Session 6

Angelos Sikelianos’ Sibylla (1940) – Anti-Fascist Allegory in Action

Anna Coopey (University of St Andrews)

Angelos Sikelianos, Greek poet and playwright, was active in the literary resistance movement during the Italian and German Occupations of Greece (1940-1943). One work he wrote during this period is Sibylla, a drama written between August and September 1940, just before the Italian invasion of Greece, and published in 1944. It dramatizes the visit of Emperor Nero to the Oracle of Delphi, and emphasises the need for resistance against the Roman, dominating, violent regime. The play is a masterful exercise in classical allegory, an Eliotian display of the so-called “mythical method”: yet, as a victim of the critical ignorance and snobbery surrounding Sikelianos’ dramas (as Sakellaridou 1997 has demonstrated), it has never been translated into English, and never performed outside of Greece.Until now. We will spend two hours leading student actors (from St Andrews) alongside academics present at the workshop in performing selections from a new translation of Sikelianos’ Sibylla, physically acting out scenes, discussing staging options and costuming. We will especially discuss the dynamics of classical reception in the specific time-period and cultural context of the Greek Occupation: classical reception, that is, under a dual level of occupation – both physical and cultural – by “Western” powers.

Workshop

A castrated ox has 24 teeth

Rebecca Flemming (University of Exeter)

This paper takes as its starting point a chapter in the fourth-century CE work On the Veterinary Art by Pelagonius (18) that lists the number of teeth in the male, female, and castrated versions of various livestock animals and human beings. This develops an idea expressed in Aristotle, History of Animals 2.3, but largely absent from the learned medical tradition in Greek and Latin which tends to understand teeth and bones as generic. Distinguished by age but not sex, in human beings. This paper will explore this division, as well as the wider interplay of differentiation and sharing, between non-human animals, between non-human animals and humans, between sexes, in this passage and other ancient discussions of animal dentistry.

Paper

Hydrophobia amongst the Asclepiadeans

David Leith (University of Exeter)

This paper explores debates about the nature and history of the paradigmatic zoonotic disease of antiquity—hydrophobia—caused mostly by the bite of a rabid dog, but also probably by the bites (and scratches) of other animals, and sometimes even just form their breath. The focus is on debates of one of the ancient medical currents that seemed most exercised about the disease, the Asclepiadeans, at least as reported by the late antique Latin medical writer Caelius Aurelianus. These debates covered fundamental questions such as whether it was an ailment of the body or the soul, which part of the body it effects, and how to treat those suffering from it. They illuminate wider pathological debates as well as thinking about the relationships between non-human animals and human beings.

Paper

From Hand to Hoof: Investigating the Spaces People and Encounters in Greco-Roman Veterinary Medicine

Katherine Petrasek (University of Exeter)

Although there is a currently a great degree of academic interest and scholarship on ancient animals, little research has been conducted on ancient veterinary medicine. The English language scholarship that is available is outdated and does not specifically focus on the people, places and medical encounters of Greco-Roman veterinary medicine. Who were the individuals involved in Greco-Roman veterinary medicine? How specialized were the practitioners of veterinary medicine? What were the settings of Greco-Roman veterinary medicine? How did factors like status and ethnicity effect the medical encounters of veterinary medicine? The aim of this paper is to uncover these aspects of Greco-Roman veterinary medicine through both literary and epigraphical analysis. Previous scholarship has provided good overviews of ancient texts relevant to the topic, but do not provide an in-depth investigation into the people, places and encounters of Greco-Roman veterinary medicine. Besides filling important gaps in previous research, the aim of this paper is also to investigate the lives of historically marginalized people, as many Greco-Roman veterinary practitioners were enslaved individuals. Whereas previous studies focused primarily on literary sources with slight references to epigraphical evidence, this paper will examine both epigraphical and literary sources.

Paper

A can of worms: Intestinal worms in Greek and Roman medicine

Laurence Totelin (University of Cardiff)

Ancient medical texts, and in particular book Book 9 of Aetius’ medical compendium, the book devoted to the gut, describe in detail several types of intestinal worms, the afflictions that they cause, and the treatments that they require. In this paper, I examine these passages to better understand how the Greeks and Romans perceived parasites, which are also well documented in the archaeological record. I will discuss ancient theories relating to their generation from the lining of the intestine, and whether they were perceived as living beings or something else. For, while modern biology classes intestinal worms in the animal kingdom, their status was more ambivalent in ancient thought. I will suggest that some aspects of ancient descriptions of intestinal worms are comparable to some descriptions of the womb, with its ability to ‘gnaw’. I will then turn to ancient treatments for intestinal worms, noting especially the use of ‘earth worms’, often seven in numbers, to counteract the effects of human parasites. This will lead us to the question of when the Greeks and Romans felt it was appropriate to ‘sacrifice’ an animal to fight a disease. Other examples of ‘wormy’ treatments will be examined for comparison.

