Different communities in the ancient Greek world told different stories about whether and how this madness was resolved. Freudian and Jungian interpreters have also offered sharply opposing readings of Orestes. In this talk I’ll begin by using ancient visual art to tell the most well-known version of this tale. I’ll then suggest we can read this hero’s journey archetypally in terms of masculine crisis, descent, and rebirth at a higher stage of integration, but with two important provisos. The first is that we can learn more about the myth’s meanings if we pay attention to how it was actually brought to consciousness in specific religious and political contexts. Following this thread will take us to some fascinating corners of ancient history. The second is that we should acknowledge the overt misogyny of these historical moments, which should qualify any statements we make about the kind of ‘integration’ Orestes represents. This leads to my conclusion, in which I propose we discuss whether thinking about Orestes can shed any light on some of the vexed and politicised problems of masculinity today.

Kurt Lampe is a Senior Lecturer in Classics & Ancient History at the University of Bristol. He is also a trainee psychotherapist at the Bath Centre for Psychotherapy and Counselling. His academic interests extend across ancient Greek and Roman and modern French philosophy, ancient Greek and modern ‘pagan’ religions, and the history of psychology and psychotherapy. He has published books and articles in all of these areas, details of which can be found at his university website https://research-information.bris.ac.uk/en/persons/kurt-w-lampe

Online Admission will open at 10:15am; the lecture starts at 10:30am