Sarantis Symeonoglou

Titles

Professor of Art History and Archaeology

Professor Sarantis Symeonoglou is a field archaeologist and art historian of the ancient world with an expertise in both the Bronze Age and the Classical Greece, as well as the Ancient Near East and Egypt. He has excavated at Olympia, Medeon, Cyprus, Thebes, at several sites in Boeotia and has worked in the museums of Olympia, Delphi, Athens National Museum, Athens Numismatic Museum, Thebes Archaeological Museum, and Ithaca Archaeological Museum. Since 1984, he has initiated a major archaeological project on the island of Ithaca where countless people have tried to locate the palace of the legendary Odysseus in the last 200 years. He has devoted much of his time to directing the work on Ithaca and doing fundraising for it, in an effort that has involved as many as 500 different people: scholars, professionals, students, and local workers. The project has already generated a number of publications, most important among them the inscriptions of Ithaca (John Fossey), a dissertation (Nancy Symeonoglou), and many articles in Greek and English by the director himself. He is now preparing a monograph on the subject that promises to change current views about Odysseus and Homer. Professor Symeonoglou has also been researching art historical approaches to the study of Greek art, as well as innovative interpretations of prehistory through close analysis of works of art.

Professor Symeonoglou may be contacted at 314-935-4519 or ssymeono@artsci.wustl.edu

Homeric Archaeology
Myths and Monuments
Art and War
Art in the Egypt of the Pharaohs
Greek Sculpture
Ancient Painting
Greek and Roman coins
The Parthenon