Dr Nicolette Pavlides

Raised in Limassol, Cyprus I studied Classics in New York and the UK. I received my PhD from the University of Edinburgh. Before joining King’s College London in 2020, I taught in Trinity College Dublin, NUI Maynooth, and University College Cork.

Research interests and PhD supervision

• Greek Religion
• Hero-Cult
• Sparta and the Perioikoi
• Religion and Warfare

My research focuses on the local religious tradition of Sparta, in particular hero cults, as well as, more widely, on the role of sanctuaries in the relationship between Sparta and the perioikic communities living in Laconia and Messenia. I am interested in the interplay between religion and cultural memory, local identity, warfare, and politics in the Archaic and Classical Peloponnese. In my research on hero-cult, I examine the cognitive process that allows the worship of mortals. I also use comparative material from anthropology and cognitive science to interpret a popular Spartan practice.

Currently, I am involved in the publication of the material from the temple of Helen and Menelaus (the Menelaion) in Sparta – I am preparing the publication of the terracotta figurines.

I am organising the forthcoming conference ‘Family, Religion, and the Polis: Interaction, Amalgamation, Transformation’ that will be held at King’s College London in June 29-30, 2022.

Selected publications

The Hero Cults of Sparta: Local Religion in a GreekPolis (contracted to Bloomsbury,

‘Heroes, Politics, and the Problem of Ethnicity in Archaic and Classical Sparta’ Kernos 34 (2021),

‘Non-Spartans in the Lakedaimonian Army: the Evidence from Laconia’ Historia 2 (2020), 154-84.

‘The Sanctuaries of Apollo Maleatas and Apollo Tyritas in Laconia: Religion in Spartan-Perioikic Relations’, Annual of the British School at Athens113 (2018), 279-305.

‘Catalogue of Cult-Sites in Laconia’, Annual of the British School at Athens, Supplementary Material 113 (2018), 1-17.

Teaching

I teach undergraduate and MA modules on Greek and Roman History and Greek Religion.

Expertise and public engagement

• 2020 Lecture on ‘Hero-Cult in the Greek World’ for the King’s College London Outreach Program: ‘Advocating Classical Education and Ancient History A Level’.
• 2018 Podcast. Interviewed on the subject of the Menelaion at Sparta for a forthcoming 20-part series on YouTube titled ‘A History of Sparta in 20 Objects.’ Organised and conducted by Richard Evans in collaboration with the Center of Spartan and Peloponnesian Studies, University of Nottingham.
• 2018 Classics Open Day at Trinity College Dublin.
• 2013 and 2015 Classics Open Day for Junior Certificate Students at Trinity College Dublin.