Marguerite Johnson is a cultural historian of the ancient Mediterranean, specialising in sexuality and gender, particularly in the poetry of Sappho, Catullus, and Ovid, as well as magical traditions in Greece, Rome, and the Near East. She also researches Classical Reception Studies, with a regular focus on Australia. In addition to ancient world studies, Marguerite is interested in sexual histories in modernity as well as magic in the west more broadly, especially the practices and art of Australian witch, Rosaleen Norton. She is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities.
Publications
Books
Johnson, Marguerite (2022). Sexuality in Greek and Roman society and literature: a sourcebook. 2nd ed. London, United Kingdom: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781003242048
Johnson, Marguerite (2016). Ovid on cosmetics: Medicamina Faciei Femineae and related texts. New York, NY, United States: Bloomsbury Academic. doi: 10.5040/9781474218696.0008
Johnson, Marguerite (2012). Boudicca. London, United Kingdom: Bristol Classical Press.
Johnson, Marguerite (2007). Sappho. London, United Kingdom: Bristol Classical Press.
Johnson, Marguerite and Ryan, Terry (2004). Sexuality in Greek and Roman literature and society: a sourcebook. London, United Kingdom: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9780203645826
Book Chapters
Johnson, Marguerite (2023). Mansplaining with Ovid: Ars-cultus-munditia and the 'Natural' body. Body technologies in the Greco-Roman world: technosôma, gender and sex. (pp. 161-180) edited by Maria Gerolemou and Giulia Maria Chesi. Liverpool, United Kingdom: Liverpool University Press.
Johnson, Marguerite (2023). Warfare, violence, rape, revenge: Jane Holland’s Boudicca & CO. Revisiting rape in antiquity: sexualized violence in Greek and Roman worlds. (pp. 247-264) edited by Susan Deacy, José Malheiro Magalhães and Jean Zacharski Menzies. London, United Kingdom: Bloomsbury Academic. doi: 10.5040/9781350099234.ch-015
Johnson, Marguerite (2022). Introduction. Sexuality in Greek and Roman Society and Literature. (pp. 1-22) London: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781003242048-1
Johnson, Marguerite (2022). A final word. Sexuality in Greek and Roman Society and Literature. (pp. 353-354) London: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781003242048-327
Johnson, Marguerite (2022). Sex aids, didactic literature and handbooks. Sexuality in Greek and Roman Society and Literature. (pp. 202-226) London: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781003242048-179
Johnson, Marguerite (2022). Sexual labour. Sexuality in Greek and Roman Society and Literature. (pp. 135-165) London: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781003242048-111
Johnson, Marguerite (2022). Sex and violence. Sexuality in Greek and Roman Society and Literature. (pp. 227-250) London: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781003242048-208
Johnson, Marguerite (2022). Marriage. Sexuality in Greek and Roman Society and Literature. (pp. 89-134) London: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781003242048-71
Johnson, Marguerite (2022). Celebrity sex. Sexuality in Greek and Roman Society and Literature. (pp. 316-352) London: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781003242048-296
Johnson, Marguerite (2022). Anxiety and repulsion. Sexuality in Greek and Roman Society and Literature. (pp. 251-270) London: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781003242048-235
Johnson, Marguerite (2022). Same-sex attraction. Sexuality in Greek and Roman Society and Literature. (pp. 166-201) London: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781003242048-145
Johnson, Marguerite (2022). The divine sphere. Sexuality in Greek and Roman Society and Literature. (pp. 23-55) London: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781003242048-2
Johnson, Marguerite (2022). Beauty. Sexuality in Greek and Roman Society and Literature. (pp. 56-88) London: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781003242048-29
Johnson, Marguerite (2022). Taboos, alterity and marginal activities. Sexuality in Greek and Roman Society and Literature. (pp. 271-315) London: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781003242048-262
Johnson, Marguerite (2022). "For the children": children's columns in Australian newspapers during the Great War – mythic hope, or mythic indoctrination?. Our mythical hope: the ancient myths as medicine for hardships of life in children's and young adults' culture. (pp. 145-158) edited by Katarzyna Marciniak. Warsaw, Poland: University of Warsaw Press.
