Introduction.

I am writing this blog as a part of a Gods and Heroes course at Roehampton University. During the course we will be looking at the examples of Neo-Classical art and architecture to be found around campus, some of which I haven't been able to look at closely before during my two years here so I am hoping to be able to look at our historic campus in a new way. We will also be looking at myths focusing on Herakles.

This is not my first time studying Herakles since I attended the compulsory Myth and Mythology module this year. Unfortunately while we did study him we weren't able to focus on his story for our essays so it is nice chance to be able to study this myth in more detail.

The first encounter I had properly with Herakles was when my drama group put on a performance of The Labours of Heracles in 2009. Ben Davies adapted the story from Apollodoros who was included as the narrator retelling the story to the audience. I played Iolus who, in our version, was Herakles' younger brother. After researching more into the stories of Herakles I'm starting to discover that our version was adapted to suit our story in so many ways. If I  remember rightly our Heracles died in the underworld which is very different to the standard narrative where he ascends to heaven as the 'heros-theos' and so I am looking forward to discovering more about him and the reception he has received in our time.


In our play Charon the keeper to the underworld is represented as a giant shadowy skeleton with a creepy, skeletal hand (above). I was thinking that maybe our view of Charon as this skeletal figure is as a result of a modern view of death and also as a way to shock, scare and wow our audience. Which it did. Our play was part of a spectacle so we showed the monsters in various ways. The accounts of the boar, birds and hind we retold using shadow puppets which worked wonderfully well considering restrictions in a theatre when showing these labours. In the same way, we couldn't allow the stage to be flooded during the stables labours so the story was told through a messenger, like the messenger speeches found in tragedy. The hydra (right) looked amazing and it took many people to make the heads and necks of the beast. I'm starting to reflect on how many different ways these myths can be retold. Like Helen Morales says in her Very Short Introduction to Classical Mythology:
"We are all living classical myths, right here, right now.  Classical mythology has been so influential upon Western culture that everyone who is alive to the art, culture, politics and language of today encounters it." (Page 4) I believe this is very true and relevant to today.


Bibliography

• Morales, Helen (2007) Very Short Introduction to Classical Mythology. Oxford. Oxford University Press.