On the Impact of Greco-Roman Mythology on English Literature

On the Impact of Greco-Roman Mythology on English Literature.

Y. 2020 02 27.

ABSTRACT : Greco-Roman mythology has had an enormous influence on literature, sculpture and painting in the world. Obviously, its influence on British literature is also beyond doubt. Many English words and proverbs are derived from Greco-Roman mythology, which has enriched the English language a lot. Besides , quite a lot of British poets and writers directly quoted mythical characters and themes, or adapted mythical stories into dramas, or created characters based on mythical characters or themes in their works. It can be seen that Greco-Roman myths have a profound influence on English literature.

Today I will analyze the influence of Greek and Roman Mythology on English literature from three aspects: vocabulary, literary research school and literary works.

KEY WORDS: Greco-Roman Mythology; British Literature; source; impact; literary works

TEXT:

Greek mythology is a collection of stories about gods and heroes of the ancient Greek nation. The Romans inherited most of the Greek culture, including Greek mythology, and preserved it under their own simple style and Latin name. Greco-Roman Mythology is full of individuality and beauty, and it is the source of poetry, art and independent spirit.

Tracing back the history of Western literature, it is not difficult to find the close relationship between Greek and Roman myths and ancient Greek literature .Greek and Roman mythology is the source and soil of the ancient Greek literature and art, and the ancient Greek literature and the ancient Roman literature after that become the rich treasure for later generations to understand the Greek and Roman mythology. Later, with the spread of Christianity, myths other than the Bible were gradually abandoned in Europe, and any pagan god was regarded as a demon, no longer playing a dominant role in people's religious beliefs. However, the beautiful image and rich poetry of Greek and Roman mythology still remain in people's consciousness for a long time, and as the eternal theme of literature and art, it has been handed down. By the Renaissance, it was rooted in European culture through the creation of some great artists. This has far-reaching significance for later generations.

Many English words are derived from Greek and Roman mythology, which greatly enriches the English language. The English literary works based on Greek and Roman myths have greatly deepened the implication and connotation of English literature and enriched the treasure house of English literary works. It can be said that there is no doubt about the great influence of Greek and Roman Mythology on English literature.

1、First, English vocabulary derived from myth.（词汇）

Some words, such as “chaotic”, “hypnotic”,” fortunate”,” protean”, “labyrinthine”, “tantalize”, all come from Greek mythology. The word "tantalize" comes from a character in Greek mythology, Tantalus, who was the son of Zeus. Tantalus committed the crime of killing children and desecrating gods. He killed his son and cooked his meat for the gods to taste. After that, he was imprisoned in hell by Zeus, not only unable to see the sun from now on, but also suffered from hunger and thirst. He was chained to the water and always had a bunch of grapes hanging in front of him. Though he was hungry and thirsty, every time he opened his mouth to reach the grapes, they immediately disappeared. In this way, he has to endure the pain of looking at grapes but not eating them every day. Later, the word "tantalize" appeared in English, which means "teasing" animals with food.

The commonly used words "music" and "Museum" also come from the story of gods in Greek mythology. Muse is the general name of nine goddesses in Greek mythology, which are in charge of music, art, literature and astronomy. They like to live at the foot of the Panassas Mountains in southern Greece and in the spring water on Mount Helion. Therefore, there is still a source of knowledge and inspiration. In order to worship the Muses, the ancient Greeks placed some works of art and scientific and technological achievements in the Muse temple. This is the origin of the word "Museum". The word "music" evolved from "mousikos", means "belonging to Muses". The name of halcyon comes from the tragic love story of a loving couple in ancient Greek mythology. The life of King Ceyx and queen Alcyone is very harmonious. Once, they inadvertently compared themselves to the main god Zeus and Hera, which infuriated Hera and Zeus. So Zeus decided to punish them. Then, Ceyx died of the shipwreck, and Alcyone was devastated and drowned herself in the sea. When she died, she turned into a halcyon and kept whining. According to the name of Alcyone, people named it halcyon.

Another is the oral words and proverbs written by various popular writers. For example, "Golden Fleece", as a rare treasure, means "Golden Apple" in dispute or disaster, and "Achilles heel", which represents the fatal weakness. For example, the song of siren, the box of Pandora, the tribulation of Tantalus, etc. These names of people, places and allusions have long been common used by young and old, and have penetrated into all aspects of daily life in western society.

