Agnes Kirsopp Lake Michels

Agnes Freda Isabel Kirsopp Lake Michels (July 31, 1909 – November 30, 1993, in Chapel Hill, North Carolina)^[1] known as "Nan" to her friends, was a leading twentieth century scholar of Roman religion and daily life and a daughter of the Biblical scholar Kirsopp Lake (1872–1946).

Michels was the daughter of Kirsopp Lake, a New Testament scholar. Michels earned her bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees in Latin from Bryn Mawr College, where she was also a member of the faculty from 1934 until 1975.^[2] After her retirement she frequently taught courses at Duke University as well as at the University of North Carolina.

She spent time in Rome as a Fellow of the American Academy in the company of Lily Ross Taylor. Michels was president of the American Philological Association for 1971-72.^[3] During her career, Roman religion was the focus of her research. It led to her landmark book, still consulted by scholars as a work of authority, The Calendar of the Roman Republic (Princeton, 1967).^[4]

A series of lectures offered at Bryn Mawr College celebrates Michels and her work.^[5]

Michels was married to physicist Walter Christian Michels (1906-1975).^[6] She is buried in Radnor, Pennsylvania.

Publications

• 1935. Campana Supellex, the pottery deposit at Minturnae. Ph.D. thesis, Bryn Mawr College.
• 1935. "The archaeological evidence for the "Tuscan temple"". Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome 12:89-149.
• 1955. "Death and Two Poets." Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association 86:160-179.
• 1997. "The Many Faces of Aeneas." The Classical Journal 92.4:399-416.

Necrology

• Obituary by Russell T. Scott in Bryn Mawr Classical Review

Sources

• Biography and bibliography written by Jerzy Linderski, "Agnes Kirsopp Michels and the Religio." Classical Journal 92.4 (1997) 323-345.

References

1. Harvard University. Class of 1894. Secretary; Harvard College (1780- ). Class of 1894 (1919). Twenty-fifth anniversary report, 1894-1919. Plimpton Press. pp. 584–.
2. Bryn Mawr College (1964). Bryn Mawr College Calendar: Graduate Courses. The College.
3. American Philological Association (1972). Directory of Members - American Philological Association. Scholars Press.
4. Agnes Kirsopp Michels (1 January 1978). The Calendar of the Roman Republic. Greenwood Press. ISBN 978-0-313-20226-1.
5. Faris, Suzanne B.; Lundeen, Lesley E. Ten Years of the Agnes Kirsopp Lake Michels Lectures at Bryn Mawr College. Bryn Mawr Commentaries. ISBN 978-1-931019-03-3.
6. https://archive.org/stream/annualreportsofp09bryn/annualreportsofp09bryn_djvu.txt