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Oscar Wilde and Classical antiquity: an exhibition

Written by Rosario Rovira Guardiola |

Between the 31 May and the 13 September 2024, the Combined Library of the Institute of Classical Studies and the Hellenic and Roman societies hosted an exhibition exploring the relationship between Oscar Wilde and the Classical world through the collections of the library. 

Fig. 1. Case 1 of the exhibition Oscar Wilde and Classical antiquity at the Institute of Classical Studies Library.
Fig. 1. Case 1 of the exhibition Oscar Wilde and Classical antiquity at the Institute of Classical Studies Library.

The exhibition started with the passion for history and archaeology that Wilde’s parents, the surgeon Sir William Wilde and the poet and translator Jane Francesca Agnes, Lady Wilde instilled in him. Oscar Wilde was born in Dublin on 16th October 1854 and from an early age, he accompanied his father in archaeological excavations. Wilde learned through him the value of sites and ancient objects to document the history of Ireland. Sir William Wilde wrote extensively about his travels and on display was one of his books, Narrative of a voyage to Madeira, Teneriffe, and along the shores of the Mediterranean, published in 1840.

Sir William Wilde and Lady Wilde, Oscar Wilde’s parents
Fig. 2. Sir William Wilde and Lady Wilde, Oscar Wilde’s parents

In 1871, Wilde went to study Classics at Trinity College where he met the man that “first taught him to love things Greek”, his tutor, the Classicist John Pentland Mahaffy. Wilde also met other scholars, such as Robert Yelverton Tyrrell who later would praise Wilde’s translations of Aeschylus and Euripides. While students had to have a good understanding of Greek and Roman history, the focus was on texts. One of the many editions of ancient texts that Wilde used while studying was the edition of the Odyssey by Wilhelm Dindorf and published by Teubner. A collection of Classical texts that is still edited today.  

Cover of Wilhelm Dindorf’s edition of the Odyssey
Fig. 3. Cover of Wilhelm Dindorf’s edition of the Odyssey, published Teubner in 1855 (1936 edition in the HARL collection).

Classics would remain close to Wilde’s interests; he would use Classical references all through his literary career and he would compare himself to the emperor Nero. Wilde might have been inspired by the play Ion of Euripides [5] for the “handbag” episode in his play The Importance of Being Earnest in which Miss Prism recognises the bag where she had placed a baby 28 years before.   

In 1874, Wilde moved to Magdalen College, Oxford where he would finish his studies in 1878. He remained in touch with Mahaffy and Wilde might have even helped him with some corrections in Social life in Greece from Homer to Menander and Rambles and studies in Greece. On display were copies of those books, donated by the publishers to the Hellenic Society library in the 1890’s. Mahaffy was determined that his former pupil should see Greece and convinced Wilde to join him, George A. Macmillan and William Goulding in their journey to Greece in March 1877. 

Oscar Wilde dressed in Greek costume during his trip to Greece and two of his travel companions John Pentland Mahaffy and George A. Macmillan
Fig. 4. Oscar Wilde dressed in Greek costume during his trip to Greece and John Pentland Mahaffy and George A. Macmillan

George A. Macmillan described Wilde to his father as: “...a very nice fellow, whose line lies as decidedly in the direction of culture (...). He is aesthetic to the last degree, passionately fond of secondary colours, low tones, Morris papers, and capable of talking a good deal of nonsense, thereupon but for all that a very sensible well informed & charming man.”  

Fragment of a letter from G. A. Macmillan to his father, 28th March 1877
Fig. 5. Fragment of a letter from G. A. Macmillan to his father, 28th March 1877 (Photo courtesy of the Hellenic Society)

The central part of the exhibition showcased this trip, the only time that Wilde visited Greece. 

Case 2 of the exhibition Oscar Wilde and Classical antiquity at the Institute of Classical Studies Library
Fig. 6. Case 2 of the exhibition Oscar Wilde and Classical antiquity at the Institute of Classical Studies Library

The group visited several archaeological sites. Olympia, that was being excavated by a team of German archaeologists directed by Gustav Hirschfeld. One of the main discoveries of the 1877 season was a statue of Hermes carrying the infant Dionysus by Praxiteles. Later, Wilde would have a cast of the bust in his Tite Street house and even said that he was present in the moment of the discovery. This was not possible because the statue was discovered after the party had left Greece. However, Wilde made the story much more interesting.  

Postcard of a cast of the statue of Hermes found in Olympia
Fig. 7. Postcard of a cast of the statue of Hermes found in Olympia, similar to the one in Tite Street (HARL collection)

In Athens they met with Charles Newton, the keeper of the Greek and Roman Antiquities department of the British Museum and Heinrich Schliemann, the discoverer of Troy and Mycenae.  They had the opportunity to see the objects found during the recent excavations in the city and that had caused a stir in the archaeological world because nothing like it had ever been seen before. It was not only the archaeologists impressed by the discoveries but also the general public. A few months earlier the artist and war correspondent Melton Prior had been sent to Mycenae to draw the city for an article that appeared in the London Illustrated News on the 3rd  February 1877.  

View of the ruins and excavation of the Acropolis of Mycenae by Milton Prior, January 1877
Fig. 8. View of the ruins and excavation of the Acropolis of Mycenae by Milton Prior, January 1877 (HARL collection)

The journey to Greece was going to be influential for the development of archaeology as a discipline in the UK. On his return, George A. Macmillan came up with the idea of creating an archeological society like the ones that already existed in other European countries.  

