A lthough unfamiliar to most classi-cists, the work of internationallyacclaimed sculptor Anita Huffing-

ton embodies the classical spirit inimportant ways. Huffington often drawsfrom classical mythology when titling herworks, and her fragmentary, erodedfigures physically echo the remains ofclassical and archaic sculptures. But moreimportant, the ways that Huffington’slife experiences relate to the prominentappearance of ancient art and mythologyin her work illustrate why these mythshave proved so enduring. As art criticAmei Wallach has said, Huffington’s artstrives to “. . . reconnect us across cen-turies and continents with what hasalways been most human and most true.That primal connection has from the firstbeen a cardinal task of art making, butwe badly needed Anita Huffington toremind us it was so” (“Anita Huffington:The Inner Life of the Outer Skin.” The Elemental Nude: Sculpture by AnitaHuffington. [Fayetteville, AR: Walton ArtsCenter, 2004], 2).

Huffington was born in Baltimore in1934. She attended the University ofNorth Carolina, where she majored indance, drama, and art. She then movedto New York City and studied dance

with Martha Graham and MerceCunningham. There, she eventuallydecided against a career in dance andgravitated toward the visual arts andjoined a circle of artists from the NewYork School, a group that includedWillem de Kooning, Franz Kline, andPhilip Guston. She went back to school,studying art at Bennington College and

Book Review: PercyJackson & The Olympiansby James J. O’Hara and Marika A. O’Hara

Rick Riordan. Percy Jackson & TheOlympians. 5 vols. Disney Hyperion,2005-2009. The Lightning Thief. 2005.Hardcover. Pp. 384. ISBN 064172344X.Paperback. Pp. 392. ISBN 0786838655.The Sea of Monsters. 2006. Hardcover.Pp. 288. ISBN 0786856866 Paperback.Pp. 304. ISBN 1423103343. The Titan’sCurse. 2007. Hardcover. Pp. 320. ISBN1423101456. Paperback. Pp. 336. ISBN1423101480. The Battle of the Labyrinth.2008. Hardcover. Pp. 368. ISBN1423101464. Paperback. Pp. 384. ISBN1423101499. The Last Olympian. 2009.Hardcover. Pp. 400. ISBN 1423101472.Paperback. Pp. 400. ISBN 1423101505.

When dyslexic, A.D.H.D.-hamperedmiddle-schooler Percy Jackson’s

math teacher Mrs. Dodds turns into awinged monster who attacks him, luckilythe pen recently given to him by his wheel-chair-bound Latin teacher Mr. Brunner turnsinto a sword capable of killing just such amonster. The Latin teacher turns out to beChiron (whose horsey parts miraculouslyfold within his special wheelchair). Chirontells Percy (short for Perseus) that he is thehalf-divine son of Poseidon and one of anumber of “half-bloods” who live in themodern U.S.A., and that his dyslexia andattention-deficit-hyperactivity disorder resultfrom his being “wired” for reading AncientGreek, and having reflexes built for battlerather than for the classroom. Monsters likeMrs. Dodds (a Fury) want to kill the half-bloods, whose presence in our world theycan sense. Chiron takes Percy to CampHalf-Blood on Long Island, a camp fordemigods run by the resentful Mr. D.(Dionysus), forced to do this job as punish-ment for chasing “an off-limits wood

CLASSICS REWRITTEN INSTONE: THE ART OF ANITAHUFFINGTON by Kirsten Day

A publication of the American Philological Association Vol. 9 • Issue 1 • Spring 2010

THE ROMANS IN GAUL TODAY: LIVING HISTORY AND EXPERIMENTALARCHAEOLOGY IN THE RHÔNE-ALPESREGION OF FRANCE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

CARL SESAR, TRANSLATOR OF CATULLUS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Ask A Classicist. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

TELLMEOMUSE: MAKING HOMER’S“ODYSSEY” AND GREEK MYTHOLOGYMORE ACCESSIBLE TO MORE PEOPLE . . . 7

ART AT TELLMEOMUSE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

HERODOTUS EARTH: MAPPING ANDNETWORKING THE “HISTORIES”. . . . . . . 10

Book Review: “Ancient Athens on 5 Drachmas a Day” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Iphigenia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Book Review: “Dragonflies: A Novel” . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

“PRIOR INCANTATO”: GRECO-ROMANMAGIC FLOWING FROM J.K. ROWLING’SWAND . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Book Review: “Medicus: A Novel ofthe Roman Empire”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

GUIDELINES FOR CONTRIBUTORS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

continued on page 12

®

continued on page 6

Insi

de

Fig. 1. Persephone (1999). Photograph by David Finn.

Living history is the process wherebyhistory enthusiasts research a period,design and build costumes and

sometimes weapons and implements ofdaily life, and create personae in order toreenact events from the past, often athistorically significant sites. The peopleand events that one reads about in booksand hears about in school become realwhen one visits an historical site wherecostumed museum staff reenact life inanother era. But can living history gobeyond parading costumes and help us tounderstand the people and customs,even the movement and behavior of lifein ancient times? Is there, in fact, a con-nection between living history andexperimental archaeology?

Experimental archaeology may beseen as a way of looking at historical orarchaeological problems that movesbeyond the library or the dig. It appliestrial-and-error methods to problemsfrom the past that cannot be answeredonly by library research or by artifacts ina museum or at an archaeological site.But experimental archaeology is not thesame as living history. Even thoughliving history and experimental archae-ology may be two different things, theheuristic methods – (the experimentaltrial and error techniques) – employedby both enterprises nevertheless connectthem. Through attempts to recreateantiquity, living history approachesexperimental archaeology. FrançoisGilbert is the founder and president ofPax Augusta (http://www.paxaugusta.net), a reenactment group based nearLyon, France, that recreates Romanmilitary and civilian life during the reignof Augustus. Gilbert, author of fivebooks and numerous articles on subjectsranging from the Roman Army toRoman women, remarks that experi-mental archaeology means more thanparading in historical costume. Theparade, in effect, is the presentation ofthe research.

At present, numerous North American and European reenactmentgroups dedicate themselves to recon-structing ancient Roman military andcivilian life. Matthew Amt, an Americanreenactor in the Washington, D.C. areawho founded Legio XX, lists on his

website about fifty-two active groups inthe United States and Canada and aboutsixty groups in Europe and Russia(http:// www.larp.com/legioxx/index.html). A number of reenactors in Ameri-ca and in Europe have relied on Amt’sresearch as they formed their own livinghistory groups. They regard Amt as anauthority on historical reenactment,praising the Legio XX website as one ofthe best. When asked to consider thosewho have influenced his work on Romanreenactment, Amt refers to an AmericanRevolutionary War reenactment groupto which he belonged, stressing thatgroup’s dedication to authenticity in cre-ating costumes and weapons; he alsoacknowledges the book The RomanLegions Recreated in Colour Photographs byDaniel Peterson (Crowood 1999), as wellas the historical scholarship of J.E.Lendon in Soldiers and Ghosts: A Historyof Battle in Classical Antiquity (Yale 2005).The Ermine Street Guard (http://www.erminestreetguard .co.uk/), an Englishreenactment group founded in 1972, alsoreceives praise from reenactors such asAmt because of its high standards ofauthenticity.

Finding a reenactment in NorthAmerica, however, is not always easy.The North American groups are

scattered widely across the continent.One can, of course, see reenactments ofRoman military and civilian life in recentpopular films based on ancient historysuch as Gladiator. One can find reenact-ments of the Roman world on PBS andthe History Channel. But the obviousmajor impediment to reenactment ofancient Roman life in North America islocation. North American reenactors facea clear disadvantage compared to theirEuropean counterparts, for not onlymust the Americans recreate costumes,weapons, and the implements of Romandaily life, but they must also recreate thehistorical space, since there are noancient Roman sites in North America.European reenactors have the advantageof recreating history at places whereRoman history actually occurred. There-fore, it is much easier to be aware of theRomans in Gaul, that is, France, wherethe Roman presence has been felt forover two millennia.

Of the many Roman ruins through-out France, the Rhône-Alpes region inparticular has many outstanding sites.Aix-les-Bains has the funeral arch ofLucius Pompeius Campanus, a patricianfrom Gallia Narbonensis, and thesecond-best surviving Roman temple onFrench soil, the so-called Temple of

THE ROMANS IN GAUL TODAY: LIVINGHISTORY AND EXPERIMENTAL ARCHAEOLOGYIN THE RHÔNE-ALPES REGION OF FRANCE by Timothy Wutrich

2

Fig. 2. The Italian reenactment group Legio XXX Ulpia Traiana Victrix broughtthis functional scorpio, an ancient siege weapon that fires arrows, to the Gallo-Roman days in Saint-Romain-en-Gal (Isère, France) in June 2006.

Diana. In Lyon and its vicinity, one cansee the ruins of aqueducts and baths,the vestiges of Roman roads, an arena,and two still-functional theaters. Fur-ther down the Rhône Valley one comesupon the modern cities of Saint-Romain-en-Gal and Vienne, situatedopposite each other on the right and leftbanks respectively of the Rhône River.In antiquity a prosperous Roman Imper-ial town called Vienna occupied the sitewhere these two modern cities stand.Today the impressive ruins of ancientVienna that one may see include ves-tiges of warehouses, baths, streets, andhomes, many with elaborate and beauti-ful mosaics (in Saint-Romain-en-Gal)and a Roman temple, a Roman theater,and a museum (in modern Vienne).

In 2001 the Musée Gallo-Romain,with branches in both Lyon and Saint-Romain-en-Gal, working with the PôleArchéologique du département duRhône (the archaeology office of theRhône), instituted a public outreachevent to raise interest in ancient historyand archaeology. This event, “LesJournées Gallo-Romaines” (Gallo-Roman Days), featured the work of“Gallia Antiqua,” a federation of six ofthe most prominent reenactment groupsin France. The Gallo-Roman Daysevent has become an annual institutionin which groups of reenactors gather atthe archaeological site in Saint-Romain-en-Gal and for two days set up camp.While the Roman groups do not pitch afull castra (military camp), they do setup tents containing not only somemilitary equipment and armor, but alsohousehold gods and images of theemperor. The Gallic reenactors, on theother hand, arrive with wagons and gear,including wild boar standards, colorfulshields, and the animal skins and bonesassociated with Gallic warrior culture.For two days, the Roman and Gallicarmies go through maneuvers, drill inLatin and in Celtic (a dialect of which isstill spoken in Brittany), and engage inskirmishes with blunted weapons.

But military matters are not the reen-actors’ sole concern. Civilians, male andfemale, adults and children, areinvolved. One can hold a wax writingtablet and a stylus, or look at Romanboard games and learn about the typesof games probably played. Armand Des-bat, an archaeologist from the CentreNational de Recherche Scientifique(C.N.R.S., the National Center for Sci-entific Research), sets up functionalRoman pottery kilns to make terra cottalamps, bowls, and amphorae. PaxAugusta’s troupe of gladiators performs.The women of Pax Augusta recreate

ancient dances, and in 2008 the menperformed their reconstruction of theSalian Dances, the dances performed bythe Salian priests in honor of Mars.

In 2006 the Musée Gallo-Romainwidened the scope of the JournéesGallo-Romaines and created an éditioneuropéenne. Gallia Antiqua was invited,as well as reenactors from Germany andItaly. Visitors could examine the Gallicand Roman camps and look at both mil-itary and artisanal demonstrations.There were military drills, demonstra-tions on tactics and maneuvers, as wellas the firing of artillery: the reenactors

from the region near modern Rome,Legio XXX Ulpia Traiana Victrix,brought a functional scorpio, an ancientsiege weapon that fires arrows (see Fig.2). The highlight was a series of fightsbetween the Roman forces and the Gal-lic and Germanic warriors.

Additionally, the Gallo-Roman Daysin 2006 provided activities for the entirefamily. Children were invited to try oncostumes made by Christiane Cazanova,an archeostyliste, including a child-sizedversion of the Roman legionary panoply.The soldiers paraded, gladiators

The Gatekeeper to Gateway Campaign is moving toward several key deadlines.We are seeking to raise $450,000 by July 31, 2010, (for a Campaign total of

$2.1 million) and a grand total of $2.6 million by July 31, 2011, to secure everydollar of our $650,000 NEH Challenge Grant. As you’ve read previously, the Cam-paign seeks to establish an Endowment for Classics Research and Teaching to ensurethat its members will have the scholarly and pedagogical resources they need to dotheir work for decades to come. Specifically, the Campaign’s initial goals are tosupport the American Office of l’Année philologique, to encourage and increase thenumber of outstanding Classics teachers, and to develop a digital portal and otherpublic programs that will build the audience for Classics.

Please consider making a new or renewed Campaign pledge. Everydollar counts toward our goal and helps us claim matching funds from the NEH.Remember, you can pay a pledge on any schedule you like through July 2011, but apledge now will help the APA report the funds needed to claim the next NEH matchthis July.

• The NEH has extended our matching fund deadlines, but they are quickly approach-ing. The first deadline is July 31, 2010. By that time we have to have $2.1 millioncontributed or pledged in order to claim the final installment of our match. Then, byJuly 31, 2011, we must have the entire matching sum in hand.

• The Association has received almost $1.7 million in pledges from nearly 500 donorsand has claimed $460,000 of the $650,000 available from the NEH ChallengeGrant.

• We are particularly grateful to a number of Classics organizations in North Americawho have recently made contributions to the Campaign. They include the ClassicalAssociation of New England, Classical Association of the Atlantic States, ClassicalAssociation of the Middle West and South, Classical Association of the PacificNorthwest, and Classical Association of Minnesota.

• It is now possible to make a pledge to the Campaign online. Visit apaclassics.organd click on the link for “support APA” or “The Campaign for Classics” to be directedto a secure web site to make a new pledge and partial payment or make paymenton an existing pledge using your credit card.

• See the main Campaign page on the APA web site (http://www.apaclassics.org/campaign/campaign.html) for links to the revised, professionally produced versionof the demonstration of the digital portal, one of three priorities that this Campaignwill make possible. The demonstration is available in both Windows Media andQuicktime formats.

3continued on page 16

Capital Campaign News

In 1974, Selected Poems of Catullus, atranslation by Carl Sesar unique forits ability to capture Catullus’ poetic

voice in colloquial English, was pub-lished by Mason & Lipscomb, NewYork; it had Latin text on one side andEnglish on the facing page, with linedrawings by Arlene Dubanevich (seeFig. 3) and an Afterword by DavidKonstan. Then suddenly the publisherwent out of business. The book did notexactly disappear (it can be found inpublic libraries and many college anduniversity libraries), but, unfortunately,it has been “lost” to much of the generalpublic, as well as to many, if not most,professional classicists. Although itappeared to extremely positive criticalacclaim in the popular press and amongdistinguished writers and translators, itwas never reviewed in a classics journal,to the best of my knowledge. I hopethat by calling attention to this half-forgotten translation, both classicists andthe reading public, more generally, willreturn to reading it and a press will con-sider its republication.

