Guest lecture for staff and students (a student experience event)
Professor David Pritchard will give a lecture for staff and students as part of his Leverhulme National Speaking Tour: Children of Athens: The Armed Forces of Democratic Athens.
This will take place on Tuesday 20th of October 1:00-2:30pm in Lecture Theatre 3 followed by drinks in the Hums common room.
Title of paper will be: 'Competing for Olive Oil at the Games of a Warrior Goddess: Sport in Democratic Athens'
Abstract: The Olympics were not actually the biggest Games in ancient Greece. This honour went to the games that the ancient Athenians staged for Athena, who was their cherished warrior goddess. But the Great Panathenaea – the name of these local games – had three mysterious features: winners got many thousands of litres of olive oil as prizes, there were unique sporting events that not even the Olympics had, and many other events were extremely warlike or involved the actual armed forces. This richly illustrated public lecture solves these three mysteries by exploring the decidedly colourful myths about this famous warrior goddess. Leverhulme Visiting Professor David M. Pritchard also gives a sweeping overview of the rich sporting world of ancient democratic Athens.