Greek Myths in Arabic Literature Workshop
Workshop participation in Rome, 6-8 November 2025

Nadia von Maltzahn is participating in the International Workshop “Greek Myths in Arabic Literature: Reception, Translation, Circulation, Re-Creation”, organised by Mariangela Masullo (University of Macerata) and Arturo Monaco (Sapienza University of Rome), as part of the DIGIMYTH project.
Nadia is presenting a paper on “Greek Mythology in the work of Lebanese artist Fadi Barrage”, whose work “Ulysses with his treasure trove”, 9 April 1983, can be found on the workshop poster.
The full conference progamme can be found here.
Abstract: Greek Mythology in the work of Lebanese artist Fadi Barrage (Nadia von Maltzahn)
Throughout his life, Lebanese artist Fadi Barrage (1939-1988) engaged deeply with Greek mythology and classical literature. Born and raised in Beirut, he studied Classics at the University of Chicago in the early 1960s before dedicating himself to the visual arts. He established himself in the Beirut art world between the late 1960s and 1975, when the outbreak of the Lebanese Civil War forced him to leave his studio in downtown Beirut. Between 1977 and 1985 he lived in Athens, where he further explored Greek mythology. He worked on his own translations of passages of Homer’s Odyssey, into English, and analysed the verses before interpreting them visually. Some of the key figures and locations of the Odyssey were recurrent motifs in his work. In this paper, I will explore how Fadi Barrage engaged with Greek mythology in his writings, through an analysis of his diaries and notebooks, and how this engagement was then reflected in his drawings and paintings that were rooted in his experiences of Lebanon. I will finish with a reading of Barrage’s final series on the Odyssey by the writer Soraya Antonius, whose friendship with and reflection on Barrage’s work enabled this research.
OpenEdition suggests that you cite this post as follows:
Nadia von Maltzahn (October 24, 2025). Greek Myths in Arabic Literature Workshop. LAWHA Lebanon's Art World at Home and Abroad. Retrieved April 16, 2026 from https://lawha.hypotheses.org/2358
