Ancient greece
Do your duty – or else
All too often complaints are made about MPs, civil servants or other officials who hold on to their jobs despite…
Rent has not aged well
Rent is a show about mortality haunted by the untimely death of its author, Jonathan Larson. On the eve of…
The Athenian answer to immigration
What is it in our interests to do about immigration? The ancient Athenians came up with an interesting answer. Any…
Why artists love Aphrodite
Aphrodite – talk about a difficult birth. Her father the Sky (Ouranos) had come to resent the fertility of his…
Will Andy Burnham open Pandora’s Box?
A Mr A.M. Burnham announced at his elevation that he would bring ‘hope’ to the country. A fine sentiment. But…
Would the ancients have considered Rod Liddle a satirist?
If the great Rod Liddle was a satirist, as many columnists have suggested, he was not one in the Roman…
What the Odyssey means to America
In 1899 Jack London, beginning his career as a writer, sold a story to Atlantic Monthly for $120. Drawing on his experiences during the Klondike gold…
Does Nigel Farage think he’s above scrutiny?
If Nigel Farage is so confident that the £5 million donation he received from a friend is entirely kosher, why…
The Odyssey is shallow and tiring
The Odyssey is Christopher Nolan’s relentless, deafening three-hour take on Homer’s epic poem, and while it is technically impressive filmmaking…
Artists vs the Odyssey
It’s a noble story of one man struggling against monstrous odds, valiantly captaining his crew while trying to avoid being…
Would the ancients have appreciated David Hockney?
David Hockney has died, and there has died with him an artist whose work has given those of us who…
The humiliating truth about the way we think
We overrate our capacity for rational deliberation, says Turi Munthe, when weather, soil, climate and geography are what really determine of our opinions and beliefs
Zack Polanski must dream of Athens’s radical democracy
A Greek essayist c. 420 BC argued that Athens’s radical democracy, giving the vote to every adult male citizen, resulted…
The perfect game for any thwarted sadist
Grade: B+ Some of us lost a lot of our early twenties to a god-game called Dungeon Keeper, in which…
The ancient Greeks are to blame for the Oscars
The Oscars mark the end of the awards season, with their annual rituals of self-applause to which actors are so…
How Greece carried the arts to rustic Rome
‘Cultural cringe’, that lovely Aussie coinage, perfectly describes the Roman attitude towards Greece. The curators don’t say so, but it…
Only divine intervention can save Labour
A party that can foretell the future stands a very good chance of success. Given Labour’s record of U-turns, they…
How the ancients anticipated the apocalypse
What with the threat of global warming and nuclear war, the new year might start with a big bang. The…
How I bonded with Tom Stoppard over the classics
Many years ago, and well retired, I was working in my study when the phone rang and a voice said:…
Keir Starmer and the ancient question of word vs deed
Sir Keir Starmer said that Britain had come to a fork in the road. As usual, he took it –…
Angela Rayner and the ancient question of ‘good judgment’
Angela Rayner has returned to the back benches because, as housing secretary, she failed to follow the rules relating to…
The ancient Greek take on human rights
While Greek and Roman thinkers were influential in developing ideas such as citizenship, justice and equality, the notion of universal…
The enigma of C.P. Cavafy
The homosexual poet from Alexandria avoided publication in his lifetime, despite being a ruthless self-promoter with a very high opinion of his own work
How the Spartans got fighting fit
Donald Trump has brought back the Presidential Fitness Test for American children, once used in state schools to gauge young…
Who could persuade you to fight for Britain today?
This week we celebrated VE Day. When Pericles remembered the dead from the war against Sparta in his famous Funeral…
