Classical Mythology in Modern Day Literature and Theatre

A culture enthused by sex, wine, opium, death, gore, heroism, fighting, sacrifice, and war. This was the Greek way of living. These acts of violence and ecstasy were inspired by the Greek plays and literature of this time. The gods were flawed with the sins of mortals and committed the same horrible acts we did here on earth. They were jealous of each other to the point that there was a constant struggle for power. Zeus led the Olympians after defeating the Titans which included his own father and mother. These Olympians begin growing exponentially after the initial six began incestuously creating more gods.

These plays and literary works were very influential to this time period and are still studied by the masses today. The stories developed at this time gave us a new concept that is used in many movies, plays, and literature today, the selfless and brave hero. Because of these stories of heroes rising to the occasion to be forever remembered by mortals and gods we have adapted the myths into our modern day literature. There are adaptations of Greek myths in many works released in the past twenty years. Most recognizable would be movies like 300, Immortals, and Clash of the Titans. However, stage and literary adaptations have been made as well, The King Must Die, The Search for Odysseus, The Lightning Theif, and many more.

This short list of sources that have been compiled demonstrate examples of how Greek mythology has been adapted into newer works. Some sources show playwrights that have used Greek myths as the basis for their theme and adapted some concepts to fit their own era of entertainment. Then there are sources covering literary works that have adapted Greek mythology to make new stories out of older texts. The ones that made it into the Annotated Bibliography were great resources for learning about Greek Mythology through a new perspective. Some will have Homer or Hesiod in them but they will also have the author’s interpretations of these works. Some are just stories retold in a different way so that there is new life brought to the story.

This compiled group of sources can be used to help scholars, students, teachers, or just the curious to find Greek works adapted to fit a newer style of entertainment. As a document the sources provide an area to retrieve the information pertaining to adapted Greek mythology and the annotations provide a summary of what these works will cover. This document can also be used for leads on more information to broaden the understanding of adapted Greek myths.

Renault, Mary. The King Must Die. Don’t know: Vintage, 1988. Print.

Renault completely remodels the myth of Theseus and king Minos to resemble something that could actually happen. She uses Theseus as the narrator to portray his life story from his perspective. She researches the history of that area and utilizes a variety of historical traditions and locations to make the story come to life. Some areas of the story are changed around to be more logical such as Theseus’ ability to sense out earthquakes. Theseus gets anxious any time an earthquake is about to happen. This seems more realistic than Poseidon telling him that he is about to make an earthquake.

Campbell, Peter Andrew. “The Postmodern Remaking of Greek Tragedy.” Order No. 3104790 Columbia University, 2003. Ann Arbor: ProQuest. Web. 1 Oct. 2013.

In this dissertation Peter Andrew Campbell evaluates how Greek tragedies are transformed into a postmodern play in comparison to how other works are conformed to postmodernism. He explains how most are told in an updated version of language and in contemporary places. However, Greek tragedies discussed in this dissertation are retold innovatively so that the Greek tales change structurally to be used for theatrical texts. Campbell explains critics’ viewpoints of what is wrong in certain postmodern retellings of Greek tales. He uses critical thinking to reevaluate how these stories are getting retold.

Caplan, Debra. “Oedipus, Shmedipus: ancient Greek drama on the modern Yiddish stage.”Comparative Drama 44.4 (2010): 405+. Academic OneFile. Web. 1 Oct. 2013.

This article follows the movement of Greek tragedies onto the modern Yiddish stage. Debra Caplan is the author of this article and she explains how the Jewish people adapted these Greek tragedies to fit their religious beliefs. Glenda Abramson has termed this era of Jewish plays as, “The Judaization of Greek Mythology.” Aeschylus’, Sophocles’, and Euripides’ works were all twisted to adhere to Jewish norms and values. She shows the progression by explaining how it was integrated into society with individual works. She also explains the Jewish leader’s criticism and eventual acceptance of “Jewish Greek Tragedies”.

Hopkins, David Delayne. “Dionysus: The Re-Emergence of a God from Greek Mythology in Modern Literature.” Order No. 1393869 California State University, Dominguez     Hills, 1999. Ann Arbor:ProQuest. Web. 1 Oct. 2013.

