Classics Colloquium with Emily Egan

Join us for a presentation by Emily Egan, University of Maryland, College Park, on "‘Tidy Little Cephalopods’ and Mycenaean Muralists."

Click here to register for the Zoom event.

Tea at 4 p.m. in the Quita Woodward Room, Old Library.

This talk will take a deep “dive” into marine iconography of the Late Bronze (ca. 1600-1100 BCE) Aegean, and in particular the representation and meaning the argonaut – an unusual pelagic cephalopod that grows its own shell. A close cousin of the more popular octopus, the argonaut is depicted in a wide range of artistic media including ceramics, metalwork, ivory, glass, and wall paintings. It is the last group that form the focus of Egan’s ongoing research, centered on examples from the Mycenaean Palace of Nestor at Pylos first studied and published (in 1969) by Bryn Mawr Professor of Greek, Mabel Louise Lang (1917-2010). In Lang’s interpretation, these “tidy little cephalopods,” often shown strung out like beads on a necklace, served in a primarily ornamental capacity. Egan’s research builds on this early theory and considers the possible symbolism(s) of the Pylian argonauts, as well as their potential to inform us about the observational habits and painting practices of Mycenaean muralists.

Greek, Latin, and Classical Studies