Beauty, beauty everywhere!
Our latest contest was in the artistic realm: we challenged readers to draw or paint either Homer’s Shield of Achilles, or Virgil’s Shield of Aeneas, using the text of these epic poems to create, from mere verbal ecphrasis, real art in the real world.
This is quite the challenge, so we were delighted by all those who made the leap over the high bar for entry. In the end we received some wonderful entries, both digitally and in physical form, with a marked preference for Achilles’ shield over Aeneas’. We also received some entries that were splendid pieces of art, but not obviously shields; and we also received some entries that were manifestly not wrought by human hands at all. Many thanks to all who took the time and effort to enter: it gives us great joy that you leapt into the undertaking, especially if you enjoyed making the art anywhere near as much as we did looking at it.
So the team dragged the strongest entries down to our subterraneal office at CERN, and began the argument about how to assign the prizes. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, and the difficulties of poring over works of art in a complete vacuum, with only two particles of light to work with, all the while dodging indiscriminate (and frankly inconsiderate) Higgs Bosa (ed: check pl.), lead us to conclude that there are better venues for assessment than the Large Hadron Collider. But the great thing about dark matter is that you can just wipe it off and no-one’s any the wiser.
OK then, here are the very worthy winners. (NB: since there are very few people to check on you when you’re 100 metres beneath the Franco-Swiss border, we decided to offer a joint third prize in one category, and so shifted over the third prize from tother cat.)
Over-18 Category
First Prize (£250)
Beatrice Grant, UK (Aeneas)
And here are some close-ups, with further explanation of the images:
Second Prize (£150)
Paige Früchtnicht-Ponchak, Greece (Achilles)
Third Prize (jointly awarded: five antiquarian Classics books)
Frances Forbes-Carbines, UK (Achilles)
and
Rosemary Hulse, UK (Achilles)
18-and-Under Category
First Prize (£250)
Edith Birks, UK (Achilles)
And some closer shots:
Second Prize (£150)
Matilda Clarke, UK (Achilles)
Renewed congratulations, then, to all our winners from all of us at Antigone Towers. Your talents astound us every time we host a contest. If this one wasn’t for you, perhaps the next one – a literary contest in Spring – will be more up your street? Until then, read and have fun.