Classical Myth on Screen

An examination of how screen texts in the contemporary media landscape embrace, refute, and reinvent the cultural heritage of classical antiquity, this volume looks at specific story patterns and archetypes from Greco-Roman culture that are woven into the fabric of Western narrative traditions. The contributors to this volume offer a variety of historical perspectives, highlighting key cultural relay points at which a myth is received and reformulated for a particular audience. This variety is demonstrated through the broad range of screen texts that serve as case studies representing the past hundred years: from the 1927 science fiction epic Metropolis to 2012's blockbusterThe Hunger Games.

Monica S. Cyrino is Professor of Classics at the University of New Mexico, USA. She is the author of Aphrodite (2010), A Journey through Greek Mythology (2008), Big Screen Rome (2005), and the editor of Screening Love and Sex in the Ancient World (2013), and Rome, Season One: History Makes Television (2008). She has served as an academic consultant on several recent film and television productions.

Meredith E. Safran is Assistant Professor of Classics and Co-director of the Trinity Institute for Interdisciplinary Studies at Trinity College, USA. She has written about epic motifs in the film Angels & Insects (1996) and the representation of Greek tragedy on film. She regularly teaches a survey course in classical mythology.