Friday, April 20th, 2012:   29th Annual Tracy Lecture
3 pm, UIC Institute for the Humanities, Stevenson Hall (lower level)
“Tan Men, Pale Women: Color as Gender Indicator in Egyptian and Archaic Greek Painting, a Question of Interconnections,” Mary Ann Eaverly, University of Florida

"Thera, Knossos and Egypt"
Sponsored by:
The Department of Classics and Mediterranean Studies
The National Hellenic Museum
The Oriental Institute, University of Chicago 

Thursday, October 20th at 5:00 p.m.:
Professor Christos Doumas (Univ. of Athens), "From Necessities to Delights: Eating Habits in Akrotiri Thera of the Bronze Age."
Place: National Hellenic Museum, 333 S. Halsted – Chicago, IL. (link) 

Exhibition of Minoan/Theran Costumes by Dr. Bernice Jones

Saturday, October 22nd, beginning at 10:30 a.m.:
"Thera,Knossos and Egypt."
Place: Oriental Institute, 1155 East 58th Street (link)

Participants:
Christos Doumas (Athens University); Robert Ritner (U of Chicago); Gunter Kopcke (New York University); Nanno Marinatos (University of Illinois at Chicago); Janet Johnston (U of Chicago); Jonathan Hall (U of Chicago); David Schloen (U of Chicago); Jennifer Tobin (University of Illinois at Chicago); Karen Ros (University of Illinois at Chicago); Andreas Vlachopoulos (University of Ioannina)  

See also http://www.nationalhellenicmuseum.org/
Conference Poster (PDF) 

Academic Year 2010 -2011

Friday 1st April 2011:   28th Annual Tracy Lecture
3 pm, UIC Institute for the Humanities, Stevenson Hall (lower level)
Sander Goldberg (UCLA) “Comedy in Context:  Seeing Plays the Roman Way”

Wednesday 6 April 2011:  “The Temple of Zeus on Mount Gerizim: Hadrianic Building and Foreign Policy in Judaea”
3 pm, UH 1650
Jennifer Tobin

Wednesday 20 April 2011:  “The Classical World-View and the Physiology of Sight”
3 pm, UH 1650
Alexander P. MacGregor

            ABSTRACT: “The circle has been a privileged shape from Homer’s flat earth through Plato to the modern age. Why? By the same token, the development of three-dimensionality and artistic perspective (or lack thereof in e.g. Greek ikons) has raised the same question. Those and other phenomena are best explained not by intellectualizations, but are predetermined by the physiology of our organs of sight and the neurology of vision, as the paper will demonstrate.”

Links to:
Previous Tracy Lectures
Previous Conferences
Previous Lectures, Seminars & Presentations

PREVIOUS CONFERENCES ORGANISED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF CLASSICS AND MEDITERRANEAN STUDIES:

Wednesday 17th November 2010:  “The Jewish Revolt of Bar Kokhba (AD 132-135) and the Star of Antinous.”
3 pm, UH 1750
John T. Ramsey, Department of Classics

Myth & Imagination
October 1, 2010. Conference.

Lives and Deaths of Divinities and Hero(in)es in Ancient Greece,
Richard Buxton (Bristol University)
The Continuing life of Greek Myths in Contemporary Fiction: The View of a Writer
Mercedes Aguirre (University of Madrid)
Myth and Monument at Xanthos: The Free-Born Loving Lykians,
Jennifer Tobin (University of Illinois at Chicago)
Tales from the Odyssey,
Sebastian Anderson (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)

Fables and People: A Conference in honor of John Vaio
November 7, 2009. Conference.

The Will of Ajax and His Last Testament
Paul Keyser (IBM)
Pericles' Law Censoring Comedy
Kent Rigsby (Duke University)
Quick Brown Fox and Lazy Dog
Danuta Shanzer (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)

Revelation in Ancient Greek Religion?
November 10, 2008: Conference.

Ignorance and Knowledge of the Divine
Robert Parker (University of Oxford)
Script as Sacrifice; Writing as Revelation
Roger Woodard (State University of New York at Buffalo)
Self- Revelation, Power, Reciprocity: Why the Greeks Believed in their Gods
Albert Henrichs (Harvard University)

Respondents:
Kenneth Dowden (University of Birmingham)
Menelaos Christopoulos and Efi Karakantza (University of Patras) 

Minoan Civilization Outside Crete: Griffins and Royal Symbolism in Crete, Egypt & the Near East
March 10, 2008. Conference.
Session I: Griffins in Palaces and their Dependencies
Griffins in their Architectural Setting
Clairy Palyvou (University of Thessaloniki, Greece)
Griffins in the Palaces of Pylos and Knossos
Elizabeth Shanks (INSTAP)
Griffin, African palms and Monkeys in Thera
Adreas Vlachopoulos (Akrotiri Excavations, Greece)
Response to the New Evidence of the Theran Fresco
Lyvia Morgan (Harvard University) and Anne Chapin (Brevard College)

