Why classical myth and autism?

Why classical myth and autism?

The idea for this project started to take shape at a meeting in 2008 with a special needs teacher, who mentioned that, in her experience and those of her colleagues, autistic children often enjoy classical myth. I began to wonder why this might be the case, and whether – as a classicist who researches, and loves, classical myth – there was anything I could contribute. I started this blog to report on my progress which was often sporadic until the launch of the Warsaw-based European Research Council-funded project Our Mythical Childhood (2016-22) to trace the role of classics in children’s culture.

My key contribution to the project is an exploration of classics in autistic children’s culture, above all by producing myth-themed activities for autistic children. This blog shares my progress, often along Herculean paths, including to a book of lessons for autistic children focusing on the Choice of Hercules between two very different paths in life. The image above, illustrating the homepage of this blog, is one of the drawings by Steve K. Simons, the book's illustrator, of a chimneypiece panel in a neoclassical villa at Roehampton in South West London. The lessons centre on this panel.

Tuesday, 5 March 2019

Taking Herakles out of myth and into history: presenting my abstract for Warsaw in May 2019

I said in the previous posting that, having written that posting, I was about to write my abstract for Our Mythical History in Warsaw in May 2019. Here is the abstract, accompanied by one of the drawings by Steve Simons that I’ll present there.
 
Making sixth-century BCE Athens all about Herakles for autistic children: out of myth – into history
 
My first set of activities for use with autistic children – introduced during the 2018 Our Mythical Childhood conference – present Hercules at a crossroads between two contrasting paths in life. My paper for Our Mythical History will take Hercules out of the strange landscape where he ponders his choice, rename him Herakles, and insert him into sixth-century BCE Athens.
 
As a time of turmoil, ferment and change, the sixth century is one with particular appeal as a source for activities for autistic children. The activities, linked with Herakles-themed events in the career of the would-be tyrant Peisistratos, will build on some of the challenges of being autistic that were explored in the ‘Choice’ activities including: what to do in times of stress, and how to read what others do and say. But they will also seek to create a space where autistic children can explore their autism.
The session will include some interactive activities for anyone who would like to participate.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


 

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