From the Mediterranean to the Caribbean: A Deep Dive into the Longevity of Piratical Stereotypes
“When most people think of pirates, they think of the swashbuckling pirates that dominated the Atlantic Ocean during the Golden Age of Piracy in the 17th and 18th centuries. This is due in part to the ever so popular Disney franchise, Pirates of the Caribbean. The franchise has grossed over $4.5 billion dollars worldwide, which makes it the 13th highest grossing film series of all time (Whitten, 2021). And that number does not reflect the profit that Disney has made from the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, which served as the basis for the entire series. Disney has had a long tradition of intertwining the mythical and magical and marketing it as history (Petersen, 2007, 63). This is especially evident when it comes to the Pirate of the Caribbean ride, which sells an image of pirates that “discoverer the town’s rum supply, dunk the mayor in the well, and observe as women of the pillaged village are auctioned off to the highest bidder” (Petersen, 2007, 63). The problem is, through the commodification of pirates, Disney has created a false history which many take as a true history. When people think of pirates, they think of Disney’s fiction and assume they came into existence as depicted in the 17th and 18th centuries.
The truth is piracy has been around since mankind began exploring the seas. The earliest written recording of pirates came from the 14th Century BCE from Egyptians writing about the plundering of Cyprus (Konstam, 2011, 13). According to the ancient historian, Thucydides, the first Grecians participated in piracy and thought of it as a glorious activity (1.5.1). Due to their prevalence throughout the ancient world, it is no wonder why they were a commonly used motif in the ancient Greek novel. In B.P. Reardon’s Collected Ancient Greek Novels, pirates play a significant role in the plot of at least 7 of the 9 translated novels (2008). Through their popular depiction, there are easily identifiable stereotypes that these ancient pirates fall into. If there are pirates in an ancient Greek novel, they will be commodifying humans, kidnapping humans, and they will either be portrayed as entirely good, or entirely evil.”
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This research paper was completed for my 300 level Greek translation seminar on prose where we read Heliodorus’ Aethiopica. While reading the Aethiopica, I was intrigued by how similar my modern conception of a pirate matched the description from this 3rd Century CE text. These similarities sparked a cascading chain of research question and explorations of contemporary texts. After examining the contemporary novels, I found that many carried these same stereotypical pirates. I also decided to rewatch the Pirate of the Caribbean movies, as that franchise is where my modern conception of pirates came from. Additionally, the film series itself has grossed of 4.5 billion dollars and thus likely represented the most commonly held ideas of pirates.
By far, this has been the paper I have had the most fun researching and writing. Nevertheless, I imagine that if I had more time to research and rewrite the paper, I would try to trace the origin of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, which served as the basis for the movie franchise. I believe it would help complete the whole image of where these piratical stereotypes came from. Perhaps the creators of the ride did look further back in history than just the 17th and 18th centuries. Who knows, perhaps there were some classics scholars on Disney’s design team! Even without these additions, I would classify this paper as a success. Not only did it earn a satisfying grade, but I also submitted the paper feeling proud of the work I did and with a renewed interest in research work looking at Classical culture through a different lens.
This paper exemplifies the following learning goals of the Skidmore College Classics Department:
- read Greek and Latin prose and poetry within their larger cultural and historical settings
- read critically and analyze closely literary texts and modern scholarship
- conduct research by traditional and digital methods
It also reflects the following literacies:
- Visual
- Information
- Technology
