Mythical Figure Research Articles

Back Cover

In this picture, the Chinese classical mythic figure Red Boy, holding a red tasseled gun (adriamycin), is attacking a lots of monster (live balls, multidrug resistance cancer cells) with the help of the Samadhi fire (polycyclic polyprenylated acylphloroglucinols, PPAPs). This indicates that PPAPs along with adriamycin show good cytotoxic activity on multidrug resistance cancer cells. More details are discussed in the article by Yuan et al. on pages 3293—3307. image

New York Split Between Escapist Myths and Harsh Realities in David Duchovny's Miss Subways (2018) and the reservoir (2021)

Discovering cities by means of fiction is a technique worth taking into account. Fiction has always had this role of displaying everything that belongs to the superior forms of arts and culture, giving access to the understanding of man’s psychology and mentality in all historical or social contexts. David Duchovny’s two novels, Miss Subways (2018) and The Reservoir (2021), manage to capture, in an interesting manner, full of symbolism, mythical figures and sordid realities during the pandemic, a post-postmodern image of New York. David Duchovny’s ability to master these techniques, as a graduate in Letters himself, takes the reader to discover some unexpected facets of New York today, as they are revealed in Emer’s almost mythical story (Miss Subways) and Ridley’s account of the Covid pandemic (The Reservoir). The image of the city is not something standard in these two novels. It is subject to reinventions, interpretations from its inhabitants / walkers. In both characters’ journeys, the city is alive, fluid and changeable. Walking (Ridley) and traveling (Emer) give meaning to the city. Likewise, in the post-postmodern tradition, we are going to see echoes of the past in the present (Miss Subways), but also encounter the idea that being on the go or restless (The Reservoir), seeing how the characters are searching for themselves, in their attempt to understand certain things. As they do that, they detach themselves from reality (the only way to achieve their aim), giving us a glimpse of New York City.

Portrayals of Indigenous peoples and the development of multiculturalism in Taiwanese citizenship education

ABSTRACT This article investigates how Indigenous peoples have been portrayed in citizenship education in Taiwan since the downfall of the authoritarian regime in 1987. The trajectory of citizenship curriculum development elucidates how attitudes towards cultural citizenship and multiculturalism came into play to form the narratives we find in schools. Four versions of the official curriculum from 1983, 1999, 2010 and 2019 and the textbooks authorised for use with each are examined. Interviews with curriculum developers are also conducted to provide explanations behind the curriculum design. Through content and discourse analysis, it is discovered that Taiwanese citizenship education has evolved along conservative, liberal, pluralistic and critical multicultural constructs, and that portrayals of the Indigenous population have swung from depicting invisible, archaic and mythical figures to showing visible contemporary faces. The latest curriculum has adopted ‘question-based’ and ‘inter-curricular communication’ strategies to go beyond simplistic carnival-like multicultural celebrations. These thought-provoking and counter-narrative features aim to bring out critical perspectives in class though the latest curriculum still has room for improvement in terms of its subtlety of intersectionality and its action-oriented design. This Taiwanese case can be an example to young democracies in how a critical framework can be incorporated into the curriculum-making process.

Unknow biography of Salomėja Neris. Critical publication.

Although “the life of Salomėja Nėris” is better documented than that of any other Lithuanian woman (and better than that of any other writer)”, this is far from meaning that everything is known about her biography. On the contrary, it sometimes seems that her image, the almost mythical figure of the poet, shaped by the times, hinders the recognition of Nėris as a real person, a historical personality. We will probably never know exactly why this active member of the Lithuanian Catholic Federation Ateitis suddenly embraced leftist ideas, nor will we ever know what her true attitude to Soviet reality was, especially after the deportations in June 1941. Perhaps she herself would not have been able to give an unequivocal answer.

THE IDENTIFICATION OF THE PELOPONNESIAN APIS WITH THE EGYPTIAN SERAPIS IN ARNOBIUS, ADVERSVS NATIONES 1.36.6

Abstract This article examines a brief mention of the Egyptian gods Apis and Serapis in the Aduersus nationes by Arnobius of Sicca. This reference is situated within the context of several traditions dealing with the origin and connections of both of these mythical figures transmitted with some variations until Late Antiquity. It is proposed that the Peloponnesian Apis is identified with the Egyptian Serapis through a tradition already attested in Classical Greek authors, though without it being possible to determine which author is the specific reference for the Arnobian text.

