The Snake-Haired Muse: James K. Baxter and Classical Myth

Geoffrey Miles is a senior lecturer in the school of English, film, theater, and media studies at Victoria University of Wellington, where his primary interest is the reception of the classics in English literature. He is the author of Shakespeare and the Constant Romans and the editor of Classical Mythology in English Literature. John Davidson is a former professor of classics and head of the school of art history, classics, and religious studies at Victoria University of Wellington. He has had a long-standing research interest in the work of James K. Baxter alongside his extensive publications on Greek tragedy, mythology, and Homer. Paul Millar is an associate professor at the University of Canterbury where he coordinates the English literature program and directs the humanities computing unit. He is the author of No Fretful Sleeper: A Life of Bill Pearson.

Contending that James K. Baxter's use of Greek myth is close to the heart of his poetic vision, this book draws on the subject's entire career, mounting the first-ever sustained investigation of his vast corpus of unpublished poems. Baxter's mythic figures and ambiguous symbols are explored, to which he repeatedly returned in his attempts to establish patterns out of the "chaos" of his experiences. Among the figures discussed in detail are the seaborn Venus; Dionysus, the liberating and destructive god of alcohol; the alienated voyager Odysseus; Theseus in his political labyrinth; and the hideous Gorgon--who also functions as the poet's dangerous muse. Illuminating the complexity, adventurousness, imaginative energy, and unexpected wit of Baxter's dealings with classical mythology, this volume sheds a new light on New Zealand's most iconic poet. A comprehensive "Who's Who" in Baxter's work and a detailed bibliography are also included.

Preface -- Abbreviations -- 1. Baxter's Classical Baggage -- 2. 'An Indispensable Education': Myth in Baxter's Childhood and Adolescence -- 3. Venus Is Rising, Or Is She? -- 4. The Infernal Feminine -- 5. The Garden and the Labyrinth: Hercules and Theseus -- 6. 'The Myth of Ocean Freedom': Odysseus -- 7. 'Under the Sign': Bacchus/Dionysus -- 8. 'Chaos and the Grave': Baxter's Underworlds -- 9. Conclusion -- A Mythological Who's Who in Baxter -- Bibliography -- Index.