Pond creatures (f79v)

[MarcoP]

Ellie already proposed that the woman and the fish on You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. represent the mouth of hell. Now we also have an association with what seem like fabulous animals in the water (though I can't quite understand how they fit in, in the Balneis MSs).
The nymph isn't a good representation for Christ, but Koen already suggested that such a thing could be concievable. Just tying all theories together here....
By the way, this is the page with the cross on top.

In summary, no idea if there is something to this, or it is, indeed, just coincidental.

Hello Rene,
the hypothesis I would make is that the dragons in You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. represent the devil defeated by Christ. The gates of hell are clearly represented (as a trapdoor, or an open grave). This dragons are next to the gates of hell, out of the water, and they parallel images of Christ in other sources:
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What makes the scene different is the water background: the sea, according to the caption “mare”.

You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. is clearly related with Bodmer 135 (the building and the posture of Christ are almost identical). I see these possible explanations for the differences:

• the author misunderstood the animals interpreting them as related to the balneological subject (I think this is unlikely);
  
• the author deliberately turned the devil-dragons into sea animals, crabs etc peacefully swimming together.
  

The illustration in BNF Lat 8161 is no more recognizable as Christ entering hell: the gates of hell and the dragon/devils are gone. It's more like “Christ strolling on the beach”. The BNF ms is less consistent with the text, since it fails to depict hell which is explicitly mentioned. So I think it can be seen as a “corruption” of what we see in Bodmer 135.

In general, the idea of a You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. as an explanation for the Balneological section seems interesting to me. It could explain some of the weirdness of the images. Also, the naked women could be interpreted as souls.
Of course, female characters also visited the underworld: e.g. Juno and Proserpina (both discussed in the Metamorphoses). Anyway, if this is the underworld, I doubt it can be the Christian or classical one.

For the specific detail of the “pond creatures”, their amphibious nature seems to me particularly relevant, since it is rather uncommon.