Earlier in the term, our Head of Department, Prof. Christos Kremmydas, had an opportunity to re-connect with one of the class of 2016 Classics Dept graduates, Ashlie Leal. Following on from that, he asked her to send us a brief update of what she has been up to since graduating nearly a decade ago! It is fascinating (and inspiring) to see the range of careers that our alumnae and alumni have pursued. Ashlie is already making a difference in the world!

“My name is Ashlie Leal. I studied Classical Studies between 2012 and 2016. Since leaving Royal Holloway, I have pursued a career in healthcare technology. I have been fortunate enough to work at the cutting edge of Spatial Computing, specialising in applying Virtual Reality (VR) technology for Surgical Education around the world. One of the highlights of my career to date has been contributing to the creation of a VR simulation program for the first ever FDA approved gene therapy - for which I even got to observe the procedure in the operating room, an experience I will never forget.

When I enrolled at Royal Holloway for a Classical Studies degree in 2012 I had no idea of the job opportunities that would await me after completing my degree, indeed a career in the healthcare technology sector was not something that had even crossed my mind. My education at Royal Holloway instilled in me a thirst for knowledge and taught me to be analytical, resourceful and curious, skills that have aided me enormously in my career to date. I am now a Vice President of my company and continue to work in the healthcare technology sector primarily in the USA, where I focus on creating training and education technology for innovative medical devices and pharmaceuticals - from surgical robotics to stem cell therapies.”

A few months ago, Prof. Lene Rubinstein had the opportunity to give lectures at prestigious conferences in China. She writes about her experience and the way in which Classics may help encourage constructive dialogue between different cultures.

“In 2023, the Classics Department had the privilege of welcoming Dr Mengzhen Yue, who joined us as a British Academy Visiting Fellow. Her project focusses on the reception and translation of Aristotle's Rhetoric in 20th century China, adding a new and important global dimension to the research environment of the department and to the activities and reach of our Centre for Oratory and Rhetoric. It has also provided an opportunity for the department to forge connections with the large, and growing, community of Classicists in China.

In July 2024, I had the privilege of attending the Tenth Nishan Forum on World Civilizations in Qufu, contributing a keynote speech on Aristotle's Rhetoric as part of our global heritage and on its continued relevance in our present turbulent world. This is a world in which we – as individuals, as communities and as nations – depend more than ever on effective communication as a way of fostering mutual understanding across cultural and linguistic boundaries. Over the past two millennia, the translations and adaptations of Aristotle's Rhetoric in the Near East, North Africa and East Asia have demonstrated its enduring relevance and potential on a global scale.

 
Since August 2024, the department's engagement with the Chinese community of classicists has been strengthened further. Dr Yue has taken up a two-year UK Research and Innovation/Marie Skolodowska-Curie Actions Fellowship, with a project entitled Constructing the 'Barbarian Other' in Attic Oratory of the Fourth Century B.C.E., and with the further objective of forging and promoting connections between classicists in China and in the West.
 
In November 2024, I was invited by the University of Shandong to represent us at the Classics World Congress in Beijing, which was an overwhelming, positive experience. This summer Dr Yue launches a series of on-line seminars on the Greek rhetorical tradition under the auspices of our Centre for Oratory and Rhetoric and of the International Society for the History of Rhetoric. It is our hope that these contributions to the dialogue between Chinese and Western scholars in the fields of Classics and Rhetoric may eventually contribute to the shaping of positive and constructive dialogues between our civilisations.”

"Starting out a new job, always comes with new challenges: getting adjusted to a new timetable, to a different university and department, getting all the teaching materials in order before class, etc.... As the new Language Tutors at Royal Holloway we were excited to realise how much prominence and support language acquisition has in the Department of Classics, and how invested the students are, even when faced with, for instance, the daunting squiggles of the Greek, or the sequence of tenses in Latin.

At the beginning of the academic year, being both new to the role of Language Tutor in the department, we had to find our own footing with it. As a Greek and an Italian, respectively, we come from similar linguistic backgrounds and from countries with a very traditional understanding of language teaching and acquisition, and it has been refreshing to experience the enthusiasm of students who actively choose to pursue an ancient language and are clearly keen to explore the ancient world, in all its fields from archaeology to philology. We found ourselves very eager to provide them with the tools to start their own journey, which, we hope, will be as intriguing as it has been for us, back in our dinosaurs-days.

Sharing an office and collaborating closely has been another bonus, as this has allowed us to prepare classes together, reflect on pedagogical issues, and find new ways to make some grammar topics, if not pleasant, at least more palatable for our students. Not to mention the necessary, but welcome, stream of coffee and chocolate that all our hard work comes with – one of perks of this job!