Johnson, Marguerite (2022). Sappho and the feminist movement twentieth and twenty-first centuries. A companion to Greek lyric. (pp. 484-495) edited by Laura Swift. Hoboken, NJ United States: John Wiley and Sons. doi: 10.1002/9781119122661.ch33
Johnson, Marguerite (2021). Sappho in the salons. Remembering Paris in text and film. (pp. 59-76) edited by Alistair Rolls and Marguerite Johnson. Bristol, United Kingdom: Intellect Books. doi: 10.1386/9781789384185_3
Johnson, Marguerite (2021). Baudelaire and the classical tradition: Virgil, Ovid and Sappho in Paris. Remembering Paris in text and film. (pp. 39-58) edited by Alistair Rolls and Marguerite Johnson. Bristol, United Kingdom: Intellect Books. doi: 10.1386/9781789384185_2
Johnson, Marguerite (2021). Eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Sapphos in France, England, and the United States. The Cambridge companion to Sappho. (pp. 361-374) edited by P. J. Finglass and Adrian Kelly. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. doi: 10.1017/9781316986974.027
Johnson, Marguerite (2021). Sappho in Australia and New Zealand. The Cambridge companion to Sappho. (pp. 408-422) edited by P. J. Finglass and Adrian Kelly. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. doi: 10.1017/9781316986974.030
Johnson, Marguerite (2019). Black Out: Classicizing Indigeneity in Australia and New Zealand. Antipodean antiquities. (pp. 13-28) edited by Marguerite Johnson. London, United Kingdom: Bloomsbury Academic. doi: 10.5040/9781350021266.ch-001
Ewans, Michael and Johnson, Marguerite (2019). Wesley Enoch’s Black Medea. Antipodean antiquities. (pp. 73-86) edited by Marguerite Johnson. London, United Kingdom: Bloomsbury Academic. doi: 10.5040/9781350021266.ch-005
Johnson, Marguerite (2019). Introduction. Antipodean antiquities: classical Reception Down Under. (pp. 1-12) edited by Marguerite Johnson. London, United Kingdom: Bloomsbury.
Johnson, Marguerite (2018). Race and Ethnicity. A cultural history of hair in Antiquity. (pp. 111-129) edited by Mary Harlow. Oxford, United Kingdom: Berg Publishing.
Johnson, Marguerite (2017). Radical brothers-in-arms: Gaius and Hank at the racetrack. Hip sublime: Beat writers and the classical tradition. (pp. 97-115) edited by Sheila Murnaghan and Ralph M. Rosen. Columbus, OH United States: Ohio State University Press. doi: 10.2307/j.ctt2204rr5.9
Benitez, Rick and Johnson, Marguerite (2016). Storytelling and authority: critical poetics in Plato’s symposium. Reflections on Plato’s poetics. (pp. 171-190) edited by Rick Benitez and Keping Wang. Berrima, NSW Australia: Academic Printing and Publishing. doi: 10.2307/j.ctv10kmfwd.17
Johnson, Marguerite (2014). Masculinity and femininity in the Roman world. The Oxford encyclopedia of the bible and gender studies. (pp. 523-528) edited by Julia M. O’Brien. Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press.
Tarrant, Harold and Johnson, Marguerite (2013). Introduction. Alcibiades and the Socratic Lover-educator. (pp. 1-6) edited by Marguerite Johnson and Harold Tarrant. London, United Kingdom: Bloomsbury.
Johnson, Marguerite (2013). The role of Eros in improving the pupil, or what Socrates learned from Sappho. Alcibiades and the Socratic lover-educator. (pp. 7-29) edited by Marguerite Johnson and Harold Tarrant. London, United Kingdom: Bloomsbury.