The English vocabulary transformed from Greek mythology is everywhere. These mythological allusions not only enrich the English language, but also add a lot of interest to English literature.

2、Second, the school of literary research based on Greek and Roman mythology.（研究流派）

Greek and Roman mythology can be said to be one of the sources of British and American culture and an important research direction of British and American culture. At present, the study of Greek and Roman mythology at home and abroad has included literature, philosophy, religion and so on. From the aspects of language, literature, outlook on life and values, various schools discussed the influence of Greek and Roman culture on British culture. This is very helpful to deepen the source of British culture and understand Greek and Roman mythology.

In the 19th century, western scholars developed their interest in the study of Greek and Roman mythology and established many schools. Such as the school of nature , symbolism, etymology, etc. Some people think that God is the embodiment of nature, some people think that the image of God comes from the primitive fear of human beings, others think that the purpose of myth is to explain the origin of some customs. There are many of these scholars. Max Miller (1823-1900), a British scholar, first established comparative mythology, adopting the method of comparative language of Indo European family. James George Fraser (1854-1941), a Scottish anthropologist, wrote the golden bough. Fraser mentioned Diana, the God of the forest. He introduced the sacrifice of forest gods in detail, put forward the view that witchcraft has primitive rationality and power of gods, and then tends to religious evolution. This work studies the origin and status of myth and broadens people's horizon.

The viewpoints of these schools are very useful. They have provided great help for us to grasp the commonness and evolution of literary types objectively in the 20th century.

3、Thirdly, the influence of Mythology on literary works.

1\ The influence of Greek and Roman Mythology on British drama creation.

Greek and Roman mythology is easy to understand and almost everyone in Britain knows it. Many writers who are familiar with mythology not only quote mythology stories in their works, but also adapt mythology stories into dramas or operas, which greatly enriches British literary creation.

For example, Shakespeare, the great writer, whose plays are influenced by Greek myths and tragedies a lot . King Lear is one of Shakespeare's four famous tragedies. King Lear divided his country between his eldest daughter and his second daughter, who eventually exiled him. The only daughter who loved him helped him regain the territory, but died in the war. At last, King Lear died beside her. King Lear's tragedy mainly comes from his extreme personality and flattery. In the end, he paid a heavy price for his misconduct. As a king, he was exiled and died at the time of success. The same is true of Agamemnon in Greek mythology. He was invincible in the battlefield, but died in his wife's hands after the war. Oedipus in the Greek tragedy, after knowing that he had made a big mistake, blinded his eyes and exiled himself to punish his mistake. King Lear's tragedy has the characteristics of Agamemnon and Oedipus. He was betrayed by his relatives, suffered from exile for his faults, and died when he succeeded.（莎士比亚的戏剧）

Not only Shakespeare's plays are influenced by Greek mythology, but also modern English dramatist Bernard Shaw. He created the comedy Pygmalion with Greek mythology. He named the play after a mythical character, Pygmalion, and was later adapted for the Hollywood movie My Fair Lady. The film is a household name. Pygmalion in the myth fell in love with a female statue of his own, so he prayed to the God of love to give life to the statue, and later he married the living statue as he wished. In Shaw's comedy flower girl, a language professor bets with a colonel that he can train a humble flower girl to be an upper class lady who can speak a fluent London accent. Unexpectedly, after the successful adjustment, the professor fell in love with her. Finally, he put down his proud face and proposed to the lady who had been "successfully transformed". This drama based on Greek mythology has the same effect as the original mythology, which makes people laugh after reading it.（萧伯纳的戏剧卖花女）

2\ The influence of Greek Mythology on English poetry.

