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"Orfeo out of Care"
(2022)
The paper focuses on an example of multiple-step reception: the contribution of the classical story of Orpheus and Eurydice and the mediaeval lay Sir Orfeo to Tolkien’s work.
In the first part, I compare the lay with Virgilian and Ovidian versions of Orpheus’ myth. This comparison shows the anonymous author’s deep knowledge of the ancient texts and complex way of rewriting them through stealing and hybridization.
The lay was highly esteemed by Tolkien, who translated it and took inspiration from it while describing the Elven kingdom in The Hobbit and building the storyline of Beren and Lúthien in The Silmarillion. Through this key tale, Orpheus/Orfeo’s romance has a deep influence also on Aragorn and Arwen’s story in The Lord of the Rings. The most important element that Tolkien takes from the Sir Orfeo figuration of the ancient story is undoubtedly the insertion of political theme: the link established between the recovery of the main character’s beloved and the return to royal responsability.
The second part of the paper is, thus, dedicated to the reception of Sir Orfeo and the classical myth in Tolkien. It shows how in his work the different steps of the tradition of Orpheus’ story are co-present, creating an inextricable substrate of inspiration that nourishes his imagination.
The paper investigates Tolkien’s narratives of decline through the lens of their classical ancestry. Narratives of decline are widespread in ancient culture, in both philosophical and literary discourses. They normally posit a gradual degradation (moral and ontological) from an idealized Golden Age, which went hand-in-hand with increasing detachment of gods from mortal affairs. Narratives of decline are also at the core of Tolkien’s mythology, constituting yet another underresearched aspect of classical influence on Tolkien. Such Classical narratives reverberate e.g. in Tolkien’s division of Arda’s history into ages, from an idealized First Age filled with Joy and Light to a Third Age, described as “Twilight Age (…) the first of the broken and changed world” (Letters 131). More generally, these narratives are related to Tolkien’s notorious perception of history as a “long defeat” (Letters 195) and to that “heart-racking sense of the vanished past” which pervades Tolkien’s works – the emotion which, in his words, moved him “supremely” and which he found “small difficulty in evoking” (Letters 91). The paper analyses the reception of narratives of decline in Tolkien’s legendarium, pointing out similarities but also contrasts and differences, with the aim to discuss some key patterns of (classical) reception in Tolkien’s theory and practice (‘renewal’, ‘accommodation’, ‘focalization’).
This paper analyzes a specific section of Martial’s Apophoreta (Book 14), the ‘list’ of fourteen literary works that the poet-persona suggests to the reader as potentially suitable presents to give to friends on the occasion of the Saturnalia. It focuses strictly on the literary aspects of the poems and their underlying carnivalesque poetics. This includes an assessment of the logic of the poems’ arrangement and alleged inconsistencies. It is suggested that the section be read as a complex statement of Martial’s on various works and genres of Greek and Roman literature. The last couplet of the section (14.196), a certain Calvus’ work ‘On the use of cold water’ (De aquae frigidae usu), which is unidentifiable, receives particular attention, for previous scholarship has wasted a lot of ink on guessing what kind of work this may have been, thereby losing touch with the rich (meta-)poetics the couplet actually conveys.
Theocritus’ id. 4 has been considered by some scholars as an example of rural mime; the fact that the poem, a unique case in the Corpus Theocriteum, does not contain any pastoral song or contest contributes to the impression of ‘realism’. This lack could be an obstacle for the poetological approach to the bucolic genre in antiquity, which considers metapoetry as its main feature. Our reading of the idyll shows that this limitation is only apparent.
From the fluid dresses woven from precious materials evoking the iconic statues of Antiquity to the revival of Spartan shoes, two emblematic fashion trends will help us study the place of Greek Antiquity in contemporary women’s fashion collections. Ordinary as well as extraordinary, what do these reminiscences tell? Can they permit to understand the boundaries that structure and govern the fashion’s worlds? Numerous and diverse, the differences and the similarities of the ways in which classical references are used allow us to study the relations of power in which the specificities of haute couture and ready-to-wear are defined. The values, the entry criteria, the operating hierarchies as well as the very acceptance of the word “fashion” are different from one environment to another. From the catwalks of big fashion houses on Avenue Montaigne such as Chanel to the youngest brands, the differentiated readings and uses of Antiquity raise the question of the symbolic value of classics in fashion.
