the Classicist President Book Review: by Susan Ford Wiltshire The Penelopiad by Matthew Clark n September 20, 1863, the last Oday of the Battle of Chickamau- Margaret Atwood. The Penelopiad: The ga, a thirty-one-year-old Myth of Penelope and Odysseus. Alfred A. brigadier general from Ohio – already a Knopf, Canada (http://www.random- classics professor, college president, and house.ca), 2005. Pp. xv, 199. Hardcover newly elected to the U. S. Congress – left the retreat of Union General William $17.95. ISBN 0-676-97418-X. S. Rosecrans, whom he served as mili- tary chief of staff, and rode under heavy argaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad: fire to the side of General George H. MThe Myth of Penelope and Odysseus Thomas, still standing his ground against is one volume in a series of retellings of the Confederate troops on another front. The professor’s detailed battle reports to myths from around the world by various Thomas strengthened Thomas’ resolve modern authors. Thirty-one publishers are to fight on and helped save the Union participating in the project; other writers Army of the Cumberland. In time, the contracted to produce versions include professor’s action that day helped take Chinua Achebe, Donna Tartt, and A. S. Fig. 1. James A. Garfield, major general him all the way to the White House. Byatt; Karen Armstrong has written a gen- James Abram Garfield, the only pro- in the Union Army during the Civil War, fessional classicist ever to serve as Presi- 1862. eral account of myth (A Short History of dent of the United States, was born in a Garfield had little more to learn from the Myth, 2005) to accompany the series as a log cabin in northern Ohio on Novem- resources of Hiram and began to teach whole. The project overall has the appear- ber 19, 1831. The fourth and youngest there. ance of a commercial enterprise, but the child of a near-destitute widow, Garfield James had known Lucretia Rudolph, test of its value, of course, will lie in the was nevertheless encouraged by his whom he eventually married, since both quality of the individual volumes. mother to seek an education. First at were students Geauga Academy. They nearby Geauga Academy, then at the became better acquainted as they both Atwood tells her story from two points of Hiram Eclectic Institute – later Hiram studied at the Eclectic Institute. view: the principal narrator is Penelope College – Garfield’s education centered Garfield now discovered one of the herself, now dead and resident in the after- on Latin, Greek, and mathematics. more practical benefits of studying world, but Penelope’s narrative is interrupt- Garfield began keeping detailed Greek and Latin – its use as a means of ed by a number of chapters from the point diaries after he entered Geauga Acade- courtship. In an early exchange of let- of view of the maids killed in Book 22 of my on March 6, 1849, and continued ters about their classical studies, this habit for the rest of his life. These Garfield wrote: “Today, the Virgil class the Odyssey. Most of these interruptions diaries have been published, along with finished the third book and are going are songs or poems or prose poems, much of his extensive correspondence. about 50 lines per day. Are you ahead? though there is also an “anthropology Together they preserve substantial evi- continued on page 4 dence of Garfield’s lifelong love affair continued on page 2 with learning and especially with Latin. As early as April 15, 1850, he wrote in Novel Approaches to the classics: Book Review: “The Songs of the his diary in Latin that he loved books, Part III ...... 3 Kings” ...... 13 “Amo Libros.” A month later he added, Whatever happened in thessaly? Ask A Classicist...... 15 “Love Latin.” A postmodern fantasy...... 6 After a brief stint of school teaching, From Scroll to Database: Did You Know…...... 8 What do classics librarians do?..16 Garfield, in the fall of 1851 at age nine- teen, entered the newly established The Plague of Athens: Current From the Editor...... 18 Analytic Techniques...... 10 Western Reserve Eclectic Institute in The Ohio Wesleyan “Virgil Vigil”...19

Inside Coming in Future Issues ...... 12 Hiram, Ohio. Here he continued to flour- Guidelines for contributors...... 20 ish. He became greatly popular and excelled in all his studies. In time, 17514 AmphoraSpr.qxd 6/1/06 10:17 PM Page 2

the Classicist President continued from page 1

I presume so. Won’t you come in to woman in Massachusetts, but feeling a both Greek and Latin in the spring? We sense of duty to Lucretia, he proposed miss you very much in these two class- to her in April 1858, and they married in es. What are your views now with regard November of that year. Garfield’s rest- to studying the classics? Have you rec- less energy took him away from home onciled yourself to devoting a few more frequently in the early years of the mar- years to them? I would like to hear your riage, absences that were hard on Lucre- reasonings on the subject. I would much tia who, in time, would be primarily rather converse ‘ore quam calamo’ [in responsible for raising their seven chil- person, not by pen] but it seems our dren. Lucretia, however, was also a leisure hours do not synchronize . . .” scholar, and to the end of her life in After two years and hungry for more 1918, she set aside time every day for intellectual stimulus than Hiram and reading and writing. Ohio could provide, Garfield wrote the While at Hiram, Garfield was sent to presidents of Yale, Brown, and Williams the Ohio State legislature in 1859. During Fig. 2. James A. Garfield, twentieth College about the possibility of entering this time, he also campaigned tirelessly for president of the United States, 1881. as a transfer student. Mark Hopkins, the Abraham Lincoln, who easily won legendary president of Williams College, Garfield’s district in 1860. In August 1861, Latin classics; reading Cicero’s letters, responded most favorably, so in the he joined the 42nd Ohio Volunteer Livy, Ovid, and Plutarch; and reading summer of 1854, leaving behind Lucre- Infantry as a lieutenant colonel. He fought Euripides and Sophocles. He was fasci- tia, to whom he had become informally successfully in the battle of Middle Creek nated with Pliny the Younger, whom he engaged, Garfield arrived in Williams- in Kentucky in January of 1862 (see Fig. found unjustly neglected, and he town, Massachusetts. He wrote to 1). He was promoted to brigadier general, expressed his desire to translate Pliny’s Lucretia that within three hours of his and in the fall of that same year, was elect- letters. He writes of his determination arrival he was being examined by Hop- ed to the U. S. Congress as a strong sup- to collect a complete set of the Latin kins in Homer, Xenophon’s Memorabilia, porter of abolition. In December 1863, at classics and of turning to Lucretius for Livy, and Horace. In a later letter to the urging of President Lincoln, Garfield rest when he was too weary to sleep. Lucretia he wrote of the importance to resigned his military commission and took On October 27, 1873, Garfield wrote: him of this kind of education. His letter his seat in Congress. “I have come to dread these continual also sheds light on his powerful ambi- The move to Washington and to changes of home, from Washington to tion, what he calls his “inner fires”: political life did not dim Garfield’s Hiram. Middle life, and especially attraction to the classics. From Congress scholarly life, needs regular habits . . . . I do not feel satisfied merely to carry he wrote to his good friend Burke Hins- I fear also that these constant changes away the skin of a Massachusetts dale on January 1, 1867: “My love for may unfit me for steady continuous life sheep, but I want to know something Latin and Greek, and the history of in one place – which feeling of unrest of the men, the thoughts, that are here. I antiquity, is growing every day. I have would ill become an old man. This is feel the necessity of breaking through stolen many hours since I have been probably the first time I have used the the shell of local notions and getting mentally free. I mean no disrespect for here and given them to Cicero and words ‘old man’ as applied to myself in the influences and teaching that I had Horace. I am also trying to study French the near future. But if I live ten years had, but I mean to say that to mould – but I presume I shall be cut short longer I shall be in the near neighbor- one’s mind in one place and under when Congress gets to work.” hood of old age. I must resume my read- one system of things must necessarily Garfield’s diary entry of January 5, ing of De Senectute [On Old Age].” give it one particular channel, and not 1872, describes a typical day: “Still writ- At that writing, Garfield was forty- that breadth of field that is desirable ing letters and working off accumulated one years old. Seven years later in 1880, . . . . There are some splendid scholars Department business. Criticised addi- after eight consecutive terms in Con- in the class. Many come from Harvard, tional chapter of Hinsdale’s forthcoming gress, Garfield won a race for the Amherst, and Yale to finish here. book, on the genuineness and authen- U. S. Senate. Then at the Republican Lucretia, I must admit that those inner fires come surging up through ticity of the Gospels. Answered Prof. Party’s convention in Chicago in June, every nerve and fiber of my being in Demmon’s inquiry on the meaning of he became the successful compromise strong desire and strong determination “Monstra Natantia” in the third of the candidate for President on the thirty- not to stand – at least, last of all. . . . first book of Horace’s Odes. The Profes- sixth ballot after the convention became Honor is not the object for which I labor; sor thought the words meant ships. I say deadlocked between Ulysses S. Grant but when in a class I am miserable if it means animals; marine monsters.” and James G. Blaine. far behind. In other diary entries from the con- Garfield won the presidency against gressional years, Garfield describes puz- Democratic candidate General Winfield Upon graduation in August 1856 with zling over the structure of Horace’s Ode Scott Hancock and was inaugurated on honors from Williams, where he had I.4 to Sestius; helping his sons with March 4, 1881 (see Fig. 2). After serving also become a star debater and speaker, their Caesar; reading to them Momm- in office only four months, President Garfield returned to Hiram as professor sen’s account of the Servile War or Garfield was boarding a train at Union of ancient languages and, soon there- Plutarch’s History of Romulus; slipping Station on July 2 on his way to Williams- after, as president of the school. He had over to the Library of Congress between town for a meeting of the Williams Col- fallen in love with another young 2 debates to spend an hour among the lege Board of Trustees. There Charles 17514 AmphoraSpr.qxd 6/1/06 10:17 PM Page 3

Gateau, an unbalanced partisan of the Stalwarts, the rival Republican faction, NOVEL APPROACHES TO THE gunned him down. Garfield lay ill for seventy-nine days, conscious most of CLASSICS: PART III the time, and finally died on September by Thomas Falkner 19, 1881. He was forty-nine years old, two months shy of his fiftieth birthday. he Human Stain may not be Philip what they think they know – works so In 1882, on the first anniversary of Roth’s finest novel, but its protag- well that Roth’s narrator, the Garfield’s death, the Williams Board of onist, Coleman Silk, is surely redoubtable Nathan Zuckerman, is Trustees established the Garfield Chair T among his most exceptional: a fictional taken in. He introduces Silk as “a neat, of Ancient Languages (currently held character who, through a secondary attractive package of a man even at his by Professor Kerry A. Christensen). On process of characterization, makes his age, the small-nosed Jewish type with the same occasion, Mark Hopkins, for- own life a fiction. By birth, Coleman the facial heft in the jaw, one of those mer president and still a professor at Silk is a light-skinned African American crimped-haired Jews of a light yellowish Williams, delivered a “Memorial Dis- raised in East Orange, New Jersey. But skin pigmentation who possess some- course” to the Trustees about Garfield, as a graduate student in Greenwich Vil- thing of the ambiguous aura of the which is contained in Hopkins’ Teach- lage in the early 50’s, he exchanges his blacks who are sometimes taken for ings and Counsels (1884). Hopkins spoke Black identity for a Jewish one, disown- white” (15-16). of Garfield’s humble beginnings, his ing race and family in the bargain. He Silk’s forays across the color line intellect and versatility, his way of win- lives the rest of his life successfully – if become bolder. After dropping out of ning the confidence of people. But what that is the right word – “passing” as a Howard University, he enlists in the interested Hopkins most was Garfield’s white Jewish classics professor and navy, and he realizes that he can play combination of intellectual thirst and administrator at “Athena College” in his skin color however he wants. His political acumen: the Berkshires. experiment as a The Human Stain is white midshipman is But as President Garfield had, from a powerful medita- a qualified success. his early struggles, in common with At the core of Silk’s President Lincoln, a ground for the tion on identity and Faustian wager is the He passes undetect- sympathy of the masses, so had he, hybridity and the ed, apart from a from his broad scholarship and varied paradoxes of race in quintessential American humiliating night in attainments, in common with John America. Silk’s self- myth, the individualist a white Virginia Quincy Adams, a ground for sympathy fabrication is enabled whorehouse, the dis- with persons of the highest culture. It by America’s violent who finds in America grace of which he was a common remark . . . that no racial history – of the freedom to slough memorialized in a President except John Quincy Adams slaveowners, sexual his past. tiny blue tattoo that had been equally equipped in scholar- domination, and pig- he came to regard as ship and statesmanship. mentation in greater “the emblem of what and lesser amounts. cannot ever be Garfield was a romantic in the nine- The Silk family was so fair-skinned that, removed.” Later, after the war, after los- teenth-century sense – a lover of litera- despite the general Negrophobia of East ing a white girlfriend and taking up with ture, adventure, politics, people, and Orange, “. . . the neighbors were on the a secular Jew, amidst the multi-ethnic life in general. He flourished in the edu- whole friendly with the ultra-respectable and multi-racial license of New York, he cational, social, military, and political light-skinned Silks – Negroes, to be sure, makes the change permanent. worlds. He was thorough and charming but, in the words of one tolerant mother Silk’s biography becomes a blend of and charismatic. In him, the heart and of a kindergarten playmate of Cole- fact and fiction. He truly had graduated mind were married, and it was his love man’s, ‘people of a very pleasing shade, valedictorian from East Orange H.S. in of the classics throughout his life that rather like eggnog’” (122-23). 1944: “back in those days, studying my fuelled them both. Fairness of skin is the genetic legacy high school Latin, taking advanced of America’s racial past, its human stain Latin, taking Greek, which was still part Susan Ford Wiltshire (susan.f.wiltshire@ and corporeal sign, as novelists from of the old-fashioned curriculum” (22). vanderbilt.university) is Professor of Classics William Faulkner on have described so He enrolled at NYU, completing a B.A. at Vanderbilt University. She has written well. In The Human Stain, racial hybridi- and then a Ph.D. in classics. A first extensively on the classical tradition in Ameri- ty allows a social and cultural mobility appointment at Adelphi University is ca, including a book Greece, Rome, and the that both liberates and estranges, that followed by the position at Athena. Bill of Rights (1992). Her most recent book is enables one to choose from two identi- Curiously, the narrator suggests that a poetry collection, Windmills and Bridges: ties and to have no identity at all. At “Coleman was . . . perhaps among the Poems Near and Far (2002). Many years first, Silk participates in this condition first of the Jews permitted to teach in a ago, Professor Leo M. Kaiser of Loyola Uni- tentatively and even playfully. In high classics department anywhere in Ameri- versity in Chicago, a pioneer scholar of the clas- school, he practices at being Jewish on ca” (5). Whatever the situation at sical tradition in America, sent her his extensive the advice of his boxing trainer, Doc Athena, the history here is skewed, and collection of research materials on Garfield and Chizner. As the two drive to a match at in Refugee Scholars in America (1984) the classics with the hope that she might com- West Point, Doc advises him not to Lewis Coser has documented the influx plete his project. She dedicates this article as an mention that he is colored, to let people of classical scholars who came to Ameri- act of pietas to his memory. think that he is Jewish. Doc’s principle ca from Germany in the 1930’s and who – let others sort you out on the basis of struggled with the anti-Semitism that

