Mysore Malliga Vodies

Chronicles of Ancient Galactic

When, towards the middle of the sixth century AD, the Gothic historian Jordanes wrote in the Latin Getica , that is to say, the History of the Goths , he never suspected without doubt that his book would starting point for a comic science fiction published in the 2000s.

And yet it is an entity of this kind that a friend introduced me a few years ago, fully prepared: The Scourge of the gods , Valerie Mangin (the scenario) and Aleksa Gajic ( the drawing), published by Sun between 2000 and 2006. History in a nutshell? The confrontation between the Roman Empire and the Huns led by Attila ... in the distant future, with spaceships and interstellar travel in shambles.

Orbis Galactic Map. Source: site Chronicles of Ancient Galactic .

The end of the Roman Empire: quid, what gives?

The end of the Roman Empire was a period that is often poorly known, even when there is a student in classics (and even when one is in preparation). I must say it has the predictable failure to arrive ... at the end and that we tend to focus more on the best of times, as the end of the Republic or the beginnings of the empire, in short, the first and second centuries around AD those of Cicero and "twelve Caesars ".
When you do things seriously, we of course also examines the earliest times: the founding of Rome (Romulus, Remus and their wolf), royalty and how it is abolished (after the rape of chaste Lucretia by Sextus Tarquinius the infamous son of king Tarquinius Superbus), or the many conquests by which Rome gradually extended his power. And when you want some nice battles, there is always, for example, the Punic Wars that oppose the formidable Carthage to Rome (it holds especially the first two, in the third century BC.).
short, we do not already short of work, then learn how it all over it ends ... So put away the last centuries of Rome in the practice, but rather vague category of "Late Antiquity", a polite and somewhat contemptuous of designating anything that happens once all that was interesting to do has already happened. And yet, the end of antiquity is an exciting time in all areas.

The problem is that it's a big mess (and "bazaar" is a euphemism).

First, we show images of Epinal, a Rome weakened and decadent plundered by barbarians, but this is much more complicated. Over the centuries, the Roman Empire became immense, and he embraced and assimilated a variety of populations.
In 212, Emperor Caracalla granted Roman citizenship to all freemen of the empire who were not yet citizens: it puts an end to so many differences in status (particularly in terms of taxation and military service) who existed so far in the various provinces. This is the great strength of Rome from the Greek cities that giving foreigners the opportunity to fully integrate into the empire, the Greeks, for their part, refuse to grant citizenship in general that at dropper.
short, keep in mind that the opposition "Romans vs. barbarians" is not nearly as clear-cut: in fact, many "barbarians" had become Roman, and vice versa Roman culture was all but sealed the multiple influences local cultures of the provinces.

Image: amethyst intaglio representing Caracalla, 212 AD. JC, Sainte Chapelle, Paris. Source: Wikimedia Commons .

This belief Cloven, let's review the events. You should know that the Roman Empire, partly because of its vastness, eventually divide. The Emperor Diocletian is the first to have the idea with the system of tetrarchy, established in 285: he divided the empire in four of his subordinates, two August themselves assisted by two Caesars, in the hope of facilitate the defense of borders. Unfortunately this does not work well and the succession of Diocletian is particularly troubled because his former assistants are fighting the empire. The unit cost of power from Constantine and lasts until the reign of Theodosius (which definitely makes Christianity the official religion of the empire). But the death of Theodosius in 395, the empire is divided permanently into two: the Western Roman Empire and the Eastern Roman Empire.

When talking about the end of the Roman Empire, it is the Western Roman Empire, which is generally dated to 476 the disappearance, when the last western emperor, Romulus Augustus, was introduced by Odoacer, a Teuton, who commanded the Imperial Guard. This date is also used to mark the end of antiquity and the early Middle Ages. The Eastern Roman Empire, it is still powerful (proof: Odoacer, just after he was proclaimed king, swore allegiance to the emperor of the East) and it lasts much longer, since it becomes then the Byzantine Empire, which does not disappear until the fall of Constantinople was conquered by the Ottomans in 1453. This date is also used to mark the end of ... Middle Ages.

The Scourge of the Gods: the Roman Empire in the Galactic Orbis

If you've read this far, you have looked forward to spacecrafts. One minute it happens!

Now to the episode in the history of Rome, which inspired more precisely The Scourge of the gods. Much is known about Attila the Hun leader, nicknamed "the Scourge of God", by Christian tradition, as opposed to the "City of God" par excellence had become Rome. Less is known of the great adversary of Attila, Flavius Aetius, chief of the legions of the emperor at the time, Valentinian III. Yet Aetius who wins one of the last great Roman military victories, pushing Attila in 451 during the battle known as the Champs Catalaunian, which takes place in Gaul, somewhere in the vicinity of Troyes. The Getica Jordan, I mentioned at the beginning, are one of our sources on this. This battle, which resulted in the nineteenth century all sorts of exaggerations on "civilization vs.. Barbarity", is less known today. In ancient history, Attila died two years later, in 453, not without having made Rome tremble.

Image: Cover the full Scourge of the gods, by Aleksa Gajic. Source: site CAG

In The Scourge of the gods, the story is set in a futuristic Roman Empire, the Galactic Orbis, whose power extends over the entire galaxy ( orbis orbis terrarum or "disc of the earth" in Latin means the world). The main elements of ancient history are transposed to more large scale in most cities of the empire, such as Ravenna (where Valentinian III established his capital), Sirmium (hometown of Aetius) and of course Rome, become planets. Rome is other than Earth, and the seven hills in September .. moons embedded in the earth, where they form huge continents raised. This gives you an idea of the enormous scale of the story!

The cartoon obviously takes liberties with ancient history. Thus the Romans were not Christians, but still honor the pagan gods, and Aetius becomes a woman, Flavia AETI. But the story is far to be a simple transposition space opera battles Attila. First, because qu'Aetia discovered the incarnation of a goddess of war hun, Kerka (fictitious, as far as I know: the true pantheon hun does not look very well known). Then because Attila and Flavia AETI eventually discover a very old book which is nothing but ... the Getica Jordan. Therefore, they realize that there existed another Roman Empire thousands of years earlier, and that their own fate seems doomed to replay that of Attila and Aetius ancient. The two enemies are drawn to ally, and to discover that they are merely pawns in a plot much larger when other forces are at work. For centuries, the Orbis Galactic has turned into a fixed society, where any force for technological innovation is forbidden and nothing seems to have to move, but things are about to change.

First page of Volume 2 of Scourge of the gods. Source: GAC site

I can not say much more without spoiling the fun of reading. But this comic is in my opinion a great success.
She must in large part to the scenario of Valerie Mangin, original and impeccably constructed. Original, because if the theme of the transposition of ancient science fiction is not new (it is likely that the writer grew up when going on television Ulysses 31, the Franco-Japanese anime series Jean Chalopin, which transposes travel Odysseus XXXI century), it was mainly operated in the field of Greek mythology, but less, to my knowledge, Roman history, and also not so developed. Impeccably constructed a scenario, especially because the twists are linked Volume in the Volume over a plot with the ins and outs appear gradually, gradually gaining momentum. We feel that all was prepared entirely in advance, and the consistency of the six-volume history is very clear once play is complete.

