tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/greek-literature-10204/articlesGreek literature – The Conversation2024-02-09T13:35:44Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2217282024-02-09T13:35:44Z2024-02-09T13:35:44ZLove may be timeless, but the way we talk about it isn’t − the ancient Greeks’ ideas about desire challenge modern-day readers, lovers and even philosophers<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/574185/original/file-20240207-31-3xrj56.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C3%2C1022%2C790&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The love story of Psyche and Eros − also known as Cupid − has survived since the days of Rome and Greece.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/stature-of-cupid-and-psyche-embracing-from-the-villa-news-photo/517391898?adppopup=true">Bettman via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Every year as Valentine’s Day approaches, people remind themselves that not all expressions of love fit the stereotypes of modern romance. V-Day cynics might plan <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/2023/02/02/when-is-galentines-day-2023/11154837002/">a “Galentines” night for female friends</a> or toast their platonic “Palentines” instead.</p>
<p>In other words, the holiday shines a cold light on the limits of our romantic imaginations, which hew to a familiar script. Two people are supposed to meet, <a href="https://theconversation.com/dont-underestimate-cupid-hes-not-the-chubby-cherub-you-associate-with-valentines-day-197735">the arrows of Cupid</a> strike them unwittingly, and they have no choice but to fall in love. They face obstacles, they overcome them, and then they run into each other’s arms. Love is a delightful sport, and neither reason nor the gods have anything to do with it. </p>
<p>This model of romance flows from Roman poetry, medieval chivalry and Renaissance literature, especially Shakespeare. But as <a href="https://dornsife.usc.edu/profile/david-albertson/">a professor of religion</a>, I study an alternative vision of eros: medieval Christian mystics who viewed the body’s desires as immediately and inescapably linked to God, reason and sometimes even suffering. </p>
<p>Yet this way of thinking about love has even older roots. </p>
<p>My favorite class to teach traces connections between eros and transcendence, starting with ancient Greek literature. Centuries before Christianity, the Greeks had their own ideas about desire. Erotic love was not a pleasant diversion, but a high-stakes trial to be survived, quivering with perilous energy. These poets’ and philosophers’ ideas can stimulate our thinking today – and perhaps our loving as well.</p>
<h2>Deadly serious</h2>
<p>For the ancient Greeks, <a href="https://outils.biblissima.fr/fr/eulexis-web/?lemma=eros&dict=LSJ">eros</a> – which could be translated as “yearning” or “passionate desire” – was a matter of life and death, even a danger to avoid. </p>
<p>In the tragedies of Sophocles, when someone feels eros, typically something is about to go terribly wrong, if it hasn’t already.</p>
<p>Take “Antigone,” <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/S/bo14823116.html">written in Athens in the fifth century B.C.E</a>. The play opens with the title character mourning the death of her brother Polyneices, who betrayed her father and killed her other brother in battle. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/574181/original/file-20240207-28-emp3fw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A woman in a white dress and black shawl throws her arms up dramatically in front of stern-looking soldiers." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/574181/original/file-20240207-28-emp3fw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/574181/original/file-20240207-28-emp3fw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574181/original/file-20240207-28-emp3fw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574181/original/file-20240207-28-emp3fw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574181/original/file-20240207-28-emp3fw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=560&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574181/original/file-20240207-28-emp3fw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=560&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574181/original/file-20240207-28-emp3fw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=560&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Joan Maria Grovin stars as Antigone in a 1959 broadcast production in Munich.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/szene-mit-joan-maria-grovin-als-antigone-in-dem-news-photo/1198737763?adppopup=true">Klaus Heirler/picture alliance via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>After this civil war, King Creon, Antigone’s uncle, forbids citizens from burying Polyneices: an insult to his memory, but also a violation of the city’s religion. When Antigone insists on burying him anyway, she is condemned to death.</p>
<p>The play is often interpreted as a lesson on duty: Creon executing the laws of the state versus Antigone defending the laws of the gods. Yet, uncomfortably for modern readers, Antigone’s devotion to Polyneices <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199559213.003.0015">seems to be more than sisterly love</a>.</p>
<p>Antigone leaps at the chance to die next to her brother. “Loving, I shall lie with him, yes, with my loved one,” she swears to her law-abiding sister, “when I have dared the crime of piety.” </p>
<p>Were Polyneices her husband, child, parent or even fiancé, Antigone says, she would never have violated the law. But <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/S/bo14823116.html">her desire for Polyneices</a> is so great that she is willing to face “marriage to Death.” She compares the cave where Creon buries her alive with the bedroom on a wedding night. Rather than starve, she hangs herself with her own linen veil.</p>
<p>Scholars have asked <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/657289">whether Antigone has too much eros</a> or too little – and what exactly she desires. Does she lust for justice? For piety? For her deceased brother’s body? Her desire is somehow embodied and otherworldly at the same time, calling our own erotic boundaries into question.</p>
<p>Eventually, Creon’s passion for civic order consumes him as well. His son, Antigone’s fiancé, stabs himself in grief as he embraces her corpse – and hearing of this, his mother kills herself as well. <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/S/bo14823116.html">Eros races through the royal family</a> like a plague, leveling them all. </p>
<p>No wonder the chorus prays to the goddess of love, pleading for protection from her violent whims. “Who has you within him is mad,” the chorus laments. “You twist the minds of the just.”</p>
<h2>Embrace the risk</h2>
<p>This leads to a second lesson from the Greeks: Love might make you a better person, but it also might not. </p>
<p>Rather than speak in his own voice, the philosopher Plato wrote dialogues starring his teacher, Socrates, who had a lot to say about love and friendship.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://hackettpublishing.com/plato-on-love">one dialogue, “Lysis</a>,” Socrates jokes that if all you want is romantic love, the best plan is to insult your crush until they thirst for attention. In another, “Symposium,” Socrates’ young student Phaedrus imagines an indomitable army entirely comprising people in love. What courage and strength they would show off for each other!</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/574219/original/file-20240207-18-d0mmy3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A scene of seven men in toga-like garments sitting and standing around a tree." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/574219/original/file-20240207-18-d0mmy3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/574219/original/file-20240207-18-d0mmy3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=687&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574219/original/file-20240207-18-d0mmy3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=687&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574219/original/file-20240207-18-d0mmy3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=687&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574219/original/file-20240207-18-d0mmy3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=864&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574219/original/file-20240207-18-d0mmy3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=864&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574219/original/file-20240207-18-d0mmy3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=864&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">A mosaic of Plato talking with his pupils, found in the house of T. Siminius in Pompeii.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/plato-conversing-with-his-pupils-from-the-house-of-t-news-photo/73217223?adppopup=true">Art Images/Hulton Fine Art Images via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>In <a href="https://hackettpublishing.com/plato-on-love">the “Phaedrus” dialogue</a>, foolish lovers seek a friends-with-benefits arrangement, afraid of the unwieldy passions that come with falling in love. Socrates entertains their question: Is it better to separate affection from sexual entanglements, since the force of desire can erode one’s ethical principles?</p>
<p>His answer is emphatically “No.” For Socrates, sexual attraction steers the soul toward divine goodness and beauty, just as great art or acts of justice can do. </p>
<p>The idea of friends with benefits, he warns, cleaves the ethical self from the erotic self. Here and elsewhere, Plato insists that to be whole people, we must embrace the risks that come with love.</p>
<h2>A necessary madness</h2>
<p>Socrates has one more lesson to teach. Erotic love is indeed a kind of madness – but a madness necessary for wisdom.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://hackettpublishing.com/plato-on-love">“Phaedrus</a>,” Socrates suggests that love is a madness given by the gods, a fire blazing like artistic inspiration or sacred rites. Sexual desire disorients us, but only because it is reorienting lovers toward another world. The “goal of loving,” <a href="https://hackettpublishing.com/plato-on-love">according to one dialogue</a>, is to “catch sight” of pure beauty and goodness. </p>
<p>In erotic longing we bump up against something greater than us, a thread that we can trace back to the divine. And for Socrates, this pathway from eros to God is reason. In desire, a shimmer of light cracks through the broken crust of the material world, inspiring us to yearn for things that last.</p>
<p>The contemporary philosopher <a href="https://socialthought.uchicago.edu/directory/Jean-Luc-Marion">Jean-Luc Marion</a> has suggested that modern academic philosophy has totally failed when it comes to <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/E/bo4134284.html">the topic of desire</a>. There are vast subfields devoted to the philosophies of language, mind, law, science and mathematics, yet curiously there is no philosophy of eros.</p>
<p>Like the ancient Greeks and medieval Christians, Marion <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/E/bo4134284.html">warns philosophers against assuming that love is irrational</a>. Far from it. If love looks like madness, he says, that’s because it possesses a “greater rationality.”</p>
<p>In the words of another French philosopher, Blaise Pascal: “<a href="https://www.themarginalian.org/2015/06/19/blaise-pascal-intuition-intellect-pensees/">The heart has its reasons</a>, which reason knows nothing of.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/221728/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Albertson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Conventional stereotypes about romance portray it as a passionate, irrational game. Ancient philosophers, on the other hand, viewed love as something dangerous − but also enlightening.David Albertson, Associate Professor of Religion, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and SciencesLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2047332023-05-14T11:18:54Z2023-05-14T11:18:54ZWhy we’ll keep finding meaning in the ‘Oedipus Rex’ plague drama far beyond COVID-19<p>Now that the World Health Organization has said COVID-19 <a href="https://www.who.int/news/item/05-05-2023-statement-on-the-fifteenth-meeting-of-the-international-health-regulations-(2005)-emergency-committee-regarding-the-coronavirus-disease-(covid-19)-pandemic">“no longer constitutes a public health emergency of international concern</a>” but is instead “an ongoing health issue,” how will theatre makers and audiences read plague- and pandemic-themed plays?</p>
<p>During the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the character Oedipus and the ancient Greek drama based on his tragedy was suddenly everywhere. A figure from ancient Greek myth who was fated to kill his father and marry his mother, Oedipus has been most famous over the last century for the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/Oedipus-complex">controversial “complex” that Sigmund Freud</a> named after him.</p>
<p>In the pandemic, out of the shadows of Freud, the world remembered Sophocles’ <em><a href="https://chs.harvard.edu/primary-source/sophocles-oedipus-tyrannus-sb/">Oedipus Tyrannus</a></em> (<em><a href="https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Greek/Oedipus.php">Oedipus Rex</a> /Oedipus the King)</em> was not just a psycho-sexual drama, but a play about a city-devastating plague, <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/292475">most likely first produced in 429 BCE</a> after <a href="https://www.livius.org/sources/content/thucydides-historian/the-plague/">an unknown disease swept through Athens</a>.</p>
<p>My new edited volume follows global trends in how theatre artists receive and interpret Greek tragedy in contextualizing <a href="https://www.mqup.ca/scapegoat-carnivale---s-tragic-trilogy-products-9780228017646.php">a Montréal-based theatre company’s new translations of Greek tragedy</a>.</p>
<h2>Oedipus abounded</h2>
<p>In the first year of the pandemic, <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-goes-around-comes-around-or-what-greek-mythology-says-about-donald-trump-147428">public commentary</a> compared <a href="https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2020-03-26/coronavirus-trump-oedipus-rex-plague">former U.S. president Donald Trump to Oedipus</a>.</p>
<p>In Los Angeles, <a href="https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/chicanx">a Chicanx</a> version of <em>Oedipus Rex,</em> <a href="https://www.centertheatregroup.org/tickets/digitalstage/videos/oedipus-el-rey/"><em>Oedipus El Rey</em>, written by Luis Alfaro and directed by Chay Yew, was streaming live from the Center Theatre Group</a> in partnership with the Getty Museum. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1392074362669371394"}"></div></p>
<p>The excellent Theater of War company, under the direction <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtzExQr3cLE">of Brooklyn, N.Y.-based</a> <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/217973/the-theater-of-war-by-bryan-doerries/#">Bryan Doerries</a>, produced a star-studded zoom version in May 2020, <a href="https://theaterofwar.com/projects/the-oedipus-project"><em>The Oedipus Project</em></a>, dedicated to first responders. </p>
<h2>Theban plague parallels</h2>
<p><a href="https://vietnamnews.vn/life-style/939280/vietnamese-theatre-artists-to-attend-online-asian-festival.html">Vietnamese audiences saw what’s believed to be the first-ever Vietnamese production</a> of <em>King Oedipus</em> through an online festival in May 2021. The play, directed by Bùi Nhu Lai, was performed and streamed at the 6th Asian Theatre Schools Festival held in Beijing, by the Hà Nội Academy of Theatre and Cinema. </p>
<p>And as pandemic restrictions began to ease, Oedipus came back to stages. The <a href="https://aefestival.gr/festival_events/oidipoys/?lang=en">Athens/Epidaurus festival reopened in its ancient venues with a version of the play</a> first produced at <a href="https://www.schaubuehne.de/en/ensemblelists/ensemble.html">Berlin’s famous Schaubühne theatre</a>, <em>ödipus</em>, written by Maja Zade and directed by Thomas Ostermeier.</p>
<p>While some revelled in <a href="https://eidolon.pub/i-am-the-virus-2a23b57e8e75">the fresh take on Oedipus these performances brought</a>, at least one critic wondered if maybe we shouldn’t search for a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/15/theater/oedipus-the-king-plague-covid.html">direct parallel between the Theban plague killing Oedipus’s subjects and COVID-19</a>. </p>
<h2>Multiple crises</h2>
<p>As if in response, Doerries’ <em>The Oedipus Project</em> named its themes as the pandemic <em>and</em> the climate crisis. </p>
<p>When asked by the <em>Guardian’s</em> theatre critic “What play do you think most speaks to this time we are living through?”, Ostermeier answered <em>Oedipus</em>, saying: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Oedipus himself is the origin of the plague, because he killed his own father. That is not only true of the pandemic; we are <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2021/mar/14/how-has-global-theatre-fared-during-pandemic-schaubuhne-internationaal-amsterdam-public-theater-new-york-odeon-paris-helsingborg">also the origin of an even bigger drama, the drama of our time: global warming</a>.”</p>
</blockquote>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/vAMlYJziDhE?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Premiere of ‘The Oedipus Project’ featuring Oscar Isaac, Frances McDormand, Jeffrey Wright, John Turturro.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>Montréal productions</h2>
<p>My edited volume <a href="https://www.mqup.ca/scapegoat-carnivale---s-tragic-trilogy-products-9780228017646.php"><em>Scapegoat Carnivale’s Tragic Trilogy</em></a> documents how between 2010 and 2017, the Montréal theatre company Scapegoat Carnivale produced Euripides’ <em>Medea</em> and <em>Bacchae</em>, and Sophocles’ <em>Oedipus Tyrannus</em>. </p>
<p>Through contributors’ essays that discuss the plays’ ancient themes and their current reception histories, this volume tries to tease out tensions: When we ask “why now” of ancient works, we can always come up with an answer, but we don’t always need to. </p>
<p>The Greek tragedies might have been written to work through fifth-century Athens’ own cultural anxieties, but even in Sophocles’ day, they did so through a mythical past, one as removed from Sophocles as he is from anyone today.</p>
<h2>Plague concerns folded into myth</h2>
<p>If Sophocles wrote <em>Oedipus Tyrannus</em> in part as a response to the Athenian plague, he folded that concern into a myth that accommodates today’s <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Reclaiming-Greek-Drama-for-Diverse-Audiences-An-Anthology-of-Adaptations/Powers/p/book/9781138601024">diverse</a> and changing <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/greek-tragedy-in-a-global-crisis-9781350348141/">global</a> anxieties just as well as his own. </p>
