CLASSICAL ASSOCIATION OF IRELAND
May 2018
CAI BRANCH & UNIVERSITY NEWS CAI CORK 4 December 2017 saw Cork Branch welcome Mr John Ware, who spoke on ‘Hero and Hoplite: The Evolution of Warfare in the Greek World’. “War is a sweet thing to him who does not know it”: thus said Pindar many moons ago and never was a greater truism uttered. We learned that all ancient warfare was muscle-powered fighting and that heroes are not team players. After all, why would you want to share your glory and success with others! It is the champion who decides things, a sort of ‘rule by the best.’ On 5 February 2018 the Branch was host to Dr Joop van Waarden (University of Amsterdam), who spoke on ‘We are our brains: How Maretus invented the Rogations, or did he?’. This lecture was held in conjunction with the Dept of Classics in UCC. The talk sparked an enthusiastic discussion about the survival of religious customs in rural Ireland. On 5 March we were delighted to hear Ms Carmel McCallum-Barry reprise her 2017 CAI Presidential Address. Carmel and her husband John have had a long association with UCC and are great supporters of the Cork Branch. The evening’s topic was ‘Women in Classics: some landmark achievements from the Renaissance to the 20th century’. It might seem inconceivable to the female college-going population today that while women in the early days could attend lectures, they were not permitted to qualify with a degree. Thankfully, a lot has changed. Italy, England and America were the areas which Carmel focused on. Isotta Nogarola (Verona, 1418-1466) and Cassandra Fedele (Venice, 14701558) were two amazing women. They are known to us because of their letter writing. It was noted that Isotta was given the advice to “use your manliness of spirit to overcome your women’s nature”. Women who were scholarly were regarded as both immoral and unnatural! Cassandra was equally famous. She had been
taught Latin and Greek by her father. On her death in 1558, she was afforded a state funeral. Next up were the English women and, seemingly, they gained vice from reading Roman literature! In spite of this, Margaret Moore proved that females could be both good and literate. Even though religion had changed from Catholic to Protestant, the majority of works by and from women were either religious or translations. Other notable women discussed were Betty Radice, Margaret Heavey, Anne Cooke, Lucy Laney, and Anna Julia Cooper. It was a delightful exposition of the effect women had, especially when they were not as formidable a force in society as they are now! 9 April saw us welcome Dr Stephan Faust to the Branch and to Cork. Dr Faust has taken up a position in UCC in the Classics Department and we look forward to many enjoyable lectures in the future! His talk, entitled ‘Fun with Achilles: Late Roman perspectives on the life of a Greek hero’, centred on depictions of the young Achilles taken from the Kaiseraugst silver plate (circa 330 AD). This rather large decagon traces ten stages of the hero’s life from birth to the eleventh, central image when he is discovered on Skyros by Odysseus. The plate would have been the centrepiece of a Roman dining table. It was a thoroughly enjoyable, well-illustrated talk. May 14 saw us welcome Members’ Papers to the Branch. This very popular evening showcases a variety of topics from the people who attend so faithfully during the year. This time we had three papers: Nora Comerford spoke on ‘hedge’ schools, links with Classics, and how the Irish saved civilised literature! Hedge schools evolved as a result of the Penal Laws, the first of which was instituted in 1695 and forbade Catholic education. By 1740 jurors were urged to prosecute people who were involved or supported the education of the masses. A landlord’s attitude was: “Better to be hammering an anvil rather than learning bog Latin!” However, hedge schools thrived. 9