Frank Brangwyn (1867–1956), Study of a Canadian Soldier Supporting a Wounded Comrade. Photo by Birmingham Museums Trust, copyright David Brangwyn. Part of the design for a new parliamentary building in Winnipeg, entitled ‘Canadian War Record’. Photo: City of Birmingham Art Gallery.

Ajax carries the dead Achilles (both are named in the inscription). Detail from the handle of the François Vase (black-figure volute krater from Chiusi, signed by Kleitias and Ergotimos). Florence 4209 (ABV 761). Photo: from Beazley Archive, courtesy of the Classical Art Research Centre, University of Oxford.

Frank Brangwyn (1867–1956), Study of a Canadian Soldier Supporting a Wounded Comrade. Photo by Birmingham Museums Trust, copyright David Brangwyn. Part of the design for a new parliamentary building in Winnipeg, entitled ‘Canadian War Record’. Photo: City of Birmingham Art Gallery.

Antony Sher as Domitian in The Roman Actor, by Philip Massinger, directed by Gregory Doran, Royal Shakespeare Company, 2002. Photo: Jonathan Dockar-Drysdale.

Antonio Canova (1757–1822), Maria Luisa Hapsburg, depicted as Concordia, terracotta. Maria Luisa was the wife of Napoleon Buonaparte, Canova's patron. Concordia was one of the concepts used in the public art and literature of the Roman Empire to sanction imperial rule. The companion piece depicts Pax. Photo: National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh.

Greg Hicks as Tiresias in Sophocles’ Oedipus the King, translated by Ranjit Bolt, directed by Peter Hall, National Theatre, 1996. Hicks's roles in Greek plays also include Orestes (The Oresteia, 1981), Agamemnon and Priam (Tantalus, 2000–1), and Dionysus (The Bacchai, 2002). Photo: Allan Titmuss.

Mark Katz as the Greek Herald Talthybius, holding Astyanax (in a bag of dust). He returns the body to the child's grandmother, Hekabe (Maria Fierheller), and mother, Andromache (Tamsin Shasha), in Trojan Women, adapted and directed by David Stuttard, Actors of Dionysus, 2002. Photo: Dave Ashton.

Tamsin Shasha in Bacchic, a one performer show based on Euripides’ The Bacchae, conceived and performed by Tamsin Shasha, co-written with and directed by Jonathan Young, toured 2007 - 2008. This performance showcased physical theatre, using corde lisse/rope skills to communicate the Olympic status and power of the god Dionysus, who was presented through the diverse lenses of An Icon; An Orgy; A Dissenter. Video clips of this project and other explorations of Greek myth are available at: www.actorsofdionysus.com/projects/

Rudolph Walker as Blind Billy Blue, the jazz-playing bard, in The Odyssey. A Stage Version, by Derek Walcott, directed by Gregory Doran, Royal Shakespeare Company, 1992. Photo: Mark Douet.