Free Thinking: Hay 2017: Women's Voices in the Classical World.

Arts & Ideas

BBC

Society & Culture

4.2 • 599 Ratings

🗓️ 30 May 2017

⏱️ 49 minutes

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Summary

Colm Toibin, Bettany Hughes and Paul Cartledge join New Generation Thinker Catherine Fletcher for a discussion recorded at Hay.

Colm Toibin’s new novel House of Names explores the story of Clytemnestra and the murder of her husband Agamemnon. His other novels include The Testament of Mary, Brooklyn and Nora Webster. Paul Cartledge is A.G. Leventis Professor of Greek Culture Emeritus at the University of Cambridge and the author of many books which look at the classical world including Ancient Greece: A Very Short Introduction, Ancient Greece: A History in Eleven Cities and Democracy: A Life Bettany Hughes has presented many TV and Radio programmes exploring the classical world including Divine Women, Genius of the Ancient World, Banishing Eve and The Ideas That Make Us. Her books include Helen of Troy: Goddess, Princess, Whore, The Hemlock Cup and Istanbul: A Tale of Three Cities

Catherine Fletcher is a New Generation Thinker who has presented Essays and documentaries for BBC Radio 3. She is the author of The Black Prince of Florence The Spectacular Life and Treacherous World of Alessandro de' Medici

Producer: Zahid Warley

Part of Radio 3's week-long residency at Hay Festival, with Lunchtime Concert, In Tune, Free Thinking, The Verb and The Listening Service all broadcasting from the festival.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome back to the home of the oxymoron. Evil genius. He asked the newspaper to print his obituary early so he'd enjoy it. That's like hiding at your own funeral. Yeah, a big, great gig. I'm Russell Kane. Join me to weigh in on whether the biggest players in history are more evil or genius. Becoming that rich, I'd say that is some level of genius. It also helps
0:21.2	it. It's a long time ago, right? It's like the podcast version of telling your kids the ice cream
0:26.1	van plays music when it's out of ice cream. Listen to evil genius on BBC Sounds.
0:32.1	This is the BBC.
0:47.9	Hello, my name is Catherine Fletcher and I'm an associate professor at Swansea University where I teach history. I'm also one of Radio 3's New Generation Thinkers.
0:56.9	Today I'm here for Radio 3's Arts and Ideas program, Free Thinking. Our subject today is women's voices in the classical world.
0:59.8	So now, please could you give a welcome to my guests,
1:03.3	Bettany Hughes, Comte Bean and Paul Cartledge. Thank you. Women in the classical world are more often seen than heard.
1:21.0	We all know that Helen's face launched a thousand ships and burnt the topless towers of ilium.
1:26.1	All we remember, thanks to Hamlet or a diligent
1:28.6	teacher, that the Trojan Queen Hecuba was a model of propriety and grief. But what can we say
1:35.6	about the way these women talked and what they thought and felt? Even if he'd had the technology,
1:41.3	Heinrich Schliemann would have been too late to capture the echo of their voices
1:44.8	when he was excavating at Troy in the late 19th century. So we need to rely on imagination and
1:51.4	detection. Luckily, we have both on hand today. The Irish novelist, Comtebine, has written a new
1:58.4	version of the Agamemnon story that gives vivid speech to
2:01.4	Iphigenia, the daughter whose life he sacrificed for a safe passage to Troy, Clytemnestra,
2:07.6	his vengeful queen, and her daughter, Electra. Bettany Hughes has devoted a whole book to
2:13.2	understanding Helen of Troy and the real women she believes were home as models for the Spartan princess.
2:19.4	Paul Cartlidge has spent a lifetime studying the history and culture that gave us Sappho and Medea, as well as Helen.
2:26.8	So I think we're good and ready to embark now.
2:30.3	Colm, let me come to you first. How did you go about creating the women's voices for your new book, House of Names?
	...

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