Call for Papers: Symposium Cumanum 2015
Revisiting Vergil and Roman Religion
Symposium Cumanum 2015
June 23-26, 2015
Directors: John F. Miller (Virginia) and Christopher Nappa (Minnesota)
The Vergilian Society invites proposals for papers for the 2015 Symposium Cumanum at the Villa Vergiliana in Cuma, Italy.
In 1998, the publication of Beard, North, and Price’s Religions of Rome and Feeney’s Literature and Religion at Rome revolutionized the way we understand the religious practices of the Romans. In the intervening fifteen years, work on Latin literature has increasingly taken this new understanding as its point of departure. In the case of Vergil, significant studies of individual questions have been produced (e. g., Dyson’s King of the Wood, Panoussi’s Greek Tragedy in Vergil’s Aeneid, Miller’s Apollo and the Poets), but the time has come for a full reassessment of the religious dimensions of Vergilian poetry. This conference will bring together scholars from across the world to assess the poetry of Vergil in light of newer work on Roman religion.
Papers might address topics such as ritual in Vergil’s poetry; Vergilian depictions of the gods; relationships between Greek and Roman cult in Vergil; intersections between religious and philosophical thought; depictions of sanctuaries and cult sites; Vergilian depictions of prophecy; the uniqueness of Vergilian descriptions of divinities and/or religious practices; religious aetiologies in Vergil; Roman religion as a connection between Vergil and other Latin authors; Vergilian notions of theodicy; incipient ruler cult; Augustan innovation in religion as portrayed in or connected to Vergil’s works.
Speakers will include Sergio Casali, Julia Hejduk, Stephen Harrison, Damien Nelis, James O’Hara, Vassiliki Panoussi, and Richard F. Thomas.
Papers will be 20 minutes long with ample time for discussion. Participants will arrive on June 23 followed by three full days of papers, discussion, and visits to Vergilian sites.
Interested scholars should send an abstract of no more than 300 words to cumae15@umn.edu by December 1, 2014. Queries may be sent to either of the directors at jfm4j@virginia.edu or cnappa@umn.edu.