Overview
Throughout the 19th century, myth and mythography underwent radical revision for reasons intimately connected with important changes in ideology. Theological controversy and the demythologizing of Christianity brought about the reexamination of ancient myths as expressions of primitive religious belief, and the development of anthropology led to the extensive and serious study of myths. This important collection of essays examines this changing role of mythology as expressed in 19th-century literature and painting. The contributors focus on one powerful myth to which 19th-century artists turned again and again: the myth surrounding the rising and setting of the sun, and the importance of the sun as a primal, generative force. Their essays analyze the ways in which such artists as Shelley, Byron, Turner, Tennyson, Ruskin, Swinburne, Darwin, Hardy, and Pater found inspiration in solar mythology and how they interpreted solar myths in light of their own culture.