The Society for Ancient Mediterranean Religions CFP for 2019 SCS Meeting in San Diego

Epic Gods, Imperial City: Religion and Ritual in Latin Epic from Beginnings to Late Antiquity

How did Roman writers of epic reflect on the ritual realities of the imperial city? In this panel we invite scholars working on Latin epic in all its instantiations to explore how the genre in its Italian setting offers frameworks for approaching ritual practice, including prophecy, ruler cult and conceptions of the gods; the relationship between religion and philosophy; insights offered through material culture, including iconography and sanctuaries; the forging of memory and the tools of persuasion; and epic reflections on the establishment and expansion of the sacralized landscape. We encourage submissions connected with epic authors from the earliest to the latest examples, Livius through Lucretius, Vergil to Valerius; papers which offer interdisciplinary and comparative approaches are especially welcome.

Abstracts should be submitted by email attachment as .doc or .docx files to socamr@gmail.com and should be from 500-600 words in length for a paper to last between 15 to 20 minutes. Abstracts should contain a title and a word count, but should not have any information regarding the identity of the submitter. For further information about abstract format, please see the SCS Program Guide. The deadline for submission of abstracts is Thursday, March 1, 2018, and all abstracts for papers will be reviewed anonymously. Please direct all queries to SAMR at socamr@gmail.com.