A second perk is that of adapting our own favourite texts, from Latin poetry and Greek drama (our respective fields of interest), for translation practice. Students are always very receptive and curious about what we actually like to read in these ancient languages.

Engaging with a multicultural student body, we both found extremely rewarding to experience the ‘light-bulb’ moment of understanding what a subjunctive is and does across Greek, Latin – and English. For grammar nerds like us, talking all day about morphology and syntax is a dream come true. But the real treat (and thrill!) is in the classroom, witnessing our students’ progressive milestones: from a basic understanding of ancient grammar terminology to communicating in jargon and eventually reading competently ancient texts, in the course of just a term."

"One morning while I was getting a quick coffee at the Boilerhouse before my 10 am lecture, I happened to bump into (not literally) Dr. Efi Spentzou. We were having a brief catch up while waiting for our drinks since the last time we had properly spoken was last year when I was taking her modules! We were talking about how I had been getting along this year, what modules I was doing, the assignments I had, and so forth. The highlight of the conversation was definitely about the creative assignments I’ve done over the past two years.

It all started with an assignment for Efi’s “Power and the Individual I Ovid’s Metamorphoses” which I took in my second year where the task was to give a character from the epic a louder voice. I chose to write about Galatea, Pygmalion’s statue turned wife (which, yes, is as bad as it sounds), intrigued by the fact that, throughout Ovid’s version of the myth, she is not once given an opportunity to speak. This creative writing task opened my eyes to many different views on not just the myth I chose to re-write, but also on Ovid’s Metamorphoses as a whole. On top of that, this assignment was also one of the moments where I truly came to realise how much I love studying literature and also writing it myself. 

Another assignment that had my brain buzzing with ideas was in Dr. Richard Hawley’s module, “Of Masks and Voices: Gender and Performance in Ancient Greece”. For this assignment, we were expected to write a creative reconstruction as if it were written by a woman living in 5^th Century BCE Athens. There were certainly both pros and cons to this; while I greatly enjoyed building my own character and laying out a story for them, the research behind this was especially taxing and there was only a certain amount of creative freedom that could be exercised, to keep in line with what an Athenian woman could do. It would surprise you how difficult it was to even simply pick a name for my character and then support it with some form of evidence proving that it was used for women in ancient Athens! 

However, having said this, I must admit I find myself looking forward to my next creative writing task which involves writing a poem based on the Ancient Greek lyric poet Semonides’ ‘Types of Women’ poem, but making the subject of the poem to be men. I am quite curious as to how that will play out...

Overall, I’ve really enjoyed these creative writing assignments so far as they have given me the choice to cast my own perspective on the texts and topics we have studied. At the same time, they’ve provided an altogether new experience of coursework; a refreshing break from the typical essay questions! So, if you haven’t already tried a creative writing task, whether for coursework, or even for fun, I’d definitely recommend it!"

"As my first assignment for my “Of Masks and Voices: Gender and Performance in Ancient Greece” class this year, I wrote a creative reconstruction, imagining the life of a girl from birth to death, living in 5th c. BCE Athens. As I wrote this piece, I got to know Korina intimately, from her feverish childhood in which she danced the line between the living and the land of Persephone (her namesake), to her involvement in the Panathenaia, to her first baby, and the loss of her second. This girl, although my own creation, has existed many times throughout Athenian history, and women still share her experiences today. She is an archetype of womanhood, aspects of which will be encompassed in the lives of all, whether ancient or contemporary. 

When my close friend and fellow classicist suggested to me, then, that we apply for the Normanby Fund, a grant provided by the Dilettanti Society, for Classics undergraduates to travel to ancient sites, I felt sure that our focus should follow in the footsteps of this assignment that resonated with me so deeply. And so we chose the title “Womanhood and Religion in Classical Athens: A Lived Reconstruction”. Our idea is to dedicate a day to each period of a 5th century Athenian woman's life, inspired by how I split my creative reconstruction into four sections; four days of the trip will then cover the life of an Athenian woman, focussing on her religious involvement, with the fifth day exploring links to her later life in Athenian art, cultural heritage, and life.

