Wilson College Orr Forum to Focus on Greek Gods

Deborah Lyons, professor of classics at Miami University, will present her current project “Immortality and its Discontents: Greek Gods and the Modern Search for Eternal Life” at the 2024 Orr Forum hosted by Wilson College. The event will be held at 11 a.m. Tuesday, March 12, in the Lenfest Learning Commons of the John Stewart Memorial Library. It is open to the public and free of charge.

During the presentation, Lyons will discuss her research on ancient Greek views about the eternal life of their gods, most specifically the limits of immortality in ancient Greek thought. Her research asks, “If it wasn’t good enough for the Greek gods, why do we think it will be good enough for us?”

Lyons is the author of “Dangerous Gifts: Gender and Exchange in Ancient Greece” and “Gender and Immortality: Heroines in Ancient Greek Myth and Cult,” and the co-editor (with Kurt Raaflaub) of “Ex Oriente Lex: Near Eastern Influences on Greek and Roman Law” and (with Raymond Westbrook) “Women and Property in Ancient Near Eastern and Mediterranean Societies.” She earned a bachelor’s degree from Wesleyan University, and a master’s and doctorate in classics from Princeton University. She also studied at the Intercollegiate Center for Classical Studies in Rome, the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, and the University of Heidelberg.

Since its inception in 1964, the Orr Forum has been Wilson College’s most widely known and perhaps most prestigious academic event. The Forum features discussions on the wide and shifting interests in religion studies in America.

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