Philip II and Alexander the Great: Father and Son ... - Historia Antigua

222 RECEPTION OF FATHER AND SON
which the relation of Father to Son is at its most transcendently
archetypal: Biblical epic. The divide between Roman and New Testament
biblical epics has always been highly permeable; the two subgenres
conveniently share a notional timeline, enabling Jesus of
Nazareth to make walk-on appearances in fi lms including Ben-Hur,
Quo Vadis (1951), and The Robe (1953). Indeed, based as they are on
popular evangelical narratives of the late nineteenth century, the
classic Roman toga epics may be said to derive their original impetus
and narrative force from their teleological relation to the ever-evolving
foundation myth of the early Church. Maria Wyke convincingly
demonstrates that the Rome of mid-twentieth century cinema is a
vibrant etiological allegory, projecting the past clearly and enthrallingly
onto the concerns of contemporary audiences. 8 This Rome is
there to decline and fall for us; to schedule martyrs’ dates with destiny;
to shock and thrill us with pagan wickedness against which we
affi rm our own contemporary virtue.
In strong contrast, the subgenre of Greek historical epic (into which
Alexander falls) does not share the teleological frame of reference
common to Biblical and toga epic; all its best stories are set inconveniently
in the B.C. era. Consequently, the gulf between the subgenres of
Roman and Greek historical epic—toga and peplum—is much, much
wider than that between Roman and biblical epic. In its lack of a clear
presentist focus, the peplum might be said to have more in common with
nonancient historical epic genres—at least at the level of narrative and
theme. 9 Writing of the historical epic in a more general sense, and with
more of an eye to psychoanalytic approaches, Hunt (a clear infl uence
on Fitzgerald) reads the theme of biological paternity as a convenient
storyteller’s shorthand for the larger and more abstract patriarchal
structures which motivate and make sense of epic heroism:
Male epics . . . make it part of their project to address male
narcissism . . . In their construction of a “more perfect, more
complete, more powerful ideal ego,” the fi lms offer homoerotic
images and relationships but pursue patriarchal themes and
heroic codes. Both fi lms [ Spartacus and El Cid] are named after
men who live according to rigidly defi ned codes of honour, and
in doing so, become more than ordinary men (legends at least,
and in El Cid something like a god), but give up their lives in
the process. This transcendence, however, takes place within a
specifi c relationship with the law and the father. 10
Hunt’s analysis of this “Oedipal problematic” in conventional historical
epic is certainly useful in unpacking the excess pop- psychological