JOHNSTON, Sarah Iles 1957-

PERSONAL:

Born October 25, 1957, in Bowling Green, OH; married; children: two. Education: University of Kansas, B.S., 1979, B.A., 1980; Cornell University, M.A., 1983, Ph.D., 1987.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Department of Greek and Latin, Ohio State University, 414 University Hall, 230 North Oval Mall, Columbus, OH 43210-1319 E-mail—sjohnston@postbox.acs.ohio-state.edu.

CAREER:

Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, lecturer, 1987-88; Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, 1988—, began as assistant professor, became professor of Greek and Latin.

MEMBER:

American Philological Association, American Academy of Religion, Society for Biblical Literature, Women's Class Caucus.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Mellon fellowship, Institute for Advanced Study; American Council of Learned Societies fellowship; Fondation Hardt fellowship; Den fellowship, Institute for the Advanced Study of Religion.

WRITINGS:

Hekate Soteira: A Study of Hekate's Role in the Chaldean Oracles and Related Literature, Scholars Press (Atlanta, GA), 1989.

(Editor with James J. Clauss) Medea: Essays on Medea in Myth, Literature, Philosophy, and Art, Princeton University Press (Princeton, NJ), 1997.

Restless Dead: Encounters between the Living and the Dead in Ancient Greece, University of California Press (Berkeley, CA), 1999.

SIDELIGHTS:

Sarah Iles Johnston makes close study of ancient texts in Greek and Latin to determine religious and philosophical views of those who wrote and read the texts. Johnston has been particularly interested in the interaction between the dead and the living, the ancient concepts of soul, magic, and ghosts, and the cosmological roles of Hekate and Medea. In a Journal of the American Academy of Religion review of Johnston's Hekate Soteira: A Study of Hekate's Role in the Chaldean Oracles and Related Literature, Deborah Lyons wrote: "Johnston has performed a real service in providing a fresh interpretation of the Chaldean oracles.…We remain in Johnston's debt for bringing a fresh perspective to the examination of some very difficult texts." Stephen Scully in Classical World also felt that Hekate Soteira "contributes significantly to our understanding of the mysterious goddess."

Restless Dead: Encounters between the Living and the Dead in Ancient Greece explores the evolution of Greek concepts of the dead, both within their afterlife realm and through their interactions with the living. A Choice contributor observed that the "clearly written volume" makes "an important contribution" to the field of scholarship on ancient Greek religious beliefs.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Choice, November, 1999, review of Restless Dead: Encounters between the Living and the Dead in Ancient Greece, pp. 532-533.

Classical World, May-June, 1991, Stephen Scully, review of Hekate Soteira: A Study of Hekate's Roles in the Chaldean Oracles and Related Literature, p. 405.

Journal of the American Academy of Religion, fall, 1993, Deborah Lyons, review of Hekate Soteira, pp. 605-607.*