Who is Titania?
Titania is the queen of the fairies in William Shakespeare‘s comedy A Midsummer Night’s Dream (c. 1595). She is the wife of Oberon, king of the fairies, and leads the fairies living in the forest.
Titania in A Midsummer Night’s Dream
In the play, Titania is quarreling with her husband Oberon over a young boy. Angered, Oberon orders the mischievous fairy Puck to put on Titania the juice of a flower, a “love potion” that, when applied to the eyelids during sleep, makes the sleeper fall in love with the first thing seen on waking. The first thing Titania sees when she wakes is Bottom, a craftsman whose head Puck has mischievously turned into a donkey’s. Titania becomes infatuated with Bottom, but in the end Oberon lifts the spell and the two make up.
Origin of the name and influence
The name Titania is thought to have been used by Shakespeare for the fairy queen after the ancient Roman poet Ovid used it in his Metamorphoses as a name for goddesses such as Diana. Titania, a moon of Uranus discovered in 1787, was named after this fairy queen. Even today, it appears in fantasy and games as the classic name for a fairy queen.
