Agamemnon’s Kiss, by Inga Clendinnen. Published by Text Publishing, Melbourne, 2006. ISBN 1 920885 67 6. RRP $32.95. website
In the essay that gives this collection its title, Melbourne historian Inga Clendinnen proposes an engrossing archaeological tableau. A tireless if ethically questionable excavator, Heinrich Schliemann, unearthed five skeletons with gold masks near the Lion Gate at Mycenae. The skeletons crumbled in Schliemann’s hands, but he said of the masks, "Today I kissed the lips of Agamemnon." Well, he didn’t—none of the masks came from the Greek king’s tomb—and Clendinnen points out in her final words that in any case such a kiss is not a physical matter, but comes about through words and thoughts; this embrace is given only to "we happy breed who practise the magical arts of History".
That is a splendid, moving boast and one which many of us would admire, but does it hold water? It does if you accept a statement proposed in an earlier essay, "Backstage at the Republic of Letters", which began life as a lecture and is, despite the author’s wry disclaimer, all the better for having that format. Here, the author proposes that "history is a democratic discipline" because it is the means by which ordinary people manage the world—another proposal that is instantly attractive, and also persuasive because it sets up l’homme moyen sensuel as a conscientious deliberator, an evaluator of the past striving to find a path through this troubling, misleading present.
In the light of these professions of faith, Clendinnen shows herself to be an optimist, and her 20 essays show various facets of this positive approach, which is expounded in the collection’s introductory essay, "Big Louis". Both point to the massive life-altering position she found herself in 16 years ago, when she was told that she needed a liver transplant; she was lucky enough to get one after a four-year wait, and the medical and hospital experiences took her into the close-knit community of transplant recipients. But the physical changes to her lifestyle meant that she could no longer follow her academic career, nor could she travel to carry out fieldwork in her field of expertise: the Mayan and Aztec civilisations, and the coming of the conquistadors. As compensation, a new door opened and she became a writer of high calibre, the recipient of awards in several states and the Boyer Lecturer for 1999.
Agamemnon’s Kiss is divided somewhat loosely into