Plato in Sicily: When Philosopher Met King

Plato in Sicily: When Philosopher Met King
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Plato in Sicily: When Philosopher Met King

Plato in Sicily: When Philosopher Met King

In 388 BCE, Plato was nearly forty. He had lived through an oligarchic coup, a democratic restoration, and the execution of his beloved teacher Socrates by a jury of his fellow Athenians. In his youth, Plato seriously contemplated an entry into Athens’ turbulent politics, but he determined that his envisioned reforms of the city’s constitution and educational practices were vanishingly unlikely to be realised. He devoted himself instead to the pursuit of philosophy, but he retained a fundamental concern with politics, ultimately developing perhaps the most famous of all his formulations: that political justice and human happiness require kings to become philosophers or philosophers to become kings. As Plato approached the age of forty, he visited Megara, Egypt, Cyrene, southern Italy, and, most consequentially of all, the Greek-speaking city-state of Syracuse, on the island of Sicily.

In Syracuse, Plato met a powerful and philosophically-minded young man named Dion, the brother-in-law of Syracuse’s decadent and paranoid tyrant, Dionysius I. Dion would become a lifelong friend and correspondent. This connection brought Plato to the inner court of Syracuse’s politics, and it was here that he decided to test his theory that if kings could be made into philosophers – or philosophers into kings – then justice and happiness could flourish at last.

Syracuse had a reputation for venality and debauchery, and Plato’s conviction soon collided with the realities of political life in Sicily. The court at Syracuse was rife with suspicion, violence, and hedonism. Obsessed with the idea of his own assassination, Dionysius I refused to allow his hair to be cut with a knife, instead having it singed with coal. He forced visitors – even his son Dionysius II and his brother Leptines – to prove that they were unarmed by having them stripped naked, inspected, and made to change clothes. He slew a captain who’d had a dream of killing him, and he put to death a soldier who handed Leptines a javelin to sketch a map in the dust. This was an inauspicious candidate for the title of philosopher-king.

Plato’s efforts did not fare well. He angered Dionysius I with his philosophical critique of the lavish hedonism of Syracusan court life, arguing that, instead of orgies and wine, one needed justice and moderation to produce true happiness. However sumptuous the life of a tyrant might be, if it was dominated by insatiable grasping after sensual pleasures, he remained a slave to his passions. Plato further taught the tyrant the converse: a man enslaved to another could preserve happiness if he possessed a just and well-ordered soul. Plato’s first visit to Sicily ended in dark irony: Dionysius I sold the philosopher into slavery. He figured that if Plato’s belief were true, then his enslavement would be a matter of indifference since, in the words of the Greek biographer Plutarch, ‘he would, of course, take no harm of it, being the same just man as before; he would enjoy that happiness, though he lost his liberty.’

Fortunately, Plato was soon ransomed by friends. He returned to Athens to found the Academy, where he likely produced many of his greatest works, including The Republic and The Symposium. But his involvement in Sicilian politics continued. He returned to Syracuse twice, attempting on both later trips to influence the mind and character of Dionysius II at the urging of Dion.

These three episodes are generally omitted from our understanding of Plato’s philosophy or dismissed as the picaresque inventions of late biographers. However, this is a mistake that overlooks the philosophical importance of Plato’s Italian voyages. In fact, his three trips to Sicily reveal that true philosophical knowledge entails action; they show the immense power of friendship in Plato’s life and philosophy; and they suggest that Plato’s philosopher-king thesis is not false so much as incomplete.

These key events are cogently expressed in Plato’s often-overlooked Seventh Letter. The Seventh Letter has proved an enigma for scholars since at least the great German philologists of the 19th century. While the majority of scholars have accepted its authenticity, few have given its theory of political action a prominent place in the exegesis of Plato. In the past three decades, some scholars have even moved to write it out of the Platonic canon, with the most recent Oxford commentary terming it The Pseudo-Platonic Seventh Letter (2015). Each age has its own Plato, and perhaps given the apolitical quietism of many academics, it makes sense that contemporary academics often neglect Plato’s discussion of political action. Nonetheless, most scholars – even those who wished it to be a forgery – have found the letter authentic, based on historical and stylistic evidence. If we return to the story of Plato’s Italian journeys, which Plato himself tells in The Seventh Letter, we’re able to resurrect the historical Plato who risked his life in order to unite philosophy and power.

While The Seventh Letter focuses on the story of Plato’s three voyages to Syracuse, it begins with a brief synopsis of his early life. Like most members of the Athenian elite, his first ambition was to enter politics and public life. In Plato’s 20s, however, Athens underwent a series of violent revolutions, culminating in the restoration of the democracy and the execution of his teacher Socrates in 399 BCE. ‘Whereas at first I had been full of zeal for public life,’ Plato wrote, ‘when I noted these changes and saw how unstable everything was, I became in the end quite dizzy.’ He decided that the time was too chaotic for meaningful action, but he didn’t abandon the desire to engage in political life. Instead, in his own words, he was ‘waiting for the right time’. He was also waiting for the right friends.

