Yesterday a man from Rentokil came into the office to put bait down for our mice – affectionately named Wheelock and Mastronade after our Latin and ancient Greek textbooks. While he was working, he asked what it was we did down here, and I said Classics.
“What’s Classics then?”
I explained that Classics can be anything, really, from the ancient Greeks all the way through to the end of the Roman Empire.
“So you know about the ancient Greeks? Do you know who this is then?”
And he wriggled one arm out of his shirt to reveal half an arm’s worth of tattoo. It was Zeus, Athena and a soldier, beautifully drawn, and he even let me take a photo.
The reason behind this was the man’s Greek heritage: his family are Greek on his mother’s side. He hadn’t travelled to Greece much, apart from Rhodes, but he had learned about the Greeks and Greek mythology by watching documentaries. The tattoo is based on pictures he found on the internet, and he’s hoping to do the rest of the arm too – right down to Hades at the bottom.
What I found so brilliant about this was that for this guy, the ancient Greeks are such an important part of his identity that he wants to commemorate that and display it for all to see. Even though he didn’t know the term “Classics”, he is the living embodiment of how important it is for Classics as a subject to keep working and keep reaching out to people through television, films, books, talks, and social media. The best kind of outreach helps to break down these categorisations (like Classics) and instead give people something that is meaningful to them in their own lives. Hopefully he’ll be back to show me the completed version.
Jennifer Hilder 