Classics in the News

In the News: Robbers Raid Olympia Museum, Steal Artifacts

From CNN.com:

Athens (CNN) -- Robbers broke into a museum in Olympia, the birthplace of the Olympics, tied and gagged a museum guard, and fled with stolen artifacts, Greek authorities said Friday.

The two men raided the Museum of the History of the Olympic Games, a smaller building close to the main Archaeological Museum of Olympia, just after 7:30 a.m. local time, said Athanassios Kokkalakis, a police spokesman.

The robbers "approached the museum's guard, tied her hands and bound her mouth and then went into the museum, where they took 65 to 68 small clay and brass small statues, and a gold ring, and put them in a bag and left."

Culture Minister Pavlos Geroulanos submitted his resignation after the robbery took place, the prime minister's office said.

In the News: Barbara Gold

Inside Higher Ed's academic minute today features APA member Barbara Gold speaking on the subject of love in ancient Rome. Listen to the audio clip at http://www.insidehighered.com/audio/2012/02/14/love-ancient-rome.

In the News: Ancient Roman Text Offers Tips On Winning Elections

Robert Siegel talks with Classics professor Philip Freeman about his translation of the book, "How to Win an Election: An Ancient Guide for Modern Politicians." The book was written by the brother of Marcus Cicero, for when Marcus ran for office in Rome in 64 B.C. But the ancient Roman guide for campaigning still holds lessons for today's elections.

Listen to the story at npr.org.

News from Royal Holloway

The Classics faculty at Royal Holloway have just been informed that in 2014 they will lose one position or, if applications decrease this year, two positions. Applications are holding up, so it seems that only one position will be lost. This is much better than the dire scenario that was threatened last summer, when many of our members signed an international petition in defense of Classics at RHUL.

National Latin Teacher Recruitment Week

Each year the National Committee for Latin and Greek (NCLG) sponsors National Latin Teacher Recruitment Week (NLTRW), which takes place during the week of March 5th this year. The APA has joined the American Classical League and numerous regional and state organizations in this effort to encourage all Classicists at all levels of instruction to take steps that will ensure that Latin, Greek, and Classics pre-college classrooms have the teachers they need. Thanks to the considerable public interest in Latin and the classical world, demand for Latin teachers at the primary and secondary levels has outrun supply, and there is now a serious shortage in many regions of the USA and Canada. Each year, for lack of teachers, existing programs are cancelled, thriving programs are told they cannot expand, and schools that want to add Latin are unable to do so.

On NCLG’s web site you will find strategies, flyers, and many other things that can help you to raise the issue with your students and answer their questions. The site also provides a mechanism to apply for small grants (up to $200) to fund special programs marking NLTRW. Examples of fundable ideas would include postage for a mailing, refreshments for a reception, travel funds for a speaker, supplies for a promotional activity, etc. The only requirement is that the funds be used in some significant and visible way to promote the recruitment of Latin teachers. Proposals for grants will be evaluated as they are received and competition remains open until funds are depleted. A brief report on the activity will be required after the event has taken place.

In the News: Siege of the ‘Iliad’

From The Chronicle Review:

Erasmus quoted the Iliad in a time of widening war:

Men get their fill of sleep and love, of beautiful singing and carefree dance, but they never get enough of war.

And they never get enough of the Iliad. In his anthology, Homer in English, George Steiner asked in 1996, Why are there so many Iliads in English? His answer: notions of noble manliness. "There shines throughout the Iliad an idealized yet also unflinching vision of masculinity, of an order of values and mutual recognitions radically virile."

Small wonder the epic has appealed to warrior nations like England and the United States. William Blake warned, "It is the Classics & not Goths nor Monks, that Desolate Europe with Wars.

According to The Oxford Guide to Literature in English Translation, the Iliad is among the most translated works in English, and English has more versions than any other language. They include their share of casualties. Lord W.E. Gladstone, four-time prime minister of England, tried to squeeze the Iliad into ballad stanzas. He foresaw his fate: "I have involuntarily conceived of the poem as a fortress high-walled and impregnable, and of the open space around as covered with the dead bodies of his translators, who have perished in their gallant but unsuccessful efforts to scale the walls."

In the depths of digital libraries lie dead Iliads. Who remembers the English translations of William Sotheby (1831), J. Henry Dart (1865), or Charles Bagot Cayley (1876)? And I doubt we will ever see another like The Iliad of Homer in the Spenserian stanza by Philip Stanhope Worsley and John Conington (1866-68). Samuel Butler's prose Iliad (1898) still gains praise, and T.E. Lawrence's Iliad (1932) has its following, while the couplets of Edgar Alfred Tibbetts (1907) and hexameters of George Ernle (1922) gather dust. For those that fall, new Iliads rush in.

In the News: Botanists Agree to Loosen Latin’s Grip

"Latin is a bit like a zombie: dead but still clamoring to get into our brains. In one discipline, however, Latin just got a bit deader. For at least 400 years, botanists across the globe have relied on Latin as their lingua franca, but the ardor has cooled. Scientists say plants will keep their double-barreled Latin names, but they have decided to drop the requirement that new species be described in the classical language. Instead, they have agreed to allow botanists to use English (other languages need not apply). In their scientific papers, they can still describe a newly found species of plant — or algae or fungi — in Latin if they wish, but most probably won’t."

Read more online at The Washington Post.

In the News: Glasgow University Revives Greek Post After £2.4m Bequest

"A university professorship which has been dormant for more than a decade is to be revived after a £2.4m bequest from the last person to hold the post. Professor Douglas Maurice MacDowell held Glasgow University's Chair of Greek between 1971 and 2001. After his death in 2010, aged 78, Prof MacDowell's will stated his portfolio of stocks and shares be used to re-establish the position. The new Chair of Greek is expected to be in place for September this year." Read more at the BBC online.

