“Children in Wartime: Ancient Athens and Modern Europe”

Wednesday, April 14, 2010 at 8 PM in Miller Room 114

by Prof. John Oakley

Martha Sharp Joukowsky Lecture** of the Archaeological Institute of America for the
New Orleans Society and Loyola University Classical Studies program.

This lecture considers the depiction of children in Athenian funerary art during the time of the Peloponnesian War - 431-404 BC. A close examination, particularly of grave reliefs and white-ground lekythoi, demonstrates how there was a sudden increase of interest in representing children at this time. This new interest, the speaker suggests, is due to the effects of the war, when the life of each child became more important for the continuation of the polis. Wars produced a similar situation in Europe during the late 19th and early 20th century and resulted in pro-child movements that were likewise reflected in art and literature.

** In 1989, an anonymous donor established the President's Lectures Fund to yearly support a special speaker to deliver the lectures not given by the Norton Lecturer.

The President's Lectureship became the Martha Sharp Joukowsky Lectureship in 1993. In 1998, the endowment was increased to support two Joukowsky Lecturers. Martha Sharp Joukowsky is past President of the AIA and Professor of Old World Archaeology at Brown University. She has conducted archaeological research in Greece, Italy, Turkey and Jordan. She is currently excavating the Southern Temple in Petra (Jordan).

The Martha Sharp Joukowsky Lecturers are distinguished archaeologists and may be of any nationality and work in any field of our discipline. The Joukowsky Lecturers are selected by the Lecture Program Committee and together lecture to twenty-six local societies annually.