Capaneus philosophus? Una nota su Zenone, Filodemo, Stazio (e Lucrezio)

Abstract This short article, which starts with a reconsideration of the philosophical characterization of Statius’ Capaneus, aims at investigating the reception of the mythical figure of Capaneus in Hellenistic philosophy. Both among the Stoics (Zeno and, maybe, Chrysippus, according to Diogenes Laertius and Athenaeus) and the Epicureans (Philodemus in P.Herc. 452 olim 463, fr. 13), Capaneus occurs in the philosophical discourse on the definition of the sage, albeit with different nuances and reference texts. Statius, Neapolitan poeta doctus with Stoic and Epicurean patroni, may have drawn insights from this intellectual environment to provide his Capaneus with philosophical overtones. In the last paragraph it is cautiously suggested, on the basis of P.Herc. 452 olim 463, fr. 13, that Lucretius’ Epicurus in the well-known prologue of the De rerum natura – a model for Statius’ Capaneus – may have been influenced by the Epicurean reception of Capaneus.

Antígona González

The purpose of this text is to explore Antígona González's poem as an alternative form of creative writing that, using the technique coined as appropriation by Cristina Rivera Garza, establishes a communality of voices that share the same traumatic experience of losing a beloved one to the enforced disappearances that the War on Drugs caused on Mexico. Incorporating a pastiche of various sources, as well as utilizing the mythical figure of Antigone as an avatar for anyone searching for a corpse, Sara Uribe points to a phenomenon that does not occur accidentally or individually, but rather a systematic crisis caused by a negligent neoliberal state that affects everyone. Likewise, the use of appropriation and patchwork allows for the division of the pain of sharing these traumatic experiences and provides a technique to oppose the very nature of this voracious capitalism through a gesture that rejects the idea of ​​writing as an individual act. Finally, the poem itself represents a site to bury and materialize these bodies that the state disappears.

Subversive mythical figures and feminist resistance: On the rise of posthuman 'professionals'.

Within the context of neoliberal healthcare, nurses and other health professionals face working conditions that leave them perpetually feeling inadequate, as though they are not enough. They are consistently expected to achieve more with less resources. In such an environment, mere professionalism proves wholly insufficient, enforcing norms of altruism and kindness. Professionals must transcend this disciplinary tool and embody a 'more-than-professional' approach. This study, informed by critical posthumanism, employs three mythical archetypes-the Medusa, the Witch and the Siren-to illuminate potential avenues for resistance against prevailing trends in healthcare. Drawing on the perspectives of Hélène Cixous, Silvia Federici and Jacques Rancière, we introduce a process of resistance for healthcare professionals pushing back against the challenges of crumbling healthcare systems. Cixous' feminist reimagining of Medusa symbolizes intensified embodied sensory experiences, emphasizing the power of irony, laughter and writing in highlighting the daily struggles faced by healthcare workers. Federici's depiction of the Witch exposes clandestine alliances among healthcare workers and patients, akin to a pact with the devil, countering the individualistic, alienating approach to care provision and resisting neoliberal pressures. The Witch archetype embodies resistance grounded in creativity against the commodification of public healthcare. Finally, Rancière's 'politics of the Siren' offers a strategy for disrupting entrenched hierarchies from the underworld. Like Sirens, healthcare workers and patients can subversively transform their silence into songs of resistance, simultaneously operating from beneath the surface of accountability measures. Our intention is to showcase the emergence of posthuman 'professionals' who adapt by forging new modes of social relations in response to neoliberal constraints, straying from conventional, apolitical notions of 'professionalism'. Drawing lessons from mythical figures of resistance offers a fresh understanding of subversion as a catalyst for social and political transformation within the healthcare sector.

Postmoderne Sonderlinge: Der Antiheld in den Romanen Schlafes Bruder und Das Parfum

This study discusses how the concept of hero changes and transforms in Robert Schneider's The Brother of Sleep and Patrick Süskind's Perfume novels. The highly developed “hearing” and “smell” senses of the protagonists of these novels are placed against the sense of “sight”, which is the method of perceiving the world in the Enlightenment. Thus, both novels enable a criticism of the Enlightenment. In this context, the senses of hearing and smell are associated with concepts such as the subconscious, emotion, and impulse, which the Enlightenment suppressed or ignored, but Postmodernity reconsidered through anti-heroism. The sense of sight served the Enlightenment project as the representative of mind, consciousness, and science, as well as its close relationship with the classical hero. Hence, it is described that there is a symbolic regression to pre-Enlightenment through postmodern heroes. In this context, the classical hero is defined as a product of the Enlightenment, an ideological and mythical figure who transcends nature and its rules, bringing “wisdom” and “culture”. The anti-hero, on the other hand, is portrayed as representing the return to nature, the subconscious and its uncontrollability, primal instincts, and emotions, reflecting the worldview and problems of contemporary individuals.

