(08-02-2020, 05:33 PM)-JKP- wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.I think Koen was on the right track with the story of Philomela.
Heheh indeed, it was reconsidering this sequence which got me philosophizing about nymphs in the first place. I got some ideas when reading about the "Ovide Moralise".
The Metamorphoses were risky business for medieval authors. The only one capable of metamorphosis is God. He created the universe out of nothing, water into wine, bread becomes the body of Christ... So what's with these pagan stories about people turning into stuff?
The authors of the Ovide Moralise and similar works were very explicit about their solution to this problem: the characters in the stories are personifications of values. Medieval audiences were familiar with this concept (think of stories like Everyman, or any story where personified values are teaching a young man how to behave). This is called the moral allegory (hence Ovide Moralise).
In the story of Philomela, the main antagonist, Tereus of Thrace, is explained by the author to represent the physical body. He succumbs to the temptations of earthly pleasures, represented by Philomela. So Thereus giving in to his lust ad abducting Philomela stands for the physical body indulging in the pleasures of life.
It's remarkable then, that the guy I thought should represent Tereus at the moment of his transgression, is wearing clothes:
Of course this doesn't explain everything... Why was it necessary to blend this with other elements? And why was it acceptable for other manuscripts to illustrate these stories with actual people, while the VM uses "souls"?
And why the gravitation towards female? Because words like anima, alma, sele.. are female?