The Bacchae is more cringe-inducing than clever
Indhu Rubasingham’s debut as artistic director of the National Theatre tries to bring girlboss feminism to Euripides
ByAncient Greece
Herodotus was the least stupid tourist in history
Also this week: Confusion on Greek taxi boats and envying the “soixante-huitards”.
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The Return examines Odysseus’s last act
Ralph Fiennes plays the hero as a warrior shamed by his deeds and suffering from PTSD.
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Christopher Nolan’s Zeus complex
The Odyssey is the perfect canvas for the director’s obsession with power and time.
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Robert Icke’s Oedipus is a devastating, seamless update of Sophocles
This production imagines Oedipus (Mark Strong) as a contemporary politician – and achieves a level of catharsis rare for any…
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Why the British Museum should return the Elgin Marbles
Also this week: a night with U2 in Sin City and the courage of Salman Rushdie.
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The ancient Greeks will never be feminists
Publishing is obsessed with bending old male stories into womanly shapes.
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How the Greek revolution made the modern world
The 1821 uprising against the Ottomans won staunch support from Europe’s liberals. The precedent it set for intervention still echoes…
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The Greeks were right about wine: it is the definition of civilisation
To paraphrase a graffito uncovered at Pompeii: the man with whom I dine can never be a barbarian to me.
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What US democracy can learn from ancient Greek philosophy
In the face of intense political partisanship, Plato and Aristotle stressed the need for friendship among citizens and extolled the virtues…
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What the Ancient Greeks teach us
The value of Athenian tragedy in an age of anxiety.
ByThe ancient Greeks used quantitative easing
What can they teach us?
By‘The ancient gods of Greece are not extinct’
James Head gives his personal interpretation of the Greek Polytheist religion in the 21st Century
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