Session 5

Narrative Psychology and Women’s Voices in Greek Tragedy and its Reception

Emily Lord-Kambitsch (Pacifica Graduate Institute)

This paper will apply a framework of narrative psychology to discuss how women’s autobiographical voices in Greek tragedy destabilize Hesiodic ideas of the singer whose narratives alleviate sorrow (Theogony, 98-103). In Euripides’ Medea, the nurse decries the “foolish” belief in the curative power of songs (190-203), while the chorus claims a special muse exists within all women (1085-9). Women in Greek tragedy, seemingly prompted by this muse, become bards of their own past, in order to reconstitute their identities and determine their actions in morally impossible situations. This is resonant with assumptions central to narrative psychology, namely that one’s reality is structured narratively. While the goal of much narrative therapy today is to support sufferers of moral injury to develop coherent narratives of traumatic experiences and heal posttraumatic stress, tragic women’s stories are often left fragmented or denied, challenging the curative potential of their own storytelling. As a case study for these dynamics, the paper will discuss Phaedra’s true and false statements about herself in Euripides’ Hippolytus and address how this theme is reconfigured in modern adaptations. In Hilary Fannin’s Phaedra (2010), mediated by Racine’s Phèdre, while Hippolytus undergoes narrative therapy, Phaedra’s testimony is suppressed by those around her.

Paper

‘We’ll occupy your lousy leasehold Poetry’: Tony Harrison’s Defiant Reclamation of Classics

Maeve Neaven (University of St Andrews)

Classical reception in the works of poet Tony Harrison is a key tool for his exploration of the British class system, assuming a dual role of critique and reclamation. Classics is sometimes viewed as an elitist discipline which is largely inaccessible to the British masses. Harrison’s works offer us a glimpse into the internal tensions of a working-class Loiner who has overcome these class-based barriers. This paper investigates how Harrison’s receptions of antiquity function both as a defiant reclamation of Classics for the masses and as an ironic use of the elite’s own weapon of exclusion against them. Antiquity becomes a vehicle to explore and condemn socioeconomic disparities within ‘high’ culture as well as to redress these imbalances and create space for lower class voices. These voices reveal hostility toward Classics, regarded as an upper-class endeavour incompatible with their class identity. Re-evaluating the use of regional accents in Harrison’s works, this paper argues that Harrison’s working-class voices enact against the elite the same processes of gatekeeping historically mobilised to exclude the masses from Classics. This perspective can advance our understanding of Harrison’s receptions of antiquity, as well as the working-class attitudes toward Classics which might resist outreach efforts.

Paper

‘Down some profound dull tunnel’: Journeying in Hades in British WW1 Literature

Alice Rae (University of Edinburgh)

‘War is Hell’ General Sherman pronounced in 1864. Some decades later, British WW1writers also frequently likened war to hell. As such, scholars have tended to read WW1 texts set within the realm of the dead as an obvious expression of this sentiment (Hibberd 1986; Cyr 2016; Ngide 2016 etc.). However, are all references to the realm of the dead unequivocally portrayals of ‘hell’?This paper discusses the classically inspired portrayals of the Underworld in Robert Grave’s ‘Escape’ and Wilfred Owen’s ‘Strange Meeting’. Drawing on an interdisciplinary methodology, this paper will explore the complexities of both poets’ very different uses of a Greco-Roman inspired Underworld to explore the complex relationship of combatants with death during WW1. In so doing, this paper suggests that classical allusion provided an important socio-political role within both texts, allowing Graves and Owen to explore a realm of the dead which eschewed the explicit moral allegory of a Christian ‘hell’. This discussion therefore presents classical reception as a vital addition to literary scholarship and seeks to emphasise the importance of evidence based conclusions within reception studies which challenge previously held scholarly assumptions and engrained cultural memory based narratives in WW1 studies.

Paper

Snakes, Serpents and the Fantastical – Herodotus’ Snakes in the Literary Tradition

Melody Dilger (Ruprecht-Karls-University Heidelberg)

This paper explores the concept of flying snakes in Books Two and Three of Herodotus, focusing on their reception in the literary tradition up to the second century CE. My approach is two-fold. First, to examine the role of flying snakes and horned serpents in Herodotus’ narrative. Second, to trace their evolution in literary tradition, providing context and offering a comparative perspective to enhance understanding of their significance.This paper re-evaluates Herodotus’ portrayal of the snakes employing a zoological approach, supported by close textual analysis. Building on this, the paper argues that while he mentions mythical animals he underscores the existence of the snakes through his observations and firsthand evidence. Moreover, it is evident that later authors show an interest in the Herodotean snakes, and earlier accounts such as those of the Assyrian king Esarhaddon, are referenced. Overall, this study investigates the narrative’s evolution while contextualising and visualizing the dissemination of information throughout antiquity. The argument posited here suggests that Herodotus’ account of the snakes is frequently echoed in ancient texts, inviting a critical consideration of whether this narrative tradition reinforces the credibility of Herodotus’ work more than scholars have typically assumed.

Paper

Birds, Music, and Poetry across Ancient Cultures

Thomas Nelson (University of Oxford)

Across many ancient cultures, birds were ‘good to think with’. Given their ability to soar into the sky, they served as natural symbols and omens of the divine, but they also proved useful foils for conceptualising the human condition on earth (especially through similes and fables). In this paper, I focus on one area of intersection between humans and birds: the sphere of music and poetry. I argue that birds were a crucial transcultural framework for thinking through the production/reception of human song. To make this argument, I draw on evidence from the ancient cultures of Greece, Rome, Egypt, India, Babylon, and China. This wide range of material exposes deep continuities of thought across different times and places. My talk has two focuses. First, I showcase the use of birds in the creation of ancient music and literature. Second, I turn to the representation of birds in ancient literature, and their symbolic associations with music and poetry. Birdsong is a common analogy for human song, and even at times considered a direct inspiration for it. But an alternative conceptual framework also existed in which human songs were likened to birds themselves, since both travel through the air in flight.

Paper

An engaging example of imitatio cum variatione (Marc. Arg. AP 7.364 and Anyt. AP 7.190): two friendly pets or something else?

