Lilly Kahil

Lilly Kahil (born July 2, 1926 in Zurich ; † December 4, 2002 in Garches ) was a French-Swiss classical archaeologist of Egyptian-German origin. From 1957 until her retirement in 1996 she worked as a professor at the University of Friborg (Switzerland) , and taught and researched at the Center national de la recherche scientifique and the University of Paris-Nanterre . In addition to numerous excavation activities, the initiation and publication of the Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae made her particularly well known.

Life

Kahil came from an Egyptian family on his father's side and was the niece of Mary Kahil , a famous mediator between oriental and occidental cultures. Her mother was German and Lilly Kahil was born in Zurich during a stay in Europe. She grew up - very carefree according to later memories - in an extremely international and cosmopolitan environment. Despite a protracted illness in her youth, she graduated from the Collège du Sacré-Cœur in Cairo at the age of 16 and then studied at the University of Basel with Karl Schefold and from 1946 at the Sorbonne in Paris . From 1949 to 1954 she was a "foreign member" at the École française d'Athènes (French School Athens), where she completed her dissertation with the title "Les enlèvements et le retour d'Hélène dans les textes et les documents figurés" (" The kidnappings and the return of Helen in the [ancient] texts and the figurative sources ”). The book appeared in 1955 and combined archaeological methods with studies from the field of classical philology . She was awarded the Salomon Reinach Prize of the French Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres . The year before the publication, Kahil's family had to flee their homeland after the fall of the Egyptian monarchy by Gamal Abdel Nasser .

In his first marriage, Kahil was married to the lawyer Boutros Boutros-Ghali , who later became Secretary General of the United Nations and the Organization internationale de la Francophonie , and called himself Lilly Ghali-Kahil at this time. In her second marriage, she married the respected classical archaeologist René Ginouvès . This time, however, she kept her maiden name; Ginouvès was therefore now and then incorrectly addressed as "Monsieur Kahil", but without bothering about it.

In 1957 Lilly Kahil became an associate professor for ancient history at the University of Friborg (Switzerland) , then in 1960 a full professor. As a result of her commitment, her own chair for Classical Archeology was set up, which she took over and which she gained international renown. However, she continued to live in Paris, where she was already Attachée de recherche at the Center national de la recherche scientifique and in 1979 became Directeur de recherche at the same institution. She also worked as a professor at the University of Paris-Nanterre . She spent several research stays at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton . In 1996 she retired as professor and received an honorary professorship in Freiburg. Her last research project, the investigation of the white-ground lekyths from the Louvre in Paris , she was unable to complete for health reasons. In 2002 she died after a long illness.

Research and honors

Lilly Kahil's main research interests were in the fields of archeology and the history of religion , for which she has made numerous scientific contributions. Kahil co-founded the excavations of the Swiss Archaeological School in Greece in the ancient city of Eretria in 1964, which have been continuously continued since then, and focused on analyzing the geometric ceramics found there . In addition, she led larger archaeological projects in Soloi and Laodikeia on Lykos as well as excavations of the French School of Athens on the island of Thasos , whose ceramic finds she published in 1960. Finally, in 1972, Kahil initiated the Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae , an extremely extensive and internationally developed reference work on the iconography of classical mythology . She headed it up to the end of the project in 1999 as the responsible editor and general secretary, had a decisive influence on the development of the work and wrote several articles for the lexicon herself (including, together with Noëlle Icard-Gianolio, the detailed articles on Artemis and Helena ). At the same time, the development of the volumes around Kahil resulted in a network of diverse scientists who organized several conferences ( Thessaloniki 1993, Basel 1994, Malibu 1995 and Oxford 1996). After completing the Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae, another project emerged from this group, the Thesaurus Cultus et Rituum Antiquorum . This systematically structured, also very detailed reference work on the cults and rites of the ancient religions was brought into being by Kahil before her death; the eight volumes were finally dedicated to her.