When Plato first arrived in Sicily, a trip that likely took more than a week by boat on the rough and dangerous Mediterranean, he immediately noticed the islanders’ extravagant way of life. He was struck by their ‘blissful life’, one ‘replete … with Italian feasts’, where ‘existence is spent in gorging food twice a day and never sleeping alone at night.’ No one can become wise, Plato believed, if he lives a life primarily focused on sensual pleasure. Status-oriented hedonism creates a society devoid of community, one in which the stability of temperance is sacrificed to the flux of competitive excess. Plato writes:

Nor could any State enjoy tranquility, no matter how good its laws when its men think they must spend their all on excesses, and be easygoing about everything except the drinking bouts and the pleasures of love that they pursue with professional zeal. These States are always changing into tyrannies, or oligarchies, or democracies, while the rulers in them will not even hear mention of a just and equitable constitution.

Though the Syracusan state was in disarray, Plato’s friend Dion offered him a unique opportunity to influence the Sicilian kings. Dion didn’t partake in the ‘blissful life’ of the court. Instead, according to Plato, he lived ‘his life in a different manner’, because he chose ‘virtue worthy of more devotion than pleasure and all other kinds of luxury’. While today we might not associate friendship with political philosophy, many ancient thinkers understood the intimate connection between the two. Plutarch, a subtle reader of Plato, expresses this link nicely:

[L]ove, zeal, and affection … which, though they seem more pliant than the stiff and hard bonds of severity, are nevertheless the strongest and most durable ties to sustain a lasting government.
Plato saw in Dion ‘a zeal and attentiveness I had never encountered in any young man’. The opportunity to extend these bonds to the summit of political power would present itself 20 years later, after Plato escaped slavery and Dionysius I had died.

Dionysius II, the elder tyrant’s son, also didn’t appear likely to become a philosopher king. Although Dion wanted his brother-in-law Dionysius I to give Dionysius II a liberal education, the older king’s fear of being deposed made him reluctant to comply. He worried that if his son received a sound moral education, conversing regularly with wise and reasonable teachers, he might overthrow him. So Dionysius I kept Dionysius II confined and uneducated. As he grew older, courtiers plied him with wine and women. Dionysius II once held a 90-day long drunken debauch, refusing to conduct any official business: ‘drinking, singing, dancing, and buffoonery reigned there without control,’ Plutarch wrote.

Nonetheless, Dion used all his influence to persuade the young king to invite Plato to Sicily and place himself under the guidance of the Athenian philosopher. Dionysius II began sending Plato letters urging him to visit, and Dion as well as various Pythagorean philosophers from southern Italy added their own pleas. But Plato was nearly 60 years old, and his last experience in Syracusan politics must have left him reluctant to test fate again. Not heeding these entreaties would have been an easy and understandable choice.

Dion wrote to Plato that this was the moment to act, ‘if ever all our hopes will be fulfilled of seeing the same persons at once philosophers and rulers of mighty states.’ Plato was less optimistic than Dion about the prospect of transforming Dionysius II into a philosophical ruler, citing the impetuosity of the young: ‘the desires of such as they change quickly and frequently in a contrary direction.’ This doubt is an index of the moral courage of his choice to undertake the endeavour. Despite Plato’s assessment that success was unlikely, he strove to make real in this world a deeply considered philosophical position. In The Seventh Letter, he explains: ‘I ultimately inclined to the view that if we were ever to attempt to realise our theories concerning laws and government, now is the time to undertake it.’

He felt two additional motives: the moral bond of his friendship with Dion and the imperative not to disgrace philosophy. He writes in The Seventh Letter:

I set out from home … dreading self-reproach most of all; lest I appear to myself only theory and no deed willingly undertaken … I cleared myself from reproach on the part of Philosophy, seeing that she would have been disgraced if I, through poorness of spirit and timidity, had incurred the shame of cowardice …

This reveals a conception of philosophy in which ‘theory’ is damaged by a lack of corresponding ‘deed’. The legitimacy of philosophy requires the conjunction of knowledge and action.

When Plato landed in Sicily for the second time, in 367 BCE, he was met on shore with a richly ornamented royal chariot. Dionysius II sacrificed to the gods in gratitude for his arrival. The citizens were also hopeful that a swift and wholesale reformation of the government would occur. Plutarch hints that Dionysius II did make some progress in philosophy:

Modesty … now ruled in the banquets … their tyrant himself behaving with gentleness and humanity in all matters of business that came before him. There was a general passion for reasoning and philosophy, insomuch that the very palace, it is reported, was filled with dust by the concourse of the students in mathematics who were working their problems there.

