Fairy Tales: Their Ancient Origins
Did you know that the story of “Cinderella” can be traced back to ancient Greece of 2,500 years ago? How about “Beauty and the Beast,” based on the 2,000-year-old Roman story of “Cupid and Psyche”? These are just two examples of the many fairy tales that have their origins in the ancient world. This talk explores the nature of fairy tales in antiquity and their influence on later tales. We will explore ancient Egyptian stories, a medieval “Little Red Riding Hood,” and variants in the collections of the Brothers Grimm, Charles Perrault, and others.
Image: William-Adolphe Bouguereau, 'The Abduction of Psyche' (1895).
Bio
Debbie Felton is Professor of Classics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where she teaches ancient Greek and Latin as well as various courses in translation, such as “Fairy Tales in the Ancient World,” “Magic in the Ancient Mediterranean,” and “Monsters of Classical Myths—and Their Meanings.” She specializes in folklore in classical literature and has published on various folklore-related topics including ghosts and witches. She is the author of Ghost Stories from Classical Antiquity (1999) and Serial Killers in Classical Myth and History (2021). She has also edited several volumes, including A Cultural History of Fairy Tales in Antiquity (2021) and The Oxford Handbook of Monsters in Classical Myth (2024).
Curated & Hosted by
Marguerite Johnson is a cultural historian of the ancient Mediterranean, specialising in sexuality and gender, particularly in the poetry of Sappho, Catullus, and Ovid, as well as magical traditions in Greece, Rome, and the Near East. She also researches Classical Reception Studies, with a regular focus on Australia. In addition to ancient world studies, Marguerite is interested in sexual histories in modernity as well as magic in the west more broadly, especially the practices and art of Australian witch, Rosaleen Norton. She is Honorary Professor of Classics and Ancient History at The University of Queensland, and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. She lives in Mytilene.
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