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Gods and Magic in Megan Whalen Turner's The Thief

Accepted version
Peer-reviewed

Type

Article

Change log

Authors

Foster, FJ 

Abstract

Megan Whalen Turner’s series The Queen’s Thief (1996-2020) centres on the political intrigues in a group of countries which are at once very like — but also very unlike — a bronze age and archaic Greece threatened by a powerful Persian Empire. The first book in the series, The Thief (1996), begins as a political adventure haunted by stories of the gods. When those gods directly influence the action, the narrative changes from present political intrigue to a fantasy from the distant past. The mythology in The Thief reflects, imitates and distorts archaic Greek creation myths — stories about how the earth and sky were formed, the divine pantheon and heroes. I examine the presentation of this divine pantheon against the narratives about the gods in Hesiod, the Homeric hymns and Homer’s epics. I evaluate how the supernatural element interacts with the largely political narrative of The Thief. In so doing, I explore how the text blends a ‘classical’ supernatural with a world that is both like — and very unlike — bronze age and archaic Greece.

Description

Keywords

Journal Title

thersites Journal for Transcultural Presences & Diachronic Identities from Antiquity to Date

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

2364-7612

Volume Title

Publisher

Center für Digitale Systeme (CeDiS) der Freien Universität Berlin

Version History

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2024-07-03 13:46:57
Published version added
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2023-03-29 23:31:23
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