Links:
Center for the Humanities and the Public Sphere
FEAR IN THE ANCIENT WORLD
Saturday, November 14th, 2009
Friends
of
Music Room
Fear is practically absent from American political discourse. The one most notable exception is President Roosevelt's famous address on the subject during the Great Depression. Why are we so unwilling to consider how fear impacts our domestic and foreign policies? What might we gain from confronting this troubling emotion more directly?
The
ancient
discourse on fear is by contrast varied
and complex. From Homer through Late Antiquity, ancient authors
have acknowledged the impact that fear has on decision making and have
come to a wide range of conclusions on how best to manage this
emotion. While recent studies have contributed extensively to our
understanding on how the ancients conceptualized anger, shame, pity,
and envy, less attention has been given to fear. By bringing
together foremost scholars of ancient Greece, Rome, and the Near East,
we hope to reconstruct an archaeology of fear comparable to
that of the other emotions and to better understand the gulf that
separate
us from antiquity by considering this emotion which we seek most to
deny.
Program
10:00-10:30: Opening Remarks
Robert
Wagman, Chair of Classics (University of Flordia)
Andrew Wolpert (University of Florida)
10:30-11:30: "The Subjectivity of Fear as Reflected in Ancient Greek Wording and Syntax"
Gregory
Nagy (Harvard University and the Center for Hellenic Studies,
Washington, DC)
11:30-12:00: Discussion
12:00-1:00: Lunch
1:00-2:00: "The Lexicon of Fear"
Andrew Riggsby (University of Texas-Austin)
2:00-2:30: Discussion
2:30-3:00: Break
3:00-4:00: "Happiness, Fear, Law, and More Fear in the Achaemenian Imperial Imaginary"
Bruce
Lincoln (University of Chicago)
4:00-4:30: Discussion
4:30-5:00: Concluding Remarks
Victoria
Pagán (University of Florida)
Organizers
- Andrew
Wolpert, Department of Classics, University
of Florida
- Victoria Pagán, Department of Classics, University of Florida
Sponsored
by
the Center for the Humanities and the Public
Sphere with
support from the Yavitz Fund
Co-Sponsored
by
the Department of Classics
This event is free and open to the public
