Autism and Classical Myth: Why I'm currently investigating Hercules in children's literature

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, 17 August 2020

Why I'm currently investigating Hercules in children's literature

Over the past few weeks, I have been doing some hands-on investigating how classics is presented for children, and to a degree how children themselves engage actively with classical topics and figures. I have been writing entries for the Our Mythical Childhood survey – on various topics including the exhibition I wrote about on this blog a few months’ ago on the Labours of Hercules in Leeds.

Because the exhibition showed how Hercules can keep seeming relevant, I have decided to think more about how Hercules has been treated in works for children. One possible benefit of gauging uses of Hercules will be to establish the kind of image of Hercules that are available for children.

I shall look at how these uses bear on my own uses of Hercules – in the activities I am creating involving this figure. One thing that I’ve noted, for example, is that classical myths, when told for children, can present stereotypical images of issues like gender. The retellings often play down certain themes and topics which the author thinks are not suitable for children. As a result, some of the features that are apparent in ancient tellings are erased.

I’m not saying that they shouldn’t be erased – but the selectively does create a sense of myths that are supposedly timeless in their appeal when, in fact, to be suitable for children, successive retellers have make their own interventions.

There is a tension here between the stories about Hercules and other figures being ever changing, depending on a particular teller and audience and the sense that there exists some “thing” that is “classical myth,” “the myth of Hercules” and so forth.

I started a list of books on an about Hercules back in February 2018 – while our survey was just getting going. Currently we’re up to 1032 entries of which a good number concern Hercules. I just typed “Hercules” into the search engine and 223 entries came up. Some of these were written after I compiled the 2018 list, and all have come out in the period since the Mythical Childhood project began in 2016.

Right now, Hercules matters, and I’ll try to highlight some of the reasons why – with a view to which of the books might complement the autism activities.

P.J. Hoover, author
of Camp Hercules

More to follow, but as a taster here are some of the books I plan to look at:

John Bankston. Hercules. Hockessin: Mitchell Lane Publishers, 2016, 48 pp. (ages 8-11) http://www.omc.obta.al.uw.edu.pl/myth-survey/item/539

Gerald Vinestock, Crib and the Labours of Hercules, Bobaloo Books, UK, 2017, 178 pp. (ages 9-14) http://www.omc.obta.al.uw.edu.pl/myth-survey/item/827

P. J. Hoover, Camp Hercules Volume I: The Curse of Hera, Austin, Texas: Roots in Myth, 2018, 300 pp. (ages 8-12) http://www.omc.obta.al.uw.edu.pl/myth-survey/item/956

Steve Barlow and Steve Skidmore, EDGE: I HERO: Legends: Hercules, London: Franklin Watts (an imprint of Hachette Children’s Group), 2018, 64 pp. (ages 7-plus) http://www.omc.obta.al.uw.edu.pl/myth-survey/item/662

More soon…