The translator, Carl Sesar, was a clas-sicist himself, early on. After graduatingfrom the Bronx High School of Sciencein New York City, he earned a B.A. inGreek and Latin from the City Collegeof New York in 1957 and was awardedthe Claflin Gold Medal in Latin. Sesarmight have continued on to a career inclassics, but instead, he served in theU.S. Army from 1957 to 1961, duringwhich time he studied Chinese at theArmy Language School and did a tour ofduty in Korea. After his military servicehe began graduate work at ColumbiaUniversity with a National EducationAct Language Fellowship, did researchin Japan as a Fulbright scholar and FordFoundation fellow, and received aPh.D. in Chinese and Japanese atColumbia in 1971, with a dissertation onNo Drama and Chinese Literature.Sesar founded and chaired the Depart-ment of Asian Languages and Litera-tures at Wesleyan University, where hetaught from 1967 to 1975.

Translating Catullus was never farfrom his thoughts. Right after his mili-tary service Sesar began composing hisfirst translations and reading selectionsfrom them at various open-mike venuesin the East Village in New York City.Then, immersed in Chinese and Japan-ese studies, he set Catullus translations

aside for about ten years.Returning to them earnestlypost-Ph.D., Sesar did abroadcast of both his old andnew versions of Catullus onradio station WBAI, whichwas very well received.These radio readings culmi-nated in the publication ofhis 1974 volume.

Reviews of Sesar’s trans-lation upon its publicationwere almost unanimouslyenthusiastic, and ongoingreferences to his work eversince have also been verypositive. For a book thatwent out of print so quicklyafter publication, it contin-ues to capture the interestand attention of scholars,publishers, and the readingpublic to a notable extent.Sesar is still invited to speakabout his Catullus transla-tions. In 2008, he addressedthe Five College Faculty Seminar onLiterary Translation at Smith Collegewith a talk entitled, “Translating Catul-lus: A Retrospective, With FinishingTouches Added.”

Sesar has also spent a good deal oftime thinking about and articulatingissues of translation. This is clear fromhis engaging and enlightening piece,“Translating Takuboku,” in Currents inJapanese Culture: Translations and Trans-formations (edited by Amy VladeckHeinrich, Columbia University Press,1997). While not about translating Cat-ullus, this essay explains some of Sesar’sgoals and practices in his translations,more generally. His description, forexample, of the effect of the presence orabsence of something as seeminglyminor as a comma will affect my percep-tion of punctuation choices in transla-tions for a long time to come. Not allgood translators write well about whatthey do, nor need they. Sesar does.

A brief view of the early reception ofSelected Poems of Catullus shows theimpact the book made upon publica-tion. The dust jacket contained the fol-lowing endorsements from two majorliterary figures:

I know of no livelier versions of Catullus’ erotic and satirical poetrythan Carl Sesar’s. They are randy andobscene but the randiness is right for

once with the appropriate vernacularand poetic vigor. If they are oftenobscene so is Catullus, as the facingLatin text makes vividly clear to anyeducated eye. (This, from WilliamArrowsmith, one of the foremosttranslators of the classics of the lastgeneration.)

Carl Sesar’s translations seem to me tohave given Catullus a voice, a realhuman one, which is quite anachievement. (This, from RichardWilbur, Pulitzer Prize-winning authorand former Poet Laureate of theUnited States.)

In addition, the extent to which thistranslation of a Latin poet was coveredin the press is truly noteworthy. Amongthe newspapers and journals that pub-lished reviews were Saturday Review,Boston Sunday Globe, The KnickerbockerNews Union-Star, Memphis CommercialAppeal, Buffalo Courier Express, Los Ange-les Times, King Features Syndicate, NewYork Sunday Daily News, and (even)Screw Magazine. These reviews aboundin praise for Sesar’s success at makingCatullus, a poet from 2000 years ago,come alive for a contemporary audience.In the words of the Charleston News andCourier (Sept. 8, 1974), “Carl Sesar’s

CARL SESAR, TRANSLATOR OF CATULLUS by Ronnie Ancona

4

Fig. 3. Arlene Dubanevich providesillustrations for Sesar’s translations.

continued on page 8

QWe had the opportunity to visitthe Athenian Agora recently, andwere surprised to see a church

within the confines of the site. What’s thatabout?

A A visit to the Athenian Agoradeserves to be part of anyone’spilgrimage to Greece. Ancient

Athens’ civic center – the site of governmentbuildings providing office space for offi-cials, archives, law-courts, and meetingrooms - was integral to the life of the cityfrom the sixth century B.C. Visitors to themodern site will find the elegant temple ofHephaestus, what remains of the PaintedStoa, the Bouleuterion (the meeting houseof the council), the Tholos (the dining roomfor council members), and the elegantlyreconstructed Stoa of Attalos, now theAgora Museum. In the past, ancient festiveprocessions followed the Panathenaic Waythrough the Agora from the Dipylon Gate tothe Acropolis. The stoas of the Agoraoffered classrooms and lecture space forphilosophers and sophists throughout classi-cal antiquity. It is difficult for a modern visi-tor to the Agora not to feel awed at thethought of standing on a spot trodden somany centuries ago by individuals whoselives we care greatly about.

Visitors enter the site from the Thiseiometro station and, after perusing the muse-um collection in the Attalos Stoa, meander

along the paths leading among themonuments. As they approach the south-west corner of the Agora, very near theplace where the classical Mint and theimperial Roman Nymphaion had oncebeen, they will encounter Agioi ApostoliSolake, the Church of the Holy Apostles.

Holy Apostles is a small but veryimpressive church. It shares with other smallchurches still intact in Athens a number ofarchitectural features. Like Kapnikarea, thelittle church in the middle of the high-endshopping district on Hermou Street, HolyApostles is an example of the cross-in-square style, in which a central dome risesabove four corner bays, which in turn arejoined by four lower groin-vaulted bays.Characteristic of the Byzantine churches atAthens, Holy Apostles’ slender dome haseight small and narrow arches. One cansee a very similar dome atop St. JoannesTheologos on the way up to visit the Acro-polis, at the place where Erotokritou Streetmeets Erechtheos.

Holy Apostles does indeed seem out ofplace at a site that showcases the remainsof classical antiquity. Built during theeleventh century when Athens was part ofthe Byzantine Empire, not only is it by farthe most recent of the Agora monuments,but it also shares with the temple of He-phaestus the distinction of being more orless in the state its original builders intend-ed. This is not to say that it has not under-gone changes over the centuries. Some ofthese changes were quite destructive: dur-ing the seventeenth century, when the Vene-

tians challengedthe Ottoman pres-ence in Greece,part of the west-ern end of HolyApostles was seri-ously damagedby cannon fire.Other changesenlarged andattempted toimprove the littlechurch: one of themost extensive ofthese positivechanges occurredin the latter halfof the nineteenth

century. As Athens grew more aware of itsclassical past and concerned about preserv-ing its most ancient and beautiful antiqui-ties, this nineteenth-century addition wasremoved in 1954-6, when the church wascarefully and lovingly reconstructed withfunds provided by the Samuel H. KressFoundation.

Holy Apostles is a monument to theperenniality of Athens. This extraordinarycity has been inhabited for millennia:archaeologists, who with great care pry outthe individual levels of its habitation, cantrace its earliest dwellers to the NeolithicPeriod in the fifth millennium. According tothe American School of Classical Studies atAthens, primary excavator of the Agora,the use of the place as a city-center doesn’tbegin until the time of the rule of the Pisis-tratids in the mid-sixth century B.C., justdecades before the establishment of thedemocracy. Holy Apostles is a youthfulbuilding when looked at in these terms. Thelittle church was created at the beginning ofa period of prosperity for the Byzantinecity. It knew the Archbishop of Athens,Michael Akominates, before his exile at thecoming of the Western Europeans in 1204.The church watched the installation ofFrench ruling families in 1204, then thecoming of the Catalan conquistadores in1311, followed by Florentine and Venetiandukes in 1388. It saw the inception of theTurkocratia in Greece in 1456, whenAthens devolved into a village under thedominion of the Ottoman Turkish sultan atConstantinople. And it celebrated Athens’new status as capital of independentGreece in the year 1834. Now in 2010,sporting its newly reconstructed form, withrefreshed old icons and dome-tilesreplaced, it continues to welcome interna-tional visitors coming to enjoy the antiquityof the Athenian Agora.

Further information on, pictures of, andsuggestions for further reading about theChurch of the Holy Apostles can be foundat http://www.attalos.com/guide/Introduction.html, an excellent site main-tained by the Athenian School of ClassicalStudies at Athens. For an in-depth andinformative discussion of some of the greatchurches not only of Athens but many otherplaces around the world, seehttp://www.sacred-destinations.com/.

Ask A Classicist

5Fig. 4. Church of the Holy Apostles in the Athenian Agora.

nymph.” And so begins the series ofadventures of Percy Jackson and theOlympians.

Each of the five books has its own plot,but the larger arc of the series, like those ofboth the Harry Potter books and Lord of theRings, involves a supposedly neutralizedevil being attempting to return to take backcontrol of the world. Here the Titan Kronoswants to return from Tartarus and destroythe Olympians. Like Harry Potter, Percy isthe subject of an ambiguous prophecyabout his fated role in the fight against Kronos. Like Harry, too, Percy has a goofyfriend with a big appetite, only his friend isa Satyr. He also is good friends with a bril-liantly smart girl, in his case the daughter ofAthena; how Athena comes to have adaughter is not explained until the fourthbook, and the issue is handled very nicely.

Author Riordan is a middle-schoolteacher whose previous novels were forgrown-ups and featured semi-hard-boiledTexas-based detective Tres Navarre. Hesays (in interviews easy to find on-line) thathe came up with the stories to tell to his twoyoung sons, who he says are his first andbest editors. He also helped to editDemigods and Monsters, a collection ofessays on the Percy Jackson books, andbetween the fourth and fifth books pub-lished The Demigod Files, with brief storiesand fun “interviews” featuring the majorcharacters.

The five books involve getting back thespecial lightning bolt that has been stolenfrom Zeus (The Lightning Thief); retrievingthe Golden Fleece during a trip through themonster-ridden Bermuda Triangle (The Seaof Monsters); rescuing Athena’s daughter,Annabeth, from Kronos’ minions (TheTitan’s Curse); stopping the forces ofKronos from using the (location-shifting)Labyrinth to get into Camp Half-Blood (TheBattle of the Labyrinth); and the final battleto save Olympus, which takes place inManhattan (The Last Olympian).

The invented world of Percy’s adventuresis fairly rich in detail. Mt. Olympus is on the600th floor of the Empire State Building,accessible by a special elevator button,while Hades is under Los Angeles. Poseidonwears a Hawaiian shirt and Birkenstocks;

Hermes the messenger is always on his cell-phone; Ares dresses in leather and rides amotorcycle; and Apollo’s shape-shifting sun-chariot is often a convertible. Procrustesruns a mattress shop and Circe a spa;Medusa sells “realistic” lawn sculptures;Daedalus works out his inventions on a lap-top; and Percy’s half-brother, a youngCyclops, forges him a wristwatch thatunfolds into a full-sized shield.

Percy, the first-person narrator of thestories, has a sarcastic attitude towards life,the kind some kids really have in middleschool. One early chapter is called “IBecome Supreme Lord of the Bathroom”and is about how Percy begins to learn thepower he, as a son of the god of the sea,has over water. Percy always retains hissense of humor, even when a monster is try-ing to kill him; his jokes make the tonelighter than in the Potter books, thoughthere is also real danger (including mortaldanger to his mother early in the first book).From the first page Riordan treats the storyas though there really could be half-divinekids out there, unnoticed by us mortalsbecause of the divine “mist” (mentioned inHomer) that only a few special mortals cansee through.

Greek myth is handled with a centralcore of faithfulness. But Riordan takes atremendous amount of license in the way headapts Greek myth to the modern world.Consequently these books are not a goodintroduction to Greek myth. But they couldattract children to Greek mythology, andare fun for a young (or old) reader whoalready has some knowledge of myth. Thestories feature friendship, loyalty and betrayal(characters are not always who they seem),bravery, figuring out clues, and makinghard choices. The gods are, believably,

poor parents: cold, distant, and hard tocommunicate with, but most of them comethrough in the end. When Percy is offeredimmortality at a certain point in the story,kids will appreciate what he choosesinstead. The five books all move quickly,with plenty of action and wit. They makegreat reading for kids and pretty good read-ing for adults.

The movie of the first book opened onFebruary 12, 2010, directed by ChrisColumbus, who was at the helm for the firsttwo Harry Potter movies. Casting is a littleworrisome (see Fig. 5): well-known stars forthe gods and comparative unknowns for thekids, including a 23-year-old actress for thepart of the pre-teen (in the first book) daugh-ter of Athena. In an afterword to the fifthbook Riordan refers to it as closing “the firstCamp Half-Blood series,” and at a book-signing in Raleigh, N.C., Riordan said thatthe next series would feature a new genera-tion of half-bloods fighting against Egyptiangods who want to regain control of theworld, and that the next book, The RedPyramid, would appear by the end of the2009-2010 school year. We can’t wait.

James J. O’Hara (jimohara@unc.edu) isPaddison Professor of Latin at the Universityof North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His mostrecent book is Inconsistency in Roman Epic:Studies in Catullus, Lucretius, Vergil, Ovidand Lucan (Cambridge 2007). Marika A.O’Hara attends Culbreth Middle School inChapel Hill. 6

Book Review: PercyJackson & The Olympianscontinued from page 1

Fig. 5. Grover (Brandon T. Jackson),Percy (Logan Lerman), and Annabeth(Alexandra Diddario) battle monsters inthe Parthenon in Nashville, TN., in ChrisColumbus’ film version of The LightningThief (2010).

In September 2001 I read Homer’sOdyssey for the first time. It was in anight class taught by Diana

Gilliland Wright at The New School inManhattan. During the day I was work-ing as a researcher and consultant in thefield of corporate reputation. As a socialpsychologist, I found the study of repu-tation fascinating. Apparently so didmany other people based on the atten-tion given to the results of our research,which were published annually in TheWall Street Journal. But it took a classon Homer to reveal to me the realmeaning of the work I was doing.

It turns out that leading a corporationthrough the competitive battles in themarketplace and leading an expeditionto Troy are not really so different: simi-lar stories set 3,000 years apart. Homer’sheroic leaders cared about reputation,fame, glory (in Greek expressed by theterm kleos), and so do today’s corporateleaders. Soon I began to include refer-ences from Homer’s Odyssey in myreputation presentations to corporateexecutives. This epic origin of reputa-tion was just the first of many timelessthemes that would capture my atten-tion. But the relevance of the past to thepresent wasn’t limited to the corporateworld and reputation – it seemed to beeverywhere. People who have readHomer know this. But what about thepeople who haven’t read Homer?

