Roman Myths Research Articles

Comparative Study of Chinese and Western Literature

The purpose of this paper is to comparatively study the differences and commonalities between Chinese literature and Western literature. First of all, the characteristics of the two are compared from three aspects, namely, presentation methods, thematic contents and literary forms. Chinese literature focuses on mood, ambiguity, and emphasizes the natural flow of emotions; while Western literature attaches importance to structure, logic, and pursues innovation in form. In terms of thematic content, Chinese literature tends to express personal emotions and expresses the harmony between human beings and nature and society; while Western literature focuses on the conflict between individuals and society and emphasizes freedom, equality and human rights. In terms of literary forms, Chinese literature coexists in various forms such as poetry, prose and novels, while Western literature takes novels, dramas and poems as its main forms. Secondly, this study explores the reasons for the differences between the two in terms of cultural background, writers' creative concepts and readers' acceptance. Chinese literature is deeply influenced by traditional cultural ideas such as Confucianism and Taoism, emphasizing moral education and philosophy of life; while Western literature is influenced by ancient Greek and Roman myths as well as religious beliefs such as Christianity, focusing on the inner world of man and exploring human nature. In terms of writers' creative concepts, Chinese writers tend to focus on social harmony from the perspective of traditional morality and ethics, while Western writers advocate the liberation of individuality and the pursuit of the realization of personal values. In terms of readers' acceptance, Chinese literature focuses on aesthetic experience and emotional resonance, while Western literature pays more attention to logical reasoning and thinking. The comparative study of Chinese literature and Western literature can help us better understand the diversity of world literature and enrich our concepts of literary aesthetics and creation. At the same time, by learning from the excellent achievements of Western literature, we can promote the innovation and development of Chinese literature.

Lycanthropus adulescens: the classical element in MTV’s Teen Wolf (2011–17)

Abstract The adaptation of elements of Greek and Roman myth and folklore is a recurrent aspect of late-twentieth- and early-twenty-first-century fiction on page and screen. These elements are usually presented alongside other mythologies and serve to add depth and veracity to the world-building. This is no different in Teen Wolf, an MTV show that focused on Scott McCall’s journey through lycanthropy. However, in most modern fiction the classical element is one of many sources used in in-story world-building. This paper will present the many examples of the use of classical elements in Teen Wolf, including: the way the werewolves are presented as Lycaon’s descendants and with elements common to Roman versipelles, the way the classical past (historic, folkloric, mythic) is included as part of the intradiegetic lore, and how the show itself is built following ancient epic patterns with classical paradigms as points of reference.

Legitimizing political power from below. A reinterpretation of the founding myths of Thebes, Athens, and Rome as a critique against private and public violence

What do we mean when affirming ‘the powerful return of the state’? Do we have in mind the jus ad bellum employed by aggressive states, or are we thinking of the duties that a state has towards its citizens? Starting from these questions, this article aims to reconceptualize the issue of the political legitimacy of a state by reconsidering the relationship between power and violence. Among other forms of emergencies and violence, then, a legitimate state needs to be capable of responding to gender-based (sexual and domestic) violence. To reinforce my suggestion, I will reinterpret some Greek and Roman myths related to the founding of cities (Thebes, Athens and Rome). Through these myths, we will be able to illustrate, in particular, the necessity for a state to be capable of combating both public and private violence, reframing the notion of nemesis (as a fate that can be changed by descendants) and fear (as a status that can be stopped in the present).

