Yeats and Greek Mythology in The Tower
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Abstract
This study analyses the gods and the heroes of the Greek myths whom Yeats represented in The Tower and inspects how these figures affected his poems; it also investigates how he developed his talents through the Greek myths in order to become a worldwide poet. Yeats accomplishes the universality of his art and deconstructs the ultimate reality of human beings in The Tower. He uses the gods and the heroes of the Greek myths as symbols of ageing, death, a forever resting place of human beings, the cycle of reincarnation, and the cycle of history. He, in his poems, especially represents the agony and conflicts of ageing, the rise and fall of history, the stream of consciousness of human beings, and the beginning and rebirth of culture through mystic figures: Oedipus, Athene, Poseidon, Dionysus, Centaur, Zeus, and Leda. The images of the Greek myths are stepping stones in Yeats’s journey as a great poet as seen through The Tower. His poetic world and ideas cause everyone to enjoy his mature poems.