ARCE/NY : Sigmund Freud in ancient Egypt?
Dr. Luigi Prada presents the art of ancient Egyptian dream interpretation rediscovered
Date
Location
Sponsor
Admission
Open to the public
RSVP required
$10 | General admission
FREE | Salmagundi Club and ARCE members
A password is required for ARCE member admission. If you’re eligible, please contact your organization for the password.
About the Event
In the ancient Mediterranean world, the Egyptians had a reputation for excelling in divination, the art of gaining knowledge about the future via occult channels. Many types of divination were practiced in ancient Egypt, primarily by temple priests who consulted specific handbooks for this purpose. One particularly popular technique was that of oneiromancy, that is, dream interpretation.
This talk will introduce the audience to new research on ancient Egyptian oneiromancy, discussing in detail the workings of the many dream interpretation manuals preserved on papyri and what light they shed on our knowledge of the ancient Egyptian mind. Special attention will be devoted to what these unique texts can reveal about lesser-known aspects of ancient Egyptian social life and psychology—for example, on matters of sexuality and queerness amongst the ancient Egyptians, as reflected in the analysis of their erotic dreams.
Hungry?
Ticketed attendees who would like to stay for drinks and dinner should make dining reservations in advance via our Reservations page with the message “ARCE dinner”.
About the Speaker
Dr Luigi Prada is Associate Professor of Egyptology at Uppsala University, Sweden. He works primarily on textual and cultural-historical studies, with a focus on the later phases of Egypt’s history and language(s) / scripts. Prior to Uppsala, he has held academic positions in the UK (Oxford and the British Academy), Germany (Heidelberg), and Denmark (Copenhagen). He is active in the field, both in Egypt as Co-Director of the Oxford-Uppsala Epigraphic Project in Elkab, and in the Sudan.
He is constantly engaged in public outreach, through public lectures (most recently, on Egyptology and queer studies at Stockholm Pride) and as a consultant for international exhibitions (recently in the USA, the Getty exhibition ‘Beyond the Nile: Egypt and the Classical World’ in Los Angeles). He is an Honorary Research Associate in Egyptology at the Griffith Institute, University of Oxford. He has published extensively on a variety of topics, including ancient Egyptian dreams and divination, scribal education and schooling, graffiti and rock inscriptions, ancient translations (Graeco-Egyptian), obelisks, hieroglyphic inscriptions (from the Old Kingdom to the Roman Period), cursive scripts (hieratic and demotic), Coptic, ancient rudeness and insults.