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Konstantine Panegyres, Lecturer in Classics and Ancient History, The University of Western Australia

Generational conflict has been around forever – just ask the ancients

Oedipus cursing his son Polynices -- Henry Fuseli (1786) Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

“It is the law of human life and of human nature that a new generation is ever coming forth,” said the Roman statesman Cicero (106–43 BCE).

His view was echoed by the poet Simonides of Ceos (6th to 5th century BCE): “As is the generation of leaves, so is that of men.”

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