The Interwoven Roots of Plants and Greek Myths

by Dr Lorna Robinson

Like many other people, the not-too-distant lockdowns created a space and stillness in my life which nature began to fill. From starting to recognise more of the little birds that visited our garden, to taking joy out of the vibrant orange and purple colours of the wildflowers growing in the verges of the nearby road, I grew to love things I had often not noticed before. 

It was from these long days, long walks, and quiet times, that the idea for a series of books called Telling Tales in Nature grew. Some of the myths I have always found most alluring have been those about the underworld, and so I decided to set the first little book in the series, Underworld Tales, there.

Stories, and in particular, myths, are a lot like plants, I think. They spring up often unexpectedly, they self-germinate, but with interesting variations, and before you know it, they are a flourishing ecology. And like nature, they are nourishing in a very deep way, providing wider and different perspectives, and new ways of looking at things. Stepping inside a myth is a lot like stepping inside a wood. It’s different each time, and you never know what you will find!

Increasingly, I bring nature into my teaching and lessons wherever I can for this reason. I find children and adults alike have a joy in knowing the different versions of stories, of hearing them over again, and seeing them in new ways. I find they take a similar pleasure in learning about plants of all kinds, so using stories which are interwoven with nature feels fitting. More than ever before, climate change calls for us to take a different approach to our lives and the nature around us, and I think that ancient ways of viewing plants and nature can help remind us of that interdependence and reliance that modern life can make us forget.

In the book, I start by introducing the plant itself, and giving some simple details about where it grows, what it looks like, and how people have used it in daily life. I then introduce the myth which is associated with the plant, before retelling the story from the perspective of the plant itself. In accordance with ancient Greek and Roman ideas about the spirits which inhabit different aspects of the natural world, I have imagined these spirits as nymphs. I finish with a new brief notes on ancient sources for the stories for those who want to explore further.

    

A talented young artist, Lydia Hall, who is based in Oxford, has created botanical illustrations for each of the plants, and also drawings of the characters and places imagined in the stories. Three of the myths are re-imaginings of ancient stories but in the case of Asphodel, I invented a completely new story for the plant, since one didn’t appear to exist. Lydia has created a mysterious, wistful, gently gloomy backdrop for all the stories, and she has drawn the characters with a careful eye for their view of the stories.

The plan is to create a series of these little books which explore lots of different plants and stories in different realms, from forests to gardens, and from seas to rivers. They are aimed loosely at ages 8+ to adult. I hope that they are simple enough for quite little ones to enjoy, and detailed enough for older children and adults, but I welcome all feedback on this first book, and am looking forward to seeing where it goes.

    

Contact Lorna by email at lro@cheneyschool.org

“Telling Tales in Nature: Underworld Tales” can be purchased as an e-book and paperback here.

All images: © Lydia Hall

The Iris Project Literacy through Latin Scheme at St Andrews

by Crystal Addey

This article was first posted on the St Andrews Classics Blog in November 2016, and is reproduced with kind permission of the School of Classics

The School of Classics at the University of St Andrews is delighted to begin the Iris Project Literary through Latin Scheme for 2016-17. This year, we have 8 student volunteers who will visit local primary schools in Fife, Scotland, to teach P6 and P7 pupils Latin, Classical culture and ancient mythology.

This year, we are excited to be working with Torbain Primary School, Thornton Primary School (both in the Kirkcaldy area) and Rimbleton Primary School (Glenrothes). A wide range of P6 and P7 pupils (aged 9-12 years old) will participate in the Iris Project Latin classes, which our student volunteers will teach in pairs on a weekly basis for four weeks each semester.

The School of Classics would like to thank all of our student volunteers for participating in the Iris Project Literacy through Latin scheme this year.

The Iris Project at St Andrews

The School of Classics at St Andrews has been running the Iris Project Literacy through Latin teaching scheme since 2012. During this time, we have worked with more than ten local primary state-schools in the Fife area to introduce their pupils to Latin and Classical culture, enabling them to experience the the wonders of studying the ancient world.

More than 15 third-year and fourth-year undergraduate Honours students have participated in Iris Project, giving them valuable work experience in teaching, outreach and access work, and working with children and young people. This year, we have expanded the student volunteer base by opening up the opportunity to our postgraduate students and we have two PhD students among our cohort of volunteers. Our student volunteers from the School of Classics make the Iris Project work organised by the University of St Andrews possible. Many students volunteer for Iris Project work because they are considering a career in teaching in HE, FE colleges or the primary and/or secondary school sector; others volunteer because they are passionate about Latin and Classics and want to make sure that state-school pupils get to experience and enjoy these subjects as much as they do.

IRIS project volunteers 2012-2013

The History of the Iris Project

The Iris Project is an educational charity which promotes access to classics in state schools across the UK. It is based at the Iris Project Classics Centre at Cheney School, Oxford. The project was founded by Dr Lorna Robinson, who has also produced an excellent text-book Telling Tales in Latin designed to introduce children to Latin through the study of mythology.

