CHRYSES: Mapping environmental health crises – Public understanding through myths and science

What do ancient myths and modern maps have in common? More than we might assume. CHRYSES – an ambitious, interdisciplinary research project funded by Humanities in the Environmental Research Area (HERA) and Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) – sets out to explore how humanity has made sense of crisis across time through stories, symbols, and systems of knowledge, and how these insights might help us respond to the environmental and health emergencies of today.

Drawing its name from Chryses, the Trojan priest whose plea to Apollo sparked a devastating plague in Homeric epic, this 2-year project started in January 2025, bringing together scholars from across Europe to rethink how we represent crises. From mythological floods and famines to contemporary pandemics and ecological collapse, CHRYSES looks at how we narrate upheaval – and how those narratives shape public understanding and action. At its core, CHRYSES explores the power of maps. Not just as tools of science and data, but as storytelling devices that have long been used to trace danger, guide journeys, and imagine futures. The project investigates how both scientific and mythical mappings help us interpret complex crises, asking: Can maps bring together the factual and the symbolic? And can they speak more effectively to diverse publics?

The project spans five leading institutions across the UK (UCL and University of Edinburgh), Ireland (University College Cork), Finland (Aalto University), and Estonia (Literary Estonian Museum) and is structured around a series of interlinked investigations. These include: exploring how ancient and folkloric myths represent crises as journeys or transformations; experimenting with visual storytelling tools such as graphic novels, games, and immersive exhibitions; and engaging with communities to express lived experiences of environmental and health disruption. At UCL, researchers are focusing on the role of scientific maps in shaping public understanding of environmental health crises. By analysing how past and present maps represent outbreaks, pollution, climate hazards, and more, the team is building a critical understanding of how design, data and narrative influence perception. This strand of the project also considers how scientific mappings can be made more inclusive — integrating emotional, cultural, and local perspectives to offer new ways of seeing and responding to crises.
Through cross-cultural analysis, creative workshops and public-facing exhibitions, CHRYSES brings together expertise in participatory mapping, risk communication, folklore, and design. Hosted across leading European universities, the project creates a rich platform for interdisciplinary collaboration and dialogue.

In a world where crises are increasingly entangled – ecological, epidemiological, social – CHRYSES opens new ground for thinking with maps, thinking with myths, and creating more inclusive, culturally attuned ways of understanding the challenges ahead.

For further information, please contact Dr Artemis Skarlatidou  (PI CHRYSES Project) or Dr Jakleen Al-Dalal’a (Research Fellow CHRYSES Project).

Links
Artemis Skarlatidou
People and Nature Lab