<p>As Aristotle says, <a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:abo:tlg,0086,034:1451b">poetry, unlike history, is not concerned with particular facts, but instead with general truths</a>.</p>
<p>And Sophocles is a poet, a playwright composing in verse. As I produced Scapegoat’s literal translation of <em>Oedipus Tyrannus</em> for <a href="https://playwrightsguild.ca/paupress/profile/3521/view/">playwright Joseph Shragge</a> to adapt, I often found myself on the edge of my seat as I worked through the play line by line. </p>
<p><em>Oedipus Rex</em> is a perfect mystery-box play, balancing horror and humour, with each scene bringing new revelations, ratcheting up tensions around who Oedipus actually is. Tension builds about who he is in relation to Jocasta, until the terrible denouement reveals her to Oedipus as both his mother and wife, and the play sees her dead and him blinded, both by self-inflicted wounds.</p>
<h2>‘The city … unable to lift her head’</h2>
<p>In <a href="https://www.scapegoatcarnivale.com/oedipus-part-one-assembly">Scapegoat’s contemporary-set staged reading</a>, Shragge’s clean style perfectly captured Sophocles’ irony, humour and pathos. Scapegoat’s minimalist staging favoured people over props, with a massive chorus composed of three local choirs. </p>
<p>The result was over 65 people on stage, a wall of people on risers all around the actors, enveloping them in soaring <a href="https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1441190212661229">choral compositions</a> by Brian Lipson. It was Oedipus’s (<a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0419962/">Marcel Jeannin</a>) tragedy, but it was impossible to forget the people whom it affected, as the prologue’s priest (<a href="https://tarragontheatre.com/about/our-team/">Mike Payette</a>) told us:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“The city, as you can see, tosses, unable to lift her head from the depths, <a href="https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0192%3Acard%3D14">such are the waves that waste the bud before it blooms, the ox herd in the field, and the unborn child in the womb.</a>” </p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Long-suffering Thebans</h2>
<p>To see Oedipus and all his long-suffering Thebans embodied onstage (for me, for the first time), mattered, despite <a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0056%3Asection%3D1453b">Aristotle’s claim that the play is just as good without actually seeing this</a>.</p>
<p>Critics agreed, with <em>Montreal Gazette</em> theatre critic Jim Burke “<a href="https://www.scapegoatcarnivale.com/oedipus-part-one-assembly">reminded of what a devastatingly effective play Oedipus is</a>,” while others cited Shragge’s “beautiful adaptation” making the show “a must-see” and “the event of the theatrical season.” </p>
<p>For three shows, I went and sat in a crowded theatre and watched Oedipus’s tragedy unfold, and I laughed and I gasped and I wept. I still get shivers thinking of the choral solo by <a href="http://gitanjali.life/">Gitanjali Jain</a>, describing Thebes’ unending deaths:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“<a href="https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0192%3Acard%3D169">men fly away like birds / faster than unquenchable flame / one by one / to the god of the evening shore</a>.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>COVID-19 is no longer a global emergency, but in Sophocles’ Thebes, all around Oedipus, the plague rages as ever. And Scapegoat’s new translation, like countless others, waits for readers to find new delights in its words, audiences to find new terrors in its enactment and creators to make new meanings of its myth.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/204733/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lynn Kozak has worked for and consulted with Scapegoat Carnivale Theatre. They have received funding from SSHRC and, through Scapegoat Carnivale, the Canada Council for the Arts. </span></em></p>During COVID-19, the world remembered Oedipus was not just a psycho-sexual drama. Such is the richness of a play enfolded in rich layers of myth.Lynn Kozak, Associate professor, History and Classical Studies, McGill UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1973792023-01-12T13:22:01Z2023-01-12T13:22:01ZReunions can be nostalgic and painful as well as happy – as the ancient Greek heroes Achilles and Odysseus show us<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504094/original/file-20230111-16-6wtv5x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=30%2C15%2C4977%2C3521&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A painting showing Odysseus recognizing Achilles, who is disguised as a woman.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/odysseus-recognises-achilles-amongst-the-daughters-of-news-photo/640240101?phrase=odysseus%20greek&adppopup=true">Paris, Musée Du Louvre. DeAgostini/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Celebrations are a joyous time of reuniting with family and friends. But afterward, people can sometimes be left uneasily mulling over their relationships. Annual returns home can induce an uncomfortable nostalgia in the tension between how the past is remembered and how the present is experienced.</p>
<p>As someone who <a href="https://scholarworks.brandeis.edu/esploro/profile/joel_christensen/overview?institution=01BRAND_INST">studies ancient Greek myth and poetry</a>, I often find myself making sense of my own life through my work. Even though many Greek myths are infamous for disturbing topics such as infanticide and incest, ancient audiences did look to their stories to make sense of themselves and their world. </p>
<p>The bittersweetness of family relationships and reunions turns out to be an important theme.</p>
<h2>Heroes and families</h2>
<p>What most people may remember from Greek myth are heroes like Hercules or Theseus, who make the world safe for other human beings by killing threatening monsters or punishing criminal humans. Hercules’ <a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/Herakles/labors.html">killing of the hydra, a dragon with regrowable heads</a>, as one of his labors represent the forces of civilization conquering nature. At a fundamental level, these kinds of stories center on how heroes are capable of making life safer for human communities.</p>
<p>But most heroic narratives also emphasize how individual heroes are a poor fit for family life and may even come to threaten their communities. For example, one reason Hercules had to complete <a href="https://uen.pressbooks.pub/mythologyunbound/chapter/the-twelve-labors-of-heracles/">his many labors as a punishment</a> was because he killed his first wife and their children due to a fit of madness sent by the gods. </p>
<p>One of the most famous Greek heroes, Achilles, underscores the antisocial aspect of heroes well in Homer’s “Iliad.” At the beginning of the epic, he actually <a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hom.+Il.+1.400&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0134">prays for his people to suffer and die</a> because they didn’t preserve the honor he believed he had earned. Indeed, audiences often overlook that it is Achilles’ own desire to be honored that causes his people to suffer and the death of his companion Patroclus.</p>
<p>The most popular image of heroes is of a savior figure. But their stories also include details about isolation, alienation and the destruction of families, leaving little in the way of hope for relationships.</p>
<h2>How we know who we are</h2>
<p>Heroic failure in personal relationships helps to emphasize their alienation from their communities. Instead of being distractions, however, I think these personal challenges are part of the point of mythical narratives for audiences who don’t live in fantasy worlds. Learning how to live a normal life is an important theme of the Homeric “Odyssey,” as it describes a 20-year-long journey of the famous hero of Homer’s “Iliad,” Odysseus, on his way home from the Trojan War to be reunited with his family. </p>
<p>This particular narrative from ancient Greece is an exploration of “nostos,” a word that means “homecoming” but has come to mean “sweet” in modern Greek. In the “Odyssey,” Odysseus’ reunion with his family is part of the difficulty of his homecoming. </p>
<p>Central to this difficulty is the question of who the hero is after 20 years at war. As psychiatrist Jonathan Shay argues in his 2002 book, “<a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Odysseus-in-America/Jonathan-Shay/9780743211574">Odysseus in America</a>,” Odysseus’ travels function as a metaphor for the challenge of reintegrating veterans as they return home. </p>
<p>Just as today, the return home is far more than a simple journey to an old place. For Odysseus, it was a return to the relationships that defined him before he left for Troy. </p>
<p>At its core, the “Odyssey” emphasizes that warriors come from communities and are defined by their families. As I explore in my recent book “<a href="https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501752346/the-many-minded-man/%22%22">The Many Minded Man: The Odyssey, Psychology, and the Therapy of Epic</a>,” the Homeric epic is deeply interested in where our identities come from: memories, the stories we tell about them and the relationships that rely on both memory and story.</p>
<p>Acknowledging the past is crucial for Odysseus – and his audiences – because familiarity is necessary for recreating relationships as a bridge from our past to present selves. </p>
<p>A <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/642365#metadata_info_tab_contents">sequence of reunions</a> occupies the epic’s second half. Odysseus meets his son, a mother figure – an enslaved nurse named Eurycleia – his wife Penelope and his father, Laertes. In each case he lies to them about his identity and has his identity confirmed by an external “sign.” </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504097/original/file-20230111-32622-lgw7g7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="An illustration showing a man and woman hugging one another while two others look on" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504097/original/file-20230111-32622-lgw7g7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504097/original/file-20230111-32622-lgw7g7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504097/original/file-20230111-32622-lgw7g7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504097/original/file-20230111-32622-lgw7g7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504097/original/file-20230111-32622-lgw7g7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504097/original/file-20230111-32622-lgw7g7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504097/original/file-20230111-32622-lgw7g7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Odysseus reunited with his wife Penelope.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/homer-the-odyssey-ulysses-returns-to-ithaca-after-ten-years-news-photo/588182060?phrase=odysseus%20greek%20his%20wife%20Penelope&adppopup=true">Culture Club/Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>The signs are linked to stories from the past: Eurycleia <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/18fy-vd69">recognizes the scar</a> on Odysseus’ leg from a <a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0136%3Abook%3D19%3Acard%3D361">boar hunt when he was a child</a>; Penelope <a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hom.+Od.+23.200&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0136">uses the bed he built for them</a> to test his identity; and <a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hom.+Od.+24.300&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0136">his father doubts who he is until the two of them tour the orchard</a> they tended together when he was young and Odysseus describes to him the varieties of trees and recounts who planted them.</p>
<p>These details often surprise modern readers who wonder why the “Odyssey” spends so much time on small encounters. Each reunion emphasizes that Odysseus is not truly home until he has reconciled who he is now with who he was before. He must also undergo a similar, more violent reckoning with the people he used to rule. </p>
<p>The cumulative effect of this sequence of reunions is to emphasize that individual identity is created and confirmed by other people. Outside of his home, Odysseus was a warrior; he cannot truly return until he remembers how to be a king, a father, a husband and a son.</p>
<h2>Individualism vs. the hero</h2>
<p>Odysseus’ famous homecoming – his nostos – provides part of the root of our modern word nostalgia, <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/08/when-nostalgia-was-a-disease/278648/">coined in 1688</a> to describe a kind of mad longing for the past. Literally meaning “grief for/from a homecoming,” nostalgia describes well that bittersweet feeling of coming to familiar places and memories, but feeling the distance and the passage of time. </p>
<p>Modern research is split over whether nostalgia is good for us. For some, yearning for the past can create <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.1852">anxiety and distress</a>; for others, it can be a resource to create <a href="https://www.academia.edu/28746721/Nostalgia_as_a_Resource_for_the_Self">a stronger sense of self</a>.</p>
<p>I believe the “Odyssey” acknowledges that nostalgia works both ways: It helps us remember who we were and drives us to navigate that uncomfortable space between our memories and our identities. The “Odyssey” works against the individualism of the basic heroic myth to help audiences think about how other people matter to us and how the stories we tell each other confirm and create who we are.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/197379/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joel Christensen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A classics scholar reflects on Greek myths and what they can help us understand about recreating relationships – as a bridge from our past to present selves.Joel Christensen, Professor of Classical Studies, Brandeis UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1936962022-11-15T13:20:45Z2022-11-15T13:20:45ZWhat Greek myth tells us about modern witchcraft<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/494727/original/file-20221110-21-v7dffc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C53%2C5982%2C3916&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Fear about women's power was an essential part of ancient anxiety about witchcraft.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/women-practicing-witchcraft-by-burning-candle-in-royalty-free-image/720119557?phrase=witches&adppopup=true">Vinicius Rafael / EyeEm via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Living on the North Shore in Boston in the fall brings the gorgeous turning of the leaves and pumpkin patches. It is also a time for people to <a href="https://www.boston.com/news/travel/2022/10/19/heres-what-its-like-to-live-in-salem-in-october/">head to</a> nearby Salem, Massachusetts, home of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/most-witches-are-women-because-witch-hunts-were-all-about-persecuting-the-powerless-125427">17th century infamous witch trials</a>, and visit <a href="https://salemwitchmuseum.com/">its popular museum</a>. </p>
<p>Despite a troubled history, there are people today who consider themselves witches. Often, modern witches share their lore, craft and <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-63403467?utm_source=Pew+Research+Center&utm_campaign=5069cbb55d-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2022_10_31_01_45&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_3e953b9b70-5069cbb55d-400094317">stories on TikTok</a> and other social media platforms. </p>
<p>As a <a href="https://www.brandeis.edu/facultyguide/person.html?emplid=1be7ee967d45605afddf7da9ad4ca2c049a26c0b">scholar who works on myth and poetry</a> from ancient Greece – and as a native of New England – I have long been fascinated by the cultural conversations about witches. Witch trials in the Americas and Europe were in part about <a href="https://theconversation.com/most-witches-are-women-because-witch-hunts-were-all-about-persecuting-the-powerless-125427">enforcing power structures</a> and persecuting the weak. From ancient Greece through Puritan New England, witches functioned as easy targets for cultural anxieties about gender, power and mortality. </p>
<h2>Ancient witches: gender and power</h2>
<p>While modern witchcraft is inclusive of many different genders and identities, witches in ancient myth and literature were almost exclusively women. Their stories were in part about navigating gender roles and power in a patriarchal system.</p>
<p>Fear about women’s power was an essential part of ancient anxiety about witchcraft. This fear, moreover, relied on traditional expectations about the abilities innate to a person’s gender. As early as the creation narrative in Hesiod’s “Theogony” – a poem hailing from a poetic tradition between the eighth and fifth centuries B.C. – male gods like Cronus and Zeus were depicted with physical strength, while <a href="https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9781400849086-012/pdf">female figures were endowed with intelligence</a>. In particular, women knew about the mysteries of childbirth and how to raise children. </p>
<p>In the basic framework of Greek myth, then, men were strong and women used intelligence and tricks to cope with their violence. This gendered difference in traits combined with ancient Greek views of bodies and aging. While women were seen to move through stages of life based on biology – childhood, adolescence via menstruation, childbearing and old age – the aging of men was connected to their relationship to women, particularly in getting married and having children.</p>
<p>Both Greek and Latin have a single word for man and husband – “aner” in Greek and “vir” in Latin. Socially and ritually, men were essentially seen as adolescents until they became husbands and fathers. </p>
<p>Female control over reproduction was symbolized as a kind of <a href="https://www.medievalists.net/2010/10/from-greek-myth-to-medieval-witches-infertile-women-as-monstrous-and-evil/">ability to control life and death</a>. In ancient Greece, women were expected to bear all responsibilities during early child rearing. They also were the ones to exclusively take on special roles in mourning the dead. Suspicion, anxiety and fear about mortality were then put on to women in general.</p>
<h2>Powerful women</h2>
<p>This was true especially for women who did not fit into typical gendered roles like the virtuous bride, the good mother or the helpful old maid. </p>
<p>While ancient Greek does not have a word that directly translates as “witch,” it does have “pharmakis” (someone who gives out drugs or medicine), “aoidos” (singer, enchantress) and “graus” or “graia” (old woman). Of these names, graus is probably closest to later European stereotypes: the mysterious old woman who is not part of a traditional family structure.</p>
