Contact: Robbie S. Ward
STARKVILLE, Miss.--A classics authority with a doctorate from Harvard will discuss mythology Tuesday [Oct. 25] as part of a visit to Mississippi State University's Shackouls Honors College.
Philip Freeman, head of the department of classics at Luther College in northwest Iowa, will give a public lecture titled "Mythology for Adults." The free lecture open to the public will begin at 7 p.m. in the Shackouls Honors College forum room in Griffis Hall. Freeman also will speak to Shackouls Honors students earlier in the afternoon.
Author of multiple books on topics ranging from ancient politics to Olympian gods to St. Patrick and the Druids, Freeman has served as a visiting scholar at the Harvard Divinity School, the American Academy in Rome and the Center for Hellenic Studies in Washington, D.C. He has given talks on the ancient world at the Smithsonian Institution and interviews on National Public Radio.
"But my best audience ever was a class of enthusiastic elementary school students in St. Louis," Freeman said.
Before joining the faculty at Luther College, he taught at Boston and Washington Universities. He said opening new worlds to students brings him some of the highest enjoyment in life.
"There's nothing better than sharing stories with bright young people about Achilles and how anger can destroy a person's life; or Odysseus and why he gave up immortality; or Dante and how the worst sin you could ever commit isn't murder, but betrayal of someone who loves you," Freeman said.
Christopher A. Snyder, dean of MSU's Shackouls Honors College, said scholars and authors of Freeman's caliber help expose the MSU community to eminent thinkers from throughout the nation and world.
"We are excited to have Dr. Freeman lecture at the Shackouls Honors College," said Snyder, an authority on medieval history. "He has made scholarly contributions to both the fields of classics and Celtic studies through his translations and studies of ancient texts. He is also a fine writer of public history, the author of several acclaimed biographies of such figures as Saint Patrick and Julius Caesar."
For more information, contact Dr. Snyder at 662-325-2522 or csnyder@honors.msstate.edu.