American School of Classical Newsetter Studies at Athens Summer1984 80th Birthday Party for Sterling Dow On January 17, 1984, friends and former students of Sterling Dow gathered at the Tavern Club in Boston to celebrate his 80th birthday. Before the cocktail hour, Dow gave a lecture on Homer relating mainly to the authorship of the Odyssey. In part the an­ swer to the question was determined on the basis of the extent of Homer's knowl­ edge. To suggest the range of that knowl­ edge, Dow produced the skull of a horse, demonstrating persuasively that there is an opening, precisely where Homer said it was, through which an arrow could have entered the brain of Nestor's horse in Book VIII of the Iliad. •struck at the point of the head, where the utmost hairs of horses are grown along the skull, and which is a place most mortal," (R. Lattimore trans.). During cocktails (including ouzo!), Dow received a telephone call from an octet of well-wishers in Athens. A large Greek goat-bell summoned the company up to dinner, where their teacher presented his Sterling Dow with two of his former students, Hunter Lewis and Jim McCredie Ph.D.'s with gold-plated replicas of the Vapheio cups. After dinner, there were speeches by structive, effective giant, initiating or sup­ Doreen C. Spitzer on behalf of the Trust­ porting creative and positive projects, al­ ees; James R. McCredie, a former Dow stu­ ways four-square and honest, always dent, for the Managing Committee; Emily thoughtful and outspoken.· William T. T. Vermeule on behalf of the Archaeolog­ Loomis, Secretary of the Trustees and for­ ical Institute of America, of which Dow is mer student, who spoke eloquently about Honorary President; Leslie Threatte for Dow's beneficent and stimulating influ­ the committee of former students who or­ ence on his students and read a number of ganized the Festschrift supplement to congratulatory messages, including a letter Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies in from W. French Anderson and a poem by Dow's honor; Kent J. Rigsby, editor of Alan L. Boegehold. Dow's response was, GRBS. William M. Calder III read a poem as expected, amusing and enlightening. composed for the occasion in Attic Greek Among the more than 70 celebrants were elegiacs by G. L. Huxley. Zeph Stewart, Constantina Peppas-Delmousou, Director speaking on behalf of former colleagues at of the Epigraphical Museum in Athens, Harvard, where Dow is Hudson Professor and Hunter Lewis, another former student of Archaeology, Emeritus, remarked *If to who is now a trustee and Treasurer of the be a 'good colleague' is to. be one who is School. meek and quiet, always votes with the ma­ Dow first came to the School in 1931 jority, never imposes on others by stand­ and stayed for five years. During these ing up for his own interests and his own .years, he began the study of inscribed ste- students. I can assure you that Sterling was Continued on page 11 C. Peppas-Delmousou not a 'good colleague'. He was_th~ con- ( Published by the American School of Classical Studies at Athens ~ Trustees Host Luncheon at Mayer House and Mrs. Manuel Kulukundis, Mr. and Mrs. Dimitri Manthos, Joseph V. Noble, Dr. Preview of Paris-Rome-Athens and Mrs. Arthur M. Sackler, Mr. and Mrs. Fred A. Stahl, Malcolm Wiener and Russell The exhibition of Drawings of Classical Wilkinson. Veronique Rabin-Legall and Greek Architecture from the Ecole des Beaux Fran~ois Wehrlin, Director of the Beaux Arts, on view at the IBM Gallery of Science Arts, were also present. and Art in New York during February and The paintings and drawings in the ex­ March, provided an opportunity, gracious­ hibition were done by winners of the cov­ ly accorded by Mr. Eugene Fairfield of the eted Prix de Rome, starting in 1845 when IBM Corporation, for the Trustees to en­ they were permitted to go to Greece and tertain special friends of the School. Mayer further east; their assignment or ·envoi" House drawing room featured our own was to depict the major classical sites as #mini-exhibit" of architectural drawings by they found them, and then to reconstruct Gorham P. Stevens, of monuments in Cor­ them on paper. Many of the paintings are inth and on the Acropolis, and of the Pal­ in color and of monumental scale. As ace of Nestor at Pylos by Piet de Jong, and Trustee Vice-president Robert A. McCabe by Edward Tilton, of the Argive Heraion, said, MWe know of no works which so suc­ as well as photographs of the School's re­ cessfully evoke the splendor of ancient construction of the Stoa of Attalos in the Greece as these." Athenian Agora. Guests at the luncheon A magnificent catalogue ($45), pre­ heard Homer Thompson, who supervised pared by the Ecole nationale superieure this