Wellesley Neighbors Events - Event View

The Plague in Ancient Athens

Mary Lefkowitz

Thursday, March 25, 2021

7:30pm Zoom Talk

In 430 B.C. when Athens was at the height of her prosperity and power, suddenly its inhabitants began to sicken and die from a previously unknown disease. In his History of the Peloponnesian War Thucydides provides a first-hand description of what it was like to suffer from this disease. He also offers a vivid account of the effect of the plague on people’s psyches and ethics. Now vaccines and medicines can help us survive. But what effect is the present pandemic having on the minds
and ethics of those of us will be fortunate enough to survive it?

Mary Lefkowitz earned a B.A. from Wellesley College, and an A.M. and a Ph.D. from Radcliffe College. She began teaching at Wellesley in 1959, and in 1979 was named the Andrew W. Mellon Professor of the Humanities, a position she held until her retirement in 2005. In 2004 she received a Radcliffe Graduate Society Medal, in 2006 a National Humanities Medal “for outstanding excellence in scholarship and teaching”, and in 2008 an Wellesley College Alumnae Achievement Award. She has authored many articles and books including Women in Greek Myth, The Lives of the Greek Poets, and Heroines and Hysterics. Mary is Professor Emerita of Classical Studies at Wellesley College, a past member of the Wellesley Neighbors’ Board, and Co-Chair of the Health Support Committee.