Ancient & Medieval Studies Colloquium ’21 Speaker Series:
Ancient Voices and Cultural (Meta-)Theory

Presented by Alexander Forte,
Literature & History Lecturer at Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Monday, October 18th @ 5:15pm (Eastern Time)

Abstract: In this talk, Alex offers an ethically oriented analysis of how one might analyze the concept of “culture” using two ritual texts from the ancient world. First, how should one account for the presence of an Indic god of fire in a ritual text from the Hittite capital Hattusa in north-central Anatolia? Second, how might one understand an ancient Greek inscription suggesting that a priest of the Eleusinian mysteries speaks with the voice of his legendary ancestor? What model(s) of “culture” best account for these texts? Register for the Event