<p>Much like today, foreignness invited suspicion in the ancient world as well. Several of the characters who may qualify as mythical witches were women from distant lands. Medea, famous for killing her children when her husband, Jason, proposes marrying someone else in <a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:abo:tlg,0006,003:1249">Euripides’ play</a>, was a woman from the east, a foreigner who did not adhere to the expectations for a woman’s behavior in Greece.</p>
<p>She started her narrative as a princess who used <a href="https://blogs.getty.edu/iris/potions-and-poisons-classical-ancestors-of-the-wicked-witch-part-2/">concoctions and spells</a> to help Jason. Her powers increased male virility and life.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/494731/original/file-20221110-15-969u88.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A black and white engraved illustration of Medea, known as a sorceress in Greek literature, as Jason prepares the departure of the expedition of the Argonauts." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/494731/original/file-20221110-15-969u88.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/494731/original/file-20221110-15-969u88.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494731/original/file-20221110-15-969u88.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494731/original/file-20221110-15-969u88.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494731/original/file-20221110-15-969u88.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=473&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494731/original/file-20221110-15-969u88.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=473&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494731/original/file-20221110-15-969u88.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=473&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Medea killed her children when her husband, Jason, proposes marrying someone else in Euripides’ play.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/old-engraved-illustration-of-the-sorceress-medea-royalty-free-image/1277624941?phrase=Medea%20greek&adppopup=true">mikroman6/Moment via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>Medea allegedly learned her magical craft from her aunt, Circe, who shows up in Homer’s “Odyssey.” She lived alone on an island, luring men to her cabin with seductive food and drink to turn them into animals. Odysseus defeated her with an antidote provided by the god Hermes. Once her magic failed, Circe believed she had no choice but to submit to Odysseus. </p>
<h2>Witches over time</h2>
<p>Elsewhere in the “Odyssey” there are similar themes: the Sirens who sing to Odysseus are enchantresses who try to take control of the hero. Earlier in the epic, the audience witnesses Helen, whose departure with the Trojan prince Paris was the cause of the Trojan War, add <a href="https://chs.harvard.edu/chapter/weaving-pseudea-homoia-etumoisin-false-things-like-to-real-things-5-helens-good-drug/">an Egyptian drug called nepenthe</a> to the wine she gives <a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0136%3Abook%3D4%3Acard%3D219">to her husband, Menelaos, and Odysseus’ son</a>, Telemachus. This wine was so strong, it made people forget about the pain of losing even a loved one. </p>
<p>In each of these cases, women who practice magic threaten to exert control over men with tools that can also be part of a pleasurable life: songs, sex and families. Other myths of monstrous women reinforce how misogynistic stereotypes animate these beliefs. The <a href="https://sententiaeantiquae.com/2020/10/26/the-child-killing-lamia-whats-really-scary-on-halloween-is-misogyny-3/">ancient figure Lamia</a>, for example, was a once beautiful woman who stole and killed infants because her children had died. </p>
<p><a href="https://sententiaeantiquae.com/2017/10/21/ancient-greek-vampires-empousa-and-lamia/">Empousa</a> was a vampiric creature who fed on the sex and blood of young men. Even Medusa, well-known as the snake-haired Gorgon who turned men to stone, was reported in some sources to have actually been a woman so beautiful that Perseus cut her head off <a href="https://sententiaeantiquae.com/2016/10/08/an-alternate-telling-of-medusa-male-discourse-leads-to-sexual-violence/">to show it off to his friends</a>.</p>
<p>These examples are from myth. There were many living traditions of women’s healing and song cultures that have been lost over time. Many academic authors have traced the modern practices of witchcraft <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674663244">to ancient cults</a> and the survival of pagan traditions outside of mainstream Christianity. Recent <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/20411/20411-h/20411-h.htm">studies of ancient magical practices</a> show how widespread and varied they were. </p>
<p>While ancient women were likely subject to suspicion and slander for witchcraft, there is no evidence that they faced the kind of widespread persecution of witches that swept Europe and the Americas a few centuries ago. The later 20th century, however, saw renewed interest in witchcraft, often in concert with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1300/J015v16n02_13">movements empowering women</a>. </p>
<p>Modern witches are crossing international borders and learning from each other without leaving their homes by creating communities on social media, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-63403467">like TikTok</a>. If fear about women’s power led to paranoia in the past, exploring and embracing witchcraft has become part of reclaiming women’s histories.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/193696/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joel Christensen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>From ancient Greece to modern-day TikTok witchcraft, the world of witches has been a changing one.Joel Christensen, Professor of Classical Studies, Brandeis UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1623302021-06-15T13:42:27Z2021-06-15T13:42:27ZWhat Greek epics taught me about the special relationship between fathers and sons<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/405985/original/file-20210611-27-1140y10.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C81%2C3615%2C2489&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Odysseus reuniting with his father, Laertes.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/odysseus-and-his-father-laertes-king-of-the-cephallenians-news-photo/167069604?adppopup=true">Leemage/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Father’s Day inspires mixed emotions for many of us. Looking at advertisements of happy families could recall difficult memories and broken relationships for some. But for others, the day could invite unbidden nostalgic thoughts of parents who have long since died.</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://www.brandeis.edu/facultyguide/person.html?emplid=1be7ee967d45605afddf7da9ad4ca2c049a26c0b">scholar of ancient Greek poetry</a>, I find myself reflecting on two of the most powerful paternal moments in Greek literature. <a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0134%3Abook%3D24%3Acard%3D507">At the end of Homer’s classic poem, “The Iliad</a>,” Priam, the king of Troy, begs his son’s killer, Achilles, to return the body of Hektor, the city’s greatest warrior, for burial. Once Achilles puts aside his famous rage and agrees, the two weep together before sharing a meal, Priam lamenting the loss of his son while Achilles contemplates that he will never see his own father again.</p>
<p>The final book of another Greek classic, “The Odyssey,” brings together a father and son as well. After 10 years of war and as many traveling at sea, Odysseus returns home and goes through a series of reunions, ending with his father, Laertes. <a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0136%3Abook%3D24%3Acard%3D232">When Odysseus meets his father</a>, however, he doesn’t greet him right away. Instead, he pretends to be someone who met Odysseus and lies about his location. </p>
<p>When Laertes weeps over his son’s continued absence, Odysseus loses control of his emotions too, shouting his name to his father only to be disbelieved. He reveals a scar he received as a child and Laertes still doubts him. But then Odysseus points to the trees in their orchards and begins to recount their numbers and names, the stories Laertes told him when he was young.</p>
<p>Since the time of Aristotle, interpreters have questioned “The Odyssey"’s final book. Some have wondered why Odysseus is cruel to his father, while others have asked why reuniting with him even matters. Why spend precious narrative time talking about trees when the audience is waiting to hear if Odysseus will suffer at the hands of the families whose sons he has killed?</p>
<p>I lingered in such confusion myself until I lost my own father, John, too young at 61. Reading and teaching "The Odyssey” in the same two-year period that I lost him and welcomed two children to the world changed the way I understood the father-son relationship in these poems. I realized then in the final scene, what Odysseus needed from his father was something more important: the comfort of being a son. </p>
<h2>Fathers and sons</h2>
<p>Fathers occupy an outsized place in Greek myth. They are kings and models, and too often challenges to be overcome. In Greek epic, fathers are markers of absence and dislocation. When Achilles learns his lover and friend, Patroklos, has died in “The Iliad,” he weeps and says that he always imagined his best friend returning home and <a href="https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0134%3Abook%3D19%3Acard%3D309">introducing Achilles’ son, Neoptolemus, to Achilles’s father, Peleus</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/406240/original/file-20210614-125373-kj2k0m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Son of the warrior Achilles and the princess Deidamia in a scene from the Greek mythology." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/406240/original/file-20210614-125373-kj2k0m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/406240/original/file-20210614-125373-kj2k0m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406240/original/file-20210614-125373-kj2k0m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406240/original/file-20210614-125373-kj2k0m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406240/original/file-20210614-125373-kj2k0m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=485&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406240/original/file-20210614-125373-kj2k0m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=485&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406240/original/file-20210614-125373-kj2k0m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=485&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Greek myths highlight many moments in father-son relationships.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/the-repentance-of-neoptolemus-1880-son-of-the-warrior-news-photo/654314530?adppopup=true">The Print Collector/Hulton Archive/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Trojan Prince Hektor’s most humanizing moment is when he laughs at his son’s <a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0134%3Abook%3D6%3Acard%3D414">startled cry at seeing his father’s</a> bloodied armor. Priam’s grief for Hektor’s loss stands in for the grief of all parents bereft of children taken too soon. When he hears of the death of his son, he lies prostrate on the earth, covering his head with ash and weeping. The sweetness of Hektor’s laugh foreshadows the bitter agony of his father’s pain.</p>
<p>I don’t think I had a grasp of either before I became a father and lost one.</p>
<h2>How stories bring us home</h2>
<p>Odysseus’ reunion with his father is crucial to the completion of his story, of his return home. In Greek the word “nostos,” or homecoming, is more than about a mere return to a place: It is a restoration of the self, a kind of reentry to the world of the living. For Odysseus, as I explore in my recent book “<a href="https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501752346/the-many-minded-man/">The Many-Minded Man: The Odyssey, Modern Psychology, and the Therapy of Epic</a>,” this means returning to who he was before the war, trying to reconcile his identities as a king, a suffering veteran, a man with a wife and a father, as well as a son himself.</p>
<p>Odysseus achieves his “nostos” by telling and listening to stories. As psychologists who specialize in <a href="https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501752346/the-many-minded-man/">narrative therapy</a> explain, our identity <a href="https://www.apa.org/pubs/books/4317515">comprises the stories we tell and believe about ourselves</a>. </p>
<p>The stories we tell about ourselves condition how we act in the world. Psychological studies have shown how losing a sense of agency, the belief that we can shape what happens to us, can keep us trapped in cycles of inaction and make us more prone to depression and <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3905522/">addiction</a>. </p>
<p>And the pain of losing a loved one can make anyone feel helpless. In recent years, researchers have investigated how <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.31887/DCNS.2012.14.2/mshear">unresolved or complicated</a> grief – an ongoing, heightened state of mourning – upends lives and changes the way someone sees oneself in the world. And more pain comes from other people not knowing our stories, from not truly knowing who we are. Psychologists have shown that when people do not acknowledge their mental or emotional states, they experience “<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6212305/">emotional invalidation</a>” that can have negative mental and physical consequences from depression to chronic pain.</p>
<p>Odysseus does not recognize the landscape of his home island of Ithaca when he first arrives; he needs to go through a process of reunions and observation first. But when Odysseus tells his father the stories of the trees they tended together, he reminds them both of their shared story, of the relationship and the place that brings them together. </p>
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<h2>Family trees</h2>
<p>“The Odyssey” teaches us that home is not just a physical place, it is where memories live – it is a reminder of the stories that have shaped us.</p>
<p>When I was in third grade, my father bought several acres in the middle of the woods in southern Maine. He spent the rest of his life clearing those acres, shaping gardens, planting trees. By the time I was in high school, it took several hours to mow the lawn. He and I repaired old stone walls, dug beds for phlox, and planted rhododendron bushes and a maple tree.</p>
<p>My father was not an uncomplicated man. I probably remember the work we did on that property so well because our relationship was otherwise distant. He was almost completely deaf from birth, and this shaped the way he engaged with the world and the kinds of experiences he shared with his family. My mother tells me he was worried about having children because he wouldn’t be able to hear them cry. </p>
<p>He died in the winter of 2011, and I returned home in the summer to honor his wishes and spread his ashes on a mountain in central Maine with my brother. I had not lived in Maine for over a decade before his passing. The pine trees I used to climb were unrecognizable; the trees and bushes I had planted with my father were in the same place, but they had changed: they were larger, grown wilder, identifiable only because of where they were planted in relation to one another.</p>
<p>That was when I was no longer confused about the walk Odysseus took through the trees with his father, Laertes. I cannot help but imagine what it would be like to walk that land with my father again, to joke about the absurdity of turning pine forests into lawn.</p>
<p>“The Odyssey” ends with Laertes and Odysseus standing together with the third generation, the young Telemachus. In a way, Odysseus gets the fantasy ending Achilles couldn’t even imagine for himself: He stands together in his home with his father and his son.</p>
<p>In my father’s last year, I introduced him to his first grandchild, my daughter. Ten years later, as I try to ignore another painful reminder of his absence, I can only imagine how the birth of my third, another daughter, would have lit up his face. </p>
<p>“The Odyssey,” I believe, teaches us that we are shaped by the people who recognize us and the stories we share together. When we lose our loved ones, we can fear that there are no new stories to be told. But then we find the stories that we can tell our children. </p>
<p>This year, as I celebrate a 10th Father’s Day as a father and without one, I keep this close to heart: Telling these stories to my children creates a new home and makes that impossible return less painful.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/162330/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joel Christensen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>On Father’s Day, a scholar of ancient Greek poetry explains how he came to understand the father-son relationship and his journey of loss and yearning through reading the epics.Joel Christensen, Professor of Classical Studies, Brandeis UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1590362021-04-22T12:24:28Z2021-04-22T12:24:28ZWhat Homer’s ‘Odyssey’ can teach us about reentering the world after a year of isolation<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/396138/original/file-20210420-19-1fwzqkr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=66%2C22%2C4807%2C3259&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Greek hero Odysseus reunites with his wife, Penelope, upon his return to Ithaca, in an illustration from Homer's epic.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/homer-the-odyssey-ulysses-returns-to-ithaca-after-ten-years-news-photo/588182060?adppopup=true">Culture Club/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the ancient Greek epic “The Odyssey,” Homer’s hero, Odysseus, describes the wild land of the Cyclops as a place where people don’t gather together in public, where each person makes decisions for their own family and “<a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0136%3Abook%3D9%3Acard%3D82">care nothing for one another</a>.” </p>
<p>For Odysseus – and his audiences – these words mark the Cyclops and his people as inhuman. The passage also communicates how people should live: together, in cooperation, with concern for the common good. </p>
<p>Over the past year, we witnessed police violence, increasingly partisan politics and the continued American legacy of racism during a generation-defining pandemic. And for many, this was observed, at times, in isolation at home. I have worried about how we can heal from our collective trauma. </p>
