Workshop on Myths of Migration

14:00-17:00, Saturday 8th June 2024

University of Vienna

While ancient Greek myths of migration and foundation can sometimes reflect real human mobilities, it is now understood that they often tell us more about the times in which they were written than the times they were written about. In particular, they are testament to complex and changing ideas about identity, affiliation, and mobility.

The MIGMAG project has collated a corpus of foundation and migration myths pertaining to settlements in different regions of the ancient Greek world, and is using tools from digital humanities to identify patterns in this mythic corpus. This has allowed us to identify trends in the rhetoric of foundation and migration, both chronological and geographic. Join us for a presentation of this work, with contributions from discussants.

  • Myths of migration, myths of origin, and civic identities - Naoise Mac Sweeney, University of Vienna

  • The mythic corpus and its historical interpretations - Clara Hansen, University of Vienna

  • Visualisation of mythic mobilities, a digital humanities challenge - Mark Pyzyk, Getty Foundation

Discussants:

  • Jonathan Hall, University of Chicago

  • Martin Mauersberg, University of Innsbruck

  • Robin Osborne, University of Cambridge

  • Irad Malkin, Tel Aviv University

To register for the workshop, please contact: bettina.bernegger@univie.ac.at