Letter from the Editor, Daisy Dunn
This year marks the 2500th anniversary of the Battle of Plataea. Fought between the Persian Empire and Hellenic forces led by Athens and Sparta, it was the decisive conflict of the Graeco-Persian Wars, described by Herodotus as ‘the finest of all the victories that we know’ – for the Greeks, that was. 2022 is also the bicentenary year of the Massacre of Chios, the tragedy that obliterated that island’s society through the killing and enslavement of the majority of its population. (Continue reading)
Contents
ANCIENT
JIM IRVINE describes the thrilling moment he made the discovery of a lifetime
JOHN THOMAS, JENNIFER BROWNING AND JANE MASSÉGLIA on the significance and likely origins of the astonishing Trojan War Mosaic in Roman Rutland
JOHN DAVIE says that ageing wasn’t always the hurdle it appeared in ancient Greece
LAURENCE TOTELIN explains why, in an era before formula, the issue was not what, but who fed the baby
PAUL CARTLEDGE on the significance of the Battle of Plataea
JOSH BEER detects the influence of the plague of Athens on Euripides’ Hippolytus
PHILIPPA JOSEPH re-examines the glorious Riace Bronzes and carries out some sleuthing into their possible origins
JAN PARKER offers a provocation to the way we read texts in other languages
THEA SOMMERSCHIELD on how an extraordinary new technology has been trained to restore missing parts of ancient Greek inscriptions
SOCIETY
FIONA HAARER discovers that debate could become quite fiery at the early General Meetings
HELLENIC SOCIETY NEWS HIGHLIGHTS
MODERN
RICHARD CALVOCORESSI describes his own family’s experience of the tragedy that occurred 200 years ago
DIMITRIS PLANTZOS is surprised by how little popular conceptions of Greece have changed since the 1960s
ALICE DUNN on Athens’s ‘heist of the century’
STELLA SEVASTOPOULOS reflects on a fruitful artist’s residency in Athens
ANDREW WHIFFIN directs the New College Greek Play in Oxford in memory of the late David Raeburn
CLEMENTINE SCOTT reviews the above play
JOHN BENNET reflects on seven years as Director of the BSA
REVIEWS
PAUL WATKINS on The London Hellenic Book Prize 2022 & The Runciman Award 2022
PAUL MILLETT is intrigued by a genre-defying work inspired by Theophrastus’ Characters
PAUL CARTLEDGE revels in the adventures of Jason and his crew – as penned by a sometime Black Sea oarsman
STAVRINI IOANNIDOU is delighted that one of Greece’s most interesting authors is being recognised in English
J. W. BONNER finds a short book that rewards close-reading
SOFKA ZINOVIEFF is enchanted by a profound Greek classic given a new lease of life in translation