But the aspect graph itself is comparable in quality to the script. Illustrations by Aleksa Gajic immediately plunge the reader into the dark and majestic in the galactic Orbis, whose costumes and architecture inspired blend ancient and futuristic elements, and the alliance between the design and realistic colors watercolor gives a very good result. Gajic control moods easily visible colors, lights and contrasts, and the "development box" of the story regularly gives rise to an impressive wide shots which give to see the enormity of this universe, without sacrificing the progression of the plot or leave a feeling of emptiness at the end of a tome.

I really do not have reservations, saying simply that he must love science fiction a bit dark and not be afraid to follow a horde of bloodthirsty Huns. We must also trust the story, including the issues and characters evolve much over the volumes.


Other series: The Last Trojan War and gods

Antiquity is an inspiration to almost inexhaustible, and the concept of the Orbis Galaxy was too good for that it is confined to a single series. Valérie Mangin has therefore created others in the same universe, the whole series forms a ring called "Chronicles of Ancient Galactic. These series are conducted before The Scourge of the gods , which stands at the end of the fictional chronology: they therefore form prequels that tell the origins of Orbis.

The Last Trojan, written by Valérie Mangin and designed by Thierry Demarez and published between 2004 and 2008, tells the story of Aeneas, prince of Troy and survivor of the war after the capture of the city by the Achaeans , to lead the Trojan survivors to another country (another planet) where they can build a new Troy.

Image: Cover of Volume One of the Last Trojans . Source: GAC site

Mangin inspired by either of the story, but Roman myth, that of the Trojan origin of Rome. A myth political and literary, as it was coined by the Romans to raise the prestige of their city, and particularly by the first emperor, Augustus (ist century BC., so), which the poet found the ideal person Virgil, who tells the epic of Aeneas in the Aeneid . After the fall of Troy, Aeneas wanders on the seas and eventually settled in Italy, where his distant descendants, Romulus and Remus founded Rome. The epic is Virgil's imperial propaganda in many ways, including training and a flattering portrait of Aeneas. Indeed, Augustus, grandnephew and adopted son of Julius Caesar, as he belonged to the people Iulia, an old Roman family which had always claimed descent from lulus, the son of Aeneas, more commonly called Ascanius. During his adventures, Aeneas descended to the Underworld, is also predicting the future glory of Rome and the deeds of Augustus ... This bias
policy does not preclude the Aeneid to be a masterpiece of Latin poetry and a source of delight for all lovers of mythology, and one of the best continuations of the Iliad and the Odyssey of Homer, which also draws Valérie Mangin here. In fact, Aeneas, during his journey, meets Lotophagi example, an episode that does not appear in the Aeneid of Virgil, but is directly inspired by the Odyssey .

I can not speak in more detail in this series, so I only read the first two volumes long ago. I remember being less excited than The Scourge of the gods . On the one hand because the drawing of Demar, including its colors, I liked least (but it is true that it is difficult to arrive after Gajic). On the other hand, because the scenario seemed less controlled and seemed to leave a little in every sense ... but we should see what looks like the result, now that the whole series was published. Incidentally, I'm still more ticklish on adaptations of Greek myths, so I'm not really neutral on the subject!

The first volume of a third series, The War of the Gods always written by Mangin and designed by Dean Yazghi this time, was released in February 2010. This time we are in Greek area, because the story is set during the siege of Troy and the main character Odysseus: The series takes place in the "first" antiquity, long before the founding of the Empire Roman Galactic. I have not read this series yet I am content, therefore, to note its existence.

Palaeography futuroscope

Overall, although there is concern that overuse of the vein would be detrimental to the quality of comics (as in other series from Sun, for example Lanfeust Troy), the principle of this series is eminently likeable, especially since the authors do not lose an opportunity to discuss their work on the ancient literature. The site series is well done in this respect: he speaks not only of the universe in the series, but also his sources of inspiration, detailing what items were taken or adapted. Valérie Mangin also includes some volumes of appendices explaining the relationship between its ancient sources and the universe it develops.

Image library in the world of Chronicles of Ancient Galactic . Source: site CAG

But really, what was the point of the writer? As stated on its website , she went through the preparatory classes before taking the competitive School Charters and to obtain, through Charters thesis, a diploma paleographer archivist. She then turned to the cartoon scenario, a choice that other Chartists had done before her, for example Franck Giroud, screenwriter of the Decalogue .
School Charters is school choice for historians of the Middle Ages, because it teaches palaeography, that is to say, the study of medieval manuscripts, as she prepares to contest the heritage, which can work in libraries, museums and national archives (areas unknown to the general public, but extremely interesting). But this school Hideout is THE best Latin scholars as one of the events of the entrance is a free version of Latin dictionary, which is enough to make you scream in horror most people but was not feasible (and it requires to master its vocabulary: useful when you need to read pages written in Latin script in a small weird).
Morality? Interest in ancient and medieval manuscripts never stopped loving science fiction or comic book writer to finish. Not so sterile it, dead languages ...

Message For A Newborn Baby

Jacqueline de Romilly (1913-2010)

" This article or section deals with a recently dead person (December 18, 2010) . (...) The text can change frequently, it may be outdated and may fail to decline. "

These phrases appear on the banner warning that opens in its current state, the article "Jacqueline de Romilly" from the French Wikipedia . Precaution is useful in addressing this kind of topic. We are at work or on vacation, or somewhere in between; the event occurs The news spread, it is learned, it is sad, as always disappears when a great scientist or a great researcher who scored your studies, we remember all sorts of things and we hope others, and we feel the need to say a word, without, prima facie, to have anything very new to tell.

Jacqueline de Romilly in his apartment in 2003.
Source: Liberation . © AFP Alexander Fernandes.

And after all, why talk now? Jacqueline de Romilly died: the event was anything but unpredictable, the situation is set to continue, we can take the time to think. Precipitation is a bad counselor, as well when corrected version at the last minute to make it in other contexts more routine.

Moreover, in the universe university, there are ways to hold on to writing for reassurance. They say an old man dies, a library burns, but issued an old man who dies is a library that remains: what a great console himself a little. On hearing the news, I was torn between guilt any khâgneuse not having read enough books of Romilly, of not knowing his work well enough to pretend to talk, comfort and drive the idea of power discover sooner or later (rather sooner than later, the thesis will not be alone) those of his books that I have not read, and reread the ones I had read long ago. It's like those huge editorial projects that one meets in the library when you start to use the money for the scholarly needs of a master's thesis, for example, the third edition of the Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft Pauly, begun by Wissowa in 1890 and completed in 1978 (84 volumes when they tell you to learn German ...): The work is so enormous that it exceeds the length of a human life. Most research projects are not so terrifying, but, in general, there is research that precedes by far the birth of the researcher and will continue long after his death. And after all, we are interested in people born and disappeared there are thousands of years ...

There is something to feel very small, but, in short, content: that people can be born, live and die in a given place at a given time, and that other people Elsewhere, much later, continue to consider them to be interested in this that their efforts were to think the human condition, develop a society, face all the problems that arose and to some extent still exist, and through this process of historians and anthropologists, feed their own thinking, thousands of years in the future.
Words of humanities and humanism have been used in many articles published on the occasion of the death (and that's a good thing, because we do not talk enough). In fact, far from reducing the study of Greek antiquity and in general the question (already large) transmission of a language proficiency, think that the approach of humanistic Antique world has the strong sense, as the science they use are the humanities: it's all about the bridge over the centuries and miles, and whereby disparate humans whose lives are at first sight nothing in common, are able to look to each other and recognize themselves as sharing a common condition, observed and constructed all kinds ways depending on the location, times and cultures. Be antiquarian, is like traveling through time and space to meet people who sometimes appear falsely familiar that are quickly radically strange, and yet neither more nor less human, no more or less primitive or civilized than ourselves.

