So much Western art has been influenced by ancient mythology, and you could study how an ancient myth has been visualized by multiple artists.
A possible way to proceed:
- Be sure to read the myth in its ancient form(s) first--if you're not sure where a myth appears in ancient literature, consult Tripp's Meridian Handbook of Classical Mythology, which is on reserve in Bailey Library. (I also have a copy in my office you could look at.)
- A Google image search using proper names from your chosen myth should yield a variety of artworks for you to look at. Choose a handful that especially catch your eye.
- For each one, consider: What moment has is being presented? Does it gesture toward what happens before and after this moment in the myth? Are details added, changed, deleted? What is the overall "feel" of the piece? What does it seem to especially push a viewer to notice or think about, and how is that different from the written version(s) you read? How is it different from other visual representations?
Instead of a Google image search you could use a book like Phaidon's recently published Flying Too Close to the Sun, which brings together a variety of mythologically themed artworks from across the centuries. The book costs $60, but you could also order it through interlibrary loan.
You could also adapt this project to focus on a specific artist's use of Classical myth throughout their career (e.g., Sandro Botticelli, Edward Burne-Jones, Evelyn De Morgan, Odilon Redon, Cy Twombly). What patterns can you see in an artist's choice of myths, moments, and means of presentation? What does the use of myth enable an artist to do or explore?
Anaïs Mitchell's Hadestown
Hadestown by Anaïs Mitchell is described as a "folk rock opera" retelling the story of Orpheus and Eurydice. The album was released in 2010, an off-Broadway production was mounted in 2016, and a Broadway run is scheduled for 2019.
You can read the Orpheus myth as told by Vergil here and Ovid here and then concluded here.
The Hadestown soundtrack is on YouTube, and you can get the lyrics (useful to look at as you're listening) here.
Keep in mind the general advice for looking at adaptations.
If you want to compare/contrast contemporary adaptations of Orpheus, you can consider how Mitchell's take is different from Gaiman's (see Gaiman post here).
You can read the Orpheus myth as told by Vergil here and Ovid here and then concluded here.
The Hadestown soundtrack is on YouTube, and you can get the lyrics (useful to look at as you're listening) here.
Keep in mind the general advice for looking at adaptations.
If you want to compare/contrast contemporary adaptations of Orpheus, you can consider how Mitchell's take is different from Gaiman's (see Gaiman post here).
Ancient architecture
You could explore how post-antique buildings incorporate elements of ancient architecture. Here's a possible approach:
1. Check some books on Greek and Roman architecture out of the library and familiarize yourself with basic features. Diagrams that illustrate the different components of temple architecture might be most helpful.
2. Walk around Conway (or Little Rock or any city) and take pictures of buildings and details where you can see ancient architecture's influence.
3. Using your resources from #1, try to identify the features in your photographs with technical terms.
4. Consider how non-ancient elements have been added to the modern buildings. Think about what the ancient elements accomplish vs. what the non-ancient elements do.
5. Consider larger patterns. What ancient features occur most often? What kinds of buildings are especially likely to exhibit ancient architectural features?
1. Check some books on Greek and Roman architecture out of the library and familiarize yourself with basic features. Diagrams that illustrate the different components of temple architecture might be most helpful.
2. Walk around Conway (or Little Rock or any city) and take pictures of buildings and details where you can see ancient architecture's influence.
3. Using your resources from #1, try to identify the features in your photographs with technical terms.
4. Consider how non-ancient elements have been added to the modern buildings. Think about what the ancient elements accomplish vs. what the non-ancient elements do.
5. Consider larger patterns. What ancient features occur most often? What kinds of buildings are especially likely to exhibit ancient architectural features?
Reading manuscripts
A good number of medieval and Renaissance manuscripts have
been digitized and put online, especially of the Latin Vulgate and the Greek
New Testament. Training yourself to read
from manuscript pages is a great way to exercise your language skills, increase
your mental flexibility, and experience first-hand how the activity of reading differs in different time periods.
How to go about this?
1. Choose a passage that you’d like to spend time with and translate it first from a print (or digital) edition that uses all the conventions we’re used to (e.g., spaces between words, fully spelled words, standardized letter forms). Practice it multiple times so that eventually you can translate it by looking just at the original language, no notes or vocabulary help.
2. Using your favorite search engine, find a digitization of a manuscript of that text online. (I won’t list possible sites because discovering a treasure on your own, even online, is part of the joy.)
3. Transcribe the passage from the digital image. You’ll probably need to toggle between the digital image and the edition of the text you used in step 1. Moving back and forth between them will help you to train your eye, to map what’s familiar onto what’s not familiar. Sometimes manuscripts make use of abbreviations (combining letter forms or indicating letters with special notations), and you’ll need to unpack them as you transcribe. In my own transcribing, I usually underline letters or portions of words that were abbreviated in the manuscript so my transcription reflects more of what's going on in the manuscript.
