I am a current PhD Candidate in Classics and Ancient History at the University of Liverpool (since 2024). I previously completed my MA in Classics and Ancient History at the University of Exeter (2023) after studying Law at the University of Law for my BA.

http://liverpool.academia.edu/WojciechMazur

• University of Liverpool

I am currently undertaking a PhD project at the University of Liverpool titled ‘Experiences of Worshipping in the Greek Temples of the Egyptian Gods’, which studies ancient lived religion at sanctuaries of the Egyptian and Isiac gods in Hellenistic and Roman period Greece, encompassing the artistic and intellectual workings of interpretatio Graeca of the Egyptian pantheon and the interaction between sacred spaces and artifacts in the creation of a poly-sensorial communication through ritual between the Greeks and these Egyptian gods. My thesis will explain the reasons that led individuals in the Greek world in the Hellenistic and Roman periods to seek religious fulfilment in the worship of a core triad of Isis, Sarapis/Osiris and Anubis, together with Harpokrates (from the 2nd century BCE onwards) and occasionally other Egyptian gods and to import Egyptian-derived theologies, practices and architectural and artistic styles for sanctuaries newly established for them. This overall aim will be achieved through case studies, whereby I will reconstruct the ways in which the architecture, cultic and votive material culture and inscriptions created a visual and sensory appeal for worshippers at the most documented Greek sanctuaries of the Egyptian gods. These are the Sarapieia of Alexandria, Delos and Marathon, the sanctuaries of Isis at Kenchreai, Corinth, and Isis Lochias at Dion, Macedonia and the sanctuaries of the Egyptian gods at Eretria, Euboea and Gortyn, Crete. I will also investigate how the Egyptian deities and their sanctuaries fit into the local landscapes of deities, rites and sacred spaces at each of these localities and examine similarities and differences between the sanctuaries studied to investigate how the Egyptian gods were accommodated (domesticated or distorted) to their new Greek surroundings and what conceptualisations of Egypt and its culture guided these processes of interpretatio Graeca.

Apart from a deep interest in the application of the Ancient Lived Religion approach to Greek religion and its sacred spaces and the interactions between the Greeks, Egyptians and other ancient civilisations, I am also interested in ancient mystery cults, Homer, epic and hymnic poetry, Alexander the Great and ancient Macedonia and Greek papyrology.