"The Cult of Dionysus" presented by Dr. Aneurin Ellis-Evans

Stavros Niarchos Foundation Centre for Hellenic Studies is a part of SFU: The Canadian university that is Engaging the World

SFU Stavros Niarchos Foundation Centre for Hellenic Studies

Join us on Friday, September 5th for the first talk in our 2025 Fall Speaker Series!

W.A.C. Bennett Library, SFU Burnaby

The Stavros Niarchos Foundation Centre for Hellenic Studies at Simon Fraser University is pleased to present <a href="https://www.classics.ox.ac.uk/people/dr-aneurin-ellis-evans" title="https://www.classics.ox.ac.uk/people/dr-aneurin-ellis-evans" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Dr. Aneurin Ellis-Evans</a>, University of Oxford. Join us Friday, September 5th at 2:30pm for the first talk of the Fall semester! Taking place in person at the Bennett Library, SFU Burnaby, Room 7200, or online (<a href="https://us06web.zoom.us/j/88998649421" title="https://us06web.zoom.us/j/88998649421" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">https://us06web.zoom.us/j/88998649421</a>), for his talk “The Cult of Dionysos Phallen on Lesbos: Religion, Identity, and Insularity”.This talk will be moderated by <a href="http://www.sfu.ca/hellenic-studies/humans/people/d-krallis.html" title="http://www.sfu.ca/hellenic-studies/humans/people/d-krallis.html" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Dr. Dimitris Krallis</a>, Professor, Global Humanities.Attendance is free. The event is open to the public and will be recorded.This programming is made possible thanks to the generous support of the<a href="https://trk2.cp20.com/click/ds9u-2vguei-i8x8z4-cocw1z80/" title="https://trk2.cp20.com/click/ds9u-2vguei-i8x8z4-cocw1z80/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Stavros Niarchos Foundation</a> (SNF).

ABSTRACTThe cult of Dionysos Phallen centred on a mysterious olive-wood face dredged up from the Aegean by fishermen and worshipped at Methymna as a representation of Dionysos. In trying to make sense of this cult, scholars have privileged the evidence of two relatively late writers of the 2nd c. CE who were not from Lesbos over earlier evidence from Lesbos itself, above all the iconography of each city’s coinage. This has resulted in awkward attempts to make the evidence for similar-looking cults at other cities on Lesbos somehow relate to Methymna’s cult. In reality, the history of these similar-looking but different cults of Dionysos in each city tell an important story about how competing impulses of competition and collaboration shaped the intra-island dynamic of Lesbos throughout antiquity.

BIOGRAPHY<a href="https://www.classics.ox.ac.uk/people/dr-aneurin-ellis-evans" title="https://www.classics.ox.ac.uk/people/dr-aneurin-ellis-evans" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Aneurin Ellis-Evans</a> is an Ancient Greek historian who works on the regional history of western Asia Minor, the monetary economy of the Greek world, and the literature of the post-Classical polis. Since 2022 he has been the George Cawkwell Fellow in Ancient History at University College, Oxford and an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Classics at the University of Oxford. His first book, The Kingdom of Priam: Lesbos and the Troad between Anatolia and the Aegean (OUP 2019), examined the various factors which promoted or thwarted regional integration between island and mainland from the 5th c. BCE to the 1st c. CE. His second book, Alexandreia Troas in the Hellenistic Period: War, Finance, and Civic Identity (ANS 2025), uses the evidence of coinage to reconstruct how a city in the Troad navigated the regional and supra-regional politics of the Hellenistic period from its foundation by one of Alexander’s successors to its disestablishment as a polis and refoundation as a Roman colony by the Emperor Augustus.

MODERATOR BIOGRAPHY<a href="http://www.sfu.ca/hellenic-studies/humans/people/d-krallis.html" title="https://trk2.cp20.com/click/ds9u-2vguei-i8x8z5-cocw1z81/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Dimitris Krallis</a> was born in Athens where he lived during his childhood, teenage and college years. At the University of Athens he studied political theory and, inspired by his professors of history, decided to risk all by applying for a graduate degree in Byzantine Studies. This took him to the University of Oxford where he studied Byzantine social and political history. After an interruption of four years dedicated to military service and to teaching at the American College of Greece in Athens, he moved to the US and the University of Michigan for his doctorate. Upon graduation he joined the faculty at Simon Fraser University where he works at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Centre for Hellenic Studies.

"The Cult of Dionysus" presented by Dr. Aneurin Ellis-Evans

More events from SFU Stavros Niarchos Foundation Centre for Hellenic Studies

Follow organizers to get events picked for you

Still looking for the right event?

Explore all events in Burnaby and filter by date, category, and more to find the perfect fit.

"The Cult of Dionysus" presented by Dr. Aneurin Ellis-Evans

More events from SFU Stavros Niarchos Foundation Centre for Hellenic Studies

Follow organizers to get events picked for you

You might also like...

Browse more events with different dates, prices, and formats to find your next great experience.

Still looking for the right event?

Explore all events in Burnaby and filter by date, category, and more to find the perfect fit.