by Erin Littler (Hons student)
In late 2023, I was fortunate enough to be awarded the Kenmure Prize in Classics (founded in 1976 in memory of the Reverend Vera Kenmure, first woman minister of the Congregational Union of Scotland). This gave me the opportunity to travel abroad and view classical sites, which I have previously only read about, in-person. I had been captivated by Athens and its landmarks ever since I first gained an interest in ancient Greek and Roman history – thinking back, I was probably still in primary school at this point, so quite a while ago! And so Athens is where I decided to go.
I had been told that Athens is a very historical city, and this became clear to me when I finally set foot in it for myself. It is brimming with culture. On the first night, I viewed the Acropolis and the Ancient Agora from the Areopagus – it is at this point that I actually grasped the scale of these sites. I thought I had understood from looking at images in books and reconstructions of them in their prime, but these just did not measure up to how they were in real life. When I eventually went down and walked through the agora, I thought about how many people had populated it in ancient times as the social hub of the city, how many people had walked where I was walking; it felt a little overwhelming (but this may have just been the heat – visiting during the summer was a rookie mistake, I admit). Oh, and it was nice seeing a familiar face during my visit! I’ve always thought Socrates was recognisable by his resemblance to Santa.
Delphi was the only site outside of Athens that I visited – but I knew I had to see it. An area of ancient Greek culture that particularly interests me is its literature, specifically the ancient novels. It was the longest of these ancient novels, Heliodorus’ Aethiopica, which I wrote my dissertation on. Delphi is where the heroine Charicleia and the hero Theagenes first meet and fall in love, and where their tale of woe begins. The oracle proleptically directs the narrative throughout the novel with a prophecy meant to misdirect both the reader and the internal characters. I could not go to Greece without visiting it myself. But unfortunately (or fortunately?) I did not receive any prophecy there. Climbing the Sacred Way and seeing the Sphinx of Naxos in the Delphi Archaeological Museum (which was far bigger than I could have predicted) made up for this though.
I appreciate that the University of Glasgow offers this opportunity to its Classics students – it gives the sense that they want students to engage more personally with the topics they learn about; to experience as well as observe. I certainly felt this, and I believe the trip has been valuable for me and for my future in studying ancient history, as I imagine it will be for others who will receive the prize.