Seamus Heaney and the Classics

Abstract

The death of Seamus Heaney in 2013 is an appropriate point to honour the Irish poet’s contribution to classical reception in modern poetry in English; this is the first volume dedicated to that subject, though occasional essays have appeared in the past. The volume comprises literary criticism by scholars of classical reception and literature in English, and has some input from critics who are also poets and from theatre practitioners on their interpretations and productions of Heaney’s versions of Greek drama; it combines well-known names with early-career contributors, and friends and collaborators of Heaney with those who admired him from afar. The papers focus on two main areas: Heaney’s fascination with Greek drama and myth, shown primarily in his two Sophoclean versions but also in his engagement with Hesiod, with Aeschylus’ Agamemnon, and with myths such as that of Antaeus, and his interest in Latin poetry, primarily in Virgil but also in Horace. A number of the papers cover the same material, but from different angles; for example, Heaney’s interest in Virgil is linked with the traditions of Irish poetry, his capacity as a translator, and his annotations in his own text of a standard translation, as well as being investigated in its long development over his poetic career, while his Greek dramas are considered as verbal poetry, as comments on Irish politics, and as stage-plays with concomitant issues of production and interpretation. Heaney’s posthumous translation of Aeneid VI comes in for considerable attention, and this will be the first volume to study this major work.