Category: | Our Mythical Childhood Survey

David Almond

A Song For Ella Grey is a non-linear retelling of Orpheus and Eurydice set in contemporary Newcastle, from the point of view of Claire, Ella’s best friend and lover. Claire disapproves of Ella’s relationship with Orpheus, and is gradually left behind by Ella to witness their love and subsequent deaths. Claire and Ella are seventeen, and Orpheus is described as looking in his early twenties, though it is hinted that he may be much older.Part 1 – Present DayClaire is in love with(...)

literary

YEAR: 2014

COUNTRY: United Kingdom

TAGS: Death Eurydice Maenads Marriage Music Orpheus Snakes Underworld

Jennifer Adams, Alison Oliver

Little Master Homer. The Odyssey

The Little Master Homer: The Odyssey takes nine episodes from Homer's Odyssey and distils each into a picture/caption/speech-bubble unit. The illustrations cross two pages; they are bold and stylised, designed to capture the attention of very young children. The first character introduced is 'Calypso, the Nymph'. She is saying, I keep Odysseus here with me since I saved him from the wine-dark sea. Next, 'Ino, the Sea Nymph', says, Take my veil and tie it around your(...)

literary

YEAR: 2017

COUNTRY: United States of America

TAGS: Achilles Afterlife Agamemnon Charybdis Circe Classical studies Cyclops / Cyclopes Divination Fate Greek music Greek mythology Hades Homer Iliad Music Mythology Nymphs Odysseus/ Ulysses Odyssey Polyphemus Reception of classical antiquity Scylla Sirens Underworld Witches

Michael Ende

Momo: Or The Strange Story of the Time-Thieves and of The Child Who Gave the Stolen Time Back to Humans [Momo: Oder Die seltsame Geschichte von den Zeit-Dieben und von dem Kind, das den Menschen die gestohlene Zeit zurückbrachte]

When Momo, a little girl between eight and twelve years without parents, moves into the old amphitheatre in a small town, she quickly becomes friends with the local children and grown-ups. The children love to play with Momo because her presence makes them particularly imaginative, and the adults talk to Momo about their problems because she is such a good listener. Then everything changes: The grey gentlemen of the Timesavings Bank gain more and more power over the adults who suddenly have(...)

literary

COUNTRY: Germany

TAGS: Amphitheatre Andromeda Argo Cassiopeia Classical Names Conceptions of Time Music Music of the Spheres Orion Roman Amphitheatre

TED , Tim Hansen, Melanie Sirof

TED-Ed Lessons Worth Sharing, Series Behind the Curtain: 1) Music and Creativity in Ancient Greece / 2) The Battle of the Greek Tragedies

Music and Creativity in Ancient GreeceThe video states that contemporary society is obsessed with music – it is present in our religion, entertainment, emotional expression. Things worked this way also for ancient Greeks, even more so, as importance of music in their lives makes us “tame by comparison.” Then the ancient myth about Muses is introduced: they were the deities inspiring the artists and each of them had a specific area of interest, which included not only musical ar(...)

ephemeral

YEAR: 2013

COUNTRY: Online

TAGS: Aeschylus Athens Chorus Greek music Greek theatre Greek tragedy Muses Music Mythology Number of actors Oedipus Philocles Poetry Sophocles Thespis

Nick Cave

The Lyre of Orpheus

With a discordant, seesawing melody and four-line verses organised into an ABCB rhyming scheme, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds perform a grim and grisly retelling of the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice in The Lyre of Orpheus. Orpheus is a depressive figure, sitting ‘gloomy in his garden shed’ when by chance he arranges ‘a lump of wood, and a piece of wire’ into a musical instrument. But while his rudimentary lyre sounds beautiful to him, it is abhorrent and destructive to other(...)

music

YEAR: 2004

COUNTRY: United Kingdom

TAGS: Eurydice Gods Hades Katabasis Lyre Music Orpheus Underworld

Dakota Lane

The Orpheus Obsession

The Orpheus Obsession is the coming-of-age story of sixteen-year-old Annoshka Stargirl. She loves photography, and has a habit of imagining her life as a movie. She lives in upstate New York with her mother, who is depressed and remote, and her beloved budgie Zach. Her father moved out years ago and rarely makes contact. Anooshka’s stylish older sister, Zoetrope Zallulah Moon (known as ZZ Moon), has already left home and rents an apartment in New York City. At the start of the summer holid(...)

literary

YEAR: 2005

COUNTRY: United States of America

TAGS: Eurydice Fate Music Odyssey Orpheus Underworld