One of Britain’s greatest conductors widely admired for leading the BBC Symphony Orchestra at the Proms
June 2023
Why a piece of ancient pot and a scrap of Virgil’s poetry speak to us down the ages
Charlotte Higgins
Perhaps we don’t need to know why someone inscribed a pot as it dried: it is enough to know they did it, says the Guardian’s chief culture writer, Charlotte Higgins
Cork Midsummer festival review – impressively ambitious programme of new work
Virgil’s The Aeneid, a real life medical emergency on a tiny island and a young actor hired by a man to play his estranged daughter all feature in venues across the city
Virgil quote found on fragment of Roman jar unearthed in Spain
Excerpt from the Georgics was carved into vessel used for olive oil 1,800 years ago
September 2021
Fruits of the loom: why Greek myths are relevant for all time
From Medea to Helen of Troy, Greek myths still speak to the modern world. Classicist Charlotte Higgins explores stories that weave together the fabric of our existence
November 2020
Vatican enlists bots to protect library from onslaught of hackers
Apostolic Library, facing 100 threats a month, wants to ensure readers can trust digitised records of its historical treasures
November 2019
Helen of Troy: the Greek epics are not just about war – they’re about women
The women of Homer and Euripides hide in plain sight, in the cause and consequences of conflict, as a new British Museum exhibition shows
December 2017
On my radar
On my radar: Sally Rooney’s cultural highlights
The writer on Ella Fitzgerald’s Christmas LP, her appreciation of brilliant footballers and why Radio 4’s Saturday Review is perfect while washing dishes
July 2017
Found in translation: how women are making the classics their own
Women have long been marginalised in the world of ancient texts, but female scholars and translators are finally having their say
March 2017
Nicholas Lezard's choice
Aeneid VI by Seamus Heaney review – through ‘death’s dark door’ with Virgil
Nicholas Lezard’s paperback of the week: The last work Heaney finished before he died in 2013, this stirring translation of the best book in the Latin epic poem takes us into the underworld
July 2016
Vatican library digitises 1,600-year-old edition of Virgil
Seventy-six pages and 50 illustrations from the great Latin epic made available to all, part of a project to put all its 80,000 manuscripts online
May 2016
Top 10s
Top 10 refugees' stories
The current trauma of displaced people on the move in Europe is nothing new, and accounts of forced migration have been told since the earliest times. These are some of the best
March 2016
The Guardian view on Seamus Heaney: Virgilian farewell
Editorial: The poet’s last work before his death in 2013 was a translation of Virgil’s Aeneid, Book VI. And the Nobel prizewinner left us both an eloquent farewell – and a poem for our times
February 2016
Seamus Heaney’s final work – ‘Death’s dark door stands open … ’
Seamus Heaney's Aeneid: Edna O'Brien reads an extract – video
September 2015
New Seamus Heaney translation to be published next year
Nobel laureate began work on a version of the Aeneid’s Book VI, which describes the hero’s journey to the underworld, after the death of his own father in 1986
February 2015
My hero
My hero: Virgil by Richard Jenkyns
Virgil is a hero for our times because he thought deeply about nation, community and identity – issues that puzzle us today, writes Richard Jenkyns
August 2013
Italian archaeologists have grape expectations of their ancient wine
Tom Kington: Scientists plant vineyards with the aim of making wine using techniques from classical Rome described by Virgil
May 2013
Jonathan Jones on art
From Dante to Dan Brown: how artists have portrayed the Divine Comedy
Jonathan Jones: While Botticelli painted a mean Paradiso, Gustave Doré's dark drawings have been used to publicise Dan Brown's latest novel. We look at the art inspired by Dante's timeless text
April 2013
Game of Thrones: much more than blood and bosoms
Ayelet Haimson Lushkov
Ayelet Haimson Lushkov: The popular book and television series is the ultimate advertisement for the appeal of history and 'old' literature
