Letter from the Editor, Daisy Dunn
This November, Troy will come to London in the shape of the British Museum’s autumn blockbuster, TROY: Myth and Reality. Treasures excavated by the controversial Prussian businessman Heinrich Schliemann at the site of Hisarlık will be on show in this country for the first time since 1881. The exhibition is sure to be a box-office hit.
One of its curators, Victoria Donnellan, describes on pages 13–15 of this issue what we can expect from the display. I’m envisaging already a splendid contrast between the brutality of the Trojan War and the beauty of the woman at its centre. Helen, who graces our cover, has mesmerized artists and writers down the centuries, as the exhibition will demonstrate. Her appeal, much like Homer’s, lies partly in her enigma. Just what did the most beautiful woman look like? What did it take to bring the Trojans to their knees? (Continue reading)
ANCIENT
Armand D’Angour identifies the woman who taught Socrates about love
Jingyi Jenny Zhao asks whether Aristotle and Xunzi had more in common than meets the eye
Susan Woodford on the significance of a striking image to the Trojan story
Victoria Donnellan on Troy: Myth or Reality at the British Museum
Daisy Dunn & Angie Hobbs on writing ‘Ladybird Expert’ books on Homer and Plato
TRAVEL
Justin Muchnick on the Marathon tumulus and a Proto-Attic vase in Eleusis
David Green on the island the Durrells called home
MODERN
Leo Kanaris on the inspiration for his crime novels set in Greece
Bob Doran talks to artist Wynn Jones about his obsession with the Oresteia
Roderick Beaton explains why Greece is a suitable subject for a biography
Emma Woolerton on the JACT Greek Summer School
Caroline Mackenzie on the Summer School in Homer
BOOKS
Chris Tudor on Jonathan Bate, How the Classics made Shakespeare
Paul Cartledge on Edith Hall (ed.), New Light on Tony Harrison
Alice Dunn on Victoria Hislop, Those Who Are Loved
Paul Watkins reports on the 2019 Runciman Award
