Athens | a city in southeastern Greece. In this play, Athens is ancient Greece, a place from which came large contributions to the arts and sciences. |
Aurora | Roman goddess of the dawn |
Carthage | in ancient times, Carthage was a great city on the northern coast of Africa |
Cupid (Eros) | in Roman mythology, Cupid is the son of Venus, the goddess of love. In Greek myths he is Eros, the god of love. Cupid and Eros were said to wound individuals with their arrows, causing mortals to fall in love. |
Daphne | a nymph who was transformed into a tree so that she might be saved from Apollo, the Greek god of the sun, who had fallen in love with her |
Diana | Roman Goddess of the moon, hunt, and chastity |
Hippolyta | an amazonian queen; married Theseus |
May Day | a holiday celebrated on May 1st; a celebration of the coming spring |
Muse | in Greek mythology, one of the nine daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne, goddess of memory; Muses inspired and presided over the creative arts. |
Ninus | legendary founder of Nineveh, a city in ancient Mesopotamia |
Oberon | legendary king of the elves and fairies |
Pheobe | also called Artemis; twin sister of Apollo (Pheobus); traditionally associated with the moon |
Puck | (Robin Goodfellow): a mischievous spirit of nature; a creature of British folklore |
Theseus | a legendary king of Athens; involved in many mythological battles; eventually conquered and wed the Amazon queen, Hippolyta |
Titania | a name given to the daughter’s of titans |
Trojan | someone from the ancient city of Troy, a famous city of Greek legend |
Venus | the Roman goddess of love, beauty, and fertility |
Ovid’s Metamorphoses | Transformation in the play; the source of the characters Pyramus and Thisbe |
Chaucer’s The Knight’s Tale | Hippolyta and Theseus are characters in this tale. Also, Lysander and Demetrius’s pursuit of Helena echoes the way two knights, Palamon and Arcite, fight over Emily |
Plutarch’s Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans | Plutarch’s “Life of Theseus” informs Shakespeare’s portrayal of this character. |
Apuleius’s Golden Ass | This seems to be the literary source for Bottom’s transformation into a human with the head of a donkey |
Corinthians 1 2-9 | Bottom’s language is a parody of St. Paul’s Epistle to the Corinthians |
Queen Elizabeth I | Oberon’s description of the “fair vestal [virgin] throned by the west” (2.1) is a shout-out to Shakespeare virgin monarch. Also, “Fairy Queen” (Titania) was Queen Elizabeth’s nickname |
Dido | … |
Aeneus | … |
Ariadne | … |
Neptune | … |
Jove | … |
Robin Goodfellow | … |
Pyramus and Thisbe | … |
Marry | … |
Antipodes | … |
Taurus | A mountain with white snow |
Archeron | … |
Aurora’s Harbinger | … |
St. Valentines | A Roman Saint associated with courtly love |
Thracian Singer Orpheus | A musician in Greek Mythology whose talents were capable of charming all things, living or not; Attempted to retrieve his wife from the underworld |
Sisters Three | … |
Griffin | … |
Allusions of A Midsummer Night’s Dream
August 9, 2019