Category: Languages, Literatures and Cultures
Monsters in Classical Myth
November 19, 2024 Written by CAS Communications
The passage of monsters found in classical mythology to Latin America began with Christopher Columbus’s first account of man-eaters and warrior women among the indigenous peoples of the Caribbean.
These became a mainstay of New World iconography and a justification for conquest. Ferdinand Magellan reportedly encountered giants, which he called Patagoni, in the southernmost part of South America.
Persephone Braham, professor of Spanish in the Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures, contributed the chapter “Classical Monsters in Latin American Cultures” to The Oxford Handbook of Monsters in Classical Myth (Oxford University Press, Nov. 19, 2024) exploring giants, lycanthropes and sirens whose connection with the ancient Mediterranean by way of the Iberian Peninsula can be documented.
Classical monsters syncretized with indigenous and African beliefs, inspiring the modern-day Andean pishtaco or fat-eater, the Amazonian Mapinguarí, the Andean sirena and Amazonian Yara, and the lobizón or wolf-man of the Southern Cone.
