Greek and Roman Myths in Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queene, Book I, Cantos 1-6

Abstract

For his Renaissance ideas of love, beauty, virtue, holiness, knighthood, and war, Spenser employs or alludes to Greek and Roman myths including: primordial deities, Nyx or Night and Demogorgon; the Titans, Oceanus, Tethys, Helios, Nereus, Tityus, and the Titaness Cybele or Rhea; major gods, Jove or Zeus or Jupiter, Juno, Neptune, Pluto, Proserpina, Phoebus Apollo, Cynthia or Diana, Mart or Mars, Venus, and Bacchus; minor deities, Muse, Clio, Cupid, Morpheus, Hecate, Graces or Charites or Gratiae, Hymen, Flora, Hesperus, Aurora, Proteus, Boreas, Furies, Aesculapius, Fauns, Satyrs, Sylvanus, Dryope, Pholoe, Hamadryades, and Naiades; mythological figures, Arcas, Tithon, Cassiopeia, Odysseus, Orion, Phaethon, Ixion, Sisyphus, Tantalus, Danaides, Hippolytus, and Sthenoboea; legendary creatures, Gorgon, Argus, Gryphon or Griffin, Cerberus, and Typhoeus or Typhon; mythological places, Styx, Lethe, Cocytus, Acheron, Phlegethon, and Avernus. The technique of manipulating Greek and Roman myths in Spenser’s The Faerie Queene, Book I, Cantos 1-6 underlies his complicated intentions, deepening his poetic symbolism, and broadening his literary perspective.