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A publication of the American Philological Association Vol. 7 • Issue 2 • Fall 2008

THE GOOD HUMOR MAN: Book Review: Lavinia A CLASSICIST AT HALLMARK by Janey Bennett by Wilfred E. Major Ursula LeGuin. Lavinia. New York: Har- court, 2008. Pp. 280. Hardcover. $24.00. nthusiasts of Greek and Roman ISBN 978-0151014248. Eantiquity frequently rejoice in the many signs that classical culture is alive and well in today’s world, from uppose for a moment you are a novel- movies and books to documentaries and Sist, a writer of imagination. Somebody monumental architecture. More fleet- hands you an outline for a story and says, ing, light-hearted bequests from ancient “Flesh this out for me, please.” It is an Greece and Rome – a comic strip featur- appealing idea. When that somebody is ing puns about pre-Socratic philosophy, a greeting card sporting Roman soldiers Vergil and you are an author of fantasy fiction of the caliber of Ursula LeGuin, the on the march or monks reading a manu- Fig. 1. Emmons’ work, Myth-Demeanors: script – are especially likely to occasion Twisted Tales of Ancient Greece, illus- task will be fascinating, the result a delight. delight. But do we ever consider who is trated by Chris Harding, combines his Vergil introduced the character of responsible for these unexpected talent for writing humor and his passion Lavinia in Book 7 of the Aeneid. She is the reminders of the ancient world? Cer- for classical antiquity. Image source: daughter and only surviving child of King tainly Classics is popular enough that http://www.wordchowder.com and Latinus, the aged ruler of peaceful Latium, cartoonists and card-writers are bound to © 2006 Hallmark Licensing, Inc. employ classical references on occasion. and of his queen, Amata, driven mad by Still, is it possible that sometimes a them for more than a decade. As a mem- the Fury Allecto (or, in LeGuin’s version, Classicist is lurking out there, tapping ber of the dedicated humor staff at Hall- just driven by fury). Lavinia’s story is quick- away on our funny bones in dactylic mark, he composes humorous verse for ly sketched in the second half of the hexameter? Could there be a profes- cards, books, and more (see Fig. 1). It is Aeneid: promised in marriage to Aeneas sionally educated Classicist who has not a job where his creativity, passion for against her mother’s wishes but with her just an erudite wit but who is actually humor, and classical education all blend just plain funny? together. Humor has been a passion and father’s approval in accordance with signs Meet Scott Emmons. Even with a languages an interest all of Emmons’ and divinations, she waits in silence as the Ph.D. in Classical Studies, he can tell a life. He studied Spanish and French volatile Turnus of Rutulia and Aeneas go to joke. In fact, he creates jokes and tells early on, but it was an inspiring humani- war for her hand. When Aeneas kills Tur- them so well in both prose and poetry ties teacher who set him on the path to nus on the battlefield, his marriage to that he has been making a living from continued on page 2 Lavinia secures the Trojans’ right to settle in

Book Review: “A Book of Hours: The 2009 Outreach Panel: Italy and the eventual fusion of Trojan and Music, Literature, Life, “Podcasting and the Classics” . . . . 13 Latin blood to form the Roman nation. And A Memoir” ...... 3 Ask A Classicist...... 14 that’s about it for Vergil’s Lavinia. PLAYING WITH KNIVES: ON TRANSLAT- ING MARTIAL’S EPIGRAMS ...... 4 “BARBARIANS, ALIENS, FRONTIERS” What Vergil left undone in the Aeneid, THE FIFTH ANNUAL Ursula LeGuin has taken upon herself to WHY READ SENECA The Younger? . . . . 6 INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF LATIN AND GREEK ...... 16 complete. LeGuin’s Lavinia assesses Vergil Book Review: “Gods Behaving Badly” ...... 7 Poetry ...... 18 succinctly: “He gave me a long life, but a small one” (4). Lavinia herself is intensely ALEXANDER’S MERMAID: PLUMBING FIEC, THE WORLDWIDE CLASSICS THE MURKY DEPTHS OF A MYTH ...... 8 ORGANIZATION, IS sixty...... 18 aware of Vergil’s treatment of her. “The

WHAT IS HOMER DOING IN Book Review: “Ad Infinitum: events I remember only come to exist as I “THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS”? . . . . 10 A Biography of Latin” ...... 20 write them, or as he wrote them. But he did Inside Did You Know ...... 11 capital campaign news ...... 20 not write them. He slighted my life, in his

The Committee on ancient and Review: “Latinum: The Online Latin poem” (3). And so she tells us she must set Modern Performance ...... 11 Learning Audiocourse from down the details of her story, of her view- London” ...... 22 FROM AORISTS AND ANAPESTS TO point of the events, her betrothal and the GOSPEL GLORY: CLASSICAL DRAMA IN GUIDELINES FOR PHILADELPHIA ...... 12 CONTRIBUTORS ...... 24 continued on page 17 THE GOOD HUMOR MAN: A CLASSICIST AT HALLMARK continued from page 1

classics, by introducing him to ancient Greek achievements in literature, art, and philosophy. Emmons’ curiosity about languages led him to study Greek, major in Classics at Northwest- Fig. 2. Emmons’ Pandora ern University, and go on to graduate releases a combination of work at Indiana University. There he ancient and modern wrote a dissertation on how the historian plagues. Myth-Demeanors: Herodotus uses experimental methods Twisted Tales of Ancient pioneered by the pre-Socratic philoso- Greece is illustrated by phers. And to this day, reports Emmons, Chris Harding. Image he continues to enjoy reading Latin and source: http://www.word Greek. chowder.com and © 2006 After completing his Ph.D. in 1990, a Hallmark Licensing, Inc. traditional academic career seemed to be Dr. Emmons’ destiny, but his abid- ing love of writing humor still needed a two Hallmark gift books of funny poetry, Out flew every foul affliction: place in his life. Besides, the financial War and famine, drug addiction, benefits proved too compelling to resist. Christmas Unwrapped and Get Your Gray On. More recently, his background in Not to mention static cling “If I remember correctly, I got two dol- And weak domestic beers, lars,” he recalls now of the windfall from academe and classics came to the fore again. Through a sabbatical program at Paper cuts and pigeon droppings, his first humor publication, “but it was a ‘Fun and different’ pizza toppings, start,” he adds, and indeed it was. Pick- Hallmark, he spent a month in Greece, Ragweed pollen, freezer burn, ing up jobs such as writing jokes for Bob visiting and contemplating how to trans- And songs by Britney Spears. Thaves’ Frank & Ernest comic strip and late the glory that is Greece into funny Finger quotes and diet soda, one-liners for radio DJs, in 1993 he rhymes. The result is Myth-Demeanors: Yappy dogs that look like Yoda, joined Hallmark full time and has been Twisted Tales of Ancient Greece (samples Poison ivy, hanging chads, And insufficient RAM, working for them ever since. can be read online at http://www.word chowder.com). Dr. Emmons’ unique Morning people, rising taxes, In addition to a career that is person- Men who get bikini waxes, ally fulfilling, his training in classics has talent and experience mean that this is not just another retelling of popular Paparazzi, shedding cats, brought distinct benefits. He describes And either kind of SPAM! it this way: “A classical education not Greek myths. “While other authors aim only teaches you a lot about language, it to preserve the myths for yet another generation, my objective is to see just Many of the most famous Greek myths, also gives you great mental discipline. not to mention tragedies, are not only Both have helped me a lot in my career. how much punishment they can take. Through tortured metaphors, forced twisted but grim and dominated by Writing humor can be very hard, and it accounts of suffering and pain. “For helps to have the patience and self- rhymes, and overblown rhetoric, I have attempted to do to the Greek myths whatever reason, the Greeks seem to critical impulse that I developed when have known an astonishing amount working on a Ph.D. in Classics. Early in what Apollo did to Marsyas,” he says. As the climactic reference to Apollo’s flay- about pain. If we bear in mind that the my Hallmark career I discovered (some- Greeks also invented geometry, it what to my surprise) that one of my ing of the poor satyr Marsyas indicates, Emmons’ writing veers between the becomes clear that much of this pain greatest strengths was humorous verse. was self-inflicted,” Emmons points out My classical education fed right into breezy contemporary and pointed refer- ences to classical antiquity. His intro- as explanation. But what is a humor that. I came to it with an understanding writer to do when trying to make light of meter that most humor writers don't duction to the god Poseidon toys with these two extremes: of a tale as grim as that of Oedipus and have, at least not at the beginning. On a and when he knows that the riddle of more general level, my classical back- Poseidon, the glorious lord of the the Sphinx is not quite “What walks on ground is so much a part of me that I ocean, four legs in the morning, two legs in the can't imagine living without it. Lan- Is known by his trident and his afternoon, and three legs in the guage is obviously important to me as a swimmer’s physique, evening?” as it is often quoted? In “The writer, and my knowledge of Greek and As well as his epithet, “totally gnarly,” Tragedy of Oedipus or Confessions of a Latin etymologies and syntax informs Which sounds more impressive when Drama King,” Emmons renders Oedi- my whole experience of language. The spoken in Greek. pus’ glory days this way: more you know about the Greco-Roman world, the more you understand how In his narrative of Pandora (“Pandora, For Oedipus came to the throne of the much our culture owes to it.” or, Who Let the Plagues Out?”), Thebans Dr. Emmons’ work for Hallmark Emmons knows that in the original By using his noodle and saving their reflects his multi-faceted talents as a Greek she opened a jar rather than a skins. humor writer. In addition to composing box (see Fig. 2), but the horrors she sets An ill-mannered Sphinx had been verse for greeting cards behind the loose on the world will resonate with roaming the country And butchering locals for giggles and scenes over the years, he has published suffering twenty-first century readers: 2 grins. Book Review: A Book of Hours: Music, She’d toy with her victims by posing a riddle: Literature, Life, A Memoir “What creature has four legs, then by Byron Stayskal two, and then three?” The Thebans, admittedly not too M. Owen Lee. A Book of Hours: Music, Lit- Fig. 3. Fr. Owen Lee (ca. quick-witted, erature, Life, A Memoir. Continuum Interna- 1960) earned the first When stumped, would be spitted and tional Publishing Group, 2006. Pp. 284. Ph.D. in Classics conferred served with her tea. at the University of British Paperback. $19.95. ISBN 978-0826418746. But Oedipus laughed till he ached in Columbia. Image source: his middle. http://www.cnrs.ubc.ca/ “Your lame little riddle’s no match for Owen Lee, a Catholic priest of the my brain! index.php?id=3548. A baby’s a crawler, then grows a bit M.order of Saint Basil, is emeritus pro- taller fessor of Classics at the University of Toronto Eva who trusts him. Hector, Aeneas, Hans And walks on two legs, till it’s time for and has written on Vergil and Horace (see Sachs resonate with Lee’s own life and expe- a cane!” The creature then fell from the Fig. 3). For many, however, he is best rience, his priestly vows, his own longing for heights of the city known as a participant on “Opera Quiz,” a son. While uttering curses both loud and the intermission program during Saturday Unforgettable characters populate the obscene. radio broadcasts from the Metropolitan narrative of this remarkable work: Father And that’s how our hero came into his kingdom Opera. His was a voice of warmth, wit, and Costello, the friendly, big-hearted president And married Jocasta, his middle-aged remarkable erudition. Lee has also written of the school; Maria Parenti, its omni- queen. on opera, especially the operas of Wagner. capable registrar; Lee’s officemate, Father One of his books, Wagner, The Terrible Zelinski, poet and theologian, a zany, pes- The poem continues, now tracing the Man and His Truthful Music, explores how a events of Sophocles’ Oedipus the King, simistic, lovable, impossible man; Manfred and Emmons allows the reader the deeply flawed individual could produce Schöne, a brilliant but tormented art-history guilty pleasure of acknowledging that beautiful and even healing art. Another instructor; Lee’s counselor, the gentle and some choruses in Greek tragedy are book, Wagner’s Ring, both summarizes the humble Father Johnny Hallagan. beyond the redemptive power of cycle and explains how musical motifs Students arrive, classes begin. Lee teach- humor: appear, recur, and gain increasing psycho- es Greek and Latin authors, classical litera- logical resonance as the operas progress. The plot has now thickened, and ture in translation, seminars, and tutorials. pulses are quickened. Curiously, I had just read these studies A meeting of the seminar on lyric poetry, The audience trembles with pity and of Wagner’s life and work when I was co-taught with Father Zelinski, takes up a fear. asked to review A Book of Hours: Music, poem of Sappho. Everything goes right. But just then the chorus begins a new number, Literature, Life, A Memoir. The book is Lee’s Students build on one another’s comments, And so we discreetly slip out for a account of the year he spent teaching grasp the poem, and make it their own. A beer. Classics in Rome, crisscrossing Europe, and shy student brought out of herself by Sappho’s immersing himself in opera. A deeply reli- poetry distills for the whole class what is If any or all of this causes you to groan, gious and intensely personal work, it brims or perhaps hear peals of distant groans “loveliest on the dark earth.” across the centuries and millennia, with vivid conversations, fascinating char- Throughout the book, Lee is often catch- Emmons is again unapologetic: “While acters, and loving descriptions of literature, ing a train for a weekend of opera. He’s a others may seek to breathe new life into art, and especially music. seasoned and genial traveler, enjoying con- the ancient Greek authors, I’ll be con- Although the form of the book seems versation with fellow voyagers as well as tent if I can get them spinning in their straightforward – the narrative is clear, live- the solitude of long journeys. Whether trav- graves.” A creative engagement with ly, and chronological – in many ways it eling through sun-drenched Tuscany or the the classical world harnessed to scholar- ly discipline is a rare gift, and Emmons resembles the Wagnerian music-dramas that Alps in a snowstorm, Lee appreciates both allows us both to gain insight and have Lee explains so well. Motifs emerge, devel- journey and destination. And what destina- some well-earned giggles along the way. op, coalesce, and in the end create some- tions! Christmas Eve in Saint Peter’s, New thing more than a memoir. The high trumpet Year’s Eve at the Vienna State Opera. Wilfred E. Major ([email protected]) is an in Wagner’s Parsifal, for example, Lee’s memoir is a treasury of conversa- assistant professor at Louisiana State Uni- announces the Grail and brings to mind tions. The exchange with Zelinski, as Lee versity. His research focuses on ancient come- dy and the pedagogy of Greek. He also Aeneas’ fallen trumpeter and the golden struggles to English some of his poems, is appreciates funny jokes and good greeting bough, Aeneas’ own grail. Characters from delightful, absurd, and hilarious. Lee talks cards. music and literature merge. Hector bids fashion with an American girl near Flo- farewell to wife and son; Aeneas with helmet rence, art with two Russian soldiers in Dres- on kisses Ascanius and leaves to suffer and den, Catholic doctrine with a gay couple “The mind is most swift because sacrifice for his son and his son’s sons; Meis- on a train to Rome. In one of the most mov- it races through everything.” tersinger Hans Sachs sacrifices the chance to ing conversations in the book, Lee meets his – Thales (Diogenes Laertius, Lives be a father so that he can act as father to colleague Manfred Schöne in Venice after of the Philosophers 1.35) young Walter who needs him and young continued on page 19 3 PLAYING WITH KNIVES: ON TRANSLATING MARTIAL’S EPIGRAMS by Susan McLean

