M. R. Wright, A Dictionary of Classical Mythology

Introductory Note by Menelaos Christopoulos, Professor of Ancient Greek Literature & Founder of the Center for the Study of Myth and Religion in Greek & Roman Antiquity

When my colleagues and I created the Center for the Study of Myth and Religion in Greek and Roman Antiquity in the Department of Philology of the University of Patras, as early -or as late- as 2004, our intentions were, amongst other things, to promote scientific research on myth and religion in Greek and Roman antiquity through basic research, doctoral dissertations, conferences, lectures, data bases on specific subjects, printed and electronic publications or/and any means susceptible to serve these priorities. Providing a solid electronic database on mythical figures and themes appeared to us as an urgent necessity in view of supplying students and scholars working on ancient myth and religion with a complete, handy and academically reliable electronic tool. It was then to our immense pleasure that we received an unexpected and generous offer by Professor M. R. Wright conveyed to us through our colleague, Ass. Professor Efimia D. Karakantza, an old postgraduate student of Professor Wright; in her urge to support the Center’s activities, Professor M. R. Wright put to our Center’s disposal a fully compiled, wisely structured and elegantly written Dictionary of Classical Mythology on which she had spent years of work. This is actually the Dictionary of Classical Mythology by M. R. Wright, which all visitors of our Center’s site can ever since consult. The general concept, the way of consulting the Dictionary’s articles, and the method used for a complete survey of mythological figures and themes are clearly presented in the Preface the author herself has composed. We took the initiative, in agreement with Professor M. R. Wright, to complete and revise some articles that eventually needed slight modifications and, also, to adapt her text to the expedience of an electronic, online publication of our site. Our Center was, is and will always be extremely grateful to Professor M. R. Wright for her kind gesture and we trust that her valuable work will keep finding, through our Center’s activities, the deep and learned attention it deserves.

This Dictionary of Classical Mythology marks a fresh start in the complex task of mapping, cataloguing and reporting on the body of material that guides the contemporary reader through the mythology of Ancient Greece and Early Rome. Different versions of the narratives and genealogies in this material are endemic to the study of the subject, since variations were preserved in the tradition of oral culture, and then adapted to the interests of family and city propaganda, the literary contexts of drama and poetry, the evolution of ritual and the expansion of knowledge of the physical and human aspects of the inhabited world. Yet, despite the variations, common themes of quests, vengeance and homecoming and patterns of character such as ‘first woman’, ‘youngest son’, ‘cruel stepmother’ and ‘shape-shifter’ persist through legend, folk-tale and saga, and have their most articulate expression in the myths (the μύθοι and ‘fabulae’) of Greek and Roman literature and art. And not only do we have the narratives preserved but also the ancient attempts to probe and interpret them through allegory, personification and euhemerism (an ancient form of reductionism), laced often with a healthy scepticism. Modern analysts continue the exercise, still searching for approaches to understanding through ritual, primitive conflict, structuralism, and, most famously, through studies of individual psychology and collective dream images.

Leave a Comment