Hamlet and the First Commandment: THE PRESSURE VALUE OF CLASSICAL GODS - Series

Did people in Shakespeare’s time sometimes have good reason for appearing to Puritans as if they were violating the first commandment [1], celebrating and retelling tales from classical mythology, tales about gods from ancient religious cults that Christianity had declared to be false? 

If one wished to talk and write about mystery and transcendent meaning, what was a person to do if one hoped to avoid being executed as a heretic, when Christianity was contentious and rigid, with certain topics prohibited, dangerous? 

It was safer to re-tell tales from classical mythology involving gods and humans interacting, and possibly to use these as analogies for contemporary events. 

Many gods and other classical references are in Hamlet: 

1.2: Hyperion, Hercules, Niobe;

1.4: The Nemian lion (defeated by Hercules);

1.4: Marry (by the Virgin Mary, mother of Jesus), Polonius

2.2: Pyrrhus, Priam, Hecuba;

3.2: Vulcan, Phoebus, Neptune, Hymen, Hecate;

3.4: Hyperion, Jove, Mars, Mercury; 

5.1: The Greek mountains, Pelion, Olympus, and Ossa.

Some treat Christianity and classical education in Shakespeare’s time as if they were neatly compartmentalized, when in fact they may well have overlapped.

Church attendance was mandatory, and citizens were fined for being “truant.” People who did not conform to the state religion were sometimes executed as heretics or enemies of the state.

Classical education was popular and interesting in its own right, but also acted as a pressure valve for speaking about transcendent meaning in religiously contentious times. 

Such speech may also have been as if to say: Christianity may be the only game in town now, but this was not always the case. Religions have come and gone. The dust of religions past, today, might turn to loam, to “stop a beer barrel” or “stop a hole to keep the wind away” (5.1.219-221). Who’s to say that an oppressive Christianity might not also one day go the way of dust [2]?

NOTES: All references to Shakespeare plays are to the Folger Shakespeare Library online versions: https://shakespeare.folger.edu

INDEX to this series on Hamlet and the Ten Commandments:
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2026/07/series-index-ten-commandments-in-hamlet.html

[1] The First Commandment as translated to English in Shakespeare's time: "THOU SHALT HAVE NO OTHER GODS BUT ME.”

[2] See Lewis Hyde’s book about religions that die or sometimes evolve with the help of trickster figures, Trickster Makes This World: Mischief, Myth, and Art, NY, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1998, 2010.


IMAGE: The Assembly of Gods around Jupiter's Throne, circa 1532-1534. Giulio Romano (1499–1546).
Palazzo del Te. Public domain via Wikipedia https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/37/Giulio_Romano_-_Vault_-_The_Assembly_of_Gods_around_Jupiter%27s_Throne_-_WGA09556.jpg


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Disclaimer: If and when I quote or paraphrase bible passages or mention religion in many of my blog posts, I do not intend to promote any religion over another, nor am I attempting to promote religious belief in general; only to explore how the Bible and religion influenced Shakespeare, his plays, and his age.
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Thanks for reading!
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My current project is a book tentatively titled Hamlet’s Bible, about biblical allusions and plot echoes in Hamlet.

Below is a link to a list of some of my top posts (“greatest hits”), including a description of my book project (last item on the list):

https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2019/12/top-20-hamlet-bible-posts.html

I usually post every week.