n 2000, I started translating Catullus’ majority of English poems, I have used and that can be conveyed accurately and Ipoems into English, using rhyme that meter for most of my translations. I aptly in English metrical verse. and meter to enhance the humor of have usually tried to approximate the The key to translating Martial’s epi- the poems while calling attention to length of Martial’s lines, with no line grams effectively, especially the short their carefully crafted quality. In 2003, I being longer than heptameter (a seven- ones, lies in selling the joke. In order to started doing the same with Martial’s foot line) or shorter than trimeter (a do that, the translator first has to under- epigrams and quickly discovered that three-foot line), and most falling into stand why it is funny. That can be a rhyme, which was controversial in trans- iambic pentameter (a line of five iambic challenge. Humor is culture-specific and lations of Catullus, was essential to any feet). The hexameter, or six-foot line, does not always translate well. Some attempt to convey the wit of Martial in common in Latin, tends to drag in Eng- aspects of Roman society that were well English. Though Catullus certainly lish, so I usually either shorten it to pen- known to Martial’s original audience are wrote epigrams and poems that ended tameter or lengthen it to heptameter no longer current, such as the client- with a humorous twist that could gain (familiar to English readers from hymns, patron relationship, in which poor men impact from rhyme, his poetry is not Emily Dickinson’s poems, etc.), which would call upon rich men and follow known primarily for its humor. Some tends to be heard as alternating lines of them around, enhancing the patron’s readers familiar with Latin objected to tetrameter (a four-foot line) and trime- prestige, in return for small sums of the anachronistic use of rhyme in trans- ter. The heptameter lines better accom- money or invitations to dinner. Martial lating poems that did not originally modate polysyllabic Latin names and himself spent much time courting rich employ it. Yet I have never encountered tend to sound urbane, but the pentame- patrons, flattering them to win favor or the same objection to the use of rhyme ter lines have more punch, so I use the deriding their inadequate generosity. in translating Martial. latter wherever I can. Some of his epigrams concern situations There are several reasons that Mar- similar enough to modern forms of tial’s epigrams lend themselves to the patronage to need no explanation; in use of rhyme. In English there is a long others, a few changes in wording can tradition of using rhyme in poetic epi- clarify the situation, but if the circum- grams, so it feels natural to readers. stances would require a footnote to Rhyme, like wit, brings together two explain them, I do not translate the dissimilar things in surprising ways. epigram. That element of surprise is part of the Cultural differences in attitude ambush of the epigram. If the reader toward certain subjects can also kill the sees the joke coming, it is not as funny. joke. Romans were fond of making fun The punch line has to be both unfore- of odd physical traits and of disabilities; Fig 4. Martial’s poetry can cut as well seen and perfectly aimed, like a thrust they took pederasty (with slaves) for as amuse. Image source: http://www to the heart in fencing. There is an ele- granted; they accepted bisexual behav- .dube.com/knife/. © 2008 Brian ment of aggression in most humor, and ior in men, yet tended to ridicule those Dubé, Inc. especially in the satiric humor of Mar- who took the passive role in sex. Fur- tial, which is based on attacking peo- I aim my translations at readers who thermore, many of Martial’s epigrams ple’s foibles. Though Martial’s epigrams do not know Latin or who know a little are obscene, and that obscenity is often can be translated into free verse, they Latin, but not enough to read it easily. part of the humor. Though some of then tend to sound more like jokes than People who can read Martial in Latin Martial’s poems push the boundaries of like poems. have no need of a translation. Those good taste, humor has always received Meter, too, is a crucial element in who know Latin well are also likely to much of its impact from challenging Martial’s epigrams. The contrast know information about Roman society taboos, and no two readers are likely to between the subversiveness of the that helps them understand the poem’s agree on how far is too far to go for a humor and the suavity of the meter context and what makes the joke funny. joke. To tone down Martial’s obscenity adds impact to both. However, I cannot For a more general audience, I choose or use euphemisms seems false to the simply reproduce Martial’s meters in epigrams that are easily accessible or spirit of the original, so when I translate English. Latin meter is based on pat- can be made clear by adding a few an obscene poem, I try to use language terns of alternating long and short vow- explanatory details within the poem, as shocking as the original’s. Transla- els. The difference between long and but not those that would not make tions of Martial’s obscene epigrams short vowels is not obvious in English, sense without footnotes, which are the often run into obstacles to publication in and translating those patterns into Eng- death of a joke. I have not set out to journals, but are more likely to appear in lish ones of stressed and unstressed syl- translate all of Martial’s epigrams; good book-length collections, in which they lables leads to rhythms that tend to feel literal translations of them already exist help to expand readers’ awareness of jerky and unnatural. Since iambic meter for readers who want a wider selection the range of Martial’s satire and the (in which a poetic foot consists of an of his verse. Instead, I have sought to tastes and values of Roman society. unstressed syllable followed by a translate a range of his poems that are My first challenge as a translator of stressed syllable) sounds most colloquial most accessible to contemporary read- Martial is to find poems whose humor in English and is used in the vast ers, that have jokes that still are funny, can be conveyed without footnotes. The 4 second is to find rhymes that reinforce version), an impression that is then con- As in the previous translations, I have the humor of the punch line. The last is firmed by the “always” of the second tried to maintain the same number of to boil the lines down as far as they will line. It is far more important, I think, to lines, with their length approximately go without losing any crucial part of their preserve the idea of the original than the same as the original’s. In keeping content and without adding anything the literal meaning of each word. with the somber dignity of the poem’s that was not in the original. The shorter In a poem over two lines long, I try to tone, I have used alliteration (“Paetus” the lines, the more punch the joke gen- avoid using rhymed couplets (except at and “pain” in line three) and assonance erally has. Some translators like to retell the end, sometimes, to give a stronger (“faithful,” and “gave” in line one) in an Martial’s jokes in a contemporary setting sense of closure). Rhyming every other effort to make the lines more melodic. or add jokes of their own to replace line allows more flexibility in fitting in Ending with a feminine rhyme (a two- untranslatable puns. Though there is a the content. syllable rhyme, stressed on the first syl- place for both approaches, I would call lable: “believe me”/“grieves me”) adds those “imitations” (Dryden’s term for a 2.65 a dying fall to the conclusion that loose adaptation) rather than transla- Cur tristiorem cernimus Saleianum? seemed suited to the content of the tions. I prefer to keep the joke’s setting ‘an causa levis est?’ inquis, ‘extuli poem. in Roman culture and add only informa- uxorem.’ Translation is the art of compromise. tion that Martial’s original audience o grande fati crimen! o gravem casum! Some things must always be sacrificed would have known and that is essential illa, illa dives mortua est Secundilla, in transferring a poem from one lan- centena decies quae tibi dedit dotis? for the joke to work. On the other hand, nollem accidisset hoc tibi, Saleiane. guage to another. The faithful transla- I avoid word-for-word translating, prefer- tion is often unbeautiful; the beautiful ring to translate Latin idioms into Eng- Why is Saleianus looking sadder? one, unfaithful. I try to capture the tone lish ones, so that the wording can sound “For no small cause,” you say, “I’ve of the original, playing up the humor, as colloquial as Martial’s would have lost my wife.” polish, or edge of Martial’s epigrams, so sounded to his audience. O monstrous crime of fate! What that they snap shut with the precision of In a two-line epigram, both lines rotten luck! a mousetrap, or, in William Butler Yeats’ need to rhyme, so I look for rhyme Has she, rich Secondilla, lost her life, words, with “a sound like the click of a words that are central to the joke: who brought you such a massive lid on a perfectly made box.” The histo- dowry, too? ry of translation is a chronicle of replace- I’m sorry things turned out like that 2.25 for you. ment. No translation can capture all of Das numquam, semper promittis, the beauties of the original, so transla- Galla, roganti. The joke in this poem is twofold: sati- tors have to accept that even their most si semper fallis, iam rogo, Galla, successful translations will be displaced, nega. rizing the hypocrisy of the grieving hus- band and playing on the double mean- sooner or later, by others. Because trans- lators can choose their subjects (and the Galla, you say you will, then break ing of the last line, which sounds as your vow. though it is consoling the husband on authors, if long dead, cannot say no), So, if you always lie, refuse me now. his loss when it is actually expressing translation allows anyone to grapple regret at his good fortune. Although I with the greatest writers in history. Of Here the main point is of the broken normally try to find a more contempo- course the translator is bound to lose promises being turned around, so the rary way of translating vocatives, the such a contest. But, humbling as the “vow/now” pair emphasizes the key deliberately melodramatic overstate- encounter is, what a thrill even to be in ideas. The original is an elegiac couplet ment in line three seemed to call for the ring! (one line of dactylic hexameter followed retaining at least one. (The Latin texts in this essay are by a line of dactylic pentameter), but I Not all of Martial’s poems are satiri- reprinted by permission of the publish- use two iambic pentameter lines. cal. For the more serious ones, a less ers and the Trustees of the Loeb Classi- Dactylic meter, based on a poetic foot emphatic sense of closure often works cal Library from Martial, Vol. 1, LCL that, in Latin, has a long vowel followed better than the brisk ending of a couplet. 94, translated by D. R. Shackleton Bai- by two short vowels, is one of Martial’s ley, pp. 50, 152, 180, Cambridge, Mass.: most commonly used meters, but in 1.13 Harvard University Press, copyright © English poetry, dactylic meter (whose Casta suo gladium cum traderet Arria 1993 by the President and Fellows of poetic foot has a stressed syllable fol- Paeto, Harvard College. The Loeb Classical lowed by two unstressed syllables) is quem de visceribus strinxerit ipsa Library ® is a registered trademark of the least used meter and the one that suis, the President and Fellows of Harvard sounds least natural. Because Latin ‘si qua fides, vulnus quod feci non College.) words tend to have more syllables than dolet,’ inquit, ‘sed tu quod facies, hoc mihi, Paete, Susan McLean is Professor of English at English words, there are fewer words dolet.’ per line in the Latin couplet, though the Southwest Minnesota State University in Marshall, Minnesota. Over seventy of her English lines contain fewer syllables. I When faithful Arria gave her spouse have avoided unnecessarily repeating the sword translations of Martial’s epigrams have been Galla’s name, but have retained the with which she’d stabbed herself, published in journals including Literary name (which I assume will appear femi- she said, “Believe me, Imagination, Arion, Two Lines, The nine even to English readers) to suggest Paetus, the wound I made gives me Formalist, The Classical Outlook, the sexual nature of the situation. The no pain; Measure, and others. present tense of the first line can imply it’s that which you will give yourself a repeated action (even without the that grieves me.” “always” and “never” in the Latin 5 WHY READ SENECA The Younger? by M. D. Usher

Lucius Annaeus Seneca (ca. 4 B.C. – times may loom large on the reader’s A.D. 65): Stoic philosopher, statesman, horizon, they pale in comparison to the playwright. brilliance of Seneca’s prose, which is by far the best reason to read his works. Major works: Ten philosophical essays; a col- Seneca was famous in antiquity and lection of 120 letters on philosophical/ethical topics addressed to Lucilius; eight tragedies. throughout the early modern period for his “sententious” or “pointed” style. Suppose a man is working on Democritus. The “Sententious” and “pointed” are terms Fig. 5. Lucius Annaeus Seneca appears question always on the tip of my tongue is why that describe an author’s choice and posi- here on one side of a double-herm precisely Democritus? Why not Heraclitus, or tioning of words and his use of various (Socrates is on the other side) in the Philo, or Bacon, or Descartes? And, then, why acoustic effects in order to “point” out or Antikensammlung Berlin (The Collection not a poet, or an orator? And why especially a underscore his meaning. Essentially it is a of Classical Antiquities). Image used Greek? Why not an Englishman, or a Turk? style characterized by the strategic use of through GNU Free Documentation cleverly worded one-liners. The rhetori- License: http://upload.wikipedia.org/ —Friedrich Nietzsche cal styles of John F. Kennedy (“Ask not On the Advantage and Disadvantage of History wikipedia/commons/9/9b/Seneca= for Life (§5) what your country can do for you, but berlinantikensammlung-1.jpg. what you can do for your country”) or ay you have completed a course in Winston Churchill (“Never in the field of basic Latin grammar and syntax. human conflict was so much owed by so One is immediately struck by the sound S many to so few”) provide classic exam- effects of Paglia’s tirade, especially her What author should you read for your first unadulterated Latin? Or, if you ples. But it is not merely a style affected second sentence, with its repetition of x, do not know Latin, say you are just inter- by august politicians. It is also the style of m, o, n, s, and w sounds: “Her sexual ested in reading a Roman author in trans- modern advertising (“Eat fat, get slim”) maturity means marriage to the moon, lation, to learn more about the ancient and pop lyrics: Consider the title and waxing and waning in lunar phases. world from someone who lived in it. For refrain of Elvis Costello’s song “Home Is Moon, month, menses: same word, same both sets of interests there are a number Anywhere You Hang Your Head” (from world.” Compare the staccato rhythm of excellent choices one could make – his 1986 Columbia Records album Blood and alliteration of Seneca’s declaration in Cicero, for example, or Sallust, or Livy and Chocolate) – “head,” that is, as Letter 5 – Multa bona nostra nobis nocent – among the prose authors, and, among the opposed to the proverbial “hat.” where he assures us paradoxically that poets, Catullus, Vergil, or Ovid. But there Nor is it a style only for men. Consid- “many of the good things in our lives do are other deserving authors who aren’t so er, for example, this vigorous paragraph us harm” when our attitudes toward obvious or traditional a choice for readers, from literary/cultural critic (and rogue them are not in line with philosophic whether the readers be students, teach- classicist) Camille Paglia: thinking. Or take this snappy, alliterative ers, or other interested members of the jingle from Letter 28, so compressed in Woman does not dream of transcenden- its phrasing that it is almost untranslat- general public. (I refer here to the many tal or historical escape from natural professional adults I often meet who are able in English – Magis quis veneris quam cycle, since she is that cycle. Her sexual quo interest, where Seneca insists that on dusting off their college Latin or learning maturity means marriage to the moon, it afresh as an antidote to mid-life ennui.) life’s journey “the person you are is more waxing and waning in lunar phases. important than your destination.” Seneca falls into this category, and I Moon, month, menses: same word, would like to suggest a few of the many same world. The ancients knew that Note also how Paglia’s third sentence good reasons for reading him. woman is bound to nature’s calendar, does not so much expand the thought of One of the most enticing reasons to an appointment she cannot refuse. The the second as illustrate it with a clever ety- read Seneca, even in translation, is that Greek pattern of free will to hybris to mological play on the Latin word menses he has the scandalous reputation of tragedy is a male drama, since woman (“month”), to which both “menstrual” and has never been deluded (until recently) “moon” are related. Note, too, the effect being classical antiquity’s supreme hyp- by the mirage of free will. She knows ocrite. In this day and age, who is not of Paglia’s pun “word . . . world,” which, there is no free will, since she is not reinforced by the repetition of the word intrigued by scandal and charges of free. She has no choice but acceptance. hypocrisy? How is it, one continually “same,” serves to universalize the particu- Whether she desires motherhood or lar, even to the point of exaggeration. asks oneself while reading Seneca in the not, nature yokes her into the brute context of his life and times, that a mor- inflexible rhythm of procreative law. Seneca’s thought typically unfolds with alizing, ascetic philosopher of Stoic per- Menstrual cycle is an alarming clock similar pleonasms and repetitions, which suasion also happened to be one of the that cannot be stopped until nature serve more to underscore a point than wealthiest men in Rome? How was he wills it. (Sexual Personae: Art and Deca- truly develop it (a stylistic phenomenon able to reconcile his philosophical con- dence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson. the Romans called copia). Letter 5 again [New York: Vintage Books, 1991], 10) victions with his position as tutor, then provides a good example. Here Seneca public relations officer for the emperor declares “Great is the man who uses Not only is the sentiment of this passage Nero, one of the most debauched, socio- earthenware in the same way he uses sil- shot through with Stoic ideas pathic rulers the Western world has ever ver” (Magnus ille est qui fictilibus sic utitur (for example, the emphasis, directly seen? Inquiring minds want to know. quemadmodum argento), adding as the con- expressed or implied, on Fate, accepting And yet, while the controversies of verse to that idea this sentence of identical one’s circumstances, living according to Seneca’s life and the excesses of his structure: “Nor is that man lesser who uses 6 Nature), the style is completely Senecan. continued on page 23 Book Review: Gods Behaving Badly Only a disaster and two unlikely heroes can save this family. Enter Alice, an unassum- by Mary Jane Cuyler ing thirty-something cleaning professional Marie Phillips. Gods Behaving Badly. New however, require that some of the gods with a degree in linguistics and a passion for York: Little, Brown and Company, 2007. earn money, and they all continue to per- Scrabble. Neil is Alice’s would-be boyfriend Pp. 304. Hardcover. $23.99. form some of their basic divine functions. (he’s simply too shy to make a move), a struc- ISBN 978-0316067621. Apollo does a short and unsuccessful stint tural engineer whose living room is crammed as a television psychic, and Aphrodite is a with alphabetized comic books and VHS he classical pantheon