From Myth to Logos in Greek Studies

This chapter analyses Pater’s understanding of myth and its creation in his Greek Studies (1895). Although the book was published posthumously, the majority of its essays appeared within a five-year period, beginning in 1876 with ‘The Myth of Demeter and Persephone’ and ‘A Study of Dionysus’. Pater follows a three-stage mythopoeic process, beginning with the myths of the people, which are collected and organized by the poets, and finally sculpted into ethical archetypes, conveying the development from myth to logos. Apollo comes to exemplify the archetypal character for Pater, influenced by Plato’s reverence for the god as the embodiment of reason, light, sanity, and music. Around the time of these first studies on myth, in their account of how traditional stories are created and characters are formed, Pater first turns his hand to publishing fiction.