4. When you’re done transcribing, practice reading the digital image in the original language (without focusing too much on what it means in English). Get to the point at which you can read directly from the image without having to look at your transcription.
5. Now add English back into the picture and translate from the digital image. At first you may need to consult your notes or a dictionary, but practice until you can translate by looking directly at the manuscript and nothing else.
6. You might want to go through this process multiple times, using the same passage but different manuscripts. That would give you a sense of paleographical changes over time.
1. Choose a passage that you’d like to spend time with and translate it first from a print (or digital) edition that uses all the conventions we’re used to (e.g., spaces between words, fully spelled words, standardized letter forms). Practice it multiple times so that eventually you can translate it by looking just at the original language, no notes or vocabulary help.
2. Using your favorite search engine, find a digitization of a manuscript of that text online. (I won’t list possible sites because discovering a treasure on your own, even online, is part of the joy.)
3. Transcribe the passage from the digital image. You’ll probably need to toggle between the digital image and the edition of the text you used in step 1. Moving back and forth between them will help you to train your eye, to map what’s familiar onto what’s not familiar. Sometimes manuscripts make use of abbreviations (combining letter forms or indicating letters with special notations), and you’ll need to unpack them as you transcribe. In my own transcribing, I usually underline letters or portions of words that were abbreviated in the manuscript so my transcription reflects more of what's going on in the manuscript.
4. When you’re done transcribing, practice reading the digital image in the original language (without focusing too much on what it means in English). Get to the point at which you can read directly from the image without having to look at your transcription.
5. Now add English back into the picture and translate from the digital image. At first you may need to consult your notes or a dictionary, but practice until you can translate by looking directly at the manuscript and nothing else.
6. You might want to go through this process multiple times, using the same passage but different manuscripts. That would give you a sense of paleographical changes over time.
Reading articles
You can use the library's online databases to find articles that speak to your own interests in Classics. Most commonly used for general Classical research are Humanities Source, JSTOR, and Project Muse, but the Philosopher's Index and the ATLA Religion Database can have relevant things for ancient philosophy and ancient religion. You can access all of these databases via https://www.hendrix.edu/baileylibrary/baileylibrary.aspx?id=1633.
More and more articles are available immediately online, but if you need to order one, interlibrary loan services are quick and free: https://www.hendrix.edu/baileylibrary/baileylibrary.aspx?id=1605.
Here's some advice for article-reading:
- Do a little preliminary thinking. Why did you choose a particular article? How does it connect to what you've read/thought/studied in the past? What are your hopes for it?
- As you're reading, keep two mental tracks open, one to chart how the article responds to your own thoughts/questions/motivations for reading it and one to get a sense of the logic of the article itself. That is, of course you want to read the article to see how it speaks to your own interests, but you don't want to ignore what the article itself is trying to do (which might be quite different from your own interests). The two things will intersect at times, but I think it's good to remember that they needn't be identical. Re-reading an article helps solidify your sense of both of these tracks, as does keeping marginal notes about both as you go.
- When you're done reading, collect your thoughts. Can you summarize the article's argument in two sentences? What about the article did you find particularly helpful? Are there parts of the argument that you weren't convinced by, and why? Does it help you make further connections to past work you've done? Does it point a way forward to other research articles, topics, or questions?
- Bibliographies and footnotes can be helpful for getting sources for further reading and research.
More and more articles are available immediately online, but if you need to order one, interlibrary loan services are quick and free: https://www.hendrix.edu/baileylibrary/baileylibrary.aspx?id=1605.
Here's some advice for article-reading:
- Do a little preliminary thinking. Why did you choose a particular article? How does it connect to what you've read/thought/studied in the past? What are your hopes for it?
- As you're reading, keep two mental tracks open, one to chart how the article responds to your own thoughts/questions/motivations for reading it and one to get a sense of the logic of the article itself. That is, of course you want to read the article to see how it speaks to your own interests, but you don't want to ignore what the article itself is trying to do (which might be quite different from your own interests). The two things will intersect at times, but I think it's good to remember that they needn't be identical. Re-reading an article helps solidify your sense of both of these tracks, as does keeping marginal notes about both as you go.
- When you're done reading, collect your thoughts. Can you summarize the article's argument in two sentences? What about the article did you find particularly helpful? Are there parts of the argument that you weren't convinced by, and why? Does it help you make further connections to past work you've done? Does it point a way forward to other research articles, topics, or questions?
- Bibliographies and footnotes can be helpful for getting sources for further reading and research.
Translation comparison
One way to take a deeper look at a passage of ancient literature is to see how different translators have rendered it in English. Here's a possible approach:
1. Choose a passage from ancient literature that has some inherent interest to you. Maybe there's something about it you find perplexing or striking.