Epistula 46 is an invitation, written under the name of Paula and Eustochium, for Marcella to go to Bethlehem, by all means with the aim to stimulate positive interest in the Holy Land for a wider public and to inspire the urge to travel and sojourn. The narrative defines pilgrimage not only through biblical references but also familiarizes it through references to ancient pagan practices and pagan literature and makes it compatible with the lifestyle of Rome’s urban elites. While biblical references predominantly propagate Palestine’s spiritual appeal as a site of centuries-long salvation events, references to the classics – often combined with the expression or the stimulation of emotions – put the region’s social and intellectual appeal to the fore. The use of pagan literature, in which the traditions of educational travel of a cosmopolitan elite, the social utopia of aristocratic recessus, and not least the pleasure of otium aestheticised through literature are prefigurated, shapes Palestine in particular fashion as a place of longing. Especially the appeal of Bethlehem thus only forms through the combination of spiritual-intellectual visio and emotionally attractive social utopia, through conjunction of spelunca Christi and bucolic idyll.
Caesar’s visit to the ruins of ancient Troy in Lucan’s Bellum Civile book IX is an invented story which deals with important metaliterary themes such as poetic fama and the poetry’s eternalizing function. Lucan’s narrative also reveals the instrumental nature of Caesarean and Augustan propaganda: the Neronian poet highlights some contradictions of the Aeneid, showing the failure of the political project celebrated by Vergil.
This paper applies Monster Theory to the use of Greek mythology in three creator-owned comic series by female writers: InSEXts (2016 – 2017) by American comic writer Marguerite Bennett and Indonesian artist working in America Ariela Kristantina as well as Eros/Psyche (2021) and Porcelain (2021) by Maria Llovet, a comic writer and artist from Barcelona. In the first volume of InSEXts, set in Victorian London, there are allusions to the Furies and Pandora, linked with the discourse of the repression of women. In the second volume, set in the late nineteenth century Paris art world, the representation of classical subjects in art becomes a means to repress women, and a goddess with a Gorgon-like appearance takes revenge on the male repressors. In Eros/Psyche the story of Eros and Psyche and broken statues forms the backdrop and context for a tale of love and deception at a girls’ school, and in Porcelain a girl is faced with a choice of paths towards Eros or Thanatos, like Herakles at the crossroads choosing between the paths of virtue and vice. With reference to Cohen’s seven theses of Monster Culture I examine how Bennett and Lovett subvert the idea of the monster and the hero.
Interest rates are central determinants of saving and investment decisions. Costly financial intermediation distorts these price signals by creating a spread between deposit and loan rates. This study investigates how bank spreads affect climate policy in its ambition to redirect capital. We identify various channels through which interest spreads affect carbon emissions in a dynamic general equilibrium model. Interest rate spreads increase abatement costs due to the higher relative price for capital-intensive carbon-free energy, but they also tend to reduce emissions due to lower overall economic growth. For the global average interest rate spread of 5.1 percentage points, global warming increases by 0.2°C compared to the frictionless economy. For a given temperature target to be achieved, interest rate spreads necessitate substantially higher carbon taxes. When spreads arise from imperfect competition in the intermediation sector, the associated welfare costs can be reduced by clean energy subsidies or even eliminated by economy-wide investment subsidies.