On day one, we will explore infancy and childhood, sourcing artefacts such as ceramic children’s toys dedicated to Artemis by young girls before their marriages, and visiting Brauron to explore the festival of the goddess Artemis, focusing specifically on the Arkteia, a ritual in which young girls aged 10-14, “played the bear”, as a rite of passage into adulthood. On day two, we will walk the Panathenaic way, from the Kerameikos, to the Agora, to the Acropolis, in tribute to the teenage girls that would have taken part in the weaving of the peplos for the goddess Athene as part of the ergastinai, and then performed as kanephoroi, carrying baskets of figs in the Panathenaic procession. Day three will take us to Elefsis, where we will visit the site of the Eleusinian Mystery Cult, dedicated to Demeter and Persephone which welcomed (Greek- speaking) men, women, and slaves (as long as they had not been convicted of homicide). This inclusive yet elusive cult would have been a significant part of the lives of many 5th century Athenian women, as a cult that not only welcomes women but celebrates them, and acknowledges the unique relationship between mother and daughter. Day four shall be spent in the Kerameikos, taking a close look at death and burial and funeral rites, and we will be able to get a keen sense of how the lives of these ancient women ended; how they were honoured; and how much they were valued within the city they spent their lives in.

On day five, we will attempt to follow Athenian women forward through the ages, from antiquity to the present. We will visit the caryatids in the Acropolis Museum, the famous female priestesses (whose statues are) embroiled in a contemporary dispute about cultural heritage between Britain and Greece; an indication of how female bodies, whether flesh or stone, are politicised in the modern day. In the nearby National Gallery and Benaki Museum we will sample statues and paintings of Greek women of later centuries, seeking to find traces of the Classical woman whose lived experiences we spent a week reproducing. Through our tour of contemporary art in Athens, we are also keen to explore whether and when Classical women succumb to aestheticism in artistic tradition, and become a paradigm of something more ancient and unattainable, an artistic display of femininity of past times. Our last evening in Athens is set to be filled with exciting discussion and debate.

To have this opportunity to recreate some experiences of the life of a young woman from ancient Athens on this pilgrimage through time with a friend and woman with whom I have shared a lifelong bond through the Classics, would be as close to walking in Korina’s shoes as I could possibly hope to get – and I can’t wait!"

"Starting a new job always conjures up a real range of emotions. One of the most exciting parts, in my experience, is opening the door into a new office for the very first time. After all, this the place where I will be spending a good chunk of my working life over the coming years: preparing lectures, meeting with students, and plotting my next big research project. I am happy to report that my new office at Royal Holloway is bright, spacious, warm, and quiet — precisely what I had been hoping for. 

The office’s previous incumbents have been extremely generous in leaving me a fantastically rich collection of books and journals to use for teaching and research. This means that I only need to swivel around in my chair if I want to read about Roman mythological sarcophagi, Etruscan visual culture or elaborate fashion hairstyles in the Roman world, among many other exciting things. 

Still, the items that most grabbed my attention were actually not books or journals at all. I was most drawn to a pair of varnished wooden boxes sitting on the bookshelves, which have obviously been knocking around the department for quite some time. The boxes themselves are nice to look at, but it was the objects inside that really piqued my interest. 

Opening the boxes, I was confronted with several hundred plaster impressions of engraved gems, many of them beautifully decorated with scenes taken from ‘classical’ mythology — like this example showing Hephaistos wielding his hammer and towering over a snake-legged giant.

We know that engraved gems were important personal items during Graeco-Roman antiquity, being made from expensive semi-precious stones sourced from across the known world. The gems usually had depictions cut into the stone, which could then be countersunk to produce a relief image when used as seal in clay, plaster or wax. What we have in the department, then, is a modern collection of gem impressions created by sinking the original engraved stones into plaster.

For somebody very interested in ancient art, many of the figures and subjects  represented on the gem impressions were immediately recognisable. At the same time, though, I could tell that many of the mythological scenes are very different from those that we tend to encounter in ancient Greek and Roman visual culture. Take, for example, the impression showing Zeus appearing from a blazing ball of fire during his abduction of the nymph Aegina, accompanied by his signature eagle.

I know of very few ancient artworks that depict this sad story — and none that configure it in this ‘scorching’ way. 

With an hour or two of detective work, I was able to crack the case. Our collection of impressions was produced not from ancient engraved gems, but rather from a modern gem collection commissioned by a Polish nobleman named Stanislas Poniatowski, who lived between 1754 and 1833. Poniatowski was an interesting character. He commissioned around 2,500 brand-new gems inspired by ancient texts, but was very keen to encourage the belief that they were in fact ancient. Interest in these gems waned after their modern origins were exposed in the 1830s, but more recently they have come to be appreciated by gem specialists as beautiful and important objects in their own right. How exactly so many impressions of these gems ended up at Royal Holloway is something I remain very curious about.