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Book Review: The Penelopiad ing “represent the overthrow of a matrilin- eal moon-cult by an incoming group of continued from page 1 usurping patriarchal father-god-worshiping lecture” by the maids and the transcript of and also to protect her own reputation as a barbarians” (165). I am not sure where all a mock trial of Odysseus. This doubled nar- faithful and cautious wife. Scholars contin- this leaves us; because of the abundance of rative structure nicely matches the two ques- ue to argue about what Homer’s Penelope possibilities, none is explored in any depth. tions Atwood poses in her introduction (xv): knew or guessed. I suspect that part of the Revisions and revisionings of myth begin What was Penelope really up to, and what magic of Homer’s version lies in its ambigu- as early as Homer; the twentieth century led to the hanging of the maids at the end ity. Atwood certainly has an author’s right has seen a number of notable versions of of the story? to tell the story her own way. The question the story of Odysseus. There is no single Penelope herself is at the center of the is not if her version is right or wrong but if it right way to retell a myth. The familiar story. Atwood, unlike Homer, presents her is convincing and alive. events can be retold, but from a new point whole life, from birth to life after death. of view; new events can be imagined; or Penelope’s troubles start with her family. the story may be mined for new truths. Her mother, a Naiad, is cold and distant. When a story is retold, it must answer – or at least pose – the questions of its own Her father tries to drown her, and when When a story is retold, that does not work, he becomes “if any- time. It also should live as a story on its thing, rather too affectionate” (10). Pene- it must answer – or at own. The story of Penelope deserves to be lope’s troubles continue with her cousin least pose – the questions told, as much as the story of Odysseus; it is Helen. Atwood’s Helen is rather unpleas- of its own time. certainly a story for our time. The maids ant, with none of the anguish and introspec- also deserve a hearing. I am not, however, tion of Helen in the Iliad and none of the satisfied that Atwood has really given us wit and charm of Helen in the Odyssey. Penelope. Because the slim volume tells She is vain and selfish, and she continually Penelope’s whole story, from birth to her taunts Penelope, who in Atwood’s version, After Odysseus’ return and recognition, life after death, no moment is explored in is plain and a bit dull, if clever. When Atwood poses her second question. “I’ve much depth. Atwood tells us the story, but Odysseus rather surprisingly wins Penelope always been haunted by the hanged she does not reveal much about the charac- for his bride, things begin to look up a little. maids,” she says (xv). Indeed, they pose a ters. Moreover, Atwood seems at pains to In Ithaca she is lonely at first and without a serious moral problem for readers today (as display all her research – mostly derived friend, but gradually she makes a kind of do, for example, the Trojans sacrificed to from Robert Graves’ eccentric compendium, life for herself. Patroclus in the Iliad). According to Homer, The Greek Myths (1955). But the details The great crisis of her life comes when Odysseus orders the maids killed because and variants, as fascinating as they are, lie Odysseus goes off to war and she has to they were disloyal: they were sleeping with on the surface, undigested. take over the management of the estate and the suitors – or so said the old servant Several of my students have read the kingdom. She rises to the challenge, woman Eurycleia. Atwood suggests some Atwood’s Penelopiad – some liked it, some and in a way, this period is the happiest in other possibilities. First, granting Homer’s did not. But it has provided an opportunity the story. Only at this point does Atwood’s version, we could simply dismiss the maids for lively debate on a number of topics. version begin to parallel the Odyssey. as victims of another time, another culture, This revisionist version could easily find a Once the war is over, Penelope waits for another moral system. Atwood notes this place in courses on Greek myth or the epic the return of Odysseus, and waits, and possibility in one of the maids’ chapters, tradition. waits. Travelers bring stories of his adven- but really only to dismiss it. tures, but Penelope always suggests a revi- Penelope offers another explanation: she Matthew Clark ([email protected]) is sionist account. “Odysseus had been in a herself had encouraged the maids to con- an associate professor at York University. fight with a giant one-eyed Cyclops, said sort with the suitors so they could gather He is the author of Out of Line: Homeric some; no, it was only a one-eyed tavern- information for her; unfortunately, she had Composition Beyond the Hexameter (1997) keeper, said another, and the fight was neglected to let Eurycleia in on the scheme, and A Matter of Style: Writing and over non-payment of the bill . . . . Odysseus so Odysseus kills the maids out of igno- Technique (2003). was the guest of a goddess on an enchant- rance. Or else, Penelope suggests, ed isle, said some . . . ; no, said others, it Eurycleia actually knew that the maids were was just an expensive whorehouse, and he spying for Penelope and let them hang out was sponging off the Madam” (83-84). of resentment. The maids claim that Pene- When Odysseus finally does return, in dis- lope let them be killed so they would not guise, Penelope recognizes him instantly, reveal her sexual escapades with the suit- but she keeps quiet so as not to burst the ors. Or else, as the maids suggest in their bubble of his self-esteem as a trickster – anthropology lecture, their rape and hang-

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NOVEL APPROACHES TO THE CLASSICS: PART III prophylaxis of the whole of Attic continued from page 3 tragedy and Greek epic poetry” (63), should fail to see the tragic trajectory of his life. Even the glee with which Silk had characterized the discipline to that is achieved and, in the name of jus- celebrated his new identity has a paral- point. Silk’s newly invented past is a tice, retribution is exacted and a cycle lel in Oedipus’ declaration of himself a model of verisimilitude. His grandpar- of retaliation begins. (63) “child of fortune.” ents become immigrants from “some- The theme of banishment that is where in Russia,” the family name These texts have the force of prophe- declared in the novel’s epigraph con- changed from Silberzweig to Silk, the cies received but ignored, and their res- nects with both of the Oedipus plays. ancestors lost in the diasporic melee. onances provide a silent choral wisdom The connection with Oedipus the King is His late father was a saloon keeper with that the protagonist chooses not to to the collective guilt and pollution that a fanatical respect for the English lan- heed. devolves from his secret origins and to guage who pushed him to be a serious Silk’s capacity for outrage and his the thematics of exposure and its conse- student. determination to confront the indigni- quences. Silk’s banishment from the At the core of Silk’s Faustian wager is ties he suffers qualify him as a Sopho- family and the community connect the the quintessential American myth, the clean hero, and the Oedipus plays pro- novel with Oedipus at Colonus, a play in individualist who finds in America the vide a rich set of analogues. (On the which the ritual of social expulsion is freedom to slough his past and by dint connection between Silk and Oedipus, shown to be in truth an exercise in of native talent slides into a new life and see also Geoffrey Bakewell, “Philip hypocrisy. This theme is amplified by identity. But for Silk that freedom is a Roth’s Oedipal Stain,” Classical and setting Silk’s story against the back- residual by-product of the racial oppres- Modern Literature, 2002, 29-46.) Silk’s ground of the Clinton impeachment, as sion that provides the requisite physical name Coleman (“Coal-Man”), like America indulges in “the ecstasy of capital, and the project of the self-made Oedipus’ name (“Swollen Foot”), pro- sanctimony . . . eager to enact the astrin- man is doomed to failure. vides a physiognomic clue as to his true gent rituals of purification” (2). Like This hybridity has its counterpart in identity. The Jocasta figure here is split Oedipus, Coleman Silk finds in the the novel’s profound relationship to the in two. Iris Silk, whose death is indirect- terms of his ostracism the grounds on classics. Roth announces his textual ly caused by Coleman’s paroxysms of which he liberates himself anew from strategy, offering Oedipus the King 99-101 rage, is, like Jocasta, unaware of her hus- the smugness and political correctness as the book’s epigraph: band’s secret past, and they too have of Athena College: the college becomes four children who carry his secret within an academic Thebes, its faculty narrow- OEDIPUS: What is the rite of themselves unawares. Silk’s affair with minded and ritualistic in their rejection purification? How shall it be done? Faunia Farley, though not incestuous, is of their former leader. Silk’s dismissal, scandalous and fraught with tragic like the expulsion of Oedipus, becomes CREON: By banishing a man, or potential. A victim of violence and an angry self-exile, his isolation a deter- expiation of blood by blood . . . abuse, true to her sylvan name she com- mination to live his remaining years on munes better with cows and birds than his own terms. Greek tragedy is the primary intertext humans, and her dark nature gives this Silk bitterly rejects the hypocrisy of for The Human Stain, and Coleman Silk deeply sexual relationship forbidden family and community that disguises is introduced in full tragic potential, as overtones. self-interest as principle. Like the aged he lectures on the Iliad and the quarrel Most of all, it is Silk’s secret past that Oedipus, Silk finds his own family capa- of Agamemnon and Achilles. Silk’s likens him to Oedipus, and the dark ble of betrayal, and he is outraged to estrangement from the social world, like mysteries of race provide an American find that his children have joined in the that of Achilles, involves a woman and a corollary to the Greek horror of incest. general disapproval of his relationship quarrel with institutional authority. It Silk comes by his own design to a cross- with Faunia. Yet here too among the begins with his innocent but revealing roads of race and identity, cutting irrev- four children there is a spectrum of use of the word “spooks” in a classroom, ocably the ties to his true father and fidelity and betrayal; his love for his ide- which the administration denounces as mother and family. The anagnorisis alistic daughter Lisa and his strained a racial slur. After his resignation from (recognition) in the novel will be Zuck- relationship with his son Mark recall Athena over this incident, his affair with erman’s, who will come to discover Antigone and Polyneices, respectively. the young and illiterate Faunia Farley Silk’s secret only after his death, though All of this notwithstanding, The and the outrage it provokes complete Zuckerman’s narrative enables the read- Human Stain remains a novel, not a the process of his withdrawal from the er, like the audience of Oedipus the King, tragedy. The general incompatibility community. to “know the story” almost from the between tragedy and the modern novel But Achilles provides only one outset. This knowledge allows us to has been well examined; in his recent paradigm: appreciate the story’s fully ironic struc- work Sweet Violence: The Idea of the Tragic ture: that a black man should be con- (2003), Terry Eagleton has questioned [Silk] knew what can corrode and victed of racism by a white community; the critical traditions that position the warp a man who believes himself to that a once second-rate college should two genres as polar opposites and the have been grievously wronged. He turn against the dean who had made it novel as inherently anti-tragic. To be knew from the wrath of Achilles, the sure, Roth’s purposes are far from those rage of Philoctetes, the fulminations respectable; that a man seeking to of Medea, the madness of Ajax, the escape racism by passing as a Jew of great tragic novelists of the eigh- despair of Electra, and the suffering of should encounter anti-Semitism and die teenth and nineteenth centuries or their Prometheus the many horrors that can at the hands of the Jew-hating Lester twentieth-century successors. Yet ensue when the degree of indignation Farley; that Silk himself, armed by “the continued on page 18 5 17514 AmphoraSpr.qxd 6/1/06 10:17 PM Page 6

