Mary Beard "A Piece of Cake" Lecture 1 of 3

The 2023 Berlin Family Lectures with Acclaimed Classicist Mary Beard
"What Can We Learn from the Classics?"
Lecture one: "A Piece of Cake"
April 20, 2023
The Berlin Family Lectures 2023 will challenge some assumptions we may have about Classics. What do we mean by Classics, and what do we hope to get out of it? These lectures puncture some of the myths of the subject, both ancient and modern. In exploring the fun, the dangers, and the heady uncertainties that Classics bring, Mary Beard argues that it can help us to think differently, to look at the world with new eyes, and to understand better where our own assumptions come from.
Lecture 1: A Piece of Cake
The first lecture begins with the piece of cake that was Mary Beard’s first encounter with the ancient world, and the wonderment that it instilled. That one small object launches a series of questions about what Classics is and the contests over its definition that go back centuries. This year is the 50th anniversary of Beard’s entry into the subject as a Classics major, and she uses that occasion partly as an opportunity to reflect on what has changed over the last half-century, and how differently she approaches the piece of cake now.