Porphyry of Tyre on Theology and Theurgy: Oracular Voices and Luminous Intellect
Porphyry of Tyre on Theology and Theurgy: Oracular Voices and Luminous Intellect
Tuesday, February 17, 5:30-7pm
Preston Williams Chapel
45 Francis Avenue
The late-ancient Mediterranean world was shaped by three competing yet mutually formative dynamics: the spread of Christianity, the proliferation of the cults known as Mysteries, and the systematization of Neoplatonic philosophy. Porphyry of Tyre, one of late antiquity's most important philosophers, sought to negotiate the tensions between these dynamics. Arguing that philosophical thinking about the gods—“theology”—and ritual interaction with them—“theurgy”—are mutually compatible, Porphyry maintained that one can participate in ceremonial practices all while remaining committed to Neoplatonist metaphysics. In doing so, he worked to hold together intellectual and religious traditions that were increasingly at risk of fragmentation. Porphyry’s Letter to Anebo and Philosophy from Oracles—newly translated as part of the CSWR’s 4T initiative—are his most sig…
Event Series (if not listed): Transcendence and Transformation (Center for the Study of World Religions).
Tuesday, February 17, 2026, 5:00 PM – 7:30 PM.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY; Preston Williams Chapel, 45 Francis Avenue.
For more info visit cswr.hds.harvard.edu. Workshop: Scott McGill and Susannah Wright (Rice University)
Dr. Susannah Wright and Dr. Scott McGill will talk about their new translation of the Aeneid, published by W. W. Norton in August 2025, and lead a public workshop.
Event Series: Mahindra Humanities Center Seminar: Rethinking Translation.
Thursday, February 19, 2026, 12:00 PM – 1:45 PM.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY, TBD, Cambridge, MA 02138.
For more info visit mahindrahumanities.harvard.edu. Lecture: Scott McGill and Susannah Wright (Rice University)
Translating Virgil’s Aeneid: An Evening with Scott McGill and Susannah Wright
Join us for conversation with Scott McGill (Deedee McMurtry Professor in Humanities, Rice University) and Susannah Wright (Assistant Professor of Classical Studies and Roman History, Rice University) about their new translation of Virgil’s Aeneid, published by W. W. Norton & Company in 2025. Professors McGill and Wright will give a presentation on their approach to translating this epic poem and then engage in a Q&A with Harvard professors Richard Thomas and Rachel Love. Light refreshments will be served.
Event Series: Mahindra Humanities Center Seminar: Civilizations of Ancient Greece and Rome.
Thursday, February 19, 2026, 5:30 PM – 7:00 PM.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY, TBD, Cambridge, MA 02138.
For more info visit mahindrahumanities.harvard.edu. Sammi Richter (Harvard University)
Echoes in Stone: Classical Lycian Funerary Monuments as Sites of Identity Construction and Artistic Encounters.
Event Series: Methods and Practice in Classics Workshop.
Friday, February 20, 2026, 12:00 PM – 1:15 PM.
Boylston 237.
Cynthia Damon (University of Pennsylvania)
Mantlets and sallies and tribes, oh my! On Caesar’s empire-building in translation
Cynthia Damon is a Professor of Classical Studies, Emerita, at the University of Pennsylvania. Her books include The Mask of the Parasite (1997), commentaries on and translations of Tacitus (Histories 1) [2003], Agricola [2017], Annals [2013]), texts of Caesar’s Gallic and Civil Wars (2015, 2016, 2025), and, with Will Batstone, Caesar’s Civil War (2006). With colleages she produced edited volumes on Roman civil war (2010) and Ennius (2020), and with students a digital critical edition of the Bellum Alexandrinum (2022). Current projects include studies of Pliny’s Natural History and its reception.
Friday, February 20, 2026, 4:00 PM – 5:30 PM.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY; Plimpton Room (Barker 133), Barker Center, 12 Quincy St, Cambridge, MA 02138.
For more info visit mahindrahumanities.harvard.edu. Panagiotis Roilos (Harvard University)
"The Cultural Politics of Imagination: From 'Paganism' to Christianity".
Event contact to appear in listing: Contact: classics@fas.harvard.edu. Event Series: Harvard Classics Departmental Seminar Series.
Tuesday, February 24, 2026, 3:00 PM – 4:30 PM.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY, Barker 133, 12 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA 02138.
Justine McConnell (King's College London)
Playing the Myths: Zora Neale Hurston and the Ancient Greek World
Part of the W. E. B. Du Bois Research Institute Weekly Colloquium Series.
Event Series (if not listed): W. E. B. Du Bois Research Institute Weekly Colloquium Series.