In the News: Classics Department Survives Despite Size

From the Truman State University Index:

"Despite its small numbers, the classics department remains alive even though their languages are ancient. There are 19 declared classics majors, five of whom will graduate this year, 27 minors and four full-time staff members, said Clifton Kreps, classical and modern language department chair. The Missouri Department of Higher Education reviewed all programs with fewer than 10 graduates a year during Fall 2010. Truman State thus was required to provide a written justification and answer a questionnaire regarding enrollment data for the small number of graduates in classics, along with art history, Russian, German, interdisciplinary studies and bachelors of music. The explanation satisfied the MDHE for the time being, but another review is scheduled for 2014. No further information regarding the format or consequences of the next review has been provided to the University."

In the News: Review of Books on Rome in The New Yorker

Adam Kirsch reviews Rome: Day One, Rome and Rhetoric, The Romans and Their World, Caligula, Invisible Romans, and Rome: A Cultural, Visual, and Personal History in the January 9th issue of The New Yorker. An abstract of the review is available online for free; subscribers have full access.

In the News: Could Ancient Pottery Improve Spacecraft Tiles?

"You might not think that a collaboration to study the chemical and physical properties of ancient Attic pottery would have anything to do with space missions, but, well, you'd be mistaken. Earlier this year, the National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded nearly $500,000 to scientists from the Getty Conservation Institute, Stanford's National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC) and the Aerospace Corporation to do just that."

In the news: Rome’s have-nots had more than U.S. plebs

"In a scene out of Monty Python’s Life of Brian, John Cleese’s character asked: “Apart from the sanitation, medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh water system and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?” Turns out the plebeians and freemen of ancient Rome had it pretty good, at least compared to today’s “working” class in the United States. A pair of historians recently concluded that the richest 1% of the population in the Roman Empire controlled about 16% of the wealth. Here in America, that deep-pocketed sliver of society owns some 40% of it."

In the news: Med Schools Disavow Classics Programs’ Claim as Road to M.D.‘s

According to U.S. News and World Report, "Med school officials say it's all Greek to them that classical language skills help aspiring doctors." Read the article, which quotes Cynthia Bannon and Charles McNelis, online.

In the news: Program sparks global collaboration

"John Bodel, chair of the classics department, is one of only a few scholars in the world working to digitize ancient manuscripts. On the other side of the Atlantic ocean, Michele Brunet, professor of Greek epigraphy at University of Lyon 2 in France, is working on a similar project, looking at ancient documents housed in Paris' Louvre Museum. Now, thanks to a new global exchange program launched by the University, professors like Bodel and Brunet will be able to share expertise in all disciplines by traveling to far-flung campuses to learn from their international colleagues." Read more at The Brown Daily Herald.

In the news: Late UT professor commemorated in ceremony Friday

The late professor Douglass S. Parker was a professional jazz ragtime pianist, but he strayed from his musical career to teach at the University in order to support his family, said Stephen White, Department Chair and professor of Classics.

Douglass S. Parker taught at UT for 40 years and was commemorated Friday by a lecture and performance in light of his passing. The lecture and performance called “The Story of the Music in James Weldon Johnson’s Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man (1912)” was given by James Tatum, a Dartmouth professor. Tatum played excerpts of classical piano pieces in honor of Parker’s talent for performance.

In the news: Ancient symbol of Rome – or a Middle Ages knock-off?

"The most celebrated and supposedly one of the oldest symbols of the Eternal City may not be a product of the ancient world after all. The Capitoline Museums' statue of the legendary she-wolf, which was said to have nourished Rome's founders, Romulus and Remus on the banks of the River Tiber, was not crafted by the city's ancestors, the Etruscans, but was made at least 1,000 years later in the Middle Ages, some experts now insist."

In the News: Who Were the 99% of Ancient Rome?

From Gibbon to "Gladiator," it might seem like we know a lot about Ancient Rome, but our view of this civilization is a skewed one. The Romans lived in one of the most stratified societies in history. Around 1.5% of the population controlled the government, military, economy and religion. Through the writings and possessions they left behind, these rich, upper-class men are also responsible for most of our information about Roman life.

The remaining people – commoners, slaves and others – are largely silent. They could not afford tombstones to record their names, and they were buried with little in the way of fancy pottery or jewellery. Their lives were documented by the elites, but they left few documents of their own.

Now, Kristina Killgrove, an archaeologist from Vanderbilt University, wants to tell their story by sequencing their DNA, and she is raising donations to do it. “Their DNA will tell me where these people, who aren’t in histories, were coming from,” she says. “They were quite literally the 99% of Rome.”

Read more on the Light Years blog at http://lightyears.blogs.cnn.com/2011/11/11/who-were-the-99-of-ancient-rome/

Great News about Classics at Royal Holloway

It has now been decided that no reduction in staff numbers in Classics at Royal Holloway will take place until the end of the academic year 2013-14. Moreover if we recruit good numbers of students with AAB or above at A-level for 2012 and our plans to increase our numbers of Master’s students, both for our MA programmes and for our new MRes programmes, are successful, the proposal for a reduction in staff numbers is likely to be reviewed. Validation of our two new MRes degrees, one in Rhetoric and one in Classical Reception, is in train. For more details, see the Department’s blog at http://supportclassicsatrhul.wordpress.com and the Departmental website at www.rhul.ac.uk/ClassicsandPhilosophy.

We will be very pleased to receive good applications for Master’s and PhD degrees as well as for all our undergraduate programmes for September 2012.

