Ok,the paper for the Sicily conference is finished. Hopefully people will find it convincing, or at the very least engaging. Flights, transport and accommodation all booked. Cannot wait to return to Siracusa! A whole week there!
Dr Mike Beer
@mikebeer.bsky.social
Classicist:likes Elagabalus,cultural hybridisation,Caravaggio & Brutalism.Assoc. Lecturer,OU;Hon Research Fellow,Exeter.Trainer & coordinator, Classics for All.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
The right hates The Odyssey because of its ‘wokeness’ – but it missed an even bigger threat to its worldview | Peter Swallow
The new film extols the value of a rules-based world order. That’s far more radical than any casting decision says Labour MP and classicist Peter Swallow
theguardian.com
archaeologymag.com/2026/07/6th-...
6th-century BCE necropolis with luxury grave goods found beneath Italian pasta factory | Archaeology News Online Magazine
A 6th-century BCE necropolis beneath an Italian pasta factory preserved rare organic artifacts and luxury imports from across the Mediterranean.
archaeologymag.com
www.theguardian.com/travel/2026/...
Literary escapes: your favourite trips inspired by books
From Dervla Murphy’s Northern Ireland to Elena Ferrante’s Naples, readers share the stories that inspired them to travel• Tell us about a trip to Europe’s lakes and mountains – the best tip wins a £20...
theguardian.com
Thank you Spotify for your ‘Sad’ and ‘Angry’ playlists that you generated for me. The former (Joy Division, Tindersticks, Nick Cave) will doubtlessly prove a nice soundtrack to today’s work- more Latin translation-, the latter (Pantera,Slipknot,Napalm Death) perhaps less so.
www.theguardian.com/stage/2026/j...
‘People say I’m pouring Coca-Cola into fine malt whisky’: why is the National Theatre shaking up Sophocles?
In a bold new production starring Cate Blanchett and Nina Hoss, the NT is fusing Sophocles and Ingmar Bergman. So what can two stories written 23 centuries apart tell us about how we live today?
theguardian.com
My moment has arrived. Well, as long as they want to learn Homeric, classical or koine Greek. www.independent.co.uk/arts-enterta...
The Odyssey movie causes steep rise in people learning Greek
Film’s release has coincided with huge surge in people wanting to learn the language
independent.co.uk
Training hikes resume(son wants to do Kilimanjaro with me so he'll need to do a few of these). Route included isolated villages with strong 'we follow the old ways round here' folk horror vibes.
Temperature dipping a little, but alas, still too warm for tweed.
Love that my feeds are overrun with Homer stuff. Waiting for the Athenaeus…
Changing face of the Peloponnese: backdrop to The Odyssey braces for tourism surge www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...
Changing face of the Peloponnese: backdrop to The Odyssey braces for tourism surge
Tracing a journey across the Peloponnese, taking as its starting point the locations of Christopher Nolan’s new film
theguardian.com
‘Everything I know about evil I learned in that small town’: John Carpenter on terrifying the world with Halloween, The Thing and The Fog www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...
‘Everything I know about evil I learned in that small town’: John Carpenter on terrifying the world with Halloween, The Thing and The Fog
At 78, the king of horror and sci-fi movies is as much of a rebel as ever. He talks about creativity, compromise (he’s not a fan) and how he became addicted to moviemaking
theguardian.com
Juggling 4 things simultaneously today (to keep me on my toes): finishing the Sicily paper, turning 2 conference papers into something that might be publishable,and a bit of Latin translation (Pliny the Younger).Actually: displacement activities to avoid completing my tax return.
Odyssey gets big thumbs up from me.I can see why changes were made and I think they largely work. Visually stunning (a cold and grey Greek world). Some great sequences especially Laestrygonians and Circe. It’s Nolan’s take on the poem and that’s ok: just one of many. And Agamemnon is VERY Batman!
Now which director is going to tackle that other great epic from antiquity: Cicero’s de consulatu suo? Now need for IMAX: Super 8 will do it justice. I’m up for doing the screenplay.
Off to see The Odyssey tomorrow morning. I hope it’ll be brilliant. If it’s not, I don’t mind. It’ll generate huge interest in antiquity. It’s the best recruiment tool for our discipline I can think of. I predict a big upsurge in GCSE and A level applications off the back of it.