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An Emperor’s Tears: The Significance of the Mourning of the Julio-Claudian Emperors
Full text linkAt the death of Germanicus in 19 CE, the behaviour of the emperor Tiberius came under scrutiny. How would he react to his nephew’s death? According to Tacitus, the failure of Tiberius to make a public appearance was seen as telling, surely it indicated that Tiberius did not wish his lack of remorse and grief to be witnessed (Ann. 3.2-3). Tiberius’ behaviour as a mourner needed to match his behaviour as emperor – secretive, untrusting, inappropriate and quintessentially bad. This paper explores how the Roman emperors from Augustus to Nero were presented as mourning for those that they had lost, highlighting the importance of mourning in the evaluation of character. How an emperor acted as a mourner, whether, for example, he wept openly or shunned the public, could be a considered act of self-presentation, which was open both to contemporary popular scrutiny and posthumous evaluation. The emotion of grief, and the genuineness of its expression, especially through the shedding of tears, became part of a public performance as emperors negotiated the machinations of dynastic succession. How an emperor wept, who for and for how long, could be both a significant measure of his character and of the perceived character, and or importance, of the deceased. An emperor’s tears could come at a reputational price both for himself, and for others
Review: B. Roling / B. Schirg / S.H. Bauhaus, Apotheosis of the North: The Swedish Appropriation of Classical Antiquity (2017)
No full textPerforming Grief: Mourning Does Indeed Become Electra
Full text linkElektra ist die Trauernde schlechthin in der griechischen Tragödie. In Sophokles' dramatischer Version wird sie als in einem Zustand endloser Trauer gefangen dargestellt, die ihren Wunsch nach Rache weckt. Auf der modernen Bühne regt sie die Fantasie des Publikums an mit ihrem kraftvollen, multisensorischen Trauerspiel. Elektra ist ein transgressiver Charakter, gerade weil sie zu intensiv und zu lange trauert. Sie ist in einem Schwellen-Raum gefangen, in dem sowohl ihr Geist als auch ihr Körper von ihrer übermäßigen Trauer beeinträchtigt werden. Aber die Darstellung ihrer Trauer ist so fesselnd, dass sie zum dominanten Strang der Rezeption dieser tragischen Heldin geworden ist. Dieser Aufsatz untersucht zwei Beispiele von Aufführungen von Sophokles‘ Elektra am Ende des letzten Jahrtausends, mit dem Zeil, um zwei sehr unterschiedliche Ansätze für die Darstellung von „tragischer“ Trauer auf der modernen griechischen Bühne auseinanderzunehmen. Ende der 90er Jahre inszenierte die bedeutendste Theatergruppe des Landes, The National Theatre of Greece, zweimal Sophokles‘ Electra; 1996 stellte Lydia Koniordou das weibliche Ritual in den Vordergrund, während Dimitris Maurikios' Produktion von 1998 eine Electra zeigte, die von Theaterkritikern als „hysterisch“ bezeichnet wurde. Dieser Aufsatz untersucht, wie der Anspruch des modernen Griechenlands auf eine „besondere Beziehung" zum klassischen Griechenland die Darstellung von Electras Trauer beeinflusst hat.Electra is Greek tragedy’s mourner par excellence. In Sophocles’ dramatic version she is portrayed as stuck in a state of never-ending grief that fuels her desire for vengeance. On the modern stage she captures audiences’ imagination with her powerful, multi-sensory spectacle of mourning. Electra is a transgressive character precisely because she mourns too intensely and for too long. She is trapped in a liminal space where both her mind and body are adversely affected by her excessive mourning. But so enthralling is the portrayal of her grief that it has become the most prominent strand of the tragic heroine’s reception. This paper investigates two examples of Sophocles’ Electra in performance at the end of the last millennium, as a means of unpicking two very different approaches to the portrayal of ‘tragic’ grief on the modern Greek stage. At the end of the 1990s, the country’s premier theatrical company, The National Theatre of Greece, staged Sophocles’ Electra twice; in 1996 Lydia Koniordou highlighted female ritual, while Dimitris Maurikios’ 1998 production featured an Electra that was labelled ‘hysterical’ by theatre critics. This paper examines how modern Greece’s claim to a ‘special relationship’ with classical Greece has affected the performance of Electra’s grief.
