Classics on Screen by Dan Curley
Journal of Popular Film and Television, 51:1, 8–17. Special Issue: Antiquity Now (ed. Sylvie Magerstãdt and Monica S. Cyrino), 2023
How the time-travel series Dark (Netflix 2017–2020) participates in the materials and motifs of a... more How the time-travel series Dark (Netflix 2017–2020) participates in the materials and motifs of ancient Athenian tragedy.
NOTE: This is a "special edition" reprint, featuring the following changes from official print and online versions: Improved captions for photos; a new photo on p. 16; updated author bio. Pagination and all other article text remain the same.
Screening Love and War in Troy: Fall of a City (ed. Antony Augoustakis and Monica Cyrino), 2022
Reading the episodes of Troy: Fall of a City (Netflix, 2018) alongside units of Homeric poetry, e... more Reading the episodes of Troy: Fall of a City (Netflix, 2018) alongside units of Homeric poetry, especially books.
Ancient Epic in Film and Television (ed. Amanda Potter and Hunter Gardner), 2022
How different but interdependent projections (or manifestations) of spatiality inform ancient and... more How different but interdependent projections (or manifestations) of spatiality inform ancient and screen epics, such that the play of space might well be the one stable criterion of the epic genre.
New Voices in Classical Reception Studies. Conference Proceedings Volume Two: 21st Century Popular Classics (ed. Amanda Potter et al.), 2020
This essay explores the social dynamics of classical allusions on the American television series,... more This essay explores the social dynamics of classical allusions on the American television series, Revenge (ABC Television Studios, 2011–2015), a prime-time soap opera conceived in the wake of the Great Recession of 2007 and beyond. These allusions take various forms, from visual cues to long diatribes. Furthermore, they shore up the identities of the show’s characters by promoting Greco-Roman antiquity as the domain of wealthy, conservative, white, male villains.
Epic Heroes on Screen (ed. Antony Augoustakis and Stacie Raucci), 2018
Epic films of the new millennium feature antiheroes: broken heroes for broken times. Their cinema... more Epic films of the new millennium feature antiheroes: broken heroes for broken times. Their cinematic narratives are likewise broken, their tidy, classicizing story patterns fragmented and fractured for post-modern audiences.
Classical Myth on Screen (ed. Monica Cyrino and Meredith Safran), 2015
The "Arena of Life" sequences in Clash of the Titans (1981) resemble the art of animator Ray Harr... more The "Arena of Life" sequences in Clash of the Titans (1981) resemble the art of animator Ray Harryhausen and invite comparisons between the storytelling authority of Olympian gods and that of Harryhausen himself.
Ovid and Tragedy by Dan Curley
Ovid is today best known for his grand epic, Metamorphoses, and elegiac works like the Ars Amator... more Ovid is today best known for his grand epic, Metamorphoses, and elegiac works like the Ars Amatoria and Heroides. Yet he also wrote a Medea, now unfortunately lost. This play kindled in him a lifelong interest in the genre of tragedy, which informed his later poetry and enabled him to continue his career as a tragedian – if only on the page instead of the stage. This book surveys tragic characters, motifs and modalities in the Heroides and the Metamorphoses. In writing love letters, Ovid's heroines and heroes display their suffering in an epistolary theater. In telling transformation stories, Ovid offers an exploded view of the traditional theater, although his characters never stray too far from their dramatic origins. Both works constitute an intratextual network of tragic stories that anticipate the theatrical excesses of Seneca and reflect the all-encompassing spirit of Roman imperium.
Shards from Kolonos: Studies in Sophoclean Fragments (ed. Alan H. Sommerstein), 2003
Strategies for (1) reading Ovid's Tereus narrative (Met. 6.424-674) in light of the fragments of ... more Strategies for (1) reading Ovid's Tereus narrative (Met. 6.424-674) in light of the fragments of Sophocles' lost Tereus; (2) and vice versa.
Itys' cry of "mater! mater!" at Met. 6.640 echoes and originates the traditional cry of the night... more Itys' cry of "mater! mater!" at Met. 6.640 echoes and originates the traditional cry of the nightingale, "Itys! Itys!"
Horace by Dan Curley
The kid sacrificed to the fons Bandusiae (C. 3.13) has long been taken as an analogue for Horace'... more The kid sacrificed to the fons Bandusiae (C. 3.13) has long been taken as an analogue for Horace's Callimachean program. This paper suggests that the kid more properly reflects the poetics of Alcaeus and reconsiders the sacrifice in Alcaic terms.
A discussion of Horace's striking comparison, splendidior vitro (C. 3.13.1), as an allusion to Ca... more A discussion of Horace's striking comparison, splendidior vitro (C. 3.13.1), as an allusion to Callimachus' Hecale fr. 18.2.
