Classical traditions in modern fantasy / edited by Brett M. Rogers and Benjamin Eldon Stevens.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Fantasies of antiquity / Brett M. Rogers, Benjamin Eldon Stevens -- Classical apparitions in (pre-)modern fantasy -- Classical epic and the poetics of modern fantasy / Jesse Weiner -- Theorizing fantasy: enchantment, parody, and the classical tradition / Cecilie Flugt -- The mirror crack'd: fractured classicisms in the pre-Raphaelites and Victorian illustration / Genevieve S. Gessert -- Classical antiquity and the timeless horrors of H.P. Lovecraft / Robinson Peter Kr�amer -- False medievalism & other ancient fantasies -- Ancient underworlds in J.R.R. Tolkien's The hobbit / Benjamin Eldon Stevens -- C.S. Lewis's The voyage of the "Dawn Treader" and Apuleius' Metamorphoses / Jeff Winkle -- A time for fantasy: retelling Apuleius in in C.S. Lewis's Till we have faces / Marcus Folch -- Children and (other) ancient monsters -- The classical pantheon in children's fantasy literature / Sarah Annes Brown -- Orestes & the half-blood prince: ghosts of Aeschylus in the Harry Potter series / Brett M. Rogers -- Filthy harpies and fictive knowledge in Philip Pullman's Dark materials trilogy / Antonia Syson -- Girls in bears' clothing in Greek mythology and Disney/Pixar's brave / Elizabeth Manwell -- (Post)modern fantasies of antiquity -- Fantasies of Mimnermos in Anne Carson's "The brainsex paintings" (Plainwater) / Sasha-Mae Eccleston -- Aeneas' American new world in Jo Graham's Black ships / Jennifer A. Rea -- Genre, mimesis, and Virgilian intertext in George R.R. Martin's A song of ice and fire / Ayelet Haimson Lushkov.

Classical Traditions in Modern Fantasy is the first collection of essays in English focusing on how fantasy draws deeply on ancient Greek and Roman mythology, philosophy, literature, history, art, and cult practice. Presenting fifteen all-new essays intended for both scholars and other readers of fantasy, this volume explores many of the most significant examples of the modern genre-including the works of H.P. Lovecraft, J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit, C.S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia, J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series, George R.R. Martin's Game of Thrones series, and more-in relation to important ancient texts such as Aeschylus' Oresteia, Aristotle's Poetics, Virgil's Aeneid, and Apuleius' The Golden Ass. These varied studies raise fascinating questions about genre, literary and artistic histories, and the suspension of disbelief required not only of readers of fantasy but also of students of antiquity. Ranging from harpies to hobbits, from Cyclopes to Cthulhu, and all manner of monster and myth in-between, this comparative study of Classics and fantasy reveals deep similarities between ancient and modern ways of imagining the world. Although antiquity and the present day differ in many ways, at its base, ancient literature resonates deeply with modern fantasy's image of worlds in flux and bodies in motion.