Joel Gordon

The Marvel Cinematic Universe ('MCU') is one of the most lucrative entertainment franchises ever, and shapes the pop-cultural imagination to no small degree. This paper examines the MCU’s receptions of divine and supernatural characters from two interrelated research foci: (1) divine ontology, and (2) multicultural representations of premodern religions and civilizations. The first topic examines how the MCU remediates godhood: what does it mean to be a god in the MCU? Where lies the distinction between gods, heroes, and superheroes? What are the socio-cultural implications of these conceptualizations? We argue that the MCU currently exhibits a variety of divine definitions and modalities. The second topic investigates how the MCU represents various premodern cultures and mythologies. It demonstrates how the MCU’s storytelling and representation of (inter)mythological communities are driven (but not entirely subsumed) by white and Western cultural concerns. In sum, this paper investigates contemporary meanings attached to premodern religion and mythology by one of the largest entertainment franchises, illuminating not only how these meanings stand in dialogue with evidence but also what they reveal about contemporary society and how present-day creators look towards world mythologies.

This article redefines the dualism of nekuomanteia’s real and imagined topographies via a novel analysis of the tertium quid that is "natural deathscapes." This framework is applied to the case study of the nekuomanteion at Tainaron. Comparison between the literary descriptions and the archaeological record reveals numerous anomalies within this landscape’s presentation, including an imaginary grove, spring, and impossible localizations. While traditional analyses explain away such matters as the result of poetic license or tradition, this approach cannot account for all identifiable inconsistencies. Thus, the site’s identification as a natural deathscape, a place associated with death / the dead and imbued with multifaceted sociocultural meanings, serves as a tertium quid that coalesces the site’s real and imagined topographies into a holistic landscape. Within this paradigm of spatial syncretism, particular attention is paid to the interaction of sociocultural functions inherent within the processes of landscape creation and eschatological reflection.

This paper considers the narrative significance of localization in Homer’s Odyssey, in particular singular places that are associated with multiple spaces (identified here as dual localization). Our reading posits that spatial features hold narrative significance and, once uncovered, this resolves ‘problematic’ issues that may arise from spatial paradoxes. The chosen case study is the Odyssean land of the Ethiopians with its twin dual localization: (1) it is located simultaneously at the eastern and western peripheries of the world while also located singularly ‘with Poseidon’; and (2) this peripheral localization contrasts with a later ‘real world’ setting in Egypt/North Africa. While this people’s localization has been the subject of prior study, this paper presents a novel analysis: these localizations serve a characterizing function which, in turn, relates to the thematic function of Menelaus’ embedded narrative as foreshadowing the primary narrative of Odysseus’ nostos.

This paper argues for a novel conception of Iliadic Tartarus as a fluid liminal space which includes a superterranean context alongside its (traditionally realised) subterranean localisation. A close reading of Iliad 8.477-81 reveals traces of superterranean imagery which, alongside the traditional subterranean reading of 8.13-6 and 14.198-311, allows for the identification of a fluid, dual-model of Tartarean space within the background of the poem. Further, grounded in recent developments regarding dual localisation within Homeric narrative, this paper explores how localisation can reflect narrative and/or thematic concerns, rather than exclusively denoting spatial-physical realities. Thus, the use of geographical imagery within the three Tartarean passages is examined for its narrative/thematic significance, considering themes such as the hierarchy of the gods and narrative developments such as the relocation of Zeus' positioning within the larger cosmos. The identification of such nuances, in turn, provides a precedent for retaining 'conflicting' or fluid geographical space(s) within the narrative despite the 'contradictions' that they embody.

What does it mean to be a god? What is immortality? When compared with the ancient Greeks, modern popular culture offers a different perspective on these matters. In particular, violent deicide has recently emerged as a narrative possibility for interacting with ancient Greek myth. Here, I offer an examination and analysis of the earliest and most prominent examples of this trend within modern popular culture. In doing so, I question how deicide has become a narrative option, given the source materials' aversion to such a phenomenon. My analysis focuses upon two themes: the paradigm-shift within visual media regarding the identification and definition of the divine and the re-mythologizing of the gods which coincided with the creation of the superhero.