Whiteness

This should not be thought as a rude remark about Mary Beard, considering all the misogynist nonsense she has had to put up with about her hair, her appearance, her clothes, whatever. On the contrary, it was the topic of the second, and very rewarding, lecture in her Gifford series, which I had the privilege to chair today.

The questions she was asking were not so much 'why do we have such an image of the 'classics' as white?' (and in that context, we might ask why the modern sculptor whose work featured in my blip yesterday chose white for her bust of my colleague), but rather 'what do we actually know about how people in the ancient world viewed their worlds, in colour, or whatever'? If your interest has been piqued by this, it's worth noting the discussion blog (where it's also possible to find recordings of the lectures, which usually seem to go up the day after). I cannot make any of the other lectures this year, unfortunately, so will have to rely on the blog and the recordings.

Home now, and trying to summon up the energy to pack a bag for tomorrow.