Oliver Taplin

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Professor Oliver Taplin FBA is a fellow and tutor of Classics (Literae Humaniores) at Magdalen College, Oxford. He holds a DPhil from Oxford University.

Once described as "the Paddington Bear of the classics-teaching world", Taplin is author of several books, including 'Greek Fire', a celebration of the capacity of Ancient Greek culture to stand the test of time and influence modern art, thought and society. The book accompanied a Channel 4 documentary series of the same name. This book has been translated into five languages.

He made his name with "The Stagecraft of Aeschylus" examining the entrances and exits of characters in Aeschylus's plays. In this, he was at the forefront of a move in classical scholarship away from textual criticism towards understanding performance. He and others recognised that plays need audiences and the impact on them was as highly significant.

He set up The Archive of Performances of Greek and Roman Drama in 1996 with Edith Hall in response to the need for a coordinated research effort devoted to the international production and reception of ancient plays since the Renaissance. He has also worked with productions in the theatre, including The Oresteia at the National Theatre (1980-81), The Thebans at the RSC (1991-92), and The Oresteia at the National Theatre (1999-2000).

Apart from Greek drama, his chief area of interest was in Homer. Here, generations of students flocked to his lectures on the Iliad and the Odyssey. His "Homeric Soundings" did not achieve the 'classic' status accorded to 'The Stagecraft of Aeschylus' but was still well received.

He is a Fellow of the British Academy.

[edit] Recent News

Oliver Taplin has just taken part in the programme "Greek and Latin Voices" for the BBC where he gave a talk on Homer and translated the Homeric texts for the programme.

His book Pots and Plays has recently been released.

[edit] Selected publications

The Stagecraft of Aeschylus: the Dramatic Use of Exits and Entrances in Greek Tragedy, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1977.
Greek Tragedy in Action , Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1978 (2nd Edition 2003).
Comic Angels: and Other Approaches to Greek Drama Through Vase-Paintings , Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1993.
'Opening Performance: Closing Texts?', Essays in Criticism, 45, 93–120, 1995.
'The Artistic Record'. In P. Easterling (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Greek Tragedy, Cambridge, 69–90, 1997.
'Spreading the word through performance'. In S. Goldhill and R. Osborne (eds.), Performance Culture and Athenian Democracy, Cambridge, 33–57, 1999.
Literature in the Greek and Roman Worlds. A New Perspective, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 2000.
His new book, Pots and Plays. Interactions between Tragedy and Greek Vase-painting of the Fourth Century BC is forthcoming from Getty Museum Publications, Los Angeles.