Tell me, O Muse, of that ingenious herowho travelled far and wide. . . .trans. by Samuel Butler, 1900

TellmeOmuse was created in 2005, co-founded with artist Matthew Willey(see accompanying Art article, pg. 9).Our goal – to make Homer’s Odyssey andGreek mythology more accessible tomore people.

The Need for AccessibilityMost people have heard of Homer’s

Odyssey – perceptions of it vary, which isnot surprising given its 3,000-year his-tory. And although it’s been known tochange lives (the role of the Iliad andOdyssey in the work of Jonathan Shaywith Vietnam veterans, for example) –that’s something hard to understand by

those who have never read it. For some,it’s one of those books they feel theyshould read, but they just never getaround to it. There are others who don’tthink of reading Homer because theyassume the epics are boring, irrelevant,and way too intellectual to be any fun.

We also know that you just can’t tellpeople how great the Odyssey is andexpect them to believe it – they have toexperience the story for themselves. Butbefore they’ll even want to attempt toexperience something like Homer’sOdyssey, it has to be made accessible. AtTellmeOmuse, our approach to address-ing this need for accessibility has beento start with something familiar, addsomething new, and point to the rele-vance. We’ve spent the past five yearsapplying our approach in a variety ofways.

Recognizable ProductsPeople not familiar with Homer

might find it difficult to read the wordsfrom Homer’s Odyssey in a book contain-ing 12,000 lines in verse style. But whatabout taking a few of those lines andplacing them on a greeting card, alongwith original artwork? That’s what wedid. We chose Richmond Lattimore’stranslation (the one I read first in 2001)and worked out an agreement with thepublisher HarperCollins for the use. ByAugust 2005 we had Odyssey greetingcards at booths in local festivals, andsoon after, in retail shops in Manhattan.People who might not otherwise readthe words “. . . the prophet will soon cometo you, and he will tell you the way to go, thestages of your journey” were now seeingthese words on a greeting card. Werepeated this process with bookmarks,journals, and t-shirts.

Tell Me A Myth Making Greek mythology more

accessible is a big step toward makingHomer’s Odyssey more accessible. In2006 we introduced a newsletter featur-ing the Greek myths. For stories alreadysomewhat familiar to most people, weadded something new and concludedwith something relevant. When possible,we connected the myth with currentevents. A Tell Me A Myth featuring

Helios the sun god coincided with thetotal solar eclipse of March 29, 2006. Weconnected the less well known Pindarand his victory odes with the very famil-iar 2006 Winter Olympics. And whenarchaeologists discovered what theybelieved to be the remains of the 3,500-year-old palace of Ajax on the smallGreek island of Salamis, near Athens,we took the opportunity to tell the storyof one of the most important heroesfrom the Trojan War.

EducationIn the past few years I’ve spent a lot

of time in classrooms where the Odysseyand Greek mythology were beingtaught. I’ve observed teachers teach,students listen, and the discussions thatfollowed. I quickly saw that when itcomes to the Greek myths, accessibilityis not an issue for the younger students.They love the Greek myths and are atease asking questions and exchangingpoints of view. These stories are com-pletely natural for them. Homer’sOdyssey, on the other hand, is morechallenging. There are so many names –which are most important? Which namesgo together? And how are these namespronounced? And what about all thedetails not really explained within thestory? I also discovered that most Odysseytranslations for the younger readersleave out some of (in my opinion) themost interesting and meaningful stories.I was very fortunate to meet and observemany great teachers who were passionateabout teaching the Odyssey. Yet eventhey expressed the need for help inorganizing the 12,000 lines of Homer’sOdyssey into manageable teaching com-ponents and materials.

Educational Games We responded to this need in 2007

with three educational games based onHomer’s Odyssey – Memory (a matchinggame), Definitions (flashcards), and Story-telling. We identified 60 of the mostimportant names in the Odyssey (withpronunciations and definitions), andsummarized Homer’s 12,000 lines into30 stories of 150 words each.

The 30 stories in The Odyssey Story-telling Game are presented in chronological

continued on page 15

TELLMEOMUSE: MAKING HOMER’S ODYSSEYAND GREEK MYTHOLOGY MORE ACCESSIBLETO MORE PEOPLEby Joy Marie Sever

7

translations read as if Catullus might bean American writing today . . . [They]have the inevitability, the spontaneityand the immediacy of great poems.”

That Sesar wrote a translation withcontinuing appeal beyond the mid-1970’s, when it was published, is clearfrom its later reception. Prentice Hall,one of the most important textbook pub-lishers in the United States, chose four ofSesar’s Catullus translations for their Lit-erature, World Masterpieces, AnnotatedTeacher’s Edition, in the 1990’s. ThenPearson Education Inc., publishing asPearson Prentice Hall, in 2003, contractedto renew their selection for ten years,until 2013. Meanwhile, in May 1999 AsaBaber, longtime writer of the “Men”column in Playboy magazine, wrote anarticle devoted to Catullus, called “MyOlder Brother.” In it he writes: “I willuse the esteemed translations of CarlSesar, who captured Catullus better thananybody else . . . .” More recently, achapter on “Translating Catullus” byElizabeth Vandiver in Blackwell’s ACompanion to Catullus (2007), edited byMarilyn Skinner, makes reference toSesar’s translations. Still further, EricLivingston’s “The Textuality of Plea-sure,” in New Literary History 37.3 (2006),attests that, even though the book hasgone out of print, its translations are stillbeing read and enjoyed. More than 30years after its publication the appeal ofthis particular translation is noted: “Sesargives us a living Catullus, and we canbegin to see why someone would want toread Catullus in the first place.” Finally,award-winning critic George Scialabbawas recently quoted by James Marcus inCritical Mass, May 6, 2009, the blog ofthe National Book Critics Circle Board ofDirectors, as having chosen Sesar’s Cat-ullus in answer to the question: whichwork in translation has had the mosteffect on your reading and writing?

One can hear a sampling of Sesarreading from his translations-in-progressat Wesleyan University, May 3, 1973,online through an archival recording.Sesar is introduced by David Konstan:http://www.demosnews.com/piece.php?115.1.

To experience Sesar’s translations onthe page, I include here one samplefrom his book:

6Flaui, delicias tuas Catullo,ni sint illepidae atque inelegantes,uelles dicere nec tacere posses.

uerum nescio quid febriculosiscorti diligis: hoc pudet fateri.nam te non uiduas iacere noctesnequiquam tacitum, cubile clamatsertis ac Syrio fragrans oliuo,puluinusque peraeque et hic et illeattritus, tremulique quassa lectiargutatio inambulatioque.nam nil stupra ualet, nihil tacere.cur? non tam latera ecfututa pandas,ni tu quid facias ineptiarum.quare, quidquid habes boni malique,dic nobis. uolo te ac tuos amoresad caelum lepido uocare uersu.

The girl can’t be much on looks or brainsFlavius, or you’d tell Catullus all about her,in fact, you’d never shut up about it.Sure looks like you found a hot little bitchthough, maybe you’re ashamed to admit it,but you aren’t sleeping nights by yourself,don’t try to play dumb, the mattress says sowith flowers, reeks of sweet Syrian olive oil,pillows are all over the place, bashed in flat,and the whole bed creaks and wobbles so muchit practically walks and talks. Besides,if you haven’t been fucking yourself sillythen why’s your ass dragging the way it is?So whatever’s going on, for better or worse,tell me. I’ll put all of that loving in asweet little poem, and make you both famous.

Sesar’s superb English translationscapture in rare fashion the voice ofCatullus: its wit, its outrageousness, itspassion, and yes, its profanity. Theyoffer a reader without Latin a chance tosee why somebody might want to readCatullus, and show the reader whoknows Latin how a translation can bringto life in English what lovers of theLatin language have enjoyed for solong.

Ronnie Ancona (rancona@ hunter.cuny.edu) is Professor of Classics at HunterCollege and The Graduate Center, CUNY.Her research interests include Latin poetry,Latin pedagogy, and women in antiquity.Among her books are Time and the Eroticin Horace’s Odes and Writing Passion:A Catullus Reader. She edits the BC LatinReaders Series from Bolchazy-CarducciPublishers and is currently writing a bookon Catullus.

CARL SESAR, TRANSLATOR OF CATULLUS continued from page 4

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(ISSN 1542-2380) ispublished by theAmerican Philological

Association (APA). The APA, founded in1869 by “professors, friends, and patronsof linguistic science,” is now the principallearned society in North America for thestudy of ancient Greek and Roman lan-guages, literatures, and civilizations.While the majority of its members areuniversity and college classics teachers,members also include scholars in otherdisciplines, primary and secondary schoolteachers, and interested lay people. TheAPA produces several series of scholarlybooks and texts and the journal Transac-tions of the American Philological Association.It holds an annual meeting each Januaryin conjunction with the ArchaeologicalInstitute of America.

All of the APA’s programs are groundedin the rigor and high standards of tradi-tional philology, with the study of ancientGreek and Latin at their core. However,the APA also aims to present a broad viewof classical culture and the ancientMediterranean world to a wide audience.In short, the APA seeks to preserve andtransmit the wisdom and values of classi-cal culture and to find new meaningsappropriate to the complex and uncertainworld of the twenty-first century.

The APA’s activities serve one or moreof these overarching goals:

• To ensure an adequate number of well-trained, inspirational classics teachers atall levels, kindergarten through graduateschool;

• To give classics scholars and teachersthe tools they need to preserve andextend their knowledge of classical civi-lization and to communicate that knowl-edge as widely as possible;

• To develop the necessary infrastructureto achieve these goals and to make theAPA a model for other societies con-fronting similar challenges.

The APA welcomes everyone who sharesthis vision to participate in and support itsprograms. All APA members can receiveAmphora as a benefit of membership.Non-members who wish to subscribe toAmphora (for a very modest annual sub-scription fee of $10 U. S. in the U. S. andCanada for two issues; $15 elsewhere) orwho wish further information about theAPA may write to The American Philo-logical Association, 292 Claudia CohenHall, University of Pennsylvania, 249 S.36th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6304,apaclassics@sas.upenn.edu. The APA website is www.apaclassics.org.

Members attending meetings of ormaking presentations to interested non-members are urged to request samplecopies of Amphora from the APA office fordistribution to these audiences.

®

“We cannot all do everything.”

– Vergil. Eclogue 8.63

Since the beginning of civilization manhas created art as a means to explore

and express his place in the world. Thepast sixteen years of my life as a muralpainter have been just such a journey.Shortly after receiving a Bachelor of FineArts from the School of the Museum of FineArts in Boston in 1993, I painted my firstmural. That mural started a business thatwould eventually have me painting muralsin a broad range of subject matter acrossthe country. Those murals depict everythingfrom large-scale basketball players inaction on the walls of an NBA team’s lockerroom to a flower-strewn trellis on the ceilingof a little girl’s bedroom in Manhattan.

In 2002 I met Joy Marie Sever (withwhom I co-founded TellmeOmuse), and sheinspired me to read Homer’s Odyssey forthe first time. I quickly identified withOdysseus’ journey through my travels as amuralist and the myriad of personalities Ihad encountered along the way. It didn’ttake long before I began creating art forTellmeOmuse. The images for the greetingcards started as a series of 12 paintings ofcharacters from the Odyssey acting out piv-otal scenes on golden stages. It was in theprocess of painting these pieces that Igained tremendous admiration for therichness of the details in the story.

In 2007 I painted three Odyssey-inspired murals at the Artists Inn Residencein Washington D.C. The Homer Guest-HostStaircase (showcased in WashingtonSpaces Magazine [Winter 2008]), featur-ing a quotation from Book 1 of Homer’sOdyssey along with scenes from the epic,greets guests to the Inn. The Muses (seeFig. 6) invites guests to linger in the salon,

and Poseidon Chasing Odysseus (see Fig.7) welcomes visitors to the extensive libraryon the second floor.

The Inn has a gallery on the first floorthat was the site of the first TellmeOmuseart show that same year. We exhibited the12 original artwork pieces used to makethe greeting cards, and added dramaticreadings from the Odyssey recited byyoung poets and actors to bring the paint-ings to life. The Homer Staircase muralbecame the stage! It was in that setting thatI realized the incredible potential to con-nect people through stories – and Homer’sstories in particular.

In Polyphemus (see Fig. 8), exhibited atthe 2009 Classical Association of theAtlantic States (CAAS) meeting inDelaware, the specific details of Odysseus’

encounter with the Cyclops are treated withas much importance as the elements ofcomposition and color. My goal is to incor-porate as much of the story as possible.The spilled wine reveals his intoxication. A sheep snuggles with him showing that hemight not be all that bad. The body lan-guage of Odysseus’ men suggests their fearas they face the gruesome task of blindingthe Cyclops in order to escape. As an artistI hope to make work that says, “Look closer,there’s more” – just as Homer’s Odysseydoes, no matter how many times we read it.

Great art is never about answers. It isabout interesting and provocative ques-tions. The continuing goal with art atTellmeOmuse is to pose the interestingquestions by surrounding people with thestories of Homer’s Odyssey and Greekmythology. I use murals and paintingsbecause that is where my voice is mostclear. But my intention is that the artwork Icreate will inspire people to tell these sto-ries with me, using whatever voice theyfind in themselves.

Matthew Willey (tellmeomatt@tellmeo-muse.com) is Chief Artist at TellmeOmuse.The murals featured in this article can beviewed at:http://www.tellmeomuse.com/Murals.html.

Art at TellmeOmuseby Matthew Willey

Fig. 6. The Muses.

Fig. 7. Poseidon.

Fig. 8. Polyphemus.

9

“The physician must be led to do not only what is right

himself, but he must also getthe patient, the assistants, and

others to cooperate.”– Hippocrates, Sayings,

sec. 1.

While the Hollywood image ofthe academic often has him(yes, him) hunched over his

books in a dusty library (think NicholasCage or Tom Hanks) or, more adventur-ously, dangling over a snake-pit (e.g.,Indiana Jones), the contemporary scholarincreasingly does his or her research in avirtual environment armed with themodern tools of the trade: computer,cell phone, and an internet connection.Classics has long stood at the forefrontof this digital revolution, not only withthe development of on-line searchabledatabases, such as the Thesaurus LinguaeGraecae (a database of all of Greek litera-ture) or Cetedoc (a database of Christianwritings in Latin), which nowadays havebecome commonplace in any scholar’sarmory, but also with large-scale digiti-zation ventures which are rapidly trans-forming the way we view, and thinkabout, the classical world. One example,the Perseus Digital Library (http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/), hasuploaded a huge corpus of ancient textson-line; another, the Pleiades Project(http://pleiades.stoa.org/), is producingan authoritative view of the ancientworld, the Barrington Atlas, in digitalform. HESTIA – the Herodotus Encod-ed Space-Text-Imaging Archive(http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/hestia/index.html) – sponsored by the Artsand Humanities Research Council ofthe United Kingdom, uses the digitaltext of the Greek historian Herodotusavailable through the Perseus DigitalLibrary to bring Herodotus’ vision ofthe ancient Mediterranean world in thesixth and fifth centuries B.C.E. to life.