WHATEVER HAPPENED IN THESSALY? A POSTMODERN FANTASY by Hazel E. Barnes

Prologue been reconciliation or bitter tragedy.” But maybe she had some sort of inde- “Euripides wasn’t Aeschylus,” Stella scribable experience that transformed lcestis’ tomb could have been reminded me. “And he never made up her. If so, then perhaps instead of “A somewhere not far from here,” stories without some support in existing reproaching Admetus, she merely I pointed out. “Euripides’ cho- myth. Besides, there was only one end- looked at him compassionately and held rus tells Heracles that he will find it just ing possible. The plot of Admetus and herself aloof. I can envision her going outside their city of Pherae, by the road Alcestis was that of a fairytale and could often to the temple, possibly becoming leading to Larissa.” We were sitting on have only the happy ending requisite a priestess. Or else she joined the fol- the grass by the river – Stella, a univer- for all fairytales. As the third day comes lowers of Orpheus (were they around sity student, her aunt Clio, retired from to a close, the two fall into each other’s then?) and spent the rest of her life teaching at an American school in arms, proclaiming their joy at their preparing for a blissful existence after Athens, and I. It was in the spring of reunion, declaring they will never be death in the realms of eternal ether.” 1948. The latest Greek civil war was separated again. Admetus swears that he “This is all nonsense,” snorted Clio. already going on then, but it was a will love and honor her more than ever Stella and I turned on her. “Well, strange war to live with. Terrible things now that he has seen her true worth, what do you think? Did she just once were happening in the mountains, but surpassing his own, he admits frankly. again become the devoted wife? Do you in Athens life was pleasantly routine for She tells him that she would gladly do it believe that Admetus was worthy of the us, as it was in most of the heavily popu- all over again rather than to live without gift she gave him?” lated areas in Greece, which was steadi- him. So they lived happily ever after “Admetus got what he deserved,” ly recovering from the Nazi occupation. until they were very old, and they died Clio replied. We stared at her in disbe- Nobody had opposed my accepting my painlessly at the same hour of the same lief. “That is, the second time,” she friend Stella’s invitation to spend Easter day.” added. week at her home in Larissa. Nor did I responded with horror. “Euripides “What do you mean – the second her family object to our plans to go for a would never have settled for that! I time?” picnic lunch in the countryside near don’t presume to guess what he would Clio was silent for so long I began to Larissa, which was at that date only a have done. But I prefer to imagine a think our futile imaginings had some- small town. Everything was so peaceful scene halfway between Medea’s denun- how offended her. Or was she just bored and unspoiled that I was already yield- ciation of Jason and Ibsen’s Nora saying with them? At last she spoke: ing to my familiar temptation – to imag- goodbye to Torwald. Alcestis would cut “Over the centuries many Greeks, ine that I was in a setting no different Admetus’ protestations short and insist even, perhaps especially, among the less from what ancient Greece had offered – that, if she is to stay with him, he must educated, have not always distinguished when the feeling was reinforced by a agree that they will together and as clearly between the ancient myths of chorus of frogs croaking exactly as equals rule over the household and over heroes and our half-legendary history. Aristophanes had imitated them in his Pherae as co-sovereigns.” We have clung to and nourished them comedy: “Brekekekex, koáx, koáx, “A born again feminist!” jeered Stella. all as part of our past. It’s probably only brekekekex, koáx.” Finally they sub- And Clio said, “If she had tried any- half-belief. Still, I have a friend who sided, and my thoughts returned to thing like that, Admetus would have finds Mycenae depressing because of all Euripides’ Alcestis. sent posthaste for Heracles and begged the murders that purportedly took place “The play leaves too much unfin- him to take her back to the tomb, bury- there. Or maybe it’s more like what you ished,” I complained. “I want to know ing her alive if necessary.” Americans have done with the tale of what happened when these two finally “I admit to the anachronism,” I con- Washington cutting down the cherry confronted each other after the three fessed, “but I insist that there must tree or throwing the silver dollar across days of imposed silence. The work have been some radical change for both the Potomac river. At any rate, people absolutely demands a sequel. If only the of them. If all went on as before, then retell the stories, particularly cherishing playwright had made this the first of a her death and resurrection were for the ones connected with the places trilogy of dramas instead of placing it nothing.” where they live. In Thessaly, parents fourth as a substitute for the traditional Stella took up the challenge. “Well have been telling their children about satyr play! He has shown Admetus then, if we are really going to let our Admetus and Alcestis for generations. awakening to a fuller realization of just imaginations run, we can begin with But what they have passed down goes what he had done and promising to that supposed death. What happened far beyond what Euripides wrote. I make a better future for the two of during the time that Alcestis’ body lay don’t know whether the longer version them. But how much had he really in the sepulcher? Did she lie inert, wait- was generally known in ancient times changed? And Alcestis – surely her ing for Death to take her? Or did her and preserved only by the people in reopened eyes would not have looked at shade actually go down to Hades? Could Thessaly since that is where it was sup- the world and Admetus exactly as she have, as Socrates hoped would be posed to have happened. More likely before. Just try to imagine the complex- the case, met and talked with the great the narrators let their imaginations fill in ities this master of psychological ones of the past? Socrates could have where they, like you, found the story nuances could have explored! I wonder held his own with them, but I cannot unfinished. I will tell you what I whether the final resolution would have imagine Alcestis – or myself – doing so. remember my grandmother telling me, 6 17514 AmphoraSpr.qxd 6/1/06 10:17 PM Page 7

and in the way that I have often imag- drops like those first given to Creusa. listened to him. She was trying to fore- ined it to myself.” (Several drops of the Gorgon’s blood see how her husband and others at “First let me give us some more had been preserved when she was home would greet her return. retsina,” said Stella. She did so. Fortu- killed.) Keep them hidden and use They found Admetus in the court- nately the frogs remained quiet. them when you see their time has come. yard. Inwardly impatient, Alcestis stood The vial with the poison is sealed in quietly by as Heracles told how he had black. The life-saving one bears the won this veiled woman as a prize in Clio’s Tale: What Happened image of the Gorgon.” He handed her a some games and wanted to leave her in Thessaly small box holding two tiny vials. “Hera- here while he continued on his mission. cles is moving the stone. Do not say He brushed aside Admetus’ protesta- Alcestis fell into a dreamless sleep, a anything to him. I have explained to tions that it would not be fitting. Alces- night such as the great King of Persia him that it is the gods’ will that you do tis thought, “How Heracles loves his himself might envy. She woke when not speak to anyone for three days.” hoax!” And she wondered if this was she felt the two obols being lifted from As sunlight flooded the tomb, the real reason he had insisted on the her eyes. Her first thought was that Alcestis’ dazzled eyes saw a man who veil. Was this just another of those Charon was collecting his fare, but the dwarfed the landscape. She shrank back pranks that Admetus and his friends god who stood at her side, shedding his as he came toward her and extended his liked to play on one another? Then she own light, was not Charon. It was Her- hand. But he spoke gently. “Don’t be reflected that Heracles was telling the mes, as she could tell by the wings at his afraid. I am here to take back the best of truth. He had in fact won her in a con- ankles and the snake-entwined staff he women to the best of men.” test, and now he was handing her over held. Admetus had told her that during “At least to the best of hosts,” said to Admetus as a thank-you gift to his the year Apollo had spent in Pherae, Hermes and disappeared. host. Then Admetus was lifting the veil, Admetus had learned that it was possi- and all thoughts were lost in a rush of ble to converse with a god so long as emotion. The mixture of joy and you remained respectful and did not ask incredulity on his face made her start to personal questions, or inquire about laugh in sheer happiness though she matters outside mortal experience, or In Thessaly, parents quickly suppressed all sound at a warn- express curiosity concerning oddities ing gesture from Heracles. A passionate such as why the immortals took pleasure have been telling their children about Admetus tenderness overwhelmed her to meet in the smell of burning meat. So she was the love she saw in her husband’s eyes. not fearful now but rather bewildered and Alcestis for At that moment no words were needed. and asked, “Have the Fates gone back generations. If only it could have lasted forever! on their promise? Do they insist on hav- But Heracles stopped them from ing Admetus after all?” embracing, saying that it was dangerous “No,” Hermes answered. “Admetus for Admetus to have close contact with still lives. But when Death came to take someone come so recently from the you, Heracles wrestled with him and Alcestis needed the hero’s hand as world of the dead. They must wait out overcame him. The gods were so they walked to the palace. Heracles had the three days. Then Admetus had to go pleased with your willingness to die in insisted that she cover herself with a through the ceremony of farewell as your husband’s place that they have let veil. “Admetus has the right to see you Heracles set out again. The maids took Death stand defeated. You and Adme- before anyone else does,” he told her. Alcestis inside and brought her food and tus are both reprieved.” He handed her Alcestis obeyed, but reluctantly. She wine which, after a minute of hesitation, the two obols. “Keep them for next would have liked to feel the sun on her she consumed with evident pleasure; time,” he said. Hermes continued, face, to see clearly and exultantly every- she signed that she would like to have “Before Heracles moves the tombstone one and everything in this world so more. and comes in, I have something to give miraculously restored to her. On the She had not quite finished when you. It is a gift from Persephone, one way Heracles talked incessantly. He Admetus came and knelt before her. He that will make you yourself guardian of explained how it had all come about: appeared anxious and agitated. Passion- your future. Do you remember the two Admetus’ hospitable but deceptive ately, in a jumble of words, he tried to drops of Gorgon blood that Creusa had reception of him as a guest, his own express to her the excess of his grief at in her possession? Athena had given drunkenness, and then his discovery of losing her and his unbounded gladness them to Creusa’s great-grandfather, the true situation. He rehearsed his at having her restored to him. He Erichthonius, and they had been hand- decision to redeem himself by proving described how, in her absence, he had ed down to her. One of the drops was a that he could achieve the impossible. tortured himself, trying to relive the deadly poison, the other had the power “After all,” he asserted, “I had been precious times they had shared. He real- to heal diseases and injury. Creusa used defying Death everyday of my man- ized now as never before how much of the poison in her thwarted attempt to hood. Why not at last meet him face to the happiness of his life had centered kill Ion, whom she mistakenly believed face?” After that he related some of his and depended on her. But the great love to be her husband’s bastard son. Athena past exploits. At times he paused as if he had had for her then paled beside later took back the second drop and expecting an expression of admiration what he felt now. He loved her, not only gave it to Persephone. Wisely so. What from Alcestis, then recalled that she was as his treasured wife, but as a woman even Creusa did not know was that this not permitted to speak to him. She without peer. What she had done for one did more than heal. Whoever takes slightly pressed his hand now and then him put her with the truly great hero- this drop will live forever, cannot die. at what he obviously thought were ines; she was close to a goddess. How Persephone wants you to have two exciting points, but in truth she hardly privileged he was, how honored, to be continued on page 8 7 17514 AmphoraSpr.qxd 6/1/06 10:17 PM Page 8

