{"id":12091,"date":"2015-11-08T12:00:14","date_gmt":"2015-11-08T12:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/humansciences\/?p=12091"},"modified":"2018-10-05T14:54:24","modified_gmt":"2018-10-05T14:54:24","slug":"ancient-thebes-in-and-out-of-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/humansciences\/2015\/11\/08\/ancient-thebes-in-and-out-of-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Ancient Thebes, in and out of time"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Daniel<\/a><\/p>\n

[ensemblevideo contentid=MRkLcRIVB0WMF9TLosf-zg audio=true showcaptions=true displayAnnotations=true displayattachments=true audioPreviewImage=true]<\/p>\n

What is the relationship between the stories we tell about a city and the “real” history? Stories float from person to person as neighborhoods rise and fall, institutions develop and spread, and natural and manmade events bring gradual or catastrophic change. The media adds an additional layering as it appeals to civic loyalty and commitment\u00a0in spreading the news.The real history is always somewhere right beyond\u00a0our grasp, as the competing and conflicting narratives\u00a0of individuals and institutions\u00a0reflect a range of motives, from altruistic to selfish to just plain confused.\u00a0Myths and legends grow up around a city because stories help us establish our connection to spaces and places and fix our personal and communal identity. Often\u00a0the veracity of stories is less imporant than the feelings they evoke. This is true of Philadelphia, Paris, New York, or any other city.<\/p>\n

But how does the historian, the narratologist, the archaeologist tell the difference between the real and the imagined, and what is the relationship between the two? In his new book\u00a0Myth, Literature, and the Creation of the Topography of Thebes<\/strong><\/a>, Professor Daniel Berman attempts to reconstruct the ancient topography of Thebes through two, often conflicting, sources, the ancient literature and the contemporary archaeological record. Thebes, continuously occupied from the Mycenean period to the present day, is the ancient city of\u00a0Herakles, Dionysus, Oedipus, and Antigone of Greek myth. It was an important dramatic site\u00a0in Greek epic and lyric poetry, Classical tragedy, and the literature of the Hellenistic period. But behind and layered within mythic Thebes, there is also a very real city that has long experienced the beating pulse of everyday life.\u00a0As you will learn in this interview, it is hardly a straightforward task to disambiguate the real and the imagined city, as these two elements\u00a0became entangled\u00a0so long ago.<\/p>\n

I spoke to Daniel Berman on July 22, 2015.<\/p>\n

Audio Download<\/a> (mp3)<\/p>\n

—Fred Rowland<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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