American Philological Association

Major APA Activities

Support the APA

The World of Classics

The Agora of the APA: News and Events

What is an "agora" (other than a common name for Greek restaurants in America), and why should we call this page by this name? The Perseus Project defines it thus:

Photo source: The Perseus Project

A large, open public space which served as a place for assembly of the citizens and, hence, the political, civic, religious and commercial center of a Greek city. Buildings for all of these various purposes were constructed as needed in and around the agora. Formal layout of the agora was developed in the Hellenistic period. The Greek agora is the predecessor of the fora of imperial Rome.

These sites should prove interesting and useful to anyone interested in what the Classical Greek and Roman world has to say to modern America. Please note that clicking on these links will launch a new browser window. More listings can be found at the On-line Resources page.

last updated 9 February 2010

Events | In the News | Web Sites of Note

Events: What's Current in Classics?

Classics podcasts!

An NPR podcast on "Reviving the Classics"

Tellus is a new magazine for contemporary poetry engaging with ancient civilisations. To order a FREE copy of the first issue simply send your address to orders@tellusmagazine.co.uk by February 26th.

Featuring Andrew Motion, Michael Longley and Maureen Almond alongside exciting new poets, the first issue boasts a vibrant and eclectic mix; from a Sardinian warrior statue we jump to the Babylonian Enlil's frustration with the sheer noisiness of the people he has created, to a haunting lyric miniature of a speech by Deianeira from Sophocles' Trachiniae, and to Lesbia, who finally gets a chance to speak her mind on Catullus 51. For further information please
visit the website www.tellusmagazine.co.uk.

"Page and Stage: The Power of the Iliad Today" Find more info on the program at www.pageandstage.org. An entire list of the program events is listed under the EVENTS tab.

The Committee on Ancient and Modern Performance maintains an e-mail list of current members, to which postings are made regarding events, especially performances, calls for papers, conferences and other announcements that may be of interest to the membership. This publication is called The Dionysiac. To subscribe to the list or to post an announcement, contact the listowner, Hallie Marshall halliem@interchange.ubc.ca.

In the News!!

The web editor actively maintains the news listings so that he eliminates any article that becomes no longer available for free.