(Photo: A copy of the Realencyclopädie in a library at the University of Göttingen. Source: Wikimedia Commons .)

"For me, I would consider that sufficient 'to these men whose value was translated into action, it also pays homage by acts like the fact that you see today in the official measures taken by them for burial "
(Thucycide, History of the Peloponnesian War , II, 35, Pericles' funeral oration for the dead of the year. Translation: J. Romilly)

Why talk right now, then? First, to give voice and to hear a different perspective than that of the gravediggers, the courtesy not to forget the true beliefs. In 's tribute to the Elysee Jacqueline de Romilly, the Presidency of the Republic, the state institution (which again, fortunately, are in the "long time" beyond the limits particular quinquennium) expressed, as it could only do so in such occasion, and with the dignity appropriate. But it is difficult to recognize in this press voice of the current President, as it is difficult to reconcile this speech with the policy pursued by successive governments.
The opposition between words and deeds is a common method of classical Greek rhetoric: it therefore mobilize our turn, and after this rain-deserved tributes sent to an ardent activist for the protection of literary education, are pushing up 'to obtain satisfaction, asking again and again acts. How much longer will he justify the existence of teaching Latin and Greek from High School? How long will it assert the right of students to study what interests them, and defend that right in front of the pseudo-utilitarianism, which claims to hold the debate by drawing suspicion on the "usefulness" of these materials, better hide the assumptions could not be more objectionable to the "strategy" underlying policy? This policy has beautiful game to budget cuts and closures of positions in the service of an ideology claiming to prepare students for the labor market, but it deprives them of the reality of openness and critical thinking that they are essential to navigate the world as well as "active" than as citizens.

remember it again: this is not to affirm the importance of Latin and Greek as a sort of extra something that would act as the cherry (or humanist) on the cake basic teachings of the school, designed as the only really "useful". Restrict the discussion to the question of the usefulness of Latin and Greek returns to guide the eye from the outset against them. Judged by this yardstick, neither history nor French, nor even the math would be more useful (and also we did not hesitate to challenge the teaching of history secondary). It does not fall into the opposite extreme and claim that everyone should learn Latin and Greek. Let's go to Jacqueline de Romilly, precisely in an article published by Liberation in August 2004 "Elitist, no. What I want instead is that all students who wish may study ancient Greek. And not impose it on everyone. "

What matters is not to close its doors to students on the grounds that" it will avail them nothing. " Do not we see the utter contempt that permeates such a conception of teaching? Do we see not that people who despise the Latin and Greek are claiming that this material "privileged" material "elitist" and take this as a pretext to demand the closure of these teachings, these people are precisely those who seek to make these materials of elite materials, and to reserve a privileged few, by ensuring that as many, convinced of their uselessness, is not interested?

(photo: teacher and student with shelf. Cylix of Douris, Berlin, Altes Museum, F 2285.)

On the need to begin learning the ancient languages in high school, I am sure. If it is possible to quickly acquire a strong background in Latin and Greek in the university who discovered, it assumes a more difficult and nothing, in my opinion, can replace the experience that gives the student attendance extended texts of practice permitted by the version and the study of texts in class from the college or high school. It translates famous pieces of ancient literature, and I welcome all kinds of surveys, which provide much more attractive avenues of readings, each of which just be a valuable culture for further studies.
I could also remember the immediate concern posed by the mastery of these languages and knowledge of these texts for subjects such as French, history, philosophy (and even if one took the trouble, the mathematics and physics), but I like them too preterition to do so. I end on this subject, noting that it is not because one of the most visible walls of the ancient languages just disappear that these languages have no other defenders of all genders and all ages, including many are very young and, I fear, as vigorous as determined.

"The Permanent Secretary and members of the French Academy are sad to announce the death of their colleague M ^me Jacqueline de Romilly ..."
( News of 20 December on the website of the French Academy)

Who was Jacqueline de Romilly and what it leaves valuable contribution to Greek studies, the papers speak freely, and his page on the French Academy website may indicate you too. It was First, a brilliant student, whose background is impressive (do not worry: you can excel in this field without first, or first, everywhere) but also reflects changes in national education and cultural institutions: "Life Jacqueline de Romilly (...) is a kind of track record of victories of women in the cultural world of the second half of the twentieth century ", says Jean d'Ormesson today in an article in Le Figaro . To the extent that another section of Figaro awarded him the same day itself, something she would probably not appreciated, a title she has not, the first woman admitted to the competition ENS Ulm, information which, according to my documentation is false, the first admitted to the competition of Ulm who joined the school from 1910 (Jean-Francois Sirinelli (ed.), Ecole Normale Superieure. The book Bicentennial , PUF, 1994, p. 106, note 2), while Jacqueline de Romilly, born three years later, there came in 1933.

A pioneer period anyway, at a time when the SLA was essentially a male world, and long before the merger of the Ecole Normale Superieure de Sevres girls and ENS Ulm in 1985. And a route, incidentally, entirely based the possibilities offered by the National Education College Molière at the College de France and the Academy. Before you sigh at this face of good student so brilliant that it can seem overwhelming, it does not hurt to remember that it is "also" the role of public education that form excellent researchers in all fields.

The route of Jacqueline de Romilly is also representative of that of girls - and women - usually in higher education: after having long been excluded, they will now surpass boys in terms of results, and are majority in the humanities.

is a little surprising to see the French Academy, which offers all sorts of things yet, call Jacqueline de Romilly of "Brother". Even without being a fanatic of the feminization grammar at all costs, like SRS posthumously seems a bit strong. These snakes would they confused with Tiresias? Or have they given up writing "Sister" not knowing how to type an "i" in HTML (& # 339; without the spaces)? If "Sister" would not do them, they lacked the vocabulary or taste for variatio point finding nothing other than "colleague"? I can not bring myself to believe.

"... a pulsed light sources of a high civilization - Greek civilization" ( statement from the Elysee tribute to Jacqueline de Romilly)

Jacqueline de Romilly has mainly worked on classical Greece (that of the fifth and fourth centuries BC) and the literature of that era. She had dedicated her thesis to Thucydides and gave a clear and rigorous translation of his History of the Peloponnesian War to the Collection Universities France (and a single edition in translation, accompanied by a "dictionary Thucydides," in Robert Laffont). For anyone who has ever dealt with Thucydides' version, especially the speeches in Thucydides, whose style is frighteningly twisted is in itself a claim to fame. But outside this ktèma eis aei (this "treasure forever" in the words of Thucydides about his work in I, 22), she has published many books on classical Greece, literary studies and historical, as well as books addressed to a wider audience, where she defends the teaching of letters and ancient languages.

(Photo: Bust of Thucydides, Royal Ontario Museum. Source: Wikimedia Commons .)

