Classics in Contemporary Culture

New Blog!

On the heels of rogueclassicism, I'd like to herald the arrival on the scene of a new blog:  Pop Classics.  It's the work of a grad student in Classics at Birmingham, and already has some extended posts on Star Trek:  Voyager, Harry Potter, the Life of Brian, Terry Pratchett, Dr. Who, and Red Dwarf...I look forward to more!

Classics in Contemporary Politics

FYROM or Republic of Macedonia?  Does Greece own the rights to the name "Macedonia"?  Did Alexander the Great speak a Slavic language?  The "name dispute" has caused riots, and has so far stymied the country's desire to enter NATO...This week, Hillary Clinton received an award from the "National Coordinated Effort of Hellenes"; she answered some questions:

QUESTION: I was wondering on another subject --

SECRETARY CLINTON: Yes.

QUESTION: -- on the FYROM issue, which you mentioned.

SECRETARY CLINTON: Yes.

QUESTION: There is hope that maybe this Administration will be a little bit more sensitive to Greece’s sensitivities, and you personally. Will you address the issue, and do you plan doing something so we can solve this and more forward with their accession to the EU and NATO?

SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, we have been very committed to that. I have spoken out about the need to resolve the name issue in a way that is acceptable to both parties. And Deputy Secretary Steinberg was recently in the region making that case. We have picked up this issue with a lot of commitment early on in our Administration. Obviously, this has to be resolved by the parties themselves, but we are urging that resolution. We think it is in everyone’s best interest. As you said, it would open the way for movement toward another nation joining the European Union, which we think promotes stability in the region, so we are very committed to doing what the United States can to facilitate that.

FYROMians also would like to resolve things...

Meanwhile, Classicists have also stepped into the fray. Stephen Miller drafted a letter to President Obama, which has been co-signed by a number of scholars, arguing against the former Yugoslav republic's claim to the name "Macedonia"; a version of the letter appears here, with supporting documentation here. Daniel Tomkins wrote a response to Miller's letter, arguing that on the one hand, ancient Macedonia was not simply "Greek"--and on the other hand, the ramped-up nationalistic fervor is not helping matters on either side. It's worth looking through both.

My position? Ancient Macedonians were not considered Greek (by Greeks) across the board, however many of them spoke Greek, and however much the royal line was acknowledged to have Hellenic identity. On the other hand, clearly Alexander did not speak a Slavic language; he was culturally more or less Greek. Ethnicity is a cultural construct, not a fact of nature...

Unconstitutional Latin

Bill Poser at Language Log points out a blog that argues that "Legal Latin" - i.e., Latin as used in the legal profession - is unconstitutional, as a violation of the Establishment clause:  It is the "foreign language of a church."  That's pretty hilarious in and of itself, but I would probably not have written this post except for the by-way indicated by one of the commenters:  In Ex Parte Lockett (1919), a sodomy law in California was found unconstitutional because of the Latin terminology it used.  In this case the Latin was not unconstitutional per se, but because the use of Latin technical terms rendered it unclear to the public which acts were being prohibited by the law. Apparently Justice Henry Melvin in a related prior opinion included discussion of passages from Martial in an attempt to cast doubt on the precision of the terms and thus the law itself...

Greek Things from Asbury Park, NJ

For Memorial Day, an editorial in the Asbury Park Press cites historical antecedents...

This heartfelt desire on the part of the living to remember those who gave what Lincoln called "the last full measure of devotion" is not new. Pericles called the Athenians to remember their fallen sons in his magnificent funeral oration: ". . . on the battlefield their feet stood fast, and in an instant, at the height of their fortune, they passed away from the scene, not of their fear, but of their glory."

Here's a translation of the whole oration...

Classics for Kids, for Adults

There is to be a conference entitled "Asterisks and Obelisks. Classical Receptions in Children's Literature" at the University of Wales, Lampeter July 6-10 2009, as OH on CLASSICS-L points out.

Keynote invited speakers (authors) :

• Caroline Lawrence, author of the Roman Mysteries series
• Michael Cadnum, author of several novels and short stories based on classical myth and literature
• Lucy Coats, author of Atticus the Storyteller's 100 Greek Myths

Keynote invited speakers (academics) :

• Prof. Edith Hall, Professor of Classics and Drama, Royal Holloway, University of London
• Prof. Sheila Murnaghan, Professor of Classical Studies, University of Pennsylvania
• Prof. Deborah Roberts, Professor of Comparative Literature and Classics, Haverford College
• Prof. Jean Webb, Director of the International Centre for Research in Children's Literature, Literacy and Creativity; Professor of International Children's Literature, University of Worcester

Booking deadline: June 5th (late bookings subject to a £10 admin fee).