An article on The Lightning Thief
NY Times: Odysseus Engages in Spin, Heroically
Forbes: What We Can Learn from Cicero
Philadelphia Inquirer: Constitution Center to present Roman exhibit
SFReeper.com— All Greek: St John’s T-Shirt Dismays Expert
I came, I saw, I majored
LA theater review: The Trojan Women
NY Times: A Museum Hails Caesar, Even if Some Antiquarians Don’t Agree
Sexus Maximus! The poet who made even the Romans blush
Greek drama updated with modern comedy
In Canada, Latin lovers abound in university. Is Harry Potter influencing students to study Latin?
NY Times: The Anguish of War for Today’s Soldiers, Explored by Sophocles
The New Yorker on Michael Bloombeg as Crassus
Staten Island composer tackles the sounds of ancient Greece for 'Agamemnon'
NY Times: Back From War, but Not Really Home
ARCHAIA GIVES BIRTH TO "HYBRID BASTARDS!"
Angelos' Greek gift: Orioles owner's donation makes heroes exhibition free to public
Bacchae banned at BYU (and a review of the cancelled production)
In LA, Annette Bening thinks Medea is a killer role
The Globe and Mail reports on Latin's popularity in Canada
NY Times reviews: Mad, Wild, Hurling Tales of Odysseus’ Journey
"Chicanos Meet Greeks! Must Be a ‘Culture Clash’" (on Aristophanes' Peace at the Getty)
THEATER REVIEW | 'THE BACCHAE': God vs. Man in an Open-Air Fight
In St Louis: No running in Ovid marathon
NY Daily News on Euripides month in NYC
BOOKS OF THE TIMES: Rowing to Democracy
In Gainesville, Actors re-create Greek tragedies
The Washington Post: Focusing on transformations: District artist inspired by Roman poet
NY Times: Back to Latin
The Washington Post: Greece Is the Word In This Dizzy Revue
Forbes Magazine: Power Ambition Glory "The stunning parallels between great leaders of the ancient world and today ... and the lessons you can learn."
NY Times reviews: 'ASCLEPIUS' Dramatizing a Greek Tale Seldom Told
Newsweek: Romancing the Stones
Chicago Tribune: Chicago Opera Vanguard's "Greek"
SF Examiner: Greece is the word – according to learning game Dionysian Dream
Charlotte Observer: Students triumph with love of Latin
St Petersburg Times: Steve Forbes, Eckerd College professor John Prevas look to Caesar for leadership lessons
In Indiana, 'Thespis' to celebrate ancient Greece
National Review Online interviews Sarah Ruden about translating Vergil
In Vancouver, ANTIGONE UNDONE
A review of the movie Agora
Classicist Chris Francese in the NY Times on Latin in American diplomas
The Washington Post: Et Tu, College Board? "Our de facto Education Ministry decides what our children study."
Pig Latin
Globe and Mail: A playwright's marathon in ancient Greece
No part left untouched in Greek comedy 'Lysistrata'
NY Times: Who’s Buried in Cleopatra’s Tomb?
NY Times reviews: Scrolling Down the Ages and A Poet’s Progress
It’s All Greek for Grade Schoolers Learning the Language in Lexington
NY Times theater review: Fall of the House of Atreus, Condensed Blood Edition
If Homer's Odyssey Was Written On Twitter
SF theater review: 'War Music'
NY Times: Lost in Space With Dido and Aeneas
NY Times: Cynicism We Can Believe In
Boston Globe: Harvard encourages dusting off the classics
NY Times: A review of Anne Carson's Oresteia
Thurman, Brosnan, McKidd to Play Greek
The Washington Post: With a Nod To the Gods, 'Ion' Delivers A Wry Charge
Bay Area artist combines Apple gear with Greek gods
Melrose Free Press: Excelsior! Teacher says Latin is the secret code of civilization — and to college admissions
A National Geographic blog item: "Ancient Kissing Wasn't Just for Valentines, Expert Says"
The Atlantic: Tragic Heroes: What today’s veterans can learn from tales of the Trojan War
The Tipsy Hero
Lawyer-musician turns obsession with Peloponnesian War into CD and show
The Washington Post: History Lives On "From one marvel of the ancient world to another, he came, he saw, he chronicled. It's no wonder that Herodotus endures..."
A National Geographic blog item on why January is #1
A picture of a Catullus textbook in the NY Times
NY Times ART REVIEW | 'WORSHIPING WOMEN': The Glory That Was Greece From a Female Perspective
IHT Book Review: Martial's Epigrams, by Garry Wills
NY Times OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR: How Did That Vase Wind Up in the Metropolitan?
The New Cicero. Charlotte Higgins says one of the most interesting aspects of Barack Obama's speeches is the enormous debt they owe to the oratory of the Romans
NPR 11/25/08: "In Ancient Dramas, Vital Words For Today's Warriors"
