{"product_id":"religion-and-mythology-in-oscar-wildes-poem-the-sphinx-von-melitta-toller","title":"Religion and mythology in Oscar Wilde's poem \"The Sphinx\"","description":"\u003cp\u003eSeminar paper from the year 2005 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 1,0, LMU Munich (Department für Anglistik und Amerikanistik), course: Oscar Wilde, language: English, abstract: Introduction \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA poet is sitting in his room beside a Sphinx. Within the poem the Sphinx forms his main focus of interest, his whole attention belongs to her: a cheap souvenir from some street corner. But inside of the poet¿s room the Sphinx no longer remains a little piece of stone but, right in front of his eyes, becomes a real-life Sphinx ¿ the age-old female demon of death, who besieged the city of Thebes as a punishment for the king of Thebes who introduced homosexual love into Greek culture and thus incured Heräs hatred. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe Sphinx, one of Oscar Wilde¿s most enchanting poems, is woven out of a net of various mythological beliefs and religious ideas. Wilde invokes a hotch-potch of varying creatures, who convey a magical atmosphere of ancient grandeur. In order to understand the poem one has to get to know the concepts that stand behind the various mythical creatures, gods and heroes. Therefore I will explain to which mythologies Wilde relates to and how they refer to each other. In this connection the time of Oscar Wilde has to be taken into consideration, too: Victorianism, with its crumbling of old values and conquering of new worlds; the period of decadence; the period of aestheticism. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eI would like to show some of the multitude of possible accesses, e.g. the identification of the Sphinx with the figure of the femme fatale; the personification of the Sphinx as the temptations and desires of the poet respectively The Sphinx as a metaphor for the loss of Christian faith in Victorian culture.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"aw-variant-hidden-subtitle-div\" id=\"aw-variant-subtitle-9783638904797\"\u003e\u003ch3\u003e\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Autorenwelt Shop","offers":[{"title":"Softcover - 9783638904797","offer_id":58687643091269,"sku":"9783638904797","price":17.95,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0940\/0622\/files\/73461_8c6ac52a-56b8-4db5-b2af-70b2dd2af6e5.jpg?v=1785821140","url":"https:\/\/shop.autorenwelt.de\/en\/products\/religion-and-mythology-in-oscar-wildes-poem-the-sphinx-von-melitta-toller","provider":"Autorenwelt Shop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}