Rowland Smith
‘Trader or Pirate?’
Travelling Heroes: Greeks and Their Myths in the Epic Age of Homer
By Robin Lane Fox
Allen Lane/The Penguin Press 513pp £25
The charm of Ischia in the Bay of Naples gave Cyril Connolly small cheer when he holidayed there in the summer of 1956: he was an Eeyore in the sun, brooding on his flighty wife abandoning him for a younger man. If he had known what archaeologists digging on the island at the time were turning up, he might have reflected that there are worse things to suffer. At Monte Vico, on the island's north-western edge, excavation had recently unearthed a grave dug around 720 BC to house the remains of a ten-year-old boy. Alongside them, his family had placed a set of mixing bowls and jugs, and an adult's drinking cup inscribed with a Greek verse on the rim: 'I am Nestor's cup, good to drink from: desire for fair-garlanded Aphrodite will immediately seize whoever drinks from me.' They are mementos of parental grief, poignant tokens of the grown-up pleasures – the wine parties, the concomitant lovemaking – that a treasured young son would never taste.
The grave is informative of far more than a single family's tragedy, however. For students of antiquity, it touches on central and difficult questions about an early period of Greek history that the ancients’ own historians found – and left – relatively obscure, for want of accessible information. In the
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
Twitter Feed
Are iPhones ruining children's lives? A prominent American psychologist thinks so.
@tiffanyjenkins is not so sure:
Tiffany Jenkins - The Smartphone Pandemic
Tiffany Jenkins: The Smartphone Pandemic - The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an...
literaryreview.co.uk
India's 'festival of democracy', or general election, begins next month. Like every good festival, it looks likely to have its fair share of murders and arrests.
@OwenBennettJon probes the state of democracy in India:
Owen Bennett-Jones - New Delhi Confidential
Owen Bennett-Jones: New Delhi Confidential - The Incarcerations: BK-16 and the Search for Democracy in India by Alpa Shah
literaryreview.co.uk
Where is the world's newest narcostate and why is it thriving?
@AdamBrookesWord investigates Asia's meth mecca.
Adam Brookes - Meth Comes to Myanmar
Adam Brookes: Meth Comes to Myanmar - Narcotopia: In Search of the Asian Drug Cartel That Outwitted the CIA by Patrick Winn
literaryreview.co.uk