has long been phone-sex operator. She works from home, recordings of television shows, arranged Ta rich source of humor, tragedy, and wandering through the house wearing noth- chronologically. When Zeus makes his first creative reinvention for poets, playwrights, ing but a Bluetooth headset. Her son Eros is appearance in twenty years, a chain of disas- and novelists. In her debut novel, Gods a khaki-wearing, church-going Jesus fanatic ters begins to unfold which brings about the Behaving Badly, Marie Phillips adds to this who continues to be a bit too much of a imminent destruction of the earth. Here ironi- tradition by telling yet another story of the mama’s boy to keep himself from getting cally the gods must rely upon the examples of famous Olympian twelve, and even strikes involved in her petty acts of vengeance. Aeneas, Odysseus, Heracles, and Orpheus – out into new territory: these gods live in the Demeter tends the gardens; Ares is still not to mention their own craft and cunning – twenty-first century. They are alive but slowly involved in warfare; and Hermes busies to trick death and bring power back to the aging, nearly devoid of power, living in a himself with all the jobs the other gods con- gods. dilapidated London townhouse which they sider to be beneath them, like shuffling the Gods Behaving Badly falls in a curious purchased for practically nothing during the dead off to the Underworld. Dionysus is an space between the scholarly and general plague of 1665. For scholars and enthusi- alcoholic DJ who owns a hip, exclusive bar audience. For those even moderately well- asts of classical mythology, getting to know on the sleazy side of town, where he fea- versed in the mythological traditions, the the weakened Olympians in our modern tures his own homemade wine and elabo- constant reminders of each god’s function world will be simultaneously horrifying and rate sex shows. may be repetitious, but the numerous more wickedly satisfying, something akin to Artemis is the focal point for much of the subtle or clever references will delight. watching former superstars make pathetic narrative. She is an independent woman Phillips brilliantly reinvents the Underworld, bids for popularity on reality television. with no need for men and a healthy appre- bringing together sly changes in tradition Readers’ Schadenfreude directs itself ciation for exercise and canines. A dog- (Charon transports the dead on a Tube especially at Apollo – ever the impossibly walker by profession, she is constantly at train – a task, Artemis notes, of “Sisyphean gorgeous, vain sex-addict. His overweening odds with her family, who view her as monotony”), old stand-bys (Cerberus, Styx, vanity and sexually aggressive pick-up lines prudish and uptight because she shudders pomegranates, Lethe), and total imagina- make him about as successful with the mod- at the F-word (a favorite curse among the tion (the entire structure of the Underworld ern woman as he was with Daphne, with gods) and refuses to give up her virginity. is held together in the minds of the dead the result that he resorts to sex with any of Being a god, she is as self-absorbed as the who inhabit it). The general audience, for his brothers, sisters, aunts or uncles willing rest of her family, but she is undoubtedly whom this book is surely intended, will like- to have him. Here I should enter a note of the most endearing in a rather reprehensi- ly find the gods’ antics a good deal more caution: when it comes to her descriptions ble shack of deities. disturbing, naughty, and exciting than of sex, Phillips does not bother with Homer- They live in a spiral of repetition; the licen- those of us who are accustomed to gods ic subtlety. These gods do behave badly, tious, self-serving, destructive behavior and behaving badly. In the end, however, just as they always have, and Phillips is petty in-fighting of the Late Bronze Age seem Phillips’ novel has a clear message, one blunt in describing the quotidian acts of even more absurd when acted out by an that will resonate with all readers: the exis- incest that occur in the bathroom. These obnoxious Greek family trying to survive in tence of the gods has always relied upon stark descriptions of divine behavior place the Information Age. They are unable to human invention, imagination and belief. the gods under an interrogator’s lamp, and regain their old power and seem to lack the Phillips breathes new life into that ancient we are given a good place in the dark to creativity and drive required to adapt to the pantheon with this modern myth. observe all. modern world in any useful way. Only The household of gods is impoverished, Athena attempts to orchestrate a comeback. Mary Jane Cuyler (mjcuyler@mail of course, as there is no one in the world Armed with handouts, unnecessary specta- .utexas.edu), having spent the summer of left to worship them. In fact, none of the cles (they add to her air of intellectualism), 2008 studying Roman pottery at the Ameri- mortals encountered in this book has any and a borrowed overhead projector, she can Academy of Rome, is currently finishing knowledge of the classical gods or their gives a presentation on “the implementation her Ph.D. in Classical Archaeology at the functions. Acquisition of food is not neces- of organized religion-based solutions within University of Texas, Austin. She will be at sary since gods don’t eat – although the crowded global multi-faith context” (121). Pylos in 2009, working on excavation pot- Aphrodite absolutely loves the smell of The other gods are not receptive: despite tery at a Bronze Age site for the Iklaina food, and walks around sniffing things like their advanced age, most of them seem to Regional Archaeological Project. bacon sandwiches. Other expenses, lack both intelligence and an attention span. 7 ALEXANDER’S MERMAID: PLUMBING THE MURKY DEPTHS OF A MYTH by Brad L. Cook

ailors the world over have always was “sweet, mild, and gentle,” and she earliest account and the modern ver- told stories of mermaids. These asks the famous question, “Does King sions, such as that found in Karkavitsas’ S Ζη~ ο βασιλιας~ Αλεξαν` watery beings frequently pose dan- Alexander live ( ’ ’ - tale? We can go back all the way to the gers, as do the seas on which the sailors δρος)?” When the sailor answers in the early Byzantine period, between the sail. Safe passage, whether away from, or negative, the beautiful, sweet sea-maid- sixth and seventh centuries A.D. to a occasionally because of these fishy crea- en suddenly turns into a terrifying mon- text that provides a fuller account of the tures, becomes the sailors’ constant con- ster, and the sailor now realizes that she immortal water that Karkavitsas had said cern during those long nights on the is “the sister of Alexander who stole the Alexander’s sister “stole and became high seas. immortal water (νερο)` and became deathless and all-powerful,” though the Greeks, who have been sailing for deathless and all-powerful.” The narra- thief in the Byzantine text will turn out millennia, have, at least since late antiq- tor then reasons, in the grip of terror, to be Alexander’s daughter rather than uity, embodied this concern in the form that Alexander’s fame was deathless and his sister. of a mermaid who has a peculiar connec- eternal so “surely,” he concludes, “she The story goes that Alexander is tion to the greatest figure of Greek his- was not asking about his mortal self but marching through the midst of the Dark tory and legend, Alexander the Great. about his memory.” The mermaid, in a Land when his army nears a spring Familiarity with this mermaid is so rage, is about to vent her frustration on whose water flashed like lightning. widespread in Greece that you can ask They pause to rest and Alexander asks anyone, sailor or not, “Does King his cook, Andreas, to prepare him some- Alexander live?” and be told: “He lives thing to eat. Andreas begins preparing and reigns and rules the world!” This is some dried fish, but when he attempts the question that Alexander’s mermaid to soak it in the water of the spring, the asks seafarers (see Fig. 6). Provide this This Greek mermaid fish comes to life and swims away. answer and you will sail smoothly on exists to preserve the Frightened, he says not a word to your way. Answer instead that Alexan- memory of Alexander of this strange event, though der is dead and gone, and she will sink he does drink some of the water himself your ship. Alexander the Great. and puts some in a silver vessel. Only From where does this mermaid later, after they have left the area, does come? Is she a uniquely Greek creation? Andreas tell Alexander about the fish, Why is she so eager to keep alive the but not about his own drinking of the memory of Alexander that she lets the magical water nor about his secret sup- sailors who preserve that memory live his ship, when the sailor cries out, “No, ply. After Alexander punishes him rather than killing them as a “normal” my lady, lies!” She again asks her ques- harshly, Andreas finds Alexander’s mermaid would? The answer lies buried tion, “Sailor, dear sailor, does King daughter named Kal¯e – her name means in the immense mass of legends about Alexander live?” To this the sailor “Beauty,” in good fairy tale tradition – Alexander, legends that spread and now replies, “He lives and reigns. He and he offers her the immortal water, developed during his lifetime and con- lives and reigns and rules the world (Ζη~ which she takes and drinks. Alexander, tinued to do so down through the ages. και` βασιλευει.` Ζη~ και` βασιλευει` και` τον` outraged, curses his daughter. “‘Depart In his 1899 collection, Words from the κοσµον` κυριευει` ).” Instantly she from my presence,’ he says, ‘you have Prow: Sea Stories (Λογια` της~ πλωρης.` changes: “as if my voice had poured become an immortal being. You were Θαλασσινα` ∆ιηγηµατα` ), the Greek immortal water (νερο)` into her veins, named Kal¯e, so I shall call you Kal¯e of novelist Andreas Karkavitsas provides immediately the monster changed, and the Mountains, because there you shall an example of the tale of Alexander’s again there was the incredibly beautiful dwell for the rest of time, but you shall mermaid from modern times. In his maiden.” She lets go of the ship and be known as Neraïda because from the short story “The Gorgóna” – yes, gorgóna smiles. A military tune is heard, as if the water (neró/νερο)` you obtained the eter- .. can be used in modern Greek of a Macedonian army is returning “from the nal (aïdia/αιδια’ ` ), that is immortality.’ mermaid – Karkavitsas describes her as lands of the Ganges and the And she, weeping and lamenting, a very beautiful maiden who “wore a Euphrates.” Bright lights form an enor- departed from my presence and she diamond-encrusted crown on her head mous wreath, a crown of victory for the went to live with the spirit beings (dai- and luxurious blue hair spread down her eternal memory of Alexander. The mones) in the deserted places.” As for back to the waves. Her broad brow, her image dissipates into the sky as the Andreas, he gets a millstone hung almond-shaped eyes, her coral lips cast mermaid-gorgóna dives into the depths around his neck, is thrown into the sea, forth an aura of immortality and a sort of of the sea. becomes a spirit being (daimon), and regal pride. From her crystal necklace Varying versions of this story can still goes off to live in a part of the sea that there flowed down, encasing her body, a be heard all over Greece, and scholarly “is called even by his name ‘Andreas,’” golden cuirass made of scales, and she travelers and ethnographers have writ- by which the author means the Adriatic carried on her left arm a shield and ten down a few of them in more recent – which is ’Αδριας` in ancient Greek. sported in her right a Macedonian centuries. But how far back in time does (This whole episode is available in Eng- sarisa.” As she calls out to our seafaring Alexander’s mermaid go? Is there a clear lish in Richard Stoneman’s The Greek narrator, her voice, the narrator stresses, line of mythic descent connecting the Alexander Romance [1991], 121-2.) 8 This early Byzantine text answers Another strand of one of the two questions raised by the tradition Karkavitsas’ version: How does a human offers some help. become a mermaid? The answer is that There is a story the Byzantine author created a newfan- that says nothing gled Nereid by taking a word that was about a cook and new in his day and inventing an etymo- daughter but logical myth from it. The new word is speaks rather of neró(n), the modern Greek word for Alexander’s sis- “water,” which had only acquired this ter, his historical, meaning within a century or so of the half-sister, Thes- creating of this version of the Alexander salonik¯e, who Romance. (Previously hud¯or, υδωρ’ ` , had accidently drank been the standard Greek word for the eternal water, water; the rest of her name, -aïda, which Alexander derives from the patronymic suffix, -id-, had stored away meaning “the child or descendant of,” in a bottle, and and does not in fact derive from the who later threw ancient aïd- root meaning “eternal.”) herself into the sea in grief at the news Fig 6. George Xenoulis’ sculpture of the This author liked to invent etymo- of Alexander’s death. When Thessa- Mermaid of Poros graces the city’s port, logical myths, like his ancient predeces- lonik¯e finds that she is still alive, trans- perhaps questioning the returning sor in mythmaking, Hesiod. For exam- formed into a mercreature, she goes off sailors about Alexander. Photo used ple, the cook’s name, “Andreas,” in search of Alexander. The key motive with permission. © 2006 Richard Edkins, appears nowhere else in the Alexander here, grief at Alexander’s death, and the Dalbeattie Internet. http://www tradition. Four other strands of the subsequent search to find him, in spite .dalbeattie.com/poros2006/dayone.html. Alexander Romance mention a cook but of the news, can be safely appended to do not give him a name. The dried fish the story of her mermaidification in our protect his fame and make that someone appears in those four versions but no early Byzantine text. Why? Because immortal. Achilles had his mother, daughter, sister, neraïda, or any other there his daughter leaves Alexander’s Thetis, the most famous of the Nereids. creature whatsoever. But the most presence “weeping and lamenting.” Why not give Alexander an immortal sis- important detail that points to the That manifestation of emotional distress ter or daughter who is, like Thetis, invention of the neraïda and her intru- could be explained variously, but it always worried about the well-being of sion into the tradition in the sixth or would not take a creative storyteller her dearest? To create such a divine pro- seventh century is that the word used more than a second to realize that this tectress you simply need a magical throughout the text for water is “hud¯or” clue is a sufficient foundation from process – mythmaking by etymology. and only in the etymology of “neraïda” which to develop plausibly a motive for Water is eternal, forever young. Inter- do we find the word “neró.” Through Alexander’s mermaid to become such twine, then, the water, neró, with an this new word, an immortal-water maid- an unusual mercreature, one who uses ancient mythic being, the Nereid en appears in the author’s mind to give her typically terrifying reputation and Thetis, the loving mother, sister, or him yet another creative opportunity to power for a good cause, to keep the daughter, through a new-fangled ety- expand and improve the version of the name of Alexander alive and to make it mology to give birth to a divine protec- Alexander Romance that he is revising. immortal. tress of Alexander’s glory. The best part of his invention, he real- I would like to offer an additional Alexander’s mermaid is a mythic izes, is that he can show off his great explanation that complicates the Byzan- Greek creature, born of a blending of learning by putting in Alexander’s tine etymology and interweaves the ancient myth and a creative Byzantine mouth his learned etymological inven- emotional power of mourning at the etymology. She lives eternally to make tion not just of the daughter’s new death of a loved one, with the result that Alexander, the most famous figure of all name but also the influence of the her seemingly unexpected behavior may Greek history, as immortal as she possi- cook’s name on the naming of a sea. reside, like her immortality, in her name, bly can, by keeping his name alive on Here, then, is the birth of Alexan- neraïda. For even though the Byzantine those watery routes that Greeks have der’s mermaid, in this sixth or seventh myth-maker invented her connection to been travelling for millennia. century Byzantine version of the magical water, neró, and created an (For further reading see the list of Alexander Romance. How, though – immortal-water maiden, there must, I published texts and translations in the and that is the second question raised suggest, remain a connection to the new survey of this immense tradition by by Karkavitsas’ version – does she ancient name “Nereid” and to the most Richard Stoneman, Alexander the Great: A become a preserver of Alexander’s famous Nereid, namely Thetis, the lov- Life in Legend [2008], 230-45.) name and, by extension, of those sailors ing and mourning mother. If the new who are quick enough to “preserve” neraïda lives to immortalize Alexander’s Brad L. Cook ([email protected]) is Alexander’s name as well? This ques- name, for what is Alexander most Assistant Professor in the Department of tion is particularly important since “nor- famous? Is it not for dying so great and Classics & Humanities at San Diego State mal” mermaids live to kill sailors and yet so young? In both respects he is like University. He works on Plutarch and biog- such men that they can get their hands his great mythic model, Achilles. And raphical traditions, in particular on Demos- on, whether those mercreatures are like Achilles, Alexander must die to thenes, Philip II, and Alexander, both the descended from ancient sirens, harpies, become so famous. He cannot have historical and the legendary versions. gorgons, or any similar “monster” in immortality. He cannot drink the eternal Greece or anywhere else in the world. water. Give him, then, someone to 9 WHAT IS HOMER DOING IN “THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS”? By August A. Imholtz, Jr.

