oa Drie Grieken in een pre- en posthistorische metropool - Een ‘euhemeristische’ interpretatie van Carel Vosmaers Londinias (1873)

At the publication of his Homer parody, Londinias, in 1873, Vosmaer proposed – not without irony – that the future researcher ought to try an euhemeristic interpretation of his poem. In the present paper we accept his challenge. Using three different modern literary approaches we try answering a research question that may be derived from euhemerism: what is the relationship between reality and mythology in Londinias? We describe the visit to the British Museum of the three heroes of the poem, ancient Greeks transformed into 19th-century Dutchmen, as a type of reenactment of the past. Using the notion of performativity we compare the aesthetics and life vision of the Ancient World, as represented in the Elgin Marbles, to the contemporary reality of London, a city that has transcended mankind. Next, we examine the city experience of the three Greek Dutchmen in a section designated urban anxiety, because that aptly describes the impression that London leaves with them. We conclude our study with an examination of the space descriptions in Londinias with the aid of Bakhtin’s chronotope concept, in order to determine the genre the poem belongs to, according to the reader.