While it is customary to ignore the faults of the dead man to raise his eulogy, I will not do here, not least because its merits as easily outweigh the defects in question. If we can blame something on the approach of Jacqueline de Romilly (I say this because I am far from alone) is to have embodied a vision of ancient Greece still strongly influenced by the myth the "Greek miracle", this design reduces Greece Antique democratic Athens of the fifth century, which raises the fully armed like Athena from Zeus's skull in the adorning of all sizes. If that is attractive
this mirage, historians have had it cast off. Greece was far from being reduced to Athens, even if the Athenians would not have seen any objection. Thucydides, for all its rigor, was "not a colleague," as recalled by the historian Nicole Loraux. And Greek civilization as a whole can not be studied independently of the rest of the ancient world, including the ancient Near East. Is that ancient Greece, which history has one of the pillars of what is called a choice of European or Western culture, was terribly Eastern. And today, to speak of Greece, with or without mention of the ancient Near East can no longer be an innocent choice.
It is not, of course, to acknowledge Jacqueline de Romilly of anything: among many other possible reasons, she chose to specialize in the study of some subjects and a discrete period and it is not about questioning the quality of his work (that would be swollen!). There is more excuse for me to take this issue to draw attention to an issue of image and ideas received. Greece does more for the general public, being a sort of miracle marble born in the fifth century BC with the glare of a flash in an empty sky. And if I freely admit I, too, my admiration for this "civilization" (from the dangerous theories of Huntington, it should no longer use that word without quotation marks), I can not agree to read it praised as "very high" without me request "and the other, so they were not so high?" Do

see there is no excess in the cutting of hairs. What is at stake here was already in the nineteenth century, when the study of myths has made in a scientific discipline. As Marcel Detienne explained in Inventing mythology, the first mythologists had so much trouble admitting that the Greeks could believe in fairy tales - myths - as absurd as those which the early anthropologists discovered while around the world among peoples without writing, and even, in the words of Max Müller, "attributed to their gods of things that would thrill the most savage Indians." In a time when the humanities as essential as anthropology and linguistics were still in their infancy, it took much effort before an open mind we do recognize that the Greeks were not superior to "primitive", that primitive were not inferior to others, and besides, Westerners were not particularly savvy with the rest of humans. The same
Marcel Detienne also remember at the beginning of Apollo knife in hand, that this god, which readily depicts all reason and philosophy, which summarizes all the grandeur of antiquity with a capital A, is also the god who presides over the bloody sacrifices, the "butcher boy" who work in kitchens, even the god of violent, criminal rained plague on the Achaeans at the beginning of the Iliad (but I will not be too much on this last point, for fear of reactivating the other false image of the pagan gods, the one we inherited from Christianity and that boils down to enjoy their aspect of "Too Human" for better change tyrants libidinous).
short, we do not remember too how he must be wary of false familiarity of antiquity, whether Greek, Roman or Greco-Roman. It is in this false familiarity breed conventional wisdom. And if Jacqueline de Romilly herself knew what she was doing by confining much of his research at classical Athens, the image that remains of his work and circulating right now to the general public through tributes, articles and reports should not summarize the approach to ancient Greece that the deceased was a Hellenist.

Everything is in the image and the recovery can be made: at a time when researchers, guided by their findings and results of their research, are turning increasingly to the east when they study in Greece, Athens the image of a fiercely independent, on her own, the West can and radically alien to the barbaric boasted to face can become a convenient instrument in the political arena.
After all, being antiquarian today, it also wonder by what miracle the same political discourse can mobilize both the image of Epinal Islamophobic Muslims slaughtering sheep in a parking lot and another image of Epinal Greek philosophers chatting on the steps of immaculate temples, even though we routinely slaughtered sheep in front of these temples and it is hardly more than the creed East of Pythagoras ...


(sacrifice of a young boar. Cylix Attic red-figure painter Epidromos. Source: Wikimedia Commons .) Let us remain vigilant

on the use made of the classical period and the image (largely built by Athenian authors themselves) radiation in Athens, and do not summarize an otherwise ancient Greece broader, extending from the second millennium BC to the sixth or seventh century and includes many other exciting cities and regions that the only Athens, many other genres and art worthy interest that the story thucydidéenne or Greek tragedy. But these nuances and these precautions, it is time to greet her as she deserves the Hellenistic researcher, teacher and activist that was Jacqueline de Romilly, and the extensive work it leaves behind it, and we have not finished reading and rereading.

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Coup de gueule

Dear reader, hello, if you're peaceful and you can not bear any outbreak of violence, on your way, or rather read post from my colleague and friend on Homer and Star Wars you have a good time.

I intended to make a note entitled "Corrections, traps cons", who still can not delay, because I'm in reading the works of my dear students , but here, the Department of my university teachers really pushes the plug too far. This will be a big yell, hoping that the emotional release that will be enough to not be the next toast commentary.

("No Horn Blowing" photo Saragoldsmith; source: Flickr)

When I gave them my complete and fully completed, I asked when they thought that I could sign my doctoral contract, stating that I had to send a copy to the National Education before the end of November. It was now mid-September and charge me a big knowing smile and told me it was pretty broad and I did not make me worry.

The rest we knows: they merdouille for two months and made me sign only 8 , just in time for me to be paid in late November and not the end of December. "Fairly large", right? My foot.

So I hurried to send any copy to the Ministry on the eve of my departure to Italy. And then Monday after phone call of Education National: "Miss, hello, we would need the urgent amendment to your contract, because there is nothing on this that we guarantee that you do have an educational service."

I return to the Service of Teachers: "Yes, yes, we know, we're telling you to do that, do not worry, in addition to your Dept. has already provided a list of its instructors, so it will go fast. "

Friday, 26, re-call from the ministry:" We really need your endorsement, if you are considered on leave without pay and your mentoring will not validate your aggregation " (Which means more or less: "You have worked like crazy to get a tone aggregation? Well, too bad for you, you're going to lose because of administrative glandus not do their job in on time!" ) So I spent the afternoon trying to reach someone at SPE: Obviously, nobody answered. One result: I toasted my package.

So I went at dawn Monday, 29: "Yes, yes, I know, I'm sorry, but the university has obtained within the department until December 8. We do everything to sign today ' Today and tomorrow I begin to call the Doctor to just sign. "

After four days, still no news. I go back," Listen, I'm sorry, but the text is still awaiting validation and me at this point, I do really can do anything. All I can say is that it is the university who requested a delay to the Ministry, so they will be forced to comply ... "That was really the best omen ...

And now the coup de grace in an email from the secretary of my Dept.: "I inform you that the SPE will be closed from Monday 6 to Friday 10 December inclusive, due to relocation."

So there I lost it and sent a very angry email to the HR manager, explains, roughly, that was my future, it was more than two months they were not doing their job and if they do not quickly Magnant ass, I would blow up their mouth with their bare hands against a wall.

Tactically, I think it was not very smart.

Humanly, damn, what feels good!

And this is just the beginning: they expect tomorrow! move or not, I'm a BIG push to Northern gueulante! They had better move on Neptune, because the anger of Achilles is the gnognotte next to my First!

("Anger & Axis CBS LosAngeles Graffiti Art" photo anarchosyn; source: Flickr)

Update 08/12 / 10 : that's it, I finally signed! I had two emails yesterday morning one of the human resources manager, one from a lady I had never heard of, telling me that my contract was ready! 've Scanned and sent it by mail to the National Education as soon as I got home. No acknowledgment, but I guess there is no call from them is like.

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ἀλλὰ πατὴρ τεός εἰμί

(Drawing by Eunostos, December 2010.)