Herodotus opens his history of theworld prior to the Persian Wars (490B.C.E. and 480-79 B.C.E.) with a

question: why was itthat the Greeks andbarbarians came intoconflict with eachother? He thuslaunches a narrativewhich is fundamen-tally interested inissues of space –primarily the grow-ing reach of Persiaand the places thatcome under herdominion or try toresist her power.That understandingof the world is com-monly represented in a form like that of Figure 9.

Because Herodotus’ view of theworld does not reflect the reality of howthese continents areconfigured, one pri-mary objective ofHESTIA is todeploy the latestsatellite imagingfreely available fromNASA to re-presentHerodotus’ worldmore accurately inthe form most readilyaccessible to modern-day users (see Figs.10-11). Yet, for all ofits drawbacks, themap based on Hero-dotus’ description ofthe ancient worlddoes raise severalimportant issuesrelating to the conception of space inHerodotus, most notably the division ofthe world into three separate units,Europe, Asia, and Libya; the impor-tance of water bodies, in particularrivers, for organizing that space; and theclose correspondence of geography toideology.

Still, there is something not quiteright with this picture either, since itcaptures only a static image ofHerodotus’ world, a map without con-tours, gradation, or mobility: another ofHESTIA’s aims, then, is to tieHerodotus’ naming of a location to itsplace in his narrative, which allows us todraw a series of maps that depict a worldin flux, as well as to capture a sense ofspace, not as abstractly conceived, but

as something lived in and movedthrough. But even this approach doesnot quite represent space in a way thatsufficiently captures its varied manifes-tations in Herodotus’ Histories: a furtherproblem with the static scene portrayedby Figure 9 is the absence of any rela-tional indicators: it is, to put it simply, aworld without lines of communication,whose regions are separate from eachother and have clearly marked bound-aries. To a certain extent, this kind ofideologically marked division of theworld does map a contemporary viewonto Greek thinking regarding self-definition in contrast to others, a goal

HERODOTUS EARTH: MAPPING ANDNETWORKING THE HISTORIESby Elton Barker, Stefan Bouzarovski, Christopher Pelling, Leif Isaksen

Fig. 9. Herodotus’ world view(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Herodotus_world_map-en.svg).

Fig. 10. All places (colors: red = settlement;yellow = territory; blue = physical feature).Satellite imagery is courtesy of NASA.

Fig. 11. All settlements mentioned inBook 1 (Aegean area).

10

which is present in Herodotus’ aim ofinvestigating why Greeks and barbarianscame into conflict with each other. But,as recent scholars of ancient history havebegun to show, the world of theMediterranean may be better thought ofas a “contact zone,” for which the buzz-word is connectivity rather than polarity.In this respect it is the connections thatHerodotus draws between places whichassume particular importance.

Taking our cue from the issues raisedhere, HESTIA employs the latest Infor-mation Computer Technology (ICT) todevelop an innovative methodology tothe study of spatial data in Herodotus’narrative. Involving the collaboration ofacademics from the disciplines of clas-sics, geography, and computing, thiscurrent project has the twin aims ofinvestigating the ways geography isrepresented in the Histories and intro-ducing new audiences to the world ofHerodotus. To achieve these aims, wehope to generate three different kindsof output, which are as follows:

First is the construction of a databaseof all place-names mentioned byHerodotus. Using the open archivetranslation of the Histories available fromThe Perseus Project, which came with agreat deal of spatial information already‘marked up’ (and we are extremelygrateful to Gregory Crane and his teamfor this!), we have isolated all spatialdata contained in Herodotus and organ-ized it according to three general cate-gories: settlement (polis, city, cult site,etc); territory (deme, region, country,continent); and physical feature (river,mountain, sea, etc). Each location isassigned a unique identifier, as is eachof its occurrences over the course of thenarrative. As a result of this structure,the database can be queried in a varietyof ways, such as by individual place, byone of the general categories, or by nar-rative location.

Second, the results of those queriescan be represented in a series of maps.Thus it is possible not only to plot on asatellite map all the place-names whichHerodotus mentions (see Fig. 10 – allHESTIA generated maps included hereare reproduced on our websitehttp://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/hestia/findings/index.html), but to organizethose visualizations by book (e.g., Fig.11), and even to ‘count’ the number ofreferences each place is attributed andrank them according to their popularity(see Fig. 12). An alternative way of map-ping the material is provided by GoogleEarth. Once we have given our data toGoogle Earth, anyone with thisapplication will be able not only to

visualize all the places that Herodotusmentions but also to access the informa-tion that Herodotus records about them:this type of hybrid map, combiningvisual and textual data, is known as a‘mashup.’ To explain, since all placesare linked to entries in the database,when a visitor to the site selects any par-ticular location with the mouse, thenumber of occasions on which that loca-tion is mentioned in the narrative willbe depicted by the same number ofpoints; as Figure 13 shows, the user willthen have the option of highlighting anyone of those individual points to bringup a dialogue box containingHerodotus’ text (in both English andGreek) for that location for any of thetimes it is mentioned in the narrative.Furthermore, as the Ancient RomeGoogle project (http://earth.google.com/rome/) has shown, it is also possible totake a virtual tour of various sites from

ground level. In our case this mightinvolve linking different places that arementioned with each other in the samestretch of narrative in chronologicalorder, so that one could follow the “jour-ney,” say, of historical agents within thetext. Imagine, for example, the possibili-ties of exploring the Persian king Xerx-es’ passage into Greece from the“worm’s eye view” perspective of one ofhis myriad troops.

Thus far we have been talking aboutextracting the spatial data fromHerodotus’ Histories and plugging theresults into various new kinds of visualmedia to help re-imagine the world hewrites about. Such a procedure, however,risks imposing our own technology onthe ancient historian’s text and losingsight of the ways in which space is repre-sented in his narrative. Indeed Herodotushimself is alert to the inherent dangers ofmisrepresentation that new forms of

media carry, when hedescribes a meetingbetween the Spartanking Cleomenes andAristagoras, tyrant ofMiletus, who hascome to convinceCleomenes to sup-port the Ionian revoltfrom Persia. Armedwith “a bronze tableton which the map ofall the earth wasengraved” (5.49),Aristagoras pins hishopes of success on aconviction that his

map equates to the world as it really is, asif conquering the lands occupied by Per-sia would really be as easy for Cleomenesas it was for him to point them out on themap. But such a conceit fails when con-fronted by the “reality” (5.50.2) of

Cleomenes’ question, “Just howfar is it from the Ionian Sea to theKing (i.e., Susa, the Persian capi-tal)?” Upon hearing the response“thirty days,” Cleomenes bids hisguest leave town before sunset!Herodotus’ subsequent narrationof that space over the course ofthree whole chapters (5.52-4),thereby emphasizing the difficultyof its traverse, serves as a timelywarning for our own enterprise, aswe try to represent Herodotus’world using modern mappingtools.

Instead of merely pluggingHerodotus into contemporary forms ofmedia, then, we aim to use that newtechnology to help think afresh about

Fig. 12. All settlements scaled accordingto count: the largest circles (in purple)indicate those places that have thehighest number of mentions in theHistories (Athens, Sparta, Delphi,Sardis, Miletus and Samos).

Fig. 13. ’Mashup’ using Google Earthshowing the number of occasionsThermopylae is mentioned and highlight-ing one such mention in the dialogue box.

continued on page 19 11

the University of South Florida, beforereturning to New York, where sheearned a Bachelor of Fine Arts andMaster of Fine Arts from City College.

During this period, Huffington mar-ried and had a daughter, Lisa. This firstmarriage ended in divorce, and in 1964she married Hank Sutter. Anita andHank lived in New York until 1977,when they felt the need for change.Seeking solitude, contemplation, andself-sufficiency, they found refuge in anold log cabin in Arkansas’ Ozark Moun-tains. They spent a year working tomake the cabin habitable and built astudio for Huffington’s work. Lisajoined them in the Ozarks, and occa-sionally modeled for Huffington’s sculp-ture; Hank learned to make molds forher bronzes, and together they built alife that integrated art into the rusticmountain setting they loved, and whereHuffington has produced her work eversince.

Although Huffington’s art hasgarnered much critical acclaim, sheremains, as Wallach puts it, “shockinglyunder-recognized” (“Review: A Fair ofthe Best in Gallery Art.” New York News-day. [26 Feb. 1993]). Her sculpture isregularly exhibited at the Armory ArtShow in New York, and her honorsinclude recognition in 1996 with a resi-dency at the Chateau de La NapouleArt Foundation in France; in 1997 withthe Jimmy Ernst Award in Art from theAmerican Academy of Arts and Letters;and in 2005 with the Arkansas Gover-nor’s Individual Artist Award. In Octo-ber 2002, Huffington’s pink alabasterPersephone (Fig. 1) was acquired by theMetropolitan Museum of Art, an honor,as one exhibit catalog puts it, which “. . .places her work at the pinnacle of theart world and is a rare achievement for a

living artist” (Anita Huffington: Resonance[Memphis: Lisa Kurts Gallery, 2003]).

While classics was not part of Huffing-ton’s formal education, her interest inmythology led her to seek knowledge ofantiquity on her own, and critics havelong acknowledged classical sensibilitiesin Huffington’s art. Holland Cotter rec-ognizes her work as “. . . based onancient Greek marbles . . . [they] look asif their surfaces were dissolving to revealtender archaic spirits lying within theclassical ideal” (Artist’s statement. AnitaHuffington: Sources. [New York: O’HaraGallery, 2001], 9). Maureen Mullarkeysees in Huffington’s sculpture a “. . .dynamic poise bequeathed by Polyk-leitos . . .” (“Gallery-Going.” The NewYork Sun. [13 May 2004]). Susan Marquezsuggests that Huffington’s work “recre-ate[s the] Hellenic form so exactly, thatit is possible to mistake it for a piecefrom antiquity” (“Anita Huffington atTriangle Gallery,” World Sculpture News.[Winter 1999], 63). Like the ancientmyths, Huffington’s art is simultane-ously primal and modern, prehistoricand current, evoking mystery andparadox that tap into concerns that arelargely universal.

Despite this universal sensibility,Huffington’s work is anchored in herown particular interests and experi-ences. For example, as Huffington hasnoted, “My preoccupation with move-ment, balance, the tensions of the body,is an outgrowth of my experience as adancer” (“Contemporary Sculptor AnitaHuffington Could be Called a Figura-tive Artist,” Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.[1 Feb. 1991]). While some works evokedance overtly, like the 1997 DanseuseChinoise, the influence of her dancebackground is also evident in the energyand movement of classically-named

pieces like Three Graces (Fig. 14), Dryad,and Icarus (Fig. 15). Huffington’s moveto the Ozarks has also shaped her work.As Huffington’s attraction to the naturalworld and her preference for carvingstone outdoors came together with herlife in the woods, her sculpture began toincorporate the relationship betweennature and the human form, particularlyas it is found inancient art andmythology: “It waswhen I reallyremoved myself andwent off into thewoods to find myown way that Ibegan to draw onthe influences thatmost moved me,”she says, “theancient goddess figures, the Greeks,especially the fifth-century classicalpieces . . .” (TheElemental Nude:Recent Sculpture by Anita Huffington.[Augusta, GA: Morris Museum of Art,2004]).

This synthesis of nature and classicalforms can be seen in Daphne (Fig. 16)and Forest Figure (Fig. 17), which Huff-ington likewise identifies as a Daphne-figure. Huffington is drawn to theDaphne myth for many reasons: theDaphne figures in her collection, shesays, “not only represent a love ofnature, a love of trees, my experience oflife in the woods, but the way we are apart of nature. We are the trees . . .”(Artist’s statement. “Daphne.” [Jan.2007]). Huffington says she relates toDaphne because she is a figure oftransformation, and the creative process

CLASSICS REWRITTEN IN STONE: THE ART OF ANITA HUFFINGTON continued from page 1

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Fig. 17. Forest Figure (2001).Photograph by Kirsten Day.

Fig. 18. Earth (1990).Photograph by Kirsten Day.

Fig. 19. Gaea (1992).Photograph by Kirsten Day.

Fig. 15. Icarus (2006).Photograph by David Finn.

Fig. 14. Three Graces (2001).Photograph by Kirsten Day.

Fig. 16. Daphne (1994).Photograph by David Finn.

itself is a transformation of substanceinto art. In addition, she sees Daphne asa symbol of women’s autonomy in thatshe represents “a woman’s choice toaccept or reject even the love of a god”(Personal interview. [27 Dec. 2006]).While many classicists might read thismyth differently, Huffington’s ForestFigure, which is carved from a fragmentof a tree, embodies her perspective: justas Daphne transforms from woman intotree, Huffington transforms tree intowoman, restoring to Daphne her femaleform and bringing her to life once again.

Huffington’s focus on Daphnereflects a more general concern withwomen’s interests in her work, mostclearly seen in her preoccupation withthe female form. Wallach notes thatHuffington’s artistic career has its rootsin New York during an era of emergingfeminism, when artists like Huffingtonwere “reclaiming the female body fromthe male gaze” (“The Sculpture ofAnita Huffington: The Rock Is theHabitation of the Whole.” Anita Huffing-ton: Sources. [New York: O’Hara Gallery,2001], 5). While Huffington’s aims weremore aesthetic than political – she was

interested in “[t]he beauty and vitalityof the female form, and the strengthand wisdom of the feminine” (Wallach.[2001], 5) – her impulse towards femi-nine empowerment is illustrated in fig-ures like Earth and Gaea (Figs. 18 and19). “I have an association of the bodywith the earth,” she says (Wallach.[2001], 5), and as these sculptures sug-gest, Huffington envisions this earth-body connection as feminine, as haveartists from many cultures throughouthistory. As Fredric Koeppel notes,“Gaea projects a feeling of fundamental,monumental power. With its thickthighs and broad shoulders . . . the pieceresembles the ancient Venus of

Willendorf” (“Innocence Found – andLost – Huffington’s Bronze SculpturesRestate the Terror and Serenity in theBody Human,” The Commercial Appeal.Memphis, TN. [14 Jan. 2005]).

