BA, Kent State University, 2019, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of English

Freshman college student Marty Gallagher believes there's something paranormal in the town of Rosenberg, and he intends to find it. However, Marty's discovery of the paranormal creates more questions than it answers, chiefly, why is Rosenberg so strange? Gradually, six other students at Rosenberg State University find themselves involved in Marty's quest: flirtatious, brilliant Adonis Montgomery, who believes in strange gods; sporty, sociable Nora Park, who is adamant that magic does not exist; her twin brother Nathaniel Park, in love with Adonis; Sebastiana “Bash” Bordignon, storyteller; Ronan Kendrick, who is delighted by anything strange; and small-town farmboy Scott Hayward, who doesn't actually care if magic is real or not. Scott – Smallville to his new friends – only wants to recover from the anxiety and depression that made him drop out of college the first time around, something with which his friends and his dog seem to be helping. Marty's strange quest frames Bash's short stories, too, of which there are three, each exploring a different genre and literary concept: (1) adventure novels, in the style of Indiana Jones, with influence from Arabic and Persian mythology; (2) Egyptian mythology combined with tragedy; and (3) a darker superhero story with hints of detective noir. The different genres Bash explores highlight the central problem Marty is facing in understanding Rosenberg: is Marty dealing with aliens or gods, time travelers or the supernatural?

Committee: Matthew Shank (Advisor); Stephanie Siciarz (Committee Member); Elizabeth Howard (Committee Member); Michael Sanders (Committee Member) Subjects: Literature

BA, Kent State University, 2017, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of Modern and Classical Language Studies

Love is a Cunning Weaver: Myths, Sexuality, and the Modern World explores the relationship between the modern and ancient worlds by analyzing the depiction of queer and female characters in Greco-Roman mythology. That relationship is illuminated and defined by the modern individual's tendency to apply contemporaneous narratives to myths of the ancient world in order to understand them. The aforementioned queer and female characters are introduced in their original contexts based on the most popular written traditions of the myths in which they appear. They are then broken down through a series of interviews with current (or recently graduated) college students. Finally, the narrative established in the introduction of each chapter is subverted through a creative piece.

Committee: Jennifer Larson (Advisor); Brian Harvey (Committee Member); Donald Palmer (Committee Member); Suzanne Holt (Committee Member) Subjects: Ancient History; Gender Studies; Womens Studies

Master of Humanities (MHum), Wright State University, 2007, Humanities

J.K. Rowling, best selling author of the Harry Potter series, uses mythology to add layers of meaning to her own creative storylines, to provide insight into the characters and plot, and to subtly foreshadow events to come. Rowling reinvents the old myths referred to in her text by creating surprise twists that are a reversal of the reader's expectations. Ultimately, Rowling's reworking of established mythology reveals the author's own modern perspective about what makes a hero, the power of choice, and the nature of evil. Although Rowling draws from a variety of mythologies, including Arthurian legend, ancient Egyptian mythology and European folk lore, this thesis is focused largely upon her use of ancient Greek and Roman myths. The thesis examines Rowling's inclusion of mythic elements within the names of her characters, as well as within the characters themselves. The thesis further explores the role of myth within the storylines and overarching themes of the series. A historical survey of literary mythic motifs, such as werewolves, heroes, sirens and mermaids is included for comparison to Rowling's treatment of such characters. The author's use of myth to reflect contemporary concerns is explored, highlighting specific social and ethical issues that Rowling addresses.

Committee: Carol Nathanson (Advisor) Subjects:

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 1969, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects:

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2024, Greek and Latin

This project uses mythology as a heuristic tool to enrich our understanding of the ancient female body and its processes. Alongside the important and necessary implications afforded by Greco-Roman myth, each of my chapters works through the prominent tripartite biological statuses of the ancient woman that appear in the surviving Greco-Roman gynecological documents—post-natal care, pregnancy/birth, and virginity. By approaching the material from three separate angles, my dissertation explores the complex relationship between medicine and mythology. In each life stage of an ancient woman, I reveal how “irrational” myth and “rational” Greco-Roman medicine support one another in the reckoning, mechanisms, and actions of the female body. Each chapter utilizes Soranus' Gynecology to commence an analysis of each life stage because, as a document speculated to be a manual for midwifery, it offers a viable proving ground due to its range of topics from virginity to raising children.