Johnson, Marguerite (2012). Away from the light: dark aspects of the goddess. Pathways in modern western magic. (pp. 87-126) edited by Nevill Drury. Richmond, CA, United States: Concresent Scholars.
Marguerite Johnson (2010). Sappho. The Literary Encyclopedia. (pp. 1-1) London, United Kingdom: The Literary Dictionary Company.
Johnson, Marguerite (2010). Marked bodies: divine, human, and bestial. A cultural history of the human body in Antiquity. (pp. 185-215) edited by Daniel Garrison. Oxford, United Kingdom: Berg Publishing.
Johnson, Marguerite (2009). Sulpicia. The Literary Encyclopedia. (pp. 1-1) London, United Kingdom: The Literary Dictionary Company.
Johnson, Marguerite (2009). Apuleius. The Literary Encyclopedia. (pp. 1-1) London, United Kingdom: The Literary Dictionary Company.
Johnson, Marguerite (2009). Drawing down the goddess: The ancient {female} deities of modern paganism. Handbook of contemporary paganism. (pp. 311-334) edited by Murphy Pizza and James Lewis. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill Academic Publishers. doi: 10.1163/ej.9789004163737.i-650.91
Johnson, Marguerite (2009). A Reading of Sappho poem 58, fragment 31, and Mimnermus. The new Sappho on old age: textual and philosophical issues. (pp. 162-175) edited by Ellen Greene and Marilyn Skinner. Washington, DC, United States: Harvard University Press.
Johnson, Marguerite (2006). Necromancy. Encyclopedia of Witchcraft [4 Volumes] : The Western Tradition. (pp. 808-809) edited by Richard M. Golden. London, United Kingdom: Bloomsbury.
Johnson, Marguerite (2006). Moon. Encyclopedia of Witchcraft [4 Volumes] : The Western Tradition. (pp. 781-783) edited by Richard M. Golden. London, United Kingdom: Bloomsbury.
Johnson, Marguerite (2006). Potions. Encyclopedia of Witchcraft [4 Volumes] : The Western Tradition. (pp. 925-926) edited by Richard M. Golden. London, United Kingdom: Bloomsbury.
Johnson, Marguerite (2006). Lilith. Encyclopedia of Witchcraft [4 Volumes] : The Western Tradition. (pp. 651-652) edited by Richard M. Golden. London, United Kingdom: Bloomsbury.
Johnson, Marguerite (2006). Crossroads. Encyclopedia of Witchcraft [4 Volumes]. (pp. 236-237) edited by Richard M. Golden. London, United Kingdom: Bloomsbury.
Johnson, Marguerite (2006). Hermeticism. Encyclopedia of witchcraft [4 Volumes] : The Western Tradition. (pp. 488-490) edited by Richard M. Golden. London, United Kingdom: Bloomsbury.
Journal Articles
Johnson, Marguerite and Rolls, Alistair (2023). Georges Cuvier’s autopsy report on Sara Baartman: a translation and commentary. Terrae Incognitae, 55 (2), 170-195. doi: 10.1080/00822884.2023.2227480
Bennett, James and Johnson, Marguerite (2021). Teaching entangled Australian sexual histories: Pedagogy and approaches. History Compass, 19 (10) e12690, 1-9. doi: 10.1111/hic3.12690
Johnson, Marguerite and Kimball, Nicole (2021). Performing Theocritus's Pharmakeutria : Revealing Hellenistic Witchcraft. Arethusa, 54 (2), 163-184.
Johnson, Marguerite and O'Hearn, Leah (2021). Introduction. Antichthon, 55, 1-5. doi: 10.1017/ann.2021.11
Johnson, Marguerite (2021). Catullus’ fantastical memories – Poem 68 and writing trauma. Antichthon, 55, 136-154. doi: 10.1017/ann.2021.8
Johnson, Marguerite (2019). ANTIPODEAN ANTIQUITIES CLASSICAL RECEPTION DOWN UNDER INTRODUCTION. Antipodean Antiquities: Classical Reception Down Under, 1-+.