Paper

Approaches To Teaching Latin and Classical Studies

Ann McLeod (St Aloysius’ College Glasgow), Lee Baker (St Aloysius’ College Glasgow)

It is increasingly important that we demonstrate that Classical subjects not only have relevance in a modern curriculum, but also that they enhance the skills young people need in order to progress in their learning experiences. Therefore our courses must be attractive, accessible and, above all, enjoyable. In offering a positive experience of learning about the Classical world, they become our strongest ambassadors. Areas to be covered in presentation:

1. Providing a positive experience of learning classical subjects within a cultural context.
2. Attracting those for whom language learning isn’t a natural interest; not focusing on grammar and translating in a vacuum. Consequently retaining and attracting a mixture of both linguists and those for whom language learning is not a priority.
3. Discreetly embedding the Classical Languages Experiences and Outcomes at the earliest opportunity: – Translating Texts – Interpretation of Texts – Using Knowledge about Language – Culture and Heritage
4. Techniques used in the classroom for accessibility and engagement e.g.: – games -kinaesthetic approaches – puzzles – digital resources – audio visual – story telling / maintaining a narrative – adapting materials to make them accessible for a range of learning needs- providing scaffolding to enhance confidence in language learning – effective use of AI

Workshop

Fiction motivates learning

Julia Newsome (author)

“Fiction motivates learning” as a facet of the Conference theme “classical reception” From many years’ experience teaching English as a Foreign Language in Athens, Greece, I learned that a story can help indigestible facts remain in students’ minds, especially if it has some relevance to their own lives. I hope to illustrate that this is also true in the field of classical learning. It was one premise behind the research and storylines of my own dual-time-line novels set in 5th century BCE Greece, and can of course be found in most other fiction set in the classical past. My choice of short example passages will be based on the practicalities of life for everyday people, including such knotty issues as slavery, sewage, and sex, klepsydras, chitons and construction, rather than the more romantic stories of deities and mythological heroes. I will invite attendees to suggest similar relevant and memorable moments from further books, films, video games, etc. My aim is that attendees leave with extra ‘ammunition’ with which to stimulate interest in some of the more tedious facets of classical studies, and effort from both enthusiastic and resistant students.

Paper

Storytelling as a Tool of Teaching Resilience in Antiquity

Eponine Pavlou (St Andrews)

Resilience, or the ability to adapt and recover from adversity, has received a lot of attention in contemporary psychology and education. Scholars and practitioners agree that cultivating resilience in children is crucial for their well-being and future success. An increasing body of research indicates that storytelling is a useful strategy for building resilience, helping individuals process trauma, develop emotional intelligence, and internalise coping methods.Through close readings of the Iliad, Odyssey, and Aeneid, this paper will examine the virtues embodied by heroic figures and how the retelling of these narratives, in antiquity and modernity, can provide models of resilience building. This paper will consider the utility of epic narratives for possible modern practical applications, suggesting that ancient approaches to character formation offer valuable insights for today’s educational resilience programs.

Paper

Workshop: Approaches to Teaching Latin and Classical Studies

Lee Baker (St Aloysius’ College)

This paper explores effective strategies for teaching classical literature as part of the SQA Classical Literature Unit, spanning National 3 to Higher Classical Studies. Unit assessments offer valuable opportunities for accessibility, as teachers retain complete freedom in their selection of texts. This flexibility allows for tailored approaches; for example, classes with an interest in drama or kinaesthetic learning often benefit from the study of tragedies or comedies such as Antigone, Medea, and Lysistrata. While these texts remain staples in many centres, others continue to use epic works like the Odyssey (Books 9, 10, and 12), Iliad, or Aeneid, supporting multi-level teaching environments.Significantly, the Classical Literature Unit emphasises using texts as sources for exploring key themes, rather than as literature per se. This shift encourages critical engagement with the material as historical and cultural evidence. The presentation will also compare different translations—ranging from simplified to more literary versions—demonstrating how translation choices can support learners’ comprehension and free up lesson time for deeper discussion and analysis. Ultimately, these approaches promote inclusive and meaningful engagement with classical texts in Scottish classrooms.

Paper

Creating a Classic? A Workshop on Classical Reception and Creative Writing

Claire Stocks (University of Amsterdam), Huan Hsu (Amsterdam University College) , Wade Geary (Amsterdam University College)

This workshop is based on the course ‘Classical Reception and Creative Writing’ which is taught at the University of Amsterdam. It is a collaboration between the UvA Classics Department and the Creative Writing team from University College at the University of Amsterdam. Over a period of four weeks (8x hours per week), students attend lectures on the general principles of reception theory as well as the forms and conventions of creative writing. In subsequent, intensive writing clinics, they develop their creative writing and revision skills. For their final assignment, they choose a reception topic and a creative medium (e.g. poetry, prose, screen-plays etc.) and produce a piece of creative work that they present in class. Past projects have included modern retellings of Sisyphus and writing songs on ancient heroism. In this workshop, divided into four sections, we wish to introduce colleagues to the premise of the course, then give them the opportunity to create their own classically-inspired works (supervised by our creative-writing team) before closing with a discussion on the possibilities for incorporating such a course/class into their own programmes.

Workshop

Bacchylides’ environments: realism or fantasy?

Margarita Sotiriou (University of Peloponnese)

The aim of this paper is to explore the function and the performative effectiveness of the multiple environments in the victory odes of Bacchylides. In terms of methodology an olistic mapping of the environment in bacchylidean lyric narration is developed in three levels: socio-political, natural and athletic / sacral. Each of them belongs to a wider system of a complex poetic communication and serves often as a ‘sign process’, through which the poet navigates astutely the different needs of diverse audiences transporting them to a potential theatrical scenery, so crucial for the needs of a verbal performance. Specific details of each environment, affected by a human activity, negotiate identity for a famous client as well as for a famous poet. They become salient features not only for the transmission of the Ode but also for its diffusion. Therefore, a careful choice of language allows the poet to move artistically from reality to fiction, to combine the local tradition with the panhellenic reception and to contextualize people (athletes and rulers), cities, surroundings, places of the Games, shrines of gods and elements of nature within a wider framework and building continuity in spatiotemporal frame.