Session II: On the Meaning on Griffins and Lions
Grasping the Griffin: Identifying and Characterizing the Griffin in West Semitic Tradition
Nicolas Wyatt (University of Edinburgh, Great Britain)
Strange Creature in a Strange Land: The Griffin as an Agent of Order in Egypt and Crete
Richard Wilkinson (University of Arizona) and Nanno Marinatos (University of Illinois at Chicago)

The Gospel of Judas and other Secret Gospels
November 10, 2006. Conference.
Session I: Chairs- Jennifer Tobin, Nanno Marinatos
The Gospel of Judas and the Historical Judas Iscariot
            Hans Joseph Klauck (University of Chicago)
Is Judas Really the Hero of the Gospel?
Einar Thomassen (University of Bergen, Norway)

Session II: Chair- William M. Calder III
The Sethianism of the Gospel of Judas
John D. Turner (University of Nebraska)
Jesus’ Laughter and its Docetic Background: A New Hypothesis
Guy Stroumsa (Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel)

Session III: Chair- Paul J Griffiths
Discussion:
Jan Bremmer (University of Groningen, Holland)
Gary Anderson (University of Notre Dame)
Danuta Shanzer (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)

Paradise - The Lexicon of Felicity in the Eastern Mediterranean
November 2004. Conference.

Exit from Paradise: a reading of Genesis in the light of Ancient Mediterranean Traditions
Nanno Marinatos (University of Illinois at Chicago)
The Holy Meadows Once Again, New Reflections in Orphic Eschatology and Anthropogony
Sarah Isles Johnston (Ohio State University)
Rivers of Paradise: The Juncture of History and Redemption
Rachel Havrelock (University of Illinois at Chicago)
Imaginal Ascent to Paradise in the Hymn of the Pearl, Ephrem's On Paradise and Jacob of Serug's the Chariot: The Development of Early Syrian Tradition
Robin Darling Young (Notre Dame University)
Paradise: Yearning and Cogitation-the Later Roman West
Danuta Shanzer (University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana)
The Vocabulary of Paradise
Fritz Graf (Ohio State University)


Religious and State Authority in the Eastern Mediterranean
October 10, 2003- October 11, 2003. Conference.
Session I: Itinerant Priests - Chair: Chris Faraone
From Golden Fetters to Silver Talents. The Specialists, the Palace and the Market
Cristiano Grottanelli (University of Florence)
The Greek Manteis: Charismatics and Professionals
Raffaella Pretini (University of Milan)
Insight vs. Evidence: Wilamowitz and Nilsson on the History of Religion
William M. Calder (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)

Session II: Imagery as Evidence - Chair: Jennifer Tobin
Women's Rituals and the God Dionysos
Cornelia Isler-Kerenyi (University of Zurich)
The Social Persona of the Visionary and the Prophet(ess) on Minoan Rings
Nanno Marinatos(University of Illinois at Chicago)

Session III: Obedience and Authority - Chair: Rachel Havrelock
Authenticity and Authority in Early Islam
David Reisman (University of Illinois at Chicago)
Obedience, Authority, and Martyrdom: Comments on a Newly-Discovered Sermon by Augustine
Paul Griffiths (University of Illinois at Chicago)

Pythagoreanism, Orphism, and Afterlife Beliefs
November 2002. Conference.

Pythagorean Beliefs about the Afterlife
Christoph Riedweg (University of Zurich)
The Conception of the Afterlife in Epitaphs by a Poet Initiated in the Mysteries
Matthew Dickie (University of Illinois at Chicago)

Divine Epiphanies from Archaic Greece to the Christian Era
April 5, 2002- April 6, 2002. Conference.
Session I : Greek Antiquity: from Archaic to Classical - Chair: John Ramsey
Blurred Vision: The Trouble with Epiphany
Albert Henrichs (Harvard University)
 Collective Epiphanies: Trick or Treat?
Fritz Graf (Princeton University)
Enargeia and Epiphany
Nanno Marinatos (University of Illinois at Chicago)
Epiphanies in the Odyssey
Anton Bierl (University of Leipzig)
Epiphany and the Phye Episode
Greg Anderson (University of Illinois at Chicago)
Epiphany at the Eleusinian and Samothracian Mysteries
Kevin Clinton (Cornell University)
Heroic Epiphanies: Narrative, Visual, and Cultic Contexts
Jorge Bravo (Berkeley)

