Calendar
Fascinating Mummies
National Museum Scotland, Edinburgh
Ends 27th May 2012
The Ancient Egyptian belief in the afterlife and their desire to preserve the body after death has left a rich legacy for archaeologists and scientists to study. Fascinating Mummies reveals people from the past who lived, worked and died over 2,000 years ago.
The sculptures of the Parthenon
The British Museum, London
13.15, May 16th, 2012
A gallery talk by Susan Woodford.
Alexander the Great and the conquest of Egypt
The British Museum, London
13.15, May 26th, 2012
A gallery talk by George Hart.
Young Friends’ From Olympia to London!
The British Museum, London
14.00 – 19.00, May 12th, 2012
Discover if the modern Games have changed over 3,000 years on this fun-filled afternoon. Explore stories of ancient Greece. Be victorious and bring home a gold medal or laurel wreath. Uncover more about the power and glory of the ancient athletes through craft, storytelling and much more.
Antigone by Sophocles
A translation by Don Taylor
The National, Olivier Theatre, London
May 23rd to June 20th, 2012
Desperate to gain control over a city ravaged by civil war, Creon refuses to bury the body of Antigone’s rebellious brother. Outraged, she defies his edict. Creon condemns the young woman, his niece, to be buried alive. Starring Christopher Eccleston and Jodie Whittaker
Glanert’s Caligula
ENO
May 25th to June 14th, 2012
When his adored sister’s death awakes him to a realisation of life’s essential absurdity, the Roman emperor Caligula embarks upon an orgy of sexual depravity and sadistic cruelty in an apparently insane attempt to free himself from the shackles of mortality and morality.
Based upon Albert Camus’s existentialist response to the rise of Hitler and Stalin, but as topical as ever in the era of Saddam Hussein and Colonel Gaddafi, Detlev Glanert’s 2006 opera – ‘perhaps the finest German opera of the 21st century’ (Tempo) – offers a disturbing insight into the self-destructive logic driving a decadent and dangerous dictatorship.
Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar
Royal Shakespeare Theatre
May 28th to July 7th, 2012
The dictator must be assassinated. But who will replace him? Shakespeare’s great political thriller, Julius Caesar, finds dark, contemporary echoes in modern Africa, directed by RSC Chief Associate Director Gregory Doran.
The Odyssey
Teatro Vivo at The Albany
7th to 25th June, 2012
Telemachus has invited you to join him at his Father’s house. Only his war hero Father is not there, he’s been missing for the last ten years. Desperate to discover the truth, Telemachus asks you, the audience, to go on your own Odyssey and bring back news of wily Odysseus. On your journey you may come across gods and goddesses, nymphs and monster, death and desire when an everyday high street becomes the back drop to some bizarre and brilliant stories. Expect a journey into the unknown, dress for the weather and let the adventure begin…
Teatro Vivo specialise in collaborating with public spaces to tell classic stories to new audiences.
Philosophy for Life: And other dangerous situations
By Jules Evans
In his engaging book, Jules Evans explains how ancient philosophy saved his life, and how we can all use it to become happier, wiser and more resilient. Jules imagines a dream school, which includes 12 of the greatest and most colourful thinkers the world has ever known. Each of these ancient philosophers teaches a technique we can use to transform our selves and live better lives.
May 2012
The Oxford Classical Dictionary, Fourth Edition
Edited by Simon Hornblower and Antony Spawforth
The latest comprehensive one-volume Classics dictionary. Existing entries have been revised and updated, including Archimedes, Lucian and Aristotle. Numerous new entries such as Andania, Latin anthologies, Jewish art, sacred and cultic books, emotions, gender, Hellenistic philosophy, literary theory and the Classics.
March 2012
The Song of Achilles
By Madeline Miller
Greece in the age of Heroes. Patroclus, an awkward young prince, has been exiled to the kingdom of Phthia. Here he is nobody, just another unwanted boy living in the shadow of King Peleus and his golden son, Achilles.Achilles, ‘best of all the Greeks’, is everything Patroclus is not – strong, beautiful, the child of a goddess – and by all rights their paths should never cross. Yet one day, Achilles takes the shamed prince under his wing and soon their tentative companionship gives way to a steadfast friendship. As they grow into young men skilled in the arts of war and medicine, their bond blossoms into something far deeper.
Paperback out in April 2012
Both still on iPlayer:
Meet the Romans with Mary Beard
BBC 2, 9pm, 17/24 April, 1 May
Divine Women with Bettany Hughes
BBC 2, 9pm, 11/18/25 April.
