Heads or Tails: Gorgons, Satyrs, and Other Monsters

of the Greek Imagination

Explore Greek culture’s monstrous hybrids—like gorgons and satyrs—as thought experiments on human nature. Dr. Jeremy McInerney examines how these figures challenge ideas of identity and desire.

Jeremy McInerney is a professor of classical studies at the University of Pennsylvania. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, before joining Penn. His recent research on hybridity in Greek culture was published in 2024 as Centaurs and Snake-Kings: Hybrids and the Greek Imagination by Cambridge University Press. His other works include The Folds of Parnassos (1999), and The Cattle of the Sun (2010). He edited A Companion to Ethnicity in the Ancient Mediterranean (2014) and co-edited Landscapes of Value: Natural Environment and Cultural Imagination in Classical Antiquity (2016). His research interests include foodways, gender issues, and Greek religion. McInerney has recently published studies on Hephaistos and Athenian relations with Lemnos. His upcoming book on the Persian Wars is set for publication in 2025 by Oxford University Press.

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