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DR. Iris Sulimani, Senior Lecturer

Contact Info

Open University of Israel Department of History, Philosophy and Judaic Studies, senior lecturer. 1 University Road, P. O. Box 808, Raanana 4353701
Office:972-9-7782052 Email:irissul@openu.ac.il

Additional Information

My CRIS profile

Areas of Interest
  • History of the Hellenistic period
  • Classical historiography
  • Ancient biography
  • Mythology and mythography
  • Culture-heroes
  • Utopias of the ancient world
  • Diodorus Siculus
  • Plutarch

Dr. Iris Sulimani is a faculty member in the Department of History, Philosophy and Judaic Studies at The Open University of Israel. She specializes in ancient history and classics, and her work focuses on the history, mythology, geography, religion and culture of the Hellenistic period. In addition, she explores various literary genres, in particular historiography, biography and mythography. Her book Diodorus’ Mythistory and the Pagan Mission scrutinizes historiographical aspects of Diodorus' Bibliotheke and examines the concept of the pagan mission. It establishes the importance of the Bibliotheke's mythical section and argues that the entire work amounts to much more than a mere compilation, thus deserving more respect than it has usually received. In other studies Dr. Sulimani emphasizes the link between history, mythology and geography, as in her discussion of imaginary islands, utopia and the geographical map. Her current research explores Plutarch's biographies of mythical figures.

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2004
Ph.D, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Department of History
1996
M.A., University of Haifa, Department of General History (cum laude)
1990
B.A., University of Haifa, Department of General History and Department of Political Science (cum laude)
2012:
Open University of Israel, Department of History, Philosophy and Judaic Studies, senior lecturer.
1993-2003, 2005-2012:
University of Haifa, Department of General History, adjunct lecturer.
2006-2011:
University of Haifa, School of History, adjunct lecturer.
2003-2011:
Hebrew University, Department of History, adjunct lecturer.
2010-2011:
Hebrew University, Department of Classical Studies, adjunct lecturer.
2010:
University of Haifa, Department of Multi-Disciplinary Studies, adjunct lecturer.
1991-2003:
University of Haifa, Department of Foreign Languages, adjunct lecturer.
1991-1997:
Tel-Hai College, Department of History, adjunct lecturer.

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Diodorus’ Mythistory and the Pagan Mission: Historiography and Culture-heroes in the First Pentad of the Bibliotheke, Leiden and Boston 2011 (Mnemosyne Supplements, 331), xvi, 409 pp.

"Diodorus' Mythography: The Distinctive Features of Mythology within Universal History", Polymnia, 4 (2019), 1-32. 

"Egyptian Heroes Travelling in Hellenistic Road Networks: The Representation of the Journeys of Osiris and Sesostris in Diodorus", ARAM periodical, 27:1&2 (2015), 81-96.

"Speeches in Diodorus' First Pentad", Ancient World, 45 (2014), 174-192.

"Diodorus' Source-Citations. A Turn in the Attitude of Ancient Authors towards Their Predecessors?", Athenaeum, 96 (2008), 535-567.

"Myth or Reality? A Geographical Examination of Semiramis' Journey in Diodorus", Scripta Classica Israelica, 24 (2005), 45-63. 

"All Over the World: The Utopian Idea in Diodorus Siculus", in Pierre Destrée, Jan Opsomer and Geert Roskam (eds.), Utopias in Ancient Thought, Berlin: De Gruyter 2021, 231-254.

"Mimēsis in Diodorus Siculus: The Role of History and Sicilian Role models", in H.L. Reid and J. DeLong (eds.), The Many Faces of Mimēsis: Selected Essays from the 2017 Symposium on the Hellenic Heritage of Western Greece, Sioux City IA:  Parnassos Press 2018, 201-214.

"Imaginary Islands in the Hellenistic Era: Utopia on the Geographical Map", in G. Hawes (ed.), Myths on the Map: The Storied Landscapes of Ancient Greece, Oxford: Oxford University Press 2017, 221-242. 

in Hebrew:
"Review of I. Malkin, The Returns of Odysseus, Tel Aviv 2004", Zmanim, 90 (2005), pp. 102-105.
["על מיתוס, היסטוריה ואתנוגרפיה: ביקורת על ספרו של עירד מלכין, שיבותיו של אודיסאוס: מיתוס, זהות אתנית וייסוד מושבות ביוון הקדומה, תרגמה דליה טסלר, תל-אביב 2004", זמנים, 90 (2005), עמ' 105-102.]

in Hebrew:
"Review of D. Mendels, Memory in Jewish, Pagan and Christian Societies of the Graeco-Roman World, London and New York 2004", Zmanim, 93 (2006), pp. 114-118.
["עיצובו של זיכרון, שימורו ותפקידיו בעולם העתיק: ביקורת על הספר
Doron Mendels, Memory in Jewish, Pagan and Christian Societies of the Graeco-Roman World, T&T Clark International, London and New York 2004", זמנים, 93 (2006), עמ' 118-114.]

"Review of Diodorus Siculus and the World of the Late Roman Republic by Charles Edward Muntz", Phoenix, 71 no. 3/4 (2017), 409-411.

"Diodorus Siculus, Library", in S.M. Trzaskoma and R.S. Smith (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Greek and Roman Mythography, Oxford: Oxford University Press 2022, 178-185.

"Imaginary worlds: Maritime Fictional Spheres Located at Cardinal Points", in Marie-Claire Beaulieu (ed.), A Cultural History of the Sea in Antiquity (500 BCE-800 CE), London: Bloomsbury Academic 2021, 173-192.

The Constitutions of the Greek Polis, The Open University of Israel, 2022 [Hebrew]