Speaker: Rita Lucarelli, Italian Academy Fellow; Organized by Center for the Ancient Mediterranean
The world of ancient Egyptian demonology will be introduced, with a special focus on the textual and iconographical sources of the late Pharaonic and Graeco-Roman Egypt. The Platonic notion of demon as intermediate being between gods and mortals will be re-discussed in the light of the latest studies on the multi-faceted role of guardian demons and genii appearing in the Graeco-Roman temples of Upper Egypt and in comparison with the vast spectrum of meanings that the world daimon covered in antiquity.
From 1992 to 1996 Rita Lucarelli studied at the University of Naples L'Orientale, where she took her degree in Classical Languages and Egyptology with a thesis entitled Chapter 178 of the Book of the Dead From 1999 to 2003 she was attached to the Research School CNWS of Leiden University (the Netherlands) with a Ph.D. grant. Her Ph.D. thesis was published in 2006 as The Book of the Dead of Gatseshen. Ancient Egyptian Funerary Religion in the 10th Century BC. She has just completed post-doc research at the University of Bonn (Germany), supported by the Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung, concerning research on demons in magical and funerary papyri of the Pharaonic period. Her areas of expertise include religion, magic, and demonology in ancient Egypt. Currently she teaches Egyptology at the University of Verona and keeps collaborating as researcher with the Book of the Dead Project of the University of Bonn (Germany).