My investigation of the gem impressions has been just one part of a voyage of discovery since starting at the department in December, and I feel fortunate that colleagues and students have made me feel so welcome. Like the specialists now fascinated by the Poniatowski gems, I am very excited to embrace new things!"

“The Athens trip provided me with some really great experiences. From walking around the ancient streets, to being able to identify types of materials, their sources and traditional uses. It was much easier understanding and finally being able to piece together all of the information and geography of the city that I had been learning over the past three years of Archaeology modules. It was very beneficial being able to walk around with Jari and ask questions in a much more hands on approach to Archaeology lectures! 

Not only did the Athens trip give me some great academic experience, but the city as a whole was beautiful and i definitely made some core memories. I was able to get to know more of my classmates better than I would in a classroom setting and what better place for twelve classicists to do so! 

My favourite memory for the trip was definitely sitting with my friends atop the Pnyx at sunset. The view was amazing, but the Acropolis in the background lit up by the orange glow of the sunset is truly something i will remember for the rest of my life.”

During my second year I came to learn about an opportunity to study abroad that was offered by the university; this means that once I graduate this year I will have a degree in Classical Studies with and International Year, combining my love for the Classics with my adoration of different cultures and experiences. Out of all the choices I could have taken, I chose to study abroad in the United States, specifically at Boston College, located just outside central Boston, in the quiet and classically American town of Chestnut Hill. Over the course of the year, I took a variety of classes, most of which were not related to the degree course that I study back at Royal Holloway, Classical Studies. In fact, most of the courses I studied while in the states were centred around Political Science and Economics. Studying these courses opened my eyes to the complexities of national economies and international politics.

In my first semester in Boston, I studied a module called International Finance, which turned out to be an advanced course; although I think it may have taken a couple years off my life, I found it tremendously interesting and eye-opening: seeing how complex economies work and understanding why certain things affect monetary and economic policy. In conjunction to this module, I also took another one called Aspects of Economic Growth. In my second semester, I decided to take more modules surrounding political science and economics; after my first semester where I discovered my passion for understanding how certain choices affect world economies, I wished to continue this study and delve deeper into the theories that try to explain our modern societies. So, I chose: Alliance Politics, Macroeconomics, Political Behaviour and Participation. These modules really kicked my love for the fields into overdrive, particularly political science.

Alliance Politics, another advanced course, studied how Alliances are formed and maintained, as well as the diverse types of alliances that exist; it used case studies and real-life examples to help craft a module which gave a comprehensive view of alliances and their importance to geopolitical relationships. Political Behaviour and Participation, as the name implies, was a course that concentrated on how people vote and why people vote a certain way with a substantial portion of it focusing on the psychology of people voting. This study culminated in me authoring an essay on economic inequality and its relation to the rise in populism.

The particular subjects I studied while in Boston really invigorated my love for Classics, and specifically the economic and political side of Classics, that I had never really thought about before. Now in my fourth and last year in the Classics department at Royal Holloway, I have elected modules centred around the very concepts I studied while abroad. As a result, I am enjoying my last undergraduate year a great deal and I am learning a lot, especially at the Social and Economic History of Rome, a very interactive, ‘hands-on’ module taught by Richard Alston. Furthermore, it was my engagement with international finance in my Year Abroad that fuelled my interest in writing my dissertation on Roman Trade in the East of the Empire.

Studying abroad for a year really opened my eyes to a whole raft of other courses and programs that I now know I have potential in; so I recently applied to King’s College London for a Masters in Government Studies, a course which is taught in conjunction with the British government and one which, I am happy to say, I was given an offer to join. Studying abroad really helped me shape and give direction to the future, my graduate plans as well as possible career choices. My advice to anyone thinking about studying abroad would be: go for it, it is not a decision you will regret in any shape or form.

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“Very many thanks are due to our Classics Society who provided a home to Kill or Spare? Or, How to End a War, a Myth and Voice workshop devised and delivered during the third week of term by Linnie Serstobojeva, third year Classical Studies student. As Myth and Voice student intern, Linnie has worked with patience and focus to draft materials, organise student groups for feedback, and finalise the activities.

The two-hour workshop was loosely based on the ancient myth of Trojan Aeneas and put the war in Italy (i.e. Book 7-12 of Virgil’s Roman epic, the Aeneid) at centre stage. Our participants in small groups undertook advocacy for a character of their choice. A deep curiosity for sidelined or voiceless figures emerged, as the small groups tried to get into the shoes of individuals and communities affected by the conflict. Our participants tried twice to stop the war: once just before its outbreak and once deliberating the ethics of killing an injured man, thus modelling possible different endings to the epic’s (in)famous last scene.

