An indispensable guide to the figures, places and stories of classical mythology in Shakespeare's works, with entries covering early modern usage and critical analysis in a cross-disciplinary approach that includes reception, textual, performance, gender and political studies.

"Mythological figures, creatures, places and stories crowd Shakespeare's plays and poems, featuring as allusions, poetic analogies, inset shows, scene settings, and characters or plots in their own right. This dictionary illuminates these, bringing them to life for today's audiences, readers and theatre practitioners. The 200 headings correspond to words and names actually used by Shakespeare: individual figures (Dido, Venus, Hercules), categories (Amazons, Centaurs, nymphs, satyrs), places (Colchos, Troy). Medium and longer entries also cover early modern usage and critical analysis in a cross-disciplinary approach that includes reception, textual, performance, gender and political studies"--