It’s hard to gauge how close Dionysius II came to a genuine and permanent change in character. Plutarch makes clear that courtiers and rivals were so alarmed by Plato’s influence that they began impugning his motives, suggesting that Dion was simply using the philosopher as a tool to persuade Dionysius II to relinquish power. Others in Syracuse complained that, while the Athenians had failed to conquer Sicily with an army during the Peloponnesian war, they had now succeeded in a stealth conquest by the sophistry of one man: Plato.

The critics of Plato and Dion could understand philosophy only in instrumental terms – as a means to the end of securing political influence. They presupposed that power is the highest good that humans can secure. In this they anticipated Thomas Hobbes’s claim in Leviathan (1651) that humans possess ‘a perpetual and restless desire of power after power, that ceaseth only in death’. But for Plato, power is a potential means to a higher good, not an end. As the allegory of the cave makes clear in The Republic, philosophers are captivated by the beauty of the forms: they want to remain in the realm of permanence and pure being that they find in the world above. They must be made to return to the darkness and shadows of the cave not because it will maximise their own individual pleasure but because it promotes the city as a whole. The courtiers of Syracuse, however, won the day. Four months into Plato’s stay, Dionysius II had Dion charged with ‘plotting against the tyranny’ and exiled him. Dionysius II whittled away the days attempting to win the praise of Plato, but failed to cultivate a desire for philosophy. In Plato’s own words:

I put up with all of this, holding fast to the original purpose for which I had come, hoping that he might somehow come to desire the philosophic life; but I never overcame his resistance.
The philosopher had descended into the shadows, but the tyrant would not ascend to the light.

Plato made his final trip to Sicily when he was nearly 70 years old. Once again, his philosophy compelled him to act. He had the opportunity to aid Dion, who had been exiled by Dionysius II, and perhaps he still retained hope that the king’s desire for philosophy would awaken. This time the call also came from Archytas of Tarentum, a southern Italian philosopher. After a lifetime of troubles in Syracuse, it is a wonder that Plato set sail once again to Sicily, braving the sea and the pirates, and assumed his position in the court of Dionysius II. The king remained entranced by the aura of philosophy, and even wrote a work on Plato’s philosophical ideas (albeit full of misunderstandings and plagiarism).

To see if Dionysius II was finally prepared to undertake the practice of philosophy, Plato tested the king by stressing the radical difficulty and lifestyle transformation that true philosophy involves:

Those who are not really philosophers but have only a coating of opinions, like men whose bodies are tanned by the sun, when they see how much learning is required, and how great the labor, and how orderly their daily lives must be to suit the subject they are pursuing, conclude that the task is too difficult; and rightly so, for they are not equipped for this pursuit.

Dionysius II ultimately failed the test because he desired to instrumentalize philosophy as yet another means to power. Plato’s test is grounded in his abiding faith in the practice – not the use – of philosophy, a pursuit that necessitates the abandonment of bodily pleasure and power for its own sake. Plato describes this pursuit in detail:

Only when … names, definitions, and visual and other perceptions have been rubbed against one another and tested, pupil and teacher asking and answering questions in good will and without envy, only then, when reason and knowledge are at the very extremity of human effort, can they illuminate the nature of any object.
Once again, the contrast between Plato and Hobbes is instructive. Whereas Hobbes takes ill-will and ‘envy’ as ineradicable features of human nature, Plato sees their elimination as a precondition for the practice of philosophy and thus for human flourishing.

So Dionysius II never became a philosopher-king, and Dion ultimately perished in the bloody civil strife that eventually consumed Syracuse. Dionysius’ desire to instrumentalize philosophy made him seek knowledge as an object of ceremonial display and a tool of hegemony. But when the philosopher instead demanded a wholesale reformation of his life and character, he balked.

In the end, the encounters of philosopher and king in Sicily map perfectly onto the allegorical landscape of the cave in The Republic: Dionysius II seeks to ascend from the shade of politics into philosophical light while Plato traverses the opposite route, dropping from the clarity of philosophy into the shadows of politics. To simply say that Plato ‘fails’ to convert Dionysius II into a philosopher is misleading. It might be more reasonable to observe that the king himself failed, but even this imposes an overly individualistic conception of character formation onto antiquity. The character of Dionysius II was not self-created; he was shaped by his poor education, opulent lifestyle and the mercenary natures of those surrounding him. To blame Plato for not miraculously undoing all of these influences is like faulting an umbrella for not functioning as a parachute. What was essential for Plato was not that he achieved his political goal, but that he practised true philosophy.

