeed I resisted her inter- stoutly. “It may mean several things – do. . . . Poor Linton had had the histori- pretation indignantly at the time.) almost every word does.” cal misfortune to be gifted in a dying We may enter this underworld of Virginia Woolf, like Maggie Tulliver, skill, and to have been insufficiently imagery, as we may enter the world of was also jealous of her brothers and their aware of the shrinking domain of his Christian imagery, to renew ourselves university education and struggled com- own subject. . . .” and to rediscover forgotten meanings. petitively to learn Greek and Latin, And there is more analysis along The underworld of the Greek and attending lectures at King’s College these lines. This is an unsympathetic Romans and the Christian underworld London, then studying privately with portrait, seen through the eyes of an old were majestically combined in Dante’s tutor Janet Case, with whom she read friend who has pursued a much riskier Inferno and remain entangled today: the Aeschylus: writing to a friend in Febru- career in the property market, and come poet Peter Redgrove asks “where was ary 1905, Woolf boasts, “I have taken a badly unstuck. Looking at Linton again the boatman and his gliding punt?” in plunge into tough Greek, and that has so now, nearly thirty years later, after his poem “Lazarus and the Sea,” and much attraction for me – Heaven knows decades more of changing classical stud- we all recognise Charon even if we do why – that I don’t want to do anything not know his name. else. I am really rather good at Greek.” That “boatman with his gliding The legendary Jane Harrison (1850- punt” remains a potent (and universal?) 1928), lecturer in classical archaeology at Coming in Future image. He appears, circling Pluto in the Newnham College, Cambridge, appears Issues of Amphora night skies, in tragic and in comic mode briefly in A Room of One’s Own, and the in The Frogs of Aristophanes and The sparrows that sing to poor Septimus in Invention of Love by Tom Stoppard, in Mrs. Dalloway sing in Greek, in “voices Orbis grammaticus Conrad and in Hardy, in detective sto- prolonged and piercing in Greek words, ries and ghost stories, in crossword puz- from trees in the meadow of life beyond The Minoan Tsunami zles and trade names and sculptures and a river where the dead walk, how there Hunting the Lithuanian Bison paintings – he and his crew are part of is no death . . .” The teaching of classics our story. was a feminist issue, an issue of family Greco-Buddhist Treasures politics, family dynamics. Margaret Drabble is a novelist and critic, The role and status of the classics The Hopi Myth Field Mouse Goes author of seventeen novels, most recently The teacher in contemporary fiction raise yet Sea Lady (2006). She edited the Fifth and ` to War more questions. In my novel, The Ice Age Sixth editions of The Oxford Companion (1977), I was trying to capture the Re-reading Laura Riding to English Literature (1985, 2000). She is gloomy, displaced mood of post-imperial married to biographer Michael Holroyd and Britain after the oil crisis of 1973, and I The Art Infusion Project at the U. S. Mint lives in London and West Somerset. A ver- discover that I have there created a sion of this article was delivered at the meet- semi-tragic character, a poet and teacher The Colony of Augusta Emerita in ing of the American Philological Association of classics called Linton, who feels he Roman Lusitania in Montreal on January 6, 2006. has been washed up in a drying pond. It is an unflattering portrait: Linton, once 14 Book Review: Harrius Potter et Philosophi Lapis main reasons: first, a large number of by Matthew McGowan today’s students are already familiar with the story and will derive pleasure from being able to read it in Latin; second, the Peter Needham, trans. Harrius delight these students take from it will give Potter et Philosophi Lapis, by J. K. them confidence in reading longer texts. I Rowling. Bloomsbury Publishing suppose I could make the same point about (http://www.bloomsbury. com), the English original: just as J. K. Rowling 2003. Pp. 249. Hardcover has inspired children (of all ages) to read $21.95. ISBN 1-58234-825-1. more, Needham’s translation is designed to do this for Latin. It may even be succeed- n the preface to his Latin ver- ing: the second installment, Harrius Potter et Ision of Robinson Crusoe Camera Secretorum (Harry Potter and the (Rebilii Crusonis Annales, 1884), Chamber of Secrets), will appear in Decem- Francis William Newman wrote, ber 2006. “no accuracy of reading small Before Harrius, Needham had published portions of Latin will ever be so a Latin version of Paddington Bear (Ursus
effective as extensive reading; Fig. 11. Professor Albus Dumbledore nomine Paddington, 1999) and thus and to make extensive reading possible to (Richard Harris) samples some Fabae already belonged to a growing number of the many, the style ought to be very easy Alberti Botti Omnium Saporum (Bertie translators keen on making popular Euro- and the matter attractive.” Newman – Bott’s Every Flavour Beans) in Harry pean and American children’s literature younger brother of Cardinal John Henry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (Warner available in Latin. The current wave – if we Brothers, 2001), the film adaptation of Newman – had been professor of classics can call it that – succeeds an illustrious set J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the at University College, London, where to his Philosopher’s Stone (1997). of translations from the sixties including displeasure he came to note that “the mode Winnie ille Pu (Alexander Lenard, 1960), of teaching Latin has become less and less ham plenty of practice in Latin prose com- Regulus (Auguste Haury, 1961), and Alicia effective in proportion as it has been made position and, equally important in view of in Terra Mirabili (Clive Harcourt Carruthers, more and more scientific.” Hence he this particular undertaking, also furnished 1964). The present translation has the dis- offered Latin readers of the late nineteenth him with a refined sense of the cadence of tinct merit of being easier to read than century an elegant translation of Daniel adolescent speech. His learning and sensi- those. Defoe’s desert island classic as a pedagog- tivity for his young readers’ needs are in This is not to say that Needham’s Latin ical tool, ad pueros discendos, according evidence on every page of this charming lit- lacks elegance, but the style of Harrius is to his title. tle book, which, to my mind, improves straightforward and neat without being I do not know whether Peter Needham upon the original. For if I have to read overly repetitive or simply macaronic. In laments the current mode of Latin instruction about slugs (limaces), toads (bufones), caul- this regard, it cleaves closely to the original in Great Britain, but he now offers to the drons (lebetes), vampires (sanguisugi), and is neither classical nor medieval and twenty-first century’s readers an easy and werewolves (versipelles), and even troll has no clearly identifiable