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Asian Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies Available online at www.ajms.co.in Volume1, Issue 4, November 2013 ISSN: 2321-8819 Antiquity Revisited: Tracing the Influence of Greek Mythology on English Literature and Culture Poorva Trikha Associate Professor, MCM DAV College, Chandigarh, (India). Abstract : The ancient works of Greek civilization had almost been wiped out of human consciousness until Renaissance revisited it. In early 1800s, when Greece was revolting against Turks after 400 years of slavery, Europe discovered the old Greek tragedies and works of Greek philosophers which had been oppressed by political power bearers. In the 19th century many free spirits like Lord Byron (who died in Greece during the war) were intrigued by these works and began to reinterpret and analyse them to locate universals truths relating to philosophy, ecology, psychology, natural sciences, etc in them. Ever since Renaissance (when Shakespeare made abundant use of Greek Myths in his plays) the craze and interest in Greek mythology has not slowed down. From Homer to John Milton to John Keats to Thomas Hardy, all old and contemporary writers have looked towards Greek Myths for substance for their writing and have used them in all possible genres of literature. This paper attempts to trace the influence of Greek Mythology on English literature and contemporary culture, to point towards the literary works of various centuries which intensively used Greek myths and those English films which depict the same. An effort has been made at finding out the reason behind this continuing popularity of ancient myths and to analyse such a tremendously powerful phenomenon. Keywords: Greek Mythology; English Literature Myths tell interesting stories and without a doubt, have always had a wide impact on literature. Unlike today, when science has progressed so much that it can provide answers to mankind‟s curious questions concerning the origin of the worlds, the ancient Greeks used mythology (body or a collection of myths) to explain how the world works (Kirk, 1974, p. 8). A true myth or myth proper, writes H.J.Rose, is ultimately “the result of the working of naive imagination upon the fact of experience” (12). Myths function as an eminent source of quenching our human thirst for ontological questions besides “pointing us to the sources of imaginative joy from which early poets of Hellenic verse, or Morse, or English, drank” (Gayley, 1939, p. xxxi). Many of us are moved by the sorrows of Philomela, held by the fidelity of Penelope and philanthropy of Prometheus and still hold them as ideals in their respective virtues. To define myth according to Webster‟s Third New International dictionary, a myth is “ a story that is unusually of unknown origin and at least partially traditional, that ostensibly relate 78 Antiquity Revisited:Tracing the Influence of Greek Mythology on English Literature and Culture historical events usually of such character as to serve to explain some practice, belief, institution, or natural phenomenon, and that is especially associated with religious rights and beliefs.‟1 Such is bound the aspect of sanctity with myths that Charles Mills Gayley opined that “myths are born, not made” (1939, p. 6). Rituals have more prominently been linked with mythology and many writers have asserted the link between the two. A comparative data on kinship and ritual was presented by J.G. Frazer‟s monumental work The Golden Bough which presents a ritualistic interpretation of myths. A similar interpretation echoes in the works of Robert Graves who distinguishes true myth (from twelve other categories)2 which for him is “the reduction to narrative shorthand of ritual mime performed on public festivals, and in many cases recorded pictorially on temple walls, vases, seals, bowls, mirrors, chests, shields, tapestries, and the like. . . . (1992, p.12)” Efforts have also been made at distinguishing myths from legends and the difference lies in the fact that “A myth is an invented story while a legend is not wholly an invented story – it is a kind of history. Of course there may be plenty of invention and myth wrapped around a legend but always at its heart there is a kernel of historical truth” (Provensen, 1959). Mythology is the study of such legends as are so foreign to human experience that they cannot be believed true but hold power over human psyche nevertheless. As regards to the functions that myths perform in human lives, it can be best defined in the words of Robert Graves, who states that “Myth has two main functions. The first is to answer the sort of awkward questions that children ask, such as: Who made the world? How 1 For more definitions of Myth, see Morford, 1977, p. 1-7. 