Doorways to Mount Olympus Rewriting Greek Mythology in contemporary Hungarian YA fantasy

Abstract

In a recent paper written about actual trends in English-speaking YA mythological fantasy A. S. Brown (2017) underlines the increasing marginalization of Greek and Roman stories as a new phenomenon. According to her, Classical Antiquity as narrative setting seems to loose importance and imaginative force which can be explained by psychological and cultural reasons. Because of their overwhelming cruelty, egoism and irresponsibility the Olympian gods seem to incarnate the parental authority which is heavily refused by young readers. On the other hand, Greek myths are considered boring due to their dominant role in traditional European education. The recent paper reexamines the statements of Brown by a twofold approach. Firstly, in a historical overview I would shed a light on some particularity of Greek literary tradition, especially on Hellenistic representation of (divine) childhood which can be regarded as a model for modern storytelling about the adventures of young people in a mythical world. Secondly, I would explore the narrative possibilities and the inspirational force of Classical Antiquity by a close reading analysis of two recent Hungarian YA trilogies, The warriors of future by G. Bessenyei and Gryphon Riders by E. Szakács.