Open University academic Paula James explains the links between Buffy the Vampire Slayer and classical mythology.

Pygmalion meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer - for iPod/iPhone

From Pygmalion to Buffy: re-interpreting myth

The popular American TV series "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" spanned seven seasons and gained a cult following. But how is it linked to the culture of ancient Greece and Rome? On closer inspection, its characters and narratives are revealed to be new incarnations of ancient classical myths that have filtered down into modern media. This album explores one episode, "I Was Made to Love You", in which Warren creates an artificial perfect girlfriend, just as Pygmalion sculpts an ivory statue to be his partner in Ovid's Metamorphoses. Many interesting parallels demonstrate the way in which universal human anxieties about gender identity, femininity, control and sexuality are continuously being re-examined through myth. This material forms part of The Open University course A330 Myth in the Greek and Roman worlds.

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Pygmalion meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer - for iPod/iPhone