Elisa Antonella Polignano (Newcastle University), Chiara Pesaresi (Università Ca’ Foscari di Venezia)

This paper aims to highlight the hitherto unexplored and evident intertextual relationship between two epigrams on animals, AP 7.364 and AP 7.190, by the 1st c. poet Marcus Argentarius and the 4th c. poet Anyte of Tegea.These epigrams revolve around two pets, a grasshopper and a cicada, described as dead and mourned by their owner Myro, who prepares a grave for their bodies. The content, however, could be real or allusive: the insects could have a metapoetical meaning, for they could be a symbol of poetic activity or of a specific literary genre, the epithimbium. Besides the content, Argentarius replicates also Anyte’s poem’s length, funerary context, first word, and language. This close imitation is, in any case, not without variation; proves of this are the reference to Persephone, the division of the “deceased” based on their sex as well as the etymological wordplay between Ἅιδης and τὸν ἀοιδόν and Περσεφόνη and ἥρπασε.To conclude, this will lead to establishing the existing imitation of Anyte’s poem by Marcus Argentarius, and, by so doing, it will expand our current knowledge on these two poets as well as address shortcomings in the study of Greek epigrams on animals in the ancient world.

Paper

Gender and Tragedy in the Secondary School Classroom

Claire Rostron (Redmaids’ High School GDST)

This presentation will discuss questions of gender arising in the teaching of Sophocles’ Oedipus Tyrannos and Euripides Bacchae to Year 12 students of A Level Classical Civilisation.It will aim to investigate students’ responses to what Nancy Sorkin Rabinowitz has termed the ‘double-role’ of the male actor representing a female character, ‘both reinscribing patriarchy and providing a site of resistance to it.’ What effect did seeing men representing female characters have on the original audience of the play? Did it question or reinforce the position and treatment of women in the Athens of the era?It will record students’ reactions to the representations in the tragedies of societal and gender norms and their transgression. What does the character of Pentheus tell us about contemporary ideas of what happens when men become ‘too womanly’? How do we react to the representation of incest in Oedipus Tyrannos, and what light does the play shed on current obsessions with ‘age-gap’ relationships?Further, it will discuss the challenges of dealing with issues of gender and gender fluidity in classes that include trans and non-binary students. How/does this affect the discussion of Pentheus’ cross-dressing, the fluid gender of Dionysus, and the gender-switching character of Teiresias?

Paper

Creative Classics

Jessi Glueck (University of Cambridge)

This paper argues that asking students to generate creative work can allow them to grapple in innovative ways with the sensitive issues we encounter in classical texts. I begin by sketching the history of creative response to the Classics as a pedagogical method. I suggest that ideas such as the Renaissance notion of imitatio can provide us with an alternative perspective on classical education which privileges intuition and appreciation over the quasi-scientific analysis that now dominates our educational system. I then explore how creative assignments can help us teach challenging classical texts through case studies based on summer courses I designed for advanced secondary school students. Focusing on Ovid and Homer, I show how teaching classical texts alongside modern receptions can prompt students to ask whose voices are being privileged, and whose marginalised, by ancient authors. Finally, I demonstrate how the creative projects crafted by my students in response to the receptions we studied allowed them to explore and disrupt the oppression embedded in classical narratives. Almost by definition, a creative response poses a challenge to the story as we know it. Through these case studies, I suggest that creative projects inspire students to take ownership of the classical tradition.

Paper

Challenging Classics: teaching, learning, reflecting through seminars

Olivia Elder (University of Oxford)

This contribution will reflect on a recent seminar series at Merton College, Oxford that was established in response to contemporary discussions about issues including racism and diversity in and beyond Classics. It was designed to provide a space to reflect on how we might engage more critically and sensitively with such issues in future. It involved critical discussion of the histories of the discipline and on perspectives that have traditionally been excluded from it. The seminar invited viewpoints from different sub-disciplines of Classics and brought together undergraduates, graduates and Faculty. One of its most valuable aspects was the opportunity to hear perspectives of different generations; this highlighted rapid recent developments of approach and expectation and the need to address these in teaching. This contribution will aim firstly to reflect on the learnings and opportunities raised by these discussions. Second, I will discuss some case studies of specific issues. Third, I will consider some future directions for engagement with these issues. The seminars took place outside the usual curriculum but suggested the value of embedding reflections on these topics into core teaching.

Paper

Challenging Classics: A Regenerative Pedagogy for the Modern Classroom

Sarah Cullinan Herring (University of Kansas)

This paper discusses teaching Ovid and Lysias to undergraduates in Kansas, USA amid a widespread backlash against ‘triggering’ subjects in North American universities. Both texts contain challenging themes of rape, incest, gender-based violence, sexism and pederasty. Some ivy-league schools in the USA (and indeed some universities in the UK) have gone as far as to remove such sensitive topics from humanities syllabuses in recent years, bowing to pressure from the media and from students complaining about upsetting topics de-railing their learning experience. This paper argues that we have a duty as educators to keep these challenging topics on the syllabus, and offers practical suggestions as to how this can be done without causing harm to students. This paper explores Mallory Monaco Caterine’s work on Classics as a resource for teaching leadership a useful methodology for helping students productively navigate difficult material; it offers practical examples of how students took ownership of the Classical texts and developed core leadership skills such as resilience, problem-solving, speaking on an important issue to others, and managing their emotional responses to uncomfortable topics. Studying these texts provided a transformational learning experience for the students with resonance beyond their 16-week Latin and Greek literature courses.

Paper

Subsidiary Dionysian Divinities

Bartłomiej Bednarek (Charles University), Bartłomiej Bednarek (Charles University)

As I intend to argue, there is a category of female divinities whose role is purely subsidiary. Like Athena in her relationship with Heracles, they seem to have been perceived exclusively in their relationship to a major divinity they accompanied. Unlike Athena, they did not have much of their own mythology that was unrelated to that deity. In my paper, I will focus on several goddesses related to Dionysus. One is his mother Semele-Thyone, who was an object of a widespread cult almost equal to Dionysus but otherwise remains a disturbingly shadowy figure. Similarly, Dionysus’s nurses (including the most well-known, Ino-Leucothea) owe their entire existence to the stories about Dionysus. Finally, it seems that his wife Ariadne was little more than that. The paper will thus contribute to the problematization of a complex category of heroines who became minor divinities.