lement Clarke Moore’s famous In Homer, there are many other similes CChristmas poem entitled “An with hurricanes and many with leaves. Account of a Visit from Saint This one from Book 17 of the Iliad moves Nicholas,” but often cited simply by its its action in the opposite direction of first line, “’Twas the night before Santa’s reindeer: Christmas” or even “The Night before Christmas,” has contributed much to As one who has grown a fine olive tree the popular vision of the American And though the winds beat upon it Santa Claus over the past 185 years (see from every quarter, it puts forth Fig. 7). And yet Moore’s lyrics, first Its white blossoms until the blasts of published December 23, 1823, contain some fierce hurricane Sweep down upon it and level it to an echo from the works of Homer, the the ground. (52-5) ancient Greek poet whom some scholars have considered almost as mythical as And the most famous simile in the Iliad Santa himself. The echo is not so much itself revolves around leaves in these a direct borrowing of lines from the lines from Book 6: texts of the Iliad and the Odyssey, but rather a kind of poetic device, a simile, As is the generation of leaves, so is Fig. 7. The Night Before Christmas, pub- of the sort used extensively by Homer. that of humanity. lished in this edition by Porter & Coates After Saint Nick dispatches Dasher, The wind scatters the leaves on the in 1883, was written by Clement C. Dancer, and company to the top of the ground, but the live timber Moore. Image source: http://www Burgeons with leaves again in the porch, there is a break in the narrative .santaclaus.com/christmas-stories/ season of spring returning, as the poet reflects on the flight of the twas-the-night-before-christmas/ reindeer with these beautiful lines: So one generation of men will grow while another night-before-christmas-antique.php. © http://www.santaclaus.com. As dry leaves that before the wild Dies. (146-9) hurricane fly, readily turn, consciously or unconscious- When they meet with an obstacle, Toward the end of Moore’s poem there is ly, to a turn of phrase, a figure so com- mount to the sky.… (25-6) another Homeric simile, this one to mon in the epic poems of ancient describe in concrete detail how St. Nick’s Greece. One therefore surely can pre- This simile, which compares the rein- coursers bear him up and away: sume that the thistle figure from Book 5 deers’ mounting flight to dry leaves He sprang to his sleigh, to his team of the Odyssey would also have been encountering a wind, is just like the kind known to Moore from Homer. of simile Homer uses over and over gave a whistle, And away they all flew like the down Just as Homer’s authorship of the again, especially in the midst of battle of a thistle. (53-4) Iliad and the Odyssey has been disputed, scenes, but also elsewhere to interrupt so Clement Moore’s claim to have writ- the narrative. For example we find in Although Homer’s thistle (akanthos) ten “The Night Before Christmas” has Book 21 of the Iliad the lines: simile is a bit less compact than come under attack in recent years by Moore’s, the flight idea is similar: that curious marriage of text criticism As locusts fly to a river before the blast and conspiracy theory. What cannot be of a grass fire, As when in autumn the North Wind disputed, however, is the influence of The flame comes on and on till at bears the thistle-tufts over the plain, last it overtakes them. (12-3) Homeric images on this most beloved of and close they cling to one another, so American Christmas poems. did the winds bear the raft this way (Iliad translation by Samuel Butler, The “dry leaves” simile is called a for- and that over the sea. Now the South ward-looking one, which simply means Wind would fling it to the North Wind 1898; Odyssey translation by Richmond it looks forward to another clause to to be driven on, and now again the Lattimore, 1951.) establish its relevance to the narrative, East Wind would yield it to the West to bring it to a conclusion as it were. Wind to drive. (Odyssey 5. 328-32) August A. Imholtz, Jr. (imholtz99@ Moore, like Homer, immediately brings atlantech.net) studied classics at Washington the action back to the story: But how does a Homeric rhetorical fig- University in St. Louis, the University of ure come to be smack dab in the middle Göttingen, and Johns Hopkins. He is the Vice So up to the house-top the coursers of our favorite secular Christmas poem? President of Readex, a digital publishing they flew Clement Clarke Moore, who was Pro- company, and specializes in large collections With the sleigh full of toys, and fessor of Oriental (Hebrew) and Greek of Congressional historical publications and St. Nicholas too. (27-8) Literature first at Columbia College other U.S. government collections. He has (now Columbia University), then at the published numerous articles on Lewis Car- General Theological Seminary in New roll, classical philology, literary criticism, York (1821-1850), had certainly read his and other subjects. Homer in the original Greek and would 10 Did You Know… The APA Committee on Joe Paterno, coach of the Penn State Nit- Ancient and Modern Performance (CAMP) tany Lions Football Team, became an hon- presents orary member of the Zeta Theta Chapter of the first classical comedy in English: Eta Sigma Phi, the National Classics Honor Society, in 1991. Coach Paterno studied Latin and Greek in high school and has a particular fondness for Vergil’s Aeneid. THERSITES

On Robert Fitzgerald Kennedy’s memorial in Arlington National Cemetery is said by some to be by Nicholas Udall (1537), inscribed part of the speech that he deliv- a brief interlude which doth declare that the greatest boasters ered after the assassination of Martin are not the greatest doers, Luther King, Jr. “Aeschylus wrote ‘In our sleep, pain that cannot forget falls drop by to be prefaced with a short yet edifying dialogue between drop upon the heart and in our own Vulcan and Jupiter despair, against our will, comes wisdom adapted from Lucian by Thomas Heywood (1637). through the awful grace of God.’ What we need in the United States is not division; Thersites, a boaster . . . . . Susanna Morton Braund what we need in the United States is not Mulciber, a smith ...... John H. Starks, Jr. hatred; what we need in the United States Mater, a mother ...... Alison Futrell is not violence or lawlessness; but love and Miles, a soldier ...... George Kovacs wisdom, and compassion toward one Telemachus, a child . . . . . Timothy Wutrich another, and a feeling of justice toward Ulysses, a voice ...... Tony Podlecki those who still suffer within our country, whether they be white or they be black.” Snail, a gastropod ...... Emily Jusino (Agamemnon 179-83, based on Edith * * * Hamilton’s translation in The Greek Way.) Jupiter ...... Brett M. Rogers Vulcan ...... John H. Starks, Jr. “To Anacreon in Heaven,” the theme Athena...... Emily Jusino song composed for the Anacreontic Society * * * (a men’s drinking group honoring the With the interpretative assistance of Amy R. Cohen and ancient Greek poet Anacreon), is the basis Elizabeth Scharffenberger for “The Star-Spangled Banner.” In the * * * 1760s, John Stafford Smith wrote the Director...... C. W. Marshall music. The Society’s President, Ralph Tom- linson, added the lyrics, and the song was The director comments: “Thersites was ugly; that much we know. He was a published in 1778 in London (Longman braggart who was chastised by Odysseus. But how many of us have taken the and Broderip). To hear a recording from time to consider his feelings? In this play we see Thersites, the braggart warrior, the Smithsonian Institution, go to deftly avoiding conflict while insulting everyone else on stage, including his own mother. He hides, he scurries, he whines, he pleads. This comedy sets out to http://www.americanhistory.si.edu/ssb/ give Thersites his proper due. It turns out the tradition was right after all. This 6_thestory/gfx/song.anac.dsl.ra. year’s performance promises to bring this short forgotten classic to life. More’s the pity.” The Achilles Corporation, founded in 1947, headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, and Join us Friday, January 9, 2009, 7 P.M. focused on the production of plastics, makes in the Marriott Hotel Grand Ballroom Salon H tents. In addition to specialized storage for an unforgettable performance! tents, they have recently begun marketing an isolation tent for people suffering from severe acute respiratory syndrome. No news Fig. 8. The cast of Thersites includes a yet about isolation tents dedicated to those snail (played by Emily Jusino). Clip art suffering from acute sulking syndrome. licensed from the Clip Art Gallery on DiscoverySchool.com. Image source: Antigone Rising, the powerful women’s http://school.discoveryeducation.com/ folk rock band of the 1990s, was the first clipart/clip/snail.html. group signed in Starbuck Coffee’s “Hear Music Debut” series. 11 FROM AORISTS AND ANAPESTS TO GOSPEL GLORY: CLASSICAL DRAMA IN PHILADELPHIA By Lee T. Pearcy

or one evening during the Ameri- elite of Philadelphia. Although the cur- Fcan Philological Association’s tain had been scheduled to rise at 8 annual meeting in Philadelphia on P.M., the performance could not begin January 8-11, 2009, classics professors until half an hour later, after the eager and graduate students will put scholarly throng had finally taken its seats. panels, committee meetings, and job This glittering, learned audience had interviews aside and become actors, gathered to see and hear Aristophanes’ chorus, and audience in a staged reading Acharnians performed in its original of Thersites, a Renaissance comedy that Greek by students from The University takes a farcical view of Greek mytholo- of Pennsylvania. The Acharnians ended gy and the Trojan War (see p. 11). Per- its run of two performances in Philadel- formances of classical and classicizing phia with a matinee at the Academy of drama sponsored by the APA’s Commit- Music the next afternoon. On Novem- tee on Ancient and Modern Perfor- ber 19, 1886, it was reprised in New mance have become one of the most York City at the Academy of Music on popular events at a meeting otherwise Irving Place. That performance too was dominated by technical scholarship and attended by luminaries of society, the necessary business of academe. affairs, and academe; as one newspaper Classical drama, however, is not news reported, “The dread array of scholar- in Philadelphia. Theater has been a part ship in presence was too tremendous for of the city’s cultural life since colonial detail, but every man of the audience times, and even today Philadelphia’s who in his youth ever groaned over a Fig. 9. Morgan Freeman as “The Preacher” many amateur and professional theater Latin or Greek grammar looked upon leads the chorus in Lee Breuer and Bob companies continue the tradition with the faces of Professors Goodwin Telson’s The Gospel at Colonus. Image productions of classical repertoire and (Elementary Greek Grammar) and Hark- from The Gospel at Colonus, an adapta- new plays. From Ion in 1836 at the Wal- ness (A Latin Grammar for Schools and tion by Lee Breuer. New York: Theater nut Street Theater to David Greenspan’s Colleges) and was awed.” Communications Group, Inc., 1989; Old Comedy, an adaptation of Aristo- The Philadelphia Acharnians was a © Martha Swope, 1988. phanes’ Frogs, at the 2008 Philadelphia sensation in both highbrow and popular Fringe Festival, Philadelphia produc- press. Gildersleeve heralded the experi- New York: J. B. Lippincott, 1944], 39). tions have kept Aeschylus, Sophocles, ment in The Nation, and Harper’s Weekly The Acharnians may at first seem an Euripides, and Aristophanes alive in the praised the New York performance for unlikely choice for a production that city where the United States began. Two “bringing the spectator . . . right into the would become so celebrated and remem- productions a century apart whose repu- life of antiquity.” Not all notices were bered. Even a favorable review could say tation extended beyond Philadelphia high-minded, however. According to that it “has none of the features of come- illuminate the use and re-use of classical Taggart’s Sunday Times for May 16, 1886: dy proper . . . scarcely a thread of human antiquity in American life. The Greek play . . . by the University interest . . . and none of that dramatic Acharnians, 1886 boys, created quite a flutter in high- quality which makes ‘Antigone’ or any toned circles last week. The aesthetic other of Sophocles’ tragedies, a perenni- On the evening of May 14, 1886, car- young ladies wildly cheered the stal- ally inspiring or absorbing play” (The New riages full of eager theater-goers blocked wart students, who appeared in scant York Tribune, quoted in The Philadelphia the intersection of Broad and Locust Grecian costumes, with real bare legs, Press, November 20, 1886). Aristophanes’ Streets near the Academy of Music in hosiery being ignored as inconsistent play, named after its chorus of charcoal- Philadelphia. Nearly 3,000 people with a real Greek play. The display burners from the Athenian rural district streamed toward the gaslit Academy that beat the ordinary ballet “all hollow.” Acharnae, tells the story of Dicaeopolis, spring evening, including President Enthusiastic young ladies declared an Athenian farmer who decides in the that the handsome young gentlemen Daniel Coit Gilman and Professor Basil on the stage, representing Grecian depths of the long Peloponnesian War Lanneau Gildersleeve of The Johns characters with unpronounceable with Sparta and her allies to make his Hopkins University, Professors Charles names, were “just lovely.” own peace with the enemy and to open a Eliot Norton, William Watson Goodwin, market that will bring him the food, John Williams White, and Louis Dyer of Years later, after a successful career at drink, and luxuries that the Spartan Harvard, and scores of other distin- the bar and in the United States Senate, blockade was denying him and his fel- guished academicians and their students one of those lovely young men, George low-citizens. Aristophanes uses the situa- from Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Cor- Wharton Pepper, would look back on his tion to satirize corrupt politicians, arro- nell universities and from Haverford and role as Dicaeopolis in the Acharnians as gant generals, and a sleazy modern poet Bryn Mawr Colleges. A large crowd of “the most interesting experience of our called Euripides. In 1886, with the Civil students from The University of Penn- college life” (George Wharton Pepper, War only two decades in the past, it was sylvania mingled easily with the social Philadelphia Lawyer [Philadelphia and easy for an American audience to find 12 The 2009 Outreach Panel: “Podcasting and the Classics” contemporary relevance; as the classicist Saturday, January 10, 2009, 11:30 A.M.