TheChek News Flow

“Strangers, the ash of ages has devoured me, Holy Ilion …but I shall be on the lips of all Greece.” Beautiful though the words of 5BC Greek writer Evenus of Ascalon may be, they have proved false. As the British Museum’s new exhibition devoted to Troy — as Ilion is now known — testifies, not only did the city’s fame spread far beyond Greece, but the actual metropolis, albeit with no proof that the Trojan war took place there, has been rediscovered.

The result is a gripping yet scholarly show which enriches our understanding of both myth and reality. Divided into three chapters, the voyage sails us through representations of the Trojan war in the ancient world, the rediscovery of the city’s site at Hisarlik in Turkey, and the story’s many iterations in modern culture.

In an effort to act as a microcosm of all three sections, a display in the opening room is the only one that fails to cohere. Iincludes artefacts such as an Athenian amphora made in 530BC depicting Achilles falling in love with a female warrior even as he murders her. But when a clutch of ancient clay pots unearthed at Hisarlik in the 19th century is placed alongside two large contemporary works — Cy Twombly’s painting “Vengeance of Achilles” and elements from Antony Caro’s sculptural installation “The Trojan War” — the delicate ancient objects are eclipsed by their clunky modern peers.

From here on, however, the curators do a marvellous job of weaving their constellation of texts, images and objects into a fragile, evanescent yet astonishingly resilient cosmos. The figure of Homer bestrides this world like a colossus, despite the reality that his two surviving poems, The Iliad and The Odyssey, are relatively brief.

There’s no definitive proof that Homer existed at all, although many scholars now think he probably lived during the eighth or early seventh century BC. Those dates coincide with the return of writing, which had first been used in Greece during the Bronze Age, then fallen out of use. It isn’t known when, how or by whom Homer’s tales — of Achilles’ apocalyptic quarrel with Agamemmnon and its bloody consequences, and of Odysseus’ ten-year voyage back to Ithaca — were first written down. But this exhibition offers a thrilling chance to see one of the earliest surviving remnants of Greek script. Found at Pithekoussai in Italy but made around 715BC in Teos — now in Turkey, but close to Smyrna and Chios where Homer is thought to have lived — this small two-handled cup, its surface broken and faded, bears scratchy and just perceptible lines of writing which proclaim that it is “the cup of Nestor” and possesses aphrodisiac powers.

This jest was probably inspired by the myth, recounted in Homer’s Iliad, but surely also by other contemporaneous bards, of the golden goblet that belonged to Greek king Nestor and was too heavy for ordinary men to lift. Its presence close to Naples, on the western fringes of the early Greek world, tells us that epic poetry had already traversed this burgeoning civilisation.

That was just the start. As writing spread, allied to images made by artisans, sculptors and painters, the ancestral sagas of gods, goddesses, heroes and mortals enraptured audiences throughout antiquity. Of the array on show here, outstanding examples include an Etruscan wall-painting of The Judgement of Paris from c.560-550BC which includes a startling depiction of Aphrodite hitching up her skirt to show off a hint of leg.

Such unexpectedly imaginative — though rarely feminist — explorations of the familiar characters abound. A wall-painting from Pompei shows Helen being manhandled aboard a ship bound for Troy, her wan, hesitant expression a world away from the woman condemned in 458BC by classical playwright Aeschylus as “the destroyer of ships, destroyer of men, destroyer of cities”. (The galleries are sprinkled with wonderfully evocative quotations.) Meanwhile, a Roman sarcophagus found in Ephesus, Turkey, where it had been repurposed as decoration for the city gates, shows Achilles as a toned, handsome hero slumped in grief as the body of his beloved Patroclus, who has died fighting while Achilles sulked, is heaved towards him on another man’s shoulders.

