------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
From: Carol Martin <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Saints and Birds
To: [log in to unmask]
Date: Thu, 16 Apr 1998 13:05:46 -0400 (EDT)
Hello, Elena. I'm responding to messages someone forwarded to me that
you exchanged with Tom Izbicki and Mary Suydam concerning associations of
eagles with visionaries; could you forward the message to them as well?
I'm not in that bulletinboard, so I'm not sure how to reach them otherwise.
As you noted, the textual associations of eagles and contemplation are
relatively frequent. Boethius' *Consolation of Philosophy* (Bk. 4, Meter
1) uses the eagle as a metaphor for thought, and Gregory the Great
interpreted scriptural references to eagles as an allegory for "rais[ing]
. . . thoughts to the contemplation of the Creator's light, for living
high in the air and despising low conversation, or for the prelapsarian
"height of reason." Pierre Bersuire's *Ovidius moralizatus* interpreted
Ganymede's abductor, in one instance, as the intelligence which enabled
St. John to write of heaven, in another as "the prudent counsellors whose
instruction elevates the simple to the contemplation of celestial things."
Hugh of St. Victor added an *in malo* interpretation: eagles may also
signify sophistical philosophers who, having gazed at the light of truth,
lapse back into the darkness of error. Dante linked the contemplative
associations with skilled and knowledgable vernacular poets in *De vulgare
eloquentia* (2.4). Geoffrey Chaucer knew the association, too, for he
translated Boethius' *Consolation*, and he actually personified one of
these philosophical eagles (comically) in his *House of Fame*. 2 articles
trace out even more associations than these: John Leyerle, "Chaucer's
Windy Eagle," *Univ. of Toronto Quarterly* 40 (1971), and esp. John
Steadman, "Chaucer's Eagle: A Contemplative Symbol" *PMLA* (1960), esp.
153-59.
That may be more than anyone really wanted to know on this topic!
Yours,
Carol Martin
Dept. of English
Bowdoin College
8300 College Station
Brunswick, ME 04011-8483
[log in to unmask]
Elena Lemeneva
[log in to unmask]
Central European University
Medieval Studies Department
Nador utca 9, 1051 Budapest
HUNGARY
Pannonia utca, 49/B, IV/3
1133 Budapest Hungary
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|