Classical Mythology, 7th Edition - obinfonet: dia logou

CLASSICAL MYTHOLOGY IN LITERATURE AND ART 685
Goethe was constantly inspired by the classical myths. He wrote a drama
on Iphigenie auf Tauris (first in prose, 1779, then in verse, 1788) and a long succession
of lyric poems evoking Greek mythology. Sometimes the Greek myths
symbolized freedom and clarity (as in his Ganymed, where Ganymede expresses
his joy at union with Zeus), sometimes they are the vehicle for expression of human
independence and dignity, as in his Prometheus:
f
Hier sitz ich, forme Menschen
Nach meinem Bilde,
Ein Geschlecht, das mir gleich sei,
Zu leiden, zu weinen,
Zu geniessen und zu freuen sich,
Und dein nicht zu achten,
Wie ich!
[Here I sit, I make human beings in my image, a race that will be like me, to
suffer, to weep, to enjoy and to be glad, and to pay no attention to you, as I do!]
Goethe's most powerful evocation of Greek mythology is his use of Helen
in Faust, Part 2, completed in 1832, the year of his death. Helen, whom Faust
loves and loses, symbolizes all that is beautiful in classical antiquity, most specifically
the beauty of Greek art. Goethe's Helen is more complex than Marlowe's
(discussed earlier), for she represents the power and beauty of classical humanism.
Here are Faust's words when he first sees the phantom of Helen, the
ideal of classical beauty {Faust 2. 1. 6487-6500):
f
Have I still eyes? Is the spring of beauty most richly poured deep into my soul?
My fearsome journey has brought a blessed prize. How empty was the world
to me and closed! What is it now since my Priesthood? For the first time worth
wishing for, firm-founded, everlasting! Let my life's breath die if ever I go back
from you! The beauty that once enchanted me, that in the magic glass delighted
me, was only a foam-born image of such beauty! You are she, to whom I give
the rule of all my strength, the embodiment of my passion, to you I give longing,
love, worship, madness!
Later Faust travels to Greece and there is united with Helen. Here are his
words of happiness as he looks forward to "years of happiness" with Helen in
Arcadia, the pastoral landscape of perfect bliss (2. 3. 9562-9569):
f
So has success come to me and you; let the past be behind us! O feel yourself
sprung from the highest god! You belong solely to the first [the ancient] world.
No strong fortress should enclose you! Eternally young, Arcadia, Sparta's neighbor,
surrounds us, there to stay in full happiness!
The third of the great German poets inspired by Greek antiquity was
Hôlderlin (1770-1843), whose work was most deeply infused with longing
for the world of Greek mythology and with regret for its passing. "We have
come too late," he says (Brot und Wein 7): "the gods still live, but above our