Prof. Anne Sheppard
Head of Classics and Philosophy Department
Royal Holloway
University of London
Egham, Surrey TW20 0EX

World’s oldest sports manual found, covers wrestling

"Wrestling announcer Ed Aliverti often spiced up the NCAA Division I wrestling tournament by yelling that wrestling was 'the world's oldest and greatest sport.' Prints sold at wrestling events depict biblical figure Jacob wrestling an angel, and Abraham Lincoln engaged in his own wrestling match before becoming president. The sport has always been proud of the ancient origins of the sport.

"Now, wrestling has proof of its long history, as researchers at Columbia University found an instructional manual on wrestling that dates back to 200 A.D."

Latin Teacher Becomes Executive Director of ACTFL

Martha Abbott, a Latin teacher with whom many APA members have collaborated, has become Executive Director of the American Council for the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL), a society of over 12,000 language teachers and administrators.

An epic ‘Electra’ takes the O’Reilly stage

"When Ted Pappas returned to Greece last summer he took 'Electra' with him. 'I studied it in Greek under an olive tree on my property,' says Pappas, who is directing the Pittsburgh Public Theater production of 'Electra' that begins performances Thursday at the O'Reilly Theater, Downtown." Read more at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review online.

Editorial: Respect the Classical Tradition

Helen Hansen, a Plan II and public relations freshman at the University of Texas-Austin, wrote an impassioned defense of the Classics Department in her column in The Daily Texan this week.

In the News: Classic Comeback

A new programme to revive Latin and Greek in our schools

Peter Jones writes in Spectator.co.uk:

Some 15 years ago, at the behest of the then editor Charles Moore, I wrote a jovial 20-week QED: Learn Latin column for the Daily Telegraph. It attracted a huge following, and I still have four large box-files full of letters from users. The majority of them expressed one of three sentiments: ‘I learned Latin at school x years ago, loved it and am delighted to renew my acquaintance’; ‘I learned Latin at school, hated it, but now realise what I have missed’; and ‘I never learned Latin at school and have always regretted it’.

These responses have stayed with me ever since, but they prompt a question: anecdotal evidence about the value people place on Latin is all very well, but would it be possible to produce something a little more objective? Can we demonstrate unconditionally that, as Gilbert Murray argued to the Classical Association in 1954, our pearls are real?

This week the fund-raising charity Classics for All announced its first round of grants to projects that over the next ten years will, if we can raise the funds, open up the classical world to many of the 3,000 state schools (75 per cent of our pupils) that currently come into no contact with it whatsoever. Read more …

In the News: Ancient Greek Alive and Well at UT-Austin

From The Daily Texan's letters to the editor:

“Greek studies” is not about to be eliminated either as a field of study or as a major here, as the story titled “Greek studies to be eliminated from UT majors,” which ran in The Daily Texan on Thursday, suggests. The classics department continues to offer a wide range of courses on the languages and cultures of ancient Greece and Rome (classical studies), and UT students will continue to have multiple options for pursuing degrees that include advanced work in the language and culture of ancient Greece.

Yes, the Higher Education Coordinating Board has directed UT to eliminate one of our majors: the bachelor’s in Greek. But students still have four other degree options that require advanced work in ancient Greek language and culture: classics, classical archaeology, ancient history and classical civilization and Latin. The classics major requires advanced work in both Greek and Latin language. The classical archaeology and ancient history majors require advanced work in classical culture and also in either Greek or Latin. Even the bachelor’s in Latin requires advanced work in either Greek or classical culture.

It’s worth emphasizing also that the elimination of our Greek major is unlikely to have any impact on our course offerings, either. As we pointed out to the coordinating board both this year and previously, all of our courses in Greek language and culture serve many other groups and degree plans besides Greek majors. So eliminating this major will have virtually no impact on either the UT budget or what students will be able to study here. As for the symbolic impact, well — that’s another story.

— Stephen White
Chair, Department of Classics

In the News: Greek Major to be Eliminated at University of Texas-Austin

"UT is the only public university in Texas to offer an undergraduate degree in Greek studies, but students entering the University after the current academic year will no longer be able to declare a major in the program. The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board directed UT to eliminate its degree in Greek studies following this academic year. The board has suggested colleges cut certain degree programs with low enrollment in order to ease state-wide budget cuts to education." Read more at The Daily Texan …

For clarification, see Professor Stephen White's letter to the editor of The Daily Texan.

NPR: Lucretius, Man Of Modern Mystery

"Before he became a Professor of literature at Harvard, and way before he wrote his classic Shakespeare biography, Will in The World, Stephen Greenblatt was an I'll-read-anything kind of kid. One day, he was standing in the campus book store, and there, in a bin, selling for ten cents (good price, even in 1961) he noticed a thin, little volume called On the Nature of Things, by a Roman writer named Lucretius. When he opened it, he found a description of how the universe came to be. Because Lucretius lived a couple of generations before the birth of Jesus, Stephen was expecting a tale of how gods, goddesses, earth, air, fire and water and an assortment of miracles created everything we see, but as he turned the pages, he says 'his jaw dropped' and 'his head began to burst open,' because Lucretius' creation story doesn't feel remotely ancient. First of all, it's a radically secular account, ignoring gods, goddesses, heaven, hell, life after death, and intelligent design, but more surprising, its logic is eerily, almost spookily modern." Read more, or listen to the interview at NPR.org.

