Profs & Pints Richmond: When Zeus Met Shiva

Profs and Pints Richmond presents: “When Zeus Met Shiva,” on the flow of goods, ideas, and culture between the Far East and ancient Greece and Rome, with Georgia Irby, professor of Classical Studies at William and Mary.

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

The ancient world was a much smaller place than often assumed. Despite lacking today’s means of rapid travel and communication, the inhabitants of ancient Greece and Rome were deeply incorrected economically and culturally with the people of ancient India, Sri Lanka, and China.

Gain a new understanding of how distant ancient civilizations helped shape each other’s fates with Georgia Irby, a scholar of ancient Greek and Roman science who recently gave excellent Profs and Pints talks on ancient beliefs in sea monsters.

Going back to the 14th Century B.C.E., she’ll discuss what Greeks and Romans knew about the Far East and examine the first evidence of cultural and material exchange between them. You’ll learn how the Persian Empire obstructed the flow of good and ideas, but ancient Greece and India nevertheless found ways to influence each other’s mythology and art and secure the flow of silk, peppers, and other goods from Far East suppliers to Western buyers.

Dr. Irby will discuss how nations such as India and Sri Lanka sent embassies to ancient Rome, and how advances in science and broader understanding of the world came from travelers’ observations of phenomena such as geography-based differences in the behavior of shadows. We’ll look at a third-century text detailing Chinese observations and misconceptions about ancient Rome.

The bottom line is that the people of distant civilizations were intensely curious about each other, with the legacies of their interactions still shaping our world today. You’ll emerge from the talk better able to spot the influence of various ancient cultures all around you. (Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. The talk starts 30 minutes later.)

Image: From a scene depicting Dionysus in India carved onto a Roman sarcophagus from about 190 C.E.