International Journal of English Literature and Social Sciences

Vol-8, Issue-4; Jul-Aug, 2023

Peer-Reviewed Journal
Journal Home Page Available: https://ijels.com/
Journal DOI: 10.22161/ijels

Mythology in Modern Literature: An Exploration of

Myths and Legends in Sylvia Plath’s Poetry
Kamrul Hasan

Assistant Professor, Department of English, Dhaka City College, Dhaka, Bangladesh

Received: 03 Jul 2023; Received in revised form: 08 Aug 2023; Accepted: 19 Aug 2023; Available online: 31 Aug 2023
©2023 The Author(s). Published by Infogain Publication. This is an open access article under the CC BY license
(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Abstract— Mythology has become an intrinsic part of literature for the symbolic, structural and functional
values it imparts to a text. Although the use of myths and legends in literature has been transformed
contextually over the different literary periods, modern writers extensively reappropriated and used them
to portray the complexity of the theme and narrative structure of a text. They illustrated the contemporary
fragmented reality and individual experience through myths. By incorporating myths in a text, modern
writers sometimes created fictionalized and artificial myths of their own. American poet Sylvia Plath made
personalized use of myths and legends in her poetry. The paper shows how she, as a confessional poet,
amalgamates her personal anxiety and distress with characters and symbols from diverse mythological
sources such as the story of Medusa, Medea, Persephone, Electra etc. Apart from classical myths, she
incorporated European folktales, Norse and Arthurian myths. Her extensive use of myths portrays the
condition of women and the role of patriarchy from a feminist perspective. It also illustrates her attitude
toward her father and mother, her distress, agony and suicidal attempts and sometimes expresses her views
on life and the contemporary world. Like many modern poets, she turned away from the traditional and
orthodox poetic practice and rechanneled her individual crises into poetry which is full of mythological
symbols and images.
Keywords— Mythology, Legend, Confessionalism, Modernism, Individualism, Symbol

I. INTRODUCTION myth by turning it into literature. The Romantic period saw

Mythology has been used in literature as a symbol, an the subjective use of myth in expressing personal feelings.
allegory, or sometimes as a theory. It also provides In modern literature, mythology has been used as an
narrative strategies to help the narrative process move allusion and intertextual reference to illustrate the
forward as myths themselves are expressed in narrative complexity of human existence in the modern world.
form (Lovely, 2019). Myth in literature has an intrinsic Famous modern poets like T.S. Eliot and W.B. Yeats
symbolic value. Mythology has been massively used by reappropriated myth in this way in their works. They used
the authors as a coherent structure of any text. The myth as a narrative structure to create order when writing a
relationship between mythology and literature is based on novel or a poem. By incorporating myth in literature, they
similarities and differences. Whereas mythology explains create ‘mythopoeia’ or ‘mythopoesis’ which means
our universe and makes societal connections, literature creating an artificial or fictionalized myth.
persuades and informs people, and it is used as an Like many other modern poets, Sylvia Plath
instrument for disseminating mythological ideas. incorporated classical and European mythology in her
Mythological stories have been used as a structure or form poems. She blended myths and legends with her personal
of literature from the time of Homer and later utilized by feelings. Plath reappropriated the characters and symbols
writers like Virgil, Dante, Milton etc. During the Middle from myths and legends, which is similar to T.S. Eliot’s
Ages popular medieval romance and plays incorporated idea of the ‘mythical method’. Different myths and tales

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Hasan Mythology in Modern Literature: An Exploration of Myths and Legends in Sylvia Plath’s Poetry

