BEARD AND HENDERSON, CLASSICS: A VERY SHORT INTRODUCTION
Chapter 4 "A Guide in Hand"
1. When did Pausanias live, what did he write, and where was he from? Why is Pausanias so important in
understanding the temple of Apollo at Bassae?
2. In the quotation on the top of page 34, find the Greek words for 'Bassae,' 'Apollo,' 'Peloponnese,' and
'Tegea.' What Greek letters do you recognize that you think are the same as the letters of the Latin alphabet
which we learn? What are the names of these Greek letters?
3. What did Pausanias' account have to do with Cockerell's expedition to Bassae? What reasons would
Pausanias himself had had for his own trip to Bassae?
4. What period of Greek culture does Pausanias concentrate on in his writings?
5. Beard and Henderson tell us that Pausanias' account of the temple at Bassae "serves as a very important
lesson for us on how precarious our knowledge of the ancient world is." (37) What other examples do
they present to show how 'iffy' the preservation of ancient literature has been?
6. What recent discoveries have shown that the base of our knowledge of classical texts is still growing?
7. Besides lucky finds and lucky survivals, what else has assured the preservation of classical texts through
the ages? That is, what cultural factors have encouraged the survival of Menander and Juvenal, for
example?
8. What do Beard and Henderson mean when they claim that "For a large part of the nineteenth century
literature set the agenda for archaeology..."? (40)
9. What information that Pausanias provides about the temple at Bassae have modern scholars shown to be
incorrect? How can modern scholars know better than an ancient author what is right?
10. Why do Beard and Henderson find classical Greek and Roman culture more "engaging and
challenging" (41) than other ancient civilizations?
11. What did the Romans do to pass on the ideals of classical Greek sculpture?
What vision of Greece does Pausanias pass on to his readers?
Chapter 5 "Beneath the Surface"
12. What does Pausanias' work not tell us that we would like to know? Why does he leave these details out
of his account?
13. What do the letters on some of the masonry blocks of the Bassae temple help us to learn about its
construction?
14. Where did the stone come from for the construction of the temple, and for its frieze? What do we learn
when we consider the origin of these materials?
15. How does the fact that the Romans and Greeks owned slaves in great numbers affect our view of their
other accomplishments? How would you answer the questions Beard and Henderson pose (50-51): "Is it
fair to judge the Greeks and Romans by our own contemporary moral standards? Or is it impossible not
to?"
16. What do Henderson and Beard mean by the 'underside' of classical culture, which is now often an
object of study?
17. What do archaeologists accomplish with 'surface surveys'?
18. How did the location of the Bassae help to firm up "the union of the city with its territory"? (54)
19. How have recent surveys explained the apparent decline in rural population in Greece (noted by
Pausanias) during the Roman period?
20. How do classicists combine new and old techniques to learn more about the ancient world?
Chapter 6 "Grand Theories"
21. In what ways do classical scholars try to make available "the most authentic texts of classical
literature?" (56)
22. What did Keats and Shakespeare have in common -- in relation to classical studies?
23. What did Karl Marx and Sir James Frazer have in common -- in relation to classical studies?
24. Why has Pausanias' work been little studied in colleges and universities? Why did Sir James Frazer
choose to study it so carefully?
25. How did the Roman poet Ovid and the Viennese doctor Freud use Greek mythology?
26. "... the authority of pagan Classics could be used to legitimate a whole range of radical approaches at
variance with the official Christian establishment." (65) What do the authors mean? What examples do
they give?
27. What do the authors mean when they say that the classics sometimes underwent "bowdlerizing"? What
examples do they give? (and what is the etymology of the verb "bowdlerize"?
28. How did Dante and later scholars make the pagan Roman author Virgil a Christian before Jesus' time?