Ancient greece

Do Greek plays really need a ‘modern twist’?

6 July 2019 9:00 am

Rufus Norris, the National Theatre’s artistic director, has revealed that all those tedious ancient plays will from now on be…

Boris and the perils of popularity

22 June 2019 9:00 am

So: Boris triumphans, ready to deliver a 140-seat majority for the Tories and lead the UK out of Europe and…

Lessons from the Greeks on rebuilding Notre Dame

4 May 2019 9:00 am

As soon as the blaze that nearly brought down Notre Dame was extinguished, two questions were asked: how did it…

Can ancient Greek comedians tell us how to leave the EU?

6 April 2019 9:00 am

Since comedians these days seem to be the authorities on all matters spiritual and temporal (puts on funny voice, knife-crime…

French Phidias: Auguste Rodin in his workshop in Meudon, c.1910

How Rodin made a Parthenon above Paris

28 April 2018 9:00 am

‘My Acropolis,’ Auguste Rodin called his house at Meudon. Here, the sculptor made a Parthenon above Paris. Surrounded by statues…

I didn’t realise Petra was an ad for Merkel’s immigration policy: Civilisations reviewed

3 March 2018 9:00 am

Most of the history I know and remember comes from my inspirational prep school teacher Mr Bradshaw. History was taught…

Troy managed to descend into cliché even when nobody was actually using any words

24 February 2018 9:00 am

ITV’s Marcella (Monday) represents another triumphant breakthrough in the portrayal of female cops on television. Of course, thanks to more…

A recording that makes you realise Les Troyens is one of the greatest operatic masterpieces

16 December 2017 9:00 am

Grade: A-   Berlioz’s Les Troyens, one of the greatest operatic masterpieces, manages to be neglected even if it is…

War horse: horse headdress made of felt, leather and wood, late 4th–early 3rd century BC

The icemen cometh

23 September 2017 9:00 am

You wouldn’t want to stumble upon the Scythians. Armed with battle-axes, bows and daggers, and covered in fearsome tattoos, the…

Still life: ‘A Kiss’, 1891, by Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema

Silent films

9 September 2017 9:00 am

On 15 September 1888 Vincent van Gogh was intrigued to read an account of an up-to-date artist’s house in the…

How Aristotle would hire civil servants

4 June 2016 9:00 am

The civil service is to be allowed to find out what job applicants’ ‘socio-economic background’ is. What abject drivel is…

Buried treasure: an archaeologist diver brushes clear a bovid jaw discovered in Aboukir Bay

The treasures of Alexandria revealed: British Museum’s Sunken cities reviewed

4 June 2016 9:00 am

It was not so unusual for someone to turn into a god in Egypt. It happened to the Emperor Hadrian’s…

The best guide to being an EU politician – from 1,900 years ago

28 May 2016 9:00 am

Boris Johnson argues that the current European Union is yet another failed attempt to replicate the golden age of a…

True or false? The Temple of Bel, Palmyra, before and after its destruction at the hands of Islamic State

Why confront the ugly lie of Islamic State with a tacky fake?

28 May 2016 9:00 am

Can the beauty of Palmyra be reproduced by data-driven robots? Stephen Bayley on copies, fakes and forgeries

Not a repertory piece but in its dignity it earns respect: Royal Opera’s Oedipe reviewed

28 May 2016 9:00 am

For years I have been telling people that they should listen to, in the absence of staged performances, Enescu’s opera…

The Camerons of the ancient world boasted about the tax they paid

16 April 2016 9:00 am

As Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell whinge away about how rich David Cameron’s family is, they might consider that in…

Meet the Donald Trump of ancient Athens (he won)

2 April 2016 9:00 am

Why does the Republican party loathe Donald Trump? Because Trump is the ultimate loose cannon, beholden to no one. And…

The singing made me seasick: ETO’s Don Giovanni reviewed

26 March 2016 9:00 am

One of these days I will probably see a production of Don Giovanni set in a research station in the…

There were no safe spaces at the dawn of democracy

19 March 2016 9:00 am

Brilliant Oxford undergraduates argue that it is right to prevent us saying things they object to, because speech they do…

What Pericles knew that David Cameron doesn’t

5 March 2016 9:00 am

It does seem extraordinary that the increasingly puce-faced Mr Cameron offered us an ‘in-out’ referendum and is now telling us…

Become like ancient Athens — leave the EU

13 February 2016 9:00 am

One feels that Sir Stuart Rose, leader of the EU referendum ‘In’ campaign, should really try a little harder. First…

Ancient and Modern: The mercenaries of IS and ancient Greece

16 January 2016 9:00 am

Last week we read that Isis was crumbling, but still a force to be reckoned with. That is true, but…

For a true moral lesson, Rugby School, get your pupils drunk

9 January 2016 9:00 am

Rugby and Ampleforth schools have decided to give their charges experience of sensible drinking by introducing a little alcohol, under…

'Lion Hunt', 1861, by Eugène Delacroix

Galleries are getting bigger - but is there enough good art to put in them?

2 January 2016 9:00 am

Martin Gayford recommends the exhibitions to see — and to avoid — over the coming year

How ancient Athens handled immigrants

7 November 2015 9:00 am

Among all the arguments about how many non-EU immigrants we should let in, campaigners are proposing a scheme for private…