Pasts Imperfect (8.15.24)
The Bacchae & BTS, Euripides Fragments, Ancient Indigeneity, Yams & More
This week, digital humanist, classicist, and reception specialist Lauren Kim discusses Dionysiac reception and BTS. Then, hellenists at UC-Boulder piece together new fragments of Euripides, new edited volumes examine Empires and Indigenous Peoples: Comparing Ancient Roman and North American Experiences and New Perspectives on Ancient Nubia, the Ancient World Mapping Center (AWMC) releases new maps for teaching Livy, the Voynich manuscript gets its due, Israeli troops seize an ancient site in the West Bank, a newly defended dissertation uncovers the roles of living Maya in early Mayanist archaeology, new ancient world journals, and much more.
Disruptions and Dionysus: BTS and Questioning Canon by Lauren Kim
People are always surprised to learn that my passion for K-Pop—Korean popular music—began via my classics coursework, rather than the other way around. However, it was only by studying Dionysus, myth, and classical reception that I began to re-examine K-Pop with a critical eye.
Hailing from “the east,” Dionysus is treated as an outsider—something altogether unfamiliar and exotic. Anne Carson, in her translation of Euripides’ Bacchae (Bakkhai), sees Dionysus as:
“... a young god.
Mythologically obscure,
always just arriving
at some new place
to disrupt the status quo,
wearing the start of a smile.”
In casting themselves as Dionysiac figures in their song “Dionysus,” the group BTS, a South Korean pop band, is not only comparing themselves to the god and acknowledging these parallels, but also challenging the idea that Western classicism only has a place within the culture and minds of Western individuals.
The stage performances of the song cement this connection with Dionysus even further. Kim Namjoon, the leader of BTS, wields a thyrsus, while the set for the 2019 Melon Music Awards featured an army of live horses, a moveable altar, backup dancers with feathered fans and harps, and a reconstruction of a Parthenon-esque temple.
Alongside the ancient Greek vibes, though, the song’s lyrics recast Dionysus as a distinctly Korean folk figure. As Chae Yung In writes in “Like Dionysus: BTS, Classics in K-Pop, and the Narcissism of the West”,
“The most notable part of the song, for me, is not a nod to the classics but a distinctly Korean line at the end of the chorus: “playing the kkwaenggwari, sing ongheya.” Translation my own — except I didn’t really translate it, and you can’t neatly translate it in one go, because you need to explain that a kkwaenggwari is a small traditional Korean gong and ongheya is a working song for threshing rice.”
Sociologist John Lie suggests that K-Pop’s global character and “lack of Koreanness” is what appeals it to a global audience. Given what Chae and I are seeing, however, this doesn’t seem entirely true for newer generations of K-Pop. Why, then, are these artists doing this hybridizing work, and for what purposes and ends?
I found a partial answer in a 2023 interview with Namjoon by El País:
“In the West, people just don’t get it. Korea is a country that has been invaded, razed to the ground, torn in two. Just 70 years ago, there was nothing. We were getting aid from the IMF and the UN. But now, the whole world is looking at Korea. How is that possible? How did that happen? Well, because people try so fucking hard to better themselves. You are in France or the UK, countries that have been colonizing others for centuries, and you come to me with, “oh God, you put so much pressure on yourselves; life in Korea is so stressful!” Well, yes. That’s how you get things done. And it’s part of what makes K-pop so appealing, although, of course, there’s a dark side.”
Namjoon expresses quiet and not-so-quiet rage as a defining characteristic of the K-Pop industry. He contextualizes his solo work and the music of BTS within a framework of dis-orientation and critique of Eurocentric institutions and standards. In doing so, these Korean artists are pushing back on a colonial, imperialist, Western lens and claiming it for themselves—all without losing their rage, or effacing their sense of struggle.
While this framing may seem as if we can only read K-Pop through a postcolonial lens, we should not assume that postcolonialism is the only reading that can be applied, or that postcolonialism is the only source of rage. Instead, examining how rage is used in K-Pop allows for more nuanced readings of Dionysus, particularly the Dionysus of Euripides’ Bacchae.