have given her poetry a coherent narrative order, also they 3. Sociological: It functions as a basis for social
have been used as metaphoric devices. Her integration of order and morality in a community and validates
myths and tales haven conveyed to depict her personal the community’s standards as true and correct.
agony, suicidal attempt, men-women relationship, 4. Psychological: It makes an individual synthesize
criticism of patriarchy, condition of women, relationship and understand the three functions and form a
with her father and mother, motherhood, her views on life relationship between his/her and the human being,
etc. While incorporating the mythical images, Plath used the collective community, the world, and the
them as symbols to comment on her individual anguish universe.
and contemporary events. In this way, she juxtaposed the During the ups and downs of civilizations myths have been
old myths with the present world. used as a cultural and ideological weapon. In The Golden
Bough James Frazer shows how myths are created as a
II. MYTHOLOGY AND MODERN result of cultural needs. Mythological knowledge holds
LITERATURE power and this power can be exercised to control certain
groups of people for domination. Myths are created in a
The word ‘myth’ has been derived from the Greek word
certain society, at a certain time by certain people. Myths
‘mythos’ meaning fable, legend or saga. Myths have been
narrate the history, religion and hero of that particular
orally transmitted from generation to generation
culture. By using the knowledge of myth or creating a
“explaining religious origin, natural phenomena or
myth, a tribe, a city or a nation can justify its unjust
supernatural event” (Lovely, 2019, p. 1152). On the other
occupation of a territory or control over a group of people
hand, “Mythology is a collection of myths that concerns
(Tanabe, 2022).
cosmogony and cosmology, shared by a particular society
at some particular time in human history” (Lovely, 2019, According to Northrop Frye all genres of
p. 1152). The stories of Adam and Eve, Achilles, literature have been derived from myth (Segal, 2004).
Odysseus, Gilgamesh or Shiva represent spiritual insight Modern writers illustrate the complex realities in their
into different cultures. Myth can be defined as a story and works. In doing so they incorporate allusions and make
can also be defined “as a belief or credo” (Segal, 2004, p. intertextual references. Myth in this respect acts as a
4) or a “collective or personal ideological or socially metaphoric device and writers insert them in their
constructed received wisdom” (Tanabe, 2022). According respective works to give shape and significance to the
to the philosopher Ernst Cassirer, “myth is a form of contemporary fragmented reality (Mambrol, 2016). Myth
thought” (Cassirer, 1955, p. 27) and like language it can in modern literature also shows classical notes, although
create our own world. Northrop Frye in his Anatomy of writers used them from a subjective point of view.
Criticism devised the theory of myth criticism based on the Sometimes mythology in literature depicts “significant and
anthropological and psychological aspects of myths to sometimes very uncomfortable relationships, some
show how myths can influence our thinking about admittedly between man and his environment” (Workman,
literature and culture. Frye said, “Myth means ultimately 1981, p. 36).
mythos, a structural organizing principle of literary form” In any kind of literary form, a writer deals with a
(Frye, 1973, p. 341). According to him, the archetypical particular experience and in this way, a writer becomes a
nature of the use of Biblical and classical mythology in revealer or reporter of any experience (Weathers, 1973).
literature provides a set of structures and imagery that are When a writer writes about individuals, societies, the
later reproduced in realistic contexts in Western literature human psyche and communal experience, he may turn to
(Workman, 1981). Frye’s notion of displacement depicts mythology to dramatize those experiences. The spiritual
how the use of myths in literature is displaced from its dimension of the ‘Grail legend’ in Jessie Weston’s From
mythic origins and times in different literary periods. In Ritual to Romance inspired T.S. Eliot to use it in The
this respect, Joseph Campbell (2004) in Pathways to Bliss Waste Land (Segal, 2004). He used the Fisher King myth
describes the four basic functions of mythology in our life: from James Frazer’s The Golden Bough to emphasize the
1. Mystical: It awakens our sense of wonder about experience of loss of fertility and death (Mambrol, 2016)
the world and connects us with the higher order of and Miss Weston’s book helped him “with both a central
the cosmos i.e., God. myth and a basic system of metaphor” (Williamson, 1968,
2. Cosmological: It provides us with the basic ideas p. 119). Eliot outlined the structure and title of the poem
and truths about the nature of the universe in the based on the Grail legend. He also incorporated the
form of stories and rituals. fertility ritual into Grail legend as well as the mythical
figure of Tiresias. Eliot used myth as an objective
correlative in his poetry to materialize his individual
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Hasan Mythology in Modern Literature: An Exploration of Myths and Legends in Sylvia Plath’s Poetry