AskDid A ClassicistYou Know… WHATEVER HAPPENED IN THESSALY? A POSTMODERN FANTASY continued from page 7 Bono, the nickname of the lead singer of U2, is short for Bono Vox (which all the the husband of his Alcestis returned Only one maid accompanied her, and Web sites say means “good voice” or from the grave. she, at a sign from Alcestis, stayed at a Gradually pride gave way to a humili- distance. Alcestis exulted in the feeling “good in voice” but which actually means ty almost abject. Alcestis perceived to of her own movements as she walked “a voice for good” – quite prophetic!) His her amazement that Admetus had taken about. Her delight surpassed even the real name is Paul David Hewson. on the role of suppliant. He confessed regret she had felt when she had said that he should never have let her die in goodbye to all the world’s loveliness: The popular puzzle Sudoku began as his place. He had realized this as soon as the bird calls, the new leaves shimmer- “Latin Squares,” developed 200 years ago he had returned from the burial. At first ing in the sunlight, the caressing it was the thought of how he must warmth of the air, the endless variety of by a blind Swiss mathematician. To learn appear to others that pricked him; but the grasses and the flowers, the grace of more, see http://mathworld.wolfram.com/ then he felt shamed in his own eyes. the dancing butterflies. Even the croak- LatinSquare.html. Even his terrible grief seemed tainted ing of the frogs was like music. All this as he reminded himself that he had cho- deliciousness of nature! How could she Matthew Bogdanos, the Marine sen to live without her rather than to ever have brought herself to leave it? colonel responsible for recovering antiqui- accept the death fated for him. How Could she, would she, do it if the choice could he live, forced to see himself as had to be made over again? This ties in Iraq, has a B.A. (Bucknell) and an inferior to the wife he had loved less thought almost made her stop looking M.A. (Columbia) in classics (see his book than himself? Surely, he declared to her and listening to what surrounded her. It Thieves of Baghdad: One Marine’s Passion now, he would not have been able to was as if Admetus were still speaking to for Ancient Civilizations and the Journey to bear it but would soon have chosen to her, his remembered words blocking out Recover the World’s Greatest Stolen Trea- join her in the Underworld. everything else and demanding that she sures, 2005). Alcestis made gestures of remon- pay attention solely to them. She must strance, but he went on and on. Now he decide what to do with them. wondered to himself and to her just how Ironically, it was Admetus’ self-ques- Novelist Clive Cussler sends his hero it was that he had done as he did. He tioning that led her, for the first time, to Dirk Pitt on an adventure in Trojan Odyssey blamed the gods in part for creating the question herself about her own action. (2004) that links the ancient world with the situation. By decreeing that he need not At the time when she consented to take modern by interweaving a new theory die if someone could be found willing to his place in death, it seemed that she about the geography of Odysseus’ journey take his place, they appeared to give had no choice. Since his parents had their approval to the idea that he should refused to save him, she was the only with Celtic myth and a modern-day murder save himself by searching for such a per- one left. A wife had a duty to put her mystery. His underwater exploration organ- son. Apollo himself had tricked the husband first, just as slaves must serve ization NUMA (National Underwater and Fates into allowing him to live beyond their masters, but slaves were not Marine Agency) creates a bond with the his allotted time; small wonder that he, expected to die for their owners. There Roman past, recalling the second king of Admetus, had come to see himself as had been a fleeting moment when she Rome, Numa Pompilius, who brought a standing above others. Yet pushing aside had tried to picture how it would be if all that, he admitted that he had been Admetus had died and she had lived on. new order to Romulus’ Rome by establish- wrong and begged Alcestis to forgive The thought seared her like fire. She ing priesthoods and religious worship. him and to join with him wholeheartedly could not. To miss him at every turn and in building a better life in the future. to know that he was gone because she Kevin Marshall, a classical studies jun- Alcestis was too overcome to respond had chosen not to save him would be ior at Loyola University New Orleans, was appropriately, even inwardly, but she unbearable. But he had viewed it as a six-time champion on Jeopardy in Janu- managed a half nod of affirmation. bearable – and preferable. Was it that That was not the end of it, of course. she loved him more than he loved her? ary 2006. His success also earned him a For what remained of the first two days, Or was there something else? place in the 2006 Tournament of Champions except for when they slept – Alcestis in Was hers the willing sacrifice of a in May. their old bed, Admetus where Heracles lesser for a greater person? First of all, of had stayed – Admetus spent the time a woman for a man? Were men always describing over and over again his suf- superior to women? Why? Certainly ferings, his self-condemnation, the male and female were equally essential explanations that were half-excuses. to ongoing human life. Men went off to The third day brought a reprieve. battle and to dangerous exploits. Adme- Admetus’ father arrived and insisted tus had gone with Jason on the expedi- that Admetus come with him to make tion to steal the Golden Fleece. But ritual sacrifices to the gods of the women bore the pain and risked death Underworld to thank them for letting in childbirth every day. And she had Alcestis return. sometimes envied Admetus for having She chose to go outside, away from had the chance to go on that glorious the palace, to the field by the river. adventure. Admetus had accepted the 8 17514 AmphoraSpr.qxd 6/1/06 10:17 PM Page 9

possibility of dying but not the reality of Now signs of dawn were appearing, as the wonder of nature had been inten- it. She had met it deliberately and for Athena did not prolong the night for sified for her that morning. Eventually unflinchingly. Had she thereby shown this pair as she later obligingly did for they both slept far into the daylight herself to be greater than he? In his Odysseus and Penelope. Alcestis has- hours. impassioned declarations Admetus had tened to conclude her story, saying that In the days that followed, Admetus implied as much. Was this realization a messenger had come to tell her she was keeping his promise that their the reason for his extreme discomfort? was to retrace her steps; she was soon renewed life would be better. He was Was it her duty now to restore his image asleep in the tomb until Hermes woke always tender with her, ever seeking to of himself? To show him that he was her. She told Admetus that Hermes had protect her from the slightest discom- unalterably on a higher level? The alter- given her the vial of poison to use fort. He was more gentle with the slaves native, to insist on her being recognized when they failed to carry out orders as superior, was unthinkable. And, per- exactly as given or were careless. Per- haps after all, her consent to die his haps he remembered instances in the death was balanced by his brave Admetus had past when Alcestis had urged leniency. acknowledgment that he had been accepted the possibility Or else he had modified his view of how wrong to accept her gift. Could they much he had the right to demand of henceforth live as equals in each other’s of dying but not the others. Each day he talked with her eyes? She would wait and see. Mean- reality of it. She had met about what he planned to do or had while she must decide what to say to it deliberately and done, giving her a chance to respond. him at the end of this day when the ban When she timidly questioned him, he against her speaking would be lifted. unflinchingly. listened and replied respectfully. On a As the hour drew near, she still had few occasions he asked her opinion no clear plan. It was Admetus himself about a proposed action; once he fol- who provided the solution. Returning lowed her suggestion. And she never from the ceremonies, he had his dis- against any enemy if need should arise. saw him looking at one of the slave tressed agitation under control. Perhaps She did not mention the one said to women in a way that in the past had left the sacrificial offerings had somehow insure never-ending life. She felt reluc- her slightly uneasy. marked the end of the crisis, and her tant to suggest that she had the power After a week or so, Admetus decided reassuring gestures had been sufficient to stave off Death permanently – to play the host on a grand scale. First to console him. In any case, after a long assuming that Admetus or anyone else he gave a great festival for the Thes- embrace and impassioned kiss, he asked would believe her. She had hidden the salians. He mentioned the idea of invit- her, quite naturally, what it had been little box in the veil Heracles had given ing Apollo, but dropped it. Alcestis like for her during that time that she lay her. On the first night she had laid the decided he had spoken facetiously. in the tomb before Death had come to veil itself at the bottom of a chest she After this there were smaller gatherings take her and had been turned away. had brought with her as part of her for which he asked men from more Had her shade already gone down into dowry, which everyone knew she alone remote places to come to spend a few Hades? “I had been sleeping when Her- had the right to open. But these things days at the palace. For Alcestis’ pleasure mes woke me,” she began truthfully. were only in her thoughts during the he told them that their wives, too, And then, seizing the opportunity for moment of absolute silence that fol- would be welcome. On each occasion he diversion, she proceeded deliberately lowed her simple statement, “This is made a little speech with everyone pres- and calmly to lie to her husband. the end of my story.” ent. He expressed his pride in Alcestis In place of her peaceful slumber, she Admetus, who had been totally and his gratitude. He himself sketched fashioned a wondrous tale of how, with caught up in her account, looked visibly the narrative of recent events, sparing Hermes, the guide of the dead, she had fatigued. With apparent effort, he Alcestis the embarrassment of having to visited that other world. She described brought them back to the present. “You speak publicly. He acknowledged that things as she had heard about them as a must answer me finally,” he said. “Can too late he had regretted that he had child. For people loved to talk about you forgive me for choosing my life over accepted Alcestis’ self-sacrifice, but he what was reported to go on down there. yours?” His voice was anxious and explained that he had taken the divine She told how she had trembled at the pleading but at the same time hopeful pronouncement that a substitute would sight of the punishment of the famous and expectant. Perhaps he felt that his be acceptable as a command that he doers of evil: Ixion on the wheel, Tanta- case was serious but had been well pre- must find one. But the gods had sent lus forever trying to eat and drink the sented. Alcestis took a deep breath. She Heracles just in time, no doubt foresee- ever receding fruit and water, the laid her hand caressingly on his cheek, ing that Admetus would hide his grief, daughters of Danaus commanded to and she said, “We have both been born give the hero hospitality, and receive carry water in sieves, and other unhappy again. I have been brought back from the glorious reward. Possibly the immor- ones. Mostly the shades were motion- the grave. You have been saved from tals had known from the beginning all less as though suspended between life drowning in a pool of despair. The gods that would be and planned it so. and death. But some favored ones were have given each of us a second life. We As for the guests, a few whispered in a lovely sort of meadow, moving will make it together.” She added light- among themselves that the whole tale about blissfully and singing the praises ly, “I am glad that you have not had had been a hoax, a deception. No mortal of Demeter and Persephone. She narrat- time to have that stone statue made of could die and come alive again. Such a ed all this in great detail. Throughout, me, the one that you said would lie in thing had never happened and could Admetus listened intently, seemingly my place. Our bed would not be big not happen. They hinted darkly that pleased that things in Hades were as he enough for three.” Their love-making this sort of hubris might very well had been told they were. was apocalyptic, enhanced for Alcestis offend the gods and bring disaster. But continued on page 14 9 17514 AmphoraSpr.qxd 6/1/06 10:17 PM Page 10

THE PLAGUE OF ATHENS: CURRENT ANALYTIC TECHNIQUES by Robert J. Littman

ealth and disease have played Thucydides presents a detailed explain the symptoms by which it may Han important part in human description of the symptoms of the be recognized if it should ever break out religion and history. Although Plague of Athens that is marked by care- again (2.48.3). He was influenced by our conquest of disease has extended ful observation and woven into a terse Hippocrates, who lived at the same the modern lifespan to seventy-eight narrative about the devastation of war and time, both in his description of the years in the Western world, compared disease. In his History of the Peloponnesian plague and also in his application of with twenty-five to thirty-five years in War 2.47-55, Thucydides describes how Hippocratic doctrine to his writing of the ancient world, we are still fright- the disease was accompanied by a pustu- history. In a sense, his account of the ened by and concerned with plagues. In lar rash, high fever, and diarrhea and how disease parallels the overall themes of the modern world, emerging strains of it usually resulted in the death of the vic- his work: history as an example and a viruses and bacteria, such as influenza tim. He relates that it originated in force that repeats, and the decay of and AIDS, cause much anxiety and mil- Ethiopia and spread into Egypt and Athens both by war and disease. lions of deaths on a yearly basis. These Libya and through the Near East before The political ramifications of the continuing tragedies are reminiscent of arriving at the Piraeus, the port of Athens. Plague of Athens were enormous. Since past centuries in which a husband and From the Piraeus, the epidemic moved the epidemic did not penetrate the wife endured the deaths of half their rapidly into the city itself. Thucydides Peloponnesus, Athens was devastated children from infectious disease. In indicates that it was highly contagious by the outbreak, but Sparta was rela- addition to the normal patterns of dis- and infected anyone who cared for the tively unscathed. The Plague of Athens ease in childhood, epidemics would sick. He himself suffered from the plague carried off perhaps twenty-five percent often strike out of nowhere and carry off but was one of the lucky ones who sur- of the population of Athens during the large percentages of the population. For vived. Others were not so fortunate. first few years of the Peloponnesian example, a plague that occurred in the Entire families were wiped out, and the War. The Athenian leader Pericles per- reign of Marcus Aurelius (A.D. 161-180) dead became so numerous that corpses ished of the disease in 429 B.C. The killed a tenth of the population of the could not be buried and were left where plague was a major reason for the defeat Roman Empire, and the Black Death they had died. of Athens in the Peloponnesian War. It (bubonic plague) wiped out nearly half Thucydides states that he will set was economically and socially devastat- the population of Western Europe in down the nature of the disease and ing to Athens, both at the time and in the fourteenth century. A number of accounts of plagues and pestilences have reached us from ancient Egypt, the ancient Near East, and classical antiquity. An early refer- ence to what is probably bubonic plague is found in 1 Samuel 5, which tells of events in the eleventh century B.C. God has sent pestilence to smite the Philistines because they offended Him by capturing the Ark of the Lord. Simi- lar descriptions of plagues occur in clas- sical literature. In Homer’s Iliad 1.443- 67, Apollo sends perhaps typhus or bubonic plague upon the Achaeans because they dishonored his priest Chryses. In Sophocles’ Oedipus the King 1-131 (especially lines 14-57), a plague strikes Thebes because of the death of Laius. The most famous account of a plague in classical literature, however, is Thucydides’ graphic description of the historical Plague of Athens, which struck the Athenians in the second year of the Peloponnesian War (430 B.C.) and devastated the population. While this was not the most important plague in antiquity in terms of mortality and political and socio-economic conse- Fig. 3. Plan of the mass burial in Kerameikos. Reprinted with permission from E. quences, Thucydides has made it so Baziotopoulou-Valavani, “A Mass Burial from the Cemetery of Kerameikos,” in M. because of his influence as a historian. Stamatopoulou and M. Yeroulanou, eds. Excavating Classical Culture, Recent 10 Archaeological Discoveries in Greece (2002), 191. 17514 AmphoraSpr.qxd 6/1/06 10:17 PM Page 11

