The Lane C. McGaughy Lectureship in Ancient Studies was established in 2007 by the Center for Ancient Studies and Archaeology at Willamette University in honor of Lane C. McGaughy, George H. Atkinson Professor of Religious and Ethical Studies emeritus (1981-2007), and founder of Willamette’s Classical Studies program, as well as a founding member of the Salem Society of the Archaeological Institute of America and the Northwest House of Theological Studies. An ordained United Methodist minister, Dr. McGaughy is also a distinguished scholar and the author of numerous books and articles in the fields of Early Christianity and New Testament Greek. His many accomplishments beyond the Willamette campus include the founding of Scholars Press, the development of the Westar Institute (Jesus Seminar) and the related Polebridge Press, and the reorganization of the Society of Biblical Literature. The McGaughy Lectureship enables the Center for Ancient Studies and Archaeology to pass on this inspiring tradition of distinctive scholarship and service by bringing a noted scholar to campus each year to deliver a major public lecture and to meet informally with students and faculty members.
2010 Lane C. McGaughy Lectureship in Ancient Studies
Picture This!
Words as Art in the Ancient Greek World
Alexandra Pappas
University of Arkansas
Classics Department
November 11, 2010
Lecture: Hudson Hall
Rogers Music Center
Willamette University
7:30 p.m.
This event is free and open to the public. No ticket required.
Co-Sponsors:
Willamette University Center for Ancient Studies and Archaeology and the
Salem Society of the Archaeological Institute of America
ASL Sign Language interpretation is available upon request thanks to an AIA outreach grant by calling 503-370-6654
A brief skim of a campus newspaper, a cable television news channel, or even traffic signs show how dependent we are in our daily lives on visual modes of communication. A closer look shows how many of those instances combine words and images to create meaning for the modern viewer. While this makes sense for us as members of a highly literate society, it is rather surprising that the easy exchange between text and art holds true for the ancient Greek world as well. This talk focuses on the complex relationship between word and image, two modes of expression consciously woven together by ancient Greek painters, potters, and poets. It examines the role of scratched and painted words on decorated pots from around the time of Homer; it asks why the classical tragedian Euripides described letter shapes in detail in one of his plays; it considers a chorus of women who act out the Greek alphabet in a late-5th-century comedy; and it notes the 3rd-century invention of Greek pattern poetry, where the words of a poem create a shaped image on the page. These topics will guide us chronologically through the evolving relationship between ancient Greek art and text, two media that work closely together in fascinating ways to create meaning for their audience, ancient and modern.
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PREVIOUS LECTURES
2009 Lane C. McGaughy Lectureship in Ancient Studies
Is the New Testament Confused?
Reflections on the Discrepancies of the Christian Scriptures
Bart D. Ehrman
James A. Gray Distinguished Professor of Religious Studies
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
2008 Lane C. McGaughy Lectureship in Ancient Studies
Icons in Antiquity: The Symphony of the Gods
Thomas F. Mathews
The John Langeloth Loeb Professor Emeritus
The Institute of Fine Arts
New York University