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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