Traces of Postmodernism and Posthumanism in the Construction of Body and Identity in Greek Mythology

This paper intends to explore how the notions of the body and identity are conceptualized, represented, and experienced in Greek mythology by pointing out the parallelism between Greek mythology and postmodernism since postmodern concepts and theories of the body and identity politics can be traced back to myths. Myths offer enchanting narratives about the creation of the universe, the nature of existence, and natural events, alongside fantastical tales of deities, extraordinary beings such as monsters, superhuman heroes, magical transformations, and polymorphous metamorphoses. Classical mythology is also fascinated with etiology, the study of first causes, and the origins of the conditions in our lives. In this sense, how mythical bodies emerge and identities take on certain shapes and develop in various ways gain importance. Myths are full of boundary-breaking forms of existence, transgressive and subversive identities, fluid beings, indeterminate origins, and hybrid bodies, through which we are transported into alternative visions. They defy all kinds of rigid categories, unalterable formations, and the hierarchical order of existence. Similarly, postmodern bodies blur the boundaries among different forms of beings and they are characterized by fluidity, hybridity, multiplicity, fragmentation, discontinuity, and uncertainty. In this sense, this paper sets out to argue that myths align with postmodern and posthumanist understanding of body and identity and mythic thinking is integral to human intellectual dimension and has influenced the emergence of bodies and identities in postmodern texts.