13 Jan 2021

January 2021

 

Mothers, Prostitutes or Sex Goddesses?
Nude Female Imagery in Greek Sanctuaries

Dr. Megan Daniels
UBC Department of Classics, Near East and Religious Studies

Monday January 25, 2021 @ 7:30 PM PST via Zoom (Details below)




The iconography of the nude  female in the ancient world spans an area from Iraq to Spain over a period of more than 2000 years. It emerged within Mesopotamia in the third millennium BCE, and spread across western Asia in royal, domestic, and funerary contexts. In the Greek world, this imagery appeared between 800 and 600 BCE, a time known as the “Greek renaissance” following the Bronze Age collapse. Modern-day scholars highlighted this period as a time when the Greeks looked to the more venerable Near East for artistic inspiration, the so-called Orientalising period, and explained the nude female through the lens of Orientalism. Scholars working in the Near East and Egypt, on the other hand, explained this imagery through recourse to a generic “fertility/mother goddess” and through misogynistic attitudes towards female nudity. In this presentation I examine how the Orientalising and fertility paradigms have coloured our interpretation of this imagery. I offer a new interpretation that attempts to move beyond artistic influence and generic fertility deities and into the realm of the shared ideologies between Greece and western Asia represented by this imagery. In doing so, I blur distinctions between “west” and “east” and reconsider the shifting relationships between humans and their gods in the Iron Age.


This lecture is presented jointly by Pharos and The Archaeological Institute of America (Vancouver Society)

This 41st Season of Pharos is Generously Sponsored by  Nick and Maria Panos


This lecture will be streamed live on Zoom: Non-Pharos members may register to receive the link by sending an email to:  PharosVancouver@gmail.com

A link to a video recording for later viewing will be circulated following the lecture. 

Next Pharos Lecture: Monday February 22, 2021 @ 19:30 PST
Speaker TBA