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John Keats : Endymion or The Quest for Beauty

Dernière mise à jour : 17 avr. 2023




Extract from:

The Persistence of "Endymion"

by Futin B. Antunes (1976)




"The Greek myth of Endymion tells the story of a beautiful shepherd with whom Cynthia (or Diana, Phoebe) fell in love when she saw him sleeping on Mt. Latmos. She caused him to sleep for ever that she might enjoy his beauty... According to another version he obtained from Zeus eternal youth and the gift of sleeping as long as he wished. (...)



Keats' Endymion is long narrative poem is made up of four books, each containing one thousand verses.


In the first book, we learn that Endymion, the shepherd prince of Mt. Latmos, feels very despondent and alienates himself from his people's celebration of Pan's festival, "Like one who on earth had never stept". His sister Peona leads him to a pleasant bower and after calmingly him to sleep, induces him to tell her the reason for his apparent grief.


Endymion then eases his breast "of secret grief", and reveals to her how one day he fell asleep and a beautiful moon, a "completed form of all completeness" appeared to him in his dream, and he could not avoid loving her. Such a mysterious being smiled to him "in the clear well", and fondly called his name in a "secret mossy cave". Thrice she manifested herself to him, and since he was deeply in love with her - a deity - earth's delight no longer appeals to him. Therefore he decides to go on "pilgrimage for the' world's dusky brink", in quest of his love.



In Book II, the lovelorn Latmian is informed by a nymph that he must wander "past the scanty bar / To mortal steps". He finds himself near a cavern's mouth, and prays for Cynthia (without knowing the identity of his dream-goddess) to help him to discover his love's dwelling. Endymion is in a kind of trance, and a voice from the deep cavern commands him to descend into the bosom of the world: He now understands that "airy voices" will lead him to immortality (of love) through the "silent mysteries of the earth". Therefore he descends. The cavern is studded with gems and full of winding passages.


Endymion feels lonely and miserable in the dark under world. Wandering and watching the wonders floating before him in the deep, he arrives in a chamber where Adonis is sleeping. The shepherd prince then beholds the goddess of the sea, Venus, awakening her lover to a sumer of love. Venus promises Endymion that one day he will be blessed in his pursuit.


Being one again alone, he strides through caves, places of "mottled ore", streams, fountains, descending more with the help of an eagle, till he comes to a green nook, a jasmine bower "all bestrown / with golden moss" where he falls asleep and in a dream, has his goddess in his arms. The “known Unknown" feeds him with moments of ecstasy, but soon departs leaving him sorrowful again.







Endymion continues his pilgrimage in the underworld and meets the river god Alpheus and the fountain nymph Arethusa. Alpheus flows trying unsuccessfully to melt his stream with Arethusa's ; Endymion feels sympathy for their unhappy fate, and, for a while, forgets his self. He now can lend to the sounds of the two streams - Alpheus and Arethusa - a human significance. Then, the vision of the earth vanishes and the Latmian faces the giant sea.



Book III presents Endymion striding the floor of the sea where he sees a vast hollow with dead things which hide long-forgotten stories. Again he prays to Cynthia, praising the glory of the moon. He meets an old man, Glaucus, who tells his story. Glaucus was a fisherman of immortal stock who left earth and his fellowmen to dive into the water-world which meant his ideal. Here he falls in love with an elusive nymph, Scylla, who keeps running away from him. Glaucus then tries to find relief in Circe's sensual love.