Feminine power and its relationshipto nature are also demonstrated in workslike Andromeda and Birth of Venus (Figs.20 and 21), which depict the female formemerging from the elements. Whilesome critics see such works as betrayingprofound vulnerability, others perceivethem as figures of strength and inde-pendence. Wallach notes that Andromedabalances on her knees, “as if on faith,only in the merest suggestion of batteredrock and waves,” while Venus “thrustsforward her pelvis, arches and twists outof the rough-hewn column that suggeststhe legendary foam that gave her form”([2001], 7). In Wallach’s reading, Huffin-gton’s female forms emerge from theirraw material, celebrating women’s auton-omy in much the same way as Huffing-ton envisions her Daphne figures. MarkDaniel Cohen recognizes a similardynamic at play in the relationship ofHuffington’s work in general to the clas-sical and archaic sculpture they evoke:

she “mak[es] her own what oncebelonged to others,” he says. “Shedoes not observably alter the style toown it, but she owns it by masteringit, and in the acquisition, it changes”(“The Shape of Time: Mixing Mem-ory and Desire. O’Hara Gallerythrough March 13,” Review. [1 March1999], 3).

As these observations suggest,Huffington views art asa means of understand-ing and processing life: as she puts it, “Artshows us life, enrichesit, and helps us to bear

its tragedy” (Artist’s state-ment. Anita Huffington:From the Forest. [New York:O’Hara Gallery, 2006]).

Indeed, art has helped Huffington cometo terms with her own personal trials. In1982, Huffington was devastated whenher daughter was killed by a drunk driver.She dealt with this tragedy by develop-ing a personal connection to the myth ofDemeter and Persephone and drawingon its themes of loss and continuancewhen she returned to her work. Theprevalence of this theme in the yearssince Lisa’s death is unmistakable: whileworks like Rebirth and Spring (Figs. 22and 23) – both dedicated to the Univer-sity of Arkansas in Lisa’s honor – alludeobliquely to this myth, Persephone ismore explicitly evoked in the 1991 workHuffington calls Kore (Fig. 24). But theclearest expression of her engagementwith this myth is found in Persephone(Fig. 1), begun not long after Lisa’sdeath. Like the Greek myth, Persephoneexhibits both pain and triumph. Wallachdescribes this sculpture as “a body asopen wound. The alabaster is crackedand veined in red, particularly at womb

continued on page 22

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Fig. 20. Andromeda(1998). Photographby Kirsten Day.

Fig. 21. Birth of Venus(1999). Photograph byKirsten Day.

Fig. 22. Rebirth (1982).Photograph by Kirsten Day.

Fig. 23. Spring (1993).Photograph by Kirsten Day.

Fig. 24. Kore (1991).Photograph by Kirsten Day.

Huffington’s art combinesthe personal and the

mythological.

14

Philip Matyszak. Ancient Athens on 5Drachmas a Day. London: Thames andHudson, 2008. Pp. 136. Paperback.$18.95. ISBN 978-050028765-1.

“The Greek air is famously pure andclear, so a fortunate traveler will

see the beginning of the road to Athensfrom across the blue waters of the Gulf ofMalia, where cloud-topped and ahead liethe cliffs of Thermopylae . . .” (6). Sobegins our guide Philip Matyszak, who inthis charming and informative little trave-logue invites us to take a tour of Athens andAttica in the year 431 B.C. The Athenianpolis is at the height of its power, and wecan imagine that the paint on the Parthenonis still drying.

In selecting title, content, and format,Philip Matyszak has quite purposely invitedhis reader to enter the world of ClassicalAthens. As in his recent Ancient Rome on 5Denarii a Day (2008), Matyszak maintainsthroughout the text the fictional persona oftour-guide, introducing us in a pragmatic yetwhimsical tone to the history, culture, anddaily life of Athens and its surrounding coun-tryside. The text avoids everything academicand scholarly; but while it is completely with-out bibliography and footnotes (the author’snote at the very end doesn’t count), it is nev-ertheless packed with information about theancient city and its daily life.

I was in fact surprised by all that it hasto offer: directions to notable places,advice about what is worth seeing, andadditional information that only a local – ora classics scholar – would know. The firstchapter, “Getting There,” starts us readersout at Thermopylae, leads us past the shrineof Apollo at Delphi, and down through theParnes mountain range into Attica and toMarathon: the route allows Matyzsak theopportunity to describe the topography andcultural significance of these places. AtMarathon our xenagogos (tour guide) sug-gests that we board a fishing boat and sailround to the Piraeus, the main harbor ofAthens. Once there, we are led around thecity in chapters that show us how to exploreelements of Athenian life. Titles include“Athenian Pastimes,” “Meet the Athenians,”“Activities,” and “Must-See Sights.” Over a

dozen full-color plates illustrate the text withvase-paintings and beautiful watercolors byPeter Connolly depicting the city as itlooked in the fifth century B.C.; lively black-and-white sketches abound. Intermittent inthe text itself are quotes from ancient Greekauthors, cited to support and explain thelocal customs we travelers see around us aswe navigate the city of Athens - Athens, asit was, the city of the imagination and theglory days of the classical period.

The Piraeus is a bustling center of com-merce that bears the fruits of the world toAthens. Here we are immersed in amélange of craftsmen’s shops, ships’ slips,and merchants’ markets all contributing tothe cacophony of an international port.Before long we reach the Long Walls, thegated corridor leading from the Piraeus toAthens. Athens is a maze of buildings, tem-ples, and limited open space. In a chapteraptly titled “Orientation,” we are shownhow to navigate the city without the aid ofstreet signs: “If Mount Lycabettus is on theleft as you look at the Acropolis,” our guideinforms us, “then you are in the north of thecity facing south” (30). Once we’ve beenmade familiar with its layout, we samplesome of Athens’ pastimes: a stroll outsidethe city walls to the Academy, shopping inthe Agora, a cock-fight. Along the way ourguide introduces us to some local notables:we see, for example, Socrates avoiding hiswife at the Stoa of Zeus Eleuthereus, andPericles striding off somewhere with his hel-met pushed back on his long head.

Because of our status as non-citizens weare prevented from participating in theaffairs of state on the Pnyx; however, wecan still enjoy a tragedy or comedy in thetheater, if there is a festival on. Afterwards,we might be lucky enough to be invited toan evening symposium and to partake inthe festivities. It is one of the delightful qual-ities of this book that Matyszak takes everyopportunity to teach us about the realities ofeveryday life in the ancient world: havingnovelistically led us into a symposium, forexample, he then describes the table set-tings, gives us a chart illustrating Atheniandrinking vessels, explains the differencebetween a porne (prostitute) and an hetaira(hostess), and tells us how to play the

drinking game of kottabos (80-2). Again,when our guide takes us to the Acropolis,the various styles of capitals are describedand illustrated as our guide presents to us“the crown jewel of the Acropolis, theParthenon . . . by common consent the mostbeautiful building in the world” (120).Events and monuments that post-date 431B.C. are included as well, as the authoradopts the license of projecting us into thefuture; when describing the road that runspast Delphi, for example, our guide informsus that “the writer Pausanias, travelling thisway over half a millennium hence, will com-plain that ’it’s rough going, even for a fitand active man’” (8-9).

The book is peppered with useful line-drawings (nothing in ruins or fragments,everything as it once must have looked!),along with help in understanding Attic Greekphraseology; true to his travel-guide format,the author has included an appendix of use-ful phrases. All Greek is transliterated,although Matyszak is rather casual in thisregard; why, for example, does he refer to aproxenos (guardian/agent) but in the sameparagraph to a temple’s adytum (sanctuary)rather than adyton (11)? I wish that theproofreaders had caught some of the erratain the Greek: “tenemos” for temenos (10),“hoploi” as a plural of hoplon (18), sophosfor sophia should have been corrected; the“useful phrase” bradus ei miai horai doesnot mean “You are two hours late” (127),and the animal depicted in the image on p.74 is surely a sheep, not a goat!

Having pointed out some of these erra-ta, however, I cannot help feeling a littlepedantic, given the scope and aim of thisbook. What Matzyszak’s Ancient Athenson 5 Drachmas a Day turns out to be is avery pleasant and informative read. The fic-tional frame provides the opportunity topresent a lot of information about ancientAthens and its culture with a very lighttouch, all in a book that will attract adultreaders along with bright youngsters.

Joseph Olson (joseph.olson2@uky.edu)spends as much of his time as he can climb-ing Western Washington’s mountains andteaching sailing in Puget Sound. He is cur-rently at the University of Kentucky’s Institutum Latinum.

Book Review: Ancient Athens on 5 Drachmas a Dayby Joseph Olson

order, beginning with The Wanderings ofOdysseus: from The Cicones (Story 1),through Helios and His Sacred Cattle(Story 11) to Zeus and Athena Stop theFighting (Story 29). The WinnowingFan, often omitted in abridged versions,is Story 30. The game includes threeroles: Storyteller, Muse, and DivineAssistance, which, when combined, cre-ates a collaborative and interactive epiclearning experience.

The TellmeOmuseCompanion Series

The 60 names and 30 stories are thefoundation for Tell Me Odysseus: TheTellmeOmuse Companion to Homer’sOdyssey, the first in a series designed tomake the epic more accessible for teach-ers to teach, easier for students to learn,and more appealing so that both want toread it. Tell Me Odysseus is practical,colorful, easy-to-follow, easy-to-use, andincludes many helpful teaching aids,and questions for discussion and assess-ment. Future titles in this series willinclude: The 20 Most-Often AskedQuestions about Homer’s Odyssey; andGreek Mythology in Homer’s Odyssey.

Reaching More Peoplethrough Odyssey ReadingGroups

Chances are that if you didn’t readHomer’s Odyssey in a formal school set-ting, you’re not likely to pick it up as anadult. And even if you wanted to readHomer as a continuing education stu-dent, classes are not always available orconvenient. I decided that TellmeO-muse might be able to remedy that.

During the past three years I’veorganized a variety of Odyssey readinggroups with adults ranging from anentrepreneurial women’s group, to WallStreet executives, to communityactivists. I’ve watched people whothought they’d never have time to readthe Odyssey, or didn’t think they wouldunderstand it, actually read it, enjoy it,and get something very meaningful outof the experience. I watched initial frus-trations with names and pronunciationsfade, and the story take over. Some lis-tened while others asked the questionsthey themselves wanted to ask, butdidn’t – until eventually, even theinitially timid joined the discussion. I’vewatched people become familiar with

Homer and then transform what wasonce an intimidating “big block of text”(as one person put it) into “the bestbook I’ve ever read.”

When you know and love Homer, itcan be difficult to imagine what it’s likenot to. A big part of what I do requiresthat I not forget how I felt when I firstread the Odyssey in 2001. The entire firstmeeting of each group is an introduc-tion that answers the most-often askedquestions: When and how was theOdyssey told, when was it put into writing,by whom, how, and in what language? Is the story historical fact or legend? Ishow pictures of “Homer,” photos ofpapyrus fragments, and maps of ancientGreece. But most of all, I try to makeeveryone comfortable by reassuringthem that they are not alone in havingnot read the Odyssey (which manybelieve they are). I also let them knowthat their questions, far from beingsomething they should know (whichmany believe), are often questions stillbeing debated by archaeologists andclassicists to this day, especially as newinformation emerges, and that theseever-evolving discussions are part ofwhat makes the ancient stories so inter-esting, and so current.

For additional background, I encour-age people to learn more about TheHomer Multitext Project at the Centerfor Hellenic Studies at Harvard(chs.harvard.edu/chs/homer_multitext)and to read about current discussions ofthe classics, such as in JonathanGottschall’s article “The Odyssey and theIliad are giving up new secrets aboutthe ancient world” (Boston Globe,September 28, 2008).

As the group prepares to read Books1-4 for the second meeting, I tell themnot to worry at all about trying toremember names or details. I encouragethem to read without any expectationsand, when done, to go back and re-readBooks 1-4 and see what happens. I alsotell them not to worry about pronuncia-tions, letting them know that there aremany variations. I provide story sum-maries from the TellmeOmuse games,and I bring something relevant and cur-rent to each meeting. When a questionis asked about my point of view aboutsomething in the story – my response istypically “What do you think?”

Why is TellmeOmuse Doing This?

When people start reading theOdyssey, it’s not long before they start tosee its relevance in their own lives. Allof a sudden people decide they must goto Greece. Parents discover a whole newtopic of conversation with their childrennow that both are equipped with thevocabulary and stories. Others go on toread the stories of other ancient story-tellers, and some attend Greek-themedtheatre productions and dance perform-ances. And many get a great deal ofpleasure when they see how frequentlyHomer and the Greek myths appear inpublications like the New York Times.

We believe learning about Homer,Odysseus, and the Greek myths canmake a positive difference in people’slives. After reading Homer’s Odysseypeople find themselves looking moreclosely at their own life’s journey, recog-nizing the many parallels with theancient stories. They ask questionsthey’ve never asked before; they seetheir world differently; and they areable to place today’s events in the con-text of the past as they wonder what’sahead for the future.

TellmeOmuse will be very happy if,through our efforts, people who other-wise might not have read Homer areinspired to do so, and upon reachingIthaca with Odysseus, then say “Yes,that was worth it.”

Joy Marie Sever (tellmeojoy@tellmeo-muse.com) is president of TellmeOmuse inNew York City. Her Ph.D. in social psychol-ogy comes from the University of Toronto. Inaddition to designing educational materialsfor teachers, Joy is writing Chief Execu-tive Odysseus: An epic guide for themodern leader, a program designed tobring the story of Odysseus into the businessworld.

TELLMEOMUSE: MAKING HOMER’S ODYSSEY AND GREEK MYTHOLOGYMORE ACCESSIBLE TO MORE PEOPLEcontinued from page 7

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“Live bravely; show brave hearts in difficult situations.”

– Horace. Satire II.2.135

performed, and visitors wandered acrossacres of the site. At night there was anopen-air projection of the 1963 filmJason and the Argonauts directed by DonChaffey and starring Todd Armstrongand Nancy Kovack.

Since the 2006 European edition ofthe Gallo-Roman Days was a success,another European edition was organizedin 2008 featuring reenactors fromFrance, Germany, Italy, Switzerland,Spain, and Belgium. The JournéesGallo-Romaines 2008 retained many ofthe popular features from previous yearsand added others. A new feature includedthe participation of two groups thatspecialize in reenacting earlier warrior-cultures: the Spanish group, AthenaPromakhos, which reenacts Greekhoplite warfare from the Archaicthrough the Hellenistic periods, andArbeitsgruppe Hallstattzeit, a Germangroup recreating Celtic warriors fromthe eighth century to the fifth centuryB.C. Throughout the weekend Roman,Gallic, and Germanic warriors and civil-ians paraded on the site. The Swissreenactors of Vexillum Legio XIClaudia Pia Fidelis brought a scorpio andfired it at targets. The pottery kilns (seeFig. 25) were working. Wine historianMichel Bouvier introduced visitors toancient-style wines – quite tasty, in fact– made as an archaeological experimentfrom vines grown on the site, whileChristian Girbal, who makes reproduc-tions of ancient instruments, gave ademonstration of Celtic music. Probablythe most dramatic addition in 2008 wasthe invited participation of the CorpusEquitum Legionis X Equestris fromBelgium, a group specializing in Romancavalry. Two members of the Belgiangroup came with their horses and forabout thirty minutes, performed a vari-ety of maneuvers.