David D. Hopkins writes in his thesis that there is evidence of Dionysus, the Greek god of wine and ecstasy, in modern day literature. He names several literary works that he finds Dionysus’s presence in such as; Women in Love, Heart of Darkness, The Stranger, and The Magic Mountain. He uses excerpts of these novels to prove the modernistic view of Dionysus. He argues that these concepts in these novels are not new but borrowed from ancient Greece and adapted to this era.

Freeman, Philip. Oh My Gods: A Modern Retelling of Greek and Roman Myths. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2012. Print.

This is a book that tells the reader about Greek mythology in a modern day language without the obscurities of excessive poetic language. It is a compendium of works ranging from Hercules and his labors to the tale of Medea in Euripides work. It also covers the genealogy of all the gods. Freeman writes about the acts of violence, rape, incest, abductions, and all other evils that the gods committed. His book is aimed to help people understand these works so that they might further research the originals by poets of that time like Hesiod, Homer, and Euripides.

James, Vanessa. The Genealogy of Mythology. New York: Penguin Group, 2003. Print.

In this book Vanessa constructs a family tree that starts with the beginning of time and ends with the decedents of the war heroes in the Trojan War. She covers a large amount of material for one book. The books has information on how the Titans came about and how the Olympians were formed and took control from the Titans. There is a full account given of how each god was brought into being. She even discusses the lesser known gods of the wind and rivers. Every child produced by a god is mentioned in this book as well as the heroes of this era’s genealogy. This is a good resource for any scholar of Greek and Roman literature.

Peterson, Amy T., and David J. Dunworth. Mythology In Our Midst : A Guide To Cultural References. Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press, 2004. eBook Collection (EBSCohost). Web. 16 Oct. 2013

This is a collection of essays that describe how myths have impacted modern inventions and ideas. There are fifty of these essays that describe how each idea derived from a Greek myth. Along with proving that Greek mythology was the origin of ideas like Freud’s psychoanalytic theory and certain movies like the Matrix, this book modernizes Greek myths. These retellings help the reader understand the main idea of the myth so they can better understand how the idea was derived from it.

Ferrell, William K. Literature And Film As Modern Mythology. Westport, Conn: Praeger, 2000. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 23 Oct. 2013.

This is a book that compares the film and literary works of this century to mythologies of all different cultures. Ferrell uses works from well-known authors to validate the comparison. He tries to demonstrate that each culture’s entertaining arts show important facts of how that culture lived at that time. He even evaluates what our literary and film works say about our ways of life. By making these comparisons it allows us to view how our culture uses ideas from mythologies of all types including Greek.

O’Brien, Michael J. Twentieth Century Interpretations of Oedipus Rex. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1968. Print.

O’Brien put together a collection of essays from scholars. These essays pertain to Sophocles and his play Oedipus Rex. The majority of the essays stick to two main topics. One is Sophocles craftsmanship and his way of thought. The rest are subjective essays that explain the author’s interpretation of the meaning of the play. This is a source with a very specific area of study that delivers different viewpoints on Sophocles work.

Spivey, Nigel. Songs on Bronze: The Greek Myths Made Real. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005.Print

Spivey puts together a collection of Greek Myths into something he hopes children can read without be subjected to large amounts of violence. He throws in a group of myths to give the reader a general rundown of Greek Myths as a whole. The way he tells the stories involves the perspective of psychological realism. The reader will hear the heroes or gods justifying the way they act with psychological evaluations of their behavior. This is a good source for early high school students or undergraduates who wish to find a different perspective of how the myths can be interpreted.

Mayerson, Phillip. Classical Mythology in Literature, Art, and Music. Massachusetts: Xerox College Publishing, 1971. Print.

Mayerson has collected and written a compendium of Greek Myths into one book. He uses great detail to explain the genealogy of the gods and what happened according to the Greek Myths in chronological order. Besides just being a source of reference to the Greek’s beliefs, he also expounds on modern day literature and play writes. He gives the reader references to certain modern works and how they were originated from the Greek arts. This would be a great source for any liberal arts, humanities, or literature scholar or student.

Reid, Jane. Classical Mythology in the Arts, 1300-1990s. New York: Oxford, 1993. Print.

Reid has put together the ultimate reference guide to Classical Mythology. She has every subject imaginable in alphabetical order from Achilles to Zeus. Every kind of art from opera and drama to literature and sculptures with the subject involved is listed under their name. All sources are cited in the listing and she makes it easy to locate just what the reader is looking for. Even works involving Greek myths that have been completed in the 19^th and 20^th centuries are listed. This is a source that should be utilized by any student, teacher, or scholar interested in locating information pertaining to the Greek arts.