Paper

Orgasmic Echοes: Sensory Delirium in Sappho 31’s χλωροτέρα δὲ ποίας

Marina Pavlidou-Elamin (University College London)

In Sappho 31, the lyric-I undergoes intense physical symptoms upon perceiving her desire-object. Her sexual awakening advances through various stages, where her senses are stimulated and, paradoxically, simultaneously ravished in a way that intensifies her yearning. As her symptoms peak, she describes herself as χλωροτέρα δὲ ποίας (31.14). This paper offers a novel interpretation of that perplexing phrase, exploring the semantics of χλωρός. First, I examine existing interpretations, noting that χλωρoτέρα δὲ πoίας has caused considerable confusion among scholars, who commonly interpret it visually as “greener” or “paler than grass”. In this view, since χλωρός is found in Homeric fear contexts, the meaning “pale” developed due to the blanching that accompanies fear. Consequently, many scholars view χλωρoτέρα δὲ ποίας as carrying a negative cοnnοtation for the enamοured speaker, such as cοllapse. In contrast, I suggest a more positive interpretation. In an erotic context, the phrase may signify the lyric-I’s sexual climax, correlating with and anticipating her near-death sensation (31.15-16). Ultimately, I propose a synaesthetic interpretation of this polysemic phrase, offering an understanding that accοrds with Sappho’s fondness for the interconnectedness of the senses and a poetics that systematically disrupts male-centric norms to express a multisensοry female perspective.

Paper

Mothers and Daughters in Anyte

Ellen Greene (University of Oklahoma)

Despite Anyte’s prominent place in Meleager’s Garland, scholars have not generally given her epigrams the same attention as her Hellenistic contemporaries. More recent scholars have re-evaluated Anyte’s worth. These scholars have shown how Anyte may be the first epigrammatist to project a distinct literary persona, defined specifically by feminine sensibilities and values. I will argue that Anyte’s feminine voice may be seen most strikingly in her human epitaphs, specifically in the four (out of five altogether) that focus on mothers’ expressions of grief for the deaths of their young unmarried daughters.I will show how these epigrams contrast sharply with male conceptions and representations of death. Expressions of grief in Homer’s Iliad, for example, typically celebrate the heroism of men slain in battle and, more importantly, the fame they will receive. Anyte’s epigrams show the profound pathos in young women losing their lives without the compensations of fame we see in Homer. Indeed, the centrality of the mother-daughter relationship in Anyte presents a sharp contrast to the primacy of the relationship between fathers and sons in Homer and in much of Greek literature, a relationship that assures the genealogy of patriarchal power.

Paper

The Presentation of the Female Body Through the Iconographic Discourse of the Natural Landscape: The Example of Rhea’s Childbirth (Callimachus, Hymn to Zeus)

Sophia Giapantzali, Georgios Lenos

Paper cancelled

Chromatic reverberations: the prismatic ecology of Nonnus’ Dionysiaca

Anna Athanasopoulou (Ghent University)

Nonnus’ Dionysiaca is a poem in which the natural world features very prominently. It is also a poem saturated with colour. This paper explores the poem’s ecological dimension of colour, highlighting its role as a vehicle for human-nature entanglement.Colour is messy, slippery, hard to pin down and grasp, both semantically and experientially. As I make my foray into this complex topic, I draw on two strands of scholarship on colour. The first strand looks at colour in literature and culture from an eco-materialist perspective, suggesting that an ecology of colours can shed light on what Timothy Morton calls “the mesh” of human and other-than-human materiality. Such an understanding of colour aligns well with the second strand of scholarship on ancient conceptualisations of colour, which sees colour as something that is experienced synaesthetically and relationally to the world of things.This paper argues that Nonnus uses a sophisticated chromatic palette to blur and interrogate the boundaries between the human, divine, and natural worlds. Ultimately, it demonstrates that the chromatic richness of the Nonnian universe goes beyond the poem’s jeweled style and aesthetics of poikilia; it is intrinsic to its exploration of the physical world and the human experience within it.

Paper

Thomas’ touch across time: reading desire and knowledge in Late Antique poetry

Leo Boonstra (University of Cambridge)

This paper discusses Late Antique poetic representations of doubting Thomas, who in John’s gospel asks to touch the wounds of Jesus. As Glenn Most has discussed, the openness and gaps in John’s representation of Thomas opened up a swathe of theological and pictorial responses. However, more attention is due to how poetic rewritings of the gospel text handle this episode, how the spectacular touch of Thomas extends through time. When picked up by Late Antique authors such as Nonnus or Eudocia, the difficulties around touching Jesus’ post-resurrection body become particularly concerned with the intertwinement between knowledge and desire: a desire to know, to grasp, the body of Christ. However, this desire is directed towards a body which is ultimately resistant to being known, and so to be touched in a normal way. The sense of touch is receiving increased attention, both within and without classics; the complications of this (as Aristotle has it) most fundamental sense shows the complication of knowing the body at all. This paper will examine how Late Antique poetry reflect on the challenges of expressing touch, through the libidinally and theologically charged touch of Thomas.

Paper

Man-Killing Silence: Odysseus, Anticlus, and The Trojan Horse in Homer and Triphiodorus

Sophie Schoess (University of St Andrews)

In his Sack of Troy, the late-antique poet Triphiodorus retells the Homeric story of Helen’s calling to the Greeks hiding in the wooden horse and of Odysseus’ silencing of Anticlus. In the Odyssey, the story allows Menelaus to highlight both Helen’s divided loyalties and Odysseus’ heroism. Triphiodorus’ account breaks with Menelaus’ to offer a darker version of events: in a terrifying moment for the Greeks, Odysseus noiselessly battles the greatest threat to his army, Anticlus and his inability to remain silent. Unlike Homer’s Menelaus, the later poet ends his story not with silence restored, but rather with the deadly cost of this silence.This paper argues that Triphiodorus’ retelling exists not only as a literary reception of the Homeric tale, but also as an invitation to consider whether Menelaus’ recounting of the episode is intentionally censored or unconsciously repressed. Drawing on contemporary approaches to trauma, heroism, and war, the paper explores how trauma informs storytelling. It argues that Triphiodorus reframes Menelaus’ narrative as the result of unresolved trauma. Triphiodorus’ account forces the reader to confront the purpose of heroic epic: in foregrounding individual acts of heroism, this tradition keeps audiences and narrators from confronting the true human cost of warfare.

