Agora Speaker Series 2021 – Prof Alastair Blanshard

The Agora Speaker Series is hosted by the School of Liberal Arts. Lectures presented as part of the series are free of charge and are open to members of the School of Liberal Arts, the University and the general public.

Were the ancient Athenians ever lonely?

The issues around loneliness and social isolation are amongst the most pressing problems facing modern society. In this paper, Prof Alastair asks the question ‘Does loneliness have a history? And if so, how might we write it?’. In attempting to answer this question, he focuses on a curious absence in the record.  Namely, the seeming absence of loneliness in our records for Classical Athens. This paper examines why loneliness might be so rare in ancient Athens and what the implications of this might be for modern society.

The papers also considers the implications of the scarcity of ‘alone time’ in Athens and how this impacts on the nature of society, the representation of intellectual pursuits, and the aesthetics of divine revelation.