Baylor Undergrad Students Get Rare Chance for In-Person Research on Ancient Manuscripts

"Fragments of ancient, rare manuscripts of Greek classical poetry, Greek philosophy and Judeo-Christian Scriptures are being retrieved from papier-mâché-like mummy wrappings on loan to Baylor University -- all part of an international project that will give undergraduate humanities students rare hands-on research. The project, called the Green Scholars Initiative, eventually will include more than 100 universities, with Baylor University as the primary academic research partner. Professor-mentors will guide students through research and publication of articles about rare and unpublished documents, among them an ancient Egyptian dowry contract on loan to Kent State University and an ancient papyrus of Greek statesman Demosthenes' famed "On the Crown" Speech, said Dr. Jerry Pattengale, initiative director and a Distinguished Senior Fellow with Baylor's Institute for Studies of Religion." Read more at baylor.edu …

Scanning Device Could Reveal Secrets of Historical Documents

"New technology developed by Oxford University’s classics department could help reveal the secrets of historical documents. A spin-out firm is commercialising the scanning device, which uses different wavelengths of light to detect faded or erased ink, for analysing manuscripts and archived documents, as well as modern forgeries. ‘The technical leaps we made mean many ancient documents that were previously unreadable can now be scanned and read,’ said Dr Dirk Obbink, head of the research group that developed the scanner."

New Yorker Podcast: Greenblatt on Lucretius

"This week in the magazine, Stephen Greenblatt explains how Lucretius and his poem 'On the Nature of Things' shaped the modern world. Here Greenblatt reads a passage from John Dryden’s translation of 'On the Nature of Things,' and talks with Blake Eskin about how the poem disappeared for a thousand years, how it was rediscovered, and the clash between Lucretius’ ideas and the Catholic church—and also Greenblatt’s Jewish mother." Read more at http://www.newyorker.com/online/2011/08/08/110808on_audio_greenblatt#ixzz1V1u18qeH

Digital Version of Loeb Classical Library Featured

The forthcoming digital version of the Loeb Classical Library will aim to make the treasures of ancient literature easier to find for non-classicists. Read more at InsideHighered.com.

Dig under ancient Trajan’s Baths in Rome turns up mosaic depicting a nude Apollo

"Excavations in the bowels of an ancient Roman hill have turned up a well-preserved, late 1st century wall mosaic with a figure of Apollo, nude except for a colourful mantle over a shoulder." Read more at The Telegraph online.

Action Alert from the National Humanities Alliance

Dear Colleague:

This afternoon, the U.S. House of Representatives began debating the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies spending bill (H.R. 2584). In last week’s action alert, I mentioned that amendments could be offered on the floor that would further reduce funding for the National Endowment for the Humanities beyond the $135 million in FY 2012 funding approved by the Appropriations Committee (a $19.7 million, or 13% cut from the current year).

Just hours ago, Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-KS) offered an amendment to reduce funding in the Interior bill by $3 billion in various accounts, including $1.9 billion in EPA spending, as well as complete elimination of the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts (among other programs). The Huelskamp amendment failed by voice vote, but a recorded vote was requested, and is expected to take place tonight.

Even if the current measure fails, additional amendments to weaken funding for NEH may be offered during this week’s floor consideration of the FY12 Interior bill. If you have not already done so, please email your Representative and ask him/her to:

Oppose any amendments to eliminate or further cut NEH funding in the FY12 Interior bill (H.R. 2584)
Speak on the floor in support of the humanities and the benefits that NEH provides your community

If you would prefer to call the office directly, you can do so through the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121.

Earlier today, the Congressional Humanities Caucus Co-Chairs, Reps. David Price (D-NC) and Tom Petri (R-WI), issued a Dear Colleague letter urging Members to oppose the Huelskamp amendment. Reps. Price and Petri are still planning to lead a bipartisan “strike the last word” effort to protect NEH and provide Members an opportunity to join their colleagues on the House floor to speak in support of the humanities. The timing of this effort is likely to coincide with the reading of the bill portion that references NEH funding (expected within the next 1-2 days).

Thank you for taking action. We will continue to post updates as new information becomes available.

Sincerely,

Jessica Jones Irons
Executive Director
National Humanities Alliance

Take action here: http://www.congressweb.com/cweb2/index.cfm/siteid/NHA/action/TakeAction.Contact/lettergroupid/17

Ten of the best books set in Rome

Malcolm Burgess, publisher of the City-Lit series, selects his favourite reads about the eternal city, from I, Claudius to the Rome of Fellini and beyond. Read more in The Guardian online.

In One Classics Department, Translation by the ‘Crowd’

"Two years ago, an archivist at Tufts University was sifting through manuscripts in the library's special collections when he came across a lone, unlabeled folder. To his surprise, it contained a stack of documents that no one then at the library had ever seen, some of them dating back to the 12th century. The Tisch Library Miscellany Collection was born. Now, Marie-Claire A. Beaulieu, an assistant professor of classics, has a novel way of identifying the documents and translating them from Latin to English—she's having her students do it. The 15 undergraduates and graduates she enlisted became historical sleuths, opening the cold case of the centuries-old texts; their work has been published online in the project's digital archive." Read more at The Chronicle of Higher Education online.

Miami professor aims to tell Cleopatra’s full story

"When the name Cleopatra is mentioned, images of a powerful, exotic seductress may come to mind. While that may not necessarily be false, a Miami University professor is looking to flesh out the infamous femme fatale in a presentation working in conjunction with the Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal’s exhibit of the Egyptian queen. Associate professor of classics Denise McCoskey’s presentation, “Cleopatra, a fatale monstrum? Encountering the Egyptian Queen in Roman Literature and Propaganda,” examines Cleopatra’s entire person, both as an able, multicultural ruler of a powerful state as well as how the Augustan propagandists presented her in the midst of Rome’s civil war — an image McCoskey said endures to this day."

Tickets on Sale for Trojan Women at J. Paul Getty Museum

"Trojan Women (after Euripides), a new version of one of the greatest anti-war dramas of all time, will be the sixth annual outdoor theatrical production in the Getty Villa's Barbara and Lawrence Fleischman Theater. New York-based Siti Company, one of America's leading ensemble theater companies, will perform an original retelling of Euripides' ancient Greek tragedy, in the world premiere of a Getty-commissioned production. These performances will mark one of Siti Company's rare appearances on the west coast. Directed by the company's artistic director Anne Bogart, the play features original music composed by Christian Frederickson and a text adapted by playwright Jocelyn Clarke."

