Helen Morales, Classical Mythology: A Very Short Introduction (original) (raw)
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Europa: Resonances of the Mythological Figure in Contemporary Theatre
Forum Modernes Theater, 2020
This article analyzes appearances of Europa in ancient myth, tragedy and historiography, as well as resonances of this figure in contemporary theatre. The study combines two lines of thought, both rooted in theatre studies. First, the figure of Europa is specifically defined as female in the multifarious ensemble of our cultural memory – Zeus disguised as a bull abducts the royal Phoenician daughter Europa and carries her off to Crete. Second, the far-reaching and numerous resonances of Europe as myth from Ovid's Metamorphoses. In contrast to the ancient model of female suffering both thoughts remain relevant for understanding stagings of Europa in the present. The topic embodies the contemporary need to empower the feminine through body and voice and will be exemplified using various examples such as Magnificat (2011), Rimini Protokoll's Hausbesuch Europa (2015), Philippe Quesne's Big Bang (2010).
In 415B CE uripides produced the Alexandros, Palamedes and TrojanW omen followedbythe satyr-play Sisyphus.¹ All three tragedies draw on theT rojanm yth,displayu nity of locale with Troy as the placeo fa ctiona nd shared ominantt hemes, concepts and dramatic characters.C onsequently, scholarlyc onsensus from Gilbert Murray tilln ow,i ncludingt he influential monographb yR uthS codel,r egards this Euripidean production as presentingt he features of a 'connectedt rilogy'.² My purpose is,firstly,tocontributetothe argumentation in favour of thethematic andideological connection of these plays,which, Is hall argue, is of ad ifferentn ature than that of Aeschylean trilogies (it is for this reason that Ishall be usingthe term 'Trojan trilogy' in inverted commas). Secondly, Ishallexplore thegeneric transformation of the epicmaterial into tragedyinthe lightoffifth-centuryintellectual and ideological contexts, whichc ouldy ield insighti ntot he cultural processesf ilteringt he Euripidean reworkingo ft he Homeric source text.³
Oedipus is, par excellence, the man who embodies the conflict between irrational human impulses and man’s necessity to understand his inner nature while Jocasta incorporates the feminine Eros, the pure sensuality which rejects the rational human drive to know (cf. Oed. Tyr. v. 1068, “ὦ δύσποτμ᾽, εἴθε μήποτε γνοίης ὃς εἶ.”). The Medea represents the collision of two incompatible cultures: Medea belongs to a primitive world, regulated by natural rhythms, whose inhabitants celebrate the holiness in everything (to quote Pasolini’s Centaur) by practicing magical rites. Jason is instead characterised by the pragmatism typical of the modern man, who has lost the perception of sacredness. Pasolini in his Medea skilfully depicts the antithesis which will bring the tragedy to its final conclusion. On the other hand, the figures of the Eumenides in the Appunti symbolically bring together the values of an archaic society with the new, rational principles which lay the foundations for a democratic polis. This fusion wants to maintain, alongside the new elements instituted by the goddess of reason, the ancestral ones represented by the Furies; but the one who wins the trial is Orestes, whose defender is Apollo, the symbol of that Apollonian influence identified by Nietzsche in his masterpiece The Birth of Tragedy (1872) as the counterbalance of the Dionysiac force. We can argue that Pasolini summarises in the Appunti all the polarities he had tried to represent in the Edipo and in the Medea, finally realising that their coexistence is not possible in the real world. The aim of this paper is to analyse the Pasolinian representations of these splendid Greek plays: in particular, we will emphasise the originality of Pasolini’s angle of interpretation, comparing his versions with Sophocles’, Euripides’ and Aeschylus’ models.
Ancient Greek Myth in World Fiction Since 1989
Bloomsbury Studies in Classical Reception presents scholarly monographs offering new and innovative research and debate to students and scholars in the reception of Classical Studies. Each volume will explore the appropriation, reconceptualization and recontextualization of various aspects of the Graeco-Roman world and its culture, looking at the impact of the ancient world on modernity. Research will also cover reception within antiquity, the theory and practice of translation, and reception theory.
2017
This paper concerns two popular myth collections that date from the mid-twentieth century: Edith Hamilton’s Mythology, first published in 1940, and Robert Graves’ The Greek Myths, first published in 1955. The dates of these collections mean that they are close enough to us that they are still considered current: both are still widely read, and are both are still in print, in an interesting variety of editions. But they are also far enough away from us that we can identify with some precision the ways in which they are shaped by the preoccupations of their period. In particular, both now reveal themselves as over-reactions, although in opposite directions, to the early twentieth century rediscovery of classical culture, especially Greek culture, as primitive, as comparable to the traditional cultures studied by anthropologists. Disciplines Arts and Humanities | Classics This journal article is available at ScholarlyCommons: http://repository.upenn.edu/classics\_papers/155 MYTHS OF THE...
TEXT & IMAGE, 2022
This paper presents a tripartite analysis of the political use of the Europa and the Bull myth in pro-European and Eurosceptical representations using the "in-between" concept. The "in-between" has long been used in philosophy and architecture and has been presented by Elizabeth Grosz (2001) within a broader context as an insightful tool for analysis. Here I use it to reveal the inner meanings of the myth and its political uses. First, I analyse how this concept of the "in-between" unfolds in two fundamental ideas of the myth, transformation (or metamorphosis) and transition (or transportation), signifying on a symbolic and political level a passage from one place/state of being to another, thus making it instrumental in shaping the political dynamic of the myth in the twentieth and twenty-first century. Secondly, I examine the role of this "in-between" concept in the process of the transformation of the myth from a cultural to a political one and in the use of the myth as such during times of European Union (EU) conflicts. Finally, I present artworks created by contemporary Greek artists in the years 2002-2018 as evidence of the above, setting their work on the international stage of artistic responses within the political arena.