Longing, Weakness and Temptation : From Myth to Artistic Creations [1 ed.] 9781443804288, 9781443801850

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Longing, Weakness and Temptation

Longing, Weakness and Temptation: From Myth to Artistic Creations,

By

Irena Avsenik Nabergoj Jason Blake and Alenka Blake (translators)

Longing, Weakness and Temptation: From Myth to Artistic Creations, by Irena Avsenik Nabergoj This book first published 2009 Cambridge Scholars Publishing 12 Back Chapman Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2XX, UK British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Copyright © 2009 by Irena Avsenik Nabergoj All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. ISBN (10): 1-4438-0185-2, ISBN (13): 978-1-4438-0185-0

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface ........................................................................................................ ix Acknowledgements .................................................................................... xi INTRODUCTION....................................................................................... 1 1. Testing, Trial and Temptation in Secular Greek Thought and the Bible 2. Two Biblical Narratives of Temptation and their Impact on Literature 3. Characteristics of the Literary Motif of Lepa Vida (Fair Vida) 4. Literary Presentations of Universal Human Experience 5. Literary-critical and Rhetorical Approaches to Intertextuality PART I: LONGING, WEAKNESS AND TEMPTATION IN THE GARDEN OF EDEN AND IN THE COURT OF EGYPT ......... 19 1. Longing for Knowledge and Immortality, and the Fall.................... 21 1.1 Temptation and the Fall in the Biblical Narrative of Adam and Eve 1.2 The Longing for Immortality in the Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh 1.3 Longing and Temptation in the Figure of Woman in the Bible 1.4 Temptation, Trial and Man’s Free Will 2. The Story of Joseph of Egypt and Trends in its Interpretation......... 37 2.1 Joseph of Egypt in the Bible and in the Oldest Religious Interpretations 2.2 Joseph of Egypt in Thomas Mann’s Literary Interpretation 2.3 Joseph of Egypt in Ballet Interpretations 3. Human Weakness and the Attractions of Seduction ........................ 88 3.1 Samson and Delilah and the “Strange Woman” in the Bible 3.2 The Motif of a Deceived Girl in Goethe’s Faust 3.3 Longing and Temptation in Ballads by Heinrich Heine, France Prešeren and Simon Jenko 4. Concluding Findings...................................................................... 114

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Table of Contents

PART II: THE ABDUCTION, TESTING AND LONGING OF A WOMAN IN THE FAIR VIDA MOTIF IN THE EUROPEAN MEDITERRANEAN............................................................................... 119 1. The Abduction of a Woman in Ancient and Later Periods ............ 122 1.1 The Abduction of a Woman in the Bible and in Greek Mythology 1.2 The Motifs of Abduction, Seduction and Deception in Slovenian Folk Tradition 2. The Typological Groups of the Ballad of Fair Vida in the Mediterranean Region.............................................................. 140 2.1. Luring “Constant” Fair Vida onto a Boat, and her Heroic Death 2.2 Luring “Vacillating” Fair Vida onto a Boat and her Sorrow in the Foreign World at the Loss of her Husband and Child 2.3 Luring the “Fallen” Fair Vida onto a Boat, her Life with a Moorish Lord and her Return for her Son 2.4 The Living Tradition of the Ballad of Fair Vida in Resia 2.5 Conclusion 3. Artistic Remodelling of the Motif of Fair Vida in Slovenian Literature............................................................................................ 191 3.1 Artistic Remodelling of the Ballad “Of the Fair Vida” by France Prešeren 3.2 Josip Jurþiþ’s Artistic Rendering of the Motif of Fair Vida in his Novel Lepa Vida 3.3 The Corrupting Effect of Temptation in Josip Vošnjak’s Play Lepa Vida 3.4 Ivan Cankar’s Artistic Remodelling of the Motif of Fair Vida 3.5 Boris Pahor’s Artistic Remodelling of the Motif of Fair Vida 4. Concluding Findings...................................................................... 231 4.1 The Abducted Woman Resists the Cunning Abductor/Tempter 4.2 The Abducted Woman Becomes the Helpless Prisoner of an Abductor/Tempter 4.3 The Woman Marries her Abductor 4.4 Psychological Portrayal of Temptation in Ballads of Fair Vida and Thematic Parallels to the Folk Tradition 4.5 Psychological Portrayal of the Victim of Temptation/Abduction in Folk Ballads about Fair Vida and their Thematic Parallels 4.6 Literary Interpretations of the Slovenian Ballad of Fair Vida in Modern Slovenian Literature 4.7 Selected Classic Works of European Literature which Influenced World Literature with the Motif of Temptation: A Comparison with Biblical and Folk Traditions

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CONCLUSION ....................................................................................... 245 Bibliography............................................................................................ 253 Notes........................................................................................................ 265 Index of Names........................................................................................ 299 Index of Subjects ..................................................................................... 306

PREFACE

This study represents the first major findings of my extensive research based on the methodological principle of intertextuality. Intertextuality deals with, portrays and analyses the syntactic, lexical and stylistic actualisation of motifs and metaphors that are universally human, considering them from a linguistic and literary viewpoint in the light of intertextual relations in their synchronic and diachronic development. The project focuses on the fields of meaning of biblical and other metaphorical expressions, sayings and archetypes of longing, weakness and temptation in relation to their background and contemporary usage. These fields change, narrow or expand depending on the needs of the situation and the broader context of various types of literature. The goal of the study is a literary analysis of well-known texts – from antiquity up to the present – which include the same or similar literary schemes. Semantic parallels between diverse languages are no less valid and instructive merely because those languages themselves are unrelated. The diversity of points of view enhances, rather than diminishes, the significance of the comparison. The motifs and symbols of longing, weakness and temptation in their internal context has never been systematically researched, even though they rank among the fundamental existentially and socially relevant determinants of human identity, culture, science and art. Very similar archetypes of temptation and seduction exist throughout the world; they are evinced in the biblical story of Adam and Eve and that of Joseph of Egypt, and the similarity and specificity of the motif of Fair Vida is seen in various versions of the folk ballad over the entire European Mediterranean area. However, it is only in Slovenia that Fair Vida has become a central symbol, and from France Prešeren’s time to today there have been more than fifty artistic versions of the ballad. The relevance of the results of this study and its potential influence are in line with the relevance and influence of the selected motifs and symbols in the corpus of antique and subsequent literature. Linking linguistic and literary factors in considering these texts ensures a more reliable and complete understanding of their content, a greater capability for comprehending their universal values, and an intensifying of the linguistic and literary experience as it expresses a complex and profound perception of values.

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Preface

Since shortly after having completed my doctorate, I have been lecturing and publishing on the expressive power of Ivan Cankar's oeuvre and on the symbolic breadth of the ballad of Fair Vida in the Slovenian and international academic community. Through these activities, I have endeavoured to draw attention to the significance of Slovenian literature within Europe, the Mediterranean, as well as the broader international space. Much of the impetus for the publication of the present study followed a lecture and discussions carried out in the framework of the 2007 Annual Meeting of the American Association of Teachers of Slavic and Eastern European Languages (AATSEEL), which took place in Chicago in December 27-30 – specifically, a paper entitled “The Psychology of Temptation as the Key to the Darker Side of Human Existence” presented within the Panel: “Myths and Mythmaking: From Folklore to Literature.” The goal was to examine archetypes presenting the interrelated motifs of longing, weakness and temptation in world literature and to consider how the borderlines between tradition and artistic originality are delineated or informed by comparative folklore or mythology. This study is the first academic effort to present the Slovenian motif of Fair Vida to an international audience. As shall be shown in the study, this is done by connecting the motif to narratives stemming from both religious and secular literature that are known throughout the world. Of primary interest are the narratives of Adam and Eve (Gen 3), Joseph of Egypt (Gen 37-50), Samson and Delilah (Judg 16:4-22) and the “Strange Woman” of Proverbs (chapters 1-9). These texts have impressed many writers and have thus inspired many new artistic creations since their inception, and this fascination continues today. This study limits itself to five examples of literary instances of the motif of Fair Vida in Slovenian Literature. Since the motif of Fair Vida has become a central and fruitful symbol in the Slovenian artistic tradition, there is room for further analysis of its role. In other words, this introductory study invites further studies and research into the motif and its manifestations in literature and other arts.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to thank the Academic Research Centre at the Slovenian Academy of Science and Arts (ZRC SAZU), as it was this institution that provided me with the necessary financial and moral support for this study. Firstly, I thank Professor Oto Luthar, the director of ZRC SAZU. He helped me to cooperate in research activities at ZRC SAZU, as well as with my teaching position at the Faculty of Humanities of the University of Nova Gorica. Each of these activities both supported and enriched my research work on the motifs of this study. In the framework of the University of Nova Gorica, I particularly thank the rector of the University, Professor Danilo Zavrtanik, who has supported me throughout the years of my pedagogical and scholarly activities. I would like to acknowledge also Professor Andrej Vovko, the head of the Institute of Cultural History at ZRC SAZU, and Professor Igor Grdina, who was the project head at the Institute. Sincere appreciation is extended to Professor France Bernik from the Slovenian Academy of Science and Arts and Dr. Matija Ogrin from the Institute of Slovenian Literature and Literary Studies at ZRC SAZU for their valuable suggestions, and to Dr. Katja Mihurko Poniž from Faculty of Humanities of the University of Nova Gorica for her moral support. Thanks are due also to the Faculty of Theology at the University of Ljubljana for including me in a research programme within the Chair of Biblical and Jewish Studies. This programme was led by Professor Jože Krašovec, who has taken a great deal of care in fostering my professional development. He encouraged me from the start, offering ready and efficient help in all stages of the project. I am very grateful also to the Dean of the Faculty of Theology, Professor Stanko Gerjolj, who has taken an interest in my work and supported the project by contributing his own work in response to the challenges in the field of education. The completion of the work is due also to the Ecole Biblique et Archéologique Française in Jerusalem for the possibility of preparing the bibliography for the first part of the study. In the end of last three years I have presented my papers on my research in Annual Meetings of AATSEEL, the American Association of Teachers of

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Acknowledgements

Slavic and East European Languages. The last paper, read on 28 December 2008 in San Francisco, was entitled Intertextual Representations of Longing and Temptation. In participating at AATSEEL annual conferences I have benefited from the advice, support and example of a number of American scholars. On this occasion, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to Professor Alexander Burry, the Ohio State University, for his encouragement to further research in this topic, Professor Craig Cravens, University of Texas, Austin, for his unfailing help but also for his good spirit, Professor Andrew Corin, Defence Language Institute, and Professor David Prestel, Michigan State University, for their friendly suggestions about various issues concerning this topic. Special thanks go to Jason Blake and Alenka Blake, who translated the Slovenian text of my Slovenian manuscript into English. I am also grateful to Matjaž Rebolj for the electronic compilation of the indices. Many thanks finally to the staff of the Cambridge Scholars Publishing who have helped me in one way or another with this book. Particularly valuable was the assistance offered by Carol Koulikourdi, Amanda Millar and Nuala Coyle with typesetting, proofs and the entire process of publication. To all these I extend my most grateful acknowledgements. Lastly, I offer my most heartfelt thanks to my husband Tomaž, who helped greatly, not least by often looking after our two children while I was away working on my book. My two boys, Jurij and David, deserve credit for providing an endless source of energy and inspiration by brightening every shadow through their love and smiles.

INTRODUCTION

Presentation of the semantic range of the concepts of longing, testing, trial and temptation as conceived in the realms of linguistics, literature, psychology, philosophy and theology is best founded on the basis of definitions available in major dictionaries as well as in specialist studies. Longing is the most agreeable of human capacities and the term encompasses humankind’s natural desire for self-assertion, love, mortality, knowledge, and so forth. The Gilgamesh Epic, the greatest masterpiece of literature prior to the Bible and Homer, deals most dramatically with the serious problems of life and death as experienced by the hero Gilgamesh. Like Adam, Gilgamesh has gained knowledge but not immortality. Frightened by the prospect of death, Gilgamesh undertakes a perilous journey to the hero Utnapishtim, whom the gods had made immortal through a unique, and thus never to be repeated, event: the flood. Gilgamesh ultimately recognizes that the gods had reserved immortality for themselves and returns to his walled city Uruk, whose magnificence he admires. Like all myths of a lost paradise or golden age, the biblical story of the Fall is an indication of humanity’s yearning for a better world and an attempt to account for the problems of evil and human suffering. But the most celebrated of all artistic expressions of human yearning is the universal impact of celebration and appeal to love in the Song of Songs (or Song of Solomon), which contains an abundance of meaning and emotional warmth. The Song finally proclaims love to be “strong as death” (8:6). In view of the deeper meaning of the Song and of so many other expressions of human longing, it was only a matter of time before the broadest and the most profound perspectives of the phenomenon of longing would be voiced. Saint Augustine does this at the very outset of his Confessions, where he expresses the contrast between his former empty life and the new experience in union with the Source of life: “You are great, Lord, and highly to be praised (Ps 47:2): great is Your power and Your wisdom is immeasurable” (Ps 146:5). Man, a little piece of Your creation, desires to praise You, a human being “bearing his mortality with him” (2 Cor 4:10), carrying with him the witness of his sin and the witness that You “resist the proud” (1 Pet 5:5) Nevertheless, to

2

Introduction praise You is the desire of man, a little piece of your creation. You stir man to take pleasure in praising you, because You have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in You.1

The world of contrast between transient things and the yearning for unending happiness, love, knowledge and life without end makes it all the more the place of testing, trial and temptation. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines the words clearly enough, and there a distinction between the meanings of the verbs to TEST, TEMPT and SEDUCE is evident. The verb TEST is defined more broadly as “to undergo a test,” generally implying a determining of quality or authenticity. To TEMPT is “to entice to do wrong by promise of pleasure or gain,” such as by offering a bribe. To SEDUCE is literally “to lead astray,” often in a moral sense, and “usually by persuasion or false promises.” Testing and tempting involve different subjects and objects. According to various cultures and religions humans are tested by impersonal objects, by undefined natural forces, by humans, by God or gods, and by demons; on the other hand, humans can have the role of testing God. Testing by demonic forces entails the meaning of tempting. Buddha was tempted by MƗra, “Death” as binding to the sensual world (Samyutta-Nikaya 4; 23,11f.); Zarathustra by Angra Mainyu or Bnjiti (Vendidad 19), Christ by Satan (Mt 4:1-11; Mk 1:12-13; Lk 4:1-13); in the Koran Satan has the role of tempter of Adam in Paradise (Suras 2,36; 7,20; 20,120); when Moses received the Law from God, the Israelites were tempted by the SƗmirƯ, the creator of the Golden Calf (Suras 20,85-97).2 In the Koran, the dealing with and overcoming of the temptation caused by IblƯs (Satan) and his demons is the central religious issue (Suras 4,117-120; 7,20-25; 16,63). Modern psychologists often teach that the form of temptation, including many forms of mental temptation, are primarily reliant on natural instincts, which as such ought, at least to some extent, to be satisfied in order to avoid repression. An analysis of the phenomenon in the framework of various cultures can be of positive service to a better estimation of the roots of psychological and moral disorders and to an appreciation of where moral responsibility ultimately lies. This monograph study is limited to literary analysis of three archetypes reflecting the interplay of longing, weakness and temptation: the motif of Adam and Eve (the Fall); the motif of Joseph of Egypt when tempted by Potiphar’s wife; and the motif of Lepa–that is, “fair” or “lovely”–Vida, which became the central symbol of personal and national identity of the Slovenian nation. The texts to be studied here fit into the general scheme of inner relationship between

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longing, weakness and temptation. In order to make the point as clear as possible it seems necessary to focus attention at the outset on the relationship between the terms of “testing,” “trial” and “temptation” on the basis of the fundamental sources of European literature.

1. Testing, Trial and Temptation in Secular Greek Thought and the Bible In Greek literature probing, proving or being put to the test for good or ill is referred to with some frequency. The words expressing the phenomenon of testing and trial are the verb peirazein (“to try,” “to make trial of,” “to put to the test”) and the noun peirasmos (“a hard trial/ordeal,” “a test” or “a testing”). What is denoted by this term is conceived of as an event primarily aimed at or happening almost exclusively to mortals. The “tested ones” (peirazomenoi) are such notable figures as Odysseus,3 the Spartan king Kleomenes III,4 certain travellers,5 soldiers,6 various criminals,7 servants or thralls,8 farmers,9 ambassadors to Philip of Macedon from Darius,10 judges,11 “the man of many friends,”12 a Heliodorus of uncertain origin,13 “evil people,”14 Stoics,15 the Aetolians,16 the children of the inhabitants of Ceylon,17 the slave philosopher Epictetus,18 the Trojan king Laomedon,19 and Lycaon the king of Arcadia, and his sons.20 Jeffrey B. Gibson, on the basis of these passages, arrives at conclusions that are of methodological aid to this study.21 He states: One’s experience of “probing,” “proving” and/or “being put to the test” was never thought of as originating subjectively, nor was it ever viewed in terms of its being an inner psychological event, that is, the rise of a desire or thought from within a person that must be expunged, resisted or overcome. Rather, it was always something known to be imposed from the outside. … We find instances not only of mortals “being tried” or being “put to the proof,” sometimes only through happenstance, but also of men (but notably never women) and gods moving intentionally and actively to subject someone to probing and testing.22

Testing concerns the nature of a person’s character, the extent of his integrity and the depth of one’s piety. This finding informs Gibson’s next statement: Nowhere do we find men’s experience of being tested, probed or put to the proof and their common experience of enticement or solicitation to evil. … When a person is subjected to testing it is always and only to see whether he will act in a particular way or whether the character he bears is well

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Introduction established but never to get that person to act in a particular way, especially one that is morally wrong. This is the case even in instances where hostility and the desire to see the demise of the tested person motivates the subjecting the person to testing. For it is assumed there that the person tested is already morally corrupt, not susceptible to or ripe for corruption. Indeed, it is the knowledge that if the one to be tested could be shown for what he already is, his destruction could be assured, that makes testing appropriate here.23

The analysis of passages containing the words which form the semantic field of testing and trial in secular Greek thought shows that this field is limited in scope. We are thus even more attentive to the fact that in secular Greek thought there are some passages reporting of the attempt of particular human persons, most strikingly of particular women, to entice or solicit to evil. Homer reports in Iliad 6.152-170 of the attempt of Anteia, the wife of King Proetus, to seduce the righteous Bellerophon. The text speaks of Anteia’s mendacious accusations of Bellerophon after her failed attempts at seduction, as well as of Proetus’ corresponding, albeit misguided and misinformed, hatred of and revenge on Bellerophon. Euripides uses this story in his remarkable tragedy showing that Stheneboea (the name for Anteia), the wife of Proetus, made advances to him, which he rejected and decided to leave the Tiryns in order to avoid the dishonour of yielding to Stheneboea, and for Proetus if he were to denounce the queen. Proetus listened to the slander produced by his humiliated wife and sent Bellerophon to King Iobates of Caria with a secret message bidding Iobates to slay him. Since Stheneboea continued with an attempt to destroy him, Bellerophon proposed to her that she should fly with him on Pegasus to Asia Minor. She assented, but while they were flying near Melos, Bellerophon cast her down into the sea.24 Such was the end of a woman of twin evils: deceit and slander. Ovid, in Heroides, and Seneca, in Phaedra, elaborated the motif on the basis of the older Euripides variant. The story is reminiscent of the episode of temptation in the Egyptian myth of Bata and Anubis, the so-called “Tale of Two Brothers,” and in the biblical story of Joseph from Egypt and of various other biblical and nonbiblical episodes and statements dealing with the motif of temptation implying a clear intention to entice a particular person to evil. Examples of this type show that temptation as an enticement to evil is not necessarily specific. Narratives and other literary genres convey the message with more complex linguistic and literary means. But when cultures meet, or conflict, it can happen that specific terms adopted in new cultures are used

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in a broader sense because basic presuppositions open broader and deeper perspectives that were not perceived earlier, or at least were not in the foreground. This phenomenon is the most important fact that happened among the Hellenized Jewish and Christian population in the period after the death of Alexander the Great. Because of the multiplicity of Eastern languages, cultures and thought, the process of fusion was a complex and varied one. The Jewish homeland was surrounded by Greek cities, not only on the Phoenician coast but also to the north and east, so Jews were subject to various Greek influences within their homeland and even more in the Diaspora. The environment obviously had an impact on Jews and early Christians. Greek was used even by those who promoted Hebrew for ideological reasons. We may conclude that by the time of Jesus areas such as Galilee and Judea were trilingual, with Aramaic being the language used for many day-to-day activities, Mishnaic Hebrew used for religious worship and learned discussion, and Greek the usual language for commerce, trade and administration. The result was that Judaism and Hellenism frequently interacted in many different spheres and with many different results. The chief interest of faithful Jews was not to promote the achievements of Greek learning but to use them to show how Judaism was “the best philosophy,” the purest expression of piety and virtue, conceived in terms comprehensible to any Hellenized person, Jewish or otherwise.25 The distinguishing aspects of Jewish identity during this era were never expressed with respect to anything like a normative Judaism. Jews exercised considerable freedom in terms of how they defined their Jewish heritage, how they determined appropriate allegiance to that heritage and how they negotiated the relationship between that heritage and Hellenism. The different manifestations of Hellenization correspond to the different avenues available to Jewish people for manifesting their identity, including literary, religious, political, economic and artistic forms of expression. Among the earliest and most influential projects of Hellenistic Judaism was the Septuagint, the Greek rendering of the Hebrew Bible, compiled mostly in the third and second centuries B.C. In assessing the Septuagint as a translation, the major question is its relation to the Hebrew text. The translation is necessarily a compromise with a fair amount of “semantic tolerance” in terms of its definitely being Greek in syntax and lexis, but having a distinctly Hebrew cast in certain places.26 The same is true for the New Testament, not only because the New Testament is written in Greek but also because of the fact that the New Testament authors used the

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Introduction

Septuagint form of the Old Testament more than any other version. Semitic influence on the Septuagint and New Testament may show itself in the language, form and content. A “Semitism” in the Greek text of the Bible may be defined as an element of vocabulary, grammar, syntax, idiom or style, which deviates from expected Greek usage, and in that deviation coincides with idiomatic Aramaic or Hebrew usage. In any translation the translator is relatively free to choose words and idioms which come naturally to mind. In connection with the vocabulary expressing testing, trial and temptation the “semantic tolerance” manifested in the Septuagint means a broadening and deepening of perspectives. Jeffrey B. Gibson questions certain directions of interpretation of biblical texts, by claiming: Insofar as secular Greek usage had any influence on delimiting the semantic range within which Hellenized Jewish or early Christian usage of peirasmos and peirazein took its bearings, the observations outlined above indicate that there is strong reason to doubt that in those NT texts where peirasmos and peirazein are usually construed in terms of enticement to sin, this notion ever played any part. Tendencies for lexicographers and exegetes to see that it does may therefore be the result not of a sober analysis of the linguistic data but of eisegesis and circular reasoning.27

But the direction of interpretation may not be so much a way of eisegesis as a considerable measure of constraint in terms of “semantic tolerance” present in translating biblical content in Greek–the content that is much broader and profounder in perspectives than the religious and philosophical presuppositions of Greek culture could ever indicate.28

2. Two Biblical Narratives of Temptation and their Impact on Literature The Hebrew Bible contains the root nsh, expressing testing and trial in verb and noun forms. It seems plausible to translate the basic meaning as to “undergo an experience.”29 The semantic range of this word covers various aspects of testing experience: testing others, testing oneself, testing objects, testing God, testing by God (for instance Abraham in Gen 22:114, Israel in the wilderness, the testing of the righteous).30 The corresponding Greek word used in the Septuagint and in the New Testament is peirasmos.31 Most passages in which the Hebrew or the corresponding Greek word occurs are short statements about the experience of testing or trial without any comment about the semantic

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range of meaning. Only rarely does the word introduce a longer narrative indicating in which sense the word is to be understood. The famous narrative on testing Abraham by God in Gen 22:1-19 begins with the statement: “After these things God tested Abraham.” The narrative as a whole shows that God puts Abraham’s fear (faith, obedience) of God to the test; the key to the interpretation is found in the text itself (v. 12; see also v. 16): “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” In the context of the theological presuppositions of the Bible it is entirely clear that the writer of the text could not have had any kind of enticement to evil in mind. But what about the interplay between prose and poetry in dealing with the motif of testing Job’s righteousness? The poetic speeches of the book are an extended discussion of a particular theological issue, the origins and the cause of Job’s suffering, until God enters into dialogue with Job and resolves matters by reorienting his view from inexplicable suffering towards the marvels of creation. But the opening two chapters, written in prose, seem to represent a more popular and a simple folk tradition conveying the belief that Job proved to be righteous by standing the test of suffering when afflicted by sudden terrible events. Job’s reaction to the disasters that came upon him is a calm acceptance of the will of God without falling into the temptation of showing hostility towards Him for what has happened. He blesses God not only for what he has given but also for what he has taken away (1:21; 2:10). His stand frustrates the view of Satan regarding Job’s righteousness when God praises him: “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man who fears God and turns away from evil” (1:8). In his second intervention, God adds to this praise: “He still persists in his integrity, although you incited me against him, to destroy him for no reason” (2:3). This argument implies the belief that Satan appeared with a clear intention to entice Job to evil and to destroy him through the consequences of his own evil. To withstand the trial is therefore the only way out of distress. The Book of Job determines that the existence of people depends on the moral quality of their life and not on the accidental circumstances of their material position. This universal biblical presupposition is even more apparent in the Yahwist narrative of the account of Paradise and the transgression of Adam and Eve recorded in Gen 3. It is taken for granted that the background of the Genesis narrative is to be found in mythological

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Introduction

elements common to the traditions of various ancient Near Eastern cultures. We note certain parallels in other tales, especially in the Gilgamesh Epic and in the Myth of Adapa where the central issue is the attempt to attain immortality. In spite of striking similarities the biblical narrative is unique in implying that the failure of humankind was indirectly caused by their own free will from the beginning, and not by their weakness or fate or the envy of the gods. The Yahwist writer rejected almost the entire polytheistic background of various traditions in order to transform them into an account that was in accordance with the high moral and spiritual insights of the biblical religion. The biblical presupposition of Creation implies the drama of testing to determine the inner quality of the created human couple, but already at this moment the serpent appears as enemy of both humans and God, one whose aim is to entice humans into rebellion against God. It is noteworthy that the serpent appears without explanation of where he comes from or who he is. Herein lies the reason for the exceptionally great impact of the Paradise account on later literature and art in general. Various writers and artists turned to the Genesis story for insight into the paradox of human existence. They instinctively recognized that the story deals with the typical aspects of the temptation to which every human is subjected at every moment of his existence and which embodies ambitious selfassertion, morbid curiosity for something undiscovered and forbidden, reckless decisions against unresisting obedience, and the shame that comes over the sinner as his brazen courage leaves him. As the Apocalypse of 2 Baruch puts it: “Adam is not the cause, except only for himself, but each of us has become our own Adam” (54:19).32 This explains why the Bible has shaped the interaction of scripture and vernacular writing until well into the Renaissance and has been by far the most important of foundational texts for English and many other European literatures. The great Jeu d’Adam, perhaps the first biblical play in the vernacular to be written in England, was written in Anglo-Norman French, rather than the more usual Latin. John Milton (1608-1674) chose the biblical story of the Fall and redemption over the national Arthurian myth. His works Paradise Lost (1667) and Paradise Regained (1671) represent a high point of biblical influence on English literature. In between, and in later times, innumerable other intertextual presentations and interpretations in direct or indirect relation to the Genesis story have been created all over Europe and beyond. The most well-known interpretations of the Faust legend by Christopher Marlowe and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe also come close to the essence of the Genesis story. Both works relate to an older popular

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story, based on the belief that one of the deeds of the devil is to try to make mankind stray from God by tempting humans with things that might be superficial or non-human. The last part of the Book of Genesis, the Joseph story of chapters 37-50, is entirely based on the experience of temptation. Joseph was tested by revelation of dreams to determine his trust in higher wisdom; he was put to the test by condemnation to a shameful death by his brothers in order that he may learn forbearance and about his capacity to forgive, and most strikingly he was tempted by the wife of his lord Potiphar in order to find out whether he was able to overcome her attempted seduction to the sin of infidelity. The seduction scene (39:6-23) manifests similarities with the popular story preserved in the Egyptian myth of Bata and Anubis, the socalled Tale of Two Brothers. The similarities are most revealing in connection with the seduction of the younger brother, Bata, attempted by the wife of his older brother Anubis. It has long been observed that the Egyptian story had a venerable prehistory before it was finally written down in its present form. The similarity between the two seduction scenes, which each end in failure, is all the more apparent in view of the seduction attempt preserved in Homer’s Iliad (6.152-170) and in Euripides. Attempted seduction is an ever-occurring event, one that happens at all times, and it is therefore clear that these famous textual examples are not explicable solely in terms of mutual dependence. In any case, the Joseph story from Genesis as a whole has had a very great impact on Jewish, Christian and Muslim cultures until today. Mention may be made especially of the apocryphal work The Testaments of Twelve Patriarchs, of the allegorical reinterpretation of the story in the Koran (Sura 12), and of the great modern novel by Thomas Mann, Joseph and His Brothers (19341942).

3. Characteristics of the Literary Motif of Lepa Vida (Fair Vida) This overview of most popular and influential literary presentations of the motifs of longing, weakness and temptation in the Bible and in literature in general turns our attention to the nature of subjects and objects of testing, trial and temptation. Those who initiate the testing, trial and temptation vary. In the Bible and in the Koran the tester is usually God or occasionally the adversary Satan. Less frequent is the anthropological understanding of temptation as the conscious desire of individuals to do what they know to be wrong (Gal 6:1; James 1:14). God is depicted as

10

Introduction

creating tests for various persons and groups. The biblical monotheistic background entails also that God is the ultimate source of the temptation of humans, and even Jesus. In this connection an important role is assigned to Satan, whom God uses to tempt people. Civilizations of a polytheistic background, and especially of secular popular traditions, frequently resort to natural and undefined supernatural beings, to various kinds of demons who test or tempt humans. Though subjects that are considered positive in character put humans to the test in order to determine virtue, more often it is wicked subjects and undefined forces that appear with the clear intention to seduce their victims. In this connection it is important to point out that the wicked tempters and seducers are both male and female. Female agents of temptation, such as the wife of the older brother of the Egyptian Tale of Two Brothers, Steneboeia of Homer’s Iliad, Potiphar’s wife in the Book of Genesis, Delilah in the Book of Judges, the Strange Woman in the Book of Proverbs, etc., became most attractive literary archetypes of human imagination, and thus a favourite archetype throughout world literature. The other side of the drama of testing and temptation are those who are tested and tempted. It is remarkable that the subjects who are put to the test or tempted are, in general, not women but men. Narratives relate how Abraham, Job, young men in the Book of Proverbs, Hercules, and others are put to the test to determine their faith, faithfulness, obedience and constancy. Individuals such as Adam, Eve, and Joseph of Egypt are tempted by subjects that hide or manifest evil intention. In the story of the Fall (Gen 3), Eve has as much the role of a victim of temptation as of a temptress. But in the end it is clear that neither Adam nor Eve sinned out of obstinacy but rather due to their imperfect nature. The source of their sin lies in the fact that they were seduced by an evil subject. Although men and women are equally obliged to constancy and called on to control fierce urges, to shun the allure of the exotic and forbidden in favour of lawful pleasures, the male oriented societies focused their primary interest in the fate of men who were responsible for their own morality and for the education of all members of the family. In all these cases the emphasis is on the education method to convince the people to be aware of the dangers of the forbidden and the ambiguous attractions of the permitted. Another scope may result in other types of folk traditions. The most impressive example is extolling the figure of the weakest, unprotected member of human society, the woman, as victim of various kinds of violence executed by men of power. Such a prominent case is the figure of

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Fair Vida, which is a central figure in the folk literature of the Mediterranean area and which became the central literary archetype in Slovenian literature. In existential terms, the figure of Fair Vida is probably the most justified motif expressing all imaginable variants of tragic fates of unprotected women who fell into the hands of demonic and violent men. The pattern of this relationship provides a convenient background for extolling the victim Fair Vida, not only to make human destiny and identity immediate, striking, and personal but also as the most expressive symbol of suffering that afflicts an entire subordinated nation. Fair Vida is the prominent figure for depicting the destiny of weak, unprotected individuals, groups and nations because the beautiful woman embodies longing for all that is reminiscent of tenderness, goodness and faithfulness. But this very beauty and longing for tenderness invites violent men to turn her expectations towards the opposite extreme. Her beauty and longing for a world of dreams and courtship is the source of the greatest attraction and thus at the same time the greatest danger, and the villainous characters who approach her know how to exploit this. Once Fair Vida is trapped between what she must do and her personal desires, she becomes prey to hidden spheres from which there is no escape. When emotions are mentioned in the texts, the conflict of weakness and strength is resolved to her advantage, for they make it manifest that she is essentially a righteous and strong woman. Weakness is central to the figure of Fair Vida. Such weakness is apparent in her hesitancy, imperfection, or human frailty before a seemingly omnipotent master. Fair Vida is seen to bend before a sense of personal desire that overrides her public commitment to strength. The prominent existential background is the appropriate framework from which to understand and appreciate the interplay of this figure with the historical situations of the European nations of the Mediterranean in the periods of Arabic and Turkish domination. A specific cultural and sociological need made the dramatic characterization of weakness of human nature in general, embodied in Fair Vida, an expressive metaphor for the suffering people as a whole. This explains the great extent of variations of the same pattern. It is noteworthy that not everyone presents and reads the same figure the same way. The existential origin and various levels of meaning provide a background for dealing with the extant texts, and this goes beyond the historical approach. The motifs of longing, weakness and temptation are so general and universal that the most suitable approach is a comparative analysis of literary texts in their inner relationship between form and content and in their relationship to similar presentations of the

12

Introduction

same motifs in literature from other areas or different periods. Already a superficial survey of instances of this topic in world literature shows that it is important in both folk culture and in developed written documents of human culture. Therefore, the growth of human culture from folk forms to forms of high art such as dance, literature and music is a central methodological issue; this means that the study of literary forms and contents includes the realm of folklore. According to Albert Lord’s classic work The Singer of Tales, there are three main streams of the intellectual subject of folklore: the humanistic, anthropological, and psychological-psychoanalytic perspectives.33 Lord is a prominent representative of the humanistic perspective. His “oralformulaic” theory was developed out of a focus on the south Slavic oral epic and was later applied to Homeric epics. Lord studied a live tradition of oral narrative poetry in order to demonstrate the process by which oral poets compose. He came to the conclusion that ancient native customs, contents and forms are receptive to the influx new forms and readily allow innovations. Since the primary interest is the development of the meaning for human existence, the anthropological perspective is even more important. Aesthetic products from various cultures mirror those cultures’ values and offer a projective screen that illuminates their imaginations. The same tales are found in many parts of the world and the characters have many things in common. This fact shows that myths, dreams, ballads, and fairy tales reflect the ethos of many peoples and express hidden layers of unconscious human wishes and fears. The evidence of international dissemination of motifs and archetypes can, however, exhibit local characteristics in terms of its popularity, persistence through various periods, as well as application to various levels of meaning. Keeping these points in mind, it is safe to conclude that the motifs of longing, weakness and temptation as expressed in the figure of Fair Vida reflect most clearly the identity of the Slovenian nation. The Fair Vida song variants warrant greater attention to what lies beneath their surface expressions. The relationship between the text and the larger past social world in which the observations are rooted requires some explanation. The basic premise of any literary approach is the awareness that there is a multiplicity of meanings in any text. This awareness is a precondition for any attempt to understand either literature in its own terms or in terms of comparative studies. Structuralism, meanwhile, deems it important to trace in the texts common patterns and differences with a view to the natural phenomena behind them, but any reading of the texts

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entails an anthropological and psychoanalytical sympathy that invites new combinations of insight.

4. Literary Presentations of Universal Human Experience The Bible is a collection of varied writings by diverse writers showing a preference for brief, relatively self-contained units. Its narratives make up an anthology of brief stories, and its poetry takes the form of selfcontained lyric poems. Thus, anthologies of the Bible fall into familiar literary genres such as narrative and poetry. Biblical writers wrote in the context of ancient Near Eastern cultures with an awareness of the literature being produced in surrounding nations. On the surface, the Bible seems not to be governed by literary intentions; rather the subject matter of the Bible shows that the product of biblical writers is a unique literary incarnation of human experience in art forms. Biblical texts are concrete representations of universal human experience in the form of characters, actions, and images. They re-create experiences, sensations and events and convey a sense of reality and truth for all people in all places at all times. The literary language of the Bible is predominantly figurative and contains metaphors, similes, allusions, word plays, paradoxes, dramatic irony, and so forth. The narratives themselves are so filled with concrete pictures that they can be called poetic prose. All literary genres or types share certain elements of artistic form, such as unity or central focus, coherence, contrast, symmetry, various elements of repetition, variation, and unified progression. All these and other literary means of language, syntax, and rhetoric are constituent elements of a style that is recognizable in every passage. It is true that the content of a message dictates the form, yet is also clear that the form contributes to the meaning of the passage. Any comparative approach shows that great classical works, especially the Bible, which is the book for all seasons and all temperaments, are a mingling of the familiar and the unfamiliar. There is familiar emphasis on human experience, the presence of familiar genres and archetypes, and the usual display of artistry and reliance on special resources of language. But along these familiar features, much strikes us as distinctive, though not absolutely unique. As Leland Ryken puts it: The Bible is a paradoxical book. Because of its range and its truthfulness to human experience, it preserves the complexities and polarities of life to an unusual degree. The paradoxes of life are held in tension in what can be called the most balanced anthology ever compiled. Human responsibility and divine sovereignty, God’s transcendence and immanence, humankind’s

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Introduction potential for greatness and smallness, the importance of the earthly and yet its relative inferiority to the heavenly, the importance of the individual and yet the incompleteness of the individual apart from relationship, the literary impulse towards realism but also towards the more-than-earthly– these and other poles are simultaneously affirmed in the Bible. Even the style of the Bible is a paradox: It combines simplicity with majesty. Despite its immense range of content and style, the Bible possesses more unity than other anthologies; it has a unifying plot. The central conflict is the great spiritual battle between good and evil. The protagonist is God, with every creature and event showing some movement, whether slight or momentous, towards God or away from Him. … Despite stylistic and generic diversity, biblical writers generally share certain preferences. They prefer the brief unit to the long one, conciseness to prolixity, the realistic to the wholly idealized, the plain or simple style to the embellished style, the religious view of life to the secular, the historical to the fictional, dialogue and dramatization to summarized narrative, the happy ending to the tragic, the bare narration of what happened over an explanation of it. Biblical writers gravitate naturally to heightened contrasts, to master images like light and darkness and pilgrimage, to elemental human experience, to simplified virtues and vices, to a clear sense of the world and of what is right and wrong in that world, to the primacy of the spiritual as a basic assumption about life.34

The Bible presents the archetypes of the literary imagination that are the archetypes of literature in general: recurrent concrete images, motifs, character types, or feelings. Literary presentations of the motifs of longing and temptation illustrate especially clearly that literature is a mirror in which we see ourselves, our experiences, and our world. The story of the Fall tells us what Adam and Eve did in the Garden of Eden in a way which raises several interrelated questions: What universal aspects of human nature are embodied in these characters? Do these characters belong to a recognizable literary archetype? Who are the protagonists and the antagonists in the conflict? What elements of testing or tempting and choice are important to the action? How can the conflicts and the dramatic irony be resolved? What verdict does the story offer about falling into temptation at all times and in all places? The writer is telling us a story about life by means of the characters and events that have been presented. The story teller was attracted to the story because it reveals the deep significance of life. This explains why the Bible is the story of all things, embodied in a collection of all major literary genres, and why it has been and still is the single greatest influence on Western literature.

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5. Literary-critical and Rhetorical Approaches to Intertextuality The early Church fathers were the first to acknowledge the literary nature of the Bible. Augustine, in the fourth century, came to regard the Bible as literary in the same ways that classical literature was.35 At both the level of literary nuances of language and rhetorical patterns and at the level of human experience, the Bible is an inexhaustible book. The more the fund of experience is enlarged, and the more literary knowledge readers bring to it, the more the Bible yields. But since the purpose of Scripture is primarily for “instruction in righteousness” (2 Tim 3:16), there are clear limits of “an integrative model for biblical interpretation.”36 The awareness of the unity of content and style explains why James Muilenburg’s synchronic approach, considered holistic in character with an emphasis on the rhetorical features and with a concentration on the final form of the extant text, opened a new direction in biblical scholarship decades ago.37 Kenneth A. Mathews finds good reasons for backing Muilenburg’s proposal: A full(er) understanding of passage involves a holistic approach to interpretation, which comprises both grammatical-historical studies and literary analysis. Holistic study is necessary because the Bible is literary, if not literature. By “literary,” we mean that it is self-consciously conceived as literature. … Setting aside the question of literary study as a legitimate enterprise, we can turn now to the present scene. Contemporary literary approaches to the Bible were not created in a vacuum. They draw on a myriad of literarycritical theories and other disciplines, such as anthropology, psychology, linguistics, and political theory. …38

Mathews points also to another important feature of biblical literature and, to a great extent, of literature in general: Since biblical narrative usually does not announce its intention overtly, it is necessary for the interpreter to derive it from the text by inference. For the most part, the reader is left to infer from rhetorical features of the text what the opinion of the narrator is.39

Another important aspect of intertextual study of motifs of longing, weakness and temptation is the question of the relationship between myth and history as presented in literary texts of the ancient Near East. Comparative material induced most scholars to examine the popular

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Introduction

contrast between Israelite history and Pagan myth, claiming that history was the constitutive genre of Israel’s religious expression, while myth exercised that function in contemporary paganism. Unfortunately, no one has worked out comparative differences based on an adequate literary analysis of extant texts. The task of clarifying the contrast involving the myth-history tension remains, but this task requires a new approach. Jimmy Jack McBee Roberts realizes that existing comparative attempts are based on broad generalizations and sees correctly that comparative significance shows itself through its expression in the respective literatures. His concluding statement is the proposal of a literary approach: An adequate comparative study must examine the theological interpretations of historical events across the whole spectrum of literary genres native to the cultures being compared. One way of doing this is to take a typical event such as the fall of a royal cult center and then to trace the theological reflections on that event through the undoubtedly emerge in the ensuing discussion, and eventually one must construct a new synthesis—hopefully one that will recognize the theological value of both what is unique to the biblical faith and what it shares in common with the Ancient near Eastern religions.40

The ascribing of a text to a genre provides the interpreter of the text with a key intertextual framework, with relations within the text in terms of its internal configuration and its autonomous form, and with a system of references to other books, other texts, other literary statements. Awareness of the importance of intertextuality leads us to examine the functions of images and written texts used in close association within a text in terms of their overall literary and rhetorical structure. It seems that imitatio veterum is instrumental not only in the construction of new texts but also in the construction of the world of current lived experience. It is in intertextual representations of reality and dreams that the great memory of literature exists, and it thus preserves the unity of our cultural heritage. The intertextual approach is obviously appropriate to the study of contents, symbols and forms expressing the experience of human longing, weakness and temptation. It shows how the source text continues to speak through the new work and how the new work unearths new meanings from the source text. Source texts, like those studied here–namely, biblical books, Greek literary works, or folk ballads in the Mediterranean area since the Middle Ages–are in most cases not a coherent whole, but read as a series of independent units written at different times, though with a common general purpose. Later writers use them with a historical sense, sensitivity to their larger original context and to the significance of the new text and the new context, also when aiming towards a fuller understanding of

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authenticity of existence. Literary interrelationships provide evidence for the fact that the poets and writers incorporate the traditions of the past into a work such that it transforms past and present. And the result is that literature appears to be a system of interrelated texts, a new interaction of past and present in literary composition, a kind of reanimation of tradition. The first methodological approaches of intertextuality focused on influence and causality, on authorial intention and on literary interrelationships and patterns of literary borrowing within literature proper. Subsequent contributions helped to broaden the understanding of intertextual relations in literary texts to include a variety of linguistic phenomena, the intra-poetic relationships and relationships between text and culture. Rhetorical approaches to intertextuality consider the way various key expressions and rhetorical figures are used in literary compositions and attempt to identify what the reader must do in order to recognize the dynamics of intertextuality and follow the intertextual signs and relations in any given text. Close to this approach are the linguistic theories of Roman Jakobson and the structural anthropology of Claude Lévi-Strauss that are based on linguistic models and metaphors as well as the presupposition that texts and communication are stable entities. Structuralist and semiotic methods point to inherent intertextual communication, to include any system of signs, not simply those used in literary texts. The awareness that every text must be read as part of a larger literary context provides a bridge between strictly diachronic and strictly synchronic approaches to literary texts, and to human culture as such. This helps us make use of the best results of various literary-critical approaches of intertextuality.

PART I: LONGING, WEAKNESS AND TEMPTATION IN THE GARDEN OF EDEN AND IN THE COURT OF EGYPT

In general, modern research into the origins, significance and goal of religious and secular cultural history heeds the valid demand for a comparative approach in the diachronic and synchronic range of the available materials. In the 20th century, the general comparative principle greatly promoted research into biblical texts and Israeli cultures, along with the broader culture of the ancient Middle East. Such comparative studies were sometimes more, sometimes less, convincing. Researchers often focused on particular elements of similar or identical historical, literary and artistic sources, and this meant that they neglected crucial differences. Such differences can only be observed in terms of holistic points of departure, theses and goals. For this reason, some historians, religious scholars and theologians justifiably emphasise that the similarities and differences, the common characteristics and particularities can perhaps only be judged accurately on the basis of the available materials as a whole.41 Often it is shown that, despite the common origin and cultural environment that gave rise to a cultural form, creations as a whole differ greatly. Writers, but also their interpreters, have not only collected individual concepts, phrases and artificial structures, but also imported into their narratives and analyses their innate ideas and predetermined judgements dictated to them by their education. In the Bible as well as in world literature as a whole, there are many types of literary narratives which are based on archetypes, myths, traditions and recognition of the new age. For this reason, in the study of history, literature and religion there is now a contesting of the meanings of the concepts of myth and reality, tradition and inspiration, between past, present, and future.42 Comparisons are not only possible between segments of the same, as well as different, cultures from within a single period; they are equally valid between individual works and cultures from different

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eras. The theme of temptation is relevant to every human and is interwoven with all fundamental ideals and values of the created, rational being. Temptation is all the more dramatic, the broader the perspective of recognition, the power of human longing and the sense of the difference between good and evil.

CHAPTER ONE LONGING FOR KNOWLEDGE AND IMMORTALITY, AND THE FALL

The second story in the biblical account of the creation is indelibly linked with the theme of testing the first human pair, which led to the Fall (Gen 2:4b-3:24). The tale, which critical exegesis attributes to Yahweh, is a neatly framed whole; nevertheless we can reasonably analyse it from thematic viewpoints which are interrelated. The main motifs of the story are: the creation of man (Gen 2:4b-7), the ordering of the Garden of Eden (Gen 2:8-17), the creation of the living creatures and of woman (Gen 2:1825), the testing of man and woman (Gen 3:1-7), the interrogation of man and woman (Gen 3:8-13), God’s sentencing of the snake, man and woman (Gen 3:14-19), banishment from paradise (Gen 3:20-24).43 The central substance of the tale is that man, immediately after creation, lost his original innocence and happiness, because he ate the fruit which God had forbidden him to eat. God punished him for his disobedience and banished him from paradise. In terms of schematic presenting of God’s creation in the spiritual source (Gen 1:1-4) the story is surprising in its simplicity, and certain of its elements evoke ancient folk tradition.44 These elements of ancient tradition are transcended by means of a prophetic perspective, which reveals deep insight into the human soul, and provides an especially clear look into the internal link between sin and the consequences of sin, while connecting them with a new, original literary and theological creation.45 In the story the psychological viewpoint is especially interesting, as it reveals the experience of a human both in the moment of temptation and after his fall into sin. The story depicts most expressively how human conscience automatically–and strongly–responds to sin. One recognizes oneself in the narrative–females in Eve, males in Adam; both see that chaos is never far away and that the enemy, “like a roaring lion, seeking some one to devour” (1 Pet 5:8).

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Longing, which leads one to transgress limits, allows for a great range of artistic and dramatic renderings. This is why the theme of human temptation, the Fall of man and the consequences of banishment from Eden have resounded strongly throughout world literature, music and visual art, in theology, psychology, philosophy as well as other areas of human intellectual and artistic creation. In European literature, for example, the story of Adam and Eve is often used in both drama and prose. From the Middle Ages, the most well-known works were the mystery plays about Adam and Eve from the end of the 12th century; during the Baroque it was Joost van den Vondel’s 1664 drama Adam in Exile. There were many similar dramas in the 17th century, including Paradise, the first known Slovenian play, (from around 1657), which was most likely linked to the Medieval tradition. Milton’s Paradise Lost is the most important literary working of the theme of Adam and Eve as a whole (1667). Before this the material entered into folk literature, and Slovenian tradition includes a legend in verse about the first human pair. In sculpture and painting Adam and Eve in the form of male and female nudes appear throughout the Middle Ages, with the sculptural pinnacle being the sculpture above the portal of the Bamberg Cathedral (approximately 1230); in terms of painting, the high point is Jan van Eyck’s painting on the Ghent Altarpiece (1432). Many scenes of the story have been represented by Michelangelo on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel; before him and after him there were many others, among whom Albrecht Dürer, Palma Vecchio, Tizian, Rubens in Rembrandt. In the biblical story of Adam and Eve as well as in all of the artistic variations on the story, human nature is depicted, which is marked by the enigma of every human being–namely his desire for unlimited knowledge, unlimited freedom and immortality. This desire causes man to overstep the limits of his being and to become something of a tragic figure. A comparison of the similarities and differences between various artistic renderings of the theme of the testing of man reveals that the human relationships towards oneself, to the world, to one’s fellow man and God determine the extent of the destiny caused by his reaching out for the forbidden fruit. The region encompasses various types of human temptation–lust and pleasure,46 power and honour, complete independence from God, advancement and the like. Human longing in life’s various temptations shows the tremendous scope of the human, as well as its moral fragility.

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1.1 Temptation and the Fall in the Biblical Narrative of Adam and Eve In order to achieve a suitable hermeneutical basis in the judging of the message of the entire biblical text about Adam and Eve, it is necessary to respect the point of departure–the act of creation itself–and the internal relations which make up the story of God’s command or prohibition, about the Fall and the nature of God’s punishment. In Gen 2:8-9 the story runs: And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east; and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground the Lord God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.47

This passage is the basis of the entire story. After the description of Eden the author returns to the motif of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and speaks of God’s order (Gen 2:15-17): The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.”

The account of God’s order regarding the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is followed by the description of God’s decision to create a wife out of Adam’s flesh and to call her “woman,” that is, to emphasize that in spite of the difference between them, man and woman are of the same nature. The story explicitly relates that God did not deem isolation proper for man. Gen 2:18 reads: Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.”

When it is shown that beasts are insufficient company for man, he is given a wife as companion. Gen 2:21-24 reads: So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh; and the rib which the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and cleaves to his wife, and they become one flesh.

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In the Hebrew wordplay (man / woman), the husband greets her as one of equal birth. They require no protection or clothing, as there is no portent of evil. With this it is emphasized that man and woman are “of one flesh” and stated (Gen 2:25): “And the man and his wife were both naked, and were not ashamed.” The snake now appears, one of the beasts created by God, who was “more subtle than any other wild creature that the Lord God had made” (Gen 3:1). With characteristic psychological guile, he tempts the woman; he tells her that God did not create the interdiction for humans, but for himself–if a person ate of the tree in the middle of the garden, his eyes would be opened and he would be like God, knowing the difference between good and evil. Eve, although aware of the seriousness of God’s warning, harboured a desire within herself to be like God, and is thus overcome by the snake’s promise, and as the weaker part of the human pair, is first led into temptation, as the text states (Gen 3:1-8): Now the serpent was more subtle than any other wild creature that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree of the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden; but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons. And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.

In Eve there is revealed the weakness of “desire,” and she “fell,” broke God’s commandment, and led her husband also into this transgression. “Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked” (Gen 3:7). Here it is not possible to overlook the equivocal use of the term “know”: the desire for limitless recognition of woman and man leads to the awareness of the depths of their being. They then heard God’s voice, became frightened, and “hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden” (Gen 3:8).48 The testing culminates in sin and guilt. God interrogates man and woman and with this emphasises the causal link between human obedience and

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identity, inner harmony; as well as the corresponding link between disobedience and alienation. The “new life” of Adam and Eve after their fall is death and the new “wisdom” is shame; by eating the fruit of the forbidden tree they turn away from the command regarding the choice of good and evil and weaken the fundamental trust on which the command rested. The depth of the Fall into temptation reveals the inability of Adam and Eve to recognize sin, to accept their full responsibility and to remain in union with one another. The man accuses the woman; she evokes the tempter serpent (Gen 3:12-13). The spontaneous working of guilt is itself a punishment. In spite of this, God passes his sentence on the snake, Adam and Eve–though his punishment is milder than his earlier severe threat when he had said that he who ate of the tree of knowledge would surely die. Instead of the death of the man and woman, God declares a toilful existence for them, while uttering a curse against the snake. God declares that man’s sin will be a curse for the entire earth. The report about the expression of God’s punishment ends with a message about protecting life (Gen 3:20-21): The man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins, and clothed them.

Among other things, the story gives a partial answer to the question about why in Gen 2:9 God had decided to create “in the midst of the garden,” “the tree of life […] and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” Forbidding them from eating in Gen 3:16-17 is limited solely to the tree of knowledge, while after the pronouncement of the punishment the tree of life is the focus, as Gen 3:22-24 reports: Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil; and now, lest he put forth his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever”–therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man; and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.

God’s statement that “the man has become like one of us” evokes the ancient tradition of polytheistic cultures, which allows to a certain extent that man become like one of the gods. In connection with this the question arises about the literal meaning of the phrase “knowledge of good and evil.” In keeping with the widespread practice of ancient languages that an

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entirety be expressed through the use of antonyms, one can justifiably conclude that this combination means “knowledge of everything.” Such an understanding is, however, only admissible within a framework of polytheistic cultural heritage–that is, one which takes no attributes in the relation to the gods quite seriously, let alone in the absolute sense. That the recognition of good and evil cannot mean divine knowledge in the absolute sense is finally evident in God’s decision against man’s immortality. The mark of divinity is thus not recognition but eternal life. It is not granted to man that he simply take this. In the explanation of the story of man’s creation, his Fall and the punishment there is a startling chasm between the threat of death in the case of disobedience and punishment after the Fall. It is not possible to find the reason for this within the frame of the traditions that existed among the people in ancient cultures; rather it is to be found in the fundamental orientation of the biblical Revelation. The most important message of the Bible as a whole is that the human being was promised life, not death. This message cannot be shaken by any threat of death. The purpose of the threat is to protect man against the danger of the Fall. Yet when man falls, the Creator of Heaven and earth becomes the Redeemer who helps him to arise and continue the path to the fulfilling of the promise. And so it is shown that the Creator of man is someone who allows for the possibility that the threat is more severe than the punishment expressed. Furthermore, it cannot threaten God’s promise for the redemption of man, who was created in God’s image. Quite different, however, are the relations between threat and punishment as well as between promises and their fulfilment in polytheistic cultures. In examining the text another factor is crucial: Adam and Eve are portrayed not as haughty and impenitent but as “weak” and “imperfect” people–that is, they are portrayed as fundamentally flawed. We can discern this, among other things, from similar cases in which God’s judgement could be completely different, for example in the criticism of the pride in the prophet Isaiah. Of particular interest is the poetic expression of judgement on the Babylonian king in Isa 14:4-21. The verses 12-17 read: How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low!

