Edit Author: Claire Hall
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
You do not have permission to edit this page, for the following reason:
The action you have requested is limited to users in one of the groups:
Administrators
, observer.
Override name spelling
Display name
Sort as
Roles
Researcher
Author
Section
When creating a page for an author of a Public Domain work, choose "Classics." Select "Observatory" for authors of the Observatory.
Observatory
Classics
Expertise
Research Areas
History
Arts and Recreation
Philosophy
+ Source
Public Domain Review
Secondary sources
Author Photo Bio
Claire Hall is a historian of ancient Greek science and religion.
Note
: A caption will be shown next to author avatar. Keep it short (less than 400 characters).
Photo
Upload file
Note
: Keep image small (less than 200kB).
Homepage
Notification contact
Eric Laursen
Jan Ritch-Frel
Katherine Dolan
Reynard Loki
Activate tabs
Full Bio
Commentary
Books and Research
Teaching
Multimedia
Events
Articles
Tab will be added and auto populated with links to the Observatory articles by this author.
Full Bio
Claire Hall is a research fellow at Durham and a fellow of All Souls College, Oxford. Her research explores the future in Greco-Roman antiquity, examining how philosophical, literary, and religious texts—and technical disciplines such as medicine, astronomy, and divination—shaped ideas of prediction and foresight. Her current book project, ''Knowing the Future in the Greco-Roman World'', investigates how a new concept of the future as a predictable, mappable space emerged in the first two centuries AD. Her first book, ''[https://global.oup.com/academic/product/origen-and-prophecy-9780192846648 Origen and Prophecy]'' (2021), studied prophecy in the work of the Christian philosopher Origen of Alexandria, situating it within Classical and Hellenistic philosophy and ancient Jewish thought. Hall has also published on Greek authors including Ptolemy, Vettius Valens, Galen, and Artemidorus. She teaches history, philosophy, and the languages of Greek and Latin across all areas of Greco-Roman antiquity.
Commentary
Title
Sub-Title
External link
Upload file
Link
File
Upload file
Co-Authors
Source
London Review of Books
Date
March
Description
Galen, a famous doctor in the late 100s CE, disapproved of people who focused only on building big muscles instead of their minds. In his time, gym culture and athletic competitions were central to Greek and Roman life, and public baths were major social spaces. Galen believed many people cared too much about food and luxury. A new edition of his writings shows his view that health depends on each person’s unique body. A good doctor, he argued, must understand both healthy and sick bodies to restore true well-being.
Title
Sub-Title
External link
Upload file
Link
File
Upload file
Co-Authors
Source
London Review of Books
Date
May
Description
Hall reviews Carlo Rovelli’s book ''Anaximander and the Nature of Scienc''e.
Title
Sub-Title
External link
Upload file
Link
File
Upload file
Co-Authors
Source
Times Literary Supplement
Date
January
Description
In 2012, scholars discovered a miscatalogued Greek manuscript in Munich containing twenty-nine homilies on the Psalms. Archivist Marina Molin Pradel and expert Lorenzo Perrone realized many were the original Greek versions of known Latin translations by the early Christian thinker Origen, plus several completely unknown homilies. Although exciting, the find adds only modestly to Origen’s already huge body of work. Origen, a major early Christian philosopher, lived in Alexandria and later Caesarea.
Title
Sub-Title
External link
Upload file
Link
File
Upload file
Co-Authors
Source
Date
Description
Add
Books and Research
Title
Sub-Title
External link
Upload file
Link
File
Upload file
Co-Authors
Elsa Giovanna Simonetti
Publisher
Cambridge University Press
Date
October
Description
This book looks at the tension in ancient divination: it was believed to be a divine gift inspired by the gods, yet it also depended on human judgment and special skills. Divination used different methods and types of knowledge. One way to see the tension is as two axes: inspired to skill-based methods, and knowledge about changeable events to knowledge about higher, spiritual matters. Since ancient times, people distinguished “natural” inspired divination from “technical” sign-reading practices.
Title
Sub-Title
External link
Upload file
Link
File
Upload file
Co-Authors
Publisher
Oxford University Press
Date
September
Description
Origen (c.185–255 AD) is often considered the most important Christian writer of his time and the first to build a full theological system. ''Origen and Prophecy'' explores how he understood prophecy, a word that covered predicting the future, guiding people morally, and receiving spiritual visions. The book argues that Origen used the same three levels he saw in scripture—literal, moral, and spiritual—to explain prophecy. It also traces how earlier Greek, Jewish, and Christian ideas shaped his views.
Title
Sub-Title
External link
Upload file
Link
File
Upload file
Co-Authors
Publisher
Date
Description
Add
Teaching
Course Title
Subject(s)/Area(s)
External link
Upload file
Link
File
Upload file
Co-Teachers
Institution(s)
Date
—
Description
Add
Multimedia
Title
Link
Type
Video
Audio
Webpage
File
Tag
Interview
Feature
Date
Description
Add
Events
Display calendar
Calendar ID
Google calendar ID can be found on calendar settings page.
Summary:
Save page
Show preview
Show changes
Cancel
Navigation menu
Personal tools
Not logged in
Talk
Contributions
Log in
Namespaces
Page
Discussion
English
Views
Read
View form
View source
View history
More
Refresh
Search
Tools
What links here
Related changes
Special pages
Page information