2007-2008 CWRU CALENDAR
OF CLASSICAL EVENTS
FALL TERM
Wednesday, Sept. 19, at 7:30 p.m. – CAS/AIA lecture by Professor J. Clayton Fant, (Associate Professor of Classics and History, University of Akron).
“Sleazy Bars with Fancy Countertops: Marble as Status Therapy at Pompeii's Streetside Bars”
Cleveland Museum of Natural History, Murch Auditorium
Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2007 at 7:30 p.m. – CAS/AIA lecture by Professor Kenneth Harl, (Professor of Classical and Byzantine History, Tulane University).
“The Shrines of Cybelle and Zeus at Aezanis: A Model for Hellenization in Roman Asia Minor”
Cleveland Museum of Natural History, Murch Auditorium
The ancient Phrygian sanctuary to the Anatolian mother goddess and weather god at Aezanis were dramatically transformed in the reign of Hadrian (117-138) when the city was enrolled in the Panhellenion. Imperial and local patronage transformed the cityÍs religious life, and so the economic and social identity, into a Hellenic one. By the study of the coins, and the surviving monuments (that boast one of the finest preserved temples from the Roman era in the Mediterranean world) it is possible to document these changes as a model of how most cities in Asia Minor reinvented themselves as Greek cities loyal the Roman order.
Wednesday, November 7, 2007, 7:30 p.m. – CAS/AIA lecture by P. Gregory Warden (Professor of Art History, Southern Methodist University).
“Cities of the Ancient Etruscans”
Cleveland Museum of Natural History, Murch Auditorium
Thursday, November 15, 2007, 4:00 p.m. – Baker Nord Work-in-Progress lecture by Martin Helzle (Professor of Classics, CWRU).
“Between Existential Angst and Literary Esprit: Ovid’s Last Poems from Exile”
Clark Hall, Room 206
Saturday, Nov. 17, at 10:30 a.m. – Fourth Annual City Dionysia Competition.
Eldred Theater
Click here for more information
Thursday, November 29, 2007, 4:15 p.m. – Classics Department lecture by Susan Kane (Professor of Art History, Oberlin College).
“Cyrene: a World Heritage site in the 21st century?”
Mather House, Room 100
SPRING TERM
Friday, January 25, 6:00 p.m. to Saturday, January 26, 11:00 a.m. – Fireside readings from Homer's Iliad and overnight festivity. The fun begins at 6:00 p.m. at the Pink Pig on CWRU's Squire Valleevue Farm. Reservation required.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008, 7:30 p.m. – CAS/AIA lecture by Phil Wanyerka (Visiting Instructor, Department of Anthropology, Cleveland State University).
“The Uxbenká Archaeological Project: Recent Discoveries in Belize.”
Cleveland Museum of Natural History, Murch Auditorium
Wednesday, March 5, 2008, 4:00-5:30 p.m. – Lecture by Charles Burroughs (Elsie B. Smith Professor of Liberal Arts, CWRU Department of Classics).
“Venus mediatrix: Botticelli's Primavera and Social Theory”
SEAR, Room 435
Burroughs will talk on how he understands the painting in terms of key passages in Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics and Politics that have to do a) with the relationship between the household and the state and the importance of the formation of basic familial units, grounded of course in sexual linking, as presupposed by any political regime; b) with the role of a monetary economy, allowing easy and equitable exchange of goods (and in relation to marriage practices of the Florentine mercantile elite, one might add the passage of women between families), as a key factor in the evolution and maintenance of human social organization or "community"; c) the particular kind of exchange involving feelings and gestures of benevolence on the part of participants, which is required for the full activation, as it were, of the basic structural relationships. This comes under the heading of friendship, a kind of love. The background of all this is the intense interest in later 15th-century Florence in Aristotle's ethical and political theory, and of course the ongoing fascination if not obsession with the origin of the city -- or indeed with the idea of origins as such -- and the pertinence (again an Aristotelian issue) of knowing the origin of something for understanding its nature and/or providing legitimation.
Wednesday, March 12, 2008 at 7:30 p.m. – CAS/AIA lecture by Professor Lanny Bell (Adjunct Professor Egyptology at Brown University).
