Seen on the Classicists list:

Animals in the Greek and Roman World

Chairs: Sarah Hitch (Bristol) and Chiara Thumiger (UCL)

To form a conference panel at the sixth Celtic Conference in Classics, Edinburgh, 28-31 July
2010.

From Homeric similes to recipes for fishcakes, descriptions and discussions of animals abound in
ancient sources in a variety of ways. This panel seeks to explore the multifarious roles of animals
in ancient imagination and culture, including:

ANIMALS AND THE IMAGINATION
– literature and drama: imagery and exempla; performative aspects
– iconography: contexts and styles of representation
– myth and folktale: animals, metamorphosis and animal-related mirabilia

DEFINING ANIMALS AND HUMANS
– animals in philosophy
– animals in biological and medical treatises

ANIMALS AND MATERIAL CULTURE
– diet, cuisine and culinary practices
– agricultural labour and husbandry
– animals as spectacle (games and sports, zoos, the Roman arena…)
– hunting and similar activities
– animals in warfare
– pets
– uses of animals in curative practices

ANIMALS AND RELIGION
– animals as gifts to the gods
– the association of animals with individual cults
– animals as intermediaries between man and god (e.g. prophecy, dreams, haruspicy)
– theriomorphism

We welcome proposals for a 20 minute paper on any of the above (or related topics). Please send abstracts of a maximum of 300 words by the 10th of October, 2009 to clssh AT bristol.ac.uk or c.thumiger AT ucl.ac.uk.

Sarah Hitch and Chiara Thumiger

Seen on the Classicists list:

CALL FOR PAPERS for the Work-in-Progress seminar series at the Institute of Classical Studies, London.

The series organisers would like to invite postgraduates to present a paper at one of our weekly seminars, beginning in October and running through early December and resuming in January 2010.

The Work-in-Progress series:

The primary aim of these seminars is to provide a friendly and stimulating forum in which postgraduates, with interests in any aspect of the Classical world or the ancient Near East, Archeology or Reception studies may present papers drawn from their ongoing research. Audiences are comprised exclusively of fellow students, mostly from among the large postgraduate community within the University of London. All papers are followed by open and relaxed discussion of the issues raised. We aim to attract speakers and audience members with diverse research interests and, in so doing, we hope to provide a valuable opportunity for academic and social networking, and for the exchange of ideas and techniques across disciplinary and institutional boundaries.

Recently presented papers include:

* Nostra memoria: social memory in the late Roman Republic
* Sexy beasts: sexuality, animals and humour in Middle Comedy
* In self-defence? Brutus and Cassius’ ascent of the Capitol in 44 BC
* Anahita and Achaemenid colonisation in Lydia
* Kinship in Thucydides: Sparta and its kinship ties with the Greeks of the West
* Mother love in Slavery: Andromache and her Sons in Euripides
* Aristotelian and non-Aristotelian elements in Aristotle’s account of voluntary action
* Martial’s mala lingua: connecting the Epigrams with os impurum
* Music to the ears: Playing the lyra on Attic late black-figured lekythoi from Thessaly.

Please consult our website http://www.pgwip.org.uk/ for a full list (including abstracts) of the papers given in the previous series and for an updated program in early October.

Practicalities:

Seminars take place on Friday afternoons in term time, at Senate House in London. Funds are available to reimburse speakers for reasonable traveling expenses. Returning speakers are always welcome.

Contacts:

If you would like to discuss presenting a paper (of between thirty and forty-five minutes in length), please contact Andrew Roberts (King’s College London) at Andrew AT pgwip.org.uk and Chris Farrell (King’s College London) Chris AT pgwip.org.uk

Seen on the Classicists list:

"Classics and Robert Graves: a relationship in literature, translation and

adaptation"

19th September, 31st October, 21st November 2009
This series of three interdisciplinary workshops in the School of Classics,
University of St Andrews will allow for the discussion and re-evaluation of
the work of Robert Graves in relation to the discipline of Classics. The
workshops will provide a platform for the exploration of subjects such as
adaptation of Graves’ novels for film, stage or radio (I Claudius was
adapted for all three media); his relationship with T.E. Lawrence (who
translated The Odyssey of Homer (1932); his impact via Classics on twentieth
century poetry; his translations from Latin into English; his understanding
of Greek myth; the historical novel; the use of classical subjects in his
poetry; the reception of his novels (including adaptations by scriptwriters
for stage and screen) and the influence of his novels, translations and
ideas on the discipline itself and public consciousness. Other conferences
and edited papers have addressed wider issues around Graves’ poetry and
literature but this is an opportunity for the relationship between the
discipline itself and the body of his work to be revisited and reviewed
within an interdisciplinary framework.