<p>As a <a href="https://www.brandeis.edu/facultyguide/person.html?emplid=1be7ee967d45605afddf7da9ad4ca2c049a26c0b">teacher of Greek literature</a>, I am inclined to turn to the past to understand the present. I found solace in the Homeric epic “The Iliad” and its complex views about violence after the 9/11 attacks. And I found comfort in the Odyssey after my father’s unexpected death at 61, in 2011.</p>
<p>Similarly, Homer can help guide us as we return back to our normal worlds after a year of minimizing social contact. He can also, I believe, offer guidance on how people can heal.</p>
<h2>Conversation and recognition</h2>
<p>When Odysseus, a Trojan war hero who returns home after 10 years, first appears in the epic, <a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hom.+Od.+5.80&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0136">he is weeping on the shore of an isolated island</a>, watched over by the goddess Calypso, whose name, meaning “one who hides,” further emphasizes his isolation and separation. To make it from this barren shore to his family hearth, Odysseus needs to risk his life at sea again. But, in the process, he also rediscovers who he is in the world by reuniting with his family and his home, Ithaca.</p>
<p>Conversation is central to its plot. While Odysseus’ arrival on Ithaca is packed with action – he dons a disguise, investigates crimes and murders wrongdoers – in reality, the epic’s second half unfolds slowly. And much of it proceeds through the conversations among the characters. </p>
<p>When Odysseus, disguised as a beggar, is given refuge by his unknowing servant, Eumaios, the two of them speak at length, telling true stories and false ones to reveal who they are. Eumaios invites Odysseus with the following words: “<a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hom.+Od.+15.399&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0136">Let us take pleasure in our terrible pains</a>: for after time a person finds joy even in pain, after they have wandered and suffered much.” </p>
<p>It might seem strange to think that recalling pain could give pleasure. But what “The Odyssey” shows us is the power of telling our stories. Pleasure comes from knowing pain is behind us, but it also comes from understanding where we fit in the world. This <a href="https://www.mayoclinichealthsystem.org/hometown-health/speaking-of-health/is-having-a-sense-of-belonging-important">sense of belonging</a> comes in part from other people knowing what we have experienced. </p>
<p>When Odysseus finally reunites with his wife, Penelope, after 20 years, they make love, but then Athena, Odysseus’ patron and goddess of wisdom and war, lengthens the night so they can <a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0136%3Abook%3D23%3Acard%3D310">take pleasure in telling each other everything they have suffered</a>. The pleasure lies in the moments of sharing.</p>
<h2>Healing words</h2>
<p>In this past year, I fantasized about moments of reunion as the pandemic dragged on. And I have returned to the reunion of Odysseus and Penelope, contemplating why this conversation is important and what function it serves. </p>
<p>Talk therapy has been an important part of psychology for a century, but conversation and storytelling shape people all the time. The modern psychological approach of narrative therapy as pioneered by psychotherapists <a href="https://www.goodtherapy.org/famous-psychologists/michael-white.html">Michael White</a> and <a href="https://www.taosinstitute.net/about-us/people/honorary-associates/david-epston">David Epston</a> can help us understand this better. </p>
<p>Narrative therapy argues that so <a href="https://www.goodtherapy.org/famous-psychologists/michael-white.html">much of what we suffer emotionally and psychologically</a> comes from the stories we believe about our place in the world and our ability to influence it. White shows how addiction, mental illness or trauma prevents some people from returning to their lives. Narrative therapy can help in these situations and others. It has people <a href="https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393705164">retell their own stories</a> until they understand them differently. Once people can reframe who they were in the past, they can have a better chance of charting their course in the future.</p>
<p>“The Odyssey,” I believe, is aware of this too. As I argue in my recent book, “<a href="https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501752346/the-many-minded-man/">The Many-Minded Man</a>,” Odysseus has to tell his own story to articulate for himself and his audiences his experiences and how they changed him.</p>
<p>It takes Odysseus one long evening but four books of poetry to tell the story of his journey, <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/692867/pdf">focusing especially on the decisions he made and the pain he and his men suffered</a>. Recasting the past and understanding his place in it, prepares the hero to face the future. When Odysseus retells his own story, he traces his suffering to the moment he blinded the one-eyed giant Polyphemos and bragged about it. </p>
<p>By centering his own action at the beginning of his tale, Odysseus rearms himself with a sense of control – the hope that he can shape the events still to come.</p>
<h2>Returning to the world</h2>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/396390/original/file-20210421-17-1hwfpk5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Inside Oculus mall at World Trade Center, New York, which is closed due to pandemic lockdown." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/396390/original/file-20210421-17-1hwfpk5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/396390/original/file-20210421-17-1hwfpk5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/396390/original/file-20210421-17-1hwfpk5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/396390/original/file-20210421-17-1hwfpk5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/396390/original/file-20210421-17-1hwfpk5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/396390/original/file-20210421-17-1hwfpk5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/396390/original/file-20210421-17-1hwfpk5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Malls have remained empty for the past year as many parts of the world went into a lockdown.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/all-stores-are-closed-because-of-covid-19-pandemic-inside-news-photo/1210622798?adppopup=true">Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There’s an important echo here of ideas found elsewhere in Greek poetry: <a href="https://sententiaeantiquae.com/2017/06/03/medicine-for-the-soul-conversations-with-friends/">We need doctors for ailments of the body and conversation for sickness in the soul</a>.</p>
<p>After the past year, some of us may find it hard to express optimism. Indeed, I’ve been through <a href="https://theconversation.com/plagues-follow-bad-leadership-in-ancient-greek-tales-133139">this bleakness in my own life</a> when I had to attend a virtual funeral for my grandmother last year and felt that we were not properly honoring our dead. But this spring, as we welcomed our third child into the world, my story shifted to one of hope when I looked into her eyes. </p>
<p>At this moment, I believe that, like Odysseus, we need to take the time to tell each other our stories and listen in turn. If we can communicate what happened to us during this past year, we can better understand what we need, to move toward a better future.</p>
<p>[<em>Understand new developments in science, health and technology, each week.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/science-editors-picks-71/?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=science-understand">Subscribe to The Conversation’s science newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/159036/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joel Christensen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A scholar of Greek literature writes why we need to turn to the past to understand the present – and the lessons that Homer’s hero, Odysseus, holds for us.Joel Christensen, Professor of Classical Studies, Brandeis UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1541392021-02-22T13:26:29Z2021-02-22T13:26:29ZAn ancient Greek approach to risk and the lessons it can offer the modern world<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384795/original/file-20210217-17-vewg68.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C14%2C3306%2C2802&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A vase from ancient Greek civilization depicts Apollo consulting the oracle of Delphi.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/fragment-of-a-vase-depicting-apollo-consulting-pythia-the-news-photo/143053002?adppopup=true">G. Dagli Orti/DeAgostini Collection via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Most of us take big and small risks in our lives every day. But COVID-19 has made us more aware of how we think about taking risks.</p>
<p>Since the start of the pandemic, people have been forced to weigh their options about how much risk is worth taking for ordinary activities – should they, for example, go to the grocery store or even turn up for a long-scheduled doctor’s visit?</p>
<p><a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?view_op=list_works&hl=en&user=5IVmEOYAAAAJ">As a scholar of ancient Greek history</a>, I am interested in what the classics can teach us about risk-taking as a way to make sense of our current situation.</p>
<p>Greek mythology features godlike heroes, but Greek history was filled with men and women who were exposed to great risks without the comforts of modern life.</p>
<h2>The iron generation</h2>
<p>One of the earliest written works in Greek is “Works and Days,” a poem by a farmer named Hesiod in the eighth century B.C. In it, Hesiod addresses his lazy brother, Perses. </p>
<p>The most famous section of “Works and Days” describes a cycle of generations. First, Hesiod says, Zeus created a golden generation who “<a href="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc%3DPerseus%253Atext%253A1999.01.0132%253Acard%253D109&sa=D&ust=1611357176899000&usg=AOvVaw30-lzVGCzSCFPGtJIKIfnG">lived like the gods</a>, having hearts free from sorrow, far from work and misery.” </p>
<p>Then came a silver generation, arrogant and proud. </p>
<p>Third was a bronze generation, violent and self-destructive. </p>
<p>Fourth was the age of heroes who went to their graves at Troy. </p>
<p>Finally, Hesiod says, Zeus made an iron generation marked by a balance of pain and joy.</p>
<p>While the earliest generations lived life free of worries, according to Hesiod, life in the current iron generation is shaped by risk, which leads to pain and sorrow. </p>
<p>Throughout the poem, Hesiod develops an idea of risk and its management that was common in ancient Greece: People can and should take steps to prepare for risk, but it is ultimately inescapable.</p>
<p>As Hesiod says, “<a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0132:card=504&highlight=summer">summer won’t last forever, build granaries</a>,” but for people of the current generation, “<a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0132%3Acard%3D174">there is neither a stop to toil and sorrow by day, nor to death by night</a>.” </p>
<p>In other words, people face the consequences of risk – including suffering – because that is the will of Zeus. </p>
<h2>Omens and divination</h2>
<p>If the outcome of risk was determined by the gods, then one critical part of preparing to face uncertainty was to try to find out the will of Zeus. For this, the Greeks relied on oracles and omens.</p>
<p>While the rich might pay to petition the oracle of Apollo at Delphi, most people turned to simpler techniques to seek guidance from the gods, such as <a href="https://sententiaeantiquae.com/2021/01/29/gambling-and-work/">throwing dice</a> made of <a href="https://doi.org/10.2972/hesperia.81.2.0177">animal knuckle bones</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384505/original/file-20210216-13-1qv3v12.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=6%2C25%2C4253%2C3110&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Dice made of bone" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384505/original/file-20210216-13-1qv3v12.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=6%2C25%2C4253%2C3110&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384505/original/file-20210216-13-1qv3v12.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384505/original/file-20210216-13-1qv3v12.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384505/original/file-20210216-13-1qv3v12.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384505/original/file-20210216-13-1qv3v12.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=556&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384505/original/file-20210216-13-1qv3v12.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=556&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384505/original/file-20210216-13-1qv3v12.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=556&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Marry, or stay single? Ancient Greeks, at times, let the dice decide.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/roman-art-board-game-cube-and-bone-dice-national-museum-of-news-photo/494580973?adppopup=true">PHAS/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A second technique involved inscribing a question on a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198844549.003.0009">lead tablet</a>, to which the god would provide an answer such as “yes” or “no.” These tablets record a wide range of concerns from ordinary Greeks. In one, a man named Lysias asks the god whether he should invest in shipping. In another, a man named Epilytos asks whether he should continue in his current career and whether he ought to wed a woman who shows up, or wait. Nothing is known about either man except that they turned to the gods when confronted with uncertainty.</p>
<p>Omens were also used to inform almost every decision, whether public or private. Men called “chresmologoi,” oracle collectors who interpreted the signs from the gods, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/30103051">had enormous influence in Athens</a>. When the Spartans invaded in 431 B.C., the historian Thucydides says, <a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Thuc.+2.21.3&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0026">they were everywhere reciting oracular responses</a>. <a href="https://theconversation.com/thucydides-and-the-plague-of-athens-what-it-can-teach-us-now-133155">When plague struck Athens</a>, he notes that the Athenians <a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0105%3Abook%3D2%3Achapter%3D54">called to mind just such a prophecy</a>.</p>
<p>Chresmologoi played so much of a role in bolstering public confidence that the wealthy Athenian politician Alcibiades <a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2008.01.0051%3Achapter%3D13">privately contracted them as spin doctors</a> in order to persuade people to overlook the risks of an expedition to Sicily in 415 B.C. </p>
<h2>Mitigating risks</h2>
<p>For the Greeks, putting faith in the gods alone did not fully protect them from risk. As Hesiod explained, risk mitigation required attending to both the gods and human actions.</p>
<p>Generals, for example, made sacrifices to gods like Artemis or Ares in advance of battle, and the best commanders knew how to interpret every omen as a positive sign. At the same time, though, generals also <a href="https://brill.com/view/title/35834">paid attention to strategy and tactics</a> in order to give their armies every advantage. </p>
<p>Neither was every omen heeded. Before the Athenian expedition to Sicily in 415 B.C., statues sacred to Hermes, the god of travel, were found with their <a href="https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Thuc.+6.27">faces scratched out</a>.</p>
<p>The Athenians interpreted this as a bad omen, which may have been what <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/43767981">the perpetrators intended</a>. The expedition sailed anyway, but it ended in a crushing defeat. <a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0200%3Abook%3D7%3Achapter%3D87">Few of the people</a> who left ever returned to Athens. </p>
<p>The evidence was clear to the Athenians: The desecration of the statues had put everyone in the expedition at risk. The only solution was to <a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0154%3Aspeech%3D6%3Asection%3D13">punish the wrongdoers</a>. Fifteen years later, the orator Andocides had to <a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Andoc.+1+1&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0018">defend himself in court</a> against accusations that he had been involved.</p>
<p>This history explains that individuals might escape divine punishment, but ignoring omens and failing to take precautions were often communal rather than individual problems. Andocides was acquitted, but his trial shows that when someone’s actions put everyone at risk, it was a community’s responsibility to hold them accountable. </p>
<p>Oracles and knuckle bones are not in vogue today, but the ancient Greeks show us the very real dangers of risky behavior, and why it is important that risk not be left to a simple toss of the dice.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/154139/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joshua P. Nudell does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The pandemic has made many of us acutely aware of the daily risks we need to take. The ancient Greeks often did not leave risky choices up to individuals alone.Joshua P. Nudell, Visiting Assistant Professor of Classics, Westminster CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1511762021-02-11T21:23:26Z2021-02-11T21:23:26ZLovers of Sappho thrilled by ‘new’ poetry find, but its backstory may have been fabricated<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/383094/original/file-20210208-13-1bdi9av.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C27%2C799%2C455&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Fragments of Sappho? The 2014 discovery was of five stanzas of one poem and portions of a second. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">('Sappho and Erinna in a Garden at Mytilene,'1864, by Simeon Solomon)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Museum of the Bible in Washington recently announced it has <a href="https://www.museumofthebible.org/newsroom/update-on-iraqi-and-egyptian-items">returned 5,000 fragments of ancient papyrus to Egypt</a>. Among them are <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/23850356">fragments of poetry</a> by the ancient Greek poet Sappho the museum had acquired <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/06/museum-of-the-bible-obbink-gospel-of-mark/610576/">in 2012</a>.</p>
<p>The announcement follows years of questions about the origins of the fragments, <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/43909704">and the origins of a fragment from the same papyrus roll</a> that came to public attention in 2014.
