Muse – April 2022

April 2022 Issue

MUSE

NAPOLEON’S CLASSICAL OBSESSION

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April 2022 Issue

THE SONG OF ACHILLES

Table of Contents I Napoleon’s classical obsession: how Ancient Rome in uenced every area of his rule.

II The origins of the hysteric woman

The Song of Achilles: read it and you won’t regret it

I Visiting the Ancient Olympics

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Philosophysicists; the origins of science in Presocratic philosophy

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April 2022 Issue

Classics Word-search

Article by Tilly Hooper

Napoleon’s classical obsession HOW ANCIENT ROME INFLUENCED EVERY AREA OF HIS RULE ‘I am a true Roman Emperor; I am of the best race of the Caesars - those who are founders.’ Napoleon Bonaparte, 181 Napoleon Bonaparte was born in 1769 in Corsica, an island belonging to France. He was brought up speaking Italian, and fast forward a few years in 1778 gained admission to the military college of Brienne, where he spent 5 years. It was here that he received an education in Classical Antiquity, which ultimately led to his reverence of ancient leaders and generals. He took particular interest in emperors and military leaders such as Julius Caesar, Augustus, Trajan and the Carthiginian commander Hannibal

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It is important to note that Napoleon was not the rst French leader to look towards antiquity for inspiration: the early revolutionaries drew many parallels between the new republic in France and the Ancient Roman republic. In particular Marcus Brutus, the infamous assassin of Julius Caesar, and his equally well known ancestor Lucius Brutus, responsible for overthrowing the last king of Rome and establishing the Roman Republic, were admired as Republican heroes.

In fact, Napoleon was not at all unique from many other rulers throughout history who have been inspired by an idealised view of the Romans: with their expansive empire, power in war, civilised society and production of great art and literature

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it's hard not to see the appeal. However, Napoleon is, to some extent, unique in that his (sometimes subtle, sometimes exceedingly obvious) adulation for the ancient world comes across in almost every aspect of his rule, from foreign conquest to his own image, even the title he gave himself The in uence of Ancient Rome can immediately be observed once Napoleon took power, particularly in the names he gave the institutions he instated, and eventually himself. He named the new executive body the senate, and named himself ‘ rst consul’. In 1804 he went further still and, just as Rome underwent a shift from republic to empire, declared himself ‘Emperor of the French’. This was a clever way to extend his powers without referring to himself as the more traditionally used ‘king’, as that would not have gone down well with the French people, and safe to say Napoleon did not

April 2022 Issue

want to meet the same fate as the last king of France. However the fact that he chose ‘emperor’ as his title con rms the extent of the in uence of Ancient Rome over him, and this is cemented by As someone who started off as a general, Napoleon’s relationship with and how he chose to run the army was exceedingly important, and as with almost every area of his rule one can observe the connections he forms, both symbolic and practical, between his army and that of Rome. His rise to power was suitably Roman, from the fact that he seized control of the nation as a military commander, to the politically questionable (or just downright illegal) coup with which he did this. These links carry on throughout his rule: as Emperor he was still commander of the French army, keeping military and political authority together in an era where they were increasingly becoming separated.

Arguably the most notable link is the fact that the French army marched beneath eagle banners, based on the eagle (‘aquila’) of the ancient Roman legions.

These became symbols of great pride and loyalty among the troops, with men often dying to protect them from capture Whilst Napoleon was far from unique in following the Roman desire for conquest, he was far more concerned with conquering Europe rather than the distant colonies that other countries were beginning to focus on in the 19th century. Indeed the countries he conquered, though different to how they were in Roman times, seem to follow a distinctly Roman pattern: such as Spain and Northern Africa in particular, but with a reversal of France conquering Italy instead of the other way round as it had been in Roman times. As well as this, in his Italian campaign of 1800 Napoleon was able to emulate (minus the elephants) Hannibal’s crossing of the Alps

