Ancient Greek Myth Research Articles

Io and the Gorgon: Ancient Greek Medical and Mythical Constructions of the Interaction Between Women’s Experiences of Sex and Birth

The combined evidence of ancient Greek gynecological treatises, tragedies (Aeschylus’s Suppliants , Euripides’ Ion and Electra ) and myths (Io, Perseus and Medusa) shows that women engaging in illicit or unwanted sexual activity were considered to suffer specific gynecological disorders that negatively affected their fertility or ability to give birth. These disorders were thought to be manageable by magico-medical means that relieved guilt, anxiety, and fear.

Dramatic Revisions of Myths, Fairy Tales and Legends: Essays on Recent Plays ed. by Verna A. Foster (review)

Reviewed by: Dramatic Revisions of Myths, Fairy Tales and Legends: Essays on Recent Plays ed. by Verna A. Foster Stephe Harrop (bio) Verna A. Foster , ed. Dramatic Revisions of Myths, Fairy Tales and Legends: Essays on Recent Plays. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2012. Pp. viii + 250. $40.00. Dramatic Revisions of Myths, Fairy Tales and Legends is an admirably wide-ranging survey of the ways in which contemporary dramatic literature appropriates, contests, and transforms pre-existing mythic and fantastical narratives. Verna A. Foster's introduction makes a strong case for the volume's chosen terminology and self-consciously diverse range of subject matter. Dramatic "revision," Foster [End Page 268] contends, does not (unlike more conventional terms, including "adaptation" and "translation") presuppose the existence of an identifiable, literary source-text (2-3) and thus opens the way for an expansive and inclusive range of narratives— incorporating "various kinds of retellings of myth, fairy tale, and legend" (3)—to be considered alongside one another. The resulting breadth of critical focus aims to develop new insights into the contemporary use of "old stories for new cultural purposes" (12), traversing genre- and subject-boundaries to explore a varied collection of modern playwrights, their different creative practices, and their distinctive "dramatic revisions" of myth, fairy tale, or legend (12). The book's first four chapters offer new perspectives on relatively familiar territory, as they examine the contemporary adaptation and dramatic revision of ancient Greek myth. Miriam Chirico develops a structuralist analysis of the "mythic revisionary drama" (15) of Karen Hartman, Sarah Ruhl, and Caridad Svich, highlighting the diversity of revisionary strategies and styles being deployed in three key works. Karelisa Hartigan discusses the challenges posed to Aristotelian definitions of tragedy by modern dramatic revisions and, in particular, their intense focus on individual experience. Elizabeth W. Scharffenberger explores the ways in which contemporary playwriting and performance can radically "unmake" myth (52), inviting modern audiences "to reflect on their own participation in, and vulnerability to, the phenomenon of mythopoesis" (53), in the process rendering the received mythologies of Helen and Jocasta "metamythopoetic" (63). Finally, Jeffrey B. Loomis identifies a complex network of connections between the Homeric "Hymn to Demeter" and "the affirmation of a vital, dynamic, life-heralding spirituality" (76) in the seriocomic dramas of Tina Howe. There is plenty to stimulate and provoke in these essays, but what is particularly valuable about this volume is the juxtaposition and interaction of these analyses with later chapters drawing on a more diverse range of source materials, which invite a broader exploration of the role of dramatic revision in contemporary theatrical writing and performance. Kevin J. Wetmore, Jr.'s exploration of the transformation and reception of West African myth on American stages highlights the role of revisionary drama in creating and representing "complex and fluid" diaspora identities (93). Similar themes also emerge in Christy Stanlake's study of the multiple mythologies uneasily co-inhabiting Tomson Highway's Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing and the ways in which this complex drama might ultimately function as "a bravely wrought ceremonial action" designed to aid a fractured Native American community's attempts at self-healing (110). Amelia Howe Kritzer argues that Caryl Churchill's use of mythic figures and themes in The Skriker deliberately pushes the play beyond the personal and the everyday in order to make visible "the psychological, social, and economic burden carried by young people" and address the wider issues of "social breakdown" and "natural [End Page 269] catastrophe" (122). Sharon Friedman contributes a fascinating survey of multiple revisions of the "dybbuk" in modern theater and the ways in which this Jewish folkloric figure has been used to engage contentious issues of gender, identity, and sexual desire, additionally stressing "the performative aspect of storytelling" (140) as a key factor in myth-inspired drama's ability to restore the unpredictable, flexible qualities of traditional narratives. Anthony Ellis comparably addresses the relationship between staged fairy-tale narratives and their contemporary audiences, examining Martin McDonagh's The Pillowman and the play's unsettling depiction of "the struggle for the control of representation" (156) between the creative artist and the state. And the fairy tale's potential to dramatize and contest contemporary social...

