The Parthenon in Athens, Greece, is considered one of the most important surviving buildings from the classical Greece period. Vassilis Lambrinoudakis, professor emeritus of classical archaeology at the University of Athens, will discuss classical Greece's influence on modern society for this year's Catharine Pelican Annual Memorial Lecture in Greek Culture April 25 at UMSL. (Photo by Tim Bekaert via Wikimedia Commons)

A Greek professor of classical archaeology will explore the impact of classical Greece on modern society in a lecture at 7 p.m. April 25 at the University of Missouri–St. Louis.

Vassilis Lambrinoudakis, professor emeritus of classical archaeology at the University of Athens, Greece will give this year’s Catharine Pelican Annual Memorial Lecture in Greek Culture in the Student Government Association Chamber of the Millennium Student Center at UMSL. In his speech “Rediscovering, Reconstructing, Using the Past: Archeology of the Classical World,” Lambrinoudakis will discuss the many ways in which the legacy of classical Greece impacts modern society, especially in terms of its usefulness, dynamics and even misuse.

The lecture is sponsored by International Studies and Programs at UMSL, and is free and open to the public.

Lambrinoudakis has directed excavations in the Aegean islands of Naxos and Chios, in the sanctuary of Asclepios in Epidauros and in Mani in south Peloponnese. His publications cover a wide range of topics referring to Ancient Greece, as art, architecture, topography, epigraphy, religion and cult, theory of archaeology and management of monuments.

The Catharine Pelican Annual Memorial Lecture in Greek Culture was established by Dr. and Mrs. George Pelican and Mrs. Maria P. Kafelenos in memory of their mother. The lecture is presented by the Hellenic Government-Karakas Family Foundation Professorship in Greek Studies at UMSL.