Pedagogy by Dan Curley
Our Mythical Education: The Reception of Classical Myth Worldwide in Formal Education, 1900–2020 (ed. Lisa Maurice), 2021
Our survey of classical mythology courses in U.S. post-secondary education traces the presence an... more Our survey of classical mythology courses in U.S. post-secondary education traces the presence and use of classical myths in college-level curricula — their scope, functions, and outcomes. Following Kitchell’s (2005) call for more data on mythology courses at U.S. colleges and universities, we collected syllabi for traditional survey courses, special-focus courses, and global mythology courses and assembled them into a database to track overall content and format. Our findings are discussed here, along with some current and emerging trends in twenty-first century mythology classrooms.
Reviews by Dan Curley
The American Journal of Philology, 2017
Ziogas illuminates the deep intertextual connections between Ovid and Hesiod.
An audacious and compelling book covering 3,000 years of metamorphosis, or transformative change,... more An audacious and compelling book covering 3,000 years of metamorphosis, or transformative change, in the Western imaginary.
Hägg approaches biography as a literary genre. As such, this is the book we have been waiting for.
Conference Presentations by Dan Curley
he debt of video games to Greco-Roman antiquity in general, and to the epic tradition in particul... more he debt of video games to Greco-Roman antiquity in general, and to the epic tradition in particular, is vast. Much has been said — and continues to be said — about the recurrence of characters, plot points, and themes in contemporary games, from indie offerings like Don’t Turn Around (Kongregate, 2009), which recreates Orpheus’ katabasis into Hades to recover Eurydice; to the original God of War series (Sony-Santa Monica Studios, 2005–2013), whose hack-and-slash deicides take the succession myth to new extremes.
Our paper takes a broader view and highlights shared modalities between ancient epics and modern games, and vice versa. We are interested in the broader framing of play as in some way ‘epic’ (e.g., the Epic Games Store, a digital storefront for the American games developer and publisher Epic Games) as well as the ways in which the content and structure of individual game worlds relates to the wider epic tradition, from Homer and the Epic Cycle to Apollonius and Vergil. We will map ostensible parallels with epic in both Classical antiquity games as well as non-Classical games, focusing in particular on Assassin’s Creed Odyssey (Ubisoft, 2018) and Baldur’s Gate 3 (Larian Studios, 2023). In doing so, we will build towards a comprehensive understanding of the experiential mode of epic in games, and of gaming in epic.
Our key contribution will be to think through how gaming foregrounds different aspects of epic, from solitary heroes and heroic collectives, to the accumulation of things and the codification of persuasion. We will consider how the text of epic and the oral tradition itself aligns with our case studies, as well as how strategies and mastery structures in game reveal something about the epic mode. Taking a step back, we will also consider the wider manipulation of space and time in epic and our gaming case studies. We conclude by examining whether gaming today is indeed more epic than epic, as has been claimed in relation to games such as Assassin’s Creed Odyssey.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Augoustakis, A. and S. Raucci, ed. 2018. Epic Heroes on Screen. Edinburgh UP.
Cole, R. (2022). Mashing Up History and Heritage in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. Games and Culture, 17(6), 915-928. https://doi.org/10.1177/15554120221115403
Cameron, H. (2022) ‘Imagining Classics: Towards a Pedagogy of Gaming Reception’, Classical Journal, 118(1), pp. 90–112.
Draycott, J & Cook, K (eds) (2022) Women in classical video games. London, UK: Bloomsbury.
Llewellyn-Jones, L. 2018. Designs on the Past: How Hollywood Created the Ancient World. Edinburgh UP.
Paul, J. 2013. Film and the Classical Epic Tradition. Oxford UP.
Potter, A. and H. Gardner, 2022. Ancient Epic in Film and Television. Edinburgh UP.
Rollinger, C. (ed.) (2020) Classical Antiquity in Video Games : Playing with the Ancient World. London, UK: Bloomsbury.
Vandewalle, A. (2023) ‘Video Games As Mythology Museums? Mythographical Story Collections in Games’, International Journal of the Classical Tradition, pp. 1–23. doi: 10.1007/s12138-023-00646-w.
Zimmermann F. (2021). ‘Historical Digital Games as Experiences: How Atmospheres of the Past Satisfy needs of Authenticity.’ In Bonner M. (Ed.), Game | World | Architectonics (pp. 19–34). Heidelberg University Publishing.
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Classics on Screen by Dan Curley
NOTE: This is a "special edition" reprint, featuring the following changes from official print and online versions: Improved captions for photos; a new photo on p. 16; updated author bio. Pagination and all other article text remain the same.
Ovid and Tragedy by Dan Curley
Horace by Dan Curley
Pedagogy by Dan Curley
Reviews by Dan Curley
Conference Presentations by Dan Curley
Our paper takes a broader view and highlights shared modalities between ancient epics and modern games, and vice versa. We are interested in the broader framing of play as in some way ‘epic’ (e.g., the Epic Games Store, a digital storefront for the American games developer and publisher Epic Games) as well as the ways in which the content and structure of individual game worlds relates to the wider epic tradition, from Homer and the Epic Cycle to Apollonius and Vergil. We will map ostensible parallels with epic in both Classical antiquity games as well as non-Classical games, focusing in particular on Assassin’s Creed Odyssey (Ubisoft, 2018) and Baldur’s Gate 3 (Larian Studios, 2023). In doing so, we will build towards a comprehensive understanding of the experiential mode of epic in games, and of gaming in epic.
