Thursday, February 6, 2025
7:30 PM
Several customs, traditions, and events in today’s modern Olympics can be traced back to the ancient competitions held at Olympia. Today’s victors are celebrated for their athletic prowess, as they were in ancient Greece. This lecture will focus on the important role of athletics in ancient Greece, the four Panhellenic sites, and the unique Panathenaic Games celebrated in Athens. As they are today, athletics were popular in ancient Greece, where boys and young men devoted time to working out in the palaestra (gymnasium) to maintain fitness and ultimately to be ready for combat. Even the passage of time was organized around the four-year interval between Olympic Games known as the Olympiad, and specific Olympiads were numbered as markers of the events and political developments associated with those times.
About Katherine Schwab
Dr. Katherine Schwab received her B.A. from Scripps College, her M.A. from Southern Methodist University, and her Ph.D. from the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University. She is Professor Emerita of Art History & Visual Culture at Fairfield University, former curator of the Plaster Cast Collection at the Fairfield University Art Museum (1991–2024) and was Founding Director of the Arts Institute established in 2023. While specializing in ancient Greek art and archaeology, her research focuses on the Parthenon sculptural program. Scans of her metope drawings are permanently displayed in the Acropolis Museum. The original drawings formed a traveling exhibition in the United States from 2014 to 2018, including a time at the Timken Museum of Art. Her research extends to the Caryatid Hairstyling Project (film 2009), exhibition Hairstyles of the Classical World, 2015, and historic plaster casts of ancient sculpture. Her drawings and photographs formed three separate exhibitions at the Greek Consulate General in New York City. She has been a member of the Managing Committee of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens and returns annually to Athens for her research. Recently retired, Dr. Schwab resides in San Diego and continues to conduct research in her focus areas.
Tickets: $16/21
The lecture will be in person at the Athenaeum Music & Arts Library. There are no physical tickets for this event. Your name will be on an attendee list at the front door. Doors open at 7 p.m. Seating is first-come; first-served. This event will be presented in compliance with State of California and County of San Diego health regulations as applicable at the time of the lecture.