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You said in your heart, “I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit on the mount of assembly on the heights of Zaphon; I will ascend to the tops of the clouds, I will make myself like the Most High.” But you are brought down to Sheol, to the depths of the Pit. Those who see you will stare at you, and ponder over you: “Is this the man who made the earth tremble, who shook kingdoms, who made the world like a desert and overthrew its cities, who did not let his prisoners go home?” (vv. 12-17)

Here it should be mentioned that scholarly exegesis concerns itself a great deal with the question of the authorship and the identity of the king, who is the object of judgement in this satire. The discussion is a suitable incentive for considering how typical and how eternal the judgement is in its relation to guilt. It is for this reason that it functions with similar effect throughout time as a reminder and as a warning.49 The prophet Ezekiel prophecies against the tyrannical leader. In Ezek 28:2-10 we read: Because your heart is proud, and you have said, “I am a god; I sit in the seat of the gods, in the heart of the seas,” yet you are but a man, and no god, though you compare your mind with the mind of a god. You are indeed wiser than Daniel; no secret is hidden from you; by your wisdom and your understanding you have amassed wealth for yourself, and have gathered gold and silver into your treasuries. By your great wisdom in trade you have increased your wealth, and your heart has become proud in your wealth. Therefore thus says the Lord God:

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Part I: Chapter One Because you compare your mind … with the mind of a god, therefore, I will bring strangers against you, the most terrible of the nations; they shall draw their swords against the beauty of your wisdom and defile your splendor. They shall thrust you down to the Pit, and you shall die a violent death in the heart of the seas. Will you still say, “I am a god,” in the presence of those who kill you, though you are but a mortal, and no god, in the hands of those who wound you? You shall die the death of the uncircumcised by the hand of foreigners; for I have spoken, says the Lord God.50

1.2 The Longing for Immortality in the Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh The Epic of Gilgamesh, written on 12 tablets which are not preserved in their entirety, is the most important work of Old Babylonian or Akkadian literature. The most complete version was found at Ninevah in the library of the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal, who reigned from 668-627 BC. The missing portions of the text have been partially completed with various Akkadian and Hittite-language fragments from elsewhere in Mesopotamia and Anatolia.51 The Epic and a few short poems about Gilgamesh in the Sumerian language written 2000 years before Christ are most likely praises of the Gilgamesh who was ruler of Uruk in Southern Mesopotamia during the first half of the third millennium BC. The Epic of Gilgamesh contains motifs which are also to be found in the biblical prehistory (Gen 1-11), especially in the motif of the great flood. Careful reading of the Epic as a whole shows that the longing for immortality is at its core. For the first time in the history of humanity the power of the longing for immortality found expression in a relatively extensive epic of poetic quality that displayed great enthusiasm regarding the unknown. The lack of success in the searching for a path to immortality in this epic evokes the biblical report about the banishment from paradise, “Behold, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil; and now, lest he put forth his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever” (Gen 3:22). The

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motif of the cherub, the sword and the fire before the path to the tree of life evoke the concept regarding the inaccessibility of eternal life in the Epic of Gilgamesh. Within the perspective of the Bible as a whole on the one hand, and Mesopotamian religion on the other, a crucial difference between these cultures and religions manifests itself. The Bible emphasises in various ways that man can only achieve immortality through God’s judgement, promise and mercy. Jesus’ resurrection is the crown of God’s promise that man can be granted eternal life. The most important characteristic of the Gilgamesh Epic is that the main hero longs to achieve eternal life by means of the ultimate of heroic acts. In the background is the experience of man’s powerful longing for immortality, eternal life, the domain of the gods, which leads the hero into temptation of changing the laws of nature, destiny and the gods by himself. The Epic of Gilgamesh shows with great poetical strength the unstoppable power of human longing for immortality. The popularity of the Epic itself shows where the core of the human lies and why this theme in various ways has become valid in all civilizations. The Epic of Gilgamesh ends with resignation, since it speaks only of humankind’s earthly way of life. In this point, the Bible goes forward a step to the mystery beyond earthly experience. Eternal life is the promise of God’s strength, that is, a promise that exceeds any possible human act of heroism and is the basis of faith. In the story of Adam and Eve the snake, due to his treachery, is damned (Gen 3:14-15); in the battle with the progeny of women, the creature will lose the battle. In the Book of Job we have a poetic description in chapter 28, which in certain ways evokes Gilgamesh’s attempt to traverse the gorge to the end of the world and find life. The Book of Job does not talk of the search for life but of the search for wisdom. Humans seek iron, silver and gold in the depths of the earth to the extreme, cuts into living stone and examines the depths of rivers, but finds no wisdom, not even among the living. “The deep says, ‘It is not in me,’ and the sea says, ‘It is not with me’” (Job 28:14). The poet asks (Job 28:20-22): Where then does wisdom come from? And where is the place of understanding? It is hid from the eyes of all living, and concealed from the birds of the air. Abaddon and Death say,

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However, this does not mean resignation but rather a broadening of the perspective that informs the Bible as a whole. The poem concludes (Job 28:23-28): God understands the way to it, and he knows its place. For he looks to the ends of the earth, and sees everything under the heavens. When he gave to the wind its weight, and apportioned out the waters by measure; when he made a decree for the rain, and a way for the thunderbolt; then he saw it and declared it; he established it, and searched it out. And he said to humankind, “Truly, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding.”

1.3 Longing and Temptation in the Figure of Woman in the Bible The biblical story depicting the Fall of man calls our particular attention to the role of the woman, Eve, which imparts the role of woman in general through various–both positive and negative–typological interpretations. The figure of Eve has long transcended the individual and become a universal symbol for a woman marked by longing for the sensual and who, because of that, is unable to withstand temptation. In the prophetic tradition of the Bible, the typology of an unfaithful woman as a symbol of an unfaithful Israel is most evident; in the apocalyptic literature, the figure of a harlot also symbolizes great civilizations who defy God’s authority and plans for redemption. The prophet Hosea reports in dramatic fashion on his marriage to the harlot Gomer in order to expose the faithlessness of Israel as a whole. In chapter 16, Ezekiel speaks of a girl who, although cast out by her parents, survives and becomes a queen through external help. Yet at the height of her development and fame, she rejected her benefactor and constantly played the harlot among heathens. In this way her perverse nature and inability to withstand any temptation is revealed. In spite of this, the biblical prophets do not despair about the final destiny of woman. They are aware that longing for the sensual, for pleasure, renown, fame and power pertains only to the superficial level of human

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nature. In the depths of the soul there is hidden a sense for the elemental, a sense of shame, and longing for definitive peace. Through their warnings against such extreme disloyalty, the prophets reveal the state of the soul which gives itself over to temptation. Disappointment is unavoidable, and immense is the internal turmoil and the sense of shame, guilt and the demand for salvation, the longing for a return to the original state, the desire for a return to the first man. In this regard, the prophets indirectly report that the failing of trials is not necessarily fatal; what is more, disciplining the woman has a positive role, as they unambiguously show that only two options exist in an instance of wrongdoing: to persist in this error and consequently suffer an immediate or eventual fall, or to repent and show contrition. When Eve clings to Adam after the Fall, a better basis for fidelity is established, although the human being remains weak. It is with the recognition of having done wrong and the wish to repent that the uncovering of the human’s elemental spark–of the goal of life, responsibility and completion–begins. An utter change is also made possible through the husband, who, as a loyal partner, often symbolizes God in the Bible; he does not reject his wife, but seeks her out, and she returns to him in the absence of other possibilities for her perfection. In the New Testament this point is excellently rendered through the parable of the Prodigal Son (Lk 15:11-32). One of a father's two sons leads a life of sensuality, egotism and irresponsibility, and leaves home to live riotously in a “far country.” There he becomes impoverished, recognizes the error of having fled from home, and begins to think about returning. He summons enough strength to return to his father and confess his sins to him. This is the most crucial aspect of the story: whereas the father, joyful that his son is home again, prepares a feast for him, the elder brother is sullen, and notes the wasteful ways and infidelity of the younger sibling. At this point one sees the importance of cooperation between father and son or loyal partners in saving the member of the family who has become lost in the face of sensuality, temptation and the force of external factors. The prophet Hosea describes the hour of reckoning that follows a wife's infidelity; this is depicted from the point of view of unavoidable disappointment as a result of error as well as that of solidarity to the partner. In Hos 2:6-7, the deceived partner says: Therefore I will hedge up her way with thorns; and I will build a wall against her, so that she cannot find her paths. She shall pursue her lovers,

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In Hos 2:14 we have revealing words on how an individual develops as a result of solidarity and love: Therefore, I will now allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her.

Ezekiel later shows with dramatic force the internal link between the disappointment that follows the error of the disloyal wife and the help offered to her in this moment of lost identity by her loyal partner. Chapter 16 concludes (vv. 59-63). Yes, thus says the Lord God: I will deal with you as you have done, who have despised the oath, breaking the covenant; yet I will remember my covenant with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish with you an everlasting covenant. Then you will remember your ways, and be ashamed when I take your sisters, both your elder and your younger, and give them to you as daughters, but not on account of my covenant with you. I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall know that I am the Lord, in order that you may remember and be confounded, and never open your mouth again because of your shame, when I forgive you all that you have done, says the Lord God.

This biblical typology of the woman who succumbs to a wrongful longing and then, disappointed and in a state of crisis, discovers the true object of her longing, uncovers the duality in the nature of the longing woman: on the one hand, there is longing for freedom, for forgetting her natural mission; on the other, there is constraint, which is the consequence of the illusion of sensuality, temptation and falling, which, paradoxically, is what allows for the proper path of feeling and longing. The Bible portrays a universal human quality in the figure of a woman and her relation to God, which the male persona represents. It is the unmediated nature of the relation between the woman, who embodies the people of Israel, and the man, who embodies God himself, that accounts for why these relations are depicted in an overtly religious light. The Bible speaks of how a person can obtain identity only by including himself into the absolute spiritual relation between his origin and goal. In world literature, we find not only

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motifs which evoke the story of Eve, of Hosea’s Gomer, of the adopted woman in Ezekiel, of the “strange woman” in the Book of Proverbs, and other examples of unfaithful women–we also find portrayals of a woman who falls victim to sensual longing, falling in a painful abyss, into a borderline situation from which she begins to seek an exit which will enable the discovery of her own identity–as though experiencing such an illusion were a necessary condition of achieving true recognition.

1.4 Temptation, Trial and Man’s Free Will Human pride and impenitence can lead to man's testing of God, which results in punishment (see Ps 95:8-11; 1 Cor 10:9; Acts 5:9; 15:10). It is evident that man should not test God. However, why does God test man? Why, for example, did God test Abraham (see Gen 22:1), King Hezekiah (see 2 Chr 32:31), and Israel as a whole (see Ex 15:25:5; Deut 33:8)? In accord with the revelation of the Bible, we can confirm that this testing cannot spring from wrongful intentions, in spite of the fact that this sometimes seems to be the case. And so, for example, the prophet Jeremiah in his crisis due to his having opposed God’s word, laments (Jer 20:7): O Lord, you have enticed me, and I was enticed; you have overpowered me, and you have prevailed. I have become a laughingstock all day long; everyone mocks me.

Jeremiah’s complete faith in the prophet’s mission shows that this confession does not express any real doubt in God but is rather an acknowledgement of a moment of weakness. He is saved by his steadfast adherence to the truth of God’s revelation. The trials that made him doubt God’s treatment of man, are by no means foreign to us, which is why the clear expression of denial about God’s intentions occurs. In Deut 8:2-5, the developmental purpose of temptation is emphasised: Remember the long way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, in order to humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commandments. He humbled you by letting you hunger, then by feeding you with manna, with which neither you nor your ancestors were acquainted, in order to make you understand that one does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. The clothes on your back did not

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Sirach, on the other hand, emphasises the importance of man’s freedom and warns against the straying that could occur solely as a result of human guilt (15:11-20). Do not say, “It was the Lord’s doing that I fell away”; for he does not do what he hates. Do not say, “It was he who led me astray”; for he had no need of the sinful. The Lord hates all abominations; Such things are not loved by those who fear him. It was he who created humankind in the beginning, and he left them in the power of their own free choice. If you choose, you can keep the commandments, and to act faithfully is a matter of your own choice. He has placed before you fire and water; stretch out your hand for whichever you choose. Before each person are life and death, and whichever he chooses will be given. For great is the wisdom of the Lord; he is mighty in power and sees everything; his eyes are on those who fear him, and he knows every human action. He has not commanded any one to be wicked, and he has not given anyone permission to sin.

The standpoint towards temptation in James (1:12-15) is cogently expressed: Blessed is the man who endures trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life which God has promised to those who love him. Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted with evil and he himself tempts no one; but each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin; and sin when it is full-grown brings forth death.

The text obviously reflects the manner of thinking of people who are quick to find an excuse–that is, who constantly find the cause of weakness and guilt outside of themselves. In this way, man can finally conclude that the cause of temptation lies with God. James’ account evokes Jesus’ explanation that every individual error has its source within the heart of

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the individual himself (Mk 7:14-23). In both cases it is a matter of thinking that the human’s hidden wishes and intentions determine whether or not he will withstand temptation. In the First Letter to the Corinthians (10:13), Saint Paul notes, significantly: “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your strength, but with the temptation will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.” Our life passes within a limited scope, and this is why human temptation is so prominently included in the Lord’s Prayer: “Lead us not into temptation” (Mt 6:13; Lk 11:4). In the background of this request is, of course, the experience of human weakness and of the danger that we might not withstand temptation. In a similar vein, Jesus warns his Apostles “Pray that you may not enter into temptation” (Lk 22:20, 46). Saint Augustine, most dramatically, expresses the truth about he who is unable to deal with trials over his lifetime: You are the physician, I am the patient. You are pitiful, I am the object of pity. Is not human life on earth a trial (Job 7: 1)? Who desires troubles and difficulties? You command that they should be endured, not loved. No one loves what he endures, even if he loves to be able to endure it. Although he is glad he can endure it, he would prefer that what he endures should not be there. In adversities I desire prosperity, in prosperous times I fear adversities. Between these two is there a middle ground where human life is not a trial? Cursed are the prosperities of the world, not once but twice over, because of the fear of adversity and the corruption of success. Cursed are the adversities of the world, not once or twice but thrice, because of the longing for prosperity, because adversity itself is hard, and because of the possibility that one's endurance may crack. Is not human life on earth a trial in which there is no respite?52

We can therefore all the more understand the fact that the Devil also tempted Jesus (see Mt 4:1-11; Lk 4:1-13; Mr 1:12-13). The letter to the Hebrews in this regard has a particular justification, namely God’s solidarity with the individual who, among other things, cannot withstand various temptations. In Heb 2:18, we read, “For because he himself has suffered and been tempted, he is able to help those who are tempted.” In Heb 4:15, we read that Jesus “in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet [is] without sin.” This fundamental truth of life was well comprehended by Søren Kierkegaard. Because we are limited, we can only speak with limited experience and comprehension about why there is

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temptation, how dangerous and fatal it is for the individual human, what possibilities are open for withstanding it, and what occurs within the person who fails to withstand temptation. Kierkegaard says of this tenseness: You who are tempted, whoever you are, do not become silent in despair, as if the temptation were suprahuman and no one could understand it. Do not impatiently depict the magnitude of your temptation either, as if even he could not put himself completely in your place! If you want to know what is required for truly being able to ascertain how great a temptation truly is, then let me tell you. What is required is that you have held out in the temptation. Only then do you find out the truth about how great the temptation was; as long as you have not held out in it, you will know only the untruth, only what the temptation, simply in order to tempt, deludes you into thinking about, how frightful it is. To insist on truth from the temptation is insisting on too much; the temptation is a deceiver and liar, who certainly guards against speaking the truth, because its power is precisely untruth. If you want to get the truth out of it with regard to how great it actually is, then you must become the stronger, you must hold out in the temptation—then you will get to know the truth, or you will get the truth out of it. Therefore there is only one who in truth knows exactly the magnitude of every temptation and can put himself completely in the place of everyone who is tempted: he who himself was tested in all things in the same way—tempted, but who held out in every temptation.53

CHAPTER TWO THE STORY OF JOSEPH OF EGYPT AND TRENDS IN ITS INTERPRETATION

In the Bible and even in world literary history it would be difficult to find a more classic example of the theme of testing than in the story of Joseph of Egypt, even if the word “testing” itself does not appear in the biblical story. The story as a whole speaks of the situations, states of the soul and the urgings of the heart of the acting individuals and how each is tested in every moment, each in his own manner. The test, however, is passed only by the righteous Joseph, because he is, in every situation, open to divine inspiration, and is never succumbs to the temptation that is immediate gratification of lustful urges. The story of Joseph and his brothers is the longest and most homogeneous biographical and artistic creation in the Bible. Focusing on the figure of the young Joseph, it is a manifestation of the hidden spiritual power and of the victory of moral values in the midst of changing events and fleeting opportunities. It is for this reason that the reader, too, is confronted with temptation, as the key to the explanation of the individual events remains hidden until the end. Blinded by jealousy, Joseph’s brothers had acted in opposition to both the general sense of good and to a concealed Divine plan, and it is only after Joseph has withstood all the trials that he explains to his brothers that about which they had probably not previously thought. “Even though you intended to do harm to me,” says Joseph, “God intended it for good, in order to preserve a numerous people, as he is doing today” (Gen 50:20, cf. 45:5-7). The biblical story of Joseph of Egypt became an extremely popular theme in the antique religious world and strongly influenced Jewish, Christian and Islamic traditions, while offering much material to those secular artists who made use of the biblical story in order to emphasise various psychological, philosophical, religious, social and political ideas. In antiquity the biblical story was, for the most part, reformed into a spiritual allegory that portrays life’s seeming contradictions and offers a moral message. In the area of sacred and secular literature, music, dance and the

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visual arts, the tendency towards interpretations which mirrored the spiritual currents of the times are all the more apparent. The moving and beautiful story about Jacob’s youngest son Joseph, who was rejected, cast out and sold to strangers by his jealous brothers, encourages delving into this very handsome young man’s background. Even when in the foreign land of Egypt, Joseph remained ever steadfast out of loyalty to his master Potiphar, despite his master’s wife’s attempts to seduce him; despite many grievances Joseph never ceased to love all who caused him suffering and almost death. Rather, he forgave them and helped them in both the spiritual and the material sense. The message of the story can be summed up in the thought that human evil cannot destroy God’s plan and bring down one who respects moral order, trusts in God’s guidance and, rather than reacting with violence to violent acts, responds with a dignified peaceful spirit.54 The four books of Thomas Mann’s Joseph and His Brothers, which were written between 1933 and 1943, rank among the greatest literary renderings of all time. This tetralogy, which is a conscious modernization and psychological characterization of the biblical story, employs a narrative technique that differs greatly from the biblical story of Joseph of Egypt. The narrator of the biblical story lets the events speak for themselves, whereas Thomas Mann’s version includes reflections and derivations which are very much under the influence of later Jewish literature as well as the spirit of the modern age. In place of the narrative simplicity and a crystal clear view of the world of “silent virtues” which are characteristic of the biblical story, Thomas Mann’s humanist reinterpretation offers an imaginative, multi-faceted and realistic narrative composition which is marked by a striving for a logical explanation of the powers working in the background and not accessible to the categories of reason. Particularly characteristic for Thomas Mann is the tendency to rationally comprehensible psychologisation of the figures. Although Mann’s symbolism is profoundly layered, in his treatment of the characters and the complications and entanglements of the biblical story as a whole he shows Joseph’s descent into the “human world,” but also shows a covert, doubting, seeking relation to God. The story of Joseph of Egypt also found its way onto the ballet stage. In 1914 Richard Strauss set Hugo von Hofmannsthal’s libretto Die Josephslegende to music, and the ballet was first choreographed by Harry Graf Kessler. In this work Joseph is depicted as an ideal model of the human, one who incorporates the ideal of beauty and a sense of the divine.

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The idea of the sacred and the symbol of beauty are developed in the ballet into a sensitive figure, with the entire look and feel of the figure of Joseph. This study will be limited to an outline of the story in the Bible, while taking into account the Egyptian story of the testing of two brothers, the interpretation in some of the oldest classical works, as well as in Thomas Mann’s novel and Strauss’s ballet.55 Among the oldest classical works there is the Jewish pseudepigraphon The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, which very strongly influenced antique Christian thought, the writings of Philo of Alexandria, which are characterized by their allegorical explanations, and the Koran, which encompasses the entire biblical story of Joseph as an allegory of the testing of Joseph in twelve suras.

2.1 Joseph of Egypt in the Bible and in the Oldest Religious Interpretations In spite of conspicuous differences in the historical and existential circumstances, the Old Testament is fairly uniform in its fundamental theological theses, both from a thematic and a genre-conscious viewpoint. It differentiates itself from all varieties of polytheism in terms of both sensibility and the doctrine that there is a sole God who created “the heavens and the earth” and man “in the image of God.” God’s unlimited power and benevolent providence leads history to its culmination and places before man the measure of His divinity as an absolute moral law and as the sole possibility of coming true. For this reason, and with regard to the role and sense of the human, all of the Bible’s focal points look towards the issues of faith, obedience, awareness of one’s own sins, hope, love, compassion, mercy, penitence and the possibility of forgiveness. These fundamental theological themes are the basis of the story of Joseph in the Bible (Gen 37-50), all of the oldest interpretations, which are retained in various literary versions in paraphrasings of translations of the Bible, in pseudepigraphal writings and apocrypha, in Rabbinical commentaries or midrashim, in the allegorical interpretations of Philo of Alexandria and of the Church Fathers, in the classical Jewish writings of the Mishna, Talmud and the Zohar, in the Koran, and so on. The so-called “oral law” arose and grew along with the original writings and the transmission of the text, which finally secured the status of holy books as “written laws” and, in relation with the canon of the Bible, confirmed their legitimacy and credibility. The same source of oral tradition and the canonical writings of the Bible explain why the oldest interpretations are

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on the one hand a characteristic expression of unity in presenting the story as the testing of Joseph’s faith and loyalty to God and, on the other hand, a clear variation in portraying the series of tests and temptations which Joseph faced.56 A comparison of the biblical story in all the variations of the oldest interpretations primarily reveals differences in terms of the attention to possible motifs which in varying dramatic degrees portray the contradiction between Joseph’s ideal nature and the degree of jealousy of his ten half-brothers on the one hand, and the degenerate passions and cabals of Potiphar’s wife on the other. The biblical story vividly presents good and evil acts, though for the most part it remains silent about the internal state of the soul concerning the certainty, doubts and struggles of the acting individuals. Interpretative works, meanwhile, concentrate more on the question of motives and methods in the attempts of those who create tests as attempts to break Joseph in his spiritual being. The comparison finally shows that the sacred writer withholds clarifying answers to these various questions until the end of the story, while interpreters pause intermittently to examine hidden questions. According to this logic there are, in addition to Joseph’s morality in the interpretation of a key figure of temptation from the Egyptian court–Potiphar’s wife, who is his opposite and contrastively shows the dark side of human existence–the demonic forces of deceitful temptation that burden the just one. Cleary the desire to juxtapose the differences between these characters most often prescribed increased freedom in seeking to explain the biblical story to which all interpreters remain faithful in their fundamental message. Since the Middle Ages, with the increased role of rationalism and the tendency for autonomy of the human being, a process began of turning from a theocentric to an anthropocentric and anthropological judging of the motives guiding these individuals’ actions. 2.1.1 The Testing of Joseph in the Bible and in Antique Parallels In the story of Joseph, Genesis speaks of the persona and actions of Jacob’s second-youngest son, Joseph. In terms of thematic viewpoints, the story can be divided into three parts: 1) Chapters 37 and 39-41; 2) Chapters 42-45; and 3) Chapters 46-50. The first part of the story speaks of the flaring up of jealousy in Joseph’s brothers, who sell Joseph to Egypt (Chapter 37), of how Potiphar’s wife is insulted and seeks revenge because Joseph could not be led astray (Chapter 39), as well as of Joseph’s rise in the Pharaoh’s court, after he had, through divine inspiration, correctly

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interpreted the dreams of two of the Pharaoh’s officers (Chapter 40) and of the Pharaoh himself (Chapter 41). The second part of the story tells of the hunger and strife that Canaan suffered because of a lengthy drought, and how Jacob’s sons were forced to travel to Egypt in order to buy grain. There, burdened with guilt, they once again met Joseph, who had earned himself a great reputation in Egypt. Joseph forgave them for their wrongdoings and secured a space to live for all of Jacob’s offspring in Goshen, a fertile area in the Nile Delta. In this way Joseph’s actions reunited the entire family, and the strained relations between the brothers and their father Jacob were resolved as a result of forgiveness and reconciliation. The third part of the story relates how the united family of Jacob settled in Egypt, before describing the deaths of Jacob and Joseph.57 In the first part (Chapters 37; 39-41), the story of Joseph of Egypt speaks of how Jacob, Joseph’s father, loved his son Joseph more than his other sons. Because of this his brothers felt rejected and affronted. They tried to overcome their feeling of inadequacy before the nobler and more attractive younger brother and sought to derive some sort of pleasure by insulting him verbally and slandering him before others. They felt a corrupting sadness, jealousy and envy because of the good that had been allotted Joseph, and attempted to deprive him of this good by any possible means.58 The brothers’ disinclination towards their younger brother, who was gentle and had a good heart, and who was attractive in stature and had an exceptionally handsome face, increased when he entrusted them with his dreams.59 He had dreamed that several sheaves of wheat, as well as the sun, the moon and the stars, had all bowed down before him. The brothers were fearful of Joseph’s dream because they sensed the deeper meaning and were afraid that their younger brother would rise above them and they would have to bow down before him. Their earlier envy thus became mixed with fear for the mysteriously threatening events told of in the dreams; because they feared that God would raise Joseph above them and that he was intended for a greater mission, they became obdurate and resolved to exclude their younger brother from their thoughts and deeds. As if in self-defence they preferred to interpret his dreams only through a psychological account of property and power, of that which makes a person more or less worthy, and they understood this as a threat for their future (cf. Jer 38:1-6). They resisted Joseph’s having a central place in his dreams and being master over them and they convinced themselves that the dreams were not sent by God were the fruit of Joseph’s honour-thirsty

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imagination; in their hardened hearts they harboured envy and hatred towards their brother. Because Joseph remained attentive and loving towards his brothers, because he did not allow himself to be driven away from them, and because his very existence upset their sense of freedom, they became incensed to the point that they gave in to their feelings of revulsion and extreme anger. Joseph proved all the more to be a mere impediment to their lives; because of him they remained in the shadows before Jacob and others and were not adequately recognized and esteemed for their diligent work as simple shepherds. They thus determined to do away with their younger brother, initially intending to murder him, but then realizing they did not want to be burdened with fratricide for spilling their brother’s blood. They threw Joseph into a dry well in the middle of the desert; there he would die alone, or be devoured by wild animals, while the brothers washed their hands of the matter. When a caravan of Ishmaelite merchants happened by, the brothers reconsidered. They retrieved him from the well and sold him as a slave to the strangers, who led him away to Egypt. Joseph’s suffering thus began as a result of his brothers’ envy. Their explosive mixture of destructive and negative feelings of envy and anger was stronger than their healthy judgement, and it pushed them into wilful insanity. The biblical story then tells of how the Ishmaelite merchants took Joseph to Egypt, where he was purchased as a slave by the Pharaoh’s court employee Potiphar, the captain of the guard. It seemed that Joseph was destined for a better life, but once again he, through no fault of his own, encountered grave difficulties. His master Potiphar’s wife looked upon him and longed to sleep with him. In Genesis 39:6-12, the story states: So he left all that he had in Joseph’s charge; and, with him there, he had no concern for anything but the food that he ate. Now Joseph was handsome and good-looking. And after a time his master’s wife cast her eyes on Joseph and said, ‘Lie with me.’ But he refused and said to his master’s wife, ‘Look, with me here, my master has no concern about anything in the house, and he has put everything that he has in my hand. He is not greater in this house than I am, nor has he kept back anything from me except yourself, because you are his wife. How then could I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?’ And although she spoke to Joseph day after day, he would not consent to lie beside her or to be with her. One day, however, when he went into the house to do his work, and while no one else was in the house, she caught hold of his garment, saying, ‘Lie with me!’ But he left his garment in her hand, and fled and ran outside.

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This passage is one of the most characteristic examples in the Bible of testing fidelity, and is evocative of a warning against the lure of a “loose [sometimes “strange”] woman” in the Book of Proverbs (Chapters 5-7), who may lead a foolish young man into “death” as “her house is the way to Sheol” (Prov 7:27). Although Joseph passed the test in the full awareness of his responsibility before God, Potiphar’s wife took revenge on him by accusing him of the very act she herself had sinfully intended. In the continuation the text relays how the “love” of Potiphar’s wife changed into the opposite emotion (Gen 39:13-18): When she saw that he had left his garment in her hand and had fled outside, she called out to the members of her household and said to them, “See, my husband has brought among us a Hebrew to insult us! He came in to me to lie with me, and I cried out with a loud voice; and when he heard me raise my voice and cry out, he left his garment beside me, and fled outside.” Then she kept his garment by her until his master came home, and she told him the same story, saying, “The Hebrew servant, whom you have brought among us, came in to me to insult me; but as soon as I raised my voice and cried out, he left his garment beside me, and fled outside.” When his master heard the words that his wife spoke to him, saying, “This is the way your servant treated me,” he became enraged. And Joseph’s master took him and put him into the prison, the place where the king’s prisoners were confined; he remained there in prison.

This extreme sensuality, in accordance with its driving forces, increased such that it ultimately devolved into disinclination and hatred towards anyone who might oppose it. In this regard, the story of David’s son Amnon (which will be discussed at greater length later), who was “so tormented” by his half-sister Tamar “that he made himself ill” for her, is telling. He feigned illness until his father David gave in to his suggestion that Tamar serve him during the time of his sickness. He took advantage of the moment and, despite Tamar’s resistance, “forced her, and lay with her” before casting her out (cf. 2 Sam 13:1-22). In verse 15 it is written “Then Amnon was seized with a very great loathing for her; indeed, his loathing was even greater than the lust he had felt for her. Amnon said to her, ‘Get out!’” Tamar was overcome by an inconsolable sadness and, in spite of her noble birth, descended into oblivion. Joseph, too, in the “underground” of oblivion, feels the hidden strength of God’s hand, which had rescued him in all of his tribulations. The remainder of the story bears witness to the fact that God was always with him, “The Lord was with Joseph, and he became a successful man” (Gen 39:2). In the culmination of the story Joseph surprises his brothers with behaviour that is entirely contrary to theirs; when he displays the mercy of forgiveness, he provides the reason

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that is just as valid for Potiphar’s wife and other people whose behaviour contradicts the Divine spirit: “Even though you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good, in order to preserve a numerous people, as he is doing today” (Gen 50:20). The story of Joseph and his brothers unites the traditions of two classical sources, the Yahwist’s and the Elohist’s, and to a lesser extent also the spiritual source.60 This synthesis of the literary traditions is primarily a synthesis of content into a homogeneous whole. And so Joseph became a classic example of the typological presentation of a wise, just and benevolent young man, who acted according to God’s inspiration and designs (cf. Gen 37-50; Ex 1:8; 13:19; Deut 27:12; 33:13; Josh 24:32; Judg 1:22, 23, 35; 2 Sam 19:21; 1 Chr 11:28; Ezek 37:16, 19; 47:13; 48:32; Am 5:6, 15; 6:6; Ob 1; Zech 10:6; Ps 78:67; 80:2; 81:6; 105:16-23, Sir 49:15; 1 Mcc 2:53; Wis 10:13-14; Acts 7:9-16; Heb 11:21-22). Joseph’s character with its unyielding fortitude is the reason why the story ends in the reconciliation that saves Jacob’s entire family, which then grew into the chosen people of the Israelites. The classic and extraordinarily resonant example of testing at the hands of Potiphar’s wife in its hidden essence and extent evokes the Egyptian story housed in the British museum under the name Papyrus Orbiney and often anthologized under the title “The Tale of Two Brothers.” The preserved version of the story stems from the nineteenth dynasty (approx. 1220 BC), though the basis is likely from an older tradition that contains elements of the story.61 There is a striking similarity between the biblical and the Egyptian stories in the description of the married woman who attempts to lead the chaste young man into adultery. In each case the failed attempt results in fear of shame and punishment, and in each case the woman accuses the innocent man of what she herself had intended. For this reason it is possible, or even likely, that the background of each story draws from the material of a common cultural tradition of the old Middle East regarding the dark side of human passions and character. Herein lies the permanent and inestimable value of the story. “The Tale of Two Brothers” begins with an introduction of the individuals, whereby the extraordinary virtue of the younger brother is shown (1.1): It is said, there were two brothers, of the same mother and the same father. Anubis was the name of the elder, and Bata the name of the younger. As for Anubis, he had a house and a wife; and his young brother was with him

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as if he were a son. He was the one who made clothes for him, and he went behind his cattle to the fields. He was the one who did the ploughing, and he harvested for him. He was the one who did for him all kinds of labour in the fields. Indeed, his young brother was an excellent man. There was none like him in the whole land, for a god’s strength was in him.

One day when the brothers were ploughing in order to sow, the master Anubis sent his brother Bata home to get some wheat grain. When Bata reaches the house, he finds the wife of his brother pleating her hair. She notices his vital strength and fatally falls into temptation. At this point the text reads: There is [great] strength in you. I see your vigour daily.” And she desired to know him as a man. She got up, took hold of him, and said to him: “Come, let us spend an hour lying together. It will be good for you. And I will make fine clothes for you.”

Bata is greatly angered by the attempt, as the text states: Then the youth became like a leopard in [his] anger over the wicked speech she had made to him; and she became very frightened. He rebuked her, saying: “Look, you are like a mother to me; and your husband is like father to me. He who is older than I has raised me. What (4.1) is this great wrong you said to me? Do not say it to me again! But I will not tell it to anyone. I will not let it come from my mouth to any man.” He picked up his load; he went off to the field. He reached his elder brother, and they began to work at their task. When evening had come, his elder brother returned to his house. And his young brother tended his cattle, loaded himself with all things of the field, and drove his cattle before him to let them sleep in their stable in the village.

The lustful woman is, in spite of the reassurance of the afflicted brotherin-law, afraid that her husband will find out about her attempt to lead his brother into an indecent act, and immediately makes an obsessive attempt to defend herself. To make certain of preventing the danger of uncovering the truth and the inevitable punishment by death, she immediately accuses the innocent Bata of the act she committed and suggests that her husband kill him without hesitation.62 In contrast to the scene in which the woman was pleating her hair in hopes of seducing Bata, here she uses fat to make it look as if someone had beaten her, as if she had been the innocent victim of a brutal attack. When her husband returns from the field and finds her in a sickly state, the dialogue reads thus:

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Part I: Chapter Two Her husband said to her: “Who has had words with you?” She said to him: “No one has had words with me except your (5.1) young brother. When he came to take seed to you, he found me sitting alone. He said to me: “Come, let us spend an hour lying together; loosen your braids.” So he said to me. But I would not listen to him. “Am I not your mother? Is your elder brother not like a father to you?” So I said to him. He became frightened and he beat me, so as to prevent me from telling you. Now if you let him live, I shall die! Look, when he returns, do [not let him live]! For I am ill from this evil design which he was about to carry out in the morning.”

These words so anger Anubis that he becomes “like a leopard,” sharpens a blade and hides himself behind the door of a stall in order to kill his brother upon his return from leading the animals to pasture. When Bata appears before the door of the stall, he is told by one cow after other that his brother is waiting behind the stall with the intention of killing him. Bata realizes that the warnings are for real when he notices his brother’s shoes, and flees. His brother runs after him, and Bata turns in prayer to the god Pre-Harakhte, crying that he is the judge between the guilty and the just. Pre-Harakhte hears him and conjures up a lake filled with crocodiles. Bata, from the other side, beseeches his brother to wait until the next day, when Pre-Harakhte will rise up and judge the truth. In the morning Bata tells his brother: “What is your coming after me to kill me wrongfully, without having listened to my words? For I am yet your young brother, and you are like a father to me, and your wife is like a mother to me. Is it not so that when I was sent to fetch seed for us your wife said to me: ‘Come, let us spend an hour lying together?’ But look, it has been turned about for you into another thing.” Then he let him know all that had happened between him and his wife. … Then his young brother called to him, saying: “If you recall something evil, will you not also recall something good, or something that I have done for you? Go back to your home and tend your cattle, for I shall not stay in the place where you are. … Then he went away to the Valley of the Pine; and his elder brother went to his home, his hand on his head and smeared with dirt. When he reached his house, he killed his wife, cast her to the dogs, and sat mourning for his young brother.

The continuation of the story speaks of the magical elevation of the younger brother to king over all of Egypt. At this time Bata meets his older brother, making him prince of the entire country.

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The motif of revenge after a failed attempt at seduction by an influential married woman over a virtuous young man appears in a strikingly similar variant in Homer’s Iliad (VI.155-176): Ephyra, in the heart of Argive horse country, Was home to Sisyphus, the shrewdest man alive, Sisyphus son of Aelus. He had a son, Glaucus, Who was the father of faultless Bellerophon. A man of grace and courage by gift of the gods. But Proetus, whom Zeus had made king of Argos, Came to hate Bellerophon And drove him out. It happened this way. Proetus' wife, the beautiful Anteia, Was madly in love with Bellerophon And wanted to have him in her bed. But she couldn't persuade him, not at all, Because he was so virtuous and wise. So she made up lies and spoke to the king: “Either die yourself, Proetus, or kill Bellerophon. He wanted to sleep with me against my will.” The king was furious when he heard her say this. He did not kill him–he had scruples about that– But he sent him to Lycia with a folding tablet On which he had scratched many evil signs, And told him to give it to Anteia's father, To get him killed.63

The saga states that Anteia’s malicious plan of revenge failed because, when in Lycia, Bellerophon withstood all attacks and obviously survived because he “trusted in all the plans of the gods.” These motifs also appears in Euripides’s tragedies Bellerophontes and Stheneboea, which exist only as fragments.64 Stheneboea, wife of Proetus, made advances to the righteous Bellerophon to move him to adultery by sharing her bed in secret. After reiterated temptation by Stheneboea, Bellerophon proposed o her that she should fly with him on Pegasus to Asia Minor. While they were flying near Melos, Bellerophon threw her down into the sea. The fragments report of Bellerophon’s stand about his temptation by Stheneboea: No man in the world is happy in all ways: either his birth is noble, but he has no livelihood; or he ploughs wealthy fields, but his birth is humble. Many are proud of riches and noble birth together, yet a foolish wife at home brings shame upon them. Such is the affliction of Proetus, who rules this country. I came here as a guest and suppliant of this palace; her tongue beguiles me and her wiles pursue me, to share her bed in secret. Ever and

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Part I: Chapter Two again that aged nurse who is charged with this message, and conspires to make the union, chants the same story: “Yield, foolish man! Whence comes this madness? Be bold, (obey) my queen's (command); … one little act of yielding, and your prize shall be this palace!” But I have good respect for law and Zeus, the suppliant's god; and esteem for Proetus, who received me into his house when I left the land of Sisyphus, and washed my hands clean of murder, with blood of new slaughter shed above them; so never yet have I consented to listen to her plea, nor to offend against this stricken house, where I am a guest: and I abhor that dangerous passion which destroys the soul of man. Two kinds of love there are, that live on earth:--one, our worst enemy, leads to death; the other leads to virtue and a good life—coveted by men such as I would be! Better, I think, that a man be virtuous, though he should die for it. (?) Now I would go forth into the fields. I do myself no service sitting in the palace, and listening to abuse because I will not sin: nor yet denouncing her and bringing shame on the wife of Proetus, and rendering the house in twain …65

Ovid’s Heroides and Seneca’s Phaedra employ the motif on the basis of the older Euripides variant. 2.1.2 Joseph’s Testament in The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs The document entitled The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs consists of twelve sections, as each of Jacob’s sons offers his “testament,” bearing witness to the “last speeches” uttered on their deathbeds. Joseph’s testament is the eleventh. It seems that the basis of this work extends back to the second century BC, and that it received its current form in the second or third century AD. The individual statements of the patriarchs in the fundamental form evoke the biblical form of a testament: Jacob’s speech and blessing (Gen 49), Moses’ speech and blessing (Deut 33), Joshua’s farewell speech (Josh 23-24), and David’s instructions to Solomon (1 Kings 2). The core of the Testaments of the Patriarchs was originally written in Hebrew or Aramaic, while there were later translations into a number of languages, including Greek, Armenian, Old Slavonic, and Latin (13th Century). Modern translations and commentaries derive from the Greek texts; three of the oldest preserved Greek manuscripts stem from the tenth century.66 The text as a whole is uniform in terms of narrative form, which is why the majority of interpreters believe that there was originally one author, and that later scribes and translators added elements to the basic text. The

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material of the story most evokes the Book of Jubilees and the ceremonial rabbinical midrashim. Joseph’s speech basically recounts the biblical story from Genesis 37-50, but represents a new creation which determines its original arrangement of the material and specific emphases in showing the test Joseph passed thanks to his unwavering faith in God. The speech contains the following section: the introduction (1-2); the first story: Joseph and the Egyptian woman (3:1-9:5); an intermediate section (10:111:1); the second story: Joseph as a slave and in captivity (11:2-16:6); and the concluding section (17-20). In each of the main sections (the stories) there is a great emphasis on the attempt of the Egyptian woman to tempt him into fornication. This is why the testament as a whole focuses on the theme of testing, and in connection with this there is the redemptive power of prayer and fasting, which maintained Joseph’s constancy. That testing and constancy are the main themes of Joseph’s testament is evident from the very introduction. In 1:3 Joseph says that he has seen in his life “envy (phthónos) and death.” In 2:2 he states: “And I struggled against a shameless woman, urging me to transgress with her; but the God of Israel my father delivered me from the burning flame.” He then professes his faith that God leaves no one in distress who fears him, but there is just a “little space [when] He departeth to try (dokimádzo) the inclination of the soul.” The introduction ends with a motto (2:7): In ten temptations (peirasmoîs) He showed me approved, And in all of them I endured; For endurance is a mighty charm, And patience giveth many good things.

The reasons for the victory over temptation very strongly evoke a number of biblical and non-biblical texts: Gen 22:1; Ex 16:4; 20,20; Deut 8:2; Ps 66:10-12; Wis 3:5-6; 11:9-10; Sir 2:1-11; 33:1; 1 Cor 10:13; 2 Cor 8:2; 1 Pet 1:6-7; 4:12. The word combination “ten temptations / trials” also appears in connection with the testing of Abraham in the Book of Jubilees (19:8) and in Pirke Aboth (5:4). The Book of Jubilees speaks more broadly of the testing of Abraham in 17:17-18: Thou dost try him. And the Lord knew that Abraham was faithful in all his afflictions; for He had tried him through his country and with famine, and had tried him with the wealth of kings, and had tried him again through his wife when she was torn (from him), and with circumcision; and had tried him through Ishmael and Hagar, his maid-servant, when he sent them away. And in everything wherein He had tried him, he was found faithful, and his soul was not impatient, and he was not slow to act; for he was faithful and a lover of the Lord.

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In the subsequent text (Chapter 18), the book summarizes the tale of the tempting of Abraham through God’s demand that he sacrifice his son (as in Gen 22:1-19), while at the beginning of chapter 19 it speaks of Abraham’s final testing in connection with the death of his wife Sarah, with the comment: “and we tried him [to see] if his spirit were patient and he were not indignant in the words of his mouth; and he was found patient in this, and was not disturbed” (19:3). The story concludes thus (19:8): “This is the tenth trial wherewith Abraham was tried, and he was found faithful, patient in spirit.” The judging of Abraham is similar in Pirke Aboth (5:4-8): Ten trials Abraham our father was tried with, and he bore them all to make known how great was the love of Abraham our father. … Ten wonders were done for our fathers in Egypt, and ten by the sea. [Ten plagues did the Holy One, blessed be He, bring upon the Egyptians in Egypt, and ten by the sea.] Ten trials did our fathers try God with in the wilderness, as it is said: “And they tempted Me these ten times, and did not hearken to My voice. Ten wonders were done in the Sanctuary…67

The entire first story of Joseph’s testament (3:1-9:5) is composed such that Joseph tells of the incessant attempts by “the Egyptian woman (of Memphis)” to draw him into an act that runs completely contrary to his understanding of love and fidelity. Joseph tells of how she came to him one night and embraced him under the pretence of taking him as a son, before finally attempting a heinous act. When Joseph realizes this, he laments long at her ruse and deception and tells her about his God in order to have her turn away from her evil desires (Chapter 3). Joseph then tells of how the Egyptian woman attempted to deceive by emphasizing his purity, which was so apparent that her husband would not even believe it if word started to spread about his relations with her. When he prays and lies upon the ground in sackcloth so that God might save him from her, she approaches him and claimed that she wanted to learn God’s word from him in order to change her malignant ways. Joseph explains to her that God is not pleased by those who manifest impurity and those who commit fornication (Chapter 4). The Egyptian woman increases her deception with the suggestion that she would not be committing fornication because she plans to kill her husband in order to be free for and marry Joseph. Deeply disturbed by this suggestion, he tears at his garment and begs her to stop, in order not to be ruined because her godless words would become revealed to all. Frightened, she asks him not to tell this to anyone, and she bribes him with gifts (Chapter 5). When she serves him lavish food, he tells her that she should renounce her evil intentions and promise that she will not do this again (Chapter 6). Her folly then leads to the idea that she

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will throw herself into an abyss should Joseph not comply with her. When Joseph realizes that she is tormented by the evil spirit Beliar, he expresses compassion, as her competitor Seta will beat her children and erase her memory from the earth. In his compassion for her and her children, the Egyptian woman sees a sign of his love for her and thus once again expresses her feelings. But Joseph says (7:7-8): But she knew not that because of my lord I spake thus, and not because of her. For if a man hath fallen before the passion of a wicked desire and become enslaved by it, even as she, whatever good thing he may hear with regard to that passion, he receiveth it with a view to his wicked desire.

Joseph also responds to this sort of temptation with tears, as well as prayers that God might save him from the Egyptian woman. At this point the passionately obsessed woman grabs his garment and pulls it mightily in order that he may lie with her. Joseph, naked, flees, but her husband later casts him into his house prison. The next day he is sent to the Pharaoh’s jail. The Egyptian woman now mourns, for she hears how Joseph praises God in prison, as he has been saved from the dangers of her deceitful charms. She sends several messages into the prison indicating that she will free him if he gives in to her desire. Joseph resolves that he will not even in thought turn to her and that God has protected him from her attempts, as He prefers those who confirm their purity in prison to one who live licentiously in the walls of a palace (8:2-9:5). In the next section Joseph displays his humility, which manifests itself in the fact that already as a child he had harboured great respect for God, but also for his brothers, and this is why he did not pledge himself when his father Jacob proved his love and did not attempt to rescue himself from the hands of the Ishmaelites by revealing his patrimony. The second main section of Joseph’s testament (11:2-16:6) raises the reader’s attention in three regards. First, because it contains the misfortune that had befallen Joseph before he came to Egypt, where he was purchased by Potiphar–a story one would expect to precede chapters 3-9; second, in this section there appears another name or title for the master and the mistress; third, Potiphar’s wife is mentioned here without a link to her appearance in the first section. One can therefore reasonably conclude that this part of the testament does not stem from the same source as the first one.68 In the second part the primary emphasis is on Joseph’s patience and humility in relation to his brothers. When the Ishmaelites ask him on the way to Egypt about his social status, the following is shown (11:2):

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Part I: Chapter Two They asked me, saying: Art thou a slave? And I said that I was a homeborn slave, that I might not put my brethren to shame. And the eldest of them said unto me: Thou art not a slave, for even thy appearance doth make it manifest. But I said that I was their slave.

When they arrive in Egypt, Joseph is placed into the house of a merchant for three months. During this time Potiphar’s wife passes by, with much accompaniment, in a coach, casting her eye upon Joseph, and then suggests to her husband that he be freed and be appointed manager because the young man is not a slave but a free Hebrew who had been stolen from the land of Canaan; she justifies her suggestion thus: “So shall the God of the Hebrews bless thee, for grace from heaven is upon him” (12:3). At his wife’s insistence, Potiphar first attempts to torture the merchant into admitting that he had stolen Joseph and turned him into a slave. When the merchant resists and says that this is not the case, he tries to torture Joseph into providing the wife’s version. The wife tells him (14:3): Wherefore dost thou detain the captive and well-born lad in bonds, who ought rather to be set at liberty, and be waited upon? For she wished to see me out of a desire of sin, but I was ignorant concerning all these things.

The Ishmaelites then appear, with the news that in truth Joseph is not a slave but descends from the wealthy master Jacob. However, in order not to shame his brothers, Joseph maintains that he is indeed a slave. The Ishmaelites would like to retain him, but Potiphar’s wife, named “a woman of Memphis,” decides, in her husband’s presence, that she wants to purchase him (16:1). She sends one of her eunuchs to the Ishmaelites to haggle over the price; when he returns, he informs his mistress that they demand a high price for Joseph. The mistress sends another eunuch with the order (16:4): “Even though they demand two minas, give them, do not spare the gold; only buy the boy, and bring him to me.” The eunuch purchases Joseph for eighty pieces of gold, and tells his mistress that he had given one hundred; Joseph also ignores this cheating in order to have “peace” and not to shame the eunuch. In chapters 17 and 18 Joseph recounts to his children all that he has endured in order that his brothers not be shamed. When they arrived in Egypt, he did not accuse them of anything, but showed complete solidarity with them and, despite his earthly fame, did not behave arrogantly towards them. Rather, he was among them. Especially worthy of mention is Joseph’s speech in 18:1-2:

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If ye also, therefore, walk in the commandments of the Lord, my children, He will exalt you there, and will bless you with good things for ever and ever. And if any one seeketh to do evil unto you, do well unto him, and pray for him, and ye shall be redeemed of the Lord from all evil.

Joseph’s testament ends with a Messianic perspective and with the announcement of the Israelites’ departure from Egypt in response to repression (19-20). Because the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs came into being and was completed under the centuries-long repression of the Roman authorities, the clearly homiletic tendency of the text as a whole is understandable. Potiphar’s wife does not portray merely the sensually desirous but also clearly symbolizes all types of temptation in life arising from natural urges. When an entire family, or even a people, is in dire straits, the hope burgeons all the more that someone will arise and overcome evil through the strength of God. The inestimable value of the testament of Joseph, as well as the other testaments of the patriarchs, lies in the ethical teachings that in many ways are the same as those of Jesus and the New Testament. It is in the certainty of the victory of the spiritual over the sensual that the lasting, immortal value of the extensive interpretation of Joseph’s story rests. 2.1.3 Allegorical Interpretation in the Works of Philo of Alexandria Because Joseph was the reason for their slavery in Egypt, the Jews generally revered him with certain reservations. This is particularly evident in a number of works by Philo of Alexandria (first century AD), who included Joseph in his allegorical framework. This framework differentiates between the literary meaning of biblical texts and their allegorical explanation, which is an expression of the tendency to search for the deeper, hidden meaning.69 In various contexts Philo presents Joseph as a mediator between Israel and Egypt, one who cooperated with both the good and the bad, since Egypt was considered a symbol of the lower, sensual world, and Joseph allowed himself to be drawn into captivity in this world. In his explanation of the biblical story of Joseph, Philo of Alexandria succumbed to the Jewish traditional allegorical explanation of the role of Egypt and its master the Pharaoh. Egypt stood for the body and its passions, and the Pharaoh was the opposite of everything that is good, which is why Joseph, who spent the majority of his life in Egypt, could not be accorded as many positive qualities as were clearly shown in the biblical story. Philo sees a politician in Joseph and thus supposes that he was often tempted by worldly ambition and the passions of the body. The reason why Joseph regardless never completely

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succumbed to temptation and the passions of Egypt is his Hebrew origins. As a Hebrew, he had inherited self-control from his father, and he evinces this when Potiphar’s wife attempts to seduce him (Gen 39:7-11). When he is unjustly cast into prison, he is saved by his ability to interpret dreams in the awareness that it is God’s inspiration that provides the explanation. Philo finally most emphasises the importance of Joseph’s Hebrew roots in connection with Joseph’s testament before his death: “So Joseph made the Israelites swear, saying, ‘When God comes to you, you shall carry up my bones from here’” (Gen 50:25). Here he symbolically indicates that the lower part of his personality was buried in Egypt and forgotten, but his higher qualities are worthy of memory and they leave Egypt when Moses leads the Israelites out of the country. When Joseph’s story is systematically and exhaustively dealt with in the special section On Joseph / De Iosepho, Philo does not give up on allegorical explanation; and neither does he depart from the positive biblical image of Joseph’s personality. In this part he shows Joseph as an outstanding politician and counsellor. Characteristic of this work is that the author, on the basis of general human and philosophical knowledge, explains the motives of the working of the characters, mainly at that time when the biblical story is silent about them.70 The first motif that Philo presents in De Iosepho is that “envy, which is ever the enemy of high success,” which the majority of the brothers felt against Joseph, so that they, against their father’s inclination, resist him and hate him as much as the father loves him (5). Philo devotes much attention to the spiritual state of Potiphar’s wife, who constantly tempts Joseph, though he never gives in to her “incontinent love (éros akólastos)”. This is why she accuses Joseph of that which she had not succeeded in doing. In the allegorical interpretation Philo exhaustively presents the contradiction between the state of the spirit of the lustful and intemperate wife of Potiphar, who represents the reigning masses and between the purity of spirit that Joseph constantly exhibits. The reigning masses cannot bear a man’s uprightness, one which is free of all passions, because they are slave to the lowest urges, entirely foreign to a spiritual manner of life. The purity of Joseph’s heart is so evident that each qualified wrongdoer in prison immediately showed trust in him and, against all expectations, changed to the righteous path. When the Pharaoh finds out about Joseph’s ability to interpret dreams correctly and has him led out of prison before his eyes, Philo says, that the Pharaoh read from Joseph’s face that he was a nobleman, since it can be seen from the bodies of such people, though notice noticed by everyone but only by those with a

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discerning eye for detecting such things (106). In the conclusion Philo praises Joseph’s theological explanation of his generosity to his brothers, who were afraid that he would seek revenge for their earlier hardheartedness. Philo adds to a theological biblical explanation in the broadest historical perspective Joseph’s own awareness of the reasons for the strength of his rectitude; God turned all into good, “because he desired that I should be the servant and minister of his graces and gifts which he thought fit to bestow on the human race in the time of their greatest necessity.”71 2.1.4 Summary and Explanation of the Testing of Joseph in the Koran (12th Sura) The main passage of the story of Joseph of Egypt in the first book of the Bible, the undisputed ethical teaching of this story and the extremely rich Jewish as well as Christian tradition of interpreting the text, explain why in the 7th century it was also indicative for Mohammed that he include it in the Koran. This version is a mixture of biblical pre-texts, additions from the tradition, and it emphasises his own interpretation. For Joseph’s story of the 12th sura, which runs to 111 ayat, or verses, it is characteristic that it expresses the faithful wish of the author that the biblical story be presented as an illustration of the theological doctrine of the primary role of God (Allah) and of the motives that are the guiding thoughts and actions of Joseph and other individuals. The story as a whole in the Koran is determined by the awareness that the motives, thoughts, feelings and appropriate results are evident only to those who are oriented towards a spiritual conception of life, but not at those who observe events from a sullied viewpoint and only from without. The Koran version stands out according to the basic intention that the condensed repetition of the biblical story is given an explicit spiritual explanation everywhere that the biblical story does not have one. It functions as an elevating of the enduring value of chastity in the world, which is subjugated to changes and variations, especially to the actions of the wonderful and eternal plans of God, which are hidden in the great scene of history. The basic intent is the added circumstance that shows that the story as a whole is aimed at the theme of temptation or trial in the broader and deeper, even psychological, sense of the word. The explanation actually touches on all aspects of human life. The fundamental doctrine is that the just will emerge victorious, although not always according to human prognoses and plans, while the unjust will be defeated and, through their very intrigues, aid in the victory of good. The jealousy of Joseph’s brothers and the base

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intrigues of Potiphar’s wife, as well as the corrupt court helpers, contributed to Joseph’s victory as that of God’s power and wisdom. The Jew Joseph appears in the Koran in the role of Allah’s prophet.72 It is comprehensible that the Koran breathed various directions of interpretation of the story of Joseph into Islamic culture. The sura introduces the story with the qualitative judgement that it is “the fairest of stories” (12:3), and begins: When Joseph said to his father, “Father, I saw eleven stars, and the sun and the moon; I saw them bowing down before me.” He said, “ O my son, relate not thy vision to thy brothers, lest they devise against thee some guile. Surely Satan is to man a manifest enemy. So will thy Lord choose thee, and teach thee the interpretation of tales, and perfect His blessing upon thee and upon the House of Jacob, as He perfected it formerly on thy fathers Abraham and Isaac; surely thy Lord is All-knowing, All-wise.