purposes. According to F.O. Matthiessen (1963), Eliot subjective position, his/her perspective, preferences and
found a “recurring pattern in various myths, the basic skills.
resemblance, for example, between the vegetation myths Lilian Feder (1972, as cited in Weathers 1973) in
of the rebirth of the year, the fertility myths of the rebirth Ancient Myth in Modern Poetry showed how major poets
of the potency of man, the Christian story of the like Yeats, Pound, Eliot and Auden used ancient myth and
Resurrection, and the Grail legend of purification” (36). thus gave birth to something new. Those poets
Whereas John Milton used the Samson story to express his incorporated myth in their poetry in three ways: (1) They
emotion, Eliot used ancient myths and legends to portray created new stories by responding to old myths through the
the decay and complications of modern civilization. mythic process, (2) they included myths and thus made
About the use of myth in modern literature, T.S. them literary material in their writing and (3) they used
Eliot (2014) formulated his idea of the ‘mythical method’ mythology as textbook and adapted the mythological
in his essay ‘Ulysses, Order and Myth’ and showed how narrative process in their writing. Modern poets followed
the past is related to the present. The method means using the legacy of Frazer, Freud and Jung to dramatize the
myth and narrative to create order when writing a novel or universal situation. In doing so they portrayed their
a poem and it shows that instead of the narrative method, psychological universe. Sometimes myths have been used
Joyce used the mythical method as a structure for his in modern literature to discuss and compare past historical
novel. i.e. the mythical and metaphoric journey of events.
Odysseus in Ulysses. Eliot also attributed the method to Myth offers a novelist a shorthand system of
W.B. Yeats’ poem. Yeats constructed a systematic symbolic comment on modern events (White, 1971).
mythological milieu based on Irish mythology and According to White (1971), novelists can prefigure myth
historical, astrological and occult material (Mambrol, in their works in four ways: (1) by re-narrating a classical
2016). Both William Blake and W. B. Yeats used it in a myth, (2) by juxtaposing the old myth with the
self-conscious and individualistic way (Reeves, 1997). contemporary world, (3) by referring to mythologies in the
About the power of myth, Eliot explains that the problems novel set in the modern world and (4) by making
of the present day can be solved if we take profit from the mythological motive part of the narrative. In this respect,
wisdom and experience of the past. That’s why Eliot White also emphasized the readers’ subjectivity and their
sought a solution to the modern-day wasteland in myths way of thinking in interpreting myth in literature. Patricia
and legends, Joyce appropriated the story of The Odyssey Merivale’s study of D.H. Lawrence also illustrates how the
for describing the wanderings of Leopold Bloom in Dublin Pan myth becomes a viable element in his novels.
and Yeats upholds the problems of nineteenth-century Lawrence synthesized the goat and God to portray the
Ireland through Celtic mythology. In this way, James sinisterly sexual but divine in human beings (Merivale,
Joyce outlined his idea of ‘monomyth’ or a kind of 1969). Both Feder and White showed how modern writers
bildungsroman that concentrates on the life cycle of a hero. sometimes create myths on their own. They indirectly
In Western literature, Greek and Roman referred to the term ‘mythopoeia’ or ‘mythopoesis’
mythology have been used to represent archetypical meaning the creation of artificial or fictionalized myth.
experiences for a very long time. In this case, a writer This myth-making process has been adopted in both
“may indeed ‘displace’ certain aspects of the mythology- literature and film. Here a writer enjoys his liberty in
alter, change, or modify them so that he can say what he subverting and re-creating popular myths.
truly wants to say” (Weathers, 1973, p. 202). In this way, a
writer enjoys the power to deconstruct the accepted form
III. PLATH’S REAPPROPRIATION OF MYTHS
of mythology to convey a motif. For example, in actual
AND LEGENDS
mythology birth and life are normally represented through
springtime but T.S. Eliot called April the cruellest month. In the foreword to Sylvia Plath’s Ariel Robert Lowell
John Milton also subverted the position of Satan in the considered Plath as “one of those super-real, hypnotic
biblical myth of Paradise Lost. Under the guise of an great classical heroines” (1965, p. vii). Sylvia Plath in her
innocent mythical story W.B. Yeats’ ‘Leda and the Swan’ poetry reveals a coherent persona of her own self which
shows Britain’s domination over Ireland. In this way, the shows the dynamic energy of her poetry as well as her
incorporation of myth in literature gives a “unique and dynamic creative power. “While her poems often begin in
particular experience” or a “version of archetypical autobiography, their success depends on Plath’s
experience” (Weathers, 1973, p. 202). But whatever way a imaginative transformations of experience into myth”
writer uses myth, its interpretation depends on the author’s (Baym, 1998, p. 2743).