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As brie y mentioned with the laurel wreath and eagle standard, the imagery of Napoleon’s regime drew heavily on that of Imperial Rome. Most obviously, Napoleon was always depicted displaying a laurel wreath in lieu of a crown, an obvious homage (or direct copying - take your pick) to Ancient Rome. Many artworks of this period presented Napoleon in poses and situations

the fact that he was crowned (by himself I might add - despite inviting the pope) with a laurel wreath. similar or in some cases identical to his Roman inspiration. This is exempli ed in Jean-AugusteDominique Ingres’ painting ‘Napoleon I on His Imperial Throne’. Whilst obviously adorned with full regalia, the golden laurel wreath stands out in a prominent position. His pose was also based on the statue of ‘Zeus at Olympia’ by Phidias, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, which although Greek is still an element of the ancient world being heavily drawn upon. As well as this, the revolutionary artist David’s painting ‘Napoleon Crossing the Alps’ emphasises how Napoleon tried to emulate Hannibal in taking his army over the Alps: in the bottom left hand corner ‘Bonaparte’ is carved into the rock next to ‘Hannibal’, explicitly making a link to the past. These depictions of Napoleon were not just present in paintings in grand palaces, but also on everyday items such as coins, constantly presenting the French people with Napoleon as the new Caesar. When observing coins that Napoleon commissioned, particularly the obverse, the similarities between these and especially coins of Augustus are striking: of course the laurel wreath, but also the waves in both mens hair, even the side pro le is almost an exact match.

Particularly these coins but also imagery as a whole were instrumental in the way the French people perceived Napoleon as many were still illiterate.

The fact that he chose to emulate so strongly Roman Emperors in the images of himself, even presenting himself as a ‘new emperor’ to a certain extent, was very signi cant: to him they carried across a sense of strength and power which he wanted to convey to the French people Napoleon also followed the lead of the emperors

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in architecture, public monuments and statues. The Roman emperors were well known for littering their empire with grand buildings and statues to proclaim the power of Rome and the emperor.

Napoleon emulated this by placing statues of heroes around the country, but focused most heavily on Paris. In an Augustan-esque manner Napoleon embarked on a programme of rebuilding and public works, some practical (new roads, abattoirs, markets and a new water supply) but others an opportunity for reliefs, carvings and sculptures. By doing so he essentially created his own ‘forum’ in the heart of Paris. The Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel, built between 1806 and 1808 to commemorate Napoleon’s military victories, was modelled heavily off the triumphal arches of the ancient city, with reliefs showing key moments and battles. Another example of this is the Vend me Column, with a spiralling pictorial frieze showing Napoleon’s 1805 victory over the Austrians and the Russians, which was heavily based on Emperor Trajan’s column built to commemorate his victory in the Dacian Wars.

There is also a statue of Napoleon on top of this column, dressed in Roman attire and again

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April 2022 Issue

crowned with laurels. As with imagery and portraiture, Ancient Rome was the key basis and inspiration for Napoleon’s commemorative monuments Overall this article has outlined an overview of how Ancient Rome in uenced Napoleon in every aspect of his regime. In order to understand Napoleon and his empire, the in uence of Rome on him must be understood, as the Napoleonic age was decisively shaped by the legacy of Rome. As Napoleon was trying to present himself as saving the French people from the chaos of the terror, to him using a Roman model was the perfect way to do so, as they were not only a symbol of great military power, but of wise government and early civilisation. His classical obsession is not only important to remember when studying him, but during his conquests particularly of Rome he had a special interest in wanting to protect and investigate Rome’s relics, and indeed it was during the French occupations of Rome that the rst systematic excavations of Rome’s monuments were carried out, such as around Trajan’s column.