Royal Ontario Museum’s Newest Galleries Bring Ancient Empires Back to Life

"On Friday, July 1, 2011, the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) opens a suite of new permanent galleries, reintroducing its visitors to the ancient civilizations of Rome, Byzantium and Nubia. Several never-before-seen objects are featured while others have been unseen by the public since previous galleries were closed in 2004 during the Renaissance ROM expansion project. To showcase these remarkable empires as never before, extensive new videos, shot on location, are featured alongside impressive artifacts in this new, dynamic space." Read more at artdaily.org…

Roman Gladiator’s Gravestone Describes Fatal Foul

"An enigmatic message on a Roman gladiator's 1,800-year-old tombstone has finally been decoded, telling a treacherous tale. The epitaph and art on the tombstone suggest the gladiator, named Diodorus, lost the battle (and his life) due to a referee's error, according to Michael Carter, a professor at Brock University in St. Catharines, Canada. Carter studies gladiator contests and other spectacles in the eastern part of the Roman Empire." Read more at LiveScience.com…

‘Spelling Is a Gateway ... to Learning’

"Jacques A. Bailly, an associate professor of classics at the University of Vermont, is the department's director of graduate studies. He has also been the official pronouncer of words at the Scripps National Spelling Bee since 2003. He won the annual bee as an eighth grader in 1980." Read the interview with Prof. Bailly at The Chronicle of Higher Education's web site.

NATO refuses to rule out bombing Libyan Roman ruins

"NATO refused to say Tuesday whether or not it would bomb ancient Roman ruins in Libya if it knew Moammar Gadhafi was hiding military equipment there. 'We will strike military vehicles, military forces, military equipment or military infrastructure that threaten Libyan civilians as necessary,' a NATO official in Naples told CNN, declining to give his name in discussing internal NATO deliberations." Read more at CNN World online.

Monday’s Poem: ‘Laelaps,’ by Michael Collier

Read Michael Collier's poem "Laelaps" and a critical essay about it by Lisa Russ Sparr at The Chronicle of Higher Education's web site.

Text and Translation of the Latin Oration Delivered at Harvard

Delivered by Charlie Bridge (Class of 2011), a Classics Concentrator, at Harvard Commencement on May 27:

Rota Fortunae

Praeses Faust; Decani Professoresque sapientissimi; familiae, amici, et hospites honoratissimi; et tandem condiscipuli carissimi…salvete omnes! Mihi voluptas magna atque honor altus est huius ceremoniae incipiendae in hoc theatro augusto Trecentensimo. Nec solum conventum ultimum classis nostrae, anni duomillensimi et undecimi, sed etiam conventum trecentensimum et sexagensimum huius universitatis hodie celebramus.

Hoc cum animadvertissem gaudebam, propter sensum singularem numeri trecenti et sexaginta. Ne mihi quidem, litterarum antiquarum discipulo, latere potest orbem omnem in partes trecentas et sexaginta esse divisum. Venit etiam in mentem orbis quidam praecipuus, qui vitas nostras hos quattuor annos rexit: Rota scilicet Fortunae Harvardiana. Temporibus antiquis, rota signum erat levis mobilisque naturae fatorum – circuitus vel unus cladem felicissimis afferre atque miseros extollere potest.

Nos Harvardiani quoque mutationes fati permultas passi sumus. Statim in anno primo repperimus custodem mensae Annenbergianae, Domnam, vel beneficium magnum vel iram inexpiabilem offerre posse, velut fortuna volebat (iram certe, si tesserarum nostrarum obliti eramus). Prope anni illius finem, circuitus alius Rotae Fortunae decrevit domum ad quam delegati eramus. Plurimi laetabantur, praesertim hi beatissimi qui in locum valde amoenum, Domum dico Dunsteriensem, sunt recepti.

Mox autem Rota Fortunae nos in ima desperationis saepe mersisse videbatur. Horae somno deditae numerique nostri in Chimica Organica inferius inferiusque ceciderunt. Universitas ipsa in malo rotae latere se invenit. Sicut mercatus corruerunt, ita corruit dotatio nostra, olim amplissima, et nova aetas severitatis aderat. Heu miserum indigne ientaculum calidum ademptum nobis! Haud aliter aleatores in spectaculo illo televisifico “Rota Fortunae” subito “Perditi” fiunt.

Hoc tamen anno Rota in cursu secundo rursus volvit, atque fortunae nostrae meliores factae sunt. Examinibus thesibusque perfectis, occupationibus (speremus!) inventis, et Yalensibus quater victis, advenimus ad tempus illud fortunatissimum – ver seniorum – et nunc hanc universitatem gratissimam deserere paramus. Iter rotundum in Rota Fortunae Harvardiana confecimus, et hodie ubi incepimus, iterum pervenimus, eodem studio eademque materia infinita quae in congregationem primam in hoc ipso theatro attulimus.

Ne praetereamus tamen dictum Appi Claudi Caeci: “Faber est suae quisque fortunae.” Etsi Fata impedimenta quaedam nobis coniecerunt, ea omnia superavimus adiutorio condiscipulorum familiarumque, doctrina professorum praeclarorum, et proprio labore constantiaque. Rota Fortunae per summa Fati imaque unumquemque nostrum ferre continuabit, sed semper recordamini commutationes quas in vita nos ipsi faciemus nostro labore, et studio, et incitatione esse decernendas. Progredimini igitur, collegae optimi, et efficite felicitatem vestram.

At nunc, amici, avete atque valete!

