- 413-545-0512
Debbie Felton
University of Massachusetts Amherst, Classics, Faculty Member
- Folklore (Literature), Classics, Greek Literature, Monster Theory, Mythology And Folklore, Deformities, and 20 moreLatin Literature, Monstrosity, Monster Pedagogy, Folklore, Folk Religion, Monsters and Monster Theory, Folk Psychology, Lamia, Ancient economy, Lucian, Apuleius, Homer, Vergil, Herodotus, Witches, witchcraft and witch craze, Haunting and Spectrality, Ghosts, Monsters, Ghosts, Haunting, Greek Myth, and Serial killersedit
Presents forty original essays by the top experts in monsters of classical myth, offering a comprehensive and highly accessible introduction to monsters of the ancient world. • Adopts a broad view of the subject covering a variety of... more
Presents forty original essays by the top experts in monsters of classical myth, offering a comprehensive and highly accessible introduction to monsters of the ancient world. • Adopts a broad view of the subject covering a variety of cultures and territories, including ancient Persia, the Caribbean, northern Europe, and South America. • Includes chapters on well-known monsters like the Cyclops, the Sphinx, and the Minotaur, as well as less familar mythical creatures.
Research Interests: Cognitive Psychology, Folklore, Mythology, Feminist Theory, Disability Studies, and 15 moreItalian Renaissance Art, Freud and Feminist Psychoanalysis, Medieval Art, Latin American myth, Ancient Greek Mythology, Sirens, Sirènes, Sirenas, Griffin and sphinx iconography in Antiquity, Minotaur, Egyptian Mythology, Monsters and the Monstrous, Slash Fanfiction, Persian Mythology, Cryptids, Ancient greek temples, and Roko's Basilisk
Research Interests: Alexander the Great, Book of Job, Ancient Egyptian Literature, Aesop, Folk and Fairy Tales, and 15 moreFairy-tale studies, Swan Maiden, Ancient fables, Potiphar's Wife, Fables, Cinderella, Babrius, Folk & Fairy Tale Studies, Verae Historiae, Fables In Ancient World, Cupid and Psyche, The Tale of Cupid and Psyche, History of the Aesopic Fable, Folklore and Indian literature, and Apsaras
Research Interests: Emperor Nero, Ancient Greek Law, Serial killers, Hercules, Ancient Greek Mythology, and 14 morePoisoning, Theseus, Ancient Greece and Rome, Witches, Lamia, Criminal Profiling of Serial Killers, Heracles, Zodiac Killer, Agrippina Minor, Emperor Caligula, Motives for Serial Killers, Athenian Homicide Law, Serial Killers MO, and Procrustes
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Research Interests: Folklore, Ghosts, Cultural History Of Ghosts, Cicero, Classical Reception Studies, and 14 moreAncient Greece, Lucian, Plautus, Pliny the Younger, Ancient Rome, Classical Tradition and Reception, Supernatural Folklore, Ghost stories, Early Modern Ghosts, Philopseudes, Victorian Ghost Stories, Reception of Classical Antiquiry, Haunted houses, and Law of disclosure
Discusses the haunted house story in the "Mostellaria."
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in considering how power manifests in ancient folktales, let us first consider what we mean by "power." in one respect, power can refer to the ability to do something; many animals and inanimate objects in ancient tales, for example, have... more
in considering how power manifests in ancient folktales, let us first consider what we mean by "power." in one respect, power can refer to the ability to do something; many animals and inanimate objects in ancient tales, for example, have the power of speech. in its larger sense, of course, power refers to the ability of one person or group to influence or direct the behavior and lives of others, and perhaps even to influence the course of events of entire cities and countries. This chapter focuses on the latter aspect, examining power relationships in tales from antiquity. What kind of power could people attain and how did they attain it? What did they use power for-to benefit their communities, or to benefit primarily themselves? And to what extent might the representations of power in these tales reflect real-life societal attitudes toward power, including its uses and abuses? Tales from the ancient Eastern and Mediterranean regions reflect various concerns with the appropriate and inappropriate use of power. The Greeks, as they tried to develop a working democracy, told many cautionary tales depicting the negative effects of absolute power. The Romans, too, despite a rather more authoritarian political structure, incorporated tales about the use and abuse of power into various literary genres. in literature down the centuries, abuse of power is repeatedly vilified and often punished in folktales reflecting real-life concerns about oppression and individual freedoms. Only occasionally is power used wisely and wielded with beneficence.
