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Greek myths, early Roman history, is configured around violence against women. And I think we need to get in there, get our hands dirty, face it, and see why and how it was.
Mary Beard -
The history of art is not just the history of artists; it is also the history of the people who viewed art. And that wider perspective can help us see some of the reasons why the art of the ancient world should still matter to us.
Mary Beard
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In real life, Oxford and Cambridge are two excellent universities, like many others in the country. They are full of highly intelligent, hard-working, and quite ordinary students and teachers.
Mary Beard -
A lot of people will always say, 'I really know nothing about the ancient world.' But there's lots and lots of things people know. Partly, they've been encouraged to think they're ignorant about it. In some ways, the job to do is show people that they know much more than they'd like to admit.
Mary Beard -
Barring some sociopaths, probably, there is nobody who doesn't care about their appearance.
Mary Beard -
Gender is a key marker of power and powerlessness. Most of the structures of how our world works are biased in terms of men.
Mary Beard -
My fantasy is going into a men's loo. And listening to what they say.
Mary Beard -
My day job is working on Roman history and ancient Roman history.
Mary Beard
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I have lots of heroes and heroines, mostly unsung and including my husband.
Mary Beard -
Roman military tactics were much over-rated. All the clever ones had the same idea, which was to go round the back.
Mary Beard -
I was really good at Latin at school, and because I was good at it, I got more interested and got better at it.
Mary Beard -
There's a basic rule of thumb that the more a culture oppresses women, or oppresses anyone, the more culturally preoccupied they are with that.
Mary Beard -
No women in ancient Rome ever had the vote.
Mary Beard -
We are sold the idea of a refugee as a tiny child sitting crying, as a way of raising money, but elderly ladies and kids largely can't move. The demographic is mostly young men.
Mary Beard
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Thinking through how you look to your enemies is helpful. That doesn't mean that your ideology is wrong and theirs is right, but maybe you have to recognise that they have one - and that it may be logically coherent. Which may be uncomfortable.
Mary Beard -
I think, when I was 25, nobody in the world knew who I was.
Mary Beard -
I'm exploring the long history of women, first of all, being silenced and, secondly, not being taken seriously in the political and public sphere. It's a call to action through understanding and through looking at ourselves again and trying to reformulate the whole question of women and power.
Mary Beard -
In 1984, I returned to Newnham College at Cambridge University to teach after completing my Ph.D. there a couple of years earlier. Almost all of my colleagues in the university's classics department were men, and my office at the all-women's college was in the dorm.
Mary Beard -
I knew that Trump was ghastly. I knew I'd vote for Hillary if I had a vote.
Mary Beard -
I was 11 when I started Latin - not like boys, who start early at prep school. At 14, you had to choose whether to start Greek and drop German, but my mum made a fuss, and I took Latin, Greek, French, and German at O-level, which meant I didn't do much science.
Mary Beard
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Classics isn't about the ancient world. It's partly about the ancient world, but it's about our conversation. It's how we try to talk to antiquity.
Mary Beard -
I was into Black Power, and my practice Oxbridge essay was a rant. The headmistress said I'd never get in with that, but she was probably wrong. I was the ideal combination: a swot who was also a bad girl.
Mary Beard -
When I am making a TV show, I am looking for engagement, not admiration.
Mary Beard -
There is no way, absolutely no way, that I would want people to stop reading the 'Odyssey.' But I want them to read it with their eyes open. To notice it and then to think what it says about us.
Mary Beard