Committee: Fritz Graf (Advisor); Julia Nelson Hawkins (Committee Member); Sarah Iles Johnston (Committee Member) Subjects: Ancient History; Classical Studies; Medicine; Religion; Womens Studies

Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing, Youngstown State University, 2023, Northeast Ohio Master of Fine Arts (Creative Writing)

Burials at Sea is a poetry collection which confronts a lost heritage, the complicated ethnography of Greece and one's grappling with identity as it relates to the Greek diaspora. The work interacts with classic mythologies such as The Iliad and The Odyssey as well as Greece's modern history as a means of understanding grief, home-seeking and our ancestral ties to the sea.

Committee: Philip Brady PhD (Advisor); Mary Biddinger PhD (Committee Member); Catherine Wing MFA (Committee Member); Christopher Barzak MFA (Committee Member) Subjects: Fine Arts

Master of Fine Arts, University of Akron, 2023, Creative Writing

The poetry presented herein is more than half of a collection-in-progress that grapples with the cross-cultural condemnation of the unfeminine aspects of womanhood into the monstrous. The succubus, the guiding voice of the central narrative, is a female demon that is said to seduce men and eat their souls. As her story unfolds, she is accompanied by the voices of other female monsters and non-monstrous women as they navigate the inherent violence of love. This collection aims to explore and refute what is and is not monstrous, how monstrosity is created, and the ways in which what some see as monstrous is only responsive to the cultural rhetoric and surrounding displays of outright femininity and female power.

Committee: Mary Biddinger (Advisor); Caryl Pagel (Committee Member); Christopher Barzak (Committee Member) Subjects: Fine Arts

Master of Music (MM), Bowling Green State University, 2023, Music Composition

Quetzalcoatl is a six-minute orchestral work based on the Mayan god of wind and rain, Quetzalcoatl. While there are many legends and stories about the plumed serpent, my inspiration comes from a children's book, How Music Came to the World: An Ancient Mexican Myth, by Hal Ober. The book tells the story of how Quetzalcoatl and his brother the sky god, Tezcatlipoca, brought music to the world. After a long journey, Quetzalcoatl reaches the House of the Sun, seeking its musicians only to find out that they refuse to go back with him. He conjures a violent storm and takes them by force, and the world begins to fill with music as the musicians spread out. Each section of Quetzalcoatl represents a different element of the story. The beginning of the piece features quiet, fragile glissandos and sparse pizzicatos in the strings, with light percussion representing a world with no melodic sounds. From there, Quetzalcoatl's theme arrives with falling woodwinds, rising strings, and rhythmic brass. The piece then outlines the conversation with his brother through the voice of the alto flute, followed by the journey to the House of Sun, the hiding of musicians, the wind god raging and scaring the humans into submission, and finally a rhythmic ending building to symbolize a world with sound. Rage, destruction, and chaos are incorporated through shifting modalities and instances of dissonance and cluster chords throughout the piece. Distinct motivic gestures are utilized to highlight certain aspects of this character, such as: woodwinds and strings with quintuplet runs, heavily accented brass repeating notes, and versatile percussion array that focus on timbre in quieter sections and a driving foundation in louder sections. Adding to the plot-based depiction, I included historical musical references as well by incorporating timbres that are akin to two Mayan instruments: the wooden flute and wooden trumpet. The wooden flute's unfocused yet (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Christopher Dietz Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Marilyn Shrude Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Music