The Journées Gallo-Romaines havebeen a popular success. In 2007 themuseum recorded over 3000 visitors tothe site. The fact that the work of thereenactors is supported by a nationalmuseum and professional archaeologistsassures the quality and accuracy of theexercise. The groups, too, hold highstandards: some, like Pax Augusta, havethe sponsorship of university professorssuch as Christian Goudineau, Professeurau Collège de France and Chaire d’An-tiquités Nationales.

Why, then, are the Gallo-Roman

Days important? Why should educatorsand scholars care about the work of his-torical reenactors? In addition to thepleasure of visiting a beautiful Frenchsite in early June, the event gives bothspecialists and amateurs the chance tosee things in books brought to life.Although no group has succeeded inrecreating the size of a Roman legion,even seeing a few soldiers in accuratelydesigned uniforms, carrying and manip-ulating reproductions of ancientweapons, helps our understanding of theperiod. Since the legions drill in Latin –and even the gladiatorial exhibitions usesome Latin – we also get the chance tohear this beautiful ancient language.

But these are all the things of livinghistory. Experimental archaeology issomething else. In a recent articleGilbert explains an experiment he con-ducted with Pax Augusta. On the week-end of May 12-13, 2007, the men of PaxAugusta set out from the small town ofAoste in the département of Isère to fol-low a ten kilometer (6.2 miles) coursethrough the countryside. Their objec-tive was to test the conditions of theRoman army on campaign. The twentymen on the march representing soldiersof the Fifth Legion were to test march-ing and traveling conditions, each mancarrying a kit and equipment thatweighed 40.7 kilograms (89.5 lbs.). Thesoldiers were accompanied by two muledrivers with their mules and eightwomen representing the soldiers’ con-cubines. During the course of their trek,the Roman soldiers were to stop, digentrenchments, pitch camp, test the for-tifications, and then make the returnmarch with their civilian followers toAoste. Unbeknownst to anyone in PaxAugusta except Gilbert and the muledrivers, (the mule drivers were informedas a preventive measure: no one wantedto deal with surprised animals), the menof Pax Augusta were also to be subject-ed to an attack by members of anotherreenactment group, Leuki. The mem-bers of Leuki, who specialize in Gallicreenactment, were to adopt the personaeof German warriors for this weekendexperiment. The encounter betweenRoman soldiers and Germanic warriorswould give the Roman reenactors of Pax Augusta the occasion to test theirreactions to a surprise attack.

One should keep in mind the factthat, when Pax Augusta conducted

these experiments, they were participat-ing as well-informed amateurs: PaxAugusta is not a branch of the Frencharmy. However, the Frenchmen in thegroup over thirty-years of age have doneobligatory national military service andothers have actually served for longerperiods of time or are currently stillserving in the regular French army. Sothe men who conducted the experimentwere in shape and were aware of theexigencies of military life. In any case,as Gilbert later observed, whether theparticipants were or had been in thearmed forces or not was of limited value,for the conditions of ancient and mod-ern warfare are quite different.

The Roman reenactors departedfrom Aoste amid the farewells of thetownspeople and schoolchildren; but,except for two professional photogra-phers and two video cameramen, no onecame to watch the march. In otherwords, the expedition was not a showfor entertainment, but an experiment totest equipment and human endurancein conditions made to simulate a cross-country march through enemy territory.So the Romans marched and wereattacked by the Germans. The Romansrepelled the attack and, though tired,built their camp; but then they wereattacked again and the sturdiness oftheir camp defenses was tested. Gilbertalso reports that, although they wereusing blunted weapons, many of theweapons broke, rendering the piecesdangerous, as if they were spikes. Thusthe reenactors learned not only some-thing about surprise attacks and testingfortifications, but that broken weaponson the battlefield represented potentialdanger to ancient armies.

In addition to recreating military lifein a legion during the early Empire,members of Pax Augusta also recreatethe world of the gladiators. The repro-duction of various gladiator helmets,

THE ROMANS IN GAUL TODAY: LIVINGHISTORY AND EXPERIMENTAL ARCHAEOLOGYIN THE RHÔNE-ALPES REGION OF FRANCE continued from page 3

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Fig. 25. For Gallo-Roman Days 2008,pottery kilns were built on site under thedirection of C.N.R.S archaeologistArmand Desbat.

armor, and weapons, and the staging ofgladiatorial combat has become one ofthe group’s specialties. Their gladiatorialexhibitions have even been filmed byArte, the Franco-German cultural-television channel. But the gladiatorialshows have evolved. Early in the com-pany’s existence, the gladiators carriedreproductions of authentic weapons;yet, not wanting to injure one anotherduring exhibitions, the fighting took ona very aesthetic, graceful, ballet-likeappearance which the group realizedcould not be very authentic. Therefore,they replaced the potentially lethalweapons with blunted wooden ones,deciding to place greater emphasis ontrying to find the authentic movementsof fighting gladiators. This changeallows them to discover the range andspeed of movements in an actual fight.No one has been seriously injured inthese combats, although they oftenresult in scratches and bruises; but thegladiatorial reenactments now look lesslike choreographed dances and morelike combative sports.

The Gallo-Roman Days and thearchaeological sites and museums inLyon, Saint-Romain-en-Gal, andVienne have much to teach. Thereenactors are devoted to historicalknowledge, pedagogy, authenticity, andrealism, values shared by scholars andstudents of ancient civilization. TheGallo-Roman Days present the fruits ofboth traditional scholarly research andexperimental archaeology through themedium of living history.

Timothy Wutrich (trw14@case.edu), authorof Prometheus and Faust: The PrometheanRevolt in Drama from Classical Antiquityto Goethe (Westport and London 1995),teaches in the Department of Classics at CaseWestern Reserve University in Cleveland,Ohio. A native Clevelander, he lived andtaught in the Rhône-Alpes Region of Francefor many years. In Summer 2011 he and hiswife, Dr. Annie Pécastaings, also on theCWRU faculty, will lead a Vergilian Societystudy tour in France on “Roman Gaul.”

Let the wind’s breath die first, others will follow. Calchas trembles reading stars mirrored on livers,comets fallen like spears, eclipsed moonsreturning with a vengeance. Hordes wait in the doldrums at Aulis in restless armor but when they begin to leave, unraveling the borders

of his dream sails, a vain king loses more than any false courage their numbers brought him. Agamemnon has not chosen well so far,will he sacrifice his pride on this altar, give up his ships and the praise of menor further dilute his faint father love?Whichever is saltier, seawater or blood?Deaf and blind to Iphigenia’s tears, he will not hear her doe-like cries softening,he will not even hear either sound or furyin this new wind slicing like a sword edge.

Iphigeniaby Patrick Hunt

Temporary Change in Publication Schedule for Amphora

Over the last three decades the APA has built up an endowment, its General Fund,that generates income to supplement publication revenue; grants and contributions;

and membership, annual meeting, and placement fees. This investment income allowsthe APA, despite its relatively modest size, to offer programs and services that are usual-ly offered only by much larger disciplinary societies like the Modern Language Associa-tion, the American Historical Association, and the American Academy of Religion.

To preserve the endowment in the General Fund, the APA’s Finance Committee hasdeveloped guidelines that limit our withdrawals to 5% of the Fund’s average value overthe previous three years. The recent declines in financial markets have thereforereduced the amount that it is prudent to withdraw from the General Fund. As a result,when it approved the budget for the current fiscal year (July 2009-June 2010), the APABoard instituted a number of changes in programs that would reduce expenses. Thesechanges included a reluctant decision to publish only one issue of Amphora during thecurrent fiscal year.

This issue of Amphora replaces the one we expected to publish in December 2009,and we anticipate that financial considerations will again require the publication of onlyone issue in the next fiscal year (July 2010-June 2011). If so, the next issue of Amphorawill appear in December 2010. APA members in good standing for 2010 will receivethese issues by mail only if they have checked the box on their 2010 dues bills request-ing a printed copy. Nonmember subscribers will, of course, receive a printed copy asusual and will receive two issues (regardless of publication date) for every $10 subscrip-tion payment. Each issue will also, as before, appear on the APA web site.

We appreciate the support of Amphora readers for this publication.

Adam D. BlisteinExecutive Director

Patrick Hunt (phunt@stanford.edu) has been teachingat Stanford University since1993. His work has been pub-lished in Poet Lore, the PenguinBook of Classical Myths, varioustimes in Classical Outlook, palin-drome poems in Word Ways,also recently in AKOUÉ (Ameri-can School of Classical Studies,Athens) and often in publicationsof the Classical Association of theU.K. Two published volumes ofhis poetry include his House ofThe Muse: Poems from the BritishMuseum, and his most recent col-lection, Cloud Shadows of Olym-pus. He is currently writing theopera libretto for Byron in Greece.

“The mother of a careful manseldom has reason to weep.”

– Cornelius Nepos. Life of Thrasybulus, 2.

17

Grant Buday. Dragonflies: A Novel.Emeryville: Biblioasis, 2008. Pp. 165. Paper-back. $18.95. ISBN 978-1897231470.

Imagine you wish to craft a story aboutOdysseus in a creative and unusual man-

ner, reflecting your own times but staying trueto some aspects of the Odyssey. What willbe your primary theme? Will you focus on histravels and the idea of homecoming (likeauthors such as Constantine P. Cafavy in hisIthaca, or Charles Frazier in Cold Mountain)?Will you cast away the Greek setting andplace your modern-day Odysseus in a differ-ent time and place (such as James Joyce’sUlysses, or the film O Brother, Where artThou)? Possibly you will present Penelope’sperspective on Odysseus’ participation in theTrojan War and long absence from home (asOvid’s first Herois [Heroides]), or MargaretAtwood’s Penelopiad)? Grant Buday’s novel,Dragonflies, attempts to fill in gaps in themythological record and to discuss eventsmentioned only in passing in the Homericepics. Buday’s work centers on the construc-tion of the Trojan Horse and the fall of Troyand, by presenting the story from Odysseus’first-person point of view, the author grants usa fresh perspective on the Homeric heroes asthey embark on their last-ditch effort todestroy Troy.

The most striking aspect of Buday’s novelis Odysseus’ nearly stream-of-consciousnessnarrative, which allows the reader a uniqueperspective on both Odysseus himself andthe Homeric tradition. Buday brings to lifethe horrific conditions of the Achaean campand the raw nerves of the commanders afterten long years of besieging Troy. He high-lights the grim quotidian reality of mosqui-toes, summer heat, meager rations, andboredom – no majestic displays of battleand valor here. The epic grandeur of thesecharacters has been stripped away, leavingmen too easily reduced to their vices andvanity. Buday describes how Menelaus’“failing eyesight makes him thrust his faceforward and squint, and as for his oncedazzling red hair, he now hennas it everyweek to hide the grey” (11). Without theTrojans to fight, the Achaeans turn on oneanother and old grudges fester and are

reignited. Memories of past events such asOdysseus’ feigned madness before the war,or the games to determine Helen’s husband,reveal the motivation behind the resentmentof the Greek warriors Palamedes and Ajax,who emerge as Odysseus’ chief antagonists.Such flashbacks flesh out the characterseven further and point out how the heroiccode of seeking honor above all else isbound to be questioned after years of fight-ing and little visible progress.

Odysseus’ subjective perspectiveenlivens the plot as he is prone to philo-sophical daydreaming, remembrances ofhis past life on Ithaca and his love for Pene-lope. While this can sometimes lead tobanal musing (“Why do I need hair in myears?”[11]), at other times it can touchupon meta-literary reflection: “Every one ofus is a connoisseur of stories, recognizing anew emphasis here, a variation there . . .the tales handed down like figurines pol-ished by each set of hands through whichthey pass” (34-5); or even reach poeticheights: “Looking into the eyes of the deadis like gazing at a winter sun in the hope ofwarmth” (162). Buday also infuses humorinto the situation, including a particularlymemorable depiction of Odysseus andDiomedes drinking beer in a Trojan taverna.The bravado of Diomedes and his love ofsarcasm make him a fitting companion toOdysseus and explain their abiding fond-ness for one another.

The novel picks up in intensity as theTrojan Horse is built and dragged into Troy.Odysseus’ moment of inspiration comes ashe walks the beach and ponders the customsand loves of the Trojan people: “So it’ll haveto be a big horse, the biggest they’ve everseen, one they’ll lust for, one so huge they’llgladly creak open those spiked gates andhaul it inside because a horse so enormouscan only be a Sign, and let’s face it all menare fools for Signs . . .” (44). The descriptionof the anxious and claustrophobic heroesinside the cramped horse among overflow-ing slop buckets shows Buday’s attention todetail and his creative re-imagining of theGreek and Latin material. Readers of thesecond book of Vergil’s Aeneid will find aninteresting counterpart in Buday’s depictionof events. Divine elements are downplayedor forgotten (no serpents devour Laocoonand his sons, no gods help to destroy Troy’swalls), but the relief and joy of the Trojansare palpable and the image of Trojan boys

leaping from the walls to “ride” the horseinto Troy is particularly evocative (150).Buday wisely does not try to compete withthe pathos of Vergil’s account of Troy’s falland Odysseus’ point of view is detachedfrom the arson and slaughter the Achaeanswreak:

Frenzy glazes their eyes as they rapecorpses and steal anything that shines.They leap from roofs and elbow eachother aside to get at women. They arecrazed, they bludgeon children as if theywere rabid dogs. What a proud moment.We kings. We victors. We noble war-riors blessed by the gods. (164)

His blinkered view of the men aroundhim and their base motivations givesOdysseus a psychologically astute perspec-tive and, by taking away the heroic veneerfrom the epic material, reveals the concretehorrors of war.

Dragonflies offers an innovative perspec-tive on the myth of Troy’s fall and the char-acter of Odysseus. Classicists reading it willfind many echoes of Vergil and Homer aswell as some inside jokes, such as thenovel’s final line: “and soon, very soon, in amonth at most, I will be home” (165). Onemay find some anachronisms or variationson the myths, but most can be easily swal-lowed and show how these myths may begiven new life (I think of Tennyson’s Ulysses,“Come, my friends. /’Tis not too late to seeka newer world”). Odysseus emerges as avoice of reason and a champion of peaceand the pleasures of house and home overthe lust for power, honor, and war. Whatdo dragonflies have to do with any of this?Read the novel and find out.

Chris Trinacty (ctrinacty@amherst.edu) iscurrently the Keiter Fellow in Classics atAmherst College. He received his Ph.D. fromBrown University in 2007. He is writing abook tentatively entitled, Senecan Tragedyand the Reception of Augustan Poetry, whichexplores the way Seneca read, employed,and critiqued the Augustan poets in his poetry.Other research interests include Horace’sEpistles, Vergil’s Eclogues, and Roman elegy.In addition, Chris finds time to host a radioshow once a week called “The ClassicsHour,” in which he often talks about classicalmythology and history.