Ringing trumpets announcing the arrival of a Roman emperor, an oriental flowing and delicate harp reverberating inside the intimate palace of an Egyptian queen, a rude aulos singing in a bucolic Greek landscape: where are these familiar sound images coming from? Are these creations inspired by archaeological data or built after modern fantasy? The scarcity of ancient musical data necessitated, in fact, to reinvent the films’ soundscape taking place in the Ancient world. It is therefore a question of seeing on which models a peplum’s soundtrack is conceived and what it can reveal on our way of perceiving the ancient and contemporary world. Far from wanting to gauge the historicity of the sound backgrounds offered to the spectator of dark rooms, it is rather a question of seeing the imitation phenomena that can appear from the sound clichés created by the peplum itself and of also deducing from them thought patterns which, contextualized, influence these compositions. This article will focus on post-2000 productions.
Demagogen dichten
(2022)
Manipulative rhetoric is a common issue in ancient sources. As the issue of political populism and rhetoric still attracts a high degree of interest among a wide range of people, the author, a singer-songwriter, attempts to ‘revive’ these ancient sources and to adapt them into a lyrical/musical format for modern audiences, in order to test different strategies of manipulation and gauge the reactions of modern audiences. The following article describes the process of adapting and performing two of these experiments, as well as the results and feedback from audiences. The ancient case studies chosen for this are Thucydides’ description of how Alcibiades lead the Athenians into a fatal expedition to Sicily, and Xenophon’s blames of two public orators for executing Athenian generals after the battle of Arginusae through their manipulative speeches.
Der "Alt-Anschliesser-Fall"
(2018)
Taking its cue from the portrayal of Hercules as muscleman in both films and ancient sculpture this article turns to poetry as a verbal art and examines when and how the hero's body comes into focus in Roman epic and elegy. It is argued that moments of crisis contrasting Hercules’ state in a given situation to his former heroic achievements give rise to representations of his body, while epic fight scenes rather draw attention to the bodies of his inferior opponents. The body is described through references to different body parts, qualified by attributes as masculine in elegiac contexts. A somewhat exotic word as tori suffices to highlight the hero’s muscular body.
This article analyses, as an example of the advertising of cosmetic products, a campaign launched by the US-American company “Johnson Soap” for their product, the facial soap “Palmolive”. Examining its ads of 1911 in which certain ancient exempla are employed, it becomes clear that the Palmyrene queen Zenobia and with her the semi-historical Semiramis and the more mythical Dido are aligned to the “1001 Nights” character Scheherazade. Since they are jointly labelled as “historically famous oriental queens” and because of the reference to Zenobia’s white skin, they fall into the fantasy of fair-skinned harem women and evoke thoughts of all the pleasures and comforts of the luxurious Orient. To the modern female customer of 1900 (well steeped in the knowledge of those ancient characters) Zenobia and the other exempla should serve as celebrities worth emulating. Above all they are deemed to be beautiful, and experts in cosmetics which would guarantee the effect of the product they are standing for. A finding that proves to be valid even in an advertising concept of today for the Syrian-German “Zhenobya-soap”.
In March 2021, the IMAGINES Project – an international and interdisciplinary research network for the modern reception of antiquity in the visual and performing arts – held their seventh conference online. The event focused on PLAYFUL CLASSICS, and was hosted from Göttingen University by the organizers Juliette Harrisson, Antje Kuhle and Martin Lindner.
The keynote by Dunstan Lowe on „The Danger of Seriousness: Play and the Future of Classics“ outlined the potential of researching classical reception as a creative process. The following sections brought this to life with in-depth treatments of the underlying mechanics of constructing and deconstructing, playful learning, the „Faces of Antiquity“, forms of interaction and national/nationalistic traditions. The programme combined scholarly contributions with presentations and workshops by various artists and open discussion elements.
The shift to an online format allowed the participation of an unusually international audience, while the interactive elements – including a thematic game as a continuous side event – especially encouraged a large number of students to participate actively. Therefore, this conference report will not just summarize the content of the event, but also provide a student perspective on attending a conference on classical reception – a research area which is mostly neglected in the teaching curriculum.
Obwohl Handelsplattformen zunehmend an Bedeutung gewinnen, besteht im deutschsprachigen Raum ein Mangel an umfassenden Marktübersichten. Dadurch fehlt es Verkäufern, potenziellen Plattformbetreibern und Kunden an einer soliden Grundlage für fundierte Entscheidungen. Das ändern wir mit folgendem Beitrag. Erfahren Sie hier das Wichtigste über den rasant wachsenden Markt der Handelsplattformen.