Tracking Burmese pythons

If, as the ancient Greek myth holds, the serpent god Ophion once reigned supreme over Mount Olympus, Burmese pythons in southern Florida are now living up to the spirit of the lore. Constrictor snakes from southern Asia that can grow to lengths of 5.5 meters, the pythons have invaded thousands of square kilometers in southern Florida, their rise in some parts coinciding with a drop in the numbers of several …

Hope-Lore and the Compassionate Clinician

Writers, both literary and academic, have long pointed to the importance of hope for humanity. One of the ancient Greek myths, familiar to many, tells us of Pandora, who, as the story goes, opened a box from the gods and let hope out. It is revealing that one version of the myth sees hope as the last of a series of miseries inflicted on us (‘‘bad hope’’), whereas the other sees it as a redemptive balm, as offering a way to endure despite the said miseries (‘‘good hope’’). There continues to be some collective uncertainty about hope, with the combined weight of literary aphorisms, proverbs, and quotable quotesdmany originating from eminent thinkers and writers across the agesdencapsulating the ambivalence that hope engenders. In this article, I reflect on a little of this collective hope-lore, considering how and where it intersects with academic thought on hope, specifically hope within amedical context, and the implications for compassionate clinicians who care for those affected by illness. A brief caveat: I am not a clinician, but an academic and researcher privileged to explore how hope is experienced and understood in a medical context. I typically work with patients (and families) faced with a cancer diagnosis, including those for whom cure seemed possible and those for whom it did not. Thus, my perspective is informed by my research focus

The Tragic Nostalgia of Albert Camus

Algeria is never far from the center of Albert Camus's life and work—no further, in effect, than Ithaka is from the center of Odysseus's thoughts. In fact, Camus tended to see his native country through his readings of ancient Greek myth and tragedy. This article traces the ways in which Camus, with materials provided by ancient Greece, not only represented his native land, but also elaborated a “Mediterranean” school of thought—la pensée du Midi—that emphasizes the role of moderation or “measure.” There is an undeniable aspect of nostalgia to Camus's rendering of his country and its past, but this does not undermine its validity. By making use of Svetlana Boym's fruitful distinction between reflective and restorative forms of nostalgia, I suggest that the combination of the two categories lies at the heart of Camus's “philosophy of limits.”

“What agreement has the temple of God with idols?” Christian homilies, ancient myths, and the “Macedonian Renaissance”

A study of the extensive corpus of around 200 Greek homilies dating from the late ninth to the end of the tenth century has revealed a clear trend in Byzantine homiletics, which has practically escaped attention so far: references to Ancient Greek myths in the form of exempla occur in roughly one tenth of them. All of this material is presented in detail and analyzed in the article. Moreover, this paradoxical phenomenon of incorporating pagan material in religious works that were read out in church is accounted for by appealing to a number of factors, including the influence of Gregory of Nazianzus’ and Photius’ examples on the homilists involved, the flourishing of rhetoric in the era of the “revival of learning”, and the classicizing spirit of the “Macedonian renaissance”. While the use of myths did not imply acceptance of their ethics, a special fondness of erotic myths makes its appearance. The trend under discussion here emerges as a literary counterpart to classicism in the art of the tenth century.

