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School of Classics, University of St Andrews

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School of Classics, University of St Andrews

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Vibrant research community with wide expertise: literature, archaeology, reception, philosophy, anci

31/10/2026

"The Voice of Oedipus in 20th Century Modern Greek Poetry"
Speaker: Athanasios Chatzigrigoriou (St Andrews)

STARR
📆 5 November,⏰6pm
In person:📍Rm S11, Swallowgate
Online:💻Teams (email [email protected] for link)

**Abstract**

This paper explores the multifaceted reception of the myth across twentieth-century Modern Greek poetry and prose. From C. P. Cavafy and George Seferis to Yannis Ritoss, Miltos Sachtouris, and Iakovos Kampanellis, classical figures such as Oedipus, Antigone, and Jocasta are continuously reinterpreted to reflect modern existential, political, and historical anxieties. By examining how modern Greek authors negotiate their lineage with classical tragedy, this study highlights the unique tension between tragic inheritance, personal identity, and twentieth-century historical trauma.

29/10/2026

"Cosmos and the classical Greek city: Plato and Xenophon on political order"
Speaker: Dr Carol Atack (Newnham College, University of Cambridge)

SHS
🗓️ 19 November 2026
⏰ 4-6 PM
📍Arts Lecture Theatre, University of St Andrews

The Scottish Hellenic Society of St Andrews (SHS) in the School of Classics is delighted to welcome Dr Carol Atack for a lecture exploring the relationship between cosmic order and political authority in classical Greek thought. This event is realised with the support of the School of International Relations and Anthony F Lang, Jr.

As Dr Atack asks:
“If that order ultimately emanated from a single divine power, the king of the gods, how could democracy, the rule of the many, hope to replicate it?”

Drawing on Plato and Xenophon, the lecture will examine how ancient Greek thinkers negotiated the relationship between divine order, democratic government and monarchy.

About the Speaker
Dr Carol Atack is a fellow and Director of Studies in Classics at Newnham College, University of Cambridge. Her books include Plato: a civic life (2024), Xenophon (Greece and Rome New Surveys in the Classics, 2024), and The Discourse of Kingship in Classical Greece (2019), based on her doctoral research. She has published widely on classical Greek political thought and its modern reception, on topics ranging from ancient free speech to radical contemporary readings of Greek political thought. She is currently editing The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Political Thought and working on a monograph on the temporality of Plato’s dialogues.

We warmly welcome students, alumni, scholars and members of the university community.

[Image prepared by Adina Bezerita]

28/10/2026

"Daedalus in Crete"
By Angelos Sikelianos
Translated and adapted by Anna Coopey

followed by Q&A
📆 Thursday 26 November, 6pm
📍 Younger Hall, St Andrews

Book now: 👇👇

Part of St Andrews Greek Week

27/10/2026

"History’s Pawns: The Use of Boxers in Mussolini’s Rome"
Speaker: Carlotta Piantanida (La Sapienza)

STARR
📆 29 October,⏰6pm
In person:📍Rm S11, Swallowgate
Online:💻Teams (email [email protected] for link)

**Abstract**
Mussolini’s regime employed a propagandistic campaign that utilised Ancient Roman visual imagery, more specifically religious imagery, to elevate the status of his modern Rome to that of antiquity. This paper focuses on the sculptures on the perimeter of the Stadio dei Marmi, one of the four stadiums within the Foro Italico. The Stadio dei Marmi is one of the most commonly researched stadium within the Foro Italico due to it being the most well-preserved of the four stadiums, and the scholarship regarding it follows two parallelling ideas. The first, and most prominent, focuses on its Romanità and Mussolini’s attempts to use architecture and art as a way to recreate the Roman Empire. The other focuses on Mussolini’s interest in promoting athleticism and strong bodies in the art he commissioned.

Previous research has made it clear that Mussolini created art with strong visual and contextual connections to Roman antiquity to promote his ideal “New Italy” and “New Italian”: a country of strong, athletic men. However, the existing scholarship solely focuses on the similarities between Mussolini’s commissions and those made in antiquity. It creates a homogeneous view of the art, rather than acknowledging the subtle and deliberate omissions made by Mussolini and their impact on the works’ reception. Specifically with the Stadio dei Marmi, scholarship focuses on the stadium’s uniformity, rather than the individual sculptures and artists that helped decorate it.

This study takes a more individual approach to the stadium’s sculptures, focusing solely on its depiction of boxers and how these depictions took from antiquity. Its aim is to forge a connection between Mussolini’s artistic omissions, and explore how that helped to rewrite antiquity, as well as create the image of the “New Italian”.

