Ted Hughes: Mayday on Holderness

Relationship to Classical text Use of Roman concept: 'The stars make pietas'.

Note The Lupercalia was a Roman Festival (15 February) conducted by the association of Luperci. The festival survived until at least 494CE. In 44BCE Marcus Antonius, who was consul and Lupericus offered the crown to Julius Caesar. In the Lupercal sequence of poems Hughes works with anthropology and cross-temporal affinities to dig beneath the surface attributes of classicism and the classical.