You are invited to attend the Archaeological Institute of America Martha Sharp Joukowsky Lecture:
Unexpected Choices: Greek Myth in Italic Imagery in the 4th century BCE
Thomas H. Carpenter, Director of the Ohio University Ping Institute for the Teaching of
Humanities
5:30 pm, Thursday, October 23, 2014
Kelsey Museum Lecture Hall, 434 South State Street
The focus of this lecture is on the interrelationships of mythic images among Italic cultures in 4th Century BCE Italy. A basic assumption is that images of myth appear because of interest in the myth depicted. This seems self-evident, yet many scholars in the past have found it difficult to
accept deep knowledge of myth and literature amongst the non-Greeks of Italy, be they Etruscans or Italic people of South Italy: Lucanians, Peucetians, and Messapians. Unlike Attic vases, most Italic productions were made within 100km of their find places so the artisans who produced them were well aware of their markets. Some myths and moments from myths seem to have resonated broadly with Italic people in ways they did not with Greeks. This lecture explores several Greek myths that appear in both Etruscan and South Italian imagery but do not appear in surviving imagery from Greece with the question, why might these choices have been made?
