When did Herakles live?

With this posting, I move a little closer to setting out the topic for my second set of autism and classical myth resources for the Our Mythical Childhood project. I also move a little closer to writing my abstract for the upcoming Our Mythical History conference in May of this year.

I said in the last posting that it's comments from children that have given rise to the topic for the second set of activities. These are the children from a local primary school's autism until who were taking part last autumn in a preliminary pilot study of the first set of resources. Now I shall finally share what it was that was said. When the class’s teacher introduced Hercules, what the children wanted to know included ‘when did he live?’ and ‘what historical period he was from?’ The second set of activities offers an answer to these questions. They were also very interested in his club - and I'm considering how to make more of this attribute in future activities.

As a mythological figure, Herakles is from no historical period. As a mythological figure, Herakles was reimagined at various points in history. Indeed, this mythological figure has a richer history in this regard than any other mythological personage. This is something that Emma Stafford was so struck by in writing the ‘Afterwards’ section for her book on Herakles in the Gods and Heroes of the Ancient World series that her work for this section grew into an ambitious project which includes a series of conferences, books and an oratorio. And, as Alastair Blanshard has shown, each age can have its own Herakles/Hercules.

I am going to focus for the second set of activities on a time when Herakles was especially significant at a particular point in history. I shall do this as a route into introducing ancient Greek history. On the one hand, Herakles makes sense against a backdrop of this particular period. On the other hand, the particular historical period can be introduced via a study of one of the figures who was reimagined at this time.

One way to introduce ancient history is through its gods, heroes and myths. With Herakles as a starting point, I aim to introduce an eventful time in ancient Greece – one where culture, society and politics were changing – and where myths were transformed in light of these various changes. This was the sixth century BCE – a time of ferment, change and revolution. Specifically, the time in question is the 560s and 550s, when Peisistratos came to dominance in one city, Athens. This dominance was expressed through various mythological figures, not least Herakles.

In a few days’ time (today is Tuesday – I’ll be doing this on Friday), I have a few hours to spend in the British Museum. I shall be spending this time looking at vases in several galleries to gather together some images of Herakles, of Athena and of chariots. It is this material that, as I plan to show, is especially pertinent to the historical events that will be the focus of the activities.

What do children see when they encounter classical myth?

As I have set out in the previous two postings to this blog, I am currently beginning to plan my second set of activities for autistic children, which, as I have said, will be concerned with interplays between between myth and history. The current posting reflects on an issue that I am taking note of as I prepare these resources, namely how far I am writing not so much for ‘real’ autistic children as for my own sense of what an autistic child might be.

A little over a year ago, I wrote a piece for Liz Hale’s Antipodean Odyssey blog setting out my ‘Saturnalian surprise’ of 2017. The surprise in question was my contribution to a set that Liz was collecting from the Our Mythical Childhood team. What I shared was this: despite the best efforts of adults in packaging classical myth in the best possible way for children, the children in question might not respond in the way that the adult expects them to.

One issue here might be a point made by Sheila Murnaghan in an article that I quoted from in the posting, namely that, as it is adults who write children’s literature, their work “inevitably answers to adult agendas and addresses not so much real children as adults’ constructions of children”.[1] Re-reading this quotation a year and a bit on, I am struck by just how well it applies to the resources I am creating for autistic children.

During the early months of 2018, I produced the first of three sets of resources for use with autistic children, based around a particular episode concerning Hercules, where the hero faces a choice between two opposing paths in life. I did this having thought a great deal about what it is like to experience the world as an autistic person. I thought about what the distinctive traits of autistic thinking and autistic experience can be. I thought about how far it might be possible, though myth, to set up a gateway between the world of an autistic person and that of a non-autistic person. I thought about how far, though classical myth, I could help autistic children deal with some of the challenges of living in a world where non-autistic experiences dominate. And I thought about how far, through classical myth, it might be possible to stimulate autistic children’s imagination.

Having done all this, I am now reflecting on how it is inevitable that, as an adult, I have been bringing my own notions of children and childhood to what I write. I am also reflecting on how far the activities I was developing were responding to adult agendas, and addressing my own construction of an autistic child.  I did, however, stress in the Saturnalia piece that it is important to take account of what children say about myth. I said: "Children learn when they encounter myth. We can learn too – from children." Since then, I have been musing on how far it is important to observe what children see when they encounter something classical.

I attended a Q&A session recently – in late November of last year – with Marcia Williams, an experienced and successful children’s author. When asked whether she runs focus groups she replied that she never does. Rather, she writes what she thinks children will find entertaining and interesting. At the other end, I have heard arguments in favour of finding out how children respond to children’s literature. For example, in a review of Katarzyna Marciniak's recent edited collection on Classics and children's literature, Nadya Willliams suggests that one approach might be interview children about how they feel about what they have read on a given topic.

In addition, I have learnt a great deal from the practitioner’s reports that Sonya Nevin has added to some of her entries for the Our Mythical Childhood survey. Here, here and here for instance Sonya discusses how the intended audiences of books for very young readers respond to the material presented for them, including in ways that the author did not intend (for each link, click the heading 'ADDENDA').

In the months after I completed the first set of resources, I began gathering feedback on them – from adults, including a group of autism specialists. I took part in a workshop in Warsaw in a café run by autistic people and some of the staff from the café took part. Again, they were adults. I also worked with Effie Kostara, a classical philologist and Education practitioner who wrote a guide for teachers who might be using the resources. I ran an activity last month with students at Roehampton where their depth of engagement with the activities led to some deeply-engaged responses including the one pictured here. But, again, the participants were adults.

