[Usyd_Classics_Events] CAH Seminar

[Tamara Neal]

Dear Friends of Classics and Ancient History,

We are delighted to invite you to the 2nd presentation of Semester 1, 2026 in our Classics and Ancient History research seminar series.

16th March  (Monday, 12.15pm UTC+11)
V. Gordon Childe Boardroom, Madsen Building Level 2.
Chair: Prof. Julia Kindt
Zoom link:  https://uni-sydney.zoom.us/j/89574510422

Professor Stefan Pfeiffer (Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg)
Ethnography and Othering in Herodotus’ Book on Egypt

Abstract:

What do Herodotus, Dan Brown, and James Frey have in common?” This lecture
takes up this provocative question: Does Herodotus actually manipulate
his material—and if so, what does this reveal about his aims as an
ethnographer and historian? By examining his Egyptian ethnography, we
will explore how Herodotus navigates the boundaries between eyewitness
testimony, literary construction, and the shaping of cultural
“Otherness.”

Drawing on recent scholarship and close readings of selected passages,
the talk considers whether Herodotus’ claims to authenticity represent
rhetorical strategies, creative adaptation, or sincere attempts at
truth-telling. In light of modern debates around narrative reliability
and authorial intent, the lecture invites the audience to reconsider the
relationship between fact and fiction in Herodotus—and to reflect on
what ethnographic “truth” can mean, then and now.



Biography:
Stefan Pfeiffer is Full Professor in Ancient History at Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg
(since 2013), before this he was Professor for “Ancient World and Europe” at Technische Universität
Chemnitz (2010-2013) and Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy at Chemnitz University (2012-2013).
His areas of specialisation are the history of Graeco-Roman Egypt, ruler cult in antiquity and
Judaism in Alexandria.
He has among other aspects worked on multilingual texts from Egypt (the Decree of Canopus
and the victory stela of C. Cornelius Gallus) and has published a book on emperor cult in Egypt
(2010). He has written a study-book on Greek and Latin epigraphical records from Egypt (2015,
second augmented edition 2020) and has published a general overview on the Ptolemaic Empire (2017).

Forthcoming is a commentary on 3 Maccabees.


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DR TAMARA NEAL FHEA | Lecturer in Ancient Greek (Education Focused) | Academic Advisor
Classics & Ancient History | School of Philosophical & Historical Inquiry | Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences
THE UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY
[cidimage001.png at 01D70E99.9CD0BE30]  I acknowledge and pay respect to the traditional custodians of the land (the Cammeraygal and Gadigal of the Eora Nation). It is upon their ancestral lands that I live and work.
I support the University of Sydney Pride Network

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