CENTRE FOR MYTH STUDIES University of Essex OPEN SEMINAR The Alchemical Oedipus: Re-Visioning the Myth Reginald Ajuonuma University of Essex Thursday 14 December 2023 7.30 – 9.00 pm (GMT) Online All welcome To register for this Zoom event, please email: pps@essex.ac.uk before 11.30 am on the day of the seminar (mention CMS open seminar) ‘Death of Laius’, The Delphian Society: The World’s Progress, Part III (W. B. Conkey Company, 1913) The Oedipus myth is foundational to depth psychology due to Freud’s use of Sophocles’ play Oedipus Rex in the creation of psychoanalysis. But analytical psycho ..read more

CENTRE FOR MYTH STUDIES University of Essex OPEN SEMINAR The End of Eternity and the Mesopotamian ‘Rod and Ring’ Dr Ben Pestell University of Essex Thursday 23 November 2023 7.30 – 9.00 pm (GMT) Online All welcome To register for this Zoom event, please email: pps@essex.ac.uk (mention CMS open seminar) ‘Queen of the Night’ relief, thought to represent Ishtar or Ereshkigal. Clay, Iraq, 1800-1750 BCE. Now in the British Museum. Image © The Trustees of the British Museum. Figures of authority are often depicted holding a staff. The meaning of such sticks varies according to cultural context, an ..read more

CENTRE FOR MYTH STUDIES University of Essex OPEN SEMINAR Mythical Monsters and the Monstrous in Myth: Harpies and Erinyes in Modern Fiction Dr Ana González-Rivas Fernández Autonomous University, Madrid Thursday 2 November 2023 7.30 – 9.00 pm (GMT) Online All welcome To register for this Zoom event, please email: pps@essex.ac.uk (mention CMS open seminar) Monstrous is everything that challenges the normative, that transgresses aesthetic, ethical, and moral laws. Despite our efforts to conceal it, the monstrous ends up revealing itself, scandalizing and terrifying us because it threatens our h ..read more

The Myth Reading Group will meet on ‘Zoom’ on Thursday 9 February 2023, 5:30-6:30 pm (UK time). The link to join is posted in the comments for this post. All are welcome. The theme for the Spring Term is Japanese Myth. Tsukioka Yoshitoshi, Susanoo no Mikoto kills the Eight-headed Serpent, woodblock print triptych, 1887 (Philadelphia Museum of Art) Last term we encountered the Japanese deity Susanowo in his dealings with the sun goddess Amaterasu. At the end of the tale, Susanowo is expelled from the High Plain of Heaven in punishment for his destructive behaviour. This week’s text picks up his ..read more

The Myth Reading Group will meet on ‘Zoom’ on Thursday 26 January 2023, 5:30-6:30 pm (UK time). The link to join is posted in the comments for this post. All are welcome. The theme for the Spring Term is Japanese Myth. Izanami, from Noragami # 36 (2014), by Adachitoka The story of the deities Izanami [She Who Invites] and Izanagi [He Who Invites] is told in two eighth-century works, the Kojiki [Records of Ancient Matters] and the Nihongi [Chronicles of Japan]. The two works differ in certain details, but the fundamental account remains the same. The text for the Myth Reading Group is taken fro ..read more

The Myth Reading Group will meet on ‘Zoom’ on Thursday 17 November 2022, 5:30-6:30 pm (UK time). The link to join is in the comments for this post. All are welcome. The theme for the Autumn Term is ‘Beauty’. Antonio Canova, Cupid and Psyche (plaster, 1794). Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (public domain) In this session we shall look at Apuleius’ rendering of the tale of ‘Cupid and Psyche’ from his The Golden Ass (2nd century CE). Jealous that the princess Psyche is being worshipped for her beauty more than she, the goddess Venus sends her son Cupid, the god of love, to punish Psyche ..read more

The Myth Reading Group will meet on ‘Zoom’ on Thursday 20 October 2022, 5:30-6:30 pm (UK time). The link to join will be posted in the comments for this post. All are welcome. The theme for the Autumn Term is ‘Beauty’. William Etty (1787-1849), Candaules, King of Lydia, Shews his Wife by Stealth to Gyges, One of his Ministers, as She Goes to Bed (exhibited 1830). Tate. “Observation will not do, appreciation is required”, writes George Santayana in The Sense of Beauty (1896). In The Hidden I: A Myth Revised (1990), Frederic Raphael explores this proposition by taking, and revising for the moder ..read more

The Myth Reading Group will meet on ‘Zoom’ on Thursday 30 June 2022, 6:00-7:00 pm (UK time). The link to join will be posted in the comments for this post. All are welcome. A seventeenth-century depiction of Lamia by Edward Topsell (c. 1572 – 1625) This week we have a special session on the Lamia myth in contemporary fiction, hosted by Ana González-Rivas Fernández (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid), who is currently a Visiting Scholar at the University of Essex. In classical mythology, the figure of Lamia stands for the mother who never was. Condemned by Hera to lose all the children she gave bi ..read more

The Myth Reading Group will meet on ‘Zoom’ on Thursday 9 June 2022, 6:00-7:00 pm (UK time). The link to join is posted in the comments for this post. All are welcome. Maya Polychrome Figural Urn with Jaguars and Skulls, 600-900 CE (Late Classic) Walters Art Museum, Baltimore Popul Vuh is to Mayan culture what the Bible is to Christianity. It is the Book that contains a record of the sacred beliefs of the pre-Columbian People known as the Quiché Maya. Accordingly, Popul Vuh has been translated by Delia Goetz and Sylvanus Morley as The Book of the People, but it has also been translated as The C ..read more

The Myth Reading Group will meet on ‘Zoom’ on Thursday 26 May 2022, 6:00-7:00 pm (UK time). The link to join is posted in the comments for this post. All are welcome. A coyote in Death Valley (Wikimedia, Creative Commons) Our topic for the summer term is The Trickster. Myths of the Trickster can be found in many world mythologies, notably in African, Native American and Indo-European traditions, with common features that belie the geographical spread. The Trickster also remains a potent symbol for contemporary tales, and the text for this week is an extract from Hari Kunzru’s 2011 novel, Gods ..read more