Paper

‘One soul, one heart’: Revisiting collective mind in Late Antiquity

Kyriakoula Tzortzopoulou (University of Cyprus)

In this paper I examine the concept of ‘collective mind’ in Late Antiquity through a critical examination of selected homilies by St. John Chrysostom. As a preacher in the Church of Antioch (fourth century A.D.), Chrysostom emphasised the importance of unity among the members of his congregation, motivated by his theological vision of the Church as the Body of Christ and the practical need for harmony in the face of internal and external challenges. This paper aims to illuminate how Chrysostom appropriates the apostle Paul’s body metaphor to encapsulate his insights on group dynamics and the formation of a collective mind within the Church. As I argue, by combining his theological ideas with the philosophical concept of sympatheia, Chrysostom conceptualises shared emotions (e.g., love, and compassion) as emergent group-level emotional states that could not be generated, unless through the perspective of oneness. In these respects, I suggest that Chrysostom’s model merits a comparative analysis with modern theories on group mind, and particularly the concept of distributed cognition, which view emotions as extending beyond individuals to include social interactions. Conceiving Chrysostom’s ideas through this modern perspective has the upshot of providing a new interpretative window into evaluating collectivity in Christian teaching.

Paper

Battling Snakes and Lions, or: How to Fight the Tyrant in Lucan’s Bellum Civile

Ludovico Pontiggia (University of Edinburgh)

This paper analyses the episode of Cato’s fight against the snakes in the Libyan desert in Book 9 of Lucan’s Bellum Civile not only as an allegorical fight against passions, as it has already been studied, but also as a form of spiritual and political resistance against Caesar and his tyranny. I will show that these snakes share several features and affinities with Caesar and argue that the philosophical ophiomachy engaged in the Libyan desert should accordingly be understood as a form of tyrannomachy. Cato’s philosophical fight, far from being a farcical digression or a desperate resort to spiritual freedom through Stoic ethics in the face of the inevitable victory of Caesar (as it has mostly been interpreted so far), is thus brought back into the realm of history and into the political dimension of tyrannomachy that dominates the last part of the epic. Significantly enough, once Cato and his men get out of the Libyan desert, they are no longer scared of African lions, the “tyrants” of the animal kingdom, to which Caesar is also associated and likened elsewhere in the poem.

Paper

Echoes of Religious Stimmung in Horace’s Odes

Robert Rohland (University of Cambridge)

This paper explores how Horace recreates, in literary form, the religious atmosphere of Augustan temples and festivals. Drawing on Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht’s concept of Stimmung—mood or atmosphere—as a central feature of literature (Gumbrecht 2004, 2012), I argue that Horace’s religious odes aim to evoke not just meaning, but presence. Recent work has shown how his lyric poetry conjures the experience of song and banquets (Rohland 2022; cf. Gramps 2021); my paper builds on this to examine how Horace’s odes summon religious Stimmung through poetic form.This marks a shift from his Greek models, whose lyric was performed at religious festivals and sites (Griffin 2007; cf. Oksala 1973). Horace likely did not perform his poetry in temples (cf. Harrison 2024), yet his texts recreate those occasions on the page (cf. Feeney 1993; Barchiesi 2000; Lowrie 2009). I argue that Horace’s poetry generates a literary analogue to ritual experience.Close readings of several odes illuminate how atmosphere bridges the study of ancient religion and literature (cf. Feeney 1998), and how Stimmung offers a valuable lens for both.

Paper

Statius and Silius through a Lucanian Lens. A cross-reading of the Punica and the Thebaid.

Lorenzo Severin (University of St Andrews)

Silius Italicus and Publius Papinius Statius composed their major works, the Punica and the Thebaid, between 80 CE and the mid-90s. Without trying to solve the vexata quaestio of the poems’ relative chronology, my paper will offer a new perspective on these contemporaneous epics, by showing the productivity of analysing the interplay – or non-linear intertextuality – between the Thebaid and Punica, and by providing a sample of my research methodology. In order to gather a set of passages from the Thebaid and the Punica and pair them together, I rely on the intertextual relationship these two poems have with a third, older one, viz. Lucan’s Bellum Ciuile. In this paper, I will focus on a selection of passages from the Thebaid (4.345-356; 4.369-405; 7.400-11; 7.418-21) and the Punica (4.1-11; 4.25-38; 8.624-30; 8.656-76) that derive from Lucan’s Bellum Ciuile 1 (1.466-78; 1.484-509; 1.522-83; 1.674-95), and argue that Silius and Statius appropriate the structure that scaffolds BC 1 to give shape to some extensive sections of their poems. I shall thus demonstrate to what extent the cross-reading of such texts may lead to a deeper understanding of the two Flavian poems and Statius’ and Silius’ personal and unique re-use of the same intertext.