2 Other categories include: The philosophical allegory, satire or parody, minstrel romance, political propaganda, theatrical melodrama, realistic fiction, etc. will it end? Who was the first man? Where do sounds go after death? The second function of myth is to justify an existing social system and account for traditional rites and customs.” The second function also been linked to some basic psychological need of mankind. In the words of John Pinsent, “There is little doubt that all those stories are still told because they satisfy some psychological need in the minds of their hearers. Psychological explanation, usually Freudian, can be found in many myths & some. . . .”(1969, p. 12). The significance of dream symbols was first discovered by the father of psychology, Sigmund Freud and his followers and this discovery led them to develop the similarity between dreams and myths. In Freudian interpretation, myths reflect waking man‟s efforts to systematize his sleep world. Such an interpretation, however important, cannot cover all myths and therefore arose the need for interpretation by other psychologists, the most prominent one being Carl Gustav Jung. According to Jung, Myths are a projection of what he calls the “collective unconscious” of the race i.e. they are representatives of psychic tendencies of the society. Myths contain certain recurrent images or „Archetypes‟, as Jung would term it, which are such expressions as were developed over thousands of years and are widely recognised. Some examples of such archetypes include, Anima and Animus, the Great Mother, the Old Wise Man, and so on.3 Some Greek themes and myths which are recurrent in English literature and resurface in literary works from time to time reinforce the influence Greek mythology has had. One such archetype is that of The Mother Goddess, who was the chief deity in the Aegan Pantheon (mostly agreed to be Gaea) and in whom were 3 For an insightful analysis of these archetypes, see Guerin, 1992, p. 185-90. Asian Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies, 1(4) November, 2013 79 Antiquity Revisited:Tracing the Influence of Greek Mythology on English Literature and Culture united all the attributes and functions of divinity. 4 The theme of Transformation has been very widely observed in Greek myths. The popular instances are: Philomela being turned into a nightingale, Zeus‟s transforming himself into a Bull to violate Demeter, Zeus turning himself into a Swan to rape Leda5, Arachne being transformed into a spider by goddess Athena and the transformation of Echo. The other significant themes include those of Half man half animal (as seen in Minotaur) and the theme of incest (Gaea marring her son Uranus, Cronus marrying her sister Rhea, Zeus marrying his sister Hera, king Oedipus marrying his own mother Jocasta). The other eminent myths include the Orpheus myth in which we learn about the psychology of grief and the Naomi myth in which we learn about the psychology of hubris. The English imagination was ignited by Greek Mythology from 14th century onwards in the works of Chaucer and continued though John Milton, Shakespeare in Elizabethan Age to Robert Bridges in the 20th century. The impact was felt not only on English world but also Racine in France and Goethe in Germany revived Greek drama by reworking the ancient myths. It was in 18th century during the philosophical revolution of the Enlightenment that there spread a reaction throughout Europe against Greek myth but irrespective of that the myths continued to be used as sources of inspiration. By the end of the century Romanticism emerged and initiated a lot of enthusiasm for all things Greek, especially mythology. In Britain there were many new translations made of Greek tragedies and Homer which in turn inspired the romantic poets such as Alfred Lord Tennyson, Keats, Byron and Percy B. Shelley. 4 For a detailed account of ancient myths related to Gaea, see Guirand & Graves, 1959. 5 For the story Leda and the Swan, see Guthrie, 1950, p. 206-09. The popularity of these classical myths continued throughout 19th century so much so that American authors such as Thomas Bulfinch and Nathaniel Hawthorne believed that myths should provide pleasure, and declared that the study of the classical myths was essential to the understanding of English and American literature (Brazouski & Klatt, 1993, p. 4). In the words of Bulfinch, "the so-called divinities of Olympus have not a single worshipper among living men; they belong now not to the department of theology, but to those of literature and taste"(2000, p. 1). In 20th century and in more recent times classical themes have been reinterpreted in various nations. In France the dramatic works of Jean Anouilh, Jean Cocteau and Jean Giraudoux are some examples. Eugene O‟Neill in America and T.S. Eliot, James Joyce and Andre Gide in Britain made extensive use of themes of antiquity in their writings. It is generally agreed that the first form of literature was poetry. According to a research, Poetry as an art form may predate literacy. The first specimens of poetry include the Homeric epics the Iliad and the Odyssey. Ancient attempts to define poetry also began in Greece with Aristotle‟s Poetics which