This is one of cream pies culture geek said. If you pronounce the sentence "I am your father", the caller, if he knows a little bit Star Wars , Immediately think replica "cult" of Darth Vader to Luke Skywalker which is one of the great dramatic moments The Empire Strikes Back cons (if you're looking "I am your father" on Wikipedia , it is actually the replica that you speak the article).
But a little common sense will soon suspect that this "I am your father", delivered in 1981 AD by the Gregorian calendar, is perhaps not the first replica of the kind in fiction, especially if the investigation is expanded to other media as cinema. Let's see ... What was there in the same kind with the ancients?

The Return of Ulysses

If you were a (e) small (e) Greek (that) born (e), say the fifth century BC, your culture would merit poets and particularly the largest of them: Homer (it matters little here that he really existed, the people of the time were convinced that, in this case is the same). In the event that you have the chance to be educated a little push, which was obviously not the case for everyone, you would have learned by reading your letters the two epics of Homer, the Iliad and the Odyssey . You'd probably also learned passages by heart (yes). And, throughout your life, you will come across references to Homer in a variety of contexts and in all sorts of people and writers, both poets, philosophers, orators, politicians, etc.. Nothing equivalent to the phenomenon geek there, of course: Homer was part of the cultural mainstream, paramount in the construction of collective identity of the ancient Greeks.
However, there is a "I am your father" in Homer: specifically in the Odyssey , singing XVI, v. 188. So probably the Odyssey a Greek of the classical period would think immediately on hearing the sentence.

Let me remind you just what it is about. If the Iliad told a few days of the Trojan War (the wrath of Achilles after a dispute with Agamemnon, king of Mycenae), the Odyssey , meanwhile, takes place after the end of war, and tells the long and perilous journey of Odysseus' return to the small island, Ithaca, he is the sovereign. In fact, for more than half of the epic, we follow several parallel plots. One, recounted in the first four songs, tells the journey of Odysseus' son, Telemachus, who travels to Greece seeking information on the fate of his father disappeared, nobody can say if it is still living and has a chance of finally returning after twenty years. The other plot, the best known is the journey of Odysseus himself, told a fairly complex, because the story begins in medias res , when Odysseus has wandered for several years and is prisoner of the nymph Calypso, and then we learn through flashbacks several (in literary analysis, it is called analepses), how he got there.

In XIII singing, Odysseus finally gives up on the shore of Ithaca, but his patron goddess, Athena, warned that other dangers lurking on again: his palace was invaded by a crowd of princes and nobles of Ithaca and elsewhere, the pretenders, so named because they are trying to force the wife of Ulysses, Queen Penelope, to remarry one of them, under the convenient excuse that Ulysses has disappeared and is probably dead, the whole course in order to seize the throne of Ithaca. Odysseus himself, returns sole survivor of its fleet after its sinking, it has no weapons or troops, and if he arrives at the palace in his true identity, he risks being murdered by the contenders, very superior numbers. Ulysses must disguise himself as a beggar and investigate to find allies in Ithaca and palate. Her first ally is of course his son, Telemachus. The song
XVI, Ulysses, with the help of Athena, momentarily gets rid of rags which he clothed himself and shows his son in his true shape. Athena gives him even a boost: it not only took away his disguise Shabby, but it makes it more beautiful than usual, so it looks like a god descended to earth. Telemachus, seeing him so changed, got scared, thinking he really dealing with a god, but Odysseus reassures him:

"I am not a god, why compare me to one of the immortals? I am your father , the one who has cost so many tears and anguish and for which you suffered the onslaught of these people! " (Meaning: the pretenders, who constantly seek to exclude Telemachus power, which would be the rightful heir. The translation is by Victor Berard.)

And here is our "I am your father" (e No Homeric Greek, it gives ἀλλὰ πατὴρ τεός εἰμί: "No, I am your father").

George Lucas (and Joseph Campbell)-cons attack

fans of George Lucas might be tempted to marvel again at the perfection of the master's work: "He had read Homer, and he refers to it in a roundabout way!" Not wanting to disappoint them, it seems very unlikely for two reasons. The first is the radical difference in the context of revelation: in the Odyssey , the revelation of the identity of Odysseus to Telemachus is a moment of great happiness, and is also a hub of plot, since the father and son together will be able to confront and chase contenders who covet power. In The Empire Strikes Back cons, it's a horrible revelation, made after a fierce battle, and that puts Luke in a situation of moral dilemma difficult to sustain.
Despite this, we could still believe, with a lot of goodwill, Lucas knowingly prepares a vision of the father-son relationship completely opposite to the one described Odyssey (the father becomes, not a model and an ally but an enemy and therefore a figure of foil).
Hence the second reason, biographical one: it is far from certain that Lucas had read Homer when he developed the plot of his first trilogy of films. Not at this level of detail, in any case, since it was not Hellenistic and has not really made classical studies (equivalent of our curriculum Classics).

However, Lucas has taken a course in sociology of myths in the 1960s (at least in the thick file that ends the first volume of the Omnibus edition of Star Wars novels ), so he probably had knowledge of the history of the Odyssey , probably not through an approach to literary studies , but through an anthropological or psychological, which focuses on "myths" understood as stories reduced to storylines, therefore considered outside the specific contexts of their literary or artistic evocations. Lucas claimed in particular the influence that had on him the work of mythologist Joseph Campbell ( including his book The Hero With A Thousand Faces , published in 1949 and translated into French under title The Hero with a Thousand Faces ), works that take a psychoanalytic approach, among others, in line with Jung. George Lucas is part of the many artists who, since the creation of mythological studies in the second half of the nineteenth century, were influenced in their work not only by works of artists from earlier eras, but also ( perhaps especially) by the currents of thought Humanities their time.
Parenthesis: the approach adopted by myths Campbell is far from unanimous among scientists, especially as regards his theory of "monomyth" (which tries to find the same narrative pattern and a common symbolic language in myths of the world). But that did not stop said monomyth become the darling of Hollywood directors, who used it as a working basis for achieving specific scenarios to gather a wide audience.

(Photo: George Lucas in 2009, then Joseph Campbell about 1984. Source: Wikimedia Commons .)

short, do not think it is easy to establish a direct relationship between the Odyssey and cons The Empire Strikes Back under the pretext that a father did recognize his son in these two stories: not only is it unlikely that the second does so voluntarily referred to the first, but this kind of scene recognition is a classical string (if not a cliché) tales of adventure. Above all me, since my 2010, which, being both player and spectator Homer The Empire Strikes Back cons, uses the latter as a prism through which to look at the ancient epic, so fun as anachronistic.

From greek paterfamilias the Sith Lord Black: What are dads now?

In this perspective joyful mix of ages, which is especially fun is to see how, here as often, the ancient epic has something fresh from his distant successors. Frankly, if I were to choose a father-son pair, between Odysseus and Telemachus or Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker, I would opt for the former without hesitation. A former Jedi who transferred to the dark side, the servant of a tyrant and inclined to the galactic arbitrary executions, tell me about a paternal model! What the hell he could have happened between the two so that the unhappy father spends long-awaited hero status to that of a mortal enemy?

