Abstract: [Dis]Playing Changing Bodies: Metamorphic Greco-Roman Myths as ‘Display’ of Form

 

[Dis]Playing Changing Bodies: Metamorphic Greco-Roman Myths as ‘Display’ of Form

Dr Tanika Koosmen
University of Newcastle, Australia.

tanika.koosmen@newcastle.edu.au

The historical narrative of displayed bodies in a variety of contexts – freak shows, museum display of human remains, even as far as drag shows – finds its philosophical origins in the traditions of Greco-Roman mythological metamorphosis. To display a body is to be aware of its physicality, its metaphorical makeup, and its human/nonhuman subjectivity. In the Greek and Latin myths of transformation, exemplified by 1^st century CE Latin poet Ovid’s Metamorphoses, the display of the human and nonhuman form pre-empts the approach validated in later display traditions. When displaying a body that traverses the line between human and nonhuman, object and subject, these categorical violations must be considered: display of the metamorphosised form in literature is the early origins of these discussions, such as the case of Daphne, the nymph who is pursued by Apollo and transformed into a laurel tree, which becomes a symbolic aspect of Apollo’s iconography – Daphne is literally displayed as a crown atop his head.

The direct recipient of the fictionalised narratives extant in Ovid’s Metamorphoses are metamorphic narratives such as that found in the Netflix adaptation of Jeff VanderMeer’s novel, Annihilation (2018). Display of bodies throughout the film turns a subjective corner that sees human forms violated into violently nonhuman patterns, and in some instances, literally displayed as almost-artistic ventures. The line between human and nonhuman is given a painful form and gives voice to a tradition of physical display of bodies that originates in antiquity.