The ancient cultural references par excellence, which led to the birth and development of Modern Mythology, i.e. to the creation of the incredible world of Superheroes of our times, are undoubtedly the epics, legends and myths, i.e. the stories of the ancient Greek and Roman heroes and gods that are the basis of the entire Western culture, handed down in oral and written forms over the last three millennia.
These are the roots from which Superheroes originate, the semi-divine offspring of a millenary tradition that has evolved from oral tales into comic strips, transmitting values that are still current, in a light and popular form.
Since the 1930s, the countless characters that populate the astonishing stories of the protagonists of ancient myths have been taken as a primary source of inspiration, studied and disassembled and reassembled by 20th-century authors to give life to a new modern shrine of strength and virtue.
The divinities of ancient Olympus that ruled the Sky, the Earth and the Sea, are reborn today into men and women of extraordinary powers used for the good of mankind. The religion of the ancients becomes mythology for us, the gods and heroes mingle with men, and each story evolves over time changing guise, appearance, names, adventures, but keeping the basic heroic spirit intact: enacting what we call here a ‘mythological metamorphosis’.
This section deals with the modern transposition of the ancient gods in comics, demonstrating the persistence of the identifying iconographic schemes that precisely outline the forms, attitudes and symbolism of each individual Greco-Roman entity.