-1:15 P.M. Basil Gildersleeve wrote in The Nation on Session 33 in the Fifth Paper Session, Grand Ballroom Salon L May 6, “If our civil war had left us much heart for joking while it was going on, n the field of classical humanities, professors and K-12 teachers alike are witnessing the we, too, might have had our ‘Acharnians,’ in which some Federal or Confederate Idemocratizing power of the “podcast” word: audio players have proven a particularly borderer might have made a separate powerful tool to restore the oral and aural experience in our practice and scholarship. peace with the enemy and have regaled This panel will explore the various kinds of podcasts in the field of classics and classi- himself with tobacco or coffee, while his cal archaeology, to illustrate how we can foster productive collaborations between languishing countrymen had to put up academia and the public with this technology. with cabbage leaves or rye” (379). Lars Brownworth, who will speak about his podcast “Twelve Byzantine Rulers,” Gospel at Colonus, 1985 describes the genesis and completion of a twelve-part podcast on the history of late antiquity, a podcast that has gained impressive reviews with the iTunes public, and atten- Almost a century later, Philadelphia was again the site of a presentation of classic tion in the print and broadcast media. Greek drama whose reputation and Patrick Hunt, with his iTunesU series “Hannibal,” addresses an earlier period in impact extended beyond the performance Roman history. He discusses not only Hannibal’s story but material culture and geophysi- itself. On November 8, 1985, Lee cal analysis as used in classical archaeology. Breuer’s Gospel at Colonus was broadcast Henry Bender will demonstrate one method of teaching Vergil in secondary from Philadelphia’s American Music The- schools in his talk, “To Pod or Not to Pod.” Bender uses podcasts for explanation, analy- ater Festival as part of PBS’ “Great Per- formances” series. Although Gospel had its sis, and commentary on the Advanced Placement Vergil syllabus. first incarnation in New York as a work- Bret Mulligan stresses the usefulness of this technology when applied to teaching shop performance in 1981 and was fully Catullus; in his paper, “Using the Ear to Train the Eye,” he will demonstrate how video staged at the Brooklyn Academy of and audio work together in the active learning of the Latin language. Music’s Next Wave festival in 1983, the The respondent, Jennifer Sheridan Moss, whose podcasting experience is in the Philadelphia broadcast brought it national teaching of classical mythology, will frame some of the successes and problems facing the attention. It went to Broadway in 1988, toured widely in America and Europe, scholar as podcaster. In “Present, Imperfect, … perhaps Future Perfect?” she will address and earned an Obie Award as outstanding the kinds of decisions about time and cost that are involved when making a podcast. musical, a Los Angeles Drama Circle Crit- In addition to the “Podcasting and the Classics” panel, the Outreach Committee is ics Award, and awards from the National working to podcast this very session itself, as well as make select classical podcasts avail- Institute for Music Theater and the Unit- able throughout the APA/AIA meeting with a Listening Lounge in the Book Exhibition. ed Gospel Association. Original cast recordings have been issued by Warner Brothers and Nonesuch Records. Twenty Polynices, are fighting over the kingship the Pentecostal tradition. Writing about years after its run on Broadway, audiences of Thebes, and Polynices wants Oedipus the Philadelphia “Great Performances” continue to shout, clap, and cry at amateur to choose to support him over Eteocles; production in Black American Literature and professional performances throughout instead, Oedipus renews the curse he has Forum (Vol. 25.1 [1991], 110), Mimi the country, and Gospel forms part of the put on his sons. His daughter, Antigone, Gisolfi D’Aponte described the effect of curriculum at more than 200 college and struggles with conflicting loyalties to the play’s ending this way: university theater departments. father and brother. Finally, Oedipus goes The spoken text of Gospel at Colonus to join the gods at Colonus in a miracu- When the Soul Stirrers and Clarence is, as Lee Breuer said in declining a lous, and perhaps ambiguous, sequence Fountain perform the jubilee “Never Tony nomination for best script, “ninety- of events reported by messenger. Drive You Away,” when Fountain and five percent Robert Fitzgerald[’s]” trans- Lee Breuer and his musical collabo- the Five Blind Boys intone “Lift Me lation of Sophocles’ Theban plays, prin- rator, Bob Telson, translated this enig- Up,” when the Soul Stirrers and soloist Carolyn Johnson White exhort cipally Oedipus at Colonus. In Sophocles’ matic drama of pollution, estrangement, “Lift Him Up,” and the Institutional play, the aged Oedipus, after years of reconciliation, and transfiguration into Radio Choir and everyone else on wandering in exile following his expul- the setting and idiom of African-American stage command “Now Let the Weep- sion from Thebes, comes to Colonus, a Pentecostal churches. The Preacher ing Cease,” it is as if sixty-four per- suburban district of Athens. The chorus, announces “The Book of Oedipus,” formers have laid musical hands upon inhabitants of Colonus, beg him to leave which becomes the text for an oratorio their audience, and we, together with because they do not want a man who has in the form of a church service. Greek Oedipus, are healed. killed his father and married his mother chorus becomes gospel choir, and Oedi- to pollute their home as he had polluted pus, who in many productions is played As one critic remarks, “If that is not Thebes. Oedipus, however, realizes that by multiple actors (in the Philadelphia catharsis, what is?” (Kevin Wetmore, in he is fated to die in the grove of the “Great Performances” version the role Black Dionysos [Jefferson, North Caroli- Furies at Colonus. The drama hinges on is played by Clarence Fountain and the na: McFarland & Company, Inc., Pub- tension between the attempts of Creon, Five Blind Boys of Alabama and briefly lishers, 2003], 109). regent of Thebes, to seize the dying by Morgan Freeman, the Preacher; see Oedipus and bury him in Theban territo- Fig. 9), himself becomes a visiting Authenticity or Engagement? ry, and the asylum granted him by The- preacher and singer. Audiences find Although Basil Gildersleeve and other seus, king of Athens. Oedipus’ family themselves swept up by the combina- reviewers evoked the Civil War, political also tugs at him. His sons, Eteocles and tion of preaching and powerful music in continued on page 15 13 Ask A Classicist

Boatwright sisters in Sue Monk Kidd’s novel Why does Horace compare him- The Secret Life of Bees: self to a bee from Mount Matinus? Q We lived for honey. We swallowed a Is it because the bees and the honey of this spoonful in the morning to wake us up place are special? and one at night to put us to sleep. We took it with every meal to calm the mind, Mount Matinus is located on the give us stamina, and prevent fatal dis- northern coast of the region known ease. We swabbed ourselves in it to disin- as Apulia (modern Puglia). Since fect cuts or heal chapped lips. It went in A our baths, our skin cream, our raspberry Horace himself was born in this region (his tea and biscuits. Nothing was safe from home town is Venusia in the middle of honey. (84) Apulia), by comparing his manner of writing poetry to the “fashion of the Matine bee as Fig 10. Mount Matinus lies near the Nor is anything safe from the sweetening, it gathers thyme” (ego apis Matinae more coast of the upper part of Apulia. preserving, and enhancing power of poet- modoque grata carpentis thyma, Odes ry, Horace’s metaphor suggests. Dropped 4.2.27-29), the poet identifies himself Kaisariani Monastery on Hymettos’ north into our daily life from some celestial or nat- specifically with an insect that lives on the slopes, or the ancient beekeepers of the ural origin, industriously gathered by little dry rosemary- and thyme-laced terrain of his Attic countryside, the bees of Hymettos winged things drawing direction from some family’s homeland (see Fig. 10). The little have ceased neither their industry nor their nonhuman source, honey – µελι` (Greek), brown flying thing, low to the ground and production of excellent honey. mel (Latin) – is song (µελος` ). intent on the work it carries out with its great Skilled as these ancient beekeepers sisterhood of bees, goes about its business were in fostering honey production, people amidst the shrubs of Matinus. And the focus in antiquity weren’t quite sure how the bees of all that busy-ness is the intensely sweet actually produced it. Consensus held that honey gathered from wild thyme blossoms. the honey was left on the foliage and petals Whether Matinus’ honey was particularly of plants like dew, either dropped from the appreciated by antiquity’s honey-connoisseurs air (Vergil’s aeris mellis caelestia dona, we cannot say. However, we are told quite “heavenly gifts of honey air,” Georgics specifically, by a host of ancient authors, 4.1) or sweated out by the plants and trees about the places that were generally recog- themselves. That the bees themselves gener- nized as producing the sweetest thyme- ated the honey from their bodies by metab- Fig 11. Honeybees collect pollen from favored flowers like thyme to create honey of all: Mount Hybla in Sicily, the olizing the nectar of flowers was not gener- honey. Image source: http:// Aegean island of Calymna, and – source of ally accepted; Seneca, however, does note en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Bees_ the best of the best – Mount Hymettos in the possibility that the little insects make Collecting_Pollen_2004-08-14.jpg. Attica, very near Athens (Pliny Naturalis rather more intrinsic contributions to the Historia 11.21, Ovid Tristia 5.13.21, Col- process of honey-production when he says, Readers interested in the ancient life of umella De re rustica 9.14.19, Cicero De “It isn’t clear whether they gather the honey bees and beekeepers will enjoy H. Mal- finibus 2.112, for example). So attractive directly from flowers or add the honey-flavor colm Fraser’s Beekeeping in Antiquity (Uni- were these Attic bees that Trimalchio even by mixing in something of their own distinc- versity of London Press, 1931) and Hilda M had some exported to improve the quality tive breath” (spiritus; Epistles 84.4; see Ransome’s The Sacred Bee (Houghton Mif- of the honey on his own estates (Petronius Fig. 11). flin, 1937). Satyricon 38.3). The modern city of Athens Wherever it came from, the honey that extends its suburbs around and about the resulted from the insects’ industry was put to foot of the low mountain. The main campus a variety of purposes in the classical world. of the University of Athens lies along Besides using it to sweeten their food – Coming In Future Hymettos’ western slopes, while radio and honey is still a defining ingredient of the Issues television programs are broadcast from cuisines of the Aegean area – the ancients transmission towers on its summit. And brewed a variety of meads with honey, Euripides on the Modern Stage despite devastation by forest fires that added it to their medicines and cosmetics, Demeter and Persephone, Fiction- struck the area in 2007, thyme, rosemary, offered it to the gods in a plethora of rites writing and Myth in Margaret and oregano still grow wild among Hymet- and ceremonies, and sometimes used it to Drabble’s Peppered Moth tos’ pines and low shrubby trees. Whether preserve the dead. Honey must have been watched over by the modern residents of nearly as omnipresent in ancient life as it is Superheroes and Greek Tragedy Zographou and Ilissia, by the monks of in the modern life of the bee-keeping 14 FROM AORISTS AND ANAPESTS TO GOSPEL “The odes come where the choir pieces GLORY: CLASSICAL DRAMA IN PHILADELPHIA would come; the messenger speech at the end comes where the sermon should continued from page 13 come; there is a dramatic, kind of orgias- relevance was not why audiences in 1886 pattern of cultural supremacy, “a time tic height at some particular point that cheered the University of Pennsylvania’s before time was.” Highbrow audiences, comes where the climax should come. Acharnians in Philadelphia and New or at least the men in them, could come You can really feel that it’s a service.” York. The 1880s marked a high point in to Acharnians remembering their school Gospel’s theme of reconciliation, espe- America’s engagement with the Greek and college days and the required Greek cially its implicit promise of racial recon- and Roman world. Neoclassicism domi- which still dominated elite curricula. ciliation, struck mainstream reviewers at nated public architecture, academic art, once. The play, Jack Kroll wrote in and popular entertainment; its manifes- Newsweek (April 4, 1988, 75), “is a tri- tations ranged from Thomas Eakins’ umph of reconciliation, bringing togeth- Arcadia reliefs and classically posed pho- er black and white, pagan and Christian, tographic experiments to the Kiralfy ancient and modern in a sunburst of joy brothers’ Nero, or the Destruction of Rome, a Gospel at Colonus that seems to touch the secret heart of “gigantic, historical, biblical, dramatic civilization itself.” The Village Voice and musical spectacle” produced on Stat- intertwines Greek tragedy (November 22, 1983, 109) declared, en Island to popular acclaim (Margaret and American culture. “With Gospel at Colonus Breuer finally Malamud, “The Imperial Metropolis: comes, like Oedipus, to the revelation of Ancient Rome in Turn-of-the-Century his secret: he has all along been not a New York,” Arion 3rd series 7.3 [Winter, deconstructionist, but a reconstruction- 2000], 63-108). Newly scientific archaeol- ist, trying to fit all the pieces back ogy and the founding of the American together.” School of Classical Studies at Athens in Classical Greek drama has never pre- 1881 fueled interest in the ancient world Things were different in 1985, and sented a uniform face to American audi- and led to a demand for authentic evoca- not just because Greek had nearly disap- ences. In 1886, Acharnians could appear tions of the Greek and Roman past. The peared from American education. Amer- as a sort of animated museum exhibit, a reviewer for Harper’s Weekly analyzed the ica’s most recent war had left no good culturally prestigious object for audi- reasons for the appeal of the Acharnians. stories behind, no tales of Northern ences who came prepared to admire it Audiences, the writer suggested, hoped virtue and Southern gallantry with Lee as an example and authentic representa- for an authentic reproduction of Greek and Grant shaking hands at the end, but tion of a classical Greek culture whose art and for insights into the realities of only images of the final, ignominious remote, eternal importance they were life in ancient Greece: withdrawal from the embassy in Saigon, glad to acknowledge. Gospel at Colonus a My Lai and the agonies of the Boat Peo- century later made no pretense of being A generation has come up to which art ple. The Berlin Wall still stood. Deep a production or reproduction of Sopho- is as real a thing at least as literature, divisions over America’s unfinished cles. It was an American play which history, or language. We know, business of race and civil rights transformed Greek drama so that it indeed, as little of Greek history as of remained. America needed something could speak to audiences late in the any, and Greek literature is to most stronger than handshakes, it seemed; it twentieth century. Rather than present- people only a name, and with the lan- ing a fixed and definite idea of what guage they have by no means a speak- needed healing and purification. ing acquaintance, knowing it only to In this moment of history the creators Greek drama was, Gospel grew and bow to, so to say. But Greek art is of Gospel at Colonus turned to Greek evolved in practice from workshop to something tangible, and its supremacy tragedy. Catharsis, the purification of Broadway. As America moves into the is so transcendent that we gladly wel- emotion that Aristotle saw at the heart of twenty-first century, it seems more like- come any new chance better to under- tragedy, was very much on Lee Breuer’s ly to use the classics and create their stand the civilization from which it mind as Gospel evolved. In an online meaning through practice than to put sprang. . . the real interest of the per- interview he stated, “Greek audiences them on a shelf and admire them. formance lies in its bringing the spec- were supposed to be purified by going (Note: Portions of this article tator, as has been said, right into the through pity and terror into bliss. There appeared as “Aristophanes in Philadel- life of antiquity. One seems for the phia: The Acharnians of 1886,” Classical moment transported back to a time is no other way to look at catharsis but as before time was, when all modern his- what Pentecostals call ‘getting happy.’ World 96.3 [2003], 299-313. I am grate- tory and most of ancient history was You are blessed with the truth, you are ful to the Editor of Classical World for still an unopened book. blessed with revelation, and revelation permission to reprint.) gets you off” (http://www.beloit. edu/ The past is forever unreachable from the classics/main/courses/fyi98/gospel.html, Lee T. Pearcy (lpearcy@episcopalacademy. present, but by reaching for it in every accessed August 28, 2008). As the play org) teaches Greek and Latin at the Episcopal detail, from the language of performance took shape, Breuer recognized more and Academy in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania, to costumes and stage set, the 1886 more parallels between Greek tragedy as and currently serves as Vice-President for Acharnians earned a place in the cultural he understood it and Pentecostal Christ- Education of the American Philological Asso- life of Gilded Age America. A self- ian church services: “The Greek chorus ciation. His most recent book is The Gram- confident, resurgent America, recovered became a choir. The first actor in Greek mar of Our Civility: Classical Education from the Civil War and discovering its tragedy was obviously a preacher-style in America (Baylor University Press 2005), new power on the world stage, could look narrator. Little by little the whole con- and he is at work on a study of American to Greek antiquity as a remote, unchanging cept came,” he told his interviewer. responses to Greek and Roman literature. 15 “BARBARIANS, ALIENS, FRONTIERS” THE FIFTH ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF LATIN AND GREEK (NANTES, FRANCE, MARCH 26-29, 2009) By Elizabeth Antébi