I was deeply impressed by their enduring commitment to reach a solution. There were passionate views in the room; extensive discussion as to who should get a place round the table of negotiations; deep concern about any voices in danger of being excluded. But, as the rounds of negotiations progressed and the delegates persisted in their search for peace, they were also drawn into a growing respect for each other’s fictional characters, a respect directly corresponding also to their visibly relaxing in one another’s presence and to their growing pleasure at being part of this immersive storytelling.

Thank you, Linnie, for such thoughtfully prepared workshop – and for this fulfilling experience!”

‘My first few weeks of teaching at Royal Holloway have circulated in various ways around the notion of ‘home’. On the darker and more disconcerting end, our second-year Greek drama class has been exploring the centrality of the oikos in Aeschylus’ Oresteia, thinking about how the Argive home of Agamemnon is both site and symptom of the various transgressions committed across the tragic trilogy. On a more cheerful note, though admittedly no less bloody (we’re talking about Greek myth, after all), our first-year Greek Literature students have had their sweeping introduction to Homer’s Odyssey. Amidst the epic’s celebration of nostos fulfilled and a family reunited, the poem speaks to the uncertainties of what home means after such a long time estranged from it.

I imagine for most of our students, particularly those embarking upon their first year, that question of ‘home’ is also sitting somewhere at the forefront of their minds. While the odd bout of homesickness is always inevitable, one of the most wonderful experiences of university is its ability to reshape what ‘home’ means to you: you come to discover that ‘home’ can be carried in small keepsakes or made anew through those friendships that nurture the deep and formerly quiet parts of yourself. The experience can be quite confronting when you first head off to university, yet embracing it can set you up for a lifetime of navigating the world with an unrivalled sense of curiosity.

Beyond the classroom, I’ve found my own mind roaming around the question of what ‘home’ now means to me. When I count back, it’s been just over ten years since I last truly ‘lived’ in the UK. While it hasn’t exactly been Odyssean (modern air travel would have been a significant balm for most of Odysseus’ woes), I can certainly recognise the uncertainty that is bound up in laying new roots in places that are both familiar and unfamiliar. Yet while ancient tragedy and epic don’t always offer the most reassuring depictions of homecoming, they do follow experience in teaching you that your sense of home always has space to grow. In this way, it has been an odd sort of comfort to retrace these ancient steps as I settle into my new academic ‘home’ at Royal Holloway. And if nothing else, while I struggle away with finding lecture rooms and an ongoing (losing) battle with technology, you can always rely on the Oresteia to really put your problems in perspective...’

‘Over the last two years, I’ve had the opportunity to be involved with the Musical Theatre Society on several different musicals, and have really enjoyed the experience of putting on a show, especially looking at how staging, lighting, music, and other elements of a production can enhance and influence the story overall. When it came to choosing a topic for my dissertation, I am very excited to have been able to choose a topic (supervised by Efi Spentzou) that combines my love of classics and mythology with my passion for musical theatre, in exploring the reception of the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice in modern musicals and how musical theatre is well-suited as a medium through which to portray the myth.

In summer term last year, I played Eurydice in a performance of Wait For Me (Reprise) from Hadestown (directed by Deni Mistry, 2nd year Film and Digital Production student, and musical directed by Maddie Smith, 3rd year Music student) in MTS’ Summer Cabaret. The experience of putting myself in Eurydice’s shoes and exploring staging in order to best tell the story through the three-and-a-half minute song made me really interested in how theatre can be used to support stories. Standing stationary onstage and watching Orpheus (played by Jamie Hedge, 3rd year Drama student) stretch further away from me through the audience was so impactful and effective, and I am excited to explore different ways that the staging of musicals like Hadestown and Moulin Rouge lend a unique perspective to the story of Orpheus and Eurydice – a story that has been told so many times before, but all in such interesting and diverse ways.’

"Academic life has a reassuring seasonable rhythm. Some time at the end of July, the campus quietens leaving just a residual population of academics and postgrads. Across our leafy campus, there is a summer breath. In the further corners, one sometimes finds a grazing deer. Then, after what seems only a moment since the students were graduating in the hot summer days, it is late September: the buzz is back.

It is an audible change. The cars come down the hill in search of parking. Students call out to each other along the campus paths. The cafes are noisy. People greet each other in the corridors. Doors bangas people scurry along to ‘sort things out’. This year especially the transition seems to have been sudden. The rains have come. The winds are blowing. Autumn is here.

