Profs and Pints - Richmond

Profs and Pints Richmond presents: “Ancient Terrors of the Night,” an introduction to all that terrified the Greeks and Romans of antiquity, with Barbette Stanley Spaeth, professor emerita of classical studies at William and Mary and scholar of magic and the supernatural in the ancient world.

[Advance tickets: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Available at https://www.ticketleap.events/tickets/profsandpints/richmond-ancient-terrors .]

Literature, papyrus scrolls used for magic, and archaeological finds show that ancient Greeks and Romans believed in demons, ghosts, vampiric beings, reanimated dead, shape‑shifters, and night‑hags.

Gear up for Halloween by getting to know what might have spooked Nero or Sophocles with the help of Barbette Stanley Spaeth, who has spent 25 years researching, teaching, and publishing on the supernatural of antiquity.

Dr. Spaeth, who previously has given several excellent Profs and Pints talks, will make clear that ancient Greek and Roman tales of the “terror that comes in the night” were not relegated to folklore but woven into religion, law, medicine, and the sincere practice of magic. These stories explained the unexplained, enforced social norms, and supplied tools for protection or attack such as amulets, curse tablets, exorcisms, and other various spells.

You’ll learn how belief in daimones (demons) went from regarding them as ambiguous, semi‑divine beings to assigning them a malign character and making them the targets of exorcism. People thought the dead returned as incorporeal spirits or ghosts as a result of improper burials or in response to unresolved business with the living remained, and that they also could be exorcised with the proper rituals. Necromancy typically summoned such shades to ask them for information, yet texts also describe how animated corpses were harnessed to harm others, becoming ancient analogues of vampiric or zombie threats.

We’ll discuss how witches and magicians were believed to shape-shift into a variety of creatures—including wolves, owls, and weasels—to carry out their dark deeds.

The most frightful of all, however, may have been the night hags, who were blamed for sleep assaults, drained vitality, sexual violence, and the kidnapping and torture of children to derive ingredients for magic.

You’ll emerge from the talk with an understanding of how our modern terrors of the night are drawn from a long, complex classical heritage as refracted through centuries of reinterpretation as well as various local traditions. (Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. The talk starts 30 minutes later.)

Image: An 1898 painting by Adolf Hirémy-Hirschl depicts souls on the banks of the Acheron, a river, associated with Hades, where necromancy was practiced.

Profs and Pints Richmond presents: “How We Scare Each Other,” an exploration of the enduring tradition of telling terrifying tales, with Joshua Barton, lecturer in English at Virginia Commonwealth University and scholar of horror.

[Advance tickets: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Available at https://www.ticketleap.events/tickets/richmond-scary-stories .]

They’ve long emerged from the darkness around campfires. They pop up at kids’ slumber parties and come at us through our computer screens. We probably could escape them, but where’s the fun in that?

Gear up for Halloween by learning about the oral telling of scary stories and how this ancient tradition flourishes in new forms in the digital age.
Joshua Barton, whose excellent talks on horror have earned him a big following among Profs and Pints audiences, will take us back into time to witness the rise of the scary story in folklore and myth.

He’ll discuss indigenous trickster narratives, the centuries-old European cautionary tales collected by the Brothers Grimm, and other unnerving lore. We’ll consider how such stories functioned as both entertainment and social instruction, and also how they reflected broader anxieties and the core human impulse to narrate fear, mystery, and the unknown.

We’ll look at how these storytelling traditions have persisted and been adapted across media, venturing into the realm of urban legends circulated through spoken word, print, and mass media. You'll get to know “the vanishing hitchhiker,” “the Hookman,” and “Bloody Mary.”

We’ll also explore how with the rise of the internet these forms of modern folklore were reimagined for digital spaces. We’ll analyze the emergence of “creepypasta,” a genre of short-form horror shared across forums and early social media, focusing on examples such as “Slender Man,” “Candle Cove,” and “Ben Drowned.”

Finally, we'll examine analog horror, a contemporary digital subgenre that leverages retro aesthetics and found-footage techniques in works such as “Local 58” and “The Mandela Catalogue.”

It will be a night full of frights you’ll be eager to pass on to others. ( Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. The talk starts 30 minutes later.)

Image by Canva.