SOURCE: Miller, Paul D. “A Function of Myth in Marlowe's Hero and Leander.” Studies in Philology 50, no. 2 (April 1953): 158-67.

In the following essay, Miller considers the relevance of the mythological elements in Hero and Leander.

Christopher Marlowe's poetic fragment, Hero and Leander, has received high praise from the time of its composition to the present. Douglas Bush passes judgment on the poem and summarizes its history in this fashion:

All the best qualities of the Italianate Ovidian tradition are embodied, and transcended, in Hero and Leander It is equally true that the poem exhibits in high relief all the vices of the tradition. Yet it remains for us the most beautiful short narrative poem of its age, and for Marlowe's contemporaries and followers the causes of our partial dissatisfaction did not exist. It was immensely admired before and after its formal publication, and was enthusiastically quoted and plagiarized...