The Classical Forum for Contemporary Issues, the Israel Institute for Advanced Studies, and the Department of Classical Studies at Bar Ilan University, are pleased to invite you to a talk by
Professor Douglas Cairns: “Hybris, Slavery and Dishonor”
Opening words by Professor David Sider (NYU)
The talk will take place on zoom on Sunday, April 12th at 18:00pm Israel time.
For registration please send a message to Gabriel.Danzig@biu.ac.il
David Konstan was Professor of Classics at Brown University until his retirement in 2010, and then continued to teach at NYU until his death at age 83. His work was prodigious to say the least, spanning hundreds of articles and dozens of influential books. A remarkably versatile scholar, David left an enduring legacy in his work on emotions, friendship, beauty, the Greek novel, and the history of moral and aesthetic concepts, to name a few.
In all his writings, he showed an uncanny ability to deliver new insights, founded on theoretical sophistication and wide learning, in a winning, accessible, and humane style. And those lucky enough to have heard him speak will remember his marvelous sense of humor.
He had many friends in Israel. He spent three months here in 2020-2021 as a fellow at the Israel Institute for Advanced Studies in a research project called Triangulating Towards Socrates, during which time he played an instrumental role in creating both the Xenophon and the Socrates books series at de Gruyter Brill. He was a dear friend to more people than we can know, and is deeply missed by all.
Douglas Cairns is Professor of Classics in the University of Edinburgh. He is a Fellow of the British Academy (FBA), a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE), and a Member of Academia Europaea (MAE). He is well known for his groundbreaking work on ancient Greek emotions, particularly shame/respect (aidōs), honour, and their moral psychology. He has published extensively on Homer, tragedy, Greek society and ethics, and cognitive approaches to Classics.
His influential monograph Aidōs: The Psychology and Ethics of Honour and Shame in Ancient Greek Literature (1993) remains a standard reference in the field.
His recent edited volumes include:
Hubris, Ancient and Modern: Concepts, Comparisons, Connections (Cambridge: CUP, 2025) (with N. Bouras and E. Sadler-Smith)
Mixed Feelings. An Interdisciplinary Phenomenology (Ancient Emotions V, Trends in Classics Suppl., Vol. 187, Berlin: De Gruyter, 2025) (with P. Campeggiani)
Slavery and Honour in Ancient Greece (Edinburgh: EUP, 2025) (with D. M. Lewis and M. Canevaro)
In the Mind, in the Body, in the World: Emotions in Early China and Ancient Greece (New York: OUP, 2024) (with C. Virág)
Contempt: Ancient and Modern (= Emotion Review 15.3, 2023)
Emotions through Time: From Antiquity to Byzantium (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2022) (with M. Hinterberger, A. Pizzone, and M. Zaccarini)
