Author: ResearchGate

Abstract: »The educational potential for rape narratives is examined from a related, though distinct, perspective in the next chapter, Robin Diver’s ‘Women who punish other women: Rape and infidelity in retellings for children of the Greek myth of Io and Hera’. This chapter examines what happens when modern children’s authors – including such major figures as Enid Blyton, Terry Deary and Rick Riordan – retell for children ancient myths involving rape. Also like Ranger’s chapter, Diver’s reflects, and reflects on, changes in the scholarly landscape since 1997 with the escalating journey of classical reception studies in from the margins of classical scholarship and, more recently, with the development of classical reception in children’s and young adult culture as a field of scholarly enquiry. The chapter draws attention to what it means to use classical topics in children’s literature when the very sources – Ovid notably – that most appeal to those who retell the myths are rape-rich. A move oft en made, of removing any reference to rape, has a ‘discomforting’ feel akin to a contemporary ‘celebrity rape cover up’ (p. 50), according to Diver. Meanwhile, as Diver also sets out, recasting what happened in classical stories as a male–female friendship not only risks reiterating the modern ‘rape myth’ of male sexual entitlement but also risks shocking, or even traumatizing, readers who turn from retellings for children to ancient versions, such as Ovid, and find sexual violence such as the kind committed by Zeus against Io, as well as the persecution of Zeus’ victim by another female figure, Hera.« (Source: Deacy, Susan. »Introduction: 'Twenty Years Ago': Revisiting Rape in Antiquity.« Revisiting Rape in Antiquity: Sexualised Violence in Greek and Roman Worlds. Edited by Susan Deacy et al. London 2023: p. 8)

Contents:

	Turning rape into consent – morality concerns (p. 49)
	Ancient sources (p. 50)
	‘Just friends’ (p. 51)
	Sexual double standards and jealous wives (p. 53)
	Infidelity: A divine comedy (p. 55)
	Conclusion (p. 59)
	Notes (p. 60)
	Bibliography (p. 62)
		Sources (p. 62)
		Works cited (p. 62)

Wikipedia: Ancient history: Ancient Greece | Literature: English literature / Terry Deary, Rick Riordan | Literature: Fiction about rape / Percy Jackson's Greek Gods | Myth: Greek mythology / Hera, Io (mythology), Zeus | Sex and the law: Rape / Rape in Greek mythology