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.
You are living in a dream of your own creation. Let it be the dream of a lifetime, for that is exactly what it is.
The utterance of God is a lamp, whose light is these words: Ye are the fruits of one tree, and the leaves of one branch. Deal ye one with another with the utmost love and harmony... So powerful is the light of unity that it can illuminate the whole earth.
I'm tired of saying, "How wonderful you are!" to fool men who haven't got one-half the sense I've got, and I'm tired of pretending I don't know anything, so men can tell me things and feel important while they're doing it.
It's a difficult competition against silence, because silence is a perfect language, the only language which says with no words.
Since the day of my birth, my death began its walk. It is walking toward me, without hurrying.
Feminine virtue is nothing but a convenient masculine invention.
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