Paper

“ac velut in medio rupes latet horrida ponto”: Cognitive Stylistics and Similes in Flavian Battle Scenes

Sanne van den Berg (University of Amsterdam)

Similes are important features of epic style, dating back to Homer. Flavian epic is anchored to this tradition, adapting the use of similes to suit its narrative style. Battle scenes, in particular, are enriched by similes. While Elizabeth Minchin (2001a; 2001b) has pioneered the cognitive approach to Homeric similes, similes in other epic texts, among which Flavian similes, have received less attention from this perspective. This paper employs cognitive poetics and stylistics to examine the impact of similes on the mental imagery and the reader’s emotional engagement in battle scenes in Flavian epic. I focus on the reader’s response generated by the cognitive processes of the simile. I discuss three extended battle scenes in which similes play a significant role: the Cyzicus episode in Valerius Flaccus’ Argonautica 3.58-248, Tydeus’ aristeia in Statius’ Thebaid 8.342-766 and Paullus’ fighting and death at Cannae in Silius Italicus’ Punica 10.1-325. Through analysing these similes using cognitive stylistics, I examine how the Flavians employ similes to evoke specific (emotional) effects and whether the Flavian epicists employ similes in this manner differently. Through this interdisciplinary approach, this paper provides a novel angle to the study of Flavian similes and contributes to our conception of Flavian style.

Paper

Beyond the Mediterranean: Mesopotamian Societies in Schools Outreach

Clare Parry (Cardiff University)

‘SHARE with Schools’ is an outreach programme based in the school of History, Archaeology and Religion at Cardiff University. The Welsh Curriculum’s focus on local histories and identities to provide a sense of ‘cynefin’ has meant workshops on ‘Romans in Wales’ are consistently popular. However there was the opportunity for further provision. This led to the incorporation of a ‘Roman Soldier’ in an Archaeological Science workshop, however the team still noticed a gap. Building on a Achaemenid Tribute Processions activity, an application was submitted for further funding. With the generous support of the Classical Association Outreach Grant in 2024, a new workshop on Ancient Mesopotamian Societies was developed and launched. This paper will discuss the pedagogical approach to this development. The workshop has broadened our provision and featured in large-scale events i.e. Being Human Festival. This workshop helps create an inclusive space where diversity is celebrated providing opportunities for critical thought and engagement with history, building on the Welsh Curriculum. The paper will discuss the impact of the workshop on the community and consider the place of classics in Wales and how this workshop is helping bridge the gap between the school system and HE.

Paper

‘Tweeting the War’: Engaging communities with ancient Greek historical texts and their modern iterations

Maria Fragoulaki (Cardiff University), Maria Fragoulaki (Cardiff University) , Tereza Spilioti (Cardiff University)

This paper concentrates on outreach activities delivered at high schools in Cardiff by mixed teams of researchers and outreach experts, inspired by the research project “Tweeting the War (TtW): Herodotus, Thucydides and War in Ukraine on Social Media” (mahproject.com).TtW explores why and how the ancient historical texts of Herodotus and Thucydides are mobilised in social-media public discourse engaging with modern wars. The project has developed research, outreach and public engagement activities and has been supported by the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, Cardiff University. It responds to calls for positive research cultures, characterised by innovation and community building across disciplines, career stages and stakeholders.In this paper we explore: How do mixed teams work together for the adaptation of specialised ancient sources into teaching materials and activities that motivate high-school students today? How do Herodotus and Thucydides and their modern iterations on social media, film or commercial products, connect past, present, and future? How are diverse audiences stimulated by the ancient world today? Drawing on participants’ feedback and on reflective comments of the project’s collaborating teams, we also address the role of classics in an inclusive and forward-looking Humanities curriculum in Wales and beyond.

Paper

Co-creating new pasts & new futures: CAER Heritage & the power of community archaeology and history.

Oliver Davis (Cardiff University), Oliver Davis (Cardiff University) , Thomas Hicks (Cardiff University)

Our session will think about the significance of co-producing archaeological and historical research in close partnership with communities, and consider the ways in which valuing local heritage and the collective discovery of the past has power to create new and positive life changing opportunities for all involved. To illustrate this, we will talk about the CAER Heritage Project from its humble beginnings to becoming Times Higher Education award winning, flagship civic mission and development project for both Cardiff University and community development partners Action in Caerau and Ely. In these challenging times, it is essential that we recognise that Universities are an integral part of their host communities and that they have an immense responsibility to fulfil their social and civic mission. This session will seek to highlight the power of archaeological/ historical discovery, the power of community and the power of co-production means that when we come together then we can harness the potential of heritage and create new pasts and new futures.

Paper

Of Stories Past and Present: The Positive Impact of Studying the Ancient World at FE

Tereza Spilioti

Paper

SLA Research on Reading and the Latin Classroom

Jacqueline Carlon (University of Massachusetts Boston)

Teaching students to read is the primary goal of most Latin instruction; yet arguably few students can truly read a text of any significant complexity. The reasons for this lack of proficiency are twofold: the method of instruction, that often focuses on translation rather than reading, and the difficulty of the texts that we ask our students to read. The works most Latin programs focus on are high literature, akin to Shakespeare or Proust or Kafka, making them inappropriate for beginning and intermediate students and even for most advanced students. This approach can doom students to frustration and failure and often prompts them to abandon their studies.The existential crisis in our discipline compels a reconsideration of the ways we teach Latin and, particularly, the ways we train our students to read. This paper offers a brief survey of Instructed Second Language Acquisition research on reading, focusing on results that can inform Latin pedagogy. Such evidence includes: the critical role of lexical knowledge; the value of both intensive and extensive reading; the selection of appropriate texts; and the importance of teaching reading skills.

