Pentheus’ Myth Beyond Euripides

Tuesday, November 14, 5:30 p.m.
Eaton Humanities Building, #190

Speaker: Dr. Bartłomiej Bednarek
Humboldt Fellow, Ludwig-Maximilian University of Munich
Assistant Professor, University of Warsaw

���ܰ����辱����’ Bacchae is the only well-preserved, relatively early text that presents, at substantial length, a disturbing but fascinating image of Dionysus, which suggested to several modern-era intellectuals (e.g., Nietzsche, Benedict, Dodds, Otto, Girard, Kott) that inquiry into the true nature of this divinity may shed light on some particularly important aspects of ancient civilization. Due to the state of preservation of the dossier of texts relevant to the study of Dionysus, quite inevitably we tend to extrapolate ���ܰ����辱����’ vision onto the whole of Greco-Roman culture, very often at the cost of downplaying the role of some other, oftentimes less-intriguing texts. This paper analyzes material to discuss the relative importance of Bacchae in different places and times. Before Euripides, Pentheus’ myth was one of the most widely known stories about Dionysus.

This is a free public lecture, sponsored by the Department of Classics. Everyone is welcome.
classics.colorado.edu | 303-492-6257

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Patronage and Clientelism in Archaic & Early Classical Greece: A Hypothesis

Monday, October 16, 5:00 p.m.
Eaton Humanities Building, #125

Speaker: �Ѳ������&�Բ�����;�±�ç�Ƿɲ��쾱, University of Warsaw
Sponsored by CU �鶹ӰԺ's , the , and the Department of Classics

Free and open to the public

As John K. Davies observed in 2005, ‘the informal networks of influence’ and ‘social control,’ in other words, Greek and especially Athenian ‘patronage’ (broadly conceived), ‘has only recently begun to attract the attention it deserves.’ To this date, ‘interpersonal relations between unequal parties’ and, in particular, political ‘clientelism’ in archaic & classical Greece seems a deeply understudied issue. The locus classicus in this respect is the much-discussed passage of Theopompus (FGrHist 115 F 89), the anecdote referred to also in Plutarch's Life of Cimon (10.1-2; cf. AP 27.3), about Cimon's magnanimity towards his (most probably) fellow-demotai and Athenian citizens at large. In this paper, I will argue that several strangely neglected episodes of the Persian Wars and its aftermath, such as Herodotus 8.17, may serve as a good starting point for reassessing our scattered pieces of historical evidence regarding archaic and classical Greek history - on the basis of sources ranging from Hesiod to Athenaeus.

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Call for Papers
The 2024 �鶹ӰԺ Classics Graduate Colloquium conference:
Plague and Pandemic in the Ancient World
Friday, 19^th – Saturday 20^th January, 2024
Keynote Address by HunterGardner (University of South Carolina)

Through the very trauma they inflict, plagues and pandemics stir conflict and controversy and exercise an enduring intellectual and emotional appeal. The intersecting religious, material, medical, historical, artistic, and literary responses they engendered in antiquity tell a complex story of confrontation with an experience dwarfing individuals and collectives alike. These ancient responses elicit questions for us as modern readers and experiencers of pandemic, and they offer us the opportunity to interact with earlier moments in the evolution of plague discourse. What were the politics of plague at different moments and in different geographical and cultural arenas in antiquity? What opportunities for transgression did plague create, and (how) did societies move to control them? What power dynamics and hierarchies were strengthened or undermined by the intrusion of plague? What did ancient attempts to combat plague, to respond to its intervention, to document it, or to trace its physical, emotional, social, or material consequences look like? Did plague create new taboos or destroy old ones, and what kinds of fear or cultural imperatives did plague engender? How was plague represented in the ancient imaginary? How do our own notions about plague and plague discourse affect our study of these topics in the ancient world?

The �鶹ӰԺ Classics Graduate Colloquium invites papers from current graduate students addressing plague and pandemic as played out across the ancient Mediterranean world and beyond. We welcome papers viewing the topic through the lens of anthropology, art history, archaeology, ethnography, literature, philosophy, and religion, among others. Please send abstracts of no more than 300 words via email to pandemicconference24@gmail.com by August 30, 2023; subject line “�鶹ӰԺ Classics Graduate Colloquium 2024 Submission.” Abstracts should include a title for the paper and be anonymous PDF files. Please include your name, institution, and the title of your abstract in the body of your email. Presentations should be no longer than 20 minutes.