See the website for more details...

Imperia Sine Fine

Paul Walton, writing about the "Empire Days"celebration in Nanaimo, BC (he would rather rename it "Heritage Days"), runs through some of the history of empires, to compare the British Empire with earlier ones...strangely neglecting Persia, Assyria, etc. (working back from his "first" - the Athenian):

The veneer that the British were not as bad as other European empires, such as the Belgians under King Leopold II, stands up, though rather thinly. In his book, King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa, Adam Hochschild documents not only how the king of the Belgians slaughtered millions in Africa as he sought to create his own empire, but the curious British response.

Toward the end of Leopold's efforts to make his own empire, also well documented in Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, a movement sprang up in England opposing Leopold's slavery and extreme brutality. But the British movement said nothing about racism or domination by foreign powers, only opposing slavery and the genocidal methods in doing so.

That's not a judgment upon Victorian England. They could see their own racist tendencies about as easily as the Romans, another great empire, could question the morality of slavery. Among all known Roman writing, no discussion has ever been found in which the morality of slavery was questioned.

The first great empire the world saw was that of the nation-state of ancient Athens. The "thesis" of the great Greek historian Thucydides was that all states must either seek to dominate or be part of an empire that dominates. Some argue that the British took that mantle, as handed down from the Athenians to the Romans the Holy Roman Church, and through European conquerors.

One of the problems with those who fail to see the dark side of the empire is that they compare the less brutal methods of the British to more violent ways of achieving compliance. The British, like the Romans, realized that extreme violence and terror only bred revolution. Instead they used bribery, both using force only if they could neither corrupt nor convince local powers.

Those who recall the glory of the British Empire, and it was certainly glorious to those in Britain, recall only a very small piece of history...

Hmm...a number of things seem half-right rather than right...

Legendary Tale / Legendary Ballet

Clytemnestra, a full-length dance drama by choreographer and dancer Martha Graham originally produced in 1958, was revived earlier this month at (New York) City Ballet.  Robert Gottlieb, who saw the first production, reviews the current version in the New York Times:

IS Martha Graham’s Clytemnestra one of her masterpieces, or is it Hollywood kitsch? People have been arguing about this for half a century, but I’m not the person to settle the question: As it happens, this full-evening version of the Oresteia was the first work of Graham’s I ever saw, back in 1958, its first season, (I’d spent the previous 10 years soaking up ballet), and I was overwhelmed.

Clytemnestra was a revelation—of a great imaginative genius at work, a startling new (to me) dance language, and a dance company at its zenith. I didn’t know Graham’s previous Greek dramas—Cave of the Heart, Night Journey, Errand into the Maze, all of them more compressed, more charged. I only knew I had come upon something awe-inspiring.

Since then, we’ve had to witness the tragedy of Graham’s collapse, both as a choreographer and as a responsible guardian of her own work. She herself wore out, although even during the sad spectacle of the end of her dancing career (when she was well into her 70s), she could lift her arm and thrill you. The company, alas, drastically deteriorated when she dismissed all her chief disciples, and her later works were pathetic shadows of her great accomplishments.

Despite certain vacant passages and strained effects, Clytemnestra still seems to me a landmark achievement, its architecture valid and its force undeniable. It’s been meticulously re-created (it was last seen 15 years ago), so that Graham’s remarkable reimagination of the material unfolds seamlessly and effectively.  But then do we ever get over a first love?

The current dancers have achieved a remarkable level of proficiency, and have been carefully prepared. None of them is of the stature of the original cast (Maurizio Nardi, for instance, is a credible Aegisthus, but he’s no Paul Taylor). I particularly admired Blakeley White-McGuire as a flaming Cassandra and Tadej Brdnik’s tormented Orestes. Tall, severe Jennifer DePalo was an involving Electra, though radically different from Helen McGehee’s ferocious little attack animal.

The key role, of course, is Clytemnestra herself, and the performance of the remarkable Fang-Yi Sheu demonstrates the crucial change that’s come over the Graham repertory. Sheu has been the finest Graham interpreter of recent years, but although she gives us an honest and careful performance, she simply lacks the power, the rage, the passion, the intensity of Graham herself. Throughout the excellent company, in fact, it’s this diminished level of expressivity that fatally marks the difference between the way they dance and what I fell in love with in 1958. Graham, however, is not alone in this. Take today’s New York City Ballet: It’s suffered the same sea change. Wherever you look, in fact, technique is in, feeling is out.

