Transformations of Scylla and Charybdis: Encounters with Otherness and Ancient Greek Myth in Post-Classical Perspective Marco Benoît Carbone University College London Submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Gender, Society and Cultural Studies – Documentary-Film Track 1 2 I, Marco Benoît Carbone, , confirm that the work presented in this thesis is my own. Where information has been derived from other sources, I confirm that this has been indicated in the research thesis. I confirm that ethnographic research has been conducted according to approved ethical standards, and that any use of copyrighted material is only intended for non-commercial, non-distribution, education purposes. This PhD research includes an attached Documentary Film. 3 4 ABSTRACT This is a study of contemporary uses of the myth of Scylla and Charybdis, often personified as female monstrosities or explained as a rock and whirlpool in Italy’s Strait of Reggio and Messina. Focusing on theoretical, methodological, and disciplinary issues of historical transmission, it addresses media appropriations of these signifiers of Greco-Roman traditions, as well as abject femininity, animality, and Otherness. Nineteenth-century European travellers visited the Strait in search of the landmarks of Homer’s Odyssey. The area attracted the travellers’ antiquarian appreciation of the myth-place and its relation with legends of marine dangers, a narrative that later reached broader audiences through twentieth-century international tourism and media. In parallel, Scylla and Charybdis were popularized as monstrous figures in the imaginaries of travel, horror, fantasy, and erotica. Drawing on deconstructive approaches to myth studies, the thesis analyses the Scylla and Charybdis motif in the broader context of ideas about antiquity in historiographical, psychoanalytic, and positivist perspectives. Looking at under- researched media, such as travel literature, role playing and video games, and pornographic iconography, the study shows how the monsters embodied imagined encounters with the abject, the marvellous, the other-than-self, and the other-than- now. Extending critiques of Greco-Roman history’s exceptionalism developed within reception and cultural studies, the thesis conceptualizes antiquity as a series of reciprocal impacts between the present and the past, and it discusses the pliability of the myth figures and the variety of purposes they served. Ethnographic research in the Strait, presented through an accompanying Documentary Film, demonstrates how the figures became local symbols of selectively philhellenic local histories. 5 6 Keep Ithaka always in your mind. Arriving there is what you are destined for. But do not hurry the journey at all. Better if it lasts for years, so you are old by the time you reach the island, wealthy with all you have gained on the way, not expecting Ithaka to make you rich. C.P. Cavafy, Collected Poems (1992) 7 8 TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements ........................................................................................... 13 Index of illustrations ......................................................................................... 15 Introduction I–1: Diachronic persistence, synchronic transformations.................................. 22 I–2: Areas of myth-reception, case studies, and approach................................. 25 I–3: The theme of the Journey: playing the Hero, encountering the Other ...... 26 I–4: Methodology: thematic criticism and discourse analysis .......................... 32 I–5: Reception studies: traditions and cultural transmission ............................. 39 I–6: Deconstructing myth theory .......................................................................43 I–7: Greco-Roman traditions and myth-motifs ................................................. 48 Chapter 1: Chronotopes of Hellas 1–1: Myth as heritage: Scilla and the Strait during the Grand Tours ................ 53 1–2: Picturesque voyages: European travellers and the South of Italy .............. 55 1–3: Mapping the myth-places: cartography and Homeric landmarks .............. 57 1–4: Maps of monsters: the Feminine as Nature’s beauty and dread ................ 62 1–5: “Southernizing” the landscape: Europe, Hellenism, and exoticism ........... 66 1–6: From travelogues to tourism: the Strait after the Grand Tours .................. 70 1–7: Europe, Hellenism, and exoticism ............................................................. 74 Chapter 2: On the track of Ulysses 2–1: Myth as journey: travel, exploration, and the Strait’s myth-place ............ 78 2–2: Travel books and visual cultures: The Strait in the imaginaries of travel 80 2–3: In the Wake of Ulysses: Ernle Bradford’s Mediterranean voyage ............ 