The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies would be founded in 1879 and would be where Classics and Archaeology scholars would meet, bringing the disciplines together. Wilde took part in the meeting in the Freemason’s Tavern on the 16th June 1879 where the Society was founded. He would be part of the council for only a season but was a member of the Society until 1885.

The first Hellenic Society minute book
Fig. 9. The first Hellenic Society minute book (Hellenic Society archive).

On the session of 28th October 1880 Wilde participated in the discussion about the Journal of Hellenic Studies, the journal published by the Society. His copies of the Journal of Hellenic Studies were still part of his private library when his belongings were sold to pay for the costs of the trial in 1895. 

Charles Newton refused the presidency of the Society but was part of the council until 1888 and played a fundamental role in its development.  Wilde had attended Newton’s lectures at UCL and had been profoundly influenced by his ideas on art and archaeology. A vivid description of these lectures can be found in the autobiography of the actress and socialite, Lillie Langtry. She explains how Oscar Wilde would take her to listen to Charles Newton as a part of her education; attendances that she describes more as a social call than an academic event. Newton’s lectures were much of an event; they were widely advertised and very well attended, up to 200 people might turned up to listen to the discoverer of the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world discussing Greek art, vases and inscriptions.  

Wilde paid homage to Newton in his article “Sermons in stone” published in Pall Mall Magazine in October 1887. It is review of the new gallery of Greek and Roman sculpture in the British Museum and starts with a laudatory line for Charles Newton who had retired in 1885 and about whom Oscar Wilde says that “every student of classic art should be grateful”. The article follows with a description of the Greek and Roman funerary inscriptions on the room, a topic very dear to Newton who after retirement continued to come to the British Museum to work on the catalogue of Greek inscriptions. Not unsurprisingly the review reflects the contemporary views on Classical art and presents a clear division between the magnificent Greek art and the, then considered inferior Roman. 

At home, the Classical world played also an important role. Wilde wrote to the editor Arthur L. Humphreys to request a copy of Samuel Henry Butcher and Andrew Lang’s translation of The Odyssey for his son Cyril.  He considered it as “the best book for boys, and those who keep the wonder and joy of boyhood”.  

Wilde’s letter to Arthur L. Humphreys. @NYU Special collection - Fales Manuscript Collection, MSS.001; Box 187.5, Folder 4
Fig. 10. Wilde’s letter to Arthur L. Humphreys @NYU Special collection - Fales Manuscript Collection MSS.001; Box 187.5 Folder 4

Wilde’s literary production is full of references to the Classical world that he so much admired.  The poem The Sphinx is one of them, here the narrator interrogates the Sphinx about the episodes of antiquity that she might have witnessed. The edition on display was published some years after Wilde’s death, in 1918 and has suffered some damage. The name Oscar Wilde has been cut from the spine.   

His views on Greek sculpture and “its harmony of soul and body” are summarised along the pages of The Picture of Dorian Gray.  The book was open on page where the protagonist, Dorian Gray, is described as he was an ancient bust, “He was bareheaded, and the leaves had tossed his rebellious curls and tangled all their gilded threads (...) his finely chiseled nostrils quivered”.  

Case 4 of the exhibition Oscar Wilde and Classical antiquity at the Institute of Classical Studies Library
Fig. 11. Case 4 of the exhibition Oscar Wilde and Classical antiquity at the Institute of Classical Studies Library.

Wilde was convicted of gross indecency in May 1895 and sentenced to two years of prison. When he was released in 1897, he left for France and never returned to the UK. During the last years of his life, Wilde found solace in his visits to museums, where sculpture and lovers sometimes became one.  On display were postcards of the museums he visited, of the objects that Wilde loved and the guidebooks that he might have consulted during his visits.  

During a few months, at the end of 1897, Wilde reunited with Lord Alfred Douglas in Posillipo, Naples. He described the National Archaeological Museum as “full (...) of lovely Greek bronzes.”, referring to the extensive collection of bronzes recovered in the Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum, buried in lava and ash during the eruption of the year 79 AD.  

He described his life there as spending “my days with Heliogabalus, and my nights with Antinous”. Heliogabalus was probably the bust of a young man in Museo Archeologico Nazionale Naples that was identified then as the Roman emperor. Wilde described the bust as “a young Oxonian of very charming kind, the expression a mixture of pride and ennui.”  Perhaps Wilde saw something of his old self in the bust.

The so-called bust of Heliogabalus at the Museo Archeologico Nazionale in Naples
Fig. 12. The so-called bust of Heliogabalus at the Museo Archeologico Nazionale in Naples

However, the sculpture that caused a deeper impression in Wilde was the Subiaco ephebe, a Roman copy of a Greek sculpture from the fourth century B. C. that had been discovered in the remains of the emperor Nero’s villa in Subiaco, or “Nero’s garden”, a few years earlier, in 1884. 

The Subiaco ephebe in the Museo Nazionale in Rome
Fig. 13. The Subiaco ephebe in the Museo Nazionale in Rome.

The sculpture was at the time displayed in the Museo Nazionale, in the baths of Diocletian in Rome; a museum that Wilde and his friend Robert Ross had visited together. There, they “went to worship” a “beautiful voluptuous marble boy”. “What a lovely thing it is!”, Wilde wrote about it. When in May 1900 Oscar Wilde wrote to Ross that he had “bade goodbye, with tears and one kiss, to the beautiful Greek boy (...). He is the nicest boy you ever introduced to me”; he was not referring to any of the young boys that had brightened up Wilde’s trip to Italy but to that statue.