The Metamorphoses of Myth in Fiction since 1960 by Kathryn Hume

Reviewed by: The Metamorphoses of Myth in Fiction since 1960 by Kathryn Hume Fiona Cox The Metamorphoses of Myth in Fiction since 1960. By Kathryn Hume. New York and London: Bloomsbury Academic. 2020. xii+192 pp. £85 (pbk £28.99). ISBN 978–1–5013–5987–3 (pbk 978–1–5013–7824–9). Kathryn Hume opens the volume by asking: 'Why should contemporary Anglophone writers use myths from ancient Greece and Rome, from Pharaonic Egypt, from the Viking north, from Africa's west coast, and from Hebrew and Christian traditions?' (p. i). This is, of course, a big question eliciting a range of responses, and the wide, inclusive sweep of mythologies indicates the vast scope of this volume, a breadth that is all the more striking since the book is relatively short. Hume's extraordinarily wide-ranging expertise and reading are evidenced throughout the volume as we move from Mailer to Acker to Vonnegut, Pullman, and Calvino (the one non-Anglophone writer), and many more. The dizzying array of primary sources is indicated in the chapter titles—for example, the final chapter, Chapter 6, is entitled 'The Contemporary Functions of Myth as Artistic Tool: Pynchon, Arthurian stories, Faber, Pullman, Morrow, Ducornet, Marcus, Atwood, Vonnegut, Naylor, Morrison, Silko, Östergren, Winterson, Grossman, Rucker'. This is an astonishing range of writers and subjects to cover in just 28 pages. Previous chapters take as their focus 'Multiple Selves and Egyptian Mythology', 'Mythological Worlds and Death', 'Orpheus and Eurydice: Variations on a Theme', 'Invented Myth: The Problem of Power', and 'Situational Myth: Posthuman Metamorphoses'. All promise a wide selection of sources enriching the discussion. Hume writes well and engagingly and I read the book with pleasure and profit. I learnt a great deal and was introduced to a range of authors whose works I have not yet considered. I particularly enjoyed the nuanced discussion of Janette Turner Hospital's Orpheus Lost. The presentation of Neil Gaiman's work and thought was also especially suggestive and persuasive. There is a particular emphasis in the volume on dystopian fiction, which has been understudied to date, at least in the area of classical reception. The virtues of the volume are, however, directly tied to [End Page 241] what might be perceived as its shortcomings. There were many times when I would greatly have welcomed far more detailed discussion of an author or a work, but found myself tantalized with a brief analysis before the discussion moved on to the next book or the next author. Since so many authors and texts are covered there is a lot of introductory discussion, which sometimes comes at the cost of more probing analysis. I also think that much of the exposition could have been enriched by closer engagement with other scholarly works within the field. Certainly there has been much work on contemporary literature and classical reception which is absent from the Bibliography and which could have added texture to the discussion of authors such as Winterson, Byatt, and Morrison. I am thinking particularly of studies such as Tessa Roynon, The Classical Tradition in Modern American Fiction (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2021), and Judith Fletcher, Myths of the Underworld in Contemporary Culture: The Backward Gaze (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019). I am aware, however, that a more focused and substantial engagement of selected authors would have reduced the extraordinary scope of this volume, and that would have been to its detriment. I closed the book wishing that there was much more, but grateful for the pleasure of being introduced to so much fresh material. This is a book that will open the eyes of any reader to unfamiliar worlds and undiscovered texts and which makes a genuine contribution to the expanding field of engagements with, and rewritings of, classical Greek and Roman myths in fiction of the last sixty years. Fiona Cox University of Exeter Copyright © 2023 Modern Humanities Research Association

Πάντα ῥεῖ and Πόντος ῥεῖ – Strabo on the Black Sea

Building on Strabo’s references to the Black Sea in his Geography, this article examines the perceived changeability of this region as it is summed up in his work and mainly until Strabo's own age. These changes are considered through three spheres of reference: (1) Geographical – this section offers a discussion of the shape of the sea and its connection to the Mediterranean. The Black Sea was at times conceived as a gulf linked to the surrounding Ocean, at times – as a closed sea, and at times – as a gulf linked to the Mediterranean. All three ideas reflected changes in geographical knowledge and their reflection in Greek sources. (2) Cultural – this section deals with the ethnic character of habitation in the regions surrounding the Black Sea. The change in this sphere of discussion pertains to various ethnicities said to inhabit the region while reflecting in the Greek sources a gradual change from barbarism to Hellenic and then Roman cultures. (3) Conceptual – this section surveys the image of the Black Sea in Greek and Roman myth and literature. It shows how the concept of the region went from marginal to central to marginal again. This image originated in historical reality, but resulted in the unique interpretation of the geopolitical developments within myth and literature. On the whole, this article demonstrates how the Greeks and the Romans perceived the region as at once known and unknown, close and distant, and abandoned and settled. All these perceptions contributed to the dynamic image of this unique environment.

