Abstract
A cursory glance at Poe's writings illustrates the part played by the classical world in his writing. He spoke of Helen, Diana, Pallas Athena, Monos and Una, Berenice, Eiros and Charmion, and Psyche. He referenced naiads, hamadryads, Anacreon, Hymen, and Delos. He left titles in Greek: Zante, Paean, Eureka, Mellonta Tauta. This chapter will explore how Poe made use of the classical world in his stories and poems.
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Notes
- 1.
Poe scholars have largely neglected Poe’s reliance on the Bible, but an important monograph on Poe and scripture was published almost 100 years ago. See William Mentzel Forest, Biblical Allusions in Poe (1928). Forest found 684 biblical quotations or allusions in Poe’s works. A forty-five-page table in the appendix lists the texts.
- 2.
The dates for Poe’s poetry refer to the year of first printing. Dates are provided from Thomas Ollive Mabbott, Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe, Volume I: Poems (1969).
- 3.
Ovid told this story in Metamorphoses, X, 162–219. See Mabbott 1969, 1:186.
- 4.
The dates for the prose works refer to their first printing. Dates are provided by Lee Bondi, October 1998, 41–51. See also Dwight Thomas and David K. Jackson, The Poe Log (1987).
- 5.
I first discussed these ideas in Harry Lee Poe 2018, 346–347.
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Poe, H.L. (2023). “The Glory that was Greece and the Grandeur that was Rome”: Edgar Allan Poe and the Classical World. In: Ibáñez, J.R.I., Guerrero-Strachan, S.R. (eds) Retrospective Poe. American Literature Readings in the 21st Century. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-09986-1_1
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