Paper

Why is Athena a minor deity?

Susan Deacy (Institute of Classical Studies)

In his Myth: Its Meaning in Ancient and Other Cultures, G.S. Kirk dismissed Athena – like other major gods – as boring, mythologically speaking. In fact, however, Athena is not boring in mythological terms, for she is a key player in a series of myths. This paper will follow through on the implications of a non-boring Athena by interpreting the goddess as a ‘minor’ deity, but one with a uniquely extensive ‘minor-ness’. In particular, it will present three case studies of Athena’s ‘minor-ness’. Firstly, offering a complementary reading to Bartek Bednarek’s in the present panel, the paper will explore the passivity yet ubiquity of Athena in relation to Herakles. Secondly, it will consider how Athena maps onto a particular class of ‘minor’ deity, the personified abstraction, by considering Athena in the guise of Hygieia. Thirdly, the paper will turn to one instance of the proliferation of localised – and thus minor? – Athenas via a focus on Athena in Koroneia, including as the daughter of (Tr)jton and the sister/incinerator of the more conventionally-seeming minor-deity Iodama.

Paper

Roundtable: What is a minor god?

Confirmed participants: Andrew Fox, Ben Cassell, Ellie Mackin-Roberts, Laurialan Reizammer, Bartłomiej Bednarek (in presence), Amy Arden, Susan Deacy, Ariadne Konstantinou (remotely)

Workshop

Agents of Monumental Conversion: Churches, Networks and the Christianisation of Macedonia in Late Antiquity

Deanna Cunningham (University of St Andrews)

The newly elevated position of Christianity within the Late Antique period gave rise to a corresponding material culture. This included the slow introduction of monumental, purpose-built churches, revealing the growing power of Christian institutions and increasing benefaction. However, the monumental Christianisation of the landscape was a complex process that was neither linear nor uniform, affecting numerous provinces, regions and localities throughout the Roman Empire at different times. Subsequently, Christianisation and the processes involved can be difficult to recover on a broad scale, with a more nuanced approach required to understand the regional and local intersecting strategic and emergent processes involved in successful Christianisation. Provincial Macedonia provides a unique case for the study of monumental churches. The region has been inexplicably neglected despite the numerous churches and the significance of travel infrastructure linking Macedonia with Rome and Constantinople. This connectivity provides an interesting backdrop for evaluating the usefulness of network approaches in modelling monumental religious change. Within this paper, I aim to demonstrate the potential of using complex network analysis to engage with the intersecting processes that enabled the creation of a distinctively Christian landscape by considering the topographic, patronage, and artisanal networks at the heart of monumental Christinisation in Macedonia.

Paper

Well-Trodden Ground: Late Antique Pilgrimage and Anthropology of Religion

Shannon McMillan (University of St Andrews)

Scholars have approached Late Antique pilgrimage through several lenses, exploring the phenomenon mostly as it appears in literature. Much of this scholarship, however, explicitly or implicitly treats both long-distance pilgrimage and local shrine visitation as something far removed from daily life, with sacred and profane mapped directly onto religious and social spheres. Relatedly, Victor and Edith Turner’s conception of communitas, in which it is posited that social hierarchies and power are flattened during pilgrimages, continues to dominate. While communitas may be one of many valid models for pilgrimage, its perpetuation in Late Antique pilgrimage studies has led to the widespread assumption that female pilgrims were either rendered genderless or masculinised, drawn towards religious travel in order to escape the confines of patriarchal structures. Not only does this treat long-distance pilgrimages, normally undertaken by elite Roman women, as paradigmatic, eliding the experiences of ordinary Christian women, but it overlooks the extent to which gendered discourses pervade even those accounts of exceptional Holy Land pilgrimages. To address these limitations, this paper will explore how the application of methodologies derived from Anthropology of Religion and the New Mobilities Paradigm can help reveal overlooked gendered dynamics in elite and non-elite Late Antique pilgrimages.

Paper

Baptist Beheaded: the Problem of Interpreting Martyrdom and Violence in Late Antiquity

Roberta Marangi (Independent Scholar)

The figure of John the Baptist has been shaped and adapted across the centuries. John has been one of the prophets in the desert, the forerunner of Christ, and the ‘martyr’ beheaded because of Salome’s dance. His portrayal in late antique exegesis is heterogenous, changing according to the purpose of each text he appears in. In Augustine of Hippo’s sermons, for example, the Baptist’s death is only mentioned in relation to his affirmation of Jesus’ role as the messiah, ‘when he was about to die’ (‘moriturus’, cols. 0432/4). The way John’s life ended is treated as a detail that does not matter in the kind of Christian narrative that Augustine is putting forward. Yet decapitation is important to Augustine. In that same collection of sermons, he uses decapitation as an extended metaphor to comment on the nature of belief and Church. Decapitation becomes problematic, then, when trying to align the narrative of John the Baptist to the sententia of Christ’s narrative. This paper aims to showcase how exegetical works from late antiquity had to deal with the difficulties that figures like John – with his decapitation and his (non)martyrdom – posed to their evangelical mission and to the strengthening of the Church.

Paper

Feasting with the Fallen: Cognitive Insights into Late Antique Refrigeria

Lara Berry (University of Oxford)

Refrigeria, the communal meals held by early Christians at the tombs of the deceased, offer a lens into how ritual practices fostered both community and a perceived connection with the dead. Rooted in the Christian notion of the refrigerium interim—a restful waiting period between death and resurrection—these meals adapted Roman funerary traditions, incorporating Christian theology and hopes for eternal life. The refrigeria were both sensory and symbolic. Participants offered food, flowers, and libations at graves, while feasting together in acts that united the living with the dead. Archaeological evidence, such as offering tables with libationtubes, and catacomb art depicting banquets, suggests these rituals evoked nourishment not only for the body but also for the soul. In this paper, I will examine through cognitive and phenomenological frameworks how refrigeria provided participants with a tangible encounter between earthly life and the promise of heavenly rest. Including how the meals emphasised shared faith and community, reinforcing Christian identity through embodied practices and collective memory. The sensory richness of these meals—combining taste, touch, and shared space—created an enduring connection to martyrs and saints. Ultimately, refrigeria exemplify how early Christians bridged the physical and spiritual, fostering unity in life and beyond.