Thus, from the very beginning the sura shows the intention of explanation in the light of the course of events that the biblical story leaves without an explicit explanation. The next element of specific interpretation exposes the judgement of Joseph’s brother about the justification of Jacob’s affinity for Joseph (8): When they said, “Surely Joseph and his brother are dearer to our father than we, though we are a band. Surely our father is in manifest error. Kill you Joseph, or cast him forth into some land, that your father’s face may be free for you, and thereafter you may be a righteous people.

When the brothers sell Joseph to the caravan of merchants, an Egyptian magnate appears, buys Joseph and gives him to his wife (21): Give him goodly lodging, and it may be that he will profit us, or we may take him for our own son.

There follows the addition regarding the enlightenment that Joseph will be granted from Allah for explaining the story, and immediately after this

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report about the spiritual state of the wife of the Egyptian magnate, who will represent a great temptation for Joseph (in 23-29): Now the woman in whose house he was Solicited him, and closed the doors on them “Come,” she said, “take me!” “God be my refuge” He said. “Surely my lord has given me A goodly lodging. Surely the evildoers do not prosper.” For she desired him; and he would have taken her, But that he saw the proof of his Lord. So was it, that We might turn away from him Evil and abomination; he was one of Our devoted servants. The raced to the door; and she tore his shirt From behind. They encountered her master By the door. She said, “What is the recompense Of him who purposes evil against thy folk, But that he should be imprisoned, or a painful chastisement?” Said he, “It was she that solicited me”; And a witness of her folk bore witness, “If his shirt has been torn from before Then she has spoken truly, and he is one of the liars; But if it be that his shirt has been torn From behind, then she has lied, and he is one of the truthful.” When he saw his shirt was torn from behind He said, “This is of your women’s guile; surely your guile is great. Josešh, turn away from this; and thou, woman Ask forgiveness of thy crime; surely thou art one of the sinners.”

This version of the story is an expression of the thesis about the honesty of the Egyptian master and, at the same time, of his loyalty to his wife. This accounts for his demand that the wife, who succumbed to temptation before unjustly accusing Joseph, recognize the truth and rectify the injustice. Another surprising addition now appears (30-35): Certain women that were in the city said, “The Governor’s wife has been soliciting her Page; he smote her heart with love; we see her in manifest error.” When she heard their sly whispers, she sent To them, and made ready for them a repast, Then she gave to each one of them a knife. “Come forth, attend to them,” she said. And when they saw him, they so admired him That they cut their hands, saying, “God save us! This is no mortal; he is no other but a noble angel.” “So now you see,” she said. “This is he you blamed me for.

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Part I: Chapter Two Yes, I solicited him, but He abstained. Yet if he will not do what I Command him, he shall be imprisoned, and be one of the humbled.” He said, “My Lord, prison is dearer to me Than that they call me to; yet if Thou Turnest not from me their guile, then I Shall yearn towards them, and so become one of the ignorant.” So his Lord answered him, and He turned Away from him, their guile; surely He is the All-hearing, the All-knowing. Then it seemed good to them, after they had Seen the signs, that they should imprison him for a while.

Clearly this story is based on an older Jewish tradition about the banquet at which the women, so charmed by and wondering at Joseph’s beauty, cut their hands.73 Here the tradition is adapted such that the woman receives a public apology for her forceful love to Joseph and finally finds a reason to show her authority over this mere slave and force him into an act which he, until now, had refused. Because Joseph remains entirely faithful, he must go to jail. In jail Joseph proves to be a flawless interpreter of dreams. When news of this reaches the Pharaoh–after no one in Egypt was able to interpret his dreams–he sends for Joseph; but now Joseph also wants a public apology for the injustice that has occurred to him, especially the recognition of his innocence. Verses 50-51 read: The king said, “Bring him to me!” And When the messenger came to him, he said, “Return unto thy lord, and ask of him, ‘What of the women who cut their hands?’ Surely my Lord has knowledge of their guile.” “What was your business, women,” he said, “when you solicited Joseph?” “Go save us!” They said. We know no evil against him.” The Governor’s wife said, “Now the truth Is at last discovered; I solicited him; he is a truthful man.”

After this recognition there is a statement (in 52-53) which some commentators ascribe to Potiphar’s wife, and others to Joseph. In each case it is a matter of an attempt at apologizing for temptation or inclination to evil with the guarantee that nothing insidious occurred, and that it is thus possible to trust in God’s mercy: “That, so that he may know I betrayed him not Secretly, and that God guides not the guile of the treacherous. Yet I claim not that my soul was innocent–

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Surely the soul of man incites to evil– Except inasmuch as my Lord had mercy; Truly my Lord is All-forgiving, All-compassionate.”

The second half of the story in the Koran does not provide for any obvious singularity, which is why only the concluding judgement of the prophet about the role of the story is cited here (102-104): That is of the tidings of the Unseen that We reveal to thee; thou wast not with them When they agreed upon their plan, devising. Yet, be thou ever so eager, the most part of men believe not. Thou askest of them no wage for it; It is nothing but a reminder unto all beings.

2.2 Joseph of Egypt in Thomas Mann’s Literary Interpretation The material and forms of the biblical story have also been subject to numerous modern adaptations. While many authors have more or less faithfully followed the perspective of the biblical text, often they have been influenced as much, or even more so, by the spirit and ways of life of their eras. In their adaptations they were mostly interested in human psychological laws as revealed in their historical context as well as in how these laws colour individual and societal conflicts; they were also concerned with the reader’s expectations regarding theme and form in the mediation of the factual and spiritual world. By emphasising the psychological, moral or novelistic elements that are attractive to the reader, they sometimes departed from the main theme, which means that the primary message of the biblical text was relegated. This is especially valid for the post-Enlightenment period, when the former place of an almost universally accepted theocentric perception of the world and man was supplanted by an anthropocentric conception of reality. The German Nobel Prize winning author Thomas Mann, who wrote the broadest literary interpretation of the biblical tale of Joseph of Egypt as known from the final large portion of Genesis, chapter 37-50, also transformed the biblical source to accord with modern spiritual movements. From 1933 to 1943 Mann wrote his extensive, four-volume work Joseph and his Brothers.74 Thomas Mann’s monumental work is evocative in a number of senses. The present study arose after a comparison of the biblical story of Joseph of Egypt and Mann’s literary

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interpretation with regard to certain fundamental matters of content that determine the literary structure of the original. The aim of this study is to uncover the scheme of the biblical text and the concept of Thomas Mann’s literary adaptation. Literary theory and comparative analysis in the study focus on the particularities of the literary types dealt with, as are exhibited both within and beyond the text, in the stylistic conceiving of the main themes and motifs of guilt and reconciliation. The study considers the author’s perspective–that is, his relation to life and death, to good and evil, to his emotional comprehension of symbols and rationally constructed allegory. The aesthetic and ethical value of Mann’s novel is also of interest. This aspect plays itself out, alongside other interesting aspects, within the circle of fictive time and space of the artistic story, especially when compared with the spiritual extent of the original biblical tale. Such spirituality penetrates not only more deeply into the reality of man and society, but with a convincing narrative of a religious experience that far surpasses our capabilities of recognition.75 2.2.1 General Findings Thomas Mann transformed a short biblical allegorical text emphasising the concept of guilt and reconciliation of Jacob’s family in a manner that highlighted the story’s main figures and events along with their human emotions. This added greatly to his text, especially because the copious narrative details allow one to observe the interpersonal human destiny of Joseph, his father Jacob and his brothers as well as all other individuals who came into contact with Joseph, while considering the way in which he participated in the destiny and the historical role of Jacob’s family. Mann meticulously and clearly formed all characters in their inner and outer movements, as well as in the development of their feelings, thoughts and actions. He left nothing to be guessed at by the reader; rather, he leads the reader into a fictional, literary created world in kings and events from the distant past are most faithful and meticulously portrayed, presented with historically documented names, historical awareness about the intertwining of the religious values of the Jewish and the Egyptian world, and the cultural and religious differences between the Canaanites and the Egyptians are aptly described. Mann’s precise knowledge of both the places in which the Joseph story occurred and the history of those places was the result of his extensive journey to the Middle East, especially Egypt, Turkey and Greece in 1925; it was during these travels that first he had the idea for a novel, and a year later he published the first chapter, the prelude “Descent into Hell.”

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In contrast to the biblical story of Joseph of Egypt, the reader of Mann’s novel, due to the richness of figures and the broadly epic narrative scope, can find himself in danger of becoming lost in the glorious, magnificent descriptions of the outer world, such as those offered by Egypt, or in the author’s extensive philosophical considerations–for example about the body and the soul, about the spirit, about beauty, about dreams. He might thus unknowingly distance himself from the core message of the Joseph story. Yet the author always returns to the main thread of the story when he intermittently establishes an atmosphere of crisis arising from the violence and guilt of Joseph’s brother, along with an atmosphere of tension as one hopes for a befitting denouement of events. The belief in the victory of good over evil is, in spite of frequent appearances to the contrary, present from the very beginning of the story: the reader can constantly convince himself of Joseph’s righteousness and faith in God, and such happy premonition is also confirmed by the thought of Joseph’s magnificent dreams, the expression of a sort of irrational or supra-rational world that all the more becomes Joseph’s only reality. Forces threatening Joseph’s spirituality continually appear in the novel, but in struggling against them–this is a test of his loyalty to God’s plan, which had been symbolically revealed to Joseph in his dreams–he gains strength for his political and historical mediating role.76 The structure of Mann’s tetralogy is very clear and balanced: the novel is composed of four books, each of which is divided into seven main chapters, with each chapter being further divided into subchapters. In these the author strives to ensure that the themes and motifs of the biblical story are followed faithfully, while at the same time showing the protagonists also in clear psychological terms in the greatest emotional extremes. Departing from the premise of the mysteriousness of God’s plan, which inspired the story, Mann enters the area of the irrational and always shows anew the not coincidental inherently causal links between all events and meetings between people. The first two works, The Stories of Jacob and Young Joseph, were written in Germany before the rise of Hitler and published in 1933 and 1934; he wrote the third, Joseph in Egypt, for the most part while in exile in Switzerland (1936), while the fourth, Joseph the Provider, was written in America (1942). In Mann’s tetralogy, Joseph’s story, which is based on the final large section of Genesis (chapters 37-50), begins with the second book Young Joseph, as the first book places Jacob’s story in the foreground.77 Comparing Mann’s novel with the biblical story entails that one focus on

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the three-part division in terms of the thematic viewpoint of the story. Thus, the second and third books of the trilogy correspond to the first part of the biblical story, which speaks of the jealousy of Joseph’s brothers, and how they sold Joseph into slavery in Egypt (chapter 37), of the lunacy, slander and revenge of Potiphar’s wife, because Joseph rejected her lustful advances (chapter 39), of Joseph’s ascent at the Pharaoh’s court (chapter 40) and his correct interpretation of the Pharaoh’s dreams (chapter 41). The fourth book conveys the remaining two thematic parts, corresponding to chapters 42-45 and 46-50 of the biblical narrative: first Mann describes the famine in Canaan, which forced Jacob’s sons to travel to Egypt in search of grain, their meeting with the lost brother Joseph, Joseph’s revelation and his forgiving of his brothers. The book then relates the arrival of the father Jacob and all of his family in Egypt, the reuniting of the family, Jacob’s death and his burial as well as the final reconciliation among the brothers. In both the biblical account and Mann’s novel, the story as a whole is illuminated by the words Joseph pronounces at the reconciliatory meeting among brothers, when he reveals his identity to them. He emphasises that all had to happen as it did because of the mysteriousness of God’s plan, and says to them: Come near to me. … Yes, yes, it is I. I am Joseph, your brother, whom you sold into Egypt–but never mind, that was all right. Tell me, is my father still alive? … Here my fervent embrace by way of congratulations and of welcome …. And in that one kiss I kiss you all, for surely you do not think I am angry with you for having sold me to this place! It all had to be this way, and God did it, not you. El Shaddai set me apart from our father’s house early on and made a stranger of me according to His plan. He sent me down here before you, to be your provider–and has arranged a lovely rescue, by which I feed Israel along with other nations in a time of famine.78

When, after the death of Jacob, the brothers, who are unable to comprehend the greatness of Joseph’s act of reconciliation and belief in the possibility of absolute forgiveness for their wrongdoings, irrationally fear that Joseph will now take revenge on them, Joseph once again, and definitively, sets them at ease. He emphasises all the more strongly that God is the one who guides the words and acts of people, and that man is just a means of implementing His plan. Human authority is vain in contrast with divine authority, and for this reason Joseph, as a Pharaoh, does not allow the guilty brothers to reprobate themselves but, in contrast, asks them for forgiveness. In words expressed by Joseph, the conclusion

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of the fourth and final book condenses the fundamental message of Mann’s tale: What are you saying! You speak exactly as if you feared me and wanted me to forgive you. Am I as God? In the land below, it is said, I am as Pharaoh, and though he is called god, he is but a dear, poor thing. But in asking for my forgiveness, you have not, it appears, really understood the whole story we are in. … Under his (divine) protection I had to rouse you, by my brazen immaturity, to do evil, but God indeed turned it to good, so that I fed many people and matured a little myself besides. But if it is a question of pardon among us human beings, then I am the one who should beg it of you, for you had to play the evildoers so that everything might turn out this way. And now I am supposed to make use of Pharaoh’s power, merely because it is mine, to revenge myself on you for three days of chastisement in a well, and again turn to evil what God has turned to good? … Sleep in peace. Tomorrow, by God’s counsel, we shall begin our Journey back to the comical land of Egypt. This is what he said to them, and they laughed and wept together, and they all reached their hands out to him as he stood there in their midst and they touched him, and he caressed them as well. And so ends this invention of God, this beautiful story of Joseph and his brothers.79

Just as in the biblical text all the individual stories which describe various human motives and acts are ascribed to a higher rationality, and man is presented as a mere tool in God’s hands that participates in creating the history of the human race. 2.2.2 Young Joseph and his Misfortune in Egypt The first thematic portion of the biblical story determines the span of the second and third books of Mann’s tetralogy. The first period is characterised by the author as Joseph’s “descent” into the “Kingdom of the Dead.” In contrast to the epic biblical narrative, which describes Joseph simply with the words that he was “seventeen years old” and “was shepherding the flock with his brothers” (Gen 37:2), Mann’s novel explicitly describes Joseph’s physical appearance with a number of vivid adjectives and attributes. He does the same with Joseph’s inner experience, describing everything precisely, leaving nothing hidden and letting nothing occur silently, unmentioned. At the outset of the second book, Young Joseph, he describes the seventeen-year-old Joseph as “the most beautiful among the children of men,”80 with a young, extremely handsome and symmetrical face as well as a slender body and a wellformed chest, narrow hips and golden brown skin; as a child of wonder,

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free spirit, dreams, lovingness, with charmingly attractive powers, lightness of being, happiness, the gift of sharpness of mind and sprightly story-telling capabilities. The writer emphasises the duality of Joseph’s world: Joseph’s home alongside his brothers and his father Jacob is only his “outer home;” his true home is the dreams of the soul, in connection to which God granted him a special mission, which also entailed great trials in life. In the story Mann precisely illuminates the especially loving relationship that Jacob had with his eleventh son Joseph, the first-born of his beloved wife Rachel. This relationship does much to clarify that which is psychologically realistic and rationally possible, and Jacob is tacitly accused of self-interest and thus of a certain injustice towards his other sons. In Mann’s interpretation, Jacob, among other things, toiled for Joseph, protected him, ensured his education, and generally indulged him because he was the first child of his beloved Rachel; the other, older brothers were born of Leah, yet Jacob wanted to provide Joseph with the rights of the firstborn. Because of his special status with his father and also because Joseph himself did not feel equal to his brothers, they said that he only feigned obedience and that he defamed them before his father; they grew angry at him and called him “the dandy with fingers inky from reading stones from before the Flood.”81 By drawing attention to Jacob’s self-interestedness and the proud, if not haughty self-importance of Joseph, the author somewhat justifies the brothers’ hatred, and removes Joseph from the pedestal. His self-love is excused by youthful naivety, as Mann states that Joseph erred in thinking that his brothers should love him more than themselves. In this way also his dreams are depicted: the reader does not know whether Joseph’s dreams arose as the fruit of the imagination of a conceited, spoiled boy, who longs for his own importance, or whether they are truly the revelation of a calling that, although it strikes one in mere instant vision, requires an entire lifetime to live out. In the chapter “The Sheaves” Joseph entrusts his dream to his brothers while working in the field. As he says, he dreamed that he was together with his brothers in “a curiously strange field”82; they had been silently working alongside one other binding sheaves, and after they had bound their wheat, he states: Each one of us bound a sheaf of wheat, and there were twelve of us, for Benjamin, our youngest brother, was with us in the field and bound his little sheaf along with you in the circle. […] [Y]ou eleven had formed the

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circle and were binding sheaves, but I stood in the middle binding my own sheaf. […] Since we had bound our sheaves, each his own, we left them and walked away as if we had nothing more to do, but said not a word. We had walked together about twenty paces, or forty, and behold, Ruben looked around and silently raised his hand to point back at the place where we had been binding. […] Everyone stood and looked, shading his eyes. And behold: my sheaf is standing in the middle, straight up, but yours, gathered round it in a circle, bend low to it, bend low, but mine stands upright.83

Joseph’s brothers, who take the dream as an indication of the conceitedness of their youngest brother, who would like to rise above them, hurl insults at him, calling him “a sack of filth,” “a vile sneak,” “a charlatan” and “pilferer of birthrights.”84 But Joseph takes his dreams to be an expression of “God’s thoughts,”85 and this conviction is confirmed when he dreams the same thing anew. Mann’s novel describes Joseph’s complete conviction of the reality of his dreams and thus also imparts his insult towards his brothers, who did not sense he had “openly proved his brotherly faith in them by informing them what God had showed him in the dream.”86 It shows Joseph’s faith and his brothers’ lack of faith: Joseph was convinced that he would be able to consult those “to whom in a certain sense he had always looked up”87 on the cryptic sense of what God had shown him in his dream. He was incapable of conceiving that they “might not be able to bear the thoughts of God.”88 The brothers, however, feared the subjects of the dreams: they understood the dreams as a horrible threat to their freedom, and would feel this threat all the more so if God really had sent the dreams. They decided that, “if God were involved, they were powerless and should worship Him–not Joseph, but the Lord. But if the dream were born of arrogance, they could simply shrug it off, leaving the Dreamer to his own folly.”89 As a sort of self-defence mechanism, they prefer to interpret the dreams only through a psychological account of possession and strength, on the basis of which someone is worth more or less; they understand the dreams as a threat for the future (see Jer 38:1-6). They resist the prospect that Joseph’s central role in the dreams could culminate in lordship over them and they convince themselves that God did not send the dreams. They stem, rather, from Joseph’s honour-hungry imagination. Incapable of prayer, these inflexible ones instead cultivate envy and hatred towards their brother. When Joseph frankly explains other dreams, in which not only the sheaves of the eleven brothers bent down before Joseph’s, but also “the sun, the moon and eleven kokabim,”90 they go so far as to construct a barrier between Joseph and his father and themselves–insulted,

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they moved “Away with them all, in self-imposed exile from their father’s hearth. […] Away from Joseph, that no disaster may occur.”91 Through this they display their disdain for Joseph and, be it consciously or unconsciously, for their father. “Jacob, their lord, would give ten for one”92 to Joseph, and thus has not been just towards them. And Jacob did “bend his head” when his sons left him, rarely raising it after this occurred.93 In the novel Mann shows that Jacob feels guilty before God and man for the fulsome love he felt for Joseph. In order to make up for this “foolishness,” he sends Joseph forth on a white donkey. Yet it seems that Joseph does not feel the distress of his brothers and he recklessly sets off to find them in clothing that is bound to induce envy–in the fine ketonet of his late mother Rachel, which symbolically showed the rights of the firstborn.94 Seeing this, the brothers become incensed, falling “on him like a pack of starved wolves on their prey; there was no holding them back, no second thoughts tamed their blood-blinded lust, they looked as if they were about to tear him into at least fourteen pieces. […] ‘Off, off, off!’ they gasped and shouted, and it was clear that they meant the ketonet.”95 Yet even in their wheezing exhaustion the brothers were overcome by horrifying thoughts of Jacob–what would he say when he found out how they had treated his “lamb” and “Rachel’s bridal heirloom”? They all thought that Joseph “must be gone,” that he “must go down into the pit, so that he is no more.”96 They bound him and cast him into a deep, dry well. Joseph beseeched and begged them to free him, not for his own sake, but for the sake of the father they shared, who would die of grief if he heard of Joseph’s death: “do not terrify him in his fears with that bloody robe, for his gentle soul will not bear it, and he will fall back in a faint.”97 In the dry well, in the author’s words, Joseph died from the first time–cut off from and dumb towards his own past.98 Mann uses the words “earth’s womb,” “pit,” and “grave” to describe Joseph’s suffering in the well. Here he departs greatly from the biblical story in his addition, since he presumes that Joseph, because of his foolishness, is guilty to some extent for this cruel punishment: […] those three black days that had preceded Joseph’s rising anew. They and their cruel pains had forced him to see the fatal error of his previous life and to renounce any return to it […]. He was held within the realm of death–or rather he would be held there, for he was soon to learn that he was still on his way there and to regard the Midianites who had bought him as his guides to that land.99

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Joseph realizes that he must travel to the kingdom of the dead, the kingdom of silence in which his unique mission would be fulfilled. Here the author emphasises that after this act the voice of conscience makes itself heard in each one of the brothers, but the brothers did not risk freeing him from the pit because they feared for themselves and judgement before Jacob. Only Ruben, the oldest brother, who first prevented the fratricide felt the full horror of their guilt. As a Hebrew, he was aware of what unity of family blood meant and decided to retrieve his brother from the well in secret and let him go free. But God’s plan was different; Joseph is rescued not by Ruben but by a caravan of Midianite merchants seeking water for their animals. When they take Joseph with them and show him to the brothers, Judah denigrates him by denying that Joseph is their brother, and selling him for twenty silver pieces. In a certain manner, Joseph’s brothers save the tradition by not killing Joseph; they did not sully their hands with his blood, but threw him into the well and sold him to the Midianites. Thus, they believed that they had committed a lesser evil. When they relate the news to the father that Joseph has been torn apart by wild animals, Jacob mourns for Joseph and falls to the ground, not in a regular faint but in a state of catalepsy, as if his body were completely petrified. After some time has passed, he attaches himself to Benjamin, his youngest. In his fragility he reflects on how he would throw himself into a pit, into the netherworld, if it meant that Joseph would be raised again.100 Joseph’s fate in Egypt is no less dramatic than his fate in his own country. The path to Egypt is a journey into the “land of the underworld,” among the “people of Sheol,” into “that sad lower world,” “the land his father most resolutely abhorred, to Hagar’s homeland, to monkey-faced Egypt”101; Joseph regards the nation in light of horrible principles, “the courting of death, the insensibility to sin.”102 The chapter describing Joseph’s life and his rise at the Egyptian court is told by Mann in exceptionally epic scope. While the main substance follows the biblical story, Mann’s interpretation of events, due to the strongly subjective characterisation of protagonists, especially Joseph, as well as the many new individuals who are involved in his destiny, differs from that of the Bible. In spite of all this, there is in the novel a crucial emphasis on that of which the Bible speaks: “The Lord was with Joseph, and he became a successful man…” (Gen 39:2). But Joseph, in contrast to the biblical narrative, is shown in the novel as most human, when he reflects on the guilty “trustfulness” which led to his being cast into the pit. At the same

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time, however, he never succumbs to the temptation of letting feelings of resentment, hatred or revenge towards his brothers arise. Mann’s efforts to add a pronounced psychological element to the characters results in many departures from the biblical story. In his striving to emphasise the “human,” he offers a portrait of Joseph’s testing, to escape from the caravan on the very way to Egypt and return to his father, reassuming the role of the favourite. He was turned away from this by the awareness that it would be foolish to flee and ruin God’s plans. There is an introduction of new characters, such as Potiphar’s contrastive pair of good and bad dwarf slaves, who may symbolize the voice of conscience and the voice of the tempter who invites evil. The first, God-loving, takes to Joseph and attempts to protect him from the envy of the dwarf Dûdu; Dûdu, meanwhile, tries to drive Joseph from the court through intrigues and finally cooperates as an invidious, slanderous whisperer in Joseph’s story with Potiphar’s wife, one who causes Joseph’s second punishment in the Egyptian jail. Joseph is stretched between them and finally decides for conscience and loyalty to the promise he had made to God. This drive towards psychologisation, which does not exist in the biblical story, is shown also in Mann’s emphasising of Joseph’s conscious effort to change people for the better in spite of his luck and rise at the court.103 Mann’s subjective interpretation of Joseph and his inner experience is even more evident in the often-repeated thought that Joseph, in his youth, believed that others should love him more than they loved themselves, and that not until he was in Egypt – that is, in a “new life” – did he realize that such thinking was false. 2.2.3 Joseph’s Testing through Potiphar’s Wife and the Repetition of the Path to the “Underworld” In striving to make the novel’s story more appealing Thomas Mann devotes much attention to the testing of Joseph’s virtue at the Egyptian court. Out of the briefly-described scene in Gen 39:7-20, he forms the long, tragically-tinted love story in “The Smitten Woman.” This, the sixth large chapter, is about Potiphar’s wife (Mut-em-enet)and her painful, tragic, pining desire for the attractive Joseph.104 The chapter begins: And it came to pass after these things, his master’s wife cast her eyes Upon Joseph and said - The whole world knows what Mut-em-enet, Potiphar’s titular consort, is supposed to have said after having “cast” her eyes upon Joseph, her husband’s young overseer; and we neither wish nor dare to deny that there finally came a day when, in utter confusion, in the

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highest fever of desperation, she did indeed speak precisely the blunt phrase of terrible directness that tradition has put into her mouth–words so abrupt and wanton in their explicitness as to suggest the proposal came quite naturally to her and at no personal cost, rather than being a final cry of ultimate psychological and physical anguish. To be frank, we are dismayed at the grudging brevity of an account that does so little justice to life’s bitter and exacting particularity as our source does here, and seldom have we been more acutely aware than in this instance of how unfair laconic abridgment is to truth.105 The portrait that one is forced or, perhaps, almost inevitably tempted to make of Joseph’s mistress on such a basis and that, we fear, is indeed widely made of her, is so erroneous that any conscientious correction can only serve to benefit the ancient text–whether one understands this as it was originally written or, better, as life telling its story. At least this false portrait of unbridled lasciviousness and seduction devoid of all shame accords very poorly with what both we and Joseph heard in the garden cottage from the lips of the, in any case, venerable Tuya in regard to her daughter-in-law, comments that revealed to us a few more precise details about her life. […] But tradition neglects to add how long a time passed during which she would rather have bitten off her tongue than to have spoken them. It neglects to say that as she sat there in her loneliness, she did indeed literally, physically bite her tongue, before that first time, when, stammering with pain, she brought her lips to utter words that would forever stamp her as a seductress. A seductress? It goes without saying that a woman overcome as she was will be a seductress–but seduction is the exterior and physiognomic manifestation of our common affliction; for it is nature that makes her eves shimmer more sweetly than any artificial eyedrops she has learned to apply as part of the art of makeup ever can; nature that makes her lips more enticingly bright red than any rouge and swells them to a soulful, suggestive smile; that causes her to dress and adorn herself with innocent and skilled calculation, endows each movement with a sweet purpose, and gives her entire body–to whatever possible extent its structure allows, sometimes even beyond it as well–the stamp of promised bliss. All of this, initially and ultimately, means nothing more than what Joseph’s mistress finally said to him. But can we say that the woman within whom all this takes place is responsible for it? Does she do it out of deviltry perhaps? Does she even know of it–that is, other than through the torment of her passion, which then reveals itself in external charms? In short, if she is made to be seductive, does that mean that she is a seductress?106

Mann tries to justify the woman’s attempts by emphasising that hers was not a marriage of love, that she was “saved,” unstained and had never experienced desire or passion for a man, and that her desire for Joseph arose against her will, thus causing great suffering for the length of three

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years. At the conclusion of the portion entitled “The Coils of Agony,” Mann judges the hidden experience of the seductress: This, then, was how Mut-em-enet battled against the snares of her desire, struggling, so to speak, against a serpent sent by a god, its great coils winding round her, squeezing the breath from her, leaving her gasping for air. When one considers that she had to struggle alone and without help, unable to share any of this with anyone Other than Dûdu, and even with him in hints and words that hid her confession–or at least not at first, for later she cast aside all restraint and made the world around her a participant in her madness; when one also considers that the anguish in her blood had led her to choose a man who had to defer to the higher cause of a jealous God and wore in his hair an herb of faithfulness and arrogance– or, in a word, of his chosen state–and that he neither wanted nor was allowed to yield to her temptation; and when one likewise bears in mind that her agony lasted for three years, from the seventh to the tenth year of Joseph’s sojourn in Potiphar’s house, and that even then her torment was not allayed but simply slain–then one must admit that the fate of “Potiphar’s wife” (popularly regarded as a shameless seductress and the honeyed bait of evil) was not an easy one and at least grant her the sympathy arising from the insight that the implements of such a testing carry their own punishment within them, bearing a greater share of it than they deserve, even if we admit the necessity of their function.107

The writer describes the increasing testing after these years and, at the outset of “The First Year,” he writes: “Three years–in the first she tried to hide her love from him, in the second she let him know of it, in the third, she offered it to h im.”108 “The Second Year” begins, “And when the second year had come, something within Mut-em-enet’s soul gave way and yielded, so that she began to reveal her love to Joseph. She could no longer help it; she loved him all too much.”109 Compared to the biblical story, which focuses on Joseph’s virtue and overcoming of all sorts of temptation, the story exceptionally extends and in many places subtly describes the struggle that rages between the sensations of the body and the freedom of the soul. In the middle of this portion Potiphar’s wife provides an answer for her confidantes: Heed my words! If it were only his mouth, then one might possibly listen to what you two say about imperious brows and magic, fur the mouth is part of the body. But then there are his eyes and their beautiful night, filled with freedom and soul. Ah, but I have an especial fear of the freedom they contain, for it is, you see, freedom from the longing that holds me, a lost soul, in its dusky bonds and makes merry mockery–not of me directly, no, but of my longing, so that n shames and slays me, since my admiration of his freedom only heightens my longing and thereby coils me in still

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duskier bonds. […] How I have pondered these things, Meh, pondered them by day and by night. For a body is free and independent, without respect to all else, and there should be only bodies for love, so that they may float free and alone in empty space and embrace without consideration or consequence, eyes closed and mouth to mouth. That would be bliss–and yet a bliss that I reject. For can I possibly want a lover who would be only an indifferent body, a corpse, but no person? I cannot, for I love not only his mouth, but his eyes as well, them above all, and for that reason your proposals repel me, both yours and Tabubu’s, and I impatiently reject them.110

Thomas Mann demonstrates with acuity that, in the cultural context of the Egyptian court, Potiphar’s wife could not have a sense of the tradition of “law” that guided Joseph on every step: Oblivious of such a tradition and, despite her fine sense of honor and shame, of any deeper understanding of the idea of sin, for which she did not even have a word in her vocabulary and, what was more, which she was not at all accustomed to associating with nakedness, Mut could know nothing of the inborn, impersonal terror of Baal that the thought of exposing their naked conversation stirred within this young man’s blood. […] One ought not to be astonished at the anguish contained in such words. Love is an illness, though perhaps more like pregnancy and the labors of childbirth, and thus, so to speak, a healthy illness, even if, like them, it is not without its dangers. The woman’s mind was dazed, and although as an educated Egyptian she could express herself with literary and, after her own fashion, reasonable eloquence, her ability to differentiate between what was permissible and impermissible was greatly diminished and blurred.111

The contrast between the legitimacy of female nature and the external role of mistress begins: A mistress is, in physical terms, a master in female form; in psychological terms, however, she is a woman of masterful character, which means that the title of mistress never lacks a certain twofold nature, in which the idea of the masculine, however, definitely dominates. On the other hand, beauty is a passive, feminine quality, inasmuch as it arouses longing and transfers the active, manly impulses of adoration, desire and pursuit to the breast of the male gazing upon it, which can therefore result, by the reverse process, in that same twofold nature, though in this case under the dominance of the female. Now Joseph certainly felt at home with such concepts of duality.112

In harmony with the psychological analysis of the spiritual state and the behaviour of the mistress, the writer surmises the tactful behaviour of

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Joseph: “We must acknowledge that he was cordial and good to her and tried to persuade her with kindly words; and we can even observe him trying to disenchant her by taking refuge in sensible remarks about the poor quality of those things she so admired.”113 However, Joseph’s loving pedagogical ways do not give rise to the desired success; given the spiritual state of Potiphar’s wife, they the very opposite effect. In the seventh large chapter, “The Pit,” in the portion “The Painful Tongue (A Play with Epilogue),” the writer describes the vicissitudes of female nature: Female beauty–it can be beauty embodied in the feminine, the feminine as a means for expressing the beautiful. But what if the relationship between spirit and stuff is reversed and instead of female beauty one would do better to speak of beautiful femininity, because the feminine has become the starting point and controlling idea, with beauty as its attribute instead of the feminine as the attribute of beauty–what then? What, we ask, happens if sexuality treats beauty as the stuff in which to embody itself, so that beauty serves and works as the means for expressing the feminine? It is clear that this will result in an entirely different sort of beauty from that which we celebrated just now–a dubious, indeed eerie beauty, that may even approach ugliness, all the while exercising the attraction and emotional effectively of beauty, but by virtue of the sexuality that replaces it, espouses its cause, and usurps its name. In such a case there is no longer a spiritually honest beauty revealed in femininity, but only a beauty in which the feminine reveals itself–an eruption of sexuality, the beauty of the witch. That word, however, appalling, has proved indispensable for characterizing the change in Mut-em-enet’s body that had come with the years.114

In Mann’s version, Potiphar’s wife loses control over herself to the point that she would even dispose of her husband to ally herself with Joseph. There is not the slightest indication in the Bible of the rejected woman’s demonic obsession leading her to such horrific lengths and utterly tragic resolutions.115 Concerning Potiphar’s wife, Joseph had “curiosity and sympathy for what was forbidden”–and there was also “some self-assured cockiness, the confidence that he could venture far into danger–and always return if need be. […] Perhaps there was even a secret knowledge of his path and its winding course, a premonition that it wanted to complete another smaller loop and for the second time lead him into the pit that could not be avoided if all things written in the book of plans were to be fulfilled.”116 With both implicit and explicit accusations of Joseph’s foolishness in games of love Mann deviates greatly from the sense that this

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story has in the Bible. As a writer he himself mentions that he drew on several variations of the story of Potiphar’s wife: in his belief the most credible ones are “the seventeen Persian songs that speak of it and the Koran” as well as “the poem to which Firdousi the Disillusioned devoted his old age.”117 When Joseph was imprisoned after being slandered by Potiphar’s wife he (as he had done in the first pit) “confessed his guilt and repented, and the hurt he felt was for his father, it was a hurt for Jacob’s sake, and he was bitterly ashamed before him because he had managed once again to bring himself into the pit, here in the land to which he had been carried off.”118 But he did not defend himself against the slandering, and rather than bearing a grudge he maintained his firm trust that his dreams would be realized and that events were leading in that direction. Because he had maintained his purity in the face of temptations, he continued to be capable of prophecy and could continue to interpret dreams. This would rescue him from the Egyptian prison. Here Mann faithfully follows the biblical text in writing about how Joseph interprets the dreams of the fellow prisoners–the court baker and the butler–and the events that results. He shows that the injustice that Joseph suffered was “repaired” through the highest recognition, through his victory. His purity of spirit allows him once again to correctly interpret the two dreams that the Pharaoh, the highest in the land, had dreamt. He first dreamt that seven beautiful, fat cows emerged from the water, followed by seven ugly, lean and gaunt cows. After that he dreamt that he had stood alone on the bank and witnessed how from the fertile earth a stalk grew seven ears of grain, one after another, all on one stalk, fat and rich. But as soon as he wants to rejoice at this seven other ears of grain emerge, miserable, deaf, and sere because they were blighted by the east wind, and the fat ears disappear as devoured by the weak ones. Joseph explained to the Pharaoh that the dreams were not two but one and the same; dreaming it twice bore witness to the fact that the dream would be fulfilled. Pharaoh believed Joseph’s interpretation of the dream, namely that he should prepare a plan to save the country from the catastrophe of seven years of famine. The Pharaoh then elevated him to a high position at the court for his rationality and justice; Joseph is given many titles and all the names could be summed up into just one: “The Provider.”

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2.2.4 Joseph Meets his Brothers in Egypt–the Brothers’ Regret and Joseph’s Forgiveness In the second thematic part the writer, with partial deviation, follows the core of the biblical message that speaks of how Joseph’s brothers, in distress and suffering famine, set out at their father’s command for Egypt in search of grain. There Joseph, in order to convince himself of their regret for the sins they committed and their readiness for true reconciliation of the whole family, tests them in a way similar to that in which he had been tested. Here Joseph’s youthful dreams of the sheaves of wheat are completely realized, since his brothers bow down before him and lower their faces, not aware that he is their brother; at the same time Joseph grants them full bags of wheat and provides for them, as was foretold in his dreams. After they successfully withstand the testing the brothers experience ascesis, the cleansing of guilt. Joseph treats them as they had once treated him: accusing them of being spies, he throws them in jail, and, as a sign of warning and forgiveness, gives them grain and money. However, into the bag of grain of the most innocent among them, Benjamin, a kind-eyed child, who had not “been guilty of a wicked deed in all his life,”119 Joseph places the Pharaoh’s greatest treasure, a silver cup from which the Pharaoh drinks and which he uses to predict fortunes. In this way he wanted to convince himself of whether the brothers would ostracize Benjamin, who did not defend himself against the accusation but “was silent [and] dropped his chin to his chest,”120 or whether they would finally realize that they could only take action together and that it would be an unforgivable sin should they once again hurt their father. In the novel Joseph lets his brothers intuit in various ways that he knows more about them than they might think–for example, he enumerates the names of Jacob’s sons in precise order, though leaving out his own name, thus causing wonder among the brothers; he explains to Benjamin that he has acquired this knowledge through supernatural means with the help of the silver cup and its cuneiform writing. In this, as Joseph states, he also sees the figure of Benjamin’s deceased mother, “whose cheek smelled like a rose petal” (1357)” as well as the figure of a seventeen-year-old boy setting out for a ride that marked his imminent ruin and grave. Benjamin is overcome by fear and his grey eyes fill with tears, as he recognizes in this figure his own lost brother Joseph; but Joseph ensures him that the grave is

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merely symbolic: “The grave […] is empty by nature […] the stone rolled away.”121 Joseph’s mysterious words create a tense atmosphere in the novel, displaying the emotional concern, sorrow and regret of his brothers. He reveals his identity to them only after the testing of Benjamin, when he has become convinced that they will never again do what they had done to him, as they recognize the value of the love of the family’s blood as a whole and cherish the love of their father.122 Judah, who had once sold Joseph, now resolutely sides with Benjamin and resists the suggestion that Benjamin remain alone in Egypt, while the others return to Jacob their father. The brothers are thus led before Joseph–“who had endured the most in life, who best understood guilt, and so was called to speak. For guilt creates an active spirit–and vice versa, for without an active spirit there is no guilt”123–and they firmly repeat their collective decision, stating: What shall we say to my lord, and what point would there be in attempting to defend ourselves before him? We are guilty before you, my lord–guilty in the sense that your cup was found among us, that is to say, with one of us, and thus with us. How the item came to be in the sack of our youngest brother, the innocent who always stayed at home–I do not know. We do not know. We are powerless to offer even surmises before the throne of my lord. You are a mighty man and are both good and evil, you raise up and you cast down. We belong to you. […] It was not for nothing that our father, the old man, lamented that we would leave him childless. Behold, he is proved right. We and he with whom the cup was found have become my lord’s slaves.124

Judah’s answer to Joseph, in which he lets him know that only together can they return to Jacob, and in which Joseph’s dreams of youth are realized in Judah’s words, namely that they “become my lord’s slaves,”125 is the peak of the novel. By voluntarily sacrificing himself Judah aims to redeem himself for his past guilt. He tells Joseph how Jacob, after the departure of Joseph, “fell back in a faint and [had been] rigid and numb ever since,” how now “with my numb hand I hold fast to him who is all I have,” to Benjamin, “for mutilated, mutilated is my one and only.”126 If the same fate were to befall Benjamin, “it would be too much for the world.”127 He admits to Joseph that he and his brothers committed the crime against Joseph, and he also expresses his readiness to, out of love for his father, to atone in Benjamin’s stead for the guilt of all: You shall keep me to be your slave in his stead, so that you may have a possible atonement and not an impossible one. For I wish to make

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Part I: Chapter Two atonement, atonement for all. Here before you, peculiar man, I take hold of the oath we brothers swore, the gruesome oath by which we bound ourselves together–I take hold of it with both hands and break it in two over my knee. Our eleventh, our father’s lamb, the first son of the true wife–no animal mutilated him, but rather we, his brothers sold him out into the world.128

Before Joseph the “brothers were ashen pale, yet profoundly relieved that their secret was out.”129 But they did not want to accept Judah’s sacrifice and both the youngest and the eldest brother raised their voices. Ruben exclaimed: “What’s this I hear!”130; Benjamin immediately threw up his arms and cried tearfully, “And Joseph?” Joseph stood up from his chair and the glistening tears streamed down his cheeks. Joseph sent all the Egyptians from the room, then spread his arms and revealed himself to his brothers. Joseph called to them and said, “Come near to me. […] Yes, yes, it is I. I am Joseph, your brother, whom you sold into Egypt–but never mind, that was all right. Tell me, is my father still alive?”131 Greatly moved, they regarded him, and Benjamin cried out in elation: You are not dead, you have toppled the great dwelling place of the shadow of death, you have ascended to the seventh level and been invested as Metatron and Innermost Prince–I knew it, I knew it, you have been raised up very high, and the Lord has made for you a throne like His own.132

But Joseph answered: “Do not speak, it is not that great and not that far removed, and my glory is not of that sort, and the main thing is that we are twelve again.”133 In its culmination the story reveals that the path to love traverses the evil that the just Joseph had to suffer. The brothers’ evil act is transformed into good. It is shown that God’s promise, in contrast to evil, is steadfast. The brothers, moved, immediately think of their father Jacob, who does not know that Joseph is alive and that he has risen high in the world to occupy an esteemed position among the pagans. Joseph tells his brothers to call Jacob and have him come to Egypt. For his brothers and his father he has already chosen the land of Goshen, “because it is not yet truly the land of Egypt […], and there you can live from fish at the river’s mouth and from the fat of the land, a pretty life, in which you will not have to deal much with the precocious children of Egypt to the detriment of your originality.”134 And so the Pharaoh himself invites all of Joseph’s people to the land of Egypt, in which he granted them land to settle.

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Here the novel once again strays from the biblical narrative. It describes Joseph’s brothers as they, in strife and distress, inform their father that their brother is still alive, and return home. The task is a frightening one for them, and they fear that Jacob would either “fall back in a faint” or “he would die of ‘joy,’ that is of shock, of sheer terror at his good fortune, so that Joseph’s life would be the cause of his death […]. It was, moreover, almost inevitable that at the same time it would be revealed that, although they had not murdered Joseph as a boy–as Jacob had believed all this time–they had halfway committed that crime and only by accident had not finished the deed, thanks to the Ishmaelites who found him and took him with them to Egypt.”135 But their concerns are unfounded; on hearing the happy news, their father exclaims: “I will go and see him,”136 and takes over one hundred Israelites with him. When Judah reveals to him Joseph, a man at the height of his life powers, dressed like a great man of this world, just having stepped out of a wagon and with a golden basket of his vehicle, Jacob approaches him, but he does not recognize him. Only when Joseph’s eyes fill with tears that then overflow does he see Rachel’s eyes; Joseph rests his head on the shoulders of the estranged one and bitterly cries. Joseph begs his father for forgiveness, and the writer asks at this point why–before explaining that perhaps Joseph had with this thought of “the arrogance and hopeless impudence of the favourite, culpable trust and blind expectation, a hundred follies, for which he had atoned with the silence of the dead while he had gone on living behind the back of the old man who shared in his atonement.”137 Joseph stands upright and tells his brothers: “‘God has forgiven us,’ he answered. ‘You can see that yourself, for He has given you back to me and Israel may die in peace now that you have appeared to me.’”138 In the continuation the novel repeats the biblical story that speaks of Jacob’s blessing of Joseph’s sons, of Jacob’s death and burial in Machpelah in the double cave, beside his first wife Leah, the mother of the six of the twelve tribes; and finally of how Benjamin, at the command of his brothers, asks Joseph to forgive them and not to seek revenge for the sins they have committed now that their father is no more. Joseph does not really believe that such a request would come from the lips of his dying father, as he now knows that such words were not necessary. He calms his brothers and asks them for forgiveness. The story concludes with complete reconciliation and happiness, as Mann writes:

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Part I: Chapter Two This is what he said to them, and they laughed and wept together, and they all reached their hands out to him as he stood there in their midst and they touched him, and he caressed them as well. And so ends this invention of God, this beautiful story of Joseph and his brothers.139

2.2.5 A Comparison of Mann’s Novel and the Biblical Tale Thomas Mann’s novel is written in a Homeric style: in contrast with the biblical tale, which on the whole is vague, inexpressible, mysterious and unfathomable to human sense, Mann clearly constructs everything that he mentions in order to show the characters and their emotional appearances, in their time and space relations. However, despite the extension of Mann’s literary interpretation of the Joseph story and his striving to present the reader with a detailed, delineated description, the biblical story is much more laden in terms of content. Through his precise, epic descriptions of events and individuals, Thomas Mann weakens the internal tension of the narrative; the writer’s wonderfully accomplished epic style misleads the reader, directing his attention towards less important details of the narrative, such that he is often less moved by even the most dire segments of the Joseph story than in the short and condensed biblical story, which focuses only on the internal essence of events. This also occurs in Thomas Mann with the describing of the most horrific events, such as when the brothers throw the battered and beaten Joseph, in his torn ketenot, into the dry well and desert the pleading young man. The reader may experience mimetic enjoyment in the story and feel a sense of resistance towards the brothers’ violence, but because the author describes all thoughts and feelings of those involved, the reader is less moved than he would be had the author remained silent about the horrifying events. This would leave the reader time and space, so to speak, to experience the terrifying actions of Joseph’s brothers on his own and attempt to find a deeper sense to them, as is the case with the biblical narrative. Because the author precisely moulds all characters and events, and because he expresses all of their thoughts and feelings, the story plays itself out in comparison with the biblical story, which emphasises only that which is crucial for the aim of the events, leaving everything else in the dark– despite the frequently horrifying events there is only a minor level of tension. Despite Thomas Mann’s efforts to employ psychology in forming the characters of Joseph and his brothers in their emotional and sensual depths, in their emotional rises and falls, the biblical story of Joseph remains far more profound. It shows that the precise describing and

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explicating of individuals, acts and events, or times and places–which it is not actually possible to explain fully–works against authors’ actual intentions. The biblical story seems too short to them, and they therefore take to changing it into a longer literary form. Such efforts only distort the essence of the story, since not even the most insightful psychological portrayals can go beyond the most profound, most complex sides of the human spirit in its inner conflicts.140 If we take Mann’s narrative as a realistic novel, independent and unrelated to the biblical story, we come across an author who is an exceptional creator of epics and who very capably creates both the world of simple shepherds, as represented by Joseph’s brothers, and the world of the educated and the aristocracy. The novel presents the world of the young, growing, beautiful young man, but also the emotional experiencing of body and soul of the repressed aristocratic woman. The novel is exceptional in its rhetorical verve, intellectual word play and the struggles carried out by Joseph with the most educated and intellectually powerful Egyptian greats; but at the same time it is precisely this concretely portrayed explicitness that speaks of the simple uneducated brothers of Joseph, who, when they have not yet recognized Joseph, even have to write on a piece of paper their request to free Benjamin (Judah). He exquisitely portrays life in Egypt, its feudal aristocracy, the levels of nobility in which man is embroiled, spinning all into a specifically determined societal element and its laws. In contrast with the Egyptians, such as Potiphar’s wife, who behave and speak in an elevated manner, Joseph and his brothers, as well as their father Jacob, are depicted as being more elemental, spontaneous, artless, common and honest. For this reason, in spite of the negative role played by Joseph’s brothers, in spite of their constant jealous seething, they have a more sympathetic and homely effect than all the residents of the “Kingdom of the dead.” Deep down they are all linked by their affiliation with their father Jacob, and their faith in the same God, such that their hatred towards the younger, more accomplished, more favoured and successful brother shows merely the wrongly directed love, or as the author says, “other than that same universal infatuation, but with a negative prefix.”141 Among the Egyptian people Joseph never experiences the touch of such love as he unconsciously seeks for his brothers and his father. Through the figure of Joseph Thomas Mann strongly emphasises joy at sensual existence. Though the biblical story that is the basis of the novel speaks of God, the reader of the novel does not sense sufficiently sense

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this. It seems as if Mann, for all the talk of the Almighty, constantly remains in the world of the present, which is devoid of the mysterious. Also, it seems as if Mann wanted to prepare us for an endearing figure of Joseph, one who is naïvely charming in his beauty, and who has a dose of joyful vanity and self-assuredness. However, the expectations of the reader who knows the biblical story and assents to it in terms of form and content are different, and he cannot identify with or wonder at Mann’s Joseph. The sensual, existential elements are overly emphasised, while all religious and ethical experiences ultimately flow into sensual experience. Here it is surprising that in spite of the sparseness of words in the biblical story there is much more open and hidden passion guiding all acts and characters to the final reconciliation of Jacob’s family. This can occur because a writer is guided by a strict link to the truth of the sacred tradition that does not allow him to imaginatively create and add to people and things anything of which the tradition does not speak. The writer of the biblical story is concerned only with truth, with evidence of the sole true and real world, in which it is necessary to believe, since it imparts an unlimited teaching and a firm promise which God always unconditionally fulfils. Joseph’s story contains the unconditional promise that God guides human life and he who patiently trusts in Him is rescued from all tests and rewarded a thousandfold for his loyalty. The writer of the biblical story does not sense any desire to be liked by readers for aspects of narration but is tyrannically, ascetically bound to the truth. The biblical story of Joseph subjugates not only the reader but also truth as a whole; it is always above them because it is based on the transcendent. A literary version that willingly or unconsciously lowers itself to the human level compels the reader to analyse it critically. Because the author’s explanation is so exorbitant that it often seems as if nothing can move the people in it, the impression of reality is diluted and the reader of the story can believe it, but also choose not to. One example of an unconvincing scene is Joseph's revealing of his identity to his brothers and their response to this act–it seems as if Joseph has rationally thought out all the moves and manners in his meeting with his brothers and is out to make the greatest possible impression on them. Here the reader willingly or unwillingly senses that Mann’s story is not led by subordination to the fundamental biblical message, but the author has composed it himself according to his own logic. In spite of faithfulness to the original in terms of all the main motifs and ideas, the psychological profiles of the characters, which especially with regard to Joseph are sometimes unsuitable in terms of the impression that the original provides, are

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unconvincing. Here Joseph is not meant to be a sort of ideal hero; neither in the Bible does the author shy away from depicting him as a being with real inner contradictions, such as in the scene with Potiphar’s wife when Joseph wins in the battle between the weakness of the flesh and the strength of the spirit, which is bound to his promise. In Mann’s novel this is not satisfying because he tries by himself to resolve Joseph’s inner contradictions; he speaks, for example, of his passion for Potiphar’s wife, but the passionate feeling does not seem convincing, such that it appears as if Joseph’s rejection is not a matter of renunciation, sacrifice in awareness of loyalty to his master, to God and His plan for him, but is rather a solely ludic matter, a testing of man’s limits. The final scene of reconciliation among the brothers is equally unconvincing, since it does not provide the sense of depth of their experiencing of regret. More than this is shown the author’s wish for a sort of artistic harmonization of events, which will settle everything that remains unresolved, and which will quickly, without higher intercession, smooth over all the characteristics that have up to know been shown in a rather different light. From this viewpoint Mann’s self-judgement of this work, which in its material is actually saga-like, can be illuminating; he says that his novel is more a testament to constancy and endurance than to art and thought.142

2.3 Joseph of Egypt in Ballet Interpretations The biblical story of Joseph of Egypt has also made its way into the world of ballet. In 1914 the librettist Hugo von Hofmannsthal and the choreographer Harry Kessler published Die Josephslegende, for which Richard Strauss wrote the music. The work is conceived of as a pantomime in one act, and its execution is thus necessarily a concentrated one. The writer Hofmannsthal and the composer Strauss had great esteem for the Joseph story, and it was this that led to their masterful, harmonic union of literary, music and visual expressive means. The ballet embodied the dramatic event in an artistic, extravagant setting. The contradictory elements contained within cannot be balanced, as the victory of one over the other is inevitable. Especially compelling for this work was that dramatic part of the Joseph story which speaks of Potiphar’s wife’s intensifying attempts to seduce the innocent Joseph. An advantage of this story is that it can be staged in a scene with two dancers in the shining ambience of the Egyptian court. The librettist’s interpretative take on the Joseph story is clear. Hofmannsthal does not depict Joseph as a young man of quiet virtue and

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piety who retreats from danger. Rather, he depicts him as an individual who, with lyrical strength and concentration, compels a spiritual, romantic longing. As his movements and jumps propel him upwards, as if he wanted to grasp eternal perfection, the rank, dark world surrounds him and, although it belongs to the lower sphere, reaches out for him and attempts to catch him. The dark world is represented by the erotic figure of Potiphar’s wife, who is the exact opposite of Joseph’s spiritual figure. There is a polar opposition between the great strength of Joseph’s longing for completion and the hopeless attempts of Potiphar’s wife to redirect the stream of events by means of her various seductive allures, and this opposition fills the scene from start to finish with a contrast of emotion, which cannot culminate in reconciliation. Rather, it ends with the diametrically opposed destiny of each character as they move in different directions. In the end, Joseph is carried towards light on the left side of the stage, while Potiphar’s wife strangles herself with her silver necklace; the oldest and least attractive slave removes the black veil from her face, turns to the right and on the other side throws it onto the face of the dead one with a demonic gesture.143 This work has been successfully staged around Europe by Pino and Pia Mlakar.144 Although in Hofmannsthal’s libretto it was the visual aspect that was most prominent, Pia and Pino Mlakar felt that this should not detract from its message. Michail Michailovich Fokin choreographed the premiere of Die Josephslegende, which took place on 14 April 1914, and kept precisely to the libretto–basically a kind of ballet pantomime providing a “feast for the eyes.” Pino and Pia Mlakar, using the same libretto in their choreography, emphasised most the ethical and religious message of the ballet.145 To start off the performance, they opted for a fifteen minute dance solo by Joseph, who seemed to the spectators to be bland and ineffectual. In this way they showed Joseph’s shepherd nature as well as his world of purity and reverence for God.146 In a highly artistic manner, Pino and Pia Mlakar presented the contradictory forces of gravity, which paralyse the soul until it finally breaks, and mercy, which invigorates the spirit and raises it to supra-sensual, limitless freedom. In their execution the lowly force of gravity dominates Potiphar’s wife such that she, in the coils of weighty, uncontrolled lust, falls to her knees and throws herself to the ground before Joseph. Joseph, meanwhile, is raised from the earth by mercy, which is personified in the ethereal figure of a guardian angel. Gravity is overcome and the constant Joseph is shown in all his glorious splendour.