Proteus (Proteus)

Beginning with his botanical epiphany in Sicily in 1787, Goethe turned to the ancient Greek sea god Proteus as a key figure for imagining natural metamorphosis. “Proteus” is perhaps a surprising term for a lexicon of philosophical concepts. Its connection to symbol, myth, and what Hegel would call representational thinking (Vorstellungsdenken) contrasts with more overtly abstract terms of philosophy. Yet for the unorthodox thinker, Goethe, who consistently straddled the line between literature and philosophy, the boundaries between symbolic representation and speculative abstraction were often porous. Nowhere is this more evident than in his theory of metamorphosis, which was developed throughout his life in an aggregate of scientific, poetic, and biographical texts. The lexeme “Proteus,” as Goethe used it, grows out of and defines this uniquely interdisciplinary thinking. Itself a deeply protean concept in his oeuvre, it gives occasion to consider the mutually productive relationship between philosophy, literature, and life within the broader constellation of Goethe’s thought. In this entry, I situate Goethe’s “protean” model of metamorphosis vis-à-vis his engagement with maritime environments and literature, specifically Homer’s Odyssey, during the period of the Italian journey (1786-1788). As a symbol, I argue, Proteus played an especially important role in Goethe’s dynamic reconception of natural forms as well as his rebuttal to the “terrestrially biased” imagery of Carl Linnaeus, who construed the formal characteristics of plants through metaphors of geographical enclosure. Additionally, I consider how Goethe’s “protean” botany informed his theory of natural types (Typen) and prepared his theory and practice of science as “zarte Empirie” (WA IV/45:11; delicate empiricism). By reading the mythical figure of Proteus back into the adjective “protean,” which is used to characterize Goethe’s view of nature in his scientific and poetic writings, we can uncover a uniquely Goethean conception of metamorphosis and creativity.

Imperial Homecoming(s) and the Ara Pacis Augustae in 13 BC

AbstractAfter reflecting on the many dimensions that homecoming involves both in the present and in antiquity, the ceremonial enhancement of various returns of Caesar Augustus from military campaigns are briefly rehearsed through the Res Gestae Divi Augusti (4. 1–2) and other sources. These include the triumph following the battle of Actium (31/29 BC) and the celebration after the re-establishment of peace with the Parthians, which resulted in the cult of Fortuna Redux (19 BC). The Ara Pacis Augustae was decreed after Augustus' victories in Gaul (Res Gestae 12; Cassius Dio 54. 25. 1–4). The famous procession friezes have often been regarded as depicting the emperor's arrival celebrated as a ‘thanksgiving’ (supplicatio) in July 13 BC, but are better understood as memorializing the day on which the sacred space for the Ara Pacis was inaugurated in September. The friezes depict the emperor's family members as well as divine and mythical figures; while presented as naturalistic or historical, they are open to symbolic readings. In a certain sense, the senators enshrined the motif of Augustus' homecoming into the cult of Roman Peace (and Prosperity) and eternalized the ritualized blessing that this should bring to the Roman people. Cassius Dio's highly conflated account of the Senate's decrees in honour of the returning emperor was composed as criticism against servile flattering, but indirectly confirms the ideas underlying the Senate's decrees on the Actian Triumph, the cult for Fortuna Redux, and the sanctuary of the Ara Pacis: the salutary effect of Augustus' victorious return(s) to Rome should become a permanent blessing irrespective of the singular historical events.

Icônica representação feminina e mítica de Medeia no Mundo Antigo

We are interested in rescuing the actions and textual and imagery representations of the mythical figure of Medea that make it clear that narrative can define in three cycles, namely: the Cycles of Yolkos, the Cycle of the Argonauts, and the Roman Cycle. The cycles demarcate the different temporalities, and changes in the highlighted theme, but maintain an identity structure that we call the identity core. The character maintains as her identity core the fact that she is a mature woman, married to Jason, has children and has expertise in the manipulation of herbs and magic drugs. The nucleus does not change and goes beyond time, as the recurrent narratives in Medea's texts and images reveal. Key-words: Medeia image representation narrative re-signification

“What then art thou?”: Demogorgon, Son of God and Savior of the World in Shelley’s Prometheus Unbound