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Like the modernist authors, Plath used myths for The influence of modernist literary tradition was
allusion, intertextuality and making their works a reservoir apparent in Sylvia Plath. She was admirably affected by
of complex phenomena. “The most important Greek myths the vision and mission of modern poets such as T.S. Eliot,
that appear in her work are the legends of Electra, Medusa W.B. Yeats and Dylan Thomas. Modernist poets like Ezra
and Colossus, which she took as the title for her first Pound, T.S. Eliot, and W.B. Yeats rejected the orthodox
collection of poems” (Warren, 2005, p. 78). It is important forms and techniques and made poetry more complex and
to note that Plath’s use of myths and folktales is very obscure with the extensive use of myth and other
subjective and intentional. Regarding the use of myths and intertextual allusions (Warren, 2001). Although their
legends in Plath’s poetry Bassnett says, “The poems are poetry was not confessional like the poetry of some
chapters in a mythology . . . the world of her poetry is one American poets of the 1950s, they reflected the angst and
of emblematic visionary events, mathematical symmetries, ennui of the modern period. On the contrary, Plath’s
clairvoyance and metamorphoses” (2005). Plath’s use of poetry evokes a sense of personal anguish, emotions and
myths and legends, combined with her personal feelings, experiences that discomfort us. Her poetry is a reservoir of
creates different visual images and impressions than other “unfeminine emotions from a female perspective”
modern poetry. Even in her journals, she mentions some (Warren, 2001, p. 7). Plath incorporated the myths and
folktales. tales in her poems, but entirely personal way.
Sylvia Plath belongs to the group of poets known Her use of myths and legends has a relation with
as the confessional poets. Confessional poetry “reveals the the formative influence she had from other confessional
poet’s personal problems with unusual frankness” poets of the era. Theodore Roethke, Robert Lowell and
(Baldick, 2001, p. 48). The amalgamation of personal Ann Sexton’s influence was on her, especially since she
anxiety with social and cultural context is one of the major was directly motivated by the last two poets to insert
features of this type of poetry. To do so, poets like Robert mental crises and traumas in her poems. Some poets from
Lowell, Ann Sexton and Sylvia Plath intentionally and the confessional school of poetry suffered from mental
unintentionally portray an “unmentionable kind of private breakdown and committed suicide i.e., Ann Sexton, Sylvia
distress” (Baldick, 2001, p. 49). In Plath’s poetry, one can Plath and John Berryman. They used poetry as a catharsis
see her deliberate attempt to adopt different types of and made personal use of themes, symbols and metaphors
personae. For this, she constantly used mythological to purge inner anguish. It may justify the way Plath
characters and symbols to express her forceful and urgent incorporates myth and folktales to give voice to her
thoughts. suppressed personal pains. She adopted different voices
Her poems “were inspired by [her] own and personae from diverse mythological sources. In using
experiences” (Warren, 2005, p. 7) which are all about myths and tales, Sylvia Plath was especially influenced by
individual crises, victimhood, domestic milieu, feminine another American poet Marianna Moore and her
experience, and lack of communication between men and reinterpretation of fairy tales in her poems (Warren, 2001).
women (Warren, 2005). Moreover, she transformed her Plath experimented with the use of folktales in her early
practical experiences imaginatively for artistic purposes. poetry but later incorporated classical myths and allusions
Perhaps that is the obvious reason why she blends myths in a complex way. In this respect, she followed the path of
and legends with personal experience. Her objective the Irish poet W.B. Yeats who incorporated myths and
behind the transformation of mythic events and characters legends with his private references in his poetry. As
complies with the way Eliot, Yeats and other modern poets Warren (2001) says, “W.B. Yeats saw myth and
used mythical allusions in their poetry. symbolism as means by which to give shape to and make
sense of his vision of the world” (p. 114).
Like many of her contemporary poets, Sylvia
Plath followed the poetic tradition of the 1950s and 60s. It
was a period of intense poetic flourishment. Many poets IV. HER PERSONALIZED
were turning away from the traditional and orthodox poetic REPRESENTATIONS OF MYTHS AND
practice but more specifically, through their poetry, they LEGENDS
were escaping from the social horrors and rechanneled Sylvia Plath was very critical regarding the position of
them into “individual psychology, classical mythology and women in society. In many of her poems, she used myths
mysticism” (Warren, 2001, p. 108). Robert Lowell and from diverse sources to portray the inherent female power,
Ann Sexton also belong to this group. They reflected a resistance to the prevailing patriarchal system. In the
themselves in their poetry by incorporating allusions and poem ‘Faun’ she illustrated the men-women relationship
metaphors from multiple sources. from a feminist perspective. Faun is a kind of rural deity in

