Art History

What better time of year to focus on magic and the supernatural! On October 15, The Art History Association kicks off its tantalizing lecture series, Spellbound: Magic, Monsters, and the Supernatural in Art.

Dr. Radcliffe Edmonds

Paul Shorey Professor of Greek, and Professor and Chair of Greek, Latin, and Classical Studies at Bryn Mawr College

"Drawing Down the Moon: Defining Magic in the Ancient Greco-Roman World"

In this talk Dr. Edmonds considers the "bindings and curses, love charms and healing potions, amulets and talismans–from the simple spells designed to meet the needs of the poor and desperate to the complex theurgies of the philosophers, [with which] the people of the Greco-Roman World made use of magic to try to influence the world around them. But what did magic mean to the people of ancient Greece and Rome? How did Greeks and Romans not only imagine what magic could do, but also make use of it in their own lives? Dr. Edmonds will explore how the ancients–and modern scholars–talked about magic, delving into the archaeological record and classical literary traditions to examine images of witches, ghosts, and demons; the fantastic powers of metamorphosis, erotic attraction, and reversals of nature; as well as all manner of magical rituals and paraphernalia."