"Without Latin, people are handicapped because they do not understand their past, and cannot therefore effectively plan their futures". - Michael Grant, who died last Monday aged 89.   more »

"I decided to major in Latin to be, well, different. An English major sounded so predictable. And the classics department at Vassar drew an interesting group of people ... cool in a way that you wouldn't have anticipated."   more »

The Iliad and The Odyssey were the first and second bestsellers among poetry at Amazon.com   more »

It would have been easy to update Euripides' Bacchae by drawing parallels with today's binge-drinking culture, perhaps casting Pentheus, the killjoy Theban king who refuses to acknowledge the divinity of Dionysos � and pays dearly for his arrogance by being torn to pieces by his own mother � as a Blunkett-like moral guardian.

But the Cornish company Kneehigh doesn't stoop to anything predictable or crass in its retelling of a story whose continuing relevance is all too apparent.   more »