'Then it Was Destroyed by the Volcano': The Ancient World in Film and on Television

by Arthur J. Pomeroy

Depictions of the ancient world on the stage and in art have always competed with the reconstruction of the past by academics. The rise of cinema and television has heightened the difficulty in distinguishing between ‘elite' and ‘popular' culture. On American TV, Buffy the Vampire Slayer has incorporated aspects of the classical within the high school horror genre. In art cinema, the films of Theo Angelopoulos seek to reclaim Greek myth from academia and claim its recognition as part of a living modern culture. Alexander the Great has been recreated in an animated Japanese television series, not as the western conqueror who spread Hellenistic values through Asia, but as a figure of destruction and renewal. Heroic male values may be reasserted in cinema as part of a conservative agenda that relies on the cultural capital of the past, or subjected to humorous critique or feminist reinterpretation in TV series such as Hercules and Xena. By studying the multiple depictions of the ancient world on screen, this book emphasizes its continuing importance for the re-evaluation of the present.

224 pages, Paperback

First published February 11, 2008

About the author

New Zealand classical scholar, chess player and administrator.

Reviews

[Aleksandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting academic book on the presence of ancient Gfreece and Rome in the cinema and TV. It does miss some intereting examples and generally concentrates on case studies rather than more general approaches, but it is still a very useful book for the students of classical reception in modern media.