Johnson, Marguerite (2018). Review of How to die: an ancient guide to the end of life by Seneca. Australian Book Review, 404.
Johnson, Marguerite (2018). Review of Athens to Aotearoa: Greece and Rome in New Zealand Literature and Society, ed. Diana Burton, Simon Perris and Jeff Tatum. Wellington: Victoria University Press, 2017. 362 pp. ISBN 9781776561766 and Anna Jackson, Pasture and Flock: New and Selected Poems. Auckland: Auckland University Press, 2018. 148 pp. ISBN 9781869408794. International Journal of the Classical Tradition, 26 (3), 346-350. doi: 10.1007/s12138-018-0488-4
Johnson, Marguerite (2018). Review of Athens to Aotearoa: Greece and Rome in New Zealand Literature and Society, Edited by Diana Burton, Simon Perris and Jeff Tatum Victoria University Press (2017). The Journal of New Zealand Studies (NS26), 80-83. doi: 10.26686/jnzs.v0ins26.4847
Tarrant, Harold and Johnson, Marguerite (2018). Porphyry and ‘Neopythagorean’ exegesis in Cave of the Nymphs and elsewhere. Méthexis, 30 (1), 154-174. doi: 10.1163/24680974-03001009
Johnson, Marguerite (2017). Picnic at Hanging Rock fifty years on. Australian Book Review, 397.
Johnson, Marguerite (2017). Editor’s Introduction. Practitioners' Voices in Classical Reception Studies, 8.
Rolls, Alistair and Johnson, Marguerite (2016). The Stripper Castrated, or how Leigh Redhead's "Peepshow" Stages the Art of 'Being Both. Clues: a Journal of Detection, 34 (2), 104-113.
Johnson, Marguerite and Rolls, Alistair (2015). Getting under the skin to read the signs: the call of classical myths and mysteries in Leigh Redhead's 'Peepshow'. The Australian Journal of Crime Fiction, 1 (2).
Johnson, Marguerite (2014). Indigeneity and classical reception in the voyage of Governor Phillip to Botany Bay. Classical Receptions Journal, 6 (3), 402-425. doi: 10.1093/crj/clt027
Johnson, Marguerite (2014). Review of Stand in the trench, Achilles: classical receptions in British poetry of the Great War. Reviews in History.
Johnson, M. and Tarrant, H. (2014). Fairytales and make-believe, or spinning stories about Poros and Penia in Plato's symposium: A literary and computational analysis. Phoenix, 68 (3-4), 291-312.
Johnson, Marguerite (2014). Review of Piecing Together the Fragments: Translating Classical Verse, Creating Contemporary Poetry. Bryn Mawr Classical Review.
Johnson, Marguerite (2014). Review of The Oxford History of Classical Reception in English Literature. Volume 3: 1660-1790. Bryn Mawr Classical Review.
Johnson, Marguerite (2014). Boadicea and the British suffrage feminists. Outskirts: feminisms along the edge.
Johnson, Marguerite (2014). Memories of Erinna (after Erinna). Arion, 22 (1), 175-178.
Johnson, Marguerite (2013). Medea, Fitzgerald Gallery, New York City, 1966 (After Euripides and Bernard Safran). Arion - Journal of Humanities and the Classics, 20 (3), 97-105. doi: 10.2307/arion.20.3.0097
Johnson, Marguerite (2013). Classical Reception Studies: Some Pedagogical Considerations. Classicum, 39 (2), 6-14.
Johnson, Marguerite (2013). Review of Women in Ancient Greece: A Sourcebook. Bloomsbury sources in ancient history. Bryn Mawr Classical Review.
Johnson, Marguerite (2012). Witches in time and space: Satire 1.8, Epode 5 and landscapes of fear. Hermathena (192), 5-44.
