Contents
Vortex: The motif of the whirlpool
and psychic phenomena in ancient Greece
April 16-17, 2015
Tufts University
Medford, MA
About the meeting
The motif of the whirlpool is pervasive in Greek culture, particularly so in religious thought. This motif was never studied as deeply as it should have been because its associations are very rich and subtle. We propose to examine the nature and role of the whirlpool in as many contexts as possible by using all available documents such as images (especially vase-painting) and literary sources (from philosophy to drama). The whirlpool very often evokes vibrant emotions of the soul, sometimes even the soul’s escape from the body. The whirlpool can also evoke a contact between the worlds as well as oracular or philosophical revelations.
This meeting will be organized as a roundtable with 20 minutes presentations followed by in-depth discussions. Each participant will be asked to provide the dossier of documents to be used in their presentation well in advance. The documents will be arranged in an online dynamic syllabus (website) which will allow for interactive comments and questions. In this manner, all participants will be well prepared for the proceedings and there will be ongoing work on the dossier as the meeting progresses. Doctoral students will be allowed a shorter presentation time.
The meeting has three objectives:
1. From a scientific perspective, we aim to further our knowledge of the whirlpool and its many uses in Greek thought.
2. From a pedagogical standpoint, we aim to foster interaction between experienced professors, emerging researchers and M.A. and Ph.D. students. From this perspective, the meeting will constitute a lesson in research methods applied to ancient documents.
3. From a technological standpoint, we aim to fine tune the Perseids platform, which allows for collaborative online editing and annotation of the ancient documents provided by the participants. The platform also allows for the online publication of the results of the proceedings, which will appear under the umbrella of the Perseus Digital Library.