Liceo Classico Scientifico Linguistico

1
Liceo Classico Scientifico Linguistico Gerolamo
BagattaDesenzano del GardaClasse IA Classico

• Dedicated to Gigi Febo
• Our work
• Vampires
• Werewolves
• Witches

2
A wingsbeat in the night the figure of vampire
and his ancestors in the classical world

• Definition. Theory hypothesis about the origin of
  vampire
• Vampires ancestors in the greek and latin
  literature
• Following developments
• The vampire in the modern literature
• Vampires at the movie

3
Definition. Theory hypothesis about the origin of
vampire.

• The vampire is a malicious strength that lives in
  certain hours of the night. He increases his
  energy and he is obliged to feed on blood. As a
  matter of fact as far back as the remote age
  blood has been considerated life-holder.
• Historians arent sure about vampires origin
  place and age.
• Here it is a list of probable origins of vampire
• Universal or Prehistorical
• Shamanic
• Oriental
• Ancient Europe o Midde Age
• Modern

4
Vampires anchestors in the greek
and latin literature We know that
vampire is a determinant figure from the
literature of the nineteeth century and from
Stoker. It is possible to find his features in
the greek-roman world. In the classical
literature the figure of a living dead, who wakes
up in the night to suck blood, doesnt exist.
There are many examples of living deads and
numerous mythological female beings that feed on
blood and human flesh, above all children
(Lamiae, Empusai, Striges strongly related to
Lilith). Relate some fragments of the ancient
literature that refer to supernatural beings or
beings with vampire characteristics

• Flegone Tralliano, De Mirabilibus et longaevis
  libellus
• Filostrato, Vita di Apollonio di Tiana IV,25
• Ovidio, Fasti VI, 131-168
• Petronio, Satyricon, 63
• Apuleio, Metamorfosi, I, 11,4-8,12-13, 19
• Orazio, Epodo 5

5
Following developments

• So called Protovampires ancestors and
  putative vampires father from the end of the
  ancient age to the nineteenth century.
• The myth of vampire takes place and
  consolidates in the Christian west from Middle
  Age through Renaissanse until modern age.
• Since Middle Age until Modern Age the vampire,
  as we know him, became popular in the Middle
  Europe and Balkan area. Two important and certain
  ancestors can be found in this area Vrikolakas
  and Nachzvehrer.

6
Vampire in the modern literature

• Goethe, Keats and Baudelaire dedicated poems to
  the vampire such as Bürger , Southey and
  Gautier.
• John William Polidori wrote a novel called The
  vampire.
• Goethe and keats, in a atmosfere of classical
  and neoromantic poetry, refered to the figure of
  Empusae such as handed on by greek and latin
  literature, especially by Filostrato and Flegone
  Tralliano. In Coleridge and Goethe the
  contribution from classical literature was
  contaminated with the slav tales. In Baudelaire
  the leitmotif of vampire-woman is very strong.
  The first steps towards a modern treatment of
  vampire figure is represented by the novel of
  Polidori. Nodier and Dumas wrote tragedies
  inspired by the figure of a dead that comes back.
• The most diffused figure in the modern poetry
  and literature is the vampire. The literary and
  cinematographic vampire for antonomasia is
  Dracula by Bram Stoker.

7
Vampires at the movie

• Silent movie
• Beginnings
• The Forties
• A look to the world
• English movies
• The big productions Hammer and A.I.P.
• Episodicals movies
• The Comedy
• The Seventies
• The Psychoanalytical aspect
• The Vampire
• The Nineties
• Famous vampires

8
WerewolvesVersipellis, werewolf, loup-Garou

• The werewolf between classical civilization and
  modern world.
• Definition and origin
• Classical Literature
• Germanic Literature
• The Middle Age
• Modern Literature
• Movies

9
Definition and origin of werewolf

• Definition. Differences among werewolf,
  lycanthrope and wolf-man.
• Defence against werewolf
• From Shaman to the rejected the origins of the
  myth
• Men and werewolves
• Transformations in other animals

10
Werewolf in the classical literature

• In the classical world the figure of wolf first
  has a positive valence of adoration, as one of
  the most eclectic power of animals world
  (Lupercalias party), but in the passage from
  nomad and hunter cultures to agricultural
  cultures the polarity of this relatioship
  changes. The negative valuation of ancestral
  Arcadian cultus of wolf is a clear sign with
  Ovidio and Plinio il Vecchio.
• Meanwhile, as the famous episode of Satyricon
  shows, a folk connotation of the werewolf is
  genereted. At the end of ancient age S.Agostino
  retook the question.
• Ovidio, Metamorfosi I, 209-239
• Petronio, Satyricon 61_62
• Plinio il Vecchio, Naturalis Historia, VIII
  passim
• S. Agostino, De Civitate Dei, XVIII, 17 ss.