 
Review: Miryana Dimitrova, Julius Caesar’s Self-Created Image and Its Dramatic Afterlife
No full textTheodora "Rewritten": An Interview with the Author of two Historical Novels about the Empress Theodora: Stella Duffy
No full text‘Too Young to Die’: Grief and Mourning in Ancient Rome
Full text linkExpressions of grief and mourning are characteristic of Roman funerary inscriptions. Roman epitaphs express sorrow for the deceased and reveal familiar emotional responses to memories of the dead person. In our ancient sources, death is usually depicted as something unknowable. Like in contemporary societies, only philosophy and faith seem to offer any measure of relief when faced with the horrors of death, particularly in the case of deceased youth (mors im-matura), unfortunately a very common occurrence in classical antiquity. Ancient texts and inscriptions provide us with a wealth of expressions of grief and bereavement for children and young people who died prematurely. Common people lamented the inexorability of fate by immortalizing their loved ones in epitaphs carved in durable stone. Latin texts supplement our understanding of Roman attitudes towards death in various ways, going beyond contemporary religious beliefs, ritual practices and traditional values. Nevertheless, the ultimate goal was to preserve the memory of the dead person, often by recalling specific traits of their nature. Lastly, the pain caused by the death of one’s own children led to loneliness and a sense of abandonment, as shown in the epitaphs chosen by those who lived on.Las expresiones de duelo y luto son características en la epigrafía funeraria romana. Los epitafios romanos expresan tristeza por el difunto y revelan respuestas emocionales de los familiares respecto al recuerdo de la persona muerta. En las fuentes antiguas, la muerte se representa generalmente como algo inescrutable y, al igual que en las sociedades contemporáneas, solo la filosofía y la fe parecen ofrecer algún alivio frente a los horrores de la muerte, en particular modo en el caso de los jóvenes fallecidos (mors inmatura), por desgracia un hecho muy común en la antigüedad clásica. Los textos e inscripciones antiguas nos brindan una gran cantidad de expresiones de dolor y duelo por niños y jóvenes que murieron prematuramente, y gracias a ellos, sabemos cómo la gente común lamentaba la inexorabilidad del destino al inmortalizar a sus seres queridos en epitafios tallados en piedra duradera. Los textos latinos complementan nuestra comprensión de las diversas actitudes romanas hacia la muerte, más allá de las creencias religiosas contemporáneas, las prácticas rituales y los valores tradicionales. Con todo, el objetivo final era preservar la memoria del difunto, a menudo recordando rasgos específicos de su carácter y naturaleza. Finalmente, el dolor causado por la muerte de los propios hijos llevó a la soledad y a una sensación de abandono, como se muestra en los epitafios elegidos por aquellos que los sobrevivieron
Review: Alessandro Carrera, Fellini’s Eternal Rome. Paganism and Christianity in the Films of Federico Fellini (London 2018) (= Classical Receptions in Twentieth-Century Writing)
No full textStories from the Frontier: Linking Past and Present at Vindolanda through Digital Gameplay
Full text link‘Stories from the Frontier’ is an Arts Council England (ACE) and Roman Research Trust funded-project which will change how visitors engage with the ancient world at the Roman site of Vindolanda, Hadrian’s Wall. Using the latest research and advances in gamification combined with original artwork and 2D animation, the project will create a game for smart phones that will integrate the normal segregation of material culture from site display by transferring knowledge through gameplay. Aimed at 7-11 year olds and their families, the game tells the stories of real people and objects from the past in a fun and innovative way. While on site, users will play ‘detective’ to solve what happened to the child skeleton (c. AD 230) discovered in the army Barracks at Vindolanda. This case study describes the results of the development of the prototype for the game including test workshops
The Tragic Nightingale Between Lament and Revenge
Full text linkThe analysis of the nightingale theme in ancient Greek tragedy sheds fresh light on the emotional contradictions present in female laments. Classical scholars have traditionally interpreted the tragic nightingale as a symbol of ritual lamentation. In light of its use in the myth of Procne, Philomela and Tereus, they tend to emphasise its association with grief, loss and mourning. They have overlooked, however, the nightingale’s dramatic connection with vengeance. I argue that Attic dramatists reproduce the call of the nightingale during key moments of their revenge plays and use it to create an effect of high suspense for their audiences. Through a reversal of the mythological transformation of Procne, they capture the tragic heroines in their dramaturgical passage from lament to revenge. This is particularly striking in the metamorphosis of the Sophoclean Electra, who caught between grief and anger performs the vengeful lament of the nightingale