Book Review: Dragonflies: A Novelby Chris Trinacty

18

how space is represented in the Histories.In the example just cited, there is littlesense of a Greek-barbarian polarity atplay, other than in the rhetoric thatAristagoras employs (for instance, askingwhether there was really anything to befeared from a people who wore trousers– what could be more unmanly thanthat!): instead, Herodotus presents aseries of ‘networks’ – the string of placesthat Aristagoras mentions in his attemptto show how easy conquest would beand the very fact that a Greek from Ionia(the west coast of Turkey) goes to a cityon mainland Greece for an alliance inthe first place. The HESTIA database ofspatial references allows us to identifyquickly and efficiently connectionsbetween places mentioned byHerodotus in the same breath (i.e., in achapter), represent those connections invarious graphic forms, and consider theirsignificance. Moreover, as well as provid-ing a general sense of the broad ‘net-work’ culture of the Histories, we willalso be able to generate a finer grain ofanalysis by counting the relativestrengths of the components within anygiven network: that is to say, we will beable to identify the “hot-spots” of thenetwork culture – those places that havethe most “hits” or “degree centrality”within a network – or else evaluate andrepresent the “thickness” of the connec-tions between places themselves.

Figure 26 gives an example of onesuch network, depicting linkages amongterritories across the entire Histories. Ittraces the connections among Greeceand other territories within the Mediter-ranean world, primarily Italy, Thrace,Scythia, Persia, and Egypt. Interestingly,

however, fromthis broad brush-stroke image ofHerodotus’ world,the territory thatemerges as havingthe strongest con-nections in thisbasic network cul-ture is notGreece, butEgypt: each oneof the links thatEgypt has to otherterritories scoresin the highest rat-ing. While this

may not have been anticipated, it doesmake sense on reflection, since for a bet-ter part of one book Herodotus usesEgypt as the touchstone against whichother cultures, including Persia and hisown, Greece, are compared. It is itsfunction as a reference point, then, thatallows Egypt to appear as the center ofHerodotus’ network picture of theMediterranean.

It is unclear to us at this stage whatnew picture of space will emergethrough our analysis, but we can bepretty certain of two things. First, wedon’t expect the network maps toreflect the historical reality, but ratherHerodotus’ preconceptions and knowl-edge base – or those of his historicalagents. Such views may be a usefulcomplement to the picture that can beotherwise reconstructed by archaeolo-gists and ancient historians, since theymay provide an insight into the “culturalmentality” informing Herodotus’ world.Second, we expect our interpretation ofHerodotus’ world in the end to differradically from both the “satellite” imageof the Earth that our technology gener-ates, and the two-dimensional Cartesianmaps that have dominated westernthinking for centuries. Indeed, we antic-ipate generating maps that are “topolog-ically” rather than geographically based,much like the famous schematic diagramof the London Underground (seehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tube_map).These maps will represent the distancebetween places mentioned inHerodotus’ Histories in relation to thenumber and strength of the connectionsbetween them, rather than according totheir “real” physical locations.

All of the images that we generatewill be freely available to all on ourwebsite under a Creative Commons

License. Furthermore, a link from ourwebsite to the database, which containsall of the spatial data that we have cap-tured, will allow users to generate theirown maps. Finally, all of the softwarethat we are using and developing isopen source, meaning that it can bereused for other similar projects andimproved upon. We believe that it isultimately this principle of opennessand freedom that does most justice tothe world that Herodotus represents.

Dr Elton Barker (e.t.e.barker@open.ac.uk)Principal Investigator) is a lecturer in Classi-cal Studies at the Open University, after hav-ing previously been a college lecturer at ChristChurch, Oxford for five years. Author of aseries of articles on epic poetry and the epiccycle, Sophocles and Herodotus, he has recentlypublished a book with Oxford University Pressentitled Entering the Agon: Dissent andAuthority in Homer, Historiography andTragedy (January 2009).

Dr Stefan Bouzarovski (Co-Investigator)is a Lecturer in Human Geography at theSchool of Geography, Earth and Environ-mental Sciences at the University of Birm-ingham, UK. He is also a Visiting Professorat the Faculty of Science at Charles Univer-sity in Prague, Czech Republic and anExternal Professor at the Department ofEconomic Geography, University of Gdansk,Poland. His work is partly supported by theMinistry of Education, Youth and Sports ofthe Czech Republic, under project no.MSM0021620831 titled ’Geographic Sys-tems and Risk Processes in the Context ofGlobal Change and European Integration.’

Christopher Pelling (Co-Investigator) hasbeen Regius Professor of Greek at OxfordUniversity since 2003. His books include acommentary on Plutarch, Life of Antony(Cambridge, 1988), Literary Texts andthe Greek Historian (London, 2000), andPlutarch and History (Swansea, 2002); hehas also edited collections on Characteriza-tion and Individuality in Greek Litera-ture (Oxford, 1990) and Greek Tragedyand the Historian (Oxford, 1997).

Mr Leif Isaksen (ICT consultant) iscurrently studying for a Ph.D. at the Univer-sity of Southampton developing an assistiveresearch framework to integrate informationfrom across multiple excavation data reposi-tories. Specializing in the application of ICTto the analysis of space in the ancient world,he moderates the Antiquist ICT and CulturalHeritage community.

19

Fig. 26. Co-reference network density(territories). Key: the thicker and darkerthe line, the stronger the connection.

HERODOTUS EARTH: MAPPING AND NETWORKING THE HISTORIES continued from page 11

A ccio! Expecto Patronum! Thesememorable Potterworld spells forretrieving an object and summon-

ing a protector resonate clearly with thelanguage and logic of magical spells fromGreece and Rome. Yet while HarryPotter is oft-discussed by experts in chil-dren’s literature and by theologians, theseries is seldom addressed by historians,much less those specializing in Greeceand Rome, a gap that the panel focusedon “Parallels between Rowling’s Wizard-ing World and Historical Practices” at theannual Harry Potter conference, Azkatraz2009, no doubt hoped to address.

Nevertheless, some classicists haveshown interest in the series. DavidFrauenfelder has commented on themurkiness of a simple good vs. evildichotomy in both Harry Potter andclassical myth (Amphora 3.1 [Spring2004], 7, 13). Latin editions of the firsttwo books in the series, as well as anancient Greek edition of the first book,have been produced. Reviewers in thepages of Amphora (4.2 [Fall 2005] and6.2 [Fall 2007]) have noted the transla-tors’ inspired rendering of names intoGreek and Latin and their clever evoca-tion of epic and other classical literaryallusions – the translator into the Greek,A. Wilson, himself credits as an inspira-tion for his translation Lucian, whosesecond-century C.E. stylus often turnedto magical subjects (http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~loxias/harry_potter.htm);but still there has been little attempt toexplore the relationship between themagic in the world of Harry Potter andthat of Greco-Roman antiquity.

Scholarly collections deal with issuesranging from mythic/folkloric roots andgender to politics (e.g. The Ivory Towerand Harry Potter: Perspectives on a LiteraryPhenomenon [2002] and Harry Potter andInternational Relations [2006]). Confer-ences that feature a unique mix of popu-lar fanaticism and scholarly presentationsare held nearly every year across theU.S., including the upcoming “Infinitus”in Orlando in 2010 (http://www.infinitus2010.org/). The National Library ofMedicine in 2008 hosted an exhibitionentitled “Do Mandrakes Really Scream?:Magic and Medicine in Harry Potter”(http://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/mandrakes). Searching the Library ofCongress subject heading, “Rowling,

J.K.,” reveals the sub-disciplines ofacademic interest, including study andteaching, girls and women, criticism andinterpretation, encyclopedias, and reli-gion, to name a few. The newest releaseof the film adaptations of the series, PartI of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,due out in November 2010, will no doubtagain stoke the fires of Potter fandom.

Why should any of this matter toscholars of Greece and Rome? HarryPotter has become a lingua franca, offer-ing an opportunity to use popular cul-ture to highlight what was a central facetof Greco-Roman antiquity, namelymagic. As John Gager wrote nearly twodecades ago, curse tablets “reveal a darklittle secret of ancient Mediterraneanculture . . . [e]veryone, it seems, used orknew of them” (1992, 3). In Gager’sobservation on the ubiquity of magic-use in antiquity, one hears echoes ofthose who guiltily admit that they notonly read Harry Potter, but stood in lineat a bookstore on a midsummer’s mid-night to be among the first to get theircopies of the latest installment of theseries. While Harry Potter may not atfirst glance appear to teach us anythingabout Greco-Roman magic and while J.K. Rowling may not have intentionallydrawn on Greco-Roman magic to createthe magic of Potterworld – althoughaccording to her editor at Bloomsbury,she did study classics at universitybefore settling in on French(http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~loxias/news.htm) – comparing the two can enrich our readings of both andmake classicists for life among thisgeneration reared on the Pottercraze.

Magical Knowledge and RitualExpertise

Scholars of Greco-Roman magicdebate the level of ritual expertiserequired to perform various spells or thenature of the modes for the transmissionof magical knowledge (Frankfurter1997). Who owned the fourth-centuryrecipe books, such as P.Bibl.Nat.Suppl.gr. 574 at the Bibliotheque Nationale inParis or P.Lond. 121 at the BritishLibrary, popularly known as PapyriGraecae Magicae (PGM) IV and VII,respectively? How did the owners ofsuch grimoires, or magic handbooks,dispense their trade? What was thesocial location (ethnicity, class, and

gender) of magical experts and con-sumers and what level of literacy wasrequired to etch or cast a spell? Howmuch expertise would it take to fashiona waxen or clay image for a spell or toperform the actions mentioned in thespells’ words – those clearly translatableor the more mysterious voces magicae?What kind of equipment would a magic-user need and who gathered the arcaneingredients required to enact the vari-ous spells (LiDonnici 2002)? Apuleius’description of Pamphile’s laboratory –filled with every type of spice, undeci-pherable metal tablets, bits of ship-wrecks and corpses, including noses,fingers, flesh-covered nails used in cru-cifixion, and gore-encrusted, mutilatedskulls pulled from the jaws of wildbeasts – offers one of the few problem-atic imaginings in answer to these ques-tions (Apuleius, Metamorphoses 3.17).

Such questions, frustratingly leftunanswered for antiquity, have beenimaginatively addressed by Rowlingwith Diagon Alley, Hogwarts, and theclasses the young wizards take there.For example, students entering theirfirst year at Hogwarts School of Witch-craft and Wizardry must procure in Lon-don’s wizarding shopping district,Diagon Alley, books such as Goshawk’sStandard Book of Spells (Grade 1),Bagshot’s History of Magic, Waffling’sMagical Theory, Switch’s Beginners’ Guideto Transfiguration, and Spore’s One Thou-sand Magical Herbs and Fungi (Sorcerer’sStone [hereafter SS] 5). All this toembark on a seven-year education toinclude instruction in History of Magic,Charms, Transfiguration, Potions, Div-ination, and Defense against the DarkArts. The reader learns from the SortingHat in the first book about different“schools” of magic followed by Griffindor,Ravenclaw, Slytherin, and Hufflepuff(SS 7) and, in Goblet of Fire (GF), thereader learns that there are regional vari-ations in magic-practice as well, whenContinental rivals, Beauxbatons andDurmstrang, enter Potterworld (GF 15).

The series abounds in examples ofritual expertise and the performativecontext of magic. One need only glanceat the Wikipedia entry for “Spells inHarry Potter” for an extensive list ofincantations, their proper pronunciation,use, and suggested etymology. Perhapsthe most memorable performative

20

PRIOR INCANTATO: GRECO-ROMAN MAGICFLOWING FROM J.K. ROWLING’S WANDby Elizabeth Ann Pollard

moment is Hermione’s upstaging of herpeers in her combination of proper tech-nique – “swish and flick” – and enunci-ation in her superior execution of“wingardium leviosa!” She scolds Ron,“You’re saying it wrong . . . “It’s Wing-gar-dium Levi-o-sa, make the ‘gar’ niceand long” (SS 10). The voces magicae ofthe ancient PGM and lead tablets (magi-cal words like ablanathanalba, bor-phorbabarbor, and maskelli maskello)might be compared with parseltongue(the specialized wizarding ability, limit-ed primarily to those of Slytherin line-age, to speak in the language of snakes,e.g., SS 2 and Chamber of Secrets [CS] 11).The potion book of the Half-BloodPrince (HBP) is a particularly good illus-tration of how Greco-Roman grimoiresmight have been the accretion of severalusers’ tweaking of magical recipes. In arace to create the best Draught of Liv-ing Death in order to win a swig ofFelix Felicis potion, Harry must use anold borrowed potions book. Overcominghis irritation at the “stupid scribbles ofthe previous owner, who for some rea-son had taken issue with the order tocut up the sopophorous bean and hadwritten in the alternative instruction:crush with flat side of silver dagger,releases juices better than cutting,”Harry eventually uses those revisionswith success (HBP 9). Similar to theHalf-Blood Prince’s adaptations, scholarshave noted the accretive element ofspell books in the multiple hands andrange of ad hoc spells in many of thegrimoires (LiDonnici 2003). Further,just as root-cutting and herb-knowledgewere magical skills in antiquity (Scar-borough 1991), Snape grills Harry on hisherbological understanding of the prop-erties of asphodel and wormwood,monkshood and wolfsbane (SS 8); welearn the importance of gillyweed (GF26); and we are taught that venom ofacromantula is a precious ingredient, itsrarity due to the difficulty of gatheringit (HBP 22).

Agonistic Context of MagicStruggle – between good and evil,

Harry and Voldemort, the world ofMuggles (people with no magical abili-ties) and Magicians – is at the heart ofthe Potter series. Defense against theDark Arts is a recurring theme in thebooks, whether as the much coveted (atleast by Snape) teaching position atHogwarts, the purpose of Occlumency,or the goal of Dumbledore’s Army.Magic in Potterworld is inextricablybound with the concept of struggle, oragon as the Greeks would have called it.

Chris Faraone (1991) has illustratedwell the agonistic context of Greco-Roman magic, namely that magic wasoften used in competitive situationssuch as business, theatre, legal cases,athletics, and love, especially when theoutcome was in question. The jinxplaced on Harry’s broom during a Quid-ditch match in SS 11 is reminiscent of a

seventy-five line lead curse tablet fromNorth Africa that binds horses – “takeaway their victory, entangle their feet,hinder them, hobble them . . .” – andtheir drivers – “snatch them up fromtheir chariots and twist them to theground . . . dragged along all over thehippodrome . . . with damage to theirbody” (Defixionum Tabellae 237, trans. inGager 61-2). Just as the Potter-readerdiscovers that Prof. Snape was not jinx-ing Harry, but instead was muttering aprotective spell on Harry’s behalf, onefinds in PGM 3.15-30 a recipe for a pro-tection spell: “I adjure you angels ofrunning . . . that you will gird withstrength and courage the horses thatNN is racing and his charioteer . . . letno other magic or witchcraft affectthem.” The effectiveness of Harry’spretense of slipping his Felix Felicispotion to Ron prior to the latter’s Quid-ditch success in HBP (14-5) illustrateshow it is that many have suggestedGreco-Roman magic would have“worked” in these competitive situa-tions – that it gave to the user an edgein confidence.

