Blog for the international research project "Our Mythical Childhood… The Reception of Classical Antiquity in Children’s and Young Adults’ Culture in Response to Regional and Global Challenges", financed by the ERC Consolidator Grant led by Prof. Katarzyna Marciniak, Faculty of "Artes Liberales" of the University of Warsaw. Team members: Prof. Susan Deacy and Steve K. Simons, University of Roehampton; Prof. Elizabeth Hale and Dr Miriam Riverlea, University of New England; Prof. Lisa Maurice and Dr Ayelet Peer, Bar-Ilan University; Prof. Daniel A. Nkemleke, Dr Divine Che Neba and Dr Eleanor A. Dasi, University of Yaoundé I; Dr Elżbieta Olechowska, Dr Hanna Paulouskaya, Dr Sonya Nevin, Dott. Edoardo Pecchini, Marta Pszczolińska, Angelina Gerus and the Project Officers: Magdalena Andersen, Maria Makarewicz, and Olga Strycharczyk from the Faculty of "Artes Liberales" UW.
We wish to send you Our Mythical Greetings on the International Children’s Day!
This is the best day to invite you to explore Our Mythical Childhood Survey – a database of classical references in the works of children’s and young adults’ culture – a joint task of Our Mythical Team and many engaged contributors and experts:
On the Antipodean Odyssey Blog you can find also a post by Liz Hale on the big opening of the Survey during Our Mythical Workshops, on May 15, 2018, in Warsaw:
“Ready Player One” is a new movie directed by Steven Spielberg (worldwide premiere: March 2018), based on the science-fiction novel by Ernest Cline (2011):
The movie talks about the vision of the world in the future, in 2045, where people use a massive virtual reality called “OASIS” to escape from the real life. The author of the “OASIS” – James Halliday, before his death decides to announce a contest for the players and give his entire property to the first person who will find the “Easter Egg” hidden in virtual reality. Then the whole world throws itself into the challenge:
The creators of the film decided to put into it many references to well-known pop-culture works, such as (inter alia) “Back to the Future”, “Batman”, or “Robocop”, but they also took some inspirations from the Greek mythology. One of the movie characters was named after the Greek Goddess of the hunt – Artemis. It is Samantha Evelyn Cook, a 19-year-old girl, who as a player of “OASIS” is called Art3mis. As we can already guess, the girl is hunting for the “Easter Egg” – she is also very brave, independent, and intelligent character.
Poster dedicated to Art3mis [source]Art3mis and Parzival in the movie [source]
The Funko company – creators of licensed vinyl pop-figures, produced a doll inspired by the Art3mis character (see below):
Ready Player One Art3mis by Funko[source]Found by Dorota Bazylczyk
“Zwierzokracja” [“Animalocracy”] is a recently (April 2018) published Polish non-fiction big format illustrated book. It was designed by Ola Woldańska-Płocińska, a Polish illustrator and designer.
The main cover of “Zwierzokracja” [“Animalocracy”]
The book presents the animal rights, the history of human-animal relations and so on. On two spreadsheets we can see the classical elements: the first one is dedicated to the cult of cats in ancient Egypt, the other – to the Greek philosophers’ approach towards eating meat. Living in the 6th century BC Pythagoras was a vegetarian, but Aristotle (4th century BC) said that animals were to be used – and eaten – by man. That is why he is depicted by the author with a big sausage! The part in question is entitled “The Philosophers’ Duel” and the winner is clearly indicated by the author. Although Aristotle is chronologically later, it is Pythagoras the vegetarian whose “environmental” view concludes the section and leaves the young readers with the lasting and animal-friendly message.
Illustrations from “Zwierzokracja” [“Animalocracy”]Illustrations from “Zwierzokracja” [“Animalocracy”]
Found by Krzysztof Rybak
Elaborated by Krzysztof Rybak
All the photos of the book were taken by the author of this post.
See more:
About “Zwierzokracja” on Publicat publisher website [POLISH] – link
This material may contain content inappropriate for children and youth.
