Introduction: Strange Meetings

The introduction to this Special Issue explains how it contributes to the Centenary commemorations by re-evaluating the place of Classics and classicists in World War One. It argues that in the cultures of the War classical receptions functioned as an important filter for experience and means of expression. The lives of WWI classicists illustrate how an international community of scholars was affected and how the War shaped the discipline itself. This first extended study of WWI receptions of the ancient world considers the multiple interfaces between literary, visual, and experiential insights. To allow a sustained focus, its parameters are responses to the War mainly from Britain and Germany, either during the conflict or referring directly back to it. Wilfred Owen's metaphor of a ‘strange meeting’ between living and dead is presented as emblematic of wartime encounters with ancient texts and forms. In this turbulent and estranging period, the recourse to Classics arose from its deep embeddedness in European cultures. While many continued to be inspired by traditional values of heroism and empire, new dissenting movements rejected them as obsolete. Yet the multivalence of Classics stimulated creative innovation regardless of allegiance. Classical receptions in WWI are shown to be as diverse as the personal reactions, motives, or official agendas that prompted them. The introduction provides a survey of influential works in Cultural History that have informed new classical research projects and conferences on WWI during the Centenary, tracing developments through the decades since the fiftieth anniversary. It closes with a brief overview of the collected articles.