focused on the uses of speech in rhetoric, drama, song and comedy. The three genres of poetry6 defined by Aristotle are still considered the basis of classification. It was through the medium of Latin and the works of Ovid that Greek myths influenced medieval and Renaissance poets such as Petrarch, Boccaccio and Dante in Italy. The influence was visible in the sonnets of Shakespeare. The goddess of the inspiration of literature, science and the arts is The Muses. John Milton evokes „Heav‟nly Muse‟ in the very first book of Paradise Lost and in many a fine pieces of literature are they revered. The high priest of 6 The three genres are: the epic, the comic and the tragic. Asian Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies, 1(4) November, 2013 80 Antiquity Revisited:Tracing the Influence of Greek Mythology on English Literature and Culture Hellenism or the worshipper of Greek things was John Keats. Keats is best remembered for his Odes and most of his odes depict his fondness for all things Greek. The very titles of the ode, Ode to Grecian Urn and Endymion suggest his tendencies. Endymion is based on the Greek Myth of Endymion7, the shepherd beloved by the moon goddess Selene. Ode to Psyche goes back to the mythical story of Psyche and Cupid and in Ode to the Nightingale, the poet mentions Hippocrene (name of a fountain on Mount Helicon, sacred to Muses) in the following lines: O for a beaker full of the warm South, Full of the true, the blushful Hippocrene, With beaded bubbles winking at the brim, And purple-stained mouth (15-18). He further mentions the Greek god Dionysus (also known as Bacchus) when he writes that he would fly to the nightingale in the woods “Not charioted by Bacchus and his pards/ But on the viewless wings of Poesy” (32-33). Other than Keats, George Gordon/Lord Byron was quite influenced by Greek Mythology. The intertextuality and allusions to Greek mythology continued though the Victorian age. The Hellenism of Queen's Victoria poet laureate, Alfred Lord Tennyson, was so strong that all his works echo the epics of Homer. One can trace the references to Penelope and Telemachus in his most popular poem Ulysses. Some examples of other poetic works which employ literary devices to refer to Greek Myths thee poem Man with a Hoe by Edwin Markam („the swing of the Pleiades8‟), Tales from Ovid: Twenty-four Passages from the Metamorphoses by British Poet Laureate Ted Hughes and 7 To read the complete myth of Endymion, see Guthrie, 1950, p. 210-11. 8 Pleiades refers to the seven daughter of Atlas named Maia, Taygete, Electra, Alcyone, Celoeno, Sterope and Merope. The Wasteland by T.S. Eliot (Tiresias9 speaks in part 3 The Fire Sermon). It was from ancient Greek tragedies that many playwrights borrowed their plots and characters. Most of William Shakespeare‟s characters (Ariel, Umbriel, Miranda, Ophelia, Desdemona, Juliet, Portia, Cupid, etc) and the title of Shaw‟s play Pygmalion10 have borrowed Greek names. Plays such as A Midsummer Night's Dream, Troilus and Cressida, Macbeth abound in Greek themes and it is well known fact that the plot for Romeo and Juliet was picked up from the Greek myth of Pyramus and Thisbe. The great British philosophermathematician Alfred North Whitehead once commented that all philosophy is but a footnote to Plato. A similar point can be made regarding Greek literature as a whole. The genre of English Fiction was also immensely affected by Greek myths. Whether it was Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, what she also calls as „Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus11‟ or works like The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy or Albert Camus‟s Myth of Sisyphus12, the impact is quite evident. The myth of Aphrodite and Adonis was one of the most often treated by poets and artists of different ages. Munz has his own theory of the way in which myths develop, which he calls typology in his book When the Golden Bough Breaks where he states that, “Myths are not generated or created fully fledged but are gradually elaborated from simple, general tales into progressively more and 9 Tiresias was punished by depriving him of his eyes by Zeus‟s daughter Athene for watching her bathing and to soften the harshness of the punishment, the goddess conferred upon the unhappy Teiresias the gift of foretelling the future. 10 For the story of Pygmalion and Galatea, see Guthrie, 1950, p. 211-12. 11 For the complete myth related to Prometheus, see Provensen, 1959, p. 11-12. 