Classical Mythology and Renaissance Literature: Love and Loss
T+ and Poetic Reasons in Renaissance Literature
In the new position of Renaissance literature, ideals are drawn from Neoplatonism and the Italian-influenced classical literature of Petrarch. The main referent authors had two classics: in the bucolic, the model was Virgil, elaborated upon by the Italian Sannazaro; in odes and epistles, the poets were set in the main theme of Horace. In Renaissance lyrics, love is related to introspection and the poetic expression of suffering due to the absence or death of the beloved, or the lack of correspondence. There is barely any expression of shared love between lovers; on the contrary, reasons abound that provoke the pain of love, dislocation, and its rotten reason.
The description of the woman corresponds to the Renaissance image of beauty. Images associated with the beloved can manifest as disdainful and ruthless. For its part, the masculine “I” has no equivalent physical portrait, only appearing as a constant lover. “Carpe diem” is a theme associated with love, and encourages its enjoyment. It is frequently presented in relation to images of the cycles of renovation and death in nature. Another frequent theme is the “locus amoenus,” where the beauty of nature is related to love and humanizes the landscape as a projection of the poetic “I.” It presents a hard beauty that contrasts with the complaints of the disdained lover.
Classical mythology, especially the stories of metamorphosis narrated by Ovid, also serves to express the amorous relationship. Allusions to gods and mythological beings appear, especially emblematic couples: Venus and Adonis, Hero and Leander, Orpheus and Eurydice, Daphne and Apollo.
Other minor themes of Renaissance lyric are friendship, only between men, and courtly praise. In the second half of the 15th century, more diverse matters are addressed. In this period, religious themes dominate, especially moral lyrics. In the reflexive position of the following characteristics, ethical topics and motives stand out: “the blessed life,” which is treated through the search for perfection in nature, the under-appreciation of the urban, and the domination of passions. Self-knowledge, introspection, and the consequent approach and communication with God are also important.
Classical Myths
Hero and Leander
Leander was a young man from Abydos, in love with a priestess of Aphrodite named Hero, who resided in Sestos, a town on the shore of the Hellespont, in front of Abydos. Every night, the young man crossed the river by swimming, guided by a lamp that Hero lit atop the tower of her house. But in a tempest, the lamp went out, and Leander drowned in the dark. The next day, his corpse was thrown to the bottom of the tower. Hero, who could not live without her lover, threw herself into the void.
Apollo and Daphne
Daphne, whose name means “laurel” in Greek, was a nymph beloved by Apollo, god of the sun. Pursued by him, she fled until, at the point of being reached, she begged the gods for help, and they transformed her into a laurel tree. Apollo, upon seeing the metamorphosis of his mistress, fell weeping at her feet, thus clarifying the transformation of the young woman into a tree.
Orpheus and Eurydice
Orpheus played the fiddle with such charm and delicacy that he tranquilized both humans and animals who heard him. One day, his wife died, and seeing his desperation, the gods permitted him to rescue her from the afterlife, but they forbade him to turn his head to look at her. Orpheus failed to meet the condition, thus losing his wife a second time. He then took refuge in the mountains, where he lived alone, playing the fiddle.
Myrrh, Aphrodite, and Adonis
The goddess Aphrodite is the goddess of love, lust, beauty, and reproduction. Her equivalent is the Roman goddess Venus. Aphrodite was a lover of Adonis and took part in his birth. Cinyras, king of Syria, had a daughter, Myrrh, whose beauty he was so proud of that he used to say that she was as beautiful as the goddess herself. In revenge, Aphrodite inspired an incestuous desire in Myrrh for her own father. Cinyras rejected Myrrh, but one night she disguised herself as a prostitute and maintained relations with her father for days, becoming pregnant. At the end, when her father realized who his mistress was, he pursued her to kill her, armed with a knife. Myrrh, in imminent danger, implored the protection of the gods, who, to protect her, turned her into a tree that is called “myrrh.” Nine months later, a boar thrust its tusks into the myrrh tree, and the beautiful child Adonis emerged. Aphrodite, entranced by the child, picked him up and entrusted him to Persephone, goddess of the underworld, to raise him. When Adonis grew up, Aphrodite wanted to recover him, but Persephone would not consent, so Zeus, god and supreme father of the two goddesses, had to intervene. His decision was that Adonis would live a third of the year with each of the goddesses and spend the rest where he wished. Adonis, who was always very fond of hunting, died early because of a boar wound, driven by the jealousy of Ares/Mars, god of war and lover of Aphrodite. Upon hearing the cries of Adonis, the goddess ran to protect him. Along the way, the tears from her eyes were becoming roses that were being tinged red by the blood that came out of the wounds produced by the thorns of the rose bushes. The roses, white in principle, took on different shades, preferentially the color of blood. Since then, these flowers are devoted to the goddess. When she arrived with Adonis, he was agonizing. From his drops of blood, together with the tears of Aphrodite converted into roses, came the first anemone. Aphrodite, in memory of her lover, instituted a festival that the Syrian women celebrated every year in spring. They planted seeds in special recipients, called “Gardens of Adonis,” and watered them with hot water so that they would sprout quickly and die soon. The anemones are as soon as Adonis himself, a symbol of life, death, and resurrection in nature. In winter, Adonis descends to hell with Persephone, when everything seems to die, but he resurges in spring upon returning to Aphrodite.
Polyphemus and Galatea
Polyphemus is a horrible giant, the wildest of the Cyclopes. He is a shepherd, living off his sheep and dwelling in a cave. Galatea is a young woman in love with Acis, and both are loved by Polyphemus. One day, the two lovers were resting by the sea when Polyphemus saw them. The young Acis tried to flee, and Polyphemus crushed him by throwing an enormous rock. Galatea turned her lover into a river of crystal-clear waters.