Category: Blog
Aeschylean Tragedy, Thackeray, and Hugo
| February 21, 2013 | Posted by Barbara Witucki under Blog, Language/Literature |
William Makepeace Thackeray incorporates three types of reference to the Trojan War in Vanity Fair.[1] The first presents the elements of the story included in Aeschylus’ Agamemnon: the sacrifice of Iphigeneia sculpted and surmounting “a great French clock” (Ch. 13, 129);[2] the fighting of the war itself encapsulated in the reflection that “from the story of Troy down to to-day, poetry has always chosen a soldier for a hero” as Captain Osborne leaves for what will be the Battle of Waterloo (Ch. 30, 301); the charades at Gaunt House in which “Ilium is down. Iphigeneia is slain. Cassandra is a […] more
On Sublimating the Emotions: Fear in Aeschylus’ Eumenides
| January 2, 2013 | Posted by Eirene Visvardi under Blog, Language/Literature |
In my first post, I discussed Thucydides’ vision for cultivating sensitive reason and sensible emotion in order to equip the dêmos for competent collective action. Here I turn to Aeschylus’ Eumenides that famously dramatizes the foundation of the Areopagus as the first criminal court in Athens and examine the role of emotions in the new system of criminal justice. The foundation of the Areopagus and the eventual reconciliation of the Furies with this new system put an end to a cycle of intra-familial revenge. They also institutionalize punishment through a legal process that is accepted by all. Danielle Allen has […] more
"Insignificant", "superfluous" and "useless": legal antiquities for export?
| December 31, 2012 | Posted by Yannis Galanakis under Art/Archaeology, Blog, History |
“…our dispositions [toward antiquities, archaeology and the past] have been shaped by the relevant laws…to such an extent that we are likely to forget that those laws are human institutions–products of history, that is–and treat them instead as if they draw their authority from a timeless universal sense of right or wrong. Our relationship with antiquities…is now mediated by a quasi-naturalised legal frame.”[1] In a subject that deals with the trafficking of antiquities and archaeological legislation one may well ask: are there legal antiquities for export? Each country has its own antiquities laws: some do not include the exportation of […] more
Do the fragments lie too? Heteric Sappho or Sappho Schoolmistress
| December 21, 2012 | Posted by Stefano Caciagli under Blog, Language/Literature |
The aim of this post is to be a little provocative, with regard to interpretations of Sappho’s poetry, including my own. Over the last 20 years, some American scholars – especially Parker (1993) and Stehle (1996) – have challenged what had been the commonly held belief, that Sappho was a sort of teacher of young women. Parker and Stehle proposed that Sappho was a member of a group of coetaneous companions: the relationships among them were based on links of obligations and reciprocity (ἑταιρεία). This reconstruction brings Sappho in line with most reconstructions of the figures of Alcaeus or Archilochus. […] more
Is the scepter of Agamemnon a cult object?
| December 19, 2012 | Posted by Ioanna Patera under Blog, Mythology/Religion |
For the last post I have chosen a subject – the question of the scepter of Agamemnon as a cult object – that arose during the conversation I had at the CHS symposium on November 30. Statues representing gods and other cult recipients are usually classified as “cult objects,” an assumption which I shall question in this post. As far as I know, the scepter of Agamemnon, although a non-statuary object, is the single exception. Why is the scepter a recipient of cult, and can it in fact be considered a cult object? First mentioned in the Iliad, this scepter […] more
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