CREATURES OF ARCADIA

An adventure in the myth of Arcadia, where ""there is no existence, only life"" by Mr. Eliot, who remarks that ""interpretations are also ways of telling."" His own, contemporary, mixing an off-and-on poetic, pragmatic, at times prosaic (some of the dialogue) idiom, in a sharp, sardonic reshaping of the myths centering about animal figures. There are transformations: Io, loved of Zeus, into a white heifer, Artemis as a doe confounding the giants who seek her, Athena, angered, uglifying Medusa (she of the serpents) and repenting of her folly, turning Perseus to the task of destroying her. There are creatures of good (Pegasus, Cheiron) and evil (the Chimaera, the Minotaur). And through the mythical woods wander historic men and women--Aesop, Socrates, Cleopatra. Mr. Eliot in his introduction touches on the sense of myth and meanings (Nietsche, Kerenyi, Malinowski); he appears to opt for myth as a clue to whether or not we are of a ""breed culture,"" a key to its roots. Literarily uneven, but interesting.