ABSTRACT At the climactic fall of Jupiter in Prometheus Unbound, the deposed tyrant god asks his destroyer—the mysterious Demogorgon—“What then art thou?” This article seeks an answer to that question by uncovering the linguistic and theological contexts of Demogorgon. Specifically, I position Prometheus Unbound among historical arguments on Christology in the early nineteenth century, in which traditional arguments for the divinity of Christ were bolstered by Christian apologetic readings of classical myth. However, against these apologetic syncretists, novel reconsiderations of classical mythology and biblical hermeneutics in the period coincided with challenges to Christ’s divinity and Trinitarian theology. Amid the resulting Christological instability, Prometheus Unbound synchronizes Christian religious belief with pagan mythical figures, most notably recasting Demogorgon—the destroyer of gods—as Christ Himself. By rewriting the symbol of Christ, Shelley is free to reimagine Christian eschatology in terms that transvaluate the teachings of the English state church. This article sheds light on the religious implications of Prometheus Unbound’s enigmatic figure Demogorgon, and also contributes to critical conversations on Shelley and Christianity, and the development of Christian doctrine in the early nineteenth century.

A spark of genius and a flash of madness: Nikola Tesla and his struggles with mental illness

IntroductionAn example of the unification of the contrast between artistic creativity and discipline of science, Nikola Tesla engineer and physicist, was also a prolific inventor that contributed to the transformation of modern society. Having resurfaced in the mainstream culture as a mythical figure, he appears to be enjoying a renaissance of posthumous recognition and praise. Throughaccounts available directly from his autobiography and descriptions offered by those who worked with him, the existence of the inventor´s eccentricities appear to reveal the existence of mental health disorder.ObjectivesThe authors explore Tesla and the psychopathology that accompanied him throughout his periods of brilliance and as well as hardship.MethodsThe authors conducted a brief non-structured narrative literature review. The keywords used during the research, alone or in combination, included: Nikola Tesla, psychopathology and mental illness. The works consulted included: news articles, autobiographies and biographies. Of these, those that were written in the English language and deemed most pertinent to the explored theme were chosen for review in this work.ResultsThe popular image of the mad scientist, which describes a brilliant but solitary and eccentric individual focused on their work is one that could be applied to Tesla. Documents reveal that he suffered a nervous breakdown, as well as having symptoms that point to a probably presence of obsessive-compulsive disorder, of which included counting and cleanliness rituals, exacerbated by chronic insomnia.ConclusionsThere appears to be anecdotal evidence pointing to an eventual relationship between creative genius and mental pathology. Although not formally evidenced through the scientific literature, exploring the life and accomplishments of Tesla serve as a significant example of a spark of genius perhaps ignited by mental illness. Tesla demonstrated suffering associated with his symptoms especially when considering the end of his life. At the time, adequate mental health interventions and treatments were not widely available, with his diagnosis probably being considered the quirks of genius and not the symptoms of disease.Disclosure of InterestNone Declared

The Sisyphean continuum: countering the racial-colonial challenges of Indigenous education

ABSTRACT Using the symbolism of what we consider to be a ‘Sisyphean continuum’, in this paper the Anglosphere countries of Canada, New Zealand, the United States, and Australia are grouped to strategically reveal the shared challenges Indigenous peoples encounter in racial-colonial education systems. Fittingly, parallels are drawn between the punitive loop the mythical figure Sisyphus was doomed to. For Indigenous peoples bound up in dominant educational spaces, the barrage of racial-colonial institutional tools and mechanisms, enduring racism and cultural assimilation, the absence of collective achievement, the lack of Indigenous representation (e.g. personnel or knowledge), in parallel with sustained inter-generational advocacy, aptly mirrors the exhaustive punitive loop of Sisyphus. Guided by theoretical bridges synergising Indigenous and Western qualitative research techniques, three commonly repeated challenges (1. Deficit thinking; 2. Institutions; 3. Curriculum) are the focus of this paper. These themes are drawn from a broader study that sought the wisdom of sixteen Indigenous experts from across the Anglosphere. Our paper’s findings recentre the cycling educational challenges Indigenous peoples encounter and draw attention to the urgent need to turn towards and embrace marginalised voices and knowledge paradigms.

Understanding Creative Entrepreneurs’ Work Practices: The Varying Conversation between Artistic and Economic Rationales

Research on creative organizations often questions how artistic practices can be squared within the rational decision-making of economic thinking. This paper examines how the relational language, or conversation, between artistic and economic rationales unfolds for creative entrepreneurs. Through ethnographic work with a designer-entrepreneur, this paper presents a fine-grained analysis of the conversation the designer cultivates between artistic and economic rationales through work practices. We contribute to the literature about artistic and economic rationales at work, and more specifically to the concept of conversation. First, we show that high levels of conversing make way for low levels of conversing and vice versa. In the studio, the designer’s engagement with either rationale varies as the creative process progresses. Second, on a more global dynamic, we demonstrate the conversation is continuous. It relies on its variations, which ensure the balance between rationales in the long run. We also contribute to the field of creative entrepreneurship research. We identify here one type of creative entrepreneur, with what we call a ‘small is beautiful’ attitude. Far from the mythical figure of the entrepreneur, this unconventional entrepreneur aims for sustainable use of creative resources rather than growth at all costs.

