LECTURE SERIES
KINYRAS AND THE MUSICAL STRATIGRAPHY OF
EARLY CYPRUS
Dr. John Franklin
Friday 13 January 2012
The Shoe Factory, Nicosia / 7.30pm
The Pharos Arts Foundation in association with the English Speaking Union
Cyprus present a lecture on the mythical symbol of Kinyras and the Musical
Stratigraphy of early Cyprus by Dr. John Franklin, Associate Professor of
Classics at the University of Vermont.
Kinyras, in Greco-Roman sources, is the culture-hero of early Cyprus:
legendary king, metallurge, Agamemnon's (faithless) ally, Aphrodite's
priest, father of Myrrha and Adonis, rival of Apollo, ancestor of the
Paphian priest-kings (and much more). Kinyras increased in depth and
complexity with the 1968 demonstration that Kinnaru ' the divinized
temple-lyre ' was venerated at Ugarit. The lecture by Dr. John Franklin will
show how Kinyras as a mythological symbol of pre-Greek Cyprus (i.e. Alashiya)
may be harmonized with what is known of ritual music and deified instruments
in the Bronze Age Near East.
Dr. John Franklin
Dr. Franklin began life in music composition, with a degree from the New
England Conservatory of Music (1988). An M.A. in Classics at the University
of Washington, Seattle, led to a doctorate in Classics from University
College London (2002).
He then held a series of fellowships in Rome, Athens, Cyprus, and Washington
D.C. before joining the University of Vermont, where he is now Associate
Professor of Classics. He is currently on research leave as a member of the
Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, and as Annual Professor at the
Albright Institute of Archaeological Research in Jerusalem.
His research has dealt largely with the musical interface between early
Greece and the Near East. He is working on three books: Kinyras: The Divine
Lyre; The Stormy Seas of Cyprus: Music, Memory, and the Aegean Diaspora; and
The Middle Muse: Mesopotamian Echoes in Early Greek Music. He has also
published a lighthearted CD of Greek musical impressions, The Cyprosyrian
Girl: Hits of the Ancient Hellenes.
For electronic offprints of publications, and further information, please
visit www.kingmixers.com
Dr. John Franklin |