Etymologie und Erotik
(2020)
On the surface the television series Lucifer (2016 – 21) is a simple police procedural but, in actuality, the criminal cases in the show serve merely as window-dressing and structure for the deeper consideration of issues, such as guilt, shame, love, and even the meaning of life on both an individual and universal level. These topics are explored through the ever-developing character of Lucifer himself, who, like other recent anti-hero depictions, is initially presented in a manner that is very different from traditional portrayals of the Devil, and is, in fact, far closer to that of the Greek Olympian gods. Over the course of six seasons, the depiction of Lucifer alters, however, as he becomes a figure that is in many ways Christ-like, but with a 21st century twist that places the individual in an exalted position that is superior to that of divinity.
Within Persona 5’s modern Tokyo setting, imagined worlds are created that represent the cognitive processes of various characters. These ‘palaces’ allow the player to explore locations far removed from the game’s real-world, contemporary backdrop. One episode creates an ancient Egyptian world. This article examines how this world has been produced and the different transmedial tropes and other influences that its developers have drawn upon. Many references are recognisable to a broad audience (pyramids, gods, hieroglyphs), while others reflect Japanese pop-cultural trends (in various manga and anime), including the mention of an obscure Egyptian god, Medjed. The intentionally fictitious nature of these ‘palaces’ means that the Egypt that appears in this game is not bound by the need to replicate an ‘accurate’ landscape. Instead, the developers were free to design a gamescape that combines multiple and diverse receptions of ancient Egypt.
G. B. Smith’s “Elzevir Cicero” and the Construction of Queer Immortality in Tolkien’s Mythopoeia
(2022)
Following the death of J. R. R. Tolkien in 1973, an obituary appeared in The Times quoting Tolkien as having said that his “love for the classics took ten years to recover from lectures on Cicero and Demosthenes.” This contentious relationship between Tolkien and the Greco-Roman past contrasts with the work of unabashedly classicizing poet Geoffrey Bache Smith, a school friend of Tolkien’s who was killed in the Great War. When Tolkien collected Smith’s poems for posthumous publication, this paper shows, Smith’s engagements with the ancient world became part of Tolkien’s own philosophy of immortality through literary composition. Within his 1931 poem “Mythopoeia,” and his 1939 speech “On Fairy-Stories,” Tolkien articulated a unified method of mythmaking by looking back to his lost friend’s understanding of mythology as a type of ancient story-craft that enabled poets to preserve the dead against the ravages of time. By tracing a triangular path through the relationships between Tolkien, Smith, and the classical past inhabited by figures like Cicero, this paper argues that Tolkien not only recovered a “love for the classics,” but used classical texts to “recover” his lost friend, granting Smith a queer, classical immortality in return.
Die abgetrennte Zunge by Katharina Wesselmann deals with gender and power relations in ancient literature and beyond. It has received widespread attention, particularly in popular media. In this interview, thersites examines the book from an academic perspective. We talk to Katharina Wesselmann about the reactions to her work, her methodology and her conclusions. The primary focus of this interview is on what ancient texts may tell us about today’s gender issues and vice versa – it, thus, entails a broader discussion about modern Classics.
Gesundheitsbildung
(2019)
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 and archaic Greece.
In Hellboy (2004, Sony Pictures), Guillermo del Toro presents a mythic hero (half human/half demon) seemingly made from the same mold as the classical hero Heracles (Hercules). Hellboy’s modern world is shaped by a cosmology not unlike that of Greek mythology, and as is true for Heracles, his unique pedigree and superior physicality empower him to mediate between the forces of supernaturality and humanity. Hellboy’s experiences evoke comparison with most characters and exploits in the Heraclean mythological corpus; his good character precludes comparison with others. Hellboy must contend with his own versions of Hera, Eurystheus, and a Nemean Lion/Hydra-like monster. He, too, relies on his own superhuman strength, innate cunning and an Athena-like protector to be successful at his job. Both heroes navigate a difficult path to their very different destinies. But in the end, Hellboy’s compassion, humility, unerring moral compass, and genuinely altruistic motivations make him both a better man and a better mythic hero, one worthy even of being loved.