And now, a few 4th Century Greek jokes
Harry Potter: Minister wants to resurrect Latin in schools - Scotland on Sunday
Latin Surges in Popularity - On Education (usnews.com)
NY Times: Antique Muses Stir a Modern Orpheus
Brad Pitt to star in a sci-fi version of Greek classic, The Odyssey
Hannibal's epic campaign comes to Web-based comic
Philadelphia Inquirer: A Profile of Ed Cohen
Maureen Dowd: Are We Rome? Tu Betchus! (with lots of "Latin". Viewer discretion advised)
Education Week: Give Latin (and Potential Dropouts) a Chance
NY Times: A Dead Language That’s Very Much Alive
NY Times: Black Orpheus' Eurydice is dead
Garrison Keillor on Latin and Greek roots in The Writer's Almanac
NY Times: Like War Itself, Effects of War Are Hell. Ask the Greeks
Ave! Radio station to air show in Latin
Pittsburgh Tribune: Remark about ancient scrolls leads to novel
The Washington Post: A Modern-Day 'Peace' With Classic Arrows
Warren Reporter: Students go classical with Latin
The Washington Post: Obama Amid the Pillars Of an Ancient Culture
LA Times: Ancient Greek plays resonate with Marines
A Latin resurgence in NYC
NY Times: Workings of Ancient ‘Computer’ Deciphered
Maureen Dowd compares Obama to Odysseus
Science Daily: Horse Racecourse In Ancient Olympia Discovered After 1600 Years
Barker on Books: Le Guin rewrites classic 'Aeneid'
Putting passion into an opera about Persephone
NY Times: Greek Myth as Potpourri of Multicultural Flavors
Science Daily: Ancient Olympics: ‘Like Vince Lombardi On The PGA Circuit’
Celestial clues hint at eclipse in Homer’s Odyssey
The Edmonton Journal: Greek gods, satyrs romp in the Square
Latin Lovers: An ambitious new Southwest Philadelphia charter school uses an ancient language as a formula for learning.
The New Republic: Were Herodotus And Thucydides The World's First Journalists?
BBC News: Vatican gives Latin online boost
The Washington Post: Correcting a Colorblind View of the Treasures of Antiquity
Herodotus and Thucydides in the New Yorker
Philadelphia Inquirer: Greece and Rome still alive for Jr. Classical League
A new outreach effort in the UK
NY Times: Beware of Greeks Bearing Placards
Aristotle joins pantheon of ancients at Athens Square (NY)
NY Times: Past Catches Up With the Queen of Roads
NY Times: The Ancient Mechanics and How They Thought
Robert Fagles, celebrated translator of ancient epics, dies at age 74
Philadelphia Inquirer: Argonautika a lively update of Jason myth
Gloucester Daily Times: 'Oedipus' next Theater company stages rare version of classic tragedy' (Seneca, not Sophocles)
Theater Review | 'Medea': Taking Hostages to Right a Wrong
The Key Reporter on 'The Philoctetes Project' (PDF)
The fishing classicist
Philadelphia Inquirer. Penn Classicist Emily Wilson: Before idealizing democracy, beware the Athenian lesson
In Wisconsin: It's all Greek to us - Election dramas also take stage
Philadelphia Inquirer: A tradition not so well understood after all (Classics professor Mary Beard marshals evidence like a good forensic specialist out to solve a crime...)
Petaluma Argus-Courier: Valuable advice from Roman emperor: St. Vincent teacher John Piazza co-authors new book on Marcus Aurelius
Rutledge inmates study Greek to get a better grip on the Bible
NY Times: An Altar Beyond Olympus for a Deity Predating Zeus
NY Times: Amo, Amas, Amuse (a review of Harry Mount's Carpe Diem)
Secrets of the Parthenon, on PBS
Breathing life into Latin, a profile of Monmouth-Roseville High School Latin teacher Brian Tibbets
How Do I Love Thee? Say it in Latin!
BBC NEWS | UK | Education | Reviving a 'dead' language
WSJ: An Epic Undertaking: The influence and resonance of Virgil's 'Aeneid' still echo
New BBC Radio Series on Greek and Latin Authors
Penn classicist Emily Wilson in Slate: The Renaissance of Latin: WHY A DEAD LANGUAGE IS BECOMING POPULAR.
LA Times: Ad Infinitum: A Biography of Latin,' by Nicholas Ostler
NY Sun: Not the Roman, but the Latin Empire
Penn Classics featured in the Philadelphia Metro
NY Times: Herodotus Now: ‘Omnivorous Curiosity’ and Double Vision
The Boston Globe: Greek tragedy blooms anew in tales of four troubled lives
The Washington Post: The Passion of Latin Lovers. "When Virginia's all-star team of young scholars competes in a national quiz bowl, a dead language is very much alive..."
NY Times: A Vote for Latin and a Latin version of the same piece!
NY Times: Cave May Hold Secrets to Legend of Ancient Rome
NY Times: Theater Review Philoktetes: Chill, Warrior Outcast, the Gods Are With You
