Shakespeare and the Gods

Virginia Mason Vaughan is Professor Emerita and Research Professor in the Department of English at Clark University, USA. She is a leading international expert on The Tempest, and co-editor of the Arden Third Series edition of the play. Her publications also include Antony and Cleopatra: Language and Writing (Arden Shakespeare, 2015), The Tempest: A Critical Reader (co-edited with Alden T. Vaughan, Arden Shakespeare, 2014), and Women Making Shakespeare: Text, Reception and Performance (co-edited with Gordon McMullan, Lena Cowen Orlin, Arden Shakespeare, 2013).

• List of IllustrationsPrefaceAcknowledgementsNote on TextList of AbbreviationsChapter One: ContextsChapter Two: JupiterChapter Three: VenusChapter Four: HerculesChapter Five: DianaChapter Six: MarsChapter Seven: CeresAfterthoughtsReferencesIndex

Virginia Mason Vaughan's Shakespeare and the Gods is a clear and intelligently useful guide to the scope and meaning of Shakespeare's allusions to major classical deities. This book deftly explores the ways in which Shakespeare serves as a major interpreter of these classical legends, to the extent that his plays and poems are the texts where we most fully and rewardingly encounter the rich classical tradition of sexual warfare reaching back to Homer, Virgil, and Ovid.