Wednesday, February 25, 2026, 12:00 PM – 1:30 PM.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY; Hiphop Archive & Research Institute at the Hutchins Center, 104 Mount Auburn Street, Floor 2R, Cambridge, MA 02138.
For more info visit hutchinscenter.fas.harvard.edu. Christelle Alvarez (Brown University)
Monumental Ritual Texts in Ancient Egyptian Pyramids
Hybrid Lecture
Monumental Ritual Texts in Ancient Egyptian Pyramids
Wednesday, February 25, 6:00–7:00 pm ET (advance registration recommended for online and in-person attendance.)
Speaker: Christelle Alvarez, Assistant Professor of Egyptology, Brown University
The earliest large-scale records of ancient Egyptian religious literature come from Saqqara, an important royal cemetery from Egypt’s Old Kingdom period. For nearly two centuries, the subterranean chambers beneath some of Saqqara’s pyramids were inscribed with hundreds of ritual texts carved in hieroglyphs. In this lecture, Christelle Alvarez will discuss the final Old Kingdom pyramid to bear such inscriptions: the tomb of King Qakare Ibi. Smaller than its predecessors, badly damaged, and marked by architectural and textual idiosyncrasies, this monument has often been dismissed as marginal to the main Pyramid Text tradition. Alvarez argues that Qakare Ibi’s pyramid actually provides a rare…
Wednesday, February 25, 2026, 6:00 PM – 7:00 PM.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY; Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA.
For more info visit hmsc.harvard.edu. Monumental Ritual Texts in Ancient Egyptian Pyramids
Hybrid Lecture,
Monumental Ritual Texts in Ancient Egyptian Pyramids,
Wednesday, February 25, 6:00–7:00 pm ET, Advance registration recommended for online and in-person attendance,
Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA,
Speaker: Christelle Alvarez, Assistant Professor of Egyptology, Brown University,
The earliest large-scale records of ancient Egyptian religious literature come from Saqqara, an important royal cemetery from Egypt’s Old Kingdom period. For nearly two centuries, the subterranean chambers beneath some of Saqqara’s pyramids were inscribed with hundreds of ritual texts carved in hieroglyphs. In this lecture, Christelle Alvarez will discuss the final Old Kingdom pyramid to bear such inscriptions: the tomb of King Qakare Ibi. Smaller than its predecessors, badly damaged, and marked by architectural and textual idiosyncrasies, this monument has often been dismissed as marginal to the main Pyramid Text tradition. Alvarez argues that Qakare Ibi’s pyramid actually provides a…
Wednesday, February 25, 2026, 6:00 PM – 7:00 PM.
Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA.
For more info visit hmsc.harvard.edu. I-Kai Jeng (Yenching Institute)
Justice in Wasps, Assembly Women, and Acharnians: An (Anti-)Platonic Reading
This talk belongs to part of a project to complicate what Plato calls "a sort of age-old quarrel (παλαιὰ μέν τις διαφορά) between philosophy and poetry" in Republic 607b5. Both the context and the τις suggest that the conflict or opposition between the two is not absolute but subtle. In the first part of my talk, I argue that Plato aims to replace the poets' exhortations with an aspirational and idealistic vision of personal and political justice. But this suggests that, contrary to what Plato said about poetry, tragedies in general share a similar outlook. Even while their respective notions of justice might differ, tragic poetry and philosophy both teach us to admire and emulate heroes who have something larger than themselves to live and die for. Where philosophy and poetry are truly at odds, I suggest, might be discerned in the portrayal of justice in comedy. In the second half of my talk I turn to three of Aristophanes'…
Thursday, February 26, 2026, 1:30 PM – 3:00 PM.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY, Boylston 203, Harvard Yard, Cambridge, MA 02138.
Opening Conversation for Celtic Art Across the Ages
Free admission, but seating is limited and registration is encouraged. Register here.
We invite you to the opening conversation for the special exhibition Celtic Art Across the Ages, on view from March 6 through August 2, 2026. Susanne Ebbinghaus, Laure Marest, Penny Coombe, and Catherine McKenna will take a close look at elaborate Celtic bronze objects and gold coins, examine religious imagery from Roman Gaul, and highlight moments of Celtic revival in modern times.
Celtic Art Across the Ages offers an unprecedented opportunity to explore masterful metalwork, including exquisitely decorated weaponry, jewelry, and horse and chariot trappings of the first millennium BCE Iron Age and early medieval times, all brought to light through archaeological discoveries of the last 200 years. See how imagery transformed under Roman rule, and trace the revival of Celtic art and identities in the modern era. From shape-shifting ancient ornaments to the more well-known Celtic iconography of medieval Ireland and Scotland,…
Thursday, March 5, 2026, 6:00 PM – 7:30 PM.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY; Harvard Art Museums, Menschel Hall, Lower Level
32 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA , Enter at Broadway for evening programs.
