Paraskevi Martzavou

The cult of the Egyptian gods (Isis, Osiris, Anubis, Sarapis) underwent a remarkable expansion in the Hellenistic and Roman periods in the Eastern and Western Mediterranean. This is the subject of my monograph which I will be finishing during my Fellowship in Paris. This project will benefit from the interdisciplinary nature of the Institute since the answer to my questions draws on archaeology, epigraphy, sociology, economic history, religious history as well as a dose of historical imagination. This project was first conceived in Paris and I am delighted at the prospect of finishing it not far from the places that inspired it. After all, Paris has been considered as one of the cities of Isis.

Paraskevi Martzavou was born and raised in Thessaloniki where she attended Aristole University. She also studied in Hungary (Janus Pannonius University, Pécs, Jozsef Attila University, Szeged, and Debrecen University) and worked as an archaeologist for the Greek Archaeological Service. She pursued her graduate studies in Paris and obtained her doctorate in epigraphy, Greek Institutions, and ancient history (École Pratique des Hautes Études, IVème Section).  At Oxford University she held a post-doctoral position on "The social and cultural construction of Emotions in the Greek World". Since 2015 she has lectured in the Classics Department at Columbia University where she teaches Greek literature, history, and culture from Homer to the present.