I would suppose that the presence of Bacchus in Spenser's
Book V is the result of a kind of syncretism, depending on
the idea that Bacchus was or meant the sun and,
furthermore, was another name for Osiris (after Herodotus,
Hist. II.42). A small chunk of Osiris lore therefore ends
up in Comes'/Conti's extended article about Bacchus (Myth.
V.13). The gates of Bacchus in the East correspond to
those of Hercules in the West, and these make both figures
conquerers or empire-builders. Conquest, for better or
worse, is associated with Justice in Book V, because the
conquerer is identified as a bringer of civilization (and
agricultural arts) and a beneficiary of humankind. The
solar & Huerculean course of justice through a zodiac of
episodes provides one possible key to the legend & career
of Artegall, this paradigm starting from the Aquarian
canto (FQ IV.xi) following the one in which we last hear
of Scudamour (IV.x) and extending to at least the Libra
canto in which Mercilla renders justice to Duessa (V.x).
In Lucian’s True History (I.7) the designated limits of
Dionysus’ east and Hercules’ west curiously met in the
same place. Hercules’ and Dionysus' footprint coincide,
in that Lucian’s traveler and mock-historian found at
ancient journeying’s limits.
On Sun, 13 Nov 2011 15:59:22 -0500
Scott Lucas <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Dear list members,
>
> I just finished teaching Book 5 of the *Faerie Queene* a
>little while
> ago, and I have had a question lingering with me ever
>since we began that
> book that I hope someone can answer. At the opening of
>canto 1, Spenser
> recounts how vice was combatted in ancient times by
>"some of the vertuous
> race" who heroically opposed unrighteousness. The very
>first of these
> virtuous figures, according to Spenser, was the god
>Bacchus, who, coming to
> the eastern world, "wrong repressed, and establisht
>right,/ Which lawlesse
> men had formerly fordonne./ There Iustice first her
>princely rule begonne"
> (V.i.1-2).
>
> Bacchus seems to me a very strange figure to laud as a
>champion of "right,"
> lawfulness, and justice, since I tend to think of him as
>a god of frenzy,
> chaos, and release from moral restraint. Spenser's
>treatment of the wine
> god here seems even stranger when one notes that Spenser
>apparently
> associates Bacchus with sin rather than righteousness in
>Book 1, when he
> has Gluttony in the House of Pride's parade of sins
>"right fitly" dressed
> in "greene vine leaues," suggesting either Bacchus'
>wine-grape leaves or
> his ivy (I had thought the former, but A.C. Hamilton in
>his edition glosses
> I.iv.22, line 1, as a reference to Bacchus' sacred ivy).
>
> Hamilton, in his edition of *FQ*, suggests that Spenser
>got the idea of
> Bacchus bringing order and justice to the east from a
>Renaissance
> mythographer such as Comes/Conti. Does anyone know what
>Comes' logic
> behind presenting Bacchus as a figure of justice and a
>defender of virtue
> might have been, and whether there are any classical
>precedents for this
> view? In Ovid's *Metamorphoses*, Bacchus certainly
>takes care of
> belligerent types such as his would-be kidnappers and
>Pentheus, but these
> seem actions done against those who defy him personally
>and not deeds done
> for the sake of the establishment of justice, as Spenser
>suggests.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Scott
>
>
>
>
>
> Scott C. Lucas
>
> Professor of English
>
> The Citadel, the Military College of South Carolina
>
> Charleston, SC 29409
>
>
>
> (843) 953-5133
>
> [log in to unmask]
[log in to unmask]
James Nohrnberg
Dept. of English, Bryan Hall 219
Univ. of Virginia
P.O Box 400121
Charlottesville, VA 22904-4121
|