Life and Thought in the Rushes: Mnemotechnics and Orthographic Temporal Objects in the Philosophy of Bernard Stiegler

Abstract This essay uses the work of Bernard Stiegler to explore some philosophical and theoretical implications of his project with regard to the ways in which mnemotechnics can be found to function in moving-image culture. In particular the untele focuses on Stiegler's rendering of the ancient Greek myth of the titans Prometheus and Epithemeus as a heuristic device for philosophically thinking mnemotechnics, as well as his relationship to important precursors including Friedrich Nietzsche, Edmund Husserl, Martin Heidegger and Roland Barthes, in the elaboration of a philosophy of mnemonic, technological and temporal inscription. Christopher Nolan's 2000 film Memento si used as a filmic vehicle for sounding Stiegkr's concepts of mnemotechnics and 'orthographic' temporal objects, as well as his rich yet sparingly articulated appeal for a 'critical culture' of the image.Keywords mnemotechnics, orthographic temporal objects, genealogy, prosthesis, inscription, being, time, technology, tools, memory, theory, critical cultureWe all need mirrors to remind us who we are.Leonard Shelby, MementoDo we, cultural theorists, recognize ourselves in the rushes?Brian Massumi, Parables for the VirtualIn an age where theoretical postmodernism has past its nadir, an age that some scholars have seen fit to describe as 'post-theory', one would be rightly forgiven for wondering what is to be gained by introducing yet another French philosopher into the annals of the Anglophone arts and humanities. This question is all the more likely to be asked of scholarly endeavours that plead the case for the ongoing veracity of French philosophy in cultural studies and cultural theory, in its purported potential to trump other fields, in its applicability to the concerns affecting contemporary culture and society and its power to diagnose the complex forces at work at the heart of our current age and its many problems. Whilst such concerns are far from misplaced, what is to follow amounts to an appeal - by the two-fold means of introductory exposition and case-based illustration - for the consideration of the work of one such philosopher: Bernard Stiegler.Bernard Stiegler's major works translated into English to this point are primarily comprised of the first three volumes of his major ongoing study Technics and Time: The Fault of Epimetheus, Disorientation and most recently Cinematic Time and the Chustion ofMalaue.1 Also published in translation are his Acting Out and Taking Care of Youth and the Generations, For a New Critique of Political Economy and first two volumes of his Disbelief and Discredit series: Decadence of Industrial Democracies and Uncontrollable Societies of unaffected Individuals. Despite these major philosophical achievements, to date Stiegler is probably best known in cultural studies and cultural theory circles for the book of 'televised' interviews and assorted essays undertaken in conjunction with Derrida and published in English as Echographies of Television.2A prolific author, Stiegler's work broaches many areas of interest - philosophical and extra-philosophical - including the history of technology, the uses and abuses of audiovisual media and culture, individual and collective memory, European identity, contemporary disenchantment and corresponding subjective, cultural, social and educational malaises. As a philosopher he draws on a very diverse and sometimes idiosyncratic pool of precursors including Kant, Nietzsche, Husserl, Heidegger, Derrida, Simondon and Deleuze. Importing other ostensibly non-philosophical materials into his conceptual inventory, he notably makes extensive use of the paleontologist and little-acknowledged pioneer of French structuralism Andre Leroi-Gourhan.In combining the philosophical and conceptual powers of these and odier thinkers, Stiegler simultaneously sits within a longstanding and established tradition of twentieth-century thought and yet manages to straddle a range of discourses and disciplines, following the two main trajectories of philosophical critique and empirical history - what Arthur Bradley has called his 'twin-track' approach: 'oscillating back and forth between transcendental critique (metaphysics, phenomenology, deconstruction) and empirical history (evolutionary biology, paleontology, techno-science) without ever coming to rest in one or the other'. …

Using myth for enhancing cultural identity in the museum: case study research in Greece

Considering that the development of cultural identity of students as critical thinkers is a mutual goal for both museums and schools and that, in Greece, little research has addressed the effects of secondary school visits to museums, case study research was conducted in Thessaloniki, Northern Greece, from November 2006 to March 2007. This concerned the relationship between citizenship and cultural resources and their role in the construction of schoolchildren's identity in the context of the museum, with ancient Greek myths being used as a means for re-telling the past and defining the ‘self’ in the framework of contemporary reality.

The myth of Jocasta and maternal narcissism

This paper utilises the ancient Greek myth of Oedipus, and in particular the character's frequently overlooked mother Jocasta, to highlight some of the issues associated with maternal narcissism. A discussion of Jocasta forms the background to case studies where a mother's narcissism, along with an absent father, was pivotal to coping difficulties, which ultimately compelled the patient to seek therapy. Consideration of the Oedipus-Jocasta interpersonal dynamic can contribute to a greater understanding of these patients.