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2.3.1 Between the Weight of Sensuality and the Mercy of the Soul Hofmannsthal’s libretto Die Josephslegende, to which Pino and Pia Mlakar adhered, speaks of how the appearance of the popular, successful and handsome young slave Joseph at the Pharaoh’s court completely overwhelms Potiphar’s proud wife. She tries to seduce the young slave, but her overt passion and desire, in which there is no tenderness or trace of emotional gentleness, repulse him. For all her incessant attempts to have the very attractive young man “lie with her and sleep with her,” Joseph remains constant, and his peaceful remoteness, material mastery and placidity drive the infatuated woman to absurd lengths. Her basic sensuality changes into a painful covetousness for this “mystical young man”; in her whirling, unquenchable passions she loses her reason and throws herself onto her knees before Joseph. Yet Joseph does not succumb. Potiphar’s wife, who has entirely bared herself before the handsome young man, remains before him in utter confusion, shamed and insulted; her extreme disappointment and sense of humiliation give way to increasing rage and revenge. At this point Potiphar enters in search of his wife. In the fit of her rage, she points a finger at Joseph, claiming that he had attempted to rape her. Potiphar, livid, orders that Joseph be tortured to death, and during the ensuing torture scene Potiphar’s wife is present. An angel suddenly appears, raising Joseph from the executioner’s ring. Potiphar’s wife is fearful and overcome by a convulsive frenzy and strangles herself with her necklace. Her servants rush to her aid, but too late; the scene shows them lifting the woman’s body onto their shoulders in a procession. At this moment the rotating stage moves; the procession fades away, as does the façade of the Pharaoh’s palace. A new scene comes into view–described by Pino Mlakar as “a wide staircase, whose culmination comes into contact with the Pharaoh’s palace. At the top of the staircase stands Joseph’s guardian angel; Joseph continues descending, step by step, to the last step. In the middle of the staircase the angel remains with extended arms, while the young man’s feet continue to move, reaching the earth that is covered with green grass. He slowly raising his arms to God in thanks and falls to his knees, leaning down to kiss the earth.”147 In their performance of the ballet Die Josephslegende, in which Joseph’s loyalty, purity and reverence for God is tested, Pino and Pia Mlakar link, in an exquisitely artistic manner, the sensual and spiritual experience of the human. The reality of Joseph’s story in their dance is constantly contrasted with the magnificent, and this allows the spectator to recognize

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the borders of his sensual world on the one hand and the superlative, spiritual world on the other, thus finding his internal centre. An awareness of the force of human gravity as well as the present and higher values of the spiritual world constantly beseeches him to overcome his human, sensual nature and to recognize the true essence of life. In his search for ways of realising his vision of an artistic mission–that is, of making his body in motion a “sort of mediator of spirituality” to which he feels linked–Pino Mlakar strongly felt the fundamental opposition between human gravity, the unavoidable planetary attraction of the earth so crucial to the movement of dance.148 Unlike gravity, which “presses man down” a mysterious impulse in him releases physical energy which is converted into dance. This movement creates a magic, a mysterious beauty that arises due to the constant overcoming of the earth’s gravity. In contrast to Mann’s literary manifestation of the biblical motifs, which differs greatly from the Bible in its depiction Joseph’s moral firmness in the face of temptation, Die Josephslegende faithfully follows the biblical idea in the scene with Potiphar’s wife. While her ballet performance shows her to have a completely negative role, as a lustful, desirous woman, who thinks that it is self-understood that she could subjugate the slave and exploit him for “sexual favours,” the figure of Joseph is a firm, constant man, who is repulsed by his master’s wife and her overt lust. Where Potiphar’s wife in the Bible slanders the Hebrew slave to her husband (Gen 39:17-18), in the ballet libretto she even accuses him of rape. The ballet even allows for a dramatic complication that partly deviates from the biblical story, even though it is written in a biblical spirit–while the Joseph of the Bible is thrown into jail after the accusation, in the ballet performance he is physically abused and tortured in the presence of Potiphar’s wife. She derives enjoyment from his punishment, at least until the angel appears. At that point she shudders with fear, as she knows that her treachery has been exposed. In contrast to the biblical story, which speaks no more of Potiphar’s wife, in the ballet she commits suicide by strangling herself with her necklace. The end of the ballet rewards Joseph for his constancy throughout the testing, and the tragic turn of events also shows that the weight of evil is destructive. In the biblical story, but also in various interpretations of the Joseph story, Potiphar’s wife is depicted as a violent, angry, panic-stricken, wild, and aggressive woman, who has ears neither for her internal life nor for her fellow man and his feelings. Because she is not in touch with the strength of the spirit, she attempts to secure the man she wants through subterfuge

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and intrigues. When these means do not succeed, only hard-hearted commanding and aggression remain for her. Although Joseph flees from her throughout the story, he never insults her verbally in her abject helplessness. The opposition in the nature of Joseph’s versus Potiphar’s wife’s love is that Joseph loves unconditionally and devotedly, and he experiences love primarily as renunciation and self-sacrifice in the awareness of the higher, spiritual mission that was revealed to him in his dreams. Potiphar’s wife, meanwhile, comes across as a spoiled woman, who gives herself over to idolatry and games of passion; with growing sensual passion she turns into a covetous woman, romantically infatuated and obsessed with the young slave. Her love is an obsessed, blinding, fatal attraction that can only end tragically.149 Potiphar’s wife is convinced that she must have the mystic Joseph, because in her illusion she imagines that he will reduce her inchoate sense of valuelessness and that his strength will allow for her completion. Because her emotions remain superficial, and there is nothing of the spiritual in her, she will not and cannot renounce the object of her desire and possession. Were she able to renounce Joseph without changing her sexual lust into desire for revenge and sadistic torture, she would be capable of developing a higher form of love. The intersection of a profound focus on passion and the necessity of giving up thoughts of possession of the young slave would place her in a difficult position, with two paths open to her: either insulted revenge or honest submission to a being that she knows will never be hers. But submission would be too much to ask of her. It would demand the cessation of her earlier life, that she curtail her wish, that she die and kill her old self and life more profoundly and actively, in the sense of Goethe from his poem “Selige Sehnsucht”: Das Lebend’ge will ich preisen, Das nach Flammentod sich sehnet. [...] Und solang du das nicht hast, Dieses: Stirb und werde! Bist du nur ein trüber Gast Auf der dunklen Erde.

In Michael Hamburger’s translation: That which is alive I praise, That which longs for death by fire. [...]

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In Die Josephslegende Potiphar’s wife’s passion ends tumultuously, in suicide. Having lost the object of her obsession, because he has been taken from her by the higher power of the angel, she collapses. Although Joseph does not take revenge on her, and does not even expose her, she is too bound in the manacles of her sickly illusions and self-destructive passions to continue living. The only way out for her is death. 2.3.2 Artistic and Religious Experience in Die Josephslegende The dance, in all its gracefulness, naturalness and dramatic embodying of the tempted Joseph, depicts the clear direction in which one should move. This is an individual being tested with the possibilities of either giving himself over to the urges of sensuality or seeking the freedom that can be achieved through renouncing egotism and revering God with the child’s purity. This movement takes one from the foggy, unclear edge of the outer world to the innermost, firmest centre of the soul, from the transitory to the eternal, from the non-essential to the essential, from the lowly to the exalted, from the seeming to the real, from the dispersed to the concentrated, from the profane to the sacred. The expression of movement in the ballet, which is profoundly marked by the religious and which causes catharsis, aims to establish and confirm a sense of reality and an unmediated ideal, which is personified in the figure of Joseph, and emphasises not merely the possibility, but especially the necessity of emulating this ideal. The figure of Joseph of Egypt is an ideal human being. In all of the various existential positions into which his surroundings force him–human evil, envy, jealousy, begrudging, violence, invidiousness, lies–he maintains contact with his inner centre. Saint Augustine wrote in a similar spirit in his Confessions: Even if I were to go down to Hades, you would be present. Accordingly, my God, I would have no being, I would not have any existence, unless you were in my. Or rather, I would have no being if I were not in you “of whom are all things, through whom are all things, in whom are all things” (Rom 2:36). ... How can I call on you to come if I am already in you? Or where can you come from so as to be in me? Can I move outside heaven and earth so that my God may come to me from there? For God has said “I fill heaven and earth” (Jer 23:24)150

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Because Joseph speaks with God throughout all his ordeals, God saves him from seemingly unsalvageable positions: he saves him from prison, he saves him from adultery, and above all he saves him from himself and the possibility that he might return the blows that destiny has sent him in the same manner–by means of violence and revenge, in the sense of an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. The ideal which inspires Joseph continually, because he is devoted to God and does not avoid the embrace of the guardian angel represented in the ballet performance, makes him temperate where others would become maddeningly insulted and possibly even accuse God of having, in spite of all his power, allowed a just individual to suffer, even as those guilty ones who have done great wrong are seemingly protected. In the Die Josephslegende the hero is shown to be an ideal model of a man who unites the ideal of beauty and a sense of the sacred. The idea of the sacred and the symbol of beauty are woven in the ballet into a sensitive figure, into the wholesome appearance of the figure of Joseph. Pino Mlakar was the right person for the role of Joseph of Egypt for a number of reasons: the depth of his spirit, the subtlety of his sense of the ethical,151 his reverence for the sacred, his openness for man and his existence in various states and trials, the emphasis of the spiritual sphere of physical articulation in dance–even when this portrays man’s erotic experience–and not least also the beauty and harmony of his body and soul.152 He took the role, as he always did, extremely seriously and in the ballet he lent his body, his face and his soul to the inexpressible. He gave himself so that through him, his movements, emotions and ratio, the profundity of the wisdom of the Bible came to expression.

CHAPTER THREE HUMAN WEAKNESS AND THE ATTRACTIONS OF SEDUCTION

Longing and Temptation are central themes of biblical narratives and other biblical literary genres such as poetry. Of crucial importance is the second narrative of creation in Genesis, which focuses on the Fall of Adam and Eve (Gen 2:4b-3:24). The appearance of these themes in literature in general invites us to compare their appearance in different eras, languages and cultures in order to define similarities and differences of both content and form. We should not content ourselves with the mere observation of national variations of an attitude to the idea of longing and temptation; rather, we should go further and discern the structural similarities and differences that exist between literary texts. Of primary importance are background forces, such as the sense of objective and subjective rights, harmony within the group, solidarity, and fellowship. Another intriguing question is the degree of formative influence of the Bible upon European and world literature. The overarching aim of this study is to determine whether a particular text is original or represents an adaptation either from the Bible or from extra-biblical literature, and especially what effects the narratives and poems are expected to have on their audiences in analogous crises in their own lives. Any attempt to grasp the polarity between originality and influence in literary traditions must take into account both literature as a system of interrelated texts and man’s innate sense of personal rights, solidarity, sin, and reconciliation. This kind of sensibility means that literary texts are commonly reinterpreted by successive generations as past and present are transformed in an interpretative reanimation of basic beliefs and values. The whole orientation of literature, especially of biblical texts, is towards the future, that is, to the time in which they are interpreted. It is impossible to understand literary texts except by appropriating them anew. Since there is never a situation in human life in which the longing for meaning ceases, interpretation of literary texts is necessarily concerned with the force of

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the text as well as with its form and meaning. Interpretation of such texts as those dealing with issues of longing and temptation is never purely analytical or philological but always entails application to the situation in which the interpretation occurs and to the senses beyond the text. Interpretation in the true sense is never merely formalist or analytical; the relationship to the text is, and always has been, social and dialogical. We do not stand outside of the text but in front of it, open to its questions when confronting new situations.

3.1 Samson and Delilah and the “Strange Woman” in the Bible It is clear that especially the first part of the study dealing with the story of Adam and Eve calls for further studies of relevant literary creations based on the story. Other biblical texts, meanwhile, warrant systematic comparative study, and this is especially the case with the Samson and Delilah narrative (Judg 16:4-22) and the Strange Woman of Proverbs 1-9. To shed more light on the findings of the present study, we present them here in their main thrusts. The relationship between Samson, the twelfth and last judge of Israel (Judg 13-16), and his Philistine wife Delilah (Judg 16:4-22) is yet another remarkable biblical narrative which has had a strong impact on European literature. The Samson and Delilah narrative is principally concerned with the beginning and the end of Samson’s activity. Some aspects of Semitic mythical folklore suggest that the narrative is rooted in Danite folktales and perhaps Philistine story traditions. The Philistines were related to Homer’s Mycenaean Greeks, and the Samson saga has motifs in common with Greek and other Indo-European literatures. And the motif of the strong man overcome by a woman who learns the secret of his strength and reveals it to his enemies is common to folklore around the world. Similarities in several particulars between the story of Samson and that of the Phoenician Melqart, as well as the Greek Hercules, were noticed very early; both Hercules and Samson ultimately perish through the machinations of a woman. The Samson and Delilah narrative is one of the most artfully composed tales in the Bible and presents a subtle study of deception and betrayal. Samson was involved with a Philistine woman, and since the Philistines were the archenemies of the Israelite tribes, it is pursuit of the woman that leads Samson into trouble. Delilah has entered popular history as the voluptuous and treacherous temptress who exploits Samson’s love and confidence and betrays him to his enemies. Delilah

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proves to be strong enough to break down the resolve of the insuperable hero, and Samson in the end appears weak because of his love for a foreign wife. The Philistines attribute their victory over Samson not to Delilah but to their god (16:23-24). Keeping the national context in view, Delilah would appear to be a Philistine version of the Israelite woman Jael, who brought about the downfall of an enemy of Israel through deception (Judg 4:17-22; 5:24-30).153 However, there are fundamental differences between the roles of the two women: Delilah betrays her lover Samson for a huge bribe, while Jael is a free person and kills, through deceptive means, the commander of the enemy’s army who had fled after a defeat. The characters of Saul’s son Jonathan and daughter Michal illustrate how difficult it would be to excuse Delilah’s attitude towards her husband simply because she belonged to a foreign people. On the wedding day of the King of Israel, who married a woman from a foreign country, the assembled people sing: “Hear, O daughter, consider and incline your ear; forget your people and your father’s house, and the king will desire your beauty” (Ps 45:10). Jonathan and Michal remained faithful to David (see 1 Sam 18:17-20:42) even though their father was able to give David his own daughter “that she may be a snare for him and that the hand of the Philistines may be against him” (1 Sam 18:21). Samson’s death, as a fatal result of the powerful passion that induced him to the violation of his Nazirite vow, resulted in a moral about-face. The Jewish historian Josephus presents the Samson and Delilah narrative in great detail and interprets both his strength and his weakness.154 According to the general interpretation of biblical scholars, Samson’s heroic and spectacular death signifies a return to his original mission. The story impressed many writers and it has thus inspired many new stories, the most famous being John Milton’s Samson Agonistes, which artfully describes the signs of Samson’s weakness. Viewed in the larger context of the Bible and the role of symbolism, typology and literary devices in general, the most striking role of the motif of temptation and seduction attempted by a “Strange Woman” is seen in the first part of the Book of Proverbs (chapters 1-9, esp. 5-7). This section purports to give parental advice to children and to reinforce the ethos of the family. The father warns the “son” against the temptations of adulterous women who address the secret desire in the hearts of young men. The admonition on sexual morality is addressed to men and functions to encourage a personal commitment in marital fidelity and to explore the dark side of the exotic and forbidden pleasures that bring about the

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downfall of those who commit adultery. The concluding warning reads: “Do not let your hearts turn aside to her ways; do not stray into her paths. For many are those she has laid low, and numerous are her victims. Her house is the way to Sheol, going down to the chambers of death” (Prov 7:25-27).155 The metaphorical language opens wide the possibility to identify in the human type of the Strange Woman a symbol of folly, sensuality, or heresy. Because Lady Wisdom is her antithesis, humans must decide in principle for one or for the other option. The contrast between Lady Wisdom and the Strange Woman is strongly reminiscent of The Choice of Hercules, as retold by Xenophon on the basis of the lost work of the philosopher Prodicus (c. 460-395 BC); this was written as a popular lecture intended for a general audience.156 When Hercules had left boyhood, he was at a solitary moment approached by two women: The first one was Joy, also called Virtue; the second was Happiness, with the nickname Vice. These personifications of Virtue and Vice argued cogently for their respective merits and offers. Heracles chose the arduous path of Virtue, which brings greater ultimate happiness.

3.2 The Motif of a Deceived Girl in Goethe’s Faust We also encounter a tragic tale about a deceived girl in Goethe’s Faust, the most sublime version of the tale of Doctor Faust, his thirst for knowledge and his pact with the Devil. Along with the legends of Tristan and Isolde, as well as Don Juan, the Faust story is the best-known and most inspiring mythical tales to have extended into the Classical and Romantic eras of European art. The first part of Goethe’s Faust relates a story of seduction, while the second part focuses on the hero Faust and his potential happiness–the condition of the wager with Mephistopheles. Only if Faust can improve the world in which he lives can this happiness occur. Faust’s search for the meaning of life, Margaret’s pain, and Mephistopheles’ cunning evil has inspired many a composer and writer.157 In Faust, a battle rages between good and evil. Whereas the world of God and of honest living is rather firmly determined and limited, the world of Satan and those he deceives is less solid, which is why it is possible to seek a foothold in that more honest world even when surrounded by fog and wilderness. The section about Faust’s seduction of Margaret ends in tragedy for her. Goethe describes the unsettling, exciting sensation Faust feels on first encountering Margaret on the street. In the scene “Street,” Margaret rejects

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his offer to accompany her home; Faust remains moved by the meeting, touched by her beauty and humility. When Mephistopheles appears, Faust demands that he gain Margaret for him. Bayard Taylor’s seminal translation reads: And if that image of delight Rest not within mine arms to-night, At midnight is our compact broken. (2636-8)

When Mephistopheles responds that he would need at least two weeks to find the right opportunity, Faust angrily retorts that he could win her himself in a mere seven hours. Mephistopheles tells him: You almost like a Frenchman prate; Yet, pray, don't take it as annoyance! Why, all at once, exhaust the joyance? Your bliss is by no means so great As if you'd use, to get control, All sorts of tender rigmarole, And knead and shape her to your thought, As in Italian tales 'tis taught. (2645-52)

Faust is impatient with desire, but Mephistopheles advises him not to be too hasty with such a girl–“By storm she cannot captured be; / We must make use of strategy” (2656-7)–and reveals his plan for seduction. When Margaret visits her neighbour in the evening, Faust will be able to be secretly present, “With every hope of future pleasure, / Breathing her atmosphere in fullest measure” (2659-60). Faust agrees, and concerns himself with producing some sort of gift for Margaret. In her humble, neat room we later see Margaret curiously musing about the handsome man she has encountered; Faust and Mephistopheles examine her room and breathe in its intoxicating air. Faust is overcome by premonitions of pleasure and when he raises Margaret's bed-curtains, he feels the thrill of loving reverie. Margaret, meanwhile, changes and when she opens the cupboard to retrieve her dress, she finds a jewellery box. She wonders at the arrival of this casket, which has mysteriously appeared in her cupboard, and is benumbed by the gold that she now has in her possession. Despite her enthusiasm, she remains aware that such adornment does not become a girl like her – and in the event her mother later donates the treasure to the church.

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But she soon finds a second casket, containing jewellery that is even more splendid and precious than the previous gift. Margaret’s friend Martha tells her not to mention this gift to her mother, as she would again have to confess its existence and origins. As the jewellery seems too precious to risk wearing in public, the women intend to wear it in private, with only the mirror as a witness. Mephistopheles arrives as Margaret is thus adorned, in order to inform Martha that her “husband's dead, and sends a greeting” (2916). He is buried near Padua. He tells Margaret, meanwhile, that a girl such as her is fit for marriage or, if it is too soon for that, then at least a “beau.” Margaret makes it clear that such is not the custom of the country; Mephistopheles quips that such pre-marital dalliances happen nonetheless. As Mephistopheles relates to Martha her husband’s final words, he states also that two witnesses are required to confirm the death, exiting at this point to fetch Faust. Mephistopheles speaks alone with Faust regarding Martha’s late husband, whose limbs, “outstretched and pallid / At Padua rest” (3036-7), and tells him that both of the women are enthusiastic about the encounter. In the evening, the two couples, Margaret with Faust, and Martha with Mephistopheles, walk together in the garden. Margaret feels honoured, almost unworthy of walking with such an esteemed and erudite teacher, but Faust consoles her: “Trust me, dear heart! what men call sensible / Is oft mere vanity and narrowness” (3100-1). Faust tells her that one look from her is worth more to him than all the wisdom of the world; Margaret confidingly reveals that she was born after her father’s death, that her sister has perished, her brother is a soldier, and that she lives alone with her mother. Faust excuses himself for having shamelessly disturbed her on her path to church when he first offered to escort her home. Margaret is by now entirely infatuated with Faust, and she plucks a flower, pulling the petals off one by one and intoning, “He loves me—loves me not,” before pausing at the final petal and saying: “he loves me.” Faust, excited, takes her by the hand: O tremble not! but let this look, Let this warm clasp of hands declare thee What is unspeakable! To yield one wholly, and to feel a rapture In yielding, that must be eternal! Eternal!—for the end would be despair.

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No, no,—no ending! no ending! (3188-3195)

Night falls, and Margaret will not allow Faust to accompany her, as she is fearful of her mother’s reaction. Even as they arrange a meeting for the next day, Margaret remains puzzled about why such a wise man would find love interest in such a simple, poor girl. In the next scene, Faust thinks in solitary delight about Margaret and feels a sense of bliss. Mephistopheles arrives and states that Margaret keenly desires Faust, which angers Faust, because this “serpent” has awakened a sense of lust that benumbs the senses. When Margaret once again meets with Faust, she attempts to whether he is a believer, though she is disappointed with his answers. She also expresses her disinclination for his Mephistopheles, saying, “I feel his presence like something ill” She tells Faust:

discern evasive friend (3477).

I am so happy on thine arm, So free, so yielding, and so warm, And in his presence stifled seems my heart. (3491-3494)

And: That wheresoe'er he meets us, even, I feel as though I'd lost my love for thee. When he is by, I could not pray to Heaven. That burns within me like a flame, And surely, Henry, 'tis with thee the same. (3484-92)

Faust wishes to spend time alone with her in the evening, but Margaret remains concerned that her mother might discover them. Three drops of sleeping potion from a phial, provided by Mephistopheles, are Faust’s answer to the problem. In a later scene, Margaret meets a friend at a fountain and learns that a girl named Barbara has been impregnated. The friend passes harsh judgement: And so, at last, it serves her rightly. She clung to the fellow so long and tightly! That was a promenading! At village and dance parading! As the first they must everywhere shine, And he treated her always to pies and wine,

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And she made a to-do with her face so fine; So mean and shameless was her behavior, She took all the presents the fellow gave her. 'Twas kissing and coddling, on and on! So now, at the end, the flower is gone. (3551-61)

Remarking further, “So now her head no more she'll lift, / But do churchpenance in her sinner's shift!” (3568-9) Margaret is forced to reflect on and regret the fact that she herself had often condemned such individuals: “And now—a living sin am I! / Yet— all that drove my heart thereto, / God! was so good, so dear, so true!” (3584-5) Margaret is next seen praying before a Mater Dolorosa figure surrounding by flower pots. She confesses her pain, states that her heart is grief-ridden, her soul tormented, and she prays to the Virgin to stand by her side. The next scene shows a group of soldiers, including Margaret’s brother Valentine, assembled before Margaret’s door. Valentine’s fellow soldiers praise Margaret’s unparalleled beauty and virtue. They hear Mephistopheles and Faust, as Mephistopheles plays a cither for Margaret and serenades her. This enrages Valentine: Whom wilt thou lure? God's-element! Rat-catching piper, thou!—perdition! To the Devil, first, the instrument! To the Devil, then, the curst musician! (3698-3702)

A fight ensues, and Valentine realizes that Mephistopheles has suddenly and mysteriously made his hand lame. Mephistopheles cajoles Faust into stabbing Valentine with his sword, and Valentine succumbs to blow. Before dying, however, he warns Margaret: My Margaret, see! still young thou art, But not the least bit shrewd or smart, Thy business thus to slight: So this advice I bid thee heed— Now that thou art a whore indeed, Why, be one then, outright! (3726-31) In this game let our Lord God be! What's done's already done, alas! What follows it, must come to pass.

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Part I: Chapter Three With one begin'st thou secretly, Then soon will others come to thee, And when a dozen thee have known, Thou'rt also free to all the town. (3733-38) When Shame is born and first appears, She is in secret brought to light, And then they draw the veil of night Over her head and ears; Her life, in fact, they're loath to spare her. But let her growth and strength display, She walks abroad unveiled by day, Yet is not grown a whit the fairer. The uglier she is to sight, The more she seeks the day's broad light. The time I verily can discern When all the honest folk will turn From thee, thou jade! and seek protection As from a corpse that breeds infection. (3750-3754) I tell thee, from thy tears refrain! When thou from honor didst depart It stabbed me to the very heart. Now through the slumber of the grave I go to God as a soldier brave. (3771-3775)

Valentine dies, Margaret goes to the cathedral to pray, but while there an Evil Spirit whispers maliciously to her, and she feels surrounded by a sin and shame she can no longer hide. The Evil Spirit says: How otherwise was it, Margaret, When thou, still innocent, Here to the altar cam'st, And from the worn and fingered book Thy prayers didst prattle, Half sport of childhood, Half God within thee! Margaret! Where tends thy thought? Within thy bosom What hidden crime? Pray'st thou for mercy on thy mother's soul, That fell asleep to long, long torment, and through thee? Upon thy threshold whose the blood? And stirreth not and quickens Something beneath thy heart,

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Thy life disquieting With most foreboding presence? (3776-3793)

In the scene “Dreary Day,” in which Faust awakens from the trance-like circumstances of Walpurgis-Night,158 he becomes aware of what has happened to Margaret, namely that she has been locked up for infanticide in a dungeon and suffers intolerable pangs. Faust commands Mephistopheles to take him to visit her in order that she may be freed, and Mephistopheles reluctantly agrees to becloud the jailor’s senses and secure a key for Faust to take Margaret away from the cell. And so it is that Faust comes to stand before the iron gate, overwhelmed by a sense of her condition. Approaching her, Faust expresses his sense of guilt: A shudder, long unfelt, comes o'er me; Mankind's collected woe o'erwhelms me, here. She dwells within the dark, damp walls before me, And all her crime was a delusion dear! What! I delay to free her? I dread, once again to see her? On! my shrinking but lingers Death more near. (4405-4411)

From inside the prison, he hears Margaret’s song, Goethe’s variation on an old folk tale: My mother, the harlot, Who put me to death; My father, the varlet, Who eaten me hath! Little sister, so good, Laid my bones in the wood, In the damp moss and clay: Then was I a beautiful bird o' the wood; Fly away! Fly away! (4412-4420)

Faust calls her, and Margaret’s heart fills with joy and hope when she hears his voice. He releases her from the chains that bind her, Margaret embraces and kisses him, and the two then flee. Margaret tells him: My mother have I put to death; I've drowned the baby born to thee. Was it not given to thee and me? Thee, too!—'Tis thou! It scarcely true doth seem— Give me thy hand! 'Tis not a dream! Thy dear, dear hand!—But, ah, 'tis wet! Why, wipe it off! Methinks that yet

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Part I: Chapter Three There's blood thereon. Ah, God! what hast thou done? Nay, sheathe thy sword at last! Do not affray me! (4507-4517)

Faust consoles her, saying she should not think of the past, and at the same time acknowledges that her words cause him great pain. Margaret beseeches him to take care that her mother, brother, herself, and her baby might have a grave. For all Faust’s attempts at removing her from the prison, Margaret resists, as she no longer believes in freedom: I dare not go: there's no hope any more. Why should I fly? They'll still my steps waylay! It is so wretched, forced to beg my living, And a bad conscience sharper misery giving! It is so wretched, to be strange, forsaken, And I'd still be followed and taken! (4544-4549)

Faust is determined to remain by her side, but Margaret tells him that death awaits her: Day? Yes, the day comes,—the last day breaks for me! My wedding-day it was to be! Tell no one thou has been with Margaret! Woe for my garland! The chances Are over—'tis all in vain! We shall meet once again, But not at the dances! The crowd is thronging, no word is spoken: The square below And the streets overflow: The death-bell tolls, the wand is broken. I am seized, and bound, and delivered— Shoved to the block—they give the sign! Now over each neck has quivered The blade that is quivering over mine. Dumb lies the world like the grave! (4580-4595)

Faust implores her to follow him, but at this point Mephistopheles informs them that they will both be lost if they tarry longer. Margaret nevertheless refuses, saying, “Judgment of God! myself to thee I give” (4605) and then: Thine am I, Father! rescue me! Ye angels, holy cohorts, guard me, Camp around, and from evil ward me!

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Henry! I shudder to think of thee. (4604-4610)

Mephistopheles intones that she has been “judged,”159 before a voice from above announces that Margaret “is saved!” (4611)

3.3 Longing and Temptation in Ballads by Heinrich Heine, France Prešeren and Simon Jenko A number of myths, tales, ballads, plays, novels and other forms of literary texts in which oftentimes real events are woven into the web of history with the thread of lyrical imagination speak descriptively not only of past longing and temptation, but also of that which happens in the present and will continue to happen as long as humanity dwells on earth. Longing and temptation have been central themes in a number of tales from all nations and times, from the oldest mythological and legend-based folk traditions to the most modern of literary works. We also discover these themes in Romantic ballads in Slovenian and other European literatures. As Eleazar Meletinsky notes, though Romantic philosophy sees in myth first and foremost an aesthetic phenomenon, at the same time myth is for these philosophers a prototype of artistic creating with profound symbolic significance. The primary goal of Romantic philosophy went beyond the traditional allegorical interpretation of myth, which occasionally appears in Heine, in favour of symbolic interpretation. In this philosophy we thus encounter, also, the basis for a historical approach to myth and its various “national” forms, albeit in very abstract and idealistic terms.160 In this section I present threee poems from the perspective of longing, weakness and temptation: Heinrich Heine's 1827 ballad “Ich weiss nicht, was soll es bedeuten,” also known as “Die Lorelei,” which describes how a sailor was overcome by the siren-song of the beautiful Lorelei and driven to his death; France Prešeren's ballad “Ribiþ” (“The Fisherman,” 1838), which employs the symbolism of seductive mermaids to express the poet's dejection because his longing for his romantic love (Julija Primic) has been exchanged for sensual desire for another woman (Ana Jelovšek); and Simon Jenko's ballad “Morski Duhovi” (“The Sea Spirits,” 1858), which portrays the fairy-tale world of temptation that overcomes a sleeping soldier on guard duty before he is torn from its embrace by reality. In these poems we see motivic similarity (and there is a clear influence of Heine on Prešeren and Jenko), but also differing viewpoints. These are due

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primarily to the expressed individuality of the poets, the echo of their personal experience in their grasping of life and love, but also partly the prevailing philosophy, stylistic and intellectual directions as well as the poetics of the times in which they lived.

3.3.1 Longing, Temptation and Ruin in Heine's Ballad “Ich weiss nicht, was soll es bedeuten” In the poem “Ich weiss nicht, was soll es bedeuten,” which appears in the cycle of poems “Die Heimkehr” (“Homecoming”) from Heine's collection Buch der Lieder (“Book of Songs”), Heine employs the motif of the Lorelei, who is analogous to the sirens of Greek mythology.161 According to German folklore, the Lorelei was perched upon a cliff above the Rhine, and her alluring song led seamen to their deaths as their boats smashed into the rocks below; the poem symbolizes the baneful enchantment of the senses, which cloud rationality and lead one to ruin.162 Heine's poem in the original reads: Ich weiȕ nicht was soll es bedeuten, Daȕ ich so traurig bin; Ein Märchen aus alten Zeiten, Das kommt mir nicht aus dem Sinn. Die Luft ist kühl und es dunkelt, Und ruhig flieȕt der Rhein; Der Gipfel des Berges funkelt Im Abensonnenschein. Die schönste Jungfrau sitzet Dort oben wunderbar; Ihr goldnes Geschmeide blitzet, Sie kämmt ihr goldenes Haar. Sie kämmt es mit goldenem Kamme Und singt ein Lied dabei; Das hat eine wundersame, Gewaltige Melodei. Den Schiffer im kleinen Schiffe Ergreift es mit wildem Weh; Er schaut nicht die Felsenriffe, Er schaut nur hinauf in die Höh. Ich glaube, die Wellen verschlingen

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Am Ende Schiffer und Kahn; Und das hat mit ihrem Singen Die Lorelei getan.

Here is the poem in Mark Twain's famous translation from his 1880 A Tramp Abroad: The Lorelei I cannot divine what it meaneth, This haunting nameless pain: A tale of the bygone ages Keeps brooding through my brain: The faint air cools in the glooming, And peaceful flows the Rhine, The thirsty summits are drinking The sunset's flooding wine; The loveliest maiden is sitting High-throned in yon blue air, Her golden jewels are shining, She combs her golden hair; She combs with a comb that is golden, And sings a weird refrain That steeps in a deadly enchantment The list'ner's ravished brain: The doomed in his drifting shallop, Is tranced with the sad sweet tone, He sees not the yawning breakers, He sees but the maid alone: The pitiless billows engulf him!-So perish sailor and bark; And this, with her baleful singing, Is the Lorelei's gruesome work.

In his ballad Heine repeats an old story of which he cannot stop thinking. As dusk falls upon the peacefully murmuring Rhine, this Rusalka figure perches temptingly above the river, surrounded by hills shining golden in the evening sun. The loveliest of maidens, she is covered in glittering jewellery and combs her golden hair. While combing her hair, she sings a strange refrain that has a hypnotising power of enchantment. The sailor

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hears her singing as he navigates the Rhine in a small boat, “tranced with the sad sweet tone.” Casting off all concern for the dangerous rocks, he makes straight for the beautiful maiden. The poet fear notes with horror that the sailor has been condemned to death in the depths of the river, ruined by the beautiful Lorelei.

3.3.2 Longing and Temptation in Prešeren's Ballad “Ribiþ” (“The Fisherman,” 1838) Like Heine's poem about the Lorelei, France Prešeren's ballad “The Fisherman” portrays impulses of sensual love, desire and temptation which prove not only delusory but even ruinous for the protagonist. In the original Slovenian, Prešeren's poem reads: Ribiþ Mlad ribiþ cele noþi veslá, visoko na nebi zvezda miglja, nevarne mu kaže pota morjá. Veþ let mu žarki zvezde lepé ljubezen sijejo v mlado srce, mu v prsih budijo þiste željé. Ah kaki vihar od déleþ preti, ah kaki se morski som privali, ah káko mu brezno nasproti reži Na zvezdo gledjóþ vihtí, bo otet; mlad ribiþ od þistega ognja vnet, po morji je varno veslal veþ let. Enkràt se valovi morjá razdelé, prikažejo 'z njih se dekleta lepé, do pasa morske dekleta nagé, Se kopljejo, smejajo, tak pojó: “O, sreþen ribiþ, srce zvestó! kak dolgo še misliš ti gledati v njo? Povej nam, ribiþ! Povej zares, al þakaš, de pade zvezda 'z nebes, al, de bi k nji zlêtel, þakaš peres?

Longing, Weakness and Temptation: From Myth to Artistic Creations Bilo bi drugemu þákat dolgþas, bilo bi drugemu þákat mraz, bi drugi se ne ogibal nas. Nocoj bi drugi odprl oþi, bi videl, kak blizo strelca163 stoji, lepota, ki zanjo srce ti gori.” O, res je, da bi tako ne bilo! vse res, kar dekleta morske pojó; obup mu zaliva srce zvestó. Fant s celo moþjo se v veslo upre, Ni mar skalovjà mu, viharjov ne, Niþ veþ se na zvezdo ne ozre. Naprej brez miru svoj þoln drví; al tàk za pevkami ribiþ hiti, kdo ve! al sam pred seboj beži. Zgubljen je, vtopljen, se bojim; kdor ljubi brez upa, ga svarim, nikar naj ne vesla za njim!

In V. de S. Pinto's translation: A young fisherman sailed on night after night: High in the heaven a Star shed her light, Making his path through waves safe and bright. The star’s radiant beauty for many a year Fired his young heart as on he would steer The love in his breast shone pure and clear. Whenever a tempest down on him bore, Or a sea monster the waters tore, While billowy chasms gaped with a roar. The fisherman turned to his Star that glowed: No matter how many dangers there showed, He was still safe on his watery road. But one day the sea its surface unfurls; From the deep there arises a bevy of girl, Round their naked waists the water swirls. They splash and they laugh, and this is their song: “O faithful young fisher, you do yourself wrong!

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Part I: Chapter Three How long will you gaze at the Star, how long?” Just tell us, O fisherman, tell us,” they cry, “Do you wait for the Star to fall from the sky? Or till you grow wings in the heavens to fly?” One man would get bored with such a delay, Another would freeze once the fire died away, A third would not shun the delights of our play. A fourth would perhaps be amused at the sight Of your Star who up there in her heavenly height Clings lovingly close to the Archer tonight.” Alas it was true. O would they had lied! The truth of their song could not be denied. In his faithful heart all hope had died. His boat drifts on as he leans on his oar, He cares not for whirlpool or craggy shore, He looks for his Star in the heavens no more. Thus on through the sea without rest he must roll– A perilous voyage; and what is his goal? A chase for the mermaids? A flight from his soul? He surely will perish, will drown indeed: All you who love without hope, take heed Never to follow his dangerous lead.164

This ballad is structured according to the typically Slavonic tonic accent and swings freely in dactylic metre with contracted forms and rhyming triplets. Prešeren forms the figure of a fisherman who sails the whole night through, a Star high above him in the heavens guiding him along on his dangerous path and keeping him safe. The Star is an image of his love (Julija Primic) who inspired him “for many a year,” and this gentle, shining love kept him safe from the dangers that may have befallen him on the waters–be it “a tempest,” “a sea monster,” or “billowy chasms.” Thus guided, the young fisherman “turned to his Star that glowed” and remained “safe on his watery road.” But the poem then reports that one day the sea parts and beautiful mermaids appear, with “naked waists” to him. They laugh as they bathe and sing teasingly to the fisherman: “O faithful young fisher, you do yourself wrong! How long will you gaze at the Star, how long?”

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Amidst their laughter, the maidens whisper to the fisherman that the Star of which he is so enamoured will not fall from the heavens into his lap, and neither does he have wings to fly towards it. After they plant distrust in the realization of his ideal, loving longing, his doubts begins to increase, as they begin to seduce him verbally: One man would get bored with such a delay, Another would freeze once the fire died away, A third would not shun the delights of our play.

They add that his beautiful Star is already claimed, as they have seen her in the presence of the Archer. The song of the mermaid jolts the fisherman, and he must admit: Alas it was true. O would they had lied! The truth of their song could not be denied. In his faithful heart all hope had died.

The previous hope and pure longing that had protected him from the waves transforms itself into a dark desperation. The poem relates: His boat drifts on as he leans on his oar, He cares not for whirlpool or craggy shore, He looks for his Star in the heavens no more.

His boat irrationally chases after the beautiful singers, and the poet fears for the fisherman, asking rhetorically, “what is his goal?” The fisherman floats wildly, blindly after the mermaids and the poet ends his tale with resignation: He surely will perish, will drown indeed: All you who love without hope, take heed Never to follow his dangerous lead.

Although the image of a fisher was a popular one from the period of preRomanticism forth, in the case of Prešeren's ballad it is especially evocative because it is connected with the author, who was a “of fishermen” (“Ribcev”) according to the local name of his family. In the poem there is a rejecting of idealized love in favour of the sensual, and this is linked to Prešeren’s biographical experiences–at the end of his so-called Julia period and his relationship with Ana Jelovšek. Also in the tenth poem from Heinrich Heine's “Homecoming” group, which evokes Jenko's poem, we come across the motif of a mermaid, who beseeches the poet:

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Part I: Chapter Three Nehmt mein Haupt in euren Schoß, Leib und Seel' sei hingegeben! Singt mich tot und herzt mich tot, Kußt mir aus der Brust das Leben!

In loose English translation: In your lap let me rest my head, May body and soul be sacrificed! Sing, embrace me till I’m dead, Kiss, from my breast, my very life!

In the concluding lines of Prešeren's “The Fisherman,” there is a similar fear on the part of the poet as in Heine's poem about Lorelei. Prešeren's poem sternly concludes with a warning that the fisherman is no example for others, as his actions will surely lead to his demise through drowning.

3.3.3 The Longing, Temptation and Disillusion of the Sleeping Soldier in Jenko's Ballad “Morski duhovi” (“The Sea Spirits,” 1858) The motif of longing and temptation is also included in the ballad “The Sea Spirits” by the Slovenian poet and story-writer Simon Jenko, whose creations sprang up at the crossroads between Romanticism and Realism.165 His affinities and influences are to be found in France Prešeren, later in Heine, Byron and Lermontov, but he was influenced by them completely in his own manner. Absent in Jenko is the “classical” type of European poetry, its demanding renaissance artistic forms and its high style–that is, all which Prešeren masterfully realized. Jenko sought different points of departure: the model of simple Slovenian and Slavic folk poems.166 Between Romanticism and Realism, Jenko led Slovenian poetry also into the “unclassical” direction, the forerunner of poetical modernism. In Prešeren's elegy “Slovo od mladosti” (“A Farewell to my Youth”) Jenko saw the contradiction between youthful illusions and real, active viewing life from afar he directly formed this conflict in his poem “Kdo mi da Sanje” (“Who Gives me Dreams?”) and in the “The Sea Spirits.”167 Jenko's ballad (written in Vienna, 1858) depicts the temptation that overcomes a man in a dream vision. It speaks of a guard, a soldier “at a castle fast by the sea,” who one night, as the mighty bora wind blows and whips the sea waves against the rocks on the shore, falls asleep. At

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midnight, the sea, which “is home to unknown spirits,” yields these up; the air becomes heavy, a “gloomy fog races over the water,” the winds subside and the soldier drifts into reverie. In a vision he sees how from a dark fog clear-bodied spirits with golden shells ride glittering fish. From across the sea their dance begins, accompanied by horns and echoing singing unknown to human ears. Suddenly the dancing stops and the singing ceases; a strong gale picks up, whipping the winds and sweeping all off to the sea. The soldier is seized by the spirits and they lift him off the ground like a feather, driving him forth into the sea as they all sink into the “dashing waves.” At the depths of the sea the spirits have their glass castle with silver doors, and in the castle there is a hall with a gold table in the centre and behind the table a golden throne. On the golden throne sits the Emperor, with his beautiful daughter to the right of him; her beauty intoxicates and rattles the soldier, and he begins to drown in sensual temptations: Morski duhovi Pri gradu tik mórja pa stražnik stojí, ob glavi razljúþena burja mu vije, šumenje valóv na ušesa mu bije, ob skali na bregu se voda pení. Al' strah, al' te groza ni, revni vojak? Morjé je neznanih duhóv domovina, o polnoþi se jim odpré globoþina in þudno težák in napolnjen je zrak. In temna meglà se podi þez vodo, se dviga in miga in težka se niža, dirjáje oddálja in zopet se bliža– Vetrovje potihne, morjé je mirnó. Iz temne meglé pa množina duhóv posúje se v školjkah od zláta blešþéþih, prijezdi na ribah srebrno svetéþih ter vije se þudno k glasovom rogóv. Kak' hiter, kak' jasen, kak' þuden je ples, ki suþe þez morje se mirno in plano in petje þloveškim ušesom neznano razléga k vihranju se jasnih telés.

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Part I: Chapter Three Rajánje zastane in petje nehá, pa kakor na Krasu povzdígne se burja ter vije viharna in brije do morja, tak dvigne se trop in tak k bregu vihrá. Vojaka zagrabi množina duhóv, peréscu enako od tal ga pobere, nevíhti enako po morju z njim dere, pogrezne z njim v brezno se drznih valóv. Duhovi imajo tam doli svoj grad, steklene so stene, srebrna so vrata, dvorana je v gradu, v nji miza je zlata, za mizo postavljen pa prestol je zlat. Na zlatem prestolu pa cesar sedí, na desno posádil si hþerko je zalo, ni taki lepoti še sonce sijálo, þloveško okó je še videlo ni. Vojaka poprime preþudna oblast, srcé se mu širi in huje mu bije, rudeþa vroþíca mu lica zalije, pretrésa vse ude neznana mu slast. Nezbrane mu misli po glavi vršé; kar z zlatega stola devíca se dvigne, smehljáje mu z živim oþesom pomigne in svoje prebele poda mu roké. In zbora nevidnega glas zadoní, plesavke s plesavci se v krog zavrtíjo, da v þutih se rajskih jim srca topíjo, obleka šumí in ves svet se vrtí. Vojak cesaríþino stisne þez pas: Jaz tvoj sem, ti moja, niþ naju ne loþi, ti moja na veke, al' srce mi poþi– Pa þuj, kako znan se razlega mu glas! Glas kládiva v gradu enó zabrenþí, vojak se prestraši, oþí si pomane, Pred njim pa patrulja tovar'šev obstane Ter drugemu stražo tik morja 'zroþi.”168

The poem in prosaic English translation:

Longing, Weakness and Temptation: From Myth to Artistic Creations The Sea Spirits At a castle fast by the sea stood a guard, Around his head the raging bora did roar The rustling waves beat his ears And the water foamed against the rocks on the shore. Aren't you scared, aren't you frightened, poor soldier? The sea is home to unknown spirits, And at midnight they emerge from the depths And the air becomes strangely heavy and full. And the gloomy fog races above the water, It lifts and moves and descends heavily, Drifting far off, and again drawing near– The winds fall silent, the sea is calm. From the gloomy fog a mass of spirits Scatters forth in shells shining gold, Riding on fish shining silver And bends strangely to the sounds of horns. How swift, how clear, how strange is the dance That whips across the sea so calm and flat, And the singing is unknown to human ears As it echoes the swinging of clear bodies. The dancing ceases and the singing stops And the bora picks up, as it does in the Karst, And drives the howling storm to the sea, And thus is the herd driven to the shore. The soldier is seized by the mass of spirits, And lifted feather-like from the ground, And they move storm-like over the sea, Submerging him into a chasm of dashing waves. The spirits have their castle down there, The walls are of glass, the doors of silver, There's a hall in the castle, in it a golden table, Behind this table there is a golden throne. The Emperor sits on the golden throne, At his right sits his beautiful daughter; On such beauty the sun has never shone, And never have human eyes seen it.

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Part I: Chapter Three The soldier is taken by a strange power, His heart swells and beats furiously, Red fever comes over his lips, And an unknown passion shakes all his limbs. Confused thoughts rush through his head And from a golden chair the maiden rises, Smiling, she beckons with fecund eyes, And offers him her too-white hand. From a chorus invisible a sound resounds And dancers whirl in a circle, And in heavenly senses their hearts melt The gowns rustle and the world spins. The soldier squeezes the Empress’s waist I am yours, you are mine, nothing will divide us, You're mine forever, else my heart will burst– But listen, how familiar sounds this voice. The sound of the hammer in the castle strikes one, The soldier is startled, he rubs his eyes, Before him a patrol of comrades stops, And the guard is changed fast by the sea.

In this ballad the soldier experiences temptation in his dreams, as he slumbers while on night duty. The temptation in the poem becomes so vivid that the soldier lustfully grabs the woman’s waist, but in that very instant a nearby bell tolls the hour, awakening him, and the lovely image disappears. The soldier's night duty ends with the toll of the bell and another soldier replaces him. Here Jenko establishes an ironic contrast, and it is this ironic contrast that dispels the illusion. The poem reveals the poet's division between Romantic and realistic concepts of love, which appear as painful dissonance between emotional illusions and rational doubts in love.169 This is based on his personal experience–many of Jenko's tales bear witness to the poet's searching for the meaning in life in love, but being constantly disappointed anew in woman.170

3.3.4 Parallels and Differences in the Motif of Temptation in Heine, Prešeren and Jenko The ballads by Simon Jenko, France Prešeren and Heinrich Heine are similar in their use of the central motif of longing and temptation of a male figure who, on meeting mysterious, sin-inducing women, meets a tragic

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end. Jenko, Prešeren and Heine depict a man’s encounter with an attractive female who, behind the vision of a preternatural beauty, conceals ruinous, wicked intent. Swept away by longing and desire the men do not realize the danger that hides behind the external beauty and seductive rhetoric. Whereas in Prešeren and Heine's poems the men give themselves over to temptation, in Jenko's poem the solider is rescued from the same. Whereas the first two, Romantic, poems remain in the world of demonic forces that play with man and can also destroy him, Jenko's poem, written somewhat later, concludes with the humorous entrance of the hero into a reality that makes the illusions disappear. Here love seems to be a mere momentary gleam and no longer a primal power with which human life begins and ends. Although all three poems are narrative in nature, their content is symbolic. All the feminine being depicted–Prešeren's mermaids, Jenko's “The Sea Spirits” that lead the soldier into temptation, and also Heine's Rusalka-like Lorelei, who drives the sailor with her to the depths of the sea–allegorically represent the danger or even death that lurks after man under the mask of harmless, even loving and beautiful beings with hypnotising voices.171 As in Homer's Odyssey or in Heine's poem about the Siren-like Lorelei, in Jenko's “The Sea Spirits” there is a description of the surf at the rocky shore, which stands for the object of fear and anxiety. Cliffs were formerly associated with sea monsters; in stories about seamen, such as the Odyssey, they are imbued with a sense of evil. They are all the more terrifying because the seaman is already contending with great difficulties, for example with the wind and the night; cliffs can destroy the unfortunate warrior. The heated, whirling dances of the spirits in Jenko's poem, which drag the seduced soldier down to the depths of the sea, are somewhat evocative of Urška's ecstatic dance with the Underwater Man in Prešeren’s ballad, in which the Underwater Man takes Urška to the depths of the Ljubljanica River. A leap into, or drowning in sailor’s boat smashes into the sea spirits pull the soldier to included in those versions of resists abduction by leaping

the sea–such as seen in Heine when the rocks and sinks, in Simon Jenko when the the bottom of the sea, and which is also the ballad about Fair Vida in which Vida into the sea and drowning–symbolically

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represents a life rupture. The most probable rupture in Prešeren, Jenko and Heine's ballads is in their experience of love and life. In the Bible, waves are, among other things, a symbol of malicious physical or natural danger. In Psalm 18, we read: The cords of death encompassed me; the torrents of perdition assailed me; the cords of Sheol entangled me; the snares of death confronted me.172

In Jenko's ballad the castle is the goal, and it is there that the soldier's longing will be stilled. In the underwater castle the beautiful maiden, and by extension the castle itself, symbolizes the realization of his desires. The Spanish castle has a similar meaning in Prešeren's “The Song of the Fair Vida,” in which Vida becomes a wet-nurse for the Spanish prince at the court – though the conclusion of the poem shows that all along the wonderful castle was just alluring bait. The seductresses in the poems are similar. Undines, like the figure of the Lorelei in Heine's poem, are to Germanic and Scandinavian mythology similar to what the nymphs are to Greco-Roman mythology. They are water fairies, usually nefarious, who offer themselves to travellers, promising to guide them through the fog, swampland or woods, but actually causing them to become lost, ultimately harming them. Poets, writers and dramatists found inspiration in Nordic legends: the Undines comb their hair on the surface; all are beautiful, wicked and sometimes cruel, too. They derive pleasure from luring a fisher or a knight walking on the shore, abducting him and leading him to the bottom of the sea, to their crystal palace where the days pass as quickly as minutes… The Scandinavian legends are more sombre and interwoven with lust: the handsome young man, whom the Undines lead to the bottom, never again sees the bright day and dies, exhausted, in one’s lap. Undines symbolize the enchanting aspects of water and love, linked with death; from an analytical and ethical standpoint they symbolize the temptation to which one might succumb. In Greco-Roman mythology, meanwhile, which Prešeren's ballad “The Fisherman” evokes, the nymphs bewilder men when they appear, and lead them into nymphic or loving ecstasy. Like the sailor in Heine's poem, who is overcome by the Lorelei's “sad sweet tone,” in Jenko's “The Sea Spirits” a soldier, on seeing a vision of a girl, “is taken by a strange power” that

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makes “his heart swell and beat furiously,” and his lips turn feverish as this “unknown passion shakes all his limbs”–he experiences the sensualspiritual response of desire, which benumbs rationality.173 In all three of the Romantically-tinged ballad the poets mention the colour gold (such as Lorelei's golden hair in Heine); as with the beautiful singing in Heine's ballad, there is also in Jenko's ballad “The Sea Spirits,” during the dancing of the spirits, a song never before heard by human ears; as in Heine's poem the sailor stares delightedly at the Undine and then crashes into the dangerous rocks, just as the fisherman in Prešeren's ballad, upon hearing the mermaids’ singing, no longer notices the “craggy shore” because he no longer heeds his lead Star. In each of the three poems the entire narrated action actually occurs solely in the protagonist's imagination; encountering the seductively mysterious women generally means a personal confession of each individual poet at his own experience of disappointment in love. From this viewpoint the action in Prešeren, Heine and Jenko's poems, when the sirens lead the man into the water, can symbolize the self-destruction of the poet’s desire as fantasy shows him an unrealisable dream. Whereas Prešeren and Heine’s poems end with the victory of demonic forces over the human, in Jenko's poem the illusions of passion disappears and life continues in its mundane rhythm.