Agonistic parallels continue in theuse of love potions, both in antiquityand in Potterworld. Love spells fromantiquity abound both in formulae pre-served in recipe books and etched onlead. They are the source of fictionalhumor, as when goat corpses rushthrough the streets at the behest of thewitch Pamphile’s magical ministrationsafter she has been duped by her slavePhotis into using goat hairs instead ofthe hair of the intended victim(Apuleius, Metamorphoses 3.16-8); butthis is a humor that is based in a genuine

social concern over subversive eroticmatches. While there are debates abouthow these spells “worked” in theirGreco-Roman context, with J. Winkler(1990) championing a therapeutic psy-chological projection model and Faraone(1999) suggesting rather that the spellsre-inscribed the realities of match-making, there can be no doubt about thepopularity of love spells of all varieties:men pursuing men and women, womenpursuing women and men.

As the protagonists of the Potterseries age, their concerns mature aswell. While Quidditch is the major com-petitive context of the first book, lovebecomes a greater concern in the laterbooks of the series. In HBP, lovepotions are not only the source of comicrelief but also a major plot point. We arereminded of Apuleius’ bewitched goatcorpses when Ron consumes ChocolateFrogs laced with a love charm meant forHarry (HBP 18-9). More seriously,Voldemort himself is the offspring of arelationship brought about by the spellhis witch mother Merope (note theresonance of the name with Apuleius’famous leading witch Meroe) cast onthe Muggle Tom Riddle. A pregnantMerope is left to raise her half-bloodson alone and in shame, when the lovespell wears off and Riddle scorns her(HBP 10-1). Such a situation is perhapswhat Domitiana feared in third-centuryC.E. North Africa when she commis-sioned what Faraone would call a philiaspell to “bring Urbanus . . . and unitehim with Domitiana . . . in marriage asspouses in love for all the time of theirlives” (DT 271, trans. in Gager, 112-5).Indeed, such erotic spells often hadtime-limits, as we are reminded by theodd fifth-century C.E. love spell inwhich Theon, a male, seeks to bind tohimself Euphemia, “with love and lustand longing for ten months from today”. . . just long enough to bring a pregnan-cy to term (Supplementum Magicum 45).

Other Connections?Illustrative parallels continue well

beyond magical knowledge and ritualexpertise or the agonistic context ofsport and love. Rowling’s animagi, whouse magic to become animals – SiriusBlack/Padfoot, James Potter/Prongs,Peter Pettigrew/Wormtail, and RitaSkeeter/Beetle and the MetamorphmagaNymphadora Tonks (Order of the Phoenix[OP] 3) – call to mind the shape-shiftingLucius, the lead character of Apuleius’Metamorphoses who transforms into adonkey after his misapplication of

21continued on page 23

Rowling’s portrayal of magic reflects ancient

practices.

Ruth Downie. Medicus: A Novel of theRoman Empire. New York: BloomsburyUSA, 2007. Pp. 400. Hardcover. $23.95.ISBN 978-1596912316.

Gaius Petreius Ruso, a Roman armydoctor, signs up for Britannia to get

away from his ex-wife and earn some cashto bail out the family farm from his deadfather’s many creditors. But Britannia isn’texactly the sanctuary he thought it wouldbe. The weather is too wet, the hospitalunderstaffed, and the locals hostile towardsanything Roman. Things go from bad toworse when Ruso, in a weak moment ofcompassion, spends all his money to rescuean injured slave girl from her less thanscrupulous owner.

It turns out his slave is a native whocan’t cook, won’t talk, and is only good forcausing trouble. Ruso lodges her at thelocal bar, only to get dragged against hiswill into a local murder mystery. Prostitutesare turning up dead, and, despite his reluc-tance and claims that he’s not part of theinvestigation, Ruso is the only one whocares about finding out the truth . . . espe-cially after a few “accidents” almost do him in, and he realizes he’s next on themurderer’s list.

Medicus grabbed me from the first pageand didn’t let go, and not just because itstarts out, like many good mysteries, with adead body. Ruso is an engaging character:flawed, compassionate in spite of himself,and full of hilarious introspection. The guycan’t catch a break, whether he’s trying toscrape up money to send back home, writethe first-aid field guide that’s going to makehim rich, or just get a full night’s sleep.Something always goes wrong, and Rusohandles his problems with determinationand humor. He gets into one scrape afteranother, and then, just when he thinks he’ssafe, he finds himself in even more trouble.

Historically, this novel explores the rela-tionship between the Roman army stationedin Britain and the local tribes they’ve sup-posedly conquered. Tensions between themare high. The slave Ruso acquires is anative girl who would, at times, rather diethan live near anything or anyone Roman.Locals are sold as slaves to Roman citizens.

Mixed marriages bring shame to the nativetribes. The Roman army has built a thrivingoutpost and protects the people inside itswalls, yet isn’t above abusing them for itsown entertainment.

The complications between the armyand the locals make author Ruth Downie’sworld a rich, lively place that feels extremelyreal. Throw an unlucky but compassionateguy like Ruso into the mix, and the pagesjust fly by. One of the best aspects of thisnovel is Downie’s skill at drawing the read-er into a completely different time andplace, while being able to relate to Ruso’sdaily life and frustrations. He has troublefinding time to work on his writing. He getswoken up in the middle of the night –repeatedly. His house is a mess, but hecan’t get anyone to clean it. Some parts ofbeing human never change, and that’swhat makes a good historical novel reallywork.

I highly recommend this book, and Ilook forward to reading the sequels, TerraIncognita (Bloomsbury USA 2008) and Per-sona non Grata (Bloomsbury USA 2009).

Chelsea M. Campbell (kaerfel@gmail.com) is a novelist specializing inyoung-adult fantasy fiction. Her most recentnovel, The Rise of Renegade X (RandomHouse) will appear in May, 2010. Sheholds a B.A. degree in Classical Lan-guages, and lives with her husband, twocats, and a collection of glass grapes inBellingham, Washington. More informationabout Chelsea and her writing can befound via her website:http://www.chelseamcampbell.com/.

Book Review: Medicus: A Novel of the Roman Empireby Chelsea M. Campbell

and breast, where there is also a red scar.At the front of each thigh is a jagged redgouge, as if she had fallen and beendragged up again. Her hands . . . arethrust behind her and open in supplica-tion . . .”; at the same time, Wallachnotes that, although “[s]he is cornered,her breasts thrust forward,” she ulti-mately associates the sculpture with theVictory of Samothrace. Wallach alsotouches on the dual themes of death andrebirth in this myth when she says,“The colors of the alabaster descendfrom pale pink to blood red, as if she isbeing drained of life, or infused with it”([2001], 6). In this way, Huffington’s artworks as a catharsis, helping her togrieve Lisa’s death while simultaneouslybringing her daughter to life once againthrough the immortal medium of art.

In the fall of 2006, Huffington’shusband Hank Sutter passed awayunexpectedly. While it is still too soonto see clearly what trajectories her workmight be taking in response to thistragedy, we can be sure that this experi-ence, too, will make its mark on her art.As Huffington has said, “The art that Ilove the most is art that is full, deep,and inclusive of life and death, light anddark, ecstasy and tragedy - theinescapable mystery. The work that Ihave done that has this kind of truth isthe most important work to me: thetruth that contains the whole” (Wallach,“Anita Huffington: The Rock is theHabitation of the Whole,” Anita Huffing-ton. Photographs by David Finn. [NewYork: Ruder Finn Press, 2007], 17).Like the mythological themes on whichshe draws, Huffington’s art embracesthe whole of human experience, and inso doing, her work, like the myths ofantiquity themselves, takes on a time-less quality that speaks to us all.

(For more of Huffington’s work, seephotographer David Finn’s 2007 bookAnita Huffington. New York: Ruder FinnPress.)

Kirsten Day (kirstenday@augustana.edu)is Assistant Professor of Classics at Augus-tana College in Rock Island, Illinois.Because of her interest in classics in popularculture, she has served as Area Chair for the“Classical Representations in Popular Cul-ture” panels at the annual Southwest TexasPopular and American Culture Associa-tion’s regional conferences since 2002.

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CLASSICS REWRITTENIN STONE: THE ART OFANITA HUFFINGTON continued from page 13

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Pamphile’s ointments (Apuleius,Metamorphoses, 3.24-5). Apuleius’ protag-onist would have done well to heed theadmonition uttered by Prof. McGonagall,herself an animaga, when she warnedher students, “Transfiguration is some ofthe most complex and dangerous magicyou will learn at Hogwarts” (SS 8).Magical creatures such as Lupin thewerewolf (Prisoner of Azkaban [PA] 17),Firenze the centaur (SS 15), Fawkes thephoenix (CS 12), the basilisk (CS 16),Buckbeak the hippogriff (PA 6), Norbertthe Norwegian Ridgeback and otherdragons (GF 19), the sphinx (GF 31),and thestrals (OP 21), all have counter-parts in Greco-Roman magical lore.Lykanthropes, or werewolves, are well-attested in Greco-Roman antiquity(Ogden 2002). Philostratus records themagician Apollonius of Tyre’s encoun-ters with magical creatures on hissojourn in India (3.45-9 for martichors[sic], griffins, and phoenixes). Theghosts and restless dead used to animatemany of the Greco-Roman curse tabletshave Potterworld counterparts in NearlyHeadless Nick (CS 8) and MoaningMyrtle (CS 16 and GF 25), as well as inthe terrifying inferi that guard one ofVoldemort’s horcruxes (HBP 26-7). Theeponymous sorcerer’s stone of the firstbook is reminiscent of magical stones ingeneral, whether gemstones inscribedwith spells (e.g., Bonner 1950) or thebelief that the stones themselves havemagical properties, for example theaffinity of hematite for treating blood-related ailments (for properties of magicstones in general, see the fourth-centuryC.E. Cyranides). The Mirror of Erised inwhich viewers see their true desire findsan ancient parallel in cataptromancy(mirror-magic), against which Apuleiusarguably defends himself when hedeflects the charge that he owns a mirror(Apuleius, Apologia 13-6). The pensieve,in which Potterworld memories can bestored, finds some resonance in bothlecanomancy (bowl divination, e.g., PGM4.3209-54 a saucer divination ofAphrodite) and even memory spells (eg.PGM 1.232-47). While there may be noGreco-Roman invisibility cloaks (SS 12and the Tale of the Three Brothers), thereare invisibility rings (Cyranides 1.15.33-7), ointments (PGM 1.222-32), spells(PGM 7.619-27), and even a cap (Iliad5.844-5).

But perhaps even more intriguingthan these one-to-one parallels are some

of the larger ideological issues anddichotomies: the social construction ofmuggles vs. magicians, magic vs. reli-gion, and magic as sustaining of vs.threatening to social order. The answersto such questions are complex in theintricately imagined space of Potter-world. They are a reminder of the murk-iness of the categories and oppositions inGreco-Roman antiquity. Rowling’s cre-ation is a firm reminder that scholars ofGreco-Roman magic can become sosource-bound that we forget to step backand imagine an economy of magic. Thevicissitudes of agon over sport and loveand the concerns over knowledge andtransmission are magically manifest inPotterworld in much the way that theywere in antiquity. Rowling’s imaginativecontext helps us to envision a way to fillthe gaps in our understanding of therecipes and spells at whose users’ needswe can only guess. Conversely, Potter-readers may be fascinated that their pro-tagonists’ struggles are paralleled bythose of real people who lived almosttwo millennia ago.

Further reading:C.A. Bonner, Studies in Magical Amulets.

Ann Arbor: University of MichiganPress, 1950.

B. C. Daleas, Review of Harrius Potter etCamera Secretorum, trans. by P. Need-ham, Amphora 6.2 (Fall 2007): 7, 23.

A. Audollent. Defixionum Tabellae. Paris:Albert Fontemoing, 1904.

C.A. Faraone, Ancient Greek Love Magic.Cambridge, MA: Harvard UniversityPress, 1999.

_______. “The Agonistic Context ofEarly Greek Binding Spells,” in Magi-ka Hiera, edited by C.A. Faraone andD. Obbink, 3-32. Oxford: Oxford Uni-versity Press, 1991.

D. Felton, Haunted Greece and Rome.Austin: University of Texas, 1999.

D. Frankfurter, “Ritual Expertise inRoman Egypt and the Problem of theCategory of the ’Magician’,” in Envi-sioning Magic, edited by P. Schäfer andH.G. Kippenberg, 115-35, Leiden:Brill, 1997.

D.L. Johnson, Review of Areios Poter kaihe tou philosophou lithos, trans. by A.Wilson, Amphora 4.2 (Fall 2005): 1, 4-5.

L.R. LiDonnici, “Beans, Fleawort, andthe Blood of a Hamadryas Baboon:

Recipe Ingredients in Greco-RomanMagical Materials,” in Magic and Ritualin the Ancient World, edited by P.Mirecki and M. Meyer, 359-77, Lei-den: Brill, 2002.

_________. “Compositional Patterns inPGM IV,” Bulletin of the American Soci-ety of Papyrologists 40 (2003): 141-78.

D. Ogden, Magic, Witchcraft, and Ghostsin the Greek and Roman Worlds: ASourcebook. Oxford: Oxford UniversityPress, 2002.

Papyri Graecae Magicae (Preisendanz1973-74), translated and edited byH.D. Betz. Greek Magical Papyri inTranslation. Chicago: University ofChicago Press, 1986.

J. Scarborough, “The Pharmacology ofSacred Plants, Herbs, and Roots,” inMagika Hiera. edited by C.A. Faraoneand D. Obbink, 138-74, Oxford:Oxford University Press, 1991.

Supplementum Magicum, edited andtranslated by R. W. Daniel and F. Mal-tomini, Opladen: Westdeutscher Ver-lag, 1990-92.

J. Winkler, “The Constraints of Desire:Erotic Magic Spells,” in The Constraintsof Desire, 71-98. New York: Routledge,1990.

Elizabeth Ann Pollard (epollard@mail.sdsu.edu) is Associate Professor of His-tory at San Diego State University, whereshe has been teaching courses since 2002 inGreek and Roman history, world history,women and magic, and the historiography ofwitchcraft from Greco-Roman antiquitythrough Colonial America. Her most recentarticles have explored writing about witch-craft on Wikipedia, images of witches inGreco-Roman art, and placing Greco-Roman history and Roman-Indian trade inworld historical context.

PRIOR INCANTATO: GRECO-ROMAN MAGIC FLOWING FROM J.K. ROWLING’S WANDcontinued from page 21

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