Autism and Classical Myth: Hercules, autism and classical myth: a meeting over time

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.

Monday, 15 April 2019

Hercules, autism and classical myth: a meeting over time

Prof Katarzyna Marciniak has a new book out on ancient Greek and Roman myth - and it includes a section that mentions my autism and myth resources. I'm including the text here - it's in Polish, and I think that the title might be translated as Greek and Roman Mythology: Meetings over Time.

It comes with a photo that captured a key moment in the development of my project - and a meeting at an apt time (apologies for the pun...).

This was in May 2017. The picture shows me engaged in enthusiastic conversation in with Dr Edoardo Pecchini over our shared interest in Hercules and autism. We had earlier that day both presented papers on Hercules and autism at the conference Our Mythical Hope: Edoardo as a psychiatrist who uses classical myth with his patients to promote their mental health, and myself as a classicist aiming to work with practitioners.

Our papers were given in the Ballroom of the Tyszkiewicz-Potocki Palace at the University of Warsaw. The conversation that got snapped here was on the staircase of the Palace, beneath 'Hercules.'

I look forward to seeing Edoardo again next month, in May 2019, to discuss our ongoing projects and the potential for collaboration.