Events Calendar – British School at Athens
NHRF/ICS/BSA Lectures in Classics series
Dr Nigel Spivey (Cambridge University), “Sappho The Symbol”
Abstract:
SAPPHO THE SYMBOL: Renowned as an extraordinary lyric poet in her own lifetime, Sappho of Lesbos has been a literary celebrity for over 2,500 years. Her poetry – so far as it survives – seems charged with personal feelings and powerful self-expression. So what did she look like? Or rather: what have her readers, over the centuries, wanted her to look like? Presenting fresh visual evidence, and reassessing some old iconic favourites, this lecture considers the ‘portrait’ of Sappho in its various symbolic forms: as an image of the female poet; an image of passion both tragic and fulfilled; and, eventually, an image of female to female desire.
Bio: Nigel Spivey is recently retired as Senior Lecturer in Classical Art and Archaeology at the Faculty of Classics, Cambridge University, where he remains Fellow and Vice-Master of Emmanuel College. Among his many publications are Understanding Greek Sculpture (1996) and The Sarpedon Krater: Life & Afterlife of a Greek Vase (2018). He was presenter of the major BBC/PBS documentary How Art Made the World (2004). This lecture anticipates a monograph entitled Sappho the Beautiful, due to be published next year by Cambridge University Press.
poster image: The Sappho Painter
Hybrid lecture
Links to come soon
When: 12 November @ 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm EET
Where: British School at Athens, Upper House – Athens – 52 Souedias Street