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Dateline: 4/25/2007

GONZAGA UNIVERSITY NEWS RELEASE
Dale Goodwin, Director
Peter Tormey, Associate Director

'Abduction Myths & Ancient Greek Wedding' April 27

Madeleine Goh, assistant professor of classical studies at the University of Indiana, Bloomington, will discuss “ Abduction Myths and the Ancient Greek Wedding” at 4:30 p.m., Friday, April 27, at the Jundt Art Center Auditorium.

Abduction of Helen by Paris (ca. 480 BC by Makron), Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)
Abduction of Helen by Paris (ca. 480 BC by Makron), Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)
The lecture, which is free and open to the public, will examine an intriguing connection between abduction and wedding images in Greek art and literature. Goh will discuss the iconography and literature representing the wedding ceremony in the Greek world, and then focus on a gesture known as cheir'epi karpo (“hand on the wrist”), generally thought to depict the seizing of the abducted. She suggests that overlapping notions about abduction myths, wedding ceremonies, and supplication reflect a set of cultural ideas about the role of women and supplicants in society.

This is the final lecture this semester in the 2006-07 Archaeology and Ancient History Lecture Series. The series was organized by Andrew Goldman, assistant professor of history at Gonzaga, and is sponsored by the GU history department and Classical Civilizations Program, with the aid of a generous grant from the William S. Paley Foundation.

Since 2004, Goldman has invited a number of prominent local and national scholars to speak on topics of ancient history and culture, historical events, and recent archaeological discoveries in the Near East and the Mediterranean world.

For more information, contact Goldman by telephone at (509) 323-6691 or via e-mail.