Dr Sian Lewis
Senior Lecturer in Ancient History
On research leave (sem 2)
Phone: 01334 462605
Room: S15
Research Interests
My research interests encompass classical tyranny, iconography and women's history, and communications in the ancient Greek world. I have recently completed a short study of tyranny in Greece from the seventh to the third centuries BC, and am researching the constitutional background to tyranny, archaic and classical, and the methods through which tyrannical power was exercised. In 2002 I published The Athenian Woman: an iconographic handbook, investigating the representation of women on Athenian pottery, and I also continue to research on the visual presentation of women, real and mythological, and archaeological background to Attic pottery.
Current Research Projects
My current project treats Greek tyranny, a topic which has been significantly under-studied, since the 1950s coming a poor second to democracy as a topic of scholarly interest. I aim to investigate the practicalities of tyrannical rule: how exactly did a Greek tyrant come to power and retain that power? What political or military acts were necessary to claim rulership over a polis and to exercise it? Where did tyrants live, and how was their choice of residence related to their hold over the polis? How much power did the family of a tyrant wield, and through what means? An understanding of these issues will offer us a clearer picture of Greek political life, and of the nature of political power in the classical period.
A conference, Tyrants, Kings, Dynasts and Generals: Modes of Autocracy in the Classical Period, took place in Cardiff in July 2003, bringing together scholars researching tyrants and autocratic rulers of all kinds across the Greek and Roman world, and a second conference on tyranny both archaic and classical is planned for 2010.
Publications
Greek Tyranny
Lewis, S.
2009
Bristol Phoenix Press
.
148 p.
(Greece and Rome Live).
Research output
:
Book/Report
›
Book
The World of Greek Vases
Norskov, V. (ed.), Hannestad, L. (ed.), Isler-Kerenyi, C. (ed.) &
Lewis, S. (ed.)
2009
Edizioni Quasar
.
245 p.
(Analecta Romana Instituti Danesi - Supplementum).
Research output
:
Book/Report
›
Book
Ancient Tyranny
Lewis, S.
2006
Edinburgh University Press
.
282 p.
Research output
:
Book/Report
›
Book
The Athenian Woman: An Iconographic Handbook
Lewis, S.
2002
Routledge
.
261 p.
Research output
:
Book/Report
›
Book
Entries on 'Periander of Corinth', 'Polycrates of Samos', 'Peisistratus', 'Thrasyboulos of Miletus', 'Greek Tyrants' and 'Tyranny'
Lewis, S.
Feb-2012
In:
The Encyclopaedia of Ancient History.
Bagnall, R. (ed.).
Wiley-Blackwell
Research output
:
Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding
›
Chapter
Entries on 'Tyranny' and 'Tyrannicide'
Lewis, S.
2010
In:
SAGE Encyclopaedia of Ancient Political Thought.
Bevir, M. (ed.).
SAGE
Research output
:
Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding
›
Chapter
Athletics on Attic Pottery: Export and Imagery
Lewis, S.
2009
In:
The World of Greek Vases.
Norskov, V., Hannestad, L., Isler-Kerenyi, C. & Lewis, S. (eds.).
Edizioni Quasar
,
Vol. 41
,
p. 133-148.
(Analecta Romana Instituti Danesi - Supplementum).
Research output
:
Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding
›
Chapter
Iconography and the Study of Gender
Lewis, S.
2006
In:
Images and Gender: Contributions to the Hermeneutics of Reading Ancient Art.
Schroer, S. (ed.).
Academic Press Fribourg
,
p. 23-39.
Research output
:
Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding
›
Chapter
Representation and reception: Athenian pottery in its Italian context.
Lewis, S.
2003
In:
Inhabiting Symbols: symbol and image in the ancient Mediterranean.
Wilkins, J. B. & Herring, E. (eds.).
Accordia Research Institute. University of London
,
p. 175-92.
Research output
:
Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding
›
Chapter
Entries on Socrates, Plato, Aristagoras, Phidias, and general entry on Ancient Greece.
Lewis, S.
2002
In:
Censorship: An International Encyclopaedia.
Jones, D. (ed.).
Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers
Research output
:
Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding
›
Chapter
Tyrants, spies and the general’s dilemma: the ideology of information in classical Greece
Lewis, S.
2001
In:
Information, Media and Power through the Ages (Historical Studies XXII).
Morgan, H. (ed.).
University College Dublin Press
,
p. 13-28.
Research output
:
Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding
›
Chapter
Review of: Balot, Greek Political Thought
Lewis, S.
2008
In :
Classical Review
.
58
,
p. 199-201.
3 p.
Research output
:
Contribution to journal
›
Article
Review of: Stansbury-O'Donnell, Vase-painting, Gender and Social Identity in Archaic Athens
Lewis, S.
2007
In :
Journal of Hellenic Studies
.
127
,
p. 227-228.
2 p.
Research output
:
Contribution to journal
›
Article
Review of: Lavelle, Fame, Power and Money: the rise of Pisistratus and 'democratic' tyranny at Athens.
Lewis, S.
2006
In :
Journal of Hellenic Studies
.
126
,
p. 168-169.
2 p.
Research output
:
Contribution to journal
›
Article
Review of: Greek Art in View: essays in honour of Brian Sparkes.
Lewis, S.
2006
In :
Classical Review
.
56
,
p. 471-473.
3 p.
Research output
:
Contribution to journal
›
Article
Agathocles: tyranny and kingship in Syracuse
Lewis, S.
2006
In :
Electrum: studies in ancient history
.
11
,
p. 45-59.
Research output
:
Contribution to journal
›
Article
'kai safos tyrannos en': Xenophon's Account of Euphron of Sicyon
Lewis, S.
Jan-2004
In :
Journal of Hellenic Studies
.
124
,
1
,
p. 1-15.
Research output
:
Contribution to journal
›
Article
Images of Craft on Athenian Pottery: Context and Interpretation
Lewis, S.
2010
p. 12-26.
15 p.
Research output
:
Contribution to conference
›
Paper
For further information on publications, please view my profile on the university's research portal.
Research students
I currently supervise two PhD students, one working on gender relationships in Herodotus, and the other social, political and economic structures in Macedonia and Ptolemaic Egypt. Past research students have studied trade and the Athenian economy and the ideology of veiling in archaic and classical Greece. I am very keen to supervise research work on fourth-century Greek topics, and particularly on tyranny.
Academic career
After completing my undergraduate degree and my DPhil at Oxford, I held my first teaching post at Trinity College, Dublin in 1991-2. After a year’s lectureship at St John’s College, Oxford, I went home to Wales as tutorial fellow in Ancient History at the University of Wales Swansea from 1994-6. I then joined Cardiff University in 1996 as lecturer in Greek History. After eight years in Cardiff, I decided to continue my Celtic odyssey and come to teach in Scotland, joining St Andrews in 2004.
