ἀγών agōn: struggle, contest, trial, conflict, challenge, strife
with a pre-conference seminar on Empedocles’ Poem on nature and an Empedocles-themed post-conference tour
The cultural and intellectual legacy of Western Greece—the coastal areas of Southern Italy and Sicily settled by Hellenes in the 8th and 7th centuries BCE—is sometimes overlooked in academia. Yet evidence suggests that poets, playwrights, philosophers, and other maverick intellectuals found fertile ground here for the growth of their ideas and the harvesting of their work. The goal of the Fonte Aretusa organization is to revive the distinctive spirit of Western Greece by exploring it from a variety of disciplinary perspectives including art history, archaeology, classics, drama, epigraphy, history, philosophy and religion.
Our conference takes place at the Sicily Center for International Education in Syracuse, Sicily—the cultural center of Western Greece known by Epicharmus, Empedocles, Plato, Aeschylus, Sappho, Theocritus, Archimedes, Cicero and many others. It includes guided tours of local archaeological and cultural sites, communal meals, and the possibility to witness live performances in the ancient Greek theater by the National Institute for Ancient Drama. An optional post-conference tour to important sites is also offered.
The official languages of the conference are English, Italian, and Greek. Proposals for individual paper presentations, panel discussions, and creative presentations related to any aspect of the cultural heritage of Western Greece are welcome. This year, we are especially interested in proposals discussing agōn in its various forms. Abstracts for papers should be 150-300 words in length and prepared for blind review. Proposals for panel discussions or creative presentations should include contact information for all participants. Presentation times range from 20 minutes for individual papers to 90 minutes for panel discussions. Abstracts received by November 15, 2018 will be considered for early acceptance. Final deadline for abstracts is February 15, 2109.
The proceedings will be published in our series, The Heritage of Western Greece.
Please send abstracts and direct questions to Heather L. Reid at fontearetusa1@gmail.com
Details on the pre-conference symposium (June 10-11), as well as the Post-conference tour (June 17-19) will be posted in due course on fontearetusa.org. We look forward to welcoming you and offering our hospitality in beautiful Syracuse, the heart of Western Greece.
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(Photo: "Handwritten" by A. Birkan, licensed under CC BY 2.0)