Paper

Language Certification Model for Latin and Greek: CEFR Alignment, Classical Specificities and the Inductive-Contextual Teaching Approach

Giampiero Marchi (Centro Nazionale di Studi Classici GrecoLatinoVivo)

The aim of this paper is to present the certification proposal of the National Center for Classical Studies “GrecoLatinoVivo” for Latin and Greek. The idea behind this endeavor stems from the need to reconcile modern, internationally recognized approaches — the Common European Framework — with the unique features of classical languages. In line with the major certifications for modern languages, this system assesses all fundamental skills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing), while assigning different weight to each skill based on the specific objectives of studying Latin / Greek.At the heart of this approach lies reading comprehension, which is essential for engaging with original texts, but listening and speaking are also taken into significant consideration. Speaking and listening in Latin are not the ultimate goals but rather pedagogical tools and we will show why it is important to focus on all four language skills, how this significantly accelerates the learning process whilst making the learning process more engaging. Furthermore, we will be presenting evidence of how this certification fully aligns with foreign language certification standards, and how each proficiency level, from A1 to C2, offers carefully calibrated lexical and syntactic content, ensuring a gradual and definitive command of the language.

Paper

Increasing Reading Fluency in the University-level Latin Classroom via Vocabulary Acquisition: A Radically Practical Approach

Kelly MacFarlane (University of Alberta)

University language courses want students to translate unmodified texts within 2 years; this requires an extensive vocabulary. Second Language Acquisition theory argues that introducing an extensive vocabulary is detrimental to language acquisition: acquisition requires practice in meaningful contexts and such practice is impeded or entirely obstructed by too much unfamiliar vocabulary being given without meaningful context. How can we square this circle, and ensure that Latin students quickly and efficiently acquire the vocabulary necessary for fluent reading, without sacrificing grammatical instruction or overloading students with lengthy lists of words to memorize? Acquiring a large vocabulary requires extensive engagement with that vocabulary; instructors need to offer students opportunities for interaction and engagement with meaningful, comprehensible, and vocab-rich texts. These texts can be provided earlier if instructors are not constrained by the order paradigms are introduced but instead can offer students all necessary vocabulary, regardless of declension. This can be accomplished by teaching nouns and adjectives horizontally (case-by-case) rather than vertically (declension by declension), which frees instructors to use all vocabulary necessary in meaningful contexts for students. If students can engage frequently and from an early stage with high-frequency vocabulary in meaningful contexts, they can efficiently acquire the necessary vocabulary for fluency.

Paper

“Doctored” Greek VS author Greek: Achieving Reading Comprehension of Ancient Greek Literature

Theodosios Polychronis (Aix-Marseille Universite)

Contrary to modern language practices, students of Ancient Greek are faced with the daunting task of learning the language by reading as early as possible “authentic” Greek, i.e. classical authors. The increased questioning of traditional pedagogy and the ever-growing popularity of the “communicative” method through which one learns the classical languages through listening, speaking, reading and writing activities, has brought about the question of what it means to truly read and understand Greek texts. It has also raised the question of when “authentic” language is to be introduced in a curriculum and whether one can ever hope of understanding these two languages.We will show why it is important to present students with reading material prepared by instructors that is adapted to their level/reading abilities, incorporated in a thought-out curriculum. We will be focusing on how tiered texts/rewritings can be used as reading material so as to get students used to reading important quantities of text and we will also focus on how carefully selected passages of authors, used at the appropriate level, could be read. Last, we will show how the simultaneous presence of authentic and doctored text in modern Greek textbooks could inspire new textbooks of Ancient Greek.

Workshop

The Classical/Romantical Debate on Poetry: Robert Graves’s “Rappel au Romantisme” in the 1920s

Marco Canani (Università degli Studi di Milano), Marco Canani (Università degli Studi di Milano)

This paper explores Robert Graves’s complex relationship with tradition with a focus on his response to Romantic poetry in the 1920s. Shaped by his experience of World War One, Country Sentiment (1920) already suggests the interplay of Romantic models and Modernist impulses, while On English Poetry (1920) reveals Graves’s awareness of the phallacy of narrow classifications. Unsurprisingly, in A Survey of Modernist Poetry (1927) Graves and Riding criticise contemporary poetry for its loose connection with society. Within this critical context, I firstly outline Graves’s early response to Romantic poetry and argue that his growing awareness of traditional models and genres is consistent with the “rappel à l’ordre” (Cianci 2007) shaping the interbellum period. Secondly, I focus on the collections Poetic Unreason (1925) and A Survey of Modernist Poetry to contend that Graves embraces a revival of poetic tradition that is pivotal to his development of post-avantgarde aesthetics. Lastly, I contend that Graves’s interpretation of Romantic poetry as grounded in metamorphosis and hypnotism also shapes his response to Modernist poetry. Graves’s work redefine Classicism, Romanticism, and Modernism as critical categories during a decade marked by a tension between the search for new representational paradigms and the attempt at appropriating tradition.

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Back to the Victorians: Robert Graves, the Reception of the Classics and the Victorian Education System

Anna Enrichetta Soccio (Gabriele d’Annunzio University, Chieti, Italy)

It is well known that Robert Graves has inextricably linked his literary engagement to the Classics.His production in prose, both novels and criticism, reveal an artist who is deeply involved in bringing the Classics alive and making them useful to any readers. Also, his poetry testifies that he spent all his life in a continual and constant reinterpretation of the Classics. It has to be remembered that Graves’s involvement with the Classics is the result of the education that he received both at home and at Charterhouse. As T. S. Eliot famously stated, “No poet, no artist of any art, has his complete meaning alone; you must set him, for contrast and comparison, among the dead. I mean this as a principle of aesthetic, not merely historical, criticism” (1919). This paper aims to discuss the Victorian “frame of mind” and the Victorian education system which was largely based on the study of the ancient world. I will investigate the broader cultural and social context in which Graves grew up and his own understanding of the ancient texts as well as the Victorian interpretation of them.Moreover, I will stress how his Victorian education helped him build up his own peculiar perspective.