Our key contribution will be to think through how gaming foregrounds different aspects of epic, from solitary heroes and heroic collectives, to the accumulation of things and the codification of persuasion. We will consider how the text of epic and the oral tradition itself aligns with our case studies, as well as how strategies and mastery structures in game reveal something about the epic mode. Taking a step back, we will also consider the wider manipulation of space and time in epic and our gaming case studies. We conclude by examining whether gaming today is indeed more epic than epic, as has been claimed in relation to games such as Assassin’s Creed Odyssey.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Augoustakis, A. and S. Raucci, ed. 2018. Epic Heroes on Screen. Edinburgh UP.
Cole, R. (2022). Mashing Up History and Heritage in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. Games and Culture, 17(6), 915-928. https://doi.org/10.1177/15554120221115403
Cameron, H. (2022) ‘Imagining Classics: Towards a Pedagogy of Gaming Reception’, Classical Journal, 118(1), pp. 90–112.
Draycott, J & Cook, K (eds) (2022) Women in classical video games. London, UK: Bloomsbury.
Llewellyn-Jones, L. 2018. Designs on the Past: How Hollywood Created the Ancient World. Edinburgh UP.
Paul, J. 2013. Film and the Classical Epic Tradition. Oxford UP.
Potter, A. and H. Gardner, 2022. Ancient Epic in Film and Television. Edinburgh UP.
Rollinger, C. (ed.) (2020) Classical Antiquity in Video Games : Playing with the Ancient World. London, UK: Bloomsbury.
Vandewalle, A. (2023) ‘Video Games As Mythology Museums? Mythographical Story Collections in Games’, International Journal of the Classical Tradition, pp. 1–23. doi: 10.1007/s12138-023-00646-w.
Zimmermann F. (2021). ‘Historical Digital Games as Experiences: How Atmospheres of the Past Satisfy needs of Authenticity.’ In Bonner M. (Ed.), Game | World | Architectonics (pp. 19–34). Heidelberg University Publishing.
NOTE: This is a "special edition" reprint, featuring the following changes from official print and online versions: Improved captions for photos; a new photo on p. 16; updated author bio. Pagination and all other article text remain the same.
Our paper takes a broader view and highlights shared modalities between ancient epics and modern games, and vice versa. We are interested in the broader framing of play as in some way ‘epic’ (e.g., the Epic Games Store, a digital storefront for the American games developer and publisher Epic Games) as well as the ways in which the content and structure of individual game worlds relates to the wider epic tradition, from Homer and the Epic Cycle to Apollonius and Vergil. We will map ostensible parallels with epic in both Classical antiquity games as well as non-Classical games, focusing in particular on Assassin’s Creed Odyssey (Ubisoft, 2018) and Baldur’s Gate 3 (Larian Studios, 2023). In doing so, we will build towards a comprehensive understanding of the experiential mode of epic in games, and of gaming in epic.
Our key contribution will be to think through how gaming foregrounds different aspects of epic, from solitary heroes and heroic collectives, to the accumulation of things and the codification of persuasion. We will consider how the text of epic and the oral tradition itself aligns with our case studies, as well as how strategies and mastery structures in game reveal something about the epic mode. Taking a step back, we will also consider the wider manipulation of space and time in epic and our gaming case studies. We conclude by examining whether gaming today is indeed more epic than epic, as has been claimed in relation to games such as Assassin’s Creed Odyssey.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Augoustakis, A. and S. Raucci, ed. 2018. Epic Heroes on Screen. Edinburgh UP.
Cole, R. (2022). Mashing Up History and Heritage in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. Games and Culture, 17(6), 915-928. https://doi.org/10.1177/15554120221115403
Cameron, H. (2022) ‘Imagining Classics: Towards a Pedagogy of Gaming Reception’, Classical Journal, 118(1), pp. 90–112.
Draycott, J & Cook, K (eds) (2022) Women in classical video games. London, UK: Bloomsbury.
Llewellyn-Jones, L. 2018. Designs on the Past: How Hollywood Created the Ancient World. Edinburgh UP.
Paul, J. 2013. Film and the Classical Epic Tradition. Oxford UP.
Potter, A. and H. Gardner, 2022. Ancient Epic in Film and Television. Edinburgh UP.
Rollinger, C. (ed.) (2020) Classical Antiquity in Video Games : Playing with the Ancient World. London, UK: Bloomsbury.
Vandewalle, A. (2023) ‘Video Games As Mythology Museums? Mythographical Story Collections in Games’, International Journal of the Classical Tradition, pp. 1–23. doi: 10.1007/s12138-023-00646-w.
Zimmermann F. (2021). ‘Historical Digital Games as Experiences: How Atmospheres of the Past Satisfy needs of Authenticity.’ In Bonner M. (Ed.), Game | World | Architectonics (pp. 19–34). Heidelberg University Publishing.