Mary Beard "The Shock of the Old" Lecture 2 of 3

The 2023 Berlin Family Lectures with Acclaimed Classicist Mary Beard
"What Can We Learn from the Classics?"
Lecture two: "The Shock of the Old"
April 25, 2023
The Berlin Family Lectures 2023 will challenge some assumptions we may have about Classics. What do we mean by Classics, and what do we hope to get out of it? These lectures puncture some of the myths of the subject, both ancient and modern. In exploring the fun, the dangers, and the heady uncertainties that Classics bring, Mary Beard argues that it can help us to think differently, to look at the world with new eyes, and to understand better where our own assumptions come from.
Lecture 2: The Shock of the Old
The second lecture takes (and adapts) its title from Robert Hughes’s book on modern art, The Shock of the New. It asks what is “old” or “new” about Classics, from the art of antiquity to modern times. It is also about the central role of the humanities (of which Classics is the most extreme example) in facing up to the dilemmas of modernity, in celebrating complexity, and in undermining self-confident presentism. One of the most important things that Classics can do is help us to discuss productively questions to which there are no right answers.