THE SOUL'S JOURNEY III

First posted April 2012

 Upper right portion of Arlington Tempera

Moving clockwise from the image in the last post we get the first intimation that Blake is weaving Homer's Odyssey into the fabric of his picture. As noted earlier Blake and Thomas Taylor were friends during the time that the Neoplatonist Taylor was translating Porphyry's Greek to English. From Chapter 13 of Taylor's translation on the Odyssey we read:

"High at the head a branching olive grows
And crowns the pointed cliffs with shady boughs.
A cavern pleasant, though involved in night,
Beneath it lies, the Naiades delight:
Where bowls and urns of workmanship divine
And massy beams in native marble shine;
On which the Nymphs amazing webs display,
Of purple hue and exquisite array,
The busy bees within the urns secure
Honey delicious, and like nectar pure.
Perpetual waters through the grotto glide,
A lofty gate unfolds on either side;
That to the north is pervious to mankind:
The sacred south t'immortals is consign'd."

ON THE CAVE OF THE NYMPHS IN THE THIRTEENTH BOOK OF THE ODYSSEY
Taylor's translation of Porphyry

In Blake and Antiquity, Kathleen Raine wrote:

"Porphyry says that the Cave of the Nymphs was no invention of Homer's, and that such caves have been from very ancient times sacred to the female powers. A cave, or den, he says, is a symbol of the world; and he quotes from Plato's Republic the famous passage that describes mankind as dwelling in a cavern where only shadows of real things are seen." (Page 8) 

...

The small figure of a nymph pouring water from an urn and the reclining lovers near her are an emblem of the source of all life...birth into the cave is a death from eternity, the sleep of forgetfulness that overcomes those who, as in Plato's parable, drink the waters of Lethe and are born to earth." (Page 9)

Blake's picture has moved away from the initial unity in Eternity which was broken by the fall into unconsciousness symbolized by the sleeping charioteer. Appropriately the process of generation is to begin in a cave as human life begins in the Mother's womb. The particular cave Blake uses as his symbol is the Cave of the Nymphs described by Homer. Within the cave in Blake's portrayal are the Naiades with urns upon their heads. Signalling the process which is beginning is a Nymph emptying her urn producing a stream of water flowing down the hillside. Nearby lies a couple reminding us that male and female have been differentiated and will unite in procreation, the process of dividing by uniting which characterizes our world.

Two prevalent symbols of life for Blake in this world are water and the female. Water represents the milieu which wipes away the consciousness of the Eternal. The flood introduces the Sea of Time and Space which masks from man his origin. The ability to perceive the Eternal and Infinite, from which man proceeds, is lost in the sensory data from matter. The female is the emanative portion of man which provides the perspective of dualism which leads to the constant dividing, judging and discarding in which man engages. These two processes are introduced in this little portion of the picture and will be developed as we proceed through the clockwise cycle.

Milton, Plate 37 [41], (E 138)
"From Star to Star, Mountains & Valleys, terrible dimension
Stretchd out, compose the Mundane Shell, a mighty Incrustation
Of Forty-eight deformed Human Wonders of the Almighty
With Caverns whose remotest bottoms meet again beyond
The Mundane Shell in Golgonooza, but the Fires of Los, rage
In the remotest bottoms of the Caves, that none can pass
Into Eternity that way, but all descend to Los
To Bowlahoola & Allamanda & to Entuthon Benython"

Four Zoas , Page 43, (E 329)

"Down from the dismal North the Prince in thunders & thick clouds
As when the thunderbolt down falleth on the appointed place
Fell down down rushing ruining thundering shuddering
Into the Caverns of the Grave & places of Human Seed
Where the impressions of Despair & Hope enroot forever
A world of Darkness. Ahania fell far into Non Entity"

Post on the Work of Los.