Possible topics are not limited to but may include:

• the social consequences of plague and pandemic as experienced in antiquity and beyond
• effects of pandemics on ancient belief systems or more broadly the relationship between religion and disease in the ancient world
• ancient material responses to disease and its effects, including votives, inscriptions, prosthetics -
• ancient artistic or literary responses to plague and pandemic and their later reception
• the ways plague since antiquity has prompted reflection on human ingenuity and its hard limits
• ancient dietary, surgical, or pharmacological responses to plague
• figures in the history of medicine and their intellectual or physical encounters with plague

Please direct any questions to pandemicconference24@gmail.com.

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Friday, January 31, 5:00pm

Eaton Humanities, 1B80

View more about the conference here.

Sponsored by the Department of Classics, UGGS, CHA, and the Benson Center

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SPACE AND SPECTACLE IN THE ANCIENT WORLD

January 31 – February 1, 2020
Friday: Humanities 1B80 at 5:00pm
Saturday: Center for British and Irish Studies, Norlin Library from 10:15am - 6:00pm

Friday - Keynote Address
5:00 - Humanities 1B80

Dr. Sarah Levin-Richardson, University of Washington
Vision, Power, and Identity in Roman Culture

Saturday - Graduate Presenters
11:00 – Local Space and Identity
Center for British and Irish Studies, Norlin Library

Landscape Engineering in Athens: Slope Reversal on the Pnyx
(G. Budde, Boston University)

Making a Space a Place: Eco-Cultural Readings of the Peirene
Fountain at Ancient Corinth (Y. Liu, Bryn Mawr)

Local and Imperial Identities at the Amfiteatro Campano in
Capua (L. Ladge, University of Chicago)

1:30 – Religious & Political Performance

Hittite in Homer: The Šalliš Waštaiš Ritual in the Funeral of
Patroclus (A. Crum, University of Georgia)

Space and the Spectacle of Ritual in the Cult of Mithras
(J. Nadeau, University of Calgary)

Expressions of Roman and Sasanian Legitimacy through Their
Political Landscapes (K. Breyer, Bryn Mawr)

3:30 – Spectacle in Literature

Narrative Space: The Malian Gulf in Bacchylides 16
(G. A. Hagerty, CUNY)

Theater, Performance and Illusion in Ovid's Metamorphoses 11
(E. Sacks, CU �鶹ӰԺ)

Forced Prostitution as Transformed Spectacle in Late Antique
Christianity (A. Irwin, CU �鶹ӰԺ)

View the full poster here.

Sponsored by the Department of Classics, UGGS, CHA, and the Benson Center

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Time in Antiquity

October 12-13, 2018

Friday 6:00 PM
Keynote Address by Peter Bing, University of Toronto, "Tombs of Poet's Minor Characters"
Eaton Humanities HUMN 250

Saturday 10:30 AM - 5:00 PM
British and Irish Studies Room in Norlin Library

Roman Mosaic of philosopher with sundial, 
3rd century CE, Rheinisches Landesmuseum Trier

Schedule

This event is sponsored by the Department of Classics, UGGS, CHA, GCAH, CWCTP, and the PFC.
Contact the Classics Department with questions.

See the Time in Antiquity poster.

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Transgressive Language in the Ancient World

Keynote Address by Dr. Amy Richlin, UCLA
“The Rise of the Low: Classics and the Study of the Abject”

February 3-4, 2017

The �鶹ӰԺ Classics Graduate Colloquium seeks papers from current graduate students addressing how the taboo, censorship, profanity, obscenity, or other culturally regulated behaviors operate in the ancient world. We welcome papers on topics relating to literature, art history, archaeology, philosophy, religion, and ethnography, among others. Please send abstracts of no longer than 300 words to transgressiveconference@gmail.com by November 14, 2016.

Possible topics may include:

Transgressive language—whether written or visual—lies at the center of cultural innovation and cultural self-definition as the means through which individuals and groups test boundaries and values. Depictions and discussions of sex, death, profane actions, and impious or obscene speech are integral tools by means of which participants in the ancient world explored and defined their religious practices and beliefs, literary genres, and sexual norms.
The articulation of transgressive ideas through art and writing created more colloquial and vigorous means of artistic expression while reinforcing central beliefs in Greco-Roman cultures. Transgressive language and the varied reactions it elicits raise a number of questions for us as modern readers.
In what ways did obscene or sexual language serve different functions in varied contexts or genres? What fears or cultural necessities motivate ancient societies to create notions of the taboo? How did transgression of prescribed norms and taboos reinforce or diminish existing social, religious, or economic institutions? How did the political establishment move to control transgression in speech or act through the use of censorship? Under what circumstances was cultural or literary transgression permitted or encouraged? What power dynamics and hierarchies are strengthened or questioned by obscenity? How did ancient religion regulate certain actions, depictions, or manners of communication in order to avoid taboos? How do our own notions of the taboo or obscenity affect our study of these topics in the Greco-Roman world?

See the poster here.

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