Raphael Falco, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Because Dylan draws from songs from the past, he has been accused of plagiarism. But this view has been colored by a distorted understanding of the creative process.
Just in time for this year’s Nobel Prize announcements, here’s how the symbolism of a plant associated with the god Apollo lives on in modern-day laureates.
Epic poetry tends to be seen as highbrow, while action films are regarded as puerile and brutish. But the two share an affinity for dressing up brutal deaths with rhetorical flair.
More famous men are wearing dresses, harking back to ancient times, when androgynous clothing was the norm. But for male dresses to truly take off they might need a style separate to women’s.
There are many nods to Mesopotamian myth in Marvel’s Eternals. The character of Gilgamesh is the first ancient Near Eastern hero with a leading role in a Marvel film.
The Trojan Women is a genocide narrative. In this play, the great Athenian dramatist Euripides explores the enslavement of women, human sacrifice, rape and infanticide.
Ancient Athenians and Romans also let shared mass tragedies propel justifications for going to war – even when it wasn’t clear what that violence would solve.