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mythology which is like a man with goat's legs and horns here wants to be a folk hero like Godiva, a symbol of
famous for their promiscuity and sexuality. Through the freedom from patriarchy. Even in ‘Gulliver’ Plath retold
creature faun, she represented how men like to see the story of Jonathan Swift’s popular novel to show the
themselves in a godlike position. From a personal point of limitations and restrictions in the life of women. At the end
view, she presents her feelings towards her husband Ted of the poem, she added the popular European folktale
Hughes. ‘seven league boots’ that gives a person unbelievable
In ‘Virgin in a Tree’ Plath portrays the hypocrisy speed of travelling seven leagues with one step. It actually
of modern times regarding female sexuality. She illustrated refers to the poet's calls for the utilization of individual
her point by showing examples of virgin maidens such as potential without any obstacles, especially for women.
Daphne and Syrinx in Greek mythology who were pursued Many of Plath’s poems deal with the complex
by Apollo or Pan and turned into trees. With this, Plath relationship between father and daughter. In personal life
shows the pain of the virgin that can make them numb like Plath was shocked after the death of her father and its
a tree. The poem shows women as the victims from the effect can be seen in her poems especially in ‘Electra on
point of view of the popular notion of chastity. Plath also Azalea Path’ Plath shows the effect of a father’s death on a
mentioned Helen of Troy in this regard. In ‘Goatsucker’ daughter. By referring to the daughter of Agamemnon in
she connects the condition of women with the image of the Greek mythology the poet here indirectly refers to the
goatsucker, a nocturnal bird with something dark and popular Freudian theory of Electra complex. This is also a
sinister like a vampire to illustrate the point that women confessional poem with many personal symbols and
require proper connection to the natural world in their life. images. ‘The Colossus’ also shows the poet’s grief over
‘Lady Lazarus’, another widely read poem, shows the death of her father represented through the broken
Plath’s personal agony, her suicidal attempts and the statute of the Greek Sun-God Helios which is also known
discovery of her new self like the biblical Lazarus. Lazarus as the Colossus of Rhodes. Her sorrow has been expressed
was brought back to life by Jesus Christ after three days of in this way:
his death. From the feminist perspective, the poem I shall never get you put together entirely,
symbolizes the struggle to defy patriarchal oppression. The Pieced, glued, and properly jointed. (Plath, 1989,
poem ends with the image of the myth of the bird Phoenix: p. 129)
Out of the ash In her personal life, Plath’s father had a large impact on
I rise with my red hair her like the giant statue of Colossus. The poem also
And I eat men like air. (1989, p. 247) metaphorically illustrates the condition of women and the
unlimited responsibility they have to perform. The
Plath’s incorporation of biblical stories is also evident in
intensity of the father-daughter relationship is found in
‘Mary’s Song’ where the destruction of the Holocaust has
‘Maenad’ where the poet considers herself as Maenad, the
been illustrated with reference to the Virgin Mary.
female follower of Bacchus in classical mythology. The
In many of her poems, Plath reappropriated the poet laments for her dead father and represents him like
myth for personal use and one such example is ‘Two the mythical sea god Neptune in ‘Full Fathom Five’ like
Sisters of Persephone’ Persephone, the queen of the this:
underworld, is also a vegetation goddess responsible for
Miles long
the change of season. She symbolizes the duality between
the death of nature (Autumn and Winter) and the rebirth of Extend the radial sheaves
nature (Spring and Summer). With the metaphorical Of your spread hair, (Plath, 1989, p. 92)
reference to the duality of the two sisters in the poem, In ‘Daddy’ Plath again shows the complex relationship
Plath indicates the shifting attitude toward women in with her father making constant reference to the
society or the two sides of feminine identity. Holocaust. The father figure is represented as a fascist and
‘Winter Trees’ describes the trees on a winter a Nazi from whom the poet struggles to get free. The poet
morning and compares them with the tribulations women also presented the image of her husband as a vampiric
undergo in society. She personified the winter trees with figure and found similarity with her father. The underlying
Leda in Greek myth who was raped by Zeus in the form of fact is that the speaker of the poem has an internal Electra
a swan. The poet's desire for freedom is evident in ‘Ariel’ complex but at the same time she wants to get rid of the
which alludes to the legendary story of Lady Godiva who oppressive influence of men.
rode upon a horse around the whole town naked as a Motherhood, mother-child and mother-daughter
protest for excessive taxation on the people. The speaker relationships are the subject matter of many of her poems.

