For a very useful introduction to allegorical interpretation, and info on
its practice at the school of Chartres, try W. Wetherbee's _Platonism and
Poetry in the Twelfth Century_. I think Prof. Wetherbee has also written
on Bernard Silvestris, who produced (also in the 12th c) an allegorical
At 12:51 PM 4/29/98 -0500, you wrote:
David, do I understand you correctly that this is just the general
use of hercle as an oath, an exclamation, and not a personal reference
to Hercules?
That's right: the author I cited (Lipsius) was an ardent Dutch Protestant,
so I don't think he was
At 05:17 PM 4/29/98 -0700, you wrote:
Second, Johnson mentions the allegorical schools: the Stoicizing
Homerists, Philo, the church fathers, the school of Chartres and Dante
down to Spencer. Can someone flesh out the allegorical schools and/or
name some books that specifically take up the
My own understanding of J's reductive mythmaking is this. The
emphasis is not on the mythmaking - J. makes it clear that he has nothing
against myths per se, or their making, only against their misapplication -
but on the reductiveness. Reductive is one of those vague words that
people
In message [EMAIL PROTECTED],
David Wilson-Okamura [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes
That's right: the author I cited (Lipsius) was an ardent Dutch Protestant,
so I don't think he was really swearing by Hercules. I would translate it
as by gum or something generic like that. But the contracted form is old:
I appreciate your interpretation of Johnson's reductive
mythmaking. That, say, the Aeneid is really about virtue. That's a
helpful insight.
When I was in seminary twenty years ago it was very common to say
the Bible was really about the Kingdom of God. In fact my seminary,
Calvin