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A new series about mermaids has appeared on Freeform TV on March 29, 2018 – it is called “Siren”, and it talks about the relations between people and sirens, that has a very long history in a coastal town called Bristol Cove.
TV Poster of “Siren”
The main character of the series – Ben Pownall, is a marine biologist from a rich local family, who had an opportunity to meet the sirens already in the past. In one of the episodes Ben meets Ryn – a siren swimming to the shore, looking for her sister that was trapped into the fishing nets. It comes out that the lost siren was taken into the military laboratory and became an object of experiments.
Thus, mythology combines with an animal protection theme, and we see a lot of beautiful underwater views and amazing mermaids who – however – may behave like predators at some circumstances. And yes, they do sing, and they are very attractive for sailors. 🙂
Austern, Linda; Naroditskaya, Inna, “Music of the Sirens”, Indiana University Press, United States, 2006.
Peraino, Judith, “Listening to the Sirens: Musical Technologies of Queer Identity from Homer to Hedwig”, University of California Press, Los Angeles, 2005.
Ventura, Varla, “Among the Mermaids: Facts, Myths, and Enchantments from the Sirens of the Sea”, Weiser Books, San Francisco, 2013.
THE UNIVERSAL SEA – PURE OR PLASTIC?! is an exhibition opened on 22nd of April, 2018, at the Centre of Polish Sculpture in Orońsko (curator: Nicole F. Loeser; coordinators: Weronika Elertowska, Leszek Golec).
The Official Poster of the Exhibition
The exhibition is aimed on publicising the problem of pollution of the seas and presents the artworks of the top five winners of the international competition organised by the Centre.
The artists show that not only animals are in danger, but the pollution harms mythical creatures living under the water. We can see sirens-sculptures made from rubbish or for example a beautiful transparent plastic Aphrodite coming from the sea.
“VENUS” by Alex Lawicka Cuper & Alain Lapicoré
“Sirens Net” by Sarah Julig : “The five sculptural nets are named after the sirens who tempted Odysseus with their beautiful songs and lured his ship into the rocks.”[1]
Found by Dr. Hanna Paulouskaya
Elaborated by Dorota Bazylczyk
See more:
[1] Sarah Julig, “Sirens Net – by Sarah Julig”, 02.02.2018 – link
Deep Femme Futures, “OGYGIA – by deep femme futures”, 17.02.2018 – link (1), link(2)
Noel Kassewitz, “Children’s Book: The Ocean Adventures of Pinni, Tursi, and Mydas: Plastic Danger”, 09.02.2018 – link
Ella Schofield Lak, “The Myth of the Mermaid – Greed VS Sacrifice – by Ella Schofield Lake”, 09.02.2018 – link
Aleksandra Ławicka Cuper, “VENUS – by Alex Lawicka Cuper & Alain Lapicoré”, 01.02.2018 – link
The Official Website of the Centre of Polish Sculpture in Orońsko – link
The Official Press Release about the exhibition – link
The fans of Greek Mythology can enjoy a new novel by the American writer Madeline Miller, whose retelling of Achilles’ fate (“The Song of Achilles”, 2011) has been a huge success since its publication and it won the Orange Prize for Fiction in 2012:
The new novel is entitled “Circe”. It was published on April 10, 2018, and it retells the story of the most famous enchantress of Classical Mythology:
Here you can listen to the Author reading from her book:
This week we want to present you another book created by Piotr Dobry & Łukasz Majewski, titled “Była sobie dziewczynka” [“There Was a Girl”]. The book was recently (March 2018) published in Poland by Wydawnictwo Tadam. The official age range of the publication is 8+.
Łukasz Majewski & Piotr Dobry[source]The cover of the book [source]
This time, the authors decided to talk about the life of women all over the centuries. The book has 25 chapters devoted to the fate of women and girls from different ages, cultures and countries. In the book we can read (among other matters) about the life of women in Ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome (chapters from 3-5).
The last, twenty-sixth chapter of “Była sobie dziewczynka” is titled “Ty” [“You”], and its aims is to show to the young readers, that now their future should lie in their hands.
