As the spring semester comes to an end for me, I wanted to share some of the fun we had in my @UWinnipeg_CLAS myth class! With the online format, I decided to include a series of participation tasks to help gain a sense of a shared classroom environment https://twitter.com/Vicky_Austen/status/1258772544057835520?s=20

In today’s thread, I want to focus on some of the contributions to the “modern reception” discussion board – mostly because I just think my students found some really cool examples of classical myth reception and I thought the Twittersphere might also like to know about them! /2

Of course, there was plenty of discussion of the usual suspects – the 2004 film Troy, Percy Jackson & the Olympians series by Rick Riordan, Wonder Woman, Disney’s Hercules – but also so many examples that were completely new to me... /3

Speaking of Disney, did you know that in 1934 Disney also created a cartoon focused on Hades & Persephone (Silly Symphony: The Goddess of Spring)?! It fairly accurately captures the gist of the story of Persephone’s abduction to the Underworld /4

As my student noted in their discussion post, this short is particularly interesting when viewed in conjunction with Disney’s Hercules, because it shows a real shift in the perception of Hades and how they chose to represent /5

In the Silly Symphony short, Hades is imagined like a devil and the Underworld is more like how we might think of ‘Hell’ (lots of fire and the colour red) - compare this to icy blues and dry comedy of the 1997 Hercules film.... /6

Sticking with Hades and Persephone, there were several examples of web-based comics that reimagined this story e.g. Lore Olympus and Punderworld – which clearly romanticize the abduction narrative in a problematic way /7
https://www.webtoons.com/en/romance/lore-olympus/list?title_no=1320&page=1 https://www.webtoons.com/en/challenge/punderworld/list?title_no=312584&page=1

*side note* On the issue of romanticizing problematic myths, see this @eidolon_journal Eidolon article from @aimee_hinds /8 https://eidolon.pub/rape-or-romance-1b3d584585b8

And also this @eidolon_journal review of the musical Hadestown by Miriam Kamil /9 https://eidolon.pub/a-classicist-reviews-hadestown-d8a1d97d26aa

Another big theme across the discussion board was song lyrics! Lots of mythical references here - some good, some… not so good – I’ll let you judge! First example = Bastille’s Icarus (“Icarus is flying to close to the sun” – you don’t say….) /10

Icarus also features in Iron Maiden's Flight of Icarus (“His eyes seem so glazed, As he flies on the wings of a dream, Now he knows his father betrayed, Now his wings turn to ashes to ashes his grave”) /11

Keeping up with... Kanye - he sure loves his mythical references! For example, his track 'Otis' (Kanye West & Jay Z) features the line "Luxury rap, the Hermes of verses. Sophisticated ignorance write my curses in cursive." /12

Kanye uses double entendre to express a dual meaning of "Hermes". First, he is referencing the modern brand to express the luxury element of his style, but Kanye is also referencing Hermes' role as a messenger to the gods in the way he 'delivers' his rap lyrics /13

In 'Saint Pablo' Kanye also uses the line “Don’t stare at money too long, it’s Medusa.” - making a clear link between Medusa's power to turn you into stone, and the dangerous allure of money /14

My personal 'favourite' Kanye myth reference comes in his track 'Black Skinhead' which features this absolute beauty of a mixed metaphor... "I keep it 300, like the Romans, 300 b**ches, where's the Trojans"..... (I have QUESTIONS Kanye!) /15

And Kanye doesn't stop at the lyrics... oh noooo.... he also depicts himself as Zeus on Mount Olympus in the music video to 'Power' /16

Moving on from Kanye, I now want to highlight three modern art mythical pieces that really caught my attention. First up, is this absolutely amazing young female artist found on TikTok (Julia0890) who created a series of pieces centred on violence against Greek women /17

Second, is a series by Madame Yevonde (1893-1975), in which she photographed the high-society ladies of the day 1930s as 'Goddesses'. My personal favourite is the Minerva portrait (complete with gun and owl!) but you can check out all the prints here /18 https://www.npg.org.uk/shop/prints/madame-yevondes-goddesses-photographs

And finally is the work of artistic duo PichoAvo - which I cannot get enough of - I just love the mix of classical and urban in all of their work. Below is their version of Athena /19 https://www.pichiavo.com/ 

Here is PichoAvo's mural for the Grenoble Street Art Fest in France (2019). Paying tribute to water, Poseidon watches the Alps mountains from the city of Fontaine (“spring” or “fountain”) in the metro area of Grenoble /20

And for a Canadian element, here is the PichoAvo mural from Montreal (2019), depicting Diana/Artemis on the right and a muse of inspiration on the left /21

I hope you've enjoyed these fun myth references as much as I did! Big shout out to my students who contributed all this material - I am, like Kanye, simply a messenger! I'll be back soon to create a monster thread of all MEMES submissions... /end