From the Egyptian god Harpocrates – mentioned, among others, by Plutarch, Catullus, Ovid, Augustine, and Politian – to the Roman goddesses Angerona and Tacita, from the God-Logos of the Gospel of John to Jesus’ silence in reply to the accusations levelled against him in Mark 14,60, from the rare silences of the usually talkative gods and goddesses of the Homeric poems to the “Almighty, the eternal and terrible Master of the Universe [who] chose to be silent” – because of its inexistence, death or temporary absence – on the first night when Elie Wiesel arrived at Auschwitz, the history of literature is rich in examples of the relation between gods and silence.
What this short list suggests is that the intertwining of the notion of “divinity” and the notion of “silence” is extremely rich and multifaceted, both notions being affected by subjective and cultural variability as well as by conceptual oscillations. It is precisely that richness and multifariousness that “The Silence of (the) God(s) International Conference” aims to explore through the prism of literary, comparative, and philosophical studies.
Registration to attend the conference without registration (until November 23rd)