Found by Dorota Bazylczyk
Elaborated by Dorota Bazylczyk
See more:
About “Była sobie dziewczynka” on Strefa Psotnika – link
About “Była sobie dziewczynka” on Zaczytana – link
About “Była sobie dziewczynka” on Enter the Room – link
About “Była sobie dziewczynka” on Magiczny Świat Książki – link
A few sources about Women in Antiquity:
Richard Hawley, Barbara Levick, “Women in Antiquity: New Assessments”, Routledge, 1995.
Stephanie Lynn Budin, Jean Macintosh Turfa, “Women in Antiquity: Real Women across the Ancient World”, Routledge, 2016.
Janet H. Tulloch, “A Cultural History of Women in Antiquity”, Bloomsbury Academic, 2016.
“Ancyklopek” (“The Little Ancyclops”) is a Polish three-book cycle (so far…) with the text by Piotr Dobry and the ilustrations by Łukasz Majewski, published in 2016 by TADAM:
All three parts feature the Little Ancyclops and they are ajdusted to the perception of a small child (for example, the first part is in black-and-white). The authors draw on the potential of the ancient myth: for example, the readers observe the Little Ancyclops in the sandpit and they learn that the Cyclops are very talented builders.
Indeed, to confirm, it is enough to have a look at the “Cyclopean Wall” at Mycenae;-) (phot. by Athinaios at English Wikipedia):
The books are funny and simple, however, they convey a serious message of tollerance and acceptance for other beings.
Robin Kaplan, known as The Gorgonist, is an illustrator dealing with children’s books, games, and comics. The artist has just finished creating her first book with Penguin USA [1]. Recently, she also lent her illustration, titled “The Lonely Gorgon”, for the cover of upcoming anthology “Making Monsters”, dedicated to new literary works inspired by the ancient monsters (prepared by the Institute of Classical Studies & Futurefire.net).
“The Lonely Gorgon” by The Gorgonist[source]Credit: The Gorgonist
Read more about the upcoming anthology “Making Monsters” – link
Publication titled “Accessing the Future – A Disability-Themed Speculative Fiction Anthology” (Lulu.com, 2015) by Djibril al-Ayad & Kathryn Allan, with the cover of The Gorgonist – link
“Stuff We Love: The Gorgonist’s monstrous, nerdy, and charming art” byLisa Granshaw (Oct 6, 2017) – link
The Gorgonist‘s illustrations for children’s books – link
This article may contain content inappropriate for children and young adults.
Altered Carbon (age rating: +16) is a new sci-fi series produced by Netflix, based on the novel by Richard K. Morgan of the same title.
Altered Carbon TV poster
The series presents a detective story set up in the dystopian future (in terms of style it is similar to “Blade Runner”). The main difference between the contemporary world and the future world shown in the series, is the invention of the ‘cortical stacks’ – storage devices that contain person’s consciousness, which may be placed into any suitable body or a ‘sleeve’:
Altered Carbon Cortical Stack (concept art by Alex Meister, ArtStation)
Altered Carbon series is highly classicised. The richest people called Meths (a reference to Biblical Methuselah – the longest-lived person in the Bible) have the means to gain immortality. The Bancroft family, leading among the Meths, stylise themselves as the Classical Gods. It is particularly visible in the style of clothes of Miriam Bancroft and the way of her husband Laurens’ behaviour. They even chose to build their house on some ‘island’ in the sky, thus they can literally be above the humans.
“(…) a lot of steps were taken to make sure the Meths look disconnected from the rest of humanity—the biggest example being the use of natural fibers, as in Altered Carbon’s world they are extremely rare and expensive. And of course, some of their outfits reflect ancient Greco-Roman gods, a purposeful nod to their godlike status.”
Takeshi Kovacs, the protagonist, is a kind of superhero called from hibernation to investigate a murder of Laurens Bancroft. There are also other literary allusions, like for example one of the characters – Edgar Allan Poe, an owner of a hotel, and the Edgar Allan Poe hotel itself – witty and interesting as a proper Poe should be.
Takeshi KovacsEdgar Allan Poe in his hotel // Read more about the “Big Influences on Altered Carbon“ by Tim Surette – link.
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