Visions of the Past: Punitive memory sanctions and collective memory in Late-Republican Rome (133 BC – 44 BC)

The Romans considered that memory could be dangerous. Hence, the ability to control or even suppress memory became a crucial component of political authority. Better known by the modern concept damnatio memoriae, punitive memory sanctions were applied in the principate specially to crimes against the princeps and his family. In the late republic, from the …

Space, networks and identity: Delphi as a ‘virtual centre’ in the Homeric Hymn to Apollo

It is, by now, a scholarly commonplace that Homeric epic addresses a ‘panhellenic’ audience (e.g. Nagy 1990, Marks 2008, Fantuzzi and Tsagalis 2015). However, whether or not a truly ‘panhellenic’ identity existed during the archaic period remains subject to debate. Given this, the means by which Homeric epic is able to address such an audience …

Carlos Saura’s flamenco Salome (2002): tragedy and a Mediterranean myth

The Herodian princess Salome has been the subject of numerous academic and scholarly studies, but my dissertation aims to add a new perspective by examining her incarnations at the cinema.  Beyond the two mainstream artistic Salome traditions originating from the Bible and Wilde’s 1891 play, this paper will focus on Carlos Saura’s 2002 dance version …

Poisoned by a Book: Foreshadowing and Confession in the Life of Oscar Wilde, as Charted Through Platonic Readings of The Picture of Dorian Gray and De Profundis

This article explores the element of foreshadowing and confession in the life of Oscar Wilde, as mapped through two of his most prolific works, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891) and De Profundis (1905). Oscar Wilde (1854-1900), alongside being one of the most prominent figures of the late 19th century, was a highly talented Classical …