BA, Oberlin College, 2021, Comparative Literature

This paper traces the liminal hydro-geologies of the Underworld through the works of Homer, Virgil, and Dante with the intention of understanding the Western Underworld as an ecosemiosphere—a mythological place with a close reciprocity to a physical environment. I focus on the entrances and margins of the infernal realm, the places where myth and world merge most intensely. Located in the fluid interspace between the world and the Underworld, this project is fundamentally about permeable boundaries. Particularly because of the boundary-crossing nature of fluids, water guides this journey into the margins of the nether realm. The infernal realm is accessible through certain caves, sinkholes, lakes, and marshes, all of which are geological features generated by hidden groundwater systems. This paper approaches the liminal flows and orifices of the Underworld with the material ecocritical claim that “the ‘environment' is not located somewhere out there, but is always the very substance of ourselves” (Alaimo 4). Drawing upon Alaimo's notion of trans-corporeality, Kristeva's theory of abjection, and Bakhtin's grotesque bodily image, I assert that the wet and cavernous margins of the Underworld are bodily fluids and orifices that lead into the inner abyss.

Committee: Christopher V. Trinacty (Advisor); Janet Fiskio (Advisor); Stiliana Milkova (Committee Member) Subjects: Classical Studies; Comparative Literature; Environmental Studies

Master of Arts (MA), Ohio University, 2021, Film Studies (Fine Arts)

Scholarship regarding mythic narrative structures use predominately male-centered narratives to analyze male-centered heteronormative films in American popular cinema. In such mythic narratives, women are usually a destination for nurture, or a trophy for the male conqueror. This, in turn, condenses scholarship to analyze films within the structures of male-centered, heteronormative, mythic narratives. Consequently, this leaves women-centered mythic structures vastly understudied and underutilized when analyzing films that pertain to women's cinema and queer cinema. The objective of my thesis is to infuse women-centered mythology with cinematic discourse. In particular, my thesis seeks to reclaim and reshape the myth of Lilith to be used as a narrative structure to analyze women-centered films in queer cinema in ways that examine both the sexual oppression and sexual pleasure of lesbian sexuality.

Committee: Erin Schlumpf S. (Advisor); Ofer Eliaz (Committee Member); Brian Collins (Committee Member) Subjects: Film Studies; Folklore; Womens Studies

Bachelor of Arts, Wittenberg University, 2019, English

This thesis explores how Sandra Cisneros's writing uses the reinterpretation of myths to more fully realize mestiza identity. It uses Gloria Anzaldua's model of "the Coatlicue State" to explain how Cisneros addresses women's ownership of their sexuality in her novel The House on Mango Street and in three short stories. The Coatlicue State reflects the subterranean aspects of one's identity that are repressed by the societal and cultural milieu and encourages movement towards a reconciliation the the repressed parts of the self and an embrace of all parts of a mestiza's mix of identities. Anzaldua sees this integration of the self in mythic terms, regarding the tropes of la Llorona, la Malinche, and the Virgin of Guadalupe as dismembered versions of Coatlicue. Cisneros's characters exist is cultural circumstances where these tropes influence their ways of being. In The House on Mango Street, Esperanza begins to escape the traps of cultural mythologies by writing her own story, defining herself as a way of leaving behind mythic scripts enforced on women in her community. In "Never Marry a Mexican," Clemencia demonstrates the danger of what happens when Anzaldua's Coatlicue State is perverted; in it, she claims sexual agency by asserting dominance, reversing but still recreating oppressive dynamics. In "One Holy Night," Cisneros highlights the shame that a woman is expected to feel about expressing her sexuality. Rather than feeling ashamed, as authority figures in her life expect, the narrator's sexual awakening prompts an intellectual awakening in which she is able to better understand the world around her. In "Woman Hollering Creek," Felice shows that not only must destructive mythologies be reinterpreted, the reinterpretations must be shared for the empowerment of others.