"Wheel of Fortune"

President Faust; wisest Deans and Professors; family, friends, and most honored guests; and finally, dearest classmates…welcome, all! It is my great pleasure and high honor to begin the proceedings today in this venerable Tercentenary Theatre. Not only do we celebrate today the final gathering of our class, of the year 2011, but also the 360^thCommencement of this university.

I was glad when I noticed this, because of the unique significance of the number 360. Not even I, a student of classical literature, could be unaware that a circle is divided into 360 parts. I have in mind a very special kind of circle, which has guided our four years here: the Harvardian Wheel of Fortune. In antiquity, the wheel was a symbol of the capricious and cyclical nature of the fates – a single spin could bring disaster upon the most fortunate and uplift the luckless.

As Harvardians, we too have endured the twists and turns of fate. We discovered rather quickly in our first year that Domna, the guardian of Annenberg Hall, could bestow either great kindness or implacable wrath, according to fortune’s whim (certainly wrath, if we had forgotten our ID cards). Near the end of that year, another spin of the wheel of fortune determined the house to which we had been assigned. Most were elated, above all those blessed few who were welcomed into that most wonderful of places, Dunster House.

Soon, however, it often seemed that the Wheel of Fortune had plunged us into the depths of despair. Our nightly hours of sleep and our grades in Orgo plummeted lower than ever. Our fair university also found itself on the wrong side of the wheel. Just as the markets collapsed, so did our endowment, once so mighty, and a new age of austerity was at hand. Alas, poor hot breakfast, undeservingly wrenched away from us! In just the same way, contestants on the “Wheel of Fortune” game show suddenly become “bankrupt.”

This year, however, the Wheel has continued to roll on its circular course, and our fortunes have taken a turn for the better once again. With exams and theses completed, jobs (hopefully) found, and the Yalies vanquished for a fourth time, we have reached that most fortunate of times – senior spring – and now prepare to leave this dear university. We have finished our cyclical journey on the Harvardian Wheel of Fortune, and we arrive today exactly where we began, with the same excitement and limitless potential that we brought to our first freshman gathering in this very location.

Let us not pass over, however, the axiom of Appius Claudius the Blind: “Each man is the artisan of his own fortune.” While the fates have thrown some obstacles in our way, we have overcome them with the support of classmatesand family, with the wise instruction of our peerless faculty, and with our own hard work and persistence. The Wheel of Fortune will continue to carry each one of us through the highs and lows of fate, but always remember that the changes we will make in the world will be determined by our hard work, our energy, and our passion. Go forth, noble classmates, and make your own good fortune.

And now, friends, goodbye and farewell!

Venus Makes A Rare Visit To D.C.‘s National Gallery

"One of the best preserved sculptures from Roman antiquity is about to make its Washington, D.C., debut. Host Scott Simon reports the Capitoline Venus will go on display next Wednesday at the National Gallery of Art." Read or listen to the story at NPR.

Got it in writing: A surprising Bronze Age discovery

"Listening to Cynthia Shelmerdine describe the writing on a Greek tablet from more than 3,000 years ago, it’s like she was looking over the scribe’s shoulder as he worked. She points out details and nuance of technique, the condition of the tablet and what it means, literally, and for the world of Greek archaeology." Read more …

Is this the world’s oldest fish tank?

"An ancient Roman shipwreck nearly 2,000 years old may once have held an aquarium onboard capable of carrying live fish, archaeologists suggest." Read more at CBSNews.com.

Proposed Changes to Latin Miss the Mark

"The State College Area School District faces controversial choices about program reductions in next year’s budget. To meet this challenge the district administration recommended phasing out the four-year Latin program at State College Area High School beginning next year. But the vox populi — students, parents, and the community — vigorously defended the importance of Latin to high school education." Read more of Stephen Wheeler's letter here: http://www.centredaily.com/2011/05/05/2691912/proposed-changes-to-latin-miss.html#ixzz1O3aMAaLD.

Text and Translation of the Latin Oration Delivered at Princeton

Princeton Classics major Veronica Shi delivered the traditional Latin oration at commencement ceremonies on May 31. Here is the text and translation of her Carmen Salutationis:

Salutatio

Habita in Comitiis Academicis Princetoniae
In Nova Caesarea prid. Kal. Iun.
Anno Salutis MMXI
Anno Academiae CCLXIV

Carmen Salutationis

quibus modis, quîs principiis, amans
Mater, salutem progeniem tuam?
    favete opus, Musae, novis ne
       nunc titubem pedibus rubescens!
nobis aratrix splendida messium
felixque dux, te, praesidium bonum,
    primam saluto, namque florent
     omnia lumine sub tuo; nec
vos nunc silebo, qui sapientia
tuentur Almam semper et omnibus
    Matrem; professoresque laudo
        filia grata scientiamque
eorum cano, quae discipulos alit
virtute, curis et patientia
benignius: vobis pietas
        magna, amor altus et eruditus.
et vos, parentes: mane scholasticos
nos creditis, quos canticulo meo
   gaudere nunc vidistis: ecce
        spes modo perficimus decoras.

nunc paululo modis minoribus,
sodales, libere vos alloquor;
ignoscite inflatis prioribus
verbis: eram iussa ut modo gravi
cantarem. nunc autem imprudentias
varias, Musae procaces, pandite (Ha!):
quae lectiones desertae, prius
quae vel licentiae convivia
bacchantis vel longae turpissimi
amoris noctes, et quot et quibus-
cum – quid nunc? vos irascimini mihi?
noli sanctos simulare aut integros;
et cur metuistis? non ullo modo
vestri parentes haec intelligunt.
horum atque si fecisti umquam nihil,
hercle! “Miser!” tantum dicam tibi.
laeti memores este et licentiae
aeque et victoriae, carissimi
(numquam triumphi parca scilicet):
omnia sciens ignoscit omnibus
Mater; non semper vita vera ita est.
nostram vitam tigridis quam splendidam!
sed cuique, sodales, nostrum hic parcius
tempus datum, vae, fatis invidis.

huc redibunt aestiferi dies, sub
limpido caelo foliis vigebit
flammeis Autumnus, et alba mox et
     frigida bruma
vere solvetur vice. nos tamen non
huc redimus; nos, abituri amici,
ex pylis late gerimus, calentes
     cordibus altis,
signa doctrinae: variis alumnis
Mater auget mundum iterum suis. sic
saecula excedunt. semel, ergo, amici
     progredientes
ac simul cantamus, “Io, Triumphe!”
gestientes, et bis, “Io, Triumphe!”
dicimus caeloque feremus alto
     nobile nomen
Princetoniensis, memores sodalum
atque honesti. nunc ego “Ave,” beati,
non “Vale” dicam, atque “Fidelitate
     semper amate.”