Paper

Diversifying the teaching of the Ancient Mediterranean world: two recent grant-funded schools projects focusing on ceramics and the Ottomans

Charlie Andrew (Maximum Classics CIC)

The Firing London’s Imagination (FLI) project is a National Lottery-funded project centred around the restoration of a 1st Century CE Romano-British kilnin Highgate Wood, North London. A large tranche of the funding is dedicated to an education and outreach programme. Events include potsherd handing, replica pot making, a Roman Forest School and an SEND project combining themes in ancient myth with the therapeutic benefit of clay work. https://firinglondonsimagination.com/A second project looks at an ancient Mediterranean culture seldom covered in schools: the Ottoman Empire. Receiving funding from the Untold Edmonton project, this project works with expert musical practitioners to develop and deliver a six-week programme to introduce KS2 students to Ottoman history and culture, with a focus on its music, both form and instruments. Inspired by Ottoman art, students are given the skills to compose a soundscape that is then performed live by the project musicians in a school concert. The success of the project demonstrates that not only that ancient cultures beyond Rome and Greek can be successfully introduced to the curriculum, but also that artistic methods are an effective and engaging way of bringing history to life for students.https://beatingthedrumn9.wordpress.com/

Workshop

Decolonial Approaches to the Ancient World in Primary School Contexts and Beyond – Opportunities and Challenges

Sam Kiely (Kennet Federation)

The current national curriculum for History includes two key areas of classical civilisations: the ancient Greek and Roman worlds. Children should be exposed to the impact that the ancient Greek and Roman worlds have had on our one, while being made aware of the coloniality of traditional approaches to the ancient world.Within our work to develop diverse curriculums and to be a way of combating the legacies of colonialism, we have been exploring themes of diversity within the classical world. For the Romans we have worked with Sam Agbamu (University of Reading) to explore what empire was for the Roman world and how this has influenced our modern understanding of imperialism. Relatedly, we foreground the diversity of the Roman world and think about the ancient roots of discussions around diversity today.Within the Greek world we have explored the continuing influence of the Greek world on our modern society. How much do we owe the Greeks for cultural forms ? To what extent do we owe the idea of democracy to the ancient Athenians? At the same time, how can we push back against narratives of ‘the Greek miracle’ which underpin European exceptionalism?

Workshop

Decolonial Approaches to the Ancient World in Primary School Contexts and Beyond – Opportunities and Challenges

Jonny Walker (Specialist mythology educator), Farzana Hussain (Glade Primary School)

Jonny Walker is a freelance mythology educator, children’s writer and poetry teacher. Farzana Hussain is the headteacher at Glade Primary School in Redbridge, East London, and is a former President of the Muslim Teacher Association.The ‘Iliad Project’ has developed through working alongside teachers in culturally-diverse East London state primary schools, reaching over 3000 children, aged 8-10.The talk will explore how the project was initiated and has developed iteratively through having been taught in a variety of contexts. The design of the Iliad Project lets children encounter mythology in more depth than the National Curriculum generally allows. It also holds space for exploration of the relationships between power, class, gender, religion, ethnicity and sexualities. Jonny and Farzana will share reflections on how and why this kind of learning has a valuable role to play in the running of an antiracist school, and how creative arts projects of this nature – that draw on ancient storytelling – can continue to have modern pedagogical resonances.We see this learning as an entitlement for the children we teach, not because these stories are intrinsically ‘elite’, but because they enable empowering critical reflection on the relationship between people, power, story, values and strengths.

Workshop

Response

Marchella Ward (The Open University)

Paper

Revisiting Classical Reception On-Screen With “The Owl’s Legacy” (Chris Marker, 1989) | “Ulysses’ Gaze” (Theo Angelopoulos, 1995)

Gordon Davies (Cambridge Museum of Technology, Cheddars Lane, Cambridge, CB5 8LD. Charity number: 1156685), Tulsi Parikh (British School at Athens)

As a response to Martin Winkler’s Classical Antiquity and the Cinematic Imagination (2024), this video-essay explores Classical reception in Chris Marker’s The Owl’s Legacy (1989) and Theo Angelopoulos’ Ulysses’ Gaze (1995), by revisiting filming locations in Athens, Hellas for The Owl’s Legacy and Constanța, Romania (ancient Greek Tomis) for Ulysses’ Gaze.The Owl’s Legacy: Cosmogony. Or The Ways of the WorldChris Marker’s television documentary examined the reception of ancient Greek culture. Marker engaged prominent intellectuals and scholars to explore how aspects such as ancient philosophy, drama, art, and mythology shaped and continue to resonate in contemporary culture. Cosmogony was set in the location of a decommissioned power station on the banks of River Kifissos. Marker explored connections between industrial archaeology, the archaeology of antiquity and aspirations for post-industrial adaptation of the power station into a museum.Ulysses’ GazeTheo Angelopoulos co-wrote and directed the second film in his ‘trilogy of borders’: Ulysses’ Gaze (1995). Angelopoulos selected the ancient Greek port city of Tomis (Constanța, Romania) close to the Danube, as the cinematic gateway to the Balkans for his protagonist’s search for a mythical ‘first film’.This video-essay revisits transit areas in Constanța: railway, harbour and Danube.

Paper

Bringing Xenophon’s Peri Hippikes to life

Lucy Coburn (University of Warwick)

Xenophon’s Peri Hippikes is generally used in classical scholarship simply as literal evidence for the practices of the classical Athenian cavalry. It has been largely overlooked in terms of the renewal of attention and popularity from which the larger Xenophontic corpus has benefitted, which focuses on the potential for multiple levels of meaning. My work demonstrates the same potential in the Peri Hippikes, through the example of the training and education of the horse as representative of the training and education of the classical Athenian citizen. It has also identified the paucity of classicists with enough horsemanship knowledge to differentiate between literal advice and something more nuanced as a key reason that the Peri Hippikes has been overlooked.This current project seeks to make the Peri Hippikes more accessible to a non-equestrian, classicist audience so that the conversation about the text can move forwards. I will present examples of horses working according to the principals Xenophon sets out in his treatise, focusing specifically on the relationship of negotiation and mutual benefit between horse and rider. As well as demonstrating how a cross-disciplinary approach benefits the text, this project will also introduce a discussion of this text and immersive learning.