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In these poems, she uses masculine and feminine gold. Yearning for golden perfection in life is a desire
mythological images. In ‘You’re’ Plath celebrates many want to fulfil.
motherhood and compares the position of her baby in the In another of her famous poems, ‘Crossing the
womb with Atlas, the giant in Greek mythology who Water’, the theme of transition has been illustrated with
carried the world on his shoulder: the symbol of a boat and lake. The movements of the two
Bent-backed Atlas, our travel prawn. (1989, p. travellers are like “travelling across river such as Styx
141) (Warren, 2001, p. 41) in Greek mythology. Later they
The image of Atlas is also evident in the poem ‘By became “‘blinded’, ‘astounded’ and struck dumb by the
Candlelight’ where a mother compares the strength of her ‘expressionless sirens’” (Warren, 2005, p. 41) like the
unborn baby with Atlas: Sirens, bird-like women in Homer’s Odyssey who can lure
sailors and cause death with their song. Moreover, the
He is yours, the little brassy Atlas- (1989, p. 137)
image of the ‘snag’ lifting its ‘valedictory, pale hand’
‘The Disquieting Muses’ presents the muses, the refers to the hand from the lake in Arthurian legend. The
inspirational goddesses in Greek mythology, as a dark poem ‘Lyonnesse’ also refers to the imagined land and the
force. The muses in the poem represent Plath’s mother and Arthurian legend and of the lost glory.
the uncommunicative relationship between mother and
Sylvia Plath suffered from untenable pressures in
daughter. In the poem ‘Magi’ Plath deals with her
her personal life which caused depression and that led her
relationship with her daughter in a philosophical way.
to take her own life (Bassnett, 2005). Poetry was like a
Although the title refers to the Biblical kings who visited
personal catharsis for her where she poured out all her
the baby Jesus, Plath in this poem tries to find a divine
anguished suppressed pains. In this respect, she fulfilled
solution to her personal problems. ‘Heavy Women’
the psychological role of incorporating myths in her
represents the image of pregnant women as ‘irrefutable,
works. By using the images of myths and legends she
beautifully smug’ comparing them with the goddess
formed a relationship between her psyche and the outer
Venus. The poem also conveys the idea that the mother is
world. She used powerful female characters from myths
rewarding as well as full of physical and mental sacrifice
and legends like Medusa, Medea etc. One such poem is
and suffering.
‘Rival’ where Plath shows a fully resentful attitude to her
Plath was well aware of the contemporary world rival. She compares her rival to Medusa, a Gorgon monster
around her and saw the current events with the eyes of a in Greek myth who has snakes on her head instead of hair
critic. In some of her poems, she also expresses and her eyes can turn anything into stone who looks at
philosophic views on the question of existence. The poem them. In the poem both Medusa and the rival’s
‘Face Lift’ has an allusion to the Roman god Jove whom manipulative and deceiving quality have been expressed in
she criticizes referring to the cosmetic surgery of women. this way:
On the other hand, in ‘The Munich Mannequins’ she
“Both of you are great light borrowers.
compares the trees to Hydras, the many-headed monster in
classical mythology: Her O-mouth grieves at the world; yours is
unaffected,
Where the yew trees blow like hydras,
And your first gift is making stone out of
The tree of life and the tree of life (1989, p. 262)
everything” (Plath, 1989, p. 166).
The poem ‘The Death of Myth-Making’ refers to the
Medusa imagery is also apparent in another of her poems
novels of J.R.R. Tolkien which are full of myth and
‘Medusa’ where she compares jellyfish with the snake-
legends. Plath here indicates the difference between the
covered head of Medusa because of its tentacles:
real world and the effects of the mythical world books
create in our mind. You steamed to me over the sea,

