THE ROLE OF GREEK MYTHOLOGY IN GRAHAM SWIFT'S POEM PRIAM

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the role of Greek mythology in Graham Swift's poem Priam. Priam was, in Greek mythology, the King of Troy. In his poem, Swift creates a contemporary tale based on a parallelism with the old story, thus showing the universality of the myth of Priam. Swift manages to show how, even today, we can still identify with the Greek heroes' experience. We owe a great debt to Ancient Greek culture: in architecture and science, for instance. The myths they created and which we still read today have often been reinterpreted and used as symbols in the literature of other ages. Swift has some personal connections with Greece. In Making an Elephant: Writing from Within, Swift talks about his trips to Greece (1967, 1974). These trips were related to his wish to become a writer: when he was a PhD student, he left for Greece in the hope of learning to write and returned home with a manuscript. In so doing, he emulates the tradition of the ancient Greek poets who were travelers. Swift's novels link symbolically to ancient Greek culture (the trip in Last Orders, Wish You Were Here). This paper will analyse the symbol of Priam and of the Trojan horse. There is some modern irony in Swift's poem. Priam is regarded not as a hero, but as a father whose son "steals a wife and starts a war". This is "The usual wretched soap-opera story" (Swift 2009: 255).