Perseus in the Renaissance

For those who enjoyed my series of posts on Perseus, H. Niyazi has a recent post on The Three Pipe Problem discussing the portrayal of Perseus in Renaissance Art.

The Phantom of the Great Dionysia

When Gary Corby of A Dead Man Fell From the Sky and I were chatting on Twitter the other day, he mentioned how much more attractive to the average male the addition of zombies made "Pride and Prejudice". I can't say I'd ever felt the lack before, but we kicked around a few titles which might increase the ancient world's visibility today.

Purely by coincidence I can announce the translation of a fragments of a play found in the Oxyrhynchus papyri. It appears to be by a hitherto unknown tragedian, Andreas Arachnis.


The Phantom of the Great Dionysia

Enter chorus:
Lightning-born son of Zeus and Semele,
Great Dionysus, tell us of the king
of your mother's city,the man with the
swollen feet, the son of Laertes and,
O dreadful to say, of Jocasta.

Enter Messenger:
I bring news sad to say.
The father of our Oedipus,
Not the man himself you understand,
But the one who speaks his words,
His father is dead and so
Without pollution he cannot enter
The god's precinct.

Choregos:
The news is sad but worse still,
how can we go on without an
Oedipus? How can we worship the god?

Messenger:
There is a lad in this chorus you see
here now, he has been trained,
he can sing the words.
Exit Messenger

Choregos:
Is this true?

Nikeratos:
It is true sir.
It is as the man said.

Choregos:
And who trained you?

Nikeratos:
I do not know, I cannot tell.
It is a secret of the god.

Choregos:
Well, let me hear you.

Nikeratos:
This plague that afflicts my city,
I cannot bear it. We must find
what god has been angered.
I will send to Delphi to enquire.

Choregos:
But now, dark night comes.
We will begin again tomorrow.
Exit Choregos

Phantom (from the machine):
Nikeratos you have done well.
I made it happen. Come, offer sacrifice.

Nikeratos:
Spirit of Orpheus, hear me.
Let me be the mask you wear.
Sing through me.

Chorus:
Dark-robed Night we sing to you.
Nighttime sharpens, heightens each sensation
Darkness wakes and stirs imagination

Lacuna

The power of the music of night

Choregos:
As rosy fingered dawn lights the Maiden's temple
I choose a new actor to play Oedipus.
One with experience of many festivals.

Messenger:
A man or perhaps one of the immortal gods
Gave me this message of doom.
If you do not obey, disaster will fall.
Exit Messenger

Messenger 2:
From mountain girt Delphi I come
With word from the far shooting one
Given through his oracle.
Obedience is always wise.
Remember whose is the mask.
Exit Messenger 2

Choregos:
My chosen actor will speak.

Hermodoros:
Can I who solved the riddle
of the Sphinx rest quiet
while
Brekekekex koax koax

Chorus:
Brekekekex koax koax
Brekekekex koax koax
Exit chorus

Choregos:
Frogs. My whole cast are frogs.
Very well let the boy try.

Nikeratos:
Wife, given to me by the city
as reward and by your own hand
as wife and more than wife.
Come out of the palace and tell me
of time gone before I came to this place.

Messenger:
O, terrible to relate.
How can I speak and yet
How not?

Choregos:
What is it?

Messenger:
Foul death.
I can say no more.

Choregos:
Speak on.

Messenger:
Death comes
in many forms, but this!
Unspeakable.

Choregos:
Tell me.

Messenger:
Just as in years gone by
Denaira gave her husband a robe
And Jason's wife from Colchis
Gave his new love a crown of fire
So, O, how can I say it?
Your chorus put on their robes
And were burnt. Flesh charred from bone.
Terrible were their screams. Still I hear them.

A chorus of Scythians enters
Goddess of justice, you who
punish man's overweening pride,
aid us. Come from the land
of the Hyperboreans or wherever
you are feasting now, and help us,
we implore you.

Choregos:
Where is this murderer? How can he be found?

Nikeratos:
He has a lair, in a cave
under the temple sacred to the Muses nine.
I can take you there.

Lacuna

Choregos:
See where he rises in a chariot
drawn by dragons sent by the Queen of Night.
He takes the body of Nikeratos with him.
The gods have done this.
Nothing turns out as we expected.
The music is ended.


