Baling the Golden Fleece: Baxter’s Jason
An essay on James K. Baxter’s treatment of the Greek hero Jason might seem likely to be as brief as Dr Johnson’s famous chapter on ‘the snakes of Iceland’, which read in its entirety ‘There are no snakes to be met with throughout the whole island.’ The name of Jason never appears in John Weir’s edit...
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| Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
| Language: | English |
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Victoria University of Wellington
2008
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| Online Access: | https://ojs.victoria.ac.nz/kotare/article/view/784 |
| Summary: | An essay on James K. Baxter’s treatment of the Greek hero Jason might seem likely to be as brief as Dr Johnson’s famous chapter on ‘the snakes of Iceland’, which read in its entirety ‘There are no snakes to be met with throughout the whole island.’ The name of Jason never appears in John Weir’s edition of Baxter’s Collected Poems. There are only two passing allusions to episodes in the Jason saga, both in very early poems: to the Sown Men who ‘sprang sprightly’ from dragon’s teeth in ‘To M.A.B.’ (1943; CP 18), and to the ‘Symplegades’ or Clashing Rocks in ‘Letter to Noel Ginn’ (1944; CP 29). |
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