here can you hear tales like shared aspects of identity and heritage. WLittle Red Riding Hood or songs In some cases, the events of the festival like My Way translated into can enrich our understanding of the Latin? Where can you participate in a modern world. For example, Thucydides workshop on mosaics or listen to explana- and Aeschylus have much to teach us tions about the making of Roman glass? about Persia (Iran). Egypt can be better Where can you enjoy the works of the understood by reading Herodotus. Greek poetess Sappho sung by the Cicero helps with concepts of the law. Mediterranean lyric singer Oum Hani Modern issues as varied as human rights, Chkounda (who also sings Soufi melodies feminism, technology, advertising, ecolo- and the mystic medieval poetry of Hilde- gy and even citizenship were concerns in garde of Bingen) and Philippe Brunet, classical times as well. teacher at the University of Rouen, trans- Each year the IFLG chooses a theme lator of Homer and founder of Demod- supported by international participants: Fig. 12. IFLG will hold its Fifth Annual ocos Cy, a performance troupe which Festival on March 26-29, 2009 in takes its inspiration from the work on the 2005: “Thrillers, Songs and Nantes, France. Poster image used with sound of Greek by Professor Stephen G. Comics of Ancient Inspiration.” permission of Elizabeth Antébi. Daitz (City University of New York)? From Germany, Graf von Rothenburg Where can you watch the Birds of came to explain his Latin translation Aristophanes in Greek and French and of the Asterix comic books. A Focus on Careers hear Juvenal’s Satire 3, performed by 2006: “Love, Music, and Dance.” In partnership with the Karolyi Foun- students from of the College of Luxem- In addition to the performances, interac- dation (Hungary), the pupils of a tive games, lectures, and discussion, the bourg? Where can you participate in dis- Hungarian high school performed cussions on the limes (borders) of the IFLG includes a “jobs corner.” For the Plautus’ Mostellaria; Finland sent 2009 Festival, IFLG will partner with Roman Empire, on “Barbarians in the Dr. Jukka Ammondt who sang Elvis Movies,” on “Slaves as Foreigners,” on Presley songs in Latin; the Greek the association METIS (an ancient “Latin authors born in Africa”? Where actress Anastassia Politi interpreted Greek term meaning “brightness or can you hear choirs singing Saint Augus- Sappho’s poetry. intelligence,” in French ‘metis’ means tine or share a journey in the virtual uni- 2007: “Women, Children, Games.” “mixed-race” and “cross-cultured”), verse, “Meeting the Gods on ‘Second Life’” A troupe from Coimbra University of founded by a diverse group of students with Robin Delisle, of the Academie de Portugal performed the Parliament of from Lycée Jean Vilar in Meaux, a sub- Women by Aristophanes; Belgium sent Versailles, or visit the ruins of Athens’ urb of Paris, on the theme “Careers and an archaeologist who exhibited Communication.” One hundred and Acropolis or of a suburb of Rome? And ancient games from Egypt, Greece where can you take, with a virtual thirty former students from this subur- and Rome which he allowed partici- ban school have pursued careers in many teacher, your first course on an ancient pants to play. language in a virtual academy? The 2008: “The Exploration of the Uni- fields and return each year to speak to answer: The International Festival of verse: Tourism, War, and Science.” different classes about how the study of Latin and Greek, which celebrates its The German band ISTA came to sing Greek and Latin can contribute to one’s fifth anniversary in 2009 (see Fig. 12). hip hop in Latin; two professors who self-awareness and help one find a good teach in the “Tourism, Leisure, and job. The IFLG wants to promote the The Origin and Purpose of Heritage” program from Coimbra’s idea that ancient languages can be an The International Festival of University made presentations. advantage when seeking employment in Latin and Greek industry, media, culture (as they were After each festival, IFLG works with the for Ted Turner or J.K. Rowling) or even The First International Festival of Latin international participants to bring an in politics, according to Boris Johnson, and Greek (IFLG) took place March 4-6, event or performance to their country. In the new mayor of London and a fan of 2005 in Becherel, a little village in 2006 IFLG was invited to participate in Demosthenes. According to Johnson’s France called “the city of books.” With the Festivale del Mondo Antico in Rimini, father, “He’s a great classicist. He knows 14 bookstores for just 700 inhabitants, Italy. IFLG also sent Parisian high school his Greek and he knows his Latin and if Becherel suddenly filled with classics students to the archaeological site of Gor- you can do Greek and Latin you can do enthusiasts: music, poetry, drama and sium in Hungary to present the Trial of anything at all!” (http://www.guardian recitals added to the lively verbal discus- Helen, a performance based on texts by .co.uk/politics/blog/2008/may/02/waiting sions. The goals of IFLG were and are to authors such as Homer and Ovid. After forthemayoralelecti). This aspect of the celebrate the many ways the classics con- the 2008 Festival, IFLG sent a troupe to Festival has garnered special attention tinue to influence modern life; to help perform at Coimbra University in Portu- from the news media. As the Sunday participants better understand them- gal; in addition, the School of Tourism Herald (April 5, 2008) wrote: “Among selves and their world; and to explore and Hotel Management in Angers, France, the new features of this year’s festival is those roots of Western and American civ- has begun an exchange of ideas with the a careers stand, aimed at communicating ilization that provide the foundation for tourism faculty at Coimbra University. the message that studying Latin and 16 Greek can open doors for job-seekers.... Book Review: Lavinia not shy away from developing this. A trou- Other sectors where knowledge of clas- bled character, Amata captures our interest continued from page 1 sical civilization is an advantage include with her complexity. On some level she is a tourism, advertising, pharmacy, video threat and a grief at the same time. games, and the film industry – where a political maneuvers and battles of Aeneas Particularly intriguing is the relationship spate of Hollywood hits, such as Troy in Latium on his way to establishing the between Lavinia and Vergil, who appears and 300, have created a market for clas- territorial foothold that will become Rome. as a spectral presence in the novel. At a sical specialists.” And The Times (April 5, The greatest gift of this book to novice 2008): “Organisers of the European Fes- sacred site in the forest of Albunea, where students of the Aeneid is its palpable sense tival of Latin and Greek are trying to Lavinia and her father make regular sacri- of location, social structure, and patterns of show that ancient languages are a gate- fices to the gods, Lavinia encounters the way to understanding and wealth.[…] domestic life and battles. LeGuin has done spirit of Vergil. He has not yet been born at ‘I’m fed up,’ said Antébi, founder of the an amazing job of painting the scene for the time she meets him, yet his death is IFLG, ‘with hearing that this is all elitist Lavinia’s story. In a graceful “Afterword” imminent; in fact he has been detached and does not lead to a job.’” she details her efforts to supplement the from his physical body by the fever that will Aeneid’s own hazy topography from other The 2009 Festival end his life. And he is obsessed with the sources, clearly to localize Albunea, Lau- status of his great epic. Vergil’s death will The Fifth Annual International Festival rentium, Alba Longa, all the important but of Latin and Greek, March 26-29, 2009 leave Lavinia’s life incomplete. There’s unfixed locations in the Aeneas legend. “I in Nantes, France, will focus on the nothing to be done about it, except this tried to give a glimpse of the countryside as theme “Barbarians, Aliens, Frontiers” in effort of her own, writing her life as she re- an effort to understand the definition it probably was then,” she explains, “a lives it. Lavinia’s story feels as if it were and creation of “the other” both in vast forest of oak and pine cut by steep being told near a smoky fire on a dark terms of people and also places. A full river gullies running down to swampy evening, and the reader is invited into the schedule of events and featured speak- grasslands and dune marshes near the ers is available at http://www.festival tale's intricate enchantment. coast” (278). -latin-grec.eu/en/iflg-2009-programme/. Lavinia is a child entering womanhood But this novel offers more than a in a difficult family; she is an aged dowager Who Will Enjoy and Benefit detailed, reworked story for students. It is a queen losing touch with her faculties and from the Festival? fascinating study of characters, especially reality; but she is also our storyteller, age- of Lavinia’s mother, Amata, fleshed out The Festival will appeal to young peo- less, having lived until our own time. Her ple, aged thirteen and above, who are from Vergil’s quick sketch. In the Aeneid, observations both participate in and com- interested in learning serious subjects in Lavinia’s mother is an unsympathetic char- ment on the story as it happens. And yet the an entertaining way; teachers and pro- acter, a bossy and unpleasant woman vic- book is not a brain-twister. The reader is fessionals of all disciplines – humani- timized by Juno,who orders her to be safely carried along on this amorphous ties, literature, history, languages, geog- attacked and driven mad by Allecto. I sus- raphy, history of art, information tech- telling, and the world in which Lavinia lives pect that this characterization of Amata nology, biology, physics, medicine, is palpable. The empty, roomy Italian coun- was one of the primary reasons LeGuin botany (Latin is their universal lan- tryside is real. The river, the ships, the mes- guage), law, astronomy, psychology, was drawn to this project. LeGuin gives sengers, Janus’ gates of war are all convinc- advertising (with the myths), music, Amata a psychological reason for her ing. Only the people feel like shadows, as film producers, the tourist industry; and rage: she has lost her sons to a fever and mythic characters should be. anyone who is interested in the classical the only child remaining is a daughter who subjects. may not assume the throne. She emotionally Participants need not be familiar Janey Bennett (www.janeybennett.com), distances herself from her daughter until the with Greek and Latin, just happy to a California native who divides her time meet interesting people for the fun of time when she determines it is politically between Bellingham, Washington and exploring a common classical psyche! necessary that Lavinia be wed to Turnus, British Columbia’s Vancouver Island, is a To learn more about IFLG, see Amata’s nephew, to strengthen her family’s national-award-winning novelist. Her pas- http://www.festival-latin-grec.eu/en/. position. sion for the Mediterranean world comes LeGuin’s Lavinia tries to warn her father Elizabeth Antébi ([email protected] and center-stage in her latest book, The Pale of her mother’s mad behavior, but he is tel: 00 33 6 24 58 78 64) earned a B.A. in Surface of Things (Hopeace Press), set on Humanities, a B.A. in the History of Art, and deaf to his wife’s treachery. The character Crete with its myriad layers of cultures and Ph.D. in History of Religions (Ottoman Pales- of the queen is fascinating: she is evil, yet histories and telling a tale that moves tine) from the Sorbonne. She has published ten she has reasons for being so. And though intriguingly among Minoan remains, books, from Ave Lucifer to The Jewish madness (like the Fury in the original) Byzantine churches, and Nazi aggression. Pasha and collaborated on Jerusalem 1913 invades her and she is a dark force in (Viking, 2007) with Amy Dockser Marcus (Winner of the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Beat Lavinia’s life, yet her husband (who is sane) Reporting for the Wall Street Journal). She will not hear anything said against her. “Life is short; art is has also written two popular books on sciences There is also something unsavory in long-lasting.” and technology: The Electronic Epoch (Van Amata’s feeling for her nephew Turnus, – Hippocrates Aphorisms 1.1 Nostrand Reinhold) and Biotechnologies: even in Vergil’s version, and LeGuin does Engineering of Life, MIT Press). 17 Poetry FIEC, THE WORLDWIDE by Theodora Guliadis CLASSICS ORGANIZATION, Fig. 13. Golden Girls Rerun IS SIXTY He sits idly By Kurt A. Raaflaub By the window glancing outside At the rosy-fingered sky. No snow yet, n the summer of 2004 I flew to Sao Just winds hissing warnings. IPaulo in Brazil, changed to a smaller plane to a smaller city inland, and Telemachus used to love this time of year, drove two hours in a bus to a small town Running and jumping and leaping named Ouro Preto, which means some- Into November, endless thing like “Black Gold.” For centuries, Fig. 14. FIEC, the Fédération Internationale Laughs crashing upon his hands, people had been mining for gold and des Etudes Classiques, meets to address precious stones there, and jewelry stores Like waves upon black rocks. a variety of issues facing all those whose lined the streets; their owners and sales work focuses on the ancient world. Image persons turned out to be among the few The door slams open and a nurse scurries source: http://www.fiecnet.org/. people in town who spoke English. in pulling Ouro Preto proved a beautiful place. or the International Association of him away from cold panes. What I remember most are the steep Byzantine Studies) or even research cobble-stone streets that lead to remark- organizations such as the Thesaurus Lin- Did colds actually matter now, many wars ably large churches with rich frescoes guae Graecae (the organization, based at later? attesting to a flourishing early colonial the University of California Irvine, that baroque culture. has put together and is still expanding a A wooden horse he assembled, throats Yet I had not gone to Ouro Preto to huge database of all extant Greek texts). Of Sirens he clogged. One eyed beasts buy gems and jewelry (although in the FIEC was founded sixty years ago, on Fooled by his bag of tricks. Vessel shattered, end I succumbed to the temptation) nor September 28-29, 1948. At the time, he clung to a lone plank, and descended to study colonial Brazilian baroque art Europe was still suffering from the vast into Hades. It spat him right out (although I thoroughly enjoyed it). disaster caused by World War II. Cities his soul too darkened for the underworld. What brought me there was the had been destroyed, public and universi- Yet this is what it’s come down to: Twelfth International FIEC Congress, ty libraries (and uncountable private to which our Brazilian colleagues had research libraries) bombed, and museums Five gold medallions scattered on his night invited classicists from all over the burned. Many leading scholars and innu- stand world. merable young and aspiring scholars and Beta blockers, porridge, a daily intake of You will ask: what on earth is FIEC? teachers had died; careers had been inter- prunes. Right! Even many professionals don’t rupted and ended; work in progress had Diomedes dead. Laertes dead. Penelope gone. know. FIEC stands for Fédération Inter- been lost. The dense pre-war network of nationale des Etudes Classiques, the international connections among classi- Ithaca no longer his. International Association of Classical cists was shattered. Hence the main pur- Studies. In fact the organization’s full pose the founders of FIEC had in mind Now, it’s all about these blank walls, these name is the International Federation of was to re-establish these connections and brand new sails the Societies of Classical Studies, to re-start international collaboration in Unravished by salt air. because it serves as an umbrella organi- our field. Not accidentally, the founding zation that unites over eighty member assembly took place in Paris, the seat of The nurse clucks and hands him a glass associations from some forty-five nations UNESCO (the United Nations Educa- Half empty. He sighs. Another winter day, on all continents. In other words, FIEC tional, Scientific, and Cultural Organiza- brings together the professional organiza- tion, the cultural branch of the then another Odysseus tions of classical scholars in every country newly-founded United Nations) which Popping pills at quarter past six. on earth where Latin, Greek, literature, offered its patronage. Paris was also the history, archaeology, philosophy, linguis- seat of L’Année philologique (our disci- Theodora Guliadis (tguliadis@mail tics, and whatever else that has to do pline’s bibliographical journal, which is .colgate.edu) is a first generation Greek with ancient Greek and Roman civiliza- now largely supported by an APA-funded American and a recent college graduate. tion are taught and studied. This American office at the University of She attended Colgate University from 2004 includes not only Europe and North Cincinnati). Its long-term director, the venerable Juliette Ernst, was one of the until 2008, and completed a double major America but also many countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, Australia, few persons who during the war had in Classics and English Creative Writing. and New Zealand. Most of these are maintained close relations with scholars She is currently applying to various MFA general Classics associations (like our