Although a translation into English has been prepared, no scholarly commentary or apparatus criticus has appeared. If anyone would like to contribute notes to such an enterprise, please feel free to add them to the comments.

Comments Policy

I've just received a comment on a review I posted in this blog. The comment basically agrees with what I said in my review but expresses itself much more harshly than I would. The comment is also anonymous, which makes me feel uncomfortable about publishing something that could be construed as an attack on somebody's professionalism. I've decided therefore that I'm not going to publish anonymous comments.

My New Blog

I'm starting a new blog called Elegant Extracts. It's basically just excerpts from books I'd like to share for various reasons. Do drop by. Matters Arising will continue. I'm currently gathering material for a post on Alcuin but work commitments are slowing things down.

Copyright, Wikis, and the National Portrait Gallery

The BBC alerts us to a legal spat between Wikimedia (the owner of Wikipedia and Wikicommons) and London's National Portrait Gallery. Wikimedia gives its arguments on its blog, but if the National Portrait Gallery is saying anything directly rather than through news media, I haven't been able to find it.

No doubt intellectual property and IT lawyers are going to have a field day. But I thought I'd just explain the policy I'm following here at Matters Arising. It's probably not totally logical and consistent, but then copyright law doesn't seem to be, either, and like the rest of us is adapting to the changing possibilities brought about by changing technology.

Basically, I use two main online collections for the art reproduced on this blog: Wikicommons and museumsyndicate. If a picture is not in either of those collections and the museum or gallery where I find the picture doesn't give permission to reproduce I simply provide a link.

Some museums and galleries are better than others. Special kudos goes to New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, which does allow reproduction in certain circumstances and says so clearly. Other museums and galleries may allow reproduction but wrap it up in so much legal verbiage, it really is not clear what is allowed and what is not. When in doubt I don't. BUT, some museums and galleries (mentioning no names but you know who you are) seem to go out of their way to make it difficult even to link to pictures that they are showing online. In that case, as far as I'm concerned the picture is fair game for reproduction.

John William Waterhouse

Caroline Lawrence of the Roman Mysteries blog and associated novels draws our attention to the Royal Academy's J. W. Waterhouse exhibition, running until 13th September (so no chance of my seeing it, alas). In honour of the occasion she is blogging a series of posts on Waterhouse's work.



Others who won't be in London over the summer can see his paintings on two online galleries devoted to his works, here and here. The Victorian Web also has a section on Waterhouse (although they don't look like it, the list is actually a list of links to the paintings and discussions of his work). (public domain image of John William Waterhouse's Ophelia is from museumsyndicate)

Cuthbert and Aidan To Be Amalgamated

Donna Farley of Haliwerfolc draws our attention to a post by Michelle of Heavenfield on her other blog, Selah.

The USA's Episcopal Church is considering amalgamating its celebration of the two Lindisfarne saints, Cuthbert (currently on 20 March) and Aidan (currently on 31 August) with a joint celebration on 31 August.

Patrick Hunt's Hannibal Lectures -- a review

I've now finished listening to Patrick Hunt's series of lectures on Hannibal I referred to in my post on the Punic Wars. I thought the first few lectures in the series, on the history and cultural background to Carthage and on the first Punic War were the best, full of interesting information with insights from many different fields of study. The lectures on Hannibal's great battles and strategy in Italy were competently done and interesting, with close textual attention to Polybius', Livy's, and Appian's accounts. (picture of Carthaginian double shekel from wikicommons)

As we all know, Hannibal's most famous exploit was crossing the Alps to attack Italy from the north. However, I did feel that the amount of time given over to the discussion of this pass vs that pass as Hannibal's route was excessive (though the account of the 1950s British expedition taking an elephant over the Alps was fun).

No doubt it's a personal quirk on the part of the speaker and shouldn't really matter in the larger scheme of things, but something I did find very grating was his curious pronunciation for horse-borne troops. There were times I felt I would scream if I heard one more mention of Hannibal's (or the Romans') Calvary.

