Antony And Cleopatra (Vol. 27) | John Coates (essay date 1978)
John Coates (essay date 1978)
SOURCE: "'The Choice of Hercules' in 'Antony and Cleopatra'," in Shakespeare Survey: An Annual Survey of Shakespearian Study and Production, Vol. 31, 1978, pp. 45-52.
[In the following essay, Coates considers parallels between the Renaissance story of "The Choice of Hercules" and Antony and Cleopatra.]
The importance of the 'Choice of Hercules' in the art of the Renaissance has been made clear by the work of Erwin Panofsky [Hercules am Scheidewege] and its role in the culture of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries has been illustrated by Edgar Wind [in Pagan Mysteries in the Renaissance]. From a simple story in Xenophon's Memorabilia, which coalesced with Scipio's dream in the Punica of Silius Italicus, neo-Platonist philosophy fashioned a richly-textured, highly sophisticated allegory. This allegory touched on the most vital moral question of the time: the attainment of human...
[The entire page is 4175 words long]
Navigate