Scholars and literary critics were abuzz after <em>The Daily Beast</em> reported on Jan. 28, 2014, that papyrologist Dirk Obbink of the University of Oxford had <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/scholars-discover-new-poems-from-ancient-greek-poetess-sappho.html">identified two new poems by Sappho</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.cambridge.org/ca/academic/subjects/classical-studies/classical-literature/sappho-new-translation-complete-works?format=HB">Sappho of Lesbos</a> is one of the earliest <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Sappho-Greek-poet">Greek lyric poets</a>, famed in antiquity for the polish and elegance of her verse. </p>
<p>Today, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/26/books/books-of-the-times-the-mystery-of-sappho-and-her-erotic-legacy.html">Sappho’s legacy extends beyond poetry</a>. Her expressions of female <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/S/bo3619781.html">same-sex desire</a> <a href="https://theconversation.com/guide-to-the-classics-sappho-a-poet-in-fragments-90823">(“… sweat pours down me / a tremor shakes me …”)</a> have made <a href="https://doi.org/10.1353/hel.0.0008">her an icon</a> for some <a href="https://theithacan.org/media/the-pride-pod-sappho-of-lesbos/">LGBTQ+ communities</a>.</p>
<p>Little of Sappho’s poetry survives, and what does is fragmentary. Obbink’s discovery was remarkable because it preserved the final five stanzas of one poem and portions of a second, making it one of the longest continuous sequences of Sapphic verse. </p>
<p>News of the discovery made <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/29/sappho-ancient-greek-poet-unknown-works-discovered">international headlines</a>, but serious questions about the papyrus’s <a href="https://facesandvoices.wordpress.com/2014/02/11/sappho-papyrology-and-the-media/">origins, acquisition and ownership history</a> — its provenance — did not. Provenance is important for establishing the authenticity and legal status of antiquities.</p>
<p>In the fall, I published <a href="http://doi.org/10.2143/BASP.57.0.3288503">new research</a> into a digital sales brochure produced by the auction house <a href="https://www.christies.com/">Christie’s</a>. My research calls into question the published accounts of the papyrus’s provenance. I believe the accounts of the Sappho papyrus’s origins that Obbink published were fabricated, and that its owner had access to Obbink’s unpublished research and sought to capitalize upon it.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="One woman leading another by the hand." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382889/original/file-20210207-21-1tg0a4f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382889/original/file-20210207-21-1tg0a4f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382889/original/file-20210207-21-1tg0a4f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382889/original/file-20210207-21-1tg0a4f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382889/original/file-20210207-21-1tg0a4f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=634&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382889/original/file-20210207-21-1tg0a4f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=634&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382889/original/file-20210207-21-1tg0a4f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=634&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Little of Sappho’s oeuvre has survived, but the poet continues to stir people’s imagination.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Legal, ethical concerns</h2>
<p>Papyri originate almost without exception in Egypt. In 1983, the Egyptian government passed <a href="https://en.unesco.org/sites/default/files/egypt_law3_2010_entof.pdf">legislation</a> prohibiting the domestic trade in antiquities, establishing definitively that the country’s archeological heritage is state property. </p>
<p>To combat looting and the illegal antiquities trade, <a href="https://www.papyrology.org/resolutions.html">more than</a> <a href="https://classicalstudies.org/about/scs-statement-professional-ethics">one scholarly</a> association’s <a href="https://www.archaeological.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Code-of-Ethics.pdf">ethical guidelines</a> cite the <a href="https://en.unesco.org/fighttrafficking/1970">1970 UNESCO Convention on Cultural Property</a> in condemning the study of newly surfaced antiquities. According to those guidelines, scholars shouldn’t authenticate or publish objects that left their country of origin illegally or prior to the 1970 convention.</p>
<p>How and when the Sappho papyrus left Egypt are pressing legal and ethical questions.</p>
<p><em>The Daily Beast</em> linked to an unpublished, draft article Obbink briefly made available on <a href="https://newsappho.wordpress.com/">a blog</a>. </p>
<p>Regarding the papyrus’s origins, it said only that it was newly uncovered and in the private collection of an anonymous owner.</p>
<h2>Scholarly questions</h2>
<p>Historian and broadcaster Bettany Hughes soon reported in London’s <em>Sunday Times</em> that Obbink discovered the papyrus after prising it from <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/lover-poet-muse-and-a-ghost-made-real-dwj29ldp8c5">mummy cartonnage — the casing of an Egyptian burial similar to papier-mâché</a>. </p>
<p>Obbink <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/03/opinion/papyrus-provenance-and-looting.html">corroborated its origin in mummy cartonnage</a> in a <em>Times Literary Supplement</em> article. Hughes stated that the papyrus’s “provenance was obscure” and that it “was originally owned, it seems, by a high-ranking German officer.” Obbink said only that its provenance was both documented and legal.</p>
<p>Scholars <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/2020/jan/09/a-scandal-in-oxford-the-curious-case-of-the-stolen-gospel">questioned the mummy cartonnage narrative because the practice of recycling papyri in the manufacture of cartonnage</a> ceased long before the papyrus was copied. </p>
<p>When Obbink’s <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/23850358">scholarly paper was finally published on April 10, 2014</a>, it didn’t discuss provenance. </p>
<p>A year later, <a href="https://classicalstudies.org/sites/default/files/ckfinder/files/FinalProgramProof.pdf">Obbink revised</a> the papyrus’s origin story at a scholarly conference on Jan. 9, 2015. He said it was recovered from an unpainted fragment of papyrus cartonnage that was purchased at a <a href="https://www.christies.com/lotfinder/Lot/a-collection-of-greek-and-coptic-papyri-5504745-details.aspx">2011 Christie’s auction</a>. He did not specify when the recovery took place.</p>
<h2>The Christie’s brochure</h2>
<p>After Obbink’s presentation, Christie’s produced a 26-page brochure advertising the new Sappho papyrus for private sale. It circulated exclusively among Christie’s clientele, and was unknown to scholars. I received a digital copy from Ute Wartenberg Kagan, a scholar of ancient Greek coinage, which she obtained from a client of Christie’s. The brochure contained photographs captioned as “the recovery of the Sappho papyrus.” When I inquired about the brochure, Christie’s responded: “We cannot discuss private sales activities unless authorized to do so.”</p>
<p>I hoped to learn when the files had been created and modified, and to scrutinize what the images depicted more closely. I ran a computer program that examined the brochure and its JPG files, and was able to <a href="https://dataverse.lib.umanitoba.ca/dataverse/sapphometadata">extract the metadata</a> associated with them. </p>
<p>I concluded that the photos presented in the Christie’s brochure were staged and don’t depict the extraction of the Sappho papyrus. In my view, the photos document the story about mummy cartonnage that Hughes and Obbink wrote about. </p>
<p>One photo includes a panel of cartonnage I have identified as <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2008/antiquities-n08500/lot.89.html?locale=en">previously belonging to a high-ranking German officer</a>, as was mentioned in Hughes’s report. The story was never plausible — scholars questioned it and Obbink subsequently revised it. But the brochure, I believe, bears witness to the original narrative. </p>
<p>I also concluded that the anonymous owner of the papyrus had access to Obbink’s unpublished research, and undertook to propose the papyrus for private sale almost immediately after Obbink presented the revised story at the scholarly conference Jan. 9, 2015.</p>
<p>The brochure’s “Provenance” section cited not Obbink’s January presentation but a scholarly article that wasn’t published until June 15, nearly four months after the creation of the brochure.</p>
<p>In response to an article in <em>The Guardian</em> that reported on my research, Christie’s said it: “… <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/2020/jan/09/a-scandal-in-oxford-the-curious-case-of-the-stolen-gospel">would never knowingly offer any works of art without good title or incorrectly catalogued or authenticated</a>. We take our name and reputation very seriously and would take all necessary steps available to address any situation of inappropriate use.” </p>
<h2>Scholarly ethics and antiquities</h2>
<p>Scholars are wary of the antiquities market because academic appraisals add to objects’ commercial value, which can incentivize looting and the illegal trade in antiquities. Scholarship also offers legitimacy.</p>
<p>For this reason, scholars must scrutinize new discoveries carefully before conducting or publishing research, and present their findings transparently. When the media reports on preliminary research, it is <a href="https://theconversation.com/in-the-rush-for-coronavirus-information-unreviewed-scientific-papers-are-being-publicized-152912">important to convey its preliminary nature</a>.</p>
<p>Last April, an Oxford student newspaper reported that Obbink had been arrested Mar. 2, 2020, for “<a href="https://www.theoxfordblue.co.uk/2020/04/16/exclusive-christ-church-professor-arrested-over-scandal-of-stolen-papyrus">for alleged theft of ancient papyrus from the Sackler Classics Library in Oxford</a>.” <a href="https://wacotrib.com/news/higher_education/oxford-professor-who-worked-at-baylor-allegedly-stole-ancient-bible-fragments-sold-them-to-hobby/article_52db7c0b-a13f-5fdc-8a09-5ddb1f82af29.html">Obbink has denied</a> those allegations.</p>
<p>Questions remain about the 2014 Sappho papyrus. The Museum of the Bible’s recent announcement acknowledges the “<a href="https://www.museumofthebible.org/newsroom/update-on-iraqi-and-egyptian-items">insufficient reliable provenance information</a>” of its papyri — including its Sappho fragments. The chapter about the museum’s Sappho papyri has concluded, but the status of the Sappho papyrus Obbink discovered is uncertain. The papyrus’s present owner is anonymous and its location is unknown.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/151176/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>C. Michael Sampson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In 2014, reports of a new discovery of Sappho’s poems were remarkable. New research argues the papyrus had a fabricated backstory.C. Michael Sampson, Associate Professor of Classics, University of ManitobaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1458272020-09-21T12:14:36Z2020-09-21T12:14:36ZWhat the Greek classics tell us about grief and the importance of mourning the dead<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/358867/original/file-20200918-22-1viwdci.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=73%2C0%2C4010%2C3206&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Greek hero Achilles with the body of Hector, his main opponent in the Trojan War.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/25/Achilles_Displaying_the_Body_of_Hector_at_the_Feet_of_Patroclus%2C_by_Jean_Joseph_Taillason%2C_1769%2C_oil_on_canvas_-_Krannert_Art_Museum%2C_UIUC_-_DSC06264.jpg/4096px-Achilles_Displaying_the_Body_of_Hector_at_the_Feet_of_Patroclus%2C_by_Jean_Joseph_Taillason%2C_1769%2C_oil_on_canvas_-_Krannert_Art_Museum%2C_UIUC_-_DSC06264.jpg">Jean-Joseph Taillasson/Krannert Art Museum</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As the coronavirus pandemic hit New York in March, the death toll quickly went up with few chances for families and communities to perform traditional rites for their loved ones.</p>
<p>A reporter for <a href="https://time.com/5839056/new-york-city-burials-coronavirus/">Time magazine described</a> how bodies were put on a ramp, then onto a loading dock and stacked on wooden racks. Emergency morgues were set up to handle the large number of dead. By official count, New York City alone had <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/05/28/863710050/reckoning-with-the-dead-journalist-goes-inside-an-nyc-covid-19-disaster-morgue">20,000 dead</a> over a period of two months. </p>
<p>Months later, our ability to mourn and process death remains disrupted due to the ever-present fear of the threat of the coronavirus and the need to observe social distancing.</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://www.brandeis.edu/facultyguide/person.html?emplid=1be7ee967d45605afddf7da9ad4ca2c049a26c0b">scholar of classical studies</a>, I tend to look to the past to help understand the present. Ancient literature, especially ancient Greek epics, explore what it means to be human and part of a community. </p>
<p>In the Greek classic “The Iliad,” Homer specifies few universal rights, but one that emerges clearly is the expectation of proper lamentation, burial and memorial. </p>
<h2>Valuing life in death</h2>
<p>Homer’s “Iliad” explores the themes of 10 years of war – the Trojan War – over a narrative that lasts around 50 days. It shows the internal strife and the struggles of the Greeks as they try to defend themselves against the Trojans.</p>
<p>It humanizes the city of Troy by emphasizing the scale of loss and suffering and not just the boastful nature of its kings and warlords. </p>
<p>The epic <a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0134">begins with the recognition</a> that the rage of its main character, Achilles, on account of a slight to his honor, “created myriad griefs” for the Greeks and “sent many strong heroes to the underworld.” </p>
<p>The epic’s conflict <a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hom.+Il.+1.100&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0134">starts</a> when king Agamemnon, leader of the Greek army, deprives the semi-divine hero Achilles of Briseis, an enslaved woman he was awarded as a prize earlier in the war. </p>
<p>Briseis is said to be Achilles’ “geras,” a physical token indicating the esteem his fellow Greeks have for him. The meaning of the word “geras” develops as the poem progresses. But as readers learn alongside Achilles, physical objects are essentially meaningless when one is going to die anyway.</p>
<p>By the end of the epic, physical tokens of honor are replaced in importance by burial rites. Zeus accepts that his mortal son Sarpedon can at best receive “the geras of the dead” when he is <a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0134%3Abook%3D16%3Acard%3D394">buried and mourned</a>. Achilles too insists that mourning is “the geras of the dead” when he gathers the Greeks to <a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0134%3Abook%3D23%3Acard%3D1">honor his fallen comrade, Patroklos</a>.</p>
<p>The epic ends with a justification for the burial of Achilles’ opponent, Hector, the greatest of the Trojan warriors and another victim of Achilles’ rage.</p>
<p>For Hector’s funerary rites, the Greeks and the Trojans agree to an armistice. The Trojans gather and clean Hector’s body, cremate him, and bury his remains below a monumental tomb. The women of the city tell the story of the brave hero <a href="https://chs.harvard.edu/CHS/article/display/6668">in their laments</a>. </p>
<p>This is its foundational narrative – that burial rites are essential to the collective work of communities. Failure to observe burial provokes crisis. In the Iliad, the gods meet to resolve <a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0134%3Abook%3D24%3Acard%3D22">the problem of Hector’s unburied body</a>: Achilles must quit his rage and give Hector’s body back to his family. </p>
<h2>A divine right</h2>
<p>This narrative is repeated in other ancient Greek myths. Best known, perhaps, is Sophocles’ “Antigone,” a Greek tragedy dating from the 440s B.C. In this play, two brothers, Eteocles and Polynices, are killed in their fight for control of the city.</p>
<p>Creon, their uncle, who takes over the city, <a href="http://philosophyfaculty.ucsd.edu/faculty/ewatkins/Phil107S13/Sophocles-Antigone.pdf">forbids burial of one</a>. The play’s conflict centers around their sister Antigone, who buries her brother against the new king’s wishes, consigning herself to death. </p>
<p>In opposing this basic right, Creon is shown to suffer in turn, losing his wife and son to suicide in the process. In response to the capital punishment of Antigone for performing the rites due to her brother, his son Haemon takes his life and his mother Eurydice follows him.</p>
<p>Properly honoring the dead – especially those who have died serving their people – is from this perspective a divinely sanctioned right. Furthermore, mistreatment of the dead brings infamy on the city and pollution. Plague often curses cities and peoples who fail to honor their fallen. </p>
<p>This is central to the plot of “<a href="http://classics.mit.edu/Euripides/suppliants.html">The Suppliants</a>,” another Greek play telling us the story of the conflict between the sons of Oedipus, king of the Greek city of Thebes. In this play by Euripides, the Thebans refuse to bury any of the warriors who fought against their city. The crisis is resolved only when the Athenian hero Theseus leads an army to force them to honor the dead.</p>
<p>One of the most famous examples of classical rhetoric shares in the tradition of honoring the dead as a public duty. Greek historian Thucydides writes about the funeral oration of Pericles, who was a popular leader in Athens during the 430s B.C.</p>
<p>On the occasion of offering the “<a href="https://oxfordre.com/classics/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.001.0001/acrefore-9780199381135-e-2461">epitaphios</a>,” a speech over the fallen war dead, Pericles articulates his vision of the Athenians as standing against foreign threats in the past.</p>
<p>Memories of the past were an important guide to the future. This is in part why the funeral oration became so important in Athenian life: It provided an opportunity to explain why those lives were sacrificed in service of a shared civic mission and identity.</p>
<h2>Communities of memory</h2>
<p>Even today, memories are shaped by stories. From local communities to nations, the stories we tell will shape what we will remember about the past. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/358875/original/file-20200918-24-1004252.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/358875/original/file-20200918-24-1004252.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/358875/original/file-20200918-24-1004252.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/358875/original/file-20200918-24-1004252.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/358875/original/file-20200918-24-1004252.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/358875/original/file-20200918-24-1004252.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/358875/original/file-20200918-24-1004252.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">A body being loaded onto a refrigerated container truck used as a temporary morgue in New York in March.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/VirusOutbreakNewYork/cdc500f7a9a1401bbb7f3c2b3ba773e0/photo?Query=covid%20refrigerated%20trucks&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=26&currentItemNo=14">AP Photo/John Minchillo</a></span>
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<p>Researchers from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation predict that an estimated 200,000 people in the U.S. will have died from the coronavirus <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/covid-19-united-states-coronavirus-deaths-projection-400000-by-end-of-year/">by Sept. 26</a> and some 400,000 by the year-end. </p>
<p>Many people who see loved ones die will deal with unresolved loss, or “<a href="https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/complicated-grief/symptoms-causes/syc-20360374">complicated grief</a>” – grief that results from not knowing what happened to one’s loved ones or without having the social structures to process their loss. That grief has been compounded by the current isolation. It has prevented many from carrying out those very rites that help us learn to live with our grief. </p>
<p>Just recently, I lost my 91-year-old grandmother, <a href="https://www.rivertowns.net/obituaries/obits/6665780-Beverly-Jean-Mjolsness">Beverly Mjolsness</a>, to a non-coronavirus death. My family made the hard decision not to travel across the country to bury her. Instead, we gathered for a video memorial of a celebration of a life well-lived. As we did so, I could see my family struggling to know how to proceed without the rituals and the comfort of being together. </p>
<p>[<em>You’re smart and curious about the world. So are The Conversation’s authors and editors.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=youresmart">You can read us daily by subscribing to our newsletter</a>.]</p>
<p>Such grief that does not allow for collective in-person memorialization can turn into <a href="https://www.apa.org/news/apa/2020/04/grief-covid-19">debilitating trauma</a>. Our public discourse, however, when it has not tried to minimize the number of the dead or the continuing threat, has not sought to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/national-mourning-coronavirus/2020/05/15/b47fc670-9577-11ea-82b4-c8db161ff6e5_story.html">provide any plan for memorials</a>, now or in the future. </p>
