Had a great night with @brisdram.bsky.social hearing @wmarybeard.bsky.social speak in Brisbane. She drove home for me how reflecting on the ancient world can help us make greater sense of the world we live in. She’s a treasure. Thank you, Mary. From an inspired Ancient History teacher right here.

Thanks to the American Philosophical Society for hosting this discussion about the ancient world (features me I am afraid) amphilsoc.org/useful-knowled

Catch our real life Roman ghost story on Instant Classics tinyurl.com/7t2kpzuh On Thursday we are dropping the follow up episode on the underworld in epic. Come and meet the ghosts of the Odyssey and the Aeneid.

What better for halloween than a good old Roman ghost story? Listen here! podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/i...

This week in Instant Classics Bookclub, we take a step back & think about the repeated adjectives used to describe characters in the Odyssey. What is their point? Join the Bookclub here instantclassics.supportingcast.fm (& you can get an earlybird offer to our first live event on 25 Nov)

The question for today. Did Nero Really Fiddle While Rome Burned? And what tune did he play. On Instant Classics now tinyurl.com/cv7e9m92

Thoroughly enjoyed tonight’s “Evening with Mary Beard”. It turns out that quite a lot of us in Edinburgh are fascinated by the Romans! Thank you, @wmarybeard.bsky.social for all the fun and wisdom!

Delighted to have a short piece in this week's TLS on Hades 2, gender, and modern myth making. www.the-tls.com/arts/hades-i...

Last day of sale. You have till midnight tonight to get 25% off my new book (out in the Spring). tinyurl.com/mr452usz A great "deal" from Waterstones.

Day Three of Waterstones 25% off deal on my new book (out in spring). Just one more day at this price. tinyurl.com/mr452usz

I've got a new book out in spring #TalkingClassics: about why it's still worth bothering about ancient Greece and Rome. Now till Friday 17th Oct you can preorder through Waterstones. Enter OCTOBER25 at checkout & get 25% off RRP. #WPreorder tinyurl.com/TalkingClass...

The boy talks about his Holy Men of the Electromagnetic Age on RTE here tinyurl.com/k3enkrv9 It's 25.29 minutes it. Give it a listen, why dont you! Why WAS the occult such a craze between WW1 and 2? And who were the occultists?

Jack Rear's article "Mary Beard: ‘We’re still making a desert & calling it peace, just like the Romans’" in: telegraph.co.uk/books/non-fict…. "The classicist on how a British Museum visit sparked her love of history & why we shouldn’t be too reverent about ancient civilisations". @jacksayspurple

Thanks for saying 👇👇

On Instant Classics now, a deep dive into Cassandra, the Trojan prophet doomed to tell the truth but never be believed. We reflect on the story from Aeschylus to Taylor Swift & find more than meets the eye. tinyurl.com/mrymayzp

Tomorrow on Instant Classics (tinyurl.com/4s6vr4vp) we're looking at the long and complicated history of the toga. You'll never look on a toga party in thesame way again. That's FDR having a toga birthday party.

A new episode of our Odyssey reading Book Club has dropped - discussing the rest of Book 1. From now on, I'm afraid you will actually have to JOIN the Club to listen. But there will be all sorts of other perks too. So go on! instantclassics.supportingcast.fm

Talking in Oxford on 2 Oct. Just a few tickets left. I will be kicking off with a tiny Oxford classical treasure: some ancient Roman bullets with surprising messages imprinted on them! www.fane.co.uk/mary-beard

Really kind of Mary Beard to give me this generous shout-out in her @thetls.bsky.social blog this week … www.the-tls.com/regular-feat...

Where should you go to see the best version of the lost statue of Athena from the Parthenon? Athens? London? No: Nashville! Listen here. podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/d...

This is becoming one of my favourite podcasts: Instant Classics by Mary Beard and Charlotte Higgins. Check the latest episode on free speech in Ancient Greece and Rome www.radio.net/podcast/inst...

