Clearly, wherever myth forms part of an educational syllabus, value judgements have been made by those who chose the texts, with regard to content, approach, usage, emphases, purpose and many other elements. [...] the present volume examines the reception of such myth within formal education in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries […]. It focuses for the most part on school education, but with forays into post-high school where relevant, and includes a wide geographical and chronological range. With regard to the latter limitations, the general emphasis is on modern day, and the current situation, but as a result of individual historical circumstances in each example (Lisa Maurice, Editor of the Volume). This is a task of paramount importance, as educational processes have a lasting influence on us – all the more so as we are exposed to them already in childhood, when the capacity for critical thinking is being formed by none other than school curricula shaped and developed in specific circumstances. This volume makes us aware of these complex processes, their implications, and the opportunities they create for the future of Classical Antiquity (Katarzyna Marciniak, Editor of the Series).

Katarzyna Marciniak, In the Circle of Chiron’s Pupils, or: A Foreword by the Series Editor 11 Notes on Contributors 17 List of Figures and Tables 25 Acknowledgements by Lisa Maurice 31 Lisa Maurice, Introduction 33 Part I: Our Mythical Education in Western Europe Ariadne Konstantinou, Modern Greek “Prehistory”: Ancient Greek Myth and Mycenaean Civilization in Modern Greek Education 49 Valentina Garulli, Our Mythical Fascism? Classical Mythology at School during the Italian Fascist Twenty-Year Period 69 Luis Unceta Gómez, A Hundred Years of Classical Mythology in Spanish Educational Systems 93 Markus Janka and Michael Stierstorfer, Metamorphoses of Mythological Education: Ovid and His Metamorphoses as Subjects of Secondary Education in Germany 123 Arlene Holmes-Henderson, Developing Multiliteracies through Classical Mythology in British Classrooms 139 Part II: Our Mythical Education in Central and Eastern Europe Hanna Paulouskaya, Learning Myths in the Soviet School 155 Elena Ermolaeva and Lev Pushel, Classical Languages, Culture, and Mythology at the Classical Gymnasium of Saint Petersburg 189 Janusz Ryba, Greek and Roman Mythology in Classical Education in Poland after 1945 209 Katarzyna Marciniak and Barbara Strycharczyk, Macte animo! – or, The Polish Experiment with “Classics Profiles” in Secondary School Education: The Warsaw Example 237 Part III: Our Antipodean Mythical Education Elizabeth Hale and Anna Foka, Myths of Classical Education in Australia: Fostering Classics through Fabrication, Visualization, and Reception 295 Babette Puetz, Odysseus Down Under: Classical Myth in New Zealand School Education 311 Part IV: Our American Mythical Education Emily Gunter and Dan Curley, “The Greatest Stories Ever Told”: US Classical Mythology Courses in the New Millennium 325 Alex McAuley, Reconciling Catholicism with the Classics: Mythology in French Canadian Catholic Education 349 Ricardo Gancz and Pablo Silva Machado Bispo dos Santos, The Contribution of Graeco-Roman Mythology to the Formation of Brazilian National Identity 377 Part V: Our Far-Flung Mythical Education: Africa, Asia, and the Middle East Divine Che Neba and Daniel A. Nkemleke, Revisioning Classical Mythology in African Dramaturgy: A Study of Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex and Ola Rotimi’s The Gods Are Not to Blame 399 Claudia C.J. Fratini, Crossing the Parallel Universe(s): An Experimental, Multicultural, and Interdisciplinary Approach to Using Mythology in the South African Classroom 419 Ayelet Peer and Marie Højlund Roesgaard, The Emperor, the Sun, and Olympus: Mythology in the Modern Japanese Education System 443 Lisa Maurice, Classical Mythology and the Israeli Educational System 465 Lisa Maurice, Afterword: Some Concluding Thoughts 485 Bibliography 493 Index of Names 553 Index of the Main Concepts and Mythological Figures 561