Sacral Time in the Political Discourse of the Roman Republic

The paper considers four binary oppositions, which together give a description of the archaic stratum of the Romans’ perception of time: mythological and historical time; sacral and profane; favorable and unfavorable; cyclical and linear. Having religious content, these pairs had a direct relation to political power and its functioning, which is the object of this study. Of particular importance was the division of time into favorable/unfavorable, which was directly related to the most important prerogative of magistrate power — the right to auspicia. It is noted that the political power had wide pow ers to influence the sacral time, subordinating it to the interests of society, because it had a special responsibility for the fulfillment of the duty to the gods. And in this possibility lies one of the remarkable paradoxes of Roman religious thinking, where sincere faith was combined with a significant share of rational pragmatism. Perhaps this behavior was related to the sense of a clear boundary between the world of the gods and the world of men, which was characteristic of the Roman worldview, from which followed a negative attitude to the violation of this boundary on both sides. The influence of the “Roman myth”, which presented Roman successes as the embodiment of the original plan of the gods, the realization of which, accordingly, presupposed close interaction between gods and humans, cannot be ruled out.

Romulus és Remus Veiiben

Romulus and Remus in Veii
 Much has been written in Classics about the relationship between early Rome and the Etruscans, from scholarly articles to secondary school textbooks. Inspired in part by recent research in archaeogenetics, this article argues for the feasibility of an approach which sees Rome and its northern neighbours as political subsystems of the same cultural unit instead of interacting as separate cultural entities. As an example of that, if one reads the early archaeological material of Veii, an Etruscan city neighbouring Rome, and the Roman origin stories transmitted in Latin literature as products of the same culture (temporarily disregarding the linguistic-ethnic divide between the two cities that became so important later on), one can shed light on the vast scale of possible interpretations which could develop in both directions.
 Keywords: early Rome, Roman myth, meta-historiography, Livy, Etruscans, ethnicity in antiquity, Veii, heroon, casa Romuli

Египтяне и Византия. К вопросу о политической субъектности в поздней Античности

Introduction. The article focuses on the reasons for the lack of political subjectivity among the Egyptians in the Byzantine period (4th – first half of the 7th centuries). During this period, the population of Egypt did not demonstrate it at any level: social movements (uprisings) did not offer such agenda; studies on literature and rhetoric show that the Egyptians were under the influence of the Roman statehood (Eastern Roman Empire). The aims of the study are therefore concentrated around the consideration of the causes and terms of the loss of political subjectivity by the Egyptians, and the reasons for the increase of it among the Romans. An additional task was a comparative analysis of the political and religious systems of Ancient Rome and Ancient Egypt and the possible influence of religious features on the configuration of political systems. Methods. The main methods used in the study are factor analysis and the comparative method. Analysis. The ancient Egyptian political system was “introverted” and static in nature. The complete loss of political subjectivity by the Egyptians can be, however, attributed to the Roman period. In the Persian and Ptolemaic ones, its existence is preserved due to two main factors: the practices of the Persians and Ptolemies to present themselves as Egyptian pharaohs and the strong positions of the Egyptian priesthood, who could keep an ancient political subjectivity. Results. The Romans, who refused to continue Ptolemaic practices and took drastic measures to limit the economic independence of the Egyptian priesthood, managed to nullify its authentic political subjectivity. Thanks to an “extroverted” and transformative political model, supported by a “political theology” based on the “Roman myth”, the Roman state managed to maintain (or even strengthen) its subjectivity in the period of late Antiquity.

Revision as Relation: Adapting Parable in Chigozie Obioma’s The Fishermen

Abstract This essay explores the connection between adaptation and parable in Chigozie Obioma’s debut novel The Fishermen (2015). Obioma’s adaptation of parable revises this narrative form as radically relational. This revision of parable is tied to an equally relational understanding of adaptive processes. Using parable as the frame for its complex mixture of Igbo and Yoruba mythology, Biblical stories, and Greek and Roman myth, among others, enables the novel to reinterpret all these sources in the context of postcolonial Nigeria. This process thereby challenges the belief that we can dispel colonial power structures by simply rejecting canonical stories and their discursive frameworks and it suggests, instead, a notion of identity as relational and transient. Ultimately, the novel proposes an ethics of relationality that can help to re-assess processes of revision and their political and cultural impact.