The Seventh Letter still serves to remind us that philosophy is a practice, not an instrument. As Plato wrote, philosophy ‘is not something that can be put into words like other sciences’. Instead, ‘after long-continued exchange between teacher and pupil, in joint pursuit of the subject, suddenly like light flashing forth when a fire is kindled, it is born in the soul and straight away nourishes itself.’ Rather than the competitive striving and isolation that define so much contemporary academic life, genuine philosophical practice requires friendships and collaboration devoted to advancing the flourishing of an entire community.

For Plato, perhaps the strongest reason why philosophers should be kings is so that they can influence the nature of education. Some of Plato’s proposals for how they should do this in The Republic are not persuasive (for instance, the idea of depriving children of the knowledge of who their parents are so that the young people are more pliable). But education as the cultivation of the soul and the practice of philosophy, which entails the capacity to subordinate Hobbes’s individualistic ‘desire of power’ to the communal pursuit of justice, remains urgently necessary.

In The Birth of Tragedy (1872), Friedrich Nietzsche declared: ‘Knowledge kills action; action requires the veils of illusion.’ We still live under the dismal shadow of this belief. Our age of radical individualism and specialization sanctions the split of knowledge and power, with academics pursuing one as politicians exercise the other. Plato’s Seventh Letter provides a different vision by recalling the intimate and necessary connection between philosophy and politics, community and justice, friendship and knowledge. Above all, it teaches us that action requires knowledge, and knowledge requires action. Knowledge is neither ‘illusion’, nor merely an instrument for the pursuit of power. It is a collective practice best cultivated in communities of philosophical friendship. An age of democracy doesn’t automatically need to abandon Plato’s ideal of the philosopher-king; we need only to expand it until friendship and education bind together as many people as possible into philosopher-citizens, ruling together in ‘good will’ and ‘without envy’.

Nick Romeo
is a journalist and author, and teaches philosophy for Erasmus Academy. His writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The Washington Post, National Geographic, The Atlantic, and The New Republic, among others.

Ian Tewksbury
is a Classics graduate student at Stanford University in California. His primary research interests include archaic poetry and ancient philosophy. He works on the digitalization of Homeric manuscripts for the Homer Multitext project.

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Saudi Arabia and China Strengthen Cultural Cooperation

The MoU outlines a comprehensive framework for cooperation, emphasizing the exchange of experiences, policies, and programs to bolster mutual understanding and appreciation. (SPA)
The MoU outlines a comprehensive framework for cooperation, emphasizing the exchange of experiences, policies, and programs to bolster mutual understanding and appreciation. (SPA)
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Saudi Arabia and China Strengthen Cultural Cooperation

The MoU outlines a comprehensive framework for cooperation, emphasizing the exchange of experiences, policies, and programs to bolster mutual understanding and appreciation. (SPA)
The MoU outlines a comprehensive framework for cooperation, emphasizing the exchange of experiences, policies, and programs to bolster mutual understanding and appreciation. (SPA)

Saudi Minister of Culture Prince Bader bin Abdullah bin Farhan Al-Saud and China’s Minister of Culture and Tourism Sun Yeli signed a memorandum of understanding to boost cultural cooperation, strengthening the distinguished relations between the two countries.

Signed in Beijing, the agreement aims to deepen collaboration in various cultural sectors, including museums, cultural heritage, performing and visual arts, traditional crafts, and Chinese cultural entities, reported the Saudi Press Agency on Wednesday.

The MoU outlines a comprehensive framework for cooperation, emphasizing the exchange of experiences, policies, and programs to bolster mutual understanding and appreciation.

Both parties are committed to facilitating cultural exchanges, participating in joint festivals and events, and collaborating on artist residency programs to encourage creative exchange and preserve cultural diversity.

The new partnership signifies the shared commitment to preserving, celebrating, and fostering a deeper understanding of the respective cultures. Saudi Arabia and China will enrich the cultural landscape and strengthen cultural ties by working together in areas such as preserving heritage and furthering artistic innovation.

The MoU also emphasizes cooperation in the digital cultural industry, encouraging dialogue, experiential knowledge exchange, and collaboration between institutions and professionals from both countries.

Additionally, it underscores measures to prevent the illegal import, export, and trafficking of works of art, reflecting a mutual dedication to safeguarding cultural treasures.


