Ekphrasis in the poem Hero and Leander by Cristopher Marlowe

Relying on the ancient and modern conceptions about ekphrasis, its nature and functions in the poem Hero and Leander by the English Renaissance poet Christopher Marlow are analyzed. There is an accent on creation of character's images, which are not only wonderful creations of the Nature but also are surrounded with a lot of skillfully made beautiful things (jewellery, clothes, Venus temple). The connection between visual figurativeness, metaphor and myth is considered. The symbolical meaning of pictorial and architectural ekphrasis in the plot and in the range of problems of the poem is emphasized.