Plato’s Cosmology and Achilles’ Shield Compared (Full)

May 3, 2011 Leave a comment

FORM OF SHIELD

Symbolical and Numerological Elements in the Shield of Achilles Compared with Plato’s Cosmology

-It’s not carrying over from word the references. Apologies, will add later.

By: Jay

(c) Copyright, all rights reserved

The famed shield of Achilles is a mysterious, yet well-known chapter from Homer’s classic, The Iliad. Within the chapter is contained an entire microcosmic representation of the Greek worldview, replete with unique numerological significations, as well as other symbolic motifs, intended to convey through it’s imagery an entire hierarchical cosmology. The purpose of this paper will be to examine the specific numbers and symbols used, and to compare it with other roughly contemporary traditions, such as Plato’s cosmological explanations. In so doing, the intent is to achieve a greater understanding of the Greek mind as it viewed the totality of reality, comparing earlier mythological oral poetry with it’s later offspring, philosophy itself.1

The shield of Achilles and the rest of his armor embody the Greek conception of the hero as intimately and magically connected to his armor. The Greek warrior sought glory first and foremost, or timé, and the path to glory was one of successful warfare. Literary critic Kenneth John Atchity explains, “Achilles is the epitome of Iliadic man. The two artifacts which belong uniquely to him, Hephaestos’ shield and Peleus’ spear define not only the identity of Achilles, but also the essence of human nature as Homer conceives of it.”2 As is evident in Homer, the individualistic focus of the Greeks upon the singular hero is unique. Historian Michael Grant comments:

With lively, yet disengaged comprehension, each personage is depicted as a distinct individual [in the Iliad]. The most arresting is Achilles, who possesses in extreme degree the all the virtues and faults of the Homeric hero, and almost completely embodies the heroic code of honor….[Homer] dedicated his entire existence, with all the aid that his birth and wealth and physical prowess could afford him, to an unceasing, violently competitive, vengeful struggle to win applause…3 Read more of this post

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Spenser’s Use of Symbolism in The Visions of Petrarch

March 5, 2011 2 Comments

I saw a Phoenix in the wood alone...

By: Jay

(c) Copyright, All Rights Reserved.

The Visions of Petrarch, published in 1569 by J. Van der Noordt with woodcuts and titled The Theatre of the Worldlings, is one of the lesser known early works of Elizabethan epic poet, Edmund Spenser (1552-99). Prior to the publication of his masterpiece, The Faerie Queen, Spenser wrote this smaller work titled the Visions of Petrarch wherein he combines elements of Calvinistic and Protestant theology and morality, with classical mythological imagery. The purpose of this paper will be to analyze the seven poems of the Visions, analyzing the allegorical and tropological lessons intended to be gained thereby, as meditations in preparation for death.

The first of the visions concerns a doe attacked by two wild dogs. The poem is as follows:

Being one day at my window all alone,
So many strange things happened me to see,
As much it grieueth me to thinke thereon.
At my right hand a Hynde appear’d to me,
So faire as mote the greatest God delite;
Two eager dogs did her pursue in chace,
Of which the one was black, the other white:
With deadly force so in their cruell race
They pincht the haunches of that gentle beast,
That at the last, and in short time I spide,
Vnder a Rocke where she alas opprest,
Fell to the ground, and there vntimely dide.
Cruell death vanquishing so noble beautie,
Oft makes me waile so hard a destinie.1

 

The first vision shows the poet alone, solitary in contemplation looking out upon the world as if disconnected. The young poetic Spenser appears to view himself as separated from nature, viewing through a window as an allegorical scene drawn from the natural world unfolds before him. While the natural world goes about its usual concourse, fulfilling its laws, the writer or poet is in his own world, acting as a narrator. The event that unfolds is unpleasant; grievous for him to behold: a beautiful young doe is torn to pieces as it seeks shelter from two ravenous dogs.

One of the dogs is black, the other white, which suggests that appearances can be deceptive, inasmuch as white is often associated with purity and black with insidiousness. In the case of the natural world’s rapacity and carnality, such symbolic meanings do not always obtain. Indeed, just as in the natural realm a white dog may be as ravenous as a black, so in the world of men, of which this is a tropological and allegorical image, men may appear to be good, yet have the potentiality to be as ravenous as an openly evil man. If the seven (technically six) visions are loosely affiliated with the tradition of the “seven deadly sins,” we have here a representation of either lust or greed. The power of lust or greed is such that it rules those subject to baser passions. Spenser catalogs those so ruled as a “cruell race.” The delicate hind “dies,” but the death could signal the loss of virginity before due time, as a result of violent sexual encounters, or it might also suggest actual murder on a literal level. Read more of this post

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Prolegomena: Symbolic and Numerological Elements in Achilles’ Shield and Plato’s Timaeus

February 18, 2011 Leave a comment

Micromosaic of the Shield

This is an introduction to an upcoming longer paper, examining the symbolic and esoteric meaning behind the Shield of Achilles, particularly in relation to Platonic cosmogony.

By: Jay

The liad of Homer is a foundational work of Western Civilization, and one of it’s most famous sections is the book dealing with the forging of the shield for the great warrior Achilles by the god of metallurgy, Hephaestus. While the story of the forging of the shield occupies a lengthy book, this paper will examine the beginning of Hephaestus’ work, highlighting the numerology, shape and imagery from lines 560-600. In this section, it is apparent that the shield functions not merely as a defensive piece, but as a symbolic construct for the Greek worldview itself.

At the imploring of Thetis, mother of Achilles, Hephaestus begins crafting a shield that “…any man in the world of men will marvel at through all the years to come—whoever sees its splendor” (ll. 545-6), cluing the hearer into the special, surreal nature of this armor.1 In other words, this is not mere armor, but in fact will become a microcosm display of the totality of the Greek worldview itself. It is significant to note that the image chosen for the Greek world is a circular shield, about which shape more will be said later, but that what first appears is the defensive nature of the symbol. Homer could have chosen a sword with engravings or a spear, but has instead chosen a defensive article, intending the reader to see the proper place of warfare as a necessary evil in this life. Indeed, the Iliad itself famously portrays the strife and misery caused by warfare. Thus, Homer would have hearers of his epic understand that true wisdom sees that warfare should have a defensive, balancing role in the protection and maintenance of civilized order.

Homer continues:

And first Hephaestus makes a great and massive shield,

blazoning well-wrought emblems across its surface,

raising a rim around it, glittering, triple-ply,

with a silver shield-strap run from edge to edge

and five layers of metal to build the shield itself,

and across a vast expanse with all his craft and cunning

the god creates a world of gorgeous immortal work. (ll. 558-64)2

As with above in lines 545-6, translator Fagles has chosen to use “world,” indicating that the shield’s purpose is not merely as a weapon for Achilles, but as a microcosm image of the whole of the Greek worldview. It has, in effect, the function of a creation account. The shield itself is possibly even a mnemonic device, whereby the oral tradition of the Greek account of creation might possible be recalled, as well as functioning as a memory device for the Greek orator reciting the story. Critic James M. Redfield explains of this totality world notion: Read more of this post

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The Greatest Film Ever Made

July 18, 2010 Leave a comment

I was very thankful to be able to do the voiceover on the trailer for the greatest movie ever made. The reviews are in! Moviegoers are promised to be dazzled, dazed and confused, beyond all recognition. A film so powerful critics are saying they literally stammered and babbled like bufoons for weeks after viewing the opening sequences.

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