periodic tinge. efficient Latin translation of the first book in buggers (muci trollosi), I’d prefer to do so Still, it manages to feel like Latin, and this is the best-selling children’s series of the last in Latin. the book’s most important achievement. decade, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Full disclosure: I am not a fan of Harry There are even some pleasant surprises Stone. At two hundred and forty-nine Potter. I was a born about a decade too in Harrius. For example, the use of diribito- pages, this book readily qualifies as exten- early, and the first book – pace puerorum – rium (75) for “ticket dispenser” is an sive reading in Latin, and there can be no left me underwhelmed. Nevertheless, I can inspired choice that improves on the origi- doubt that its subject matter will be attrac- see how the fantasy world of Hogwarts nal “barrier.” Moreover, Needham has ren- tive to the world’s myriad Harry Potter fans. (Schola Hogvartensis), with its mix of magic dered Rowling’s simplistic rhymes into tidy In an interview with the Daily Telegraph and mystery, appeals to less-hardened sen- elegiac couplets, including the inscription (London, 12/3/2001), Needham himself sibilities as in fact Narnia and Star Wars on the Gringotts bank (58), the Hogwarts referred to the task of translating Harry Pot- once enraptured my own. I also see the hymn (103), and the song of the “Sorting ter as “an ideal job for an old bloke in immediate benefit of translating a book so Hat” (Petasus Distribuens, 95-96). I cannot retirement.” As it happens, this old bloke wildly popular among the next generation fault him for maintaining English idioms in retired after more than thirty years of teach- of Latin readers, many of whom will be Latin: for example, “she’s a nightmare” ing classics at Eton, which has made him able to tackle Needham’s eminently read- becomes est incubo, where monstrum an ideal candidate for rendering into Latin able translation after two years of solid lan- would be more idiomatic; “to the fork in the a story that draws so heavily on the British guage instruction. road” becomes ad furcam semitae, where boarding school experience. Over three Harrius Potter et Philosophi Lapis should the Latin word is bivium. This depends decades in public school have given Need- be of interest to Latin instructors for two continued on page 17 15 Plato were a better writer at the time. PLATO’S SYMPOSIUM: But somehow, in the Symposium, Plato seems to have found his pen. The charac- A FILMMAKER’S PERsPECTIVE ters are real: they breathe, they have their own points of view, and they are just by Michael Wurth inches away from confronting each other as we’d see in a Brazilian soap opera. remember my experience as an of the source text to be called an actual Reading Percy Bysshe Shelley’s transla- Iundergraduate sitting in a French translation (see the translations of tion (The Banquet) again, a few years ago, class, excited about being exposed Stephen Mitchell, for example). This I realized that Agathon’s winning of the to the work of Victor Hugo in his native dichotomy makes for a self-perpetuating playwriting prize had to have made tongue. We were to read selections from industry. Any translation with spirit can Aristophanes extremely jealous. Why Les Misérables, and I was looking forward be shown to be inaccurate, and any didn’t Plato run with that? And Eryxi- to not only improving my French but “accurate” translation can be shown to machus’ self-absorbed answer about the improving my own writing in the be too lacking in spirit. nature of love indicated a character who process. I suffered at the time from the This stalemate is especially true in saw life only in terms of his own medical naive idea that most young writing stu- film. Seeing how the film Troy (2004) was experience. Why not call him on that? I dents have: that a brilliant author’s “lit- skewered in some quarters was painful to saw Alcibiades not just as a frustrated erariness” might rub off if I studied (or me. It hurt to see that many reviewers, politician, angry that Socrates wouldn’t copied) it thoroughly enough. instead of using the film as a point of sleep with him: I saw Plato, angry at his Then, at the bottom of the introduc- entry to the beauty of Homer’s text, were mentor Socrates, incensed that he could tory page, I saw a small footnote. It’s rejecting it for its inaccuracies. For my be so distant with Plato yet be so popular been too many years for me to remem- own part, I was mystified that the produc- with others. Was that true? Did Socrates ber the exact wording, but it went ers removed the gods from the picture not make Plato feel special enough? I something like this: “to assist the stu- altogether, but I had to admit it was quite couldn’t be the only one who saw this. In dent, Victor Hugo’s rich vocabulary and a task to take western civilization’s great- fact, as I would learn later, the scholar style have been simplified.” est epic and place it in three hours of cel- Gregory Vlastos had asked many of these I was incensed. I was supposed to be luloid. The fact that a studio was willing questions and addressed Socrates’ failure reading Hugo. What the heck was this? to take a chance on it thrilled me. I was so as a man many years ago, to a largely Was it “literary” at all? Could we even happy to see the film made because I muted response. Too much of the schol- call it Hugo’s? Was it the French equiv- thought it would give teachers a chance arship of Socrates resembles hagiography, alent of a picture book for the obtuse to get young people excited about and a modern psychoanalytic approach of foreigners who couldn’t be counted on Achilles’ pride, about Hector’s valor, the greatest thinker in occidental history to follow Hugo’s lapidary style? I had about the weakness of Helen’s heart, and is still taboo for many of us. But perhaps been tutoring my fellow students on about the cunning of Odysseus’ mind. I most importantly, I saw that Plato’s argu- e. e. cummings, Henry James, and hoped that after exposing students to the ment that the purest love was the one Thomas Pynchon. I wasn’t intimidated film, lovers of classics could then mold found between very young men and by stylistic pieces. I had the patience for that excitement into accurate knowledge older ones would be explosive; to say the it. But what exactly was this text? using Homer’s text. least, it would be problematic in educa- My Master’s thesis at Indiana Univer- Troy tried to condense an epic into tion today. sity was a translation of Rainer Maria three hours. Plato’s Symposium would be This was enough for me to try my Rilke’s Sonnets to Orpheus. While examin- easier to film, since it is merely one own translation of the text in preparation ing other translations, and with the help evening’s conversation as recounted by for filming it. Being fully aware of the of my mentor, Professor Eugene Eoyang, someone who was there. The current spectrum of judgments regarding transla- I had encountered what I still consider to political environment, however, would tion, I decided to