For more info visit harvardartmuseums.org. The Future of the Ancient Egyptian Afterlife
Hybrid Lecture,
The Future of the Ancient Egyptian Afterlife,
Wednesday, March 11, 6:00–7:00 pm ET, Advance registration recommended for online and in-person attendance,
Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA,
Speaker: Rune Nyord, Associate Professor and Chair, Art History Department, Emory University,
Could some of our familiar ideas about the ancient Egyptian afterlife be more Christian than Egyptian? Recent studies suggest that themes we often assume to be central, such as judgment, salvation, and eternal life, were profoundly shaped by the Christian expectations of early Egyptologists. This poses a significant challenge for contemporary Egyptology: how should we think about ancient Egyptian religion when our basic framework has been shaped so strongly by Christianity rather than by Egyptian evidence? Rune Nyord proposes a new way forward that re-centers the social setting of the ancestor cult and considers funerary texts such as the Book of the Dead as ritual texts—continuous with…
Wednesday, March 11, 2026, 6:00 PM – 7:00 PM.
Harvard Museum of Science & Culture.
For more info visit hmsc.harvard.edu. Kimberly Cassibry (Wellesley College)
Title TBD.
Event contact to appear in listing: Contact: classics@fas.harvard.edu. Event Series: Harvard Classics Departmental Seminar Series.
Tuesday, March 24, 2026, 3:00 PM – 4:15 PM.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY, Barker 133 (tentative), 12 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA 02138.
Greg Woolf (NYU ISAW)
"The Resilience of Empire and the Weakness of the Emperors".
Event contact to appear in listing: contact: classics@fas.harvard.edu. Event Series: Loeb Classical Lecture.
Tuesday, March 31, 2026, 3:00 PM – 4:30 PM.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY, TBD, Harvard Yard, Cambridge, MA 02138.
Public Symposium: Celtic Art Up Close
Saturday, April 11, 2026.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY; Harvard Art Museums, TBA, 32 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA 02138.
Brian Krostenko (University of Notre Dame)
TITLE TBD
Krostenko’s research centers on the culture and law of the Late Roman Republic, Cicero, rhetoric, and Latin linguistics. He is the author of Cicero, Catullus, and the Language of Social Performance (Chicago, 2001), which discusses the problem of aestheticism in Roman culture by means of historical semantics. He is also the author of The Voices of the Consul: The Rhetorics of Cicero's de lege agraria I and II (Oxford, 2024), the first book-length study of the rhetoric of those speeches, which uses the techniques of discourse analysis to reveal how and why Cicero lays claim to contested political slogans and ideologies in the turbulent late Republic.
Thursday, April 16, 2026, 5:00 PM – 6:30 PM.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY; LOCATION TBD.
Rebecca Moorman (Boston University)
Event Series: Methods and Practice in Classics Workshop.
Tuesday, April 21, 2026, 5:00 PM – 6:30 PM.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY, Boylston 237, Harvard Yard, Cambridge, MA.
Arsen Nisanyan (Harvard University)
TBD.
Event Series: Methods and Practice in Classics Workshop.
Friday, April 24, 2026, 12:00 PM – 1:15 PM.
Boylston 237.
Ilse and Leo Mildenberg Memorial Lecture, David G. Wigg-Wolf (Leicester University)
Ilse and Leo Mildenberg Memorial Lecture: "Gods? Beasts? Warriors? Interpreting the Imagery of Celtic Coinages"
Speaker:
David G. Wigg-Wolf, Honorary Professor, Leicester University
Free admission, but seating is limited and registration is encouraged. Register here.
Celtic coins present a remarkable world of varied, often fantastic images. The earliest coinages were generally close copies of Hellenistic coins from the Mediterranean world, but gradually they developed a distinct visual language. Elements of the original prototypes were adapted or became disjointed; because these were combined with new elements, the resulting designs can be difficult to understand today. Different regions also followed different iconographical traditions, leading to a wide variety of designs. In a later phase, the arrival of Rome on the political stage led to the re-appearance of coinages with a classical look, particularly in Britain. In this lecture, David G. Wigg-Wolf, of Leicester University, will trace the iconography…
Wednesday, April 29, 2026, 6:00 PM – 7:15 PM.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY; Harvard Art Museums, Menschel Hall, 32 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA 02138.
For more info visit harvardartmuseums.org. Conference—Past and Present: Cultural Politics in Byzantium and Beyond
TBD.
Event contact to appear in listing: contact: roilos@fas.harvard.edu.
Friday, May 1, 2026 – Saturday, May 2, 2026.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY, TBA, Cambridge MA.