Workshop

The Attic countryside in Hellenistic Literature

Ariadne Pagoni (University of Oxford)

This paper examines literary constructions of the Attic countryside in Hellenistic texts. The region of Attica is an important focus of Hellenistic writers. The countryside and its demes are characterised with a level of attention which highlights its significance and an orientation away from the urban centre. Authors engage with classicising elements and respond to anxieties over the territory in the Hellenistic period. Hellenistic texts continually assert a quintessential identity of the land, conjuring places and tropes which evoke the Classical period. A focus of the paper will be New Comedy, which is bathed in details of the Athenian countryside. The paper argues that treatments of rural areas can also give us an insight into anxieties over the security of the region in the face of military threats from Hellenistic kings. The paper then turns to the antiquarian poets where Attica emerges as an area integral for literary history and non-canonical material. Overall the paper will show that Attica was fertile ground for explorations of political ideology, literary legacy, and spatial history.

Paper

L. Nassius and his (Grand)sons in Chios: Intergenerational Integration of Italian Newcomers in the late Hellenistic Polis

Alfredo Tosques (University of Bologna/University of Heidelberg)

While the integration of foreign individuals in the Hellenistic polis is now a well-studied topic, much of the research remains focused on the individual’s life trajectory. This paper shifts the focus to intergenerational dynamics of integration, examining how power and privileges were negotiated between the polis and foreign benefactors. As a case study, it considers Lucius Nassius and his family’s euergetic relationship with Chios, as documented in IGRP 4.1703.Through his substantial endowments, Nassius was a ‘generous’ benefactor of the city. Numerous statues of him and his sons in Chios suggest that the city actively sought to extend this euergetic relationship to his descendants. This intention is confirmed in the inscription’s final section, which notes that Nassius’ sons had passed away and that Chios had recently granted inheritance rights to his grandsons. Land ownership, normally restricted to citizens, was essential for financing euergetism, and it was also a highly desirable asset for Italian negotiatores seeking personal financial gain. By granting this privilege to Nassius’ grandsons, Chios made a significant concession: one that enabled them to continue their family’s benefactions while also profiteering from the exploitation of local resources.

Paper

Mobility of the Hellenistic Queens: Networks of Female Royal Presence

Marijn Visscher (University of Bergen)

While the Ptolemaic kings cultivated an image of a strong centre and geographic stability as the foundation of their power (Alexandria-by-Egypt), the Seleucid kings had a much more mobile approach to kingship. As their kingdom straddled parts of Europe, the Near East and Central Asia, the kings were often on the move. As Kosmin has argued, this movement was one of the ways in which the Seleucid kings asserted power over their Empire (Kosmin (2014, 129-180)). In this paper, I examine to what extend this form of movement can also be seen in the lives of the queens. The study of Seleucid queens has recently received renewed scholarly attention (Coskun&McAuley (2016)). However, many questions about queens in the Hellenistic period remain. To analyse royal presence as a way to assert power, I focus on the Seleucid queens (Visscher, 2019) and aim to answer the following questions: What networks of royal presence did the Seleucid queens create, how can we map them? How was the presence and movement of the queens narrated and used in royal propaganda? To answer these questions, I look at the life of Stratonice (wife of Seleucus I and Antiochus I) and Laodice, wife of Antiochos III.

Paper

Working-Class Foreigners: Class Composition and Experience among International Classicists in the UK

Mirko Canevaro (University of Edinburgh)

This paper analyses the class composition and experience of non-UK students and faculty in British Classics departments, based on the 2024 NWCC Class in Classics report. Foreign scholars constitute a significant demographic: 30% of postgraduates and 40% of Lecturers/Assistant Professors are non-UK nationals. These display markedly different class demographics than their UK counterparts, with 42% of non-UK Lecturers/Assistant Professors from working-class backgrounds—contrasting sharply with the managerial/professional-class dominance among UK academics.There are various ways to interpret the data. One reading is that the relative socioeconomic anonymity of foreign applicants might enable entry for working-class classicists who faced barriers in their home countries. Be that as it may, this multi-national dimension of the field appears to contribute significantly to class diversity in UK Classics departments, particularly at entry-level permanent positions and in PhD recruitment. However, this diversity advantage diminishes at higher academic ranks, indicating persistent class-based barriers to progression within the UK system.The paper argues that foreign scholars, especially those from working-class backgrounds, represent a potential avenue for challenging the discipline’s entrenched class hierarchies. These findings suggest that international recruitment might increase socioeconomic diversity, though better support systems are needed to maintain this diversity through career progression.

Paper

Working Class and Classics: To Which Ends?

Esther Meijer (University of St Andrews)

This paper examines the various goals pursued by working-class initiatives within Classics (broadly understood). To that end, this paper reflects on the methodological difficulties in measuring and defining class. Recent studies work with an understanding of childhood social and occupational environment as the best proxy for class origin (among other proxies: Canevaro et al. 2024). This paper aims to add to such understandings by considering how other proxies, including self-identification, diversify the meaning(s) of working class, including in light of the international composition of university staff and student bodies.Diffuse understandings of working class pose a challenge for the effective teaching of Classics. The paper therefore also reflects on the diffuse nature of working-class initiatives when considered collectively. What do such initiatives view as their aims, and how do they (mis)align with the objectives of educational institutions? And how might we balance teaching students the skills to succeed in an educational system that perpetuates structural equalities, with teaching skills towards self-empowerment and the creation of change in the wider world (König 2023)?

Paper

Classics for Me, Not for Thee: Class Barriers to Classics in the US and UK

Riley Gombis (University of St Andrews)

Despite the fundamental transformations of the university through the 20th century, the academic profession of classics remains largely inaccessible through discrepancies in education and financial access.Although it has ostensibly become more accessible, classics remains an obscure discipline outside of private schools, both in the United Kingdom and the United States. In the US, access to classical pedagogy is practically non-existent outside of private schools and high education. In the US, less than 1% (6083) of US high school students (>13 million) took the AP Latin exam in 2019 while experience in Greek and Latin are required to enter into most classics PhD programs.Working-class students face the highest financial barriers to higher education. Many working-class students must find supplemental income, taking away time which could otherwise be used for research, networking, and career advancement. These students risk higher rates of career stagnation, burnout, and withdrawal from their studies altogether.It should be noted that a sole focus on class ignores the compounded, intersectional barriers for Black and Brown students, queer students, and students with learning disabilities and/or physical disabilities. As such, conversations about class and access to education can only partially inform a roadmap towards creating an accessible academia.