2. Look at the passage in the original (but if you can't, the exercise can be modified; see below). Write out a translation that's as literal as possible--don't worry about its being nice to read in English. You'll want a careful and detailed record of what the Latin or Greek is doing. Also take notes on other aspects of the passage's presentation such as word order, rhetorical effects (e.g., a build-up of phrases, repetitions or words or sounds), rhythm, and sentence length.
3. Find English translations of the passage. Possible online resources include Poetry in Translation, Perseus Digital Library, Internet Archive, Project Gutenberg, and Theoi Texts Library--but don't ignore the possibility of a variety of print translations in the library (or order-able through interlibrary loan). This exercise can work with as few as 2 translations, but I think having at least 4 is better.
5. After you've gone through each translation individually, comparing them with the original, compare and contrast the translations with one another. What's different about them? What does each seem to do especially well in comparison with the others? Can you generalize about what each translation seems to be aiming for or prioritizing?
Modification, skipping step 2: You could do all the translation comparisons first, without looking at the original passage and use the comparison to come up with a list of questions about the original passage. What do the different translations make you want to know about the original? How has seeing different translations prompted your curiosity? You could come talk through those questions with me, and I can help you see what the original in doing and how it responds to your questions.
1. Choose a passage from ancient literature that has some inherent interest to you. Maybe there's something about it you find perplexing or striking.
2. Look at the passage in the original (but if you can't, the exercise can be modified; see below). Write out a translation that's as literal as possible--don't worry about its being nice to read in English. You'll want a careful and detailed record of what the Latin or Greek is doing. Also take notes on other aspects of the passage's presentation such as word order, rhetorical effects (e.g., a build-up of phrases, repetitions or words or sounds), rhythm, and sentence length.
3. Find English translations of the passage. Possible online resources include Poetry in Translation, Perseus Digital Library, Internet Archive, Project Gutenberg, and Theoi Texts Library--but don't ignore the possibility of a variety of print translations in the library (or order-able through interlibrary loan). This exercise can work with as few as 2 translations, but I think having at least 4 is better.
[Side note: if you're interested in doing a translation study of a particular poem by Catullus, I have a lot of different translations you could borrow.]4. Go through each English translation of your passage, comparing it with the translation you made of the original. Keep a list of choices the translator made that you find interesting. Consider why you found them interesting and what effect they have on an understanding or interpretation of the passage.
5. After you've gone through each translation individually, comparing them with the original, compare and contrast the translations with one another. What's different about them? What does each seem to do especially well in comparison with the others? Can you generalize about what each translation seems to be aiming for or prioritizing?
Modification, skipping step 2: You could do all the translation comparisons first, without looking at the original passage and use the comparison to come up with a list of questions about the original passage. What do the different translations make you want to know about the original? How has seeing different translations prompted your curiosity? You could come talk through those questions with me, and I can help you see what the original in doing and how it responds to your questions.
General advice for looking at adaptations
There's a lot of interesting work to do in comparing/contrasting ancient narratives with post-antique adaptations. I've posted some specific possibilities on this site and I'll continue to do so, but any adaptation that you come across and are interested in is fine too! Here's some general advice for approaching this kind of study:
Identify key ancient source material and read it in English (or the original Latin or Greek). Take notes on the narrative steps and other things that catch your eye as you read. Having good base notes will make the comparison/contrast easier and richer.
Review your notes and think about what you're especially curious to see in the adaptation.
Use your answers to the preliminary questions to guide your initial thinking.
Also consider the following:
It's also possible that you might encounter the adaptation before the ancient version. That's okay. You can use these same questions to prompt your exploration.
Identify key ancient source material and read it in English (or the original Latin or Greek). Take notes on the narrative steps and other things that catch your eye as you read. Having good base notes will make the comparison/contrast easier and richer.
Review your notes and think about what you're especially curious to see in the adaptation.
- Are there particular characters or moments you'd like to concentrate on?Read or watch the adaptation. Again, take good notes.
- Is there an issue or question that the original text treats and you're wondering how the adaptation will handle it?
- Is there something that you think would be particularly challenging for an adapter to deal with?
- Are there things you hope the adaptation might change?
Use your answers to the preliminary questions to guide your initial thinking.
Also consider the following:
- Was there anything that surprised, delighted, or disappointed you about the adaptation? Can you explain why?You might need to toggle back and forth between ancient and modern versions as you're exploring these questions.
- What difference does any change in medium make in your experience of the story (for instance, from poem to novel, from poem to graphic novel, from play to film)?
- What was especially changed, and what is the effect of each change? How does a change alter the focus of the story or push an audience to explore different ideas through the story?
- What was added, and what is the effect of each addition? How does an addition alter the focus of the story or push an audience to explore?
- How does the adaptation reflect the concerns of the time period in which it was produced?
It's also possible that you might encounter the adaptation before the ancient version. That's okay. You can use these same questions to prompt your exploration.
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