Volume31 Number 2 March 2001

NB: The material contained in the WWW version of the CAPN Bulletin is identical to the hardcopy with the exception of a few advertisements (which have been omitted)

CONTENTS:

Registration information and full details about the conference were mailed to all CAPN members at the end of January and consequently will not be reprinted here (thus explaining the comparative thinness and tardiness of this issue). The conference website is:

On February 22-23, 2002, the Classical Association of the Canadian West will host a conference entitled CLASSICAL LEANINGS: An Interdisciplinary Conference on the theme 'Classics and the Humanities' at Harbour Centre, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, British Columbia. Details on the conference and submission of papers may be found at the conference website:

Please note that the deadline for submissions is April 15, 2001.

For several years now we have been publishing the CAPN Bulletin in both hardcopy and on the CAPN website. Many of you have indicated to me that you appreciate having a webpage for the Association and having access to the Bulletin online. I'd like to raise, in a preliminary way, the question of whether or not it is desirable at this point in time to dispense with the hardcopy altogether and to publish the Bulletin solely in electronic form.

There are a couple of advantages to this. The most obvious is financial: it costs several hundred dollars a year to publish and mail the two issues of the Bulletin, and those costs are increasing. And with them, eventually, so will the dues. Another is that it would save Your Editor the trouble of having to produce two separate versions of the Bulletin.

There are also some potential disadvantages. It is not clear to me, for instance, how many of our members do not have access to the Internet and rely solely on the hardcopy for information about CAPN. Moreover, our 'advertisers', such as they are, submit their notices in hardcopy, which is why those notices are omitted in the web version (not an insurmountable problem, mind you). We publish such notices as a courtesy to other organizations and programs. And finally, committing to a strictly electronic Bulletin would require that my successor be willing and able to publish in that form (but if I can do it…).

Perhaps discussion of this issue could be an agenda item for either this year's meeting in Provo or at next year's meeting?

In 2001, for the 21st consecutive year, Professor Dick Caldwell's Sporades Tours are going to the eastern Mediterranean. These somewhat eccentric tours are led by university professors (Caldwell [Greece, Turkey, Egypt] and John Pollini [central Italy]), but they're not solely for academics. Rather, they're intended for anyone who wants to learn about ancient history and culture while having fun on vacation.

Sporades tours are different from the usual tours. They are very relaxed and flexible (participants don't have to pay until they arrive, and they can stay for as many or as few days as they wish), and they are also quite extensive in terms of the historical sites, excavations, and museums visited. For example, in addition to all the famous sites they also go to places like Lerna, Pylos, Dodona, Vergina, Molybdoskepastou, Mistra in Greece and Tlos, Caunus, Phaselis, Eflatunpinari, and Euromus in Turkey. Participants stay in fine hotels, eat in the best local restaurants, and never have to get up early.

Ancient art, history, and mythology are the emphases in the guiding and lectures offered in these tours. Caldwell, who was the consultant to Disney's Hercules and took the movies producer, directors, and artists to Greece and Turkey in 1995, is the author of The Origin of the Gods and Hesiod's Theogony and retired from USC Classics in 1999. Pollini, internationally known for his books on Roman portraiture and his work in ancient art and archaeology, was Dean of Fine Arts at USC and has excavated widely in Italy and Turkey.

These tours are not pedantry abroad; the main idea is to have a good time, to see the out-of-the-way as well as the famous, and to experience as much of the present life of these countries as their past. That's why the Greek tour goes to the Albanian border, to the Pindos mountain villages of Monodendri and Metsovo, and (for 3 days) to the island of Skopelos.

For obvious reasons these tours should be of interest to all K-12 educators who include ancient history, religion, mythology, or art in their courses. A less obvious reason is that Sporades Tours offers a 10% discount to current K-12 teachers (the most underpaid and overworked profession in our society).