The music video for “Daechwita” (a solo song by another BTS member, Min Yoongi) displays a clear juxtaposition of modern West and historical East in its visual component. The music video opens with Yoongi as a Joseon dynasty ruler, though he is quickly juxtaposed by a rebel figure, also played by Yoongi, dressed in modern street fashion and driving a Hyundai Grandeur. Throughout the music video, the two face off in a struggle for power, ending in the rebel ultimately shooting the king with a gun.
The rage and rebellion seen in both of Yoongi’s personae culminates in a colonial takedown as an exercise of rage. Yoongi as rebel is positioned explicitly as an intruder, highlighting the conflict between modern West and traditional East; ultimately, the rebel dressed in American Nikes and driving a Korean sports car assassinates the Joseon Korean despot. However, it is the artist himself that holds the power and agency in this iteration of the power dynamic.
Both Yoongi the rebel and Dionysus the god stride into spaces that symbolize the historical, traditional status quo and explosively tear them down to carve out a space for themselves, on their own terms. We can now understand Dionysus’ disruptions (if we can call Agave’s madness and Pentheus’ dismemberment that) as him creating a space where he can be seen and recognized with personhood and dignity. While Pentheus and the city of Thebes collectively reject Dionysus’ divine parentage, the bacchants on Mount Cithaeron form a community where Dionysus is seen and his identity is acknowledged.
I believe that K-Pop has much more to contribute than just this one point of rage. I do not present any one K-Pop artist or group as inherently unique in their hybridizing tendencies. The industry as a whole is illustrative of a broader—if still complex and heterogeneous—set of principles and practices.
More broadly, freeing ourselves from traditionally “Western” ways of approaching reception will allow us to illuminate much more about the texts we study. I see my work as problematizing and questioning Western canonicity, while also illustrating that this “non-canonical” reading and interpretation is, if not explicitly preferable, then at least justifiable as an opening up of reading practices within classical studies.
Global Antiquity and Public Humanities
Classicists at the University of Colorado at Boulder have identified two new fragments of Euripides. Yvona Trnka-Amrhein worked together with John Gibert to examine the 98 lines on the papyrus. Using the Thesaurus Linguae Graecae (TLG) as a cross comparison, they secured an ID for the fragments, from Philadelphia in Egypt.
Eventually, they became confident that they were working with new material from two fragmentary Euripides plays, Polyidus and Ino. Twenty-two of the lines were previously known in slightly varied versions, but “80 percent was brand-new stuff,” Gibert says.
On Sept. 14, 2024 CU Classics will host the Ninth Fountain Symposium in order to discuss and contextualize the new fragments. In remarks to Colorado Arts and Sciences Magazine, Trnka-Amrhein noted, “It’s kind of a big deal in the field.” And she is right.
Let’s hear it for the yams! Toyo Odetunde at the BBC interviews Nigerian fine-dining chefs around the world to celebrate the history and legacy of the root vegetable: particularly the traditional, cherished Nigerian breakfast of egg sauce. Sign me up for any dish described as a “jiggling heap of scrambled eggs, made juicy by the tomatoes” and "mellow sweetness of fluffy boiled yam.”
In book news, Michael Maas, a historian of the late Roman and Byzantine Empire, and Fay A. Yarbrough, a historian of Native populations in North America, have a new edited volume out in September: Empires and Indigenous Peoples: Comparing Ancient Roman and North American Experiences. The list of contributors and chapters are a testament to the power and need for global comparative histories, from Julie Reed’s chapter on “Cherokee Civilized Pasts, Cherokee Civilized Futures,” to Michael Kulikowski’s chapter on “The Invention of Barbarian Space.” Additionally, Solange Ashby and Aaron J. Brody have a new edited volume out this week on New Perspectives on Ancient Nubia. The boo centers “Nubian history and archaeology and [presents] research from new, anti-racist perspectives. In addition to demonstrating Nubiology’s potential impact on Egyptological, classical, and biblical scholarship, this volume offers a new window into African achievements and dominance in the ancient world.”