Paper

The ‘Internal Other’: Scottish identity and classical academia

Euan Bowman (Institute of Classical Studies, University of London)

It has been observed that systemic factors contribute to a lack of Scottish representation in Classics and Ancient History. Various reasons have been highlighted that have contributed to this issue, not least 19th and 20th-century education reforms in Scotland and a growing ambivalence towards the classical world among the country’s population. This lack of representation, particularly from Scottish state schools, has also resulted in a culture of classicism in Anglophone academia. Regional Scottish accents and pronunciations, especially (though not exclusively) those associated with the working class, are considered ‘not normal’, ‘uncouth’, or inherently humorous. These attitudes are clear in the 19th century and early 20th centuries, especially from well-to-do Lowland Scots and southern English academics, but persist to the present day. To illustrate this, I will draw from my own experience as a PhD student in London and outline the views I encountered in this academic environment. Furthermore, I will ground this testimony in recent written examples where classical publications reflect similarly problematic views about Scottish speech and culture (especially Gaelic culture). Prominent instances of this include translating Spartan speech into Scots and the adoption of damaging stereotypes that view Highlanders as barbarians.

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Credit, Honour, and Aristocratic Life in the 4th and 5th Centuries AD: a Study Case of Symm. Ep. IX.19

Ian Bonze (School of Classics/University of St Andrews)

For decades, scholars have debated the importance of credit among aristocratic groups in the Roman Republic and the Earlier Empire. This paper seeks to go further in time to analyse the relationship between credit and aristocratic life during the Later Western Empire (4th – 5th centuries). Our focus will be on the role of credit in social relationships to demonstrate that the elements that formed credit transactions – e.g., contracts, interest rates, grace periods, collaterals, and so forth – depended also on the social bonds between creditors and debtors. Inserted in a context where the dichotomy between honour and shame was essentially part of their lives, Western aristocrats had to deal with the pressures of being dishonoured because of issues on their loan contracts. Borrowing to repay old debts or delaying/postponing repayments, for example, were seen as shameful practices among aristocrats. In this sense, through the analysis of Symmachus’ letter to Protadius about the public indebtedness of Nicomachus Flavianus, copied in Symm. Ep. IX.19, this paper aims to discuss the social threats involving Nicomachus Flavianus’ financial problem. Therefore, I will demonstrate that beyond being an economic phenomenon, credit kept being a social aspect of the aristocratic life.

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Emotion, the Army and Insubordination in Livy

Kiara DeVore (University of St Andrews)

“His wrath [ira] and indignation [indignatio] at this thought drove his fierce spirit [ferocem animum] to torment the army with savage exercise of authority” (Livy, 2.58.6). Appius Claudius, consul in 471 BCE, is but one example of the impact of emotion within military insubordination narratives in the Ab Urbe Condita. The expression of emotion, both positive and negative, is a key component of Livy’s portrayal of the Roman army. Equally important are the mechanisms by which commanders manipulate emotion to supress insubordination. In this, I examine three cases studies – Appius Claudius in 471 BCE, Scipio in 206 BCE, and Villius in 199 BCE – to illustrate the importance of emotion within the origins and resolution of insubordination. In this, each case study highlights varying aspects of Livy’s conceptualisation of these events: the trickle-down nature of commander-subordinate relations and behaviours, the use of rhetoric in emotional manipulation, and the establishment of exempla.

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The Loss of Political Initiative in Suetonius: Late Republican Practices and the Advent of the princeps

Roman Frolov (P.G. Demidov Yaroslavl State University)

Suetonius richly illustrates the dynamics of informal political initiative. My starting point is Iul. 16 (administratione rei publicae decreto patrum submoverentur), which, as I have argued elsewhere [Frolov 2017, Mnemosyne 70/6], describes a late Republican practice of suspending magistrates from their roles – rendering them unable to take initiative – without formal deposition. This paper explores whether Suetonius’ other references to someone being banished (summotus) from administratio rei publicae vel sim., even later in the Principate, should also be interpreted in this way. For instance, the mention of Claudius’ near deprivation of his consulate (Claud. 9) lends itself to this interpretation (though this is not the case with the forced abdicatio at Claud. 29). Instead of reading Claud. 9 as a reference to an almost realized formal deposition, we might reconsider it as a more nuanced description of the near-complete loss of the ability to use a magistrate’s power, despite retaining the consulate. Suetonius presents what initially seems to be a distinctly imperial practice. However, he largely reiterates the insights of late Republican observers about their own political landscape. Ultimately, Suetonius offers important insights into the role of informal political initiative – or its absence – within the leadership of the imperial res publica.

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English Grammar in the Greek and Latin classroom: A St Andrews Initiative

Sophie Schoess (University of St Andrews)

As part of a larger research project, the School of Classics at St Andrews has recently introduced supplementary English grammar classes for students taking beginners modules in the Latin and Ancient Greek. Many English-speaking learners of the ancient languages have had no rigorous instruction in the grammar of any language before entering the Latin or Ancient Greek classroom, and they are often not able to recognise or articulate in English the grammatical features and distinctions they are tasked with mastering in Latin or Greek. This paper offers reflections on the initial findings of the research project and on students’ experience of these supplementary language classes. Additionally, it explores some of the access and EDI issues around ancient language instruction, especially at university level, and discusses how dedicated English grammar classes can help us address them.