The Iris Project was the first organisation to run a scheme delivering Latin as part of the national literacy curriculum. This award-winning project introduces the nuts and bolts of Latin grammar, and demonstrates the connections between Latin and English; in this way, it instils a fascination for learning languages.

The project started life as a pilot in east London and east Oxford a decade ago. The first school to participate in the Iris Project was Benthal Primary School in Hackney, London, where two classes of Year 5 pupils (9-10 years old) participated in the scheme. By 2007, 20 state-schools in London were participating in the scheme. Since then, it has expanded to include many schools across London and Oxford, as well as schools in Swansea, Reading, Manchester, Glasgow, Edinburgh and St Andrews. Internationally, we have provided guidance for schools in South Africa and New York to set up this scheme.

How it works

This project enables students from universities to deliver a year long introductory Latin course to pupils in primary schools. The project enables children in state-schools to learn Latin, Classics and ancient mythology, subjects which they would almost certainly not have access to without participation in the project.

Pupils are introduced to Latin using a series of lesson plans which incorporate hands-on activities and storytelling to give them a basic grounding in English and Latin grammar, and a taste of Latin myths and culture.

The Benefits of the Iris Project

The benefits of access to Latin and ancient culture in an educational environment include:

• Improving literacy skills
• Greater language awareness and enhanced language abilities
• Stimulation of creative thinking
• Introduction to ancient history, culture and mythology
• Increased confidence

Learning Latin also benefits pupils’ capacity and study of a wide range of other subjects taught by primary and secondary schools (including English, History and Science) through the improvement of literacy skills, the stimulation of creative and critical thinking and enhanced language abilities.

As one of our previous student volunteers at St Andrews has commented, “The Iris Project is a fantastic initiative, invaluable to its learners, its student teachers and to Latin.”

Dr Crystal Addey is Teaching Fellow and Schools Contact in the School of Classics at the University of St Andrews

Lend an ear on the way through the forum ….

by George Sharpley (Latin teacher and author)

People who join the Latin Qvarter beginner courses are curious to discover how dead this language really is and to explore what they can of Latin (and English) grammar. They rightly expect a word feast, with lots of our own words with Latin roots pointing the way ... and I do my best to please. I also want give people a feel for what is easily lost in Latin’s centuries-old silent imprisonment in books and stone memorials: the language’s voice.

In its day, classical Latin was a language heard much more than read. Most people – even those taught to read – will have experienced the works of Virgil and Ovid read aloud. And if T.P.Wiseman’s excellent The Roman Audience (Oxford 2015) is anything to go by, this will not have been confined to private readings in rich people’s houses, but in public theatres too. And read – or performed – with facial expression, gesture and body movement.

Thus we need caution in our application of the oral-literary divide. We think of the Iliad and Odyssey as ‘oral’ epics, because they very nearly are. They are the closest we get to oral poems of that time; but they are in fact pioneering triumphs of a literate society, if drawing on an oral tradition from the world around them. And Virgil’s Aeneid, the fruit of a poetic culture at ease with scrolls of papyrus and the study of letters, is a good deal more aural/oral than we might think. In fact the idea among some scholars today that Roman literature started from cold in the 3^rd century BC is a little misleading. It was already well warmed up by the previous and concurrent oral tradition of dramatised storytelling.

Dio Chrysostom (c. ad 40–115) shows us a poet and a storyteller at work. He describes a scene in the Hippodrome: “I remember seeing a number of people in one place, each one doing something different: one was playing a flute, another dancing, another juggling, another reading aloud a poem, another singing, and another telling a story or myth; and not a single one of them prevented any of the others carrying out his own business” (Discourses 20.10).

What makes a poet literary is not so much that he is read whereas a storyteller is heard, but his performance is recorded on papyrus, which is then used as a prompt for further recitals (as well as a text for admirers and teachers). The oral storyteller on the other hand is below radar; his work has not been preserved. Mind you, his popularity was not limited to ordinary folk: Suetonius tells us that Augustus would summon a story-teller at night if he could not sleep (Aug.78).

We think of the literati of Rome absorbing Hellenistic culture, and with it and through it the earlier classical Greek one. What we see much less in the surviving evidence is the influx of Greek culture into Italy at a broader more popular level, not least through the oral storytellers.

The tour of cathedrals in spring 2016, Latin in the Cloisters, was meant to evoke the part played by medieval cathedrals and monasteries in the teaching of Latin and in copying and preserving the great classical authors. And as it continues to roll forward into new cathedrals, Roman sites and museums in 2017, Latin beginners can expect more of the same, to learn the language through stories, historical and fabled; and to hear verses you might have paused to listen to on your way through the forum.

Latin for Beginners, a one-day course in 2017 (remaining dates):

25^th March  PEMBROKESHIRE  (St Davids Cathedral)

22^nd April  CHICHESTER  (Fishbourne Roman Villa)

29^th April  CARDIFF  (Llandaff Cathedral)

18^th October  EXETER  (Royal Albert Memorial Museum)

Details of these and other courses from The Latin Qvarter:

www.latinqvarter.co.uk