The Valve - A Literary Organ | Greek Classics in the US Military

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Thursday, November 12, 2009

Greek Classics in the US Military

Posted by Bill Benzon on 11/12/09 at 08:03 AM

First a NYTimes Op-Ed, now the Pentagon:

The Pentagon has provided $3.7 million for an independent production company, Theater of War, to visit 50 military sites through at least next summer and stage readings from two plays by Sophocles, “Ajax” and “Philoctetes,” for service members. So far the group has performed at Fort Riley in Kansas; at the Uniformed Services University in Bethesda, Md.; and at last week’s Warrior Resilience Conference in Norfolk, Va.

The scenes from “Ajax” show the title character plotting to murder Greek generals who have disgraced him. Under a trance by the goddess Athena, he ends up slaughtering farm animals he thinks are the officers. Ajax’s concubine is depicted as trying to bring him to his senses; the final scene shows Ajax in agony, committing suicide.

Have they given any thought to using more contemporary literary materials?

Comments

There is an interesting correlation between how right wing a political theorist is and how much attention he has paid to classical military history.

If you look at the bibliographies of the Project For a New American Century gang you’ll find quite a few commentaries on Thucydides et al.

By Jonathan M on 11/12/09 at 08:45 AM | Permanent link to this comment

The importance of the ancient Greece/Rome reference in the US punditoblogocomentariat always surprised me. I suppose marble looks cool.

... Besides, Philoctetes? “Hey, vet! You stink!”

By on 11/12/09 at 09:27 AM | Permanent link to this comment

There’s certainly precedent; George Washington putting on a performance of Cato at Valley forge, for instance.

By on 11/12/09 at 11:36 AM | Permanent link to this comment

There is an interesting correlation between how right wing a political theorist is and how much attention he has paid to classical military history.

Or, rather, how much he (mis)reads classical military history as justification for every neoconservative idea. Victor Davis Hanson, I’m looking at you.

By on 11/12/09 at 11:45 AM | Permanent link to this comment

and so: “contemporary” = relevant? ancient = irrelevant?
A very highly theorized position, that.

By vemos on 11/12/09 at 05:09 PM | Permanent link to this comment

and so: “contemporary” = relevant? ancient = irrelevant?

Not at all. I’m mostly interested in the fact that literary texts are being used in this way.

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Thursday, November 12, 2009

Greek Classics in the US Military

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