Greek Myths & its influence on French Renaissance

The Alliance Francaise du Bengale, Akshara & Culture Monks, present a talk by Paroma Chatterjee, from the University of Michigan, on “Greek Myths & its influence on  French Renaissance”.

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With this talk we launch the project called  Myth, Memory and Mimesis: Revisiting Mythology of Civilizations. 

“How the Greeks viewed their myths”. A title which allows to approach the word “view”, which means an attitude towards, but also, more specifically, “to look at”, hence, how the Greeks literally looked at depictions of their myths (on vases, walls, etc.).

The ancient Greeks did not just recite and enact their myths; they also viewed them in the medium of paintings and sculptures in a range of spaces and contexts. This talk discusses the depiction of Greek myths on vases and vessels used in the symposia (drinking parties) that were essential to the social formation and identity of the Greek male elites. Exquisitely wrought in red and black forms on a variety of drinking vessels, these vivid paintings reveal the ways in which both power and playfulness informed the reception of myths in Ancient Greece.

We will also discuss the reception of Greek myths after the ancient era – their adaptations and transmissions & how the the French Renaissance was informed by the Greek myths. We find this is the theatre, certainly, with Racine and Corneille, and also in French opera. Way more than the Brits, the Italians or the Germans, it was the French who looked to the Greek classics to produce some of their national masterpieces. And certainly, the use of Greek myth in the French stage was intimately bound up with the social identity of the French aristocracy and ultimately, the monarchy.

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