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| detail from John William Waterhouse, Ulysses and the Sirens |
In my first book of poems,THE FEVER ALMANAC, there are a couple poems that reference Greek mythology. One, a modern interpretation of "Cassandra." The second, called "Beneath" a nod to Persephone, Daphne, Ariadne or really all imperiled women in mythology. In earlier chapbooks, there are additional nods to Daphne and Helen of Troy. In a later book (MJCMF), I wrote a poem "how to re-imagine your life through mythological characters, where I reference several myths and end with a passage on Iphigenia's magical transformation into a deer.
Today, as I was penning a GRANATA piece, I was thinking about "Beneath" in particular, since many parts of that project echo similar sentiments. Particularly since I added the choral elements of the sirens-which depending on the version you read, were either punished or gifted with their monstrousness. Punished by Demeter for not paying attention and allowing Hades to abduct her daughter. Or gifted to be able to fly in search of her. Their winding up on the rocks and cliffs and luring men to their death came later. The interpretation of them as sexy sea creatures even later. At first they were winged and more like harpies. Common representations vary, even among singular artists (Waterhouse, for example painted them as both, as winged monsters and sexy sea nymphs--though even the winged variety still had beautiful Pre-Raphaelite faces.. )
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The Greeks are something I've always strangely gravitated to, even now seeking out lessons to write on mythology, epics, and classical drama. This week, it was Hippolytus and a meddlesome Aphrodite. It probably started with just watching Clash of the Titans one too many time as a child (a favorite) but carried through college and a lot of theater history classes supplemented by mythology, and just a literary education in general that loves the Greeks--in poetry particularly. Though not a writer but an artist, my sister took an interest and actually majored in it--learning to read and write classical languages, a feat that seemed really challenging watching her undergrad years, esp while my time at the same institution was flitting around and reading plays and novels (or sometimes skipping course novels to read other, better, novels and then pretending I had.). I was more there for the stories, and this is what stuck with me.
The first poems, or the first poems that were any good, were steeped in the classics. one of the first poems I published at al was about Calypso. More were written later, some, like the Daphne and Helen of Troy ones making it into chapbooks, but not collections. That first ill-concieved manuscript written in my early 20's would feature those early female interpretations of myth that was pretty terrible, but I would revive that same title, taurus later for a contemporary Ariadne myth set on a farm in the midwest that I was actually pretty content with.
I was doing another lesson this week on Sanskrit theatre, which started later, after the first century AD, but was performed much longer than the Ancient Greek variety, up til the 1400s, though less is retained in full versions and much was lost or is uncertain in its dating. It occurred to me how much western lit is rooted in what was only a few centuries of classical output. How over 2000 years later, here I am, nowhere even near the Mediterranean, still writing obsessively about them.