<p>What Homer and Sophocles demonstrate is that the rites we give to the dead help us understand what it takes to go on living. I believe we need to start honoring those we have lost to this epidemic. It will not just bring comfort to the living, but remind us that we share a community in which our lives – and deaths – have meaning.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/145827/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joel Christensen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Families who lost their loved ones during the pandemic could not even properly grieve. Greek epics show why lamentation and memorial are so important and what we can learn in these times.Joel Christensen, Associate Professor of Classical Studies, Brandeis UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1240042019-10-25T03:50:58Z2019-10-25T03:50:58ZOrpheus and Eurydice review: a bold reimagining through circus and opera<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298637/original/file-20191025-115777-1ycmit9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=33%2C0%2C5577%2C3752&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Under director Yaron Lifschitz, this version of Orpheus and Eurydice is interested in exploring the tragedy implicit in this story. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jade Ferguson/Opera Queensland</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Orpheus and Eurydice, directed by Yaron Lifschitz, Queensland Performing Arts Centre</em></p>
<p><a href="https://www.greekmyths-greekmythology.com/orpheus-and-eurydice/">The story of Orpheus’ descent</a> into the underworld to retrieve his beloved Eurydice has fascinated people for centuries. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0174:text=Sym.:section=179d">Plato wasn’t a fan</a>. He thought Orpheus took the easy way out. He reasoned if Orpheus really wanted to be with Eurydice, he should have just killed himself and joined her in death forever. Descending into the underworld, so he could recover his wife and still enjoy an earthly existence, showed only half-hearted devotion. He saw it as a case of Orpheus wanting to have his cake and eat it too.</p>
<p>It was the Roman poet Ovid who made this tale into <a href="http://ovid.lib.virginia.edu/trans/Metamorph10.htm">the romantic story we know today</a>. In his version, the god of love refuses to let Orpheus reconcile himself to the death of his wife and inspires him to make the journey to the underworld. Orpheus charms the rulers of the underworld and their attendant Furies with his passionate song. They weep tears for his loss, and allow him to take Eurydice back into the sunlight. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/guide-to-the-classics-ovids-metamorphoses-and-reading-rape-65316">Guide to the classics: Ovid's Metamorphoses and reading rape</a>
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<p>The only proviso was the famous interdiction: Orpheus must never look back as he undertakes the treacherous climb to the mortal realm. Despite this warning, overcome by his passion and fearful he might lose his beloved, Orpheus makes the fatal mistake of turning to look at his wife. In doing so he loses her for eternity.</p>
<p>On many levels, the story of Orpheus and Eurydice doesn’t make sense. Why throw away at the last minute everything you’ve struggled so hard to get? The composer Offenbach memorably thought the story <a href="http://operetta-research-center.org/monograph-offenbachs-orpheus-underworld/">fundamentally absurd</a> and lampooned it in his comic opera Orpheus in the Underworld, an opera best known these days for giving us the music of the can-can.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298636/original/file-20191025-115732-fhbem7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=32%2C5%2C3555%2C5373&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298636/original/file-20191025-115732-fhbem7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298636/original/file-20191025-115732-fhbem7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298636/original/file-20191025-115732-fhbem7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298636/original/file-20191025-115732-fhbem7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1129&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298636/original/file-20191025-115732-fhbem7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1129&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298636/original/file-20191025-115732-fhbem7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1129&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">This is a radical reinterpretation of the myth and the opera.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jade Ferguson/Opera Queensland</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Offenbach’s is just <a href="https://www.wqxr.org/story/264782-love-hell-orpheus-endures-favorite-opera-subject">one of dozens</a> of operas based on the Greek myth. But the most enduring is by 18th century composer Christoph Willibald Gluck. </p>
<h2>An exploration of tragedy</h2>
<p>Underpinned by Ovid’s version of the story, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/sep/12/john-eliot-gardiner-gluck-orphee-et-eurydice-opera">Gluck’s opera</a> is on now in Brisbane in a radical reinvention by Opera Queensland and Circa. It is raw, physical, and confronting.</p>
<p>Gluck is famous for adding a happy ending to Ovid’s tale. In his opera, the goddess of Love is so moved by Orpheus’ despair at his double loss she violates the laws of Hell and reunites him with Eurydice at the end. </p>
<p>This production resists such moments of unadulterated joy. This version is interested in exploring the tragedy implicit in this story. Is this myth about the power of love or the triumph of death? This production argues it is both. </p>
<p>The opera may be called Orpheus and Eurydice, but this opera is no two-hander. The dramatic centre of the opera is the figure of Orpheus, played with intense vulnerability, passion and desperation by British countertenor, Owen Willetts. </p>
<p>This concentrated focus on the figure of Orpheus is reinforced in this production by the decision to set the opera in a stark, bare asylum. At times, there is nothing on stage but white walls and Orpheus’ anguish.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298641/original/file-20191025-115751-1nxiobu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298641/original/file-20191025-115751-1nxiobu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298641/original/file-20191025-115751-1nxiobu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298641/original/file-20191025-115751-1nxiobu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298641/original/file-20191025-115751-1nxiobu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298641/original/file-20191025-115751-1nxiobu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298641/original/file-20191025-115751-1nxiobu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">This production sets the story in a bare, white-walled asylum.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jade Ferguson/Opera Queensland</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Orpheus’ descent into Hell is envisaged as a descent into madness. Staging the opera as a form of psychodrama permits a clever casting move in allowing Circa artistic director Yaron Lifschitz to combine the roles of Love and Eurydice. This creates a much more substantial female role that serves to balance Orpheus. The twin roles are sung by a highly assured Natalie Christie Peluso.</p>
<p>Orpheus and Eurydice is not an opera traditionally associated with powerful physicality, so the decision to pair opera singers with circus performers is an interesting one. On the whole it is a successful partnership, but at times the novelty of the acrobatics threatens to draw attention away from the singing and the drama. </p>
<p>It is hard to lament for the death of Eurydice when you also want to applaud the triple somersault you’ve just caught out of the corner of your eye. The vibrant athleticism of the circus performers also has a tendency to show up the chorus. As they roll, tumble, leapfrog, and pirouette on stage, the circus troupe makes the largely static chorus look decidedly flat-footed.</p>
<p>Yet, as the opera progresses, the value of the collaboration begins to show itself. Watching Orpheus and Eurydice physically clamber up the bodies of the acrobats and stumble as they take each precarious step – balancing on shoulders, heads and outstretched arms – powerfully evokes the physical demands of descending into the underworld. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298639/original/file-20191025-115721-xhztpo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298639/original/file-20191025-115721-xhztpo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298639/original/file-20191025-115721-xhztpo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298639/original/file-20191025-115721-xhztpo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298639/original/file-20191025-115721-xhztpo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298639/original/file-20191025-115721-xhztpo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298639/original/file-20191025-115721-xhztpo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The final act of a ‘twin triumph of love and death is a remarkable piece of performance.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jade Ferguson/Opera Queensland</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>The final act in which chorus, principals and circus performers combine to stage the twin triumph of love and death, is a remarkable piece of performance. Completely captivating and deeply moving.</p>
<p>Lifschitz and his production team should be applauded for attempting to take this story seriously. In situating this opera between the opposing poles of love and death, they have produced a cerebral drama that invites us to reflect on what it means to be mortal.</p>
<p><em>Orpheus and Eurydice plays <a href="https://oq.com.au/whats-on/orpheus-and-eurydice/">until November 9</a></em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/124004/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alastair Blanshard does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>This new version of Gluck’s opera, from Opera Queensland and Circa, is raw, physical and confronting. Completely captivating and deeply moving.Alastair Blanshard, Paul Eliadis Chair of Classics and Ancient History Deputy Head of School, The University of QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/919972018-02-27T09:06:37Z2018-02-27T09:06:37ZWhat today’s anti-immigrant populists could learn from Homer about kindness to strangers<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/207643/original/file-20180223-108116-wvhvch.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Odysseus and the Cyclops Polyphemus: how not to treat strangers. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AArnold_B%C3%B6cklin_-_Odysseus_and_Polyphemus.jpg">Arnold Böcklin, via Wikimedia Commons</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09szdtr">Troy</a>, a new BBC adaptation of Homer’s Iliad, shows the enduring interest we have in Ancient Greek myths. Today, Homer’s epic works remain both politically and ethically relevant. The Greek poet’s insight into why law and legality matter is particularly enlightening in the context of contemporary debates about immigration, which loom large amid the rise of right-wing populism on both sides of the Atlantic. </p>
<p>Those who object to immigration and demonise immigrants argue that the West’s legal traditions are endangered by <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2013/aug/08/daily-mail-express-illegal-immigrants">lawless migrants</a> who are <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/06/04/nigel-farage-migrants-could-pose-sex-attack-threat-to-britain/">incapable of peaceful integration</a>. </p>
<p>But Homer helps us see that the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/feb/05/berlusconi-pledges-to-deport-600000-illegal-immigrants-italy-election">politicians</a> and <a href="http://www.sub-scribe.co.uk/2016/09/the-press-and-immigration-reporting.html">tabloid press</a> who repeat and <a href="http://www.sub-scribe2015.co.uk/whitetops-immigration.html#.Wo2cIiXFLct">reinforce this narrative</a> suffer from a bad case of political illiteracy. Kindness to strangers is a cornerstone of the West’s tradition of <a href="http://digitalcommons.law.yale.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1451&context=yjlh">political thought about legality</a>. </p>
<p>Although legality and justice <a href="http://digitalcommons.law.yale.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1451&context=yjlh">are not necessarily the same</a>, the prevalent view in the West has always been – at least until recently – that justice is the main reason why laws matter at all. For example, at the time of the French Revolution, the French were well aware of law’s failures of justice when it came to protecting their freedom and equality. Yet, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Napoleonic-Code">the post-revolutionary recipe</a> to achieve greater justice was not less law, but clearer, more general, better administered laws. </p>
<h2>Hospitality in the Odyssey</h2>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/207645/original/file-20180223-108110-hbvbn9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/207645/original/file-20180223-108110-hbvbn9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=756&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207645/original/file-20180223-108110-hbvbn9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=756&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207645/original/file-20180223-108110-hbvbn9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=756&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207645/original/file-20180223-108110-hbvbn9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=950&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207645/original/file-20180223-108110-hbvbn9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=950&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207645/original/file-20180223-108110-hbvbn9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=950&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Homer: big on hospitality.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1c/Homer_British_Museum.jpg">British Museum, via Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
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<p>This same association between legality and justice can be found all the way back to the origins of Western political thought about the rule of law. In the Odyssey, Homer’s second epic poem, legality is centred around <a href="http://digitalcommons.law.yale.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1451&context=yjlh">fulfilling the duties of hospitality towards strangers</a>. Odysseus, tossed from shore to shore on his eventful journey back to his home, Ithaca, constantly asks himself where he has landed. He wonders if the inhabitants of each land he reaches are lawless, violent, savage; or rather god-fearing and friendly to strangers. For Homer, lawlessness is the opposite of kindness to strangers. </p>
<p>In the Odyssey, having laws and being civilised means taking seriously the duties of hospitality, through giving assistance and gifts to strangers. In contrast, being lawless and savage means refusing strangers the rites of hospitality, or, worse, abusing them. In the poem, the starkest example of this lawless savagery is the Cyclops Polyphemus. When Odysseus’s companions land on an unknown island and become trapped inside the Cyclops’s cave when they go exploring, he feasts upon them. Odysseus himself, with a few of his men, escapes this fate: he blinds Polyphemus and manages to leave the cave when the Cyclops lets out his flock of sheep.</p>
<p>It is not by accident that managing the relationship between host and stranger well is the most significant test of justice in the Odyssey, and that Zeus himself – the Greek world’s top deity – was the protector of strangers. There is a profound asymmetry in social power between host and stranger. A host is embedded in a community, which brings with it material and intangible advantages. A vulnerable stranger isn’t. </p>
<p>The message that justice and legality are measured by how you treat strangers is reinforced at every turn in the Odyssey, including at its end. When Odysseus finally makes it back to Ithaca against overwhelming odds, Athena disguises him as an old and frail stranger. But he is shamelessly abused by royal pretenders, who have been camping out in his royal palace and wooing Penelope, the Queen, in an attempt to seize power. They make fun of the old supplicant, throw a stool at him, and encourage another homeless beggar to turn against him for their own amusement. Odysseus, with the help of his son Telemachus, exacts bloody revenge upon them. </p>
<h2>The opposite of xenophobia</h2>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/207646/original/file-20180223-108119-1t6p913.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/207646/original/file-20180223-108119-1t6p913.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=316&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207646/original/file-20180223-108119-1t6p913.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=316&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207646/original/file-20180223-108119-1t6p913.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=316&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207646/original/file-20180223-108119-1t6p913.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207646/original/file-20180223-108119-1t6p913.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207646/original/file-20180223-108119-1t6p913.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Nigel Farage was widely condemned for UKIP’s ‘Breaking Point’ poster ahead of the UK’s EU referendum.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Philip Toscano/PA Archive</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>By depicting foreigners in general – and certain ethno-religious groups such as <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/ukip-leader-nigel-farage-puts-threat-of-immigrant-crime-wave-at-centre-stage-for-european-elections-8827685.html">Romanians</a>, <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/967daaae-2412-11e7-8691-d5f7e0cd0a16">Muslims</a> or <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-us-canada-37230916/drug-dealers-criminals-rapists-what-trump-thinks-of-mexicans">Mexicans</a> in particular – as a <a href="https://www.law.ox.ac.uk/research-subject-groups/centre-criminology/centreborder-criminologies/blog/2016/04/excluding">threat to the West’s tradition of legality</a>, populist anti-immigration rhetoric betrays the very foundations of that tradition. It obscures that tradition’s roots in an aspiration to justice, whose centrepiece must be – as it was in Homer – kindness to strangers, not xenophobia.</p>
<p>The Homeric universe is a curious place. Gods can be fickle and petty; heroes owe their superhuman status less to magnanimity than magnificence. But some of the ways in which Homer challenges our convictions are serious, not quaint. Read today, the Odyssey turns on its head the contemporary belief – taken to its extreme by the logic of right-wing populism – that hospitality is purely a matter of charity, rather than a duty required by justice. For Homer there are no outsiders to justice. He reminds us that kindness to strangers lies at the very heart of our faith in the value of having laws.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/91997/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Aleardo Zanghellini does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Why right-wing populism gets the tradition of legality and justice exactly the wrong way round.Aleardo Zanghellini, University of ReadingLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/794932017-08-28T02:05:36Z2017-08-28T02:05:36ZThe uncertain origins of the modern marathon<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/180640/original/file-20170802-742-1aiuw1z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The modern marathon distance comes from the 1908 London Olympics.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Last November, I ran my first marathon, <a href="http://www.athensauthenticmarathon.gr/site/index.php/en/">the “Athens Authentic”</a>. I did it mainly because I wanted to follow in the footsteps of the world’s first marathon runner – the ancient Athenian messenger Pheidippides.</p>
<p>The story, as I knew it, went as follows. After their victory over a Persian invasion force at the border village of Marathon, the Athenians sent a messenger called Pheidippides to deliver the news to the city authorities. After running the 42 kilometres back to Athens, Pheidippides gasped “we’ve won!” (<em>nenikēkamen</em>) and promptly died of exhaustion. </p>
<p>It’s a great story, but was it true? The more I looked into it in the weeks leading up to the race, the less certain I was. Was I about to run 42km for a lie?</p>
<h2>Different sources and different stories</h2>
<p>Our best source for the events of 490 BC, the fifth-century historian Herodotus, doesn’t mention a messenger being sent from Marathon after the battle. He does say, though, that a runner called Pheidippides (or Philippides, in some manuscripts) was sent to Sparta to ask for help <a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hdt.+6.105&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126"><em>before</em> the battle</a>.</p>
