Harrison’s Deployment of Some Elements from Classical Greek Culture

Abstract

This chapter examines the deployment in Tony Harrison’s poetry of some objects and concepts which ‘the lad’ who worked ‘the hardest in his class at his translations’ (‘Classics Society’) will have encountered in his study of classical languages and cultures. That Harrison worked on ‘Cissy-bleeding-ro’s’ (‘Me Tarzan’) and other Latin authors’ prose and poetry is not forgotten, but the examples considered here are from Greek. They are: the orchestra of the classical theatre, which figures in Harrison’s work as a light-filled circle, or O, and its opposing black circle, associated with destructive fire; the Greek concept of ßíoς‎ (bios), life, which the chapter associates with both endurance and celebration; the πρ‎óσωπον‎ (prosopon), the mask worn by classical actors, whether Thalia or Melpomene; and a μῆλον‎ (melon), apple, or any fruit grown on a tree. Each of these is a σῆμα‎ (sêma), a sign or symbol but also in Greek, significantly given Harrison’s representations of death and memorials, a tomb.