Folklore

Folklore is a journal published three times a year and has been around since 1890 with the same name. From 1878-1882 it was known as The Folk-lore Record and was changed to The Folk-lore Journal in 1883 and stayed this way until 1889. It is one of the earliest journals written in English in the field of folkloristics. “Their mission and scope is to publish essays specializing in traditional language, narrative, music, song, dance, drama, foodways, medicine, arts and crafts, and popular religion and belief. It reviews current scholarship in a wide range of adjacent disciplines, including cultural studies, popular culture, cultural anthropology, ethnology, and social history. It aims to be lively, informative, and accessible, while still maintaining its scholarship.” (folklore-society.com). The current Editorial Board mostly consists of women. There are 5 females and one male. They represent different universities and organizations all from the United Kingdom. This was the only editorial board I could locate. This journal can be accessed through the Humanities Full Text Database on TTU’s website. The articles in this database range from 1983 until as recent as August 2013. However, only from 1993 until 2011 are the articles accessible in full text form. I reviewed an issue from 1983, 2000, and 2011 to attain information that describes how the journal has operated over the past 30 years.

In the 1983 issue there is an article pertaining to the popular legend of Beowulf and the Germanic people. Articles include information about architecture and religion, Celtic mythology, and human sexuality in Africa. Thirteen articles make up the content of this issue. Six book reviews are included after all the articles. All of the articles ranged from 4 to 13 pages in length.

In the 2000 issue the format was pretty much the same. Only ten articles are found in this issue and still six book reviews. However, the articles also included speeches and lectures from accredited folklore scholars. A section was included for the readers to write letters to the journal and discuss some topics that were addressed in previous issues. This allowed readers to disagree with certain writers or praise them for their good research. A separate article recounted the events of a competition that was held by the Folklore journal. It was a writing competition for students to receive a scholarship from the journal. Articles in this issue include “The heroic outlaw in Irish folklore and popular literature”, “The Holy Grail: from romance motif to modern genre”, “The witch’s familiar and the fairy in early modern England and Scotland”, and “A reply to Amy Hale”. There is still plenty of content focused on folklore tales from different areas of the earth. Articles in this issue were a little lengthier and ranged from 2 to 27 pages long.

The 2011 issue seemed to have seen a lot of changes in comparison to the previous issues. Only nine articles are included in this issue. Few of the articles pertain to folklore and myths. The other articles contain information about religion or cultural practices in other areas.  This is easy to see with article titles like “Romanian Beliefs and Rites of Pregnancy” and “Religious Poetry as a Vehicle for Social Control in Africa”. They have 11 book reviews in this issue which is nearly twice the amount from the previous issues. It seems after 130 years they have run out of folklore to tell. Pages for each article range from 5 to 25 pages, which is practically unchanged from the previous year.

In the 2000 issue there is an article called “The heroic outlaw in Irish Folklore and popular literature”. This article discusses the outlaw and how the folklore behind these outlaws gave the Irish people hope during a dark time. The British were colonizing the other countries and ruling over them. This left hardly enough resources for the people they ruled over. The poor living conditions gave way to the outlaw hero in Irish folklore. The article gives examples of different outlaws that defied the British rule and inspired their people to do the same. A separate article in the 2011 issue called “Romanian Beliefs and Rites of Pregnancy with Special Reference to Modiva”approaches a different topic. The focus is on the beliefs and traditions that the Romanian people are accustomed to when a woman is with child. The specific group of Romanian people they are looking at is the Moldova people. The article writes about how the mother and the society are responsible for a healthy fetus and how the mother gains a different role in their society. By examining these two articles we can see how the Journal has begun to change. There seems to be some digression from folklore stories that is replaced by the traditions of certain areas of the world.

If you were to pick up an issue to read you would most likely find articles explaining a legend of some sort. Most issues contain articles that debunk a myth or explain a folktale found in some source of literature. Any literature scholar could benefit from this journal. It contains exceptional research of how these folktales made their way into literature and where their origin can be found before literature. If you were to pick up newer issues you would be more likely to find less articles pertaining to folklore and more articles about the religion and culture of different nations.

