Instant Classics

Mary talks to Charlotte about her book Ukrainian Lessons: Art in a Time of War. For the last four years, Charlotte has returned repeatedly to Ukraine to report on the cultural life of the nation as it defends itself against Russia. Part of Putin’s attempts to legitimise the war lies in an age-old argument that Ukraine is simply an extension, or part of, Russia itself. Art and culture have always played a critical role in Ukraine’s identity and self-determinism –and never more so than now.

Charlotte talks about what first took her to Ukraine in 2022, some of what she has learned over the last four years, and how reading the classics, especially Homer and Greek tragedy, have helped her make sense of the current situation. And Mary and Charlotte discuss Ukraine’s classical past: histories of Ukraine often start with Herodotus and his account of the Scythians of the steppe; and the Black Sea coast, and Crimea, are dotted with some of the earliest Greek “colonies” or trading emporia.

Further reading

Charlotte’s book Ukrainian Lessons: Art in a Time of War (Cape) is published on 20 August.

Charlotte and Mary also mentioned Oleksandr Mykhed’s book The Language of War (Penguin, paperback, 2026), and Cassandra by Lesia Ukrainka (HURI, 2023)

On the classical connections of Ukraine, there is a good introduction to the ruins of Olbia. Euripides’ fifth-century play, Iphigeneia in Tauris (Iphigeneia among the Taurians) is set in the Crimean peninsula (English translations widely available in Oxford World’s Classics, Penguin Classics etc).

A BBC news article about the return of Scythian artefacts to Kyiv after a decade of court hearings.

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Producer: Jonty Claypole

Video Editor: Jak Ford

Theme music: Casey Gibson

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With the world gripped by Odyssey fever, Mary and Charlotte keep being asked the same question: which translation should I read? So here is a quick bonus episode to help you decide.

Mary and Charlotte cover the waterfront of the modern translations (Emily Wilson and Daniel Mendelsohn), but also celebrate some past classics, like E.V. Rieu’s. In the end, the simple answer is don’t worry - work with what you’ve got most easily at hand. Any translation that has been printed by a major publisher has its merits.

Further reading:

The two recent translations we discuss at the start are:

Emily Wilson (translator), The Odyssey (W. W. Norton and co)

Daniel Mendelsohn (translator), The Odyssey (Chicago UP and Penguin Classics)

Both are available in paperback.

Earlier translations which you might enjoy, and trust, include::

Richmond Lattimore (Harper Perennial Modern Classics)

Robert Fagles (Penguin Classics)

Robert Fitzgerald (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)

Peter Green (University of California Press)

E. V. Rieu (Penguin Classics)

Charlotte referred to Matthew Arnold’s lectures from the 1860s, “On Translating Homer”

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DOP - Ben Warburton

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Theme music: Casey Gibson



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Summer is here (in the northern hemisphere at least) and with many listeners eyeing trips to the beach, Mary and Charlotte are here with some cracking beach read suggestions. Move over Carley Fortune, Ann Patchett, and Tana French and make way for Herodotus, Lucian and Longus.

Charlotte does a hard sell for Herodotus’ Histories (all 700 pages) and Ovid’s (mercifully shorter) Heroides. Mary pushes the science-fiction humour of Lucian’s Selected Dialogues (while acknowledging it could do with a better title) and Longus’ Daphnis and Chloe. Turning to modern books set in the ancient world, Charlotte champions Colm Tóibín’s House of Names, while Mary chooses Samuel Butler’s The Authoress of the Odyssey - which, published in 1897, pushes the definition of ‘modern’ a little, but we don’t expect anything less from a Cambridge don!

Finally, something for the kids… Mary is a fan of Caroline Lawrence’s Roman Mysteries and Charlotte feels equally enthusiastic about Percy Jackson.

Charlotte’s recommendations:

Herodotus, The Histories comes in many translations – Robin Waterfield for Oxford World’s Classics, and Tom Holland for Penguin Classics

Ovid, Heroides, also has translations in the World’s Classics and Penguin Classics series

Colm Tóibín, House of Names, Penguin, 2018

Rick Riordan, Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief, Puffin, 2013

Mary’s recommendations:

For Lucian’s Dialogues, the handiest translation is a selection of some of the best of his satire in Oxford World’s Classics. Peter Thonemann is producing a new translation of the whole lot in the Loeb Classical Library (Harvard UP), including the original Greek text too. Two volumes have appeared so far.

Longus, Daphnis and Chloe is also published in World’s Classics, and in Penguin Classics (with other works of ancient Greek fiction), and on its own in the Penguin Little Black Classics series.

Samuel Butler’s Authoress of the Odyssey is available in various modern reprints (often independently published) listed in online bookstores

Caroline Lawrence’s series of Roman Mysteries is published by Orion.

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Instant Classics handmade by Vespucci

Producer: Jonty Claypole

Video Editor: Jak Ford

Theme music: Casey Gibson

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In this Clacton byelection special, Count Binface takes a break from the campaign trail and zooms in from his spaceship to chat with Mary and Charlotte about his deep interest in Ancient Greece and Rome.

While denying all connection with an earthling called Jon Harvey who studied Classics at Oxford, Binface reveals the lessons he has learned by studying classical writers, like the Greek satirist Lucian, the failings of Athenian democracy and Roman republicanism, and his views on Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey.

All of which begs the question: will Count Binface make compulsory Latin in state primary schools a central pledge in his manifesto? Listen to find out!

Further reading:

If you are confused about who Count Binface is, there’s a piece in the Guardian that explains it all…

Binface’s review of the Odyssey (paywalled)

And a link to Jon Harvey’s broadcasting including his BBC Radio 4 series, Could an Ancient Athenian Fix Britain?

For all the candidates in this byelection: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckge923jk3vo

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Producer: Jonty Claypole

Video Editor: Jak Ford

Theme music: Casey Gibson

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Last week, actor Tom Hiddleston launched his new series - not the further adventures of Loki (at least, not yet), but Pompeii: Out of Time with Tom Hiddleston. Mary and Charlotte talk to Tom who reveals his life-long fascination with the ancient world, including a degree in Classics at Cambridge where he attended the lectures of one Professor Mary Beard.

Tom talks about the impact Mary’s teaching had on him and how that fascination for the Classics has never gone away. His new series, available to watch on Disney+ and National Geographic, focuses on several real people and the decisions they made in the hours before the eruption of Vesuvius in AD 79. It draws on new research and technology to uncover the hidden lives of some of those who survived - and some who didn’t.

Further reading

Mary Beard’s book Pompeii is strongly recommended by Charlotte! And there is a recent book by Jess Venner, The Lost Voices of Pompeii (Harper Collins, 2026), which picks up and develops some of the same themes.

In one of his first roles, Tom appeared in the Cambridge Greek play. You can find out more about this marvellous institution here: https://www.classics.cam.ac.uk/prospective/undergraduate/greek-play

and here: https://www.cambridgegreekplay.classics.cam.ac.uk/

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@insta_classics for X

email: instantclassicspod@gmail.com

Instant Classics handmade by Vespucci

Producer: Jonty Claypole

Video Editor: Jak Ford

Theme music: Casey Gibson

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