Our Mythical Hope. The Ancient Myths as Medicine for the Hardships of Life in Children’s and Young Adults’ Culture (2024)

What Is Mythical Hope in Children’s and Young Adults’ Culture? – or: Sharing the Light

2021

Introductory chapter to the volume Katarzyna Marciniak, ed., "Our Mythical Hope: The Ancient Myths as Medicine for the Hardships of Life in Children’s and Young Adults’ Culture", Warsaw: Warsaw University Press, 2021, 836 pp. Open Access for the whole volume: https://www.wuw.pl/product-eng-16830-Our-Mythical-Hope-The-Ancient-Myths-as-Medicine-for-the-Hardships-of-Life-in-Childrens-and-Young-Adults-Culture-PDF.html

“It Never Hurts to Keep Looking for Sunshine”: The Motif of Depression in Works for Children and Youth Inspired by Classical Antiquity

Clotho, 2020

The paper analyzes a handful of works for children and youth that are based on mythology and deal with depression, a topic that is becoming more frequent in contemporary children’s and young adults’ culture, mainly because of the need to break the mental health taboo. These are the newest edition of Laura Orvieto’s Storie di bambini molto antichi (2014, first published in 1937), Rachel Smythe’s digital comics Lore Olympus (2018–2020), Patricia Satjawatcharaphong’s short animation Reflection (2010), and the webcomic series Therapy created by Anastasia Gorshkova (2019–2020). They provide examples from literary and audio-visual culture for very young readers and more adult teenagers and youth, raising the issue of deep sadness utilizing storytelling and not in a didactic way. Some of the protagonists struggling with the problem are far from lively characters in conventional interpretations of the myths (including Hades, Hydra, or Medusa), so the texts play upon stereotypes entrenched in the culture. It appears that children’s works inspired by classical antiquity have significant interpretative potential and educational value – as well as the ability to surprise the audience.

“Playing with Life Uncertainties in Antiquity”, in Marciniak K. (ed.), Our Mythical Hope: The Ancient Myths as a Medicine for the Hardships of Life in Children’s and Young Adults’ Culture, series “Our Mythical Childhood”, Warsaw, Warsaw University Press, 2021, 71-88.

Marciniak K. (ed.), Our Mythical Hope: The Ancient Myths as a Medicine for the Hardships of Life in Children’s and Young Adults’ Culture, series “Our Mythical Childhood”, Warsaw, Warsaw University Press, 2021

In Classical Greek vase-painting, young individuals of both sexes play several skill and chance games at a prenuptial age, a risky time, especially for girls. The aim of the painters is not to represent a real game, allowing the reconstruction of rules. Ludic activities transpose in a virtual world the critical phase of courtship and the hope for its successful result: marriage. Play and games create a metaphorical space where maidens display their agency over life uncertainties under the patronage of Eros and Aphrodite.

"Folktale and tragedy in Greek myth" ["Il fiabesco e il tragico nel mito greco"]. Ufficio Scolastico per la Lombardia, Seminar for High School Teachers in the Classics, 4 September 2018.

What is the most peculiar identifying quality which marks out myth and separates mythology from fairytales or legends? The answer lies in the spiritual content of the narration, the hidden messages which underlie the storyline and its outcome, the general worldview implicit in the actions and the fate of the personages. Myths stand apart from the other genres of folk narrative because they contain a serious and important meaning of broad cosmic dimensions, concerning the human condition, the nature of human existence, the position of mankind in the universe, the relations of man with the world or with god, the laws that govern human destiny. This deeper significance is the most authentic element that characterizes true and pure mythology. Genuine mythical stories have always something to teach us — not an ordinary lesson on practical ethics and everyday behaviour, like proverbs and fables, but a profound spiritual truth, which touches on the core of the human psyche and affects the fundaments of our collective presence in this world. Myths are codified attempts to answer the eternal questions of existence (who are we, where do we come from, what is the purpose of our life) in the form of a meaningful narrative or parable. Quite often the key for understanding the parable has been lost in time, or the narrative is enigmatic and open to more interpretations. But the great questions of life are always present and define the nature of mythology as a peculiar product of the collective imaginary. It is this cosmic and existential dimension of myth that helps us understand the difference between mythological stories and plain folktales. Very often the storylines of myths contain motifs and narrative patterns that are common in magical fairytales, legends, or even novelle and anecdotes. In the mythical universe, however, these folkloric materials are reworked and thoroughly transformed, so as to acquire greater spiritual depth and gravity. From mere ingredients of an amusing or enthralling plot they become constituents of an entire worldview of mankind, and they instigate reflections on the prime themes of destiny, existence, and the tragic condition of our race. In this paper I explore a few examples (Ajax's end, Pentheus' delusions in Euripides' Bacchae, the story of Oedipus) which show clearly this transformative power of ancient myths, the capacity of mythical thought to elevate the common stuff of folktale into sublime and tragic concepts of human fate.

