Gods and Magic in Megan Whalen Turner’s The Thief
- Megan Whalen Turner’s series The Queen’s Thief (1996 – 2020) centres on the political intrigues in a group of countries which are at once very like – but also very unlike – Bronze Age and archaic Greece threatened by a powerful Persian Empire. The first book in the series, The Thief (1996), begins as a political adventure haunted by stories of the gods. When those gods directly influence the action, the narrative changes from present political intrigue to a fantasy from the distant past. The mythology in The Thief reflects, imitates and distorts archaic Greek creation myths – stories about how the earth and sky were formed, the divine pantheon and heroes. I examine the presentation of this divine pantheon against the narratives about the gods in Hesiod, the Homeric hymns and Homer’s epics. I evaluate how the supernatural element interacts with the largely political narrative of The Thief. In so doing, I explore how the text blends a ‘classical supernatural’ with a world that is like – but in many ways very unlike – Bronze Age andMegan Whalen Turner’s series The Queen’s Thief (1996 – 2020) centres on the political intrigues in a group of countries which are at once very like – but also very unlike – Bronze Age and archaic Greece threatened by a powerful Persian Empire. The first book in the series, The Thief (1996), begins as a political adventure haunted by stories of the gods. When those gods directly influence the action, the narrative changes from present political intrigue to a fantasy from the distant past. The mythology in The Thief reflects, imitates and distorts archaic Greek creation myths – stories about how the earth and sky were formed, the divine pantheon and heroes. I examine the presentation of this divine pantheon against the narratives about the gods in Hesiod, the Homeric hymns and Homer’s epics. I evaluate how the supernatural element interacts with the largely political narrative of The Thief. In so doing, I explore how the text blends a ‘classical supernatural’ with a world that is like – but in many ways very unlike – Bronze Age and archaic Greece.…
Author details: | Frances Foster |
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DOI: | https://doi.org/10.34679/thersites.vol17.242 |
ISSN: | 2364-7612 |
Title of parent work (English): | thersites 17 |
Editor(s): | Amanda Potter, Hunter H. Gardner |
Publication type: | Article |
Language: | English |
Date of first publication: | 2023/11/10 |
Publication year: | 2023 |
Publishing institution: | Universität Potsdam |
Release date: | 2023/12/14 |
Tag: | Fantasy; Greek gods; Magic; Mythology; Young Adult literature |
Volume: | 2023 |
Issue: | 17 |
Number of pages: | 23 |
First page: | 32 |
Last Page: | 54 |
Source: | thersites Vol. 17 (2023): Classics and the Supernatural (eds. A. Potter & Hunter Gardner) |
Organizational units: | Philosophische Fakultät / Historisches Institut |
DDC classification: | 9 Geschichte und Geografie / 90 Geschichte / 900 Geschichte und Geografie |
Peer review: | Referiert |
Publishing method: | Open Access / Gold Open-Access |
Collection(s): | Universität Potsdam / Zeitschriften / thersites, ISSN 2364-7612 / thersites Vol. 17 |
License (German): | CC-BY - Namensnennung 4.0 International |
External remark: | The original publication is available at https://doi.org/10.34679/thersites.vol17.242 |