Beijingers Play Fetch with Migratory Birds in Traditional Game 

Xie Yufeng, a 39-year-old cook, opens his hand for a bird to return after throwing it into the air to catch a bead shot up, as they practice a Beijing tradition that dates back to the Qing Dynasty, outside a stadium in Beijing, Tuesday, March 26, 2024. (AP)
Xie Yufeng, a 39-year-old cook, opens his hand for a bird to return after throwing it into the air to catch a bead shot up, as they practice a Beijing tradition that dates back to the Qing Dynasty, outside a stadium in Beijing, Tuesday, March 26, 2024. (AP)
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Beijingers Play Fetch with Migratory Birds in Traditional Game 

Xie Yufeng, a 39-year-old cook, opens his hand for a bird to return after throwing it into the air to catch a bead shot up, as they practice a Beijing tradition that dates back to the Qing Dynasty, outside a stadium in Beijing, Tuesday, March 26, 2024. (AP)
Xie Yufeng, a 39-year-old cook, opens his hand for a bird to return after throwing it into the air to catch a bead shot up, as they practice a Beijing tradition that dates back to the Qing Dynasty, outside a stadium in Beijing, Tuesday, March 26, 2024. (AP)

Passersby in Beijing during winter or early spring might happen upon groups of locals playing fetch with birds. The players blow plastic beads into the air through carbon tubes for the birds — often from the migratory wutong species — to catch and return, in exchange for a treat.

It’s a Beijing tradition dating back to the Qing Dynasty, which ruled between the 17th century and early 20th century. Today, only about 50 to 60 people in Beijing are believed to still practice it.

Xie Yufeng, a 39-year-old cook, is one of them. On Tuesday late afternoon, Xie gathered with a few friends near Workers’ Stadium, where locals often congregate in the evenings to dance in tandem, practice tai chi or play the Chinese yo-yo.

Xie and his friends brought along their winged playmates — most of them wutong birds, with their distinctive yellow beaks and which fly southward from China’s northeast to Beijing every fall to escape the bitter winter.

Domesticating the birds and training them for the bead-catching game may take four to five months, Xie said. Players teach the birds to fetch by first throwing seeds into the air, and later replacing them with plastic beads. Every time the birds retrieve the beads, they are rewarded with a snack. In the past, the beads were made of bone.

“In order to do this well, patience is the most important quality for a player,” Xie said.

The tradition is said to have taken root in the capital with the arrival of the Qing Dynasty, a Manchu group that took control of Beijing in the mid-1600s.

Manchu nobles, living around the Forbidden City, are believed to have popularized catching and training birds as a pastime.

Today, residents of Beijing’s traditional alleyways, called hutong in Chinese, often still raise birds in cages and may even take the whole birdcages out for walks.

The wutong bird owners usually release them in late spring and allow them to migrate back to the northeast — only to catch or purchase new ones the following fall.


Paris 2024 to Install Olympic Flame Near Louvre

Tourists stand by a sign alerting on France's highest security level at the Louvre museum, Monday, March 25, 2024 in Paris. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)
Tourists stand by a sign alerting on France's highest security level at the Louvre museum, Monday, March 25, 2024 in Paris. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)
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Paris 2024 to Install Olympic Flame Near Louvre

Tourists stand by a sign alerting on France's highest security level at the Louvre museum, Monday, March 25, 2024 in Paris. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)
Tourists stand by a sign alerting on France's highest security level at the Louvre museum, Monday, March 25, 2024 in Paris. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

The Olympic flame will be installed in the Jardin des Tuileries, a stone's throw from the Louvre, after organisers abandoned the idea of the Eiffel Tower, a source with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters.
Last week, French sports daily L'Equipe reported that the Jardin des Tuileries, on the bank of the Seine between the Louvre and the Place de la Concorde, was the heavy favorite to host the flame.
"The decision was made earlier this year," the source said.
Last year, organizers were hoping to install the flame at the Eiffel Tower.
Paris 2024 did not confirm the information when contacted by Reuters.


UAE’s FM: Culture Plays Important Role in Spreading Values of Coexistence

UAE’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan visited the National Museum in Prague. WAM
UAE’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan visited the National Museum in Prague. WAM
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UAE’s FM: Culture Plays Important Role in Spreading Values of Coexistence

UAE’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan visited the National Museum in Prague. WAM
UAE’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan visited the National Museum in Prague. WAM

UAE’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan has visited the National Museum in Prague on the sidelines of his official visit to the Czech Republic.

Sheikh Abdullah lauded on Tuesday the National Museum as a vibrant testament to the richness and diversity of the country's artistic and cultural movement.

“Culture and arts hold a mirror to their respective people, reflecting their nation's development and progress across all fields, and playing an important role in spreading the values of coexistence, tolerance, and human fraternity, which are the basic pillars for achieving comprehensive and sustainable development in societies,” he said.

He also praised the growing relations between the UAE and the Czech Republic, pointing to the importance of strengthening cooperation between the two countries in the cultural and artistic fields.

Sheikh Abdullah was accompanied during the visit by Saeed Mubarak Al Hajeri, Assistant Minister for Trade and Economic Affairs, and was welcomed upon arrival by the National Museum's General Director, Dr. Michal Lukeš.

During the visit, the UAE’s top diplomat toured the museum's sections and halls and viewed its diverse exhibits.

Sheikh Abdullah received an insightful explanation from Dr. Michal, who elaborated on the museum's centuries-old history, its crucial role in documenting the country's diverse past, and its dedication to highlighting the vibrant tapestry of Czech culture and its distinctive arts.


British Museum Obtains Court Order against Ex-curator over Alleged Thefts

People view examples of the Parthenon sculptures, sometimes referred to in the UK as the Elgin Marbles, on display at the British Museum in London, Britain, November 29, 2023. (Reuters)
People view examples of the Parthenon sculptures, sometimes referred to in the UK as the Elgin Marbles, on display at the British Museum in London, Britain, November 29, 2023. (Reuters)
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British Museum Obtains Court Order against Ex-curator over Alleged Thefts

People view examples of the Parthenon sculptures, sometimes referred to in the UK as the Elgin Marbles, on display at the British Museum in London, Britain, November 29, 2023. (Reuters)
People view examples of the Parthenon sculptures, sometimes referred to in the UK as the Elgin Marbles, on display at the British Museum in London, Britain, November 29, 2023. (Reuters)

A London court on Tuesday ordered a former curator at the British Museum accused of stealing hundreds of artefacts to provide the museum with a list of all items he is suspected of taking and to return those still in his possession.

The museum, one of the most visited in the world, reported in August that hundreds of items had been stolen from its collection or were missing, highlighting internal organizational failings and leading to the exit of its director.

Peter Higgs, the museum's curator of Ancient Greek collections and the acting head of the Greece and Rome department, was sacked after the alleged thefts came to light.

He is currently under police investigation but has not been charged. The British Museum has brought a civil lawsuit against Higgs and it said he had filed a defense which showed he intended to dispute the claim.

Higgs was not represented at the hearing at London's High Court on Tuesday, but lawyers acting for him in relation to the criminal investigation were present. They declined to comment.

The British Museum, which holds treasures such as the Rosetta Stone and the Parthenon marbles, has said the stolen items included gold rings, earrings and other pieces of jewellery dating back to ancient Greek and Roman periods.

The museum's lawyer Daniel Burgess said in court documents: "While the full extent of the thefts is unknown, it is presently believed that over 1,800 items were stolen or damaged and that many hundreds of them were sold or offered for sale by (Higgs)."

Burgess added that Higgs tried to "cover his tracks by, among other things, using false names, creating false documents and manipulating records held on the Museum's IT systems".

The British Museum has had 356 items returned so far, Burgess said.

Judge Heather Williams granted the museum an order requiring Higgs to return items he may still have and provide information about the whereabouts of missing items or their proceeds.


Makkah’s Old Neighborhoods Unite in Ramadan Spirit

A poignant depiction of solidarity and compassion in Makkah’s community during the blessed nights of Ramadan (Photo Credit: Ammar Al-Amir)
A poignant depiction of solidarity and compassion in Makkah’s community during the blessed nights of Ramadan (Photo Credit: Ammar Al-Amir)
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Makkah’s Old Neighborhoods Unite in Ramadan Spirit

A poignant depiction of solidarity and compassion in Makkah’s community during the blessed nights of Ramadan (Photo Credit: Ammar Al-Amir)
A poignant depiction of solidarity and compassion in Makkah’s community during the blessed nights of Ramadan (Photo Credit: Ammar Al-Amir)

In the ancient streets of Makkah, memories are cherished, gatherings thrive, and the air is filled with the scent of incense during Islam’s holy month of fasting, Ramadan.

As millions of Muslims flock to perform Umrah and spend time near the Grand Mosque, the people of Makkah experience a unique and enriching Ramadan atmosphere.

In the old neighborhoods of Makkah, memories abound for generations. They include traditional games that once brought solitary joy and Ramadan gatherings filled with warmth, generosity, and kindness.

Some of these traditions have endured for years, like locals opening their doors to the needy. From lively street decorations to the scent of incense wafting through the alleys, these customs have become part of daily life in Makkah’s community.

In some of Makkah’s old neighborhoods, cherished Ramadan traditions endure year after year.

Hadi Al-Omari, a thirty-year-old resident living near the Grand Mosque, recalls how these community gatherings have been a regular part of Ramadan, except for a brief hiatus during the coronavirus pandemic.

“After the pandemic, loved ones from all generations reunited to reminisce,” he told Asharq Al-Awsat, stressing that Ramadan was a special time observed in Makkah.

At the start of the month of Ramadan, Makkah’s streets and neighborhoods light up with colorful decorations. The lively atmosphere, especially during busy times, fills the streets, while areas close to the Grand Mosque resonate with the sound of prayers, bringing a sense of calm.

During Ramadan nights, Makkah transforms with stalls selling traditional foods, popular sweets, and drinks perfect for late-night gatherings.

One such favorite is “Soubiya,” a barley-based drink, offered in red and white varieties, with some made using dry bread crumbs.

For over 50 years, shops like “Uncle Saeed Khudari” have been serving these delights in Makkah.

Ahmad Hawiyan, who has experienced seventy Ramadan seasons in Makkah’s neighborhoods, talks about the social aspect of the holy month.

He observes changes in traditional life but emphasizes that Ramadan’s essence remains unchanged, uplifting souls with its splendor.

“Makkah is the center for Muslims, a place where hearts find solace,” he told Asharq Al-Awsat.

“Living near the holiest sites on Earth, Ramadan brings us unforgettable memories. Each generation learns love, compassion, and generosity during this blessed month,” he added.

Regarding guests staying in hotels within Makkah’s ancient neighborhoods, Hawiyan said: “Seeing them arrive during these blessed days, we feel they are neighbors and family.”

“We rejoice as they walk to mosques, knowing they're safe and secure in Saudi Arabia, the Muslim world’s focal point,” stressed Hawiyan.


Saudi Cultural Mission Hosts Indiana University Students for Intercultural Exchange

Saudi Cultural Mission Hosts Indiana University Students for Intercultural Exchange
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Saudi Cultural Mission Hosts Indiana University Students for Intercultural Exchange

Saudi Cultural Mission Hosts Indiana University Students for Intercultural Exchange

The Saudi Arabian Cultural Mission (SACM) in the US welcomed on Monday a delegation of students from Indiana University Bloomington, as part of the Arabic Language Program to enhance communication and exchange of ideas between different cultures.
The delegation was welcomed by the Cultural Attaché at Saudi Arabia’s embassy in Washington Dr. Fawzi Bukhari.
The delegation toured the King Abdullah Cultural Hall and was briefed on the exhibits portraying Saudi culture, SPA reported.
It expressed admiration for the Saudi identity in all the elements on display, especially for the originality of Saudi fashion, food, architecture, the popular tools for making coffee, and for the projects carried out under the Kingdom’s Vision 2030, with focus on “NEOM” and “The Line”.
Delegation members expressed appreciation for the Kingdom's cultural endeavors, and for its role in establishing dialogue and understanding between peoples.


Artist Ayman Daydban's Soccer Pitch Masterpiece Unveiled at Desert X AlUla Exhibition

The Desert X AlUla 2024 exhibition was held from February 9 to March 23 - SPA
The Desert X AlUla 2024 exhibition was held from February 9 to March 23 - SPA
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Artist Ayman Daydban's Soccer Pitch Masterpiece Unveiled at Desert X AlUla Exhibition

The Desert X AlUla 2024 exhibition was held from February 9 to March 23 - SPA
The Desert X AlUla 2024 exhibition was held from February 9 to March 23 - SPA

Artist Ayman Yossri Daydban has unveiled his unique land art masterpiece at the Desert X AlUla 2024 exhibition, featuring a soccer pitch nestled in the volcanic plains of AlUla.
Daydban's creation comprises a rock garden meticulously shaped into a full-sized, illuminated soccer field, bringing vitality to the black volcanic harrats of AlUla, SPA reported.

The white contours of the pitch are crafted using vibrant rocks and stones collected by the local community.
Beyond its aesthetic allure, this artwork highlights the social significance of football and its profound impact on communities worldwide.
The Desert X AlUla 2024 exhibition, held from February 9 to March 23, was a standout feature of the third edition of the AlUla Arts Festival, one of the most prominent annual events in the global art scene.

Set against the backdrop of picturesque landscapes, the festival showcases a captivating array of events, exhibitions, and innovative initiatives.


Scent of Orange Blossoms Brings World to Spring Tradition in Morocco

Women prepare to distill orange blossoms in a cultural center in Marrakech, Morocco, Saturday, March 23, 2024. (AP)
Women prepare to distill orange blossoms in a cultural center in Marrakech, Morocco, Saturday, March 23, 2024. (AP)
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Scent of Orange Blossoms Brings World to Spring Tradition in Morocco

Women prepare to distill orange blossoms in a cultural center in Marrakech, Morocco, Saturday, March 23, 2024. (AP)
Women prepare to distill orange blossoms in a cultural center in Marrakech, Morocco, Saturday, March 23, 2024. (AP)

Orange blossoms are among Morocco’s quintessential fragrances. Moroccan women are welcoming spring by collecting the waxy white blossoms in copper pots used to distill the scent that's folded into honey-laden pastries, sprinkled on mint tea and used in religious ceremonies.

The annual ceremony in homes across the North African kingdom has attracted international attention. It is now being showcased at the Zahria Festival in Marrakech.

Between 400 and 600 people gathered over the weekend for the festival hosted by Al Muniya Association, celebrating the blooms and savoring the rainfall that is infrequent the rest of the year.

