Hyperion Allusions and Cultural References

When authors give shout outs to other great works, people, and events, it's usually not accidental. Put on your super-sleuth hat and figure out why.

Literary and Philosophical References

  • John Keats (referenced throughout)
  • Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales (1.44)
  • William Butler Yeats, "News for the Delphic Oracle" (1.91)
  • William Shakespeare (2.176) (3.56)
  • Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe, Broadway lyricist and composer (1.177)
  • Neil Simon (1.177)
  • Beowulf (2.321) (3.31) (3.304)
  • Francis Bacon (3.23)
  • Ovid (3.53)
  • Hannah Senesh (3.53)
  • Homer, The Odyssey (3.54)
  • Charles Lamb (3.55)
  • Robert Frost (3.56)
  • William Wordsworth (3.56)
  • William Gass (3.79)
  • Plato (3.80)
  • Bertrand Russell (3.81)
  • Tycho Brahe (3.81)
  • Mark Twain (3.92)
  • John Milton (3.93)
  • Lord Byron (3.93)
  • William Butler Yeats (3.93)
  • T.S. Eliot (3.93)
  • Dylan Thomas (3.93)
  • Delmore Schwart (3.93)
  • Homer, The Odyssey, translated by F. Scott Fitzgerald (3.117)
  • John Bunyon, Pilgrim's Progress (3.135)
  • Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf (3.137)
  • Mark Twain, Huck Finn (3.297)
  • Mary Shelley, Frankenstein (3.391)
  • David Hume (3.418)
  • H.G. Wells, The Time Machine (3.418)
  • Dante Alighieri (4.151)
  • Lucy Maud Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables (4.468)
  • Soren Kierkegaard (4.534) (4.621)
  • Immanuel Kant (4.534)
  • William Butler Yeats, "A Prayer for my Daughter" (4.724)
  • John Muir (5.66)
  • Ezra Pound (5.354) (5.936)
  • William Shakespeare, Romeo & Juliet (6.143)

Historical References

  • Rachmaninoff (Prologue.1)
  • Abraham Lincoln (Prologue.17)
  • Winston Churchill (Prologue.17)
  • Wagner (Prologue.25)
  • Battle of Agincourt (beginning of Chapter 2)
  • M.C. Escher (3.42)
  • The Mayflower (3.59)
  • Massachusetts Bay Colony (3.137)
  • Hitler (3.139)
  • Michelangelo's Pietà (3.467)
  • Sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini (5.743)
  • Joseph Severn, painter and friend of John Keats (5.750) (5.769) (5.770)
  • Bach, Prelude (6.526)

Pop Culture References

  • The Wizard of Oz