CHAPTER FOUR CONCLUDING FINDINGS

The succession of Books in the Bible is itself an emphasis of the fact that immediately after creation humans were faced with temptation. In the expansive and rich paradise Adam and Eve had everything, but in the centre of paradise there was a tree that was not to be touched, the tree of knowledge of good and evil. In the text the explanation of the tale that is given shows this is a matter of the fundamental destiny of humankind; if they were to eat from the tree, they would surely die. It is psychologically understandable that the interdiction itself placed man and woman in a position of curiosity. Into this space the snake crept with his tempting ways, and this overcame them. The story unobtrusively relates that the first humans did not undergo the temptation because they were conquered by a desire beyond explanation, as it aims at something that is outside human comprehension. When man and woman sin, conscience awakens in them and confuses them, makes them want to hide, but at the same time it faces them with their own essence. They are naked and unprotected. The uttering of the curse on the deceiving snake points also to the progeny of the submissive woman who first succumbed to temptation. God protects man and lets him know that his future is not dependent on his capabilities and strength but on He who created everything and determined the goal. This fundamental message in the Bible as a whole is illuminated and deepened from a number of perspectives. With this it finally becomes clear why the Epic of Gilgamesh does not speak of a poor individual, who in his life rises to the throne; rather it speaks of an extraordinary hero that, as a result of all his advantages above other people, ends tragically because he cannot realize his ultimate dream of achieving immortality. His death evokes the resignation of man as the highest form of life on earth. A comparison of Gilgamesh’s failure with the failure of Adam and Eve reveals what is at the core of pagan civilization and to what extent it is exceeded by the revealed faith of the Bible, which allows for the experience of paradoxes. Gilgamesh’s surroundings, in terms of ideals and faith, manifest a humanism in which humankind is the measure of all

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things. The Bible as a whole, especially the New Testament, portrays humans as the reflection of God’s holiness, compassion and mercy, that the world and life are known from the perspective of eternity and the perfect contradiction between humankind’s sinfulness and God’s holiness. The biblical story has an eschatological scope, from which hope burgeons. The snake, who is the devil and Satan, will be captured and forever bound and will no longer able to deceive nations (Rev 20:2-3) or anyone. Here the magnitude of Divine love is shown and the infinite difference between God and man. God, the Creator of Heaven and earth, can and wants to bridge this gap. He alone can determine the incomprehensible occurrence that He sent to the world His Son, who withstood all temptation in all temptation so that with His help we would withstand them as well. To what are perspectives of humans directed when, under the influence of the tempter, they transgress the limit of their existence? There is little explanation in literary texts. Our conjecture depends on the fundamental feeling of an indelible interweaving of resignation before a physical wall and the individual who is shaken as a result of the guilt that begins to work in the depths of the soul. This is not only a matter of longing, which is a fundamental guide of human life, but a thought about the fundamental question of every life: which path, if any, leads us to perfection. Already Hercules at the crossroads must decide between the difficult path of virtue and the easy path of debauchery. In the Book of Proverbs wisdom invites us onto the path of “fear of the Lord,” in order to live. Alongside this there is the vividly foolish woman who persuades passers-by that stolen water is sweet and bread eaten in secret is pleasant, but she does not know that her guests are in the depths of the underworld. This dilemma is significantly characterized by Christ’s words: “Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is easy, that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few” (Mt 7:13-14; see Lk 13:34). Like all markers of the strength of the human spirit, humankind’s longing opens endless questions about space and time, especially about his spiritual situation, which extends far beyond space and time. In this is the dynamic of his fundamental question regarding identity. It follows from this that we can affirm identity only through overcoming temptation. The biblical story of Joseph of Egypt is alluring because in both the spiritual and the ethical sense it is amazingly positive and aesthetically complete, while touching the core of everyday human life. This is the reason for its reflections in all branches of literary and figurative art in

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Jewish, Christian and Islamic cultures. Because the story has existed over so many intellectual and spiritual periods, spanning centuries and including classic interpretations from the areas of theological and world literature, there is a need for a synthetic judgement of the relation between the ethical, the aesthetic and the traditional. It is generally agreed that the biblical story is in the literary form of a novella, a form which dramatically develops and raises a single fundamental motif to an expressive peak and contains events that cause an unprecedented, and thus surprising, turning point with an unexpected result of the intermediate and final tests of human tendencies, virtue and wisdom. Like the Bible as a whole, the story of Joseph particularly manifests an overtly prophetic orientation towards the future. This explains the evident difficulties that show themselves in the historical criticism of sources in general and especially in modern secular criticism of biblical texts. Adherents of these sorts of interpretation focus more on a specific message of the original in terms of its historical surroundings than on its spiritual orientation towards the future, let alone on ungraspable spiritual legitimacy. Difficulties become apparent in the Jewish midrashim because they, in parts, often linger among intermediate events and broaden them in a random manner. It was in this way that the intermediary story of the tempting of Joseph at Potiphar's court obtained completely imagined elements over the centuries. These elements better express the extent of the human psyche between good and bad than the orientation of the story as a whole, which, in the connection between motif, internal style and moral obligation, stokes a naturally human sense of good and bad and also represents a typological model for dealing with new situations. The holistic nature of the biblical story, which expresses wonder at God’s plan, gained strength in some regards in the allegorical type of interpretation evident in the exegesis of Philo of Alexandria, the Church Fathers and the Koran. It is characteristic of allegorical explanation that the focal point is not on the entire perspective of the original story and on its position towards the holistic conception and spiritual sense, but on the interpretation of individual elements of the story in terms of ideals and ratio. If the key to interpretation is better understanding one’s own age rather than searching for the hidden meaning of the original text, the interpreter can expediently guide the reader from the crucial existential perspective of motifs towards less crucial, or even marginal, issues. The approach of allegory in terms of ideas and ratio represents the basis for the humanization, mythologization and psychologization of the biblical story in modern secular interpretations. This direction is especially typical for

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Thomas Mann, who divides the vision of the whole in the direction of an expressive peak through the analysis of individual elements, such that calculated imagination rather than wonder at the inconceivable mystery of God’s foresight is in the foreground. In Mann’s novel Joseph is shown as an individual who vanquishes opposition and temptation through the sharpness of his spirit and the strength of his will.174 In this context, the degree of difference in approach from the distant past to the present raises the question of how human senses work in general and how they can be felt in the biblical story and in various types of their interpretation. The expression “sense,” as generally accepted, denotes two types of human capabilities: the capability of accepting physical sensation, and the capability of perceiving and comprehending spiritual elements and appearances. This is why, significantly, the word appears in combination with qualifiers: the sense of light, the sense of touch, the sense of taste, the sense of smell, the sense of recognition; the sixth sense, inner sense or intuition, pedagogical sense, sense of the aesthetic, ethical/moral sense, family sense, social sense, a sense of duty/responsibility, a sense of justice. The figure of Joseph in the biblical texts and religious interpretations–in accord with Aristotle’s maxim that the sense of justice is the basis of all morality–encompasses all aspects of the second category of human sense. Joseph’s brothers, those at the Pharaoh’s court, Potiphar’s wife and other characters in the story differ so much from Joseph because they function only within the bounds of the first category of sense. The perfect inner harmony of Joseph’s personality allows for the fact that his life path from beginning to end equally clearly reflects the world of purity and reverence for God. Thomas Mann regards the working of spiritual force, which is expressed by Joseph’s “black eyes,” as a threat to his identity through the measure of its senses. In Joseph the workings of spirit and soul looks in the opposite direction: the greater the danger and tribulations that attack him from without, the stronger the emergence of the inner sense which confirms his identity. This is why it is only at the conclusion of the story that the reader becomes convinced that everything, even the consequences of his brothers’ wrongdoing, will turn to good. The power of the soul of a single individual honours the complete victory over the collective breakdown of society, which is brought about more by the physical senses and drives than by the spiritual sense. Joseph becomes the prototype of a “man for all times.” The universal capability of an existential union of the sensual and the spiritual also allows for the world of virtue to arise on the dance stage.

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Dance’s artistic mimicking and rhythms are capable of most exquisitely representing changing physical sensations that are constantly at the crossroads between the senses, sensuality and spirituality. Ballet’s means of expression comes from technical virtuosity achieved through a linked series of specific physical moves, and the experience of a profoundly spiritual drama is the goal. The ballet artist can, in all the details and in the performance as a whole, with eyes, ears, and all the other physical senses, promote an unstoppable force of the soul, which creates “a field and world of purity” and can change the face of the earth. When speaking of the genius of artistic interpretation, it is not enough to think of exceptional capability for the challenge of a specific language of an artistic genre in all the possible combinations of techniques and virtuosity. It is necessary to link physical and spiritual senses, and this can only be achieved through complete intertwining with the sense of the soul, which allows the person to search constantly for his highest form and all the more long for the completion which lies beyond all possible means of artistic expression. When form, sound, movement and rhythm are united into a harmonic whole, one lays bare all actual and possible states of the soul in the span between good and evil. When the intensive sensual performance goes beyond the limits of the sensed and the expressed, the effect of expression already crosses the border of sensuality; at that point it is irrevocable and we meet only with ourselves.

PART II: THE ABDUCTION, TESTING AND LONGING OF A WOMAN IN THE FAIR VIDA MOTIF IN THE EUROPEAN MEDITERRANEAN

Ever since the ballad of “Fair Vida” stepped beyond the calmness of the ancient village surroundings, when the text and the melody echoed in the ear of the first one to write it down, the old song has been both a riddle and a mystery for the reader. This is the mystery of woman and her elemental nature, the mystery of her weakness, the silent cry of her desperation and longing without redemption. The mystery increased when many variations of this folk ballad emerged from the shadow of the past. Research and conjecture about the source and primary meaning of the song began with artistic writers, and only much later did academics follow suit. In their reflections on Fair Vida they sought out the border between good and evil, between hope and desperation, for the most part remaining without ready answers.175 The ballad of Fair Vida, which is one of the most well-known and popular Slovenian folk songs to stem from the oral tradition, describes how the Muslim Moor, called a “black Moor” in the song, makes glorious promises or uses temptation or deception to lead a wife away from her home, from her husband and child, across the wide sea to the Spanish court.176 The song most likely came into being in the period between the 9th and the 11th centuries, when the Moors from Spain, Sicily and North Africa attacked areas on the Adriatic coast.177 In the song about Fair Vida the “black Moor,” rather than standing for a generic dark-skinned individual, designates an Arab Moor, an African or Spanish Muhammedan. Sea-faring Moors were sometimes pirates, but also merchants who traded mainly in material from the East, with Arab medicines and with slaves; often they were both pirates and merchants, and such an Arab merchant is the Moor in the ballad of Fair Vida. 178

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There are many written versions of the song about Fair Vida in Slovenia. The song most likely had its basis in a real event, as a folk singer would only bear witness to something he had experienced himself. First sung among the people, it then spread from generation to generation in an oral tradition.179 As in Slovenia, in the coastal regions of Italy, Calabria, Albania, Sicily and Croatia many songs were created about a young woman–a mother who was kidnapped by plunderers and sea-robbers. In most of the songs the abduction is not through brute force but cunning, and only in the Marsala and Borgetto variants of the song “Scibilija Nobili” is there raw force. Otherwise, the abductor stays at the shore as a sea merchant selling precious goods on his boat, inviting people to buy them; and so he invites the young mother, too, onto his boat, and when she is choosing her goods, he sets sail, whisking the young woman away into slavery. The motif of the abduction of Fair Vida, who in a foreign land desperately longs for home and her family in a foreign land, grew into an inspirational source for a number of works of Slovenian art. These works are permeated with the experience of Slovenian culture and history as a whole.180 In the old ballad of Fair Vida elements of myth, history and reality are outlined in a special manner.181 It is from these perspectives that this study presents one the most important motifs in Slovenia, that of Fair Vida, its content and various forms (the different variants in the form of the folk ballad), its importance in the Slovenian space and also in the broader Mediterranean region, but also the most likely time and cause of its creation. Because similar ballads are spread across the Mediterranean, the study also employs comparative literary study methods–juxtaposing the Slovenian motif of Fair Vida with similar motifs especially from the coastal regions of this part of Europe. Investigating the motif from fundamental thematic and comparative or intertextual angles also entails a philosophical perspective, which attempts to determine the cognitive value of the ballad and define what is fictional in it, and what is real; the study also concerns itself with the genesis of the ballad. In addition to a few mythological and symbolic elements of the ballad (for example, the Sun and the Moon) the study includes certain insights of psychoanalysis and depth psychology that brought myth into line with the unconscious and dreams (Freud, Jung), noticed a relation between myth and dreams and in accordance with this investigated myth from the angle of unconscious human forces.182

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The story of Fair Vida has inspired a number of Slovenian poets and writers throughout all phases of Slovenian literature from Romanticism onwards. These writers retained from the old ballad of Fair Vida those themes which are universal, changing only elements that were characteristic for the individuals and specific eras in which they were writing. In Slovenia there are over fifty known literary works that make use of the theme. In the myth of Fair Vida, Slovenian poets, writers, and dramatists have searched for a deep and universal truth, after the external details of the ballad, which cannot be confirmed, and these artist have transformed them into fictional literary tales, while reflecting on the individual’s Faustian restlessness, weakness, temptation, experience, fall, guilt and longing. These issues soon extend beyond the basic frame of a seemingly simple tale about an abducted wife and mother. They focus on those levels of reality that contain not only the rational world but also the less comprehensible inner world, and grew into subtle expressions of the fundamental existential questions in a richness of poetic, narrative, and dramatic forms.183

CHAPTER ONE THE ABDUCTION OF A WOMAN IN ANCIENT AND LATER PERIODS

The ballad of Fair Vida reflects both the fundamental structure of the human personality and basic psychological models. The scene is the landscape at the sea, and though this may seem far removed for most, if we follow the song carefully we can uncover its symbolic and universal importance. In the original form of the Slovenian ballad of Fair Vida, the “black Moor” lures the woman onto the boat to view his wares and departs for foreign lands without her knowledge or consent. The song of Fair Vida thus contains the motif of a guileful abduction of a woman, which is a very old motif known from ancient Greeks, as well as Serbian, Russian, German and other folk traditions. The motif of abduction is already present in the story of the Trojan War, which assumes a central position in Greek mythology. There is an entire cycle of poetic versions telling the story of the Trojan War, but of these only Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey are preserved in their entirety. Among others, there is also a 15th century Serbian translation in which Helen departs in the absence of King Menelaus with only a few servants onto Paris’ boat in order to view his garment, which is decorated with gold, pearls and other precious stones. It is then that Paris gives the command to set sail with Helen aboard the ship, carrying her away to the Trojan city.184 In a similar mannter, the Tsar’s daughter from a foreign empire is invited by a young man onto a boat laden with wondrous riches by a young man in the Serbian tale of the “Golden Sheep,” only to be taken away to another Tsar by the merchant.185 The motif of a similar enticement is known also from the Russian tale about Tsar Salomon,186 and a similar ruse and abduction occurs also in the Middle High German national romance of Gudrun.187 It is therefore no wonder that a sea pirate appearing as a merchant was a popular and successful element in literature, as this motif repeats itself in the national poetry of many coastal nations.

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The original content of the Slovenian song of Fair Vida reports that the “black Moor”–the Moorish pirate whom the people know as a merchant– tricks and abducts the young woman, carrying her away as a slave or selling her off in Spain. The historical surroundings of the creation of the song testify that the woman was taken into a Moorish caliphate that was centred in Cordoba in order to act as a wet-nurse for the Spanish queen, the wife of the Cordoban caliph or another Moorish leader, or emir.188 The very figure of the Spanish queen, whom Fair Vida must serve, points to the basis of the Slovenian ballad stemming already from the Middle Ages;189 the metrical forms and language of the song speaks for its creation in the period between the 9th and 11th centuries.190

1.1 The Abduction of a Woman in the Bible and in Greek Mythology The song of Fair Vida in its first artistic version, which follows the folk ballad, begins: The fair Vida stood upon the coast, on the strand stood, washing swaddling-clothes. Down the sea came sailing a black Moor, asked of Vida, stopping by the shore: “Wherefore, Vida! art thou not so red, not so red and not so blooming fair, as thou wert in years that are gone by?”

There follows a report of how the Moor, through flowery words, invites Fair Vida into his boat, abducts her, and takes her away to the Spanish queen in order to have her employed as a wet-nurse. The song describes the insufferable pain of the abducted woman: The fair Vida stepped into the boat; but when they had pulled away from the shore, when the boat was cutting through the waves, then did Vida weep and beat her breast: “Wretched me, alas, what have I done! Who shall care now for my little one, for my helpless babe left back at home, for my aged husband all alone!”191

These verses do not express merely the experience and imagination of an individual but the experience of an entire era, culture and historical memory of several nations. Often in history a woman has been abducted,

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be it through tyrannical, brute force, be it through the use of trickery and temptation.192 This was often linked to the physical abuse of the woman, who in her weakness was unable to resist the abductor.193 The live oral tradition attests to this, as well as a number of writings which arose on the basis of real occurrences from ancient times onwards. That abduction also had a symbolic meaning is seen in wedding customs, since many of them stem from primitive funeral rites: the groom arrives with his witness to abduct the bride, while her maids of honour protect her chastity. In the form of the custom there is a struggle and the bride cries when, through the wedding and the deflowering, a part of her previous life dies.194 Many works of world literature commence with the abduction of a woman; the motif sometimes appears as a central one, or in combination with other motifs.195 The Bible also speaks of such an occurrence in several places. For example in the Book of Judges, chapter 21, which summarizes the Tribe of Benjamin, we read that the Israelites swore at Mizpah that none of them would give their daughters in marriage to Benjamin’s tribe. When the people arrived at Bethel they weepingly asked God how it came to be that Israel was missing a tribe (Judg 21:3). They built an altar and offered sacrifices and gifts of peace, and decided that the tribe of Israel that did not come to Mizpah to assemble before God would have to die. Having then determined that no one from the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead had come, they then sent twelve thousand of their strongest men there and said to them that they should use their sharp swords to kill all those of Jabesh-gilead, including the women and children: “This is what you shall do; every male and every woman that has lain with a male you shall devote to destruction” (Judg 21:11). Among the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead they found 400 virgins, and they then drove them to a camp at Shiloh, in the land of Canaan. The entire congregation sent word to Benjamin’s sons, who were at the rock of Rimmon, that they wanted peace. At this time Benjamin’s sons returned and they gave them those women of Jabesh-gilead whose lives had been spared. However, they did not find enough for them. They asked the elders of the congregation what to do with the others, as the women had been exterminated. The Israelites said that they could not give their daughters in marriage to them, as they had sworn that those who did provide wives for all of Benjamin’s men would be damned. They advised the sons of Benjamin to go to Shiloh, north of Bethel, for a few days as there would be a festival of the Lord, and there they could carry off the daughters in Shiloh:

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Go and lie in wait in the vineyards, and watch; when the young women of Shiloh come out to dance in the dances, then come out of the vineyards and each of you carry off a wife for himself from the young women of Shiloh, and go to the land of Benjamin. Then if their fathers or their brothers come to complain to us, we will say to them, “Be generous and allow us to have them; because we did not capture in battle a wife for each man. But neither did you incur guilt by giving your daughters to them.” (Judg 21:20-22)

Benjamin’s sons did this and took wives from among the dancers, whom they abducted. Then they left and returned, each of them, to their land. They built towns and lived there. The Bible says at the conclusion that at this time in Israel each did as he pleased: “In those days there was no king in Israel; all the people did what was right in their own eyes” (Judg 21:25). The temptation that overcame King David led him to sin–he had the wife of a Hittite abducted and then, when she became pregnant by him, he concocted a plan to have her husband murdered so that he could marry the woman. The Second Book of Samuel, chapter 11, speaks of how David sinned. The story tells of King David and Bathsheba, the wife of the Hittite Uriah. As it reports, King David, in the time when Kings went to battle, sent Joab and his servants and all of Israel; they besieged the Ammonites and Rabbah, while David remained in Jerusalem. When he arose from his couch one evening and went walking on the roof of his house, he saw a woman bathing. She was very beautiful and David made enquiries about her, finding out that it was Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite. David sent for her and had her brought to him, “and he lay with her. ... Then she returned to her house” (2 Sam 11:4). The woman conceived and David had her husband Uriah the Hittite brought to him and asked him how his people were doing, and how the war was progressing. The next morning he wrote Joab a letter, stating: “Set Uriah in the forefront of the hardest fighting, and then draw back from him, so that he may be struck down and die” (2 Sam 11:15). When Joab besieged the town, he heeded David’s message and “assigned Uriah to the place where he knew there were valiant warriors” (2 Sam 11:16). When the men came from the town and fought alongside Joab, some of them died, including some of David’s servants, including Uriah the Hittite (2 Sam 11:16-17). Joab reported to David everything that had happened in the battle, but also Bathsheba heard of it. When she found out that her husband had died, she mourned him. After the mourning period had passed, David sent for her

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and had her brought to his house; she became his wife and bore him a son. Regarding the series of events orchestrated by David the Bible concludes: “But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord” (2 Sam 11:27). The Second Book of Samuel, in the chapter focusing on Amnon and Tamar, speaks of the violent temptation to which Amnon succumbed; that he raped his half-sister Tamar, and then hated her, is spoken of in the Second Book of Samuel (2 Sam 13). The tale relates how David’s son Absalom had a beautiful, maiden sister named Tamar. David’s son Amnon loved her and made himself ill out of this love. His friend Jonadab, who was the son of David’s brother Shimeah, told him to lie in his bed as if sickly: Jonadab said to him, “Lie down on your bed, and pretend to be ill; and when your father comes to see you, say to him, ‘Let my sister Tamar come and give me something to eat, and prepare the food in my sight, so that I may see it and eat it from her hand.’” (2 Sam 13:5)

Amnon did so and David sent Tamar to him to bring him food. When she arrived, he did not want to eat until all others had left and he remained alone with Tamar. He then raped her: But when she brought them near him to eat, he took hold of her, and said to her, “Come, lie with me, my sister.” She answered him, “No, my brother, do not force me; for such a thing is not done in Israel; do not do anything so vile! As for me, where could I carry my shame? And as for you, you would be as one of the scoundrels in Israel. Now therefore, I beg you, speak to the king; for he will not withhold me from you.” But he would not listen to her; and being stronger than she was, he forced her and lay with her. (2 Sam 13:11-14)

As the continuation of the story relates, Amnon then began to despise Tamar: “Indeed, his loathing was even greater than the lust he had felt for her. Amnon said to her, ‘Get out!’ But she said to him, ‘No, my brother; for this wrong in sending me away is greater than the other that you did to me.’ But he would not listen to her. He called the young man who served him and said, ‘Put this woman out of my presence, and bolt the door after her.’” (2 Sam 13:15-17). Tamar put ashes on her head, tore her long virgin’s gown, laid a hand on her head and went away, crying loudly. Absalom told his sister to be silent about it and not take it to heart, as Amnon was her brother. When King David heard this, however, he became enraged. Absalom did not speak with Amnon, but abhorred him for the harm he had done to his sister Tamar.

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The ancient Greek writer Theocritus (3rd century BC) writes about the abduction of a woman in the 22nd idyll, just as the Roman historian Livius (59 BC to 17 AD) writes about rape in connection with Rome.196 We read about the ruler Romulus, who was not only the first Roman emperor but also its founder, and how he began in 753 to build the city on the Palatine. After establishing the city he invited criminal, escaped slaves, exiled individuals and other miscreants to move there, offering them refuge. And thus he had five of the Seven Hills of Rome settled. To provide women for the citizens, he invited the neighbouring Sabine tribe to a festival, then abducted the women and led them to Rome. The Sabines declared war on the Romans, but the women later maintained that they felt well in Rome and thus reconciled the two sides. From that time Rome was alternately ruled by a Sabine and a Latin King. The ancient Greek myth of Europa includes the motif of abduction. As it relates, the beautiful Europa, the daughter of the Phoenician King Agenor, was invited by the King of the gods Zeus to Crete after he had appeared near her home in the form of a magnificent white bull. This happened one day when she was playing with her female servants at the sea. The beast seemed so gentle that she dared to ride on its back. As soon as she was astride him, she became his prisoner, and Zeus entered into the sea and swam to Crete, taking her into a cave. On Crete she gave birth to three sons.197 In Ovid’s Metamorphosis the rape is described thus: the father and the ruler of all gods, who holds the lightning bolt in his right hand and shakes the world when he but nods his head, now relinquishes authority and power, assuming the appearance of a bull to mingle with the other cattle, lowing as gorgeously he strolls in the new grass. He is as white as the untrampled snow before the south wind turns it into slush. The muscles stand out bulging on his neck, and the dewlap dangles on his ample chest, his horns are crooked, but appear handmade, and flawless as a pair of matching gems. His brow is quite unthreatening, his eye excites no terror, and his countenance is calm. The daughter of King Agenor admires him, astounded by the presence of peacefulness and beauty in the beast, yet even though he seems a gentle creature,

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Part II: Chapter One at first she fears to get too close to him, but soon approaching, reaches out her hand and pushes flowers into his white mouth. The lover, quite beside himself, rejoices, and as a preview of delights to come, kisses her fingers, getting so excited that he can scarcely keep from doing it. Now he disports himself upon the grass, and lays his whiteness on the yellow sands, and as she slowly overcomes her fear he offers up his breast for her caresses and lets her decorate his horns with flowers: the princess dares to sit upon his back not knowing who it is that she has mounted, and he begins to set out from dry land, a few steps on false feet into the shallows, then further out and further to the middle of the great sea he carries off his booty; she trembles as she sees the shore receding and holds the creature’s horn in her right hand and with the other clings to his broad back, her garments streaming in the wind behind her.198

Greek mythology also includes the abduction of Helen among its most famous stories: with the help of the goddess of love Aphrodite Paris convinces Helen, who is reputed to be the most beautiful woman in the world, to leave her husband, Menelaus, the King of Sparta, and sail with him to Troy. In the lengthy war that follows between the Greeks and the Trojans–because Paris had flagrantly abused the hospitality of the Spartan king and in return for friendly acceptance and treatment stolen his wife away–Helen feels the tension between the role of a wife of a Trojan successor to the throne and the role of a former wife of a Greek king. The Iliad tells of how the news of a temporary peace between the belligerent parties fills Helen with gentle longing for her former husband, her parents and the city that she had abandoned. In the sixth book, which describes Hector’s departure from his wife and son and which is among the pearls of Homer’s poetry, Helen is ashamed of Paris, as she would rather be the wife of a better man, and cajoles him to go to battle. Hector, preparing for battle, hears from Helen (lines 363-372): [...] I wish that on the day my mother bore me A windstorm had swept me away to a mountain Or into the waves of the restless sea, Swept me away before all this could happen.

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But since the gods have ordained these evils, Why couldn’t I be the wife of a better man, One sensitive at least to repeated reproaches? Paris has never had an ounce of good sense And never will. He’ll pay for it someday. ...199

After the fall of Troy, Helen and Menelaus are reconciled. In the Odyssey, Homer portrays the opposite situation, with a woman tempting a married man. He thus presents us with the story of Odysseus’ encounter with the divine nymph Calypso, who offers the hero immortality in return for allying with her. But love for his wife and homeland is stronger than the promise of immortality; the nymph’s divine beauty and loving bliss cannot diminish it, and so he tears himself from her and returns home via the island of the Phaeacians, where a last temptation in the form of the girlishly charming princess Nausicaä. At home he tells his wife Penelope about all he has experienced on the way.200 Careful reading of tales of abduction and temptation reveals, among other things, various feminine natures. In contrast to the nymph Calypso from Homer’s Odyssey, who tempts the married hero, sleeps with him and attempts to bind him solely to her, the nature of Fair Vida from the first Slovenian folk ballad is innocent, pure, unblemished. Fair Vida is permeated by a sense of anguished loneliness, incomprehension; torn between the inner being of a goddess and the banal physicality of everyday life she cannot find a place in her quotidian human relations and is incapable of closer contact with any person, only with the supernatural entities of the Sun and the Moon.

1.2 The Motifs of Abduction, Seduction and Deception in Slovenian Folk Tradition The Slovenian song of Fair Vida probably stems from actual events, and it was originally sung among the people and handed down from generation to generation as an oral tradition. The wide range of stories of abduction and deception, temptation and longing in a number of other Slovenian folk songs, myths, and tales additionally confirms the universal significance of the myth of Fair Vida and its link to the inner intimate experience of a person who comes into contact with a danger that threatens freedom and integrity.201

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Every act of abduction necessarily raises the question of good and evil. Before the rise of Christianity there were three basic answers to this question. The first was that of cosmic dualism, which states that in the world there are only two competing types of forces, the forces of good divinity and those of evil divinity, light and dark. Though good is more powerful, the struggle against evil is eternal. The second answer is that of anthropological dualism, which says that good and evil are rooted in the human. Their battle manifests itself as the contradiction between the body and the spirit. The desires of the body, which promote all temptations, lead one to evil, and the spirit leads one to good. However, though ascesis one can mitigate the influence of the body and strengthen the spirit. The third answer is natural dualism, according to which not just the body but also passions, which are difficult to control, lead to evil. Virtue lies in one’s overcoming of the passions and living in harmony with reason.202

1.2.1 The Captivity of a Young Woman in a Kingdom of Demons The oldest Slovenian folk tradition speaks of the good and evil forces in the world and their battles embodied in mythological beings. The motif of abduction appears, for example, with regard to the Slovenian mythological being representative of the sun and known as Kresnik–a demon steals Kresnik’s herd and stows it away in a deep cavern; the mythological beings the Snake Queen (Kaþja kraljica) or the Obstinate One (Trdoglav), each of which is of a demonic nature, kidnaps Kresnik’s sister or wife and hides her away in a dwelling under the earth or water. Of the eternal battle against evil in which good is stronger speak also Slovenian folk songs in which demonic beings appear and choose for their prey an innocent or fragile, beautiful young girl. When the demons take them, the maidens can only be saved by a brave man of higher birth, often a young king. Thus for example the old Slovenian ballad of Trdoglav and Marjetica (Daisy), which despite certain Christian elements is in its essence very archaic, depicts how Marjetica sits at the lone port of a white castle, which “does not have windows, does not have doors,” is “gilded with gold” within and whose exterior is “overgrown with moss.” She has been kidnapped by the demon Trdoglav and locked up there. One day a young prince comes to her, the son of a Spanish king. He tells her that she has a “lovely figure,” and muses, if she were only “baptised.” Marjetica, a maiden with beautiful golden hair, laments that Trdoglav was able to abduct her because her godparents forgot to make the sign of the cross

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over her. The prince decides that he will rescue her, and when the demon is not home he blesses her. When Trdoglav returns he finds that Marjetica is no longer there and he hastens to seek her in Spain, but he is unsuccessful in his endeavours–he never gets Marjetica back again.203 Slovenian folk tales also include the motif of demons who abduct women. In some of them we discover a demonic abductor who seizes upon a beautiful woman, but also the mythological figures of the Sun and the Moon, to whom the woman turns for help to be rescued from captivity, which evokes the old ballad of Fair Vida. The folk tale “Fair Mankica” from the Prekmurje region speaks of a lovely, poor, white-faced girl with red lips and golden hair. Word of her beauty has spread throughout the world, reaching also the ear of a king’s son in search of a bride. He sends his loyal servant to find her, present her with his ring, and to inform her that he will soon come for her. However, not only the prince, but also a witch’s son has fallen in love with her and intends to make her his wife. On discovering that the prince was there first, he tells his mother of his love, and she decides to help; they agree to kidnap Mankica. Transforming themselves into black clouds, they hurry to her and catch up to the prince at a wide river. The abduction is described with elements of horrific fantasy as well as metamorphosis; when the witch’s son, in the form of a cloud, abducts Fair Mankica, he then transforms into a great bird and flies up and away: At this time the prince and his chosen one arrived at a wide river. As he prepared to wade her across the heavens suddenly darkened. Two black clouds obscured the sun, it started to thunder and hail rained down from the sky, frightening the horses. Suddenly the smaller cloud changed into a great bird, which swept down with lightning speed upon the golden coach, grabbed Mankica and carried her high above. Soon the larger cloud also disappeared from the sky and the sun shone again.204

The prince “perishes” out of wounded love for Mankica, straps on his sword, mounts his steed and sets off to find her in the kingdom of the Sun. The personified Sun tells him that Fair Mankica has been abducted by a sorcerer and his mother, who have taken him “somewhere at the end of the earth,” where the Sun does not shine. The Sun sends the king to journey forth to her brother the Moon in hopes of finding out more. When the prince, after nine days, arrives at the Moon’s kingdom, the Moon tells him that the witch had, the day before, removed both of Fair Mankica’s eyes, because she did not want her to take her son as a husband. She enclosed her in a stony cave, nine metres under

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The Moon sends the prince to his brother the Wind, who “blows into every crevice,” and can therefore perhaps help. The Wind tells him: I was just at the end of the earth and I saw Fair Mankica ... Her tears are streaming and she longs for you. She is imprisoned in a stony cave, guarded by a three-headed dragon.206

The Wind advises the prince to travel to the sorcerer and his mother, present himself as a pauper and offer to work for them. The prince does so, and because he proves to be a good servant, his masters soon confide in him. One day, when they are not home, the prince manages to save Fair Mankica from the dreadful consequences with the help of the Sun, the Moon and the Wind. As the tale tells us, a wedding follows, and they live happily ever after. Among the German settlers in the Koþevje region of Slovenia there were widespread ballads about a girl named “die schöne Meererin,” who was rescued from captivity by her brother and her husband.207 Like the Slovenian Fair Vida, the German “Meererin,” in captivity near the seashore where her abductor the “black Moor” lived. It is thus possible to conclude that the perpetrator was originally the black demon from “beyond the (worldwide) seas.” A number of Slovenian parallel tales with the Underwater Man also point to this. In the Slovenian folk song “The Water Man” (from Kranj), the demonic figure abducts Micika from a dance, carrying her off to his glass house under the water; there she gives birth to a son, but when she wants to flee back to her mother, the Water Man takes revenge and tears the son in half.”208 There are many Slovenian tales and legends telling of a Water Man who abducts a girl or a woman.209 Janez Vajkard Valvasor, the polymath nobleman from Kranj, also writes of the Water Man. In the chapter “The Ljubljanica River and Travelling on It” in his book Slava Vojvodine Kranjske (1689), he writes, among other things: Before we take leave of the Ljubljanica entirely, we must first report that in it there lives a spook, called the Water Man, and that he often appears at night. So well known is he that every boatman and fisherman on the Ljubljanica can spin a yarn about him. According to the general tale, he once exited the water in broad daylight and appeared in human form. Thus on the first Sunday in July of 1547 he appeared as a well-groomed,

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handsome and stately young man on the Old Square by the fountain, where all the community had gathered and made merry with a fine dance. He approached the maiden Urška Šeferjeva, made quick acquaintance, and in the end danced by the Stiški manor towards the river and jumped into it.210

He writes a more extensive report about this incident in Yearbooks. In Chapter XIX: “Various Nuisances, Underwater monsters who Carry Away an Improvident Girl into the Water,” Valvasor reports: On the first Sunday of July of that year (1547) the entire community was, in accordance with the old tradition, assembled in Ljubljana at the Old Square by the fountain, which was shaded by a linden tree. Here, as pleasant music played, they enjoyed the food they had brought with them, and conversed in the old fashion in friendly confidence, in the place of which today unfortunately there is French distrust, deceptive courtesy, veiled cunning and dissemblance as well as cursed Machiavellianism. They enjoyed themselves according to the good old Kranj custom, that is, with honest, forthright benevolence and sincere amiability, and after lunch they celebrated with an ordinary dance. After all had being making merry for some time and were of good cheer–look, there approached a well groomed young man of handsome figure, acting as if he, too, was of disposition to dance this or that dance. This was not in the least unpalatable and it did not seem curious to them, since according to custom everyone was allowed to partake of the general amusement. At first he most politely greeted those assembled and kindly offered his hand to each, but on contact each was overcome by an unusual feeling of a sort of shudder or disquiet, for the stranger’s hands were quite cold and limp. Immediately after this he asked one of those sitting if she would like to dance with him; he chose for a partner the most finely adorned and attractive–but in her ways and nature uncomely–exuberant girl, who had been of a pretty lively and rollicking behaviour and who instead living in a maidenly, reserved manner, lived intemperately. The young frivolous and joyous creature–whose real name was Urška Šeferjeva–knew how to adapt her behaviour and mould herself to each silly prank, such that to all appearances like with like had never embraced and united better. After they had executed a few dances according to the usual manner, they gradually entered into a wider dance and began to circle ever farther from the place designated for the dance. They passed the linden across the Stiški manor towards the Ljubljanica: here, as they say, they disappear– God forbid not for ever!–in the presence of rafters that always wait there prepared to ferry, they jumped into the Ljubljanica and disappeared before the viewers’ eyes. And neither were they later to be seen. At this occurrence the company was so horrified that they rather ended the dance at this hour and no one dared again to start to dance or amuse himself.

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In contrast to the folk ballad, Valvasor ascribes guilt to the girl whom the Water Man carries away: it was her own haughtiness that led to the abduction. In the 1930s, Jakob Kelemina also reports the incident in one of the folk tales. He writes of the abduction of Urška: They danced moderately for a while, but then much more wildly, and in wide arches they spun away from the dancers: from the linden they moved to the Stiški manor, across the manor to the Ljubljanica. Here the stranger jumps, with the dancer Urška, into the water and disappears. Many boatmen saw this as they were stopped at the shore…212

It was after this boatman’s folktale that France Prešeren created the ballad “The Water Man” in which he amplifies the girl’s guilt. He writes that the beautiful Urška “had of suitor too few, for her part. / Once she of a muchvaunted youth was aware, / She tried to entrap him in her open snare.” Because of the disloyalty of their husbands, many a woman secretly wept, and many others retained their maidenhood because of Urška. The poem speaks of how Urška, out of vanity, rejected all the dancers and suitors until the Water Man approached. She had already chosen him as her desired prey and attempted to entrap him with her gaze. They danced and twirled “as swept by a whirlwind”; “black lowering clouds” gather in the heavens, they heard “fearful thunder resound” (as in the figure of the gods in old Slovenian mythology), they heard the “winds grimly whistle” and the rustling of the overflowing streams. Urška begged her dance partner to stop, as she needed a break for her weary legs, but the Water Man replied: “The white land of Turkey is not at all near, Where Danube is met by the Sava so clear, The deafening waters are waiting to greet You, Urška! so quickly keep moving your feet!”213

They spun ever faster, turning three times on the Ljubljanica shore and dancingly drove into the crashing waves. Urška was never seen again.214 Only much later and in a figurative sense was the demonic being, similar to the Water Man, changed into the Muslim Moor, the Arab Plunderer or

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the Merchant.215 The text of Fair Vida recorded in Kropa by Radivoj Poznik, which ranks among the oldest Slovenian variants, thus becomes more comprehensible: the abducted woman is returned by the Sun or Moon hero, as this figure is able to transcend the boundaries of our experienced world: And so she asked the Sun: “Sun, let me go home with you.” “Oh be still, still, young Vida! You’ll have difficulties following me.” “Oh, I will follow you as best I can, I will come with you.” “At noon I will stop for one hour, And you, too, can rest with me.” 216

The Sun or the Sun-hero, a mythological hero, is inherent to another folk version of Fair Vida, the Gorenjska variant from Hraše. There Fair Vida travels from captivity on the tracks of the Sun, but she cannot catch him and calls: O wait, wait, golden Sun, I cannot go forth, and I don’t want to go back!217

1.2.2 The Abducted Woman or Man in Moorish or Turkish Captivity The motif of an abducted girl can be seen in a number of other Slovenian folk songs. In the song about Alenþica of Ribnica, a maleficent Turk appears at Alenþica’s door; at first she does not want to open, but the Turk then placates her such that she does let him in. He sets her on a steed and carries her off, and Alenþica’s cries awaken the count–he sets out in pursuit, eventually cutting off the Turk’s head. In this song the earlier demonic abductor is changed into a Turk, the saviour into a young count.218 The motif of a Christian girl in Moorish captivity, which is very similar to the Fair Vida motif, also appears in the Slovenian folk song about Brajdika and Aniþka. The song depicts two girls from the coastal region, Brajdika and Aniþka, who pluck flowers on the seashore and throw them into the water, also bothering the fishermen by shooing away the fish. The fishermen catch Brajdika and take her to a white castle to a noble young prince; he is delighted at the prize and praises the fishermen, telling them, “If you catch such fish, we will gild your nets and cover your rods with

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silver.” The prince takes the girl away and keeps her hidden for seven and a half years, until his mother (who knows nothing of the matter) starts urging him to find a wife. At his mother’s suggestion, the prince goes, along with Brajdika, who is disguised as a man, to the home of Brajdika and Aniþka; there the sister’s recognize each other and Aniþka cedes to Brajdika, whom the prince had taken first. A wedding follows.219 A similar motif of a Christian girl in Moorish captivity is contained in the Slovenian folk song about Zarika and Sonþica. This song also speaks of two lovely sisters, Zarika and Sonþica: Sonþica is taken away by the Turkish sultan, while Zarika is proposed to by the Spanish king; both have a life of hardship on foreign soil. Failing to recognize Sonþica, Zarika accidentally poisons her with snake venom; on realizing whom she has poisoned her, she is given over to an inconsolable sadness.220 These two songs and their variations came into existence very near to Fair Vida in terms of time and place.221 We are also familiar with songs from the Slovenian folk tradition in which the woman is the one who rescues the man from captivity. The motif of a woman who rescues her husband from the hands of the Saracens is contained in the romance The Pilgrim of Saint Jacob of Compostela, which originated on the basis of a model from before the 12th century and tells of pilgrims in Moorish Spain. He speaks of a handsome Spanish king who is late to bed and early to rise. When the doubtful queen distrusts him and follows him one morning, she finds him in a “holy room,” at prayer before an image of Saint Jacob. With a walking stick, a rosary and three purses of money, the pilgrim sets out for his journey to “beautiful Galicia, to Saint Jacob.” He distributes the contents of the first purse to the poor, the second to impoverished churches, and keeps the third for sustenance. The queen tries to make him stay home, as she is fearful of being alone; she also fears for him, saying, “it’s not far for you to walk, if the Turks see you, they will throw you in jail.” As the pilgrim is walking across the land and seeking the “holy grave,” the sultan’s servants do indeed find him and imprison him. The queen finds out about this and, dressing as a pilgrim, feigns poverty and takes her zither with her on her journey. When she arrives in Turkey, she plays the zither so wonderfully that she comes to the attention of the Turkish sultan, who asks her what she would like as a reward. She wants nothing but their prisoner. The sultan grants her this and the queen thus saves her husband.222

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In the Slovenian folk tradition, most of the time the situation is the reverse and the husband is the one who saves his wife from the hands of the Saracens. In the song about Alenþica from Ribnica, an evil Turk kidnaps Alenþica, while her husband chases after them and cuts off the Turk’s head.223 The song about Jerica from Ribnica also relates how Jerica was abducted and led away to Turkey. When, together with the Turks, she harvests the fields her “handsome soldier, a true hero” rides up to her, places her on his horse and takes her home. Despite this rescue, at home they esteem only Jerica, not her saviour; disappointed in his loving expectations, he decides to travel to Vienna to serve the Emperor.224 Especially interesting and widely occurring in Slovenia are also folk songs about King Matthew, who is saved from the Saracens by his bride. Variants of these songs most likely made their way to Slovenia from Provence, via Italy.225 The song of King Matthew relates that the King married the beautiful young Alenþica, a Hungarian queen. Having slept a mere three nights by her side, he receives notice on the fourth day that he must go to war. Matthew is concerned for his young wife and orders her not to go into the garden while he is away, as the Turks might capture her. But at the very moment he rides into the soldier’s camp a bird flies to him, telling him that the Turks have taken away his wife Alenþica. King Matthew hurries home, dressed as a Turk, straps on a flashing sabre, mounts a white horse and goes over the Hungarian border deep into Turkey. There they are preparing for a dance and the Turks are seated at a yellow table. When King Matthew arrives at the Turkish leader he tells him that he has taken the life of King Matthew, showing his golden coin as proof. He then chooses Alenþica to dance and reveals himself to her; in the spinning dance they move to the horse, mount it and make their way towards the Sava. The Turks chase after them and the pasha Ali contentedly promises that he will exact revenge on Matthew, because he himself had once been Matthew’s prisoner–he is convinced that he will cut off his head and take Alenþica, whom he “loves from the heart,” forever. But the Turks’ plan does not succeed; King Matthew and Alenþica rescue themselves by riding away, crossing the Sava River and crossing into Hungarian territory.226 In all of these folk songs we discover the motif of abduction, which is usually carried out through brute force (rather than wiles or by inducing temptation, as in the song of Fair Vida). In keeping with the folk tradition, which often asserted that foreign moral depravity was linked to their nonChristian beliefs, the kidnapper is often a “black Moor,” a Muslim Moor,

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an unbeliever, or a Turk.227 The physical safety and spiritual balance of the individual was allegedly assured through his tight link to members of his own kin and local community. We notice a similar phenomenon also in many Slovenian legends about Christian saints and martyrs that include Saracens. For example, in the folk legends “Saint Barbara is Thrown in Jail”228 and “Saint Ursula is Shot,”229 the Spanish Moors appear in the role of the persecutors of the Christian girl; neither Barbara nor Ursula wants to wed the Spanish king, and they die for that reason. From the 15th century on, when the memory of the struggle against the Saracens had already died out, the Moors are replaced by the Turks in songs and legends.230 In Slovenia, one very popular tale is that of the abduction and subsquent rescue of Miklova Zala. This tale speaks of a beautiful girl who from the tenderest age has grown up without a father, as he had died many years before while battling the Turks. Their neighbour Serajnik, a very respectable man, helps her and her mother financially and with advice. Serajnik had promised Zala’s father many years before, when the latter was on his deathbed, that he would wed his son to Zala. Zala has now grown into a beautiful young woman, whose beauty is the cause of envy in many girls, especially Almira, who would like to marry Serajnik’s son Mirko. Because Zala is a thorn in her side, she persuades her father to lead the Turks into the village. And so Almira’s father on the very evening of Zala’s marriage to Mirko aids the Turks, and the village and the people flee to an arranged hiding spot, in order to save their lives and belongings. Mirko is determined to fight the Turks, and when it seems that they will escape, the Turks defeat them, as Almira’s father Tresoglav has exposed the secret entrance to the camp where the people are hiding. The Turkish sultan demands Zala for himself, since Tresoglav had told him that she is the prettiest girl around. Tresoglav, at the same time, asks that Mirko be spared his life, so that Almira can marry him. When Zala learns that Mirko is in jail and she can only save him by entering into Turkish slavery, she decides, out of love for him, to do so. The tale tells of how she spends seven years in Istanbul as a slave and, because she is so lovely, the Turkish sultan houses her in a most exquisite room. She is draped with jewellery and dressed in the most beautiful dresses but from day to day she is more and more unhappy and looks pale. While at prayer she recognizes her uncle, her father’s brother, who is prepared to break her out and rescue her from slavery. The uncle dies on the way home, drowning in a river, while she returns into her birth village on the day of Almira and Marko’s

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wedding. She is able to prevent the marriage and all celebrate “the arrival and salvation of the courageous and loyal wife Zalika.”231 All of these folk tales speak of forceful abduction and gloomy captivity from which the hero, in contrast to the ballad of Fair Vida and her “sisters” from the coastal lands of Calabria, Albania and Sicily, for the most part find a way out and the abducted woman (in a few cases the man) manages to come home again. The saviours are usually of a warrior type (such as King Matthew) and vividly imagine how they will outwit the violent ones and save the innocent victim from captivity (such as in the song about the pilgrimage and Jacob Compostela). They fearlessly fight for life and seek a non-violent way to save the prisoners, as the response to violent abduction is to save the victim without the use of force. This is the type of warrior whose qualities are courage, self-sacrifice, endurance, cunning and heroic cold-bloodedness; he is not violent but fights for freedom. In the most influential type of songs about abduction in Slovenia, the ballad of Fair Vida, the victims remain in involuntary captivity, without any possibility of rescue.

CHAPTER TWO THE TYPOLOGICAL GROUPS OF THE BALLAD OF FAIR VIDA IN THE MEDITERRANEAN REGION

In Slovenia, the Fair Vida motif is the most widespread of the many motifs of female abduction. It is not only to be found in Slovenian but also in Italian and Albanian national poetry, in the tales of Donna Canfura, Donna Candia, Zogna Riin, Ta bucurana–La bella, Scibilia Nobili. Thus, the ballad of the abducted Fair Vida did not arise solely from Slovenian life and suffering, and neither is it limited exclusively to the Adriatic or Ionian or Tyrrhenian seas; rather, it is spread over the entire European side of the Mediterranean.232 The tale came to Slovenia from the Mediterranean, from coastal lands – such as Sicily, Calabria, and Croatia–which offer many similar variants, and in Slovenia it is preserved in many written versions from various places. In all of the Slovenian variants the Moor–a non-Christian and thus in the folk concept a pagan and unbeliever–by some means lures a young woman and mother onto a boat and sails off with her to a faraway foreign land. The tradition speculates about the mysterious persona and fate of Fair Vida, and is preserved in three main forms. For centuries, Fair Vida proved enigmatic to singers and listeners in calm village surroundings, as otherwise they would not have continued seeking a solution to this enigma in such varied ways. Today every version poses the question for itself about the original, true meaning, and this is even more the case for the tradition as a whole in its multifaceted forms.

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2.1 Luring “Constant” Fair Vida onto a Boat, and her Heroic Death The Albanian-Calabrian-Sicilian Group, Originally with a Tragic Outcome In the first group of variants the central figure is a rich noblewoman, who is abducted, or the hero is a Christian mother who resists abduction, jumps from the boat into the water and drowns. This type of ballad is preserved in Slovenia as well, especially in the Breznik variant from Ihan.233 All songs of this type emphasis loyalty and nobility, as well as the wife and mother’s heroic love for her husband and child. The evil destiny befalls her through no noticeable fault of her own–the moor uses various empty promises to lure her onto the boat and leaves shore with the abducted woman. When she realizes that she has fallen into a carefully laid trap, that she has been abducted and that there is no hope of return for her, she rebels against the abductor–heroically jumping into the water and drowning. This type of the ballad has its predecessors in the Mediterranean lands of Calabria and Sicily, more precisely in Albanian, Calabrian and Sicilian variants234 that make up the oldest forms of this type. The forerunners to this type of Slovenian songs are thus one Albanian and two Calabrian ballad variations: Zogna Riin: Donna Irene, Donna Candia, Donna Canfura and the predecessors of some other Albanian and three Sicilian ballads, which had already been adulterated by aspects of various other ballads.235 In all the original variants of the ballad about an abducted young wife and mother, seafaring plunderers take the young mother away. In two variants from Sicily (from Marsala and Borgetto–the “Scibilia Nobili” variants) she is taken by force, while in all remaining variants she is taken advantage of through cunning. There the motif is one of temptation; the abductors use various ruses and promises to gain the trust of a naïve, inexperienced young woman and to lure her into a craftily designed trap, so that she goes without any inkling of harm onto the boat, before sailing away from shore against her will. In most of the original variants of the ballad the abductor lands at the shore and pretends to be a sea-merchant who has precious textiles and splendid fabric for sale on the boat. He invites the people to shop and it is under this

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pretence that he also lures the young wife and mother, his victim, onto the boat. While she is choosing her fabric, he pushes off and the woman is taken away into slavery. We come across the motif of an abductor using precious textiles and magnificent fabrics as bait in Albanian-Sicilian variants; in Croatian, Slovenian, and Koþevje variants, meanwhile, the abductor lures the wife and mother onto the boat by pretending that he has medicine there for her ill child.236 Because of the violent abduction of an unknowing young wife and mother, all of these original songs have a tragic tone and end fatally.

2.1.1 Luring a Wife and Mother with Offers of Precious Materials (Albanian-Italian Songs and Tales) The group of Slovenian song ballads about Fair Vida is most similar to Jeronim [Girolamo] De Rada’s Albanian song “Donna Irene,” Algantri’s Calabrian fragment “Donna Canfura,” and especially De Rada’s Calabrian poem “Donna Candia.” The similarities with these non-Slovenian variants are especially expressed in the ballad song “Young Vida,” recorded in written form by Anton Breznik in Ihan. In each of the three non-Slovenian songs, Muhammedan sea-merchants or plunderers (only in the Calabrian fragment is their role not evident) lure the young woman and mother onto the boat with the silken goods that they have for sale; they then suddenly push off and take the woman away as a slave and concubine. The woman laments the destiny of her child and asks the sailors to let her climb the mast so that she can once again see her home or her husband. The sailors allow this, but once at the mast the woman closes her eyes, jumps into the sea and drowns. And so for example the Albanian song entitled Zogna Riin-Donna Irene, which was written among Calabrian Albanians and recorded by one of their first writers, Jeronim De Rada, tells of how from the high seas a Turkish boat arrives at the harbour in Cotrone (today Crotone) on the eastern Calabrian shore. There the Turk entices Irena, a young mother, who is a rich lady of noble birth. In the Albanian original, the song runs: ZOGNA RIIN Raa anii câ messi dêtit Raa ndy proit Coronit. Atto ȗognat e Coronit

Longing, Weakness and Temptation: From Myth to Artistic Creations Mosgnèra nynch u calaar; 5 Mosse ajo ȗôgna Riin: AgchȪ ȗuashi, marinara. Miir na vién ti, ȗôgna Riin. Cu chìnni mundashȪrat? Sdrepu, ȗoogn, ndyr camarat. 10 Zogna sgkìį stolhîȗit Ty cunatten mê martùar, Sgkiįe my ja e vyi mdyr duar Shaltervet, criattevet, E atta rry ȗòin aniin, 15 Tue u reshtur lheeș e daalh. Cuur ajò m’u addunaar Lin tuttié ndȪ dêtit: Ir. Se ju kén ju marinara Mbani daalh anîȗyn; 20 Sâ t’i trùagn dialhȪșin BùshtȪrys s’imme cunàt; Cûr t’e lhiįign t’i valhtoogn: “Biir, cu ty vatte jott’yym? Muar e vatte ndy Turkii; 25 Mbeer e kiumshtit chy t’siil Caa cush t’i ȗilhéssȪgnyn Ndêren e t’buccurit “Yygh, po faket e s’att’yym T’I bygnyn lhùlhe autari, 30 E prâ gkîrin e s’att’yym Pasikiir tȪ shíghieb–” Ma im’biir, gnȪ zop boor, Ysht i vògchȪlh e do mbȪ door! Bymni marinara tȪ shogh 35 Câ ndîna u shpiin t’ìmme.” Mundi shcrettîa e ȗôgnys Gkiin e marinârvet. Ajo e lhyyn hippur te ndîna

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144 Sâ mbulîti siȗit, 40 Raa ndȪ mest detit. Suvaalht cye mbìttȪtin, E shtîtin ndȪ ȗaalt Coronit. Eerį tȪ vapȤtat e Coronit E m’I puștin dôrien 45 C’i ké crua gaiįîve; ErįȪtin ȗôgnat e Coronit, Kiaitin e tȪfalhtin, I stistin siper gnȪ kísh.237

The poem in Italian translation: DONNA IRENE Arrivò nave dal mezzo del mare Arrivò al porto di Corone Esse le signore di Corone Non pur una là scesero; 5 Ma sol’una quella signora Irene. Salvete, marinai. Bene a noi vieni tu, signora Irene. Dove avete le seta? Scendi, Signora, nelle stanze. 10 La Signora scegliea li vestiti La cognata per maritare, Sceglieva e poneale nelle mani A’paggi, alle ancelle; A i marinari avviavano la nave 15 Allontanandosi leggieri e lenti. Quando Ella se ne avvide Erano lungi dentro il mare. Ir. Deh! voi cani, voi marinari, Allentate per poco la nave, 20 Quant’ io raccomandi il figliuol mio Alla infaticabile mia cognata; Quando l’avvolga nelle fasce che piangagli: “Figlio, dove ti è andata tua madre? Prese e se n’è andata in Turchia; 25 E ‘n vece del latte che ti recava,

Longing, Weakness and Temptation: From Myth to Artistic Creations Ha chi adugger le238 agogna L’onore e la beltà “Si; ma le guance di tua madre Farannole fiori d’altare, 30 E poi il seno di tua madre Uno specchio ove si mirino–” Ma il figlio mio, un pezzo di neve, E picciolino e vuole in braccio! Fatemi marinai che riveda Io dall’antenna la casa mia”. Vinse l’infortunio della signora Il petto de’ Marinari. Ella, lasciata salire all’antenna, Appena là chiuse gli occhi, 40 E cadde nel mezzo del mare. Le onde che la sommersero, La spinsero alla spiaggia di Corone. Vennero le povere di Corone E baciaronle la mano 45 Che a loro fu fonte di grazie; Vennero le matrone di Corone, Piansero e salutaronia; Le edificaron sull’avello una chiesa.