“It's an old tradition, and it was necessary to give it new life after it was a little bit forgotten in the 1980s and 1990s,” said Jaafar el-Kenousi, the association's co-founder.

Orange blossoms bloom throughout Morocco but are especially common in Marrakech, home to a particularly fragrant sour and bitter orange tree.

As Morocco's status grows as a tourist destination, the orange blossom fragrance is increasingly known among visitors and professional perfumers.

The distillation has been recognized as part of Morocco's heritage by the government and the Islamic World Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. The event now seeks recognition from UNESCO, el-Kenousi said.


Olympics Taster: Paris Race Celebrates the Waiters and Waitresses Who Nourish City’s Life and Soul

Waiters and waitresses in work outfits take the start of a traditional "Course des cafes" (the cafes' race), in front of the City Hall in central Paris, on March 24, 2024. (AFP)
Waiters and waitresses in work outfits take the start of a traditional "Course des cafes" (the cafes' race), in front of the City Hall in central Paris, on March 24, 2024. (AFP)
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Olympics Taster: Paris Race Celebrates the Waiters and Waitresses Who Nourish City’s Life and Soul

Waiters and waitresses in work outfits take the start of a traditional "Course des cafes" (the cafes' race), in front of the City Hall in central Paris, on March 24, 2024. (AFP)
Waiters and waitresses in work outfits take the start of a traditional "Course des cafes" (the cafes' race), in front of the City Hall in central Paris, on March 24, 2024. (AFP)

Usain Bolt’s sprint world records were never in danger. Then again, even the world’s fastest-ever human likely wouldn’t have been so quick while balancing a tray with a croissant, a coffee cup and a glass of water through the streets of Paris, and without spilling it everywhere.

France’s capital resurrected a 110-year-old race for its waiters and waitresses Sunday. The dash through central Paris celebrated the dexterous and, yes, by their own admission, sometimes famously moody men and women without whom France wouldn’t be France.

Why? Because they make France’s cafés and restaurants tick. Without them, where would the French gather to put the world to rights over drinks and food? Where would they quarrel and fall in (and out of) love? And where else could they simply sit and let their minds wander? They have penned songs and poems about their “bistrots,” so attached are they to their unpretentious watering holes that for generations have nourished their bodies and souls.

“That is where you will find the population’s fine flowers,” sang songwriter-poet Georges Brassens, but also “all the miserable, the down on their luck.”

So drum roll, please, for Pauline Van Wymeersch and Samy Lamrous — Paris’ newly crowned fastest waitress and waiter and, as such, ambassadors for an essential French profession.

And one which has a big job ahead: Taking the food orders and quenching the thirsts of millions of visitors who will flock to the Paris Olympics this July.

The resurrection of the waitering race after a 13-year hiatus is part of Paris’ efforts to bask in the Olympic spotlight and put its best foot forward for its first Summer Games in 100 years.

The first waiters’ race was run in 1914. This time, a couple of hundred of waiters and waitresses dressed up in their uniforms — with the finest sporting bow ties — and loaded up their trays with the regulation pastry, small (but empty) coffee cup and full glass of water for the 2-kilometer (1 1/4-mile) loop starting and finishing at City Hall.

Van Wymeersch, the runaway winner in the women’s category in 14 minutes, 12 seconds, started waitering at age 16, is now 34 and said she cannot envisage any other life for herself.

“I love it as much as I hate it. It’s in my skin. I cannot leave it,” she said of the profession. “It’s hard. It’s exhausting. It’s demanding. It’s 12 hours per day. It’s no weekends. It’s no Christmases.”

But “it’s part of my DNA. I grew up in a way with a tray in my hand,” she added. “I have been shaped, in life and in the job, by the bosses who trained me and the customers, all of the people, I have met.”

Van Wymeersch works at the Le Petit Pont café and restaurant facing Notre Dame cathedral. Lamrous, who won the men’s race in a time of 13:30, waits at La Contrescarpe, in Paris’ 5th district. Their prizes were medals, two tickets each for the July 26 Olympic opening ceremony along the River Seine and a night out at a Paris hotel.

Although all smiles on this occasion, competitors acknowledged that’s not always the case when they are rushed off their feet at work. The customer may always be right in other countries, but the waiter or waitress has the final word in France, feeding their reputation for being abrupt, moody and even rude at times.

“French pride means that in little professions like this, they don’t want to be trampled on,” said Thierry Petit, 60, who is retiring in April after 40 years of waiting tables.

“It’s not lack of respect, rather it’s more a state of mind,” he said. Switching to English, he added: “It’s very Frenchie.”

The capital’s mayor, Anne Hidalgo, said cafés and restaurants are “really the soul of Paris.”

“The bistrot is where we go to meet people, where we go for our little coffee, our little drink, where we also go to argue, to love and embrace each other,” she said.

“The café and the bistrot are life.”