"The Reunion of Body and Soul in Ancient Egypt: Sexuality and Resurrection in the Netherworld"
Cleveland Museum of Natural History, Murch Auditorium
From the mystery of birth to the mystery of death, and through all the transformations which occur in between, the ancient Egyptians sought to answer the fundamental question “Who am I?” During the New Kingdom (1570-1070 BCE), a complex of somewhat vaguely defined and partially overlapping components (both natural and supernatural) were thought to make up the whole human being. These consisted of the body, the name, the heart, the shade or shadow, the akh, the ba, and the ka. The body, one’s physical appearance, was naturally recognized as a key to individual identity, as was the name: names were recycled within the family-with eldest sons assigned the name of their paternal grandfather and eldest daughters named after their mothers. The heart was credited with most of the functions we normally associate with the brain. The abstract shade-seemingly permanently bound to the body in sunny Egypt-symbolized the possibility of divine incarnation, as a reflection of God. The last three hieroglyphic terms present the greatest difficulties, since it is necessary not only to define each one separately, but also to determine the relationships which existed among them. The akh (“effective”) designates the short term personal awareness or consciousness of the recently deceased before his or her successful transition to the Afterlife; “transfigured spirit” or “ghost” is an appropriate translation in many contexts. The ba (“mystical power”), a sort of “spiritual body”-with the same appetites and needs as the physical body-was the spiritual element marking the potential for an individual’s eternal existence; essentially an alter ego, bound to the body during life, it was released at death but had to reunite periodically with the mummy in order to sustain both. The ka (“generative power”), symbol of the fertility of the Ancestors, was the expression of a person’s identity and position as a member of a family group, lineage, or clan; at death, it left the body and remerged with the divine Ancestors. These concepts help clarify how the short-lived individual envisioned his or her chances for survival in the Afterworld; but they also offer an explanation for the inequities so readily apparent in the highly stratified social organization of ancient Egypt, and provide a basis for understanding Egyptian ideas of Destiny or Fate.
Friday, March 28, 2008, 7:30 - 10:30 p.m. – 2nd Annual “Classics Outing”.
4th Floor, Mather House and Mather House 100
Tuesday, April 1, 2008, 11:30 a.m.-1:00 p.m. – Lecture by Rachel Sternberg (Associate Professor of Classics/History, CWRU)
“Cyrus the Great's Pity for Panthea”
Mather House 100
Tuesday, April 1, 2008, 10:00 a.m.-10:00 p.m. – All day reading of Vergil's Aeneid (sponsored by Timothy Wutrich, Visiting Assistant Professor of Classics, CWRU). Bring a copy of the Latin text or your favorite English translation (Timothy will be using Stanley Lombardo's translation)
Thwing Atrium
Thursday, April 3, 2008, 7:30 p.m. – Lecture by Roslyn Weiss (Clara H. Stewardson Professor of Philosophy and Chair, Department of Philosophy, Lehigh University).
“Justice and Moderation in Republic 4.”
Clark 309
Wednesday, April 9, 2008 at 7:30 p.m. – CAS/AIA lecture by Professor Kostis Kourelis (Assistant Professor of Art History, Clemson University).
"Town and Country: The Archaeology of Crusader Greece"
Cleveland Museum of Natural History, Murch Auditorium
In 1204 the armies of the Fourth Crusade sacked Constantinople, a Christian city and capital of the Byzantine Empire. Although Latin Constantinople was contentious and short-lived, the Peloponnese, in southern Greece, flourished under two centuries of Latin control. In the lands previously famed by Nestor, Agamemnon and Menelaus, a hybrid medieval culture came into being. West and East, Catholic and Orthodox Christianity, the French and Greek languages confronted each other. We will examine the province of Eleia, the capital of this Latin principality, and trace its multicultural identity. Our investigation will cover new archaeological evidence from urban Clarentia on the coast to rural settlements on the mountains.
Friday, April 11, 2008, 4:30-6:00 p.m. – Lecture by James Allegro (Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of History, William and Mary).
“Alexander and America: Humanism and History in New World Promotional Literature.”
Mather House 100
Wednesday, May 7, 2008, 7:30 p.m. – CAS/AIA lecture by Holger Klein (Professor of Art History and Archaeology, Columbia University and former Curator of Medieval Art at the Cleveland Museum of Art).
“Body Politics and Relic Diplomacy: Christianizing the Late Antique City (with an emphasis on Constantinople)”
Cleveland Museum of Natural History, Murch Auditorium
Focusing on the early history of the Christian cult of relics, the Late Roman emperor's role as a collector, guardian, and distributor of sacred matter, and a number of imperial and privately sponsored building projects in Constantinople, Asia Minor, and beyond, this lecture will trace the gradual Christianization of the Late Roman city and countryside from the reign of Constantine the Great in the early fourth century through the age of Justinian in the late sixth century.
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