<p>This trip is commemorated in <a href="http://www.spartathlon.gr/en/">the Spartathlon</a>, a 246km event that I haven’t run – and never will.</p>
<p>Our next-oldest source is the fourth-century-BC intellectual Heraklides Pontikos. He apparently did mention a Marathon runner, but gave his name as Thersippos – at least according to the first-century-AD moralist <a href="https://archive.org/stream/moraliainfifteen04plutuoft#page/502/mode/2up">Plutarch</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://archive.org/stream/moraliainfifteen04plutuoft#page/502/mode/2up">Plutarch himself</a> is the earliest author to tell the story of a messenger from Marathon dying from exhaustion after proclaiming victory. But his messenger is called Eukles – and his dying word is <em>nikōmen</em> (we win).</p>
<p>The first time we hear this story with a messenger called Pheidippides (or Philippides) is in <a href="https://www.loebclassics.com/view/lucian-slip_tongue_greeting/1959/pb_LCL430.177.xml?result=66&rskey=EqQSA1">Lucian</a>, and by that time we’re in the second century AD, around 600 years after the Battle of Marathon. The runner says <em>nikōmen</em> in that version too.</p>
<h2>What to make of the different sources</h2>
<p>Herodotus was closest in time to the events. And since he does tell the story of Pheidippides’ run to Sparta and back, he would surely have added in the story of the runner’s death if he had known about it. </p>
<p>But if Pheidippides didn’t run the first marathon, did someone else?</p>
<p>Our next candidate is Eukles, the name Plutarch tells us is given to the Marathon runner by the majority of historians. But here there’s an important detail: Eukles, according to Plutarch, ran from the battle “warm, with his weapons”.</p>
<p>If that’s right, Eukles would have run the first marathon after fighting for three hours or so in a desperate battle for his city’s survival. Not only that, but he would have done so bearing the traditional arms and armour of a Greek hoplite (heavy infantryman): spear, shield, helmet and (if he could afford it) breastplate. The whole panoply would have weighed <a href="https://books.google.co.nz/books?id=ui1nnpT3HOUC&pg=PA190&lpg=PA190&dq=kgs+hoplite+armour&source=bl&ots=ekSy30qxxw&sig=UUZ631KVBZ0TXFQJN_02v-qtEfs&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiI7tK1z5LVAhXHfLwKHZ6PCYQ4ChDoAQhBMAs#v=onepage&q=kgs%20hoplite%20armour&f=false">ten or 20 kilograms</a>, up to about one-third of the body weight of the average classical Greek. </p>
<p>Needless to say, this is something else I haven’t done.</p>
<p>Where does this leave Thersippos, the name given by Heraklides Pontikos? </p>
<p>It’s possible, as the Greek historian <a href="https://www.isdistribution.com/BookDetail.aspx?aId=67795">Christos Dionysopoulos</a> has suggested, that there was a second runner, sent out the morning after the battle when the Athenians realised the Persians that they had pushed back onto their ships could simply use them to sail down the coast and attack Athens through its traditional harbour. That second runner may have been Thersippos.</p>
<p>But the strategic situation they were in was probably clear to the Athenians even as the battle ended. Someone would have to get to Athens before the Persians did, to reassure the populace that the Athenian army was still standing – and hence that there was no reason to surrender the city to the Persians. </p>
<p>They also needed to signal to any would-be defectors to the Persian side that it was the Athenians who were still calling the shots in Athens.</p>
<p>Eukles’ announcement of an Athenian victory – perhaps with his final breath – would have gone part of the way to achieving these goals. </p>
<p>But to really reassure people, and send a strong signal to potential “Medizers” (Persian sympathizers), the army would need to make an appearance in person. So, the Athenian hoplites, fresh from the most important battle of their lives, marched the 40km or so back to Athens, just in time to scare off the Persian fleet, which finally headed back to Persia.</p>
<p>Like Eukles, the Athenian hoplites would have had to bring along their weapons, both because these were valuable possessions and because they needed them to intimidate the Persians. Unlike Eukles, the Athenians probably didn’t run. </p>
<p>The British historian N.G.L. Hammond reckoned they could have walked the distance in <a href="http://www.jstor.org.helicon.vuw.ac.nz/stable/628670?seq=24#page_scan_tab_contents">six or seven hours</a> – which is not that much longer than it took me to run it.</p>
<h2>How long was it, really?</h2>
<p>Speaking of the distance, what was it exactly? </p>
<p>I ran 42,195 metres, the standard length for a marathon, and I felt every metre afterwards. But if that was the distance that Eukles ran, why does the modern race make you run a 2km diversion around the burial monument of the Athenians?</p>
<p>The answer is because the modern marathon distance is only loosely based on the distance Eukles ran. The modern distance comes from the 1908 London Olympics, where competitors ran <a href="https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/65679/">from Windsor Castle to White City Stadium</a>, and then a bit further along the track to finish in front of the royal box.</p>
<p>The 1908 race was thus longer than <a href="http://www.marathonguide.com/history/olympicmarathons/chapter1.cfm">the first Olympic marathon</a> run in 1896. That course was 40km, the distance between the village of Marathon and the Panathenaic Stadium, where I finished my race. </p>
<p>The annual Athens “authentic” marathon didn’t begin until 1972. By that point 42,195 metres had long become the standard distance. That’s why I had the wonderful opportunity of running 2km extra around the tomb of the Athenians.</p>
<p>So, where did this all leave me as I trudged up the road from Marathon to Athens? (“Up”, by the way, is very much the right word.)</p>
<p>I wasn’t following in the footsteps of Pheidippides – thankfully, since his run to Sparta and back was much longer than the one I was doing. I might have been following in the footsteps of a man named Thersippos, but I was most likely retracing the steps of one called Eukles, albeit without carrying one-third of my body weight in armour.</p>
<p>But something else occurred to me as I eventually slowed to a walk for part of the course. I may have been doing so because I was tired, but I was also making my journey more similar to that of the Athenian hoplites in 490 BC. They walked briskly, after defeating an absolutist invasion force that was seeking to crush their nascent democracy. </p>
<p>Some 2,500 years later, I run-walked slowly over the same ground, unarmed and without a worry on my mind except the next research deadline. And that was good enough for me.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/79493/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>James Kierstead does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The story behind the marathon is more complicated than it seems.James Kierstead, Lecturer in Classics, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of WellingtonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/537482016-05-22T20:07:29Z2016-05-22T20:07:29ZGuide to the classics: The Histories, by Herodotus<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/123172/original/image-20160519-30683-1gafsbw.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">William Etty's Candaules, King of Lydia, Shews his Wife by Stealth to Gyges, One of his Ministers, as She Goes to Bed. The painting illustrates Herodotus's version of the tale of Gyges.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>It is easy to see why Herodotus’ <em>Histories</em> may seem overwhelming. Too much is going on, right from the start. We have only just embarked on the <em>Histories</em>’ central theme – the origins of the conflict between Greeks and barbarians in the fifth century BCE – when the narrative suddenly changes tack and we find ourselves in a boudoir tale of nudity, intrigue and murder, only to veer off again when a dolphin saves the singer Arion from drowning. A wild ride!</p>
<p>Herodotus, a Greek from the city of Halicarnassus in Asia Minor (today’s Bodrum in Turkey), published his <em>Histories</em> sometime between 426 and 415 BCE. His principal aim was to explain the unlikely Greek victory against the much stronger Persian army in the so-called Persian Wars that ravaged the Greek world between 500 and 449 BCE. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/123174/original/image-20160519-30707-1wr5rff.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/123174/original/image-20160519-30707-1wr5rff.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/123174/original/image-20160519-30707-1wr5rff.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/123174/original/image-20160519-30707-1wr5rff.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/123174/original/image-20160519-30707-1wr5rff.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/123174/original/image-20160519-30707-1wr5rff.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/123174/original/image-20160519-30707-1wr5rff.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Statue of Herodotus.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For his pioneering critical enquiry into the past he was named “father of history” by Cicero. His love of stories and storytelling, however, was notorious already in antiquity: Plutarch called him the “father of lies”. </p>
<p>Most of the tales have no clear link to the main story. They seem peripheral, if not entirely unrelated, to the account of the Persian Wars and their pre-history. Many characters appear only once, never to be seen again. To the reader accustomed to a stable cast of characters and a straightforward plot with a clear beginning, middle and end, Herodotus’ <em>Histories</em> read like a digression from a digression from a digression. </p>
<p>Yet as soon as one pauses and appreciates the stories for what they are one cannot but marvel at the events Herodotus relates. There is the conversation between King Croesus of Lydia and the Athenian statesman, reformer and poet Solon, on the true nature of human happiness. The moral is, in a nutshell: call no man happy until he is dead. </p>
<p>That same king consults the Delphic oracle and learns to his delight that he will bring down a great empire. Certain of victory, he wages war against the Persians; as the oracle foretells, Croesus duly ends up destroying an empire – his own. </p>
<p>Herodotus’ ingenuity emerges most clearly when considered in relation to Homer, who had set the benchmark and provided all writers to follow with a model for talking about the past. </p>
<p>Consider for example his opening statement in the beginning of the book: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Herodotus of Halicarnassus here displays his inquiry, so that human achievements may not become forgotten in time, and great and marvellous deeds – some displayed by Greeks, some by barbarians – may not be without their glory. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Unlike Homer, Herodotus no longer claims to be inspired by the Muses. Yet his opening lines still pay homage to the world of the Homeric hero and his perpetual striving for <em>kleos</em> (“glory”). After all, Homer, too, reported great deeds by Greeks and non-Greeks alike and preserved them for posterity.</p>
<p>Herodotus combined the two major themes of Homeric epic – travel and warfare – into a single whole. Travel and the insights they yield are as dominant a theme in the ethnographic sections of the <em>Histories</em> as expansion, warfare and conflict are in the historical sections. Herodotus uses the gradual expansion of the Persian Empire to delve deeply into the cultures of those who came under its influence in the century preceding the war. In his account the historical and the cultural influence each other.</p>
<p>While Herodotus does not dismiss the <em>Iliad</em> and the <em>Odyssey</em>, he openly takes a swipe at Homer at least once. Helen, he claims, never made it to Troy: she was diverted to Egypt due to bad weather. Homer – so runs Herodotus’ accusation – simply changed the course of the story to make it fit the genre of epic poetry. This shows an awareness of the particular demands of the kind of account Herodotus hoped to write as being different from Homeric epic.</p>
<h2>The father of history</h2>
<p>What specifically sets Herodotus and his enquiry apart, then, is the proto-scientific way he explores the inner workings of the world. The question “why” drives this inquiry in all its aspects. It brings together the different strands of Herodotean investigation: Why did the Greeks and the barbarians go to war with each other? Why does the Nile flood? Why do the women of Cyrene abstain from eating beef?</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/123176/original/image-20160519-30707-1virx9o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/123176/original/image-20160519-30707-1virx9o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=928&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/123176/original/image-20160519-30707-1virx9o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=928&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/123176/original/image-20160519-30707-1virx9o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=928&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/123176/original/image-20160519-30707-1virx9o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1167&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/123176/original/image-20160519-30707-1virx9o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1167&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/123176/original/image-20160519-30707-1virx9o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1167&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Herodotus frequently finds the answer to these questions by looking at origins and beginnings. He takes the military conflict between Greeks and barbarians back to its roots in mythical times. In a similar vein he enquires into the source of the river Nile and traces the names of the <a href="http://www.theoi.com/greek-mythology/olympian-gods.html">twelve Olympians</a> – the major deities of the Greek pantheon – back to their origins in ancient Egypt. </p>
<p>The quest for origins and beginnings runs deep in the <em>Histories</em>. It introduces a form of explanation which links the disparate strands of Herodotean enquiry by presenting them as part of an ordered cosmos. The world Herodotus outlines in the <em>Histories</em> ultimately and profoundly makes sense. </p>
<p>His efforts to establish himself as a credible researcher and narrator are tangible throughout. He is careful to tell his reader from where he derived his information on foreign lands, whether he witnessed personally or learnt from a reliable source: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>As far as Elephantine I speak as an eye-witness, but further south from hearsay. </p>
<p>My own observation bears out the statement made to me by the priests… </p>
<p>Of the Pelasgian language I cannot speak with certainty…</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Frequently, he gives us all the different explanations sourced from others. In the case of the flooding of the Nile he adds why he favours one (incidentally, the wrong one) over all others. By presenting views other than his own, Herodotus gives his readers the chance to form their own opinion.</p>
<p>The same striving for precision, exactness and authority also explains his diligence when it comes to numbers, distances and measurements. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>From Heliopolis to Thebes is a nine days’ voyage up the Nile, a distance of eighty-one schoeni or 4860 states. Putting together the various measurements I have given, one finds that the Egyptian coastline is, as I have said, about 420 miles in length, and the distance from the sea inland to Thebes about 714 miles. It is another 210 miles from Thebes to Elephantine. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Why does this level of detail matter, and do we really need to know it? We do! This kind of accuracy and precision bolsters Herodotus’ authority as a credible source of information (even though some of his data verge on the fanciful). </p>
<p>To Herodotus, at least, measuring the world, mapping new territory, noting the features of distant lands and territories are all part of the process of “sense-making”, in which the new and unknown is related to the well-known and familiar: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>The difference in size between the young and the full-grown crocodile is greater than in any other known creature; for a crocodile’s egg is hardly bigger than a goose’s, and the young when hatched is small in proportion yet it grows to a size of some twenty-three feet long or even more. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>At the same time, Herodotus shows a profound interest in names and naming and the translation of words and concepts from one language into another. He tells us that the name Egypt applied first to Thebes, and that the name of the Asmach people of Egypt means <em>those who stand on the left hand of the king</em>. </p>
<p>Being able to name things in the world is part of being able to explain them. Herodotus was not just pioneering critical enquiry; along with the world he discovered, he had to invent a method and a language. </p>
<h2>Figuring out the fantastic</h2>
<p>Occasionally the strive for authority and exactness falters and the reader is left wondering whether the narrator has been unreliable all along, such as when Herodotus’ observations truly defy credulity. </p>
<p>Take the gold-digging ants of India, “bigger than a fox, though not so big as a dog”; the winged snakes of Arabia that interfere with the frankincense harvest; the Arabian sheep with tails so long they need little wooden carts attached to their hindquarters, preventing the tails from dragging on the ground.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/123178/original/image-20160519-30723-z0d9cj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/123178/original/image-20160519-30723-z0d9cj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/123178/original/image-20160519-30723-z0d9cj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/123178/original/image-20160519-30723-z0d9cj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/123178/original/image-20160519-30723-z0d9cj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=707&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/123178/original/image-20160519-30723-z0d9cj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=707&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/123178/original/image-20160519-30723-z0d9cj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=707&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A fragment from The Histories on Papyrus dated to the early second century AD.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>All these are instances in which Herodotean inquiry – despite his own claims to the contrary – slip beyond the realm of the authentic, credible and real. </p>
<p>But it would be a mistake to make too much of these examples. They are memorable only because they stand in such marked contrast to the accurate pictures Herodotus sketches elsewhere of the world. </p>
<p>And who can say for sure that the gold-digging ants, the long-tailed sheep and the flying snakes did not, in fact, exist? Some have argued that the gold-digging ants of India were actually marmots and Herodotus applied a Greek word for ant to a creature unknown to him but reminiscent (albeit faintly) of an ant.</p>
<p>Other creatures, however, take the reader fully into the realm of the fantastic. In his description of Libya, Herodotus says emphatically: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>There are enormous snakes there, and also lions, elephants, bears, asps, donkeys with horns, dog-headed creatures, headless creatures with eyes in their chests (at least, this is what the Libyans say) wild men and wild women and a large number of other creatures whose existence is not merely the stuff of fables. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Some of these beings belong to a different, more archaic world, where the boundary between man and beast was fluid and uncertain. We can see a whole spectrum of more or less fantastic creatures, whose ranks included the Cyclops and Sirens of the <em>Odyssey</em>. </p>
<p>Herodotus accommodates such creatures in the absence of better information, but at the very least he feels the need to explicitly confirm their place in the new world of critical inquiry. </p>
<p>A special category is reserved for the most startling aspects of the world. In the <em>Histories</em>, the concept of the wondrous (<em>thaumastos/thaumasios</em>) is applied to those aspects of the world which at first defy explanation and seem to fall outside the laws of nature. </p>
<p>A floating island is a wonder; lions who attack camels but no other creature in Xerxes’ entourage – another wonder; the complete absence of mules in Elis – again a wonder. Ultimately, many of the phenomena Herodotus considers wondrous ultimately have a rational explanation of cause and effect. Others turn out to be divinely inspired. </p>
<h2>Eternal themes of power, greed and fate</h2>
<p>Beyond the question of whether any (let alone all) of the Histories’ events occurred as Herodotus relates, his stories share a common humanity. The examples of all-too-human foibles and traits like overconfidence, greed and envy but also of fate, luck and fortune reverberate down the ages. Through these stories the <em>Histories</em> still speak to us, 2500 years later. </p>
