Publisher's Synopsis
These essays promote the view that central artists and writers of the 19th century were united in their common preoccupation with a symbolic interpretation of ancient myth in the light of their own culture. Shelley, Byron, Turner, Tennyson, Ruskin, Swinburne, Darwin, Hardy and Pater are among those discussed.;Nineteenth century historical background when myth and mythography underwent radical revision for reasons connected with important changes in ideology is discussed. The development of anthropology, the fascination with language and the demythologizing of Christianity is seen to have brought about the re-examination of ancient myths as expressions of primitive religious belief and as primitive, natural poetry which expressed the relationship between man and nature symbolically.
