When fantasy writers do turn to the Olympians for inspiration, the pantheon is often treated with ambivalence, irony, even resentment.īathos is repeatedly used to cut Greek mythology down to size. Writers use a range of methods to call into question both the cultural dominance of the classics and the power and majesty of the gods themselves. And-Frey.”Īn examination of the fault line between children’s fantasy and the classics reveals a recurring preoccupation with power-both the Greek gods themselves and the classical tradition of which they form part are invested with conspicuous authority. Not Zeus and his crowd-a much better lot. In ‘The Classical Pantheon in Children’s Fantasy Literature’ she examines the place of Greco-Roman mythology in the genre, arguing that children’s literature often reveals both a preoccupation with and an antipathy for the authority of Greek gods.įor example in Hilda Lewis’s Nesbit-inspired time-travel adventure The Ship that Flew (1939) the children would much rather visit Asgard than Olympus. Rogers and Benjamin Eldon Stevens (Oxford: OUP, 2016).
Professor Sarah Annes Brown has just published a chapter in Classical Traditions in Modern Fantasy, eds Brett M.
0 kommentar(er)