Schülerinnen und Schüler verfügen über verschiedene Detailkenntnisse zur Technik und zu Technologien im Haushalt und im Freizeitbereich. Deshalb liegt es nahe, Technik am Beispiel der Haushaltstechnik zu analysieren und ein Verständnis für technische Systeme zu entwickeln (Orig.). Der Beitrag beinhaltet die didaktischen Grundlagen (Organstrukturmodell und 9-Felder-Matrix) für eine Unterrichtsgestaltung, die mit Hilfe des im Einhefter von Unterricht - Arbeit + Technik vorhandenen Unterrichtsmaterials vorgenommen werden kann. Die Materialien sollen die Schülerinnen und Schüler dazu befähigen, technische Sachsysteme mittels des Organstrukturmodells in ihren Aufbau- und Funktionsbeziehungen zu beschreiben und sie zu klassifizieren (Arbeitsgegenstände / technologische Grundvorgänge). Des weiteren können Stoff-, Energie- und Informationsflüsse anhand technischer Sachsysteme beschrieben werden (nach Orig.).
In her writings on ancient myth, the British author Natalie Haynes moves women to the centre of attention. Her two latest books, A Thousand Ships and Pandora’s Jar – a fiction novel and a non-fiction one – approach this topic from two different perspectives. This interview takes stock of Haynes’ motives and methodology as well as of the challenges she faces in the process of writing.
Objective: Childhood overweight is related to higher sensitivity for external food cues and less responsiveness towards internal satiety signals. Thus, cognitive psychological models assume an enhanced food attention bias underlying overeating behavior. Nevertheless, this question has only been sparsely investigated so far in younger children and it remains open whether restrained eating behavior plays a correlative role.
Methods: The present study investigated this specific information processing bias for food relevant stimuli in 34 overweight children between 6 and 10 years and 34 normal weight children matched for age, sex and socioeconomic status. Children completed a computerized Food Picture Interference task that assessed reaction time interference effects towards high and low calorie food pictures. Level of hunger and restrained eating were assessed via self-report.
Results: Results indicated that while finding no group difference in general processing speed or hunger level before the task, overweight children showed a higher attentional bias to food pictures than normal weight children. No effect of caloric density was found. However, surprisingly, the interference effect was negatively related to restrained eating in the overweight group only.
Conclusion: The found hypersensitivity for food cues independent of calorie content in overweight children appears to be related to dysfunctional eating, so that future research should consider strategies for attentional retraining.
La heráldica amazónica
(2023)
Nowadays, we know about 4,475 iconographic representations dedicated to the Amazonian universe in Antiquity. Most of them belong to vase painting pieces (3,448). This current work analyze the Amazonian emblems that appear in a high percentage of these representations (725), together with the few examples associated with other artistic supports. In that way, we will study the chosen designs, which of them achieved greater popularity and the possible reasons why some of them were more popular in certain contexts. According to the results, we can discover that the Amazons present a type of emblem very similar to that used by the hoplites who fought against them in the same representation of the Amazonomachy. It is true that we appreciate a greater interest in certain models within a broad group of options that became traditional for Amazonian representations, but the results of this study suggest that the artists freely chose between them. However, his decision could be influenced by aspects such as the predominant trends in each period, the tastes of the export markets or the influence generated by other types of works (mainly paintings, reliefs or sculptures) whose popularity made them models.
This paper aims to analyse the figure of the Venus of Milo in (extreme) contemporary art productions. The reception of this sculpture has already been studied in the past, but without considering the last ten years (2010 – 2020), during which artists like Yinka Shonibare, Fabio Viale, or Daniel Arsham decided to use the Venus for their new productions. The paper also explains how the Venus of Milo became a globalised icon and an inspiration for artists from all over the world.
