Virginia Mason Vaughan's Shakespeare and the Gods is a clear and intelligently useful guide to the scope and meaning of Shakespeare's allusions to major classical deities. This book deftly explores the ways in which Shakespeare serves as a major interpreter of these classical legends, to the extent that his plays and poems are the texts where we most fully and rewardingly encounter the rich classical tradition of sexual warfare reaching back to Homer, Virgil, and Ovid.

David Bevington, Phyllis Fay Horton Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus of English and Comparative Literature, University of Chicago, USA

Shakespeare and the Gods provides students with much needed information about major figures from classical mythology, the early modern interpretations that Shakespeare would have known, and the role allusions to these gods, or their appearance, play in enriching the moral and psychological meaning of his works.

Suzanne Gossett, Professor Emerita of English, Loyola University Chicago, USA