the subsequent centuries. The combi- the pioneers in the study of typhus and developed that allowed fresh examina- nation of disease and war depopulated developed the first typhus vaccine in tions of diseases, plagues, and pan- Athens and changed Greek history, 1934. Two other frequently cited stud- demics in the ancient world. These which might have been very different ies followed Zinsser’s diagnosis: W. P. methodologies were based on new aca- had Athens won the war. MacArthur, “The Athenian Plague: A demic disciplines, including forensic The Plague of Athens has been Medical Note,” CQ, n. s. 4 (1954), 171- anthropology, demography, and epi- important both for its literary influence 74 (with a response by D. L. Page on demiology. Recent studies of the Plague and its scientific interest. The Roman 174) and John Scarborough, “Thucy- of Athens reflect these developments in poet Lucretius wrote a long and horrify- dides, Greek Medicine and the Plague methodology. ing account of the plague, imitating at Athens: A Summary of Possibilities,” In 1992, I collaborated with Dr. Thucydides, in Book 6 of De Rerum Episteme, 4 (1970), 77-90. Scarborough, David Morens, a noted epidemiologist Natura. In the sixth century, Procopius especially, calls attention to Thucy- at the National Institute of Health, to imitated Thucydides in his account of dides’ description as accurate in its own bring the techniques of epidemiology to the bubonic plague that struck Byzan- contexts but incapable of accounting for the examination of the disease and to tium. But there have been many more any evolutionary shifts in the causative use such devices as mathematical mod- scholarly investigations of the Plague of organisms. He argues that any modern eling to look at various possibilities; the Athens than literary imitations. diagnosis is flawed because of possible results of our research were published in Since the Renaissance, scholarly mutations over time. While Scarborough “Epidemiology of the Plague at studies have mirrored the medical con- might be correct if the disease described Athens,” TAPA, 122 (1992), 271-304. cepts of the time in which they were by Thucydides was caused by a micro- Mathematical modeling allowed us to written. By the late nineteenth century, organism that was prone to mutation (as examine infection and attack rates most physicians and medical scientists typhus is), other micro-organisms, such based on the various candidates and to performing research in the burgeoning as smallpox, are very stable over time. determine how long it takes a particular laboratories of Western Europe and the In 1994, Thomas E. Morgan analyzed disease to spread in a city and how long United States generally had accepted Thucydides’ medical knowledge, or the it would be able to remain endemic. what was known as the germ theory (the lack of it, in “Plague or Poetry? Thucy- Several diseases, such as measles, had to theory that micro-organisms cause dis- dides on the Epidemic at Athens,” be eliminated as possibilities because ease), and ancient epidemics became TAPA, 124 (1994), 197-209. Morgan, a the population of Athens was too small the subjects of fresh studies founded on physician-classicist, argues that Thucy- to sustain an epidemic of them for more the new approaches of epidemiology, dides desired to contrast the tragedy of than a few months. Thus, the best pos- which is the study of the distribution war and the pathos of the disease with sibilities were narrowed to typhus, and determinants of health events such the lofty ideals presented by Pericles in typhus-like diseases, and smallpox. as diseases and wellness in human pop- the funeral oration. Thus, in his opin- Demography, teamed with molecular ulations. ion, the descriptions of the plague are biology and anthropology, is also prov- Numerous essays on the Plague of quite imprecise not only because the ing useful in the study of ancient dis- Athens appeared in the twentieth cen- Hippocratic or other terminologies var- ease. This is well exemplified by Walter tury, and most scholars and physicians, ied from those of modern epidemiology Scheidel’s Death on the Nile: Disease and equipped with an etiology and some sta- but also, more importantly, because the Demography of Roman Egypt (2001) tistical application of fatalities in the Thucydides employed dramatic license and Robert Sallares’ monumental modern variants of the disease, attempt- in his account of the plague. The weak- account of malaria in ancient Rome, ed to identify the Athenian pestilence ness in Morgan’s argument is that his Malaria and Rome: A History of Malaria with one or more diseases. Since thesis is somewhat inconsistent with in Ancient Italy (2002). Using molecular Thucydides provided the symptoms, Thucydides’ statement that he biology, genetics, and parasitology, as the resultant studies were symptoma- describes the symptoms so that the dis- well as demography, modification of life tologies, which were correlated with a ease can be identified if it breaks out tables, and techniques of anthropology, disease that presumably matched the again. Sallares has reached the startling conclu- ancient description. Two “diagnoses” Other possible candidates for the sion that this endemic disease substan- became prominent in the modern litera- identification of the Plague of Athens tially affected life expectancy in the ture on the Athenian plague. The first have ranged from measles, typhoid Roman Empire. As these new disci- diagnosis was smallpox, which seemed fever, bubonic plague, anthrax, and ergo- plines develop and as our scientific tools to incorporate almost all of the Thucy- tism, to toxic shock syndrome with increase, the next century should bring didean details. Along with M. L. staphylococcus, scarlet fever, Rift Valley new and exciting insights into the histo- Littman, I argued for smallpox as the Fever, and arboviruses, but none of ry of plagues and disease in the ancient Athenian plague in “The Athenian these possibilities has gained many world. Plague: Smallpox,” TAPA, 100 (1969), adherents among students of ancient In addition to new developments in 261-75, an article often cited as the epidemics, as suggested by James Lon- methodology, scientific discoveries and “smallpox essay” by other scholars grigg, “The Great Plague at Athens,” new technology have allowed fresh researching the problem. History of Science, 18 (1980), 209-25 and insights into the very essence of life. The second most common retrospec- by David M. Morens and me in “Thucy- Chief among these are the discovery of tive diagnosis has been endemic typhus, dides’ Syndrome Reconsidered: New DNA and the ability to analyze it, MRI represented by “The Plague of Thoughts on the ‘Plague of Athens,’” (Magnetic Resonance Imaging), and CT Athens,” a section in the widely read American Journal of Epidemiology, 140 Scan (Computed Axial Tomography), Rats, Lice and History (1934) by the (1994), 621-28 and 631. that is, three-dimensional pictures of prominent twentieth-century epidemi- Beginning in the second half of the hard and soft tissue inside the human ologist, Hans Zinsser, who was one of twentieth century, new methodologies body. continued on page 12 11 17514 AmphoraSpr.qxd 6/1/06 10:17 PM Page 12

THE PLAGUE OF ATHENS: CT scanning is also particularly use- CURRENT ANALYTIC TECHNIQUES ful in the study of ancient mummies since it allows analysis without the continued from page 11 destruction of the mummy. The Egypt- ian Mummy Project, under the direction The study of ancient DNA has about palaeopathology and the plague of Dr. Zahi Hawass of the Supreme begun to provide new clues for the years. Council of Antiquities, Egypt, with my study of plagues of antiquity. Ancient Other modern technology may also collaboration and that of Dr. DeWolfe microbial DNA has been successfully one day be applicable to the study of Miller of the University of Hawaii, has extracted; see A. R. Zink et al., “Charac- the Plague of Athens, particularly if begun using a portable CT scanner terization of Mycobacterium tuberculo- more physical remains from the plague (donated by Siemens of Germany) to sis complex DNAs from Egyptian mum- years are unearthed. The Manchester study the remains of mummies, includ- mies by spoligotyping,” Journal of Clini- Mummy Project under Dr. Rosalie ing Tutankhamen. Recently, the Stan- cal Microbiology, 41 (1) (2003), 359-67. David has used new scientific tech- ford-NASA National Biocomputation Four-hundred-year-old DNA of Yersinia niques and analyses to look at physical Center in Palo Alto scanned the pestis, the micro-organism that causes evidence of ancient disease, including mummy of a 2000-year-old child from typhus, has been extracted from dental schistasomiasis. David’s multidiscipli- the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum in pulp; see Michel Drancourt et al., nary team, made up of archaeologists, San Jose, California. Using more than “Detection of 400-year-old Yersinia scientists, and physicians, applies mod- 60,000 high-resolution X-ray images pestis DNA in human dental pulp: An ern forensic and clinical techniques to from scans, they generated thirty-five approach to the diagnosis of ancient examine ancient tissue and establish times as much data as that from the septicemia,” Proceedings of the National what diseases affected people in the dis- scanning of Tutankhamen (Michael D. Academy of Science U. S. A., October 13, tant past. They have found that many Lemonik, “Secrets of a 2000-Year-Old 95 (21) (1998), 12637-40. The extraction familiar diseases and conditions – obesi- Child,” Time Magazine, 166, No. 7, of human DNA is more problematic. ty, osteoarthritis, slipped discs, blocked August 15, 2005, 56-57). This new tech- There are claims that Neanderthal arteries, and pleurisy – affected the nology could also prove an invaluable DNA has been extracted and other ancient Egyptians. But the researchers forensic tool in studying ancient claims that it is not possible to extract particularly want to track the progress of plagues. DNA more than 800 years old. schistasomiasis, a chronic debilitating Why is it important to study the dis- In any event, microbial DNA might disease that today is estimated to affect eases of the past? The history of medi- provide a useful tool for identifying the 200-300 million people in seventy-nine cine and various practices of the past Plague of Athens. In 2001, a mass grave countries. In some Egyptian villages, it allow us to understand modern medical that belonged to the plague years was can affect as much as eighty percent of practices. Our Western scientific medi- discovered at the cemetery of the Ker- the population. It has been found cine, with its emphasis on observation, ameikos in Athens (see Fig. 3). The extensively in ancient mummies. natural rather than divine causation, and excavation was conducted by Effie experimentation, as well as our medical Baziotopoulou-Valavani, a member of ethics, are all in the Greek Hippocratic the Greek Archaeological Service. Her tradition. When researchers today do excavation report and the date of the Coming in Future medical experiments, they often make finds are included in M. Stamatopoulou Issues of Amphora use of rats and other laboratory animals and M.Yeroulanou, eds., Excavating to see the progress of disease, suscepti- Classical Culture: Recent Archaeological bility, and the acquisition of immunity Discoveries in Greece (2002), 187-201. The Crossing the Styx: The Afterlife of the in the short generations of their lives. study of the skeletal material was Afterlife The study of the history of medicine, undertaken by Professor Manolis Papa- The Oxyrhynchus Papyri however, allows us to use humans, that grigorakis of the University of Athens. is, the humans of the past, as laboratory (Manolis Papagrigorakis et al., “DNA What’s New in Ancient Magic? subjects and to track out how they lived examination of ancient dental pulp The J. Paul Getty Museum and how they died. Using modern incriminates typhoid fever as a probable Roman Power and Imperial Self-Esteem methodologies and technology, cause of the Plague of Athens,” Interna- researchers in the not-too-distant future tional Journal of Infectious Diseases, 2006). The Art Infusion Project at the U. S. Mint may be able to provide an explanation He was able to extract ancient microbial The Symposium on Film convincing to all for the identity of the typhoid DNA from the remains. He has Review of HBO’s ROME Plague of Athens that so devastated posited that the probable cause of the Athens in the fifth century B.C. and that Plague of Athens was this disease. It is Review of Harrius Potter et Philosophi even today makes its impact on the his- premature, however, to draw this con- Lapis torical and scientific imaginations of clusion. We know from Hippocrates that The Hopi Myth Field Mouse Goes to readers of Thucydides’ history. typhoid was most likely endemic in the War Greek world. The presence of an Robert J. Littman ([email protected]) endemic disease does not necessarily Neo-Latin Literature teaches at the University of Hawaii at indicate that it was the cause of death. Hunting the Lithuanian Bison Manoa. His area of research is Greek and The other problem is that the sampling The Colony of Augusta Emerita in Graeco-Egyptian medicine. is extremely small – three skeletons. He Roman Lusitania has made an intriguing start that one hopes will lead to new information 12 17514 AmphoraSpr.qxd 6/1/06 10:17 PM Page 13