Lucifer and Morality in Stockhausen's Opera Cycle Licht

LUCIFER AND MORALITY IN STOCKHAUSEN’S OPERA CYCLE LICHT THOMAS ULRICH VIL AND ALL ITS MANIFESTATIONS exhibit an enormous attractive power. That a person should be virtuous is a conviction taken for granted in almost all traditions, so there is a touch of the boring about virtue—it seems to be a triviality, even if it is difficult to maintain in everyday life. It is because it ought not to exist, because it is contrary to the prevailing consensus, that makes evil fascinating. There is also the mystery of its origin: how can evil arise and exist, if all the world is agreed that it ought not to be? This issue is even more troublesome for religious thought: If God as the epitome of good is the creator of the cosmos, if He made it from nothingness and repeatedly confirmed that what came into existence is “good” (Gen 1:4, 10, 12, etc.): How then did evil come into the world? Just as God is the epitome and creator of good, and works in E 314 Perspectives of New Music everything that is good, then evil is the devil, Satan, Lucifer, the power from which everything evil emanates. But where does Lucifer come from? How can it be possible that he issues from the good God? Doesn’t Lucifer, by his mere existence, call the goodness of God or his omnipotence into question? Every theology has to deal with these problems, and find out how it stands before an impenetrable mystery here. The incomprehensible is fascinating and draws attention to itself —it has always been that way. Grimmelshausen reports in his Simplicissimus how the hero of the book comes as a “guileless fool” to a pious hermit who teaches him the basics of Christianity: “He began his instruction with the fall of Lucifer”—everything starts from there; only afterward does he begin to talk of the Creation, the Ten Commandments , and so on.1 Karl Barth cautions in his Kirchliche Dogmatik, surely not without reason, against succumbing to this fascination and “look too frequently or lengthily or seriously or systematically” at demons ;2 one could as a result become demonic oneself, and he cites Martin Luther as a cautionary example. Nevertheless, we are not afraid to fix our gaze on Lucifer as one of the incarnations of the demonic. The instigation for this is Karlheinz Stockhausen, in whose operatic heptalogy Licht Lucifer is one of the three main characters. With Lucifer, the most dazzling, colorful, and multifaceted character enters the stage, and this in a work whose exuberant fantasy has little parallel—here again the fascination of evil has its effect. But before we come to speak of him directly, we turn first, at least in passing, to the question of the origin of the Lucifer-figure. The Hebrew Bible (the Old Testament) is not much concerned with mythological personages. Yet the key word “Lucifer” is found here— but only in the Vulgate, the Latin translation of the original Hebrew text. In Latin lucifer means “bringer of light.” It refers to Venus or the Morning Star. The Nova Vulgata uses it in this sense in the translation of Isaiah 14:12: “Quomodo cecidisti de Caelo, lucifer, fili Aurorae?” The original text may be rendered in English as: “How you have fallen from heaven, O morning star, son of the dawn!”3 The line is part of a satirical song about the downfall of a world ruler (Nebuchadnezzar?). It uses traditional mythological scraps from the milieu of Israel, which told of a warrior named Helel, Shachar’s son, who, inspired and driven by hubris, wanted to conquer the mountain of the gods but, in his blasphemous flight into the sky crashed into the realm of the dead; the memory of the ancient Greek myth of Phaeton, the son of the sun god Helios, is close to this.4 Whatever the truth of the matter may have been, it is typical and important that this mythological material no longer has any intrinsic meaning here, but only invokes a world of Lucifer and Morality in Stockhausen's Opera Cycle Licht 315 images that illustrates historical events. For the prophet it has nothing to...

Uno «spaccato fantasmagorico» da epoche lontane dalla nostra: Pasolini in India

This essay discusses both the advantages and the limits of a post-colonial critical approach to Pier Paolo Pasolini’s travel work, L’odore dell’India. Through a close analysis of the text, Pasolini’s stereotypical interpretation of India emerges, which corresponds to Edward Said’s notion of “Orientalism”, as well as to other important theories of post-colonial studies. Pasolini’s naive view of India and Indians reveals many similarities with his portraits of peasant cultures, Roman slums and the sub-proletariat, African villages, and even ancient Greek myths. This parallel further suggests the presence of a similar poetic vision behind all representations of “otherness” and of an “other” culture: Pasolini idealistically projects his dream of an innocent (and lost) state of nature onto marginalized, primitive, or non-Western cultures. Critics who only use post-colonial theory for a critical analysis of L’odore dell’India fail to understand Pasolini’s deeply-held, anti-imperialist ideology and his anthropological utopia.