The Ancient World Mapping Center (AWMC) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has announced publication of Livy Study Maps: Book 21, “a set of nineteen maps for students and teachers working with Livy’s text. Available as free digital downloads under the CC-BY-NC 4.0 license, the maps offer detailed coverage not only of famous episodes like Hannibal’s crossing of the Alps and the disastrous Roman defeat at the Trebia, but also of lesser-known campaigns from Book 21 of the History of Rome. AWMC eagerly invites feedback on the Livy Study Maps from academics, educators, students, and enthusiasts alike. Please contact awmc@unc.edu with any questions and comments.” Definitely check out the other “map for texts” as well. I (Sarah here) am a huge fan of the Black Sea map for Arrian.
In medieval news, at the Atlantic, Ariel Sabar discusses the mystery of the Voynich Manuscript ands scholar Lisa Fagin Davis’s decades-long engagement with it. And the newsletter Modern Medieval has a great in memoriam for the recently passed medievalist Elizabeth (Peggy) A.R. Brown. Her article, “The Tyranny of a Construct” questioned and then dismantled the myth of Feudalism.
At the Associated Press, Fatma Khaled has written up an exciting discovery of ancient artifacts in 63 Egyptian tombs within the Nile Delta. The excavation, a mission delegated by Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, has everything, big and small: statues, bronze coins, amulets … all from the Ptolemaic Dynasty.
I’ll admit it: speculating what’s inside my neighbors’ Amazon deliveries is a casual pastime of mine. But what if the woman next door was getting FedEx shipments of looted artifacts? The lady in question: Susan Womer Katzev, 84, an illustrator of ancient shipwrecks who worked closely with her husband Michael, a marine archaeologist. The objects in question: misidentified and undervalued figurines from Iran and Iraq. The hearsay in question:
“She does not collect for show,” [Dr. Gordon Moore, a close friend] added. “She does not collect for money. She collects for love.”
versus…
“Katzev responded in exasperation that, ‘everything is looted, it’s all looted,’” [Special Agent David C. Fife of Homeland Security Investigations] wrote in court papers.
The WCC announced the 2024-25 award recipients this week. The WCC Sharon L. James Mentorship Award goes to T. H. M. Gellar-Goad; The WCC Public Scholarship Award goes to Elizabeth Bobrick for her blog, “This Won’t End Well: On Loving Greek Tragedy”; The WCC Leadership Award goes to Tori Lee of Boston University; The Barbara McManus Award for Outstanding Scholarship goes to Roberta Stewart for her article, “Seeing Fotis: Slavery and Gender in Apuleius' Metamorphoses,” Classical Antiquity (2023) 42.1: 195-228; and The WCC Pre-PhD Paper Presentation goes to Allie Pohler for her presentation, "Disperii, perii misera! Listening to Antiphila in Terence’s Heautontimorumenos," at the Classical Association of the Middle West and South Southern Section Meeting.
In the Financial Times, journalist Ilan Ben Zion reports on the Israeli military seizing an important archaeological site partially located on Palestinian land.
Major General Avi Bluth, who assumed control of the Israeli army command responsible for forces in the West Bank, signed the order seizing a 1,300 sq metre plot of land at the summit of Tel Sebastia (Samaria) on July 10. The general cited unspecified “military needs”, according to a document seen by the Financial Times… But Assaf Cohen, an aide to Israel’s ultranationalist heritage minister, confirmed the seizure was intended for erecting a “gigantic” Israeli flagpole as part of Sebastia’s transformation into “a tourist site accessible to all the people of Israel, God willing”.
As noted in Palestine’s request to UNESCO in 2012, Sebastia is an ancient site: “the capital of the northern kingdom during the Iron Age II in Palestine and a major urban centre during the Hellenistic and Roman periods.” Later, Samaria was renamed Sebaste after Augustus gave the city to Herod. The site is split up between the Israeli-controlled Area C and Palestinian-administered Area B within the West Bank.
Over at the University of Pennsylvania’s institutional repository, Scholarly Commons, Dr. Francisco Diaz’s dissertation, “Buried Contributions: Uncovering the Role of the Living Maya in Early Mayanist Archaeology,” is available. In it, Diaz examines how “Early anthropological and archaeological research co-opted and distorted the ancient Maya past by filtering it through the desires, anxieties, and social and institutional contexts of the Mayanist researchers who conducted it, while also diminishing or omitting the participation of living Maya people in the research process.” For more on Diaz’s work, see PennToday. You can also view a number of the archival materials from Penn’s excavations at Maya sites online, such as this video from 1960 of excavations at Tikal.
New Antiquity Journal Issues (by @YaleClassicsLib / yaleclassicslib.bsky.social)
Manuscript Cultures Vol. 24, No. 1 (2024) #openaccess
Essays in Medieval Studies Vol. 38 (2023)
Archiv für Papyrusforschung und verwandte Gebiete Vol. 70, No.1 (2024)
Doctor Virtualis Vol. 19 (2024) #openaccess Frammenti di ordine e disordine nel Medioevo
Studies in Late Antiquity Vol. 8, No. 3 (2024) A Late Antiquity on Its Own Terms: Approaches to Adaptation and Innovation in the Late Antique Urban Environment
Historia i Świat Vol. 13 (2024) #openaccess
Journal of Classics Teaching Vol. 25 , No. 49 (2024)
Arethusa Vol. 57, No. 2 (2024) NB Jeremiah Coogan, et al. “The Socioeconomics of Fabrication: Textuality, Authenticity, and Social Status in the Roman Mediterranean”
Ancient Philosophy Vol. 44, No. 2 (2024) NB Norman Sieroka “Recurrent Aspects of Ancient Chinese, Greek, and Near Eastern World Maps”
Ciceroniana On Line Vol. 8 No. 1 (2024) #openaccess
TYCHE Vol. 37 (2022) #openaccess
Méthexis Vol. 36, No. 2 (2024)
Elenchos Vol. 45 No. 1 (2024)
Zeitschrift für Antikes Christentum Vol. 28, No. 2 (2024)
Dionysius Vol. 39 (2024) #openaccess
Nova Tellus Vol. 42 No. 2 (2024) #openaccess
Journal of the History of Ideas Vol. 85, No. 3 (2024) NB Stuart Elden “Foucault and Dumézil on Antiquity”
Dao Vol. 23, No. 3 (2024)
Journal for the Study of the Historical Jesus Vol. 22 No. 2 (2024)
Dead Sea Discoveries Vol. 31, No. 2 (2024) NB Michael Press “The Provenance of the ‘Seiyal Collection’”
Patristica et Mediævalia Vol. 45 No. 1 (2024) #openaccess
Analecta Bollandiana Vol. 142, No. 1 (2024)
Convivium Vol. 11, No. 1 (2024) The Arts of Medieval Northern Africa
Revue d'Égyptologie Vol. 73 (2023)
Avar Vol. 3 No. 2 (2024) #openaccess
Sacris Erudiri Vol. 62 (2023)
Pallas Vol. 124 (2024) #openaccess La loi des séries
The Journal of Medieval Latin Vol. 34 (2024)
Lectures, Workshops, and Exhibitions
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC has announced a fab-looking exhibition “examining ways ancient Egypt has inspired Black artists and others over the past 148 years. Flight into Egypt: Black Artists and Ancient Egypt, 1876–Now will take place at The Met Fifth Avenue from 17 November, 2024 to 17 February, 2025.” It will present close to 200 works by figures “including artist Simone Leigh, singer Solange Knowles, and stand-up comedian Richard Pryor.”
On August 15, 2024, Rev. Dr. Kenneth Ngwa and Cleo Silvers will speak on “Biblical Interpretation for Global Health Equity” from 7:30-9:00 pm for the Center & Library for the Bible and Social Justice. Then, Dr. Musa Dube and Sithembiso Zwane will discuss the “Politics and Possibilities of Bible Translation” on August 24th, 2024 from 11:00 AM to 12:30 PM. Sign up here.
On August 27, 2024, Christopher A. Tuttle will speak about “Uncovering the ancient Cycladic Culture: Part 1: Early Cycladic periods (3100—2300 BCE)” as part of the ASA Zoom Lecture Series. Tuttle’s abstract notes: “A fascinating and mysterious culture developed during the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age periods on the Cyclades islands in the central Aegean Sea. Known today only as the Cycladic Culture, these people became skilled artisans, shipwrights, and traders who deftly used the natural resources of their islands to thrive and develop one of the earliest complex societies in the region. In this lecture, we will focus on the origins and early developmental period of the Cycladic Culture through various lenses, such as their geographical context, social practices, and artifacts.”
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