Lykophron’s Alexandra, Rome, and the Hellenistic World by Simon Hornblower

Reviewed by: Lykophron’s Alexandra, Rome, and the Hellenistic World by Simon Hornblower Kenneth R. Jones Simon Hornblower. Lykophron’s Alexandra, Rome, and the Hellenistic World. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018. Pp. xxiii, 254. $70.00. ISBN 978-0-19-872368-4. Hornblower describes his book as an unapologetic work of history and it comes as a welcome complement to the same author’s monumental commentary on the Alexandra (Oxford 2015), which addressed both historical and literary topics in the poem. Though it stands solidly on its own, the reader is often directed to more detailed arguments presented originally in the commentary. The book is divided into two sections. The first part establishes the boundaries of the poem’s geopolitical world through an analysis of all the places (cities, rivers, and mountains) mentioned, often obliquely, by the poet. The poet’s horizon encompasses the Hellenistic kingdoms of the eastern Mediterranean, though the eastern portions of the Seleucid realm are largely ignored in the poem; the cities and federations of Greece; Magna Graecia and Sicily; Rhodes; and Campania, Latium, and Rome. In general, the poet is much more interested in the western Mediterranean and especially Italy. Much of the account of Italy and the west comes through the poet’s retelling of the various nostoi narratives, for which the Alexandra is an important piece of evidence. The second part deals with two thematic chapters: the first, on the poem’s relation to a number of oracular and apocalyptic texts (Sibylline Oracle 3, Phlegon of Tralles’ Mirabilia, the biblical book of Daniel, and the “Oracle of the Potter”); the second, on a variety of religious topics (the Locrian maidens, cult epithets, and myths of foundation and identity). Hornblower advocates a composition date in the early second century bc in the wake of the Roman victories over Philip V and Antiochus III. In establishing this date, he moves far beyond the so-called “Roman Passages” (lines 1226–82 and 1446–50) that have usually served as the bases for such historical arguments. In the commentary, Hornblower argued at length that the poem showed familiarity with a host of Hellenistic poets of the third century—he does not recapitulate these arguments in the present book. The detailed investigation of places named in the poem shows the poet’s knowledge of developments in these places through the third century. Hornblower also argues that the Hannibalic War in Italy, especially in the south, left a deep impression on the poem. Though the evidence of the poem on these topics is rarely straightforward and the case is necessarily circumstantial, it is compelling. The poet also shows a strong interest in the Roman colonization of South Italy in the aftermath of Hannibal’s defeat. Based on the poet’s knowledge of South Italy and his concerns with developments there, Hornblower identifies the poet as a Greek from that region; more precisely, he suggests Italian Locris as the poet’s hometown. The poem’s treatment of Egypt is largely antiquarian and shows little interest in Ptolemaic rule. The main thesis of the book is that the Alexandra is an intensely political poem, preoccupied with Roman imperial successes and expansion. Like Polybius, the poet views Roman ascendancy in a favorable light. Indeed, the poem is a celebration of Roman power, though the poet is no sycophant. Prefiguring the approach of the writers of the Second Sophistic, the poet takes great pride in his Greek heritage. Greek myths serve as a lens to understand Rome’s incorporation into the Hellenistic world and the development of Roman hegemony over that world. The poet, however, is also aware of Roman myth. Hornblower argues that the Alexandra displays the earliest Greek recognition of the dual foundation of Rome by Aeneas and by Romulus and Remus. [End Page 500] This is an important book. Historians have largely limited their engagement with the poem to the passages dealing with Rome’s ascendancy over land and sea—the present reviewer is himself guilty of this approach. Hornblower has expanded the field of historical enquiry to encompass the entire poem. While readers might reject this or that argument in a book densely packed with detailed and specialized investigations...

