@wmarybeard.bsky.social
Classicist
This week in Instant Classics Bookclub, we take a step back & think about the repeated adjectives used to describe characters in the Odyssey. What is their point? Join the Bookclub here instantclassics.supportingcast.fm (& you can get an earlybird offer to our first live event on 25 Nov)
29.10.2025 09:26 β π 30 π 8 π¬ 1 π 0
The question for today. Did Nero Really Fiddle While Rome Burned? And what tune did he play. On Instant Classics now tinyurl.com/cv7e9m92
24.10.2025 13:43 β π 55 π 6 π¬ 4 π 2I would not have got them quick enough either!
22.10.2025 19:42 β π 1 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0
Mary Beard on stage with cartoon of Berlusconi behind.
Mary Beard on stage with pic of three Roman Emperors behind her, plus Donald Trump.
Thoroughly enjoyed tonightβs βEvening with Mary Beardβ.
It turns out that quite a lot of us in Edinburgh are fascinated by the Romans!
Thank you, @wmarybeard.bsky.social for all the fun and wisdom!
Delighted to have a short piece in this week's TLS on Hades 2, gender, and modern myth making.
www.the-tls.com/arts/hades-i...
Last day of sale. You have till midnight tonight to get 25% off my new book (out in the Spring). tinyurl.com/mr452usz A great "deal" from Waterstones.
17.10.2025 08:04 β π 43 π 12 π¬ 1 π 0Not uncommon!
16.10.2025 19:11 β π 1 π 0 π¬ 1 π 0hope you enjoy!
16.10.2025 11:18 β π 2 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0
Day Three of Waterstones 25% off deal on my new book (out in spring). Just one more day at this price. tinyurl.com/mr452usz
16.10.2025 10:28 β π 40 π 6 π¬ 3 π 1Soon I hope but I will check. Looking forward to Brisbane
15.10.2025 21:11 β π 1 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0
I've got a new book out in spring #TalkingClassics: about why it's still worth bothering about ancient Greece and Rome. Now till Friday 17th Oct you can preorder through Waterstones. Enter OCTOBER25 at checkout & get 25% off RRP. #WPreorder tinyurl.com/TalkingClass...
14.10.2025 07:05 β π 100 π 13 π¬ 2 π 1
The boy talks about his Holy Men of the Electromagnetic Age on RTE here tinyurl.com/k3enkrv9 It's 25.29 minutes it. Give it a listen, why dont you! Why WAS the occult such a craze between WW1 and 2? And who were the occultists?
13.10.2025 08:36 β π 32 π 5 π¬ 1 π 0Jack Rear's article "Mary Beard: βWeβre still making a desert & calling it peace, just like the Romansβ" in: telegraph.co.uk/books/non-fictβ¦. "The classicist on how a British Museum visit sparked her love of history & why we shouldnβt be too reverent about ancient civilisations". @jacksayspurple
12.10.2025 19:19 β π 52 π 9 π¬ 2 π 0Thanks for saying ππ
10.10.2025 19:50 β π 61 π 2 π¬ 2 π 0
On Instant Classics now, a deep dive into Cassandra, the Trojan prophet doomed to tell the truth but never be believed. We reflect on the story from Aeschylus to Taylor Swift & find more than meets the eye. tinyurl.com/mrymayzp
10.10.2025 07:10 β π 31 π 7 π¬ 1 π 1
Tomorrow on Instant Classics (tinyurl.com/4s6vr4vp) we're looking at the long and complicated history of the toga. You'll never look on a toga party in thesame way again. That's FDR having a toga birthday party.
08.10.2025 08:55 β π 62 π 9 π¬ 2 π 1
A new episode of our Odyssey reading Book Club has dropped - discussing the rest of Book 1. From now on, I'm afraid you will actually have to JOIN the Club to listen. But there will be all sorts of other perks too. So go on! instantclassics.supportingcast.fm
01.10.2025 08:15 β π 45 π 8 π¬ 2 π 0
Talking in Oxford on 2 Oct. Just a few tickets left. I will be kicking off with a tiny Oxford classical treasure: some ancient Roman bullets with surprising messages imprinted on them! www.fane.co.uk/mary-beard
28.09.2025 09:40 β π 47 π 9 π¬ 0 π 0
Really kind of Mary Beard to give me this generous shout-out in her @thetls.bsky.social blog this week β¦ www.the-tls.com/regular-feat...
27.09.2025 18:11 β π 56 π 3 π¬ 0 π 0
Where should you go to see the best version of the lost statue of Athena from the Parthenon? Athens? London? No: Nashville! Listen here. podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/d...
27.09.2025 17:31 β π 71 π 16 π¬ 4 π 1This is becoming one of my favourite podcasts: Instant Classics by Mary Beard and Charlotte Higgins. Check the latest episode on free speech in Ancient Greece and Rome
www.radio.net/podcast/inst...
'The Odyssey, with its stinks and stenches, its pigsties and drugged dinner parties, its beggars and bards, is not so high-flown as the Iliad.'
A. E. Stallings (@ae_stallings): The epic of homecoming in a new translation
Our new Instant Classics podcast is on the Parthenon. Not its modern controversies, but its ancient ones! Was it OTT? tinyurl.com/y9rcp6zj
25.09.2025 16:55 β π 74 π 9 π¬ 3 π 1We'll be dropping an Instant Classics episode about the Parthenon on Thursday...https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/instant-classics/id1831429397
24.09.2025 15:58 β π 64 π 9 π¬ 1 π 0
Not exactly a fashionista! But v chuffed about this ππ
21.09.2025 11:18 β π 157 π 7 π¬ 9 π 0
A SmartViz monitoring device installed at a university.
Very much enjoying the culture of trust and respect implicit in the installation of room usage monitoring devices on academics' office doors today. Imagine my shock on discovering that managers' doors remain unsulliedβ¦
18.09.2025 18:10 β π 234 π 73 π¬ 61 π 22
It a bumper Classics issue of the @thetls.bsky.social
this week. Long reviews by AE Stallings on Mendelsohn's Odyssey tinyurl.com/k7uzw9cy and by Peter Thonemann on 403 BCE
Democracy is something you have to work hard at, not just sit back and enjoy. One thing we discuss here on
Free Speech - An Ancient History. podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/f...
Is now a good time to think harder about the death of Socrates? We wonder on Instant Classics: tinyurl.com/43b2pvvs
18.09.2025 13:05 β π 52 π 9 π¬ 1 π 0
What you have been waiting for! Our Odyssey bookclub dives into the first 10 lines of Odyssey Book 1.. how a careful read of them helps unlock the whole poem. All in English but we do pick out & explain one Greek word. tinyurl.com/4ycrzxw9
17.09.2025 05:50 β π 81 π 11 π¬ 4 π 2