The myths flourished but Troy itself was abandoned around 600AD. In the late 19th century, the German pioneer Heinrich Schliemann started to excavate at Hisarlik in north-western Turkey, on advice from British archeologist Frank Calvert who had already dug there. Schliemann’s contribution — from charges that he compromised the site to his decision to smuggle out the cache of gold known as Priam’s treasure, whose ownership is now disputed between Germany and Russia — is controversial. Although the display here includes the famous photograph of his wife Sophia wearing the golden diadem and earrings known as the “Jewels of Helen”, part of Priam’s troublesome booty, the curators concentrate on what a trove of humble vessels and fragments can tell us about a city whose first stones were laid in 3000BC but which was revealed to comprise nine settlements compressed into layers.

The crucial strata is Troy VI-VIIa (from 1750BC-1180BC). If the Trojan war did take place, it’s thought to have occurred between 1200BC and 1400BC. Evidence for this chronology comes via the study of objects such as a a tiny clay fragment (c1280BC) inscribed with Hittite cuneiform which testifies to an alliance Wilusa (as the Hittites called Troy) had made with them to sustain them in conflicts against Mycenae in Greece.

The final section of this show is a vibrant canter through more modern responses to the Trojan fable. From a 15th-century Italian marriage chest depicting Odysseus on his travels as Penelope sits obediently at her loom — designed to leave new Renaissance brides in no doubt of their conjugal duties — to Marian Maguire’s series of lithographs “Titokowaru’s Dilemma” (2010-11), which borrow elements of the Trojan war story to shed light on the colonisation of New Zealand, their variety reveals that our fascination with human desire, loss, failure, courage and hubris is timeless and universal.

Perhaps the most forceful expression is found in a film clip of Queens of Syria, (2016), a retelling of Euripides’ Trojan Women by Syrian refugees that was performed at London’s Young Vic theatre, among other places. A walltext includes a quote by one member of the cast, named Maha: “Troy’s story is very similar to Syria’s story, its women, its children, the country that was destroyed …we all lived the real experience.” It’s bittersweet to know that Troy’s melodrama of war, displacement and homecoming has never been more relevant than today.

To March 8, britishmuseum.org

Kabel Deutschland deleted ex-CEO’s emails despite probe into acquisition by UK group

Vodafone’s German cable division Kabel Deutschland is facing accusations of “material obstruction” of a court-commissioned inquiry after it deleted its former chief executive’s email account.

An independent auditor investigating the German company’s management over its 2013 acquisition by the UK telecoms group made the allegation in a May 2017 letter to the Munich court that ordered a probe into the deal’s pricing.

The emergence of the claim could prove problematic for Vodafone, which has been embroiled in a multiyear lawsuit with minority investors in Kabel Deutschland, including US activist hedge fund Elliott Management, over the acquisition’s pricing.

The shareholders, which together hold 23.4 per cent of the cable operator, are suing the British company to compensate them for what they say was an underpriced deal by Vodafone and Kabel Deutschland. 

The judge hearing the case is expected to present his ruling on November 27 but the minority investors are calling for the decision to be delayed until the special audit has been completed.

The potential conclusion of the court case comes at a challenging time for Vodafone, which is facing the possible collapse of its Indian business and has cut its dividend to reflect higher operating costs. 

If the court backs the minority shareholders, Vodafone faces further payouts to minority shareholders of up to €1.3bn. 

The 2014 special audit into the €10.7bn Vodafone-Kabel Deutschland deal found there was “reasonable suspicion” the target’s senior executives had potentially violated their duty of care as their endorsement appeared “incomplete and implausible”. Vodafone and Kabel Deutschland reject this assessment. 

Kabel Deutschland’s board recommended Vodafone’s offer of €87 a share. But calculations by investment banks advising Kabel Deutschland’s management suggested the target’s fair valuation including synergies was between €109.50 and €150.50, people familiar with the report told the Financial Times. Kabel Deutschland neither disclosed the higher internal valuations nor explained the gap. 

Martin Schommer, the accountant who led the court-commissioned inquiry, said emails to and from Kabel Deutschland’s then chief executive Adrian von Hammerstein from April to September 2013 were deemed to be of “material significance”, according to documents seen by the Financial Times. 