The Use of Ulster Speech by Michael Longley and Tom Paulin

The article examines the application and exploration of Ulster dialects in the work of two poets of Northern Irish Protestant background, Tom Paulin and Michael Longley. It depicts Paulin's attitude to the past and the present of their community of origin, the former positive and the latter negative, which is responsible for the ambiguities in his use of and his comments on the local speech. Both poets employ the vernacular to refer to their immediate context, i.e. the conflict in Ulster, and in this respect linguistic difference comes to be associated with violence. Yet another vital element of their exploration of the dialect is its link to their origins, home and the intimacy it evokes, which offers a contrary perspective on the issue of languages and makes their approach equivocal. This context in Paulin's poetry is further enriched with allusions to or open discussion of the United Irishmen ideal and the international Protestant experience, and with his reworking of ancient Greek myth and tragedy, while in Longley's poetry it is set in the framework of "translations" from Homer which, strangely enough, transport the reader to contemporary Ireland. While Longley in his comments (interviews and autobiographical writings) relates the dialect to his personal experience, Paulin (in his essays and in interviews) seems to situate it in a vaster network of social and political concepts that he has developed in connection with language, which in Ireland has never seemed a neutral phenomenon detached from historical and political implications. Longley's use of local speech is seldom discussed by critics; Paulin's, on the contrary, has stirred diverse reactions and controversies. The article investigates some of these critical views chiefly concerned with the alleged artificiality of his use of local words and with his politicizing the dialects. Performing the analysis of his poems and essays, the article argues for Paulin's "consistency in inconsistency," i.e. the fact that his application of dialectal words reflects his love-hate attitude to his community of origin, and that in the clash of two realities, of the conflict and of home, his stance and literary practice is not far from Longley's, which has been regarded as quite neutral as one can infer from the lack of critical controversy about it. The voices of the two poets and their use of local speech provide a crucial insight into the Northern Irish reality with all its intricacy and paradox.

Mit grecki - jego modyfikacje, znaczenia i funkcje. Szkic problematyki

The subject of the article concerns the issues of ancient Greek myth, its modifications and functions. The starting point for a such formulated problem is the Aristotle’s rules to which a myth is subject. The philosopher links these rules with the theory of tragedy’s poetics, that should be directed by probability. Following the standards, that were in force in Antiquity, a function, which had to be fulfilled by a myth, determined the way of using mythology by Greek dramatists. The modern culture reinterpret a Greek myth. A function, which a myth has to fulfil, as in ancient times, is its basis and determinant. The task of a myth is, first of all, indicated as an universalization of the values, that are inscribed in this myth.

Gaia Pammetor, Maternal Love and the Construction of Female Divinity in Contemporary Paganism

This paper argues that diverging representations of Gaia can be found on Pagan websites. She is portrayed as divine ‘Mother of all’ the cosmos, as (divine) living being who feeds and contains us, and as loving Mother Goddess. Each representation is rooted, respectively, in ancient Greek myths, in Ecofeminist elaborations of Lovelock’s Gaia Theory, and in certain Christian representations of the Virgin Mary’s motherhood. This paper shows how the issue of the representation of Gaia is relevant to broader issues of contemporary representation of female divinity.

