This volume proposes new insights into the uses of classical mythology
by Shakespeare and his contemporaries, focusing on interweaving
processes in early modern appropriations of myth. Its 11 essays show how
early modern writing intertwines diverse myths and plays with variant
versions of individual myths that derive from multiple classical
sources, as well as medieval, Tudor and early modern retellings and
translations. Works discussed include poems and plays by William
Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe and others. Essays concentrate on
specific plays including The Merchant of Venice and Dido Queen of
Carthage, tracing interactions between myths, chronicles, the Bible and
contemporary genres. Mythological figures are considered to demonstrate
how the weaving together of sources deconstructs gendered
representations. New meanings emerge from these readings, which open up
methodological perspectives on multi-textuality, artistic appropriation
and cultural hybridity.