Session II: Roman Antiquity and the Early Christian Period - Chair: Paul Griffiths
Epiphanies in Lucian's ALEXANDER
Matthew Dickie(University of Illinois at Chicago)
The Presence of the Gnostic Revealer
Einar Thomassen (University of Bergen)
Which Art in Heaven: the Celestial Sphere of Manilius
Alexander MacGregor (University of Illinois at Chicago)
God Concept & Cultic Image: The Argument in Dio Chrysostom's Oratio XII (Olympikos)
Hans Dieter Betz (University of Chicago)

Discussion:
Margaret Mitchell (University of Chicago)
Hans-Joseph Klauck (University of Chicago)

PREVIOUS LECTURES, SEMINARS & PRESENTATIONS ORGANISED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF CLASSICS AND MEDITERRANEAN STUDIES:

Astrological concilia deorum in Late Medieval and Early Modern Latin Poetry.
September 10, 2010. Lecture.
Stephan Heilen (University of Osnabrück, Germany)

Altars of Zeus, Games for the Gods: Lykaion and Olympia in Early Greek Religion.
April 14, 2010. Lecture.
Dr. David Gilman Romano (University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology)


Helen and Troy: Innocence, Guilt and Politics
March 19, 2010. Lecture.
Menelaos Christopoulos (University of Patras)

Nonius Marcellus and the Fragments of the Lost Roman Historians
March 17, 2010. Lecture.
John Briscoe (University of Manchester)

Mysteries of Eros: Diotima’s Speech in the Symposium  
February 13, 2010. Lecture.
Constance Meinwald (University of Illinois at Chicago)

Why Was the Iphigenia in Tauris So Popular in Antiquity?
January 29, 2010. Lecture.
Edith Hall (Royal Holloway, University of London)

Ulixes Redux
April 18, 2009. Lecture.
George Huxley (Trinity College, Dublin)

From Text to Author:  A Curious Correspondent of St. Augustine's 
April 10, 2009. Lecture.
Danuta Shanzer (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)

Was Nero a Good Emperor?
April 9, 2009. Senior Thesis Presentation.
Chris Savoia (University of Illinois at Chicago)

The Apology of Socrates
March 30, 2009. Play.
Yannis Simonides
A performance based closely on the Apology by Plato, Socrates' student.

Mechanism of Catastrophe: Thycydides’ Description of the Sicilian Expedition
March 12, 2009. Lecture.
Helmut Loeffler (Penn State University)

Aristotelian Themes and Influences in Early Modern and Modern Physics
February 27, 2009. Lecture.
Nick Hugget (University of Illinois at Chicago)

Lions and Boars: Simile and Character in the Iliad
February 20, 2009. Senior Thesis Presentation.
Paul Fleck (University of Illinois at Chicago)

The Soul as Star-Stuff from Homer to Origen
February 12, 2009. Lecture.
Alex MacGregor (University of Illinois at Chicago)

The Plan of Zeus in the Iliad
February 6, 2009. Senior Thesis Presentation.
Sebastian Anderson (University of Illinois at Chicago) 

Islamic Arts: An Epistemology of the "Ab-surd”
November 21, 2008. Lecture.
Ahmed Achrati (University of Illinois at Chicago)

On Oedipus and the Winkling of his Eye
November 14, 2008. Lecture.
Menelaos Christopoulos and  Efimia Karakantza (University of Patras)

Writing as Performance:  An Early Greek Conceptualization of the Alphabet
November 12, 2008. Lecture.
Roger Woodard (State University of New York at Buffalo)
  

Socrates'  Image: Medieval and Renaissance Arabic and Jewish Political Thought
October 31, 2008. Seminar.
Vasileios Syros (University of Chicago) 

The Devil
October 24, 2008. Seminar.
Mustapha Kamal (University of Illinois at Chicago) 

Teaching the Forbidden Subjects: The Role of the Classics
in African American Uplift and Resistance
October 3, 2008. Lecture.
Kenneth W. Goings and Eugene O’Connor, (Ohio State University)
  

Is the Underworld in the Sky? The Beyond in the Odyssey and its Relationship to Egyptian Thought
September 19, 2008. Lecture.
Nanno Marinatos, (University of Illinois at Chicago)
  

Cavafy and Homer: the Greek Language and Hellenism
November 2, 2007. Recitation and Commentary.
Yannis Simonides (Actor)
Katie Kretler (Hellenic Historian)
Responses:
Nanno Marinatos (University of Illinois at Chicago)

Money and the Beginning of Philosophy
October 23, 2007. Lecture
Richard Seaford (University of Exeter)

The Invention of Heresy
November 13, 2006. Lecture.
Einar Thomassen (University of Bergen) 

Orient and Occident: Confrontation in Variations.
(East and West: Ancient Variations of a Eurasian conflict)
April 25, 2006. Lecture.
Walter Burkert (University of Zurich)
Responses:
Nanno Marinatos (University of Illinois at Chicago)
Paul Griffiths (University of Illinois at Chicago)