In Slovenian translation: GOSPA IRENA Prišla je ladja s sredine morja, prišla je v pristan v Coronu. Oné, gospé iz Corona, niti ena ni šla tja doli; 5 samo ena pà, óna gospa Irena. “Pozdravljeni, mornarji!” ““Dobro nam došla, gospa Irena!”“ “Kje imate svileno blago?” ““Stopi doli, gospa, v stanice.”“ 10 Gospa je izbirala obleke svakinji za poroko, izbirala in jih polagala v roke strežnikom, deklam. In mornarji so odrinili 15 in se oddaljevali lahno in poþasi.

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Ko je ona to opazila, so bili daleþ zunaj na morju. Ir.: “Oj, vi psi, vi mornarji, zadržite nekoliko ladjo, 20 naj priporoþim sinka svojega neutrudni svoji svakinji: Ko ga bo povijala v plenice, naj toži: ‘Sin, kam ti odšla je mati? Ugrabljena je in odpeljana na Turško. 25 In namesto mleka, ki ti ga je nudila, imaš, kdor te bo podžigal za poštenje in lepoto. Dà; pa lica tvoje matere bodo cvetje na oltarju 30 in nedro tvoje matere ogledalo, kjer se bodo ogledovali.’ Pa sin moj je kakor sneg in majhen in hoþe v naroþje! Dejte, mornarji, naj pogledam 35 z jadrnika svoj dom.” Ganila nesreþa gospel srce je mornarjem. Ona, ko sme zlesti na nadrnik, brž zapre oþi 40 in pade v sredino morja. Valovi, ki so jo pokrili, so jo zagnali na obrežje pri Coronu. Prišle so ubožice iz Corona in ji poljubljale roko, 45 ki jim je bila vir dobrot; prišle so matere iz Corone, jo objokovale in þastile. Postavile nad grob so ji cerkev.

In English: There arrived a boat from the midst of the sea, Arrived at the port of Cotrone Of the ladies from Cotrone Not a single one went down to it; 5 But for one, Lady Irena.

Longing, Weakness and Temptation: From Myth to Artistic Creations “Hello, Sailors!” “Be welcome, Lady Irena!” “Where do you have silken goods?” “Step on board, Lady, onto the deck.” 10 The Lady selected a gown For her sister-in-law’s wedding, She selected it and put it into the hands Of the servant, the maid. And the sailors set off 15 And drifted away gently and slowly. By the time she noticed this, They were far out to sea. Ir.: “Oh, you curs, you sailors, Hold up the boat for a while, 20 So I can say a good word for my son To my tireless sister-in-law: When she puts his diapers on, let her lament: “Son, where has your mother gone? Abducted and driven away to Turkey. 25 And in place of the milk she offered you, You have, whoever will be moved To honesty and beauty. Aye; but the cheeks of your mother Will be blooms at the altar 30 And the bosom of your mother A mirror, into which they will gaze. But my son is like snow And small and wants into my lap! Allow me, sailors, to have a look 35 From the mast towards my home.” The unhappy lady moved The hearts of the sailors. She, who was allowed to creep to the mast Immediately closed her eyes 40 And fell right into the sea. The waves that covered her Flung her back to the shores by Cotrone. The poor women of Cotrone came down And kissed that hand 45 That had been a source of goodness; The mothers from Cotrone

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Mourned and honoured her. Above her grave they built a church.

The contents of the song about Lady Irene describe how Irena, after she finds out that she has been abducted, asks the sailors to let her speak with her sister-in-law, who had accompanied her to the boat and waits for her there in order to see her wedding gown. Irena asks her what to tell her son, who “is like snow / and small and wants into my lap!” when another will care for him in her place. She should raise him with the values of honesty and grace and tell him that his mother was kidnapped and taken away to Turkey. She wishes to remain as a pure “mirror, when they will look,” and for this she must sacrifice herself at the “altar.” In her before-death rapture she speaks with her small child and tells him about herself: Abducted and driven away to Turkey. And in place of the milk she offered you, You have, whoever will be moved To honesty and beauty. Aye; but the cheeks of your mother Will be blooms at the altar And the bosom of your mother A mirror, into which they will gaze.

Irena then jumps into the sea. The waves drive her body back to dry land, “to the shores by Cotrone,” taking leave of her benevolence: her death is mourned mourned and a church is built above her grave. Jeronim De Rada wrote a song with a similar motif of an abducted young wife and mother. In contrast to the song about Lady Irena, in this song the husband of the abducted woman actually appears–he tries by all means possible to save his wife from the hands of the Turks, but is unsuccessful. The song “Donna Candia” reads in the original: DONNA CANDIA - O donna Candia, Si vui sita cumprare, D’ogni culur ci sta.– Donna Candia si calau, 5 E lu Turcu l’imbarcau. Lu maritu che arrivau, No curriere ci mandau;

Longing, Weakness and Temptation: From Myth to Artistic Creations Lu cavallu suo bellissimu Ma di sangue fice sudari. 10 –O Marinari, Dunatimi Donna Candia, Che vi do dinari a tumulu E scuti a centinari.– - Nun vulimu dinari a tumulu 15 Nè scuti a centinari; Vulimo a Donna Candia Che ha belizzi singulari.– O Marinari, Dunatimi a Donna Candia; 20 Che ha nu ninillu picciulu, Nun ha chi lu lattar.– Dunali e pane e simula Ed acqua di funtana; Si nun ni vue di chillu, 25 Tu lassalu schiattar.– (D. Can.) Managgia a tia e a suarta Che ha fattu a mia ‘ngannar. Va portacilu a suarta Che faccialu lattar.– 30 Lu maritu suo bellissimu Tuttu piangendu sin’andau. (D. Can.) O marinari, Lasciatimi di jire Quantu vau ‘ncoppa l’antinna 35 Per vidire lu miu maritu, Quante miglia ci hau di fare.– S’inchinau ncoppa l’antinna, Mienzu mare si jettau: Nun mi gode lu mio maritu, 40 E nemmeno li Turchi cani.– Ncapu di nove juorni Lu mare la sbarcau. Le mani sue bianchissime Feu candelier di chiesa etc.

In Slovenian translation:

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150 GOSPA CANDIA

“O gospa Candia, þe hoþeš svile kupiti, vsake barve je tu.” Gospa Candia je šla doli 5 in Turek jo vzel v barko. Soprog, ki je (domov) prišel, brzega sla je tja poslal; konja svojega najboljšega pa do krvi je uznojil. 10 “O mornarji, dajte mi gospo Candio, da vam dam denarja na kupe in zlatov na stotine.” ““Noþemo denarjev na kupe, 15 ne zlatov na stotine; hoþemo gospo Candijo, ki je lepa brez primere.”“ “O mornarji, dajte mi gospo Candijo, 20 ki ima majhnega dojenca, nikogar ni, da bi ga dojil.” ““Daj mu kruha in zdroba in vode iz vodnjaka; þe tega ne mara, 25 pusti ga, da crkne.”“ (G. Can.) “Podvizaj sebe in sestro (?) ki je že mene tešila. Dej, nesi ga sestri, da ga bo dojila.” 30 Soprog njen prelepi ves v solzah je odšel. (G. Can.) “O mornarji, dovolite mi iti, kolikor gre, pod vrh jadrnika, 35 da bom videla svojega moža, koliko milj še ima do tja” (do doma). Vrh jadrnika se je nagnil, sredi morja se je vrgla: “Ne bo me užival moj mož, 40 še manj pa turški psi.” V zaþetku novega dne jo je morje položilo na suho. Njene roke prebele

Longing, Weakness and Temptation: From Myth to Artistic Creations so bile (?) sveþniki v cerkvi itd.239

The English translation: Lady Candia “Oh, Lady Candia, If you want to buy silk, Every colour is here.” Mrs. Candia descended 5 and the Turk took her onto the boat. Her husband who arrived (home), Sent a swift courier there, His finest horse He did make sweat blood. 10 “Oh, sailors, Give me Lady Candia, And I will give you heaps of money And gold by the hundreds.” “‘We don’t want heaps of money, 15 Nor gold by the hundreds; We want Mrs. Candia, Who is beautiful beyond compare.’” “Oh, sailors, Give me Mrs. Candia, 20 Who has a young infant, And there is none to still him.” “‘Give him bread and meal And water from the fountain; If he doesn’t like that, 25Leave him to die.’” (Lady Can.) “Hurry yourself and sister Who already consoled me. Go, carry him to your sister, And she will still him.” 30 Her handsome husband Departed awash in tears. (Lady Can.) “Oh, sailors, Let me go, If I may, to the top of the mast, 35 So I can see my husband, And how many miles away it is” (to home) She made for the top of the mast, And threw herself right into the sea: “My husband will not have me, 40 And even less these Turkish curs.”

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Part II: Chapter Two By the break of a new day, The sea had carried her to shore. Her white hands Became candles in the church…

In attempting to redeem his wife from the Turks, the husband hastens forth on his horse to the shore and beseeches the abductors to let her go, not least for the sake of the small child. The Turks refuse because she is so lovely and cannot be paid for with gold: We don’t want heaps of money, Nor gold by the hundreds; We want Mrs. Candia, Who is beautiful beyond compare.

The husband continues to beseech them to return the mother to her small child, as she is still nursing and there is no other to still the child in her place. But to this question of how the child will survive without a mother, the Turks brutishly reply: Give him bread and meal And water from the fountain; If he doesn’t like that, Leave him to die.

The abducted Candia now remembers her sister-in-law and asks her husband to have her nurse the child, when she herself will no longer be there. Her “handsome husband” then realises that his wife is lost to him forever, and he departs “all in tears.” At the recognition that she is torn away from her husband forever, and in repudiation of becoming a concubine for the Turks, Candia throws herself into the see, as the song relates: She made for the top of the mast, And threw herself right into the sea: “My husband will not have me, 40 And even less these Turkish curs.”

Because of the husband’s role in trying to save his wife, the song has an added positive significance–the love between man and wife is emphasised, while as in the other song before death the mother is concerned about how her beloved child will be nursed by a relative.

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The group of Slovenian song ballads about Fair Vida is, in addition to De Rada’s Albanian song Donna Irena and his Calabrian song Donna Candia, also close to the Calabrian song fragment Donna Canfura, which was first published by Gina Algranati: DONNA CANFURA - Adduni siti, giuvini?- Simu de Catanzaru; Portamu sita a vinnari, D’ogni culuri ecce n’amu. 5 Chiamati a Donna Canfura Chi nne sola cumpirari ... Subitamente la cammara fici, Donna Canfura chiusi ll’occhi, E ‘ntra mari se jettava.240

In Slovenian translation: GOSPA CANFURA “Od kod ste fantje?” “Smo iz Catanzara; imamo svilo naprodaj, vsake barve je imamo.” 5 “Pokliþite gospo Canfuro, ta jo navadno kupuje”… Zdajci stanico pripravi, gospa Canfura gre tja … Gospa Canfura zapre oþi 10 in v morje se vrže.

In English: LADY CANFURA “where are you from, boys?” “We are from Catanzaro; we have silk for sale, we have every colour.” 5 “Call Lady Canfuro, she usually buys”… Prepare the room immediately, Lady Canfura is coming... Mrs. Canfuro closes her eyes

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10 And throws herself into the sea.241

Although the song is only a fragment, we can sense its essence. Canfura also in this song closes her eyes and throws herself into the sea so that she prevents the brutal intentions of the abductors. This song is similar to the Albanian variant of the motif, which L. Bruzzano contributed and which has the title “Ta bucurana–La bella”; it was written down by Calabrian Albanians. In this song, too, the Turks abduct a woman who is called Fair (La Bella) in the song. The reason for their “pillaging” is emphasised–they desire a woman who is fair, the fairest, and in their egotistical desire for pleasure they take as they please. Also in this song the husband unsuccessfully attempts to buy back his wife from the Turks by offering gold. While the love between man and wife, who long for each other, is emphasised, in this song La Bella, in contrast to Irena and Candia, is childless. As she climbs the mast of the Turkish boat inch by inch, to see as far as possible and catch sight of her husband, she tears off her braids and begins to cry and sigh for her husband, but also for her homeland, which is a new element in the motif (“Terra mia, fratello mio”). Her tears and loud sighs so excite a passing sailor that he commands her to climb the mast, he seizes her and throws her into the sea. The sea waves carry out the dead woman to the shore, where a sailor makes two ropes out of her braids and goes to sell them at market. Her husband hears the offer and asks the sailor where he acquired the two braids; the sailor tells him and both hurry off to the given place. The husband finds his dying wife. The song in the Italian translation from the Albanian original: TA BUCURANA Porto porto Cotrone, “O voi, fanciulle di Cotrone” Gridò tre volte Per due libre di seta.242 5 Poi una fanciulla scandiota (disse): Sono io che me la compro. Era bella quella giovine, La rapí il cane Turco. La gelto243 sulla nave Poi lo seppe il signore di lei: 10 O signore, e potentissimo signore,

Longing, Weakness and Temptation: From Myth to Artistic Creations Ti do carlini a mezzaruole Perchè tu mi restituisca la bella. Nè carlini a mezzaruole 15 Non vedrai la bella. Ti do tari a tomoli, Perchè mi restituisca la bella. Nè tarî a tomoli; Non vedrai la bella. 20 Ti do ducati a salma a salma, Perchè mi restituisca la bella. Nè ducati a salma a salma Non vedrai la bella. O tu, signore e potente signore 25 Una grazia ti cerco Di mettermi la scala. La grazia gliela fece, E le pose la scala. Sali scalino scalino, Ogni scalino una lagrima. Si sciolse le trecce, Cominciò a piangere:

–Terra mia, fratello mio!– Poi la sentì il cane turco: Scendi qui, fanciulla. L’afferò il cane Turco, La scagliò nell’abisso. 40 Poi la cacciò un’onda di mare; Passò un marinaro, Trovò una fanciulla in quel luogo, Le tagliò le due trecce, Ne fece due funi, 45 E andò alla fiera: Chi compra queste trecce? Lo sentì il signore di lei: O tu, signor marinaro, Di dove ti vennero queste trecce?

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50 Trovai una fanciulla in quel luogo, Le tagliai le trecce, Ne feci due funi E le portai alla fiera. O tu, signor marinaro, 55 Corriamo, perchè mi mostri (il luogo). Nel cammino che fanno Andò pieno di sangue. “O fanciulla, sventurata fanciulla!” “O giovine mio sventurato!” 60 - La canzone è terminata.244

In Slovenian the poem reads: LEPA Pristan, pristan v Cotronu! “O ve, dekleta iz Cotrona,” je zaklical trikrat, “za dva funta svile!” 5 Nato (reþe) neko skandiotsko dekle: “Jaz si je kupim.” Bila je lepa tista mladenka, ugrabil jo je turški pes. Vrgel jo je na ladjo. 10 Potem je to zvedel njen gospod: “O gospod, premogoþni gospo! Dam ti karlinov na mernike, da mi ti vrneš Lepo.” “Nikar karlinov na mernike, 15 ne boš (veþ) videl Lepe,” “Dam ti srebrnikov na kupe, da mi vrneš Lepo.” “Nikar srebrnikov na kupe, ne boš videl Lepe.” 20 “Dam ti zlatnikov, kolikor tehta, da mi vrneš Lepo.” “Nikar zlatnikov, kolikor tehta, ne boš videl Lepe.”

Longing, Weakness and Temptation: From Myth to Artistic Creations “O ti gospod in mogoþni gospod! 25 Ene milosti te prosim, da mi postaviš lestvo.” To milost ji je storil in postavil ji je lestvo. Stopala je stopnjo za stopnjo, 30 vsaka stopnja solza. Razpustila si je kite, zaþela jokati: 35 “Domovina moja, bratec moj!” Nato jo je slišal turški pes: “Stopi semdoli, dekle!” Prijel jo je turški pes, vrgel jo je v prepad. 40 Potem jo je zagnal morski val. Mimo je prišel mornar, našel je dekle na tistem kraju, odrezal ji je njeni dve kiti, naredil je iz njih dve vrvi 45 in šel na trg: “Kdo kupi le-te kite?” Zaþul ga je njen gospod: “O ti, gospod mornar, od kod imaš le-te kite?” 50 “Našel sem dekle na tistem kraju, odrezal sem ji kite, naredil iz njih dve vrvi in jih prinesel na trg.” “O ti, gospod mornar, 55 teciva, da mi pokažeš (kraj).” Na poti, po kateri sta šla, je bilo polno krvi. “O dekle, nesreþno dekle!” “O fant moj nesreþni!”

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158 - Pesem je pri kraju.245

In English the poem reads: LOVELY Harbour, harbour in Cotrone! “Oh you girls from Cotrone,” He called three times, “For two pounds of silk!” 5 And then [says] a scandalous girl: “I will buy it.” It was this beautiful young woman Whom the Turkish cur abducted. He threw her onto the boat. 10 Then her husband found out: “Oh, Sir, most powerful Gentleman, I will give you ducats in masses, If you return Lovely to me.” “For no ducats in masses, 15 Will you see Lovely [again]” “I will give you heaps of silver, If you return Lovely to me.” “For no heaps of silver, Will you see Lovely.” 20 “I will give you gold equal to her weight, If you return Lovely.” “For no gold equal to her weight, will you see Lovely.” “Oh you gentleman and powerful lord! 25 I ask one mercy of you, That you set up the ladder.” He performed this mercy for her And set up the ladder. She moved up step by step, 30 Each step a tear. She undid her braids, And began to cry: “My homeland, my brother!”

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And then the Turkish cur heard her: 35 “Come down here, girl!” The Turkish cur caught her, And threw her to the abyss. And then a sea wave cast her off. A passing sailor 40 Found the girl in that place, Cut off her two plaits, And made two ropes out of them And went to the market: “Who will buy these plaits?” 45 Her husband heard this/him “Oh, you, sailor, From where do you have these plaits?” “I found a girl at that place, Cut off her two plaits, 50 Made two ropes out of them And took them to market.” “Oh you, sailor, Let us run, show me that [place].” The path to which they took 55 Was full of blood. “Oh girl, misfortunate girl!” “‘O boy, my misfortunate!’” The song is over.

As is evident, the song is fraught with oppositions. If the sailors abducted her because of her beauty, why did they cast her into the ocean? How is it that a woman who is so injured (or even dead) able to greet her husband? Clearly this song is an amalgamation of two traditions, an older one in which the woman dies and her corpse is thrown by the sea onto the shore, and a younger one in which the sailors retrieve her from the sea in order to sell her as a slave, though her husband buys her back. The Sicilian variants of “Noble Scibila” from Marsala and Borghetta bear witness to this. In the original, the Sicilian variant reads:

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Part II: Chapter Two SCIBILIA NOBILI (SICILIAN VARIANT FROM MARSALA–“NOBLE SCIBILIA”) La figghia di lu re ‘mprincipi Chi si cerca a maritari Porta setti aneddi a jidita E quattordici scvhivani. 5 Sta nova jiu ‘nsina ‘n Tunisi, Unni chiddru malucani Armau setti galeri Tutti setti ‘capu la navi Cu triccentu marinari. 10 Quannu fôru ‘mmeru a lu portu Li birritti si cangiaru Pi pariri crsitiani. Si nnu jeru nni Scibilia Nobili: Scibilia Nobili, aprimi, aprimi.– - E no no ‘un ti pozzu apriri, Chi lu mè spusu è à caccïari– La porta ‘n terra cci sbalancaru, A Scibilia Nobili si pigghiaru. Cu’ ‘nu peri e cu’’na manu 20 Supra la navi si la purtaru. E po’vinni lu sò spusu Ed accominciau a spïari: Scib. Nob. unn’ è unn’ eni?– - Si la pigghiaru li marinari.– 25 Si nn’ha jutu a la marina Lacrimi all’ occhi, li manu sbattennu, Jeu vi dugnu oru e dinari Pi quantu iddra pò pisari. - Puru chi mi nni inghissi navi 30 E no no ‘un ti l’haju a dari– –E signuri Ginirali, E facitimilla affacciari Quantu ci dicu du’ suli palori: “Scibilia Nobili, Scibilia Nobili, 35 Comu ti facisti pigghiari? Mi lassasti lu figghiu pìcciulu, E cu’ minna cci voli dari? Si nurrizza ‘un cci nn’è no, Pani e nuci cci pascirò.”– 40 E supra li tri ghiorna Cci dissiru:–Vô’ manghiari? – Nè mangiari, nè biviri, Nè durmiri, nè stari beni,

Longing, Weakness and Temptation: From Myth to Artistic Creations Nuddru pinseri e mia mi nni veni, 45 Chi lu me’ figghiu è mortu di fami, Si tu hai ssu pettu chinu, Sguittacillu tu a ssi cani.Lu me’ latti è biancu bianchissimu, Tu si’ veru cori di cani. – 50 Li marinari s’addrummisceru; Cadiu la bella dintra lu mari.246

In English, this Sicilian variant of Noble Scibilia from Marsala reads: The daughter of a king and duke Who wants to marry, Wears seven rings on her fingers And [has] fourteen scribes. 5 This news reached Tunisia Where an evil cur Prepared seven galleys, All seven at the head of the boat With three hundred sailors. 10 When they came near the harbour They changed their hats, Came to noble Scibilia. “Noble Scibilia, open up, open up.” “But no, no, I can’t open, 15 As my husband is away hunting.” They threw the doors to the ground, And abducted noble Scibilia, And dragged her by the hands and feet onto the boat. And then her husband came 20 And began to ask: “Noble Scibilia, where is she, where is she?” “Sailors have taken her away.” Immediately he went to the seashore With tears in his eyes and clapping his hands 25 “I will give you gold and money Equal to her weight.” “Even if you fill my boat with it, I will not, will not give her to you.” “And Mr. General, 30 Allow her to show herself to me, So that I may say just a few words. “Noble Scibilia, Noble Scibilia, Why did you let yourself be carried off?

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Part II: Chapter Two You’ve left me a small son, 35 And who will give him a breast? When the nurse is not here, I will feed him bread and walnuts.” And after three days They said to her, “Do you want to eat?” 40 “Neither eating, nor drinking, Nor sleeping, nor being healthy Do I even consider Since my boy has died of hunger.” “If your breasts are full, 45 Offer them to the dogs.” “My milk is white, too white: You truly have a dog’s heart.” The sailors fell asleep, 50 And the fair one fell into the sea.

Also this Sicilian song speaks of the abduction of a young mother, the daughter of a queen and a duke, who wishes to marry. When this news reaches Tunisia, an “evil cur” sets forth with Tunisian sailors in their galleys for her home at a time when her husband is away hunting. Because she will not open up for them, they tear the doors down, drag her by the hands and the feet away to the boat. When her husband returns from the hunt and finds out that his wife has been kidnapped by sailors, he hurries to the shore, tears in his eyes, and claps his hands: “I will give you gold and money Equal to her weight.”

But the sailors will not relinquish the woman for any price, even if the boat were to be filled with gold. The husband laments desperately that the woman should be freed for the sake of her small son, who no longer has anyone to nurse him. Who will give him a breast? When the nurse is not here, I will feed him bread and walnuts

For three days the sailors beseech the woman to eat and to drink, but she cares neither for food nor beverage, nor sleep and health. She thinks only of her small boy, who will die of hunger. When the sailors sleep, the fair hero “falls” into the sea.

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What remains of another Sicilian song about Noble Scibilia, the Borgetto variant, reads in the Italian original: SCIBILIA NOBILI (SICILIAN VARIANT FROM BORGETTO–“NOBLE SCIBILIA”) La figghia di lu gran Principi chi si cerca a maritari porta setti aneddi a jìddita, la cuddana e lu fruntali. 5 Idda era veru bellissima com’àncila di li celi; forti si nni ‘nnamurau d’un valenti Cavaleri. –Scibia Nobii, Sc. N., 10 e no ca li to’parenti nun ti vonnu a tia spusari: si tu veru a mia vò’ beni, a lu me’palazzu ti nni veni.– Sc. N. s nni jiu 15 cu l’amatu Cavaleri, tutti li so’ gioj si purtau; a la campagna luntanu li genti, ‘ntra lu palazzu cu tanti ricchizzi ddà campavanu cuntenti. 20 La nova jiu fin’a Tunisi, unni chiddu malu cani … 25 26 li turbanti si livaru 27 pri pariri cristiani … 35 36 E po’ junci lu Cavaleri, Forti turbatu misi a spjari: -Scib. Nob. unn’eni?39 –Si l’aggranfaru li marinari.– 40 45 50 55

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63 Lu me’ latti biancu bianchissimu –sulu è dignu a li cristiani.– 65 Li marinari s’addrumissceru, Cadiu la bella dintra lu mari.

This second variant of “Scibilia Nobili,” a song from Borgetto, reads in English: The daughter of a great duke Who is looking to marry Wears seven rings on her fingers, A veil and a diadem 5 She was most lovely indeed, Like a girl from heaven. Strongly fell in love With a mighty knight. “Noble Scibilia, Noble Scibilia, 10 But look, your parents Do not wish for you to marry: If you truly love me, Come to my palace.” Noble Scibilia went 15 With her beloved knight. All were joyous. In the country far away from [other] people, In a palace that was entirely rich They lived happily. 20 The new reached Tunisia, 21 Where that evil cur is … 26 They took off their turbans, 27 And pretended to be Christians. 36 And then the knight returned, Greatly upset, he began to ask: “Noble Scibilia, where is she, where is she? 39 “Sailors have abducted her.” 63 “My milk is white, too white, And worthy only of Christians.” 65 The Sailors fells asleep, And the Lovely One fell into the sea.”

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This song exists in fragmentary form and some lines are missing, but we can nevertheless discern the main emphases. Even more so than in the earlier Sicilian variant the beginning of the poem is emphasised, which speaks of how the daughter of a great duke greatly loved a powerful knight and departed with him for his palace, in the face of her parents’ opposition to the union. They live blissfully in a faraway region, in a richly furnished palace. This news reaches Tunisia. From there sailors, disguising themselves as Christians by removing their headdress, travel forth. After the few missing lines of the poem we find out that her husband has returned home (whereas in the earlier version he was away hunting, in this version information about his whereabouts is missing). The conclusion of the poem is similar to the previous Sicilian variant. Scibilia will not allow herself to be defiled, and emphasises her Christian faith by saying: “My milk is white, too white, And worthy only of Christians.” 65 The Sailors fells asleep, And the Lovely One fell into the sea.

In this poem, too, the sailors fall asleep. The Lovely One “falls” into the sea and drowns. Russo’s Variant of the Sicilian Tale In only one of the tales from Sicily containing this motif does the woman survive her leap into the sea, swim to shore and successfully escape her abductors’ grasp. In this tale, which is from Delia in the region of Caltanissetta, recorded by Vincenzo Russo, published by Michele Barbi, the dissembling sea merchant abducts a young woman, also called La Bella. However, here the abduction is at her father’s command, as she is to be returned after having departed from home and married against his will. Originally it was a Sicilian narrative ballad, but the old ballad form was completely reworked. The young wife-mother is not lured onto a boat and abducted by Muhammedan sea merchants/pirates but through her father’s mediation. The abducted woman does not jump into the sea to escape enslavement and defilement but out of love for her husband and child–and here she swims safely to dry land.247 In the original Italian, Russo’s variant reads: Arrivò una volta una nave, e un bando pubblico invitava i cittadini a fare acquisti di tessuti di seta.

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Part II: Chapter Two La bella, dopo preghiere insistenti, ottene dalla suocera d’essere accompagnata, all’insaputa del marito, sulla nave fare acquisti. Appena la bella fu entrata sulla nave, questa si mosse, lasciando la suocera a terra. Era stato il padre a combinare questo ratto, perchè la figlia aveva abbandonato la casa paterna per unirsi in maatrimonio col suo amante, senza il consenso dei parenti. La bella, presa prigioniera, per l’amore che portava al suo bimbo, tuttora lattante, si buttò dalla nave e a noto raggiunse la sponda, che non era tanto lontana.248

The Russo variant in English: There once arrived a boat and a public announcement was made inviting citizens to come to buy silken goods. After much pleading, La Bella received permission from her mother-in-law to go shopping on the boat in her company, and without the knowledge of her husband. No sooner had La Bella stepped onto the boat than they pushed off, leaving the mother-in-law on the shore. It was her father who had thought up this abduction, because his daughter had escaped her father’s house and given herself in marriage without the permission of her parents. La Bella, having been taken prisoner, out of the love that united her with her husband and child, who was still an infant, flung herself from the boat and swam to the shore, which was not very far away.249

When La Bella, unbeknowest to her husband, receives permission from her mother-in-law to go onto the boat with her to buy silken goods, the boat sets sail as soon as she steps aboard. The mother-in-law remains on dry land, while La Bella is taken prisoner. The tale does not end tragically. Out of love for her husband and child, who is still an infant, the prisoner leaves the boat and swims for shore, which was not so far away. When under duress she becomes a determined fighter, who defies the will of her authoritarian father, chooses her own path and returns to her husband and child. In the majority of songs we see the weakness and powerlessness of the husband to save his woman from the hands of the abductors. Some later variants set forth with a description of the sense of impotence and desperation that overcomes the lonely husband, such as in Prešeren’s “Of the Fair Vida.” and thy aged man is now at sea, he hath left his home to search for thee,

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he is searching, weeping bitter tears, and his heart is fit to burst with grief.250

In all the Albanian-Italian songs, which in some cases resound also in the Slovenian space, we are witness to a faithful love between husband and wife, in which there is much suffering; here and there the marvellous occurs. And so the power of the abducted woman’s love in the Russo variant of the Sicilian Tale allows for the wonder that the woman, after jumping into the water alone–that is, without the help of a saviour–swims to shore, overcomes her father’s opposition to her marital choice and reunites with her loving husband. Although there are some rebellious figures in Slovenian folk songs about the abduction of a woman (such as the song about King Matthew), the majority of these songs contrastively show the type of the suffering, upright husband, who because of a stronger opponent is unable to rescue his wife from captivity, violation or death. In the songs, his tears flow and he experiences an inconsolable, incurable sadness at the loss of his beloved wife. Misfortune befalls him suddenly and unexpectedly, through no fault of his own, and he loses his dearest one by losing his wife. But such songs remain silent about the husband’s further destiny and his acceptance of the loss. Rather, the focus is on the figure of the woman, who is forced to choose between a life of captivity or death.

2.1.2 Luring a Wife and Mother by Offering Medicine for her Sick Child (Croatian, Slovenian and Koþevje Songs) Whereas the Albanian-Italian variants of the motif of abduction have the woman lured by textiles and magnificent fabrics, in the Croatian, Slovenian and Koþevje variants the abductors entice the woman onto the boat under the pretence of having medicine for her sick child. The new circumstance, that the wife-mother has a child at home who is deathly ill and she is therefore most concerned for his health, adds a more profound significance to the motif of luring onto the boat. The tragic quality of the ballad is therefore enhanced. In such cases it is not vanity that leads the wife-mother onto the boat–as could be read into her desire for precious and beautiful clothes–but solely great concern for her sick child. Here there is in the foreground a sacrificial maternal love, which is cruelly exploited and abused. The tragedy is that the mother is torn away from her child at the very time she most wanted to help him in his illness. It is her very morality that leads to

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the loss of her child, and this adds to the tragedy. With this motif the universally human, spiritual contents of the ballad are rendered more profound and the external frame of a feudal or patriarchal bourgeoisie, which lends the original ballad a somewhat higher societal value, can be left out. Hereby the ballad is raised to a higher spiritual level. And so from the Mediterranean ballad about an abducted young wife and mother emerges the Slovenian, as well as the Croatian, Fair Vida.251 The most characteristic Slovenian folk variant containing the motif of a woman who is lured on to a boat and of her jump into the sea is Breznik’s variant from Ihan.252 It was in Slovenia’s Ihan that the linguist Anton Breznik recorded the ballad that was sung by the folk singer Jera Korez from the village of Mala Loka by Ihan. In the Slovenian original, which contains characteristics of the Gorensjka dialect, it reads: SLOVENSKA - BREZNIKOVA IHANSKA INAýICA (MLADA VIDA) Mwada Wida ja štrene praca Pԥr kraj murja na belmo pésk. Pԥrke jnԥ ja pԥrpwáva písana barka, Notԥr ja biw þàrԥn zamurc. 5 Tko ja reku þàrԥn zamurc: “Kaj ja tjàb, mwada Vida? Kàj z bwà górš ta pàrve leta!” “Jàst sԥm bíva uhkà górš ta pàrve leta, Dej pa jmam hԥduԥbnԥ dete, 10 k noþ mine, dan potihne Pa hԥduԥbnԥ dete na pomoukne.” Tko ja reku þàrԥn zamurc: “Pejd le notԥr, mwada Vida, Jàst pa jmam takšnԥ korejnþe, 15 De, k boš ti dete skopáva, Pa bo preci mԥrnó postávԥ.” Švà jԥ notԥr mwada Vida. Naprédԥn se ja Vida gwàr skwaníva, Ja že na sredԥ murja bíva. 20 Tko ja rekwa mwada Vida: “Kaj boš ti, dete poþévԥ, K na boš matere jmévԥ. -----------------------------253 Ráj þԥm na sréd murja skoþít, Kokԥr pԥr tjàb se, þàrԥn zamurc, vazít. 25 Kokó boš se miw jokávԥ, k na boš matere jmévԥ.” Vida je pa svet kríš striva,

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Na sred murja ja notԥr skoþiva.254

The song in prosaic English translation: Young Vida was washing her linen On the white sands at the sea. A colourful boat landed there, And in it was a black Moor. 5 And the black Moor said: “What is wrong, Young Vida? How much lovelier you were in past years!” “I could be more lovely in past years, But now I have a wicked baby, 10 When night passes, and day breaks, The wicked baby is never silent.” And the black Moor said: “Come inside, Young Vida, I have such roots 15 That when you will bathe your child, He will immediately be calmed. Young Vida went inside [the boat], But before she stood upright, She was already in the middle of the sea. 20 And so Young Vida said: “What will you, my baby do When you no longer have a mother.” -------I’d rather leap into the sea, Than drive away with you, black Moor. 25 How you [my baby] will bitterly cry, When you no longer have a mother.” Vida made the sign of the cross And leapt right into the sea.

The song describes the young Vida and how she is washing linen at the shore. From a colourful boat, a Moorish sea merchant (occasionally a pirate) approaches her. He clearly knows Vida from younger years, and he is not here for the first time; Vida also knows him, but only as a sea merchant. The Moor lures her onto the boat by pretending to have medicine for her sick child. When the Moor pushes off from shore and Vida realizes that it is a trap, she is overcome by great sadness and concern for her lost child. Determined not to go anywhere with the Moor, she jumps into the sea. As in the Sicilian and Calabrian predecessors, in this Slovenian variant Vida also dies a hero’s death; before doing so,

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however–again, as in the Sicilian song–there is an indication of her Christian faith (in this song she crosses herself). We find a similar motif of the heroic death of an abducted woman in folk songs from other central and eastern European nations. The motif of jumping into the water appears also in the loveliest Bohemian-Moravian ballad that contains a Turkish theme, namely the ballad of the “Turkish Bride.” In this ballad, the Turk or Tatar is an undesired groom, and his wife escapes him by jumping to her death.255 Similarly, in the Romanian ballad of Ilinka the unfortunate bride either jumps into the Danube and drowns, or with the help of her mother simulates death and thus escapes her evil destiny. In Poland there is a known folk tale about Wanda of Krakow, who chooses to dive into the waves of the Vistula over marrying a German.256 According to some Czech, Slovak, Slovenian and Ukrainian ballad variations, the father, mother or brother sells the daughter or sister to a Turk or a Tatar. The Slovenian version provides the additional dramatic turn that the Turk’s mother has murdered eight of his brides. In some examples the girl survives by jumping across the river, while those who pursue her die. Such miraculous solutions evoke the models of the legends of the saints. Thus among many examples the Slovenian ballad about Saint Scholastica portrays how the Turkish sultan proposes marriage to a girl, but angels rescue her and bear her up to heaven. Another story, from Istria, relates that a saintly girl accused of sin jumps from the walls of Saint Stephen in Istria in order to prove her innocence. She survives the jump, through God’s mercy, and from that place a salubrious fountain springs. A similar folk tradition adding a mythological motif to a specific historical event and person is found in the hills near the Slovenian town of Trojane, from whose red cliffs Veronika Deseniška leapt.257

2.2 Luring “Vacillating” Fair Vida onto a Boat and her Sorrow in a Foreign World at the Loss of her Husband and Child In the second type of song about Fair Vida, the abducted wife and mother represents a contrast to the earlier figure of a beautiful and rich, happily married aristocrat whom the abductor desires to be his beautiful concubine. In those songs the woman is often called La Bella, and sailors sing praise to her inestimable beauty, which no money can buy. Here the abducted one is a poor, goodly mother and wife withered by loneliness and

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sleepless nights. Once beautiful, her life with an aged husband and a sickly child has taken away her previous fairness and youthful bloom. The decisive resistance against the abductor in the group of songs from the first type gives way here to passive resistance. The abductor first entices the young woman and mother through promises of an easier life at the Spanish court with the Spanish queen, and then departs with her. Already on the boat Fair Vida becomes aware of her fatal error in yielding to the abductor and setting off, away from her husband and child; but for her there is no return. At the Spanish court she becomes wet-nurse for the Spanish queen.258 Whereas the first type of folk ballads about Fair Vida are preserved in an undoubtedly pure national variant, the puzzling issue of the tradition of the second type in Slovenia has not been solved conclusively. The particular folk version on the basis of which the greatest Slovenian poet France Prešeren wrote the 1832 Romantic ballad “Of the Fair Vida” is unfortunately not preserved. However, three other manuscripts with this motif do remain and serve as the basis for writings from 1832-1840. Common to all three is that they are found in neither any other Slovenian nor foreign variant: Vida is abducted to nurse the Spanish prince, and in the song there is a message from the Sun that they lit a candle for her child; the message from the Moon is that they have buried the child; the Spanish queen is witness to Vida’s sadness. Vida invents the story that her sorrow is caused by the fact that a golden cup has fallen into the sea; the queen consoles her by saying she will buy her another one and speak on her behalf with the king. In all three manuscript variants of this song type the most characteristic motif of all the other Slovenian variants is left out, and here there is no luring of the young woman onto the boat with medicine for her sickly son, or, in the Albanian-Southern Italian version, with precious textiles and magnificent fabrics. It is precisely through this omission that the Moor’s consolation of the abducted woman, by saying that she will not be a common slave but will nurse the Spanish prince, acquires the significance of an invitation to flee her home, which leads to a state of testing in her. The omission of the motif of a cunningly laid trap greatly changes the sense of the poem. From an abductor, the man turns into a clever tempter, who promises the woman a better life aboard; the woman, in a moment of weakness, is taken in and goes with him freely. All three manuscript forms, in which the motif of luring onto a boat are left out, originated from fragmentary and rare Koþevje variants from nearby Koþevska Reka.259

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The woman in this type of the ballad is of a poorer class, but at the same time also weaker in character and morality than the woman from the first type. The Moor takes her to Spain to be a wet-nurse. She is thus sheltered against physical abuse, though she can never return home. The end of the poem is elegiac, in contrast with the tragic conclusion of the first type of ballads–Vida does not jump into the sea and drown, but bewails her unfortunate destiny in a foreign land.260 The motif of a woman in temptation appears primarily in this type of the ballad of Fair Vida, a type that developed only in Slovenia. All other types of the folk ballad speak mostly of abduction through subterfuge, rather than of the temptation in which Fair Vida found herself before the abduction itself. France Prešeren emphasises this motif in his artistic interpretation. In “Of the Fair Vida,” he depicts the woman as one who cannot accommodate herself to the reality of her unhappy marriage, and thus leaves her aged husband and sick child to let herself be taken away to faraway Spain. There an almost lady-like position awaits her as a wet-nurse to the young prince himself. But an internal blow follows: because of the misfortune caused by her flight, she becomes tortured by pricks of conscience and all the more longs for home and child. This type of ballad is enriched by a conversation with the Sun and the laments her pain. This motif replaces “lessens” the guilt of a weak woman temptation.261

new motif which describes Vida’s Moon and shows how Fair Vida her earlier jump into the water and and mother who has succumbed to

Vida’s decisive resistance, her jump into the water, is replaced by a more passive resistance–Vida is driven away from home, but when abroad she most likely dies of sadness. The motif of the sickly child is now combined with that of an elderly man, which exacerbates the woman’s hardship at home and explains the minimal resistance Vida offers the Moor. This also demonstrates a certain weakening of the earlier Vida’s character, which was heroic. These details attempt to excuse the fact that she gave in to temptation. With all this the tragic nature of the old ballad is weakened. Even the tragic decision for death disappears, as Vida does not perish here. The conclusion is now elegiac: Vida does not die, but we do not find out about her further destiny. She lives abroad, in comfortable external circumstances,

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lamenting her dying child, for the aged husband and the home left behind.262 Also the motif of the aged husband, which in some more recent variants is even changed into a malignant husband, is an attempt to mitigate her guilt by weakening Vida’s link to her home, husband and child.263 With this diminution of guilt, the spiritual content of the ballad of Fair Vida is also diluted. It is too near the thought that Vida is wearied by life and drudgery with an old, paltry husband and sickly child and unthinkingly flees from home. The suspicion that Vida actually rejects her husband frames the entire continued development of the ballad and opens the door to the motifs from other song models, especially from ballads about an abducted bride and an unfaithful wife who flees home.264 There is significant openness and polyvalence in the various and variegated workings of the Fair Vida theme in modern Slovenian literature, and this has given rise to several interpretations. Fair Vida’s complaint regarding what will now become of her child is changed in Prešeren’s ballad into rue over having so imprudently and thoughtlessly left the aged husband and sickly child. Though she begins to sympathise with the suffering of her deserted husband, and is overcome by regret for having left her child, all this occurs too late: having become a wet-nurse for the young prince and allowed to drink from a precious golden chalice, she nevertheless is and will always remain a slave. The crucial trait of songs of this type is Vida’s unchanged love for her child and faithful husband. Their unsolved relation in her remains like an open wound; physical rapprochement with the husband is no longer possible, though it is possible at the intimate, internal level. One of the Slovenian variants of this type of song about Fair Vida reads: Anonymous manuscript of “Prelepa Vida”265 Prelepa Vida Pelnize prala Pri kraju morja Na Ǖinji Ǖkali, 5 K’ nji Ǖe je pripeljal Zherni samorz: Tako je rekil Zherni samorz: Kaj je tebi Lepa Vida

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174 10 Ki niǕi vezh Tako lepa, kakor Perve leta?

Kako ‘zhem bit’ lepa Kakor perve leta? 15 Doma imam Ǖtariga mosha Ino bolno dete: “Stari prekaǕhluje Dete prejokuje. Tako je rekel zherni samorz: 20 Le smano, smano, te Lepa Vida! Tako je rekla Lepa Vida: Komu bom sapuǕtila Ǖtariga moshá Ino bolno dete? Tako je rekel zhern’ samorz: 25 Le smano, smano, te Lepa Vida U ǕpanǕko deshelo, po te je poǕlala ǕpanǕka kraljiza, Ne boǕh drus’ga delala, kakor bele PoǕtle poǕtilala in gori boǕh 30 Leshala ino boǕh doila ǕpanǕkiga kraljizha. U Barko je Ǖtopila, od kraja odtegnila Sazhela jokati Lepa Vida: Komu bom sapuǕtila Ǖtariga moshá Ino bolno dete? 35 Un jo je prepelal u ǕpanǕko deshelo SpanǕki kraljizi. Sjutrej je sgodaj vǕtala Je pri okni Ǖtala Gori pride rumeno Ǖonze 40 Tako je rekla Lepa Vida: Kaj te vpraǕham ti rumeno Ǖonze. Kaj moje bolno detizhe dela? Sonze pravi kaj bo delalo. Svezho Ǖo mu sdaj dershali

Longing, Weakness and Temptation: From Myth to Artistic Creations 45 Tvoj ubogi mosh Ǖe po morji Vosi Ino tebe iǕhe Ti Lepa Vida ino Ǖe po tebi Milo joka Takrat Ǖhe bolj jokala 50 Bele roke Ǖi lomila. Svezher pri oknu Ǖtala Pa gori pride Ǖvitla Luna: Kaj te vpraǕham ti Ǖvitla Luna. Kaj moje bolno detizhe dela? 55 Luna pravi, kaj bo delalo. Sdaj Ǖo ga pokopali. Tvoj Ǖtari ozha Ǖe po morju Vosi, on Ǖe po tebi pre milu Joka. She bolj je jokala Ǖe 60 Lepa Vida. K’ nji pride ǕpanǕka kraljiza. Kaj ti je prelepa Vida, De Ǖe tako milo jokaǕh? Kaj b’Ǖe ne jokala, kér 65 “Sem pri oknu Ǖtala, slata Kup’za pomivala, Padla mi je zhes Okno u morje globoko.” Takoje rekla ǕpanǕka kraljiza, 70 Nizh ne maraj ti Lepa Vida JeǕt bom Ǖpet tebi drugo Kupila, ino pri mojimu Kralju te bom isgovorila! Le lepo doji mojga krakljizha!266

In English translation: Fair Vida Was washing linen At the seashore On the azure coast. 5 Up to her came A black Moor. And so said The black Moor: What’s wrong,

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10 Fair Vida, Why are you no longer as lovely As you were in past years? How can I be as lovely As in past years? 15 At home I have an old husband And a sick baby. The old man coughs, The baby cries. And the black Moor said: 20 Just (come) with me, with me, Fair Vida! And Fair Vida said: To whom will I leave my old husband And sick baby? And the black Moor said: 25 Just come with me, with me, Fair Vida To Spanish lands. The Spanish queen sent for you. You’ll have no other work Than to make white beds, and on them 30 You’ll lie and nurse the Spanish prince. She boarded the boat, and sailed from the shore, And Fair Vida began to cry: To whom will I leave my old husband And sick baby? 35 He (the black Moor) took her to Spanish lands To the Spanish queen. She woke up early in the morning, And stood at the window. Above came the yellow sun. 40 And Fair Vida said: What do I ask you, yellow sun, What is my sick baby doing? The sun told her what he was doing. They’ve held a candle over him

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45 And your poor husband on the seas Sails searching for you, You, Fair Vida, and for you He gently cries. At this time [Fair Vida] cried even more, 50 And wrung her white hands And at evening she stood by the window And from above came the bright moon: What do I ask you, yellow moon, What is my sick baby doing? 55 The moon told her what he was doing. They’ve now buried him, And your old father on the seas Sails, and for you he gently Cries. And Fair Vida began 60 To cry even more. The Spanish queen approached her. What is it Fair Vida, That makes you cry so gently? Why wouldn’t I cry 65 “I was standing at the window, Washing the golden cup, And it fell through The window into the deep sea.” And so the Spanish queen said: 70 It is of no matter, Fair Vida, I will buy you another one, I will excuse you to the king! Just nurse my prince well.

In this song Vida first considers whether she should accept the invitation of the black Moor: “Just come with me, with me, Fair Vida”–as she asks, “To whom will I leave my old husband / And sick baby?” Vida then hears a second, more alluring summons: And the black Moor said: Just come with me, with me, Fair Vida To Spanish lands. The Spanish queen sent for you. You’ll have no other work Than to make white beds, and on them You’ll lie and nurse the Spanish prince.

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She relents, as the poem states: She boarded the boat, and sailed from the shore, And Fair Vida began to cry: To whom will I leave my old husband And sick baby?

The credibility of her later lamenting, regret and tears regarding the welfare of her husband and child is negated by her having boarded the boat.267 The love of Fair Vida for the child and husband was an insufficient barrier against delusions and her muddled projections, which prevented the young wife from seeing, in a realistic light, as well as from sensing anything magnificent in his quotidian ways. Such love would be everlasting and would not collapse under the weight of the banality of daily experience or under the force of temptation and empty promises. In her fall, when she gives in to the tempter and shifts blame, or at least the origin of her delusion, to her husband and child, there is a similarity with the story of Adam and Eve, the profound and complex Old Testament anthropological myth. The folk song about Fair Vida, like the Old Testament story, vividly depicts the elusively eloquent sinner in need of a scapegoat–just as Adam attempts to make a scapegoat out of Eve, and just as Eve blames the snake, so, too, does Fair Vida use her husband and child as an excuse. In the biblical story, in which Adam’s sin is emphasised more than Eve’s, which reveals a domineering relation to women (Gen 3:16); similarly, in the ballad of Fair Vida, the reader’s judgement is primarily directed at the abductor and his domineering, violent relation to women rather than Vida herself.268 Fair Vida is “banished from paradise,” so to speak, and, in contrast to the Albanian-Calabrian predecessors “reduced” in the human dimension. Instead of the paradise promised to her by the tempter and panderer, only loneliness, isolation and emotional suffering, combined with longing for her child and husband, awaits her. Only after the terrible experience and her fall, when life with him is no longer fateful, is his true, noble nature revealed.

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2.3 Luring the “Fallen” Fair Vida onto a Boat, her Life with a Moorish Lord and her Return for her Son In the third group of variants of the ballad of Fair Vida preserved in Slovenia, Fair Vida is abducted through the cunning of a rich Moorish lord, but, once abroad, longs insatiably for her home and family. The songs of this type are preserved in Gorenjska and represent the so-called “Gorenjska Variant Type with a Happy Ending.” In these, “a Moorish gentleman,” just as in the earlier type of songs, takes her with him to pagan Spanish lands, though no longer to nurse the Spanish prince, but as his mistress. Fair Vida returns miraculously from abroad with the help of the Sun, or after begging her “Moorish Lord,” to take her abandoned son with her to her new home with the Moor.269 The first variant of this type was written down by Radivoj (Franc) Poznik in Kropa in 1868. The song, which Mica Štular sang, reads: (MLADA VIDA) Mlada Vida je štrence prala Pri kraju morja na belem produ. Po morju se pripelja pisana barka, Notri sedi þrni zamurþek: 5 “Mlada Vida, kako je to, Da nisi veþ tako lepa, Kakor si bila prva leta, Kadar si bila pri meni za deklo?” “Kako bom jaz tol’kanj lepa, 10 Kakor sem bila prva leta, Kadar sem bila tebi za deklo; Doma imam hudega moža, Hudega moža, mlado dete. Noþ pomine, dan pozajde, 15 Moje dete nikol’ ne vtihne.” “Jaz imam vse sorte kadila, Da bodeš dete ž njim kadila.” Mlada Vida je šla kadila zibelo.270 Morþe zažene to barko, 20 Mlada Vidaje tolkanj žal’vala: “Kaj moje dete poþenja!” “Tiho, tiho, mlada Vida, Pri meni boš pogaþe jedla Ino boš vince pila.”

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25 Po pisanem ganjku je hodila, Na belo luno je gledala. Kadar je prišla bela luna, Ona je lune vprašala: “Ali kaj veš, kako se na mojemu domu godi?” 30 “Jaz pa tega niþ ne vem, Kako se na tvoj’mu domu godi. Ta rumen’ga solnca vprašaj, Kako se na tvoj’mu domu godi.” Komaj je to priþakala, 35 Gori je prišla rumena zarja, Za rumeno zar’jo pa rumeno solnce. “Jaz tebe vprašam, Kako je zdaj na moj’mu domu?” “Tvoje dete pri kraj’ morja gori in doli téþe 40 No svojo ljubo mater kliþe.” Na to je solnce prosila: “Solnce, naj grem s taboj domu.” “O tiho, tiho mlada Vida! Za manoj boš težko hodila.” 45 “O naj hodim, kakor morem, Jaz pa s taboj pojdem.” “O poldne bom eno uro stavil, Pa še ti z manoj poþij.” -----------------------------(Solnce jo je pripeljalo na dom.)271

Poznik’s variant from Kropa in Gorejnska in English: (YOUNG VIDA) Young Vida was washing swaddling-clothes At the white shore of the sea. On the sea a colourful boat sailed, Inside sat a black Moor: 5 “Young Vida, how is it That you are no longer so lovely, As you were yesteryear, When you were with me as a maid?” “How could I be as lovely 10 As I was in my early years, When I was with you as a maid? At home I have a wicked husband, A wicked husband, and a small boy.

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Night passes, the day goes by 15 My boy is never still.” “I have all sorts of incense For you to surround your child with. Young Vida went to the boat to get the incense. The Moor set sail, 20 Young Vida was lamented greatly. “What is my boy doing!” “Quiet, quiet, young Vida, With me you will eat yeast bread, And will drink sweet wine.” 25 She walked the motley corridors, And looked for the white moon. When the white moon came out, She asked the moon: “Do you know anything of how things are at my home?” 30 “I know nothing of How things are at your home. Ask the golden sun, How things are at your home.” She could hardly wait, 35 Up came yellow dawn And after the golden rays, the golden sun. “I ask you, How it is now at my home?” “Your boy runs along the seaside up and down 40 Calling for his beloved mother.” She then beseeched the sun: “Sun, let me go with you to my home.” “Oh quiet, quiet Vida” You will have trouble walking behind me.” 45 “Oh let me walk as best I can, I will go with you.” “At midday I will stop an hour, And you will rest with me.” -----------------------------(The Sun led her home)

In the Kropa variant, Fair Vida is lured onto the boat because she is deceitfully told that there is medicine there for her sick son. The Moor abducts Vida, and she comes to live with him as a lady and housewife.

