Below are all the items that were published in January 2018.
“Heroic” nudity?
Naked men in ancient Greek art
Conventional wisdom regards nudity in Greek art as a “heroizing” element. But the reality is, of course, a bit more complex.
An Egyptian Game of Thrones?
The Second Intermediate Period
Ancient Egypt had periods of political instability, in which different factions vied for control, not unlike the drama seen in Game of Thrones.
Aeneas before Virgil
Early Greek sources about the Trojan hero
The Trojan hero Aeneas, made famous by Virgil’s epic poem, has been the subject of ancient texts and art going as far back as Homer.
Lavinia by Ursula K. Le Guin
Ursula K. Le Guin (1929-2018) was inspired by a myriad of different world cultures. In her twentieth novel, Lavinia, she took as inspiration Virgil’s epic poem the Aeneid.
Enhancing the gods
Pheidias and the Siphnian Frieze
The sculptor Pheidias, responsible for the reliefs of the Parthenon in Athens, may have been inspired by the Siphnian Treasury in Delphi.
The park of Virgil’s tomb
Monument to a famous Roman poet
The tomb of the Roman poet Virgil (70–19 BC) is located in Naples. Today, the tomb forms the centre of a park created in Virgil’s honour.
Bending in the grave
Killing weapons in the Early Iron Age Aegean
Most of the objects recovered in archaeological excavations are broken. Sometimes this breakage is intentional. In Early Iron Age Greece, particularly the tenth and ninth centuries, intentionally destroyed weapons were deposited in burials.
Etruscan women
Ostentatious display and social power
I hope to write a number of pieces for Ancient World Magazine about women in pre-Roman Italy over the next year, so consider this the first of a much more ambitious project.
Augustus of Prima Porta
The Roman statue known as the “Augustus of Prima Porta” is a remarkably powerful piece of Early Imperial “propaganda”.
Cleobis and Biton
The story of the Argive youths Cleobis and Biton gives an idea of how different the ancient Greek world view was from our own.