The Mason Spirit

Cinema and Classical Texts: Apollo’s New Light

Martin Winkler, University Professor of Classics, Modern and Classical Languages

Cinema and Classical Texts: Apollo’s New Light (Cambridge University Press, February 2009) interprets films as visual texts and demonstrates the affinities between Greco-Roman literature and the cinema. The book examines major themes from classical mythology and history, such as film portrayals of gods, Oedipus, the question of heroism and patriotism in war, and the representation of women as products of male desire and fantasy. Covering a wide range of European and American directors, genres, and classical authors, this study provides an innovative perspective on the disciplines of classics and cinema, and demonstrates the medium’s unlimited range when it adapts ancient texts.