Tradition or Innovation? The Myth of Apollo and Daphne in the English Renaissance

Abstract

The myth of Apollo and Daphne recounts how the deity Apollo pursues the human Daphne until she is turned by an outside force into a laurel tree to escape his attentions. This thesis will look at some of the different views on the Apollo and Daphne story from its very beginnings until the end of the English Renaissance. This will be illustrated through Edmund Spenser’s Amoretti, Sonnet XXVIII, Thomas Carew’s “A Rapture” and “A Discription of the Stone” which can be found in Elias Ashmole’s collection of alchemical writings.