follow my own beliefs. be a crucial flaw in most translation make it a challenging text to present to To me, there are three kinds of transla- analysis. Too many times, a translation young people, even on film. To add to tion: the kind that serves the reader who falls somewhere between two extremes this difficulty, Plato, even in the most will never read the source text and has along a spectrum: either a translation is dexterous translation, is difficult to no desire to; the kind that serves best the too literal, which robs the target lan- enjoy. But a lot of that is his fault. The reader who has some knowledge of the guage’s reader of the literary riches of the early dialogues are almost insufferable source text and wants to understand it original text, or the translation is sadly in the way the characters interact with better; and the kind that serves the read- lacking in accuracy because the translator Socrates. Most of his interlocutors have er who is expert in the source text and took the “spirit” of the text and over- no characterization at all and are limited wants to interact with it at a deeper level looked literal meanings in the source lan- to such insightful dialogue as “Yes, – a translation that gives a new way of guage. In extreme examples of the for- Socrates.” “Oh, you’re right, Socrates.” looking at the text. Can one adaptation mer case, the translation can be so “I never thought of it that way, serve every expectation? Of course not. encumbered by its need for accuracy that Socrates.” These weren’t characters; But it was my money, and no studio it becomes nearly impenetrable (see these were shills; these were straw men. executive was lingering around telling Vladimir Nabokov’s English translation As a student I didn’t have a word for my me to make it more violent or sexy; so I of Eugene Onegin: A Novel in Verse by Alek- discomfort: once I started working pro- could try it my own way. sandr Pushkin, for example). In the latter fessionally in film, I found the technical This is how I approached the filming case, the text might wind up being some- term: bad writing. The early dialogues, of Plato’s Symposium. Plato had already thing wonderful in its own right, but it however philosophically enlightening, laid out the conflicts that Hollywood might also be too casual about the details could have been much more effective if scriptwriters are taught to create. All 16 Book Review: Harrius Potter et Philosophi Lapis continued from page 15
again on Needham’s awareness of his readers’ needs, for whom such one-to-one renderings will be more easily understand- able. On the whole, the Latin is reliable and the text free from typographical errors. Inevitably, the nuance of certain charac- ters’ phraseology, for example, Hagrid’s that was needed was a little push, and Fig. 12. The cast in Michael Wurth’s film the drama would emerge from the phi- The Symposium (Scriptwise Partners LLC, west-country dialect or Dumbledore’s wiz- losophy. I rented a house with an 2003) discuss the meaning of love. ard-speak (see Fig. 11), gets lost in the incredible view on the Hawaiian island Latin. In addition, I cannot explain the pres- This isn’t a bad textbook teaching of Oahu and lived together with the cast watered-down Plato. ence of the rarer feminine form of finis and crew for the three weeks of shoot- If my audiences’ reactions so far are (e.g., 125, 135) or why Needham uses ing (see Fig. 12). We’d film until 4 a.m., any indication, the film has been a suc- quippe with the adverbial qui instead of drink until 7 a.m., and start over the cess. By success I do not mean that the next day at 6 p.m. sharp. We fell in love the more common explanatory relative film defies the two-sided spectrum of with each other during the shoot, in (e.g., 211, 244). translation analysis. I mean that if a stu- almost every sense Plato describes. We In sum, although I can think of no place dent has no interest in philosophy, had a wonderful time making the film. Plato’s Symposium as filmed generally for Harrius in the Latin curriculum, it is per- I felt any dialogue about love with- gets them interested enough to ask fectly suitable for a Latin club’s reading out a feminine viewpoint was irrelevant, about Plato. If a student has some inter- group and might be cannily deployed in so I took Aristophanes and Eryximachus est in philosophy, our film can show per- and made them female. I gave to Aristo- spoken Latin sessions. There students could sonifications of the actual arguments in phanes the latent jealousy I could intuit act out some of the more well-known the text: real, living people with real con- reading Plato’s text. And depicting scenes from the book (and movie) such as cerns beyond defining love: people they Eryximachus and Agathon as husband can identify with, visual characters that the “Mirror of Erised” (Speculum Erisedii) and wife, with an infidelity looming make the arcane literary translations or “The Man with Two Faces” (Vir Duobus over their marriage, I thought would be more accessible. And an expert in Plato’s Vultibus). My own experience has shown an excellent way to explain Agathon’s text will be able to see the Symposium in rather simplistic (almost feeble) attempt that students who try to speak the language a different way: as a legitimate effort in to define love in Plato’s text and give tend to learn more: active Latin makes dramatic writing instead of, as one col- beginning students a point of entrance learning more efficient and, ultimately, league has told me, merely as “the dia- into the film – viewers would be far logue where the theory of forms is first more enjoyable. So too with the book more captivated by an affair about to be articulated.” There’s too much drama in under review: the pleasure of reading with exposed than by seven intellectuals the text for this to be an accident. I think ease makes Harrius Potter et Philosophi talking about love. Dialogues, by their Plato was saying something far deeper nature, only tell. Here, I could show a Lapis an effective tool for learning Latin, than simply defining the forms. I believe friction that Plato never directly articu- and for that Peter Needham is to be com- Plato was talking to his dead mentor lated, and by doing so, get students who mended. Socrates, and saying a great deal to him. otherwise would nod off in the first fif- This is what a translation of a classic text teen minutes to stay with us. – in print or in film – should be: a point Matthew McGowan (mmcgowan@ Is my filmed version of the Symposium of departure. And I hope we’ve done wooster.edu) is Assistant Professor and a mere Hollywood dumbing-down of one enough to achieve that. of our culture’s most important texts, or is Chair of Classics at the College of Wooster it a translation that can give insight into in Ohio. His research focuses on Latin Liter- Michael Wurth ([email protected]) what Plato was saying? Or, perhaps most ature and the Classical Tradition. holds an M.A. in Comparative Literature honestly, was my adaptation just my way from Indiana University, with a concentra- of saying through film what I’ve thought tion on translation theory. His film The since first reading Plato’s Symposium in Symposium is available with full academic translation in high school: Socrates was a license at http://www.scriptwise.com and “horse’s ass” who bullied other people http://www.amazon.com. His new film with his command of rhetoric while rarely Sunday Wind, about the tragic fate of three exposing opinions of his own? Does that Hawaiian civilians during the Pearl Harbor mean I have to provide the asterisk at the attacks, has just won two awards: the Dream beginning of the film, indicating that Digital Award at the Hawaii International Plato’s rich language has been simplified Film Festival and the Visionary Filmmaker in order to help the student? Not at all. Award at the MauiFest Film Festival. 17 Book Review: The Lock, The Key, and The Door in the Wall by James S. Ruebel