O encontro com a morte: à procura do mestre Quíron na formação médica

Este estudo tem como objetivo compreender como a formação médica lida com o processo de morte de um paciente, e o que os estudantes desejam e sugerem em relação ao tema. Trata-se de estudo qualitativo, baseado na narrativa de estudantes e residentes de Medicina da Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte. A Fenomenologia Existencial, a Hermenêutica Gadameriana e a Teoria da Ação Comunicativa, de Habermas, constituem a base filosófica do trabalho de produção e interpretação das narrativas. Foram combinadas duas estratégias tecno-metodológicas: entrevistas em profundidade e oficinas com utilização de "cenas" projetivas. Os estudantes e residentes transitam entre escassos modelos e poucas experiências pessoais no lidar com a morte de pacientes. O mito de Quíron traduz a procura dos entrevistados por modelos conceituais capazes de ajudá-los a manejar suas vulnerabilidades e desenvolver seus potenciais

The Kore: My Experiences with the Maiden Archetype

An exploration of the living reality of the psyche, this article shows how the ancient Greek myth of Demeter and Persephone is unconsciously incarnated in the 20th-century life of the author as a young woman. Beginning with a numinous childhood dream, she describes her experiences of being possessed by the autonomous archetype of the Kore, how the possession guided her psychological development and influenced her early career as a dancer. Following in the footsteps of the myth, she considers the positive impact of Hades’ rape of the Kore, especially as it impacts the development of the animus in a woman. The struggle to establish a healing relationship with Demeter in the face of a deeply negative personal mother complex leads her back to the dance studio for active imagination in movement that releases the transcendent function within her body and in synchronous events in her world.

225th Anniversary of the U. S. Dollar or about Czech Way Leading to Its Name

225th Anniversary of the U. S. Dollar or about Czech Way Leading to Its Name

Der Dichter stand auf hoher Küste: Gerhart Hauptmann im Dritten Reich by Peter Sprengel

MLR, 105.3, 2010 899 must finally lay to rest the image ofRaabe as an introverted provincial. Students of these texts can profitably setKrobb's work beside them as a commentary. Yale University Jeffrey L. Sammons Der Dichter stand aufhoher Kuste: Gerhart Hauptmann imDritten Reich. By Peter Sprengel. Berlin: Propylaen. 2009. 382 pp. 24.90. ISBN 978-3-549 07311-7. Not sinceWolfgang Leppmann's landmark Gerhart Hauptmann: Leben, Werk und Zeit (Bern: Scherz, 1986) has there been such a comprehensive account of the dramatist's life as thiswelcome new study by Peter Sprengel. Its title is the first line of a poem written by Hauptmann inMarch 1935: unfortunately it omits the adjective alt' and the poem is not quoted in full,which is surprising in a study that is both readable and seriously informative, as one would expect of its author. Already well known as a leading figure inHauptmann studies, Sprengel confines himself here to the last twelve years of the dramatist's life, the years from 1933 to 1946, an interesting period of increasing darkness which he approaches with a lightness of touch immediately evident in the firstsentence: 'Ein rustiger Siebzigjahriger trittam Neujahrstag 1933 um elfUhr abends auf die Terrasse vor seinem Arbeitszimmer im obersten Stock des Grandhotel Excelsior, das er schon seit Jahren vom Winter bis tief in das Fruhjahr bewohnt.' The reader's attention is caught by the subtle sequence of prepositions and the deliberately scene-setting location, a luxury hotel in the fashionable Italian seaside resort ofRapallo. Sprengel has the rare ability to see Hauptmann fairly and squarely. This enables him tomake Hauptmann's stance during theThird Reich comprehensible to today's readers. He sees no reason to question his status as a consummate dramatist who went on writing regardless, ifnot oblivious, of theworld around him, but well aware of the strengths and shortcomings of human beings trying, as do somany of his fictitious characters, to cope with situations and pressures forwhich they are scarcely responsible. As he puts it at the end of his epilogue to this fascinat ing biography, 'so endet Hauptmann, gewiss kein Dichter des Dritten Reiches im engeren Sinne, als Dichter dennoch gleichzeitig mit diesem System, das ihm in seiner Anfangs- und Endphase betrachtliche Anerkennung zollte und sich dafiir propagandistischen Gegenwert zu verschaffen wusste' (p. 366). The result of this approach is a probing and informative studywhich succeeds remarkably well in coming to terms both with its complex subject and with the expectations as well as the prejudices of today's readers forwhom itsdepictions of life in Silesia during the Second World War are likely to open up vistas unfamiliar afterhalf a century of post-war peace and recovery. Though usually unmentioned, the dramatist's ad miration forHitler's rhetorical skills isparticularly telling. One of the outstanding strengths of this study is its author's readiness to allow brief episodes and minor details to play their part in bringing its subject to life. Especially telling are thewords ofHauptmann's nephew Konrad aftermeeting his 900 Reviews famous uncle in Dresden in 1943: 'Alt ist er geworden und dennoch [. . .]wie jugendlich' (p. 335). Sprengel also frankly admits that it isnot always easy to read Hauptmann's mind or to find convincing answers to some of the problems raised by works such as theAtriden-Tetralogie, the set of plays based on ancient Greek myth which he began towrite in 1940: 'wer auf eindeutige Antworten dringt, ist bei diesem Autor sicher an der falschen Adresse', he observes (p. 294), and, as the writer of this absorbing study,he should know. Rich inmaterial, much of ithardly known, and illustrated with twenty-three finely reproduced photographs, most of which are equally unfamiliar, Sprengel's welcome study addresses the complexities of a great writer who could enjoy a joke, but whose view of lifewas essentially tragic. It leaves us with the realization thatHauptmann must have found ithard to view what was taking place all around him without deep misgivings; indeed in the epilogue to this sensitive and informative book Sprengel aptly quotes his lastwords as he sank into unconsciousness: 'bin ich noch inmeinem Haus?' (p. 337). Sprengel is certainly at home with his subject and has done Hauptmann...

