Greek Myths for a Post-Truth World

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Description

This book examines what ancient Greek myths can teach us about the troubles and challenges of our post-truth times: environmental degradation, mass migration, war, inequality, exclusion, authoritarianism, and perplexing technological possibilities. It shows how Greek myths assume new meanings in contemporary culture but continue to stir emotions and shape experiences. They offer a diversity of possible answers to questions that preoccupy us and act as fountains of meaning in our times when meaning becomes precarious and fragmented. Across centuries and millennia, David defeats Goliath and Cassandra makes her unheeded prophecies. Yet, each age discovers new meanings in old stories and different myths come into prominence as they address the aspirations and fears of each. Our many contemporary retellings of the Odyssey and Iphigenias sacrifice from the perspective of the female characters draw out different aspects of the myths, revealing as much about our contemporary sensitivities, anxieties and desires as about the inner lives of the myths themselves.

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This engaging and thoughtful book shows us how the Greek myths remain as relevant today as they did in the days of Homer. It is a timely demonstration that the global challenges we face today are the same as those faced by our ancestors and the stories they told continue to suggest ways we might navigate through societys current difficulties. -- Michael Wilson, Professor of Drama, Loughborough University, UK

Author Bio

Yiannis Gabriel is Professor Emeritus at Bath University, UK, and Visiting Professor at Lund University, Sweden. He is author of Music and Story: A Two-Part Invention (2022), Myths, Stories, and Organizations: Premodern Narratives for Our Times (2004) and Storytelling In Organizations: Facts, Fictions, and Fantasies (2000).