Laocoon Relooké
(2021)
This article focuses on the reception of the ancient statue of Laocoon in the arts and popular culture of the 21st century. It looks into why this icon has remained continuously present in the public’s collective imagination and covers, in particular, the recapturing of this motif by four contemporary painters : Richard Wallace (2002), Ron Milewicz (2005), Gilles Chambon (2008), Kent Monkman (2008). The article examines as well the new meanings associated with its treatment and finally explores the way our contemporary world deals with the notion of monument and the concept of academicism.
Très peu d’originaux nous permettent de connaître la statuaire grecque ancienne. Eu égard à la grande production de statues en bronze, un nombre très limité d’oeuvres a été sauvé de la fureur du temps et des hommes. Le reste nous est connu de manière partielle et imparfaite par les copies romaines en marbre ou par des notes rapides d’auteurs anciens, qui mentionnent des artistes et des oeuvres dont le seul nom demeure. La découverte de statues en bronze de production grecque est donc un événement exceptionnel d’un point de vue scientifique. Les « Bronzes de Riace » ont notamment eu, dès leur découverte en 1972, une immense influence dans la culture populaire, que nous allons aborder dans cet article sous l’angle des Reception Studies, en essayant d’intégrer ces réflexions au débat sur leur perception dans le monde contemporain, déjà abordé par deux volumes sortis en 1986 et 2015 (Gli eroi venuti dal mare/Heroes from the sea et Sul buono e sul cattivo uso dei Bronzi di Riace1), en portant une attention particulière au Web et aux réseaux sociaux.
1 Je remercie Maurizio Paoletti et Fabien Bièvre-Perrin pour la relecture de cet article ; Domenico Benedetto D’Agostino pour m’avoir fait connaître, il y a quelques années, le poème de Felice Mastroianni dédié au Bronzes de Riace ; l’Archivio du Musée Archéologique National de Reggio Calabria, Mike_art04, le collectif La Psicoscimmia et Emanuela Robustelli pour les images qu’ils ont partagées.
The Laocoön group, a famous source of inspiration for modern artists and a crucial masterpiece for historians of art and philosophers, is also a popular figure in queer contemporary art and culture, both distorted and celebrated through camp performative devices. After remarks about 1. “queer gaze” and the complex relation of queer or LGBTQIA+ culture and politics to the dialectics of kitsch/camp and classical / contemporary / pop art, and 2. (not straight but) queer classics, using “anachronisme raisonné” (Loraux”) and “écart” (Dupont), this article focuses on case studies from the 2010’s: 1. The untold gay history of Vatican guided tour; the music video Falling, by the “queer cowboy” Drew Beckman. 2. Paintings by Richard Wallace (esp. Laocoön); photographic series of Danil Golovkin (Modern Heroes : Photographing Bodybuilders in the Digital Age), 3. Julien Servy (Collages : Photo vs. Statues) ; the design firm modern8 (for the 2017 Utah Pride Festival). 4. The indigenous Canadian artist Kent Monkman, who, in paintings (The Academy), performances, installations, altogether stages and questions the violence of historical and cultural colonization and its impact on issues of gender and identity, and promotes dynamic interactions of aesthetics and politics, as well of pathos and camp.
Legolas in Troy
(2022)
The Lord of the Rings movies were a cinematic phenomenon, extremely popular. They are not often considered as works of Classical Reception. These films’ influence on subsequent ancient world movies has been understudied, and undervalued. A common model of cinematic Greece and Rome in the twenty-first century looks solely back to Gladiator. Undoubtedly Gladiator, and its commercial success, is important to how ancient world movies developed; but focussing solely on Gladiator does not explain a move away from Roman history towards Greek mythology, culminating in a flurry of movies about Greek mythological heroes. Lord of the Rings is an overlooked factor. Already in Troy two LOTR stars are in key roles, and the battle scenes seek to imitate those of Jackson’s trilogy. 300 mythologizes far beyond Frank Miller’s graphic novel, adding several monsters; LOTR’s influence is at play here. LOTR’s influence was one factor in a complex process that saw ancient world movies change in the twentyfirst century. LOTR fed into an atmosphere that moved ancient world movies towards Greece, away from Rome, through promoting the appeal of a combination of epic and the fantastic.
