Greek History & Culture Seminars – “Homer and Archaeology”: Is the quest worth pursuing?

Since Heinrich Schliemann’s excavations successful the precocious nineteenth period astatine Troy and Mycenae, determination has been a continuous quest to beryllium the beingness of humanities information underlying the Homeric epics. From the mid-20th period onwards, acknowledgment to caller archaeological discoveries, this statement was greatly expanded by scholars who tried to nexus galore aspects of the Late Bronze and Early Iron Age worldly civilization with the poems, with opinions varying significantly. Homeric issues adjacent became the absorption of governmental manipulations wrong modern geopolitical views successful the Aegean itself. This speech reviews these developments and assesses whether it is inactive worthy pursuing a transportation betwixt objects and epics, oregon if it is pointless to proceed posing specified questions.

BIO

Alexander Mazarakis Ainian was calved successful Athens successful 1959. He studied History of Art and Archaeology astatine the Free University of Brussels and completed his PhD astatine the University of London (UCL) with a assistance from the “A. Onassis” Public Benefit Foundation. He initially worked arsenic an archaeologist astatine the Greek Ministry of Culture. He taught for 8 years astatine the Department of History of the Ionian University and since 1999 helium has been Professor of Classical Archaeology astatine the University of Thessaly. He has besides taught astatine the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, National Technical University of Athens, Paris I/Panthéon-Sorbonne, Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (Paris), UCL-Louvain-la-Neuve (Belgium), and Paris IV-Sorbonne. His tract projects see Skala Oropos and Vari successful Attica, Kythnos successful the Cyclades, Soros successful Magnesia, and Kefala connected Skiathos. He has published galore books and studies connected Early Iron Age architecture successful Greece, Homeric questions, and the results of his excavations. He was awarded the prestigious Chaire Internationale de Recherche Blaise Pascal successful 2012 by the French state. In 2016 helium was elected Corresponding Member of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres successful Paris, and successful 2024 helium received an honorary doctorate from Paris 1/Panthéon-Sorbonne.

Event Details:
When: Monday 22 September 2025, 7pm
Speaker: Prof Alexander Mazarakis Ainian
Seminar: “Homer and Archaeology”: is the quest worthy pursuing?
Where: The Greek Center, Mezzanine Level, 168 Lonsdale St., Melbourne
Language: English

Sponsors: Joseph Tsalanidis