all over the world. programs. APA); others are regional associations At the founding assembly, fifteen within a nation (such as CAMWS, the classical organizations were represented, Fig. 13 (above). Image used by Creative Classical Association of the Middle West from France (6), Britain (4), the Nether- Commons License. Image source: http:// and South in the U.S.) or associations of lands, Poland, Denmark (2), and Sweden. flickr.com/photos/dey/95130996/. specialists in a given field (such as the The founding assembly adopted a simple International Association of Papyrologists set of statutes, elected a President and a 18 Board, and planned an international Book Review: congress that took place in Paris in 1950. Annual contributions of institutional A Book of Hours: Music, Literature, Life, A Memoir members were set at $5, reflecting the continued from page 3 value of the U.S. dollar and the poverty of the organizations involved. Without a an opera; Schöne, the tortured comfortless work, an index is not a luxury.) One flaw, generous subsidy by UNESCO, the soul, helps and comforts Lee. however, is major. In describing the fire- young organization could not have Religious experience is not so much dis- bombing of Dresden during World War II, operated. cussed in Father Lee’s book as it is inherent Lee unfortunately follows and specifically From these small beginnings, FIEC to it. His first morning in Rome, he dresses to mentions David Irving’s vitiated account. In has grown to be the large world organiza- say Mass. The day he and a favorite student numerous writings, Irving established a pat- tion it now is. If you are interested in the explore the Sybil’s cave, they begin with tern of Holocaust denial and anti-Semitism. Association’s history, you can find it on its website (http://www.fiecnet.org). Its three Masses for the dead. Lee recalls his When criticized as anti-Semitic by historian organization is simple: a President, a Sec- investiture and vows. He grapples with his Deborah Lipstadt, Irving responded with a retary General, a Board, and a General love for and promises to God and the late libel suit. Lipstadt won, and the case Assembly, composed of delegates of all but terrible longing for a son of his own. demonstrated that Irving systematically dis- member associations, that meets during Few could manage such openness and torted, omitted, and falsified historical congresses and once in between. FIEC unflinching honesty. records (Dresden among them). The case is has held international congresses in five- year intervals in cities around the world In a book so generous, I hesitate to point described in Lipstadt’s My Day in Court (mostly in Europe but also in the US, out flaws; yet there are some. Most are with David Irving and Richard Evans’ Lying Canada, and Brazil). These meetings are minor: tiny page margins, no table of about Hitler: History, Holocaust, and the organized and funded by member associ- contents, and no index. (In a motif-driven David Irving Trial. Lee’s no anti-Semite, but ations in close collaboration with the Irving’s distortions, however innocently FIEC General Assembly and Board. I am years ago, FIEC creates these connec- repeated, can still make mischief. currently serving both as the APA’s dele- tions mostly through its international A more enjoyable controversy – and a gate to FIEC and on the organizing com- congresses. My impression is that this mittee of the next congress that will take purpose is achieved to a remarkable more fitting conclusion – comes from a visit place in late August 2009 in Berlin, Ger- extent: I for one still correspond and to Munich’s Glyptothek. Lee views the many (http://www.fiec2009.org). exchange publications and course materi- remarkable collection of ancient sculpture Of all this I knew very little when I als with a number of Latin American col- and compares archaic kouroi (statues of arrived in Ouro Preto. I found it exciting leagues I met in Ouro Preto, and my male youths) with the famous Barberini to meet colleagues from all over the experience there prompted me to attend Faun. Lee describes the kouroi as alive, world – and frustrating that conversa- the First Mexican International Congress tions were hampered by my own inabili- for Classical Studies in Mexico City in alert, energetic, ready to spring forward. ty to speak Spanish and Portuguese and September 2005; one of the papers I The Hellenistic faun, however, lolls back, many other participants’ difficulties or gave there is now published in Por- pained, debauched, about to expire. Lee’s diffidence in speaking English. Even so, tuguese in a Brazilian classical journal. Of evocation is a delight, but quite wrong, I I learned much about the work and course, this noble purpose faces substan- think. The faun is very much alive. Even working conditions of classicists in other tial obstacles, both linguistic (as I just unconscious, he still radiates a power and parts of the world (outside of Europe, pointed out) and financial (expenses of North America, Australia, and New travel and accommodation that are pro- sensual energy that should make viewers Zealand, which I know well), about their hibitive to many), and it is by no means walk quietly, lest he wake up. lack of good libraries, their isolation, certain that member associations in the A “right” answer, however, is not the their constant fights with oppressive future will be able to raise the funding point. One sees the statues more clearly, bureaucracies or uninterested academic and find the volunteers needed to organ- appreciates them more deeply, because of leaders – but also about their pride in ize these large congresses. We might also Father Lee’s insight. That, in microcosm, is the their work and in their students, their ask ourselves whether there might be virtue of his book. In this deeply affecting aspirations, and their victories. I also other ways to serve the same purpose. realized how incredibly privileged we (In fact, at the next congress participants memoir, readers are invited to journey with are as classicists in the United States, will be asked what their most urgent the author, and those who do are richer for it. despite the many struggles and frustra- needs are and how best they think FIEC tions that we too encounter all the time. could serve these.) Still, when I left Ouro Byron Stayskal (byron.stayskal@ When I received and accepted the Preto I was convinced that FIEC’s activi- wwu.edu) earned his Ph.D. in Classical invitation to offer a paper at the FIEC ties enrich and sustain our field in impor- Studies at Indiana University and teaches Congress in Ouro Preto, I had asked tant ways and are meaningful to many myself (as you probably do): what is the classicists all over the world. I look classical languages and literature at West- purpose of such an organization? What foward to attending the next congress in ern Washington University. He has studied do we need it for? Don’t we already have Berlin in less than a year. drawing and painting at University of Iowa enough organizations – and congresses? and maintains strong interests in music, Now I know. The purpose of FIEC is to Kurt A. Raaflaub (kurt_raaflaub@ opera in particular. facilitate connections, discussions, and Brown.edu) is Professor of Classics and Histo- collaboration as well as the exchange of ry at Brown University and President of the knowledge among classicists from all APA in 2008. over the world. As was determined sixty 19 Book Review: Ad Infinitum: A Biography of Latin second thematic unit in Ostler’s discussion, one examining Latin within the context of by Russell Hugo the Christian Church. The third section (chapters 11-14: “Worlds built on Latin”) Nicholas Ostler. Ad Infinitum: A Biography After a brief introductory chapter, Ostler contains discussions of a variety of topics of Latin. New York: Walker and Company, launches into a description of Latin’s “kin” related to the relationship of Latin with the 2007. Pp. 382. Hardcover. $27.95. in the second chapter (i.e. the Italic lan- Romance languages as they begin to ISBN 978-0802715159. guages and their cultures), followed by an emerge after the collapse of the Western analysis of the “Etruscan stepmother” in the Empire: general phonetic and syntactic fault icholas Ostler is a scholar difficult to third. Latin acquires “winning ways” as it lines that will soon fracture into new Ncategorize by modern academic stan- enters the period classicists call the Middle tongues; the motivation behind vernacular dards. An Oxford graduate in the classical Republic, soon adopting an attitude of literacy; the reflections of Latin literature in languages, he took a Ph.D. in Linguistics the emerging vernacular poetics. Finally, in and Sanskrit at the Massachusetts Institute his fourth and last section (and one that of Technology, has carried on research in a classicists would be well advised to read), great variety of linguistic areas, among the career of Latin in the modern world, them the indigenous languages of Latin Ostler explores the dominated by vernacular tongues, is America, and currently directs the Founda- traced. Chapter 15 deals with Latin as the tion for Endangered Languages (FEL) (see personality and language of Humanist culture; then the Fig. 15). This not-for-profit organization, the lifespan of Latin. effects of printing are considered in Chap- based in the United Kingdom, identifies in ter 16. Chapter 17, entitled “Novus its mission statement its commitment “to sup- Orbis,” really does open up a new world port, enable, and assist the documentation, of information for those of us who spend protection and promotion of endangered most of our time in the Old, by exploring languages.” FEL provides small monetary how Latin served as a medium of instruction grants for projects related to the study and “looking up to Greek” as the Late Republic in sixteenth-century Latin America. The last preservation of minority languages, publish- nears its end, when Latin enters a “partner- three chapters of Ostler’s text describe in a es a newsletter advertising its activities ship of paragons” with Greek language sober but objective manner the end not (Ogmios), and hosts conferences around and culture. With this material – and the only of Latin’s cultural dominance but of its the world. beginning of Imperial Rome – the sixth right to be taken seriously. The author’s So is Ostler a philologist or a descriptive chapter concludes the first part of the vol- position may not be accepted by all of us – linguist? Clearly he is both. His very success- ume, that devoted to “A Latin World.” The there are certainly among my acquaintanc- ful previous volume, Empires of the Word: A seventh through the tenth chapters form a es those who refuse to apply the “D Word” Language History of the World (Harper- Collins 2005) describes five centuries of human history in terms of language interac- Capital Campaign News tion, explaining sine studio et ira (without favoritism and hostility) the reasons why he APA’s Gatekeeper to Gateway Campaign will establish an Endowment some languages became over time political- Tfor Classics Research and Teaching and obtain the gifts necessary to receive ly dominant and of immense cultural impor- $650,000 offered in an NEH Challenge Grant. The Association is undertaking this Campaign to ensure that its members will have the scholarly and pedagogi- tance, while others fell to the wayside. And cal resources they need to do their work for decades to come. The Campaign fortunately for us he has chosen in Ad Infini- also shares with a wider public the excitement and commitment that APA mem- tum once again to address a broad audi- bers have for their subjects. ence, distilling considerable linguistic data In September 2008 the Trustees of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation made into terms that will allow the interested read- a grant of $325,000 to the campaign in support of the American editorial office of er easily to follow his discussion. L’Année philologique, the major bibliography in the field of Classics. The Founda- tion’s grant represents the largest single gift received by the campaign to date. Ostler has identified his study as a biog- The total amount raised is now nearly $1.4 million. raphy, not a history, for Latin throughout Like all campaign gifts, the Foundation’s grant qualifies for NEH matching these pages takes on a kind of persona, funds. To claim the entire amount being offered by the NEH, the APA must becomes someone affected by and affecting obtain $2.6 million in outside contributions by December 2010. The Mellon family and neighbors, friends and enemies. grant has thus allowed the APA to go past the halfway point in its fund-raising Indeed, in his Praefatio the author insists goal over two years before the challenge grant deadline. We are very grateful to the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for this expression that his aim is “to show what the career of of confidence in both this campaign and the APA. Further information about the Latin amounted to” (xvi) and why, ultimate- campaign is available at the Association’s web site: ly, it became a vehicle no longer relevant to http://www.apaclassics.org/campaign/campaign.html. the culture in which it had been maintained. 20 ® (ISSN 1542-2380) is published twice a year by the American Philological Association (APA). The APA, founded in 1869 by “professors, friends, and patrons of linguistic science,” is now the principal learned society in North America for the study of ancient Greek to a language that is enjoying increased Fig. 15. Nicholas Ostler directs the and Roman languages, literatures, and pedagogic attention these days – but it is Foundation for Endangered Languages civilizations. While the majority of its one based upon the sound views of a prac- (http://www.ogmios.org/home.htm), members are university and college classics teachers, members also include ticing linguist all too experienced in lan- an organization committed to preserv- ing and studying languages around the scholars in other disciplines, primary and guages which have dwindled to a mori- world. Image used with permission. secondary school teachers, and interested bund state. lay people. The APA produces several But has it really expired? Although he in the early chapters when Ostler is dealing series of scholarly books and texts and the journal Transactions of the American Philo- uses the past tense to describe it, Ostler with Latin’s development into its classical logical Association. It holds an annual doesn’t completely commit with the vehe- form. The maps, line drawings and illustra- meeting each January in conjunction with mence of, say, Françoise Waquet in her tive photographs are occasionally a little the Archaeological Institute of America. All of the APA’s programs are grounded study Latin, or the Empire of a Sign (Verso, too small for my eyes; however, they are in the rigor and high standards of tradi- 2001). For the past eight centuries Latin adequate, and given the low price of this tional philology, with the study of ancient has been “an artificially sustained lan- text, justifiable. I was particularly pleased Greek and Latin at their core. However, guage of religion and culture” with a with the materials quoted in Greek script: the APA also aims to present a broad view of classical culture and the ancient “dependence on transmission through edu- accents and breathing marks are all in Mediterranean world to a wide audience. cation alone” (316). Yet it is still in some place. The non-English material, in other In short, the APA seeks to preserve and strange sense very much alive, as Ostler’s words, has been treated with care and the transmit the wisdom and values of own usage demonstrates. An intellectual academic reader shown respect. Finally, classical culture and to find new meanings appropriate to the complex and uncertain cornerstone, a vehicle of imperialism and the book comes equipped with responsible world of the twenty-first century. subjugation, Latin cannot help but strike us, endnotes, a bibliography, and a very thor- The APA’s activities serve one or more through Ostler’s study, as both terrible and ough index. of these overarching goals: wonderful, utterly impractical and yet indis- • To ensure an adequate number of well-trained, inspirational classics pensable, all at the same time. Russell Hugo ([email protected]) teachers at all levels, kindergarten One delightful quality of this text is its is currently in the graduate program of the through graduate school; format: although arranged chronologically, Department of Linguistics at the University • To give classics scholars and teachers the chapters represent a collection of short of Washington. In addition to studying the tools they need to preserve and essays, each able to be enjoyed in itself Latin as an undergraduate, he has pub- extend their knowledge of classical civilization and to communicate that and suitable for supplementary reading in lished original Latin fiction in the creative- knowledge as widely as possible; a classroom setting. The general reader, writing journal The