Simons, Benedikt (2024). Horatius Cocles und Mucius Scaevola in Neville Longbottom. Die Transformation antiker Stoffe in modernen Mythen. Ars docendi, 20, settembre 2024.

In particular, the Collaborative Research Centre on the ‘Transformation of Antiquity’ (SFB 644) has changed the idea of an only passive reception of ancient materials into a concept of their active transformation and thus also a more dynamic idea of ‘antiquity’. The montage of two (mythical) figures from early Roman republican history in a (minor) character in the Harry Potter film series can serve as an example: The character Neville Longbottom combines Horatius Cocles and Mucius Scaevola from Livy's versions. In terms of an extended concept of (transformation) competence, pupils are enabled not only to uncover the deeper layers of the exemplum Neville Longbottom, but also, by contextualising the two role models, to assess the (intended) effect of this exemplum and its victim more sustainably and to evaluate it for their personal educational process. In this respect, this material and its processing provides the opportunity to lay the foundations for ‘transformation competence’. It also provides the classical language teaching with additional legitimisation.