In good scientific rigor, is the kind of question that would require laying a thesis (at least) to get a satisfactory answer. As we are simply a blog, and I've been very talkative, I blithely summarizes some twenty-eight centuries that separate Homer to George Lucas and I tell you, probably Freud. This time, moreover, is someone whom Lucas can only have heard about on the benches of the university, and is a researcher whose work has long influenced the study of mythology. In the Freudian perspective, especially when used in a somewhat casual, no matter the ages, geographical and cultural contexts, it is always the same drama that is replayed in the human psyche, that ( to stick to the best known) of the Oedipus complex, in which, as you know, the child is attracted by his mother and hates his father.

(Photo: Sigmund Freud, Max Halberstadt in 1922. Source: Wikimedia Commons .)

"Exactly, Oedipus, is much older than Freud," you say. "We are in ancient Greece, Oedipus and unlike Telemachus disagreement especially well with his father!" Certainly, and we could find many other examples of mythological characters caught in this kind of confrontation family (remember, without looking very far: Zeus, for example). Yes, but ... Freud made a very specific use of the Oedipus story, which he also uses one of the many evocations: Oedipus King, the famous tragedy of Sophocles. In the treaty The interpretation of dreams s he published in 1900, Freud employs the tragedy as an example to illustrate his theory on the psychological development of children. Example in which he says certainly find a confirmation of the generality of his theory.
Since Freud, the complex of Oedipus passed into everyday language, so that one refers to it as a kind of evidence. Except that Freud did, during the following decades, the subject of many questioned, which strongly nuanced (or more) his theories. But to stay on topic, have to say on the Hellenists of the Freudian myth of Oedipus and his dad? I pass the floor to Jean-Pierre Vernant:

But what a belonging to the literary culture of the Athens of the fifth century BC and transposes itself to a very free Theban legend much earlier, prior to the plan of the city, can it confirm the observations of a physician of the early twentieth century to customers of patients who haunt his office?

This question was taken from the beginning the article "Oedipus unashamedly" together in the first volume of Myth and Tragedy in Ancient Greece (a classic Greek Studies, which also includes articles by Pierre Vidal-Naquet). In this article, as its title implies wait, Vernant strongly criticizes the Freudian interpretation of Oedipus Rex , because it is not so easy to establish the constancy of psychic mechanisms in cultured human and at times radically different. That is certainly the kind of hasty conclusions that can not afford the method adopted by Vernant and colleagues, that of anthropology historical fact that lends a lot of attention to the specific context of each culture in a place and at any given time, and showed the importance of cultural context in the psychological construction of the individual.
assert anything about the psychology of human beings in general (hence the scale of the species in the world and throughout history) therefore requires multiple methodological precautions that Freud is not, partly because at his time anthropology was not yet as developed as it is today. Needless to say, in such a context, the "monomyth" to Campbell, who uses the same type of general statements (the existence of a symbolic language that can be found in the myths of all cultures) may have the greatest difficulty in proving its veracity.
But no matter: the artist is free to take over these interpretations, as those of Freud in 1900 than in 1949 Campbell, to make its honey in the world of fiction. Hence Darth Vader.

Should we complain? Should he miss the good old days of Ulysses dad? Not necessarily. For if one could show without too much difficulty as the Odyssey has helped build the ideal representation of the nuclear family as it was still over there is little in the Western world, and as it still appears in many public dramas (father, mother and child against the rest of the world), do not fool ourselves: the world of Ulysses was radically different from ours. And it would not really give us any lessons, for example, women's place in society (even if Penelope, overall, has not fared so poorly).

Ultimately, the only major final conclusion one can draw from this comparison is much smaller, and this is excellent site TV Tropes with his pragmatic way of any fictional theorizing processes, we can provide: "I am your father" is what is called a process Older Than THEY think, older than you thought.

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Operation Mani pulite "

Every week when I collect my pack to go over and I grab my new Best Friend Forever, I Velleda my marker (which I already had to change once, taking the XL model, which does not fit in my kit, but should last longer, I hope) I solemnly swear that today I leave there with hands nickel.

Markers are a girl's best friends!

What I mean everybody knows the chalk, small airborne particles that will whiten in a jiffy, and everyone has at least one anecdote of the teacher who, forgetting that his hands were covered, hit any point on its anatomy (as a rule, her posterior), leaving the same sudden trace of a magnificent hand quite suggestive and triggering the hilarity every time he turned to go to the board.

The whiteboard marker Velleda was supposed to fix that. Mistake, at least in my case. I do not know how I'm doing, but I always find myself at the end of class in the hands of a minor, a very becoming black, which means that, at this moment, I hesitate even to protect them from cold by burying them in the pockets of my big coat or put on my gorgeous red gloves.

thing I discovered to my second course, when, after a particularly lively session on "So, what would you have written instead of the journalist on that movie?", looking with satisfaction my students leave the room slowly, I rose (I'm still standing course, for those of lower ranks do not get off so easily, but I tend to lean to lean on the desktop) and noticed with some horror, mingled with astonishment that I had left it two magnificent marks black hands, perfectly clear. Turning his gaze to the heads, I could see that they were, indeed, all that was most disgusting. And yet, I did not feel like much writing on the blackboard during these two hours there.

Since then, I'm repeating myself "today mani pulite " loop like a mantra during the three hours before my classes, one second pause when I get hold of marker and hang like a damned the eraser, half past one or two hours later, the result is always the same: yuck.

It must be said that an accident is so fast arrived! You write a word, you forget an "s", a leg in an "m" you pass your sentence in the singular and, by reflex, first write a "-ent" at the end of the verb and wham! without thinking, you use your zolies mimine to clear before grinding. It's quick, easy and it requires a minimum mental effort.

Yeah. Except that little small correction after correction, your paws also become quite nasty if you did not have them washed the week. A bit annoying, besides the quite nasty in question, then sticks everywhere on the desktop where you rely, therefore, but also on your course, leaves you challenge your students at the end of the session, the switch, the door handle, the book you read in the RER, etc..

("Dirty Hands", photo by analytik; source: Flickr)

two options open to me so now: either I'm getting amputated both hands to make me graft instead Velleda two markers (or marker and eraser, your choice), but it might be a bit complicated for my then living off the course (because I try to have a life outside of my classes, contrary to what seems to think my students, who send me their stories at any time of day and night, Saturday and Sunday included), or I bump by wearing latex gloves, but then they already take me for a defect of Punctuation seeking to confine them in the classroom to prevent them from escaping , it does not settle my case. Although, if it can encourage them to make me their stories and their comments made in due time, all things considered, it might be interesting ...

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This is not to my pub, but next Friday, from 14h to 17h, I'll be at the forum on opportunities for commercial and literary prépas organized by the school e Pothier Orleans. My old school, whatever. One from which I joined.

Officially, I will represent the ENS and the die classics, but if there is no representative, I can also do Nanterre. Even the Sorbonne (trying not to break too, I promise - you know my intellectual honesty).

("Photo of LSU cheerleader at LSU football game year in Tiger Stadium, photo Justdog; source: Wikipedia Commons)

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" Andromache "in the French Comedy Theatre in Antiquity

Last Friday, I went with friends, the" Andromache " from Racine to the French Comedy . In view of critics, the World (too old so I can get you the link, sorry) like Pierre Assouline (whose title continues to plunge into an abyss of perplexity), it was double or nothing: either you loved it and hung, or they remained stranded and the two hours without intermission seemed very, very long.