The students are back. It is the natural state of campus to be filled with people.

And so, we gather again. The year 2 and 3 students meet their personal tutors. We talk about how they have been through the summer. What are they looking forward to? We start the talks about life after the degree, almost always causing a brow to furrow as people think about what they need for the career ambitions. But mostly, it is chitter-chatter through which our relationships are renewed and catching up is caught up.

For the first-years, it is different. They are all lost to some degree. I have had first week of the year thirty plus times now. It is always a little daunting. But I remember how much more daunting it was when I first arrived at University. I knew nobody. I had no idea what I was doing or where I should go or how I should go there. I was a lost soul.

The key purpose of week one is to meet the lost souls and to reassure them that they are no more lost than anyone else and that one day soon they will be found. All the confusing details we talk them through will make sense. They are not alone and will be helped through the transition to university.

Somehow, it becomes so much better when I point that the person sitting next to them is equally lost, and why not just turn round and say hello to the person behind you? They might become a life-long friend; they might not. But they will be a familiar face in the next week, the next month and over the next three years. The best thing of all is in the first-year meetings, when I am about to talk through the Roman history for year 1, there is noise. Everyone had turned round and talked and made that contact. And then, I get them to quieten and think about what it is to study Roman history today.

In this generalised sense of not knowing, there is the start of a community and a journey. By the end of the week, timetables have appeared, as if by magic. There is schedule and order (mostly). From knowing no one, the community starts to form in the casual conversations and the cups of coffee and the gatherings in lectures and the discussions in seminars and even the waiting in corridors for the rooms to be available. Some things are, indeed, difficult: to be worthwhile, learning can never just be easy. But with those next to you and with your lecturers, you can work it. Those others are no longer strangers, but companions in the university journey, and slowly but surely, friends.

The world is so open for these brilliant wonderful, lively, engaged, vivacious people. Who will they become?

First week of the year: best week of the year."

Cabinet ministers rarely comment on museum policies. Still rarer do Classical artefacts become front-line news in the cultural wars. But the Parthenon Marbles are an exception. The recent visit of the Greek Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, became a full-scale diplomatic spat when Mitsotakis restated, in answer to a direct question, the long-held Greek policy that the Marbles be returned to Athens. Rishi Sunak cancelled meetings, issued press releases, and despatched his culture warriors to go out and brief the press. My informants at the Greek embassy tell me that Mitsotakis, who learnt of his cancellation from X, was initially annoyed, then delighted. He was in London for a relatively low-key celebration of the life of Lord Byron, the Romantic poet and fighter for Greek freedom. But now his visit was headline news in Britain and Greece. The Prime Minister could be seen as standing up for Greek culture and heritage. The Parthenon Marbles were being debated and discussed and this coverage was the only way he could advance his country’s case. Whether this played well for Mr Sunak is not so obvious.

Royal Holloway Classics had already booked Professor Angelos Chaniotis of Princeton University to deliver the Dabis lecture, our annual summer public lecture. Angelos has a claim to be the most eminent living historian of the ancient Greek world. He advises a host of cultural institutions on their cultural policies including the New York Metropolitan Museum. There is no-one who is in a better position to provide an insight into the debates on the Marbles. I was honoured to respond to his lecture.

Angelos took us through the cultural and legal arguments. The marbles have been in the UK for 212 years and were on the Parthenon in Athens for nearly 2,300 years before being removed by Lord Elgin. In the UK, the marbles are often called ‘The Elgin Marbles’, which is bit like associating the Mona Lisa with Francis I of France rather than Leonardo da Vinci. Angelos demolished the legal arguments that Elgin had legal rights over the marbles. Those argument were regarded as spurious by many in the late eighteenth century. Even since the lecture, those legal arguments have been further questioned by the absence from the extensive Ottoman archives of any record of Elgin’s permission to remove the marbles. And, as a note, the Ottoman bureaucracy was extensive and their archives are extraordinary in their completeness: such a legal document should be there.  Angelos showed how the separation and removal of the marbles is contrary to UN cultural heritage agreements, which establish ground rules for museums and the restoration of looted artefacts. He argued for a reconnection of the marbles, which are architectural features, with the Parthenon on art historical grounds and in restitution of a historical wrong.