12 See Guthrie, 1950, p. 216-19, for the myth of Sisyphus. Asian Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies, 1(4) November, 2013 81 Antiquity Revisited:Tracing the Influence of Greek Mythology on English Literature and Culture more specific tales” (1973, p.26). Such specific developments can be seen in James Joyce‟s Ulysses and The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel by Nikos Kazantzakis. The ancient myth of Cupid and Psyche was writ by Keats in a poem and was presented in a reworked manner by C.S. Lewis in Till We Have Faces. Many critics believe that myths lie beyond our conscious awareness. What makes Greek myths more popular than myths of any other nation is the fact that they still persist in the Greek roots of many English words and in our culture and literature. This opinion can be well supplemented with literary instances in modern fiction. Considering the case of Hermione Granger in hugely popular Harry Potter Series by J.K Rowling serves is in appropriate context here. The name Hermione means well-born, earthy or stone and refers to peony-type flowers which directly brings to the mind the Greek figure Hermes. In Greek mythology, Hermes was often known as the patron saint of high magic and maybe that is why one finds Hermione is so gifted in the novels. Shakespeare‟s play A Winter’s Tale also figures a character Hermione who was modelled on the Greek character named Hermione itself (the daughter of King Menelaus and Helen of Troy). Such interconnectedness makes it impossible to separate the Greek roots from modern fiction. This particular character strikes “some very deep chord” (Campbell, 1959, p. 31). One cannot ignore the undeniable link of Greek myths in such modern works as The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood, Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand, Psyche in a Dress by Francesca Lia Block and The Percy Jackson and the Olympians Series by Rick Riordan. Moving from fiction to reality, it was in the first half of the twentieth century that the rationalism of Greek myths was particularly emphasized. Martin Nilsson expressed this view in his History of Greek Religion (1925). Speaking of the Greeks he says: Their marvellous qualities of mind, their rationalism, and clarity of thinking could brook no ambiguity or confusion . . . It is due not only to the plastic imagination of the Greeks, with its power of intuition, but also to their antipathy to the primitive and fantastic ideas and characteristics of the folk-tale, which led them to clear away all that too sharply contradicted the experiences of human life. The Greek myth has thus become something other than the ordinary folk-tale, and rightly bears a separate name (1925, p. 75). We can therefore trace the influence of Greek mythology on modern culture as well. To begin with, more than half of English words have their etymology in Greek roots. Words such as narcissism13, aphrodisiac14, dionysian15, thanatos, bacchanalia, eros, echo, ambrosia, erabus and chronos, cornucopia16, all derive directly from the names of Greek Gods or themes in classical myths. It seems that Dionysus was once in Greece a lofty mark for theomorphism.17 Not only words, phrases such as „Pandora‟s box18‟ and „touch of Midas19‟ also draw references from Greek myths. The alphabet „p‟ in psychiatry and in pneumonia bears the mark of Greek influence for silent letters. The very names of our planets and the constellation (Orion for example) are borrowed from GrecoRoman mythological characters like Uranus, Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, 13 For the myths of Echo and Narcissus, see Provensen, 1959, p. 22-23. 14 For the complete story, see The Birth of Aphrodite, Guthrie, 150, p. 49-50. 15 This word is an adjectival form derived from the myth of Greek god Dionysus. 16 Cornucopia or the horn of plenty was a nymph‟s horn conferred upon by the marvellous property of refilling itself inexhaustibly with whatever food or drink was wished for, as token of gratitude from Zeus. 17 For a detailed account of Dionysus, see Keremy, 1959, p. 17. 18 In ancient legend, Pandora had brought in her arms a great vase which is incorrectly called Pandora‟s Box. 19 For the myth of Midas, See Hamilton, 1948, p. 411-20. Asian Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies, 1(4) November, 2013 82 Antiquity Revisited:Tracing the Influence of Greek Mythology on English Literature and Culture Neptune, etc. The name of Greek pagan deities – Tuisto, Woden, Thor and Friggy are still attached to Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. The number of metrical feet in a line is described using Greek terminology even today, for example, tetrameter for four feet and hexameter for six feet. Metric systems such as „iambic pentameter‟ and „dactylic hexameter‟ are also our Greek legacy. Other than literature the impact is evident in sports as the foundation of the Olympic Games was ascribed to the athletic hero Hercules. Since Renaissance, the subjects from Greek Mythology have served as raw material for artists and writers. The best-known examples of art emerging out of such myths include the Leda by Leonardo da Vinci, Leda by Michelangelo and Galatea by Raphael. After romanticism, a number of painters such as Lord Leighton and Lawrence Alma-Tadema also came under the inspirational tide of Greek mythology. Films act as mirrors to a society‟s culture and events. There is no dearth of English films based on Greek Myths and continue to be made even today. Some