The Barren Mediterranean: Rural Imaginary in Italian Colonial Libya

Author(s): Monserrati, Michele | Abstract: The article considers the development of Italy’s Mediterranean identity from the country’s Unification to the Turco-Italian War (1911-1912). I show how Italy’s political ambition to restore Roman control over the Mediterranean Sea (Mare Nostrum) generated two alternative representations of the Roman myth: a sea-based and a land-based one. After the initial success of the maritime version of this myth, I argue that the years leading up to the war in Libya represented a shifting moment toward a reconsideration of the Romans’ agrarian legacy. Therefore, I maintain that an analysis of the Italian aesthetic of “Mediterraneism” should include representations of the natural environment. I show how Italians considered the idea of a uniform Mediterranean landscape as a natural historical landmark to testify the historical presence of the ancient Romans in North Africa and to legitimize the link between the Italian colonies and their supposedly glorious ancestors. Ultimately, by insisting on the botanical similarities between Italy and the North African shore, I demonstrate how the Libyan territory came to be represented as a landscape of the ‘self,’ while manifesting the presence of the Muslim’ other’ in the form of its most arid regions.

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

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.

Збереження міфічних цінностей літератури як гаранту існування духовної парадигми присутності у творчості Віри Вовк

Статтю присвячено збереженні міфічних цінностей літератури як гаранту існування духовної парадигми присутності у творчості Віри Вовк. Інтерпретація цієї проблематики окреслюється завдяки акцентуванню основних мотивів, які поетеса використовувала в своїй творчості. Акцентується увага на християнських паралелях, на грецьких та римських міфах і на широкому спектрі рідної української етнокультури Карпат. На загальному тлі здійсненого аналізу постає ширший висновок про існування духовної парадигми мислення Віри Вовк. Ідеалістичний світогляд поетеси, з’єднується з художніми світами, які можуть існувати поруч і взаємно доповнюватись.

Janus’s Two Faces

In ancient Roman religion and myth, “Janus” is the god of beginnings, transitions, and endings. He is often depicted as having two faces, one looking to the future and one to the past. The Supreme Court’s Janus v. AFSCME case of last term is fittingly named. Stunning in its disregard of principles of stare decisis, the Janus decision marks the end of the post-New Deal compromise with respect to public sector unions and the First Amendment. Looking to the future, Janus lays the groundwork for further attack on labor rights — as well as for a broader erosion of civil society and democracy at the expense of corporate power. In that way, Janus represents an unequivocal transition to what Justice Kagan termed a “weaponized” view of the First Amendment among the Court’s majority. But Janus may also have another, more hopeful, forward-looking face. Ultimately, Janus’s undoing of the compromise that governed union fees for nearly fifty years provides the opportunity for a systematic rethinking of the relationship between labor and the Constitution and, more generally, of the meaning of the First Amendment. The dissenters on the Court gestured at this broader project, but their future-facing efforts were partial and unsatisfying. Instead, they looked backward to Abood v. Detroit Board of Education, a precedent the result of which was tolerable, but the reasoning of which was deeply flawed. Among its problems, Abood helped to lay the groundwork for the current doctrine on compelled speech and for Janus's protection of a right to exit from democratic institutions. Though stare decisis counseled in favor of maintaining Abood, its demise now opens up space to begin to flesh out what, in this setting, Justice Kagan’s promise of a “First Amendment meant for better things” might look like.

Tarpeia the Vestal

AbstractTarpeia's role as a Vestal has become a matter of scholarly consensus in the past two decades. This article questions that consensus by suggesting that Varro and Propertius are the two major proponents of this ‘Vestal version’, which is not present in other major narratives such as Livy, Dionysius of Halicarnassus and Plutarch. Propertius’ version in particular, which depicts Tarpeia as a Vestal in love, has been overprivileged in analyses of this myth as a dramatisation of individual identity versus loyalty to the state. Varro's account, which also includes Tarpeia's Vestal status, suggests a different interpretation: it is likely that Varro considered Tarpeia a non-Roman Vestal whose Vestal status supported the state. This version resolves certain dissonances in early Roman myth.

Greek and Roman Myths in John Milton’s Paradise Lost, Books I and II.

Greek and Roman Myths in John Milton’s Paradise Lost, Books I and II.