Benita Kane Jaro. The Lock. Bolchazy-Car- pey seems on the verge of dictatorship. ative insight, sometimes through action that ducci Publishers (http://www.bolchazy. The important characters of the trilogy reflects the poems and sometimes through com), 2002. Pp. 280. Paperback $19.95. are all introduced and fleshed out: Publius action on which poems are brought in ISBN 0-86516-535-1. Clodius Pulcher, Clodia Metelli, Caesar, explicitly to comment. The complexity of Pompey, and Catullus. Caelius himself is Catullus’ character and of his relationship Benita Kane Jaro. The Key. Bolchazy-Car- impulsive and naive, an admirer and pro- with “Lesbia” (who is, in this book, Clodia ducci Publishers (http://www.bolchazy. tégé of Cicero. He is a friend of Catullus, Metelli) and our Caelius, who is immortal- com), 2002. Pp. 280. Paperback $19.95. whose featured role in Key is foreshad- ized in Poem 58 (Caeli, Lesbia nostra, Les- ISBN 0-86516-534-3. owed. The central events of Lock are politi- bia illa), is well drawn. His alienation from cal (when they do not hone in on Caelius’ his own society, his struggles to articulate Benita Kane Jaro. The Door in the Wall. personal life), and the tone is, in general, that alienation and to maintain ordinary Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers (http://www. upbeat: the darker episodes and revela- relationships with close friends animate the bolchazy.com), 2002. Pp. 280. Paperback tions of later books, many of them contem- tale. Personally, I am not a fan of the auto- $19.95. ISBN 0-86516-533-5. poraneous, are on the perimeter of the biographical reading of Catullus’ poems, action. Sexual perversity, which becomes a but Key gives us a nuanced and sensitive y bundling these three novels together, symbol in the trilogy of a deeper moral exploration of a life otherwise impossible to BJaro stakes her claim to an interpretive decay of the Roman order, remains here on recover. literary trilogy of the closing years of the the surface or ambiguous. The representation of social disorder in Roman Republic. She traces this story from sexual deviation becomes more pro- 62 B.C. to 48 B.C. mainly through the nounced than in Lock. And the choice of adventures, and largely through the eyes, material in Catullus is abundant: adultery, of Marcus Caelius Rufus, who is the protag- Jaro traces this story homoeroticism, incest, and everywhere onist as well as the usual narrator. On the mainly through the betrayal, regardless of the original pairing. whole, she has created a subtle, dark, adventures, and largely That Clodia, a Roman patrician with pow- ambivalent, and thoughtful set of interlock- through the eyes, of erful and wealthy relatives, could find her- ing stories. Marcus Caelius Rufus. self living in squalor, as she does here, is The original publication date (1988) yet another symbolic reflection of the suggests that Key should perhaps be read degeneracy of the society from which she first; but there is much to be said for begin- comes. ning with Lock (evidently the last book writ- In Door, the mood is dark. The story ten), where Caelius is still a young man. The historical events are, of course, opens in 48 B.C. with Caelius having taken Lock is the only tale not told directly by slanted for novelistic purposes. The greatest control of Thurii as the civil war between Caelius; in fact, while the narrator is an liberty is the suggestion that Caelius and Pompey and Caesar has reached a climax; omniscient third person, the point of view is Cicero were implicated in advance in the Pompey has been defeated and Caelius mainly that of a surprisingly sympathetic murder of Clodius, about which Jaro is awaits the arrival of Caesar’s men. He is Cicero, who appears here in the most per- defensive enough to include a justification performing the function his rank demands, suasively favorable fictional characteriza- that both demurs and defends: “I have but he has no understanding of why or on tion that I know of. He acts neither deliberately distorted what we know. . . . It whose behalf he is doing so. So, bemused, pompous nor pretentious. While many nov- is no more than conjecture – I think a plau- he sits down to write a report as he waits els of the period emphasize his vacillation sible one – that they may have been and decides what to do. (perhaps fear) or self-aggrandizement, involved in the way I have suggested” Caelius describes his life in Rome in Jaro’s Cicero is courageous, warm, and (Lock, 268). vivid terms, a dissipated romp beginning – clever, a man trying to be an honest and Key is a bold experiment. On the one as is thematic of the trilogy – with the Bona serious politician in an age of increasing hand, the narrator is Caelius, reflecting Dea sacrilege, here portrayed as a drunken corruption. The events of the novel form a upon what to tell Catullus’ father about his lark in which not only Clodius but Catullus classic ring: we begin at the Bona Dea trial dead son. On the other hand, the narrator and Caelius were complicit. The figure of in the shadow of Pompey’s return from the steps outside the first-person bounds of Caesar looms in the background, becom- East, where Clodius is prosecuted for spy- what anyone other than Catullus could pos- ing increasingly dominant and increasingly ing on the rites; we conclude at the trial of sibly have known or seen. This interplay of the focus of Caelius’ interest and loyalty. Milo, where Cicero defends Milo for the omniscience and Caelius’ own narration is Caelius finally turns against Caesar after a slaying of Clodius along the Appian Way effective. The book follows the autobio- particularly unpleasant abuse of personal near a shrine of the Bona Dea, and Pom- graphical clues of Catullus’ poems with cre- loyalty and real power. Having cast his lot 18 with Pompey, he has lost all hope after IT WAS THEIR DESTINY: ROMAN POWER AND Pharsalus. IMPERIAL SELF-ESTEEM Jaro’s Caesar is complex: as is rarely the continued from page 11 case, one sees how he attracted followers with his brilliance and was able to lead in there was no place in Jefferson’s imagi- ly dominated by the military and eco- the most difficult situations; yet his character nation “for an American society of