692 THE SURVIVAL OF CLASSICAL MYTHOLOGY
Reunion (1939) is based on the saga of the House of Atreus. So also is the trilogy
by Eugene O'Neill, Mourning Becomes Electra (1931), where the saga is set in nine-
teenth-century New England. O'Neill's Desire under the Elms (1924) sets the myth
of Phaedra and Hippolytus in New England in 1850. Robinson Jeffers (1887-1962)
adapted Euripides' Medea in 1947 and Hippolytus, entitled The Cretan Woman, in
1954.
More recently feminist theories and interpretations (discussed on pp. 17-18)
have given new life to many classical myths, particularly those involving the
tragic heroines (e.g., Clytemnestra, Antigone, Medea, Phaedra), who stand as
universal examples of leaders, victims, destroyers, mothers, daughters, wives,
or lovers. The feminist approach has led also to a deeper understanding of Ovid's
Metamorphoses, in which young women so often are portrayed as victims.OTHER MODERN USES OF CLASSICAL MYTHOLOGY
In Europe and elsewhere, classical myths were a rich source of inspiration in
modern times. Among the most famous and complex works is Ulysses (1922),
by James Joyce (1882-1941), in which the events of Bloomsday (June 16, 1904)
are narrated in chapters that roughly correspond to episodes in the Odyssey. The
hero, as is often the case in modern adaptations of classical saga, is antiheroic;
but the transformation of the world of Odysseus into Dublin in 1904 is both
faithful to Homer and original. The work owes much to psychological discov-
eries, especially those of Freud; yet in the Circe episode (set in a Dublin brothel
with Bella as Circe), the substance of the allegory is also close both to Homer
and to Spenser (discussed earlier).
Metamorphosis itself is the theme of The Metamorphosis (Die Verwandlung,
1915), by Franz Kafka (1883-1924), in which again Freudian psychology enriches
the theme of human transformation into a "monstrous bug" (or "vermin"). While
there is no direct derivation from Ovid's Metamorphoses, the theme itself is com-
mon to Ovid and Kafka. To give one example from many, Ovid's lo (Book 1) is
alienated, like Kafka's Gregor Samsa, from her family by her metamorphosis,
and we observe her tragedy, like his, through the medium of her human mind.
In French literature, the Theban saga and the myth of Orpheus have both been
especially popular. The dramas of Jean Anouilh (1910-1987) include Eurydice
and Antigone (as well as Médée). In the first named, Orpheus is a café violinist,
Eurydice an actress, and Death a commercial traveler. Jean Cocteau (1889-1963)
wrote Orphée (1927), Antigone (1928), and La machine infernale (1934) on the Oedi-
pus theme. André Gide (1869-1951) turned to the myths of Philoctetes (1897)
and Narcissus (1899) to discuss moral questions; and his play Oedipe (1926) dis-
cusses the "the quarrel between individualism and submission to religious au-
thority." Finally, Amphitryon 38 (1929), by Jean Giraudoux (1882-1944), owes its
serial number, according to the author, to the thirty-seven previous dramatiza-
tions of the myth that he had identified. Giraudoux also wrote a one-act play,