Such as the long poem Venus and Adonis，which was written by Shakespeare. The content of Venus and Adonis is almost the same as the story in Greek mythology, but the plot changes slightly. In myth, Adonis became the lover of Venus, the God of love, and gave birth to a son and a daughter. In Savon 's long poems, Adonis refuses to accept the Venus who shows his love to him; Venus, the God of love, encounters Adonis, a beautiful young man in the world, whose beauty makes her deeply moved and fall in love with him at first sight. So Venus used all the sweet words and tenderness to seduce the pure young beauty. However, Adonis was eager to get rid of her, and Venus did not move her all the way to make Adonis comply. Finally, Adonis, who escaped from Venus, was killed by a porcupine when he was hunting the next morning. When Venus arrived, he was very sad to see Adonis who had already died.（莎士比亚的长诗）

In addition to the chief poem, the God of Greek mythology appeared in Shakespeare's the tempest. For example, Elis, the rainbow goddess, who has been blessed, sprinkles nectar and fresh showers on the flowers with orange wing arms, gracefully celebrates the combination of Miranda and Ferdinand's love... Juno himself goes out to bless Miranda and Ferdinand's love forever. What a beautiful story it is! （莎士比亚的戏剧和长诗）

Besides Shakespeare, other poets are also influenced by Greek and Roman mythology. At the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century, many themes of Keats, Shelley and Byron, the famous British Romantic poets, came from Greek and Roman myths. For example, Shelley's Ode to the west wind, Keats's Ode to the Greek urn and Byron's lament for Greece.（其他浪漫主义诗人）

3\ The influence of Greek and Roman Mythology on the creation of English novels.

In the use of Greek and Roman mythology in English literature, the most famous is Joyce's masterpiece Ulysses. In Ulysses, Joyce not only takes the name of Ulysses, the hero of Homer's Odyssey, as the title of the novel, but also makes the structure of the novel correspond to the legendary adventure experience of the hero in the ancient Greek myth. The author uses the framework of Odyssey to satirize the reality of Western society in the early 20th century with the story of Ulysses, the leader of ITA, returning home after the end of the Trojan War.（小说尤利西斯）

In addition to directly quoting or rewriting or adapting mythological stories, there are also many characters and themes in English literary works that take the characters or themes in Greek mythology as the prototype. Some scholars divide the archetypes of Greek mythology into 8 types: female mythology archetypes, male mythology archetypes, hero archetypes, drifting archetypes, searching archetypes, father son conflict archetypes, mother son conflict archetypes, and gender conflict archetypes. According to these classifications, we can find the prototype of Greek and Rome myth in many English literary works. For example, the prototype of father son conflict in Greek mythology is the well-known story of Oedipus King killing his father and marrying his mother. His tragedy was later applied to psychology by Freud and created the word Oedipus complex, also known as “Oedipus complex”. This kind of Oedipus and anti father complex is reflected in many British literary works, among which the most typical character with "Oedipus complex" is Paul, the protagonist in Lawrence's semi autobiographical novel Sons and lovers. His morbid attachment to his mother and his disgust with his vulgar father just reflect the "Oedipus complex". And Oedipus, who killed his father and married his mother, is his prototype.（小说儿子与情人）

To sum up, there are many stories about ancient Greek drifting on the sea and land in Greek and Roman mythology and Homer epic. Odysseus' experience of drifting on the sea ten years after the end of the Trojan War became the theme prototype of Defoe's Robinson Crusoe. In Byron's Oriental narrative poem, there are a group of pagans, pirates and exiles. Most of them are lonely, arrogant, stubborn, and irreconcilable rebels. They often fight against fate alone and pursue the free world they yearn for. These "Byron heroes" show their uncompromising resistance to the society through their struggle. Their prototypes are the heroes in Greek and Roman Mythology: Prometheus the fire stealing hero, Ethan the pirate hero, Odysseus the drifting hero, Achilles the war hero.（总结，小说和诗歌）

With the beginning of civilization, the era of myth and legend has come to an end. But as a kind of colorful folk oral literature, Greek and Roman mythology has been preserved. Moreover, a comprehensive record has been left. It reflects the picture of human life before the class society. With thousands of characters, it shows the social features at that time, and shows the self-esteem, courage and justice of human beings. This makes Greek and Roman mythology full of vivid life breath and immortal charm.

In conclusion, Greek and Roman mythology is the treasure of the world's classical culture and the precious wealth left by the ancient Greeks and Romans. It has a great influence on Western literature, architecture and art. Without this precious intangible cultural heritage, it is hard to imagine the direction of human cultural and literary history. The influence of Greek and Roman Mythology on the creation of English literary works is immeasurable.