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Many of the most recognizable monsters in Western culture, such as Medusa, Cerberus, and the Cyclopes, started to appear in literature and art nearly three thousand years ago. Other, more generic types of monstrous or uncanny entities,... more
Many of the most recognizable monsters in Western culture, such as Medusa, Cerberus, and the Cyclopes, started to appear in literature and art nearly three thousand years ago. Other, more generic types of monstrous or uncanny entities, such as dragons and ghosts, are even older and appear in art and literature across the globe. This chapter covers such creatures in the earliest folk and fairy tales of the ancient Near East and Mediterranean areas, keeping in mind that much of our information comes from tales, or, in most cases, prototypes for tales, embedded within the larger context of Near Eastern and Greek myths. The chapter first considers what the concept of "monster" might have meant for people in those geographical regions thousands of years ago. The chapter then examines what tales from antiquity survive that incorporated monsters, what kinds of monster predominate in these tales, and what the presence and roles of monsters in the tales might have meant.
Research Interests: Egyptian Folklore, Aesop, Folk and Fairy Tales, Circe, Werewolves, and 15 moreMonsters, Ghosts, Haunting, Female monsters in Ancient Greece, Lamia, Ghost stories, Monsters and the Monstrous, Dragon Slayer, Chimera, Jonah, Monsters Mythical Creatures, Hansel & Gretel, Cerberus, Verae Historiae, Culture and Monsters, Fairytales in Ancient Greece, and Polyphemus the Cyclops
In Monster Anthropology: Ethnographic Explorations of Transforming Social Worlds through Monsters, edited by Yasmine Musharbash and Geir Henning Presterudstuen. Forthcoming from Bloomsbury:... more
In Monster Anthropology: Ethnographic Explorations of Transforming Social Worlds through Monsters, edited by Yasmine Musharbash and Geir Henning Presterudstuen. Forthcoming from Bloomsbury: https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/monster-anthropology-9781350096257/. Discusses the cultural significance of stories about monsters lurking on roadways.
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Chapter 16 in _The Oxford Handbook to Heracles_, edited by Daniel Ogden. Discusses Heracles' encounters with various highway robbers and homicidal monarchs, as told in the myths about his "parerga" (side adventures"), apart from his... more
Chapter 16 in _The Oxford Handbook to Heracles_, edited by Daniel Ogden. Discusses Heracles' encounters with various highway robbers and homicidal monarchs, as told in the myths about his "parerga" (side adventures"), apart from his Twelve Labors.
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How should the Fermi paradox affect an estimate of humankind's likelihood and best means of long-term survival? A significant probability that many other civilizations have been in our situation but failed to become spacefaring increases... more
How should the Fermi paradox affect an estimate of humankind's likelihood and best means of long-term survival? A significant probability that many other civilizations have been in our situation but failed to become spacefaring increases the probability that our optimal existential risk strategies are costly, likely to fail, likely to leave traces if they do fail, and might require talents that mankind has but that other scientifically advanced species lack. The Fermi paradox implies that we should seek scientific data based on astronomical observations not accessible to civilizations that lived in the distant past, and that we should create machines to flood our galaxy with radio signals conditional on our civilization's collapse. Our ability to use Bayesian updating on the Fermi paradox reduces the chance that aliens exist but are hiding from us because of their desire to not interfere in our development: giving us a false understanding of the fate of intelligent life in the universe would cloud our understanding of existential risks. The paradox also provides clues as to types of trap that might destroy us. The possibility that our universe is fine-tuned not only for life but also for the Fermi paradox magnifies these results.
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In A Cultural History of Death: Antiquity, ed. Mario Erasmo (Bloomsbury, 2024).
