Searching for the Goddess of Countless Names: Isis, Gender, and Ethnic Identity in Vergil and Ovid
Lily Panoussi
Thursday, April 18, 2024
5pm - Eaton Humanities (HUMN) 250
ABSTRACT
This presentation will focus on the depiction of the goddess Isis in Vergil's Aeneid and Ovid's Metamorphoses. The two authors seem to exploit her gender and ethnic identity to strengthen oppositions between male and female, Roman and foreign, victor and victim, establishing a Roman hegemonic narra-tive. However, the texts' embracing of Isis' Greek counterpart Io as champion of the defeated tells a different story about the clarity of these distinctions in Augustan Rome.
This event is sponsored by the Department of Classics, the Center for Humanities and the Arts, and The Benson Center for the Study of Western Civilization