TOMORROW: lecture : Language, Myth and Society in the Ancient World

LECTURE: Language, Myth and Society in the Ancient World

Lecture: Maurizio Bettini -

“Language, Myth and Society in the Ancient World”

Friday, November 5, 2010

Location: Retama Room (?) 

Maurizio Bettini, the keynote speaker at our upcoming conference on “Language, Myth and Society in the Ancient World” is also real. Not only real, but really important, too: he is probably the world’s foremost scholar of Roman culture (certainly the best known in Europe) and one of the most widely regarded students of Latin literature. He’s also the (founder and) director of the Center for Anthropology of the Ancient World, in Siena, Italy, which is the leading institution for anthropologically-informed research on Greek and Roman antiquity. He has written numerous articles, and published 3 or four books in English, which are among the most critically acclaimed works of scholarship in the field:  namely,

Anthropology and Roman Culture, in which he explores the relationship between kin terminology (words for family members) and imagined kin relations (structures of affection); how Romans talk about time; and animal imagery in the Aeneid.

The Portrait of the Lover, in which he examines Roman beliefs about images;

Classics in the Age of Indiscretion, a philosophical meditation on the value of classics in the modern world;

Birth, where he looks at stories about…. birth in Greek and Roman mythology;

And many others. In other words, he’s a *huge* figure in classical studies and is coming to UTSA 1) to give the keynote speech at the conference; 2) to teach a section of “Classical Myth”; 3) to discuss with the Dean our proposed study abroad program for classics + anthropology majors; 4) to given informal presentation of this research to students (only), followed by a chance to meet and talk with him personally. This is a unique and remarkable opportunity for UTSA students interested in the ancient world to interact with one of the leading lights of the field.