The Classical Detective

The ancient world is thriving in suburban Surrey. Claire Saul talks to acclaimed classicist Daisy Dunn

- Claire Saul

Greek philosophers, Roman gods… for most of us, the Classical era has an other-worldly quality. Yet these ancient civilizations are very much a feature of our 21st-century existence, discreetly echoed in our language, reflected in art and architecture, referenced in the names and logos of companies and products, and more.

Classicist, art historian and cultural critic Dr. Daisy Dunn is intent on sharing them with a modern audience, to educate those of us who have, at best, vague recognition of the names or places of the classical world, but whose knowledge remains as sketchy as Zeus’ notion of fidelity.

“I write more narrative history, for people who won’t necessarily be familiar with the Greek or Roman world,” explains Daisy. “Classical material is a real challenge, you have bits and pieces all over the place or a few letters with whole lines missing and much of the time the context in which something has been written is unknown, or you need to view things bearing in mind the conventions of the time. Also, bar a few fragmentary poems by Sappho, the sources for women are very few and much of the existing material written about women is really negative. I need to draw out the story from all these fragments of information as much as possible, piecing them together and joining dots to create a bigger picture, like a classical detective.”

AMO, AMAS, AMAT…