The reception of ancient virtues and vices in modern popular culture: beauty, bravery, blood and glory

438 Pages·2017·5.474 MB·English

by  Almagor, Eran, Maurice, Lisa

The Reception of Ancient Virtues and Vices in Modern Popular Culture
Metaforms
Studies in the reception of
classical antiquity
Editors-in-Chief
Almut-Barbara Renger (Freie Universität Berlin)
Jon Solomon (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)
John T. Hamilton (Harvard University)
Editorial Board
Kyriakos Demetriou (University of Cyprus)
Constanze Güthenke (Oxford University)
Miriam Leonard (University College London)
Mira Seo (Yale-nus College)
VOLUME 11
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/srca
The Reception of Ancient
Virtues and Vices in
Modern Popular Culture
Beauty, Bravery, Blood and Glory
Edited by
Eran Almagor and Lisa Maurice
LEIDEN | BOSTON
Cover illustration: Photographing the chariot race in Ben-Hur (1925) - The cameraman records Francis X.
Bushman on a chariot, 1 January 1925. Source: Wikimedia Commons. Originally from A History of the Movies
by Benjamin B. Hampton (New York: Benjamin Bowles, 1931), illustration 90b.
The Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available online at http://catalog.loc.gov
lc record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2017021292
Typeface for the Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic scripts: “Brill”. See and download: brill.com/brill-typeface.
issn 2212-9405
isbn 978-90-04-34771-7 (hardback)
isbn 978-90-04-34772-4 (e-book)
Copyright 2017 by Koninklijke Brill nv, Leiden, The Netherlands.
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Contents
List of Figures ix
Notes on Contributors xi
Introduction: Ancient Virtues and Vices in Modern Popular Culture 1
Eran Almagor and Lisa Maurice
part 1
Re-enacting Ancient Virtues and Vices
Section 1
Staging Ancient Virtues and Vices
1 The House of Atreus as a Reflection of Contemporary Evil: Performance
Reception and The Oresteia 37
Lisa Maurice
2 Thornton Wilder’s The Alcestiad or A Life in the Sun 60
Hanna M. Roisman
3 Herodotus on Stage: The Modern Greek Play “Candaules’ Wife” by
Margarita Liberaki 77
Ariadne Konstantinou
Section 2
Screening Ancient Virtues and Vices
4 Can You Dig It? Heroes and Villains from Xenophon’s Anabasis to Walter
Hill’s The Warriors (1979) 103
Eran Almagor
5 Hercules’ Choice: Virtue, Vice and the Hero of the Twentieth-Century
Screen 140
Emma Stafford
vi Contents
6 Deconstructing Oedipus: Woody Allen’s Mighty Aphrodite and the
Classical Tradition 167
Anna Foka
7 Caligula and Drusilla in the Modern Imagination 187
Emma Southon
8 “Salome, Nice Girl”: Rita Hayworth and the Problem of the Hollywood
Biblical Vamp 206
Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones
9 Representations of the Christian Female Virtue in Roman Film Epics:
The Sign of the Cross (1932) and Quo Vadis (1951) 231
Panayiota Mini
part 2
Ancient Virtues and Vices in the Modern World
Section 1
Ancient Virtues and Vices in Modern Greece
10 Philip, Alexander and Macedonia: Between Greek Virtue and
Barbarian Pleasure 257
Maria Pretzler
11 From Giscard d’Estaing to Syntagma Square: The Use and Abuse of
Ancient Greece in the Debate on Greece’s eu Membership 281
Luca Asmonti
12 The Great God Pan Never Dies! 304
Aggeliki Koumanoudi
Section 2
Ancient Virtues and Vices in Modern Jewish Existence
13 In These Days, in That Season: The Nationalization of the
Maccabees 325
David M. Schaps
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Contents vii
14 A Double Edged Sword—The Power of Bar-Kosibah: From Rabbinic
Literature to Popular Culture 341
Haim Weiss
15 What Has Rome to Do with Jerusalem? The Reception of Turnus Rufus
and Rabbi Akivah in the Talmud and in Contemporary Israel 357
Gabriel Danzig
Bibliography 379
Index 416
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List of Figures
3.1 Lydia Fotopoulou as the Queen in the 1997 performance of H γπλαίθα ηνπ
Kαλδαύιε by the Πεηξακαηηθή Σθελή ηεο Tέρλεο in Thessaloniki, directed by
Nikos Chatzipapas. Photo: Vassilis Bozikis 85
4.1 Ajax (James Remar) fights the “Baseball Furies” 110
4.2 From the opening sequence of The Warriors: The ultimate director’s cut
edition 114
4.3 Cyrus (Roger Hill) 118
4.4 Luther (David Patrick Kelly) 124
4.5 Swan (Michael Beck) and The Warriors look at defeated Luther (David
Patrick Kelly) near the sea 131
5.1 Paolo de Matteis, The Choice of Hercules, 1712 (Temple Newsam House,
Leeds). Photo: Temple Newsam House (Leeds Museums and Art Galler-
ies); Photographic Survey, The Courtauld Institute of Art, London 147
5.2 Poster for the French release of Hercules Unchained, featuring Steve
Reeve’s Hercules between Omphale (Sylvia Lopez) and Iole (Sylva
Koscina) 157
8.1 Advertising image from ‘Life Magazine’, 1953. Rita’s Hayworth’s Salome
superimposed onto a background of Aubrey Beardsley’s print of Salome
kissing the head of John the Baptist (from the private collection of the
author) 223
9.1 Mercia sending sweet glances and smiles to Prefect Marcus Superbus in
Cecil B. DeMille’s The Sign of the Cross (1932) 239
9.2 Mercia as a frightened girl in Cecil B. DeMille’s The Sign of the Cross
(1932) 240
9.3–9.5 Mercia staged with household items in Cecil B. DeMille’s The Sign of the
Cross (1932) 241
9.6 Lygia as a fearless, mature and confident woman before Marcus Vinicius
in Mervyn LeRoy’s Quo Vadis (1951) 246
9.7 Lygia does not raise her right arm to salute Nero in Mervyn LeRoy’s Quo
Vadis (1951) 248
10.1 Alexander (1956). Our first glimpse of Athens: Aischines (left, on podium)
challenged by Demosthenes 263
10.2 Alexander (1956). Philip’s first closeup. Barbarian in furs? 263
10.3 Alexander (1956). Philip’s Palace in Pella—Greek, but rural and
archaic 264
10.4 Alexander (1956). Philip and Alexander at Mieza: a barbarian king and his
Greek son 266
x List of Figures
10.5 Alexander (2004). Alexander and Aristotle in Mieza. Broken columns as
signature for classical Greece 269
10.6 A lexander (2004). Hellenised Macedonian crowd (later on in the
film) 270
10.7 Alexander (2004). Increasing orientalisation of Alexander. Note
lengthening hair, changes in clothing and accessories 272
10.8 Alexander (2004). Hephaistion and Parmenion—different degrees of
orientalisation among Alexander’s companions 273
10.9 A lexander (2004). Philip and Alexander in Pella: Macedonians at their
most Greek 274
12.1–12.2 Carnival festivities in Polygiros. Photos: Rosa Vasilaki 313
12.3–12.4 The annual phallic festival in Tyrnavos. Photos: Yoav Me Bar 315
13.1 Caricature showing the Jews as Grimms’ Seven Swabians 327
13.2 The Wicked Son as muscleman. Eisenstein, Hagada (New York: Hebrew
Publishing Company, 1920) 328
13.3 The Maccabees logo 336
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