Greek and Roman cultures were alive with the arts and deeply interested in questions of aesthetic value. Whether it was poetry, music, the plastic arts or architecture, functional or ornamental craftsmanship, public drama or private recitation, the arts were continually discussed and contested by people of all social classes and backgrounds. Our sources suggest that there were in fact many kinds of responses to the arts in classical antiquity, not all of them positive or consonant with one another. This colloquium concerns how Greeks and Romans ascribed or denied value to the arts, what criteria they invoked in distinguishing between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ art, whether we can accurately speak of an ancient concept of the ‘fine arts’, and how aesthetic value varied as a function of social class or political ideology. We will consider the complex and fluctuating interaction between conceptions of beauty, pleasure and utility, especially from the perspective of general audiences and fans or devotees, not just theorists or philosophers. In particular, we will attempt to access the aesthetic discourse of non-specialists as they responded emotionally and intellectually to the arts.

For this sixth colloquium we invite abstracts for papers (30 minutes) on all aspects of our proposed topic, from the earliest periods of Greece through Imperial Rome. We welcome contributions from all research areas, including literary studies, philology, art history and archaeology, history, and philosophy.

Selected papers will be considered for publication by Brill Publishers. Those interested in presenting a paper are requested to submit an abstract of no more than 1 page, by email, before November 1st, 2009. (please note extended deadline)

Contact (please copy both with email correspondence):

Professor Ralph M. Rosen Professor Ineke Sluiter

OIKOS Nieuwsbrief september 2009 10

OIKOS - NationalResearch School in Classical Studies

The Netherlands

Department of Classical Studies Classics Department

University of PennsylvaniaUniversity of Leiden

rrosen@sas.upenn.edu i.sluiter@let.leidenuniv.nl

The Penn-Leiden Colloquia on Ancient Values were established in 2000 as a biennial scholarly inquiry into Greek and Roman values. Each colloquium focuses on a single theme, explored from diverse perspectives and sub-disciplines. Four essay collections drawn from these colloquia have been published so far by Brill Academic Publishers (Leiden): Andreia. Studies inManliness and Courage in Classical Antiquity, 2003; Free Speech in Classical, 2004; City, Countryside, and the Spatial Organization of Value in Classical Antiquity; 2006, and Kakos: Badness and Anti-Value in Classical Antiquity, 2008. A fifth volume, Valuing Others in Classical Antiquity is in preparation.