When superman Smote Zeus: analysing violent deicide in popular culture

Abstract

What does it mean to be a god? What is immortality? When compared with the ancient Greeks, modern popular culture offers a different perspective on these matters. In particular, violent deicide has recently emerged as a narrative possibility for interacting with ancient Greek myth. Here, I offer an examination and analysis of the earliest and most prominent examples of this trend within modern popular culture. In doing so, I question how deicide has become a narrative option, given the source materials’ aversion to such a phenomenon. My analysis focuses upon two themes: the paradigm-shift within visual media regarding the identification and definition of the divine and the re-mythologizing of the gods which coincided with the creation of the superhero.

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