 

 

Works Cited

. N.p.. Web. 9 Oct 2013. <http://www.folklore-society.com/publications/&gt;.

. N.p.. Web. 9 Oct 2013. <http://www.tandfonline.com/action/aboutThisJournal?journalCode=rfol20

Theresa, Buckland. n. page. <http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.tntech.edu/ehost/detail?sid=0d7e8524-0be7-474a-af6b-

Mark Twain Project

The Mark Twain Project is a website that is compiled of Mark Twain’s written documents and published works. It contains autobiographies, letters, books, checks, documents, and so on. The mission and goal of the website is to be a convenient scholarly source for Mark Twain’s works and ultimately to obtain all of Mark Twain’s writings. The project was first brought together by Robert H. Hirst when he succeeded the previous editor that was in charge of compiling all the Mark Twain papers into one source. Hirst had the idea to add the papers to other Mark Twain works and make the Mark Twain Project.  Their newest change was to convert all the works into an online website.

The Mark Twain Project began with a single editorial board of three members that were on the original editorial board and remained working on the Mark Twain Project today. The modern day editors consist of mostly males. There is a long list of other people that have contributed to this source on the website. It even includes students who worked on the project as volunteers.

This site breaks down Twain’s work into three different sections of writings. The first section is letters that Mark Twain wrote. It includes all of the letters they have located written by Mark Twain in Chronological order. They are critically edited, include editorial notes, and they used Mark Twain scholars to make assumptions at missing words. A lot of the letters are addressed to family like his sister, mother, brother, and others; however, a good percentage of the letters are sent to several different journals. Digital forms with typed letters are made so the letters are easy for the public to read. Facsimiles are also available to see so that the public can get a better idea of what the real letters look like. These letters serve as a detailed account of Twain’s life and insight to his personality.

The next section is devoted to the writings of Mark Twain. They use the early collection of Mark Twains papers that were collected by Hirst’s predecessor. These texts are supposed to portray Twain’s intentions as close as possible in his writings. The final section compiles images to help the Twain enthusiasts further their understanding of the author. These images have words attached that depict what is in the picture.

There are other tabs like the MTPO tab that describe how the site came about and gives the history of the letters and the Twain family. It even tells why Twain didn’t release some of his writings until after his death. Under the resource tab they have maps and chronologies, a chronological list of Twain’s letters, photographs and manuscript facsimiles, Twain documents, and reviews. This tab has a taste of all the others. This is a great source for any literature scholar or Twain enthusiast therefore the Mark Twain Project should not be overlooked.

The Electronic Literature Collection

The Electronic Literature Collection is a published website that serves as a means to get new literary works to a wider audience. Its main mission is to “Promote and facilitate the writing, publishing, and reading of electronic literature.” There are two volumes of the source and the first volume was published in 2006 online and on CD-ROMs.  They thought by making an online version and a physical version that they could get it out to a wider audience. Then volume two was published in 2011 and it was released online and on flash drives containing both volume one as well as volume two. Both volumes are free and easy to access. Volumes one and two have four different editors for each work. Not only do they have the same amount of editors, but they also have the same amount of men and women editors.

These two volumes operate the exact same as far as navigation of the website goes. When entering the site you will find a large square made of boxes with pictures in them. Each of these boxes is a link to an interactive literary work. Also underneath you can click on other ways to find certain literary works listed by author, title, or by categorization of type of literature. Out of the sixty boxes to choose, I clicked on the one called “Like Stars in a Clear Night Sky” by Sharif Ezzat. It opened up an auditory narrative of a man explaining different stories he could tell. As stars appeared on the screen I was instructed to click on the blue stars if I wanted to hear a certain story. The organization of this work made literature an integrative process that helps the reader to associate with the author.

Volume two included sixty-two interactive pieces. The first literary work I tried in volume two, SoundPoems by Jorg Piringer, was actually a sound poem where the user of the website gets to click on different letters and they buzz around making noise occasionally running into each other and canceling each other out. Memoire Involuntaire  No. 1 is a poem that as you read it words change into synonyms of their original form. Then the poem tries to remember the original version after an amount of allotted time, simulating how stories can change as they are told over generations.

This is a great source for any teacher of any grade. It can be used for classroom exercises and help students see that literature does not always have to be a book or a poem. It can be an interactive learning process that is fun.