The Author Events Series presents Mary Beard | Talking Classics: The Shock of the Old
In Conversation with Tamala Edwards
Montgomery Auditorium is now sold out. We have opened a rush line for anyone interested in purchasing Auditorium tickets at the door for $5. Please register for the rush line.
The rush line will be available on a first come, first served basis. Guests will be asked to line up in the Lobby prior to the event. Auditorium seats are not guaranteed, but we are often able to accommodate a significant number of guests. A staff member will assess how many seats are empty approximately five minutes before the event commences and will allow the corresponding number of patrons into the Auditorium.
Please bring $5 cash in order to purchase a rush ticket. Credit cards or other forms of payment will not be accepted.
Why the ongoing fascination with the ancient world? This witty, approachable book asks why—for better or (sometimes) worse—antiquity continues to exert such a powerful hold on the contemporary imagination. Recalling a formative childhood encounter with a four-thousand-year-old piece of bread in a museum, Beard introduces the idea of thauma, or wonder, that kick-started a lifetime engaging with classics. It was not the canonical “greats” of ancient literature and art that initially drew her in, she confesses, but rather the more intimate, messy, and humdrum evidence of daily life in the remote past.
Confronting the uses and abuses of symbols of the ancient world, Beard reminds us that the traditions and “masterpieces” of Greece and Rome have certainly been politicized, but they belong to neither the left nor the right. Happily, no one owns the past. She warns us not to let a sense of reverence or overfamiliarity dampen the “shock of the old,” arguing that one of the most important things that classics teach us is how to grapple with complicated and controversial things. “The Greeks and Romans are long dead, they cannot answer back, and you can say what you like about them,” she reminds readers. “The simple fact that classics belong to none of us can offer a safe space to argue about the most difficult debates we face now.”
Mary Beard is a distinguished classicist, international bestselling author, and beloved television personality. She is professor emerita of classics at the University of Cambridge, a fellow of Newnham College, and professor of Ancient Literature at the Royal Academy, as well as being the classics editor of the Times Literary Supplement, a fellow of the British Academy, and an international member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Her books include Talking Classics: The Shock of the Old, SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome, Women and Power: A Manifesto, Twelve Caesars: Images of Power from the Ancient World to the Modern, and Emperor of Rome: Ruling the Ancient Roman World.
Tamala Edwards joined 6abc in January of 2005. She is the weekday co-anchor of Action News Mornings from 4 a.m to 7 a.m. and is a regular co-host of Inside Story, conducting probing interviews with newsmakers like Governor Tom Corbett, Senator Bob Casey, Mayor Michael Nutter and others, as well as moderating many election debates. Prior to joining 6abc, Tamala Edwards was the anchor of ABC’s World News Now, and World News This Morning.
Because you love Author Events, please make a donation when you register for this event to ensure that this series continues to inspire Philadelphians.
Books will be available for purchase at the library on event night!
All tickets are non-refundable.
The views expressed by the authors and moderators are strictly their own and do not represent the opinions of the Free Library of Philadelphia or its employees.
