I hope you've all had a good week. I have to confess that writing this newsletter has become a highlight of my week.

This is now the fourth “issue” and I am really delighted to see the enthusiastic response from students and staff to my initial appeals for contributions. Could you please keep them coming?

In this week’s newletter:

• Emily Howe in Seoul
• Dr Nick Lowe reviews Emily Wilson’s translation of the Iliad (and Mary Beard commenting on his review in a podcast!)
• Professor Jari Pakkanen on one of his summer projects
• Chris Richmond’s Classical reception project

Emily Howe in Seoul:

A couple of weeks ago, one of our PhD students, Emily Howe, arrived in Seoul (South Korea) for her second stint in the city, now as a postgraduate research student. She kindly sent us this report and a photo of herself in traditional Korean dress (Hanbok):

"I was fortunate enough to participate in the Study Abroad scheme during my undergraduate studies, adding a year of study at Korea University in Seoul, before returning to RHUL for my final year. With the freedom to explore other subjects, I got to take classes in Ancient to Modern Chinese, Japanese and Korean history alongside studies in international affairs and Asia-Pacific relations. I was also able to take intensive Korean to fast-track my language learning. Being a part of a different education system taught me new ways of thinking and skills, which have been instrumental throughout my master’s and PhD. It was an incredible opportunity that I highly recommend to any Classics student. My year abroad broadened my horizons to alternative experiences and cultures I wouldn’t have been able to find in London, providing me with a newfound confidence to push myself further. I made life-long friends, returning from my year in Seoul to move in together with some of them in London. Many have since returned to Korea, and I’m pleased to say that I have been able to join them! Since returning, I’ve been busy reconnecting with all our Korean friends and previous lecturers. The department has fully supported me in this as part of my PhD so that I can meet and work with Classics Professors throughout the city to build a London-East Asia network of classicists. It is my long-term goal to strengthen our connection with other global classics departments, to widen the community and broaden the scope of our research.”

 We look forward to receiving more updates from our representative in Seoul! Would you like to find out more about the Study Abroad opportunities?

Dr Nick Lowe reviews Emily Wilson’s translation of the Iliad

In last week’s newsletter Prof. Alston wrote about his review of a scholarly sourcebook. This week Dr Lowe writes about his review of Emily Wilson’s translation of the Iliad in a major literary review magazine, the Times Literary Supplement. The magazine editors also produce a podcast that gives subject-area editors to discuss further some of the featured reviews. Mary Beard talked about Nick’s review. Dr Lowe writes about his experience (make sure you follow the links – and go back to the Gale website at some point next week when the review will be available through our library):

“It’s an unsettling experience to listen to yourself discussed on a podcast. We’re used to being the guest rather than the subject, and in my case I’m usually wittering about film rather than Classics anyway. But last week I had the cover feature in the Times Literary Supplement, talking about the Iliad in a review of Emily Wilson’s new translation and Robin Lane Fox’s book about it for general readers that in due course will come out in Penguin; and it turns out that whenever the lead item is in Classics, the TLS Classics editor Mary Beard is obliged to come on their podcast and talk up the review. So at 25’45” here you can hear Mary doing her best to explain what on earth I was blathering on about, in what had been a slightly out-there review by TLS standards (in part so I could swerve having to be too frank about just how disappointed I was by Wilson’s translation, five years on from her well-received Odyssey). Beard is a consummate pro, and did a great job of it before pivoting smoothly to plugging her own book, but I felt sorry to have put her through it. If anyone’s curious, the original review is paywalled on the TLS site but will be accessible through RH library here in the next week or so. I was really chuffed that the sub-editor had evidently recognised the Magnetic Fields line and picked it as the big red pull-quote in the print edition.

One of Professor Jari Pakkanen’s summer projects in Greece

Professor Jari Pakkanen writes about one of this summer archaeological projects in Central Greece :  

“The Ephorate of Antiquities of Phthiotida and Evrytania and the Finnish Institute at Athens started last year a collaborative fieldwork project at Melitaia in Central Greece. The polis has received relatively little attention in the past despite the good preservation of the ancient city walls. The project member responsible for documenting the excavations in 2022 could not make it to this year's fieldwork due to a family matter, so Classics department's Greek Archaeologist Jari Pakkanen was persuaded to carry out the work at quite short notice. The trenches are backfilled to protect them at the end of each year's excavations, so it is vital that the new work is diligently documented when the excavations are finished. This summer, the conditions were more difficult than usual: temperatures reached +45 degrees in July, so there was a small delay in finishing the work. Jari carried out both aerial and terrestrial photography at the site and produced three-dimensional models of the trenches and wider fieldwork area using photogrammetry (see the attached screengrab below). For further information on the project, see Melitaia Archaeological Programme – FIA (finninstitute.gr).”

Chris Richmond’s Classical reception project

Our first-year student, Chris Richmond, explains how he managed to fit Parthenon… into a glass ball:

Originally the case was for a desk mounted clock, until someone carelessly knocked it off the desk. (I admit nothing)  I removed the centre brass section that held the clock mechanism, took measurements and using a 3d printer replicated the centre section in plastic.  If you have never done 3D printing, you probably don’t realise that you can actually print almost any photograph in a single colour. This works by printing the original colours at different thicknesses so when light shines through it the picture is visible due to the the different thickness making some parts darker, simulating grey scale.

Pictures made using this method are called Lithophanes, and this is how I made the Parthenon in a glass ball.”

Tomorrow is the first of our Autumn Open Days and we expect a good turnout of prospective Classics applicants. Professor Lene Rubinstein and Dr Zena Kamash will be giving two taster lectures, yours truly will give an introductory talk and two of our undergraduate students Emily and Lily will be helping us as student ambassadors. If you happen to meet any our campus visitors, please greet them with a smile! Most of our undergraduates, but some of our MA and PhDs, too, will remember their own first visit to RHUL, not too long ago…  

I hope you all have a restful weekend!

Christos