Ancient warfare offers a route into understanding many of aspects of ancient culture and life in the ancient world. This talk will discuss the representation of ancient warfare in the animations of the Panoply Vase Animation Project (www.panoply.org.uk), an initiative which creates educational animations from the scenes on ancient Greek pottery. We will look at four animations. Well-Wishers is a simple animation of a departure scene. Clash of the Dicers animates Exekias' famous scene of Achilles and Ajax gaming between battles. Hoplites! Greeks at War features key moments of a hoplite soldier's experience: training, sacrifice, combat, and its aftermath. Sappho 44: A Wedding at Troy will then be introduced – a new animation which offers a prequel to the Trojan War. This talk will touch on the research that informed the animations and will explore their use in educational contexts – how they might be used and what they can offer to those exploring ancient culture. The paper will conclude with a brief introduction to the Our Mythical Childhood database of antiquity in modern young people's culture – a useful resource for exploring the representation of ancient warfare in young people's literature.
More information on the webinar series main page.
Image credit: Julian Winchester