Hughes describes the entire city of Thebes joining the Bacch…

Hughes describes the entire city of Thebes joining the Bacchic frenzy: “Children and their teachers, labourers, bankers, / Mothers and grandmothers, merchants, agents, / Prostitutes, politicians, police, / Scavengers and accountants, lawyers and burglars.” What is the primary function of this exhaustive catalogue?

Hughes describes Echo as one who “cannot be silent / When an…

Hughes describes Echo as one who “cannot be silent / When another speaks” but “cannot / Speak at all / Unless another has spoken.” When Echo falls in love with Narcissus, she must wait “For some other to speak / So she could snatch their last words / With whatever sense they might lend her.” What does Echo’s condition primarily reveal about the nature of desire in the myth?

When Pyramus discovers Thisbe’s bloodstained veil, the text…

When Pyramus discovers Thisbe’s bloodstained veil, the text says he  “groaned, / Not unlike the lioness.” He then immediately concludes that Thisbe is dead and blames himself entirely, declaring: “I am to blame — for appointing this wild place / But failing to be here before her.” What does this sequence most directly reveal about Pyramus?