World’s Muse. • To develop the necessary infrastruc- whether inclining toward history, philoso- ture to achieve these goals and to phy, political theory, sociology, art, or lin- make the APA a model for other soci- guistics, will find useful and entertaining eties confronting similar challenges. matter here. The linguist too will be well Share Amphora The APA welcomes everyone who shares this vision to participate in and support its served. My own work is in the field of multi- with your students, programs. All APA members receive lingualism policy and English education. In friends, and family! Amphora automatically as a benefit of the first hundred pages of Ad Infinitum I membership. Non-members who wish to found a wealth of material applicable to re you looking for that unusual subscribe to Amphora (for a very modest Agift for a friend or that gift annual subscription fee of $10 U.S. in the this area. appropriate for an outstanding stu- U.S. and Canada for two issues; $15 else- Illustrative Latin quotations are included dent? Consider giving a subscrip- where) or who wish further information in the text when they contribute to the dis- tion to Amphora! For just $10 U.S. about the APA may write to The Ameri- can Philological Association, 292 Claudia cussion; otherwise the Latin is relegated to in the U.S. and Canada and $15 Cohen Hall, University of Pennsylvania, endnotes and its English translation placed elsewhere, you can share the arti- 249 S. 36th Street, Philadelphia, PA in the main text. For those with no knowl- cles, reviews, and surprises of a 19104-6304, apaclassics@ sas.upenn.edu. year of Amphora with others. edge of Latin, translations of the Latin tags The APA Web site is www.apaclassics.org. Subscription forms are available Members attending meetings of or accompanying the chapter titles are provid- on-line at http://www.apaclassics. making presentations to interested non- ed and commented upon in an appendix. org/outreach/amphora/Nonmember members are urged to request sample copies More daunting materials, such as a chart of _Sub_Form.pdf. of Amphora from the APA office for distribu- sound changes and a list of Etruscan words Pass Amphora on and make tion to these audiences. borrowed by Latin, are located in appen- someone smile! dices. Diagrams are abundant, especially 21 Review: Latinum: The Online Latin Learning formal aspects of grammar and pronuncia- Audiocourse from London tion that characterizes the traditional meth- (http://latinum.mypodcast.com/) ods of teaching the classical languages. Despite Millner’s assertion that “most Latin by Eduardo M. Engelsing courses ’overteach’ grammar,” his website uses a nineteenth century textbook that atin is a language of the ear,” says high-frequency vocabulary and grammatical arguably also overteaches grammar. On “L Evan Millner, the designer of Lat- structures, and also on authentic, i.e. context- the other hand, while exhorting the listener inum: The Online Latin Learning Audio- determined, usage) that has so helped the to get his “head out of the book,” what Lat- course from London, a website created in teaching of modern languages. inum does is to put the entire book into his 2007 that has become a hit on the internet. Millner reads into his podcasts most of head. With over two million audio files down- Adler’s content, along with footnotes and The learner who comes to these pod- loaded from Latinum since its inception, Mill- observations, in their original sequence. casts and expects an audio course similar ner is clearly providing a spoken Latin pod- When you go to the Latinum website, you’ll to that of modern languages is in for a cast for very many ears. What is it, and find each chapter of the book divided into shock. In the very first class the learner why has it become so popular? files: Pensum A, grammatical information, meets the complete first declension of the According to Millner, Latinum is an through rules and charts of verbal and nom- noun, in all its cases and rarities and audio method for learning Latin. As he inal forms; Pensum B, patterned sentences exceptions. states in his introductory episode (available in the form of exercises to illustrate recently In the website’s reading, Millner uses the on the opening page of the website) he covered grammar, both these sections in restored classical pronunciation. Paradoxical wants his listeners “to immerse” themselves Latin and English (sometimes in French and as it seems, due perhaps to excessive care in Latin. Through his podcasts distributed German as well); and Pensum C, repetition of pronunciation, the listener often finds mis- free-of-charge on the website or through of both grammar and exercises, only in takes in accentuation or curious exaggera- iTunes, Millner gives voice to the ancient Latin. Millner feels that by coordinating tions. (It should be noted, however, that Mill- language and offers the Latin-learner with podcasts with sections of Adler’s text, Lat- ner is very ready to make corrections; a basic podcast-managing skills access to the inum offers the sonorous ancient tongue without the necessi- most comprehen- ty of consulting a book. There you are, lis- sive Latin course tening to Virgil’s idiom in Millner’s pleasant available electron- Fig. 16. Latinum (http://latinum ically, one through which “all Latin gram- British voice while burning up 300 calories .mypodcast.com/) offers an online as you work out at the gym, or being taught mar” will be taught over a four-year period. audio Latin course. Image used with per- the whole pluperfect subjunctive conjugation While mainstream pedagogy for the mission. while washing dishes. Listen, listen and lis- teaching of Latin and Greek has its focus ten is the motto of the enterprise, whose almost exclusively on reading and transla- friend who is a regular listener of the read- goal is to create a “virtual Latin environ- tion skills, Latinum offers a clear departure ing tells me that Millner continually updates ment” through the use of MP3 players and from that: Millner very much wants his Latin earlier podcasts and corrects errors. One computers and “to provide a wide and var- to be heard and, ultimately, to be spoken. hopes that in the near future he will also ied spoken language” resource. In an inter- But what exactly does his method of streaming construct a general index for the whole site, view linked to his site, Millner confidently Latin sentences offer that differs essentially which, overburdened with downloads, states that “The Latin sort of just sinks in by from other “book based” Latin courses? In seems somewhat disorganized and is a little osmosis….Latin isn’t difficult at all if it is raising this question we are confronted with difficult for the new user to maneuver.) learned in this way.” Here too he states that one of the most important questions in lan- In addition to the material drawn from “the emphasis is on speaking Latin, on con- guage pedagogy today: Can listening or Adler’s grammar book, Millner offers a versational Latin, and not on the grammar." repeating aloud sentences from the target very wide and interesting variety of other The Latinum podcasts consist fundamen- language change the way we perceive and readings. There is a section called Fabulae tally of Millner’s alta voce readings of learn classical languages? Faciles that consists of simple Latin stories George J. Adler’s A Practical Grammar of Perhaps because of its medium, in its that Millner reads aloud; in the section the Latin language (1858). This Latin primer various methodological hints, Millner called Schola, users can write letters to is available for free download from Google appeals to such notions (commonly accept- each other in Latin; in Imaginum Vocabular- Books and Millner advises his listeners to ed in the learning of modern idioms) as ium Latinum learners can visit an archive of access this text and consult it as needed “immerse yourself in the language” and pictures with their Latin names. Among while using the podcasts. Adler promoted “learn through exposure.” These remarks other valuable offerings, he has a series of what he called the “Natural Method.” In fol- seem to indicate that Latinum strives to take podcasts featuring Neo-Latin texts com- lowing Adler, Latinum has therefore not yet a different approach towards teaching posed for beginners by the educators taken advantage of the extensive research Latin. But a quick inspection of the site’s Corderius (ca.1480-1564) and Comenius in applied linguistics (which focuses on both content and of the kind of interaction it elic- (1592-1670); a wide variety of simple Latin 22 its shows the almost exclusive focus on stories read with charm, humor and sentiment; links to other classicists’ read- Why Read Seneca already vaguely familiar to modern read- ings of Latin poets such as Horace, Catul- The Younger? ers from other contexts. Take, for exam- lus, and Ovid; and a great number of ple, the central argument in Letter 5 continued from page 6 that happiness and peace of mind come other pleasant items. The reader is encour- silver in the same way he uses earthen- only from living fully in the present, not aged to visit the site and to browse through ware” (Nec ille minor est qui sic argento utitur in the past or future (Nemo tantum prae- the texts that Millner has loaded or to quemadmodum fictilibus). Seneca’s point is sentibus miser est). In Letter 84, one of which he has provided links. He also that we should be indifferent to the mate- my personal favorites (on how to read encourages users to communicate with rial trappings of status and wealth (or any and why), Seneca anticipates an amus- him. My impression, after reviewing the lack thereof), and the identical structure of ing quip ascribed to Einstein when he the two sentences drives that point home. declares that the secret to intellectual site and its materials, is that Millner is Seneca then finishes the thought with a creativity lies in hiding one’s sources: absolutely fascinated with Latin, enjoys the brilliantly paradoxical sententia in the very “Let our mind do this: everything by process of helping others, and is thrilled to next sentence: “It is the mark of a weak which it has been improved, let it con- be able to share his passion with users of mind not to be able to cope with riches” ceal; let it only reveal that which it has the site. His eagerness to learn and his (Infirmi animi est pati non posse divitias). produced” (Hoc faciat animus noster: generosity in sharing what he has found As for puns, Seneca is keen on them, too. omnia, quibus est adiutus, abscondat; ipsum A wicked jab in Letter 47 comes to mind. tantum ostendat, quod effecit). useful for his own studies are in themselves There Seneca makes the inspired argument What is more, because Seneca writes inspiring and delightful. that slaves are human persons and deserve primarily about the philosophic way of In methodological terms, however, Lat- humane treatment; it is we who are slaves in life, his works – by design – are univer- inum teaches us an important lesson: to our unthinking addiction to pleasure and sal in scope and psychological in orien- speak words aloud or even to speak Latin power: “Who is not a slave?” Seneca asks, tation, making the appreciation of them doesn’t necessarily lead to a different with reference to sexual infatuations. “I will somewhat less dependent on a reader’s show you a man of consular rank enslaved to approach to learning the language. If you knowledge of the historical context in a little old woman (aniculae); I will show you which they were composed, even if are looking for Latin grammar exercises a rich man enslaved to a young slave girl some knowledge of that context is also with repetitious drills to help review and (ancillulae).” part of the thrill of reading him. consolidate your skills, you’ll find these Rhetorical features like these add (Seneca’s spectacular death in the bath- podcasts very useful. If, however, you are muscle, tone, color, and humor to what tub by forced suicide – an episode looking for a new approach to language might otherwise have been a bald run of immortalized by the historian Tacitus learning, one in which the social dimen- declarative sentences. To be sure, in [Annals 15.62-64] – is a case in point.) some respects this kind of writing goes In sum, I think Seneca readily appeals sions of communication and human inter- over the top. Indeed, the grammarian to the aesthetic sensibility of today’s read- action are put into play, it won’t take long Quintilian thought that Seneca went over ers and satisfies their linguistic needs and to see that Latinum is not quite at this the top too often and considered his style expectations as well. In fact, one of my stage. It may be that no podcast can lead “exceedingly dangerous” (perniciosissima), undergraduate students (with no knowl- the language learner to this goal. Recently, which is doubtless also why “he alone edge of the function of sententiousness in however, the site has added a new fea- was in the hands of all the young men Silver Latin) once dubbed him “The Mas- back then,” much to Quintilian’s chagrin ter of Segue,” suggesting that Seneca may ture: a means of locating groups of Latin (cf. Institutio Oratoria 10.1.125-131). But I yet take his rightful place in this beguiling speakers within one’s community. In taking would suggest that a sententious author’s era of electronic entertainment, conspicu- this step, Millner has truly moved beyond striving after rhetorical effect is not just a ous consumption, and other psychical dis- the grammar-bound sentences of Adler and style of writing, but a style of thought that tractions. It bodes well for that end that approached the possibility of offering real revels in hyperbole, paradox, and ambigu- Seneca is featured prominently in Alain de living contact with active Latin. All those ity. In Seneca’s case, this derives in part Botton’s self-help bestseller The Consola- from his commitment to Stoicism, where tions of Philosophy (New York: Vintage interested in the promotion of spoken Latin paradoxes and linguistic ambiguity were Books, 2000), where his thought is pre- will certainly appreciate Millner’s accom- central concerns. But it also reflects his sented as a remedy not only for petty plishment and can have high hopes for interest in poetry: it is no accident that annoyances – “we cannot find the remote what Latinum podcast will become. Seneca the philosopher was also an control or the keys, the road is blocked, accomplished poet, author of at least the restaurant is full” (82) – but also for the Eduardo M. Engelsing (eduardo eight tragedies. In fact, in his philosophi- kinds of emotional devastation caused by [email protected]), a native Brazilian, cal works Seneca is something of a prose natural disasters and the loss of loved ones. counterpart to the Latin poet Lucretius, In such lives and times as these, we could has participated in various spoken Latin who once compared his presentation of do far worse than to read Seneca. seminars in Europe and in the USA. He is Epicurean philosophy through poetry to a graduate of the Universidad de Cádiz the age-old trick of spreading honey M. D. Usher ([email protected]) teaches and of the Institutum Latinum of the Univer- around the rim of a cup of bitter medicine classics at the University of Vermont. Portions sity of Kentucky. An interactional sociolin- so that children will drink it (De rerum of this essay are adapted from the author’s A guist, he is currently teaching Latin at natura 1.936-50). Seldom has the bitter Student’s Seneca: Ten Letters and pill of philosophy had such attractive Selections from De providentia and De vita Western Washington University. Here his packaging as it does in Seneca’s prose. beata (University of Oklahoma Press, 2006). students use Latin from the very first day of Another delight in reading Seneca is Used with the publisher’s permission. class and a small community of Latin that his works are full of arguments, speakers is growing steadily. commonplaces, and metaphors that are 23 ® GUIDELINES FOR CONTRIBUTORS A Publication of the American Philological Association Sponsorship and Readership: Suggested Length of Submissions: Amphora, a publication sponsored by Articles (1500-1800 words), reviews the Committee on Outreach of the (500-1000 words). Amphora is footnote Editor American Philological Association, is free. Any pertinent references should T. Davina McClain published twice a year, in the spring be worked into the text of the Louisiana Scholars’ College at and fall. Amphora is intended for a wide submission. 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John Gruber-Miller Cornell College [email protected] American Philological Association Non-Profit Org. Judith P. Hallett 292 Claudia Cohen Hall, University of Pennsylvania U.S. Postage University of Maryland, College Park 249 S. 36th Street PAID Philadelphia, PA 19104-6304 [email protected] Permit No. 2563 E-mail: [email protected] Philadelphia, PA Web site: www.apaclassics.org Anne-Marie Lewis York University [email protected]

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