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Robert Graves: Classical Poet or Poet of the Classics?

Adriana Marinelli (Parthenope University of Naples)

Robert Graves’s reputation is deeply intertwined with his double identity as both poet and scholar of the classical world. However, it is his poetry that bears witness to his long-lasting love for the Classics. This paper aims at challenging a potential perception of Graves as “Classical poet” to propose a new image of him as “Poet of the Classics.” This definition emphasises his ability to reimagine the classical past in modern terms. To this extent, I will shed light on Graves’s particular method of dealing with ancient texts through his poems, and their potential to express contemporary concerns. This results in a creative dialogue enacted by a poet regarded as “one of the most eccentric literary emperors of the last century”.Additionally, I will shed light on the way Graves offers new insights into the understanding of his complex idea of poetry, as explained in The White Goddess: A Historical Grammar of Poetic Myth(1961) Such a detailed investigation will discuss Graves’s crucial role within the field of Reception Studies. By challenging the traditional notions of classical influence, Graves’s innovative interpretations and reimaginations of the ancient texts showcase the enduring power of the classical tradition to inspire and shape contemporary literature.

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Historiography as Story: Robert Graves and Laura Riding’s “Greeks and Trojans”

Anett Jessop (The University of Texas at Tyler)

For Modernist writers Robert Graves and Laura Riding, the past is personal and storytelling is historiography. During the 1930s, both authored historical fiction reprising figures from classical antiquity. Their novels reanimate figures from the classical period, now endowed with contemporary pathologies in “autobiographic” narratives, while also introducing marginal and erased peoples (notably women and the disabled) into the historical record. During the 1930s, Graves composed a screenplay adaptation of Riding’s A Trojan Ending—based on the final days of the Trojan War but re-envisioned through the perspective of a female protagonist, Cressida—for London Film Productions director Alexander Korda (who had already contracted with Graves for a film version of I Claudius). Never staged, the screenplay vanished into Graves’s papers after the Riding/Graves partnership ended in 1940.My recovery of the script, “Greeks and Trojans: A Play in Six Scenes,” invites reexamination of literary and cinematic representations of classical antiquity when adapted to the modernist idiom. This paper situates the Graves/Riding’s screenplay within current conversations in classical reception and historical revisionism, to include Saidiya Hartman’s notion of “critical fabulation” as well as theories of creative feminist praxis as modes of historical writing and recovery.

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Signs on the Body: Visual Components of Illness Imagery in Augustine’s Sermones ad Populum

Murdo Homewood (University of Edinburgh)

As Augustine theorises in de Doctrina Christiana (de Doct. Christ. 4.4.6; 4.12.27-28), the most important function of the sermon is to effectively instil its lessons in its listeners; to extend beyond an immediate response, and to materially impact the beliefs and behaviour of those who hear them. From among the richness of his image repertoire, metaphors of illness and healing form a particularly conspicuous tool which Augustine uses to achieve these central aims of his preaching. In this paper I examine this imagery in detail, focusing in particular on its visual elements and the reasons for its selection. I demonstrate that Augustine consistently selects diseases and symptoms with a strong visual element, which are realised on the surface of the body. Metaphors of fever and pestilence, swelling and rot, are frequently used at the apex of an argument, in service of Augustine’s most important theological messages. This imagery reveals the ways in which the concerns of Augustine’s most immediate audiences with earthly suffering shaped their perceptions of their own bodies, and the aspects of illness which were meaningful to them – which were tangible, observable, and most strongly impacted their own lives.

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Making a fool of Cupid and Venus? Re-colouring literary tradition in Ausonius’ Cupido cruciatus

Beatrice Bersani (University of Edinburgh)

In his Cupido cruciatus, the fourth-century poet Ausonius narrates Cupid’s dream of falling to the Underworld. Here, he is caught and tormented by heroides who died for love, until Venus intervenes. Echoing John Berger’s Ways of Seeing, which explores how context and the viewer’s perspective shape an artwork’s meaning, this paper examines how Cupido cruciatus reinterprets mythological poetry through a late antique lens. While Ausonius draws on traditional themes, he also disrupts them by placing gods in unexpected contexts. This disruption is most evident in Cupid and Venus’ colours. For instance, when Cupid enters the Underworld, his traditional brightness clashes with the afterlife’s darkness, marking him as an alien body. The heroines immediately recognise and attack him: as the traditional roles of victim and victimiser are inverted, Cupid’s brilliance is likewise tainted by darkness. The displacement and alteration of Cupid’s colours is as significant for the heroines as it is for the narrator and the reader-viewer, who similarly identify and metaphorically ‘butcher’ Cupid’s literary image. Cupid’s colours raise the question: is Ausonius emulating mythological poetry, mocking it, or doing both? Ultimately, they exemplify a late antique gaze – detached from religious significance, open to irony, yet deeply engaged with literary tradition.