11
The werewolf in the germanic literature

• In the germanic world, before Christianity
  Advent, the admiration for the overbearing animal
  power of the bear and wolf let us believe that
  the existence of prodigious wolf-warriors
  (ulfednar) or bear-men (berserker) that wearing
  the mortal remains of these animals, they go
  through a totem transformation, resisting to the
  sufferings, indomitable wildly strong men.
• This situation, testified by late Medieval Sagas,
  endes when the Christianity Advent brings terror
  or the ridiculous on the ancient faiths.
• Olaus Magnus, Historia de Gentibus
  Septentrionalibus
• Saga di Egil-Skalla Grimmson
• Saga dei Volsunghi

12
The werewolf in the Medieval literature

• The end of Middle Age opens a period of big
  wolf-huntings.
• Even at first the real faith in werewolf or the
  superstition that a big wolf can eat the moon is
  discouraged ( for example Bucardo di Worms or
  Rabano Mauro), in the wolfs rapresentations such
  as Roman di Renard, the wild animal is
  represented like a brutal and stupid strength
  (Ysengrin) in comparison with astuteness (
  Renart) but in the bestiaries and preaching the
  image of wolf as vorax and the hypostasis of
  malicious makes itself known. At same time the
  folk image, presented by Petronio, spread slowly.
  On the others side, in different texts of
  medieval literature ( Bisclaveret, Biclarel,
  Melion, Artù e Gorlagon), the lycanthrope appears
  like a betrayed husband whose wife finds out his
  secret, but under kings protection he
  restablishes his rights as a mild wolf.
• In many other cases the character appears as a
  victim without emphasizing his wildness and
  cruelty.

13
The werewolf in the modern literature

• The werewolf, from a literary point of view,
  isnt successful due to literary myth of vampire.
• Nevertheless, beginning from the serial Wagner
  the Wher-wolf by G.Reynolds (1546-47), a fairly
  good vampire literature comes out, in which
  writers like Dumas, Kipling, Maupassant, Merinee
  and the fantasy master Williamson are
  undertoken, moving between traditional images and
  new sugestions.
• Italian literature offers texts of variable
  suggestions the traditional approach to the
  fable (Capuana), the south folklore (Pirandello)
  and a stimulating different meditation about the
  acient myth of Licaone (Pavese).

14
The werewolf on the movie

• The vampire is aristocrat, charming and sure of
  himself but the werewolf on the movie is unhappy
  and pathetic. He wouldnt do evil but he cannot
  avoid his destiny.
• From the heroic times of Lon Chaney jr. until An
  american werewolf in London by John Landis and
  Wolf with the great Jack Nicholson the movie has
  reinvented the werewolf.
• The dead given by a silver bullet and a sign to
  primitive insticts (flesh and sexuality) have
  been introduced in the popular imaginary thanks
  to the movies.
• The myth of lycanthrope is more diffused at the
  movie than literature (in fact the figure doesnt
  have solid basis, even its very strong in the
  folklore) unlike vampire. The dualism good and
  evil, instinct and ratio, the monster victim of
  himself has genereted many interpretations. At
  the movie the lycanthrope always is delighted of
  his animality and he uses it to get material and
  sexual satisfation a metaphor about survival of
  stronger man typical of our ambiguous times,
  incertain between goodness and egoism. In some
  adaptations he isnt more solitary but he belongs
  to a proper class with a big consciousness.
  Today the lycanthrope appears the more classic
  monster for a undecided society about faiths and
  values, he is able to adapt himself to more and
  more to present metamorphosis.

15
From Circe to Blue Eyes histories of witches and
black magic from Omero to modern literatures

• Black magic in Greece and Rome between chronicle
  and literature
• Birth and development of real witchcraft The
  magic fly and the unguent..
• Images of witches in the modern literatures
• Witches in the art
• and at the movie
• Something of our

16
Black magic in Greek and Rome between chronicle
and literature

• The type of magic in the greek and roman world.
  Nice magic. Why black magic?
• Nomenclature of magic operators.
• The black practice defixiones and magic
  papyrus.
• Magic in greek and roman literature.
• __Teocrito, Idillio II
• __Apollonio Rodio, Medea IV 1635-1690
• __ Virgilio, Ecloga VIII, 64-109 Eneide IV
  450-521
• __ Orazio, Epodo 5 Satira I, 8
• __ Seneca, Tragedies
• __ Lucano, Bellum civile IV
• __ Tacito, Annales II, 69_70

17
Ancient aspects of medieval witchcraft

• Some historical cue of witchcraft such as we
  understand it
• The magic fly
• The witches unguent

18
Figures of witches in the modern literature

• Decamerone
• The Celestina
• Machbeth
• Faust
• The Master and Daisy
• The crucible

19
Witches in the artWitches at the movie

• A very small route and gallery of works relative
  to the witch subject on the cloth and on the
  movie.

20
Something of our

• Annas colours in the witches universe