Autism and Classical Myth: Why I'm revisiting Arkadia this autumn

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, 24 October 2022

Why I'm revisiting Arkadia this autumn - where Hope feeds a dream

The Our Mythical Childhood project’s funding period came to end last month on September 30^th 2022 – but we have not stopped. Indeed, it’s as though we are more at the start of various endeavours. And, this autumn, and as a curious year moves to a close, I am planning to return to blogging after a gap that, unplanned, has run to several months.

In this time, I had not forgotten the blog. Indeed, I drafted quite a few postings including to report on activities I have been involved in. But I have been tied up with producing end products, including one directly relevant to this blog’s topic as it is my book of lessons for autistic children based on myths of Hercules.

The book is due out soon – in the coming months. And as I await its appearance out of production, I am going to share my progress with issues relating to autism and mythology via this blog.

Stone Arch, c. 1784, designed by Szymon Bogumił Zug for
Helena Radziwiłł's Arkadia. The Arch frames Zug's 1783 Temple of Diana. Photo by Jolanta Dyr, Wikimedia Commons, Accessed 24 Oct. 2022

I am also going to share my progress so far with a chapter I am now writing for the book Our Mythical Nature. This is a chapter which, in the spirit of the Our Mythical Childhood project’s focus on the past – to inform the present and beyond – looks back to earlier endeavours and experiences while sharing details of recent events geared to lead to future paths.

Under the aegis of ‘Arkadia Revisited’ – the reasons for this title will become clear – I am planning to blog regularly.

So, as I often say ‘watch this space’ – but this time, hopefully (Hope will be a feature too), the watching shouldn’t need to happen for too long…