Johnson, Marguerite (2012). Review of Socrates and Athens. Greece and Rome: Texts and Contexts. Bryn Mawr Classical Review.
Marguerite Johnson (2012). Review of Oh My Gods: a Modern Retelling of Greek and Roman Myths. Bryn Mawr Classical Review.
Marguerite Johnson (2012). Review of Mothering and Motherhood in Ancient Greece and Rome. Bryn Mawr Classical Review.
Johnson, Marguerite (2012). What to look for in a mayor, or classical reception in the Coalopolis. Melbourne Historical Journal, 40, 13-24.
Johnson, Marguerite (2011). Clodia Muses. Arion - Journal of Humanities and the Classics, 19 (2), 117-119.
Johnson, Marguerite (2011). Review of Martial. P. Howell. London: Bristol Classical Press, 2009.. The Classical Review, 61 (1), 310-310.
Johnson, Marguerite (2010). Review of Greek magic: ancient, medieval and modern. J. C. B. Petropoulos (Ed.). The Classical Review, 60 (1), 187-189.
Johnson, Marguerite (2010). Review of Witches, Isis and narrative: approaches to magic in Apuleius’ Metamorphosis. Stavros Frangoulidis. Berlin and Boston: Walter de Gruyter, 2008.. The Classical Bulletin, 82, 105-107.
Johnson, Marguerite (2009). Review of Witchcraft and belief in early modern Scotland. Edited by Julian Goodare, Lauren Martin, and Joyce Miller (Hampshire, UK: Palgrave Macmillan). The European Legacy, 14 (6), 743-744.
Johnson, Marguerite (2009). The witching hour: Sex magic in the 1950s Australia. Journal for the Academic Study of Magic, 5, 234-287.
Joseph, Susan and Johnson, Marguerite (2008). "An Orchid in the Land of Technology": Narrative and Representation in Lars Van Trier's Medea. Arethusa, 41 (1), 113-132. doi: 10.1353/are.2008.0002
Johnson, Marguerite (2007). Pan or the Devil? The polytheistic beliefs of Rosaleen Norton. Women - Church: an Australian journal of feminist studies in religion, 40, 141-144.
Johnson, Marguerite (2006). Introduction. Antichthon, 40, i-iv. doi: 10.1017/S006647740000160X
Johnson, Marguerite (2006). Off with the pixies: The fey folk of the long poems and Catullan disclosure. Classics Ireland, 13, 23-58. doi: 10.2307/25528442
Johnson, Marguerite (2005). Review of Ancient Greek love magic. The European Legacy, 10 (3), 240-241.
Johnson, Marguerite (2005). Review of Sappho in early modern England: female same-sex literary erotics, 1550-1714. The European Legacy, 10 (5), 528-529.
Johnson, M (2003). Catullus 2B: The development of a relationship in the passer trilogy. The Classical Journal, 99 (1), 11-34.
Johnson, M. (1999). Catullus, 'C.37' and the theme of magna-bella. Helios, 26 (1), 85-96.
Johnson, Marguerite and Ryan, T. J. (1999). Catullus' Epithalamia: Translation and Commentary. Part II: Catullus 62 - Hexametric Nuptial Song. Classicum, 25, 22-27.
Johnson, Marguerite and Ryan, T. J. (1998). Catullus' Epithalamia: Part 1. Classicum, 24, 36-46.
Johnson, Marguerite (1997). Martial and Domitian's Moral Reforms.. Prudentia, 29 (2), 24-70.
Conference Paper
Johnson, Marguerite (2019). Classical Myths in Australian Colonial Art: 1788-1930s. International Symposium on Mythology, Ardahan, Turkey, 2-5 May 2019. Ardahan, Turkey: Ardahan University.
Creative Work
Hebblethwaite, Phil (2023). A very Australian scandal. London, United Kingdom: BBC Radio.
