Jessica Lamont

Yale University

Kress Publications Fellow

Research Topic: Magic and Ritual in Ancient Corinth (200 BCE–550 CE)

Jessica Lamont is an Associate Professor of Classics and History at Yale University, where she has worked since 2016. She has published widely on Greek social and cultural history, especially topics in Greek religion and "magic." Lamont’s first book, In Blood and Ashes: Curse Tablets and Binding Spells in Ancient Greece (Oxford University Press 2023) won the James R. Wiseman Book Award (2025) from the Archaeological Institute of America, and the Classical Association of the Middle West and South's First Book Award (2024–25). 

“Magic and Ritual in Ancient Corinth (300 BCE–550 CE).” This epigraphic project, undertaken by myself and my colleague Dr. J. Curbera (Inscriptiones Graecae, BBAW), entails the publication of all inscribed curses, prayers-for-justice, amulets, lamps, and other ritual texts and objects from Corinth and the ancient Corinthia. The project sheds new light on life in Corinth over many centuries, and engages with larger historical questions concerning (i) “magical” ritual and religious practices, and (ii) cultural change and destruction versus revival and continuity. Thanks to support from the Kress Foundation and the ASCSA, this research will culminate in a monograph in the Corinth Hesperia Supplement Series.