The Voynich Ninja

In another thread, Marco mentioned that the item carried by one of the nymphs has been identified as a spindle. This made me explore the image, and I tried to match it to known stories involving spindles or spinning/weaving in general. 

I think these nymphs tell the story of Philomela, as told by Ovid. It starts when Philomela is violated by the king, who then binds her hands behind her back using her long hair:


I've written a blog post about it, matching the entire sequence of figures to this story as told by Ovid. I would, of course, like to know what you think
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Without necessarily agreeing with all the details in the blog, the association in particular of the image in this thread with the story of Philomena makes a lot of sense to me!

It is not a bad idea, the Philomela story was very popular in the Middle Ages, but I am missing the rest of the story and I would expect a similar explanation for the other nymphs.

Helmut - I think this is more or less the "second act" of the story. It tells of Philomela being muted and captured, and ends in her being freed and able to "speak". As such, it could be a standalone dramatic fragment.

Also, I don't think the VM is a story book. To my understanding, myths were used as a means to make other information easier to remember - as a mnemonic device. So whatever the author wanted to communicate, he did so by tying that information to this part of the Philomela story.

The labels clearly don't spell the names of the characters, so they may contain this actual information that is mapped to the myth as a didactic tool.

Koen, I looked around at different translations of the story and sometimes it is translated as red on white rather than purple on white, which would match the colors on the "towel".

Thanks! I suspected already it would be a translation issue - colors are always tricky to translate. I'll add your comment to the post

(01-05-2016, 09:59 AM)Koen Gh. Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Thanks! I suspected already it would be a translation issue - colors are always tricky to translate. I'll add your comment to the post

I glanced around to see which translations were around in the 12th, 13th and 14th centuries but unfortunately a number of the more interesting manuscripts (in Bern, British Library, etc.) haven't yet been digitized.

Still, there might be enough of them out there to get a sense of how they were being transmitted at the time.

I did see a reference that only the more popular tales (like Philomena/Philomela) were copied in many of the earlier manuscripts but, by the 15th century, tended to include most of the stories.


Well, I need some sleep. A very interesting lead and read and might have some validity—I've been wondering for a long time why the nymphs on this page had their hands behind their backs. Thanks for posting.

Ovid, Met. 6:578 purpureasque notas filis intexuit albis, not much doubt about the meaning of the original

(01-05-2016, 10:33 AM)Helmut Winkler Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Ovid, Met. 6:578 purpureasque notas filis intexuit albis, not much doubt about the meaning of the original

That's helpful information, Helmut.

What we also need to seek out is some later translations in other languages. Some languages don't have a word for purple, just as some don't have a word for blue, and some don't have a separate word for pink as in English (they call it "light red"), so I'm wondering why some of the translations say red and whether the VMS illustrator might have consulted something that had already been translated into another language.

That's part of the reason why I looked for it in medieval manuscripts, to see it in a variety of languages.


The fact that the "towel" or cloak is painted with stripes is significant since this is something that rarely occurs in the VMS, and could strengthen the argument that this is a two-color piece of fabric as in the legend.

A warpe of white upon a frame of Thracia she did pin,
And weaved purple letters in betweene it,  Arthur Golding

Und dem weißen Gespinst durchwebte sie purpurne Zeichen, Johann Heinrich Voß, 1798

Und in das weiße Gewebe einfügte sie purpurne Züge, Reinhart Suchier, 1862

webt in den weissen Stoff die purpurnen Zeichen, Erich Rösch 20th c.