Minos and the Moderns considers three mythological complexes that enjoyed a unique surge of interest in early twentieth-century European art and literature: Europa and the bull, the minotaur and the labyrinth, and Daedalus and Icarus. All three are situated on the island of Crete and are linked by the figure of King Minos. Drawing examples from fiction, poetry, drama, painting, sculpture, opera, and ballet, Minos and the Moderns is the first book
of its kind to treat the role of the Cretan myths in the modern imagination. Beginning with the resurgence of Crete in the modern consciousness in 1900 following the excavations of Sir Arthur
Evans, Theodore Ziolkowski shows how the tale of Europa-in poetry, drama, and art, but also in cartoons, advertising, and currency-was initially seized upon as a story of sexual awakening, then as a vehicle for social and political satire, and finally as a symbol of European unity. In contast, the minotaur provided artists ranging from Picasso to Dürrenmatt with an image of the artist's sense of alienation, while the labyrinth suggested to many writers the threatening sociopolitical world
of the twentieth century. Ziolkowski also considers the roles of such modern figures as Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud; of travelers to Greece and Crete from Isadora Duncan to Henry Miller; and of the theorists
and writers, including T. S. Eliot and Thomas Mann, who hailed the use of myth in modern literature. Minos and the Moderns concludes with a summary of the manners in which the economic, aesthetic, psychological, and anthropological revisions enabled precisely these myths to be taken up as a mirror of modern consciousness. The book will appeal to all readers interested in the classical tradition and its continuing relevance and especially to scholars of Classics
and modern literatures.
Minos and the Moderns considers three mythological complexes that enjoyed a unique surge of interest in early twentieth-century European art and literature: Europa and the bull, the minotaur and the labyrinth, and Daedalus and Icarus. All three are situated on the island of Crete and are linked by the figure of King Minos. Drawing examples from fiction, poetry, drama, painting, sculpture, opera, and ballet, Minos and the Moderns is the first book
of its kind to treat the role of the Cretan myths in the modern imagination. Beginning with the resurgence of Crete in the modern consciousness in 1900 following the excavations of Sir Arthur
Evans, Theodore Ziolkowski shows how the tale of Europa-in poetry, drama, and art, but also in cartoons, advertising, and currency-was initially seized upon as a story of sexual awakening, then as a vehicle for social and political satire, and finally as a symbol of European unity. In contast, the minotaur provided artists ranging from Picasso to Dürrenmatt with an image of the artist's sense of alienation, while the labyrinth suggested to many writers the threatening sociopolitical world
of the twentieth century. Ziolkowski also considers the roles of such modern figures as Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud; of travelers to Greece and Crete from Isadora Duncan to Henry Miller; and of the theorists
and writers, including T. S. Eliot and Thomas Mann, who hailed the use of myth in modern literature. Minos and the Moderns concludes with a summary of the manners in which the economic, aesthetic, psychological, and anthropological revisions enabled precisely these myths to be taken up as a mirror of modern consciousness. The book will appeal to all readers interested in the classical tradition and its continuing relevance and especially to scholars of Classics
and modern literatures.
Introduction: The Modernization of Myth
2.: Europa and the Bull: Sex, Society, and Politics
3.: The Minotaur: The Beast Within and the Threat Outside
4.: The Other Cretans: Alienation, Invention, Liberation
5.: Conclusion: The Modernity of the Myth
Notes
Index
Theodore Ziolkowski is Class of 1900 Professor of German and Comparative Literature, Emeritus, at Princeton University. He is the author of Virgil and the Moderns and Ovid and the Moderns, as well as The Sin of Knowledge, German Romanticism and Its Institutions, Modes of Faith: Secular Surrogates for Lost Religious Belief, and The Mirror of Justice: Literary Reflections of Legal Crises.