In my case, I was rather between the two: I generally liked, but the choice of staging that have made me also periodically called upon to lift his eyes to heaven, sighing annoyance.

start with the positives: the decor is minimal, leaving room for any words of Racine, and that's pretty successful. Indeed, the text is more than enough, and when we decide to do in the ancient classical (columns, curtains), it is best not to overdo it, otherwise fall into the kitsch peplum ".

The music in the background I was not bothered either: it was not too strong, but besides that it does not go very far when we know what can be music contemporary classical today (but hey, I may not be very objective about it), because it was more or less the same sequence looping, I ended up wondering what she could serve. That said, why not.

In fact, the problem of this piece, it is not the archiclassicisme sets and costumes, but the choice of interpretation and diction.

I am not against the diction "Racine" ("what we imagine Racine" is more accurate) of pronouncing the text in some hieratic and solemn. After all, there has something solemn in the plays of Racine, which is that his characters are not the same attitude as those of Corneille.

But, it does was not necessary: 1) start to scream suddenly, without cause, 2) periodically take a hoarse voice halfway between Grendizer and Darth Vader. Friday evening, from my point of view (I may have a sharp tongue), Clément Hervieu-Léger (Orestes) and Eric Ruf (Pyrrhus) completely missed their entry because of it.

Moreover, the problem of the diction is that if one is not very good, it's horrible whenever Aurelien Recoing (Phoenix, confidant of Pyrrhus) Suliana and Brahim (Cleone, confidante Hermione) opened their mouths, I could not help but sigh and it was frankly impossible to be worse, although I admit that during the story by Cleone the arrival of Pyrrhus and Andromache in the temple, it was significantly improved for a minute or two.

Last confidante, Celine Samie (Cephisus), was she, not bad, but I wonder if this is not especially compared with the character Main accompanies it, Andromache (Cecile Brune): take a log, put him in Greek dress and you have the character we've seen evolve on stage Friday night.

One of my friends' m rightly noted that it changed the Andromache weeping mothers that we normally used. Certainly. And I recognize that the complete representation petrified in its sorrow over Pirro is not a bad idea. But finally, when it is not there, was it necessary to make it as devoid of expression and feeling? "O-my-son-o-my-father": a machine even pronounce the better. Even the famous description of the capture of Troy, a perfect example of hypotyposis (ie description so vivid that you feel you really have it in front), is completely missed: it leaves us as cold a recitation shopping list.

In truth, the real protagonist of this piece as it is put stage here is Hermione. Leonie Simaga is simply excellent: it makes it soft diction Racine, supports his character as ever and proves very clearly above all its partners, including an experienced player and he also usually excellent as Eric Ruf. ;

In short, if I had one suggestion for the French Comedy, it would drop "Andromache" and to rename their room "Hermione". This is only fair and there would be less fraud on the "goods".

In terms of going to see it or not, I leave you free to decide in the light of my report (as usual) because I can not advise you or discourage you. It's up to you !

(Last visit Hector to his wife Andromache and her son Astyanax, column krater Apulian red-figure, dated c. 370-360 BC. J.-C ., found in Ruvo, and kept at the National Palace Museum Jatta in Ruvo di Puglia (Bari province), Italy photo by Jastrow, source: Wikipedia Commons)

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Until ten years, the peplum seemed a kind exceeded, a closed chapter in cinema history. But since Gladiator director Ridley Scott in 2000, reappeared in the ancient theater, often in the form of American blockbusters.

The return of epic films

If you did a Latin or Greek, or even if you have been entitled to a history lesson on ancient Greco-Roman at the college or high school there are chances that you have been entitled to any of the chestnut classroom activities: the projection Peplum.

Péplum The projection in general is an attempt by one or more teachers of good will, they are summoned to appear active and dynamic ® ™, make it interesting for a course on ancient inevitably suspect asleep students (under the wisdom of wisdom, one of the equations is "old = boring"). The maneuver is therefore to bring a class or two in a room, in front of a television to watch a movie (or at least excerpts of a movie), assumed to enliven their daily manuals and handouts. And what film project for students when it comes to antiquity? A peplum, of course.

The Last Days of Pompeii , Sergio Leone, 1959 (Source: English Wikipedia ).

Problem: in the eyes of past generations, the epic films of the last century were quick to sound corny - in fact they were already old-fashioned at the end of that century, at which time yours truly was using his rear pants pockets on chairs a college (which does younger person). Several reasons This severe sentence. The natural aging of any artistic work is the first: any details beasts, like the haircut of the actors or the role of women in the plot, may raise a smile for generations. The choice of film, then, can be tricky: the peplum was a very fruitful relationship between gender, with a ladle, the years 1950 and 1980, and, of course, it has not only produced masterpieces lumber. As long as the film in question is served by a clumsy execution and / or a small budget, the short session for disaster.

Which brings us to the last element, which is quick to give the final blow to any peplum having the misfortune to be a little old: special effects. Few things age faster than in film special effects (even haircuts seem modern side), and some elements have a devastating effect most dramatically on the benevolence of the beholder. Even the wonderful animated sequences frame by frame of the famous filmmaker Ray Harryhausen special effects are not immune to the ravages of years. And how not to chuckle before other strings otherwise less elegant: plastic armor, giant boulders cardboard elasticity suspicious athletes pangratiast fierce struggle to fluff pretending to be real beasts ... Measured by this yardstick, the most honest peplum exposed to be relegated to the land of nanars under severe criticism from viewers. Goodbye new media driving the rescue of a presupposed ancient mummified: cinema itself gathering dust too fast! What, alas, what to do?

While interest in antiquity never really stopped, there was a good time (since roughly the early 1980s) that the film did more risky to large scale productions of Ben Hur William Wyler (1959) or Clash of the Titans Desmond Davis (1981). But to the delight of Antique world, the millennium seems to have coincided with a revival of the genre, mostly on the side of U.S. blockbusters, the industry is yet unwilling to take risks.

What causes this revival? In a first attempt conclusive Gladiator Ridley Scott, in 2000, whose success has encouraged the studios, if not to read the classical works, at least to put the nose into their archives and wonder how to restore a sudden the kind of young that had their heyday a few decades earlier. Since Gladiator, films about ancient are again more numerous: Troy (Wolfgang Petersen, 2004), Alexander (Oliver Stone, the same year), 300 (Zack Snyder, 2007), Agora (Alejandro Amenábar, 2009), Clash of the Titans (Louis Leterrier, 2010) or Centurion (Neil Marshall, the same year: Lina you were talking here), to mention only the most significant . Gone are the outdated special effects, instead of computer generated images and 3D.

These new epic films are present on posters in subway corridors, on the sides of buses, we talk in the media, and luck, sometimes we invite a historian to say a few words about the subject. For us young Antique world is a pleasure and an opportunity: not only it's interesting to see what the creators of these films, but also a (good) reason to speak of antiquity, Greek, Latin or otherwise, with a wider audience.

300 Zacky Snyder from Frank Miller (2007): Spartan hoplites facing hordes of Persian Immortals samurai-like backdrop of electric guitar. Reassure us: after a while, you end up necessarily suspecting that some things were not in Herodotus. (Image source: post on the official movie site .)

Criticism is Theseus ... and art is minotaur. How to watch Neo-peplum?

