CONTACT: CATHY CLEMONS
100 Old Public Library
Iowa City IA 52242
(319) 384-0008; fax (319) 384-0024
e-mail: catherine-e-miller@uiowa.edu

Release: Immediate

UI lecture series to focus on ancient Greek tragedies

IOWA CITY, Iowa -- As part of an ongoing series on Greek theatre, the University of Iowa department of classics is sponsoring a five-part lecture series by a noted authority on Greek drama and culture.

Theodore Buttrey, professor emeritus at the University of Michigan and a member of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters, has been chosen as a UI Ida Beam Lecturer and will present five talks under the theme, "Shape and Meaning in Greek Tragedy," beginning March 13. All of the lectures will be in the English-Philosophy Building, Rm. 105, except for the last lecture, which will be in the Chemistry Building, Rm. 314.

All of the lectures are free and open to the public. The schedule is as follows:

* Thursday, March 13 -- 2:30 p.m., "What is a Greek Tragedy?"

* Friday, March 14 -- 4:30 p.m., "Euripides' Medea"

* Tuesday, March 18 -- 4:30 p.m., "Aeschylus' Agamemnon"

* Wednesday, March 19 -- 2:30 p.m., "Some Patterns and Conventions in Aeschylus"

* Wednesday, March 19 -- 7:30 p.m., "Euripides' Trojan Women: The Victim as Agent of Destruction."

Buttrey received a doctorate from Princeton University in 1953 and was a member of the University of Michigan faculty from 1964 to 1986. He is widely published in the fields of Greek tragedy, Greek and Roman cultural history and numismatics, the study and collection of ancient coins.

"Professor Buttrey has thought deeply and intelligently about the nature of Greek tragedy, especially about its structure and the impact the genre had on fifth-century audiences and can have on us," said UI Associate Professor of Classics Mary Depew, who organized the lecture series. "He is famous for engaging an audience, and his lectures promise to be lively and informative."

Ida Beam, a native of Vinton, willed her farm to the UI Foundation in 1977. Her only university connection was a relative who graduated from the College of Medicine. With proceeds from the sale of the farm, the UI established a fund to bring top scholars in a variety of disciplines to the university for lectures and discussions.

For further information, contact Depew at (319)335-2938.

3/3/97