Classical Mythology

CLASSICAL MYTHOLOGY IN LITERATURE AND ART 673

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Lead me on, O Muses, as I rise to new themes and dare things greater than my

strength, not afraid to enter woods not yet visited. I try to extend your bounds and

to bring new treasure to poetry. I shall not tell of the war coming into being to de-

stroy the heaven [i.e., the war of the giants], nor of the unborn baby [Dionysus]

buried by the flames of the thunderbolt in its mother, nor of the kings [i.e., Agamem-

non and the Greek leaders] bound by their oath, nor of Hector ransomed for his

cremation as Troy was falling, and Priam bringing him [back to Troy]. I shall not

tell of the Colchian woman [i.e., Medea] selling the kingdom of her father and dis-

membering her brother for love, nor of the crop of warriors and the cruel flames

of the bulls and the watchful dragon, nor of the years restored [i.e., to Aeson], nor

the fire lit by gold [i.e., the killing of Glauce and Creon], nor [Medea's] children

sinfully conceived and more sinfully murdered.

In the next century (ca. A.D. 140) the Greek-Egyptian astronomer and math-
ematician Ptolemy (Claudius Ptolemaeus) published his astrological treatise, the
Tetrabiblos, which explained the heavenly bodies and the nature of their influ-
ence upon human character and action.
Christianity was unable to resist the popularity of astrology. St. Augustine
vigorously attacked it in his City of God (especially in Book 5), yet even he be-
lieved that the stars did have an influence, to which God and human free will
were nevertheless superior. In any case, astrology was too much a part of late
classical and early medieval culture to be extirpated. It therefore survived the
coming of Christianity and with it the classical gods prolonged their existence,
often, it is true, in scarcely recognizable forms.

PAGAN AND CHRISTIAN CRITICS

Even the critics of mythology acknowledged its uses. As early as 55 B.C. the Ro-
man poet Lucretius found the names of the gods useful as symbols (De Rerum
Natura 2. 655-660):

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Let us allow a man to use "Neptune" and "Ceres" for "sea" and "grain," "Bac-
chus" for the proper word "wine," "mother of the gods" for "earth," provided
that he does not in fact allow his mind to be touched by base superstition.
Elsewhere in De Rerum Natura (3. 978-1023) Lucretius interprets myths alle-
gorically, so that the sinners in the Underworld (Tantalus, Tityus, Sisyphus) be-
come allegories of human passions. He comments on Tityus as follows (3. 992-994):

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Tityus is in us here, whom the birds tear as he lies in the throes of love and as
painful anxiety eats him up or as the cares of some other desire consume him.
By rationalizing the myths writers such as Lucretius were also ensuring their
survival. This also was the case when they were attacked by the Christian Fa-
thers. Augustine's goal in writing his City of God (ca. A.D. 420) was, in his words,
"to defend the City of God against those who prefer their gods to its founder,"
that is, preferring the gods of classical mythology to Christianity. Yet Augus-