The merging of the spiritual and material world Fat and red, a placenta
has been shown in ‘On the Plethora of Dryads’ where the Paralysing the kicking lovers. (Plath, 1989, p.
poet has the desire to see beyond the material world but is 224)
overwhelmed with the spiritual beauty of the tree and The poem shows her personal relationship with her mother
dryad. A dryad is a tree nymph or tree spirit in Greek Aurelia Plath whom she compares with jellyfish and
mythology. The poem is more like a poetic inspiration the Medusa and becomes very critical regarding the behaviour
poet collects from the world around her. Referring to the of her mother to her as she wanted to exert influence on
story of King Midas and his golden touch, the poem ‘In
Midas’ Country’ shows that life is not always perfect like

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the daughter’s life with over-attention and possessive Apart from these, her interest in Norse Mythology
instinct. is evident in poems like ‘The Hermit at Outermost House’.
The poem ‘Lorelei’ is about the German legend Here she mentions “The great gods, Stone-Head, Claw-
of Lorelei, the nymph of the Rhine river whose singing Foot” (1989, p. 118) indicating the Norse god Hrungnir
lured the boatmen to their destruction much like the Sirens who was made of stone. Also, the poem ‘Battle-Scene’
in Homer’s Odyssey. The poem shows Plath’s fascination refers to the Odyssey and the story of Sindbad from the
for death as the word Lorelei symbolizes death in the Arabian Nights.
poem. In her personal life death was like an escape for her
as she took several attempts at suicide before committing V. CONCLUSION
suicide in 1963.
Sylvia Plath used symbols and imagery from mythology
Sometimes she included the image of a mythical and legendary tales as symbols, metaphors and allegories.
hero to portray her personal anguish. ‘Perseus: The Unlike the notable modern poets, her appropriation of
Triumph of Wit Over Suffering’ the poem named after the myth is more personalized and more intimate. Her
famous Greek hero, has several Greek mythological personal motif and experience are merged with the
references. In the first stanza, the poet refers to Hercules, mythical characters and images. It fulfils the social and
another great hero and relative of Perseus. Both had some psychological functions of literature. On the one hand, she
similar traits- both were demigods and were born with a showed the complex realities and her psychological
curse. The poem then refers to the ill-fated Trojan priest condition and on the other hand, she materialized the
Laocoön, devoured with his sons by a sea serpent. The individual purposes by portraying her psychological
second stanza of the poem refers to how Perseus beheaded universe. The use of myths and legends has become a
Medusa, the serpent-headed monster: vehicle in her poems by which she illustrates her personal
Not nails, and a mirror to keep the snaky head depression and anxiety, the condition of women in society,
In safe perspective, could outface the gorgon- her relationship with her parents and her views on the
grimace contemporary world around her. In portraying the mythical
characters and elements she adopted different personae
Of human agony. (Plath, 1989, p. 83)
like Medusa, Medea, Oedipus, Electra etc. She
After chronicling the personal glory of the Greek hero transformed her practical experiences and her inner self for
Perseus Plath indirectly refers to the personal agony and artistic purposes. Ultimately, her objective behind the use
her sufferings at the end of the poem. of myths and legends complies with Eliot and Yeats’
The impact of human tragedy on people has been mythical method.
effectively shown in ‘Aftermath’. Here Plath used the
image of Medea in Greek mythology to show how
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https://dx.doi.org/10.22161/ijels.84.48 301