Book Review: The Songs of the Kings an obvious allegory of contemporary fig- ures and events but demonstrates the dan- by Mary-Kay Gamel ger of accepting others’ language and Barry Unsworth. The Songs of the Kings. stories,” but Odysseus uses rhetoric to ideas without question. When intellectuals Doubleday (http://www.random manipulate the king, and like an embedded and artists are complicit with those in house.com/doubleday), 2003. Pp. 336. reporter, the Singer is gradually seduced power, truth is the first casualty. Hardcover $26. ISBN 0385501145; W. into promoting the war effort and the sacri- Unsworth’s boldest addition to the story W. Norton & Company (http://www. fice that will make it possible. is Iphigenia’s Asian slave girl. As an under- wwnorton.com), 2004. Pp. 342. Paper- ling and outsider, Sisipyla has knowledge back $14. ISBN 0393322831. unavailable to her mistress, a shrewd abili- The combination of ty to assess others, and the skill to play the roles expected of her while keeping her he Songs of the Kings is the fourteenth ancient and modern own counsel. After the plan to sacrifice novel by Barry Unsworth, a historical T elements reminds us that Iphigenia comes to light, she tries to con- novelist who never visits the same locale vince the princess that the glorious “des- twice. He has set novels in Greece in 1908 historical parallels can tiny” Odysseus has dangled before her is (Pascali’s Island, 1980), contemporary inform current “only a word . . . . You are using their lan- Venice (Stone Virgin, 1985), and four- debates. guage. They have put their language into teenth-century England (Morality Play, your mouth” (333). She comes up with a 1995). Sacred Hunger, which deals with courageous plan to save her mistress by the eighteenth-century slave trade, won the substituting herself as the victim, but Iphige- Booker Prize in 1991, but my personal Unsworth’s narrative is rich with details nia prefers clichés and decides to “save favorite among his previous novels is The drawn from classical myth, texts, archaeol- this great expedition, forge the Greeks into Rage of the Vulture (1982), a tale with dis- ogy, religion, and history. These are not a single nation, and be remembered in the tinct echoes of Conrad that is set in Istanbul used to provide “atmosphere” but to for- songs as the savior of a whole people” as the Ottoman Empire dissolves. In all his ward the novel’s themes. For example, the (333). novels, Unsworth does not seek exoticism meaning of the omen mentioned in Aeschy- The combination of ancient and modern or escapism in earlier times and places but lus’ Agamemnon – a pregnant hare killed elements reminds us that historical parallels uses historical locales to reflect on signifi- by two eagles – is repeatedly debated. At can inform current debates and that classi- cant political, social, and artistic issues. the same time, the analogies with contem- cal texts, including those of Homer and After 9/11, as talk of war escalated porary history and politics are very clear. Euripides, have ideological dimensions. and Western forces gathered to avenge an Helen’s departure with Paris is only a pre- The Singer begins by denying that a Song outrageous violation by an Eastern enemy, text; beset by economic problems in the is like a political speech (93). But Calchas the Trojan War offered provocative paral- Argolid, “Commander-in-Chief” Agamem- insists “songs are about what people lels. One result was a number of theatrical non is undertaking this war to acquire a already believe or what it is wished they productions across the United States and vast maritime empire with “abundant should believe” (224), and the Singer ends Great Britain of Euripides’ Iphigenia at cheap metals.” His advisors who, like some up justifying his submission to the powerful: Aulis, in which a young girl is sacrificed to of our contemporary chicken hawks are “it is the stories told by the strong, the make the war possible (on these produc- “besotted with military power” despite hav- songs of the kings, that are believed in the tions see now Edith Hall, “Iphigenia and ing “never worn a sword,” invoke “justice” end” (296). This novel helps the reader her Mother at Aulis,” in Rebel Women: and “destiny”; the Greeks, they argue, question songs that serve the interests of Staging Ancient Greek Drama Today, edit- “have a duty towards these people” who kings – ancient or contemporary. ed by John Dillon and S. E. Wilmer, “live in ignorance and superstition . . . to 2005). Another result is this powerful novel bring light into their darkness” (282). Mary-Kay Gamel ([email protected]) of ideas, Unsworth’s most politically Unsworth’s portrait of Odysseus is espe- is Professor of Classics, Comparative Litera- engaged narrative to date. cially acute: frustrated by poverty, driven ture, and Theater Arts at the University of In Songs, set at Aulis where the Greek by ambition, the lord of barren little Ithaca California, Santa Cruz. She regularly forces are gathered to sail to Troy, the cen- uses his intelligence and fluency in order to stages productions of ancient drama, often tral characters are not Agamemnon, Iphige- deceive and spin. The novelist even puts in her own translations. nia, and Clytemnestra, as in Euripides’ contemporary language into his characters’ play, but rather Calchas, here an Asian mouths – Odysseus tries to “incentivize” priest; Odysseus, now Agamemnon’s chief Iphigenia, Diomedes says war always advisor; and a Homer-like Singer. The cen- involves “collateral damage,” Achilles wor- tral theme of this novel is how position and ries about his “image,” Iphigenia thinks she power distort ways of knowing and commu- and Achilles “are on the same wave- nicating. The priest seeks “meaning, not length.” This does not reduce the story to

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WHATEVER HAPPENED IN THESSALY? day he timidly asked Alcestis if it would not be best if he put an end to himself, A POSTMODERN FANTASY deliberately. Not knowing whether continued from page 9 what he secretly wanted was agreement or dissuasion, she evaded, asking if he most accepted the story. Clearly Adme- had sworn to defend her and whomever did not fear that it might be unlawful tus had long been favored by Apollo, she chose as husband. The case was dif- and an offence to the Divine Will if he and everyone had heard that Heracles ferent with their son Eumelus. Though preempted their right to determine his had achieved deeds only a little less he was too young to be a serious con- end. She told him, “You would be angry impossible than this one. The men tender, his father had sent suitor’s gifts if any of your slaves destroyed them- envied Admetus for having so nobly on his behalf, and Eumelus was bound selves. You are the property of the gods dutiful a wife. The women disagreed by the oath. He had to go to Troy. A as your slaves belong to you.” His among themselves as to whether a wife slight altercation arose when he asked if response showed that he did not want to should be expected to die for her hus- he could take with him the pair of mares be dissuaded. He said, “The gods have band, but they all admitted that they which Apollo himself had raised while made me a Tithonus, extending my life themselves would never have had the he worked out his sentence as Admetus’ beyond natural limits but letting me courage to do so voluntarily. They con- servant. Admetus had never permitted wither away to worthlessness.” cluded that Alcestis must be different anyone but himself to drive them and at “None of the Divine Ones is likely from other women. Perhaps she should first refused his son’s request. But to turn you into a grasshopper,” she be revered as a daemon, a holy one Alcestis, who evidently still had some replied a bit tartly. whose power persisted even after death. influence, persuaded him that Apollo Admetus continued to argue, “The Indeed, as the years went by, there would surely want the animals he had gods have given me the power to choose were rumors that someone had come tended to show their superiority and for myself. I have the right to die; it across a roadside shrine at which offer- that glory would be reflected on their would not be self-destruction, it would ings to Alcestis were laid. Alcestis owner as well. be self-deliverance.” laughed at these, inwardly fearful lest Shortly after Eumelus had set sail On the third day after that, Alcestis she be suspected of encouraging so out- with his eleven ships bound for Aulis, heard the words she dreaded but was sure rageous a claim. Admetus denied the Admetus summoned his neighbors to would finally be spoken. Admetus said to reports almost resentfully. As time went join him in a series of hunting expedi- her, “Alcestis, you can and must help me. on, he seemed disinclined to talk about tions, perhaps to distract himself from You can give me the poison that Hermes the earlier events. When one day his son anxiety over Eumelus; possibly he also gave you. If you love me, you will do this and daughter asked him to recite once still felt impelled to prove that he was unless . . .” He paused, then added, again the account of the miraculous hap- not afraid to face dangers. On the hunts “unless you are saving it for yourself.” penings, he refused. “All that should be he displayed a certain recklessness, So shocked she seemed almost to let rest in the past,” he said. “We must which one day resulted in his getting a stop breathing, Alcestis exclaimed, attend to what the present demands deep gash in his thigh when he went “How could I possibly see you die by of us.” too close to a wild boar. Things were my hand!” In truth, the thought that In fact, before long, action was never the same after that afternoon. she might herself one day find in this urgently needed on two matters: First, The injury gave him such pain that he gift from Persephone a release from suf- their daughter’s marriage. Out of the prayed aloud for death. Gradually the fering was not wholly new to her. many men who asked for her, three wound healed over, but he could not Though she had hidden the fact from appeared to be most appropriate. Alces- move easily or without discomfort, and Admetus, she had been having increas- tis, having watched the girl’s face when he remained very weak; soon, for him- ingly severe pain in her right side and she had heard them named, told Adme- self and for all around him, he became was wondering how much more of it she tus which one she would like to see cho- an invalid. Ashamed to have his could bear without collapsing. sen. But he announced that he had acquaintances see him so diminished, For the next couple of days Adme- already selected one of the others and he stayed inside the palace and refused tus, while reiterating his complaint that had begun to make arrangements. to receive visitors. The man whose hos- the gods were making him pay now for Alcestis was dismayed that he had not pitality had made him famous lived now having had his life prolonged earlier, did consulted her in making the decision, as a recluse. But not as a resigned not bring up his former request. But and she sadly reflected that for a long recluse at peace with himself. Deprived then Alcestis, coming upon him unex- time now he had seldom shared his by weakness and by pride from mean- pectedly, discovered him apparently thoughts and plans with her as he used ingful activity, boredom brought him as trying to open the chest that she had to do in the months closer to the day of much suffering as his physical ailments. kept tightly fastened. Admetus mut- her return. Pitying him, Alcestis was almost glad tered something about accidentally Soon after the wedding came the` when she once caught sight of him awk- stumbling against it, but both knew the news that, with Agamemnon as leader, a wardly making his way into the area truth, unacceptable though it was. Real- fleet was gathering at Aulis to sail and where the maids slept. Her emotions izing that he was actually ready to steal make war against Troy. Immediately were mixed when she noted how short a from her, she was hardly surprised Admetus declared that he himself time he stayed there. when, a few hours later, he first openly would join them. But Alcestis pointed Admetus’ self-pity was all too evi- begged her to give him the vial of poi- out that these warriors were not of his dent. Twenty times a day he announced son, then threatened that, if she did not generation, and she reminded him that to Alcestis that he was dying, at first love him enough to obey, he still had Helen’s abduction had nothing to do with despair, then insisting that Death the strength to force her to let him have with him. It was her former suitors who could not come too soon. Finally one what he so desperately wanted. Alcestis 14 17514 AmphoraSpr.qxd 6/1/06 10:17 PM Page 15

