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1. Name-Pandya Riva m
Roll no-23
Paper-9
Topic-Myths in The Waste Land

2.  Thomas Stearns Eliot was a British essayist , publisher,
playwright, literary and social critic and one of the 20th
century’s major poet.
 He born on 26 September 1888 and died on 4 January
1965.
 The Waste Land is one of his long and famous poem of
modernism. He shows his discomfort for modern life
by contrasting it with medieval traits.

3.  Myth is a traditional story especially one concerning
the early history of a people or explaining a natural or
social phenomenon and typically involving
supernatural begins or events.
 Myth is a story that may or may not be true.
 The word myth comes from the Greek word Mythos it
means story or legend.

4.  The Waste Land is a poem full of myths, illusion and
imagery .
 This is Eliot’s most famous poem of modernism
 It is also full of real juxtapositions between past and
present. Or he shows the difference between the divinely
religious medieval life which modern life lacks and fall in
spiritual matters in modern life.
 Eliot who believes that nothing can be done without any
prior matter or substance , has written “The waste Land"
with the help of many mythical and literary references .
 He is a critic poet and he also use Hindu, Biblical and
Christian myths in this poem.

5. Myths
Vegetation
Phlebas
Tiresias
Sibyl
The
fisher
king
Holy
Grail

6. The myth of vegetation is particularly
based on the cycle of season.
The poem begins with,
“April is the cruelest month,
breeding.”
Winter-Death
April-Re-birth
Rain- Life
This recurrent pattern has been taken
over in the Christian myth in birth ,
fructification and resurrection of
Christ .
Vegetation
Re-
birth
Death
Life

7.  Sibyl is the most famous of the
sibyls the prophetic old women of
Greek mythology but she never
dies ,looks at the future and
proclaims that she only wants to
die.
 She typifies the time woven soul’s
desire to escape from the wheel of
things like Nirvana , Moksha and
Salvation.
 The sibyl’s predicament mirror
what Eliot see as his own , he lives
in a culture that has decayed and
withered but will not expire and
be is forced to live with reminders
of its former glory.

8.  The Holy Grail was legend is a
medieval legend associated
with the adventure of king
author and his knights of the
round table.
 The Grail was the dish, cup or
vessel which caught the blood
of Christ when he was pierced
by a spear while hanging on
the cross.
 Grail was connected with the
fertility myth as it witnessed
by its sexual symbol but later
on it suffered a sea- change
through its association with
Christ.

9.  Tiresias is a figure from Greek mythology
who is both male and female features and is
blind but can see into the future.
 Tiresias is represented as a bisexual in The
wasteland. As he was blind but he has the
gift of prophecy and immortality.
 Tiresias serves as a unifying figure in The
waste land linking the ancient and modern
worlds or rebuilding a myth of unity in the
modern world. His life is related with the
past and present.
 In this poem Tireseas reactivates his ancient
role that of prophet.
 He played a prominent part in Theban
legends delivering prophecies to Oedipus
the king of Thebes.

10.  The medieval waste land of the fisher
king a myth which is closely related with
the Grail legend .The soldiers of king
fisher ravished the nuns of the chapels .
Perilous said to contain the Holy Grail
and because of that king became
impotent and his land suffered from
famine.
 The impotent of the fisher king was
reflected in the land of which he was the
ruler .It had become dry and barren the
haunt and home of want and famine.
One day the king of the pure soul came
and solve riddle.
 Eliot credits much of the structure of the
waste land to Weston’s book. The waste
land created by the fisher king’s wound
serves as the central image of the poem.

11.  Phlebas is a sailor who dies by
drowning.
 Phlebas is an example of a lack
of spirituality, self ego, and what
becomes of those who waste
themselves.
 His death represents spiritual
death
 His seemingly small role in
death represents a greater
picture of bringing life back to
the wasteland.

12.  Thus, Eliot uses these myths in his poem The waste
land to comment on the modern world or to describe
modern cultural emptiness within the context of
ancient myths of a heroic quest that gives meaning to
life.