Classical Mythology

Classical myth and film have a long history of being intertwined, as myth was made into film from the days of silent movies, and ancient texts themselves often use what we might see as ‘cinematic’ techniques when framing a scene. This lecture explores how Greek and Roman myths have appeared on screen from the ‘historical’ epics of the 1950s and 1960s, through dubbed Italian musclebound heroes to the new CGI epics such as Clash of the Titans. It also considers how mythic tropes are recontextualised in modern scenarios, in films like Oh, Brother, Where Art Thou? which models itself on the Odyssey. Copyright 2013 Rhiannon Evans / La Trobe University, all rights reserved. Contact for permissions.

Ovid’s Metamorphoses was written during the Augustan period, and it is clear that its author was often out of tune with the political regime. This lecture explores the different ways in which the poem transforms Greek mythology to explore issues such as power, justice and censorship. Ovid’s gods often exert power arbitrarily, punishing those who are already victims or taking revenge for perceived slights. Here we explore the ways in which Greek myth can function as a contemporary critique of Roman society. Copyright 2013 Rhiannon Evans / La Trobe University, all rights reserved. Contact for permissions.

Ovid’s Metamorphoses is one of the most significant ancient texts for the study of Greek mythology, but we should remember that this is a Roman work, which absorbs influences from the whole of the Mediterranean world. This lecture looks at the poem’s cosmogony in book and compares it to the Hesiodic version (explored earlier in lecture 2), showing how various philosophical and scientific ideas have been added to the Ovidian mix. We also see how Ovid sets up the parallel between the Olympian gods, particularly, Jupiter, and the emperor Augustus, a fact which makes this poem both topical and politically contentious. Copyright 2013 Rhiannon Evans / La Trobe University, all rights reserved. Contact for permissions.

Although Ancient Rome was clearly a patriarchal society (literally so, as the father had supreme power in the Roman household), Roman myth also features many prominent women, from the Sabine wives who intervene to end a war, to individualised women (both heroines and demonised women) who show us which qualities Romans valued in women. These myths are often connected to female sexuality, particularly in the case of Lucretia, whose rape brings about a political revolution, inspiring the end of the Monarchy and the foundation of the Republic. Copyright 2013 Rhiannon Evans / La Trobe University, all rights reserved. Contact for permissions.

Rome’s mythic history is littered with heroes who exemplify positive and negative ways of behaving. Livy in particular is fond of using mythic figures as exempla in his historical work, but we see it elsewhere too, for example in poetry and in public monuments. This lecture explores the qualities which are celebrated in Roman heroes, and examine the way that the state is prioritised over personal relationships and the family in many of them. Copyright 2013 Rhiannon Evans / La Trobe University, all rights reserved. Contact for permissions.