looked silently at him for several long Ask A Classicist minutes; at last she said, “Very well, as I once chose to die for you, so I will do now what I believe is right for me to do – though it is with even more regret this time.” She walked into the room where Who was buried in the This large, circular family the chest was, opened it, and took out Mausoleum of Augustus? mausoleum in the Campus Martius the vial she needed. Q A As Admetus watched, she poured its in Rome was completed in 28 B.C. (Sueto- content into a cup, added a little wine, nius, Augustus 100). Originally it was and handed it to him. Before touching it about 295 feet in diameter by 137 feet in with his lips, he said solemnly, “Alces- height. Pillaging and multiple uses over the tis, you have saved me once again, may centuries damaged the mausoleum, but it you always be remembered as the most was restored to its current state in the devoted of women.” He drank the mix- ture. After emptying the cup, he 1930’s by Mussolini (see Fig. 4). The burial inquired whether the poison would chamber of the mausoleum, which consists work quickly or how long it would take. of a circular hall surrounding a central con- “Hermes did not tell me,” she said. crete pillar, is not open for visits. “Best to lie down for a bit and try to Most of the individuals interred in the sleep.” Alcestis left the room. She vio- Fig. 4. Tomb of Augustus in 1982 mausoleum were cremated, and no ancient lently threw the empty vial onto the (#ac822933). Photo credit: Leo C. remains have survived. First to be buried, in stone floor, where it smashed into bits. Curran, 1997 (http://wings.buffalo.edu/ 23 B.C., was Marcellus (Augustus’ nephew It was the one with the image of the AandL/Maecenas). Gorgon. and son-in-law). Marcellus’ interment was followed, in 12 B.C., by that of Agrippa Epilogue (Augustus’ life-long friend and second hus- band of his daughter Julia) and, in 11 B.C., That evening Stella and her brother by that of Octavia (Augustus’ sister). and I went to an old taverna. It was on arouse envy in a hula dancer or a strip- Drusus, the son of Augustus’ wife Livia, was the very edge of Larissa. Along with tease artist. Finally, as if to show him- townspeople were some country types, buried in 9 B.C., and the burials of Augus- self more than equal to the others who tus’ grandsons Lucius (A.D. 2) and Gaius seated at the tables in the far corner. had danced, he performed the tricks (A.D. 4) preceded the burial of Augustus Three musicians played a mixture of that they had done. By a gesture, he current popular hits and the old-style ordered that a glass be placed on the himself in A.D. 14. Augustus had excluded pieces that predated the taverna itself. floor in front of him. Bending over, he the two Julias, his disgraced daughter and When they began to play the traditional lifted and drank from it, using only his granddaughter, from burial in the mau- half-Oriental numbers, one by one sev- mouth. His glass was larger than the eral of the rustics danced in the central soleum, but his third wife Livia, having sur- ones the others had used. vived to see her son Tiberius made emper- space, giving intricate performances of The crowd applauded. ‘The Antique’ or, was interred in A.D. 29. Tiberius was their own invention. Finally a truly slowly, with a sort of hopping motion, ancient man, a shriveled, bent-over fig- started back to his seat. As he passed our buried here in A.D. 37 as was Tiberius’ ure, who looked almost incapable of group, I spoke to him in Greek. “What is nephew Germanicus (A.D. 19) and moving, stepped into the now empty your name? Is it Admetus?” Tiberius’ son Drusus (A.D. 23). In A.D. 37, circle. A hush came over the conversa- He croaked out some sort of reply, tions, and all around seemed to hold Germanicus’ son, the emperor Gaius but I could not understand it. What he Caligula, gathered up the remains of his their breath. “Who is that?” I asked. said sounded like “Brekekekex.” Stella whispered, “We call him ‘the mother, Agrippina the Elder, and his broth- Antique.’ Nobody knows much about Hazel E. Barnes is Professor of Philosophy ers Nero (not the future emperor) and him. We can’t even guess how old he is. Emerita at the University of Colorado at Drusus for burial in the mausoleum. Gaius He lives in a little shelter, and the Boulder where she taught also in the Depart- Caligula himself was buried here after his neighbors slip food into his place. Most ments of Classics and Humanities. She of the time he sleeps, but now and then assassination in A.D. 41. translated Sartre’s Being and Nothing- Poppaea, the second wife of the emper- he comes here. Look at him.” ness and has written several books on Exis- or Nero, was also buried here (uncremat- I watched incredulously. It was like tentialism. Publications in classics include seeing a newly emerged moth, little by The Meddling Gods: Four Essays on ed) in A.D. 65 after Nero kicked her and little transforming itself from shapeless Classical Themes (1974). Her latest book her unborn child to death. The interment of chrysalis to winged glory. In perfect har- is The Story I Tell Myself: A Venture in the emperor Nerva, who succeeded the mony with the music, the man at first Existentialist Autobiography (1998). The appeared to be dancing while standing autocratic emperor Domitian, is the last imagined sequel to Euripides’ Alcestis was (A.D. 98). He was the only non-Julio-Claudi- still, flexing his muscles rhythmically written to be read at her ninetieth birthday an buried in the mausoleum. but without changing his position. Grad- party, solely for amusement. ually he proceeded to move his legs and feet in exquisitely complex steps, then his arms and hands in a manner to 15 17514 AmphoraSpr.qxd 6/1/06 10:17 PM Page 16

FROM SCROLL TO DATABASE: WHAT DO CLASSICS LIBRARIANS DO? by W. Gerald Heverly

ibraries have changed drastically lyze and describe material according to al student in modern European history Lover the last twenty years. Com- established national standards, following once asked me to vet his translation of puters have replaced card catalogs. a systematic structure designed to help ignoramus et ignorabimus (“we do not and Online journals and other electronic library users locate information. The shall not know”), the slogan of the nine- resources have become as important as records they produce make possible the teenth-century skeptic Emil Du Bois- the printed page. In this changing land- computerized library catalogs familiar to Reymond. Sometimes questions come scape, librarians educated in classics are us all. even from other librarians. Once a col- still in demand. Despite technological One aspect that has not long been a league cataloging a book in Latin asked advances, and sometimes even because part of librarianship, however, is public me what he should enter as its place of of them, my career as an academic services. Services that we take for grant- publication. The title page said “Beroli- librarian continues to draw heavily on ed, such as the reference desk, were ni.” Not recognizing the locative case the knowledge of Greek, Latin, and unknown in antiquity. Public services, form of Berlin, he assumed he was deal- classical civilization I acquired during also called user services or reader servic- ing with an Italian place name, which, my graduate studies. es, constitute an important component of course, he could not verify. To be As is true for most librarians, some of of any modern library’s activities. Public sure, I am not asked questions such as my key responsibilities are traceable to services librarians assist users in locating these on a daily basis, but they do arise antiquity. Acquiring books, for example, and evaluating information, provide frequently enough to help keep my was a major activity of the renowned research consultation (in-depth or spe- work interesting and pleasantly chal- library of Alexandria, in Egypt. In cialized assistance), and conduct library lenging. Libraries in the Ancient World (2001), tours and classes on the use of library Library instruction provides another Lionel Casson relates that the resources. Along with subject specialists opportunity to use my classical back- Ptolemies “sent out agents with well- and catalogers, public services librarians ground. Students taking a classics filled purses and orders to buy whatever constitute most of the professional staff course sometimes need an overview of books they could, of every kind on in an academic or research library. Some the research strategies and reference every subject” (34). Collecting on this librarians work exclusively in one of sources relevant to an assignment. At scale would be financially impossible these three capacities. More common, the instructor’s request, I design and today, but acquiring material is still a however, is a mix of duties. At NYU, for conduct a library session tailored to the major undertaking in research libraries. example, most subject specialists also specific requirements of the course. Subject specialists, sometimes called have public service responsibilities. In Recently I have provided library selectors or bibliographers, build a an average week, I spend six hours at instruction for undergraduate courses in library’s collection by ordering books, the reference desk, a couple of hours classical mythology, Greek tragedy, journals, CD’s, and other materials in instructing individuals or classes in the Vergil, and Graeco-Roman art. Introduc- disciplines with which they are familiar. use of the library, and another couple of ing students to reference tools that will In addition, subject specialists maintain hours consulting with people about open up new worlds to them is particu- their section of a library’s collection by their research via e-mail, on the tele- larly rewarding. reviewing titles for preservation, phone, or in my office. The rest of my My institution’s special collections replacement, offsite storage, and with- week is devoted to committee work, department has also given me interest- drawal. At NYU, where I have been special projects, and my subject special- ing opportunities to apply my training in employed for the last four years, I serve ist duties. classics. Precious materials such as rare as the subject specialist for classics, Hel- Answering reference questions per- books, manuscripts, and archives lenic studies, and philosophy. haps best illustrates how useful my clas- require special care and security. In The Alexandrians also devoted much sical education has been. Here is a small most academic libraries, a department effort to organizing their library’s vast sample of the questions dealing with exists specifically for this purpose and is holdings. Callimachus, best known as a classics that I have fielded over the past usually called special collections. For poet, compiled its first serious catalog. few years: What is Aeschylus’ attitude years, NYU’s department had a large His Pinakes (Tables), which survives only toward women in the Oresteia? How did number of uncataloged books in Greek in quotations, was a detailed bibliogra- the Romans make bread? What depic- and Latin, printed mostly in the six- phy, in 120 books, of everything written tions of Aphrodite survive in ancient teenth and seventeenth centuries. No in Greek. Scholars consider this work an art? What stylized gestures did ancient one had the time or knew the ancient expanded version of a comprehensive orators use? What recent scholarship is languages well enough to determine catalog to the library’s holdings, which there on Plato’s Symposium? Some of what these books were about and Callimachus compiled while employed these questions were asked when I was whether they should be kept or sold. there (Casson, 39). A well-organized col- working at the reference desk; others Shortly after I began working at NYU, lection makes for easily-found books. came via e-mail or a phone call to my the head of special collections asked me Cataloging is still, therefore, a central office. Not all were from students taking to review them and decide their fate. activity in libraries. Today’s catalogers classics courses. Indeed, interesting Because many turned out to be land- create online records for the items a classics questions are often asked by mark editions of the classics (including library acquires. In doing so, they ana- people from other disciplines. A doctor- an Aldine Ovid and Lambinus’ 16 17514 AmphoraSpr.qxd 6/1/06 10:17 PM Page 17

Lucretius), the project proved especial- attention to detail, both of which are ly satisfying. essential for library work. Furthermore, My position also constantly chal- graduate study of classics fosters not lenges me to learn more about classics. only in-depth knowledge of the ancient In order to make sure that I order all the world but also reading knowledge of important books coming out, I routinely French, German, and Italian, languages read reviews of titles published about for which there is a steady demand in the classical world. In this way, I learn research libraries. Anyone who can read about new developments in scholarship these languages, even with a dictionary, and more. Recently, for instance, a book has a distinct advantage when applying review made me aware of Achilles for a job as a subject specialist, cata- Tatius, a Greek novelist of the second loger, or curator of special collections. century A.D. I frequently consult the In addition, teaching experience gained Oxford Classical Dictionary and other ref- during graduate school is good prepara- erence works when deciding whether to tion for work in public services. Assist- buy books on specialized topics. For ing readers at the reference desk and example, when I was trying to deter- instructing groups or individuals in the mine whether to order a book entitled use of the library require the kinds of La Peucezia in età romana (Peucezia in the communication skills sharpened by Roman Era), I learned from an Italian classroom teaching. encyclopedia that the Peucetii lived in A degree in classics will, however, southeastern Italy, came in contact with normally not be enough to land a library the Romans in 291 B.C., and remained job. For most professional positions, an peaceful during the Social War. Similar- Fig. 5. Papyrus fragment (NYU Inv. 524) M.L.S. (Master of Library Science) is ly, I knew little about papyrology until of Homer, Iliad 3.188-99, from Karanis, required in addition to any stipulated three years ago, when NYU began par- early first century A.D. Photo credit: Fales subject or language expertise. As the ticipating in the Advanced Papyrologi- Library, New York University. shortage of academic librarians grows, cal Information System (APIS). Funded institutions may become more flexible by the National Endowment for the however, Ms. Peacock is not told the about requiring the M.L.S. for certain Humanities, APIS is a database that identity of Congressional inquirers. entry-level positions. In any event, both combines high quality images of papyri Even at smaller libraries, it is possi- the Chronicle of Higher Education and the with descriptive information about each ble to use a classical education routine- Association of College and Research item. Our special collections depart- ly. The head of special collections at Libraries (ACRL) report nervously that ment houses a collection of papyri that Trinity College (Hartford), Jeffrey academic librarians are in short supply. is being cataloged and scanned for Kaimowitz, oversees his institution’s Applicants proficient in ancient and APIS. As coordinator of this project, I numerous early printed editions of the modern languages are especially sought. have studied handbooks of papyrology classics. He has mounted several Thus, graduate students and other classi- in order to improve my knowledge of exhibits at Trinity featuring these cists contemplating alternative careers to the field. I have also experienced the books and uses them as a teaching teaching may find it worth their while to thrill of working directly with the papyri resource when speaking to classes about explore librarianship. ACRL’s Western in our collection, including fragments of such topics as the history of classical European Studies Section, to which Homer nearly two thousand years old scholarship, the transmission of texts, many classics librarians belong, main- (see Fig. 5). and Neo-Latin poetry. Building on his tains a Web site for anyone wishing to Many librarians with a background in routine responsibilities, he has twice learn about the kinds of library careers classics use it in their jobs as routinely taught a course on Renaissance print- open to people with foreign language as I use mine. The cataloging depart- ing, which includes a healthy classics skills and subject expertise (http://www. ment at Yale handles a steady stream of component, through Trinity’s continu- columbia.edu/~klg19/WESS/index.html). books in the classical languages. Antho- ing education program. ny Oddo, who leads the department’s Karen Green, classics librarian at W. Gerald Heverly (gerald.heverly@ Arts and Sciences Team, catalogs some Columbia University, has also had an nyu.edu) has been an academic librarian for of these items himself and frequently exciting opportunity to apply her eighteen years, first at the University of Pitts- deciphers title pages in Greek or Latin knowledge of classics beyond her regu- burgh (1988-2001) and now at NYU (since for other catalogers. Phoebe Peacock, lar duties. Two years ago, she was in 2002). He earned an M.A. in classics and classics specialist at the Library of Con- Egypt’s Western Desert, setting up a an M.L.S. from the University of Pitts- gress, uses her knowledge of classics field library near the Amheida excava- burgh. This article grew out of a panel ses- when answering questions about the tion site. This reference collection, sion on library careers that he organized for ancient world at the reference desk. Off which will eventually include about a the Spring 2004 meeting of the Classical the desk, her language skills are called thousand volumes, focuses on Graeco- Association of the Atlantic States. He thanks upon by members of Congress who Roman Egypt and is consulted by facul- his fellow panelists for their encouragement request Latin to English or English to ty and students working on the dig. and valuable comments on a draft of the Latin translations. Some legislators By now it should be clear that librari- article. even request references to classical anship offers an interesting and reward- sources that bear on matters before the ing career for someone who has studied House or Senate (e.g., Cicero on the classics. The study of Greek and Latin abuse of power). As a matter of policy, certainly hones analytical skills and 17 17514 AmphoraSpr.qxd 6/1/06 10:17 PM Page 18

