CLASSICAL ASSOCIATION OF IRELAND
May 2019 On a final note and a sad one, the Cork Branch would like to express its sympathy with the family of the late Brian O’Connell. Brian, a Dublin Branch member, was a stalwart of the CAI. His unfailing optimism, positivity and support will be sadly missed at the summer schools, Branch and council meetings. J. O’Donoghue
CAI LIMERICK After the busy programme of lectures during the Autumn Term of 2018, we took things easier in the Spring Term following, with three lectures all given by our own Branch members. On 27 February Ms Paula Keane gave ‘An Introduction to Greek Pottery as in the Ashmolean Museum’. Mr Tom Seaver followed on 13 March with a repeat of his Presidential Address, ‘A Century of Classics in Ireland (1908-2018)’. On 10 April Patrick Ryan spoke on the theme ‘With the Gods on our side: Ritual and Hoplite Warfare’. Lastly, on 15 May Dr Martin Pulbrook, formerly of the Classics Department in Maynooth University, on his first visit to the Branch, delivered a lecture on ‘Feminism in Ovid’s Heroides’. The final event of the programme is the Annual Branch Dinner, which will take place in the Unicorn Restaurant, Dooradoyle, on Thursday, 23 May, at 7.30pm, dining at 8.00pm. Greek classes resumed on Monday, 29 April, under the tutelage of Patrick Ryan, who may be contacted at p.strepsiades@gmail.com. Tom Seaver (Branch Hon. Sec.)
MAYNOOTH UNIVERSITY Cum vere rubente/candida venit avis (Virgil, Georgics 2.319-320), as the poet says, yet the white bird of spring does not yet seem to have landed in chilly Maynooth. In the meantime we have enjoyed warming food for thought from several speakers in our seminar series. We welcomed our newest member of staff, Dr Jonathon Davies, to Maynooth this academic year. Jon has had a busy year and it has flown by. He ‘leaned in’ to present a seminar on 26 April, ‘A haunt of jackals: Rome as Babylon in Josephus’ Jewish War’. Jon wove a seamless
garment in his talk about the works of the firstcentury historian Josephus, his derring-do in the wars between his native Judaea and Rome in the first century. Treading a difficult path culturally and diplomatically, Josephus (later Flavius Josephus, the change of name signifying his strategic change of loyalty to Rome), wrote about the war in ways both his native and adopted audiences could interpret with satisfaction. Rhapsody informed our opening talk also when Professor Armand D’Angour (University of Oxford) presented ‘The Rediscovery of Ancient Greek Music’ on 22 February. The link below should lead you to the first choral performance with reconstructed aulos of reconstructed ancient scores of Athenaeus’ Paean (127 BC) and Euripides’ Orestes chorus (408 BC), with the evidence presented and explained by Professor D’Angour: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hOK7bU 0S1Y Some of the research background is explained here: https://theconversation.com/ancient-greekmusic-now-we-finally-know-what-it-soundedlike-99895. This special event in our calendar was jointly hosted by the Maynooth University Departments of Ancient Classics and Music, in conjunction with the Maynooth University Arts and Humanities Institute. We are pleased to record our thanks to our colleagues in the Music Department and the MU Arts and Humanities Institute. Professor David Scourfield (Maynooth University) regaled us with ‘From The Ides of March to Augustus: Literary Form, Historical “Reality”, and Philosophical Exploration in Two Novels of Ancient Rome’ on 8 March, and we were delighted also to welcome former TCD graduate Dr Myles Lavan (University of St Andrews) on 29 March, who addressed us on ‘Who are the “Romans” in the Imperial Period? Romani and Rhomaioi in the First and Second Centuries’. We thank all our speakers from home and abroad and look forward to another productive year next year. Anois teacht an earraigh… Dr Maeve O’Brien
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