Johan Tralau

Johan Tralau, born 1972, is Professor of Government. His current research interests include the origins of political philosophy in ancient Greece (Homer, Hesiod, Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides); the problem of what an interpretation actually interprets; images of saffron and the beginning of time in Greek poetry; and developing a normative theory of courtesy. In 2013, the Swedish Academy awarded him the Johan Lundblad Prize in classical philology and ancient history. A very long time ago, he and his team, the Stockholm Mean Machines, became Swedish champions in American football. In 2018 his most recent book was published, Havets väldiga ryggar. Offret och de flytande bildernas gåta (Lund: Ellerströms). It is about the sea, bathing, waves, bloody sacrifice, the foundations of societies, community, metaphors, Homer, Aeschylus and Euripides. In 2021, he was a conférencier invité at the Collège de France, and in 2022 at the Centro Antropologia del Mondo Antico, Università di Siena.