Salutation

Given in the Academic Assembly of Princeton
In New Jersey on the 31^st of May
In the year 2011
In the 264^th Academic Year

Salutatory Poem

With what measures, what beginnings, loving
Mother, should I greet your progeny?
    Bless this endeavor, Muses, so that I
        don’t stumble blushing over untried feet!
Glorious tiller of harvests for us
and prosperous leader: you, good
    guardian, I first salute, for all things
        flourish under your guiding light; nor
Will I pass by in silence all of you who
wisely protect our kindly mother, always
   and for all. Our professors too I praise
        as a grateful daughter, and I sing
Of their scholarship, which nurtures their students
with special kindness, excellently, attentively,
    patiently: your devotion to us
        is great, your attachment deep and learned.
And you, our parents: this morning you believe
that we are scholars, since you have seen us
    take pleasure in my little song: behold,
        now we fulfill your honorable hopes.

Now, in rather humbler meters
I address you candidly, friends:
forgive me for being highfalutin just now –
I was told to sing in a serious manner.
But now, naughty Muses, reveal far and wide
all the various indiscretions of this class (Ha!):
the lectures we’ve ditched, the parties
of raging, Bacchic licentiousness we’ve thrown,
the long nights of shameful love, and how many
and with whom we spent them –
What now? Getting annoyed with me?
Don’t pretend you’re a bunch of saints or innocents –
and why fear? There’s no way at all
your parents can understand what I’m saying.
And if you’ve really never done any of these –
Great Hercules! I say only this to you: “Miserable wretch!”
Cherish the memory of your foibles
as well as your success, o friends
(not that our Mother was ever grudging with success):
She knows all, but forgives: Real Life isn’t always like that.
What joy it has been to be a young tiger!
But the jealous Fates, friends, have given
each of us, alas, only a short time here.

Here the heat-bearing days will return;
beneath a crisp sky, Autumn will flourish
in its fiery foliage, and then soon hoary,
     freezing Winter
will be dissolved by Spring’s changes. But we
do not return here; we, friends, will depart
from these gates, bearing far and wide, aflame
     with lofty hearts,
the standards of our learning: with her diverse progeny
our Mother again enriches the world. So
the generations advance onward. Marching once
    and only once, then, friends,
and all together, we sing, “Hurrah, Victory!”
exulting, and twice again say, “Hurrah, Victory!”
and will lift to heaven’s lofty arch
     the noble name
of Princeton, keeping each other close to our hearts,
ever forthright. Blessed friends, I shall say “Hail,” not
“Farewell,” and this too: “With undying loyalty,
     love each other always.”

Students Visit Ancient Rome Without Leaving Clarks Green Classrooms

"Second-grader Joshua Jayne was decked out as a Roman centurion Tuesday, surrounded by classmates in bedsheets, as they visited ancient Rome in their own school cafeteria. Each year, Abington Christian Academy holds a living history day to give students a chance for hands-on learning, said school administrator Jan Wells." Read more: http://thetimes-tribune.com/news/students-visit-ancient-rome-without-leaving-clarks-green-classrooms-1.1152101#ixzz1NNOaWZx4

Salutatorian Brings Latin to Life as ‘Something Really Beautiful’

Princeton's web site has a nice story about Veronica Shi, a classics major, who will deliver the traditional Latin oration at commencement ceremonies on May 31. Read it online here.

Temple of Greek Goddess Demeter and Daughter Persephone Found in Sozopol

"In the Bulgarian seaside resort town of Sozopol, archaeologists have unearthed an ancient temple of the goddess Demeter and her daughter Persephone, the private television channel bTV Reported on May 18 2011. The finds were made at Cape Skamnii in the ancient town of Sozopol. Numerous statues and other artifacts have been found, indicating that the site was, indeed, a temple dedicated to Demeter and Persephone." Read more in The Sofia Echo…

Rome Rises in Malibu

"Strolling through outer peristyle of the Getty Villa in Malibu, Calif., is about as close as you can get to time travelling. It’s easy to feel just like a Roman citizen discussing the affairs of the day while meandering through the gardens dotted with bronze statues or sitting at the edge of the 67-metre-long reflecting pool beneath a low-hanging sun. The only thing missing is the toga. While the ancient ruins of Pompeii and Herculaneum in southern Italy leave visitors to piece together in their own minds what the daily lives of Romans must have been like, the Getty Villa leaves very little to the imagination." Read more in the Toronto Star.