reconstruction, describe movingly the des Beaux Arts, Paris, and Barbara Rose of significance and the utility of such historic the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, is and intrinsically beautiful drawings. available while the supply lasts, from ei­ Among the guests were Aristides Caratzas, ther of these sources. A pamphlet and Mr. and Mrs. George Dudley, Mr. and Mrs. checklist with illustrations in color may be James Q. Griffin, Cyril Harris, David had from the office of the ASCSA, at no Hupper, Mrs. Michael Jaharis, Mr. and charge. Benoit Loviot, Parthenon, restoration detai/1879- 81, water-color over India ink outline. Ecole des Beaux-Arts It's Here At Last! The long-awaited Msecond 'AKovd It's Complicated But It Works! f.!!l~r '"\ half century' History of ~' ADI lA ~-! , en ~~ '; the Amerzcan School of ~ t; Classical Studies at y I Reading Lucy Meritt's history of the last Hesperia, numerous monograph series, . ,... ~· Athens, 1939-1980, by fifty years of the American School, one is Picture Books and the Newsletter; services Lucy Shoe Meritt, is now opportunely reminded that our primary to members: legal, medical, postal, book­ available from the Publications Office, In­ eurpose is to advance classical scholar­ keeping, personal and public-related; mul­ stitute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ, sltip, by teaching, research and excavation. tiple concerns and responsibilities of the 08540. The first of the School's books to be In the past century some 2300 students Managing Committee, Trustees and entirely typeset in-house on the Ibycus and senior scholars, American, Canadian Alumnae/i. A variety of functions must be system, it has become immediately an in­ and a few of foreign nationality, have carried out, in two fluctuating currencies, dispensable reference volume in constant worked at the School, have returned to in a climate of sensitivity to, but avoidance use, providing a wealth of information teach in over 250 colleges, universities and of political involvement with, the govern­ and detail, and suffused with the unique secondary schools, or have pursued influ­ ment of our host country. spirit of the School, of which the author ential careers in museums, architecture, Each of these many components of herself is an indisputable embodiment. law, theology or business. Their research the School is necessary to the strength of Four copies of the earlier History of the publications in classical studies have en­ the institution as a whole. The visibility ASCSA, 1882-1942, by Louis E. Lord, pub­ riched the field immeasurably. and popular appeal of excavation, for ex­ lished in 1947, are still on hand in the Pub­ The organization of the School is of a ample, can focus public attention on the lications Office; the last remaining ten are Byzantine complexity. Centers in Athens, School's financial needs. Much collective in Athens. The two volumes together may Corinth, Princeton and New York, with wisdom, much good will, as well as many be had for $20.00; separately the Lord His­ buildings and equipment in all four; staff differing individual points of view contri­ tory is $7.50; the Meritt History, $15.00. in Greece and in the U.S.; core teaching bute, and, yes, even compromise on occa­ There is a supply of the latter in Athens programs in Athens and in Corinth; two sion, in order to achieve the unity of pur­ also. major libraries with archives and collec­ pose which makes the School the effective The entire School is indebted to Lucy tions; a permanent center for research institution it is. Meritt for a tremendously successful job, in classical archaeology at the Stoa of superbly, meticulously, and lovingly done. Attalos; on-going excavations or surveys Doreen C. Spitzer in many parts of Greece; publication of 2 E. A. Whitehead Fund Laura Gadbery to be First Kress Fellow The trustees have announced the forma­ tion of the Elizabeth A. Whitehead Mem­ The Samuel H. Kress Foundation has orial Fund in honor of the School's im­ awarded-funds for three years of study for mediate past president. All gifts to the a doctoral fellowship each year in the His­ Fund, which is part of the Centennial En­ tory of Art at the School. This grant will dowment Fund, have been matched under enable an advanced Fellow of the School the terms of the School's grant by the An­ to remain in Athens to pursue indepen­ drew W. Mellon Foundation. At the end of dent research toward the Ph.D. May, gifts to this Fund totalled close to Laura Gadbery, now in her third year $175,000. at the School, will examine what may be learned from study of the inscribed and/or architecturally molded bases, found in the exc~vations of the Athenian Agora, on wh1ch statues were mounted in antiquity.