During the 2014 special audit, also led by Mr Schommer, Kabel Deutschland denied access to the emails, arguing those dates went beyond the timeframe of the audit’s narrower remit at the time. 

In 2016 after the inquiry with a wider remit was launched, Kabel Deutschland told the auditor the emails no longer existed.

“This assessment was justified with the departure of Mr von Hammerstein at Kabel Deutschland and the subsequent deletion of his Outlook account,” Mr Schommer wrote in a letter to the Munich district court seen by the Financial Times. Mr von Hammerstein left Kabel Deutschland in 2014 to join Vodafone Germany’s supervisory board. 

Mr Schommer also discovered that the emails had disappeared from Kabel Deutschland’s email archiving system. The auditor said the failure to hand over the communications of “a key player like the chief executive of Kabel Deutschland” amounted to a “material obstruction” of the special audit. 

Daniel Bauer, chief executive of German shareholder protection association SdK, which is among the those suing Vodafone, said the deletion of emails was “an astonishing and inexplicable event” that “can create the impression that Kabel Deutschland may have tried to destroy evidence”. 

Shareholders in Kabel Deutschland who raised the issue at the group’s subsequent annual meeting were told the deletion of former employee’s emails — including those of executives — was a standard procedure at the Vodafone-controlled company. 

Thorsten Sörup, partner of Frankfurt-based law-firm Aderhold and a specialist in IT law, told the Financial Times that “the swift deletion of a former CEO’s emails is very odd and highly unusual, in particular for a company as big as Kabel Deutschland.” 

He warned that such a policy made it “difficult if not impossible for a company to live up to its legal archiving and accounting obligations that are enshrined in Germany’s tax code and commercial law”. 

He argued that a chief executive’s corporate emails are similar to business letters which by law have to be archived for six to 10 years, adding that deleting them earlier was “at odds with the management’s duty of care”. 

Vodafone, Mr Schommer and Elliott Management declined to comment. Mr von Hammerstein could not be reached for comment. 

From Rajendra Aneja, Aneja Management Consultants, Mumbai, India

With reference to your incisive report “Fears rise of social unrest in India as climate change hits output of onions” (November 15): it is not merely the price of onions, which has destabilised a few governments in the past, that is agonising Indians. The economy is heading for a freefall. A survey by the National Statistical Office reports that consumer spending in 2017-18 has fallen after four decades. Rural demand has declined by 8.8 per cent. Rural demand for rudimentary items such as salt, sugar and spices has declined by 16.6 per cent. So, villagers are eating less, since salt and sugar are a barometer of the quantum of meals that people eat — they do not constitute a meal by themselves. The consumption of these ingredients has declined by 14.2 per cent even in the urban areas. It only means that people are becoming poor and are reducing food consumption.

Again, the telecoms company Vodafone Idea has posted India Inc’s highest ever quarterly loss, of about $5bn. Another operator, Airtel, posted a loss of $4.5bn for the same quarter. This is macabre. This clearly warns that one or both these companies could go under. Their chief executives have already hinted that if these losses continue, the operations will be unsustainable. Thus we are looking at the loss of maybe 30,000 to 50,000 jobs, including indirect job losses, such as vendors, sales staff, shopkeepers etc.

Furthermore, the banks in India are as jittery as the central bank; the Reserve Bank of India’s deadline nears to resolve defaulting companies’ loans amounting to Rs3.8tn. Retailers in malls and high streets confirm to me, on my market visits, that sales have declined by 15 to 30 per cent across various categories of products in the current year.

Incomes in the villages have declined after the demonetisation of November 2016. Many small businesses and tanneries have shut down. Villagers have lost jobs. Unseasonal rains have also dented farm incomes. Urban consumers are shy of spending money on clothes, cars or computers, since they are not sure whether they will have a job or a salary next month.

We need urgent steps, on a war footing, to restore consumer confidence in the future of the economy. While elections and temples are important, we must remember that people need to eat too, to live.

Rajendra Aneja

Aneja Management Consultants, Mumbai, India

DAX:

MDAX:

SDAX: