When I had rested my body there a while As the slope began to rise Whichever way I turned she was there It was that hour early in the morning first started the beautiful motions of those things that gaudy beast, wild in its spotted pelt. and he was coming straight towards me, it seemed And now a she wolf came who, in her leanness, This last beast brought my spirit down so low, Inferno Canto 1:28-60 Drawn to the lightStill in his dream-like state (despite the fact that he claims he has woken up!) Dante sees the light of the sun streaming from the summit of the mountain before him and decides he must head towards it. Physically of course, the light he sees is the light of the rising sun but (as we will see later) the light actually emanates from God. It is really God's light he sees and is attracted to. Quite reasonably, he starts climbing the hill. The light reminds Dante the pilgrim of the first day of creation, when for the very first time the sun and the stars shone. I mentioned in the last post that Dante is the poet of hope and here the reason for his hope is revealed. The God he seeks is the God of creation who brought all things into being out of the darkness of nothingness. As he sees the sunlight he thinks of God's love which first started the beautiful motions of those things (the sun and the stars). The line could alternatively be read as 'setting all those beautiful things in motion'. Either way, Dante equates God, love and beauty with the created order. Later, Dante the pilgrim will discover how God's love and the beauty of the cosmos are closely tied to one another. Dante's search for God involves a search for Love and Beauty too. Putting your best foot backwardsDante refers to the manner of his climb. He makes the climb with the more powerful foot always behind the other. One foot (the more powerful) is always behind (lower than) the other. This is a difficult line to interpret. It could of course simply be a description of how someone climbs a hill. You plant one foot in the ground and then push up allowing the other foot to 'land' and secure your position. In Dante however things are never really that simple. In the Commedia almost nothing is said without good reason. If Dante is talking about a stronger (firmer) foot and (presumably then) a weaker foot and talks about the one being lower than the other, there is probably a deeper meaning behind it. In Dante's thought world it was sometimes said that in the 'pilgrimage' towards heaven, we walk on two 'feet' (or legs); the Will and the Intellect. Because the Will, the stronger of the two, is always desiring what it shouldn't, our journey forward towards God is therefore hampered. We limp our way to heaven! So Dante could be saying that his Will lags behind his Intellect as he strives to find the light of God, making his journey up those slopes that much harder. The (weaker) Intellect is having to drag the (stronger) Will upwards towards the divine light. An alternative explanation is inspired by a comment from St Augustine to the effect that 'love is the foot of the soul', in other words the driving force of the soul's quest for God. So, Dante could be suggesting that his stronger foot (love) pushes his body up the hill towards God. Personally I prefer this more optimistic image of his ascent; after all, he begins his climb in hope and expectation! Fierce wild beastsBut Dante is hampered in his climb by three terrifying wild beasts. None of them actually eats him (thankfully from the point of view of the poem) but understandably he feels reluctant to take that risk by continuing. Dante doesn't tell us if all three are present at once or whether each animal replaces the one that came before it. And perhaps that's the wrong question to ask because the language still has an oneiric (dream-like) quality as we get a measure of the pilgrim's frustration. No matter where he turns, almost magically (as in a dream) the leopard is there, barring his way. We feel powerfully his deep frustration. He is desperate to get away from the forest and find the source of the beautiful light which he knows will take away his fear and hopelessness but he simply can't. However hard he tries, whichever way he turns, the beast blocks him. He is desperate to go forward but cannot. In sheer frustration he decides to turn back But it seems that he immediately finds fresh hope and inspiration from the sunlight and the thought of God's love that inspires the beauty of creation. He turns back again and resumes his climb only to find his way blocked this time by a lion, a lion so terrifying that even the air around him seemed to fear his presence. And then even as he contemplates the terrifying lion a third beast, a she wolf racked with every kind of greediness turns up! This a beast who, apparently, has brought many to grief. It is this apparition that finally defeats the resolve of the pilgrim. He might have been able to deal with the other two but the she wolf is too much. Lean and insatiable, the source of so much ruin for so many, she strikes the pilgrim with terror and despair LIke a lion from the forestIs there meaning to these animals beyond their physical power and scariness? I am sure there is. All three are mentioned in the bible and used as symbols of the kind of fate that will befall the people of God as judgments. In Hosea 13:4-8 God says that he will be like a lion and a leopard (and an angry mother bear!) towards his ungrateful, apostate people. In Jeremiah 5.1-6 Jeremiah fails to find one godly (just) person in the city of Jerusalem. Failing to do so God promises that judgement will come like this Therefore a lion from the forest shall kill them, One possibility then is to see these animals as symbols of divine judgement on Dante. Dante is not ready to find the divine light. He is still under judgement. His sins have not been dealt with and as we shall learn, only by descending to hell and rising through the mountain of purgatory will he be able to find that light as a 'saved' soul. Commentators have pointed out that in addition to being biblical instruments of divine judgement, in Dante's world each of the beasts represented different vices or sins; the leopard was seen as a symbol of fraud and/or avarice, the lion was linked with violence and pride and the wolf with avarice and treachery. These then could either represent Dante's own besetting sins which prevent him from reaching heaven, or perhaps the three levels of hell which are divided according to the kind of sin committed. In the first circle Dante the pilgrim will find those guilty of avarice and incontinence (not the medical kind!), in the second circle sinners guilty of violence and in the third, those responsible for crimes of treachery and fraud. Symbolism can help us enormously when reading Dante but it is also important I think to try to read the text itself and take clues from the way Dante uses the symbols. The Leopard is mesmerising, clever, quick and very pleased with itself, displaying its gaudy spots for all the world to see. The Lion terrifies even the air around it with its appearance (and presumably its roar) but the most noticeable thing about it from Dante the pilgrim's point of view is how proud it is as it hold its head up high. The third beast, the she-wolf, is one that has brought grief to many people. Her leanness speaks of an insatiable appetite; no matter how much (or how many people!) she eats she never thrives, never grows fat, she is never satisfied. So how can this reading help us to identify what these animals really represent? Fighting wild beasts in FlorenceClearly the animals represent the judgement of God. No one familiar with the bible would have missed the reference to the judgement of God in Hosea and Jeremiah mentioned above. But there is another biblical reference which could also have played a part in Dante's thought. It is possible that Dante is thinking of the Apostle Paul's reference to 'fighting wild beasts in Ephesus' (1 Corinthians 15.32). Of course Paul didn't mean he actually wrestled lions and tigers! He meant that dealing with those who opposed him there was just like being a gladiator in the arena fighting lions and bears. An the people who opposed him were the institutions of Ephesus, the city authorities, the trade guilds, the business leaders. Dante the pilgrim, following in the footsteps of the Apostle struggles with his own 'wild beasts'. the wild beasts who had plotted against him, and exiled him from his native city in 1302. Dante the pilgrim walks in the footsteps of Paul. He also walks in the footsteps of Christ who was alone in the wilderness with the wild beasts for 40 days and 40 nights. Although the the original intention of the gospel writers may have been to conjure up the impression of a restored Eden, for Dante those accounts would have conjured up the idea of conflict and danger. Like Paul and like Christ, Dante the pilgrim has to struggle with ferocious animals in his journey towards God, just as Dante the writer has had to in his journey. Who or what then are these forces, these wild animals who prevented Dante from finding the true path? Interestingly these animals were all prized in one way or another in Dante's native Florence. There is evidence that a leopard and a number of lions were kept and publicly displayed in cages in Florence in Dante's day near what is today the Loggia del Bigallo, as a sign of Florence's power and prestige. The lion was also part of Florence's coat of arms. Scholars have noted that Dante was familiar with the writings of Richard of St Victor who had associated the leopard with the sins of deceit and fraud. The lion was associated in medieval bestiaries with the sin of avarice (because of its apparently insatiable hunger) as well as with pride. These are 'civic sins' as much as personal vices. Was it Florence's avarice and pride that was in the front of Dante the writer's mind when he described the leopard's gaudy spots and the lion with its head held high? Is it perhaps the city that had turned against Dante and thrown him out to live a life of exile that prevents the progress of the pilgrim towards paradise? For Dante there was no distinction between the inner and the outer person or between the individual and social. The individual did not live a life apart from his or her wider life in the state and in the church. Sin was something that affected everything and everyone. These beasts may well represent sin or vices with which Dante the writer was only too familiar in his own experience but to me it seems highly likely that they represent above all the forces he saw around him which, in his mínd, prevented people finding the beauty and love of God. The Apostle fought his wild beasts in Ephesus. Dante fought his in Florence. The big bad wolfThe wolf is the most daunting beast of all. She proceeds terrifyingly, step by step stalking forward, threatening and relentless. He comments This last beast brought my spirit down so low, so gripped was I by the fear that seized me at the sight of her, that I lost all hope of climbing up that hill. Surprisingly perhaps it is the she-wolf, not the leopard or the lion that finally causes the pilgrim to despair. Wolves were considered to be symbols of fraud and deceit as well as sexual immorality and prostitution. In his hugely influential work The City of God, St Augustine had commented that in his time prostitutes were known as she-wolves and a brothel was known as a 'wolf den'. He suggested that this verbal link gave rise to the famous origin myth of Rome, according to which the two twins Romulus and Remus, the offspring of the god Mars and the their mother (whom he had raped) Rhea, were abandoned to die but were saved and suckled by a she-wolf. Augustine suggests that instead, they were found and fed by an unknown prostitute i.e. by a 'she-wolf'. From this play on words came the legend that it was a literal she wold who found and fed them. In the City of God (Book 18 chapter 21) he writes as follows Procas ruled before Aemulius. Now Aemulius had made his brother Numitor's daughter, named Rhea, a Vestal Virgin; she was also called Ilia, and was the mother of Romulus. The Romans wish to say that she conceived twins by Mars; for, in this way, they honoured, or excused, her unchastity. They offer as proof of this the legend that, after their exposure, the infants were suckled by a she-wolf. For they hold that this species of animal belongs to Mars; and so, therefore, the she-wolf is believed to have offered her teats to the little children because she recognised in them the sons of Mars, her master. There is, however, no lack of people who say that, when the exposed infants lay wailing, they were first taken in by some unknown whore, and that hers were the first breasts they sucked – for ‘she-wolves’ (lupae) was the name given to whores, which is why houses of ill repute are even now called ‘wolfouses’ (ilupanaria). Afterwards, it is said, they came into the care of a shepherd called Faustulus, and were nurtured by his wife Acca. And yet if, in order to convict the man who was king, and who had cruelly commanded that these infants be cast into the water, God willed to help the children through whom such a great city was to be founded, and to have them rescued from the water by His divine intervention and suckled by a wild animal: is there anything very wonderful in this? Tr. W. Dyson (Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought) So, according to Augustine, it wouldn't be surprising if God had supplied a real she-wolf to find and feed the abandoned babies, because God is merciful and just, but in fact the stories he has heard suggest a different explanation. Namely that it was a human 'she-wolf', a whore, who had found them. It is interesting that Augustine links the god Mars with the story. The wolf, he says, is one of Mars' own creatures' i.e. a beast with a special affinity to Mars. Is it relevant that the city of Florence had adopted Mars as its own patron 'star'? It may also be relevant that the name of the Guelf faction, some of whom had ordered Dante's expulsion from Florence, was linked to the German word for wolf (Welf). Dante's enemies in Florence were 'wolves'. The clue was in the name! But it may not have been only Florence Dante wanted to suggest to readers' minds. In addition it seems that by the time Dante wrote the Commedia the Papal Curia had adopted as its own symbol the famous statue of Romulus and Remus suckling from the mother she-wolf on the Capitoline Hill. It now seems that the famous statue (see the illustration, left) was actually made in the 13th century! The wolf, the creature of Mars, the symbol of Rome and now of the church was a big thing in 13th century Italy. It is this beast that scares Dante the most, that strips away his hope and forces him to turn around. It is this beast he says which has been the ruin of many. It is not a surprise then to find that throughout the Inferno he likens various damned souls to wolves. Again the bible may have played a part in his thinking . Jesus warned his disciples to watch out for the false prophets, the wolves who come dressed in sheep's clothing. Could Dante have been thinking of the Papacy of Boniface VIII? Was it the papacy itself which destroyed souls and acted as a barrier between God and humanity? 'Back to black'Lions, leopards and wolves are beautiful, complex and (tragically) endangered animals. For many today they represent the power and majesty of the animal kingdom but in Dante's day, these animals represented above all, danger. Dante the pilgrim meets danger as he tries to ascend the mountain where he knows God is to be found. He turns away despondent frustrated, defeated. We know that he must travel a different way, a way that will lead him through the depths of hell and then up through purgatory. In a sense then these beasts in their ferocious majesty and power represent the judgement of God, the knowledge that in his unredeemed state the pilgrim is not ready to find paradise. But could they also at the same time represent the forces that crush the human spirit, the 'powers and principalities' that oppose the kingdom of God and because of their greed, avarice and deceitful natures, ruin and destroy the lives of God's people? You might also be interested in . . .
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April 2016
GalleryThis blog is as much about images as it is about text. Below is a slideshow of the pictures and images used in this blog. Click on any of the pictures to go to the post where that image is featured.
PostsLocating Paradise #1 In a Garden, Far, Far Away
The Testament of Abraham and the Threefold Judgement of God #5 'Stuck in the Middle With You'
The Resurrection According to Rahner
Today You Will Be With Me in Paradise
The Testament of Abraham and the Threefold Judgement of God #4 'And Who by Fire'
The Testament of Abraham and the Threefold Judgement of God #3: Held in the Balance
The Testament of Abraham and the Threefold Judgement of God #2: Once, Twice, Three Times a Sinner
The Testament of Abraham and the Threefold Judgement of God #1: The Broad and Narrow Gates
Daily Dante 7: Many Rivers to Cross
Daily Dante 6: 'You Gotta Serve Somebody'
In Hell Everyone Can Hear You Scream. The Vision of Tundale #3
Teeth, Spikes and Cleavers: At the Sharp end of Hell. The Vision of Tundale #2
'No Pain No Gain': The Vision of Tundale #1
'Hellzapoppin':
Illustrations from Le Livre de la Vigne nostre Seigneur, #2 'It's The End of the World as We Know It (and we feel fine)'. Illustrations from Le Livre de la Vigne nostre Seigneur, #1
Visions of Heaven. Botticini's Assumption of the Virgin #2 Blinded by the Light
Visions of Heaven. Botticini's Assumption of the Virgin #1: Glorious and Immortal
Daily Dante 5: What the gates said.
Daily Dante 4: When I find myself in times of trouble
Daily Dante 3: I'll take you there
Daily Dante 2: Fierce creatures
Daily Dante 1: If you go down to the woods today
In Seventh Heaven or 'What Enoch Did Next'
A World of Fire and Ice: Heaven according to Enoch
The Power and the Glory: Visions of God as king in the Hebrew bible
The Beautiful Bestiary of Catherine Cleves: Monsters and Demons in detail.
Heaven is for Real: Heaven as a physical space up above the sky
Resurrecting the Dead or Reviving the Flowers? The loss of resurrection faith in Judaism.
The Defeat of Death #1: The promise of resurrection in the Isaiah Apocalypse.
The Defeat of Death #2: Death as a hostile power and promise of God's victory in Isaiah
Scary Monsters and Super Creeps: The 'Last Judgement' according to Stefan Lochner
Hell in the Hospital: The 'Last Judgement' of Rogier van der Weyden in the Beaune altarpiece.
'Hell' in the New Testament #2: The gates of Hades shall not prevail
The Hours of Catherine Cleves: Imagining hell and purgatory in Catherine's prayer book
'On Earth as in Heaven': The kingdom of God as a revelation of heaven
'Hell' in the New Testament #1: Gehenna
Lost in Translation #1: How the King James version got it so wrong about hell
Heaven is not our home
Domes, Depths and Demons: The cosmology of the Hebrew world
A Bigger God
"See you in Sheol" - Sheol, the common destination of all
Heaven, Hell and Christian Hope
BooksBelow are some of the books which have helped me the most in the research and writing for this blog. Click on any image to find out more about that book at its page on Amazon uk.
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