Doorscapes and Guardians of the Underworld: a comparative visual approach to the imagery of the ancient Egyptian and Etruscan demons
Spring 2024 Warnock Lecture, presented by the Department of Art History
In many religious cultures, ancient and modern, the otherworld is not an empty place. The ancient Egyptian and Etruscan depictions found in tombs show that access to the Beyond was guarded by divine beings that acted as agents of protection of the liminal spaces between this and the other worlds, or of the passages between different areas of the netherworld. In this lecture the demonic guardians and the landscapes within which they are imagined to be living are analyzed and compared by illustrating the worldviews and worldmaking of the ancient Egyptians and the Etruscans, and in relation to the symbology of gates and doors as places of judgment and protection.
Lecture: 5–6:30pm
Reception: 6:30–7:30pm
Programs are open to all, on a first-come first-served basis. RSVPs are not required, but appreciated, as they help us anticipate attendance numbers.
Rita Lucarelli is Associate Professor of Egyptology in the Department of Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures, and Faculty Curator of Egyptology at the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology, University of California at Berkeley. Her numerous publications address ancient Egyptian demonology and the reception of ancient Egypt in the contemporary world, especially in Afrofuturism.'