New problem: a film is not a history textbook or a course, or an illustration of an ancient text. It first ... a film that is to say a creation developed by a director in a very variable, depending on multiple constraints. Under the broad term of "peplum" I use here, camouflage themselves made all kinds of possible approaches to the ancient theater. On the dozen big films released since Gladiator not evoke antiquity in the same way as others. And for good reason: each was made according to a different aesthetic, belonging to a particular genre.

Facing these new visions of antiquity to the movies, an attitude all too common, sometimes in Antique world themselves (when they are not subject specialists, such as Claude Aziza, who no mistake not), is to watch a movie fresh out the eye, the other a history book, and play the game with seven errors of the eyebrow Zeus days of relentless storms. That date was incorrect, that detail does not match, that character has never acted this way, as decoration or armor is no time ... and now our developers changed into bad students, wearing their caps and all of dunce caps. Worse, they are accused of inducing error in the crowds, maintain a false vision of antiquity, instead of taking advantage of their privileged position of Artist in Wide Audience to investigate their world. "For once we are talking about the old stuff seems to say, it could at least be educational ! "

These criticisms are not entirely wrong: it is sometimes amazing to see how the ancient material, whether historical, mythological or otherwise, may be marred by some lazy blockbusters, despite the enormous potential it represents for any filmmaker. Yes ... but it should not be limited to criticism of this type, for three simple reasons:

- A movie not a documentary : it is not intended to tell the history, but foremost a history. A comparison term term in such detail as the film and historical truth can only be justified for a very special kind - the film history (and again). However, the majority of recent films about ancient are not like that. You can not judge a film's aesthetic program until it develops, or, in other words, gender or specific sub-genre which he claims. Ignoring this fact in a review would look at statistics on demography in the French novels of Balzac: it would be absurd. Zack Snyder's film 300 (released in 2007), for example, has beautiful inspiration from the battle of Marathon, he never claimed to reflect any historical truth: it is primarily a film adaptation of comic the same name published in 1998 by Frank Miller, a graphic novel which is influenced by the codes of superhero stories .

- On a broader scale, it must be remembered aesthetic language specific to cinema as an art (or cradle, if you prefer). You can not put it in the cinema the same way as in a literary or academic writing. And any film critic a little wise will tell you that in the case of adaptations literary works in film, for example, treachery well done, can yield a more friendly spirit of the work that most slavish adaptation. We can not fault the film Troy by Wolfgang Petersen (released in 2004) not to reproduce any such content twenty-four cantos of the Iliad , just as one can not reject as errors or betrayals of the new episodes invented by the film without first asking why the writers saw fit to introduce them into the story (it does not mean we can not do much more to blame this film but I talk about later).

- At a broader level still, we must keep in mind that a film is never created in the abstract, but it coincides with a time (in this case ours) that his imagination, his methods and his own concerns. The choice to devote a movie about this or that old is not innocent, but much depends representations associated with this subject and / or it may establish pretext indirectly to discuss such other matters of interest to the artist and his audience today. To take an example from the classical epics, where, in one of the first scenes of Ben Hur , Ben Hur, Jewish prince, finds his old friend Messala, now an officer in the Roman army, who explains that with aplomb ' must absolutely collaborate with the Romans occupying Judea its native state under penalty of all his people to "extinction," should not look far to realize that the film takes a clear vision of the Roman Empire, which approaches the Nazi totalitarianism in the time of the Second World War. Similarly, the film Agora Alejandro Amenábar (2009) is not a biography of Hypatia, a philosopher and mathematician of the third century, or rather he is not only that: it is also, even primarily, a reflection on religious extremism, fully engaged with the issues politico-religious world today.

These truths may seem self-evident, and even better if it does, but it is amazing how simplistic the problem "truth or lie? "Still influences some judgments about what type of movie.

Studying Ancient Images in

The Perseus of Benvenuto Cellini (1554, now the Piazza della Signoria in Florence - source: Wikipedia English ), poster film Clash of the Titans Desmond Davis (1981, source: Screenrush ) and displays his Greek remake in 2010 by Louis Leterrier. It's crazy, Perseus is always the head of the Gorgon in the same way ...

"But then you say maybe, such a conception of criticism is like leaving card white filmmakers to tell all the nonsense they want about antiquity. What will be the projection Péplum we talked about earlier? Should we give up? "

No, of course, quite the contrary. For, as in all areas, namely inequalities lead to inequalities among the spectators. Everyone is not armed in the same way to watch a peplum. An antiquarian, who knows his subject will recognize where the film takes liberties with history and with a step back and goodwill, will evaluate the benefits these differences and when these inventions have one. A student of Image Arts, meanwhile, will be better informed about the pictorial language specific to different genres, and with any luck, know quite well the history of the peplum genre to recognize the times and Movie allusions. But a non-specialist comprehensive risk missing out on many things.

Hence the temptation misnomer, want to play the film-a role that is not theirs, that designers of educational tools : We fear that works of fiction, involved in too complex "truth" ultimately mislead the least sophisticated viewers. But this is not the filmmaker to play this role is the teacher - or, more accurately, many more people than this: the designers of curricula, first, because teachers are required comply with the programs, but also in other areas, teachers and researchers (historians, Latin, Hellenistic, archaeologists, etc..), both in their research and teaching university in their work with extension the general public. This is an ongoing dialogue between the arts and waited and knowledge within a company. And most importantly, it is a finding of a high commonplace to recall how the art of the image are important in today's societies (they held an equally great in ancient societies, elsewhere: let us to believe that the ancients had only text, there is nothing further from the truth!). It is therefore important to stay in school environment, that students are introduced to the reading of images, as they should be ahead of the texts.

Few complaints to make about this, it seems, on the side of national education: these issues are slowly entering the curriculum of secondary schools, and cinema studies in universities spread. It seems, however, very few researchers have engaged in a detailed study of this new vogue for old movies. The specialists of the subject are rare (the best known and most visible in the media is Claude Aziza, but no researcher can cover by itself an entire field of research!). The Anglo-Saxon researchers, however, seem to have taken this train, since during my walks in search of virtual reference, the only books and academic articles that I found about this new epic films, apart from those of Aziza, appeared in English publications.

must say that exercise is not easy, since we want to do things a little good: Besides a solid formation of antiquarian, this requires knowledge of at least the basics of education picture, to analyze appropriately the script, editing, framing, light, correspondence between music and image ... But large gap is worth it. And if one thinks in terms of education, it can also, in a broader perspective, provide an opening to a reflection on the representation of ancient images in general, throughout the long history going to Greece and ancient Rome to our cinemas, through the ancient art of the image (painting, ceramics, sculpture, architectural complexes), the medieval representations (think of these illuminations where combatants of war Trojan are represented in medieval armor, as if we represented Achilles lattice brandishing a machine gun) and the paintings and sculptures from the Renaissance and modern times (the current exhibition at the Musée d'Orsay on the representation of history by the painter Jean-Léon Gérôme firefighter is a good example of the opportunities to reflect on the image). The revival of

peplum is not only the evidence that ancient still interested (for those who think otherwise), it is not only a way for the antiquarian to bring up to date or appear "fashionable" to better attract and retain students ... It's also the perfect opportunity to put all these recent works in their context, broadly defined, taking the necessary step back - say 2000 or 3000 years - to discover or rediscover the importance and the incredible wealth classical subjects in the figurative arts. And show everyone the dramatic continuity and abundant running from these early times until our own, through a slow evolution with multiple ramifications.

I talked about video games, too?