Hundreds of Latin and Greek enthusiasts are seeking to bury their crusty image at a festival that features a hip-hop version of 2,000-year-old verse and the opportunity of a glitzy career for classicists.

Organisers of the European Festival of Latin and Greek are trying to show that the languages are a gateway to understanding and wealth. They say advertisers and industrialists need speakers of ancient tongues to work on an increasing number of products, from perfumes to clothes, that have Latin names. “When the Chinese import a wine, for instance, they want it to evoke Europe - and that often means putting Latin on the label,” said Elizabeth Antébi, who founded the festival in Nantes. “I'm fed up with hearing that this is all elitist and does not lead to a job.”

Audi, which means “hark”, Volvo, which means “I roll” and Sony, a derivative of Sonus, or sound, are among the brands whose names have Latin roots. Another is Uterque (“both”), the shoe store chain launched last month by Zara, the fashion house.

The French festival comes amid signs of renewed interest in classics in Western Europe, according to its promoters. The number of French schoolchildren studying Latin and Greek, for instance, has stabilised at about 546,000 after years of decline.

“Twenty years ago Latin really was a dead language,” said Marc-Olivier Girard, a teacher and an actor who is a member of the Paris Latin Circle. “It's being relaunched because people realise that it's part of our heritage. It's a monument, like the Eiffel Tower or the Tower of London. Latin circles are springing up all over the place. There are about 30 of them in Europe now.”

Mr Girard's contribution to the three-day festival was a performance yesterday in Latin of a work based loosely upon The Three Little Pigs. He said he hoped Fabella de Tribus Porcellis et de Malo Magno Lupo, which drew an audience of 200 children and adults, had shown Latin to be “living and funny”.

“I think they enjoyed it,” he said afterwards. “Some people want Latin to be the official language of the European Union. Personally, I wouldn't go that far but we must promote it.”

Much of the festival, expected to attract about a thousand people, will be taken up with discussions on how the Romans and the Greeks shaped modern Europe. “They founded all the exchanges between the peoples of Europe from Byron to Goethe,” said Mrs Antébi. There will also be games, gastronomy, music and a reading of Asterix the Gaul in Ancient Greek.

A hip-hop concert by Ista, a German group that specialises in Roman verse, is scheduled for tonight. The group will perform its version of the celebrated poem by Catullus: “Odi et amo. Quare id faciam, fortasse requiris/ Nescio, sed fieri sentio et excrucior (“I hate and I love. Why do I do it, perchance you might ask? I don't know, but I feel it happening to me and I'm burning up.”) The festival includes a “jobs corner" where business leaders have been invited to promote the idea that ancient languages can be an advantage on CVs in industries, such as tourism and advertising.

Mrs Antébi believes that filmmakers are also keen on Latin and Greek speakers. “Hollywood is recruiting people able to reconstitute Antiquity,” she said.

Fabella de Tribus Porcellis et de Malo Magno Lupo

‘Si non vis aperire portam , ego inspirabo inflabo,
sufflabo exflabo domum tuam’.
Et Lupus aer in pulmones inspiravit et tant‚ violenti‚
expiravit ut domus porcelli devastata sit et fracta sit.

Times Recommends

• Rio Tinto four held as China prepares case
• Diplomats must keep heads down and trousers up
• When in Rome should one make like Berlusconi?