Hyperion (Keats)

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Hyperion is the title of an unfinished poem by the English romantic and poet John Keats . The poem is based on the war or the fall of the titans from Greek mythology . Keats worked on the poem from 1818 to 1819.

Characters and plot

The titans in the poem are a pantheon of gods whose rule was broken by the Olympians under Jupiter . The titanic pantheon consists of:

In his poem, Keats used the English equivalents of the respective titan names, i.e. Thea instead of Theia and Oceanos instead of Okeanos.

The poem begins with Saturn's lamentation of the loss of power that was taken from him by Jupiter . Thea finds him and leads him to the other titans, who are also disempowered and are now discussing whether they should fight the Olympians . During this discussion, Oceanos admits that he is willing to hand over his power to the Olympian Neptune , who is far more beautiful than himself. Clymene then describes her almost painful experience when she heard the beautiful music of the Olympian Apollo . Finally, Enceladus tries to convince the other titans to fight. The scene then changes to Hyperion, who is the only one of the titans who has received his power. The poem first describes his palace and then Uranus' speech asking Hyperion to go to the other titans. The scene changes to Apollo, the new god of the sun - but also god of music, culture and civilization - crying on a beach. Mnemosyne joins him and he explains the reason for his tears. He is aware of its enormous potential, but is not able to use it. When he looks into her eyes, knowledge overcomes him and he is completely transformed into a god. Here the poem breaks off.

Later influence

The American writer Dan Simmons wrote his science fiction epic The Hyperion Chants from 1989 to 1990 , consisting of the novels Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion . In both books, John Keats appears as the personality reconstruction of the real poet. The stories are also peppered with quotes from Keats.

literature

  • John Barnard: John Keats. Cambridge University Press 1987. Chapter 4 Hyperion: 'Colossal Grandeur'
  • Cedric Watts: A Preface to Keats. Longman Group Limited 1985. Part two: The Art of Keats, The Influence of Milton: Hyperion.
  • John Keats: Collected Poems. 3. Edition. Penguin Classics 1988.

Web links

Wikisource: Hyperion (Keats)  - Sources and full texts (English)