We all know Helen of Troy. She was the face that launched a thousand ships. She was the reason the Illiad happened and while Achilles and Hector rule the narrative, Helen is who we think of when we think of Troy. The Illiad centers on the rage of Achilles, but I think his rage is directly related to Helen. Helen compells the action based on the kind of woman she is and the degree to which she is herself. She is the most beautiful woman to ever exist and broke the honor of her marriage vow, creating the culture the men inhabit. Enter Achilles, he is capable of the highest degree of military prowess and has a temper to match. That temper could not be fully plumbed without the culture Helen built by being the woman at the center of the narrative.
The funny thing is that we know the joke about millihelens (a girl with a face that can launch one ship), but how many milihelens are there that have stirred up trouble in the male sphere around them leading to one miliAchiles losing it and leveling everyone (or going into a megasulk).
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Because I'm quickly jotting this down, I'm not going to pull up quotes, but just lay out the broad strokes.
Penelope more directly compells the action of the Oddyssey. Telemachus is trying to save her and his land. He isn't sure where she stands and accuses her of heartlessness. The suitors are after her, Odysseus is sailing for her, asking about her at the very doors of death. But she also is not in the big action set pieces. She is there, but again, she is not part of the movement of the story.
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Eve is obviously central to Paradise Lost, but she still enters the actions a little later with her dreams and thoughts. I actually think it is the Christian influence that gives her more agency, but not because the others don't revere Helen and Penelope, but because Christians ascribe higher capablity creationally to women. Eve is the first woman, ideal in beauty and strength, so her fall is worse than Helen's.
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The final piece - The Divine Comedy- is Mary.
At first I thought it was Beatrice who moves this, but Beatrice couldn't have gone with out the command. Mary, Lucy, and Beatrice interceed for Dante, but for the sake of my argument, I will only look at Mary who defines the degree.
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Each woman is acting in a proverbial role - they are the Lady Wisdom or Lady Folly that creates the world of wisdom stories within the narratives they inhabit.
Beyond this you have a matched set which thrills my heart. Helen and Penelope are cousins. Mary and Eve are the high women in Christianity. One is virtuous; one is fallen and all to a defining degree. This gives you the scope of the narrative and the starter for the ferment.
virtuous pagan | virtuous Christian
(Penelope) | (Mary)
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fallen pagan | fallen Christian
(Helen) | (Eve)
Forgive my poor graph - I lack tech capabilities at the moment.
But now you have a scope for stories according to the kind of woman defining the narrative. Of course this does not mean Andromache and Francesca are not relevent, but that they function in response to the woman of a more developed degree creating the canyon they inhabit.
You have to look at the maw of death caused by Lady Folly. It is going to devour the foolish, the innocent, the just, and the reprobate. Andromache is a good woman under the maw and that is a story that can only be explored to its outer reaches because Helen defined the degree of the narrative.
Francesca is like Helen, but fallenness in world whelmed by grace is limited to a little windy puddle at the opening of Hell. Every story of sin in Dante is the individual twisting themselves to reflect their own desires building a self contained trap. The judgement is the judgement. You can laugh at her because in Mary you get the ocean of rightful loves under Christ. The incredible extension of this is that Purgatorio looks at the untwisting of the soul, the slow righting, and learning to properly reflect grace. It is the common life of man influenced by grace.
Calypso does not get to keep Odysseus and Nausicaa is not given to him. Penelope calls him home where the suitors are laid waste and the girl is saved.
In short, all the small stories are a result of whatever elixer the woman of degree brews up. A witch's brew will be drunk by all and each will have to make something of it. The water of life may kill you because you made your vessel false, but it doesn't change the life poured out which restrains evil and its working power.
I'm picking up the Aeneid and Paradise Lost soon and can't wait to look at the last ladies of epic poetry.
Further Up and Further In
תגובות