The C5th BC Father of History, who pioneered the systems of ‘inquiry’, holds a mirror up to our own concerns about East and West. Herodotus has an almost modern fascination with the variety of human culture.
The first of 13 sessions exploring the wonders of Ancient Greece, as part of our commitment to Britain's Olympic year.
The classicists explore the idea of Greece - the aspirations and the concepts of civilisation, democracy, drama, virtue, victory, liberty and xenia, and discuss what the study of Classics has meant in the wider world.
The classicists balloon-debate the strengths of the two superpower city States who fought the Peleponnesian War 431-404 BC - the artistic Athenian democracy and the military oligarchy in Sparta.
Long in search of nationhood and identity, Wales has had more than its fair share of political heroes. But there have been villains, too, and those who’ve moved swiftly from heroes to zeroes. Who are they and what have they achieved?
The classicists examine the recounting of funeral games, athletic odes and Olympic trials in Homer, Hesiod, Pindar, Bacchylids and Euripides. What are athletes for?
What do the surviving Greek tragedies and comedies, and the information we have about their performance and audiences, tell us about the Classical world?
What were the conditions that made homosexuality an easy norm in ancient Greece? It’s given us some of the world’s greatest works of art, stories and Sappho’s poetry.
