Assistant Professor of Classics Amy Koenig recently published an article in the journal Greek and Roman Musical Studies. Titled "The Pantomimic Voice: Echo, Narcissus, and Reflections of Pantomime in Ovid's Metamorphoses," the piece argues that the work of the Roman poet Ovid reflects qualities of ancient pantomime dance.
Pantomime was a wordless art in which the voice was either absent or separated from the dancing body. Koenig asserts that the character of Echo and her rejection by Narcissus can be seen as symbolic of that dynamic, "a figure for pantomime’s rejection of the voice as a communicative medium."
