Georgetown Peabody Library

The white goddess, a historical grammar of poetic myth, Robert Graves ; edited by Grevel Lindop

eng

index present

non fiction

The white goddess

851068364

Robert Graves ; edited by Grevel Lindop

a historical grammar of poetic myth

This book, first published more than sixty years ago, was the outcome of Robert Graves's vast reading and research into strange territories of folklore, mythology, religion, and magic. Erudite and impassioned, it is a scholar-poet's quest for the meaning of European myths, a polemic about the relations between man and woman, and also an intensely personal document in which Graves explores the sources of his own inspiration and, as he believed, all true poetry. Incorporating all of Graves's final revisions, his replies to two of the original reviewers, and an essay describing the months of illumination in which The White Goddess was written, this is the definitive edition of one of the most influential books of our time

Poets and gleemen -- The battle of the trees -- Dog, roebuck and lapwing -- The white goddess -- Gwion's riddle solved -- Hercules on the lotus -- Gwion's heresy -- The tree alphabet (1) -- The tree alphabet (2) -- The song of amergin -- Palamedes and the cranes -- The roebuck in the thicket -- The seven pillars -- The holy unspeakable name of God -- The lion with the steady hand -- The bull-footed God -- The number of the beast -- A conversation of paphos-43 AD -- The waters of styx -- The triple muse -- Fabulous beasts -- The single poetic theme -- War in heaven -- Return of the goddess -- Postscript 1960