Raphael's The School of Athens

BBC Radio 4's In Our Time is discussing Raphael's 1508-1511 fresco "The School of Athens", which is in the Vatican, together with other frescoes also mentioned in the programme. The programme is downloadable until 2 April, after which you can still listen to it streamed from the website. (illustration from wikipedia in the public domain)

The Punic Wars

For some reason the Punic Wars seem to have been popping up rather a lot just recently. They naturally form the background to some of the action in Steven Saylor's Roma, which I am currently reading, though most of the military action in the wars takes place off stage. (public domain image of Hannibal as a child swearing eternal hatred of Rome, from the Comic History of Rome, via wiki commons)

I recently got round to listening to Dan Carlin's series of three podcasts on the Punic Wars (scroll down to find them). His forte is trying to evoke a sense of what it was like living through these events, rather than exactly what happened when.

I've also been listening to what is shaping up to be an
excellent series of lectures on Hannibal from Patrick Hunt of Stanford University. The first lecture on the Carthaginian background to Hannibal's career was wide-ranging and informative with some interesting ideas. The second lecture, which was on the 1st Punic War, was equally informative, though there were times I wished I had some maps in front of me.

Brendan McGinley and Mario Vargas are respectively writing and illustrating an online comic book version of the story of Hannibal. It's still a work in progress, and so far Hannibal has only just reached the Alps and is dealing with the tribes before he crosses the mountains. The generally humorous style reminds me a bit of Asterix. I do wish, however, that they could fit a whole page onto the screen. Even in full screen view one still has to scroll up and down to see the top or bottom inch or so, which is fine for one page but can get a bit tedious.

This week's topic in Melvyn Bragg's series "In Our Time" from BBC Radio 4 is The Destruction of Carthage and it will be available in downloadable format until 19th February, after which it will still be available in the programme's archives, but you will have to listen over an internet connection. One of the contributors to this programme was Mary Beard, who has blogged about the experience.

Actaeon Update 2

Titian's "Diana and Actaeon" is to stay in the UK after the National Galleries of Scotland and London's National Gallery raised enough money to buy the painting from the Duke of Sutherland.The Guardian, The Scotsman, and the BBC have coverage. (public domain image from wiki commons)

The Independent has a detailed discussion of the symbolism and artistic techniques used in the painting.

My Follower

It seems I have acquired a follower. It rather makes me feel like I'm a Victorian maidservant liable to incur the wrath of her mistress at any moment, but never mind. My follower goes by the name of William Hone Jr. and is kind enough to describe Matters Arising as a wonder room. The description for his blog, symbolpond, reads "A journal in the spirit of William Hone about symbols, folklore, rituals, aesthetics, culture theory,and contemporary crap values and miseducation".

For those who, like me, have never heard of William Hone, he was an early 19th century pamphleteer and journalist whose satires against the government led to him being unsuccessfully prosecuted for blasphemous libel three times in 1817. The fact that the prosecutions were unsuccessful marked an important stage in the struggle for freedom of the press.

A biography of Hone, with a link to some of Hone's works.

The William Hone BioText has more on Hone and his works.

Byzantium 330-1453, a review

I went to see the exhibition Byzantium 330 - 1453 at London's Royal Academy yesterday (Monday). The exhibition covered the history from Constantinople's foundation by Constantine to its fall to the Turks in 1453, court life, domestic life, the church, icons, the Byzantine Empire's artistic interaction with Latin Christendom, its interaction with other cultures, and St. Catherine's monastery on Mount Sinai. The exhibits were overwhelming in their profusion, and I wish I'd gone earlier in my visit back to Britain so that I would have had time to go to the exhibition twice. The three hours I spent there really wasn't enough. Fortunately, despite the sign saying no re-entry, the staff were quite happy to let people go in and out for toilet breaks or a cup of coffee. As it was I had to skimp the section called "Beyond Byzantium" which dealt with the Orthodox church amongst the Slavic peoples and with the Coptic church, Armenia and so on.

The objects on display included busts, statuettes, coins, books, textiles, icons, jewellery, household goods and church equipment. Despite the large number of people at the exhibition, the exhibition space was large enough for it not to feel crowded, though there were slight traffic jams around the objects featured on the audio guide. Although the wall boards were informative and provided context for the objects on display a glossary would have been helpful, particularly for the icons. The audio guide went some way to remedying this, although it did mean some backtracking when the audio for one object explained something I'd seen earlier. I think I can now tell the Virgin Hodogetria from the Virgin Psychosostria, but an earlier note somewhere that the Kimisis (Greek) of the Virgin is the equivalent of the Dormition (Latin) of the Virgin (in itself hardly a term I use every day) would have been nice, and until I was able to look it up on the internet, I had no idea what the salient features of a Deesis were. Despite this shortcoming, I would have no hesitation in recommending the exhibition to anyone, although as I said, you might find two visits necessary.

