Agnes Kirsopp Lake Michels

Agnes Freda Isabel Kirsopp Lake Michels (July 31, 1909 – November 30, 1993, in Chapel Hill, North Carolina) 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. 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. 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).

A series of lectures offered at Bryn Mawr College celebrates Michels and her work.

Michels was married to physicist Walter Christian Michels (1906-1975). 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[1]

Sources

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