'The Odyssey, with its stinks and stenches, its pigsties and drugged dinner parties, its beggars and bards, is not so high-flown as the Iliad.' A. E. Stallings (@ae_stallings): The epic of homecoming in a new translation

Our new Instant Classics podcast is on the Parthenon. Not its modern controversies, but its ancient ones! Was it OTT? tinyurl.com/y9rcp6zj

We'll be dropping an Instant Classics episode about the Parthenon on Thursday...https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/instant-classics/id1831429397

Not exactly a fashionista! But v chuffed about this 👇👇

Very much enjoying the culture of trust and respect implicit in the installation of room usage monitoring devices on academics' office doors today. Imagine my shock on discovering that managers' doors remain unsullied…

It a bumper Classics issue of the @thetls.bsky.social this week. Long reviews by AE Stallings on Mendelsohn's Odyssey tinyurl.com/k7uzw9cy and by Peter Thonemann on 403 BCE

Democracy is something you have to work hard at, not just sit back and enjoy. One thing we discuss here on Free Speech - An Ancient History. podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/f...

Is now a good time to think harder about the death of Socrates? We wonder on Instant Classics: tinyurl.com/43b2pvvs

What you have been waiting for! Our Odyssey bookclub dives into the first 10 lines of Odyssey Book 1.. how a careful read of them helps unlock the whole poem. All in English but we do pick out & explain one Greek word. tinyurl.com/4ycrzxw9

On Tuesday our Instant Classics Odyssey Readalong really gets down to it -- with the start of Book 1 (and what some of the words really mean). We'll be reading the Odyssey together over several months (not sure how long). For an intro before that, try here: tinyurl.com/p2cr66xu

On Tuesday our Instant Classics Odyssey Readalong really gets down to it -- with the start of Book 1 (and what some of the words really mean). We'll be reading the Odyssey together over several months (not sure how long). For an intro before that, try here: tinyurl.com/p2cr66xu

Todays new podcast . On sappho the first western poet of desire . Charlotte & I enjoy an occasional bit of disagreement ! podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/i...

This year we're going to do #WorldBeardDay the way it should be done. 🤩 @wmarybeard.bsky.social

Just signed up for the #instantClassics Podcast book club exploring some great Greek and Roman texts with the dream classics team of Dame @wmarybeard.bsky.social and @charlottehiggo.bsky.social instantclassics.supportingcast.fm/listen

here, for those who asked, is the Apple link to Instant Classics. we do answer the Trump/emperor question but in the way you might expect ! podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/i...

Here is the first episode of Instant Classics Give us a listen and leave a comment ! open.spotify.com/episode/5s3Q...

The first episode of the pod "Instant Classics" with me and Charlotte Higgins will be available from Thursday. Meanwhile here's a trailer: tinyurl.com/2fsffrnu

Here I take a dive into one of the most famous paintings in the National Gallery in Washington DC: El Greco's Laocoon. Is there a modern moral? I guess, sometimes telling the truth carries a high price. tinyurl.com/3sp2r8rj

This was quite fun!! Thank you gentlemen. See you at Cambridge united! (If you’re interested, my podcast with Charlotte Higgins (instant classics..about more than you think!) starts at end of august

Daily Telegraph today refers to A Rayner’s property “empire”. Whatever you think of her housing arrangements, I don’t think constituency house (bought for 375k in 2016), house in Hove, plus use of ministerial flat in London is an “empire”. Duke of Westminster wont fear a rival!

Starting a podcast ("Instant Classics") with Charlotte Higgins at the end of August. One thing we'll be doing (there are plenty others) is reading & discussing the Odyssey over several months. Here's why we chose that tinyurl.com/kfds9tkr

New podcast from two women with a shared intellectual project: classics from the ancient world to now…theatre, architecture, history, film, you name it

'not just two blokes' 👏👏👏

I am starting a new podcast called Instant Classics with Charlotte Higgins. About guess what? open.spotify.com/episode/0tyH...

Champion charioteers. Behind the scenes at the Circus Maximus @thetls.bsky.social tinyurl.com/3hzwrh34

I am over 70 (just), and I dont see that asking us to take a vision test when we renew our driving licences is a terrible infringement of our liberty, If we can't see, we shouldn't be driving. That's not the same as "banning". tinyurl.com/56mc4vky

Stunned and delighted in equal measure to have been awarded the 2025 Benson Medal by the @rsliterature.bsky.social and made an Honorary Fellow. A profound thank you to those who nominated me for this amazing honour!

Important article by @richove.bsky.social in the Observer on the War on Libraries in USA tinyurl.com/58kb7hzt More serious than my reflections on Bodies in the Bodleian, but there is some conceptual overlap! tinyurl.com/mjfsxk67