84 2–4: L’Italia vista dal cielo: Folco Quilici’s Hellenic South ............................ 90 2–5: Playing Ulysses: Homeric geography and exploration ............................. 97 2–6: Place-myths: the Strait in mass media and tourism ................................ 100 2–7: The leisured landscape: the Strait as the not-so familiar ......................... 103 9 Chapter 3: Encounters with Otherness 3–1: Myth on the couch: antiquity, psychoanalysis, and popular horrors ...... 108 3–2: Monsters and femme fatales: a historical background ........................... 110 3–3: Castlevania: Scylla, snakes, and vampires ............................................. 118 3–4: God of War: Scylla, tentacles, and phallic breasts ................................. 120 3–5: Greekness in media: temples and female demons .................................. 122 3–6: Scylla on the couch: media images and psychoanalysis ......................... 126 3–7: Abject mothers and accursed animals: Greek she-monsters and gender 130 3–8: Reading the vagina dentata: decentring Greco-Roman reception .......... 135 Chapter 4: Myth-scegenation and hybridity 4–1: Myth as the hotbed: sexualized and pornographic Scyllae .................... 139 4–2: Octopus ladies and tentacle erotica: an overview ................................... 141 4–3: Monster Girls Encyclopedia: mythographies and cross-overs ............... 145 4–4: ‘In his daughter’s darkling womb’: Scylla, Cthulhu, and Cthylla .......... 147 4–5: The Scylla and Cthylla hybrids: monstrosity as intersection .................. 151 4–6: Reproductive anxieties: vaginal and phallic Scyllae .............................. 153 4–7: Myths of miscegenation: patriarchy and pansexuality ........................... 158 4–8: The monstrous as anti-canon: Scylla and the classical paradigm ........... 161 Chapter 5: Searching for Sea Monsters 5–1: Myth and factuality: the spectacle of aquatic giants ............................... 165 5–2: Scylla and Charybdis in sea monsters’ traditions ................................... 167 5–3: Clash of the Gods – Greek myth and edutainment ................................. 172 5–4: Destination Truth –– the mystery of Scylla’s relative ............................ 177 5–5: Monster-hunters and documentary films: myths and science ................. 181 5–6: Scylla and the Aghia Napa monster: antiquity, media, and legends ....... 187 5–7: Cryptozoology – ancient myths and hidden animals ............................... 191 5–8: The “actual” Scylla and Charybdis: positivist myth-reading ................... 196 10 Chapter 6: Mapping the Odyssey: 6–1: Myth as origins: Homer’s places and the writing of history ................... 200 6–2: Homeric geographies: the Strait between history and poetry .................. 202 6–3: Le périple d’Ulysse: Jean Cuisenier’s Mediterranean journey ................ 209 6–4: Homer in the Baltic: Felice Vinci’s Scandinavian Odyssey .................... 214 6–5: Myths of myths: traditions of claiming Homer ........................................ 218 6–6: Writing history: hard data, evidence, and the pursuit of the truth ............ 222 6–7: Denizens of the Odyssey: appropriating Homer in the Strait ................... 225 Conclusions C–1: Ancient Greek myth in historical perspective ......................................... 235 C–2: Cultural transmission and intervening histories ...................................... 239 C–3: Deconstructing mythologies as myth-traditions ...................................... 241 C–4: Representing antiquity: the past and a shadow and projection ................ 243 C–5: From owning the classics to situating antiquity ...................................... 245 C–6: Life of the symbols .................................................................................. 247 Bibliography Primary Sources Texts and Graphic Imprints ................................................................. 253 Film and Audio-Visuals ...................................................................... 258 Board, Role-Playing, and Video Games ............................................. 259 Secondary Sources .......................................................................................... 260 Appendixes A: ‘In the Strait’ – Documentary Film Link…………………………………280 B: ‘In The Strait’– Documentary Film Script ............................................... 281 11 12 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This research has been conducted between the United Kingdom and Italy, through hardly ever calm waters, and often in dire straits. I would like to thank, first and foremost, my supervisors, Maria Wyke and Charles Stewart, for their invaluable and continued support, guidance, and inspiration throughout my research and writing