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TBD; relates to conference themes of pedagogy & working class classics

Joy Holland (Sikh name Joypreet Kaur) (Cypress College)

I have been teaching visual art, art history and general education Humanities for 16 years at universities and colleges in the U.S.A. I would like to address the practices of teaching ancient Greek art history at the undergraduate general education level, which emphasize identification and memorization of visual attributes of architecture and art without understanding why such visual attributes exist (occurs with all civilizations and periods, e.g. ancient Roman, medieval Islamic, etc).As a professor teaching primarily working-class students, I stand almost alone as one who insists upon higher order thinking, specifically, contextualization (which considers cause and effect, precedent, relationships) and answering the question why? e.g. why does the Doryphorus by Polykleitos look the way it does? By attempting to answer why, students begin to engage in meaningful learning about ancient Greek culture, beliefs, and ideas. I have slides, for example, which visually explain the Pythagorean musical intervals and how they are incorporated into the Parthenon. I make ancient Greek ideas tangible to students who have been systematically conditioned to perceive the Classics as elitist or irrelevant to their lives. The response is positive because students feel the value of learning about ancient civilizations (which were previously alien to them).

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Designing assessment for authenticity and inclusivity

Astrid Voigt (The Open University)

At the Open University students studying a Classical Studies module on Greek and Roman myth are offered the option of curating a one-room exhibition for their final assessment. Students who choose this option are required to develop the concept for an exhibition on a topic related to Greek and Roman myth, set out the underpinning research and, using a bespoke digital tool, submit a virtual mock-up of their exhibition space. This curation option is offered alongside a more traditional option which requires students to write an academic essay and communicate – either via a blogpost or audio presentation – an aspect of their research to a non-specialist audience.The approach taken on this module exemplifies good practice for inclusive and authentic assessment, and elements of our methodology might usefully be applied in other educational contexts. In order to share the lessons learned in producing and delivering this mode of assessment to large populations of Classical Studies learners in a distance learning context, this paper presents findings gathered from a comprehensive evaluation of the experiences of students and staff, a sample of what students submitted as well as demographic and performance data of students who completed this final assessment on the module.

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Kygo & Classics: Utilizing Modern Music and Ancient Art to Enhance Understanding of Classical Texts and Teach Empathy

Edythe Malara-Lutjen (North Colonie Central School District)

This paper examines how high school Latin students gain enhanced comprehension and increased engagement by forming emotional connections with ancient texts. It highlights the pedagogical value of Kygo’s modern music and Graeco-Roman art in teaching excerpts from The Aeneid and The Odyssey. Three key components foster engagement and empathy in the Latin classroom:First, a multimedia repertoire incorporating ancient and contemporary media accommodates diverse learning styles.Second, a Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) approach enables students to access emotions across time, fostering empathy as a core part of Latin instruction.Third, culturally responsive (CR) media from both ancient and modern contexts reflect the diversity of the ancient world and students’ identities.For Classics to remain relevant, content must be accessible and resonate with all students. This requires lesson planning that integrates diverse learning styles, SEL principles, and CR materials. These strategies deepen comprehension, cultivate empathy, and foster belonging.Ultimately, thoughtful lesson design empowers students to understand, connect emotionally, and see themselves in the material. Strengthening personal connections to Classics increases engagement and encourages further study, ensuring the discipline’s continued vitality and relevance.

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Physical Definitions: The Reception of a Spiritual Exercise from Ovid to John Chrysostom

Mathieu Cuijpers (KU Leuven)

Ancient philosophical schools were concerned with progress in virtue and the practical means to achieve it, leading to the development of various “spiritual exercises” designed to combat the passions and cultivate moral perfection. Among these is the “method of disillusionment” or “physical definition,” where objects or people eliciting undue passion are reduced to their constitutive elements to dispel emotional attachment. Marcus Aurelius exemplifies this technique: bathing is “oil, sweat, filth, greasy water, everything loathsome” (8.24); precious metals are “dust” (9.36); savory dishes, “corpses” (6.13). Through persistent application, such exercises expose false conceptions and alleviate passions.While traditionally associated with Marcus Aurelius, this paper explores the broader reception of this moral exercise beyond its philosophical origins. It identifies instances of the technique in a diverse range of literary and cultural contexts, spanning from the early imperial age to late antiquity; pagan poetry to Christian prose; and playful verses to moral exhortation. Examining texts from Ovid and Martial to the little explored didactic poet Naumachius and the Christian preacher John Chrysostom, this study uncovers the adaptability and enduring significance of these “physical definitions.” By doing so, it sheds new light on the intersections of philosophy, literature, and moral pedagogy.

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“I ask questions of others and have not the wit to answer them myself”: Critiquing the Dandyism of Socrates’ Pedagogy

Jamie Doughty (SOAS)

Contrary to efforts to romanticise Socrates’ erotic pedagogy, scholars such as Martha Nussbaum and Gregory Vlastos convincingly argue that Socrates betrays his romantic partners due to a commitment to a philosophy of love, elucidated in Plato’s Symposium, that reduces one’s desirability to either their imperfect or indistinct instantiation of formal Beauty. In this paper, I too locate a tendency toward betrayal in Plato’s accounts of Socrates’ relationships, but a betrayal of fundamentally different sort. By comparing Socrates to the 19th century figure of the flâneur (or dandy), who sought an anonymous existence among a crowd that he claimed to know, I argue that Socrates fails to commit fully to his intimate partners ultimately out of fear. Determined as he was to preserve the sense of self he so meticulously cultivated, Socrates refused to make himself vulnerable to the interrogations of his interlocutors. Similarly, invested as he was in the perfectability of those he loved, Socrates would rather abandon them the moment they failed to live up to his idealised view of them than risk being disappointed by them. As such, I read Plato’s dialogues as a lesson in the destructive potential of ontological certainty to intimate and pedagogical relations alike.

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Divine Emotions in Archaic and Classical Greek Morality

Theodore Hill (University of Edinburgh), Theodore Hill (University of Edinburgh)

In ancient Greece, gods were perceived as having emotions towards mortals, including negative attitudes (e.g. anger, envy) and positive attitudes (e.g. pity, gratitude). The attribution of emotions to gods is a key feature of Greek culture, often acting as a narrative explanation (e.g. for human success or misfortune) or a basis for religious practices (e.g. prayer, sacrifice). Recent work in the cognitive science of religion argues that the human tendency to ascribe attitudes to divine agents is among the most important foundations of religion. Just as humans use cognitive capacities to perceive other humans’ knowledge, emotions and attitudes, humans often perceive divine agents with similar attitudes in the world around them. The attitudes ascribed to gods are generally ‘strategic’, in being relevant to formulating some kind of moral rule or ascription of moral responsibility. Here, drawing examples from various genres of Greek literature, I will use this cognitive framework to set out some of the main ways in which the Greeks’ attribution of emotions to gods helped them to express or justify particular moral views of situations. I will focus especially on divine anger and envy, which play an important role in framing moral issues in archaic and classical texts.