Committee: Kate Polak (Advisor); Scot Hinson (Committee Member); Sheree Henlon (Committee Member) Subjects: American Literature; Ethnic Studies; Gender Studies; Latin American Literature; Latin American Studies; Literature

Bachelor of Arts, Wittenberg University, 2019, English

This creative writing thesis presents three short stories, "The Angels Whisper," "Unyielding Hatred," and "The Wampus Woman." Each of the three uses feminist revisionist mythological approach, set across several hundred years of American history. In each of these stories the women face a struggle between that of accepting the path that a patriarchal society has prescribed before them or giving into this unnamed, yet ancient understanding of a female existence that is empowered rather than controlled. In "The Angels Whisper," a version of the Lilith story is set in early colonial America. "Unyielding Hatred" sets Grendel and Grendel's mother as black characters under segregation. "The Wampus Woman" sets the characters of Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu's Gothic novella Carmilla in the contemporary American south, and recasts Le Fanu's heroine Laura as the story's monster, illustrating how women are also often the agents of sexist ideals.

Committee: Michael Mattison (Advisor); Shelley Chan (Committee Member); D'Arcy Fallon (Committee Member) Subjects: Composition; Folklore; Gender Studies; Literature; Womens Studies

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2021, Popular Culture

This thesis investigates the relationship between the body of the witch in popular culture and attitudes and assumptions about the female body. This study was conducted through textual analysis of several popular films and television shows about witches. This analysis is structured around three core archetypes of femininity: the Maiden, the Mother, and the Crone, examining how each of the three archetypes preserve stereotypes about women and how witches can subvert or reinforce those stereotypes. Using the theory of abjection as a foundation, this thesis argues that witches have a strong relationship to abject femininity and can therefore expose the anxieties and fears about female bodies in a patriarchal culture. This is not a comprehensive study of witches in popular culture, and further research into the intersections of gender and race, sexuality, and ability is needed to form any definite conclusions. This study is merely an exploration of female archetypes and how the female body is conceived through the witch's body in popular culture.

Committee: Jeffrey Brown Dr. (Advisor); Angela Nelson Dr. (Committee Member); Esther Clinton Dr. (Committee Member) Subjects: American Studies; Film Studies; Gender; Gender Studies; Mass Media; Religion; Womens Studies

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2020, Greek and Latin

This dissertation explores myths from cultures of the Aegean and eastern Mediterranean that depict gods performing sacrifice and gods as the victims of sacrifice. The author investigates how the motif of divine sacrifice or ritualized deities is connected to aitiologies of sacrifice and the typology of dying and rising gods. The author situates the myths within a historical framework of cultural exchange in the Aegean and eastern Mediterranean to show how different cultures in contact adapted and creatively reworked myths about gods involved in sacrifice. The author begins with a new reading of the Mesopotamian story of Atrahasis and shows through an analysis of Mesopotamian ritual texts that the slaughter of the god Ilawela in Atrahasis should be interpreted as the first sacrifice, which results in the creation of humans who then provide offerings to the gods. The author then uses the Hebrew Bible as a case study to show how the theme of sacrifice and anthropogeny was adapted by a neighboring culture. Then, with a close reading of Hesiod's myth of Prometheus and Pandora and the Greek story of the flood preserved by Pseudo-Apollodoros, the author argues that Greek authors borrowed the Mesopotamian motif of sacrifice and anthropogeny and adapted it to fit Greek theology. Next, in an investigation of the fragmentary Phoenician myth of Melqart, the author offers a new reading of the myth about the attempted sacrifice of Herakles recorded by Herodotos and argues that the historian preserves a Greek adaptation of the myth of the sacrifice of Melqart, who was syncretized with Herakles by the fifth-century BCE. The author then reads the Phoenician myth of the sacrifice of the infant god Ieoud, preserved by the Roman period author Philo of Byblos, as an adaptation of the pattern of a dying and rising god known from the Ugaritic myth of Baal, the historical antecedent of Melqart. Accordingly, the author shows how Philo's myth of Ieoud provides crucial information for reconst (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Carolina López-Ruiz (Advisor); Fritz Graf (Committee Member); Sam Meier (Committee Member) Subjects: Biblical Studies; Classical Studies; Near Eastern Studies

Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing, Youngstown State University, 2020, Northeast Ohio Master of Fine Arts (Creative Writing)

Several thousand years ago, Ireland was not such a green and hospitable place. Six different groups of people had invaded her shores, seeking a better life. Some argue that it was five and not six, but that's not the point—the point is that they didn't know Ireland was not entirely devoid of life when they arrived. Over the course of a thousand years, give or take a hundred or two, many people fought to survive against plagues, droughts, and monsters. During the fifth of these invasions, magic found its way to Ireland's shores, changing the power dynamic forever. The Fomorians, a race of monsters and supernatural beings, fought against the Tuatha De Danann and they eventually won. They enslaved the Tuatha, for a time, but eventually the tables turned once again. This struggle went on for a spell and then came the Milesians, Ireland's sixth and final invaders. With poetry and science they waged war on the inhabitants of Ireland. And then, with a bit of tricky wording, they banished magic and all magical beings beneath the great fairy mounds of Ireland. It's been quite a while since then—whatever happened to the Fomorians? To the Tuatha? One family has kept that information secret ever since the Milesians won their war, but something that is happening in the land below, a place called Lindera, which might threaten the veil of secrecy and may very well release magic onto the land above once more. The Stolen Word (Approx 52,000 words), is the first book of Urban Fantasy Series that tells the story of a young woman named Ciara, who recently had a tossle with a small group of Fomorians who have now kidnapped her brother and stolen a journal belonging to their mentor and Chieftain of their village. With the help of her friends from the land above, a small group of people who are the last remaining descendants of the Tuatha De Danann, she sets out on a quest to save her brother and to prevent the Fomorians from returning to the land above.

Committee: Christopher Barzak (Committee Chair); Robert Pope (Committee Member); Steven Reese (Committee Member) Subjects: Fine Arts; Folklore

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2020, History

This paper argues for an additional manner in which the social and cultural history of Rome can be both examined and understand through the implementation of folkloric practices. While folklore and history are two distinct academic traditions, there exists a certain amount of overlap between the fields and this overlap is worth exploring in more detail. In the course of this paper, it is argued that many aspects of Roman social and cultural history can be understood and examined through folkloric means. In chapter one, a working definition of folklore is established and shown to apply to the foundational mythology of Rome as portrayed by Livy in his Ab Urbe Condita. Chapter two continues to examine Livy and provides an argument that, in the process of his writing, Livy himself was more concerned with a folkloric interpretation of Rome's history than he was in staying firmly within the bounds of historical accuracy. Finally, chapter three branches off from Livy and focuses on the arcane and magical traditions which were prevalent in Rome to show that not only were folkloric traditions present in Rome's traditional mythology, but can also be seen throughout the Republic and even into the early Empire.

Committee: Casey Stark Dr. (Advisor); Amilcar Challu Dr. (Committee Member); James Pfundstein Dr. (Committee Member) Subjects: Folklore; History

Master of Fine Arts (MFA), Bowling Green State University, 2019, Creative Writing/Poetry

Dog Stars weaves together confessional and persona poems that reflect on family, personhood, and death and how death shapes the experience of life. Themes include the reciprocal nature of life and death, compassion, longing and hunger, the reinvention of mythology to fill in the gaps, the nature of monsters, and the authority of mythology. The thesis asks: What does a creation owe its maker, whether they are a builder, a parent, or a god? What makes a creature a monster? And if death is imminent, why bother living at all? A wide cast of speakers—from history, nature, personal experience, and mythology—respond to these questions. Norse mythology in particular takes center-stage as a study of family relationships and personhood focused on Loki's brood. The thesis is divided into three sections and beginning with Twilight, or Ragnarok, “the twilight of gods.” Ragnarok is always known, like death itself, and begins with the birth of narrative. Twilight portrays the world as it is, with its origin stories. This section maintains the status quo as characters like Loki, Embla, and unnamed speakers struggle with expectations and the demands of living. Identity becomes a question as shape shifters either succumb to or resist these expectations. The second section, Night, signals Ragnarok in full swing. This is a period of destruction, loss, and grief, as the status quo begins to crumble. A grandfather dies, the wolves begin their pursuit, and the world itself deteriorates. Speakers cope and endure these losses, often with a sense of fear and guilt; other characters, like the wolves, grapple with the consequences of an innate longing and hunger that nothing can satisfy. In Daybreak, the cycle begins with the inherited history of the first cycle, to start a palimpsest of cycles. Speakers begin the process of building and rebuilding cities for themselves and transformations are no longer a means to survival, but an expression of autonomy and joy.