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Although she had previously complained to the Moor about her “wicked husband,” she is overcome by intense longing for home. She cries incessantly over her destiny and asks the pale Moon and the golden dawn and yellow sun how things are at home and what her boy is doing. The Sun replies that her boy runs along the seashore, calling out to his mother. Finally, the Sun miraculously escorts Fair Vida back home. The old symbolism, which was also adopted by early Christianity, of a personified Sun after the return from “that world” takes Vida back to our world: “every day especially, with its rise and descent, it allegorically reminds the believer of Christ’s death, his entering the grave and resurrection: just as the Sun, Moon and stars each day or night bathe in the ocean of heaven, Christ, too, was baptised in the river Jordan. Just like the Sun, Christ also made his path to the underworld, to the world of the dead, when he died on the cross, the sun was darkened.”272 The second variant of songs about Fair Vida was uncovered in Hraše near Lesce (Marolt’s variant from Hraše from 1923).273 The song has similar emphases as the earlier variant, but in this version Fair Vida “only” leaves her child and her father, and there is no mention at all of a husband in the song. And so in the song the primary emphasis is on a wounded mother’s love, since in it Fair Vida deserts her child when she departs with the “black Moor” for his castle. Abroad, she suffers an acute guilt and longs intensely for her child. Finally Fair Vida returns home, with the permission of the Moorish lord, by boat, and takes her son, now a grown man and shepherd, away with her to the new home with the Moor.274 Marolt’s Gorenjska variant of the song of Fair Vida is written in that region’s dialect. The specific content of the poem tells of how Fair Vida arose early and is washing laundry at the seashore, crying profusely. A boat arrives from far away, and from it descends a “Moorish lord,” who asks Vida why she is crying. He tells her that she more lovely before, when she was still a maidservant at his castle. Fair Vida answers that she believes him and explains the reason–she must rise early in the morning and there are no good mornings, because she has a son, a sick child who cries all night, as well as an elderly father, who bellows at her during the day and beats her at night. The Moor tells Vida that he will provide roots, various herbs and incense for her son; when it is smoked, he will immediately be healed. But before Vida can budge, the Moor has already pushed off and set out for the wide sea; Vida walks up and down the boat, pondering and crying:

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(Marolt’s version from Hraše “Fair Vida”) 33 ... “O gnáda, gnáda! gospód zamóršþҽ! Ovbè jést sróta, o káj sm stríwa! Kdó mè u pòdóju bowánga sina?”

The passage in English: “Oh mercy, mercy! Gentleman Moor! Oh, poor me, what have I done! Who will nurse my sick son?”

At the horrific recognition that she has deserted her sickly son, that there is now no one to nurse him, the Moor tells her that he will be nursed by “whoever loves him.” She, meanwhile, will promenade inside a white castle, eat cake and drink sweet wine. Vida laments to the Moor about her concerns regarding who will console her elderly father. But the Moor responds that she should not worry herself over it–whoever can, will do so; she will lie with him and change his son. Before she was a girl at a white castle, from now on she will be a fine lady and housewife. Finally the Moor takes her far away to Spanish lands. At the lofty castle windows Vida waits impatiently for the Moon to give her advice, confiding in her that nothing more remains for her at the white castle, and asking her what to do. The Moon replies that what is meant to come will come. She tells Vida that her uncle travels the seas and asks himself whether she has drowned or gone abroad. Her elderly father has been buried, a candle is being held over her son–the mythical, benevolent fairy known as “Žalik žena” or “the White Lady,” who appears in hopeless situations, took over his cause, dressed him in celebration gown, hid him in the fog, took him to the mountains, and was stilled by the cool dew. Fair Vida becomes impatient and says that he cannot wait–she will ask the sun what to do. From ever deeper pain she cries out such that the white castle itself is trembling. 83 “Ovbè jést sróta, kakó mè gréva! Nkólvèþ nàm sréþna, nkólvèþ nàm zdráva, dòklér nam gvíšna, káj sin mój déwa.” “Oh, poor me, how sad I am! I will never again be happy, never again healthy, until I find out, what my son is doing.”

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But splendrous rays enter, as the golden sun shines for her. The sun answers her question about her child: “just be still, be still, Young Vida”– however, the sun begins to depart and Vida cries out “O wait, wait, golden Sun, / I cannot go forth, and I don’t want to go back.” The Moor asks her why she ponders in solitude at the castle window, and if she is still mourning for her son. She tells him that she has been mourning for fourteen years and that she wants to go home to her boy so that the pain will stop. At first he is against leaving, but finally Fair Vida persuades him. They depart by boat for her home and her son. There they encounter shepherds and Vida immediately recognizes her boy, who is the youngest and most beautiful one. The son leaves his sheep on the meadow and goes with her onto the boat. The Sun leads them back to the white castle, and a great wedding at the castle follows.275 In the poem the longing of Fair Vida for home and child and her regret at having left him to ally with a tempter culminates, after many years of sorrow, in alleviation. However, that which harmed her cannot assuage the tremendous pain and guilt; she is saved from the experience of the utter depths of guilt by her constant longing, tears of pain and recognition of this guilt.

2.4 The Living Tradition of the Ballad of Fair Vida in Resia One of the greatest and most significant discoveries for Slovenian culture was that of the old Slovenian ballad of Fair Vida in the 1960s in Resia, an Alpine valley in the Italian Alps in which a small number of Slovenians still live. Whereas the ballad was no longer to be found in Slovenia among the people, with the exception of one example recorded around Ribnica by the researcher Zmaga Kumer,276 in Resia it was still a part of the “living” tradition, and this in several variants.277 A fragment from the writings of Badouin de Courtenay (1873) helped us unearth, in the time between 1962-1968, up to seven new variants or fragments of the Resian Vida (sometimes known as Lina or Marjanca). The most complete variant is the one that Slovenian ethnologists recoded on May 16, 1961, sung by Ana Kólkar (1887-1965) and her younger sister Luigia Di Floriano (1900) in the Lišþe hamlet Za Branon.278 The song reads:

Longing, Weakness and Temptation: From Myth to Artistic Creations LEPA VIDA Oj lepa stara Vida, zakaj ti nisi lepa kakor nekdanja leta? Kakor naj bom jaz lepa kakor nekdanja leta! Sem posejala njive vse zdolaj pod Morjano: bila je majhna setev, veliko sem vsejala, je nekaj le pognalo. Oj lepa stara Vida, morda se sin ti joþe? Seveda se mi joþe . Oj pridi sem na barko, koren si tu izberi in deni ga k zibelki, da sin ne bo veþ jokal. Stopila je na barko, koren si je izbrala, mornar pognal je barko po rdeþem morju, po tem zelenem morju. Mornar, gorje ti bodi, zato, ker ti si loþil od mladega me moža, od malega me sina ! Mornar pognal je barko po tem rdeþem morju, po tem zelenem morju. In sreþala sta luno. Oj dober veþer, luna! Si videla mi moža, si videla mi sina? Seveda sem ju videla : tvoj sin se joþe, tvoj mladi mož ga ziblje. Mornar pognal je barko po tem rdeþem morju, po tem zelenem morju. In sreþala sta zvezdo. Oj dober veþer, zvezda! Si videla mi moža,

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186 si videla mi sina? Seveda sem ju videla: tvoj mali sin zaspal je, tvoj mladi mož jezi se. Mornar, gorje ti bod, zato, ker ti si loþil od mladega me moža, od mladega me sina! Mornar pognal je barko po tem rdeþem morju, po tem zelenem morju. In sreþala sta sonce. Oj dobro jutro, sonce! Si videlo mi sina, si videlo mi moža ? Seveda sem ju videlo: tvoj sin se zdajle ženi, tvoj mož pa hodi, hodi po tem rdeþem ganku po tem zelenem ganku . Mornar, gorje ti bodi, zato, ker si ti loþil od malega me moža, od malega me sina! Mornar pognal je barko po tem rdeþem morju, po tem zelenem morju, nikdar ni konca bilo.279

The version in English: Fair Vida Oh, fair old Vida, Why are you not as fair As in past years? How can I be as fair As in past years? I’ve been planting fields Down below Morjana: It was a small planting, I sewed many, Yet only a few grew.

Longing, Weakness and Temptation: From Myth to Artistic Creations Oh, fair old Vida, Is maybe your son crying? Of course he’s crying for me. Oh, come aboard the boat, And select some roots, And place them by the cradle, So your son will Stop crying. She boarded the boat, And selected some roots; The sailor set off with the boat Over red sea, Over that green sea. Sailor, woe betide you, For having divided me From my young husband, From my young son! The sailor set off with the boat Over that red sea, Over that green sea. And they came across the moon. Oh, good evening, Moon! Have you seen my husband, Have you seen my son? Of course I’ve seen them: Your son is crying, And your young husband is rocking him. .

The sailor set off with the boat Over that red sea, Over that green sea. And they came across a star. Oh, good evening, star. Have you seen my husband, Have you seen my son? Of course I’ve seen them: Your young son is asleep, And your young husband is angered. Sailor, woe betide you, For having divided me From my young husband, From my young son! The sailor set off with the boat Over that red sea, Over that green sea.

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And they came across the sun. Oh, good morning, sun. Have you seen my son, Have you seen my husband? Of course I’ve seen them: Your sun has now wed, And you husband paces, paces On the red passageway On the green passageway. Sailor, woe betide you, For having divided me From my young husband, From my young son! The sailor set off with the boat Over that red sea, Over that green sea, And it was never to end.

Also in this Resian variant the sailor lures Fair Vida onto the boat under the pretence of having medicinal roots for her son, and then abducts her and sails away. Fair Vida asks the moon and the stars about her young husband and small child. She finds out that her husband is angered, while her small son has passed away. Fair Vida curses the sailor for having divided her from her husband and child, and says: Sailor, woe betide you, For having divided me From my young husband, From my young son!

It is evident from the song that they drifted about aimlessly and endlessly on the seas for years and years. From the continuation of the song we discern that Fair Vida’s son has married, while her husband continues to restlessly walk the corridor before his house while Fair Vida sails on with the sailor: The sailor set off with the boat Over that red sea, Over that green sea, And it was never to end.

We can observe that in contrast with other Slovenian variants the relation between the “young” Vida and the “old” husband is changed in Resia,

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since Fair Vida has a younger husband. In contrast with the tragic variants of the ballad, in which Fair Vida leaps in desperation into the water (such as the Ihan variant), or with variants in which the sun takes Fair Vida home (the variant from Kropa, etc.), the final stanza of the Resian tradition with the sailor who steers the boat and Vida, “over that red sea / over that green sea,” reveals that Vida’s pain never comes to an end. The distinctions between the variant songs of Fair Vida are inescapably evident, but they do not diminish the significance of Fair Vida from Resia. Her particular charm is given by the conclusion of the song, which reveals with artistic subtlety that Vida’s situation is hopeless and that her longing for her child and husband will never cease. The song from Resia also contains the most beautiful compositional working-out of the epic folk tale trio of Moon-Stars-Sun, to whom Fair Vida turns when seeking news about her missed son and young husband.

2.5 Conclusion In addition to their obvious, settled and immediate significance, the songs of Fair Vida, which are entirely homely and from everyday life, contain something unstated, unknown, hidden. The spontaneous symbolic expression of the songs points, through their primary content, to ideas that lie beyond the realms of reason and thus cannot be completely grasped. The inability to recognize or comprehend definitively lies in human nature, since all is limited by the senses, and every experience contains a great deal of the unknown and that which lies beyond an individual’s consciousness. In all the songs about the cunning abduction of the woman, one has the impression that the woman did not consciously recognize the danger of the situation in which she found herself, and it is only after the abduction that she experiences a flash of intuition, followed by the horrific recognition. When the abducted Fair Vida finds herself in a situation which she cannot bear, she sheds tears, which is highly symbolic, or screams in desperation. The physical echo is shown as one of the forms of expression the straits that trouble her in the realm of the unconscious. When Fair Vida is in captivity, in the area of the unconscious, the past and the present are interwoven. The conversation with the Sun and the Moon– to whom she turns after and before sleeping, which makes it seem as if she were speaking from her dreams–unleash an avalanche of memories and especially an intensive sense of proximity with home and the family that has been torn away from her. Dreams, which express the deepest roots of her conscious thoughts, shake her and cause her pain, while at the same

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time restoring her spiritual balance as they kindle the hope of rescue. Memories of the past before the abduction resurface, satisfy her soul and vanquish the present that has constricted itself only into the anguish and resistance-rousing external circumstances of the rich Spanish court. We can discern that her personal crisis has a long-supressed history: because she dreamed of riches and a more comfortable life and unconsciously sought out contact with the stranger, who will show her another world, these dreams were suddenly fulfilled, but at the same time they plunged her into ruin.

CHAPTER THREE ARTISTIC REMODELLING OF THE MOTIF OF FAIR VIDA IN SLOVENIAN LITERATURE

3.1 Artistic Remodelling of the Ballad “Of the Fair Vida” by France Prešeren Of all the primary variants and later interpretations of Fair Vida Slovenians are probably most familiar with that of their greatest poet, France Prešeren. In the convulsive, emotion-filled times of Romanticism, he drafted his poem on the basis of the folk ballad he found in Smole’s collection of folk songs.280 In the Slovenian folk tradition there are also quite different lyrical workings of Beautiful Vida; however, their lack of uniformity means that they have not found their place among later artistic treatments.281 Prešeren’s Fair Vida is a young woman and mother who is lured by a Moor onto a boat. She leaves her husband and child in order to depart with the Moor for a faraway land, from which she can never return.

3.1.1 The Content and Form of Prešeren’s Ballad “Of the Fair Vida” Prešeren’s Romantic ballad “Of the Fair Vida,” first published in 1832 in Kranjska þbelica, is a work of great artistic virtuosity. In it he was able to link the emotionality and religiosity of the young woman and mother, as it is revealed in the most fatal period of her life, in the time of her most dire existential crisis.282 His version is a literary variation on the folk ballad from “ancient times,” which came to Slovenia from the Mediterranean before assuming its characteristic stamp here. The original reads: Od Lepe Vide Lepa Vida je pri morji stala,

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Part II: Chapter Three tam na prodi si pelnice prala. ýrn zamor'c po sivem morji pride, barko vstavi, praša lepe Vide: “Zakaj, Vida! nisi tak' rudeþa, tak' rudeþa nisi, ta cveteþa, kakor ti si prve leta bila?” Vida lepa je odgovorila: “Kak' bi b'la rudeþa in cveteþa, ker zadela mene je nesreþa; oh, doma bolnó je moje dete, poslušala sem neumne svete; omožila sem se, starca vzela! Malokdaj sem, s'rotica, vesela; bolno dete cel' dan prejokuje, celo dolgo noþ mož prekašljuje!” ýrn zamor'c ji reþe ino pravi: “ýe doma jim dobro ni, žerjavi se þez morja vzdignejo, ti z mano pojdi, srþno si ozdravit rano. Kaj ti pravim, pote, Vida zala! je kraljica španska me poslala, ji dojiti mladega kraljiþa, sinka njen'ga mlad'ga cesariþa. Ga dojila boš ino zibala, pest'vala, mu post'ljo postiljala, da zaspi, mu lepe pesmi pela, huj'ga dela tam ne boš imela.” V barko lepa Vida je stopila; al ko sta od kraja odtegnila, ko je barka že po morji tekla, se zjokala Vida je in rekla: “Oh, sirota vboga, kaj sem st'rila! Oh, komu sem jaz doma pustila dete svoje, sin'ka nebogljen'ga, móža moj'ga z leti obložen'ga!” Ko pretekle so b'le tri nedelje, jo h kraljici þrn' zamor'c pripelje. Zgodaj lepa Vida je ustala, tam pri okni sonce je þakala. Potolažit' žalost nezreþeno poprašala sonce je rumeno: “Sonce, žarki sonca, vi povete,

Longing, Weakness and Temptation: From Myth to Artistic Creations kaj moj sinek dela, bolno dete!” “Kaj bi delal zdaj tvoj sinek mali? Vþeraj sveþo rev'ci so držali, in tvoj stari mož je šel od hiše, se po morji vozi, tebe iše, tebe iše in se grozno joka, od bridkosti njemu srce poka.” Ko na veþer pride luna bleda, Lepa Vida spet pri okni gleda, da b' si srþno žalost ohladila, bledo luno je ogovorila: “Luna, žarki lune, vi povete, kaj moj sinek dela, bolno dete!” “Kaj bi delal zdaj tvoj sinek mali? Dan's so vbogo s'roto pokopali, ino oþa tvoj je šel od hiše, se po morji vozi, tebe iše, tebe iše, se po tebi joka, od bridkosti njemu srce poka.” Vida lepa se zajoka huje. K nji kraljica pride, jo sprašuje: “Kaj se tebi, Vida, je zgodilo, da tak' silno jokaš in tak' milo?” Je kraljici rekla Vida zala: “Kak' bi s'rota vboga ne jokala! Ko pri okni zlato sem posodo pomivala, mi je padla v vodo, je iz okna padla mi visoc'ga kup'ca zlata v dno morja globoc'ga!” Jo tolaži, reþe ji kraljica: “Jenjaj jokat' in moþiti lica! Drugo kup'co zlato bom kupila, te pri kralju bom izgovorila; id', kraljiþa doji moj'ga sina, da te mine tvoja boleþina.” Res kraljica kup'co je kupila, res pri kralji jo je 'zgovorila; Vida vsak dan je pri okni stala, se po sinku, oþu, mož' jokala.283

The English translation by Nada Grošelj reads: Of the Fair Vida

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Part II: Chapter Three The fair Vida stood upon the coast, On the strand stood, washing swaddling clothes, Down the sea came sailing a black Moor, asked of Vida, stopping by the shore: “Wherefore, Vida! art thou not so red, not so red and not so blooming fair, as thou wert in years that are gone by?” The fair Vida made him this reply: “How could I be red and blooming fair? Mine hath been a cruel yoke to bear; O, at home I have an ailing child, I have lent my ear to fools’ advice; I have wed, become an old man’s wife! Little joy, alas, I have in life; all day long the ailing babe will wail, all night long the man will cough and wake. Upon which replied the dusky Moor: “Cranes, if they fare ill at home, will soar high above the seas; thou too must start far away with me to mend they heart. What I tell thee, Vida! I am sent by the queen of Spain to fetch thee hence that thou mightest nurse her little son, royal heir unto the Spanish crown. Thou shalt rock him, nurse upon thy breast, cradle in thy arms and make his bed, with a sweet song lull him into sleep, no worse toil or care shall fall to thee.” The fair Vida stepped into the boat; but when they had pulled away from shore, when the boat was cutting through the waves, then did Vida weep and beat her breast: “Wretched me, alas, what have I done! Who shall care now for my little one, for my helpless babe left back at home, for my aged husband all alone!” When thrice seven days had passed between, the black Moor brought Vida to the queen. In the early morning she rose up, waited at the window for the sun. To allay her untold grief and ache, the fair Vida asked his yellow rays:

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“Sun! oh rays of sunlight’ ye will tell how my little ailing son doth fare!” “How indeed should fare thy little babe? Yesterday burnt candles by his bed, and thy aged man is now at sea, he hath left his home to search for thee, he is searching, weeping bitter tears, and his heart is fit to burst with grief.” In the evening, when the pale moon came, Vida fair stood gazing out again, and, to cool the burning in her heart, called out to the pallid moon above: “Moon! oh rays of moonlight’ ye will tell how my little ailing son doth fare!” “How indeed should fare thy little babe? But to-day they laid him in his grave, and thy aged father is at sea, he hath left his home to search for thee, he is searching, weeping bitter tears, and his heart is fit to burst with grief.” Hearing this, fair Vida wept the more. Up her lady came and fain would know: “What befell thee, Vida! that thou weep’st rivers of such hot and bitter tears?” Vida fair made answer to the queen: “What could I, poor wretch, do else but weep? I stood washing here a golden bowl, and it slipped into the sea below, from this window high the golden cup sank down to the bottom of the brine.” Then the queen would comfort her and spoke: “Weep no longer, wet thy cheeks no more! I shall buy another cup of gold, win thee pardon from the king, thy lord; go now, nurse the little prince, my babe, surely then thy grief shall pass away.” And the queen she bought a cup of gold, won her pardon from the king, her lord; Vida stood and looked out every day, cried her tears for father, husband, babe.284

In terms of form Prešeren’s ballad is a Romantic verse epic that unites elements of three literary genres, the lyric, epic and the dramatic. Lyrical

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expression and dramatic content are particularly emphasised. In terms of content Prešeren gives the folk poem new emphasis, namely his expression of his personal confession, his standpoint towards universal existential problems of freedom, love, guilt and punishment as well as towards his view of human sensuality in relation to general ethics and morality. The time and place into which Prešeren places the events of his poem establishes an atmosphere which approaches timelessness; the reader has the impression of a mystical, undefined earthly scene. In the style of the poem we can observe a switching between that of everyday reality and the tragic style. At the heart of Prešeren’s Romantic ballad are a series of charmingly simple events, which are clearly connected to each other; the tragic figure of Fair Vida is portrayed in the development of her spiritual state and in her spiritual conflict–a conflict which is entirely understandable for the reader.

3.1.2 Analysis of Prešeren’s Ballad “Of the Fair Vida” Prešeren’s poem begins with a beautiful young woman named Vida washing her young son’s swaddling-clothes on the shore. As she works in solitude the Moor emerges from the sea.285 Since the poem states no other reason for his appearance here, it is obvious that he has intentionally made directly for her. Fair Vida obviously already knows him, and he her. With seeming devotion, compassion and care, he expresses his impression that her face has lost its previous fairness of “years that are gone by”–that is, when he first came to know her. The second stanza confirms that the Moor and Vida have known each other for a quite a long time; Vida unreservedly and uninhibitedly entrusts him with her personal problems. She laments that the source of her gloominess is a feeling of being in hopeless position after having wed an “old man” after listening to “fools’ advice.” From the subsequent lines it becomes clear that she is unable to have satisfactory emotional and sensual relations with this man, not least because of his illness. Vida tells the Moor that “all night long the man will cough and wake”; her desperation and weariness is compounded by the fact that her young son is ill and cries all day long. As a result of this weighty concern for her husband and son Vida has become a mere shadow of the once “blooming” girl; for her unhappy destiny and lack of freedom she now blames herself–her obedience towards the people who advised her so poorly in the choice of husband. It is in this denial of guilt and the passing of responsibility onto the shoulders of others, which rings superficial and foolish (as though Vida had never

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really believed her own words) that her weakness and the seed of her future unhappy destiny lie. When Vida’s weariness of life becomes too overwhelming, she, with the help of the Moor’s words, shifts the full weight of her existence onto the side of sensuality; The Moor arouses her former sensual vigour, and she gives herself over completely to sensual urges. These urges in Vida become so strong that they lead her, against her will, directly into the abyss.286 The entire third stanza consists of the Moor’s response to Vida’s confession. His words reveal that Vida’s dissatisfaction plays to his advantage, since he had actually set forth to present Vida with the Spanish queen’s invitation that Vida travel to court to act as a wet-nurse for the queen’s son. As well, the Moor is obviously convinced that Vida will acquiesce, as he states: “Cranes, if they fare ill at home, will soar high above the seas; thou too must start far away with me to mend they heart. What I tell thee, Vida! I am sent by the queen of Spain to fetch thee hence that thou mightest nurse her little son, royal heir unto the Spanish crown.

He promises her that her only labour will consist of nursing the young prince, rocking him, holding him in her lap, putting him to bed and singing songs. The Moor’s words are deceptive, as he is flattering the habits and instincts of Fair Vida and comforting her hidden desires with the intention of further gaining her confidence in order to carry out coldly the plan he has conceived. As she listens to his words she longs for freedom and complete autonomy, independence in determining her life path; there is also the appeal of her momentary rejection of all authority–except for that of the Moor, which in the ballad can be compared with devilish temptation.287 In the conversation between Fair Vida and the Moor Prešeren portrays with symbolically adeptness the “veiled” battle between Good and Evil. This battle between the mysterious forces of good and evil is the basis of all religions. For example, in Christianity there is the battle between God and Satan, between the angels and the demons, between Heaven and hell. Where the world of God and an honest life is quite strictly determined and limited, the world of Satan and his allures is less determined. Because of this God offers a possibility to seek a solid base in the fog and confusion.

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Prešeren places Vida’s “dark longing” and her moral downfall into the realm of the sensually uncontrolled, the symbolic–into the realm of the Moor. He tried to justify her fleeing her husband and children, which was simultaneously a flight from the completely tangible laws of ethics, justice and belief. In any case the poet was just in his portrayal of Vida’s punishment. Because Vida made a pact with the devil, so to speak, or submitted to her own egotism and for this reason neglected her powerless, ill child, the child’s death was hastened. Because of this fact there could be no forgiveness for her in this world.288 Vida does not respond verbally to what the Moor says. The fourth stanza tells only of how Vida stepped into the boat. Her response was the immediate, unreflective, unreasoned result of the intensely emotionally experience of the conversation with the Moor. It is clear that the Moor’s words awoke Vida from a long weariness, torpor and state of depression, causing her once again to believe in the possibility of a more beautiful, freer and happier life – the life depicted by the Moor. He clearly knew her well since he immediately uncovers that she has grown weary of a hard, difficult life, as well as her dissatisfied sensuality; he takes advantage of her weak point, and Vida, in this moment of frailty, falls into his trap.289 He immediately lures her onto his boat and sails away from the shore, despite the fact that he must have been able to sense her immediate regret at this thoughtless move and even later would have been able to steer back to allow Vida to return. Prešeren says that Vida was immediately filled with horror as she became aware of her fatal mistake, as the poem says: but when they had pulled away from shore, when the boat was cutting through the waves, then did Vida weep and beat her breast: “Wretched me, alas, what have I done! Who shall care now for my little one, for my helpless babe left back at home, for my aged husband all alone!”

Prešeren portrays Vida’s tragedy in a most convincing manner. Vida’s outer and morally protected life suddenly disintegrates and her earlier trust in the natural order, as represented by her family, is ruined. The severing of the connection between Vida and her entire home life, especially her child and husband, unleashes a strong regret, guilt and sadness. Vida is now convinced that no flight will lead to a more beautiful, happier life, and that her longing was illusory; she has awakened the full force of the pricks of conscience. Now for the first time in her life she realizes her

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responsibility to her husband and son, especially since they are both sick and helpless and without her care they might not be able to survive for long. Only now does the Moor reveal his true nature; having achieved his intentions, he no longer speaks supportively to Vida. Instead, the poem shows how he withdraws into a cold, even demonically horrible peace. In essence he has the role of a deceiving, sadistic tyrant, who with calculated rationality meticulously carries out his coldly crafted plans. His words entail the cruellest treachery and the most underhanded means of deception, because it is through his words that he flatters the misled Vida’s instincts and exploits her secret desires. The fifth stanza relates how they finally arrive at the queen’s court after three weeks of sailing. Though Vida is now more alone than ever, she does not worry about herself, rather only about her husband and child. In the awareness that only now has she become a true captive, she entrusts only in the Sun and the Moon and asks them about her family’s destiny.290 In the fifth stanza we find out that Fair Vida, unable to sleep in her anguish, arises early and turns to the Sun. But the Sun’s response, rather than offering consolation, causes the greatest pain: In the early morning she rose up, waited at the window for the sun. To allay her untold grief and ache, the fair Vida asked his yellow rays: “Sun! oh rays of sunlight’ ye will tell how my little ailing son doth fare!” “How indeed should fare thy little babe? Yesterday burnt candles by his bed, and thy aged man is now at sea, he hath left his home to search for thee, he is searching, weeping bitter tears, and his heart is fit to burst with grief.”

Vida learns from the sun that they have already begun to pray for her deceased child (there are “candles by his bed”), and that her husband “is now at sea” to seek her, wracked by sorrow. Only now does Vida become aware of just how strong her husband’s love for her is, and how delusory her longing had been.

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Because she cannot come to believe the Sun’s words, at nightfall, full of hope that the sun had perhaps erred and that her boy has not died, she addresses “the pale moon.” But the Moon also fails to console her, confirming everything the Sun had said. The greatest pain of all stems from the news that they have buried her small child. Not only her husband but also her caring father are drifting about on the seas in search of her; the father, too, cries grief-stricken, as the sixth stanza relates: In the evening, when the pale moon came, Vida fair stood gazing out again, and, to cool the burning in her heart, called out to the pallid moon above: “Moon! oh rays of moonlight’ ye will tell how my little ailing son doth fare!” “How indeed should fare thy little babe? But to-day they laid him in his grave, and thy aged father is at sea, he hath left his home to search for thee, he is searching, weeping bitter tears, and his heart is fit to burst with grief.”

Probably the father had also been among those that Vida defied through her flight, because they advised her to marry the older man who, despite his age and sickness, is a noble and loving husband. Vida now clearly recognizes how much she has hurt them and how great was their love. Vida’s dialogue with the Sun and the Moon, taken from the folk tradition, shows how the poem both encompasses and transcends earthly reality in its everyday form; this can be seen in the fact that Vida, in the most fateful moments, seeks comfort in supernatural creation and in the sort of fairy tale world manifested by her discussion with the Sun and the Moon. When Vida confirms all the fears that her flight has caused, she sees that this seemingly banal existence with all the bonds that existed between her and her family had a dear, profound meaning. As though “spellbound” by her previous illusions, especially though with the recognition that she cannot return home to the grave of her dead child who died as a result of her fanciful delusion, she is condemned to continual suffering, to hell on earth. In the seventh stanza she laments her fate, which is so ponderous that she cannot bear it alone, without respite. She cannot even tell the queen about the cause of her tears, as she does not trust her; in spite of the queen’s friendly, gently compassionate and consoling words Vida must know that

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she too is linked to the Moor. Even if she was unaware that he tore Vida from her family, from her child, it was the queen who sent for her. At this recognition she is ashamed to the depths of her being, and comes to share the fate of Adam and Eve, who followed the duplicitous snake in paradise and desired what is not in accord with human nature. Adam and Eve, after the Fall, hid themselves before God’s face; Vida invents the story that she is crying because she accidentally broke a golden cup, as the poem relates: Hearing this, fair Vida wept the more. Up her lady came and fain would know: “What befell thee, Vida! that thou weep’st rivers of such hot and bitter tears?” Vida fair made answer to the queen: “What could I, poor wretch, do else but weep? I stood washing here a golden bowl, and it slipped into the sea below, from this window high the golden cup sank down to the bottom of the brine.” Then the queen would comfort her and spoke: “Weep no longer, wet thy cheeks no more! I shall buy another cup of gold, win thee pardon from the king, thy lord; go now, nurse the little prince, my babe, surely then thy grief shall pass away.”

The eighth stanza concludes the poem with Vida’s awareness of the hopelessness of her situation, and portrays her ceaseless suffering: And the queen she bought a cup of gold, won her pardon from the king, her lord; Vida stood and looked out every day, cried her tears for father, husband, babe.

The scene depicts the tremendous irony, which is felt by Fair Vida, and, by extension, the reader. The queen offers Vida a golden cup in light of her understanding of the situation, which has nothing in common with the true state of Vida’s soul. Vida accepts the cup silently, as befits her suppressing of the truth of her fatal guilt. For this reason the golden cup will never bring comfort, and the longing for the lost paradise in the family, which signals love and compassion, remains.

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3.1.3 The Dimensions of the Existential Problematic between Sensuality and Spirituality In the ballad “Of the Fair Vida” the mute tension, the “wordless grief,” is discharged emotionally through tears and weeping.291 The ballad speaks of tears and weeping as an expression of great sorrow in the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh stanzas. In the fourth stanza Vida “bursts out crying,” when the boat sets out for the sea, and accuses herself: “Wretched me, alas, what have I done! / Who shall care now for my little one, / for my helpless babe left back at home, / for my aged husband all alone!” In the fifth stanza the poet portrays Vida, who wishes to lessen her unspeakable grief by turning to the sun. She finds out about her child’s death, finds out, too, that her “aged man is now at sea, / he hath left his home to search for thee, / he is searching, weeping bitter tears, / and his heart is fit to burst with grief.” In the sixth stanza Vida turns to the moon. The poet says that Vida seeks repose from her grief, but finds out from the Moon about the burial of her son, as well as the fact that her “aged father is at sea, / he hath left his home to search for thee, / he is searching, weeping bitter tears, / and his heart is fit to burst with grief.” Such emotional portrayal is in all the stanzas that follow Vida’s flight, all centring on the single sorrow and bitterness felt both by Vida and those who seek her. The seventh stanza relates that the queen’s words arouse in Vida more weeping. The queen is worried about why Vida continues to weep and implores her to stop, and to alleviate her grief by nursing the royal son.292 The many terms indicating sorrow have a particularly strong emotional effect precisely because these expressions pertain to a person who is at the crossroads between the spiritual and the sensual. The increasingly frequent use of expressions from the thematic areas of guilt, regret, suffering, unfulfilled longing and even more dire sorrows–with no room for the possibility of forgiveness, let alone the recovery of Fair Vida’s earlier life with her husband and child as well as, with this, catharsis and a new life–raises the emotional tension, which reaches its peak in the final lines of Prešeren’s ballad. Although the final stanza suggests a sort of consoling, this is only seeming; when all the tears have been shed, there remains an even harsher inner, suppressed pain in Fair Vida, which is caused by the awareness of the hopeless suffering of the judgement on her. It seems as though the conclusion of the poem, which includes Vida’s regret and incessant crying, attempts a sort of underlining of the moral value of the poem and, with that, a means of shielding Vida from readers’ accusations. The main responsible is the Moor and not Vida. Despite her

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flight we have the impression that Vida, as a simple, inexperienced young woman, remains the victim of her youthful foolishness and the malice of others. It seems that suffering automatically cleanses her, such that the reader experiences a sense of grace, fragility, sorrow, melancholy and– despite her fall–a sort of cleansing of the heart, and unstained dignity. Vida is without malice, and it was her intense longing that was abused. This is why her guilt is a tragic guilt. It also changes her conception of love, namely from the sensual to the sublime; from an overly strong sensual passion with a breath of physicality and sexuality, which causes one to go out of control and become destructive, to a quiet, submissive, purifying spiritual emotion, with a readiness to sacrifice. At the conclusion of his poem Prešeren emphasises that ethical striving is more worthy than longing for satiety of physical sensuality. Fair Vida’s melancholy, vitality and distress at the beginning of the poem derive from the fact that she never really subjugated her needs for sensuality to motherhood, hence the longing for un-experienced, unlived sensuality. But Vida’s melancholic longing continues even after all the tragic experiences that precipitated her flight from the family have died away; longing is eternal but it acquires a tragic air. Far from a home which has collapsed because of her, she longs for the former ethical purity, which she can no longer sense, and with her crying and regretting she cleanses her errant life. In Prešeren’s Romantic balled “Of the Fair Vida,” which is appreciated not only as Prešeren’s variant of the folk poem, but because of its strongly personal tone in terms of content, form and ideas, and also for manner in which his originality, epic vividness, lyricism and dramatic tension intermingle.293 The poem is dramatic and most emotional. The changes in Vida’s emotional and spiritual life, when she falls victim to the conflict of various internal and external forces, and of her character with societal rules, unleash great sensitivity. Vida’s sensitivity surpasses her own negative relation with herself and her actions, which manifests itself in self-accusation (“Wretched me, alas, what have I done!”), feelings of guilt towards her husband, father and child (“Who shall care now for my little one, / for my helpless babe left back at home, for my aged husband all alone!”) feelings of fear and distrust of the Moor, as well as fear of the queen. Her sensitivity shines forth in the poem through expressions which portray both physical and psychological changes (including Vida’s crying, the paleness of her cheeks, which are in contrast to the fairness and “bloom” of the first stanza, etc.). In all the life situations in which Fair Vida finds herself, both in the beginning scene, where she is washing swaddling-clothes on the shore, and even more so in the continuing

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development of events, emotional discomfort prevails. Fair Vida cannot find spiritual peace because she is unable to control her affects and passions, and at the same time she cultivates no religiosity, since the ballad does not mention this at all. When her lively spirit is first trapped into the monotony of the wearying daily life, it gradually changes into an effusive but ever hidden passion that leads Vida, in her emotional state, which follows like an explosion, to flee. In the continuation of the text everything sensual fades under the weight of guilt and accusations of the conscience; there follows a mood of constant regret without any consolation until the conclusion of the poem.294 Prešeren’s Fair Vida is, in terms of the image of a human, relatively simple. Simple, too, is the reality of the life it describes. Joy at sensual existence is everything for Vida, and her first longing is directed precisely at the greatest fulfilment of this sensual existence. The poem hides nothing, nor is there another, higher sense. Even Vida’s final longing for self-sacrifice fades away into nostalgia, not into a striving for any higher and deeper truth that would imbue all that has happened with sense. The reader does not feel the religious perspective that would provide the narrative with a sort of sense and a goal; rather, such question remain unanswered. The poem only bears witness to what is in human terms a problem and does not touch on the spiritual. It would be easy to assume that Prešeren was attempting to follow loyally the ancient folk ballad, without importing any other elements different in ideas. Perhaps that was the reason for his later crossing out of the motto which originally was written over the beginning of his poem, and reads: Motto Padla ponoþi slanca je bela, mlado zelenje, rožce je vzela. V zemlji globoki, moje veselje; gori pri Bogi moje so želje. At night the frost descended, Taking the greenery and flowers. My happiness is in the deep earth, My wishes are up with God.295

The motto reveals Prešeren’s highly personal interpretation of the content of the events in Fair Vida in terms of ideas. In Jože Pogaþnik’s view it is a matter of: “critical-reflective discourse, which in the original Prešeren text stands alongside the artistic discourse.” For him, the content of this

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commentary is “markedly Romantic ..., in view of the extension of content of ‘Fair Vida;’ however, it is too unambiguous and subjective”; Prešeren likely felt before publication that the motto and the ballad did not go together and he removed the motto.296 Prešeren surely tried in his poem to retain the aesthetic objectivity of the folk poem, but at the same time he stretched its range to the extremes, into the individual as well as into the universal direction. Boris Paternu said of this poem: “These semantic distances with regard to Vida’s destiny suggest erotic, social and not least also philosophical motivation … and they are all the richer for the fact that a work of art with perfect content could arise alongside them. What is more, after Prešeren’s wonderful version Fair Vida crossed the frontier of his artistry and became for Slovenian literature a myth with myriad characteristics, travelled many semantic paths, and has remained productive in poetry, prose and drama through Ivan Cankar’s, to our time.”297

3.2 Josip Jurþiþ’s Artistic Rendering of the Motif of Fair Vida in his Novel Lepa Vida After the Arabs were driven from Spain in 1492, the memory of the Arab Moors began to fade, and contents of the Fair Vida folk poem changed somewhat: Fair Vida is no longer taken into slavery by bandits, but goes foolishly and freely abroad, before penitently returning. This is the form of the Kropa folk variation of the Fair Vida poem which was written by Radivoj Poznik in 1868 and sent to the journal Slovenska Matica. Josip Jurþiþ was probably familiar with this variation and used it for the basis of his novel. In the folk poem he found only the concrete motif. Everything else–the spatial and temporal surroundings, the characters, their motivations–he had to create himself. The action, which takes place at the end of the 18th century, is set in the coastal region of Slovenia, in the Karst near Duino in the Bay of Trieste. Already in the folk poem that formed the basis of Prešeren’s “Of the Fair Vida” the motif of the aged husband weakened Vida’s link to the homeland, thus changing the primary spiritual content of the ballad. Prešeren added the portion about the “foolish advice” that prompted Fair Vida to marry the older man in the first place. With this addition he created the impression that Fair Vida’s marriage sprang from societal conventions rather than a deeper love, as the young woman was not able to bear social constraints In Jože Pogaþnik’s view, Prešeren’s poem is “the author’s expression and reflection of general, aspirations in the Romantic

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style, which is why the element of longing and ethicality prevails over the more concrete life basis. However, it was this very issue that, in the period of realism, opened the doors to new interpretations, of which the primary and most significant one is Jurþiþ’s rendering in Fair Vida.”298 In Jurþiþ’s novel Vida marries out of youthful foolishness. A dispute with her parents gives rise to defiance and resistance. During this supposed “degradation,” the widower Samorod encounters her and Vida confesses her “pain” to him. The confession and the communal secret bring them together emotionally and the fruit of this is a hasty marriage. Soon enough, disharmony surfaces between Samorod and Vida in terms of their characters and expectations. It is at this time that Samorod’s acquaintance appears, the Italian Paoli. He presents Vida with a plan for their flight; she is to sleep in her sickly child’s room the night he would come for her, rather than by her husband’s side. At the same time, although reluctantly, he promises eventually to send for her child. Jurþiþ describes Vida’s complete spiritual confusion at the time of her flight from house and child: “I had to promise him [Paoli] to sleep here three nights,” she whispers. “Tonight is the second night. And what he promised, he did. In Trieste he spread news about bandits, and my husband heard. My husband?” At these words Vida shivers, throws some upper clothes off herself, and, as if unwillingly, bolts the door. Then she sits at the chair by the table, opens her corset and out her white bosom extracts a small, oval image trimmed with red silk and starts to look at it; she looks at it for a long time, motionless. The picture depicted a young, handsome, Italian-looking man, with black hair and black eyebrows, lively, pleasant eyes, a Greek nose and a youthful boldness, a wonderful face. After some time Vida begins to kiss the picture passionately, tears running down her smooth cheeks, and she says in a half-voice: “O you, my loving man, why didn’t you come earlier, earlier into my sight, when there was still time for my happiness, when I was not yet tied for eternity, tied to this person...”299

Fair Vida does not know whether Paoli will in fact seek her out as promised. She feels that without him she will die, but at the same time she assures her sleeping child, who holds her with his tiny fingers as she dreams, that she will never leave him. But the temptation is too great for her and she cannot sleep. In the throes of her emotions she exclaims:

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My God, my God, what will become of me! Must I go mad, live, or disappear? It’s only been two days since he left, but I don’t think I will survive the third and fourth days if I don’t see him. If I force myself to think of something else, I think only of him; if I want to drive him from my head, he appears all the more beautifully, he is always there, everywhere! And how could I live a whole life without him? Now that I’ve breathed him in? God, why did you show him to me, if you will not give him to me, why?300

At that point someone knocks at the window and frightens Vida. When he asks her to open up for him, she unsurely and hesitantly wants to reply and send him away, before finally, as if powerless, giving in: “Vida!” cries someone silently and knocks again on the window. She hurries over and quickly opens: “You are here? For God’s sake, flee, flee, so that the dogs won’t give you away, so that the servants won’t see you! Flee! He, he...” “Open up!” says the voice outside. “Jesus...” she tries to object. “Come open right away, if you don’t, I’m lost. I’m can’t keep the dogs quiet for long, and I saw someone walking over there; not everyone is asleep. Open up!” Vida turns from the window, reaches hastily for the candle, but because she is so agitated, her trembling hand knocks the candlestick from the table to the floor, and the light is extinguished, the candlestick loudly rolls about, the boy in the bed wakes up and starts to cry, and the dogs outside the window bark... “Woman, don’t forsake me. Didn’t you promise? Open up!” he presses through the window. “God help me!” she cries, feeling for the key on the wall and, without about why she has need of God, she calls Him, the harsh and just One. “Mommy,” shouts the boy and cries with all his strength, as the night’s cool, draughty breath flows through the open window and the door that has been left open, carrying in the barking dogs’ voices in addition to the unhealthy cold.301

When Samorod discovers that Vida is no longer there, he becomes deathly frightened, turning “pale as a wall.”302 Paoli has the role of a seducer in the novel, but at least at the beginning he is truly in love with Vida and is thus not a mere calculating deceiver. He is, however, an extremely selfish, narcissistic and self-absorbed man, subject to his desires. Once abroad, the affair quickly becomes stale and Vida, defeated, returns home, mendaciously telling the townspeople that she had been abducted by bandits. She thus piles guilt upon guilt in the

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face of those that receive her with heart-felt kindness and joy, especially her husband Samorod, “the happy husband with the heart of a child.” When Samorod discovers what had happened he murders Paoli in a sudden rage, and is sentenced to prison. The fall of Fair Vida, which in Jurþiþ’s novel follows the seduction by the Italian Paoli, evokes the Old Testament narrative of Adam and Eve. The snake, which according to the ancient tradition is synonymous with evil (see Rev. 12, 9), successfully leads Eve astray, as the Bible states in Genesis 3: 6: So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate…

In the event, Vida herself is the real seducer, since by appearing as a weak, helpless girl, whom nobody likes, she first tempts the honest widower Samorod into marrying her, and then the hot-blooded Italian Paoli, who, after falling victim to her lustful ways, exposes himself to the danger of discovery, before being abandoned, too. In Jurþiþ’s novel the young Vida, on the fateful evening before her flight with the tempter, is unable to speak with her husband Samorod and his brother the priest, who has come to visit. The thought of the secret agreement with Paoli tears at her psychologically and upset her to the extent that she can only answer briefly and abruptly, and after a while she falls silent, withdrawing to the arranged place. For her, discussion entails danger, as it might halt the intoxication of her feelings and Vida might begin to hesitate over her intended flight. Adroitly, briefly and abruptly, she tells Samorod that she will sleep with her sickly child that night–in order to keep her husband at a distance. The Italian Paoli, the seducer, is a determined, self-loving man, who is aware that he has such emotional control over Vida that she is prepared to desert not only her husband but also her child, even if would rend her heart. He is sure of himself and convinced that her passion for him will overwhelm all temporary cares and also protect him against possible unanticipated complications. Her fleeting concerns seem childish and innocuous to him. When Paoli, fearing discovery, beseeches Vida to open up for him, telling her she will be the one who broke the promise, Vida is out of sorts. She is driven between fear and a desire for him, for the forbidden fruit. This desire slowly begins to wane until, of its own and already before her flight, it turns into its opposite–Vida is overcome by

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paranoia and nightmares which increase when she hears the heartbreaking cry of her child. Here there is a break in the story–although Vida previously longed passionately for Paoli, now she is no longer voluntarily with him, but goes with him completely bewildered and as if robbed of her senses, as if she had been driven by a dark force which she cannot control. Lost, she cries and calls on God, but the story stops here. We know only that Vida has left with the tempter. Paoli well knows Vida’s character and her relation to her husband Samorod. He knows that she controls her husband, toys with him and, in the rashness of her behaviour is “above him.” Not possessing her own sense of morality, she madly and boldly transgresses the established limits the moment her husband no longer has control over her. In her hunger for a sort of honour she gives herself over to the deceiver, and her husband, in his firm, naïve, elevated honesty no longer has any control over her. After Vida soon tires of the seducer while abroad, she returns home, and in fear for her husband, confides in his priest brother without sufficiently sensing the consequences the revelation of her adulterous behaviour towards her husband Samorod could have. When people become aware of her behaviour and her husband also finds out, Samorod turns in his agitation to his brother. But the brother cannot deny Vida’s guilt: [Samorod] “What she told me was a lie? She herself deserted me and took up with him and then left him when she grew tired of him? Tell me it isn’t true, brother, tell me it wasn’t like that!” The priest brother never lied and he could not say that it was not like that, he who had known the truth long ago.303

The priest advises him to forget revenge, as Vida has been amply punished for her youthful foolishness. But Samorod is immensely disappointed in his wife. He could forgive her for leaving him, but he is unable to forgive her for leaving their child as well. Such a woman, he says, Should not let herself be seen anymore... A woman who is capable of deserting her child, who stops being a mother cannot live with me. Have you ever heard of such a mother? You haven’t ! Vida alone was capable of such a thing and look, I loved this woman, I. Are you not ashamed to have such a brother.304

He covers his eyes and sheds copious tears.

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The priest wants to protect Vida against the rage of his brother, but Vida is aware that her husband is capable of killing her. For all her shame, she obtains that for which she had longed–she merely wishes to see her child again, even if she is to die afterwards. Among the people the news spreads that the Italians will kill Samorod. Vida, now without a trace of her former beauty, “pale, thin and emptyeyed,” learns that her husband has killed the seducer as well as one of those who accosted him for the crime. The unyielding foreign laws call for the death penalty, which now awaits him. Vida is aware that she herself has driven the most honest man people ever knew into death. Samorod’s small boy visits him in prison and clings to him, but the priest brother tells him that Vida has died under the psychological weight of the suffering. Samorod expresses the tragedy of his love before his death and tells his brother: You know what she did to me, all the suffering, and that she is the reason why I’m here, and why I will soon die. But you don’t know how longingly I wished to see her once more, just once more I wanted to see her in this world.305

After four days the Venetian state law takes Samorod’s life; his son Tonþek grows up and becomes a true gentleman. In Jurþiþ’s novel the wife’s actions drive her honest husband into madness, even if this was not her conscious or unconscious intent. Only she, whom he had loved so strongly, could elicit such a powerful, violent response, transforming his earlier diffident sobriety into irrational designs for revenge. Her sin is visited upon her husband and causes an even greater guilt, and her disloyalty ends in murder, but with the death of both guilty parties–of the wife and the husband–the hellish events come full circle and catharsis is achieved; their son is relieved of the guilt and, as the novel states, lives a happy life from then on. The story is both direct and tragic. The aggrieved husband’s open purging, the dramatic cry of pain, the fearfulness, the beseeching of the deceived and the shock of betrayal viscerally and dramatically unleashes emotions.306

3.3 The Corrupting Effect of Temptation in Josip Vošnjak’s Play Lepa Vida The mythical, archaic folk form of Fair Vida plays a crucial part in its aesthetics, and the contemporary reader is attracted to this form as

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something that is simultaneously near to him and distant. In terms of literary form, folk ballads about Fair Vida were originally mythical tales that speak of an event such as those that precede history, encompass the entire world, include the human’s relation to God or a higher force, and speak to elemental questions about human existence. The laconic mythical story is only seemingly superficial. In fact, it is multilayered and profound. The complexity of the conflict between the seducer and Fair Vida is, in the folk forms of Vida’s story, hidden beneath a surface that is adorned with symbols. In literary variations, the narrator takes care to explain things at least to some extent. The motifs of a woman’s weakness, the shrewdness of the seducer and, lastly, Vida’s ultimate despair at her mistake, as well as her ensuing madness, are emphasised even more strongly by Josip Vošnjak in his 1893 play Fair Vida than they were by Josip Jurþiþ. In Vošnjak’s play, Vida is the daughter of a retired higher official from Trieste named Martin Sodja, a man burdened with debts. Though his daughter is engaged to the young count Alberto, Martin offers her to the much older man Andrej Kogoj, who is a wealthy merchant in a coastal town near Trieste. Vida initially resists marriage to this man, whom she does not love, but finally gives in to the wish of her sick father as he dies. This occurs in a moment when she loses trust in her fiancé Alberto because he has not responded to her letters for a few months; neither does she trust Alberto’s family, as she knows that they want to find a richer bride for their son. Vida gets used to marriage with Kogoj, eventually bearing him a son, and coming to respect his noble, reserved and modest nature. Her constant life with Kogoj is interrupted by the re-entrance of Alberto, who is sexually attracted to Vida. He wants to claim her as a lover and mistress, albeit under the pretence that he truly loves her and that he will arrange for the dissolution of her marriage as soon as possible. Vida feels the awakening of passionate feelings of love for Alberto, and this is intensified because being married means suffering the entirely irrational jealousy of her mother-in-law, whom her husband does not know how to deal with and thus does not take Vida’s side. This makes her more inclined to immediately trust Alberto’s words, especially when she finds out that his jealous mother had got hold of their previous letters and that she is schemed to prevent their love from growing, in order that it not lead to marriage. In a moment of weakness, Vida decides to run away with Alberto, to renew their former engagement and pledges of everlasting love

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and loyalty, to create a new life. In her haste to flee with Alberto, she leaves her child and home, believing Alberto’s promise that they will return for him the next day. And so in the fourth scene of Act Three Alberto visits Vida and tells her that he has rented an apartment in a town, in a hidden house, and that he longs continually for the time he will be able to come to her in safety. Vošnjak employs the folk song motif of the seducer finding Vida in a sorrowful state, and telling her it seems as if she were imprisoned. Vida replies in a similar manner to that of her namesake in the song: Oh, Alberto, if you only knew what I’ve had to suffer in this house! I can’t stay here anymore. I’m leaving today, getting away from these terrible troubles. And you, Alberto, it seems like God Himself sent you to rescue me.307

Alberto promises Vida that he will let her know where they can come together and be happy. When Vida has the afterthought that they cannot be together until her old marriage is dissolved and the new one confirmed, Alberto answers elusively: I’m not thinking about anything but living with you. At the sea there is an isolated manor house in which only an old woodsman lives–there you can find a hidden and peaceful refuge, where nobody will be able to find you.308

While Vida hides in this lovers’ nest, Alberto says he will take care of dissolving the unhappy marriage. Alberto compels Vida to leave her “torturous prison” as soon as possible, but the voice of conscience makes itself heard in Vida and she wants to write her husband at least a few words explaining why she has left him. At this point she hears the singing of the Nanny, who is rocking Vida’s child and singing the old Slovenian ballad “Fair Vida.” Vida is shaken by this song, recognizes herself in the song, and she thinks restlessly: That song again! My nerves are completely shaken whenever I hear it. Oh, I am Vida, too; I, too, want to leave my husband and child. My God, my God! [She gets up.] I can’t! Listen! Listen!309

But Alberto’s voice overwhelms the voice of conscience as he coaxes her to depart. His words mingle with the nanny’s singing, and Vida finally succumbs to the passion of love, even as she sees the similarity between her and the protagonist in the song:

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I’ve also been hit by accident. Oh, sadness has been imparted me. [She sits down again and writes.] I have finished [She gets up.]; I’ve cut the bind with which I’ve been sworn to this house. Now I am yours [i.e. Alberto] before God, and soon before the world.310

Before leaving, she wants to hug and bless her child, but Alberto also prevents her from doing this, as the nanny or even Vida’s husband might see her; Alberto says he will send for the child as soon as she is in a safe place. Still crying for her child, Vida departs with her seducer. When Vida’s husband Kogoj finds out that Vida has run away, he cannot initially believe that she would be capable of such an action, but then, like his counterpart in Jurþiþ’s novel, mercilessly condemns her. He likens her to a “poisonous, repulsive snake,” and swears, “I would give you my heart’s blood and you struck me with the blow of death! [...] A curse on you and your adulterous lover!”311 By this time Vida is living with Alberto as his mistress, but she soon finds out that Alberto is only exploiting her, as he is actually engaged to a countess. He soon tires of Vida’s demands and unrelenting desire that he should leave the countess for her. When he admits to her that their flight was imprudent and premature, since they could have continued to meet even if he were married, and when he suggests that she return to her husband yet continue the affair, while he will marry the countess and also occasionally see her, Vida’s disappointment is inexpressible. Here Vida feels the full weight and magnitude of her error; still enveloped in passion, she feels at the same time a profound sorrow for her husband and child. [Speaking to Alberto]. Whom can I trust, if not you! When you are near me, I feel secure. But when I am alone and start to think, I cannot console myself. Did I really do the right thing by running away? By leaving the home and husband who believed in my loyalty and who now mourns me, by leaving my poor baby? This is terrible! Terrible!312

On realizing how depraved Alberto is, she takes leave of him with these words: [Passionately]. Enough, enough of your shamelessness. You were my ideal, but know I’ve come to know you. You’re a whitewashed grave, a rotten monster, not worthy of being borne by earth!313

After having uttered these words of condemnation, as if she were still in love, she is drawn to the balcony overlooking the rustling sea in order to say goodbye forever. When Alberto marvels at the tumultuous sea, Vida pushes him from behind and the wild waves “swallow” the deceiver.314

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Vida, now also a murderer, then returns by ship to her husband. However, instead of the mercy and forgiveness she expected from her previously gentle and respectful husband, she suffers his raging flow of hatred and his judgement of her wrongdoing. When she asks him at least to let her see her young son, and her husband replies that the child has died without her– just as in the folk song and in Jurþiþ’s work–Vida goes insane. In a mad vision, she moans that she would rather have died in the waves than have to live with such guilt; she cries out desperately for her deceased child and tells Kogoj how much she still loves him: “Andrej loves me so much and I, too, love him more each day.” Finally, Vida expires, and as she dies her husband is touched by mercy and forgiveness, and feels an incomprehensible longing for her: Vida, I forgive you for everything! If you only could live, to stay by my side! Vida! Vida! My Vida!

