The epic and myth in Czech poetry of the 1889s

The article deals with the function of mythical themes and their narrative representation in Czech poetry in the years 1880-1900. In the poems of Julius Zeyer (Ctird, a part of the poetic cycle Vysehrad) and Jaroslav Vrchlicky (Śdrka) different approach of both poets to the mythical themes of Czech history may be perceived. In Zeyers poem the conception of myth is apparently deeper than in the Vrchlicky's one. Zeyers poem presents the relation of man and nature, Vrchlicky shows rather the monumental dramatic scene. In spite of ideological meaning of the mational myth (the stories of mythical heroes were presented as examples for contemporary society), the approach of both was prevailing aesthetic; it corresponds to the tendency to monumentality of their art expressing the effort to select it from the banal social presence