Research Interests: Death, Early Christianity, Ghosts, Eschatology and Apocalypticism, Etruscan, and 15 moreEarly Islam, Ancient Greek Religion, Ancient Greek Philosophy, Mithraism, Ancient Judaism, Afterlife, Orphism, Death and the afterlife, Hades, Underworld mythology, Ancient Roman Religion, Undead, Curse Tablets, Katabasis, and Spiritual World
In The Ancient Emotion of Disgust, eds. Dimos Spatharas and Donald Lateiner. Oxford University Press, 189-202.
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Neil Gaiman acknowledges the extent to which Herodotus’ Histories influenced his writing of American Gods and informed the novel’s ethnographies, battle scenes, and overall worldview (Dornemann et al.). Yet no study closely examines... more
Neil Gaiman acknowledges the extent to which Herodotus’ Histories influenced his writing of American Gods and informed the novel’s ethnographies, battle scenes, and overall worldview (Dornemann et al.). Yet no study closely examines Gaiman’s use of Herodotus. This paper considers the Herodotean elements in Gaiman’s novel, focusing on the programmatic statement, “Call no man happy until he is dead” and what it really means in the context of both Herodotus and of American Gods. Has Gaiman understood and used Herodotus correctly? And does it matter whether he has?
In AG, Gaiman explicitly references Herodotus’ Histories at least half a dozen times and alludes to it dozens more. The “call no man happy” sentiment famously appears early in the novel, when Shadow, having read a copy of Herodotus loaned to him by Low Key, cites the quote during a discussion of what will make him “happy” after getting out of prison (Gaiman, 5-6). In AG, as in the Histories itself, the sentiment is programmatic, introducing a theme crucial to both novels: reversal of fortune.
In Herodotus, however, the theme applies to mortals, not to gods. The Greek ὄλβιος (olbios), routinely translated into English as “happy,” means “blessed by the gods” (Dewald; Shapiro). Swanstrom discusses Herodotus’ story of Solon and Croesus and the concept of “happy” in relation to AG (pp. 12-13), but doesn’t explain that Herodotus distinguishes between “happy” (ὄλβιος) and “fortunate/lucky” (εὐτυχής). Gaiman uses “happy” in the sense of both “emotionally fulfilled” and “fortunate,” but not “blessed by the gods.” But Gaiman’s innovation lies in his application of the theme to both mortals and gods. At Wednesday’s funeral, for example, Loki remarks, “Call no man happy, huh, kid?” (Gaiman, 399). Reversal of fortune ultimately applies to all the gods in AG by the end of the novel, and Shadow himself understands the concept more clearly by then as well, due to his own death and resurrection (Gaiman, 488).
Does it matter that Gaiman reinterprets Herodotus’—or rather, Solon’s—famous sentiment, possibly misleading his audience as to its meaning (see Dunlap and Alexander)? Gaiman also doesn’t note that the sentiment is not confined to Herodotus. At the end of Sophocles Oedipus Tyrannus the chorus sums up Oedipus’ fate—his loss of family, fortune, and country—by singing, “We must call no man happy / until he has crossed life’s border” (ll. 1528-1530). Sophocles was a contemporary of Herodotus, and in their fifth-century (B.C.E.) Greece, which saw both the Persian and Peloponnesian wars, the ephemerality of happiness and of life were foremost in the Greeks minds. Overall, Gaiman’s novel, with its epic struggle between Old and New, East and West, Nature and Culture, uses Herodotus well, even if it neglects the larger cultural context.
In AG, Gaiman explicitly references Herodotus’ Histories at least half a dozen times and alludes to it dozens more. The “call no man happy” sentiment famously appears early in the novel, when Shadow, having read a copy of Herodotus loaned to him by Low Key, cites the quote during a discussion of what will make him “happy” after getting out of prison (Gaiman, 5-6). In AG, as in the Histories itself, the sentiment is programmatic, introducing a theme crucial to both novels: reversal of fortune.
In Herodotus, however, the theme applies to mortals, not to gods. The Greek ὄλβιος (olbios), routinely translated into English as “happy,” means “blessed by the gods” (Dewald; Shapiro). Swanstrom discusses Herodotus’ story of Solon and Croesus and the concept of “happy” in relation to AG (pp. 12-13), but doesn’t explain that Herodotus distinguishes between “happy” (ὄλβιος) and “fortunate/lucky” (εὐτυχής). Gaiman uses “happy” in the sense of both “emotionally fulfilled” and “fortunate,” but not “blessed by the gods.” But Gaiman’s innovation lies in his application of the theme to both mortals and gods. At Wednesday’s funeral, for example, Loki remarks, “Call no man happy, huh, kid?” (Gaiman, 399). Reversal of fortune ultimately applies to all the gods in AG by the end of the novel, and Shadow himself understands the concept more clearly by then as well, due to his own death and resurrection (Gaiman, 488).
