Name: Profs & Pints Richmond: Witches of Antiquity
Start: 2026-10-26
End: 2026-10-26

Patrick Henry Park

St. John’s Church, the site of Patrick Henry’s impassioned oratory “give me liberty or give me death” is one of the oldest wooden churches (1741) in Virginia and remains an active congregation. See reenactments of the 1775 debate among 9 of the Founding Fathers on summer Sundays between Memorial Day and Labor Day. Check website for tickets, dates and times.

St. John's Church

St. John’s Church, the site of Patrick Henry’s impassioned oratory “give me liberty or give me death” is one of the oldest wooden churches (1741) in Virginia and remains an active congregation. See reenactments of the 1775 debate among 9 of the Founding Fathers on summer Sundays between Memorial Day and Labor Day. Check the website for tickets, dates, and times. An elevator located on 24th Street provides access to the site. Our brick walkways are navigable by wheelchair. If you need assistance, please call our Visitor Center at 804.648.5015.

St. John's Church Foundation

First proposed by John Marshall in 1812 to connect Tidewater Virginia with the Ohio River, the canal required for its construction the back-breaking effort of thousands of laborers. After many of the original white Irish laborers died of hypothermia, they were replaced with enslaved blacks who were thought to be impervious to uncomfortable conditions.

James River and Kanawha Canal

From 1680 until 1780, Richmond was a principal port of entry for Africans being sold into slavery. The Manchester Slave Trail is a memorial to those who walked that route.

Manchester Slave Trail

We serve BBQ, and meats prepared on a rotisserie and grill. We also have a cozy bar. Come on by and see us sometime!

Frontier by Alamo

Funky bar with a full gastropub menu including vegan options, weekend brunch and box lunches to-go.

Liberty Public House

Contemporary fine art, exhibited September through June.

Eric Schindler Gallery

Phal's Cafe

Head on in to Honey Whyte's and feast your eyes on the greatest burger ever made. Wash it down with an ice cold draft beer. You won't be sorry you did.

Honey Whyte's All American Cafe

We’re a community of runners, hikers, bikers and ballplayers. We’re an outdoor playground, designed by Mother Nature, with class III and IV rapids running right through our downtown. A 52-mile bike trail runs along the James. The Richmond Marathon and Ukrop’s 10k are huge celebrations, and the whole region comes out to cheer on our local teams. In fact, we’re so sports-minded that the Washington Redskins have their training camp right in the center of the city. Add to that awesome hotels, beautiful venues, attractions, art, craft beer, more than 900 restaurants and a convenient location, and you’ve got a top choice for your next sports event. Welcome to RVA!

From indoor to outdoor facilities, the Richmond region has the fields, pitches, diamonds, venues and the dedicated staff to ensure your event is a huge success. 



Sports Richmond, VA

Profs and Pints Richmond presents: “Witches of Antiquity,” on the sorceresses of ancient Greece and Rome, with Barbette Stanley Spaeth, professor emerita of classical studies at William & Mary and scholar of magic and the supernatural in the ancient world.  
  
Seductive enchantress. Murderous sorceress. Corpse-mangling hag. The witches of the ancient world were among antiquity’s most vivid and disturbing characters.   
  
Get to know some of antiquity’s most unforgettable women with the help of Barbette Stanley Spaeth, who last year gave fantastic Profs and Pints talks on ancient magic and ancient terrors of the night.  
  
We’ll spend time with Homer’s beautiful Circe, Euripides’ passionate Medea, and Horace’s sinister Canidia. You’ll encounter Lucan’s terrifying Erictho, a witch so powerful she could raise the dead and force even the gods to obey her.  
  
Along the way, we’ll ask why the image of the witch changed so dramatically as it traveled from Greece to Rome. Greek writers often imagined witches as beautiful, alluring, and sometimes even helpful. Roman authors, on the other hand, increasingly portrayed them as ugly, lustful, dangerous old women. What can these frightening figures tell us about ancient attitudes toward magic, women, sexuality, and power?  
  
The answers take us beyond spells and potions into some of the deepest anxieties of the ancient world, about women who possessed power, men who feared losing it, and what might happen when accepted boundaries—between male and female, human and divine, living and dead, and even order and chaos—began to break down.  
  
For over thirty years at William & Mary and Tulane University, Dr. Spaeth taught courses on ancient magic and the supernatural. She has published several studies of ancient witchcraft and is currently working on a book on the subject. Her talk is sure to leave you spellbound. (Advance tickets: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. The talk starts 30 minutes later.)  
  
Image: From “Circe Offering the Cup to Odysseus,” an 1891 painting by John William Waterhouse (Gallery Oldham / Public Domain).

Profs & Pints Richmond: Witches of Antiquity

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