The story of Jason and Medea is among the most famous doomed love affairs in classical mythology, and the Greek myths are known for having their fair share of doomed love affairs. But what is the meaning and significance of the Jason and Medea myth? What did Jason do to […]
The story of Pygmalion and Galatea is well-known: it’s a myth about art, about love, and about the relationship between the artist and his ‘muse’, in some respects. But there are also, as so often with classical myths, a few things we assume we know about this story but, it […]
In this week’s Dispatches from The Secret Library, Dr Oliver Tearle explores the symbolism of that perennially popular flower, the rose Roses are sometimes known as the queen of flowers, and they are perhaps the richest in symbolism, whether in Christianity, classical myth, or modern (especially romantic) literature. But the […]
The tragic love story of Dido and Aeneas has been told numerous times, and Henry Purcell famously turned it into one of the first English operas in the late seventeenth century. Dido’s lament from Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas is a wonderful piece of music, powerful and moving: you can listen […]
What is the significance of teeth in religion, mythology, and literature? There should be a link: teeth are obviously, like the tongue, instrumental and essential in oral culture and so we might expect to find a strong link between teeth and the composition of poems and songs. And sure enough, […]