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
The era of dollar dominance might be coming to an end. But if not the dollar, which currency will be the backbone of the global economic system?
@HowardJDavies weighs up the alternatives.
Howard Davies - Greenbacks Down, First Editions Up
Howard Davies: Greenbacks Down, First Editions Up - Our Dollar, Your Problem: An Insider’s View of Seven Turbulent...
literaryreview.co.uk
Johannes Gutenberg cut corners at every turn when putting together his bible. How, then, did his creation achieve such renown?
@JosephHone_ investigates.
Joseph Hone - Start the Presses!
Joseph Hone: Start the Presses! - Johannes Gutenberg: A Biography in Books by Eric Marshall White
literaryreview.co.uk
Convinced of her own brilliance, Gertrude Stein wished to be ‘as popular as Gilbert and Sullivan’ and laboured tirelessly to ensure that her celebrity would outlive her.
@sophieolive examines the real Stein.
Sophie Oliver - The Once & Future Genius
Sophie Oliver: The Once & Future Genius - Gertrude Stein: An Afterlife by Francesca Wade
literaryreview.co.uk