History is how we have learnt to think about ourselves. It's not as though the Greeks and Romans are static entities out there to be discovered and translated. We make them speak, we talk to them, and they inform what we say.
Interpretation
History helps us understand our identities and influences our thoughts.
In this quote, Mary Beard emphasizes that history is not a mere collection of facts about past civilizations like the Greeks and Romans; rather, it is an active process of engagement where we interpret and communicate with historical figures. Our understanding of the past shapes our identity and informs our contemporary discussions, suggesting that history is dynamic and deeply intertwined with how we perceive ourselves today.
In practice
In a lecture about the relevance of history in modern society.
I don't think that we are completely dominated by what we have inherited from the past, but it is the case that as far back as you can go - just to Homer, but also to the literature of Rome, the literature of the Middle Ages and Renaissance - what you will find is that women's voices are not taken seriously.
What politicians do is they never get the rhetoric wrong, and the price they pay is they don't speak the truth as they see it. Now, I will speak truth as I see it, and sometimes I don't get the rhetoric right. I think that's a fair trade-off.
I'd quite like to be in Caligula's court - living in the back room somewhere and just being able to observe.
Whatever you say about popular culture, people like people who know things, who are experts, and it doesn't particularly matter what they look like.
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.
It wasn't until I got to Cambridge that I discovered active discrimination against women.
The Bible says that God has a reason for keeping us here; if He didn't, He would take us to Heaven far sooner.
When you say “yes” to the “isness” of life, when you accept this moment as it is, you can feel a sense of spaciousness within you that is deeply peaceful.
The supramental transformation, the supramental evolution must carry with it a lifting of mind, life and body out of themselves into a greater way of being in which yet their own ways and powers would be, not suppressed or abolished, but perfected and fulfilled by the self-exceeding.
The Christian is the most contented man in the world, but he is the least contented with the world. He is like a traveler in an inn, perfectly satisfied with the inn and its accommodation, considering it as an inn, but putting quite out of all consideration the idea of making it his home.
DUEL, n. A formal ceremony preliminary to reconciliation of two enemies. Great skill is necessary to its satisfactory observance; if awkwardly performed . . . deplorable consequences sometimes ensue. A long time ago a man lost his life.
Be truthful. Nature only sides with truth.
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