Wonder Woman And Greek Mythology

In his work The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Joseph Campbell proposed the theory of the monomyth, or that the stories and mythologies of civilizations, from ancient times to modern depictions, have an overarching structure and inherently resemble one another. That is why the suggestion that the comic book superheroine Wonder Woman has her roots in Greek mythology is neither a groundbreaking nor recent realization. In almost all of her depictions in the Golden, Silver, and even Modern Ages of comic books,

Dianna of Themyscria has always been portrayed as a member, and sometimes leader, of the Amazons, a tribe of female warriors that recur in several works of Greek mythology.

Wonder Woman is one of the multitudes of examples of Greek mythology influencing

For instance, from 2008-10, Marvel Comics ran an ongoing series entitled The Incredible Hercules starring a new interpretation of the mythological figure Hercules. Comic books have a variety of influences, but Greek mythology has a tendency to be one of the most noticeable, particularly in western countries such as the United States which have a historical connection to ancient Greek civilization. However, despite the influence that Greek mythology can command on superheroes, the literary canon often overlooks the field of modern, monthly serialized comic books. That is not to say that some graphic novels, such as Watchmen or 300, have not been subjected to analyses by scholars, but in general modern serialized comic books such as Detective Comics or The Amazing Spider-Man, which feature releases each

2

month, are often not given the same critical respect and recognition that other forms of

American literature like prose and poetry