Deutsch Intern
DFG Centre for Advanced Studies MagEIA

Christopher Athanasious Faraone

Research Interests

  • Magical amulets
  • Magic and magic spells
  • Ancient body amulets

 

Curriculum Vitae

2019 -  The Edward Olson Professor of Classics, University of Chicago
2005 - 2019 The Frank Curtis Springer and Gertrude University of Melcher Springer Professor in the College and The Humanities, University of Chicago
1998 – 2005 Professor of Classical Languages and Literatures, University of Chicago
1993 – 1998 Associate Professor of Classical Languages and Literatures, University of Chicago
1991 – 1993  Assistant Professor of Classical Languages and Literatures, University of Chicago University
1988 – 1991 Assistant Professor of Classics and Humanities, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State
1990 + 1995 Co-Instructor (with T. Carpenter and N. Smith) NEH Summer Institute for School Teachers on Greek Religion

 

College and University Service:
  • Founder and Co-Director, Center for the Study of Ancient Religions (2008-18)
  • Director, Workshop on the Ancient Mediterranean World (1993-97 and 2001-4)
  • Lecturer, Humanities Open House (annually 1994-present)
  • Lecturer, Alumni Programs and Tours (1995-2003)
  • Lecturer, Graham School of Continuing Education (annually 1997-2000)
  • Whiting Fellowship Committee (1994)
  • Board of Directors, Chicago Humanities Institute (Sept. 1994-June 1996)
  • Resident Master, Burton-Judson Courts (Sept 1997-June 2000)
  • Interim Chair, Committee on the Ancient Mediterranean World (1997-98)
  • Chair, Ad Hoc College Group that created Athens Program for the College (1997-98)
  • Chair, Ad Hoc College Committee that created a Major in Ancient Studies (1997-98)
  • Ryerson Fellowship Committee (1997-1999)
  • Spearheaded (with H. Dik) a successful effort to reorganize and expand the teaching of ancient languages in Summer School (1998-99)
  • Chair, Adhoc University Committee on International Programs (2000-2001)
  • Council on Advanced Studies (2001-2003)
  • Director, Greek Thought and Literature Freshman Core Sequence for the College (Fall 2001-2011)
  • Chair, Adhoc University Committee on to Advise the Provost and President on Candidates for the Dean of Humanities Division (2003-2004)
  • Senior Co-Chair of the University of Chicago Society of Fellows (2005-2013)
  • Humanities Division Policy Committee (2005-present)
  • Dean of Humanities Planning and Program Committee (2005-2007)
Membership in Professional Organizations:
  • American Philological Association, then Society for Classical Studies (APA, then SCS)
  • Classical Association for the Midwest and the South (CAMWS)
  • Society for Biblical Literature (SBL)
  • Women's Classical Caucus (WCC)

Publications

A. Monographs
  • Hexametrical Genres from the Homer to Theocritus (Oxford University Press 2021).
  • Women and Children First: The Earliest Evidence for Ancient Greek Body Amulets, István Hahn Lectures 7 (Budapest 2019).
  • The Transformation of Greek Amulets in Roman Imperial Times (Philadelphia 2018).
  • Vanishing Acts: Deletio Morbi as Speech Act and Visual Design on Ancient Greek Amulets, Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies Supplement 115 (London, 2013).
  • The Stanzaic Architecture of Archaic Greek Elegy (Oxford University Press 2008).
  • Ancient Greek Love Magic (Harvard University Press, 1999); paperback 2000; modern Greek edition, Αρχαια Ελληνικη Ερωτικη Μαγεια (Papadema, 2004); French edition, Philtres d’amour et sortileges en Grèce ancienne (Editions Payot et Rivages 2006).
  • Talismans and Trojan Horses: Guardian Statues in Ancient Greek Myth and Ritual (Oxford University Press, 1992).      
B. Edited Collections (co-editor)
  • (with K. Endreffy and H. Goette, Everything is Illuminated. Studies on Graeco-Roman Iconography in Honour of Árpád M. Nagy (Rome 2025).
  • (with S. Torallas Tovar) From PGM IV to GEMF 57: New Approaches to the Great Paris Magical Codex (DeGruyter Forthcoming)
  • (with A. Maravela and S. Torallas Tovar) Late Antique Magic Rolls from Egypt: Contents, Scribal Features, and Contacts (Forthcoming 2026).
  • (with S. Torallas Tovar) The Greco-Egyptian Magical Formularies vol. 2 (Berkeley forthcoming 2026).
  • (with S. Torallas Tovar), The Greco-Egyptian Magical Formularies: Libraries, Books and Individual Recipes (Ann Arbor 2022)
  • (with S. Torallas Tovar) The Greco-Egyptian Magical Formularies vol. 1 (Berkeley 2022).
  • (with I. Polinskaya), Curses in Context 3: The Greek Curse Tablets of the Classical and Hellenistic Periods, Papers and Monographs from the Norwegian Institute at Athens 12 (Athens 2021).
  • (with D. Obbink), The Getty Hexameters: Poetry, Magic and Mystery in Ancient Greek Selinous (Oxford 2013).
  • (with F. Naiden), Ancient Victims, Modern Observers: Reflections on Greek and Roman Animal Sacrifice (Cambridge 2012).  
  • (with L. McClure), Prostitutes and Courtesans in the Ancient World (Madison 2006).
  • (with D. Dodd) Initiation in Ancient Greek Rituals and Narratives: New Critical Perspectives (Routledge 2003). 
  •  (with T. Carpenter) Masks of Dionysus (Cornell University Press, 1993; second printing 1996). 
  • (with D. Obbink) Magika Hiera: Ancient Greek Magic and Religion (Oxford University Press, 1991; paperback 1996).       
     
C. Articles
  • “Water Nymphs on the Fourth-Century CE Curse Tablets from the Via Appia and the Fountain of Anna Perenna in Rome” Latomus (2025) 244-59.
  • (with S. Torallas Tovar) “GEMF 52 (PGM XXIVa): A Hybrid Case of Greco-Egyptian Cleromancy?” Journal of Early Christianity 16 (2025) 133-51.
  • “Copper as a Jewish Medium for Inscribed Amulets and Curses in Late Antiquity” Jewish Studies Quarterly (2025) forthcoming.
  •  “The Different Receptions of Mosaic and Solomonic Amulets in the Roman and Late-Antique Periods” Quotidiana: Journal for the Study of Lived Religion 1 (2025) forthcoming.
  • “The New Curse Tablet from Cos and the Lost Magical Handbook that Produced It” Symbolae Osloensis (2025) forthcoming.
  • “King Semea and the Scarab and a Prayer to the Sun: Two Problematic Invocations in a Magical Handbook from Roman Thebes (GEMF 55/PGM III)” Kernos (2025) forthcoming.