Whether you open a manga, a French-language comic strip or a North-American comic strip with Classic subject, it seems normal to the reader to encounter many representations of sculptures, paintings or object of daily life from this period throughout the story.
These images are taken from catalogues notably available online. The artists also seem to have drawn their inspiration from museum publications or directly from the collections exhibited by these cultural institutions. This article will review the masterpieces used in comic strips and the reasons why they are chosen. Depending on the formats and cultures that stage them, these works do not constitute decorative elements of an ancient past but contribute to the narrative.
Lotte Eisner
(2020)
Lotte Eisner (1896–1983) is without doubt one of the most important early film critics and pioneers of film history. In the history of Classical Studies, however, she plays no role. She is not even mentioned in the relevant scholarly books or articles, although she received a doctorate degree in Classical Archaeology. But it is worth taking a closer look at this relatively short phase of her life. The following lines are to be understood as a sketch of her specific ‘archaeological’ view of German Expressionist silent films. Lotte Eisner herself comments on this in her autobiography.
The modern conception of the werewolf is heavily influenced by Gothic reinterpretations of medieval European stories. This kind of werewolf is the one that has appeared on screen and written fiction for decades, but MTV’s Teen Wolf, a re-boot of the 1980s film which aired between 2011 – 17, is different. In this young adult supernatural drama, werewolves descend directly from Lycaon, and a substantial proportion of the show’s werewolf lore derives from Graeco-Roman stories about wolf-shifters and versipelles. This paper wants to explore the extent of the use in the show of the myth of Lycaon in particular, of Classical versipelles in general, the significance of these two references for the narrative, and the degree of innovation in modern supernatural fiction of this adaptation of Greek and Roman stories.
In Martial’s epigrams Silius Italicus is portrayed as a man of learning, author of the Punica and admirer of Vergil’s works, but also as a public figure and a former consul of Rome. My paper focuses on the epigrams devoted to the ‘political’ Silius, and suggests to relate them mainly to a certain stage in Silius Italicus’ life and to a specific communication strategy.
Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings employ traditional races from fairy tales: elves, men and dwarves. These peoples are differentiated principally by their dominant desires, but also by their speech, diet, and realms. I argue that these three races are significantly inspired by the three aspects that characterize the Republic’s tripartite soul—logistikon, thumoeides, and epithumetikon—along with their respective principal desires: desire for truth, greatness, and material goods. For Tolkien, therefore, these races have a corporate or political psychology that explains who they are as peoples in the history of Middle-earth. I offer a comprehensive view of the major races, connecting the dwarves with the appetitive artisans of the Republic, humans with the honour- and glory-seeking auxiliaries, and elves with the ruling guardians. This treatment explains the artisanal dwarves, as well as the battle-loving men (and women) of Rohan and Gondor, and the nostalgic, ‘anamnetic’ condition of exile that distinguishes the elves. Indeed, the condition of elves in many descriptions recalls a Platonic philosopher returned to the Cave, as well as the Neo-Platonic sagacity pictured in the biographies of Plotinus and Proclus.
This article focuses on the feminist reception of Zenobia of Palmyra in Great Britain during the long nineteenth century and the early twentieth century. A special focus lies on her reception by the British suffragettes who belonged to the Women’s Social and Political Union. Even though Zenobia’s story did not end happily, the warrior queen’s example served to inspire these early feminists. Several products of historical culture – such as books, pieces of art, newspaper articles and theatre plays – provide insight into the reception of her as an historical figure, which is dominated by the image of a strong and courageous woman. The article will shed light on how exactly Zenobia’s example was instrumentalised throughout the first feminist movement in Britain.