April 2022 Issue

Article by Emily Payne

The Song of Achilles: Read it and you won’t regret it For those who missed this BookTok craze, The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller is a ctional book, told from the perspective of Patroclus. This book de es all the typical historian ‘they were good friends’ nonsense; it is quite clear that in this story, Achilles and Patrocles are de nitely more than friends. Instead, the book tells the heartbreakingly beautiful love story of Achilles and Patroclus, from childhood up until their deaths The book starts with the ‘and they were roommates’ trope, when Patroclus’s father exiles him to Phthia where he befriends King Peleus’ son, Achilles. Although initially resistant to his friendship (enemies to lovers, anyone?) Patroclus becomes Achilles’ brother-in-arms, sworn to him by blood oath and love. In a lot of ways, reading this is like reading Romeo and Juliet. We all know the story, we all know the outcome, but the journey that The Song of Achilles takes you on to get there is truly magical. Even though you know how the story will end (if not, you might need to brush up on your mythology - I suggest The Song of Achilles) it is surprising how much you care what happens to the characters Reading this book is a perfect rollercoaster, with dips and turns that leave you reeling.

Madeline Miller can lull you into a false sense of calm and then spring out a few plot twists that honestly, you’re not prepared for. The Song of Achilles is also relatively close to the plot of the Iliad, so it’s perfect if you're looking for a roughly accurate version of this. The characterisation is incredible, and for those thinking that reading from Patroclus’ point of view might not be interesting because he’s not the main hero, stop. Seriously, Patrocles is one of the few characters with more than a single brain cell (and even this is sometimes debatable) I suppose I should say a word of warning for those wanting to read this book: it will seriously play with your emotions. The Song of Achilles might mess you up a little bit, but only in the best way possible. If you don’t want to take my word for it, well, I guess you’ll just have to read it and get back to me, won’t you In the meantime, here’s a quote, just to get you started

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"Name one hero who was happy... You can't... I'll tell you a secret... I'm going to be the rst."

April 2022 Issue

Article by Lily Habibiyan

The origins of the hysteric woma

THE ROOT OF MODERN-DAY MISOGYNY In modern day society, there is almost this

be done by placing decomposed

innate knowledge that there are certain

substances near the woman’s mouth and

insults we only associate with women, one

nostrils, while scented ones were placed

of the most historically told being

near her crotch; on the contrary, if the

hysterical. Derived from the Greek and

uterus had lowered, the document

Latin words for uterus, hysteria was an

recommends placing the substances near

extremely common medical diagnosis that

her vagina and the perfumed ones near

happen to have started in Ancient times, as

her mouth and nostrils

an illness solely attributed to women.

We also see hysteria in the Greek world: The oldest record of hysteria dates back to

Argonaut Melampus, a physician, is

1900 B.C., when Egyptians recorded

considered its founder: Melampus spoke

behavioural abnormalities in adult women

of the women’s madness as derived from

on medical papyrus, and it identi es the

their uterus being poisoned by venomous

cause of hysterical disorders as

humours, due to a lack of orgasms and

spontaneous uterus movement within the

“uterine melancholy”. Thus arose the idea

female body. If we go even further back in

of a female madness related to the lack of a

history, in 1600 BC, the oldest medical documents contain references of the socalled ‘disease’ to depressive syndromes, traditional symptoms of hysteria were described as tonic- clonic seizures and the sense of suffocation and imminent death.

We also nd indications of the therapeutic measures to be taken depending on the position of the uterus, which must be ‘forced to return to its natural position’. If

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the uterus had moved upwards, this could

April 2022 Issue

normal sexual life. Meanwhile,

woman’s body is physiologically cold and

Hippocrates was the rst to use the term

wet and hence prone to putrefaction of the

hysteria, along with his oddly disturbing

humours (as opposed to the dry and warm

theory of the ‘Wandering Womb’: “In the

male body). For this reason, the uterus is

middle of the anks of women lies the

prone to get sick, especially if it is

womb, a female viscus, closely resembling

deprived of the bene ts arising from sex

an animal; for it is moved of itself hither

and procreation, He went further; claiming

and thither in the anks, also upwards in a

especially in virgins, widows, single, or

direct line to below the cartilage of the

sterile women, this “bad” uterus, since it is

thorax, and also obliquely to the right or to

not satis ed, not only produces toxic

the left, either to the liver or the spleen,

fumes but also takes to wandering around

and it likewise is subject to prolapsus

the body, causing various kinds of

downwards, and in a word, it is altogether

disorders such as anxiety, sense of

erratic. It delights also in fragrant smells,

suffocation, tremors, sometimes even

and advances towards them; and it has an

convulsions and paralysis. For this reason,

aversion to fetid smells, and ees from

he suggests that even widows and

them; and, on the whole, the womb is like

unmarried women should get married and

an animal within an animal.”

live a satisfactory sexual life within the bounds of marriage

He believed that the cause of this disease lay in the movement of the uterus

Although today we consider the concept

(“hysteron”), and provided a good

of “mass hysteria” to be non gender-

description of hysteria, which is clearly

speci c, that phrase was also once

distinguished from epilepsy. He

attributed exclusively to women—or

emphasised the difference between the

collective absurdity caused by women.

compulsive movements of epilepsy,

There were many theories to why only

caused by a disorder of the brain of

women obtained ‘hysteria’, and although

women, and those of hysteria due to the

we know now that the illness was more

abnormal movements of the uterus in the

likely to be related to mental health, it

body. However, he still relentlessly

could be argued to be the cause of the

expressed his belief of the idea of a restless

misogynistic society we faced for so many

and migratory uterus was due to an

years, and still live in today.

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inadequate sexual life. He asserted that a

April 2022 Issue

Article by Charlotte Brad eld

Visiting the Ancient Olympic Unlike the modern Olympics, the Ancient Olympics took place at the same site every four years, instead of moving locations. The Olympics are traditionally thought to have been held between 776 BC and 393 AD. The Ancient Olympics were not just sporting events, as they were also heavily in uenced by religion, held in honour of Zeus. This meant that the Olympic site at Elis consisted not only of the Stadium but also religious buildings such as the Temple of Zeus, which housed the cult statue of Zeus, one of the seven wonders of the Ancient World Unfortunately, no women above marital age (13-15 years old) were permitted into the Olympic site, on pain of death. Only freeborn Greek men were allowed to participate in the games, as long as they met the entrance criteria.

There was no formal accommodation at the Olympic site. Instead, everyone camped in the surrounding valley.

With up to 100,000 spectators, it was very dif cult to nd a place to sleep for the night. Most of the visitors spent the 5 days of events in a perpetual state of exhaustion because of the heat, noise

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and lack of shelter.

April 2022 Issue

As for food, it seems that most people purchased their food from vendors selling fast food at the Olympic site, which was ready-cooked. Meat pies, bread and cheese, and ‘fresh’ sh were staples. The sh, which would have been at least a day old by the time it reached Elis, was reportedly dipped in water to make it seem fresher then it actually was.

Schedule of events Day 1

Morning

Swearing-in ceremony for competitors and judges Contests for heralds and trumpeter Youths’ running, wrestling and boxing contests Prayers and sacri ces in the Altis

Afternoon

Speeches by philosophers, poets and historians Sightseeing tours

Day 2

Morning

Procession by all competitors Chariot and horse races

Afternoon

Pentathlon: discus, javelin, jumping, running and wrestling

Evening

Parade of victors Feasting and revelry

Day 3

Morning

Procession of judges, ambassadors, competitors and sacri cial animals 100 oxen are of cially sacri ced

Day 4

Afternoon

Foot races

Evening

Public banquet

Morning

Wrestling

Afternoon

Boxing The Pankration (a more violent form of wrestling)

Day 5

Procession of victors to the Temple of Zeu

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Feasting and celebrations

April 2022 Issue

Article by Isabella Logothetis

Philosophysicists; the origins of science in Presocratic philosophy In its contemporary climate, philosophy is often recognised as a body of doctrines which supports the individual conception of knowledge or morality, when in fact, it is a word used to demarcate a rational kind of inquiry. Ergo, despite the current informal conception of philosophy as a subjective position on the fundamental dilemmas of society, the origins of science actually lie in natural philosophy. The Milesian naturalists, a school of Presocratic philosophy belonging to the 6th century BC, are generally agreed to be the genesis of the entirety of Western philosophical thought. This revolutionary group consisted of three Ionian cosmologists; Thales, Anaximenes and Anaximander, all of whom, despite the confusing similarity of the latter two’s names, had radically divergent conceptions of the origins of the substance of the universe. Replacing the anthropomorphised gods and their supposed supernatural power over nature with scienti c

However, one of his most prominent creations

explanations for natural phenomena, they

is that of material monism, which provides an

battled against religious tradition by

explanation of the physical world based on the

associating divinity with their respective

idea that all material is composed of a single

arche, or fundamental element, through

element, a basic material principle. For Thales,

hylozoistic belief (that matter is in some sense

this was water; he posited that the world oats

alive)

on water like a piece of wood. It’s not dif cult

science in his revolutionary methods of

given the importance of water for life in

naturalistic theories and hypotheses as

plants, animals and humans. It is unclear as to

opposed to mythological explanation.

what degree Thales considered water to be

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one in a world devoid of scienti c knowledge

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Science”, acted as a precursor to modern

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conclusion, as it is not an immediately illogical

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to see how he may have come to this Thales, often referred to as the “Father of

April 2022 Issue

responsible for the constitution of substances,

sun surrounding it. And it would take

particularly dry ones, and the idea that he

centuries for humanity to realise that the solar

thought everything was literally made of

system is in fact heliocentric instead

water seems doubtful. However, he also came up with the rather interesting argument that

The nal Milesian naturalist is the delightful

both magnets and amber had souls, because

Anaximenes, who differed from his teacher

they were able to initiate motion (magnetism),

Anaximander in both the -enes and, once

so it is dif cult to deduce the extent of his

again, his consideration of the basic material

scienti c imagination

principle. He returned to the initial four elements, stipulating that air was the primary

Then came Anaximander, Thales’ pupil, and

substance of the universe, and that the Earth is

teacher of Pythagoras (for those of you

a at disc of compressed air riding on top of

learning his theorem in maths, you can thank

gaseous air. He came to this conclusion

Anaximander). In regards to the basic material

through the idea that air and the known

principle, he departed from his contemporary

physical process combined would lead to the

periodic table consisting of the four elements

three other elements: air + condensation =

and settled on the notion of apeiron, meaning

water, air

in nite or limitless. Essentially, he believed

two time concentration = earth, air +

that the beginning, or ultimate reality, was

rarefaction = re. Thus, air is the fundamental

boundless, and is from which everything is

principle and “encompasses the whole world”

three men, who despite their misled ideas

Anaximander is the “Father of Cosmology”,

about the shape of the universe and the souls

creating the rst geocentric mechanical model

of various rocks, started the journey that led us

of the Earth in which it oats very still at the

to our modern scienti c understanding of the

centre of the in nite, with the stars, moon and

universe.

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known as the “Father of Science”,

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in CaCO3, I encourage you to think of these

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of Quantum Mechanics). While Thales is

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attempt to calculate the percentage of calcium

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comment on the Many-Worlds Interpretation

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So the next time you look at the stars, or

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in nite worlds (which seems like an ancient

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generated and then destroyed, including

April 2022 Issue

Puzzle by Tilly Hooper

April 2022 Issue

ANSWER KEY

April 2022 Issue

THE MUSE MAGAZIN ___________ Editor Tilly Hoope Lily Habibiya Writer Emily Payn Charlotte Brad el Isabella Logotheti

Want to get something published

- Come to Senior Classics Society (Thursday at 1.30 in MG5

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- Email your submissions to mhooper@… or lhabibiyan@…