What can one do with a Classics major...
An all-boys school with an unusual Latin focus: Dead language comes alive at W. Phila. charter
NY Times: A Daughter’s Revenge Is on the Menu, So Expect a Meal Served Bitter Cold
WSJ: Veni, Vidi, Wiki:Latin Isn't Dead On 'Vicipaedia'
The Washington Post has a story about an award-winning physician who owes it all to classics
Hans Werner Henze's new tragic opera 'Phaedra' compels
Iphigenia 2.0: Way Before Lindsay and Britney, Chaos Swirled Around Iphigenia and another view
Rowling poised to work her magic on classic tale of underworld hero
Desperate housewife: Margaret Atwood's all-female play The Penelopiad twists the Odysseus myth
Women in ancient Greek drama: Theorists and practitioners at Delphi approach the subject from every
conceivable direction
A twist on a Greek tragedy: Insomniak Theatre puts a modern spin on Oedipus Rex
NY Times on a new Eurydice: The Power of Memory to Triumph Over Death
NY Times: Checking In With Glimmer Twins, Plato and Aristotle
On the misuse of the word 'subjunctive..."
NY Times: More Clues in the Legend (or Is It Fact?) of Romulus
Wired: Robot Scans Ancient Manuscript in 3-D
Salon:"Are We Rome?" Hollowed out by arrogance, corruption and a bloated military, the greatest empire the world has ever known fell. Is America doomed to follow in its footsteps?
NY Times: "Burritos for Sophocles"
Vivat longe Schola Latina Brookliniensis!
The Village Voice: Note to Greek husbands: Killing child not best idea
NY Times: A Voyage to Olympus for Young Mortals
In the Poconos Notre Dame High successfully revives 'dead' Latin
Seattle Weekly reviews two Greek plays
Smithsonian Magazine: Raising Alexandria
DNA Boosts Herodotus’ Account of Etruscans as Migrants to Italy
A 300 review by classicists Victor Hanson (relatively positive) and Eugene Borza (negative)
OWU’s Don Lateiner is Spell-Binding!
Classicist Richard Martin in the NY Sun on Glenn Most's new Loeb Hesiod
Howard's Unyielding Intellectual (The Washington Post obituary article on Frank Snowden and another in the NY Times )
300, reviewed by The NY Times and The Washington Post (neither, alas, is a rave)
The Difficult Patient, a Problem Old as History: A play by Sophocles holds lessons for modern medicine.
Michele Ronnick was interviewed at length by an Austin, TX TV station when her 12 Black Classicists display was on exhibit at a local college. Professor Ronnickwon the APA Outreach Prize in 2006
Theater Review | 'The Oresteia': Finding Humor, and Blood, in a Classic Greek Tragedy
"David Johnston’s new retelling of Aeschylus’ “Oresteia” which includes some of his trademark off-kilter sensibility but none of his familiar flights of fancy."
Eve Sussman’s film “The Rape of the Sabine Women” is extravagantly beautiful, writes Roberta Smith in The NY Times .
Review: The Women of Trachis in NYC
The Virginian-Pilot: Dead language comes alive at Beach school
NY Times Art Review: 'Athens-Sparta' Their Rivalry Was Bitter, Yet Beauty Still Emerged
A broadcast from New Hampshire Public Radio on teaching Plato's Republic in a Women's Prison
The NY Times' Edward Rothstein on the Aeneid
At a Bronx School, Latin Is the Root of All Learning
An Ancient Computer Surprises Scientists
The NY Times "A Layered Look Reveals Ancient Greek Texts"
The NY Times on the new movie about Thermopylae, 300
The Boston Globe has its turn commenting on the new Aeneid. "The Emperor's New Poem: The latest translation of Virgil's 'Aeneid,' the epic poem of Rome's founding commissioned by Augustus Caesar, has a timely resonance at this moment of American imperial angst..."

Web Sites of Note

Why study Classics?
eLatin eGreek eLearn
Rogueclassicism
Didaskalia-APA Listings and reviews of drama performances
Able Media's CTCWEB Showcase of outstanding uses of technology in Classics pedagogy.
Diotima: Women and Gender in the Ancient World provides many insights into one of the most stimulating areas of recent scholarship on the ancient world.
The Interactive Mediterranean Project: an on-line atlas of the ancient Mediterranean world
Perseus is, arguably, the most important web site for studying Greek and Roman culture. Perseus contains thousands of images, texts and maps, aided by powerful search tools.
The Stoa: A consortium of electronic publication in the humanities. A site devoted to bringing the scholarly study of classical antiquity to a wider audience. The Stoa will contain on-line books and other materials.
Aquila Page and Stage

Home