Lilly Kahil was a corresponding member of the German Archaeological Institute , the Austrian Archaeological Institute and (since 1992) the Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres in Paris, as well as an honorary member of the Archaeological Society of Athens and the Archaeological Institute of America . In 1985 she received the Prix Gustave Mendel of the Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres for the publication of the second volume of the Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae. With honorary doctorates Kahil was from the universities of Athens and Quebec excellent.

Fonts

• Les enlèvements et le retour d'Hélène dans les textes et les documents figurés. Éditions de Boccard, Paris 1955 (also dissertation).
• La céramique grecque (= Études thasiennes. Volume VII). Éditions de Boccard, Paris 1960.
• Grèce préhistorique et archaïque (= Images des grandes civilizations. Volume 4). Éditions Rencontre, Lausanne 1964.
• Grèce. Le V ^e siècle avant Jésus-Christ (= Images des grandes civilizations. Volume 5). Éditions Rencontre, Lausanne 1964.
• with Jean des Gagniers and others: Laodicée du Lycos: Le nymphée. Campagnes 1961-1963. Éditions de Boccard, Paris 1969.
• with Serapheim Charitōnidēs and René Ginouvès: Les mosaïques de la maison du Ménandre à Mytilène (= ancient art. Supplement 6). Francke, Basel 1970.
• with Christiane Dunant: Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum . Switzerland, Volume 3: Genève, Musée d'art et d'histoire. Fascicle 2, P. Lang, Bern 1980, ISBN 3-261-00466-5 .
• as ed. with Christian Augé: Mythologie gréco-romaine, mythologies périphériques. Études d'iconographie (= Colloques internationaux du Center national de la recherche scientifique. Number 593). Editions du Center national de la recherche scientifique, Paris 1981, ISBN 2-222-02692-X .
• as ed. with Christian Augé and Pascale Linant de Bellefonds: Iconographie classique et identités régionales (= Bulletin de correspondance hellénique. Supplement 14). Diffusion de Boccard, Paris 1986, ISBN 2-869-58003-7 .
• as ed. with Pascale Linant de Bellefonds: Religion, mythologie, iconographie (= Mélanges de l'École française de Rome. Volume 103). École française de Rome - Palais Farnèse, Rome 1991.

literature

• Mythes et cultes. Études d'iconographie en l'honneur de Lilly Kahil (= Bulletin de correspondance hellénique. Supplement 38). Ecole Française d'Athènes, Athens 2000, ISBN 2-86958-185-8 (Festschrift, with list of publications).
• Gilbert Dagron: Allocution à l'occasion du décès de Mme Lilly Kahil, correspondant étranger de l'Académie. In: Comptes rendus des séances de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres , Volume 146, 2002, p. 1325 ( online ).
• Jean-Robert Gisler: Lilly Kahil, un professeur et une archéologue classique d'exception. In: Association Suisse d'Archéologie Classique, Bulletin , 2003, pp. 4–6 ( PDF of the entire Bulletin; 808 KB ).

Individual evidence

1. ^ Report 1997: Corps enseignant, lecteurs, maîtres-assistants. University of Freiburg, accessed on November 18, 2016.
2. ^ Jean-Robert Gisler: Lilly Kahil, un professeur et une archéologue classique d'exception. In: Association Suisse d'Archéologie Classique, Bulletin , 2003, pp. 4–6, here p. 5 ( PDF of the entire Bulletin; 808 KB ).
3. ↑ Un demi-siècle de fouilles suisses en Erétrie. 20min.ch from May 12, 2014, accessed on October 21, 2016.
4. ↑ History of the Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae ( Memento of the original from August 10, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed November 15, 2016. 
5. ^ André Caquot: Palmarès. In: Comptes rendus des séances de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres , Volume 129 (1985), Number 4, pp. 615-619, here p. 617 ( online ).
6. ↑ Doctorats honoris causa de l'Université Laval , accessed on November 15, 2016.