TALK 1:
New stories from the sands: the rediscovery of Euripides’ Ino and Polyidus
By: Prof. Laura Swift, Magdalen College, University of Oxford

In summer 2023, a team of archaeologists made an extraordinary find: a tomb containing a major new papyrus preserving 98 lines from two ‘lost’ Euripides plays, Ino and Polyidus. The plays are very different in theme and tone, but linked by the theme of child loss and include philosophical passages about morality and death. This talk will explain the importance of these exciting discoveries and explore what having this new text contributes to our understanding of Greek tragedy. The talk will not presume technical knowledge of papyrology or Greek and will be accessible to a general audience of Classicists.
 

TALK 2:
Protagoras, democracy, and utopia
By: Prof. Bill Allan, University College, University of Oxford

This talk will analyse the sophist Protagoras’ vision of the educated citizen as depicted in Plato’s Protagoras. It will set Protagoras’ picture of the civilized polis within its wider intellectual history and analyse it not only as a riposte to the mythical master-narrative of decline from an idyllic state or Golden
Age, but also as an implicit rejection of anti-democratic utopianism, whose most powerful and influential exponent would of course prove to be Plato himself. It will also argue that Protagoras’ ideal state lay not in the distant past of Hesiod, nor in the theoretical future of Plato or Aristotle, but was achievable now, a work in progress, founded on mutual respect among citizens.

CONTACT
Evert van Emde Boas: evert.vanemdeboas@cas.au.dk

POSTER
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