Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. Index v
3. Series Editors’ Preface vii
4. Editor’s Acknowledgments ix
5. Contributors x
6. Illustrations xiv
7. Abbreviations xvii
8. Introduction: Searching for Gold in an Age of Iron 1
9. PART I The Glory That Was Greece
10. 1 Re-(en)gendering Heroism: Reflective Nostalgia for Peplum’s Golden Age of Heroes in Hercules: The Legendary Journeys 2.14 (1996) 25
11. 2 Kissed by the Muse of Roller-Disco: Utopia versus the Golden Ages of America, Hollywood, and Classical Myth in Xanadu (1980) 44
12. 3 Gilding American History through Song Culture in O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) 65
13. 4 A Leonidas for the Golden Age of Superhero Films: The Thermopylae Tradition in 300 (2006) 83
14. 5 The Dueling Greek Golden Ages of 300: Rise of an Empire (2014) 101
15. 6 Confronting the Ancient Greek Golden Age in Jules Dassin’s Phaedra (1962) 119
16. 7 Pericles, Cincinnatus, and Zombies: Classicizing Nostalgia in The Walking Dead (2010–) 137
17. PART II The Grandeur That Was Rome
18. 8 “All That Glitters . . .”: Problematizing Golden-Age Narratives in Vergil’s Aeneid and the Western Film Genre 155
19. 9 The Golden Age and Imperial Dominance in the Aeneid and Serenity (2005) 175
20. 10 Turning Gold into Lead: Sexual Pathology and the De-mythologizing of Augustus in HBO’s Rome (2005–2007) 191
21. 11 The Dux Femina Ends Westeros’ Golden Age: Cersei Lannister as Agrippina the Younger in HBO’s Game of Thrones (2011–) 207
22. 12 The Golden Aspects of Roman Imperialism in Film, 1914–2015 225
23. 13 Broken Eagles: The Iron Age of Imperial Roman Warfare in Post-9/11 Film 243
24. 14 Dreaming of Rome with Ridley Scott’s Gladiator (2000) 259
25. Filmography 277
26. Bibliography 283
27. Index 314