Mysteriously Meant

The Rediscovery of Pagan Symbolism and Allegorical Interpretation in the Renaissance

Don Cameron Allen

• Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
• Year: 2020
• eBook ISBN: 9781421435282
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Medieval & Early Modern Literary Criticism
• Index: Literature

Originally published in 1971. In Mysteriously Meant, Professor Allen maps the intellectual landscape of the Renaissance as he explains the discovery of an allegorical interpretation of Greek, Latin, and finally Egyptian myths and the effect this discovery had on the development of modern attitudes toward myth. He believes that to understand Renaissance literature one must understand the interpretations of classical myth known to the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In unraveling the elusive strands of myth, allegory, and symbol from the fabric of Renaissance literature such as Milton's Paradise Lost, Allen is a helpful guide. His discussion of Renaissance authors is as authoritative as it is inclusive. His empathy with the scholars of the Renaissance keeps his discussion lively—a witty study of interpreters of mythography from the past.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Copyright Page
• Title Page
• Contents
• Preface
• I. Pagan Myth and Christian Apologetics
• II. The Renaissance Search for Christian Origins: The Philosophers
• III. The Renaissance Search for Christian Origins: The Sacred History
• IV. Undermeanings in Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey
• V. The Symbolic Wisdom of the Ancient Egyptians
• VI. Undermeanings in Virgil’s Aeneid
• VII. Undermeanings in Ovid’s Metamorphoses
• VIII. The Allegorical Interpretation of the Renaissance Mythographers
• IX. The Symbolic Interpretations of Renaissance Antiquarians
• X. The Rationalization of Myth and the End of Allegory
• Bibliography
• Index