Tracking Hermes/Mercury

University of Virginia

Keynote speakers:

• Henk Versnel (Leiden)
  
• H. Alan Shapiro (Johns Hopkins)
  
• Joseph Farrell (Penn)
  
• Deborah Boedeker (Brown).
  

Of all the divinities of classical antiquity, the Greek Hermes (= Roman Mercury) is the most versatile, complex, and ambiguous. His functions embrace both the marking of boundaries and their transgression, commerce and theft, rhetoric and practical jokes; he also plays the role of mediator between all realms of human and divine activity, embracing heaven, earth and the netherworld.

This conference at the University of Virginia aims to bring together scholars of Greek and Roman religion, art, literature, and history to assess this wide-ranging figure. We hope also to include attention to early reception of the god and his myths outside of Greece and Rome proper—for instance, Hermes as the Egyptian Thoth, the worship of Mercury in syncretistic forms in Rome’s imperial provinces, and allegorical interpretations of the god in late ancient and early medieval times.

If you are interested in presenting a paper (20 minutes), please send an abstract of approximately 500 words by February 1, 2013.

Abstracts or requests for information may be sent to one of the organizers:

John F. Miller  )
Jenny Strauss Clay ()