Myths of Love:
Echoes of Ancient Mythology in the Modern Romantic Language
By Ruth K. Westheimer & Jerome E. Singerman
It’s helpful to me as a writer and a painter to read mythology or read about mythology every once in a while. After all, these ancient stories and artists’ interpretation of these stories are still relevant to our popular culture today. One need only to read the plot lines of the mythical Pyramus and Thisbe to realize, ‘Hey, this is Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet or Tony and Maria from West Side Story.
Myths of Love evolved from conversations between two people who enjoy interpreting art and discussing its cultural relevance. If, like me, you find it difficult to keep track of which is a Greek myth or a Roman myth and who did what to who, then this is the book for you. The chapters consist of just easy, interesting conversations about topics such as Hermaphroditus, who may be the first transgender literary character, to Narcissus, who tragically fell in love with his own reflection. It’s fascinating to me just how many famous artists painted the character Danae being ravished by Zeus’s shower of gold. Titian painted her several times as did the great female Renaissance painter Artemisia Gentileschi; even Gustave Klimt painted the scene as recently as 1907. Though sometimes written on bark, fruit, or whatever else they could find, myths have certainly stood the test of time. Every story to this very day seems to borrow of bit of their magic.
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| Apollo and Daphne by Pete Schulte. Can you spot Daphne? |
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