"In this elegant book Ziolkowski creates a panoramic map of Cretan
myth in the first half of the twentieth century and of its
reception across the arts. Building momentum from the observation
that the mythology accruing around Crete and its prehistoric and
pre-classical Minoan culture sees a remarkable peak in reception
across Europe from around the turn of the century, Ziolkowski
catalogues a wide range of artistic engagements with those Cretan
figures and
links them back to a straightforward exposition of Modernist
aesthetics and its programmatic interests." --Bryn Mawr Classical
Review
"In Minos and the Moderns: Cretan Myth in Twentieth-Century
Literature and Art, Ziolkowski offers a whirlwind of examples as he
traces a modernist revival of Minoan myth." --The Chronicle
Review
"The appropriation of Classical Greek myth in modern literature is
a familiar theme. But what about the prior Cretan myths, revived so
dramatically in the early twentieth century by the archeological
discoveries of Arthur Evans? In this remarkably erudite, elegant,
and engaging study, Theodore Ziolkowski takes us back to those
erotically charged and violent tales relating to King Minos and his
progeny, showing us, in beautiful detail, how the tales of
Pasiphae
and the Bull, Daedalus's design of the labyrinth, or the flight of
Icarus, functioned as foundational narratives of Modernism-whether
the modernism of Joyce and Picasso, or of the Surrealist
journal
Minotaure and the novels of Marguerite Yournecar. Ziolkowksi's own
narrative is itself as absorbing as a novel-a total pleasure to
read!" -Marjorie Perloff, Stanford University
"Ziolkowski is one of our most distinguished scholars of modern
literature, who, over the past decade or so, has turned his
attention to the reception and appropriation of Classical
literature by modernist authors. Ziolkowski offers a well-measured
and readable mix of exposition, contextualization, analysis and
bibliographical guidance which will make this volume accessible to
a wide range of readers, from undergraduate students to scholars of
both classical
and modern literature." -Duncan Kennedy, University of Bristol
"Ziolkowski covers a remarkable amount of material, from plays and
poetry to art and music, from writers and artists as well known as
Picasso, Gide, and Auden to those barely known even to specialists.
This breadth makes a compelling case for the argument that the
Cretan myths hold a special place in modernist culture.
Ziolkowski's presentation is also very readable. Each chapter is
organized around one or two interpretive patterns which give the
material an
argumentative thrust, with the detailed treatment of each work in
turn dependent on the overarching interpretive pattern." -Craig
Kallendorf, Texas A&M University
"The appropriation of Classical Greek myth in modern literature is
a familiar theme. But what about the prior Cretan myths, revived so
dramatically in the early twentieth century by the archeological
discoveries of Arthur Evans? In this remarkably erudite, elegant,
and engaging study, Theodore Ziolkowski takes us back to those
erotically charged and violent tales relating to King Minos and his
progeny, showing us, in beautiful detail, how the tales of
Pasiphae
and the Bull, Daedalus's design of the labyrinth, or the flight of
Icarus, functioned as foundational narratives of Modernism-whether
the modernism of Joyce and Picasso, or of the Surrealist
journal
Minotaure and the novels of Marguerite Yournecar. Ziolkowksi's own
narrative is itself as absorbing as a novel-a total pleasure to
read!" -Marjorie Perloff, Stanford University
"Ziolkowski is one of our most distinguished scholars of modern
literature, who, over the past decade or so, has turned his
attention to the reception and appropriation of Classical
literature by modernist authors. Ziolkowski offers a well-measured
and readable mix of exposition, contextualization, analysis and
bibliographical guidance which will make this volume accessible to
a wide range of readers, from undergraduate students to scholars of
both classical
and modern literature." -Duncan Kennedy, University of Bristol
"Ziolkowski covers a remarkable amount of material, from plays and
poetry to art and music, from writers and artists as well known as
Picasso, Gide, and Auden to those barely known even to specialists.
This breadth makes a compelling case for the argument that the
Cretan myths hold a special place in modernist culture.
Ziolkowski's presentation is also very readable. Each chapter is
organized around one or two interpretive patterns which give the
material an
argumentative thrust, with the detailed treatment of each work in
turn dependent on the overarching interpretive pattern." -Craig
Kallendorf, Texas A&M University
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