nomic power of the United States. is venal, utterly ambitious, and ruthless. diverse cultures in which Native Ameri- Thus, I ask my students to examine the Pompey seems thoroughly realistic: a some- cans lived alongside whites while retain- notion, put forth in the 1840’s, that the what obtuse man of obscure motivation ing their own Indian values” (American United States had a “manifest destiny” other than his own glory, a fine general, Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson, to expand westward, as many thought it 1998, 240). Furthermore, in spite of Jef- did. Once the students become and no match for Caesar as a politician. ferson’s statements about cultivating engaged, the questions multiply. Does In view of Jaro’s thorough knowledge of love and acting from “motives of pure America have a destiny today? If so, can Caelius’ letters to Cicero, I was surprised humanity,” he must have been well Americans live up to the obligations it that she did not use the famous letter (Fam. aware that, in reality, such sentiments imposes upon them? Is America making 8.14) where the real Caelius gives Cicero did not prevail in the treatment of good use of its enormous wealth and his forecast of what he sees as an imminent Native Americans, any more than they power? did in the treatment of African Ameri- Once again, then, the experience of civil war. Perhaps the tone was too light (“if can slaves. Like Tacitus, Jefferson was the Romans has given us a fruitful way it could be put on without danger, Fortune haunted by the notion that Americans of examining the conditions of political would be arranging a great and interesting were unworthy of their mission. Six and social life today. In this case, their show”) or too calculating (“when it has years before his death he wrote the fol- message comes down to us in the form come to war and the camp, we must follow lowing: of an unsettling interrogation. Like the the stronger side, and the better choice is Romans in the time of Sallust, Vergil, I regret that I am now to die in the Horace, and Tacitus, we find ourselves what is safer”) for her character, though belief, that the useless sacrifice of asking questions about our destiny – Caelius’ dilemma about whom to follow themselves by the generation of 1776, about what it is and whether we are reflected the sentiment among many in late to acquire self-government and happi- worthy of it. ness to their country, is to be thrown 50 B.C. away by the unwise and unworthy pas- In Door, the sexual motif achieves reso- sions of their sons, and that my only lution. While sexual liberty is rife in the consolation is to be, that I live not to Carl A. Rubino is Edward North Profes- sor of Classics at Hamilton College. He has story, Caesar’s forcible seduction of weep over it. (Writings, 1434-1435) published on classics, comparative literature, Caelius in his command tent represents not Jefferson was thinking about slavery literary theory, and issues in science and the only Caelius’ personal turning point but when he wrote that: as Ellis emphasizes humanities. He is presently Book Review epitomizes the internal corruption of lead- (314-326), the issue of how to deal with Editor of the American Journal of Philol- ers of Caelius’ society, perhaps also repre- the undeniable injustice of slavery made ogy. sentative of Rome herself. The trilogy ends him fear for the future of the nation he Richard Howard’s translation of Horace, Odes 3.6 may be found in J. D. with a despondent Caelius preparing to had helped to found. As a teacher, I have discovered that McClatchy (ed.), Horace, The Odes: New ride out to meet Caesar’s troops. the issues of destiny and unworthiness Translations by Contemporary Poets All in all, Jaro has forged a layered and often seem directly relevant, since my (2002). provocative reflection on the fifteen years students can become quite engaged For more on Star Wars and Roman des- from the Bona Dea scandal to the death of with them. Many students in American tiny, see Margaret Malamud, “Patriarchy Caelius. schools, colleges, and universities, espe- and Pietas in the Star Wars Trilogy,” cially at private colleges such as the one Amphora 3.1 (Spring 2004), which is at which I teach, have been brought up available at http://www.apaclassics.org/out- James S. Ruebel is Professor of Classics to believe that they are destined for suc- reach/amphora/TOCAmphora.html, and and Dean of The Honors College at Ball cess, and this destiny often weighs Martin M. Winkler, “Star Wars and the State University in Indiana. His current heavily on them. Are they really good Roman Empire,” in Classical Myth and teaching is primarily in honors humanities enough to get the grades required? Will Culture in the Cinema (2001). and a field-based symposium on the City of they ever be able to do what seems to Rome. be expected of them, reaching and even surpassing the level of achievement – and income – attained by their parents? Moreover, Tacitus’ observations about Roman destiny and the early inhabitants of Britain and Germany, taken together with Jefferson’s conflict- ed thoughts about the fate of Native Americans, make teaching Roman liter- ature and civilization especially chal- lenging in a world that now seems total-
19 Book Review: Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold Ungit, whom the Greek equates with Aphrodite) not only imports an anthropo- by James B. Rives morphic image to supplement the unshaped stone that originally represented the god- C. S. Lewis. Till We Have Faces: A Myth through spite but a kind of jealous protec- dess, but also learns to expound the cult in Retold. Harcourt (www.HarcourtBooks. tiveness. terms of physical allegory. com), 1956. Pp. 313. Paperback $14.00. But if Lewis was relatively sparing in the Allegory is in fact a central feature of the ISBN 0-15-690436-5. changes he made to the storyline, his tone novel as a whole, and one of the most and treatment are utterly unlike those of impressive things about it is the skill with ot many people associate C. S. Lewis Apuleius: his novel has none of the fairytale which Lewis, whose most important scholar- with classical myth. A few, perhaps, quality, none of the tongue-in-cheek humor, N ly work was precisely a study of allegory, are familiar with his studies of medieval and none of the ironic distancing that char- has developed it. Most scholars would and Renaissance literature; many more acterize the original. The tone is instead probably agree that Apuleius’ story of know him as a popular Christian apologist, earnest, even somber, lacking the glibness Cupid and Psyche is, on some level, an and most, of course, as the author of the that can creep into some of Lewis’ work. He allegory of the soul’s union with the divine, children’s books set in the imaginary world also adopts the somewhat startling device although they would certainly disagree on of Narnia. As for myth, his interests, like of a first-person narration, telling the story his purpose in devising it: the ease with those of his friend J. R. R. Tolkien, seem to in the persona of Psyche’s loving