I have learnt a great deal from these various activities, but what is missing from them is engagement with children. However, as well as all these activities with adults, I have also, twice now, been into a local primary school’s autism unit with Effie, firstly to meet the children and their teachers and secondly to conduct a very initial pilot study of the Choice of Hercules activities. It is in response to some of the questions asked by the students that I have come up with the topic for the second set of activities. Soon, I shall post on what the questions were and how they have shaped this new stage of the project.

Heracles Chariot Racing

As I began to disclose in my previous posting, I am currently beginning to map out the topic of my second set of activities for autistic children. As I said, these will include a chariot-riding Herakles. 

In the past 18 months or so, I have been thinking out the potential for video games as a means to engage autistic children. This is in the aftermath of a paper at a conference on teaching students with anxiety by Steve Hunt on his experiences teaching Latin to a student whose engagement with Latin was informed by video games. 

These two things, an ancient chariot-riding Herakles and video games came together recently for me: in ways that might lead somewhere in relation to the activities, or which I might only ever share here as the unexpected discovery of yet another Heraklean reception. The discovery is this: Hercules Chariot Racing, a Playstation game developed in 2007 by Neko Entertainment.

There will be one outcome at least, though: namely an entry on the game for the Our Mythical Childhood Survey by the Roehampton team to add to the growing Herakles entries (try a 'Hercules' or 'Herakles' search) and to the growing list of games included in the resource...

From Hercules to...? Introducing the topic for my second set of activities for autistic children

The reward for choosing the way of ‘Virtue’? Herakles driven, perhaps to 
Olympos, by Athena. Attic Red Figure Pelike attributed to the 
Kadmos Painter, c. 410 BCE (Munich 230). Further details here 

During 2018, and for quite a chunk of 2017 before that, this blog went rather Herculean. This was as I moved towards writing a first set of activities for autistic children based around a specific episode involving Hercules: where Hercules makes a choice between two contrasting ways of life.

During 2019, I am not going to set Hercules aside. However, while continuing to develop the Hercules activities, I shall be starting to develop a second set of activities.

I have thought long and hard over what the topic might be for these activities. Possibilities I’ve been jugging include:

•        Pandora: a female mythological figure who, like Hercules, makes a choice
•        Medusa/Perseus: a topic that would return to the idea I mooted when I began this blog coming up to a decade ago.

But, for now, I am considering a third possibility. I shall say briefly now how this has come about.

In May of this year, the next in the series of the Our Mythical Childhood conferences takes place. Its theme has been one that I’ve been concerned about. It is an excellent theme, but one that doesn’t perhaps have the immediate relevance to my autism project as our previous events have, not least 'Our Mythical Hope' in 2017.

The topic for this year will be ‘Our Mythical History’. Here, we will explore how the history of ancient Greece and Rome is represented in children’s and Young Adult culture ‘in all possible approaches’ to quote a recent email from our Principal Investigator Katarzyna Marciniak. This email message came during the Christmas break. In the time between receiving it and the return to work, I was struck that the following topic could not only be relevant to the conference theme, but also to my autism work. And, indeed it could, even, form the basis of my second set of activities.

I have until the end of February 2019 (today is the 4^th of January) to write my abstract for this conference. Over the next few weeks, I am going to build up to writing this abstract, while also working though what the activities will involve and working through what it is about them that might be relevant for autistic children.

In these activities, I am not going to be leaving myth behind. In fact, I am going to be working in the borderlands between myth and history. I shall be again focusing on an episode. It will be one that is narrated as history: as something that a historical person did and a particular point in time. But it is one that is tangled up in myth. It might be ‘a myth’ (I mean this in a various sense of the word – including myth as something fabricated and myth as a moment – more on this in the future). In any case, the ride of Peisistratos with ‘Athena’ engages with myth, to exploit it, or perhaps to represent it.

As well as not leaving myth behind, I won’t be leaving Hercules being either. The switch will be to the Greek name, Herakles, and the move will be back in time from my previous focus. The first set of activities focused on an eighteenth-century CE artwork. The second set will be concerned with a much earlier period where Herakles was, also, much-represented. This was the sixth century BCE.

Herakles and Athena in a chariot with several gods and a woman/goddess in attendance. Attic Black Figure Hydria (Dunedin E 50.108). Further details here and here

The sixth century BCE was a time when, on ancient Athenian vase paintings, such as the one depicted above, Herakles was depicted making a chariot ride, with Athena. This was a time when Athens was dominated by Peisistratos and then his sons. Peisistratos also made a chariot ride, and he also did so with someone who was taken to be Athena.

This ride might have inspired the Herakles ride. Or the ride of Peisistratos might be drawing on what Herakles was depicted as doing. It is hard to tell which – and perhaps impossible to tell which. Indeed, if we focus on which came first, we might be asking the wrong questions.

In the next posting, I shall start to address what it is about the historical episode that is relevant for my autism project.

From Hercules to CIRSIE on December 6th - notice on paper concerned with turning classical myth into a learning opportunity for autistic children

As I've reported briefly on this blog already - and a more detailed report is forthcoming! - I've recently spoken about my Herculean resources for use with autistic children to two distinct audiences.

One was a group of experts in autism, in the Adam Room at Roehampton. The other was a group of classicists at a conference at the University of Reading.

In addition, earlier this week I discussed the resources in a class with my second year Myths and Mythology students. And, above all, I went into a local primary school's autism unit last month and did some activities with students there to pilot-test the resources. I'll say more about these activities soon. The reason I'm posting now is as follows.

Next week, I shall be sharing the resources with a different audience again. I shall be giving a paper to CIRSIE: The Centre for Interdisciplinary Research on Special and Inclusive Education at Roehampton. I'm excited at the prospect of receiving their expert feedback. If you'd like to read my abstract, and find out about the date, venue etc, please click the link here.