Nyi Roro Kidul and Marine Eco-Pneumatology

Abstract Indonesia is the country with the largest archipelago in the world, with a total of seventeen thousand islands. The term ‘maritime nation’ has actually been surging through stories of local wisdom (culture), but during the colonial period, the term lost its original significance and Indonesia came to be treated as if it were an agrarian country. This paper shows that Indonesian maritime society contains various inherited values of religiosity, including myths, legends, folklore, and oral traditions about marine cosmology. Folklore, myths, and legends have an important position in society, not only referring to cultural traditions but also containing religious or theological values that are closely related to the identity of the Indonesian nation. This paper studies the mythical figure of Nyi Roro Kidul who is considered the sea guardian. The legend surrounding the figure of Nyi Roro Kidul can serve as an important trope to develop a contextual Javanese eco-pneumatology [Holy Spirit] and help address some of the contemporary ecological issues.

예이츠의 슬라이고와 엘리엇의 이스트 코우커

Starting with a general assumption that poets and regions are closely connected, this study discusses the significance of specific locales in the works of Yeats and Eliot, who are at the center of “international” modernism beyond regional boundaries. This paper focuses on Yeats’s Sligo and Eliot’s East Coker, the places that they chose as their burial grounds, with the locales’ close proximity to their origins in mind. While examining their biographical details and letters related to Sligo and East Coker, and exploring how these regions are reproduced in Yeats’s poems and Eliot’s “East Coker,” we will find interesting points of comparison between the two poets. Yeats’s experience in Sligo County provides explicit settings and materials such as Sligo place names and mythic figures, and in his poems about Sligo, the literal and the mythical are mingled. In “East Coker,” however, Eliot explores more symbolic and metaphysical meanings evoked by the small village of East Coker, even with its casual or distinct associations with him and his ancestors. In addition, this study concludes with how the present ambience of Sligo and East Coker may function for the 21st century readers of Yeats and Eliot.

«Дон Жуан и Кармен» (1918): драматический замысел М. Цветаевой

ABSTRACT Spanish motifs are present throughout Marina Cvetaeva’s work, from her early texts until the end of her life. Amongst them, the axis associated with the figures of Don Juan and Carmen is thoroughly integrated. Indeed, the development of both mythical figures reveals Cvetaeva’s process of creative recombination of plot, together with her invention of the unique story of Don Juan and Carmen, setting their relationship within a specific chronotope that allows the rebirth of both protagonists. In the cycle “Prince of Darkness” (1917), the plurality of incarnations of Don Juan and Carmen is transformed into a hierarchy of characters: Prince of Darkness – Don Juan – Carmen. The “eternal” nature of this process is emphasized by the transfer of the characters to Russia. Further, the conceptual basis of the plot – which was intended to be performed on stage, as Cvetaeva stated in notebook dated 1918 – was partially used in other dramatic works with similar characters (Lozen, Casanova, Cupid, Henri-Henriette, Venus, etc.). Hence the broad intertextual background of our analysis of the texts pertaining to the 1910–1918 period of Cvetaeva’s production.

Arminius Rex: On the Postcolonial Uses of Imperial Languages in, and beyond, International Law

Despite its aspirational name, our discipline has slowly come to understand that ‘international’ law is anything but international. Increasingly, new waves of scholarship have dissected the famous image of the ‘invisible college’, revealing many of its implicit biases and hierarchies in terms of gender, race, or nationality. A promising example of this is the recent surge of interventions that question international law’s Anglo- or Franco-centric past, present, and future. This rising chorus of voices challenge the relevance of French or highlight the violence involved in making English a global lingua franca. While one can sympathise with this critique from a postcolonial perspective, I have grown increasingly wary that some of these contributions end up pleading for an essentialist understanding of local languages in their quest to undermine imperial tongues. Instead, in this essay, I draw from the Germano-Roman mythical figure of Arminius to reflect on the postcolonial uses of imperial languages. Instead of reclaiming the vernacular, I suggest that critical and postcolonial international legal scholars can strategically inherit the legacies of hegemonic languages for anticolonial purposes. Just as Arminius drew from Latin and Rome, the Négritude movement siphoned from French – and even Postcolonial Studies were themselves forged in the crucible of British rule over Egypt and India. We too, I argue, can attempt to use the master’s tools to dismantle his house, at least temporarily.