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Laughing with the Gods:Religion in Greek and Roman Satire, Comedy, Epigram, and other Comedic Genres

Gods and rituals figure in bawdy jokes, political satire, bad puns, and little poems—all designed to make the listener-reader guffaw. What role did humor play in divine-human relations and ancient religion more broadly? Was is irreligious? A sign of intimacy with the gods? Something else entirely? What theoretical frameworks might one use to explore various comedic literary genres and their employment of gods and rituals for a laugh? How might such sources be understood so that we as scholar can reconstruct ancient religion in a more nuanced way?

Abstracts should be submitted by email attachment as .doc or .docx files to socamr@gmail.com and should be from 500-600 words in length for a paper to last between 15 to 20 minutes. All abstracts will undergo blind review. Abstracts should contain a title and a word count, but should not have any information regarding the identity of the submitter. For further information about abstract format, please see the SCS Program Guide. The deadline for submission of abstracts is Sunday, March 1, 2020, and all abstracts for papers will be reviewed anonymously. Please direct all queries to SAMR at socamr@gmail.com.