Myth

Acentral feature of the Renaissance was the revival of interest in the cultures of ancient Greece and Rome. This revival brought classical* mythology—the stories of ancient gods and goddesses—into the popular imagination. Renaissance scholars translated and interpreted classical myths, giving new meanings to these pagan* tales. Artists and writers also turned to myths as a rich source of subject matter and symbolism. By the late 1400s, pagan myths began to challenge the dominance of Christian subjects in literature and the arts.

Rediscovering Classical Myths. Scholars learned about classical mythology from four main sources. Two of these were Greek: the writings of the philosopher PLATO and the epics* of the poet Homer. The third, the Aeneid, was a Latin epic by the Roman poet VIRGIL about the founding of Rome. The verses of the Roman poet Ovid—particularly the Metamorphoses, a collection of myths—made up the fourth source.

Scholars of the Middle Ages had known the works of Virgil and Ovid. Renaissance readers inherited their texts along with a large body of commentary on the works. Homer's epics, however, were unknown except for scattered quotations in the works of ancient Roman writers. A major feat of Renaissance scholarship was the translation of Homer and Plato into Latin and the widespread publication of ancient Latin works. Later, scholars translated these classical texts into vernacular* languages. As a result of their activities, educated people of the Renaissance had access to a wealth of classical myths.

The Italian writer Giovanni BOCCACCIO pioneered mythography, the systematic study of myths. He devoted the final 25 years of his life to an encyclopedic work called Genealogy* of the Gods. Boccaccio and other commentators claimed that myths contained multiple layers of meaning for readers. For example, one edition of Ovid's Metamorphoses presented four ways of reading the myth of Daedalus, the Greek inventor imprisoned by King Minos. Daedalus made wings to escape, but his son Icarus disobeyed him, flew too close to the sun, and died. The editor suggested that readers could view this story literally—as history—or as one of three allegories*. On the moral level, Daedalus could stand for a sinner imprisoned by the Devil. In religious terms, Daedalus might represent God and Icarus a Christian at risk of falling from grace. Finally, the story made a point about family life: that children should obey their fathers. A popular history of the classical gods also offered historical, natural, and moral interpretations of the ancient stories.

Renaissance mythographers operated from the principle that classical mythology, although older than Christianity, was in harmony with Christian beliefs and morality. This principle led them to look for Christian themes beneath the surfaces of the myths. They also identified classical figures, such as heroes and gods, with Christian virtues and vices.

Mythology and the Arts. Some Renaissance mythographers emphasized physical descriptions of the gods or discussed the ways the ancient Greeks and Romans had portrayed them. One popular account, called Images of the Gods, described statues of the deities and included 85 illustrations. It was a useful source for artists and poets seeking to use classical mythology in their works.

In the 1400s, the Italian writer and architect Leon Battista ALBERTI advised artists to look to classical poetry for their subject matter. Many followed his advice and began painting scenes and figures from Ovid's poems and other ancient works. The first large-scale paintings of pagan gods made since antiquity* were Sandro BOTTICELLI's Primavera and The Birth of Venus, painted in the early 1480s. Both paintings focused on the nude figures of goddesses. Renaissance artists had a keen interest in human anatomy and sexuality. Classical myths, with their stories of the gods and their loves, offered many chances to explore these subjects.

The Italian artist TITIAN was the greatest mythological painter of the Renaissance. Early in his career he completed or added to mythological works by other artists, such as GIORGIONE DA CASTELFRANCO's Sleeping Venus. Between 1518 and 1523 Titian produced three large paintings on mythical subjects. He also made many paintings of Venus, the goddess of love, and he created a series of paintings that dramatized myths from Ovid for the Spanish king PHILIP II. However, Titian was not the only important artist inspired by classical myths. Scenes, images, and characters from myths appeared in countless works of art and decorations.

The influence of classical myths on Renaissance literature began with the Italian poet PETRARCH. He wrote sonnets* that described his own love affair in terms of the mythical relationship between the god Apollo and the nymph* Daphne. Another Italian poet, Angelo POLIZIANO, celebrated the powers of Venus and of the love god Cupid. His Fable of Orpheus (1480), based on the myth of Orpheus the singer, was the first pastoral* drama written in Italian. Poet Ludovico ARIOSTO used images from classical myths in his epic Orlando Furioso, which influenced many other writers. For example, he shows one character chained to a rock like the mythical princess Andromeda.

The Italian enthusiasm for mythology spread to France in the 1500s. Diane de Poitiers, a powerful woman at the court of King Henry II, sparked many references to the Roman goddess Diana in art and poetry. One French poet who drew upon classical myth was Pierre de RONSARD, who used the gods Apollo and Bacchus as symbols of poetic inspiration.

The Renaissance arrived in England in full force in the late 1500s, introducing English writers to classical influences. Edmund SPENSER's long poem The Faerie Queene, published in the 1550s, contains elements drawn from Ovid and Virgil as well as from the tradition of chivalry*. William SHAKESPEARE drew characters and plots for several of his plays from Ovid. However, his most notable contribution to mythological literature was the poem Venus and Adonis (1593). It captures both the humor and the tragic tone of Ovid's poem about the doomed love of the goddess and a beautiful young man.