The Girl Who Named Pluto: The Story of Venetia Burney by Alice B. McGinty

Reviewed by: The Girl Who Named Pluto: The Story of Venetia Burney by Alice B. McGinty Elizabeth Bush Mcginty, Alice B. The Girl Who Named Pluto: The Story of Venetia Burney; illus. by Elizabeth Haidle. Schwartz & Wade, 2019 [40p] Library ed. ISBN 978-1-5247-6832-4 $20.99 Trade ed. ISBN 978-1-5247-6831-7 $17.99 E-book ed. ISBN 978-1-5247-6833-1 $10.99 Reviewed from galleys R 5-8 yrs If any children are still subjected to legends that the dwarf planet Pluto was named for Disney's cartoon hound, McGinty's respectful tribute to the actual naming by English schoolgirl Venetia Burney should put paid to it. And what a good story it is, starring a child who was challenged by a teacher to try to comprehend the immensity of the solar system, and whose grandfather, sharing her enthusiasm, actually tapped into a network of connections to send her suggestion to give the name of Pluto to the newly discovered Planet X in 1930 ("She knows that this planet, so far from the sun, must be frozen, dark, and lifeless. It would be like the underworld—the underworld ruled in Roman myths by Neptune's brother, Pluto"). Haidle's ink, graphic powder, and digital artwork is as precise and tidy as Burney's own science-oriented reasoning, and although dusty grays dominate the compositions, flashes of muted red and rusty orange highlight Burney and family members at critical moments in the narration. An author's note expands biographical detail, and a selected bibliography will guide adults to additional material. EB Copyright © 2019 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

Greek and Roman Myths in the Poetry of William Shakespeare

This paper explores Greek and Roman myths in the poetry focusing upon Venus and Adonis and The Sonnets of William Shakespeare, doubtlessly the greatest poet-playwright of all ages. For his Renaissance ideas of love, beauty, sexuality, death, and immortality, Shakespeare employs or alludes to Greek and Roman myths including: primordial deity Gaia; the Titans Hyperion, Cronos or Saturn; major gods, Apollo, Venus, Mars, Diana or Cynthia; minor deities, Echo, Cupid, Mors, Muse, and Nymphs; mythological figures, Adonis, Narcissus, Tantalus, Myrrha, Helen, and Philomel; legendary creatures, Phoenix and Siren; mythological places, Parnassus, Elysium, and Paphos. The technique of employing Greek and Roman myths in the poetry of Shakespeare underlies his complicated intentions, deepening his poetic symbolism, and broadening his literary perspective.

From il dolce stil nuovo and Roman Myths, to Postmodern Narratives and Hollywood Italians: Is there a Red Line in Professor Bondanella’s Inexhaustibly Whimsical Work?

From il dolce stil nuovo and Roman Myths, to Postmodern Narratives and Hollywood Italians: Is there a Red Line in Professor Bondanella’s Inexhaustibly Whimsical Work?

If Bird or Devil: Meta-Plagiarism in “The Raven”

Edgar Allan Poe's tendency to “borrow” material from contemporaries remains an unsettling fact of his art. Too few studies have lingered, for example, on a striking resemblance between the “bird or devil” of Poe's “The Raven” (1845) and the talking raven named Grip in Charles Dickens's Barnaby Rudge (1841), except to say that Poe praised the novel (and especially Grip) in a review for Graham's Magazine. Yet the poem's Dickensian matter provides an ideal gateway to its deeper obsession with creativity itself. Through close reading and historicization, my article recasts “The Raven” as a paranoid allegory of its own quasi-plagiaristic origins. Read against the backdrop of a literary marketplace unchecked by international copyright law, the poem defies both its speaker and us to locate the true source of its strange power. In supposing that his guest learned the word “Nevermore”—so like Grip's cries of “Nobody!”—from “some unhappy master” long ago, the speaker points not only to Dickens (who kept three pet ravens in the course of his life), but also to the raven's entire symbolic provenance, stretching back to Roman myth and beyond. Ultimately, as bird and devil, Poe's raven condemns the futile, even disastrous struggle to isolate any symbol from its prior lives.