Does it matter that Gaiman reinterprets Herodotus’—or rather, Solon’s—famous sentiment, possibly misleading his audience as to its meaning (see Dunlap and Alexander)? Gaiman also doesn’t note that the sentiment is not confined to Herodotus. At the end of Sophocles Oedipus Tyrannus the chorus sums up Oedipus’ fate—his loss of family, fortune, and country—by singing, “We must call no man happy / until he has crossed life’s border” (ll. 1528-1530). Sophocles was a contemporary of Herodotus, and in their fifth-century (B.C.E.) Greece, which saw both the Persian and Peloponnesian wars, the ephemerality of happiness and of life were foremost in the Greeks minds. Overall, Gaiman’s novel, with its epic struggle between Old and New, East and West, Nature and Culture, uses Herodotus well, even if it neglects the larger cultural context.
Research Interests: Herodotus and Neil Gaiman
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Discusses the significance of thigh wounds from medical and literary standpoints in the works of these authors.
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Argues that Psyche's gullible reaction to her sisters' story that her husband is a giant serpent makes more sense when considered in the context of the Lamia folk-tale familiar to Apuleius's audience.
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Research Interests: Cinema, Monsters, Poltergeist, Ghost, Fly, and 6 moreHorla, Norman Bates, Bell Witch, Blob, Cerberus, and Hydra
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Argues that the language Vergil uses to describe the Harpies in Aeneid 3 is ambiguous, and that he may be not only stressing the theme of hunger but also alluding to the imagery used in ancient accounts of menstruation, playing off the... more
Argues that the language Vergil uses to describe the Harpies in Aeneid 3 is ambiguous, and that he may be not only stressing the theme of hunger but also alluding to the imagery used in ancient accounts of menstruation, playing off the ancient conception of the female body as abnormal and polluted, and thus as inherently monstrous. Looks specifically at the phrase "foedissima ventris / proluvies" (3.216-27), among others.
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Ancient Greek and Roman accounts of accelerated ageing fall into two main groups. The first group consists of mythological accounts of entire races born with grey hair, and these accounts generally obtain metaphorical or allegorical... more
Ancient Greek and Roman accounts of accelerated ageing fall into two main groups. The first group consists of mythological accounts of entire races born with grey hair, and these accounts generally obtain metaphorical or allegorical meanings about man's degenerate nature. The second group is comprised of literal accounts of real individuals who have aged astonishingly early, displaying such traits as baldness, wrinkled skin, bleary eyes, drooping ears, and muscle atrophy. The Greeks and Romans, completely unaware of any natural causes for such deformities, viewed such races and individuals as monstrous. Early Greek ethnographic accounts of grey-haired races placed them at the edges of the known world, in keeping with the ethnocentric desire to equate the monstrous with the uncivilised. Later, the Romans embraced the monstrous, deliberately seeking out such “freaks” for show and profit. Both types of account are most probably based on observations of the then unknown disease progeria. Persons suffering from progeria, a rare genetic mutation with no known treatment, display the signs of premature ageing described above.
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An introductory overview of monsters in Greek and Roman literature and culture, including discussion of what such monsters tended to represent.
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Argues that Catullus 8 may have influenced later ballads.
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Introduces Greek and Roman ghost stories to a middle- and high-school audience.
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Discusses the haunted house story in the "Mostellaria."
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Research Interests: Folklore, Talmud, Midrash, Ovid, Herodotus, and 15 moreLivy, Cambyses, Classical Tradition, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Babylonian talmud, Classical reception, Motif, Babylonian Talmud Tractata Avodah Zarah, Poppies, Periander, Rabbi Yehuda Ha Nasi, Tarquinius Superbus, Lily Flowers, Ovid Fasti, and Thrasybulus
Master's Thesis