Christy Constantakopoulou, “Gods, Slaves, Goats and Pirates in the Aegean Islands”
Christy Constantakopoulou, “Gods, Slaves, Goats and Pirates in the Aegean Islands”
Professor Christy Constantakopoulou (Birkbeck, University of London), “Gods, Slaves, Goats and Pirates in the Aegean Islands. Insular Life and Inter-island Connectivity in the Classical and Hellenistic Periods.”
The lecture explores some little-known stories of island connectivity from the Classical and early Hellenistic Aegean. The presence of many islands is a dominant feature of the Aegean Sea. The geographical landscape of the Cyclades, in particular, created the necessary context for increased maritime traffic throughout classical antiquity. Contrary to literary sources, which normally reflect elite points of view, inscriptions often reveal everyday stories about the people living in the insular landscape of Aegean Greece. Prof. Constantakopoulou looks at specific inscriptions that display maritime mobility and inter-island traffic between neighbouring islands in the Cyclades. These inscriptions speak of gods, slaves, goats, and pirates, all moving between islands.
Christy Constantakopoulou is Professor of Classics and Ancient history, in Birkbeck College. She is the author of The Dance of the Islands: Insularity, Networks, the Athenian Empire, and the Aegean World (OUP 2007), and Aegean Interactions: Delos and its Networks (OUP 2017). She studied in Greece and the UK.
This Autumn Lectures in Classics series event is a cooperation between the British School at Athens and the Institute of Historical Research at the National Hellenic Research Foundation. It was recorded 9 November 2020.
