ABSTRACT
Percy Bysshe Shelley was reading August Wilhel Schlegel’s Lectures in March 1818, a book he owned, referred to and lent to the Gisbornes in June of the same year while at Livorno. Shelley engaged with texts which mirror his fascination with certain aspects of classical Greek culture – ethical, philosophical, religious, poetical, political – and at the same time help him reflect on his preoccupations. Even though Shelley is strangely reticent in his letters about his work on Cyclops, it is safe to assume that like all foreign works of literature, the Greek drama would pose a challenge as an exercise in translation but also as a testing ground for his ideas. Shelley’s ‘Cyclops’ captures in large measure the discordant, even disturbing tones and evocative ideas of Euripides’s satyr play, such as its serious questioning of the religious and moral norms of the time; but the reader will also recognize several themes already apparent in Shelley’s own writings.