Podcast Review: Isabelle Pafford on the Roman Republic

This podcast is a series of lectures on the Roman Republic given by Dr. Isabelle Pafford of Santa Clara University. The lectures take us from the founding of Rome down to the death of Julius Caesar. Unfortunately some of the lectures are missing due, I gather, to technical problems. It's the first time I've listened to the iTunes U, so I'm not sure how much of what I have to say is specific to Dr. Pafford's course and how much is due to a format imposed by iTunes U or Santa Clara University itself.

Dr. Pafford struck me as an engaging and stimulating lecturer who interacts well with her students. There were certainly times when I was dying to leap in and ask questions. On the other hand, there did seem to be an awful lot of moments when she lost her place in her notes or slides and we had to wait for her to find her place again -- but perhaps that is more noticeable to those listening in than it would be to those present. She does have a penchant for trying to draw analogies with contemporary personalities and events, some of which work better than others.

On her page at the Santa Clara University website, Dr. Pafford says of herself, "She likes to use technology in her classroom, when possible, and many of her class lectures are available as podcasts." I think more thought needs to be given to who the podcasts are actually aimed at -- are they simply for her own students who miss lectures for whatever reasons, are they aimed at whetting the appetite of prospective students, or are they aimed at the interested public at large? If the podcasts are meant for the public at large, then it would be helpful if she could put notes online in the form of reading lists or links to sources to accompany the lectures. I'm not sure how useful the podcasts by themselves without any supporting material would be to anyone who had no knowledge of the Roman Republic to orient themselves.

Zeugma Mosaics

Adrian Murdoch of Bread and Circuses draws our attention to the opening of a Mithraic temple at Zeugma (near Doliche in modern Turkey - marked A in the map below).


View Larger Map

The project's website includes these mosaics, but only thumbnail size, alas.

William Rufus Update

Update on my post about the Norman Kings. The Oxford DNB's biography of William Rufus is available online for one week from today. (public domain image from wikicommons)

Herculaneum after 300 years

The BBC kicks off the celebrations for the 300th anniversary of the discovery of Herculaneum in 1709 with a slideshow accompanied by audio commentary. (public domain picture from wikicommons of photograph taken by Matthias Holländer)

Actaeon Update

One of the paintings we looked at in my post on Actaeon from the 15th to 17th centuries was Titian's "Diana and Actaeon" (left). Judith Weingarten of Zenobia: Empress of the East has brought to my attention The Archaeology Review's rather derogatory comment on the painting stemming from a BBC report that Titian's painting is now on display in London's National Gallery in an attempt to raise £50 million to prevent it being sold off abroad by its owner, the Duke of Sutherland. When this news first broke in August, The Guardian's coverage provoked lively debate.

Byzantium

London's Royal Academy will be holding a major exhibition on Byzantium from 25 October 2008 to 22 March 2009. I certainly plan to go during my Christmas trip to the UK. To go with the exhibition BBC Radio 3 will be broadcasting a programme on Byzantium tomorrow (19 October) at 20:00 BST (GMT +1), which presumably will be available for listening on the internet for one week. (picture of mosaic taken from the Royal Academy's publicity for the exhibition)

The Byzantium section of Paul Halsall's Medieval Sourcebook is rather more up to date than the same author's Byzantine Studies Page.

Diva

Rummaging in one of the DVD shops in Plaza Indonesia, I was happy to see that Diva has been re-issued. I was not so happy when I asked the price. All right, it's an imported DVD but what do they do, give it its own seat on the plane coming over? Definitely something for my trip back home at Christmas.

I saw it twice when it first came out back in 1982 and thought it was wonderfully stylish. I saw it on a rented laser disc back in the early 1990s and it still held up pretty well. As far as I remember, it was the first time I'd really heard an opera singer and it definitely left me wanting more. The Youtube trailer below is the original 1982 one, although something seems to have gone wrong with the subtitling.