26/10/2026

"The Dangerous Spindle: Women, Work, and Conflict in Late Antiquity"
Kate Cooper (Royal Holloway)

🗓️ 16 October, 4:15pm
📍Room SO3, Swallowgate
💻 Teams (email [email protected], and put “subscribe classics-ressem” in subject)

Annual hosted by the Centre for Late Antique Studies, St Andrews

25/10/2026

Call for papers: Ted Hughes’ “Tales from Ovid”, Thirty Years On

2027 will be the 30th anniversary of the publication of "Tales from Ovid. Twenty-four Passages from the Metamorphoses" by the Poet Laureate Ted Hughes. To mark the anniversary, in collaboration with the Ted Hughes Society and the School of Classics, the University of St Andrews will be hosting a series of online events, each one dedicated to an individual tale by Hughes.

We are seeking contributions of different types on different tales from different perspectives. We hope to have a roster of speakers including creative writers, Hughes specialists, English literature critics, classicists and others. .

🔗View : 👇👇

⏰Dealine for proposals: 31 October 2026.

23/10/2026

The twelfth podcast episode is available! 👇👇

In "Remote Sensing" Jason König and Faidon Moudopoulos-Athanasiou interview Giannis Apostolou about his work as a landscape archaeologist. Giannis is a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at All Souls College, Oxford.

Giannis first explains his family connections to the mountains, and then introduces the topography and culture of the region he works on, Grevena in northern Greece.

As Giannis explains, one of the key goals of his work is to reconstruct the past landscapes of regions that in the past have been viewed as outside history. That involves looking beyond literary sources, with their stereotypes of uncivilised rural populations.

For example, he aims to generate a more complex history of the phenomenon of erosion, viewing it not straightforwardly as a matter of environmental degradation, but also as an opportunity for cultural adaptation.

Giannis then goes on to talk about the ‘remote sensing’ techniques that lie at the heart of his work, for example aerial photography, satellite imagery, and laser technology, with its capacity to reveal structures and settlements that have previously been hidden from view. All of that is combined with local testimony, which plays a crucial role in building up a coherent picture.

One of the contributions the project has made has been to reconstruct a very long history of habitation long before the Hellenistic period that helps us to challenge stereotypes of this and other mountain regions as marginal.

Finally we talk about future challenges for Grevena, especially the challenge of finding ways to bring people into the region, in the face of depopulation and economic decline, and the lack of visibility for landscape archaeology as an academic discipline in Greece.

23/10/2026

We're hiring! Join our professional services team here in St Andrews as a Research and Events Administrator.

Please email informal enquiries to Samantha Dixon at [email protected]

⏰️ Apply by 9 November.
View full details: 👇👇

22/10/2026

Long after the Labyrinth: Peace Storytelling Workshops

Calling all creatives! Are you a writer, actor, producer, choreographer or composer? Whether amateur or professional, student or teacher, please join us to explore the power of peace storytelling!

We live in a world saturated by war storytelling. Stories are worldbuilding. They do not simply reflect the world we live in – they help to shape it, by influencing how we think, feel and behave. We need more peace storytelling if we want to build more a peaceful future. Come along and find out how!

Theatre makers from NMT Automatics have been collaborating with APSN director Alice König to develop a new peace-oriented play based on ancient myth – entitled Long After the Labyrinth. We are running a series of free workshops at performance venues across the UK, to explore peace storytelling with others:

13th November 2026, University of St Andrews
29th November 2026, Manchester Jewish Museum
19th January 2027, University of Oxford
26th January 2027, JW3 London

For more information or to register, please email: [email protected].

22/10/2026

We're delighted to share that Henry Stead was recognised earlier this summer for his outstanding achievements in Classics outreach and widening participation.

The Classics for All Impact Awards honor teachers, schools, colleges and university departments UK-wide for expanding access to classical subjects. Read more about the 2026 awards in "Classics Matters", available from 👇👇

Address

University Of Street Andrews, Swallowgate, Butts Wynd
St Andrews
KY169AL

Opening Hours

Monday	9am - 1pm
	2pm - 5pm
Tuesday	9am - 1pm
	2pm - 5pm
Wednesday	9am - 1pm
	2pm - 5pm
Thursday	9am - 1pm
	2pm - 5pm
Friday	9am - 1pm
	2pm - 5pm

Telephone

+441334462600

Website

http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/classics, https://linktr.ee/sta_classics, https://bsky.app/profile/staclassics.bsky.social

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