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Princess Weekes
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The New Classics [Still Need To Figure Out a Better Title]

If you walk into a bookstore and look at new releases you are very likely to see at least one or two feminist retellings of Greek mythological figures. 


From Medusa to Clytemnestra to Penelope, we are seeing the new boom of retellings. But it is not new. What does this new generation of reimagined classics say about the moment we are in and the limitations of trend reimagining versus the way we learn these stories in an academic setting?



Sources & Links:

https://qz.com/quartzy/1408600/the-medusa-statue-that-became-a-symbol-of-feminist-rage

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/13/arts/design/medusa-statue-manhattan.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judgement_of_Paris

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/10/29/the-myth-of-whiteness-in-classical-sculpture

https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/emily-wilson-on-porous-boundaries-and-the-world-of-homer/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/the-first-english-translation-of-the-odyssey-by-a-woman-was-worth-the-wait/2017/11/16/692cdf82-c59a-11e7-aae0-cb18a8c29c65_story.html


Music & Clips :


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmcV90cya1Y

https://youtu.be/jvU4xWsN7-A


Now We Fight by Bonnie Grace

labour by Paris Paloma 

Derry Girls

Hercules & Xena the Battle for Mount Olympus

Poison by Bell Biv DeVoe


Supplementary Reading Material:


(1) The Oedipus Complex, Antigone, and Electra: The Woman as Hero and Victim

Dorothy Willner

American Anthropologist, New Series, Vol. 84, No. 1 (Mar., 1982), pp. 58-78 (21 pages)

https://www.jstor.org/stable/675950


(2) Women in Greek Myth

MARY R. LEFKOWITZ

The American Scholar, Vol. 54, No. 2 (Spring 1985), pp. 207-219 (13 pages)

https://www.jstor.org/stable/41211188


(3) Greek Attitudes towards Women: The Mythological Evidence

P. Walcot

Greece & Rome, Vol. 31, No. 1 (Apr., 1984), pp. 37-47 (11 pages)

https://www.jstor.org/stable/642368


(4) Medusa and the Female Gaze

Susan R. Bowers

NWSA Journal, Vol. 2, No. 2 (Spring, 1990), pp. 217-235 (19 pages)

https://www.jstor.org/stable/4316018


(5) Seclusion, Separation, and the Status of Women in Classical Athens

David Cohen

Greece & Rome, Vol. 36, No. 1 (Apr., 1989), pp. 3-15 (13 pages)

https://www.jstor.org/stable/643180

The New Classics [Still Need To Figure Out a Better Title]

Comments

Brilliant video! Really enjoyed your talking about Euripides portraying women sympathetically and how Patrocleus was Black. :)

sunlit_music

Feels so great seeing my name in the credits of one of your videos. Been watching you for years and now that I have a higher income I'm glad to finally be able to support you and everything you do.

Gabrielle Marable

Fantastic video. I just sent it to my mum (a classics teacher) and we have a screaming match about Medea for half an hour. 10/10

Ines Alvarez Rodrigo

Story time with Princess is my favorite thing ever

Cassandra J.

this is so great. i'm a lover of these retellings without all of the knowledge of the myths so thank you for this analysis!

Samantha Bonaparte

Shocked to learn that there was actually at least one Ancient Greek man who was sympathetic to women.

fissionado

Great video! jars, apple snakes + curiosities forever. / I *really* loved Circe by Madeline Miller, when I read it a few years ago it hit in a way I really needed as a femme who felt that all the women in ancient Greek stories felt very flat. I'm really interested to read Emily Wilson's translation of The Odyssey. I heard her first line is "Tell me about a complicated man." rather than something like "Sing in me, Muse, and through me tell the story of that man skilled in all ways of contending." and that she uses a matter-of-factness which I imagine departs from the masculine translations. Sidenote: whenever Muse is capitalized I just think of the band. Also sidenote: my grandparents were from Greece and when the Disney Hercules came out (AND I LOVED IT BTW obsessed kid knew all the songs), my dad was like "Oh my father was from Megara ((pronounced differently than the movie))" and I was like "!!"

sirathena

Just watched this on Nebula and holy moly, can we please have a series where Princess recaps mythological stories? Her recap of Pandora was fantastic, riveting, funny, and and so many other adjectives in my brain I can't describe right now. Amazing video as always. Thank you!

Michelle M.


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