Bahia Brazil The Minotaur : Canonical Translations of a Classical Monster (original) (raw)
Related papers
2022
I propose that Greek art has repeatedly invested hybrid monsters with political symbolism. Such monsters, however, have never been studied systematically. By looking at political, or rather politicized, hybrids in Greek art, I endeavor to map the way politics and mythology end up being mutually constitutive, and how the protean figure of the monster can repeatedly act as a pivot to help the artistic transposition of history into myth. By hybrid monsters I understand, quite simply, mixanthropic or interspecies mythological beings, that is, human-beast or animal-animal composites (to the exclusion of animals of gigantic size, humans with abnormal abilities etc.). Identifying political symbolism in Greek art in general is a daunting task. Instances of politicization of monsters are less frequent and less specific than in Roman, Renaissance, or early modern art166. This is perhaps the reason why, in spite of much recent interest in monsters in different cultures167 or in Greek literature168, whenever the focus is on Greek art, the scholarship tends to be either sensationalist or stolid. This is despite the occasional excellent investigation with various religious169 or, more generally, non-political approaches170. The political aspect of Greek monster iconography is discussed only in isolated case studies171 and the attempts to generalize are rare and chronologically very circumscribed172. The absence, so far, of an integrative approach precludes a reliable general conclusion. I attempt to begin to fill this gap in the literature by triangulating from art historical, archaeological, and literary data in order to reconstruct past political instrumentalization of monsters. My paper also brings to bear on the study of these ”figures of abjection”173 a battery of theoretical approaches which can only demonstrate their usefulness when applied to an extensive array of material, rather than to isolated case studies. There is no question here of reading all representations of hybrid monsters in Greek art as a roman à clef and finding the “code” to understanding which historical enemy of the state, from within or without, lurks behind this or that monster. Such a simplistic approach would not do justice to monster figures, nested as they are in a complex web of cultural counterpoints. On the other hand, scholars who see in the popularity of Mischwesen a mere fascination for the decorative, teratological etiology, plain flights of fancy, or indeed a misunderstanding of, or subservience to Oriental models, do so at their own peril. Even the exclusive focus on otherwise defensible explanations – involving the underlying funerary symbolism of most hybrid beings174 or psychoanalytical sublimation/rationalization of fears175 – appears misguided. It is paramount to recognize that Greek art provides more than just desultory clues that monsters can be players in the political game. Once the scattered strands of evidence are collected, it becomes possible to establish the true dimension of the political instrumentalization of monsters. Hence the need to resort to a range of theoretical contributions for understanding the interplay between myth, image (vase painting and architectural decoration), and polis176. These ought to be complemented by research on how to define and discuss monsters177, including their religious178 and philosophical implications179
2018
Abstract The subject is the two monsters in the title, which will be investigated by comparing Dante's lines with the miniatures in some fourteenth- and fifteenth-century codices and by cross-referencing their narration/description with mythical-literary sources on the one hand, and ancient commentaries on the poem on the other. With Dante's verses at the centre, the hermeneutic aim of our speech will therefore be the echoes and discordances between the meaning given by these verses and those of its iconic and verbal commentaries. Compendium Two infernal "monstra" will be compared: Minotaur and Geryon, as symbolic bodies of violence and fraud, the two most wicked practices. Despite their common origin in the Greek myth, the two characters have had quite different, if not opposite, literary, and iconic fates. In fact, "the infamy of Crete" receives from tradition a very de-fined and clear form, apart from the oscillation of the taurine part, placed now in the head and now in the body, so that Dante does not need to describe it, except, obliquely, in the simile of the wounded bull. The literary and iconic tradition of Geryon is much smaller than Minotaur’s one; however, from the ancient and medieval era till Dante’s age, he had always been represented according to a monstrosity that was not qualitative but quantitative, i.e., as a multiplication of certain bodily limbs. Dante radically changes his anatomy, writing a detailed description of his biologically incongruous limbs. Despite this long verbal portrait, there is no concordance either in the descriptions or, even less, in the symbolic interpretations of the medieval commentators. As a probable consequence of this, most of the illuminated portraits of Geryon misunderstood his bodily peculiarities and thus also their moral symbolism, as an effect of the allegorical reading of his body. The aim of the lecture is to resume the topics related to the theme and to survey the literary, iconic, and linguistic causes of these inconsistencies and misinterpretations, focusing on the simile, the crucial figure of poetic discourse.
