Graeco-Roman Horror and its Modern Reception

Unleashing Classical Dread

Molina Zorrilla, Isidro (ed.)
Rodrigues, Nuno Simões (ed.)
Balaskas, Vasileios (ed.)

This volume introduces a fresh exploration of Classical literature, examining its engagement with personal or collective tragedy, horrific events, and fear-inflicting episodes. It explores the different ways fear, terror, and horror have been manifested in Graeco-Roman culture and their reception.
While previous studies often examine physiological and psychological reactions to horror, fear and dread in classical literature and its reception (in fiction and the performing arts) separately, this volume connects these concepts into a broader, unified framework, exploring their presence in both classical antiquity and modern fiction. The individual chapters introduce a new theoretical and conceptual framework for the growing field of Horror Studies as applied to the classical world, and cover its application in a broad range of ancient interpretations and modern media, from Greek tragedy, Roman drama and poetry, myth and Etrurian daemons, to modern Spanish theatrical receptions, animation, Lovecraft and The Haunting of Bly Manor. It examines themes such as body horror, haunted spaces, and suspense in the Graeco-Roman tradition and its modern reinterpretation, expanding the scope of traditional scholarship and providing fresh insight into the genre in classical literature and culture.