tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578998090089869830.post7786123530805320563..comments2024-02-28T11:21:49.275-08:00Comments on Dante's Heart: Opportunity for Comparative Study: CerberusDante's Hearthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07864843691987800572noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578998090089869830.post-14557919531239365802008-02-09T00:09:00.000-08:002008-02-09T00:09:00.000-08:00Andrew.The wolf! Great heavens! It was right in fr...Andrew.<BR/><BR/>The wolf! Great heavens! It was right in front of my eyes the whole time, and I looked right by it. I can't believe it. Brilliant! This makes me want to run to see what was written/drawn up about wolves circa 1300, when Dante was at work.<BR/><BR/>The fault is in my upbringing: on a farm, "dog" and "wolf" are such terribly defined opposites that it is a real mental struggle to bring them together and realize that they can be one and the same creature/symbol.Dante's Hearthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07864843691987800572noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7578998090089869830.post-91749213287316429202008-02-08T18:19:00.000-08:002008-02-08T18:19:00.000-08:00I suspect any fascination with Cerberus is connect...I suspect any fascination with Cerberus is connected to our much more common fascination with the wolf. The Penguin Dictionary of Symbols dedicates a number of paragraphs to the wolf as devourer. For example, it notes, "In Scandinavian mythology the wolf is explicitly described as 'devouring the stars'. . . . the wolf's mouth is night, the carvern, the Underworld or the phase of cosmic -pralaya-. Release from the wolf's jaws is dawn, the light of initiation which follows a descent into the Underworld or -kalpa-." Of course, there is the wolf Fenrir of Norse myth and the wolves of fairy tales. We all know the story of Little Red Riding Hood and her encounter with the ravenous Wolf. <BR/><BR/>The list could go on, but clearly the wolf, like Cerberus, is connected with our fear of death and what lies beyond. The Wolf as a symbol is the World as Destroyer, Time as Devourer, the End of Space beyond which the Abyss of the Wolf's Mouth gapes needfully. Cerberus with his three heads seems a multiplication of this fear of the unknown beyond death. Three heads means three times the fear, three good reasons for fear rather than one. <BR/><BR/>That he appears in Dante's third circle of hell as a figure of gluttony is a nice spin on this idea. But in the third circle, Cerberus becomes a reflection of humanity's own avarice and potential for devouring destruction without hope of redemption. The gluttonous souls in the jaws of Dante's Cerberus stay there, torn and flayed without hope of sunlight or spiritual illumination. In Dante, the Great Devourer is not Cerberus at all and he does not guard the gates to the Underworld. The Great Devourer is us. The worst of human nature untouched by the light of knowledge and wisdom. And the Devourer need not guard the gates of Hell, waiting for the unfortunate to wander into his maw. The Devourer in the human mind can more easily make the earth a hell, nevermind the afterlife, and feast on the poor souls that cross its fetid path. Witness human history if any doubt it.<BR/><BR/>Not all is lost. Like all stories, there's a moral here. The Wolf may choose to release its pray, a merciful act, and as in Scandinavian mythology usher in the daylight to counter the merciless night. For the human does have this capacity.<BR/><BR/>Perhaps such a thought explains our delight at the sight of the three-headed puppy. It signifies the possible. A new Cerberus may become a Luciferine bringer of light before the fall rather than devouring and darkness.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com