elder sis- which Apuleius’ novel as a whole allows have focused primarily on the Germanic ter. This is startling not only for the very dif- for multiple and conflicting interpretations is tradition, as is apparent in his portrayal of ferent perspective on the story that it pro- one of its most salient characteristics. Lewis Narnia as a sort of medieval fairyland. But vides but also because Lewis’ somewhat not only preserves this allegorical dimen- like other men of his generation (he was distant depictions of women in his earlier sion of the tale, although transforming it born in 1898), his education included from fiction would not lead one to expect that he into Christian terms, but also retains its com- the start a good deal of Latin and Greek, would try writing in a woman’s voice. plexity: it is no easier to provide a simple and he eventually took a First Class degree Although his success is debatable, the set of one-to-one equivalences for the char- at Oxford in classics. It is thus not surprising attempt itself is intriguing, and perhaps con- acters and events of his novel than for those that figures from classical myth pop up in nected with the fact that he was working on of the Apuleian original. the Narnia books: dryads, Chiron-like cen- the novel in the same year that he was get- Although the intensely religious sensibili- taurs, and even, in Prince Caspian (1951), ting to know his future wife, apparently the ty of its ending may not appeal to all read- Bacchus and Silenus. first woman whom he took seriously as an ers, this book certainly deserves to be much But Till We Have Faces is his only work equal. better known than it is. Classicists will enjoy in which classical myth has a central rather Lewis’ imaginative presentation of Greek than a peripheral role; perhaps coincident- culture from the outside; more importantly, ly, it is also his least known work of fiction. they will appreciate his ability to translate As the title proclaims, it is “a myth retold,” C. S. Lewis’ tone and the Cupid and Psyche story into a very dif- and the myth in question is that of Cupid treatment are utterly ferent cultural and religious milieu and and Psyche as found in Apuleius’ Golden thereby, astonishingly, render it even Ass. One might reasonably suppose that unlike those of stranger and more richly resonant than the there could hardly be two writers with such Apuleius. original. In that respect, it represents a feat differing sensibilities as Apuleius and C. S. of transformation worthy of Apuleius him- Lewis, yet Lewis manages to transform self. Apuleius’ story in a way that is not only effective but also surprisingly appropriate. James B. Rives ([email protected]) The changes that Lewis makes to the There is much here to interest a classi- is Kenan Eminent Professor of Classics at actual storyline are few but significant. First, cist. Lewis sets the novel in a barbarian the University of North Carolina at Chapel of Psyche’s two older sisters, who in the land on the far distant periphery of the Hill, where he teaches courses in Latin original are alike in their beauty and envy, “Greeklands,” as the characters call them, prose and Roman culture; his most recent only one is beautiful; the other is ugly and and tries to imagine how such people might book is Religion in the Roman Empire loves Psyche deeply. She alone goes to have viewed Greek culture. One of the (2006). Among his earliest memories are mourn Psyche and discovers that she is still main characters is a Greek slave who acts those of his father reading him C. S. Lewis’ alive. Secondly, whereas in Apuleius’ ver- as a tutor for Psyche and her sisters and Narnia books. sion it is the experience of Psyche’s luxuri- eventually, thanks to his typically Greek ous palace that sparks the sisters’ envy, in cleverness, becomes an important coun- Lewis’ version the sister is unable to see the selor to the king. He also presents Hell- palace at all. When she persuades Psyche enization in progress: in the latter part of to spy on her husband, then, it is not the book, the priest of the main cult (that of 20 Ask A Classicist
Odyssey. This prose translation, which he What influence did Latin and published under the name T. E. Shaw, was QGreek have on T. E. Lawrence? generally well received and is still in print. Lawrence was, like Odysseus, a “man of many ways.” He loved to speed along Eng- lish country roads on his Brough Superior T. E. Lawrence (1888-1935) was a motorcycles. He even gave them pet medievalist by training, but he is A names: a favorite motorcycle was named best known today for his campaigns, as Boanerges ("Sons of Thunder") after the Lawrence of Arabia (see Fig. 13), against Greek word Jesus used in the New Testa- the Ottoman Turks during the Arab Revolt ment to describe the disciples James and of 1916-1918. John (Mark 3:17). It was on one of his Like other English boys of his time whose motorcycles that Lawrence met his end. parents aimed to give them a proper edu- Speeding and not wearing a crash helmet, cation, he studied Latin and Greek at he swerved to avoid two boys on bicycles. school, and he continued to read both lan- He lost control, flew over the handlebars, guages after his graduation from Oxford in Fig. 13. T. E. Lawrence (Lawrence of and suffered fatal head injuries. He was 1910. Of the two ancient languages, Arabia) after the First World War. buried in the village of Moreton. Lawrence had a stronger affinity for Greek. He often refers in his writings to a small group of Greek authors: Homer, Herodotus, ® (ISSN 1542-2380) is published twice a year by the American Aristophanes, Thucydides, Xenophon, and Philological Association (APA). The APA, founded in 1869 by Plato. During the desert war, he carried “professors, friends, and patrons of linguistic science,” is now the principal learned with him a Greek text of the comedies of society in North America for the study of ancient Greek and Roman languages, liter- atures, and civilizations. While the majority of its members are university and col- Aristophanes, and he read Aristophanes’ lege classics teachers, members also include scholars in other disciplines, primary Peace “very gratefully, and without much and secondary school teachers, and interested lay people. The APA produces several technical trouble.” He admired, in particu- series of scholarly books and texts and the journal Transactions of the American Philo- lar, the historian Herodotus, and his autobi- logical Association. It holds an annual meeting each January in conjunction with the ographical account of his experiences dur- Archaeological Institute of America. All of the APA’s programs are grounded in the rigor and high standards of tradi- ing the Arab Revolt, Seven Pillars of Wis- tional philology, with the study of ancient Greek and Latin at their core. However, dom, is considered by some scholars to be the APA also aims to present a broad view of classical culture and the ancient a kind of Herodotean history. His admira- Mediterranean world to a wide audience. In short, the APA seeks to preserve and tion of Herodotus even