NOVEL APPROACHES From the Editor TO THE CLASSICS: by Anne-Marie Lewis PART III continued from page 5 ith this issue, Amphora is entering modern world (due out in fall 2006, for Wits fifth year of publication. We example, are Celebrity in Antiquity: From Roth’s textual strategy certainly deep- have grown from eight pages to twenty Media Tarts to Tabloid Queens and Rome ens the pathos of the work, and the trag- (and will expand to twenty-four with issue and the Literature of Gardens). ic intertexts reinforce the loss and suf- 5.2). We now have readers around the fering that permeate the novel and Oxford University Press (http://www. engulf its characters. Silk suffers at the world. Our Editorial Board has seen some hands of elitist colleagues but is himself recent changes: we thank departing mem- oup.co.uk) publishes several series includ- capable of self-service and cruelty. His bers Marty Abbott and Matthew Santirocco ing Oxford Classical Texts, Clarendon decision to abandon his family takes a for the service they provided to Amphora Ancient History Series, Greece and Rome – terrible toll on his mother and siblings, during their terms. We welcome to the Edi- New Surveys in the Classics, Oxford and his uncompromising rage is a con- torial Board Sally R. Davis, Elaine Fantham, Approaches to Classical Literature, Oxford tributing factor to the death of his wife. Readings in Classical Studies, and Oxford Other characters, brutalized by the and Chris Ann Matteo. We also welcome world, lead lives of unredeemed unhap- T. Davina McClain, our new Assistant World’s Classics (ancient texts in translation). piness: Faunia Farley suffers the tragic Editor. loss of her children; her ex-husband, a We feel very privileged at Amphora to Random House (http://www.random- Vietnam veteran, suffers from traumatic be part of the steady and growing interest house.ca/features/themyths/note.html) has stress. The novel’s tragic ambiance is in all aspects of classical studies. Notable recently launched a new series entitled The captured at Silk’s eulogy and funeral, as Myths; three titles have been published his children assemble to mourn his pass- evidence for this lively interest can be found ing and Mark sings the Kaddish, recall- not only in Hollywood films but also in already: A Short History of Myth, Weight ing the shared sense of family loss after the quantity and variety of series being (the story of Atlas and Heracles) and The the passing of Oedipus in Oedipus at published by major presses: Penelopiad (reviewed by Matthew Clark in Colonus. Yet the novel ends with a ges- this issue). The release of these three books ture toward the power of art to establish Blackwell Publishing will be followed each year by fresh truth and liberate readers from igno- retellings of the myths by other contempo- rance and hypocrisy. Just as Oedipus at http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/ Colonus works to restore Oedipus to his serieslist.asp?subj=RD&site=1) publishes rary authors. former greatness, the novel that Zucker- several ongoing series: Introductions to the man vows to undertake (which is The Classical World, Guides to Classical Litera- Routledge (http://www.routledge- Human Stain) seeks to rehabilitate the ture, Companions to the Ancient World, ny.com) has a new series entitled Gods damaged reputation of its protagonist. and Sourcebooks in Ancient History. and Heroes of the Ancient World (volumes on Zeus and Prometheus have already Thomas Falkner (tfalkner@ mcdaniel.edu) is Provost and Dean of the Faculty, and Cambridge University Press been published, and new volumes on Oedi- Professor of Classics, at McDaniel College in (http://www.cambridge.org) has been pus, Heracles, Athena, Medea, Apollo, Maryland. He co-organized the panel publishing and continues to publish vol- and Dionysus are due out in the summer “Classics and Contemporary Fiction” at the umes of essays in its Cambridge Compan- and fall of 2006). Another series entitled 2006 meeting of the APA. “Novel Approach- ions series (volumes on Aristotle, Women of Antiquity will contain volumes to es to the Classics,” Parts I and II, can be be published in 2006 on Neaera, found in Amphora’s online archive at Herodotus, Homer, Plato, ancient Greek www.apaclassics.org (issues 2.1 and 3.1). law, early Greek philosophy, the Hellenistic Olympias, Cornelia, Julia Domna, and world, Greek and Roman philosophy, Julia Augusti (by Amphora’s own Elaine Greek tragedy, Augustine, Ovid, Vergil, Fantham). the age of Augustus, the age of Constan- tine, the age of Justinian, the Roman Repub- A summer (and autumn) of good reading lic, Roman satire, and the Stoics are in lies ahead! print).

Duckworth (http://www.ducknet.co.uk) publishes several series. Ancients in Action introduces major figures of the ancient world (volumes on Catullus, Cleopatra, and Spartacus have already been published). Classical Inter/Faces concentrates on how classical ideas have helped to shape the

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THE OHIO WESLEYAN “VIRGIL VIGIL” by Donald Lateiner and Lee Fratantuono he Department of Humanities selected for readings their favorite sto- Tand Classics at Ohio Wesleyan ries and incidents from Ovid’s varied University decided with great and violent tales. The new University student and faculty enthusiasm to President, Mark Huddleston, joined our spend the night, the entire night, with a poetic frenzy. Professor Lee Fratan- poetic sorcerer. On Friday, March 24, tuono marshaled the caparisoned Ohio 2006, at 9:00 p.m., deep in the bowels of hosts for this year’s reading of Virgil’s Sturges Hall (see Fig. 6), we began our epic masterpiece. Most participants third annual marathon reading of a great used Allen Mandelbaum’s translation, ancient poetic text – this year the but a few read from Robert Fitzgerald’s Aeneid, part in Latin, most in English. or from other twentieth-century transla- The reading extended from the first tions, and Professor Richard Elias read Fig. 6. Sturges Hall at Ohio Wesleyan word Arma (weapons of destruction) to many of John Dryden’s finely tuned University. Photo courtesy of Ohio the last, umbras (ghosts). It continued couplets. Wesleyan University. through dawn and deep into Saturday This year’s “Virgil Vigil” would have morning. In the beginning, many stu- been candlelit, but university regula- Very tentative plans have already dents of Latin, Greek, folklore, Latin tions forbade this pyrotechnic realism. been made for the spring 2007 Ohio literature in translation, and friends Nevertheless, epic love, epic death, Wesleyan classical night watch. Some from our Humanities program hushed epic defeat, and epic glory rang through ideas that have circulated among the in expectation as we launched the long the halls of Ohio Wesleyan, while stalwart Virgilians of 2006 include, on (trust us!) epic on the high seas of guests and rhapsodes munched on the Latin side, Lucan’s Pharsalia, silence. Soon we entered the poetic dates, figs, dolmadhes, olives, and (yes) Horace’s complete poetry, and storm, but many stayed on board until pretzels and potato chips. Drink includ- Lucretius. On the Greek side, the likely midnight. After some fell asleep (not at ed Virgil’s Microbrewed Root Beer. choice is Homer’s Iliad – if the current the helm, though), the faithful band of The devoted and the merely curious alternation of Greek and Roman works classicists and straggling friends was came, saw, and heard how Aeneas fled is sustained. Another possibility that we reduced to eight students and two facul- from Troy after the lethal trick of the have explored is having an outdoor, ty members by the time the last Italian wooden horse. They heard and read of daylight, afternoon recitation of some- warrior was killed. the monstrous Harpies, the voracious thing that will draw greater attention to Brad Cook (now at San Diego State Cyclops, betrayed Dido, the mysteries the central significance of classics on University) organized the successful of the underworld and tortured and hap- campus – and not require the lengthy 2004 reading of Homer’s Odyssey. At that pier lives after death, bold and beautiful overnight commitment. event, students and faculty read from Camilla, optimistic Pallas, and justifiably Basking in Virgil’s vision of the birth twenty-four different Homeric transla- furious Turnus. Energetic students of ancient Rome was an experience of tions. Donald Lateiner directed the even acted out certain moments of the joy and bone-crushing fatigue. Virgil 2005 reading of Ovid’s Metamorphoses. drama, such as Anchises’ assisted exit seems a different spirit at midnight, at On that occasion, about sixty students from the burning city of Troy. 4 a.m., at the gray dawn, and at 8 a.m. Try it yourself, if you mayhap think oth- erwise! By the end of the Vigil’s martial

® (ISSN 1542-2380) is published twice a year by the American Philological Association (APA). The March evening – more accurately, the APA, founded in 1869 by “professors, friends, and patrons of linguistic science,” is now the princi- beginning of the morning – the students pal learned society in North America for the study of ancient Greek and Roman languages, litera- still extant if not standing, along with tures, and civilizations. While the majority of its members are university and college classics teachers, members also their two groggy (somniculosi) faculty include scholars in other disciplines, primary and secondary school teachers, and interested lay people. The APA pro- duces several series of scholarly books and texts and the journal Transactions of the American Philological Association. It members, were ready for nothing but holds an annual meeting each January in conjunction with the Archaeological Institute of America. sleep. They were left on the shores of All of the APA’s programs are grounded in the rigor and high standards of traditional philology, with the study of light with a sweeping view of Virgil’s ancient Greek and Latin at their core. However, the APA also aims to present a broad view of classical culture and the epic masterpiece and the memory of the ancient Mediterranean world to a wide audience. In short, the APA seeks to preserve and transmit the wisdom and values of classical culture and to find new meanings appropriate to the complex and uncertain world of the twenty-first advice of Aeneas, which they had heard century. around 9:45 p.m., when they were still The APA’s activities serve one or more of these overarching goals: fresh and alert – forsan et haec olim memi- • To ensure an adequate number of well-trained, inspirational classics teachers at all levels, kindergarten nisse iuvabit (Aeneid 1.203), “perhaps, one through graduate school; day, it will be pleasing to remember • To give classics scholars and teachers the tools they need to preserve and extend their knowledge of classical civilization and to communicate that knowledge as widely as possible; even these things.” • To develop the necessary infrastructure to achieve these goals and to make the APA a model for other societies confronting similar challenges. Donald Lateiner ([email protected]) and The APA welcomes everyone who shares this vision to participate in and support its programs. All APA members Lee Fratantuono ([email protected]) receive Amphora automatically as a benefit of membership. Non-members who wish to subscribe to Amphora (U. S. $5/issue in the U. S. and Canada; U. S. $7.50/issue elsewhere) or who wish further information about the APA teach in the Department of Humanities and may write to The American Philological Association, 292 Logan Hall, University of Pennsylvania, 249 S. 36th Street, Classics at Ohio Wesleyan University in Philadelphia, PA 19104-6304, [email protected]. The APA Web site is www.apaclassics.org. Delaware, Ohio. Members attending meetings of or making presentations to interested non-members are urged to request sample copies of Amphora from the APA office for distribution to these audiences.

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® 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 (800-1000 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. Assistant Editor with a strong enthusiasm for the Any pertinent references should be classical world: teachers and students, worked into the text of the submission. T. Davina McClain present and former classics majors, Louisiana Scholars’ College administrators in the field of education, Addresses for Submissions: Northwestern State University community leaders, professional Submissions (and enquiries) may be [email protected] classicists, and interested academics sent either by mail to the postal address and professionals in other fields. below or electronically to the e-mail Editorial Board address below: Adam Blistein Submissions: Amphora welcomes sub- Executive Director, APA missions from professional scholars and Professor Anne-Marie Lewis [email protected] experts on topics dealing with the Editor, Amphora worlds of ancient Greece and Rome Department of Languages, Literatures, Sally Davis (literature, language, mythology, history, and Linguistics Arlington County (Virginia) Public culture, classical tradition, and the arts). Ross Building S 561 Schools Submissions should not only reflect York University [email protected] sound scholarship but also have wide Toronto, ON M3J 1P3 Elaine Fantham appeal to Amphora’s diverse outreach CANADA Princeton University audience. Contributors should be will- [email protected] [email protected] ing to work with the editor to arrive at a mutually acceptable final manuscript Helene Foley that is appropriate to the intended Barnard College audience and reflects the intention of [email protected] Amphora to convey the excitement of Mary-Kay Gamel classical studies. University of California-Santa Cruz [email protected] Barbara Gold Hamilton College [email protected]

Judith P. Hallett American Philological Association Non-Profit Org. University of Maryland, College Park 292 Logan Hall, University of Pennsylvania U.S. Postage 249 S. 36th Street [email protected] PAID Philadelphia, PA 19104-6304 Permit No. 2563 Ann Olga Koloski-Ostrow E-mail: [email protected] Philadelphia, PA Web site: www.apaclassics.org Brandeis University [email protected] Chris Ann Matteo The Edmund Burke School [email protected] Daniel Mendelsohn [email protected] Andrew Szegedy-Maszak Wesleyan University [email protected] Susan Ford Wiltshire Vanderbilt University [email protected]

20 Copyright © 2006 by the American Philological Association