On a recent trip to Portugal, I had an opportunity to visit the Citânia De Briteiros, an ancient Celtic hill fort and settlement located in the Guimaraes region of the country. First excavated in 1875, the site was initially occupied between the first and second centuries BCE, with continued habitation extended to the second or third centuries CE. The village is located on a high ridge and offers a commanding… Read more
We were excited to welcome back Gregory Nagy of Harvard University, Francis Jones Professor of Classical Greek Literature and Professor of Comparative Literature and the Director of the Center for Hellenic Studies, Washington, DC for an Open House. The title of the discussion is “Minoan-Mycenaean Scribal Legacy,” which took place on April 17 at 11:00 a.m. EDT, was live-streamed and recorded. You may like to read the following to get… Read more
In the spring of 479 BCE, although defeated at Salamis, the Persians were still in control in most of the Ionian cities. Their citizens revolted against this and asked Athens for support. In response, 40 triremes of the remaining Athenian fleet, under command of Xanthippus, joined the allied fleet of 110 triremes which was under the command of King Leutychides II of Sparta. They defeated the Persians at Mykale in… Read more
The city of Thebes has always been of interest to scholars working within mythographical and literary traditions, precisely because its presence looms large in our corpus of extant textual and especially non-textual sources. Looming even larger is the absence of a monumental epic to encapsulate its story in the manner that the Iliad and Odyssey do for the Troy story. Myths set in Thebes or involving Theban characters occupy a… Read more
Detail from Filippo Albacini: The Wounded Achilles. 1825. From the Devonshire Collections, Chatsworth The book Villing, A. et al. 2019. The BP Exhibition: Troy: Myth and Reality. London: Thames & Hudson/The British Museum. The British Museum’s “Troy: Myth and Reality” exhibition is its major tourist attraction for Spring 2020. It covers the stories of the myth, the archaeology of Troy, and the reception of the story. The book that accompanies… Read more