Ruby Blondell

Ruby Blondell writes about the myths and literature of ancient Greece, often from the perspective of gender studies. Their latest book, Helen of Troy in Hollywood, focuses on the representation of Helen and her beauty in popular film and television, and what this may say about our own values and attitudes. It covers movies ranging from silent film (The Private Life of Helen of Troy, 1927) to mid-century epic (Helen of Troy, 1956), to Troy (2004). Other chapters discuss a variety of television texts: Star Trek's Elaan of Troyius, an episode of Xena Warrior Princess, and the 2003 miniseries Helen of Troy. You can read excerpts from this book at LitHub (https://lithub.com/how-casting-helen-of-troy-becomes-an-exercise-in-female-power/) and Lapham's (https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/roundtable/helen-troy-real-not-myth) You can listen to Blondell talking about their work on Helen of Troy in these podcasts: Let's Talk about Myths, Baby! (https://omny.fm/shows/lets-talk-about-myths-baby/conversations-the-face-that-lit-a-thousand-screens) Forgotten Hollywood (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/forgotten-hollywood/id1554877313?i=1000621344284) In their previous book, Helen of Troy: Beauty, Myth, Devastation, Blondell explores the threat of female beauty embodied in the myth of Helen and the Trojan War. Greek authors gave surprisingly many twists and turns to Helen's story as they grappled with their ambivalence towards female beauty, which they perceived as both infinitely desirable and a source of terrifying power over men. These themes still resonate today, since our own culture's relationship to female beauty remains fraught with desire and danger. Blondell's earlier books cover a broad range of topics in Greek literature and myth, especially Plato and Greek tragedy. Their translations of tragedy, including Medea (in Women on the Edge) and Sophocles' Theban Plays (Antigone, Oidipous the King, and Oidipous at Colonus), are designed to be readable for a modern audience and usable as theatrical scripts, while also helping the reader to understand these dramas in their cultural context. Blondell was born in England, and was entranced by Greek mythology from an early age. That fascination took them to Oxford for a BA in Classics and then to the University of California for a PhD. They are now a professor emeritx at the University of Washington in Seattle, where they have retired from teaching but remain professionally active.