Cinematic receptions of antiquity: the current state of play

Abstract

The study of cinematic receptions of antiquity has been one of the most vigorous and voluminous areas in classical reception scholarship over the past decade and a half. Whether dealing with historical films, adaptations of ancient literature, creative engagements with myth, or any other permutation of the relationship between antiquity and the present, cinema’s fascination with the ancient past pervades not only scholarly research, but teaching too. ‘Film and the Ancient World’ courses are now a familiar and attractive fixture on many undergraduate syllabuses, perhaps the most common way of introducing students of Classics and Ancient History to reception theory. 1 Movies can also be used as tools for teaching other, more conventional strands of the discipline, such as mythology (Rose 2001 , McDonald 2008 ). Most importantly, the production of new ‘ancient world’ films continues apace, fuelling the fire of both criticism and pedagogy. Film’s value within studies of antiquity and its ongoing impact is now widely accepted. Works such as Maria Wyke’s Projecting the Past: Ancient Rome, Cinema and History ( 1997 ) successfully demonstrated how vital film could be in illuminating the relationships between past and present, and played a key role in establishing the viability and purpose of classical reception studies more broadly. As a modern medium with such mass appeal, film’s engagements with antiquity have quite rightly attracted attention, and taught us about how, for example, 1950s Hollywood used ancient history as a vehicle to explore contemporary political issues, from the defeat of totalitarian dictators to the impact of communism on American society (see, for example, Wyke 1997 , Fitzgerald 2001 , McAlister 2001 , Futrell 2001 ). Through what is now a relatively easily accessible body of material, cinema offers everyone the opportunity to further our understanding of the nexuses between past and present.