Abstract

Among the impressive number of mythological figures mentioned in "Antony and Cleopatra", the references to the Graeco-Roman (and in one case Egyptian) gods are particularly relevant. Without ignoring the fundamental relationship between Shakespeare and his sources, my study will employ a close reading of the passages in which we find explicit mention of the gods in order to investigate both the actual authorial intention behind such references and their supposed (and pre-supposed) effect upon the audience, placing thus their function within the play's properly dramatic dynamics.