found expression at transmit the wisdom and values of classical culture and to find new meanings appro- priate to the complex and uncertain world of the twenty-first century. Clouds Hill, his small, remote cottage in The APA’s activities serve one or more of these overarching goals: Dorsetshire (which is now open for visits). • To ensure an adequate number of well-trained, inspirational classics teachers He had a stone lintel placed over the door at all levels, kindergarten through graduate school; of the cottage, and he himself carved on • To give classics scholars and teachers the tools they need to preserve and ου ϕροντις extend their knowledge of classical civilization and to communicate that the lintel [sic], ou phrontis, knowledge as widely as possible; “does not care.” These are the well-known • To develop the necessary infrastructure to achieve these goals and to make words, from the story told by Herodotus in the APA a model for other societies confronting similar challenges. Histories 6.126-130, of Hippocleides, the The APA welcomes everyone who shares this vision to participate in and support its programs. All APA members receive Amphora automatically as a benefit of member- suitor who performed a shocking dance on ship. Non-members who wish to subscribe to Amphora ($7.50/issue in the U.S. and a table and then said he did not care that Canada; $10/issue elsewhere) or who wish further information about the APA may he had danced away his marriage. (Many write to The American Philological Association, 292 Logan Hall, University of have speculated on the meaning of these Pennsylvania, 249 S. 36th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6304, apaclassics@ words for understanding the complex per- sas.upenn.edu. The APA Web site is http://www.apaclassics.org, and a subscription form for Amphora is available at: http://www.apaclassics.org/outreach/amphora/Non- sonality and activities of Lawrence through- member_Subs_Form.pdf. out his life.) Members attending meetings of or making presentations to interested nonmembers In 1927, after he had disappeared from are urged to request sample copies of Amphora from the APA office for distribution to public view and was serving in the Royal these audiences. Air Force in India, Lawrence was invited, on the strength of Seven Pillars of Wisdom, to undertake a new translation of Homer’s 21 ed for a longer time as the nearly uni- The World of Neo-Latin versal language of academic lectures, by Terence O. Tunberg disputations, examinations, administra- tion, and publication, not only in what we would call classical studies, but in fter the erosion of the Western created a difficult and recherché style every field, including philosophy, law, ARoman Empire in the fifth centu- by following the example of authors of medicine, and the natural sciences. This ry, Latin, though no one’s vernac- the late second century, such as situation started to change during the ular tongue, continued to be used for Apuleius and Gellius, and resuscitating seventeenth century, a period when about 1,200 years, and longer in some rare words and expressions from early philosophers, such as Descartes or Leib- regions, as the language of the Western Latin. In practice, a sort of moderate niz, began to use the vernacular lan- church and as the lingua franca of the Ciceronianism eventually prevailed, guages more regularly. Yet even as late learned classes. In the Renaissance, sanctioned by influential teachers such as the turn of the sixteenth and seven- which had its origins in the Italian as Johannes Sturm (1507-1589) and teenth centuries, more Latin books humanistic culture of the later four- Philipp Melanchthon (1497-1560) and were coming from the printing presses teenth century, the segments of Euro- the educational practice of the Jesuit of Germany, to name one region for pean society that used Latin were not order. Although they followed in gener- which some statistics exist, than vernac- very different from those of the preced- al the syntactical and stylistic norms of ular ones. By the later sixteenth centu- ing medieval centuries. Latin was still the classical authors, most writers of ry, Neo-Latin came to dominate even in the language of church, academia, and Neo-Latin prose readily employed Scandinavia, and the period from the some diplomacy. But in one respect, vocabulary from Christian and Medieval seventeenth to the early eighteenth Renaissance or humanist Latin was dis- Latin, when necessary, to describe more centuries is often regarded as a sort of tinct from Medieval Latin. Speaking recent ideas or things, and sometimes “Golden Age” of Latin writing in Swe- very generally, the Latin vulgate and entirely new words. den and Denmark. Neo-Latin was also a the works of the church fathers estab- Perhaps the humanists’ success in vehicle for expression in the colonies of lished Medieval Latin, while humanist establishing the usage of the ancient the New World, especially before about Latin authors tried much more consis- pagan authors as the stylistic norm for 1740, though Neo-Latin texts produced tently to return to the norms and styles the Latin of the Renaissance and the in North and South America and Mexi- of ancient pagan Latin prose and poetry. early-modern era brought an element of co have only recently begun to be This humanist Latin, which became the stability and uniformity to Neo-Latin, examined by scholars. prevailing mode of Latin expression in by comparison to some of the special- Educated people in the late Middle northern Europe by about 1500, is often ized types of Latin that had evolved in Ages, the Renaissance, and beyond called “Neo-Latin” to distinguish it the late Middle Ages, especially in the wrote in Latin so their works would from the Latin of the Middle Ages. fields of theology, philosophy, dialectic, reach an international audience. But The establishment of the pagan clas- and law. This establishment of norms, Latin was also favored because it had sical authors as the basis for Neo-Latin according to the late Professor Jozef the prestige acquired by more than a did not happen without controversy. In IJsewijn of Leuven, Belgium, whose millennium of existence as the universal fact, pagan Latin literature of the period two-volume Companion to Neo-Latin language of Western Christendom’s from the first century B.C. (or even the Studies (Leuven, 1990 and 1998) is the intellectual elite. The very fact of writ- second century B.C, if we include Plau- most authoritative basic reference work ing in Latin would require an author to tus and Terence) to the late second cen- for anyone interested in Neo-Latin lit- employ the topoi, literary forms, tury A.D. embraces a very wide range of erature, ensured Latin’s role as an inter- imagery, and allusions that were insepa- styles and a considerable variety of national language for several more cen- rable from this tradition, and the result- grammatical usage. Hence it is small turies. This role for Latin persisted for a ing work would become part of the wonder that disputes arose among lead- very long time, despite the