Transgressive figures: Monsters and monstrosity in Flavian epic
2020
This dissertation argues that the monsters in Statius’ Thebaid and Silius’ Punica both embody and reproduce dynamics of Flavian culture. These poems are taken together as exemplars of the culture during the reign of Domitian specifically. I conduct close, sustained, textual analysis of instances wherein monsters adjoin the dynamics of otherness, literary tradition, mytho-historical past and imperial ideology. I begin with a discussion of Statius’ potential clustering of Epicurean elements around representations of Hippomedon as a Centaur. As with other discernments of Epicurean hints in mythological epic I assess this as an exploration of the consequences of placing these elements in the text. By using a Centaur for this examination, Statius reveals how monsters are often good spaces for exploration in Flavian epic. I then show that Statius’ depictions of hybrid monsters (Centaurs, the Minotaur and Arachne) reveal and reinforce tension around ‘otherness’ in this time period. At the ...
Monsters and the Monstrous: Ancient Expressions of Cultural Anxieties
A Cultural History of Fairy Tales in Antiquity, 2021
Many of the most recognizable monsters in Western culture, such as Medusa, Cerberus, and the Cyclopes, started to appear in literature and art nearly three thousand years ago. Other, more generic types of monstrous or uncanny entities, such as dragons and ghosts, are even older and appear in art and literature across the globe. This chapter covers such creatures in the earliest folk and fairy tales of the ancient Near East and Mediterranean areas, keeping in mind that much of our information comes from tales, or, in most cases, prototypes for tales, embedded within the larger context of Near Eastern and Greek myths. The chapter first considers what the concept of "monster" might have meant for people in those geographical regions thousands of years ago. The chapter then examines what tales from antiquity survive that incorporated monsters, what kinds of monster predominate in these tales, and what the presence and roles of monsters in the tales might have meant.
CfP 'Fear, Terror and Horror in Graeco-Latin Antiquity and its Reception in Popular Culture'
Fear, terror and horror in Graeco-Latin Antiquity and its Reception in Popular Culture, 2023
The panel 'Fear, Terror and Horror in Graeco-Latin Antiquity and its Reception in Popular Culture' of the 14th Celtic Conference in Classics will take place on 11-14 July 2023 at the University of Coimbra, Portugal. It explores the different ways in which fear, terror and horror have been manifested in Graeco-Latin literature and tradition. The panel also examines the survival of these motifs today through classically inspired popular culture, whether in cinema, television series, novels, comics or video games. The interest in reshaping narratives exploring these concepts in different contemporary artistic manifestations demonstrates their relevance in today's society and their organic connection to the themes of classical mythology and culture. The study of fear, terror and horror in this panel will analyse how the supernatural, the unknown or the violent is introduced in narratives of classical and contemporary cultures and the emotional response it provokes in the receiving audience. The final aim of the panel is to present a transversal vision of the contributions of the exploration of fear, terror and horror in the literary creation of Antiquity and the evolution of these concepts today. Topics: Theorisation of the concepts of fear, terror and horror in Graeco-Latin treatises. Expressions of terror and horror in Graeco-Latin literature: tales of haunted houses, ghost stories, confrontations with monsters, journeys to hell, etc. Survival of these motifs in classical tradition and in popular culture: horror films, comics, literature, video games, etc. All interested participants are invited to send a PDF abstract outlining the proposed subject of their discussion to Nuno Simões Rodrigues nonnius@letras.ulisboa.pt, Isidro Molina Zorrilla molinazorrilla@uma.es and Vasileios Balaskas v.balaskas@uma.es by 20 February 2023 at the latest (in addition to the abstract, please include a short bio and academic institution). Paper presentations of 20 or 40 minutes are accepted. For more information on the conference regarding fees and recommendation on travel and accommodation, see https://cechfluc.wixsite.com/ccclassics2023 Working languages: English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian