Clash of the Titans meets the Museum

Why is it that Ancient Greek mythology has such lasting appeal? It’s not so long ago that advertisements for The Clash of The Titans  were everywhere and last night on T.V. Bethany Hughes was talking about the myth of Atlantis.  Though from what she was saying Plato’s account may have been loosely based on folk memories of the eruption of Santorini. Nearer home, some of the Museology MA students at the University have been working on a educational catalogue of ancient Greek celebrities who appear on objects in the Museum collections.  

We invited Kostas Arvenitis’ Museology class at the University to work on an ‘un-numbered collection’  in our archaeology store. This is a group of miscellaneous objects that we know little about.  It is often the case that  objects like these can  be particularly exciting and the students did us proud by finding a fascinating bowl with images of the ancient Greek gods, helpfully labelled to say who was who. Zeus, Hera, Athena, they’re all there.  

   

Greek gods on a bowl in the Manchester Museum collection (courtesy of Hannah Manson)

If testosterone fuelled heroics are more your cup of tea the Museum already displays  ancient Greek vases showing Odysseus escaping from the Cyclops’ cave and (more sedately) the Greek warriors Ajax and Odysseus playing dice.    

It’s interesting that the students chose celebrity as the focus of their project to appeal to modern schoolchildren. I’d like to think that the ancient Greek deities and heroes enjoyed a more lasting kind of fame than that of modern celebrities many of whom are only famous for having been on TV.   

 

In terms of lasting appeal, it must be because ancient Greek myths and legends deal with  archetypal  human emotions like love, pride, anger, passion and jealousy, all of which have fuelled dramatic presentations from Aeschylus to Coronation Street. Although “Sing Goddess the anger of Jackie’s son Tyrone…” doesn’t somehow have quite the same ring to it.   At the very least it’s a reminder not to overlook Classical Greek material in Ancient Worlds .