Myth, Poetry, and Music (in Great Myth-Poems)
This essay explores the relationship among myth, poetry, and music, seeking to identify points of convergence and divergence beyond the commonly cited criterion of translatability. Six major poems, drawing on mythic themes, are considered in terms of three empirical problems: the body, language, and political economy. The essay offers reflections on the musicality of language and concludes on the question of the mythopoesis of death.