Thursday Poem at 3 Quarks Daily

This Thursday's poem at 3 Quarks Daily is full of puns with a classical theme:

The Agamemnon Rag

Atlas, you’re Homer. I am so glad you’re Hera.
Thera so many things to tell you. I went on that
minotaur of the museum. The new display centaurs
on how you can contract Sisyphus if you don’t use
a Trojan on your Dictys. It was all Greek to me, see.
When I was Roman around,
I rubbed Midas against someone. “Medea, you look like a Goddess,”
he said. The Minerva him! I told him to
Frigg off, oracle the cops. “Loki here,” I said.
“In Odin times men had better manners.” It’s best to try
and nymph that sort of thing in the bud. He said he knew
Athena two about women like me, then tried to Bacchus
into a corner. Dryads I could, he wouldn’t stop.
“Don’t Troy with my affections,” he said.
“I’m already going to Helen a hand basket.”
I pretended to be completely Apollo by his behavior.
If something like that Mars your day, it Styx with you
forever. “I’m not Bragi,” he said. “But Idon better.”
Some people will never Lerna. Juno what I did?
Valhalla for help. I knew the police would
Pegasus to the wall. The Sirens went off.
Are you or Argonaut guilty, they asked.
He told the cops he was Iliad bad clams.
He said he accidentally Electra Cupid himself
trying to adjust a lamp shade. This job has its
pluses and Minos. The cops figured he was Fulla it.
He nearly Runic for me. I’m telling you,
it was quite an Odyssey, but I knew things would
Pan out. And oh, by the way, here’s all his gold.
I was able to Fleece him before the museum closed.

by Jack Conway
from Poetry, July 2005

A Classical Education to Treasure

"'Heracles to Alexander the Great: Treasures from the Royal Capital of Macedon, a Hellenic Kingdom in the Age of Democracy' is as crowded with objects as its title is with ideas. The Ashmolean manages to cram in about 500 objects, discovered in the royal tombs and palaces of Aegae (modern-day Vergina in the north of Greece), most of which are being displayed for the very first time." Read more at The Wall Street Journal.

Too good to be true?

This just in from Euro Weekly News:

71 UNKNOWN MANUSCRIPTS DISCOVERED IN HUELVA

"EXPERTS from Huelva University have discovered 71 unknown manuscripts of Roman poet Ovid (43BC-17AD). The manuscripts, most of them codices and fragments which were not known to even exist, have been found in different libraries around the world and most of them belong to Ovid’s greatest work, The Metamorphosis.

"The professor of Latin Philology at the university, Luis Rivero, commented that these are versions or interpretations of the work which date from ancient times to the modern age, and almost complete the collection of all manuscripts concerning the author and his work, amounting to 538.

"This makes Huelva a reference point for researchers of Ovid worldwide."

The original story can be found at http://www.euroweeklynews.com/2011050386853/news/spain/71-unknown-manuscripts-discovered-in-huelva.html

‘Spider-Man’ Musical Dissected by a Classics Scholar

"The transformation of humans into monsters or animals is a standard feature of two great genres: classical Greek and Roman myth and American comic books. As those of us know who spent our childhoods and teenaged years greedily hoarding the latter, such transformations are only occasionally effected by a mere change of costume. Batman, for instance (introduced in 1939), is an ordinary Homo sapiens who simply dons his bat-like hood and cape when he wants to battle evildoers; his extraordinary powers are the fruit of disciplined intellectual and physical training. More often—and more excitingly—the metamorphoses occur at the genetic level. The Incredible Hulk, who debuted in 1962, is a hypertrophied Hercules-like giant, the Mr. Hyde aspect of an otherwise mild-mannered scientist named Bruce Banner, created during a laboratory accident involving gamma rays. Wolverine, one of the X-men, who sports lupine traits following his transformations, belongs to a despised race of “mutants” with remarkable powers. (The comic book series, now reincarnated as a hugely popular film franchise, debuted in 1963.)" Read more at The New York Review of Books.

University Classics Club Makes 15-hour Homerathon Epic

"Keeping the tradition of oral recitation alive in the age of technological storytelling, the University Classics Club hosted Homerathon, a 15-hour long recital of Homer’s The Odyssey." Read more…

Digital Worlds Institute receives grant for project with classics department

"The University of Florida College of Fine Arts and Digital Worlds Institute has been awarded $50,000 by the National Endowment for the Humanities Office of Digital Humanities." Read more…

Heracles to Alexander, Ashmolean Museum, review

The phrase “Temenid dynasty” doesn’t exactly trip off the tongue. But this august lineage, which produced Philip II and Alexander the Great, was key to the development of the Western world. And in the Ashmolean’s dazzling display of archaeological finds the history of early Greece comes alive. Read more at The Telegraph.com…

Roman Ship Emerges Near Ancient Port

A 2,000-year-old Roman ship in the middle of a plain near the ancient port of Rome has been unearthed by Italian archaeologists. Read more in Discovery News…

Penn Libraries to launch new Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies

The Penn Libraries have received a major collection of 280 Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts, valued at over $20 million, from long-time benefactors and Library Board members Lawrence J. Schoenberg (C’53, WG’57, PAR’93) and Barbara Brizdle Schoenberg. To promote the use of this and other manuscript collections at Penn, the Libraries will create the Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies.

Full press release:
http://www.library.upenn.edu/docs/publications/SchoenbergMssCollection.pdf

Under Rome, a Trip Back to Imperial Times

"As a rule, digging beneath the surface of modern Rome turns up ancient buildings. Excavations conducted in 2007, just steps from the traffic hub of Piazza Venezia, revealed two Imperial era villas embellished with mosaics, polychrome wall veneers, fountains and frescoes. Dating back to the second and third centuries, these opulent dwellings were abandoned in late antiquity, filled with landfill, and unknowingly used as foundations for the 16th-century Palazzo Valentini, now seat of the Province of Rome’s offices." Read more in the New York Times…

William F. Wyatt Jr., Brown classics scholar, dies at 78

"William F. Wyatt Jr., 78, professor emeritus and former chairman of the department of classics at Brown University, and a prolific contributor to the op-ed page of The Providence Journal, died March 25 in The Miriam Hospital, Providence." Read the full obituary at the Providence Journal Online…

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