Sleep and Death in ancient Greece

Speaker

Anna Satsyk was born in Kyiv in 2002, later moved to Berlin to develop and work in the cultural field and explore the city’s artistic scene. Currently pursuing a combined degree in Art History and Cultural Studies at the Humboldt University of Berlin.

Synopsis

Sleep and dreams in the system of ideas of the Ancient Greeks about the Afterlife.

The comparison of sleep and death is very ancient, its examples can be found in many cultures of different times, but only in ancient Greece did these comparisons get a theoretical justification. The ancient Greeks believed sleep and death are closely related and the reflection of this connection is to be found in all spheres, in mythology, philosophy, and public life.

We will talk about the proximity of sleep and death in mythological terms, discuss how dreams can serve as proof of the afterlife and how the living can receive prophecy from the dead through sleep, to give a general idea of how sleep and dreaming are integrated in the system of Greek ideas about life after death.

Impressions

Lem vs Le Guin

Speaker

Igor Zaidel

Synopsis

Lem vs Le Guin

The lecture was dedicated to two prominent representatives of science fiction, Stanislav Lem and Ursula Le Guin.
In the 20th century, philosophical thought often dressed up as science fiction.
Igor Zaidel told the audience the biographies of two authors whose works had a huge impact on the development of social ideas of the 21st century.
The impetus for the romantic desire to change one’s own biology was given by Le Guin’s famous novel The Right Hand of Darkness.
Many technological changes that have affected society, from mobile communications to artificial intelligence, were foreseen and described by Lem.

Images for the lecture

Head on fire

Speaker

• Yulia Katan

Where did halos originate? What do they tell us, what are they like?

At the lecture, Julia Katan (artist) will reveal the evolution of halos from Ancient Egypt through the Renaissance to the present day in mosaics, illustrations and paintings.

Listeners will learn why gold dust is sprinkled on their hair, how to distinguish a full-fledged saint in the hierarchy of righteousness, and why halos go to sinful scoundrels.

Synopsis

Nimbus in iconography and painting appear not only as a golden circle above the saint’s head; the symbolism of the divine light is broken with the change of eras, and the form is subject to fashion and the internal currents of religions.

It appeared for the first time as an attribute of the solar deities of Iran and Egypt, it wanders from coins to stone, and sounds in Homeric hymns, where the gods descend to earth in a cloud of radiant ether.

The nimbus is picked up by the Roman rulers to denote the radiance of their genius. Julius Caesar is identified with a shaggy star, and Nero’s „face shines with the people.“

Christianity, having turned the halo into an attribute of the all-good God and his saints, gives it a powerful ethical vector. Square halos distinguish living benefactors from those who are in eternity with a round one; a triangular halo is honored only by God the Father; the halos of saints turn into business cards – names and prayers are inscribed in their circumference.

In the Catholic world, the halo becomes a field for experiments for Renaissance artists: on the one hand, openwork wires, glass disks, on the other, weighty crowns in precious stones, strings of objects around the head of Christ or a round fireplace screen behind the Virgin Mary.

Gradually, from the twelfth century, in order to cut down popular cults, the popes of the Church arrogate to themselves the right to canonize saints. Some of the blessed have been waiting for their halo for years, others, like St. Dionysius the Martyr, are even honored with two: one around the severed head, the second over the empty neck.

And further, while Orthodoxy keeps the tradition of icon painting almost untouched, in the West the Reformation abolishes the cult of saints, churches are cleared of images. At the same time, artists strive to portray the world believable, and halos only break the illusion of reality. So in painting, halos are gradually fading away.

However, they didn’t disappear. Haloes seep into modernity under the guise of police caps and bizarre hoops on the heads of fashionistas, in a Roman style surround the tops of politicians. In the new reality, where the concept of holiness has been greatly eroded, the halo has partially turned into an accessory, but its sacred symbolism has also been preserved. At least as long as the historical memory and faith lives on.

Images for the lecture

Impression

Will in the philosophical aspect

Speaker

• Phelim Ó Laoghaire

Synopsis

The first meeting of the Philosophers Anonymous Club took place on 09/18/21.
The topic of the report was “Will in the philosophical aspect”.
Speaker: Phelim Ó Laoghaire / @phelim2 -a recent graduate of Trinity College Dublin whose research work focuses on the work of Gilles Deleuze, media theory, and issues of political will.

As self-taught photographer, Phelim Ó Laoghaire has worked with a passionate obsession since he was 14 years old. In July 2015, having just won The Irish Times Amateur Photographer of the Year Gold Medal for Street Photography, Phelim Ó Laoghaire left Ireland for Crimea, to teach at a summer camp in the coastal town, Morskoe (meaning ‚of the sea‘ or marine), where he later discovered his grandfather had once studied. There he produced his first major series, Postcards from the Black Sea.

„The lecture and open discussion will focus on the issue of will. The topic of free will was my first philosophical problem in my life. Over time, these two terms – „freedom“ and „will“ – have acquired almost contradictory concepts. So these questions about the will have moved from philosophy to cartography. What I would like to talk about is the territory.
In doing so, I interpret the writings of Franz Kafka to illustrate this point by closely examining how people behave in the context of obstacles“ – Phelim Ó Laoghaire.

music for the lecture

Impressions