The Center for the Ancient Mediterranean presents
a lecture on
Demons in Ancient Egypt During the Late Dynastic
and Greco-Roman Periods
By
Rita Lucarelli
(Fellow
at the Italian Academy, Columbia University)
Friday,
January 30th
5:00
pm
5th
floor conference room
The
Italian Academy
1161
Amsterdam Ave.
New
York, NY 10027
www.italianacademy.columbia.edu
www.columbia.edu/cu/cam/
The world of ancient Egyptian
demonology will be introduced, with a special focus on the textual and
iconographical sources of the late Pharaonic and Graeco-Roman Egypt. The
Platonic notion of “demon” as intermediate being between gods and mortals will
be re-discussed in the light of the latest studies on the multi-faceted role of
guardian demons and genii appearing in the Graeco-Roman temples of Upper Egypt
and in comparison with the vast spectrum of meanings that the world “daimon”
covered in antiquity.
From
1992 to 1996 Rita Lucarelli studied at
the University of Naples “L'Orientale,” where she took her degree in Classical
Languages and Egyptology with a thesis entitled “Chapter 178 of the Book of the
Dead.” From 1999 to 2003 she was attached to the Research School CNWS of Leiden
University (the Netherlands) with a Ph.D. grant. Her Ph.D. thesis was published
in 2006 as The Book of the Dead of Gatseshen. Ancient Egyptian Funerary
Religion in the 10th Century BC. She has just completed post-doc
research at the University of Bonn (Germany), supported by the Alexander von
Humboldt Stiftung, concerning research on demons in magical and funerary papyri
of the Pharaonic period. Her areas of expertise include religion, magic, and
demonology in ancient Egypt. Currently she teaches Egyptology at the University
of Verona and keeps collaborating as researcher with the Book of the Dead
Project of the University of Bonn (Germany).