<p>Traditionally, the <em>Histories</em> were dismissed as anecdotal. Herodotus was seen as lacking gravitas and not on par with Homer, Euripides, Thucydides, Cicero and their like. Consequently, the <em>Histories</em> were not considered central to the humanist canon. Over the last three decades, however, this has changed; Herodotus’ <em>Histories</em> are now widely regarded as a foundational text in the Western historiographic tradition. </p>
<p>Classical scholars have discovered that the work has a coherence after all. Unity between the digressions and the main narrative emerges on a level other than plot: by theme. Many stories in the <em>Histories</em> are case studies in the nature of power.</p>
<p>It is not Everyman who makes history in the <em>Histories</em>: the focus is squarely on those at the top of the game. Yet in most instances the rise to power is followed by a sudden and catastrophic fall. </p>
<p>The reasons are always similar: power leads to excess. Blindness to the limitations of human action incurs the downfall of mighty kings like Candaules, Croesus, Cambyses and Xerxes. The condition they suffer from – the Greek word is <em>hybris</em> – is depressingly modern and familiar.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/123173/original/image-20160519-30717-15cel05.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/123173/original/image-20160519-30717-15cel05.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/123173/original/image-20160519-30717-15cel05.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/123173/original/image-20160519-30717-15cel05.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/123173/original/image-20160519-30717-15cel05.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/123173/original/image-20160519-30717-15cel05.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/123173/original/image-20160519-30717-15cel05.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Jacques Louis David’s painting of the Spartan king Leonidas at Thermopylae - an event described by Herodotus.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The <em>Histories</em> are a compilation of stories packed into each other like nesting Russian dolls. Successive stories share with each other – and the larger historical narrative of which they are part – the same insights, themes and patterns. </p>
<p>Once you can read one, you can read them all. New insights emerge from the way individual stories play with the formula, highlighting different aspects of the theme.</p>
<p>As tales of the nature of human power, the “digressions” speak directly to Herodotus’ core theme: the rise and fall of all empires, in particular the Persian Empire and its spectacular defeat by the much smaller Greek contingents in the Persian Wars.</p>
<p>Yet the <em>Histories</em> are not merely a historical source for the Persian Wars. Herodotus dwells extensively on the pre-history of the conflict and touches on the cultural and ideological issues at stake. </p>
<p>All this is set on the broader stage of the ancient world and includes geographical references, climatic observations, flora and fauna as well as notes on differences in the customs and lifestyle of Greeks, Persians and other peoples. </p>
<p>Thanks to this broad focus, it is not hyperbole to say that, in a profound sense, the <em>Histories</em> are about the entire world as it came to be understood and mapped out towards the end of the fifth century BCE.</p>
<h2>Wonder and discovery</h2>
<p>The <em>Histories</em> stand at the transition from an older, mythical worldview – that of the heroic or archaic age as represented in Homeric epic – to a new, classical outlook that manifested in the exacting mode of enquiry into the workings of the world. </p>
<p>The name for this form of investigation – <em>historia</em> – did not yet mean “history” as we know it; it simply meant, in a general sense, “critical enquiry”. Herodotus occasionally mentions consulting written sources, but he does so mainly to distance himself, his method, and information from other authors, notably Homer and the poets. </p>
<p>The most subtle feature of the <em>Histories</em>, perhaps, is the profound sense of balance that pervades all aspects of the cosmos. In the world of Herodotus, any excess is ultimately corrected: what goes up must come down. This applies to individuals, to empires and to peoples. </p>
<p>The divine is central to Herodotus’ view of the world: the gods guarantee a perpetual historical cycle. This dynamic ensures that imbalances of power or greed – the too-much and the too-little – ultimately level each other out.</p>
<p>The traditional gods of the ancient Greek pantheon are still very much alive in the <em>Histories</em>. Yet in contrast to Homeric poetry, they no longer intervene directly in the world. They have receded to a transcendental distance from which they oversee and steer the workings of the world. </p>
<p>We may no longer share Herodotus’ view of the past, yet we delight in the richness of the world he sketched. Its stories, landscapes, characters, and insights into human nature linger long after the reading. What makes the work stand out above all is the <em>Histories</em>’ sense of wonder and discovery. Herodotus’ <em>Histories</em> remain a classic testament to the pleasures of researching and learning. </p>
<hr>
<p><em>All translations are from: Marincola, J. (1996) Herodotus: The Histories. Revised edition. London. Penguin Books.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/53748/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Julia Kindt does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Herodotus’ Histories has it all: tales of war, eyewitness travel writing, notes on flora and fauna and accounts of fantastic creatures such as winged snakes. His stories share a common humanity that speaks to us, 2500 years on.Julia Kindt, Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Classics and Ancient History, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/350892014-12-31T15:46:02Z2014-12-31T15:46:02ZAncient hangover cures to get you through the new year<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/66379/original/image-20141205-7252-6rqmgz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Should have stuck to white ...</span> </figcaption></figure><p>Slightly over-indulged in wine this festive season? Suffering from throbbing headache, dry mouth, and nausea after the office Christmas party? The hair of the dog somehow does not appeal? Are you looking for time-tested cures? Fear not: these Greek and Roman remedies to alleviate a hangover or prevent one will come in handy. </p>
<p>In the ancient understanding of the body, drunkenness, and attendant headache, nausea and dizziness, are caused by an imbalance in your humours. Excess wine will cause over-heating of your humours, and you must try to use cooling agents to feel better.</p>
<h2>Don’t be a barbarian</h2>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/66385/original/image-20141205-28151-zumzb8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/66385/original/image-20141205-28151-zumzb8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/66385/original/image-20141205-28151-zumzb8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/66385/original/image-20141205-28151-zumzb8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/66385/original/image-20141205-28151-zumzb8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/66385/original/image-20141205-28151-zumzb8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/66385/original/image-20141205-28151-zumzb8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Undiluted barbarism in ancient Scythia.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Dilute your wine with water – the water will temper the heating effect of the wine. The Greeks and Romans frowned upon anyone who drank their wine “neat”, as in their opinion, this showed clear lack of self-control. </p>
<p>“Barbarians”, and in particular the northern Scythians, had a bad reputation among the Greeks and Romans for their drinking of undiluted wine, a clear sign of their lack of civilisation. It is from Scythia, however, that came the wise man <a href="https://www.princeton.edu/%7Eachaney/tmve/wiki100k/docs/Anacharsis.html">Anacharsis</a> (sixth century BCE), who allegedly uttered the following pearl of wisdom: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>The vine bears three kinds of grapes: the first of pleasure, the next of intoxication, and the third of disgust. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Water in your wine will allow you to enjoy the first of these three grapes, without suffering from the poisoning effects of the two others.</p>
<h2>Women: stick to white</h2>
<p>Try to drink white wine rather than red wine. Wine is, according to the ancients, haemopoietic – it creates blood. The ancients did not know that blood circulates in the body; instead they thought food and drink were transformed into blood in the liver, whence it was distributed to the other organs, which used that blood up to perform functions such as breathing.</p>
<p>Haemopoietic products such as wine are of course useful, but should be consumed carefully, as excess blood leads to all sorts of dangerous ailments. Red wine, because it is closer to blood in appearance, is more haemopoietic than white wine, and therefore more likely to make you feel unwell when over-consumed. </p>
<p>This is particularly relevant if you are female, as according to the ancients, you are then less able to process food into blood (which <a href="https://theconversation.com/four-weird-ideas-people-used-to-have-about-womens-periods-30623">explains your need to menstruate</a>).</p>
<h2>Wear flowers in your hair</h2>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/66381/original/image-20141205-7252-1q8xkg9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/66381/original/image-20141205-7252-1q8xkg9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=687&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/66381/original/image-20141205-7252-1q8xkg9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=687&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/66381/original/image-20141205-7252-1q8xkg9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=687&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/66381/original/image-20141205-7252-1q8xkg9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=863&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/66381/original/image-20141205-7252-1q8xkg9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=863&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/66381/original/image-20141205-7252-1q8xkg9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=863&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Nailed it.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Emulate the example of your teenager daughter (niece, granddaughter, neighbour) at the latest festival and wear a wreath of ivy or flowers while drinking. The smell of flowers such as roses or myrtle will cool down your bad humours and relieve any headache. But try to avoid flowers with a heavy scent such a lilies. </p>
<p>Believe it or not, Greek and Roman physicians devoted entire treatises to the topic of curative wreaths. Unfortunately, these works are now lost, save for short extracts. I am not certain whether the wreath you have hung on your door for Christmas will serve this healing purpose. </p>
<h2>Sour humour</h2>
<p>Drink vinegar, perhaps with the addition of some herbs or flowers: the soured wine will counteract the wine that has already soured in your belly. </p>
<p>If you can’t stomach the vinegar you have drunk, you will be purged, which was considered a positive outcome in ancient medicine. Indeed, getting rid of bad humours is as good an effect as any.</p>
<h2>Activate your almonds</h2>
<p>Eat five almonds before drinking, as according to the great pharmacologist <a href="http://penelope.uchicago.edu/%7Egrout/encyclopaedia_romana/aconite/materiamedica.html">Dioscorides</a> (first century CE), this will prevent drunkenness. It can’t hurt and chances are you will have received a festive pack of nuts from your great aunt. </p>
<h2>Make friends with cabbage</h2>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/66383/original/image-20141205-28151-hacc8r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/66383/original/image-20141205-28151-hacc8r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/66383/original/image-20141205-28151-hacc8r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/66383/original/image-20141205-28151-hacc8r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/66383/original/image-20141205-28151-hacc8r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/66383/original/image-20141205-28151-hacc8r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/66383/original/image-20141205-28151-hacc8r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/66383/original/image-20141205-28151-hacc8r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Pass the Berocca.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symposium#mediaviewer/File:Nationalmuseet_-_Cophenaghen_-_brygos_vomiting1.jpg">Bolo77</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Put your Brussels sprouts and other cabbage to good use. The Greeks and Romans believed that the vine and the cabbage were natural enemies. They thought the vine had the capacity to perceive the smell of cabbage and refused to grow properly in the vicinity of the pungent vegetable. By extension, cabbage will counteract an excess of wine in your belly. Raw cabbage may work better than cooked.</p>
<h2>Read the classics</h2>
<p>Follow the wise advice of the author Vindanius Anatolius of Beirut (fourth century CE) and discuss ancient history to sober up. You will find sobering examples in stories such as that of the demise of <a href="http://classics.mit.edu/Plutarch/cleomene.html">Cleomenes</a>, king of Sparta, who became mad because of his habit of drinking neat wine. </p>
<p>Alternatively, concentrating on retelling or listening to ancient stories will distract you from incipient drunkenness. Or perhaps this will send you to sleep, which, all things considered, is probably no bad thing.</p>
<p><em>Although the remedies outlined here are relatively safe, the author does not recommend their use and declines all responsibility.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/35089/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Laurence Totelin received funding from the Wellcome Trust.</span></em></p>The Greeks and Romans were fond of overindulging. They had a variety of hangover cures ranging from almonds to flower wreaths.Laurence Totelin, Senior Lecturer in Ancient History, Cardiff UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/256122014-05-01T15:31:42Z2014-05-01T15:31:42ZThe ancient Greek riddle that helps us understand modern disease threats<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/46349/original/9gc32pdb-1397459580.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/46349/original/9gc32pdb-1397459580.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/46349/original/9gc32pdb-1397459580.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/46349/original/9gc32pdb-1397459580.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/46349/original/9gc32pdb-1397459580.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/46349/original/9gc32pdb-1397459580.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/46349/original/9gc32pdb-1397459580.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Finding an Achilles’ heel.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Γιάννης Ζήσης</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Even in the face of death, Zeno of Elea knew how to frustrate people. Arrested for plotting against the tyrant Demylus, the ancient Greek philosopher refused to co-operate. The story goes that, rather than talk, he bit off his own tongue and spat it at his captor.</p>
<p>Zeno spent his life exasperating others. Prior to his demise, he had a reputation for creating baffling puzzles. He conjured up a series of apparently contradictory situations known as Zeno’s Paradoxes, which have inspired centuries of debate among philosophers and mathematicians. Now the ideas are helping researchers tackle a far more dangerous problem.</p>
<h2>Never-ending race</h2>
<p>The most famous of Zeno’s riddles is “Achilles and the tortoise”. Trojan war hero Achilles lines up for a long-distance race against a tortoise (who presumably is still gloating after beating Aesop’s hare). In the interests of fairness, Achilles gives the tortoise a head start – let’s say of one mile. When the race starts, Achilles soon reaches the tortoise’s starting position. However, in the time it takes him to arrive at this point, the tortoise has lumbered forward, perhaps by one tenth of a mile. Achilles quickly covers this ground, but the tortoise has again moved on.</p>
<p>Zeno argued that because the tortoise is always ahead by the time Achilles arrives at its previous position, the hero will never catch up. While the total distance Achilles has to run decreases each time, there are an infinite number of gaps to cover:</p>
<p><em>1 + 1/10 + 1/100 + 1/1000 + …</em></p>
<p>And according to Zeno, “It is impossible to traverse an infinite number of things in a finite time.”</p>
<p>It wasn’t until the 19th Century that mathematicians proved Zeno wrong. As the distance between Achilles and the tortoise gets smaller and smaller, Achilles makes up ground faster and faster. In fact, the distance eventually becomes infinitesimally small – so small that Achilles runs it instantly. As a result, he catches up with the tortoise, and overtakes him.</p>
<p>At what point does Achilles reach the tortoise? Thanks to the work of 19th Century mathematicians such as Karl Weierstrass, there is a <a href="http://mathworld.wolfram.com/GeometricSeries.html">neat rule for this</a>. For any number n between 0 and 1,</p>
<p><em>1 + n + n<sup>2</sup> + n<sup>3</sup> + … = 1/(1-n)</em></p>
<p>In Zeno’s problem n=1/10, which means that Achilles will catch the tortoise after 1.11 miles or so.</p>
<p>This result might seem like no more than a historical curiosity – a clever solution to an ancient puzzle. But the idea is still very much relevant today. Rather than using it to study a race between a runner and a reptile, mathematicians are now putting it to work in the fight against diseases.</p>
<p>Since Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) was first reported in September 2012, <a href="http://epidemic.bio.ed.ac.uk/coronavirus_background">over 400 cases have appeared around the globe</a>. Some outbreaks consist of a single person, infected by an external, but often unknown, source. On other occasions there is a cluster of infected people who had contact with each other.</p>
<p>One way to measure disease transmission is with the reproduction number, denoted R. This is the average number of secondary cases generated by a typical infectious person. <a href="https://theconversation.com/down-in-one-simple-maths-shows-neknomination-cant-last-22860">If R is greater than one</a>, each infectious person will produce at least one secondary case, and the infection could cause a major epidemic. If R is less than one, the outbreak will eventually fade away.</p>
<p>Even if the infection has so far failed to cause an epidemic, it is still important to know what the reproduction number is. The closer the virus is to that crucial threshold of one, the smaller the hurdle it needs to overcome to spread efficiently.</p>
<p>Using the reproduction number, we can estimate what might happen when a new infection enters a human population. On average, the initial case will generate R secondary cases. These R infections will then generate R more, which means R<sup>2</sup> new cases, and so on. </p>
<p>If R is less than one, this will create a pattern just like Achilles and the tortoise. So if we know what the reproduction number is, we can use the same formula to work out how large an outbreak will be on average:</p>
<p><em>Average size of an outbreak = 1 + R + R<sup>2</sup> + R<sup>3</sup> + … = 1/(1-R)</em></p>
<p>The problem is that we don’t know the reproduction number for MERS. Fortunately, we do know how many cases have been reported in each outbreak. Which means to estimate the reproduction number (assuming that it is below 1), we just have to flip the equation around:</p>
<p><em>R = 1 - 1/(average size)</em></p>
<p>In the <a href="http://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099%2813%2970304-9/abstract">first year of reported MERS cases</a>, disease clusters ranged from a single case to a group of more than 20 people, with an average outbreak size of 2.7 cases. According to the above back-of-the-envelope calculation, the reproduction number could therefore have been around 0.6.</p>
<p>In contrast, there were <a href="http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1304617">only two reported clusters of cases</a> in Shanghai during the outbreaks of avian influenza H7N9 in spring 2013. The average outbreak size was therefore 1.1 cases, which gives an estimated reproduction number of 0.1 – much smaller than that for MERS.</p>
<p>Although techniques like these only provide very rough estimates, they give researchers a way to assess disease risk without detailed datasets. Such methods are especially valuable during an outbreak. From avian influenza to MERS, information is at a premium when faced with infections that, much like Zeno, do not give up their secrets easily.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/25612/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
Even in the face of death, Zeno of Elea knew how to frustrate people. Arrested for plotting against the tyrant Demylus, the ancient Greek philosopher refused to co-operate. The story goes that, rather…Adam Kucharski, Research Fellow in Mathematical Epidemiology, London School of Hygiene & Tropical MedicineLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.