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Tacitus in China: From the Seventeenth Century to the Present

Zhongxiao Wang (History Department, Fudan University)

This paper traces the reception of Tacitus in China from the seventeenth century to the present. Although the Flemish Jesuit Nicolas Trigault brought his works to Beijing in 1625, Tacitus remained largely unfamiliar to Chinese intellectuals until the nineteenth century. In the early to mid-twentieth century, he was mentioned only briefly in surveys of Western history and literature, often under inconsistent transliterations. Between 1949 and 1976, Tacitus’ reception in mainland China was shaped by Soviet scholarship and Marxist historiography. Nonetheless, this period saw the first Chinese translations of his works and initial scholarly interest. Over time, multiple transliterations were gradually replaced by two standard forms: 塔西佗 (Tǎ Xī Tuō) and 塔西陀 (Tǎ Xī Tuó). Notably, all Chinese translations—except for the Dialogus de Oratoribus—appeared in the early decades of the People’s Republic. Yet engagement with Tacitus has remained limited, even as classical studies have gained visibility in recent decades. Since 2011, the phrase “Tacitus Trap” has gained wide currency in Chinese media, bringing the historian new public attention, though largely divorced from his original significance. This paper examines how political, intellectual, and institutional forces have shaped changing interpretations of Tacitus in China

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Making Mesopotamia great again: Mesopotamia’s fertility between Classical reception and British imperialism in 19th century

Giulio Leghissa (University of Toronto)

According to the so-called De Bunsen Report, dated June 30th 1915, the British occupation of Mesopotamia should have entailed the restoration of the region’s ancient fertility and irrigation, thus turning Mesopotamia into a British imperial “granary” (CAB 42/3/12, paragraph 26). Geopolitical reasons motivated this plan; but there was also the influence of the Classical trope of Mesopotamia’s fertility on British ‘civilizing’ mission in the East.How could the Classical trope of Mesopotamia’s fertility inform British imperialist designs in the region? How did it shape British colonialist musings and imageries of modern Mesopotamia?In this paper I intend to trace the influence of Classical representations of Mesopotamian fertility and prosperity in British imperialist literature in 19th century. British travelogues’ knowledge of the Mesopotamian geography was based largely on Classical (and Arab) sources describing local cities and towns, as well as the irrigation system, and accounting for the region’s agricultural and commercial prosperity. It is in this context of imperialist and geographical exploration, I argue, that the ‘Mesopotamian granary’ trope gained momentum, thus paving the way for its elevation as colonialist policy in the De Bunsen Report.

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Do They Know How Ancient This Is? The Reception of Athenian Rhetoric in Modern Political/ Populist Discourse

Sarah Bremner (University of Birmingham)

This paper explores parallels between the rhetorical use of identity and ideology in Classical Athens and modern political discourse. Taking the example of Dem.6, we explore the rhetorical construction of an outside perspective of Athens to support Demosthenes’ criticisms of Athenian decision making at the Pnyx. Demosthenes presents a traditional image of Athenian identity, psychologically utilising the voice of Philip II, to remind the Assembly of their reputation. Demosthenes juxtaposes this outsider account with the reality of the present, to warn the Assembly of the dangers of flattering populists vs his parrhesia.By considering what ‘populist’ means in a direct democracy compared to modern representative systems, I turn to modern political speeches from Brexit, Trump’s presidential rallies and more recent speeches to explore parallels from ancient anxieties on populist rhetoric to modern politicians/ populists who use a national sense of ‘self’ to achieve political popularity and sway masses. This paper concludes by considering if modern logography is conscious of these striking parallels, and reflects on how while the ancient world can seem remote to modern audiences, the shared experience of being a ‘citizen’, of being ‘political’, of having a ‘voice’ means that Attic Oratory resonates now more than ever.

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Multidisciplinary Approaches to Classics: When the Sirens meet Vissi D’Arte

Cecilia Cozzi (Carleton College)

Being immersed in such a fast-paced world where technology is constantly changing, it becomes crucial to approach Classics in an emotional manner, nourishing the audience’s curiosity and creativity rather than reinforcing barriers due to the textual medium. For this purpose, I have encouraged collaborations with artistic organizations to foster multidisciplinary events, blending Greek tragedy with the live performance of music and opera. For instance, Deianira’s journey in Sophocles’ Trachiniae resonates with Floria Tosca suffers in Puccini’s opera: both heroines inadvertently set in motion a downward spiral due to their jealousy, which will ultimately kill their loved one (Heracles and Cavaradossi, respectively). This comparison invites the audience to reflect more broadly on how each artform distinctly represents female suffering on stage. Similarly, the complex journey Medea undertakes in Euripides’ tragedy can be contrasted with Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, given their common treatment of love as a powerful, yet destructive force causing women to reject their own culture. This multidisciplinary perspective would allow audiences without prior exposure to question how persistent dynamics of inequity affect both Medea and Cho Cho San, while also bringing attention to their agency in defense of their honor betrayed by their partners (Jason and Pinkerton).

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The future of Classics journals

Myles Lavan (University of St Andrews), Lin Foxhall (Univerity of Liverpool) , Katherine Harloe (Institute of Classical Studies)

We are the inheritors of an array of research journals with long traditions of distinguished scholarship, some stretching back more than a century. Our journals do crucial work for our subject, and could do even more. Rigorous peer review helps authors realise the full potential of their work. Publication in a journal can make research more visible, and can play a very important role in launching the careers of early career researchers. Many of our journals also support the activities of our learned societies and research institutions.This is a valuable cultural patrimony whose future cannot be taken for granted. The spread of open access models and tightening library budgets are transforming the landscape in which journals operate, while publishing habits in our field continue to narrow the traditional pool of scholars who submit work to journals.Katherine, Lin and Myles will introduce some of the key issues and moderate a discussion in which all scholars interested in the future of our journals can share perspectives on the importance of journals, the challenges that journals currently face, and what we as a field can do to support and protect them. All are welcome.

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