{{Short description|French-Swiss archaeologist and scholar}} thumb|Lilly Kahil '''Lilly Louise Kahil''' (2 July 1926 – 4 December 2002) was a Swiss-French archaeologist and classicist of Egyptian-German descent. She was the founder of the ''Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae'', an encyclopedia of ancient Greek, Etruscan and Roman mythology.
==Life== Lilly Kahil was born on 2 July 1926 in Zürich.<ref name=bnf/> Her mother was German, while her father belonged to a Melkite Egyptian family. Her father's sister, Mary Kahil, was known for her inter-faith dialogues with Louis Massignon, an Islamologist. She spent her youth in Egypt.<ref name=gisler>{{cite journal|journal=Bollettino|url=http://media.wix.com/ugd/213c25_e0054af11f6846678be0441ae8d94166.pdf|year=2003|title=Lilly Kahil, un professeur et une archéologue classique d'exception|accessdate=12 October 2013|author=Jean-Robert Gisler}}</ref> During her childhood, she suffered a long illness, was taught at home by private teachers and took her baccalaurét at the age of sixteen. She attended Cairo's Sacred Heart Convent. August 1945 she and her sister went to Europe for higher studies.<ref name=allocution>{{cite journal|url=https://www.persee.fr/doc/crai_0065-0536_2002_num_146_4_22522|title= Allocution à l'occasion du décès de Mme Lilly Kahil, correspondant étranger de l'Académie. |author= Gilbert Dagron|year=2002|number=4|journal= Comptes rendus des séances de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres|accessdate=13 October 2018}}</ref> She studied for a year at the University of Basel with Karl Schefold, after which she attended the Sorbonne, where she received a degree in literature (1947) and a higher diploma in classical studies (1948).<ref name=mae>{{cite web|url=http://archives.mae.u-paris10.fr/index.php/lilly-kahil-lexicon-iconographicum-mythologia-classicae|title=Fonds LIK - Lilly Kahil. Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologia Classicae|accessdate=13 October 2018|publisher=Maison Archéologie & Ethnologie, René-Ginouvès}}</ref>
Kahil joined the French School at Athens, during which she prepared her doctoral thesis, titled ''Les enlèvements et le retour d'Hélène dans les texte et les documents figurés''.<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://www.persee.fr/doc/antiq_0770-2817_1957_num_26_1_3316_t1_0259_0000_2 |title= Lilly B. Ghali-Kahil, Les enlèvements et le retour d'Hélène dans les textes et les documents figurés.|author=Jules Labarbe|journal=L'antiquité classique|volume=26|number=1|year=1957|accessdate=13 October 2018}}</ref> She defended her dissertation at Sorbonne in 1954. It won the Salomon Reinach prize of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, and was published the following year.
In 1963 her family left Egypt following expropriation by Nasser's regime.<ref name=gisler/>
Kahil was first married to Boutros Boutros-Ghali, who would later become Secretary-General of the United Nations.<ref name=bristol/> During this period, she went by the name of Ghali-Kahil.<ref name=bnf>{{cite web|url=http://data.bnf.fr/12348491/lilly_kahil/|title=Lilly Kahil (1926-2002)|accessdate=13 October 2018|publisher=Bibliotheque nationale de France}}</ref> Her second marriage was to Prof. René Ginouvès, a French archaeologist, whereupon she reverted to her maiden name.<ref name=gisler/>
Following a long illness, Kahil died on 4 December 2002 in Garches.<ref name=bnf/>
==Career== Lilly Kahil was a research associate at CNRS between 1955 and 1957. She became a professor at the University of Fribourg between 1957 and 1969. She was a professor at the University of Paris X-Nanterre for the next ten years, following which she was appointed Director of Research at CNRS.<ref name=bnf/>
Kahil specialised in archaeology, the history of religions and mythology. She worked with the Swiss School of Archaeology in Greece at the excavations at Eretria in 1964 and 1978. She also conducted digs at Soloi in Cyprus and Laodicea on the Lycus, as well as at Thasos on behalf of the French School of Athens,<ref name=allocution/> publishing a report on the ceramics there in 1967.
She was one of the first archaeologists to develop an in-depth study of Geometric art in Greek ceramics, including those from Euboean workshops. A major contribution was on the iconography on vases found at the temple of Artemis in Brauron.<ref>{{cite journal|journal=Hesperia|url=https://repository.brynmawr.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1021&context=classics_pubs|accessdate=13 October 2018|title=Alkman and the Athenian Arkteia|author=Richard Hamilton|volume=58|year=1989}}</ref><ref name="Scanlon2002">{{cite book|author=Thomas Francis Scanlon|title=Eros and Greek Athletics|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=j3k8DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA139|year=2002|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-514985-2|page=139}}</ref>
Kahil also conducted archaeological digs on behalf of the Institute of Advanced Study.<ref name=allocution/> Her last project, a study of the white ground technique used on lekythos at the Louvre, remained unfinished at her death.<ref name=gisler/>
===Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae=== {{Main|Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae}} During her professorship at Paris X-Nanterre, Kahil initiated a programme to document ancient Greek, Etruscan and Roman mythology. The encyclopedia in twenty volumes, titled ''Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae'', was published between 1981 and 2009.<ref name=bristol>{{cite web|url=http://www.bristol.ac.uk/news/2009/6702.html|title=Enduring myths|date=19 September 2009|accessdate=13 October 2018|publisher=University of Bristol}}</ref> She served as its secretary-general,<ref name=bnf/> and wrote several articles for it, notably those on Artemis and Helen. She established a network of academic organisations for the project, and set up a foundation based in Switzerland. Related conferences were organised at Thessaloniki in 1993, in Basel in 1994, Malibu in 1995 and at Oxford in 1996 towards the publication of the ''Thesaurus Cultus et Rituum Antiquorum'', a systematic dictionary that has become a reference work on the cults and rites of ancient religions.
