Inaugural Annual AWRC Dioskouroi Lecture: The Life of Statues

This annual lecture will be given by Angelos Chaniotis and Peter Thonemann on the life of statues. Ancient statues were understood to have agency, as they could provoke emotional reactions not intended by those who commissioned or created them. On certain occasions, they were also believed to fufill vital functions. Moreover, statues were thought to possess a life (bios), or biography, spanning from the moment they were conceived by their makers to their eventual burial in the earth or submersion in the depths of the sea. In this lecture, an examination of selected literary passages alongside both older and newly discovered epigraphic evidence will be discussed demonstrating that studying the lives of statues requires an integrated approach drawing on multiple types of sources: literary, archaeological, epigraphic, numismatic, and papyrological. The lives of ancient statues may also shed light on contemporary debates and controversies surrounding the role of statues in modern cityscapes.

The lecture in the Leonard Wolfson Auditorium will be followed by a drinks reception in the Buttery.