Derek Mahon: IX

Allusion to classical place House of Atreus

Relationship to Classical text The autobiographical play on Ovid’s telling of the Procne and Philomel episode (Metamorphoses VI, 647ff ) and the words ‘send young Itys here to me’, in the previous poem (‘VIII’), become clear here, where Mahon’s ‘Uneaten’ son, Rory, is visiting him in New York. This poem more broadly refers to ‘the House of Atreus’ and it is less obvious that Mahon is drawing on a specific source text.

Classical/post-Classical intertexts The classical references bring to mind the myth of Pygmalion and Galatea when Mahon writes ‘a statue moved and began to live’, but subsequent mention of ‘a winter’s tale’ demonstrates that he also has a Shakespearean source in mind.