==Selected works== * {{cite book | author1 = Lilly Kahil | title = Les enlèvements et le retour d'Hélène dans les texte et les documents figurés. | publisher = Éditions de Boccard | location = Paris | year = 1955}} * {{cite book | author1 = Lilly Kahil | title = La céramique grecque: Études thasiennes. | volume = VII | publisher = Éditions de Boccard | location = Paris | year = 1960}} * {{cite book | author1 = Lilly Kahil | title = Grèce préhistorique et archaïque | series = Images des grandes civilisations. | volume = 4 | publisher = Éditions Rencontre | location = Lausanne | year = 1964}} * {{cite book | author1 = Lilly Kahil | title = Grèce. Le ve siècle av. J.-C. | series = Images des grandes civilisations. | volume = 5 | publisher = Éditions Rencontre | location = Lausanne | year = 1964}} * {{cite encyclopedia | author1 = Lilly Kahil | title = Céramiques géométriques et subgéométriques d'Érétrie |editor = Claude Bérard | encyclopedia = Eretria: L'Hérôon à la porte de l'ouest | publisher = Francke Berne | volume = III | number = 7 | year = 1968 | pages = 100}} * {{cite book | author1 = Lilly Kahil |author2 = Jean de Gagniers | title = Laodicée du Lycos: Le nymphée. Campagnes 1961-1963. | publisher = Éditions de Boccard | location = Paris | year = 1969}} * {{cite book | author1 = Lilly Kahil |author2 = Serapheim Charitōnidēs | author3 = René Ginouvès | title = Les mosaïques de la maison du Ménandre à Mytilène | series = l'Art Antique | volume = supplément 6 | publisher = Francke | location = Bâle | year = 1970}} * {{cite book | author1 = Lilly Kahil |author2 = Christiane Dunant | title = Du Corpus vasorum antiquorum | volume = 3 | series = Genève, Musée d'art et d'histoire | number = Fascicule 2 | publisher = P. Lang | location = Berne | year = 1980 | isbn = 3-261-00466-5}} * {{cite book | editor1 = Lilly Kahil | editor2 = Christian Augé | title = La Mythologie gréco-romaine, de mythologies périphériques. Études d'iconographie | series = Colloques internationaux du Centre national de la recherche scientifique | volume = 593 | publisher = CNRS | location = Paris | date =1 January 1981 | isbn = 2-222-02692-X}} * {{cite book | editor1 = Lilly Kahil| editor2 = Christian Augé | editor3 = Pascale Linant de Bellefonds | title = Iconographie classique et identités régionales | series = Bulletin de correspondance hellénique | volume = supplément 14 | publisher = Diffusion de Boccard | location = Paris | year = 1986 | isbn = 2-869-58003-7}} * {{cite book | editor1 = Lilly Kahil | editor2 = Pascale Linant de Bellefonds | title = La Religion, la mythologie, iconographie | series = Mélanges de l'École française de Rome | volume = 103 | publisher = École française de Rome | location = Palais Farnèse, Rome | year = 1991}} * {{cite journal | author1 = Lilly Kahil |title = Le sacrifice d'Iphigénie |journal=Religion, mythologie, iconographie - actes du colloque international, Rome) | series = Mélanges de l’École française de Rome | publisher = École française de Rome | year = 1991 | volume = 103 | number = 1 | pages = 183–196 | url = http://www.persee.fr/doc/mefr_0223-5102_1991_num_103_1_1709?q=lilly%20kahil}}
==Awards and honours== * 1954: Salomon Rainach prize of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres.<ref name=mae/> * 1985: Gustave Mendel prize of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres.<ref name=allocution/> * 1989: Honorary Member of the Archaeological Society of Athens.<ref name=allocution/> * 1989: Foreign Honorary Member of the Archaeological Institute of America.
== References == {{Reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Kahil, Lilly}} Category:1926 births Category:2002 deaths Category:20th-century Eastern Catholics Category:21st-century Eastern Catholics Category:Academic staff of the University of Fribourg Category:Academic staff of Paris Nanterre University Category:Eastern Catholic writers Category:Egyptian Melkite Greek Catholics Category:Scientists from Zurich Category:Paris-Sorbonne University alumni Category:Swiss women archaeologists