Art-Creating Writing

Art-Creating Writing

Introduction

The classical myths, stories of great heroes, immortal gods, and horrific monsters have been the sources of many books, movies, plays, and art. Today myriads of books, both academic and mainstream, discuss the myths, their histories, possible origins, and influences on some of the greatest authors of all time, including Dante Alighieri and John Milton. These two poets—giants in their own times wrote two of the greatest works in history. Almost every aspect of The Divine Comedy and Paradise Lost has been analyzed, from the purposes, to the plots, to the word choices, to the philosophical and theological meanings. Their use of classical mythology has been catalogued and discussed, and yet most scholars have overlooked the implications resulting from the intriguing paradox of the fact that these two devout religious men used pagan myths prevalently throughout their overtly Christian works. Even though classical mythology in Christian works has been discussed and analyzed by many scholars, the paradox between the pagan and the Christian has not been sufficiently explored. Therefore, all the issues and aspects related to Myths will be discussed in detail.

Description of the Myths

Most commonly, analysis of the myths within The Divine Comedy and Paradise Lost either focuses on the artistic qualities the myths add to the poems, homes in on the implications of one or two specific myths, or discusses the influences of the classical poets themselves, both culturally and on Dante and Milton. However, in order to fully value and recognize what Dante and Milton do in their poems, people must not only understand the cultural reactions to the myths and those who used them, but elucidate what methods Dante and Milton utilize within the Comedy and Paradise Lost that ultimately strengthen their Christian values. After all, their use of myths, due to the central position each poet occupies within his era, is distinctive (Kallendorf, 1999).

The significance of myths in history

The term myth has been used to describe a wide-range of concepts and has numerous definitions, ranging from an entire mode of thought to describing particular tales. Still, identifying what constitutes a myth is difficult, particularly because myth encompasses a wide range of topics, especially within literary criticism. A person does not have to articulate a true myth well to convey the beauty within the story; the tale itself carries within it a resonance that cries out to the person, which also means that, especially in this context, myth does not include base, vulgar stories, but those that relate the highest levels of life. Ultimately, the myths Dante and Milton use come from the classical tradition, but part of the reason those myths endured was because of their ability to articulate abstract truths that resonated within a person's soul, and both poets took advantage of the myths for that reason (Thompson, 2011).

Inevitably, a distinction must be made between classical myth and what many literary scholars, particularly Frye, consider the Christian myth; after all, if Dante and Milton held the same regard for ...