notable films which reinvent ancient myths and adapt them for modern screening include Helen of Troy (1955), The Odyssey (1997), Hercules (1997), 2004 film Troy (based on The Trojan War20) , 300 (2006), The Clash of the Titans (2010), Immortals (2011), Wrath of the Titans (2012) and Prometheus Unbound. Conclusion We have now arrived at the conclusion that Greek myth is a literary form, and it is also a form with a history, showing a certain development and impact on literature worldwide. In each period and each society the Greek myths played a role, even if it was only the society of the learned, and countless poets, dramatists and prose authors reinterpreted them in their respective eras. It has been right put 20 To see the complete account of The Trojan War, consult Keremy, 1959, p. 255-77. by Alice Provensen that, “Today the gods of the Greek and Romans do not have a single temple. They do not have a single worshipper. But they are immortal. They cannot die because the Greeks invented such wonderful myths about them” (1959). There have been critics and thinkers, however, who disagreed with still prevalent supremacy of myths but have been strongly rebutted. French philosopher Jean-Francois Lyotard declared in 1979 that nobody believes in myths anymore. According to him, after the World Wars, people lost their faith in the overarching myths, or meta-narratives, as Lyotard calls them, that before held people's identity and sense of belonging21. His view point was powerfully countered by a Marxist critic, Frederic Jameson who stated that rather than disbelief, on the contrary, post-war English literature, and Western culture in general, is writhing with myths. According to Jameson, post-modern literature is not myth-less at all; Humans are still fascinated by the myths they believe in, just as much as their ancient Greek and Roman predecessors were, whether these myths are found in literature or take the form of TV shows. Knowing that Greek mythology is yet alive and still possess a dominant hold of our culture, one begins to wonder about the reason for its authority. In a chapter „Greek myths in literature‟ in The Nature of Greek Myths, Kirk establishes through reasoning and instances that Greek myths are “a part of literature” and after such a statement he asks the following questions: “How did they become so, what was the precise nature of this literary development, and what are the special tastes and concerns of the main literary sources for Greek myths?” (1974, p. 95) He also provides a possible explanation for the questions when he states that “their neatness, their rounded off quality”, and with this may be coupled their consistency 21 Lyotard calls this new distrust in long-revered establishments such as religion and government, post-modernism. Asian Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies, 1(4) November, 2013 83 Antiquity Revisited:Tracing the Influence of Greek Mythology on English Literature and Culture of which he speaks frequently. Because of these qualities Greek myths “seem to lay hold on the emotions” and acquire “an emotional value that transcends mere narrative appeal”. One cannot fail to agree with Kirk. The artfulness with which the Greek characters are presented in the myths and the immensely fantastic stories about them appeal to the universal human imagination and make them ethereal and immortal. References: Brazouski, Antoine and Mary J Klatt. (1993). Children's Books on Ancient Greek and Roman Mythology. Connecticut: Greenwood Publishing Group. Bulfinch, Thomas. (2000). Greek and Roman Mythology: The Age of Fable. New York: Dover Publications. Campbell, Joseph. (1959). The Masks of God: Primitive Mythology. New York: Viking. Gayley, Charles Mills. (1939). The Classical Myths in English Literature and in Art. Boston: Ginn & Co.. Graves, Robert. (1992). The Greek Myths. London: Penguin Books. Guerin, Wilfred L., et al. (1992). A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature. (5th ed.). India: Oxford University Press. Guirand, Felix and Robert Graves. (1959). New Larousse Encyclopedia of Mythology. New York, Sydney, Toronto: The Hamlyn Publishing Ground Ltd. Guthrie, W.K.C. (1950). The Greeks and Their Gods. London: Bradford and Dickens. Hamilton, Edith (1948). Mythology. New York: Little, Brown and Company. Keremy, C. (1959). The Heroes of the Greeks. Southampton: Camelot Press Ltd. Kirk, G.S. (1974). The Nature of Greek Myths. Harmondsworth, Baltimore: Penguin Books. Morford, Mark P.O., and Robert J.Lenardon. (1977). Classical Mythology. 2nd ed. London, New York: Longman. Munz, Peter. (1973). When the Golden Bough Breaks: Structuralism or Typology? London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. Pinsent, John. (1969). Greek Mythology. Virginia: Hamlyn. Provensen, Alice. (1959). Golden Treasury: Myths and Legends. New York: Golden Press. Rose, H.J. (1958) A Handbook of Classical Mythology. 6th ed. London: Methuen Publishing Ltd. 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