Terra sebv s acta mvsei sabesiensi s

Reception of the Icarus Myth in the Mass Art of the Late 

20

th

-21

st

 Century

 

 

179

modern culture, including mass culture. However, the researcher often 

updates the hero of the sacred system of ancient mythology, in which case a 

sacred symbol is reinterpreted within the profane space. This symbol can be 

used used for propaganda and ideological purposes. “Characters, 

interpreted through historical events form a system of symbols, mythology 

or ideology.”

6

 With all the interweaving forms of social consciousness, 

especially in everyday situations, the differences between mythology and 

ideology are worth noting: 

“In this case, the following distinction between mythology and ideology will 

be sufficient: mythology is a spontaneously formed symbolic universe of 

culture in any society whereas ideology is a system, constructed by 

intellectuals, of images and symbols.”

7

 

Images created within the mythological consciousness, associated 

with ideological attitudes and even acting as semantic “fillers” in classical 

mythology, are very viable in this regard; ethical ambivalence, which is quite 

typical for a modern society, in this respect completely coincides with the 

ancient approach to good and evil based on the mythological consciousness. 

All this is reflected in the development of modern antiquity-based art. 

The goal of art is to help people to escape from a one-dimensional, 

monochromatic perception of the world, to endow the perception of depth 

and colour. However, the language of art is also the language of images and 

symbols. A. Losev once remarked: 

“Our theorists ... theorise too little this vast symbolic sphere, which has its 

own history and has been becoming more and more complicated with each 

passing day.”

8

 

Further understanding and representation of these images and 

symbols requires great effort on the part of the creators as well as the 

public.

9

 In a study of the reception of ancient heritage and its representation 

in art, it is fundamentally important to understand the dialectic interaction 

of “symbol and image” on the one hand, and that of “symbol and sign” on 

the other. In terms of the “democratic turn,”

10

 when the research methods 

of classical reception studies are applied, it can be seen that modern mass 

culture receives from the hands of creative artists a more or less adequate 

representation of the events, artefacts and characters of antiquity, 

depending on the availability of sources, the depth of the creator’s 

comprehension and the creativeness of their reinterpretation. One of the 

                                                 

6

 Makarov 2001, p. 108. 

7

 Ibid. 

8

 Losev 1976, p. 320. 

9

 Hardwick 2010, p. 1-3. 

10

 Hardwick, Stray 2008, p. 5. 

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E. A. Chiglintsev 

 

180

leading experts in the field of perceptual psychology, J. Bruner, indicates that 

“concepts exist in some environment,” and that events “can be presented in 

the form of images, in the form of words or in the form of any other symbols,” 

i.e. within “three spheres: the sphere of activity, the iconic sphere and the 

symbolic one” He continues: 

“The perception of any event is selective: while constructing any model we 

include [the entire] volume of information regarding the subject. The criterion 

of selection is defined by the objectives of perception, meaning what we intend 

to do with selected information.”

11

 

Antiquity is actively used in a kind of a “war” of symbols, some of 

which simply exhaust themselves and disappear while others develop new 

content, the new dramatic tension required by the modern recipient, which 

has happened to mythical characters since the times of antiquity. Highly 

relevant to the present study are the images of the Minotaur and 

Prometheus. These are two specific historical and cultural symbols in the 

culture of the 20

th

 century which exist in opposition to each other. 

Prometheus is the defender of mankind who steals fire for the sake of 

people and is eternally punished (the image of Prometheus Bound is 

analogous to the crucified Christ) but is, in the end, the “winner.” This 

symbol represents evidence of the triumph of the human in the 20

th

 century. 

The Minotaur is fierce, swift and unpredictable, but he always dies. Artists 

of the twentieth century gave the beast a new meaning: the Minotaur 

symbolises time. Through “killing” the Minotaur, a person can realise 

illusory nature of his own greatness, knowing the closeness of time and his 

own nature to the defeated “monster.” Sometimes the Minotaur looks more 

humane, and his fate is more interesting than the exalted image of 

Prometheus.

12

 

Among the characters of modern relevance with roots in ancient 

heritage is Icarus, a character from Greek myth, whose symbolic importance 

has grown massively in both academia and the mass art of the 20

th

 century. 

His image has “always been capable of assuming new shapes and answering 

new needs; and by its constant and yet changing relevance it has helped us 

to write our own cultural history.”

13

 

In the second half of the 20

th

 century, Icarus was often the main 

subject of ballet works. The symbol of soaring Icarus is very much in tune 

with the expressiveness of that art form. Two ballet performances named 

Icarus were created by Russian-born masters: Sergei Lifar at the Paris Opera 

in 1935 (to the music of percussion instruments) and Vladimir Vasilyev at 

                                                 

11

 Bruner 1977, p. 308-309. 

12

 Yegorova 1999, p. 143-148. 

13

 Rudd 1988, p. 53. 

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