The half-dozen fifth-century attestations to the word philosophos (and its cognates), from Eastern and Western Greece, do not promise the term’s longevity. But it did live on, crystallizing in Athens the discipline called philosophia around it. I argue for a late-fifth century conduit for the name’s preservation and… Read more
Modern reworkings of ancient drama offer a valuable interpretative and didactic lens through which scholars can re-examine issues and themes of ancient plays. This paper analyzes some correspondences and divergences between Aristophanes’ Lysistrata and Spike Lee’s film Chi-Raq (2015) to demonstrate that not only does Lee’s film make the ancient… Read more
Prodicus gained a reputation for formulating a novel theory concerning the origins of religious belief. He suggests that humans initially regarded as gods things that were useful for their survival such as fruits and rivers, and in a more advanced stage they deified culture heroes such as Demeter and Dionysus. I suggest that… Read more
The study of religion in Karia, in south western Anatolia, is inextricably linked with the wider social dynamics of the region; the cultural and religious character of the region was shaped by sustained interaction with both east and west. My intention in this paper is to reconsider the framework in… Read more
The Seleucid Era, the official tally of years employed by the Seleucid Empire, was the first linear and irreversible chronographic system in the ancient world. In my presentation I will explore the social and political effects of its regular duration and irreversibility on just one aspect of life in… Read more