And here's another review, with more description of the dance:

The story here begins in the underworld, with Clytemnestra already dead, and is told in flashbacks. All is seen through her eyes, as she remembers the various events [from her marriage to Orestes' acquittal]. Opera-like supertitles (shown on a screen above the stage) tell you what is going on, which part of the story you’re seeing and when. There was a lot of animosity to the supertitles, which I know from attending a press conference last Thursday are a new addition. The company felt not enough people today were familiar with the story.

In the Company of Myths

Bash:  The Latterday Plays - a trio of one-acts by Neil LaBute - is being staged in Wilmington, NC.  The plays include two apparent adaptations of Greek tragedy:  "Medea Redux" and "Iphigenia in Orem."  From the review in Encore Online:

Morganna Bridgers is equally appealing in “Medea Redux.” This title is more suggestive of a disturbing plot, in fact, based on the Greek myth that has become a contemporary psychological term, the Medea complex. The plot is not unusual; a teenage girl has an affair with her teacher and gets pregnant. The most disturbing aspect of the story is that the character has presumably planned her revenge for years. Bridgers’ dispassionate account of her actions is chillingly revolting and brilliantly acted.

Just like it’s impossible to ignore a car accident, this trilogy captivates. It would be sensible to walk away from the evil, but some inner perversity immobilizes the audience. It couldn’t possibly get worse, but it does. Anthony Lawson plays the protagonist, “just a regular guy,” in “Iphigenia in Orem.” Like “Medea Redux,” the title is revealing. Orem, Utah, is the character’s hometown, but it is also the birthplace of Joseph Smith, founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints. Iphigenia, which ironically means “strong born,” is the daughter of Agamemnon in Greek mythology.

The most shocking element in this story is the absolute denial of culpability; although, it is apparent in different degrees in each story. Lawson’s “aw shucks” performance captures a character who shows no remorse and, in fact, seems to attribute blame to others and to fate. Apparently, life just goes on after committing an unspeakable act: eat pizza, have sex, go to church.

This is a powerful play that should be seen; it is shockingly brutal, but it is real. Ted Bundy was a likable guy. Susan Smith drowned her children because her boyfriend didn’t want kids. The juxtaposition of normal people and insane behavior is not fiction. Don’t go alone.

Is LaBute a modern-day Euripides?  He has the reputation for misogyny and putting despicable characters on stage down pat...There is more information on these plays in a review of an earlier performance.

Pan with iPod

What more need be said?  Here are the pictures; here's the story.

[Thanks to APA Agora.]

Now and Later Antiquity

Stephen Mitchell, in the introduction to his recently published History of the Later Roman Empire (Blackwell, 2007), advances some parallels between the 21st-century world and the world of Late Antiquity, and their implications for our understanding of history:

...we should not too readily underestimate the significance of these changes simply because they have occurred in a short space of time. The extraordinarily rapid breakdown of the Soviet empire in 1989/90 not only revealed how fragile imperial structures may be, but has also led to major shifts in the balance of world power. Within the same few years one of the world's great religions, Islam, has also undergone a drastic transformation. Radical movements have become prominent, religious belief has crystallized into violent political action, secular statecraft has lost ground to the charisma of religious leadership. Similar developments can easily be identified within Christianity and Judaism. The significance of the Islamic terrorist attack on the twin towers in New York has been colossal. Events of this magnitude lead to huge shifts in the world's historical alignments. The nations of the world have been presented with stark choices about the nature of their relationship to the remaining imperial power, the USA. The nations of Europe after the collapse of the Russian empire have been reconfigured into the European Union, the world's most powerful economic bloc. Its members confront the implications of this for their own nationhood, and debate whether religious identity should be a prime criterion for membership. Population transfers and large scale migration, especially within Europe, have had profound social and economic implications, and have contributed to the formation of new communal identities. The viability of nation-states themselves, the foundation of the modern world order, faces serious challenges both from transnational economic corporations and from religious ideologies.

Within our own immediate recollection we can appreciate the impact of imperial power and the entanglement of religion and secular politics. We have not only observed but undergone changes in national character and communal identity, and our recent experience enables us to document the vulnerability of national sovereignty to economic, political, or religious pressures. In addition many of the shifts in our collective perceptions can be traced to specific events and political developments. The world is not immune to the impact of histoire evenementielle. The events through which we have lived in the last twenty years cast a strong light back on later Roman history. They help to enhance our understanding of the evolution of the Roman and Sassanian empires, the role of Christianity as a defining force within society, the role of smaller civic units, the impact of the barbarian migrations, and the political and social transformations that followed from them. The history of the later Roman Empire holds up a mirror to the world we live in today. Through our contemporary experience we are better able to appreciate and learn from the past. (pp. 8-9)