inevitable Latin patrimony. Many a humanist ing humanists concerning which ancient growth and development of the vernac- noticed that Latin was relatively stable authors were worthy of imitation and ular languages associated with the and unchanging, while the vernacular how thoroughly one should imitate a greater popular literacy and the consoli- tongues were evolving and unstable. To given model or models. Some advocated dation of national cultures characteristic many Renaissance intellectuals, there- an eclectic approach to prose style of the early modern period. fore, especially before 1600, Latin (much like Seneca proposed in his letter Latin continued to be a language of seemed to be a more appropriate lin- 84) that sanctioned drawing together public administration and documents in guistic medium to ensure a work’s sur- many elements of expression from vari- some areas of Europe. In Hungary, to vival for posterity than the vernacular ous pagan authors. Others, especially in cite an extreme case, Latin remained languages. Italy, were proponents of Ciceronian- the official language of administration As even a glance at IJsewijn’s Com- ism, the view that the best model for until the mid-nineteenth century – per- panion makes clear, the quantity and Latin prose was Cicero. This view was haps only in the Catholic Church did variety of Neo-Latin (especially that probably reinforced by close reading of Latin persist even longer as an adminis- produced before 1650) is so immense the Roman authors themselves, for in trative medium. However, with the that no scholar could become an expert the Latin literature of the empire it is gradual spread of literacy in the national in more than a small part of it. Neo- almost a commonplace that Cicero was languages among the laity, vernaculars Latin includes great masterpieces of the supreme orator and that there had generally replaced Latin for public doc- Western literature, such as Thomas been a decline in eloquence after the uments, though at different times in dif- More’s Utopia and Erasmus’ Laus stulti- late republic. Other Neo-Latin writers, ferent places. At most European univer- tiae (Praise of Folly), both read usually in and this group was perhaps the smallest, sities in the Renaissance, Latin persist- translation by modern students in non- 22 the other national languages and litera- tures, the primary focus, not unreason- ably, is usually on texts written in the national languages. Scholars in philoso- phy and history may sometimes study Neo-Latin texts for the information they might contain relative to these dis- ciplines, but rather few scholars in these disciplines are primarily Latinists. Who would be better equipped to study and teach Neo-Latin texts than the teachers and professors of Latin? If students of Latin see themselves exclusively as stu- dents of the Roman (and Hellenistic) world, then Neo-Latin is certainly out- side their purview. But if Latinists con- ceive of their task as potentially embrac- ing the Latin literary tradition as a whole, then why not include Neo- Latin? Indeed, departments of Latin would have much to gain by awarding a larger role to Neo-Latin studies along- side the study of classical Latin (and the same arguments, of course, apply also to Medieval Latin). Neo-Latin could add vastly to the cultural content and cen- trality of Latin as a discipline in the con- text of the humanities as a whole, not only at the university level, but also in the high schools. The fuller assimilation of the more recent part of the Latin tra- dition into the orbit of conventional Latin studies would offer a much larger range of possibilities for cooperation and contacts in teaching and research among departments of classical languages and professors of other disciplines in the humanities. Finally, there remains an enormous amount to learn about Neo- Latin, and critical editions of many fun- damental Neo-Latin works do not exist. This is scholarship for which a Latinist Fig. 14. Erasmus of Rotterdam by Hans trained in classical Latin is extremely classical language courses (see Fig. 14). Holbein the Younger, 1523. Neo-Latin also includes a great variety well prepared, and by undertaking such of less well known works that are of versities, but at municipal festivals and research, a Latinist can make consider- tremendous cultural significance, such in the courts of great potentates. Schol- able contributions to many disciplines at as Lorenzo Valla’s fifteenth-century ars are just beginning to appreciate the the same time. declamation on the Donation of Con- fact that an ample tradition of Latin fic- In short, if more teachers and stu- stantine, or the monumental sixteenth- tion flourished in the Renaissance and dents of Latin involve themselves with century history De orbe novo, by the early modern periods. To modern read- Neo-Latin, the field of Latin studies Spanish bishop Sepulveda that chroni- ers, the most well known representative becomes no less Latin, but more inter- cles the occupation of the West Indies of Neo-Latin fiction is probably More’s disciplinary, more multicultural, and and Mexico from Columbus to Cortés Utopia, which is a purely prose text. But more fundamental to the humanities in and raises disturbing issues pertaining many Neo-Latin novels, such as the general. to the encounters between Europeans extremely popular and influential Arge- and the indigenous peoples. nis written by the Scottish humanist Terence O. Tunberg is Professor of Clas- Philosophical, theological, and scien- John Barclay at the beginning of the sics at the University of Kentucky. His pub- tific works constitute a significant por- seventeenth century, are written in the lished works include studies of the history of tion of Neo-Latin, but Neo-Latin litera- Menippean style, characterized by prose Latin prose styles, articles devoted to Neo- ture also includes a vast amount of poet- mixed with verse interludes. Latin writers, and an edition of a Medieval ry, letters, histories, travel accounts, ora- It is paradoxical that this tremendous Latin text. He also specializes in Latin prose tory, satire, and other genres. Neo-Latin and fundamental literary heritage has composition and the active use of Latin in drama, both tragedy and comedy, flour- long remained on the periphery of mod- teaching. ished in the Renaissance and was per- ern scholarship and teaching. In depart- formed not merely in churches and uni- ments of English, French, German, and 23 ® GUIDELINES FOR CONTRIBUTORS A Publication of the American Philological Association Sponsorship: Amphora, a publication Suggested Length of Submissions: sponsored by the Committee on Out- Articles (1500-1800 words), reviews reach of the American Philological (500-1000 words). Editor Association, is published twice a year, Anne-Marie Lewis in the spring and fall. Anonymous Refereeing: Submissions York University will be refereed anonymously. [email protected] Audience: Amphora is intended for a wide audience that includes those Footnotes: Amphora is footnote free. 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