Scylla

Abstract

What's in a name? Using the example of a famous monster from Greek myth, this book challenges the dominant view that a mythical symbol denotes a single, clear-cut 'figure' and proposes instead to define the name 'Scylla' as a combination of three concepts - sea, dog and woman - whose articulation changes over time. While archaic and classical Greek versions usually emphasize the metaphorical coherence of Scylla's components, the name is increasingly treated as a well-defined but also paradoxical construct from the late fourth century BCE onward. Proceeding through detailed analyses of Greek and Roman texts and images, Professor Hopman shows how the same name can variously express anxieties about the sea, dogs, aggressive women and shy maidens, thus offering an empirical response to the semiotic puzzle raised by non-referential proper names.

Speculative Fiction, Ecocriticism, and the Wanderings of Odysseus

“…For Cook, this opposition is ultimately resolved, both in Athenian ritual and in the Odyssey , through symbolic affirmation of ‘a symbiotic relationship in which culture both subordinates nature and depends on it’ (162). Whereas Cook's readings of particular episodes tend to stress the triumph of technological mētis , Bakker's stress the claims of nature, as does Hopman's (2012a, 2012b) reading of the Scylla episode. Peradotto (1990), 32–93, correlates the tension between nature and culture with an opposition between the ‘centripetal’ voice of myth, which validates the tragic power of nature, and the ‘centrifugal’ voice of Märchen , which tends towards the fulfillment of human desire, and he suggests a ‘Bakhtinian reading’ of the epic ‘as a dialogic text, in which neither of the contending voices is allowed to dominate’ (63).…”

“…108.Hopman (2012b), 12. Scylla offers a good example of what Csicsery-Ronay (2008), 231, refers to as situations in which ‘The clear, schematic gender domination attained by the Handy Man is opposed…by less familiar relations of power between the Female Power and the alienated fertile ground.’…”

“…110.Hopman (2012b), 40f. Note also how Cook's (1995) description of Poseidon resonates with Csicsery-Ronay's description of the Shadow Mage: ‘Poseidon, the hero's antagonist, becomes an inscrutable force behind the events that occur there.…Posdeidon's influence is meant to be mysterious’ (53), and, ‘At another level, Poseidon is not the cause of Odysseus’ misfortunes so much as the hostile aspect of nature manifesting itself in the character of both Poseidon and the inhabitants of the enchanted realm’ (56).…”