ABSTRACT

One feature of the politico-heroic myth is that during the course of time, it may be readopted or resurface, in one that is specifically dictated by the needs of politics and devoted to them. The hero derived from myth-making and the historical hero exists side by side, like two distinct realities that are almost foreign to each other. They never destroy, exclude or impinge upon one another, for they belong to two different universes, those of art and history. Myth requires the elaboration round the hero of a whole structure fed by the most profound reactions of the imagination. The names of Caesar and Alexander retain an aura and a resonance; it is as if they have preserved a tinge of magic. And perhaps it is through appreciating this that people can learn to listen to the message of the great literary myths of their own political history.