My contribution was to situate the debate within the legacies of colonialism, not just Ottoman domination of Greece, but also of the subsequent Western European attitudes towards Greece. After the Greek War of Independence in the first half of 19^th century, the Great Powers installed a Bavarian government. They justified this by arguing that the Greeks were unfit to rule themselves. One consequence was to see the Greeks not as heirs to their Classical legacy, and to claim that Greek Classics belonged to Europe. Thus, Classical Greek artefacts were better located in the great museums of the colonial powers. That argument has been maintained, even if moderated, over the subsequent centuries, and explains why little annoys my Greek friends more quickly than the UK’s political statements about the marbles: they are part of a long history of the (former) Great Powers diminishing the Greek state and Greeks themselves.   

The argument on the Marbles is caught up in nationalism and colonial legacies. That poses a problem. It is almost an article of faith in our Royal Holloway community that:

Classics belongs to no one Classics belongs to everyone

This is central to our teaching and research. We would not endorse a Greek nationalist claim to the Marbles nor a British colonial claim. So where should the Marbles be?

It seems to me that there is only one answer to that: Athens. The reasons are historical, archaeological, and political. Taking the Marbles to London turned them into pure art. We are supposed to admire the workmanship and style. But the Marbles were so much more than pure beauty. They are/were a representation of the Athenian community. The Parthenon was the religious centre of Athens for millennia and the Marbles are part of that heritage. As Elgin transported them to the Piraeus, the inhabitants of Athens protested: part of their culture was being stolen. To understand the Marbles best, we need to see them in their urban, archaeological context and alongside the remains of the community that built and first valued them. In museological terms, they are far better displayed in the bright sun of Athens, in the spectacular Acropolis museum, than in a room in London. Why should an Athenian have to come to London to see the Marbles rather than a Londoner go to Athens?

There are other political reasons to return them: Britain struggles with the legacies of colonialism. It poisons elements of our cultural life and is weaponised by those who want to divide us. But our community was not divided by this debate. A university is a place where we need to discuss important issues, rationally and with passion. It is our function to talk through difficult issues and pose controversial questions.

In the discussion that followed the lecture, our community came to together to talk. We had about 150 people in the hall. Friends, members of the public, academic staff, post-graduate students and our undergraduates had their say. Many representatives of the Greek community came to join us, including staff from the Greek Embassy. One of the most eloquent contributions came from a first-year student, less than six months into their degree, happy to voice her opinion in front of such an audience.

The event was a brilliant example of what we do: we talk about important issues and we do that together and with respect. We value everyone from our first years to our professors. We take our debates into the community: no ivory tower for us.

The past is always with us. We can’t make a better future without it.

With many thanks to Angelos.

For a recording of the event see https://youtu.be/PQpwPaTUU_Q?si=dl1NtgnO2frg_1Gi

For more on Classics and modern issues, see https://www.royalholloway.ac.uk/research-and-teaching/departments-and-schools/classics/news/studying-the-classical-world-classical-views-on-modern-issues-11th-july/

“May is marking month in our department! Especially the last two weeks of it were particularly intense as I’ve had three modules-worth of work come in at once, so everything else had to be put to one side to work through it. You could tell this is the case from the state of my office at home, particularly my desk: with reference books and bits of paper strewn all over it, it was slowly but steadily sinking into quite an advanced state of chaos!

I’ve mainly been involved with teaching third year modules this year, which means that even though getting everything marked in time for the marking deadline has been intense, I’ve had the pleasure of looking at work produced by students at the peak of their academic careers with us. This has included students’ own adaptation of ancient myths for our Thinking Myth module, which always showcases amazing innovation and creativity in a wide range of different media, this year including videogame design and scriptwriting. I’ve also had the pleasure of marking our finalists’ dissertations, which are the capstone of a year working on a project of their choice. It’s one of the delights of this role that when a second year asks me ‘can I do my dissertation on this?’ that I’m usually able to say ‘of course’ and point them to the right person! I think it’s a real strength of how we operate that our students work on such a wide range of fascinating topics for their dissertations, and that we’re able to facilitate some real passion projects as a result. The proof really is in the pudding with these pieces of work – the amount of concentrated thought and reflection that’s been put into them really shows.”

"During the last week of the Easter holidays, I put on an art exhibition in the library event space surrounding the theme of Revenge in Homer’s Odyssey, though it was only a short exhibition I felt so lucky to welcome over 160 visitors and share the Homeric tradition with so many people both within and outside of the university community. This exhibition was many of my visitors' first time hearing about Homer and I found myself retelling the legend of Odysseus many times over the three days that it ran, increasingly finding better ways to relate its subject matter to new audiences with each retelling. This was a task that was easier than I had expected as I increasingly realized that, despite its antiquity, the Odyssey and Iliad continued to entice audiences today with universal themes that transcend through time.

