News Greek Tragedy from a Neuroscientific Perspective 28.06.2019

On Friday 28 June we were delighted to welcome Old Dolphin Baroness Susan Greenfield to the Ancient World Breakfast Club. Baroness Greenfield is of course one of this country’s most eminent neuroscientists, and is currently working on research into prevention and cure of Alzheimer’s Disease through her own company: http://www.neuro-bio.com/. Fascinatingly, given her career path, her A Level subjects at Godolphin and Latymer were Maths, Latin, Greek, and Ancient History, and she has maintained a lifelong love of studying the ancient world, even serving as the President of the Classical Association in 2004.

Her talk was entitled ‘Greek Tragedy from a Neuroscientific Perspective’, and she explored the different psychological approaches taken to characterisation by the three great tragic playwrights of ancient Greece: Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. The talk was extremely well received by the more than 100 members of the public, staff, and girls who attended at 8am, and it concluded with a lively question and answer session at the end. Movingly, Baroness Greenfield had asked that her old Classics teacher, Veronica Kotziamani (nee Lemon) be invited, and she explained what an inspiration she had been to her as a teenager.

The whole occasion was a wonderful finale to the 29 meetings which the Ancient World Breakfast Club has held this year.