Screening the Golden Ages of the Classical Tradition

Meredith E. Safran is Associate Professor of Classical Studies at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut (USA). She has written multiple papers for journals and edited collections. She is the co-editor of Roman Comedy: Performance, Pedagogy, Research and of Classical Myth on Screen (both 2015). Her work has also appeared in Screening Love and Sex in the Ancient World (2013) and Blackwell’s Companion to the Ancient Greek and Roman World on Screen (2017). She earned her PhD in Classics from Princeton University.

• Series Editors’ preface, Editor’s Acknowledgments, List of Contributors, List of IllustrationsIntroduction: Searching for Gold in an Age of Iron, Meredith E. SafranPart I: The Glory That Was Greece1. Re-(en)gendering Heroism: Reflective Nostalgia for Peplum’s Golden Age of Heroes in Hercules: The Legendary Journeys 2.14 (1996), Vincent Tomasso2. Kissed by the Muse of Roller-disco: Utopia versus the Golden Ages of America, Hollywood, and Classical Myth in Xanadu (1980), Meredith E. Safran3. Gilding American History through Song Culture in O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000), Ryan Platte4. A Leonidas for the Golden Age of Superhero Films: The Thermopylae Tradition in 300 (2006), Eric Ross5. The Dueling Greek Golden Ages of 300: Rise of an Empire (2014), Seán Easton6. Confronting the Ancient Greek Golden Age in Jules Dassin’s Phaedra (1962), Emma Scioli7. Pericles, Cincinnatus, and Zombies: Classicizing Nostalgia in The Walking Dead (2010-), Laura GawlinskiPart II: The Grandeur That Was Rome8. "All That Glitters…": Problematizing Golden-Age Narratives in Vergil’s Aeneid and the Western Film Genre, Kirsten Day9. The Golden Age and Imperial Dominance in the Aeneid and Serenity (2005), Jennifer A. Rea10. Turning Gold into Lead: Sexual Pathology and the De-mythologizing of Augustus in HBO’s Rome (2005-2007), Thomas J. West III11. The Dux Femina Ends Westeros’ Golden Age: Cersei Lannister as Agrippina the Younger in HBO’s Game of Thrones (2011 - ), Meredith D. Prince12. The Golden Aspects of Roman Imperialism in Film, 1914-2015, Anise K. Strong13. Broken Eagles: The Iron Age of Imperial Roman Warfare in Post-9/11 Film, Alex McAuley14. Dreaming of Rome with Ridley Scott’s Gladiator (2000), Matthew TaylorFilmography, Bibliography, Index

The intersection between the idea of a lost Golden Age and on-screen invocations of ancient Greece and Rome is intriguing. This should be compulsory reading for students of film, Classical reception, and anyone interested in modern popular culture’s appropriation of the past to articulate concerns very much of the present.