I also had the pleasure of welcoming many Classicists who were still on campus over the holidays and had many interesting conversations about the Odyssey and the possibilities presented by communicating ancient poetry through modern art. This was my first ever art exhibition and though it was extremely challenging (creatively, academically, emotionally, and organisationally) I also found the whole project profoundly rewarding. Through engaging creatively with the Homeric tradition, I feel I have developed a far greater appreciation of the epics and understand the artistry of Homer to a deeper level. Homer is not a static phenomenon but one that has emerged from years of composers engaging and developing a poetic tradition; it is by continuing to engage in new and creative ways with this tradition that we keep it alive.

I am so grateful to the department of Classics and especially Nick Lowe for allowing me the opportunity to put on an event like this and for supporting me through it. I’d also like to thank everyone who came and were so positive about my artworks; hopefully I will be welcoming many of you back to a bigger, better exhibition next year."

"I was extremely fortunate to run a workshop at Regent’s University this week as part of my internship with Myth and Voice (http://mythandvoice.org/), led by Dr Efi Spentzou. I was working with a creative writing class, which featured a group of undergraduate students who came from a variety of backgrounds and academic courses, from Thailand to Hawaii to Denmark, from psychology to media and communications to international relations and more!

As well as for my internship, I had created this workshop with Efi as part of my master’s thesis, which examines the use of the myth of Demeter and Persephone from the 19th century to modern day, and how retellings of the myth throughout history reflect changes in the female experience. The group took the myth extremely well, they approached the workshop with enthusiasm and had some fantastic thoughts.

I was quite nervous ahead of the workshop, as it had been a while since I led a group of students in a classroom environment! But as this was an informal space for discussion and storytelling, and the group were very welcoming, my nerves quickly abated. I think it is fascinating to discuss mythology with non-classicists, as we so often spend so much time examining and analysing myths to such a degree that it is easy to get lost in them and forget what they are: stories that reflect the human experience. When a participant would say something about the myth that wasn’t ‘accurate’ (how can any one version of a myth be the true version anyway?), I felt myself go to correct them, before realising that we shouldn’t gatekeep these stories, as they provide opportunities for everyone to relate to and use in different ways. So, it doesn’t matter if someone doesn’t understand a myth in the same way as I do, the important thing is that they get something from the myth in the first place.

I was extremely honoured to be a part of this group for the workshop, especially as we discussed the topic of mother/daughter relationships, a key theme in the myth, which can sometimes be a difficult subject. At the end of the workshop, we all participated in a bit of freewriting, where I offered four general prompts and the participants could write about any of them (or all of them, as some did!) in whatever format they desired – or they didn’t have to write at all. I was blown away by the vulnerability and honesty shown by the group in their discussions of what it is like to be a daughter or a mother, and how this myth had stimulated their own thoughts and feelings on the topic of this relationship. This opportunity has given me so much to consider for my thesis, and I am sure that the longer I sit with this experience the more it will give me in not only my research and writing, but also in myself and how I approach this myth. I look forward to more Myth and Voice events in the future."

Jojo (right) observing a group activity during the workshop.

Archived Autumn 2023 entries from our ongoing blog series, ‘Scenes from the Life of the Department’, can be viewed here: https://royalholloway.ac.uk/research-and-teaching/departments-and-schools/classics/news/scenes-from-the-life-of-the-department-autumn-2023/

• Week 1: Thinking Globally - Prof. Richard Alston
• Week 2: Pandora’s Box and The Classics Hour on Insanity Radio station - Mia Ince, Masters by Research in Rhetoric
• Week 3: Cicero on … writing to your tutors - Dr Liz Gloyn
• Week 4: Classics and Dance - Beth Thomson, 4th year student
• Week 5: Our student representative in Seoul, South Korea - Emily Howe, 2nd year PhD student
• Week 6: “City of Athens” trip to Athens: a report and… a video - Madeleine, Emily, Tom, Dominik, James and Gethin, 3rd years
• Week 7: The Vesuvius Project: computer science unlocking the secrets of ancient scrolls - Dr Liz Gloyn
• Week 8: “Dig to Digital” in a teaching lab - Dr Erica Rowan
• Week 9: Summer filming project - Eleanor Atterton (MA Public History) and Maisie-May Gilchrist (MA Classics)
• Week 10: The Classics Society Symposium on “Medicine and Disability in the Ancient World”
• Week 11: A recent Classics Alumna on the National Graduate Development Program - Zoe Norman (BA Classical Studies 2021)
• Week 12: A homemade classical reception project - Chris Richmond, 1st year student