November 2017
CLASSICAL ASSOCIATION OF IRELAND
CAI BRANCH & UNIVERSITY NEWS CAI CORK By the time you read this, the Cork Branch will have completed its autumn programme. October saw us welcome Dr Daragh O’Connell from the Italian Dept of UCC. Darragh spoke to us about Virgilian Hauntings: Dante and Heaney, Reading Aeneid VI. We learned that Dante was a mediating figure between Virgil and Heaney. Virgil is Dante’s guide but Virgil is not a Christian so he is relegated to limbo. Dante believes Virgil cannot believe in Christianity: “Without faith, doing good is no good.” We look forward to Dr Michael Williams of Maynooth University in November and John Ware of UCC in December. More detail of these lectures will appear in the spring newsletter. J. O’Donoghue
CAI DUBLIN The Branch year began on 19 January with Dr Anna Jurkewicz leading the Latin Reading Group in a consideration of some correspondence between the late Roman poet Ausonius and his former pupil Paulinus of Nola, bishop and saint. The following evening the Dublin Branch annual dinner was held in Roly Saul, Dundrum. The food, the environment and, most of all, the company were idyllic – an exhilarating atmosphere and a successful occasion. On 5 February Gearóid Ó Broin conducted the Latin Group through a translation and appreciation of an excerpt from Lucretius’ De Rerum Natura. A Branch lecture was given on 21 February by Lucia Mariani. The subject was Hermione from Greek literature to Rossini. The lecturer is a PhD student at the Università del Piemonte Orientale and a visiting PhD student at UCD. She is also an accomplished violinist. Her Hermione was strong and jealous, as is shown in the works of Euripides, Ovid, Racine, and Rossini.
At the Latin Group meeting on 8 March Prof. Andrew Smith introduced readings from Virgil’s Aeneid to explore Aeneas’ rejection of Dido, with passages of Seneca and Augustine illustrating ancient concepts of duty vs desire. On 28 March Dr Jacopo Tabolli (TCD) gave a powerful lecture on women’s roles in pre-Roman Italy. He has a PhD from La Sapienza, the University of Rome, and specialises in Etruscan burials. He also delved into recent archaeological discoveries in Etruria. Dr Joan Wright introduced the Latin Group reading on 5 April to passages from Ovid’s Metamorphoses with the theme of bird transformation, including Halcyon and Ceyx, and the story of Philomela, Procne and Tereus. Dr Kerry Phelan (Maynooth) gave a fascinating lecture on 25 April dealing with the problem of citizenship in Athens. This was based on a law court speech by Demosthenes in favour of a man trying to regain his lost status as a citizen. If his action failed, slavery could result, hence the importance of the case. Ms Geraldine FitzGerald took the Latin Group on 3 May through three of Horace’s Odes from Books II and IV, reading, translating and discussing the poet’s thoughts and intentions. The annual Branch outing took place on 13 May to Kells Priory, Co. Kilkenny, and the 8th-9th century High Crosses at Ahenny, Co. Tipperary, with a delicious lunch at Langton’s in Kilkenny city. A brochure was distributed and Brian O’Connell gave extra information. There was no session leader at the Latin Group meeting on 30 May; instead, each participant brought along their own delicia Latina, explained their choice of text, then had their piece read, translated and discussed by the group. The meeting took place in the Library Bar of the Central Hotel and was appropriately sanctified by the requisite libations. On 11 October Dr Alexandra Eckert led the Latin Group through De Crudelitate, the first time the Group had read material from Valerius Maximus, and his discussion of cruelty. Brian O’Connell 9