The workshops are to be in held at The School of Classics, University of St
Andrews:

~16th September Programme~

9.00 welcome ~ Alisdair Gibson

9.15-10.15 ~ Andrew Bennett, University of Bristol “‘It’s readable all
right, but it’s not history’: Robert Graves’s Claudian Novels and the
Impossibility of Historical Fiction”
10.15-11.15 ~ Shaun Tougher, University of Cardiff ‘ The Historical
Novelist: Count Belisarius and the legacy of Robert Graves’

11.45-12.45 ~ Duncan Kennedy & Ellen O’Gorman University of Bristol ‘The
debate of Livy and Pollio in I, Claudius Ch. 9’

2 -3.00 ~ Sheila Murnaghan, University of Pennsylvania ‘Homer’s Daughter:
Graves’ Vera Historia’
3 -4.00 ~ Sonia Sabnis, Reed College (Portland, Oregon) ‘The Golden Ass and
the Golden Warrior: Robert Graves, T. E. Lawrence, and Apuleius’

4..20 -5.20 ~ Jonathan Perry, University of South Florida ‘Con beffarda
irriverenza’:Graves’ Augustus in Mussolini’s Italy’
~ ~ ~

The second and third workshops in the series are on Saturday 31st October:
John Burnside, (University of St Andrews), Fran Brearton (Queen’s University
Belfast), Mick Morris, (Open University), Philip Burton (University of
Birmingham), Sibylle Ihm (Georg-August-University Gottingen).

and Saturday 21st November 2009: Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones (University of
Edinburgh), Robert Davis (University of Glasgow), Richard Thomas (Harvard
University), Alisdair Gibson (University of St Andrews), Jon Coulston
(University of St Andrews), Tom Palaima, (University of Texas).

~The programme and booking form are online at~
http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/classics/conferences/RbtGraves/index.shtml

Please contact Margaret Goudie at <classcon AT st-andrews.ac.uk> if you have
any enquiry relating to the booking.
Any further queries to Alisdair Gibson, email <aggg AT st-andrews.ac.uk>. The
School of Classics, University of St Andrews, Swallowgate, St Andrews,
Scotland, KY16 9AL

From Today’s Zaman (I’m a bit late with this one):

Ongoing excavations at the ancient port city of Andriake in Lycia — located in Antalya’s Demre district — have uncovered a centuries-old Jewish temple.

Site chief Dr. Nevzat Çevik, an archaeology professor at Akdeniz University, told the Anatolia news agency that his team believes the temple is from around the third century. Located on a choice spot facing the sea, the temple was likely built following a law instituted in 212 that allowed Jews the right to become Roman citizens, Çevik said.

The find is important as it is the first archaeological trace of Jewish culture found in Lycia. “For the archaeological world, the world of science and particularly for Lycian archaeology and history, we’re facing an important find here. It’s the first remnant of Lycian Jewish culture we’ve found,” Çevik said, describing the find. “When we first discovered the temple, we weren’t sure what it was, but after continuing to dig, the archaeological findings and particularly the first-quality marble slabs that we found were evidence for us that they were part of a Jewish temple.”

The finding came as a great surprise, the archaeologist said, and the team is continuing to work excitedly. “To encounter remnants of Jewish culture for the first time has caused great excitement. We’re adding another layer to what we know of Lycian culture — now that we know that there was a Jewish presence in Lycia as well, we can follow this path and better understand other finds,” he explained.

As part of the temple find, the team located a menorah and pieces inscribed with traditional Jewish symbols and figures. Çevik also noted the importance that the find would eventually have for tourism in the region.

A nice overview of previous digging at the site (including a synopsis of Andriake’s history in the period of our purview) can be found here …

• Jewish temple found in ancient port city at Lycian site

Andrew Reinhard posted this to the Latinteach list a while back:

It is with great pleasure that Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers announces two upcoming webinars from Milena Minkova and Terence Tunberg of the University of Kentucky:

"Training Techniques for Spoken Latin Expression"
September 23, 2009
6-8 PM Eastern

The presenters maintain that the active use of Latin can help all students and teachers, whether the teacher prefers a more inductive, reading-oriented approach to teaching Latin, or a more analytical and grammatical approach. Participants in this webinar will explore a range of activities involving spoken Latin designed for learners at various levels ranging from beginners to the advanced.

“Virtual Conventiculum”
September 30th, 2009
6-8PM Eastern

This webinar is designed for people who have had some previous experience in spoken Latin and have acquired at least a moderate ability to express themselves orally in the language. Activities will be focused on enhancing vocabulary relating to various spheres of daily life, as well as discussion of short Latin texts in Latin. The Virtual Conventiculum will be conducted entirely in Latin.

Tuition for each webinar is $99.00.
RSVP to 847.526.4344 or online at http://www.bolchazy.com/webinars.html.

Class-size is limited to 20 participants on a first-come, first-served basis.

If you have questions, please email me off-list.

Andrew Reinhard
Director of eLearning
Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers
areinhard AT bolchazy.com