Committee: Abigail Cloud MFA (Advisor); F. Dan Rzicznek MFA (Committee Chair) Subjects: Language Arts; Literature

Master of Fine Arts, The Ohio State University, 2019, English

A collection consisting of eight short stories and a novella submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Fine Arts in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University. Situated at the intersection of fantasy and reality, these works explore the power of myth and the everyday fictions that define us.

Committee: Nick White PhD (Advisor); Angus Fletcher PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Literature

Master of Arts, Miami University, 2018, French, Italian, and Classical Studies

This thesis, written in English, aims to demonstrate that many of Joachim du Bellay's poems in Divers jeux rustiques and Vers Lyriques disclose a conscious way of perceiving the environment. A detailed analysis of `D'un vanneur de ble aux vents' reveals how the poem questions the privileging of humans in their relationship with the environment by dismantling the environment-human binary. I examine the symbolism of Roman mythology in `A Ceres, A Bacchus et A Pales' and `D'un berger a Pan' in order to explain how this symbolism represents the dependency of humans on their environment and creates the possibility of converting arduous rural chores into meaningful and pleasurable activities. Lastly, I explain how the poem `Au Fleuve de Loire' can be read as a cartographic poem that highlights the economic, literary, and environmental importance of the Loire river. I conclude that these poems exemplify a consciousness that rejoices, reinforces, and recognizes the role of the environment in the lives of its inhabitants.

Committee: Elisabeth Hodges Dr. (Advisor); Korta Jeremie Dr. (Committee Member); Klosowska Anna Dr. (Committee Member) Subjects: Literature

Master of Fine Arts (MFA), Bowling Green State University, 2018, English

This thesis is comprised of short fiction ranging from four to eighty pages, inhabiting worlds as familiar to the reader as a suburban home and as alien as a magical, spirit-filled wasteland. I assembled this collection along three key thematic lines, the first being feelings of ambivalent motherhood. Characters in this collection come to terms with their pregnancy or reject it; they leave their families wondering if they should have had children at all; and they live in a liminal space where love is expected of them but not easy to procure. The second thematic concern present in many of these stories is grappling with mythology. In “Ithaca”, a young woman is introduced to a cosmic mythology by her aging employer. In “Investigation No. 5,” a family mythology is investigated as if it holds as much importance as one of the major world religions. Disillusionment with Judeo-Christian mythology is portrayed in “In the Pool,” and “Shoulder, Midrib, Neck” deals with the retelling of a Scottish myth. The final theme running through these stories is that of generational legacy: what a parent bequeaths to their children far beyond physical possessions. How is that legacy corrupted by the actions of the parent? How can a child fit themselves into the world, bearing these often-sordid gifts? Characters struggle with these questions in “Nomads,” “Shoulder, Midrib, Neck,” and the novella that ends the collection, “The Ballad of Baby MacCrae.” The novella is the story where all of these themes come back and braid together. The solitary narrator must grapple with the worldview she's been indoctrinated into by her aunt: pagan Celtic beliefs, Old Testament Christianity, and blood rituals. This novella concerns how a woman can bring a private mythology into the public world, and how she can make peace with the legacies that have been left to her.

Committee: Lawrence Coates (Committee Chair); Wendell Mayo (Committee Member) Subjects: Fine Arts; Literature