The Neisou Gem: Alexander as Zeus?

A public lecture by Dr Kenneth Sheedy, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Ancient History at Maquarie University.

One of the most famous depictions of Alexander the Great known today occurs on a carnelian gem in the Hermitage, St Petersburg. On it we see a naked male, crowned with a royal diadem, holding the symbols of his divinity (a thunderbolt and aegis). The inclusion of this gem in the Australian Museum's forthcoming exhibition is one of the few times it has ever left Russia since its purchase from the collection of the Duc d’Orléans (Paris) in 1787.  The occasion warrants a new look at this remarkable work of art. 

Dr Kenneth Sheedy was appointed the founding Director of the Australian Centre for Ancient Numismatic Studies in 2000. He is a Senior Lecturer in the  Department of Ancient History at Macquarie University.

His fields of research and teaching are Greek numismatics, and the art and archaeology of Greece with emphasis on the archaic period. In addition to his on-going studies in the coinage of the Cyclades, South Italy and Athens, he is interested in Geometric pottery, Protoattic pottery, archaic sculpture and the early history of Delos.