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Images of power in the Historia Augusta’s Valeriani duo

Veronica Fiscella (The University of Edinburgh)

This paper investigates the portrayal of the Emperor Valerian in the Historia Augusta (HA), a late-antique historiographical account of the Roman Empire, by examining the textual features underlying this enigmatic biography.The Valeriani duo celebrates Valerian (r. 253-260), despite the ignominious capture by Šābhur I. The narration begins abruptly, with a fictitious letter to Šābhur I, pleading him to release Valerian. It then portrays the Emperor as the embodiment of the mos maiorum. It ends with in-line lacunae, suggesting codicological damage. Added complexity arises from the fact that some additional passages and a different ordering of paragraphs have been found in a fifteenth-century manuscript, an early edition, and a late-medieval indirect source. If this is authentic, the text normally printed is less reflective of the original. Such codicological issues – coupled with the HA’s seemingly incomplete portrayal of Valerian – suggest that the biography is fragmentary. This biography is fascinating. Who was Valerian historically? Who is his literary alter ego, forged by the HA? What is the contemporary reception of Valerian? The answer is linked to the transmission of the text. The reassessment of the manuscript-sources builds solid knowledge on the textual tradition of this work, enabling a more thorough literary analysis.

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Navigating the Verbal and Visual Interplay in Optatianus Porfyrius’s Carmen 19

Clara Lazzoni (University of Edinburgh)

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Funnier on paper: Visual Comedy in Late Antique Latin literature

Rory Paterson

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Acting upon the Monster: The Harpies in Video Games

Eleni Giamarellou Bourmpouli (University of St Andrews)

Close your eyes and listen to the song. This is one of the choices available to Baldur’s Gate 3 players encountering the harpies. The classical menacing, befouling, god-sent harpies are sirens, liable to death at the player character’s hands. Focusing on different videogame harpies, I present some medium-specific lenses for examining classical monster-hybrids: interaction, displacement, and (re)creation. Videogames allow the player an actionable encounter with the harpy. In this, the harpy is never itself but a stand-in for other entities/narratives. Thus, a new “face” for the harpies emerges in popular culture. While classical reception and game studies have respectively tackled the monstrous, they tend to general insights that occlude different functions of more “peripheral” monsters. In reception, Medusa and/or the Minotaur as acknowledged as prevalent (e.g. Gloyn 2020), implying a hierarchy of importance. I consider this within videogames, where enemy stratification renders the harpy cannon-fodder. In games, monsters are understood as contained by being computational, making them less elusive (Jański 2016; Švelch 2023). Yet, quantifying the harpies ends up ‘containing’ them as vultures, Stymphalian birds, sirens – never their classical selves. Ultimately, when meeting/acting upon the harpies, what kind of harpies are they and what kind do they then become?

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Harpies in Ancient Greek Literature and their Impact on the Modern World

Guendalina Daniela Maria Taietti (University of Liverpool)

The Harpies are among the most famous and versatile hybrid-monsters of Graeco-Roman mythology. Several ancient authors describe the Harpies in their works, among them Homer (Odyssey 1. 241; 14. 371; 20. 61 ff), Hesiod (Catalogues of Women. Fragments 14; 40; 40A), Aeschylus (Fragment 142 Phineus; Eumenides 50 ff); Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 1. 121 – 123; Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica 2. 179 – 434; Pausanias, Description of Greece 3. 18. 10 – 16; 5. 17. 11; Pseudo-Hyginus, Fabulae 14 and 19; Oppian, Cynegetica 2. 615; and Pseudo-Callisthenes, Alexander Romance. In these descriptions, the Harpies are seen as winds, beautiful winged women, or hybrids, partly birds with female limbs, and partly monstrous evil beings. They have multifaceted personalities, being known for their remarkable swiftness and beauty as Zeus’ gracious winds, as evil monstrous creatures of the underworld characterized by extreme ugliness and enormous hunger, or as cruel people-snatchers and agents of punishments.This paper focuses on the different representations of the Harpies in ancient Greek literature and aims at reconstructing how and why the Harpies ended up being identified and crystallised as ugly women-bird hybrids—a negative reception of women which still has some bearings on Greek folklore, and on modern understanding of women in general.

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Harpies on the screen from Harryhausen to the present day

Amanda Potter (Open University)

Harpies on the screen from Harryhausen to the present dayAmanda Potter, Open University and the University of LiverpoolThis short paper I discuss examples of Harpies in film and television. I start with Phineus’ bestial winged tormentors created by Ray Harryhausen for Jason and the Argonauts (1963), and argue that this version of the Harpies has influenced future depictions in Xena: Warrior Princess ‘Mortal Beloved’ (1.16, 1996), Shazam 2: Fury of the Gods (2023) and the animated Harpy-like Keres in Blood of Zeus season two (2024). I also discuss Harpies in Hercules: The Legendary Journeys ‘Beanstalks and Bad Eggs’ (4.1, 1997), where the monsters are based on Gremlins. I argue that the Harpies on screen lack characterisation, and are derivative, based on Harryhausen’s versions and/or influenced by other winged creatures, including Gremlins and Gargoyles (see Gloyn, 2020, 101). However, although these screen Harpies can be seen as minor nameless monsters, mostly not given a speaking part, if we look at comics here Harpies are given a larger role, and there is an opportunity for future screenwriters to give them deeper characterisation. Works CitedGloyn, Liz (2020) Tracking Classical Monsters in Popular Culture, London: Bloomsbury.

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Creature Features

Eleni Giamarellou Bourmpouli (University of St Andrews)

Ancient monsters lurk behind every corner in modern media, surfacing as simple enemies to dispose of or looming shadows to run from. They’re also more tangible than ever. What makes a mythological monster? Is its magic? Its strength? Its agility? Or how glossy it looks on the average mythology reader?Join us for a creative workshop, where we will design our own creatures and categorise their key attributes and strengths. We will then take part in a game to find out which creature comes out on top. All materials will be provided, and no drawing or game-playing experience required.

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