Gods in Exile: Heine pulls at many threads in this essay/short story, using the reincarnation of the famous Greek gods into medieval Christian Europe as his subject matter to do this

Christian Johann Heinrich Heine was born in Düsseldorf, Germany on 13th December 1797 to assimilated Jewish parents.
Heine studied law at the universities of Bonn, Göttingen, and Berlin but his greater commitment was to studying poetry and literature.

He converted to Protestantism in order to obtain work as there were draconian anti-Jewish laws in force at the time.

He was part of the German Romantic movement but also responsible in part for ushering in the post-Romantic crisis and the presumed failure of art as unable to overcome or explain the growing traumas of modernity. However, his literary reputation was cemented in the second half of the 1820’s with his poetry collection ‘The Book of Songs’ together with his collection of ‘Pictures of Travel’ stories that blended fact and fiction together into commercial and critical successes.

After the July 1830 Revolution in France, he went to live in Paris, where he remained until his death.

Here he wrote much in the way of essays discussing the political and cultural scene in France together with volumes of social criticism on Germany.

By 1835, his works had been banned by the German government. His lifelong subsidised lifestyle ended in 1844 when his uncle died leaving him nothing. He turned once more to lyric poetry and created perhaps his finest poetical works. A trip to Germany resulted in the long satirical poem ‘Germany. A Winter's Tale’. His second volume of poetry, ‘New Poems’ in 1844, included poems that had originally appeared in Karl Marx’s newspaper ‘Forward’ and continued the satirical style he now preferred.

In May 1848, Heine, in poor health, fell and was paralyzed and confined to his bed. He called it his ‘mattress-grave’ and only death would remove him from it. He was also experiencing eye problems and suffering from chronic lead poisoning.

Heinrich Heine died on 17th February 1856. He was 58.

‘Gods in Exile’ is perhaps a prophetic piece on his own life. The old gods are overthrown by the new novelty of Christianity. What will be their role now? Is there life after for them?