Cult of the Will: Nervousness and German Modernity by Michael Cowan

900 Reviews famous uncle in Dresden in 1943: 'Alt ist er geworden und dennoch [. . .]wie jugendlich' (p. 335). Sprengel also frankly admits that it isnot always easy to read Hauptmann's mind or to find convincing answers to some of the problems raised by works such as theAtriden-Tetralogie, the set of plays based on ancient Greek myth which he began towrite in 1940: 'wer auf eindeutige Antworten dringt, ist bei diesem Autor sicher an der falschen Adresse', he observes (p. 294), and, as the writer of this absorbing study,he should know. Rich inmaterial, much of ithardly known, and illustrated with twenty-three finely reproduced photographs, most of which are equally unfamiliar, Sprengel's welcome study addresses the complexities of a great writer who could enjoy a joke, but whose view of lifewas essentially tragic. It leaves us with the realization thatHauptmann must have found ithard to view what was taking place all around him without deep misgivings; indeed in the epilogue to this sensitive and informative book Sprengel aptly quotes his lastwords as he sank into unconsciousness: 'bin ich noch inmeinem Haus?' (p. 337). Sprengel is certainly at home with his subject and has done Hauptmann and his readers a good service bywriting a book which illustratesHauptmann's short comings yet enhances his stature. On page 251 he refers to the consort of King George VI in 1938 as 'Queen Mum': in fact her title as from 1952 was 'Queen Mother'. If the book runs to a second edition, as itdeserves, this solecism should be removed. Bristol Peter Skrine Cult of theWill: Nervousness and German Modernity. ByMichael Cowan. Uni versity Park: Pennsylvania State University Press. 2008. xi+343 pp. $65. ISBN 978-0-271-03206-1. After Foucault, in the context ofwhose theoryMichael Cowan situates his account of the will in German modernism, any history of the self has to recognize the paradoxical nature of

Modern Versions of Nostos and Katabasis: A Survey of Homeric Hypertexts in Recent Anglophone Poetry

Since its heyday in the 1950s and 60s, myth criticism has been accused of taking a reductive approach to literature because it tended to neglect cultural and historical differences between ancient Greek myths and their current renderings and, more damagingly perhaps, to marginalise the specific properties of literary works that redeploy ancient myths. While this article does not have a New Historicist agenda, it seeks to show how prevalent ancient Homeric myth still is in contemporary poetry, despite the desacralised and often more humble post-Modernist world of current letters. The article analyzes how poets such as Lorna Goodison have gone against the grain of ancient myths (as many feminist writers have done), and in what ways Homer's Odyssey has been given unexpected extensions that provide the battleground not for epic extravaganzas but for familial issues treated in a post-Confessional mode. The study focuses primarily on poems by Peter Redgrove, Ted Hughes, Michael Longley, Eilean Ni Chuilleanain, John Montague and Paul Durcan. After having given an outline of the various ways in which recent poets employ myth, the survey focuses on a particular case in point in the field of Irish poetry to show that myth criticism can also be attentive to the specificities of the texts its seeks to examine in an archetypal light.