Create Your Own Mythology: Youngsters for Youngsters (and Oldsters) in Mythological Fan Fiction

Our Mythical Childhood... The Classics and Literature for Children and Young Adults, 2016

In: Katarzyna Marciniak, in: "Our Mythical Childhood... The Classics and Literature for Children and Young Adults", ed. Katarzyna Marciniak, Boston-Leiden: Brill, 2016, Open Access for the chapter: https://brill.com/view/book/9789004335370/BP000028.xml Open Access for the whole volume: https://brill.com/view/title/32883

Review of Kazantzidis, Georgios, and Dimos G. Spatharas, Hope in Ancient Literature, History, and Art (Berlin/Boston: Walter de Gruyter, 2018), Emotions: History, Culture, Society 3 (2019) 333–335

Emotions: History, Culture, Society, 2019

My First Book of Greek Myths: Retelling Ancient Myths to Modern Children

2017

Mythos as MythUs: Facing and overcoming crises through traditional narrative from antiquity to the present. International summer school at the University of Athens (June 2023).

The Mythos as MythUs summer school program studies myth and popular narrative, from antiquity to the present, as being humanity’s voice, long-shared, with which to respond to harsh realities; to times of crisis; and to distress that impacts entire communities. In such times of transition and upheaval myth and narrative serve to ameliorate the inimical stereotyping, bigoted notions, and segregation that these challenging circumstances inevitably bring. In its role of healing, narrative has been not just preserved but also transformed, in all its oral, written, digital, and, of late, even contemporary literary forms, not just in terms of its atavistic world of archaic symbolism but in fact most markedly through being called on in confronting, via poetic means, problems, ideas, and emotions that are communal as well as individual -- as a result of which transformative therapeutic dimension, narrative continues to update, on an ongoing basis, in altogether dynamic ways. This Summer School is a blended-learning program that consists of an online preparation class and a ten-day live attendance summer school of face-to-face classes in Athens as well as fieldwork on the island of Antiparos, Cyclades, and five group and/or guided tours in and around Attica and Athens. The program includes 9 modules divided into 3 groups, each focusing on a different topic: Topic 1: Myth in Ancient Greek and other Ancient Cultures Topic 2: The Role of Myth in Response to Dread, Disruption, and Disaster Topic 3: Narrating in Modern and Contemporary Society Each student will select a Topic of study on the basis of the module and syllabi descriptions provided below. The series of introductory, in-person lectures will include all students, but each module will have different preparatory work, readings, and seminars/workshops. The Program is open to Bachelor's, Master and PhD international students, as well as Greek English-speaking ones, with an interest in myth and its contemporary research and applications, and a study background in Humanities and Social Sciences, focusing on Classics, Folklore Studies, History and Cultural Studies. The instructors of the courses include world-famous scholars of Classics and Folklore, notably Carl Lindahl and William Hansen. Internationally recognized experts from Greece, Italy, the USA, and Sweden are also on the team: Marianthi Kaplanoglou, Aphrodite Nounanaki, Sophia Papaioannou, Ioannis Konstantakos (Athens), Christos Zafiropoulos (Patras), George Katsadoros (Univ. of the Aegean), Gail Cooper (USA), Camilla Asplund Ingemark, Dominic Ingemark (Uppsala), Licia Masoni (Bologna). See more details on the website of the summer school: https://sites.google.com/view/mythos-as-mythus The period of applications has started and the final deadline is 10 March 2023. Cuncti adeste!

Continuity and Change in the Treatment of Frightening Subject Matter: Contemporary Retellings of Classical Mythology for Children in the Low Countries

Ever since its origins, children’s literature has dealt with frightening subject matter. Retellings of classical mythology neatly illustrate the shifting shapes of such frightening fiction for children as the myths contain subjects that might be considered as a treath to the romantic notion of the innocent child. As such, a focus upon the way authors deal with sex, death and violence in retellings of classical mythology reveals how the paradoxical impulses and concerns that govern the act of retelling – i.e. a desire for preserving and challenging cultural tradition – alter under the influence of society’s changing ideas about children and their literature. This paper concentrates upon the rich and vivid tradition of retelling classical myths in the Low Countries. Shifts in the choice of pretext and age of the intended audience reveal a change of attitude towards frightening subjects in classical myths during the last decennia. A closer look at retellings of the creation myths, dealing with sexual and lethal violence between parents and children, and the subject of death in the myth of Orpheus, shows how the retellings of frightening myths range from unequivocal presentations as cautionary tales to demanding narratives generating unfixed meanings.

Retelling Stories, Framing Culture Chapter 3 Classical Mythology