A visit to central and northern Greece

Rosie Mack and Una Markham recently undertook a week long research trip to Greece. Here is their account of their travels!

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We flew to Thessaloniki, collected a car, and made overnight stops in Vergina, Delphi, and Volos.

We began with a visit to the royal Macedonian tombs at Vergina which have been cleverly incorporated into the museum which also houses the artefacts from the tombs. Unfortunately, the ancient palace and theatre here are still not accessible. Nearby, the ancient capital of the Argeads at Pella, is a large and fascinating site (see photo: House of Dionysos). The layout of the Hellenistic public bath house, with drainage system and evidence of underfloor heating, was illuminating. From Macedonia we moved down the mainland to Boiotia, visiting the Museums of Thebes and Chaironeia. The Lion Monument at Chaironeia, the related battlefield, and the fourth century theatre carved into the hillside, were of great interest.

House of Dionysos, Pella

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Delphi is one of the most beautiful sites, but best appreciated early in the morning before the hordes arrive! Una was delighted to examine the Treasury of the Boiotians, and after some surreptitious ‘gardening’, was thrilled to discover the Treasury of the Thebans. After Delphi, we drove to Volos by way of the Boiotian town of Orchomenos. Here, the Mycenaean tholos tomb, referred to by Pausanias as the ‘Treasure of Minyas’, was certainly very impressive. The roof of a side chamber is decorated with spirals, rosettes and papyrus flowers which are very well preserved. The fourth century B.C. theatre is undergoing restoration, and it was very useful to be able to question the on-site architect.

From our base in Thessaly, we headed for Larisa. Dr Emma Aston had kindly alerted the Ephor of Larisa at the new Diachronic Museum to our visit. Both the Ephor, Dr Sdrolia, and her assistant Asimina Tsiaka were extremely helpful, giving up their valuable time to answer our questions, and we gratefully thank them. The Museum houses important artefacts, including a large number of coins relating to Rosie’s current research. A special exhibition concerned the ongoing excavations at Kastro Kallithea conducted by the Ephorate at Larisa and the University of Alberta, Canada. The model of this Hellenistic polis, with a selection of finds, was very informative. While in Larisa, we also visited the Hellenistic theatre, which has recently been opened to the public after restoration (see photo).

 

Larisa, Hellenistic theatre

 

 

 

 

 

On our last day we visited Volos Museum, followed by a drive up Mount Pelion, the legendary home of the centaurs. A typical narrow Greek mountain road, Una was slightly perturbed by the lack of a barrier between the road and the sheer drop down to the valley below! However, the view was worth it. After 7 days, covering 1600 km, we flew back to the UK inspired. The trip was invaluable, not only for the evidence we found in the various museums, but also for deepening our perspectives. Actually experiencing the relationship between a site and its surrounding landscape, provided insights that cannot be otherwise conveyed.

Professor Timothy Duff elected Fellow of the Royal Historical Society

Reading Classics is delighted to announce that our Professor of Greek, Timothy Duff, has been elected as a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.  Professor Duff is one of the foremost scholars of ancient historiography, and is internationally renowned for his work on Plutarch.  His election as a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society sees him join a diverse and distinguished group of academics  who have made “an original contribution to historical scholarship” (as the Society’s website states – https://royalhistsoc.org/membership/fellows/), including two other members of the Reading Classics Department, Professors Peter Kruschwitz and Annalisa Marzano, both elected in 2011.

The Classical in 20th-century British Sculpture

Observant visitors to our Classics Department hallway in the Edith Morley building may have noticed a certain upscaling of our appearance in 2018. Pursuant to our collaboration with University Arts Collections (UAC) on our exhibit, From Italy to Britain: Winckelmann and the spread of neoclassical taste in Autumn 2017, which included four academic drawings of Classical sculptures made by Minnie Jane Hardman during her time as a student at the Royal Academy, Dr Naomi Lebens, UAC Curator enabled us to display facsimiles of six of Hardman’s drawings in the Classics hallway since the beginning of 2018. We have now added to these drawings several sculptures that the celebrated sculptor Eric Stanford carved in 1990, when was working in UoR’s art studios at Bulmershe on a major commission for Reading, namely the Spanish Civil War Memorial, now in Reading’s Forbury Gardens.

A clear connection between the two sculptures from the University Art Collections—Torso of Protesilaos, made of Bath stone, and Helen of Troy, made of Clipsham stone—is that they represent protagonists from Homer’s Iliad, so the Department of Classics was delighted to discover and display them. The Torso of Protesilaos, opposite Edith Morley room G34, depicts the Greek hero amid swirling waves that evoke the Trojan shore from which Protesilaos marched, despite the oracular warning of his impending death. When we suggested to Stanford that the waves might also recall the fire into which his widow Laodameia chased a brazen figure of her deceased husband, he was charmed by the thought that had, however, never occurred to him.

We have placed the head of Helen of Troy in the entrance to the Ure Museum (http://www.reading.ac.uk/Ure/), where she is in conversation with our statue of Aphrodite from Cyrene, on loan from the British Museum since the Ure’s redesign in 2005. The distorted perspective and exaggerated forms of Stanford’s carving overturn traditional archetypes of female beauty associated with Helen of Troy’s ‘face that launch’d a thousand ships’ (according to Christopher Marlowe). Helen’s elopement with Paris of Troy, despite being married to the King of Sparta, gave cause to the Trojan War and thus influenced much European art and literature. Helen’s prominent brow, large nose and wide-set eyes are features more common to non-European artistic traditions, such as African sculpture. Stanford here combines those traditions with Classics, under the clear influence of cubism.

Clio Art Ltd. has lent us a third Clasically-themed Stanford statue, also made in 1990, of Portland stone, namely Memnon. This son of the dawn-goddess, Eos, stands in the rigid posture of some Archaic Greek statues, with one leg slightly advanced. Yet his form recalls ancient sculpture as it so often reaches us: fractured, incomplete, and part buried. Stanford has depicted him with legs firmly engulfed in the plinth below, arms absent, as if broken off, and missing the top half of his head. Enough remains for us to recognise the helmeted warrior, facing sideways, stylised with a prominent lock of hair.

To launch the display of these three sculptures, the Department of Classics hosted a workshop, entitled The Classical in 20th-century British Sculpture in the Ure Museum on 17 Aril 2018, with presentations from artists, art historians and Classicists, old and new friends of Eric Stanford (http://www.reading.ac.uk/Ure/info/Classicsin20thCentury.php). A particular highlight of the day was a conversation with the sculptor himself and his wife, Helen Stanford, via skype, from their home. We look forward to presenting these talks via YouTube in the near future.