Newspaper Articles
Johnson, Marguerite (2024, 01 31). Who was Narcissus? The Conversation
Johnson, Marguerite (2023, 09 17). Contaminations, revisions, reinventions: how cultures, ancient and modern, have influenced each other The Conversation
Johnson, Marguerite (2022, 12 14). What is a goblin? The Conversation
Johnson, Marguerite and Koosmen, Tanika (2021, 06 24). Friday essay: rethinking the myth of Daphne, a woman who chooses eternal silence over sexual assault The Conversation
Johnson, Marguerite (2021, 02 04). Friday essay: why Rosaleen Norton, ‘the witch of Kings Cross’, was a groundbreaking bohemian The Conversation
Johnson, Marguerite (2020, 12 07). Santa was a lady once — is it time to bring her back? The Conversation
Johnson, Marguerite (2020, 09 15). Scarabs, phalluses, evil eyes — how ancient amulets tried to ward off disease The Conversation
Johnson, Marguerite (2019, 12 03). Hidden women of history: Neaera, the Athenian child slave raised to be a courtesan The Conversation
Johnson, Marguerite and Bennett, James (2019, 03 12). Why Dorothy’s red shoes deserve their status as gay icons, even in changing times The Conversation
Johnson, Marguerite (2018, 06 26). Spells, charms, erotic dolls: love magic in the ancient Mediterranean The Conversation
Johnson, Marguerite and Bennett, James (2018, 05 02). ‘Treatments’ as torture: gay conversion therapy’s deep roots in Australia The Conversation
Johnson, Marguerite (2018, 04 05). Mary Beard and the long tradition of women being told to shut up The Conversation
Johnson, Marguerite (2018, 02 12). Guide to the classics: Sappho, a poet in fragments The Conversation
Johnson, Marguerite (2017, 12 20). Elite companions, flute girls and child slaves: sex work in ancient Athens The Conversation
Johnson, Marguerite (2017, 12 13). The grim reality of the brothels of Pompeii The Conversation
Johnson, Marguerite (2017, 11 23). Friday essay: why grown-ups still need fairy tales The Conversation
Johnson, Marguerite (2017, 07 11). Curious Kids: Are zombies real? The Conversation
Johnson, Marguerite (2017, 05 29). The truth about the Amazons – the real Wonder Women The Conversation
Johnson, Marguerite (2017, 03 12). A murky cauldron – modern witchcraft and the spell on Trump The Conversation
Johnson, Marguerite (2016, 09 13). Guide to the classics: Ovid’s Metamorphoses and reading rape The Conversation
Johnson, Marguerite (2016, 06 21). Should academics cite those who have breached moral and humane borders? The Conversation
Johnson, Marguerite (2015, 12 17). Friday essay: virgin mothers and miracle babies The Conversation
Johnson, Marguerite (2015, 06 16). Toil and trouble: the myth of the witch is no myth at all The Conversation
Johnson, Marguerite (2015, 06 11). Game of Thrones has reignited the Greek tale of Iphigeneia The Conversation
Johnson, Marguerite (2015, 02 25). A feminist nightmare: how fear of women haunts our earliest myths The Conversation
Johnson, Marguerite (2015, 01 05). An experiment in collaborative writing: day ten The Conversation
Johnson, Marguerite (2014, 12 07). Harking back: the ancient pagan festivities in our Christmas rituals The Conversation
Johnson, Marguerite (2014, 11 24). Reader beware: the nasty new edition of the Brothers Grimm The Conversation
Johnson, Marguerite (2014, 09 08). When statues get frocked up, art is in rude health The Conversation
Johnson, Marguerite and Lowry, Miranda (2013, 12 26). A clearer view on the healing power of the arts The Conversation
Audio Documents
ABC Radio and Johnson, Marguerite (2022). All Things Goblin.
ABC Radio and Johnson, Marguerite (2020). The Celtic roots of Halloween.
ABC Radio and Johnson, Marguerite (2018). Women and power.
ABC Radio and Johnson, Marguerite (2017). Amazons: the real wonder women.