The Use of Mythological Allusions in Margaret Atwood’s Poetry

Julie Mewhinney ENG4U1 October 16th, 2012 J. Edwards Mythology Because Im Too Jaded to salve active Love An every last(predicate)usion is a casual or passing reference to a famous historical or fictional character. In poetry, allusions be often used to help reinforce a point or characterize the vocalizer or the addressee. In the case of Marg bet Atwoods poems, Helen of troy Does Countertop dance and Sekhmet Lion-Headed Goddess of War, allusions are used to empower and change the delegacy we view the female speaker. This is especially obvious in Helen of troy weight Does Countertop Dancing.The poem is about a stripper, which is considered to be quite a degrading job in todays society. Normally such a protagonist would be looked down upon and pitied by the readers, and yet through allusions to Helen of Troy (a fair sex widely considered to be the most beautiful of the antediluvian world, and in any case the sole cause of the Trojan War according to myth) the speaker comes withdraw as superior to wo custody with respectable jobs, and also to the men who watch her, when you would pretend it would be the other way around.In development lines such as I dont let on to everyone, / but lean coating and Ill whisper / My mother was raped by a set apart swan (Countertop, 59-61) Atwood references Helen of Troys links to the Gods of Greek mythology (her father was genus Zeus he had appeared to Helens mother in the form of a prospering swan and raped or had consensual sex with, depending on the version of the paper that you read her), and makes her speaker seem otherworldly and goddess- identical in doing so.Instead of feeling ashamed of herself for her employment, the speaker feels superior in that she can make so many men swoon, much like Helen of Troy, and also in the knowledge that they cannot lay a finger on her I hoer six inches in the place/ in my blazing swan-egg of light. / You think Im not a goddess? / Try me. / This is a touch song. / Touch me and youll burn. (Countertop, 78-83). Atwood uses these allusions to aid in the bridal of the libber view on such a controversial capacity as stripping or prostitution.In Sekhmet, Lion-Headed Goddess of War, Atwood references the Egyptian goddess of war and destruction, Sekhmet, female child of the god Ra, and various other Ancient Egyptian deities, most notably Osiris. The speaker in this poem seems to be Sekhmet herself, or at to the lowest degree a statue of her, much like in Sirens pains, where the sirens are the speakers. In mythology, Sekhmet is the daughter of the sun god Ra, who unleashes her upon the world to select vengeance upon those who have rebelled against him.She goes crazy with blood-lust and begins to kill everyone resulting in her being tricked into drinkable red dyed beer by the men of the day in swan to stop her killing rampage. With a bit of cleaver emphasis, and a feminist viewpoint, Atwood turns Sekhmet into a proud and fearsome warrior queen, who is not content to sit in a museum with the god who wouldnt hurt a fly (Sekhmet, 2), Osiris, and who would like to go back to the days when she was worshipped, not just shown to children learning about cultural diversity.Both of these poems utilize strong female characters in their allusions, most in all likelihood because Atwood tends to write from a feminist viewpoint and likes her woman to have ower over the men, as opposed to in the majority of society, where the view is quite patriarchal, and the men tend to hold power over the women. Helen of Troy, the femme fatale who caused one of the greatest conflicts of the ancient world, and Sekhmet one of the most revered, and certainly the most feared warrior of the Egyptian empire are strong, untouchable and confident in themselves, just the sort of woman that Atwood believes all women should strive to be like.Because of these references, we do not see a libertine stripper who is taunted and looked down upon, or a lonely and forgotten goddess school term in a museum gathering dust. Instead we see an unattainable woman of unsurpassable beauty, above the people who sneer at her, confident in her own skin, and a proud, fierce warrior goddess who remembers her glory days but button up knows that she will never be forgotten.Margaret Atwood uses allusions to mythological figures to the highest degree, giving protagonists that would normally be seen as weak or pitiful characteristics of such influential women she empowers her speakers with these allusions, using them to show us a different, stronger side to cliche characters that we thought we already knew. Works Cited Atwood, Margaret. Helen of Troy Does Countertop Dancing. sunup in the Burned House. New York Houghton Mifflin, 1995. Print. . Sekhmet, Lion-Headed Goddess of War. Morning in the Burned House. New York Houghton Mifflin, 1995. Print.