In Vida’s betrayal of faith there are parallels to the story about Adam and Eve’s breaking of their promise and the consequences of this. It seems that the story shows the price Vida had to pay to acquire knowledge of good and evil. To this base, the story adds an answer to an entire series of questions which, though the event is mythical, remain ever-new: the question of the sense of suffering and resistance (Vida living with a man whom she does not love), atonement (the father), the true nature of love (the love for the seducer, the husband’s love, love for the child...). The drama shows how important human acts are in the circumstances of falling due to broken promises, and how the primal evil leads man to more wrongdoing (Vida’s lack of faithfulness to her husband, her flight, the death of the child, the murder of her lover, her own death and the spiritual death of her faithful husband). Vida’s father also bears some of the blame because it was he who forced her into marriage for financial gain, without regarding the wishes of his own daughter. On the other hand, it can be seen that Vida’s first fiancé was in fact of dubious and poor character from the start, and that he, too, would likely have treated Vida wrongly had he married her. In any case in the drama the figure of the seducer is more refined than in Jurþiþ’s novel, since at first it seems that he truly loves Vida, even in spite of the opposition of the society. It is for this reason that Vida’s strong attachment to him and her even stronger disappointment when her illusions are shattered are understandable–she becomes aware that he had lied to her from the start and morally ruined her through his pretence and deceiving ways.

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The reader thus asks himself what the relationship between Vida and Alberto was like before they encountered the hurdles their families set up for them (namely by Vida’s father and Alberto’s mother). As the development of events and final denouement implies, it was from the outset primarily a matter of erotic curiosity that culminated in their adultery in an isolated, hidden place, the manor house by the sea, in the ever deeper sinking into complete alienation and demeaning. Their “bed” was a place of shame and irony, in which there was no longer any room for personal dignity and true love; it was merely a short enjoyment of bodily lust and their hopeless thirst for sensual love became endless. At Vida’s discovery that it was all seduction and pretence, her lover does not feel shame, but some sort of embarrassment at how he has directed the affair and resolved this matter to his benefit. Because Vida has “sacrificed” so much for her lover–her whole life, her husband and child– she feels a wild sense of revenge and commits murder.

3.4 Ivan Cankar’s Artistic Remodelling of the Motif of Fair Vida Eighty years after France Prešeren, the figure of Fair Vida was chosen by Ivan Cankar, the greatest of Slovenian prose writers, as a starting point and theme in his literature. His dramatic poem in three acts Fair Vida includes the motif from Prešeren’s ballad. Cankar adds to the story characteristics of symbolism and neo-Romanticism, as well as elements of personal confession.315 In the first act Cankar’s drama tells of how Vida leaves her drunken and destitute husband Mrva and departs for young Dolinar’s rich estate. The reader learns this from a conversation between the students Poljanec and Dioniz. They sorrowfully outline Vida’s flight from home, though the reader does not yet know whether the narrative has a base in reality or whether it is invented. Cankar’s version does not include the Moor from folk tradition, nor does it even mention other temptations or allures that might have prompted Vida’s flight. In spite of this we know that she left with Dolinar, another man. We can only guess whether or not Vida’s decision to leave was a free one. Cankar emphasises Vida’s sense of guilt and regret, and also writes that she “cried out in pain,” that “blood ran from her heart to her eyes,” “her heart pounded” and that she “pleaded before the door of her heart.” Shaken by her own actions she, emotionally moved, thinks of the one who

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“is at sea,” seeking her while “weeping bitter tears,” with a heart “fit to burst with grief.” Vida’s psychological state manifests itself in the drama through the emotional portrayal of her “crying out” in pain. Cankar’s style evokes many physical senses, which concretely shows the intensity of Vida’s emotional state. In the dilapidated house for the homeless (Cukrarna) in the continuation of the drama the men (who are undoubtedly figures of Cankar’s contemporaries from the fin de siècle period) conjecture about the fate of Fair Vida. The reader clearly senses that for them Fair Vida is an invented person, an ancient yet eternal image from their memories and dreams. Sometimes it seems as though she suddenly comes alive as a real being, shaped by their emotions; at other times she is once again an immaterial figure, a pure spirit full of longing. It seems that Cankar felt the need to portray a figure to embody the longing of the homeless men, condemned as they are to a death before their time. He created this figure through Fair Vida. The tension due to her disappearance is an ever-present factor in both the words and silence of the students Dioniz and Poljanec, as well as the drunken Mrva and the old labourer Damjan. Whereas the thought of Vida’s leaving fills the sickly Poljanec with despondence and longing “for sleep, ... for a long, long sleep,” Dioniz dreams up a happy end to Vida’s story. Here we can see that Cankar deviates from the folk ballad tradition, in which Vida is condemned to eternal suffering and unstilled longing; rather, he wants to see Vida happy. Through the use of certain elements from the folk ballad–such as the scene where Vida stands at the window and cries while looking across the sea–Cankar portrays her suffering in a world that is foreign to her. But in contrast to Prešeren’s ballad Cankar’s Fair Vida is able to escape from this “golden prison.” Cankar acts in contrast to Prešeren, who does not allow for Vida’s escape. The terrible suffering eradicates Vida’s guilt. This idea is typical of and a constant in Cankar’s literature, and is particularly characteristic of his personal confessional works. While Prešeren’s ballad placed more of an emphasis on justice–evil is punished–Cankar places love and compassion before justice, while emphasising that earthly suffering is rewarded by eternal happiness. Because Vida suffered so much, he wishes complete forgiveness and eternal happiness for her. She flees from earthly hardship into pure spiritual mercy. All of the homeless men feel the same longing as Vida. In their hearts Vida also embodies this longing. Her departure represents, at the symbolic

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level, their existential “state of being lost” and loneliness. Her figure becomes ever more inchoate, until it becomes emotionally unimaginable for them. For this reason they lose faith in the happy destiny of Fair Vida and, thus, also in the positive strength of longing. Only Dioniz, who is spiritually closest to Vida (since he is, of all of them, the least emotionally burdened and the most spiritually free), truly senses her; he alone has found her. Vida appears to him in his sleep, as he “feels the light on his eyelashes.” For all of the other homeless men the spiritually distant Vida is unimaginable. Because they experience her emotionally, they are linked to her and suffer devotedly at her departure. The greatest pain caused by her disappearance is felt by her husband Mrva. In his drunkenness he imagines her as a “colourful carnival masquerade,” who, along with others, “twirls,” “hops,” “throngs,” “chases,” and “play acts.” Because she ran away from him, he accuses her of having deceived him. His disappointment changes into a disgust at life and into accusing God: “God granted man longing, but deceived him in doing so. He showed the lame person a steep path and said: walk!–but did not give him a crutch…” Spirituality, “divine comfort,” “marvellous beauty, which I have seen with the eyes of my soul”–all this suddenly appears to Mrva to be a mere flight from “rottenness” and the “abomination of the awful life in which he lives in his real body.” Vida as an actual, flesh-and-blood being and Vida as a symbol co-exist in Cankar’s drama. The real figure of Vida in the drama flees to the rich Dolinar, but in that land of dreams–despite the richness and possibilities for a comfortable life–she finds no happiness. Mere satisfaction of physical senses is not enough; Vida longs for something higher. Dolinar is amazed at this sudden change in her, and he cannot comprehend why Vida is no longer as happy as she was when he met her. Mere curiosity moved her into his rich world, but riches do not satisfy her. Now Vida feels guilty before Dolinar and therefore tries once more to ally him with his former girlfriend Milena. Cankar portrays Milena as a cheerful, carefree girl, the very opposite of the serious, quiet, melancholic, absently dreamy Vida. Milena’s life is filled with cheer; she cannot abide moralising, nor does she reproach Dolinar because his eyes wander to other women; rather she comes to him “entirely without anger.” The drama’s second act shows how the love between Dolinar and Milena blooms anew. Dolinar once again finds contact with “normal” life reality, though he loses the verve that his love for Vida had given him. While life misled Vida into suffering, and she has

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overcome her vulnerability through longing for another world, Milena belittles this longing, since to her it seems merely to be a senseless flight from the beauty of this world. It seems that Cankar, in the figure of Milena, was attempting to portray a young person, whom suffering has not yet touched, one who amuses anyone who crosses her path. Milena, so feels Vida, is of the same spiritual sort as Dolinar, and she can restore his health and optimism in life. Milena expresses joy at her emotional existence with phrases that show her joy above all human senses; Dolinar will be “cured” through “kisses,” with “smiles” and “song.” Through the physical senses Milena wants to “suck in all the light, which is so plentiful in this world, that one can never drink it all up.” But Cankar is not able to conceal the fact that he does not believe in the adequacy and constancy of human bewitchment from the senses. He states that Milena is fearful of longing, of thoughts of eternity. She constantly pushes these fears aside because behind longing she sees “only old-age and sickness and death,” and says: “if all this is longing’s sweetness–by heaven don’t give it to me!” She understands longing to be a sick “sighing,” as an “ill-humoured” rejection of “wormwood filled only with sweetness” which it bears about the country like a sin against the life which is granted to humans so that they can live fully and happily. In contrast to this, for Vida sensual joy is just a momentary flash. From Dolinar she retreats ever more into a mysterious, sensually inaccessible world. Through Dolinar’s words Cankar stylistically juxtaposes the world of the senses and the sense of that which cannot not be apprehended by the senses, when he says to Vida: a) “I stand before you” b) but it seems to me that you are far beyond the seas, beyond the stars” c) “I see your face, I could touch your hand, I hear your words, so your are before me, in my house, in this room”–d) “but everything is to me, that I saw your face many years ago, in a far, far away place, that I can hardly remember it. And that I heard your voice, either in my dreams or in my childhood years; I no longer remember the words, and I hardly recall the melody.” Dolinar’s words reveal that, intuitively, he already anticipates Vida’s departure. In the drama about Fair Vida Cankar shows the intimating world of the human subconscious. Intimation and longing are often out of focus, they retreat into the darkness, interwoven in reality and tearing themselves

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anew from it. It seems that the world of consciousness and the world which lies below consciousness and its reasoned clarity, are interwoven: there is the world of the senses and that of the supra-sensual. The third act of Cankar’s drama returns us to the scene of the first act, to the dilapidated house for the homeless. Cankar portrays the dying of the homeless men as well as their longing to die. At the deathbed of the student Poljanec a number of other poor homeless men are collected, in order to provide company for him in his final hours. Poljanec slowly “departs”; hardly able to see them, he hears their voices, he senses them “as though from afar;” as he states: “as though I’m lying deep in the earth and you are standing on my grave whispering prayers…” The human senses slowly extinguish and they no longer obey his will. As the dying say, the senses of sight, hearing and the ability to recognize slip away. The limited time to live with his human destiny changes into a feeling of eternity, as Poljanec says, “Yet I think there are a thousand years of life and that a thousand years have passed. As though I were standing on a high mountain, entirely in the sun–and all around the universe, eternity; I am eternal…” He feels, similarly, that his bodily, sensual existence is turning to a purely spiritual form: “the ground is no longer below my feet, there is no body. This is how souls look down on graves from heaven.” The sensual experience of life shows itself all the more as insufficient and Poljanec longs for “the hour of resurrection and transfiguration”, the hour when “the miracle-producing rose” will move towards this mouth.” Cankar unites the symbol of the “miraculous rose” which will move towards his mouth at his death, with the “hour of resurrection and transfiguration,” that is, with Christian terminology. The Christian meaning of the symbol of the “miraculous rose” shows Poljanec’s words, in which he expresses the intimation that of all them Dioniz will be the first to find the “miraculous rose,” since he is the purest of them. This rose, says Cankar, will be given to all “who faithfully sought her and did not recognize her.” In this connection his thought can mean belief in the redemption of all who have doubted and rambled in a life without recognition, but in suffering unconsciously longed for redemption. While Prešeren’s poem about Fair Vida concludes with the motif of Vida’s inconsolable tears at the Spanish court, caused by her powerless longing for home, for her now deceased son and her despairing husband and father, Cankar’s drama about Fair Vida ends differently. Instead of tears and sorrow, which form the atmosphere of Prešeren’s poem and culminate at

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the very end, when Vida in a feeling of inexorable guilt and shame retreats into herself, Vida’s departure from home in Cankar’s drama completely loses any negative connotation. The departure of Fair Vida in Cankar symbolizes the fact that humans are not bound to all that is earthly, transitory, as well as the longing for what is beyond the senses, eternal. That is why Fair Vida symbolically lives in each person who seeks her; and he who seeks, finds.

3.5 Boris Pahor’s Artistic Remodelling of the Motif of Fair Vida Boris Pahor, a Slovenian writer from the Italian side of the border, employed the motif of Fair Vida in rendering the painful historical circumstances of his time, giving the motif the stamp of timeless significance. In his 1955 novel Mesto v Zalivu (“The City in the Bay”) he presents the theme of Fair Vida in a unique manner, including echoes of his personal experience and the collective historical experience of the Slovenian nation, as well as elements of mythological and collective memory; an important and very strong role is also played by the psychology of individual literary heroes and of the Slovenian nation living as the Slovenian minority in Italy in the time after World War II. In his literary interpretation, Pahor’s work leans on the Slovenian folk tradition, especially on Prešeren’s version of the folk ballad of Fair Vida. In the novel, Fair Vida is placed into Trieste life, and her departure for foreign places and the unknown is omitted. In the intellectual world of the author the departure of the tempted or abducted woman across the wide sea was not necessary, since the “unknown foreign place” in his novel is already encompassed in Vida’s relinquishing of Slovenian identity and her entrance into the Italian world.316 Pahor’s personal experience was an even stronger influence on the forming of Fair Vida than the mythical archetype. His Fair Vida, who lives in Trieste under the fascist regime, attends an Italian rather than a Slovenian school, and her cultural roots are thus severed. The author compared her position with a Kafkaesque situation, since Vida, through no fault of her own, finds herself in an unsolvable position of guilt, experiencing a spiritual trauma. She tried to deal with the trauma by integrating herself into the strong, majority Italian community. And in fact this very sort of assimilation did occur among the Slovenians living on the Italian side of the border.

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Boris Pahor explained his interpretation of Fair Vida in “The Particularities of the Literature of a Small Nation.” In this 1987 lecture he spoke of the folk song about Fair Vida, the young woman, who lives with her aged husband and small child at the seaside somewhere between Barcola and Duino (Slovenian: Barkovlje and Devin). One day a foreign boatman invites her onto his boat and leads her away to become a wet nurse for the Spanish prince. Once in Spain, Vida laments for her lost son, husband and father. Pahor symbolically used this motif from the Fair Vida song in order to show the temptation in which members of a minority culture find themselves when in contact with a large nation, including its history, economy and arts–the temptation is to deny one’s own nation and adapt to the majority. Thus, for Pahor the song about Fair Vida, which clearly symbolizes human longing for the new and the unknown, “is primarily a warning to the community that senses of itself that it will decline if deserted by the one who is the only way of continuing the line. Without her, the chain of birth is broken; the old husband and father, who seek Vida without success, are a symbol of an old homeland place, which would be completely orphaned if Vida’s peers were to imitate her.”317 Pahor used the motif of the folk song as an example of when the fate of a small nation depends on the influence of a large neighbour that threatens it in one way or another. In his view, there was no need to imagine the arrival of a boatman to take Vida away to the Spanish court, since Italy, with his history, economy and arts, would be an even greater temptation for a member of the minority community. In Pahor’s version, the motif of Fair Vida suddenly ceases to be solely literary and becomes an indicative element of a minority complex. This is even more explicit when a portion of the small nation lives under foreign state apparatuses. At such times each member of the minority is exposed to the temptation of renouncing one’s roots, which in the folk ballad of Fair Vida is personified by Vida’s aged husband and her father, and converting oneself into a member of the majority community, choose to speak only that group’s language.318 The events of the novel are limited to just four days in the period after the capitulation of Italy, from September 18 to September 21, 1943; however, from this novel framework the story extends temporally, entering the past and returning again to the immediate time of the events themselves.319 The main event of the novel is the German army’s search for soldier from the Italian army, among whom is also the hero Rudi Leban, who in his flight

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from the Germans is also fleeing death in his longing for freedom. Rudi is the archetype of an educated Slovenian in Trieste who continuously questions his own personal and historical role. He embodies the tragedy of the Slovenian people under fascism and is a spokesman for collective memory which preserves loyalty to one’s own cultural, linguistic and ethnic identity.320

3.5.1 Pahor’s Novel “The City in the Bay”: Between Personal Experience and Mythologising At the start, the novel introduces Rudi Leban as he returns to his birthplace in the Karst region after the Italian capitulation in 1943. On the train he sees a notice stating that all solider who had possession of firearms on September 8 should appear on September 19 or 20, in uniform, at the barracks in Rojan, in order to declare whether they are prepared to fight for the German army against the Partisans. Rudi Leban does not want to join the German army, and thus has to flee from them and go into hiding; as a fugitive he runs into a house in which the 18 year old Vida, a selfabsorbed, superficial and obstinate girl, lives with her mother and younger sister. In addition to Vida, the mother has a five-year-old daughter Dorica, who has mischievous blue eyes, and a son Stojan, who she claims to be living “at his aunt’s” (Rudi does not truly believe this and asks himself whether Vida’s mother “perhaps believed he would condemn her son if he were hiding somewhere”321); she says that her husband has difficult work in an aluminium factory in Marghera near Venice. When Vida meets Rudi Leban, she frivolously and impetuously pokes fun at his flight, as if the horrors of war had not really touched her. She tells him: The boys used to flee into the woods because of the Italians; then the Italians, barefoot and naked, fled the Germans; then the boys fled from the camps in Italy; now you’re fleeing into the woods again because of the Germans. Please! I’m had it up to my ears with all of that! This just isn’t interesting!322

Rudi Leban knows Vida’s type and her words do not insult him, but at the same time he is well aware of the severity of his situation. He knows that he cannot return home, as in Trieste they are hunting down all Italian soldiers and his life is in danger. He has sympathy for Vida, since in spite of her capriciousness, self-satisfaction and conceitedness she seems sweet because of her childish mischievousness and boldness. When he finds out that Vida’s boyfriend is not Slovenian but Italian, he cannot conceal his

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disagreement, but also not his intense jealousy for the unknown individual who has claimed Vida. He thinks: It’s true, she is smiling, that he would tease her, but at the same time it was on account of the fact that he has the impression that she is also seemingly looking a bit for him, as if she were searching for the one who had called her in the afternoon. Why was it that he was jealous of him, more jealous that she could ever dream. This morning he didn’t even have her in his thoughts, and tomorrow he would perhaps forget about her again, but whenever he was by her was as jealous as a southerner.323

And so one day Rudi Leban tells his friend Vida the old story about Fair Vida, with the intention of having her recognize herself in the hero and comprehending the situation and the danger of the temptation in which she finds herself. About the figure of Vida from the old Slovenian folk ballad, who has in his tale the characteristics of Vida from Prešeren’s Romantic interpretation, he says: Vida was indeed her name, and they say that she was very beautiful. It happened in the days the Arabs had their own country in Spain, and they would sail their boats across the Mediterranean and Adriatic seas. Vida was on the shore one of these boats approached. And an Arab sailor lured her away. “Why be bored here? Come with me, and I’ll take you away to the Spanish court!” he said. And Vida departed.324

Vida’s response to Rudi’s tale is wild, rebellious and mocking, as she states that Vida did the right thing.325 From the continued dialogue between Rudi and Vida her disparaging and superficial relation to the old story is increasingly revealed, yet in spite of her mockery, there is inner discomfort and effort at eradicating and pushing away any similarity between herself and Vida. Rudi (and probably Vida herself) undoubtedly sense this: “They say she had an old husband and a sick child at home. And it seems that the sailor said to her, ‘Come onto the boat, and I’ll give you medicine for your sick child!’ But when she boarded the boat, he set off.” “Hm,” she scoffed. “Most say that she left just because she was tempted away.” “Of course she went just like that!” “Like you going to Florence...” “Oh, leave me alone. Do you really have to talk about me all the time?” “You’re right. So she left because she was tempted away by the Spanish queen’s court. There were great halls and a thousand servants there, life was unbelievable among all the silver and gold and pearls. Why

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In the dialogue between Vida and Rudi, her inner contradictions and her longing to preserve her youth in difficult times can be felt. Pahor’s Vida experiences Fair Vida’s longing for happiness and agrees that Fair Vida is not able to experience her youth in all its beauty: “on this miserable coast where the men smell like fish and where she had to carry everything on her head or shoulders down to the shore,” and opts for a land with “great halls and a thousand servants,” a life where all is splendid “among all the silver and gold and pearls.” Pahor’s Vida does not, of course, want to think the small child and aged, sick husband, whom Vida deserts in departing with the Arab. Pahor’s Vida consciously overlooks and circumvents all wrongdoing of which one could accuse Vida from the folk song, defending Vida’s “right” to independence, to life and youth in a manner which she herself has chosen. Rudi, though, senses behind her words her inner division, confusion and doubt, despite her decisiveness. He thus emphasises that being abroad can never make one happy and that, for all the external comforts and riches, one can never be as happy abroad as one would be at home. Because Vida senses the hidden sharpness in his words and knows that these words are aimed at her and her planned departure for the foreign surroundings of Florence, she because insulting, mocking and ironical; she doubts the truth of his tale, while silently considering whether his tale about Fair Vida grew from his wounded egotism and his jealousy: She breathed out through her nose. “Did she tell you that?” she said with ironical enthusiasm, once again childish and immature. But he was now as calm as a grandfather with a mouthy grandchild. “That’s a truth that’s as old as the world itself,” he said. “Because now that lightless night is all around; that foreign soldiers are marching on the dark streets of the dark town down in the bay, and lurking after shadows; now that they’re planning ambushes in all the villages and woods, with a skull depicted on their soldier’s caps, now every myth, every fable is truth again. And also again as necessary as the first tool man chiselled out of stone.”327

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In order to emphasise the unavoidable sorrow and regret that overcomes one who gives into temptation and leaves home for a foreign world, Rudi also tells Vida the old mythological tale of Helen of Troy in Homer’s Odyssey.328 But Vida does not want to hear this and shrugs her shoulders at the tale: “Yes, that’s the truth, as old as the world,” he said. “Like Odysseus’ journey home, like the sorrow of Helen of Troy at leaving home. You remember Helen?” “No,” she said nonchalantly. “Or that Vida of yours?” “Our Vida was a wet-nurse for the queen’s child. So they say. But maybe that’s not true, maybe she got married at the court. But that’s not important. The truth is that she soon felt unhappy among those strangers, far from the shore of her birth. She cried secretly, stood on the terrace of a high castle and sobbed; she spoke with the sun during the say, with the moon at night, and asked them about her home.” “It’s just a story,” she said, and shrugged her shoulders.329

Through the dialogue Rudi once again wants to show Vida the similarity between Prešeren’s Fair Vida and herself, but Vida does not want to be drawn into a serious and deep conversation that would threaten her current “free and independent” thinking and life which is not to be limited by the historical situation of the nation. She avoids such a conversation through feigned exuberance, natural wittiness and roguishness, as we can read in the dialogue between Rudi and Vida: “And when they saw that she was crying, she quickly dried her tears and lied, telling them that she’d broken a gold cup. You’d be just the same, just as stubborn and proud.” “Me? I would run away!” And in an instant she was roguish and proud, half pleasant cunning, half childish fantasy… “We,” he said… “We’re soldiers now so that we can bring back all our Helens and all our Vidas.” “Oh, ya, we’ve forgotten about you!” And she cried out loudly and clapped her hands…330

When Rudi mentions the mythological Odysseus, who returns home, the comparison is much more significant than he himself is aware. Rudi, like the other soldiers who are returning home from the war, are themselves like Odysseus, and there is admirable loyalty to his homeland and compatriots that he preserved in the exceptional circumstances of the war despite the weight of violence and other offers for an easier, less dangerous way of living (for example, Rudi does not want to join the German army to fight against Slovenian Partisans, even though this

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decision places him in mortal danger). In this context Rudi emphasises his role as a soldier with words taken from the mythological and folk tradition: “We’re soldiers now so that we can bring back all our Helens and all our Vidas”–which symbolically means that he senses it as his duty to return to the homeland all the Slovenian people who were tempted by the foreign, the unknown, but who were made very sad by this misguided longing. Vida does not want to accept the seriousness and the depth of the story and thus believes that Rudi thought it up himself. Nevertheless, she is interested in how the story ends. Rudi replies: Some think that she returned. But the story ends there where she cries. And it’s right for it to stop there, because we know how many of them went away and were unhappy. Only a few of them returned, almost none.331

Vida still refuses to recognize the similarity between her way of thinking and the experience of Prešeren’s Fair Vida in a moment of temptation. Waving her hand, she tells Rudi: “Eh, caro mio, you don’t know how to invent tales!”332 turns her back and departs. Rudi is worried for Vida. He knows that Vida did not know the old Slovenian story about Fair Vida, since Slovenian schools were banned and she had to attend an Italian one. For this reason he attempts to understand Vida’s way of thinking and to make excuses for it, as in his view it could not be any different in an environment which cultivates a sense of inferiority in members of the minority Slovenian nation and which gives rise to the temptation of “the glimmer of foreign greatness.” He therefore thinks: Vida? Now she’s real, tangible. And now one must be a soldier for her. … They instilled in you a sense of inferiority. The first trauma. Then they drugged you with the glimmer of foreign greatness. Two basic things. Two traumas, so to speak. And that’s how all of your aspirations flee from the sense of smallness and shame. That is, they’re directed away. Outwards. Away, for the human means out. That’s why the stream of our thinking divides in two, like the pointers in that game…”333

As he thinks, he sees an unknown girl with blue eyes and hair even darker than Vida’s, who is crossing the Karst courtyard. The features of the face and the poise express a reserved determination, and her charm is captured in the calm and decisive traits. When he looks more closely, he recognizes

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in this figure the girl whom he had met the day before on the train, when he was very nearly taken by the Germans and forced into their army. The girl introduces herself as Majda and Rudi soon discovers in her the very opposite of Vida. Majda is a constant girl who respects her roots and her homeland. She is compassionate to Vida and says that also Vida “wanted to save herself from shame through flight, but in her heart she wished and waited for our victory, for she sensed that then none among us would be inferior.”334 Despite the inclination that he has for Majda, Rudi, in his concerns, also visits Vida, and this automatically makes him compare the girls: As he walked on the slope he thought: I’m going so that I can see Majda as soon as possible, but I’m talking with Vida. What an odd mixture man is. He’s faithful and unfaithful, limited and limitless, like the sea that does not let itself be trapped into a geometrical shape. He goes through the night to Majda, but he’s almost sad for not being with Vida. It’s like he’d renounced her. Renounced? No, he doesn’t want to feel that. But it was born nonetheless. Probably a human heart in reality cannot be faithful. It can renounce something. That, yes. In essence it is unfaithful, because, like the open sea, it is for all ships and boats. Only the harbour is the heart, like a ship, it can choose, but a harbour is still the sea. Majda? Majda is everything, agreement with the earth, blood and revelation, enthusiasm and collegial closeness. But Vida is a leap across the present! Majda is conquering of all days, of all hours in a row, constant and hardy. But Vida is life without limits again, an irrepressible luxury? Luxury? Love? And you’re the one preparing for such a serious task…Vida? oh, yes, now it’s certainly good if one knows that there are Vidas somewhere, but it’s better that one does not meet them. Why Vida is laughter compared to the army and the ambushes and the inhuman toils. With Vida one can flee to Tahiti like Gauguin.”335

3.5.2 A Comparison between Pahor’s and Prešeren’s Fair Vida In the novel The City in the Bay Pahor includes, as a central figure, the character of Fair Vida from Prešeren’s ballad and imports her into the writer’s contemporary era, focusing on realism, on descriptions of everyday life in the extraordinary circumstances of the Italian capitulation and on the threatened position of members of the Slovenian minority in Italy at the time. The very acts of the main protagonist Ruda are, as in mythical stories, in fact heroic–his flight from the Germans is in the service of a struggle for survival, which has the fundamental task of strengthening, in the threatened Slovenian people, a sense of belonging to

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a Slovenian homeland, culture and fellow Slovenians. Rudi feels called to strengthen a sense of national identity in Slovenians, to prevent their assimilation, connection with the majority Italian nation, and with this he aids the existence of the Slovenian nation and the continued Slovenian nation “abroad,” on formerly Slovenian soil. Whereas in the Slovenian folk song Fair Vida cries because she has lost contact with her homeland, husband and wife forever, Pahor’s Vida, as a member of the minority living under foreign state apparatuses, deals with a minority complex when opting for a different community and language. Her inner struggle, shame and spiritual experience are covered and far less evident than in the folk ballad; it is covered by layers of irony and a superficial, feigned levity. Pahor’s Vida does not travel into the unknown but basically remains at home, which is why she does not sense a real homesickness, unlike Prešeren’s Fair Vida. In her connection with the majority population on the outside she even acquires greater esteem, similar to what happens with Prešeren’s Fair Vida, who, once poor and worn out, now lives at the Spanish court and can even drink from the king’s golden cup. But, internally, Pahor’s Vida experiences a shame similar to that of Prešeren’s Vida, though this is, due to the less overt external circumstances, slowly pressed into the unconscious.336 In spite of the tragic nature of the mythological tale, the writer gives himself up to the play of myth and, in the final analysis, lets it become demythologized through historical, cultural and psychological means. Though he maintains an ethical distance to Vida as a national deviant, there is a sort of forgiving fatherly love, which is also to be felt in Prešeren’s ballad. The fatherly love is especially emphasised because he gives Vida an air of childishly foolish naivety, when she ignores the true essence of Slovenian culture, which is overshadowed by external glitter. Vida in Pahor’s novel actually represents the dream of something more beautiful and worthy and in the structure of the novel she is linked to the element of the sea in its endlessness and vagueness. Florence as a symbol of Italian culture is an attractive bait for Vida, and a pretence for renouncing her national commitment, although in truth Vida never authentically experienced this because she never became equal to the city. To Vida, a great foreign culture means beautiful clothes, which is meant to hide her original sin of rejecting Slovenianness and realising the wish for a better life.

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Entering a foreign world that functions like a glittering and effective lure is, in the novel, in expressed opposition to Vida’s childhood. Vida may listen to Rudi’s views, but she does not accept them; against her will she is also included in the myth (since she no longer believes in fairy tales), and thus cannot identify with a mythological figure and see her own fate in Vida’s. Lacking the necessary distance, she becomes a spoil as well as a part of the myth. Majda, who symbolizes everything a Slovenian mother or woman is, appears in the novel as Vida’s antipode. Majda is rooted in harsh reality, in which there is no room for dreaming of flight into another form of existence. It is these qualities that make her more identifiable, more tangible. Majda unites all the characteristic of a type of Slovenian woman in her warmth, wise judgement, in the absence of frivolity; she reflects a character formed by harsh life experiences. In her there is especially expressed the power of her personal ethos and an extremely rich emotional range in matters of love. The writer was able to create such a figure of Fair Vida on the basis of his own experiences as a member of the Slovenian minority in Italian Trieste during the time of fascism. He experienced fascism as a nightmare and a source of fear which destroyed people’s consciousness and increased the need for human and cultural unity. The nation was not ensured by outer, legal measures but became a matter of inner human belonging and risks; possibilities of living a cosmopolitan life arise in people as a result of aspirations that they might save themselves from fear and a sense of minority. Pahor encompasses all of this problematic in his figure of Fair Vida, through which he emphasises liveliness, reality and the relevant mythical world of our predecessors, who especially showed themselves in times when the Slovenian individual and the Slovenian nation were put to extreme tests. The novel emphasises the difficulty of being a Slovenian in Trieste, which remains relevant even today. This is not a metaphysical but a very concrete problem, one which the author of The City in the Bay always presents anew. He thereby forces Slovenians in Italy not to forget their most inner figure–as it is characterized by the Slovenian literary critic– “continues to exist, be the shore as narrow and poor as it is, and let the wind blow into our faces the cold wind of historical recognition without history and, sometimes, also history without appropriate recognition.”337 In reality there were not and there still are not Slovenians in Trieste for

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many, even if they exist and also lend the city its colourful character as a multicultural realm.

CHAPTER FOUR CONCLUDING FINDINGS

In each of the many variants of the oral folk tradition of the Slovenian ballad of Fair Vida, as well as in the versions with thematic parallels which originated in the Mediterranean coastal regions of Sicily, Calabria, Albania and in the coastal regions of Croatia, the seducer and abductor is male, while the woman is depicted as a victim. In most of the songs the man does not take the woman away through force, but by cunning: he often arrives at the shore as a sea-merchant selling precious goods on his ship and invites the people on board to shop; in this way he also lures onto the ship the young mother, and as she is deciding what to buy, he leaves shore and leads the young woman into slavery. The woman is most often abducted at the command either of the Spanish queen or a foreign lord, and in some ballad variants she is abducted by the sea-merchant himself so that she may become his wife, woman or server abroad. In Slovenia the motif of Fair Vida is the most widespread of all motifs of the abduction or seducing of a woman; it appears regularly in both the folk tradition and in later written literature, as well as in visual, musical, dramatic arts and ballet. This motif travelled to Slovenia from the Mediterranean, and many similar variants are to be found especially in Sicily, Calabria and Croatia. In all of the Slovenian variants, the young woman is lured in one way or another to a foreign land by an un-Christian Moor, which, in the folk-tradition, meant a non-believer. The secret to the Fair Vida motif’s longevity, ability to impress spiritually, and range in Slovenia lies in the fact that it is indelibly linked to Slovenia’s psychological history. This is all the more so because the Vida theme reaches far back into the tradition of the Slovenian oral tradition. In this motif every period has attempted to unearth some sort of essential truth about the human, reaching for the essence of the Slovenian soul and the primal sources of the human. Slovenians associate many national songs with the name of Fair Vida, and this tradition is more than just the same type of motifs stemming from the

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same narrative, song or ballad model. Interwoven into these are archetypal signs of life situations, personal experiences, and a personalised female figure. The ballad of an abducted woman preserved in the Mediterranean space can be divided into three general groups in terms of content.

4.1 The Abducted Woman Resists the Cunning Abductor/Tempter In the first ballad group, the seducer lures a constant woman onto the ship, and after she finds out that there is no possibility of return, the woman– who in the Sicilian, Albanian and Calabrian ballads is of noble birth, while in Slovenia this hero is a Christian mother and wife–resists her abductor, leaps from the ship into the water and drowns. In all of these ballads pirates abduct the young mother; of these only in two ballad versions from Sicily is she taken by force, since in all of the other songs the young woman’s naïve trust is secured by means of various ruses and promises, and she is lured to go with them, having no inkling of evil as she falls into to the craftily-laid trap, before they set sail. And so in the majority of elements, especially in the Albanian-Italian ballads the abductor arrives at the shore and pretends to be a sea-merchant who has precious clothes and wonderful material for sale. He invites people to purchase goods from his ship and under this pretence also invites his victim – the beautiful young wife and mother. While she is choosing what to buy, the ship pushes off and takes the woman away into slavery. In the Croatian, Slovenian and Koþevje variants, things transpire differently: the abducted young wife and mother is lured onto the boat because she is told that she can find medicine for her sick child there. The new circumstance (that the wife and mother has a gravely ill child at home and is thus greatly concerned for his health) adds depth to the motif. It also adds a tragic tinge to the ballad. The callous manipulation and abuse of motherly love is central here, and, tragically, it is her very virtue that robs her of her child. The generally human, spiritual contents of the ballad are deepened here and the outer frame of a feudal or patrician bourgeois woman, which lent the original ballads a sort of higher societal worth, can be left out. This raises the ballad to a higher spiritual level. And so from the Mediterranean ballad about an abducted woman and mother, there arose a Slovenian, and also a Croatian, “Fair Vida.”

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4.2 The Abducted Woman Becomes the Helpless Prisoner of an Abductor/Tempter In the second type of songs about an abducted wife and mother, the abducted woman is poor and virtuous, and has been made weary by loneliness, work and sleepless nights. This is in contrast to the previous type about a beautiful and rich, happily married woman of aristocratic birth, whom the abductor desires as a mistress because of her radiant beauty–the abducted woman is often referred to in the songs by the nickname “Fair” or “Lovely,” and sailors sing praises to her inestimable beauty, which cannot be weighed in money. In the second type, life with an older husband and a sickly child has taken away the woman’s former beauty and youthful freshness. The active resistance towards the abductor from the first group of songs changes in these ballads to passive resistance. The abductor becalms the young wife and mother with promises of a sweeter life at the Spanish court, with the Spanish queen. Already when on the ship Fair Vida becomes aware of the fatal error of having departed with the abductor, moved away from her husband and child, but there is no longer any return. At the Spanish court she becomes a wet-nurse for the Spanish prince. The motif of a woman who finds herself tempted by a seducer appears predominately in this type of ballad of Fair Vida, a type which is developed only in Slovenia. All other types of the folk song speak primarily of a cunning abductor and not also of a temptation in which Fair Vida finds herself before the actual abduction. France Prešeren, too, emphasises this motif in his artistic interpretation. In his ballad “Of the Fair Vida,” he depicts her as a woman who cannot cope with the reality of her unhappy marriage, and thus quickly gives herself over to temptation, leaving her aged husband and sick child and knowingly travelling by sea to faraway Spain (in this scene the temptation has similarities to the narrative of the beautiful Helen from Homer’s Odyssey, who is lured by the tempter Paris and goes across the sea with him, away from her husband Menelaus, thus causing the Trojan War). There an almost noble position awaits her as the Spanish prince’s wet-nurse. But internal turmoil follows: because of the unhappiness she has caused through her flight, she begins to be tortured by an awakening conscience and all the more dolefully longs for home and her child (which is similar to the longing that awakens in Helen when, in a moment of truce, she longs for her ethically superior husband Menelaus and the home she has left–the outcome as a whole

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differs in Homer, as Helen returns to her husband and is reconciled, while Fair Vida has been torn away from her husband forever and is fatally chained to being abroad). In the tale of Fair Vida, who gives in to temptation and accounts for her wrongdoing by directing blame towards her husband and child, there are similarities with the Old Testament story of Adam and Eve. The folk song about Fair Vida, like the Old Testament story, shows the eloquent avoidance of the sinner who needs a scapegoat for his or her own responsibility–just as Adam attempts to make Eva the scapegoat, just as Eve blames the snake, so, too, does Fair Vida use her husband and child as an excuse. In the second group of ballads, Vida’s active resistance, her leap into the water described in the first group of ballads about the abducted wife and mother–Fair Vida is taken abroad, but there she gradually languishes in pain and we sense that she will die of sadness. The motif of the sick child in these songs is joined by the motif of the aged husband, with the intent of increasing the troubles burdening the young wife and mother at home, thus accounting for Vida’s minimal resistance against the Moor’s violence and her rather weak resolve. They attempt to excuse the fact that she has given in to temptation. All of this weakens the tragic aspect of the ballad, and the tragic conclusion also disappears; the death of Vida is not described in the songs. The conclusion is now elegiac: though Vida does not die, we learn nothing about her further destiny; we sense that her life abroad is a lonely one and though she may have the promised comfortable external conditions, this not does promote the happiness she had imaged. The outer comfortable life covers a gloomy wave of homesickness, guilt, desperation and sense of shame. She no longer sees her outer life, but suffers a silent sorrow for her child, who, without her, has died, for her aged husband, who is lost without her and does not cease his search for her, and, finally, for the home she has left behind. Although the motif of an old husband, who in more recent variants even changes into an evil husband, seems to account for Vida’s guilt, since it reduces her attachment to home, her husband and her child, we nonetheless feel the tragic sense of Vida’s life. The suffering is felt even more deeply. With these new circumstances, the spiritual content of the ballad of Fair Vida is also weakened, as there is a doubt that Vida was

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bored with a life of suffering at the side of an old, bothersome husband and sick child, and foolishly fled from home. This doubt unsettles the rest of the continued development of the ballad. Fair Vida is no longer the victim of abduction who, in her spiritual steadfastness and nobility of character, would be able to defend her home and family at the cost of her own life; rather, she is a psychologically unstable woman who, in a moment of weakness, selfishly yields to temptation. Through this the old ballad about an abducted wife and mother opens the door to motifs from other song forms, especially from old Slovenian ballads about a disloyal wife, who has run away from home. A similar phenomenon to that of the folk tradition also occurs in written literature which offers various exceptional variations on the theme of a woman in temptation. In these instances the writer focuses on psychological perspectives of man in temptation and links them metaphorically with various social, national and other viewpoints stemming from Slovenians’ lot throughout history. (Regarding the social, Ivan Cankar portrays his Vida as a girl who flees from poverty by an aged husband to the rich counterpart Dolinar. Wealth, however, does not bring happiness, and she returns home. Regarding the national, Boris Pahor’s Fair Vida portrays a Slovenian individual who, as a member of the Slovenian minority in Italy and in contact with the mighty culture and art of the majority nation gives in to temptation and betrays her national roots and language by assimilating with the economically stronger population.) The motif of a woman who finds herself tempted by the attractive offer of a seducer is probably more common than the response of an abducted woman from the first type of ballad. Temptation is a very significant part of every person’s feelings, and just as significant is the serious and common everyday struggle with it. Thus, the interpretations of folk ballads of this type can be extended into the richness of the extremely interesting literary works that remain relevant in all times and in all nations. They show man’s weak sides and the traps into which he can fall when there is a lack of vigilance or when selfishness prevails; at the same time, they show him on the independent and liberating path of self-control. The Fair Vida from this type of ballad is very real–after her fall there follows a punishment which the penitent woman endures by means of regret (like Adam and Eve in Genesis; their Fall is followed by shame and regret). Fair Vida, who was earlier taken prisoner in an intoxicating garden in which there was no room for anything but herself, becomes temperate after the Fall and begins to sympathize with the suffering of her deserted

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husband; she is overcome by great regret at having left her child and laments immensely because he has died without her. She is painfully reminded of her own child through her daily contact with the small Spanish prince, whom she must nurse in place of her own, and although she is taken care of in material terms, her internal, spiritual existence is that of a slave. The significant trait of this type, however, remains Vida’s love for her child and her loyalty to her husband. A physical coming-together with her husband may no longer be possible (in contrast to Helen and Menelaus in Homer’s Iliad), but it is possible at the intimate, inner level. As in the biblical story, which more than Eva’s sin emphasises Adam’s (thus revealing a patriarchal relation to women), also in the ballad of Fair Vida does the reader judge the treacherous, hypocritical tempter to whom Vida fell prey in a moment of weakness.

4.3 The Woman Marries her Abductor In the third group of variants of the folk ballad of Fair Vida preserved in Slovenia, Vida is portrayed in a negative ethical light–as an unfaithful woman who does put up any real defence, has not a word of sorrow for her husband, and who becomes the mistress of the rich abductor abroad. She does, however, begin to pine for her child, and eventually convinces her new husband, the “Moorish Lord,” to let her travel home after many years to visit her son. The return for the son is, in many ballads, described in folk tale terms, with elements of old Slavonic mythology–Fair Vida makes her way home with the help of the Sun, who shows her the path and waits for her when she is tired; or she travels to her home region by ship, together with her new husband. Her young adult son is now a shepherd, and she recognizes him immediately because of his singular beauty; together they return to the Moor’s kingdom and life happily there. This type of ballad is, in terms of poetic and expressive power, the least convincing, the least psychologically feasible and complete, as it is not in accord with human emotions and in fact contains internal contradictions. How could such a disloyal wife be possessed of such inner calmness? How could her son, when he sees her again after so many years, not expect some sort of justification for her actions, but rather follow her calmly and blithely? These inner contradictions deprive the tale of credibility. The only factor that is convincing is the great longing of Fair Vida for her child, which compels her to make her Moorish husband let her travel home to him; everything else shows more similarity with certain mythical stories

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about abducted woman, in which the woman finally remains with the new husband and becomes used to life with him, giving birth to his children (see, among others, the biblical story about the abducted women of Shiloh for the perpetuation of the tribe of Benjamin; the abduction of the Sabine women, and Zeus’ abduction of Europa); the ballad is not interested in the deeper emotions of the abducted woman. The reader nevertheless senses her profound loneliness abroad, which is somewhat lessened by the fact that she can once again unite with her son, who is an important part of her blood, home and homeland. In all the ballads about an abducted wife and mother, the protagonist is a victim of seduction, temptation and abduction and the reader is thus, regardless of her guilt, placed on the side of the woman. In the first ballads one wonders at her courage and decisiveness, in the second there is compassion for her, because she was overcome by temptation in a moment of weakness and must now pay greatly for that; in the third type, there is a victim-like quality in Fair Vida’s ability to adapt, there are signs of her personal weakness, and at the same time one looks favourably upon her longing for her child she, for all the contradictory elements, wants to see by any means possible.

4.4 Psychological Portrayal of Temptation in Ballads of Fair Vida and Thematic Parallels to the Folk Tradition In many Slovenian ballads of Fair Vida in which a cunning abductor tears her away from her family and takes her far away to the Spanish court–and also in many parallel ballad versions found in Mediterranean coastal regions as well as in biblical tales–there is, as an opposition to the weak woman, the portrait of a male tempter or violent abductor who abducts a woman to still his sexual desire, to marry her, or to deliver her to the lord or lady from whom he has received commands to abduct. In ballads of Fair Vida he is referred to as a “black Moor.” Among the people he would be associated with a Muslim or an Arabic robber or merchant who aims to take the young woman away into Moorish captivity; from the 15th century on, when the memory of the battles with the Saracens had already faded, the Moor is replaced in folk songs and legends by a Turk (he abducts, among others Miklova Zala, which is a most widespread Slovenian tale). In the Slovenian folk tradition the abductor is often the figure of a demonic being, similar to the Underwater Man, who in a whirling dance abducts the prettiest girl and takes her as an earthly bride to his underwater

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kingdom in a river (often the Ljubljanica, which traverses Slovenia’s capital). Especially in the coastal regions of the Mediterranean the abductor takes the woman across the sea and keeps her in captivity as a slave; in these motifs of abduction or temptation we uncover certain parallels with IndoEuropean traditions (in the heroic epic of Ramayana we read of the heroic king Rama, whose wife Sita was abducted by the demon Ravana and taken across the sea to Sri Lanka), with Greek mythology (the myth of the abduction of Europa tells of how Zeus, transformed into a bull, shuttles her away into this sea, swims to Crete and keeps her there in a cave; in Homer’s Odyssey the nymph Calypso offers Odysseus immortality for the sole purpose of binding him to her…), as well as old Slavonic and Slovenian mythology and legends (such as the Slovenian mythical being of the Snake King or Trdoglav, who are of a demonic nature, or the mythological Kresnik–who may have replaced the old Slavonic god Perun, who sends “horrible storms”, thunder and lightning. Each abducts a sister or wife and locks her up in his abode under the earth or under the water…). In virtually all of the ballads, we are witness to the figure of a loathsome seducer, who knows how to beguile, who flatters a young woman and praises her present or past beauty, all the while aware that he will betray her trust. He speaks to her in choice words and, also playing the role of the sensitive listener, meticulously carries out a coldly considered plan. He is a clever scoundrel who is always in complete control of himself. In contrast to the biblical story of King David and Bathsheba or of Amnon and Tamar, in which the abductor is led by a strong, uncontrolled, raw desire, the sea-pirate, the abductor of Fair Vida, is led by a cold, rationally thought-out plan. In the ballads of Fair Vida it is shown that sometimes also the basest deception (the pretence of medicine for the sick son) and the simplest ruse (praising beauty) are successful, when they flatter the habits and instincts of the misled and deceived woman (Prešeren’s Fair Vida longs for beauty and a peaceful life at the rich Spanish court). But such deception can quickly change into outright sadism, such as that seen in the Sicilian ballad of an abducted woman and mother in which the abductor does not care at all whether the mother’s child dies, and even mocks parental concern for the child. In many original ballads about the abduction of a wife and mother, especially in the Albanian, Sicilian and Calabrian ones, we uncover even a sort of instinctive need of the abductor to tyrannize and torture the weak woman who falls into their hands, and

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often there is the need for torturing and mocking her husband, who vainly attempts to prevent her abduction and the ensuing death of their child.

4.5 Psychological Portrayal of the Victim of Temptation/Abduction in Folk Ballads about Fair Vida and their Thematic Parallels The first type of ballad about an abducted woman draws a strict and very sharp division between good and evil, thus approaching the status of elevated tragedy. In it we can uncover the psychological typology and aristocratic orientation to which the noble status of the main characters already point (such as in “Lady Irena” and “Lady Candia”). The rebellious self-sacrifice of these women instils a sense of the deep and moving human magnitude which values human life solely according to its ethical greatness and the integrity of fundamental human values and inalienable rights, and not according to external trappings of richness or consideration of possible benefits that the woman could enjoy while abroad. An important trait of the elevated tragic person is her physical inviolability, and none of these women is old, sick, or physically weak–each is beautiful, healthy, and noble. In the high style of these ballads there is the unmistakeable occurrence of the death itself. Also absent in these ballads is any hint of social criticism; the story remains in the realm of the psychologically personal and deals with just a few individuals, approaching them from a strictly ethical viewpoint. The epic song encompasses an elevated concept of love similar to that of courtly culture developed in the Middle Ages and later formed into Petrarchanism, which was not without elements of mysticism; love is an elevated tragic motif, an emotion so powerful it even pushes the abducted woman into death; here there is nary a whisper of physicality or sexuality, which at that time would have been deemed lowly and inappropriate. A completely different atmosphere dominates in the second, and yet another in the third type, of songs about Fair Vida, in which the tragic atmosphere enters the realm of everyday reality. In both types of ballad of Fair Vida, who falls into temptation and goes abroad with the seducer, we sense her striving to belong to a higher class–to which the aristocratic woman from the first type, who leaps into the sea, already belongs. This upward mobility, however, means nothing against the value of homeland and family. The second and third types, which in contrast to the first, “elevated,” type, form a sort of “middle style.” This middle style is aware of everyday human life, including its problematic sides. It thus works

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more realistically and offers a challenge for ethical and psychological evaluation. Whereas Fair Vida in the second type of poems remains untouchable and untouched by another man–she becomes just a wet-nurse for the Spanish prince and not an unfaithful wife–in the third type she is a sort of fallen woman. This change from an elevated, to a middle and lower style is visible from her exterior–whereas in the ballads of the first type the woman is characterized as beautiful, and commonly the most beautiful of all women, worthy of adulation and wonder, the woman of the second type, who falls into temptation, formerly beautiful, is now craggy, withered, pale and wistful for her former beauty (which is, ironically, through the very fact that she gives in to her tempter, who promises her everything, lost for ever). The continued sinking leads to the third type of songs, in which the abducted woman is not wondered at by anyone or praised for her beauty, although among all of the abducted women she is the only one who “succeeds” in improving her social lot in life and achieving the highest position of a nobleman’s wife and lady.

4.6 Literary Interpretations of the Slovenian Ballad of Fair Vida in Modern Slovenian Literature The story of Fair Vida has inspired a number of Slovenian poets and writers throughout all phases of Slovenian literature from Romanticism forth. Preserving the themes found in the ballad of Fair Vida that are universal, these writers changed the story to suit their particular age, and there are now more than fifty Fair Vida literary works known in Slovenia. Slovenian creators in all primary literary genres have plumbed the myth of Fair Vida in search of an everlasting truth, for the surface details of the ballad, which cannot be conclusively confirmed and which writers layered with imagined literary tales, while considering man’s Faustian restlessness, weakness, temptation, testing, “fall,” guilt and longing. In their works, these themes soon extended beyond the basic frame of the seemingly simple tale of the abduction of a wife and mother. They focused on that level of reality which encompasses not only the world of ratio, but also the less comprehensible internal world, and grew into subtle expressions of fundamental existential questions in the richness of the poetic, narrative and dramatic forms. In contrast to the folk variants, for which the ballad form demanded brevity in expressing the event, the abduction and fate of the victim, there is more room for extended imaginative and artistic efforts in literary treatment.

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In Jurþiþ’s novel Fair Vida, there is a description of obsession with sexual desire for a young, attractive man that overcomes a married woman. As is shown, Paoli constantly proves to be in a state of erotic agitation. In all the stories Fair Vida sustains herself through imagination, with which she fills the emotions of sexuality and emotional dissatisfaction. But it is precisely her emptiness that gives rise to her bitter, false and shallow longing for a sort of replacement. In an irresistible state of temptation, she cannot remain in a state of immobility and vigilence and thus overcome the temptation; she succumbs to it and steps onto the boat. All of the stories focus on the pain of a woman, and in addition to her life there is also her spiritual path, her descent from attachment to fantasy and the illusion of a more beautiful life, which continues with her liaising with another man and thus expressing her lack of a sense of reality, to her rejection of illusions, to her internal freeing and insight into reality in all of its firm and raw immediacy. Fair Vida’s tears are thus only a means of making the harshest suffering bearable. Cankar’s Fair Vida is, on the other hand, a being who does not seek consolation and recognizes that placation and joy (not the sense of the merely pleasurable, which is the fruit of hollow dreams) are beyond the realm of consolation. In her pain and exhaustion, she reaches the point where in the soul a sense of everlasting forbearance is born; it is then that Fair Vida is taken into eternity, above human concepts of time, and becomes a symbol of the everlasting and of a longing that can never be conceived of completely.

4.7 Selected Classic Works of European Literature which Influenced World Literature with the Motif of Temptation: A Comparison with Biblical and Folk Traditions The “black Moor,” who appears in literature under various names and guises, is often shown as an abductor. However, he is often a seducer similar to Don Juan, the mythological Spanish hero, or a tempter with the traits of a hypocrite in the style of Molière’s Tartuffe (as in Prešeren’s ballad and the syrupy speech of the abductor who praises Fair Vida’s past beauty and flatters her). The “black Moor” in many works about Fair Vida assumes various roles, puts on many masks and appears under various names. In the literary stories he always has a demonic dimension. He is a representative of evil, who has little of the human, but expresses the instincts of an entirely base physical nature and the lowly lusts that are greed, egotism, and hedonism. His manner of life is characterized by the pursuit of pleasure, but at the same time the “black Moor” is never

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depicted as having family or friends. In the interpretations in which he abducts Fair Vida for himself and not at the command of another (for example the Spanish queen), such as is the case in Jurþiþ’s novel, this abductor is depicted as a “nomad” of pleasure, and a traveller who lives for momentary sensations. His passion is the hunt, the conquest of women; in this he seeks pleasure, but this pleasure soon fades once his goal has been achieved, as a desire submerged in mere pleasure is often powerless. The goal of his seducing is not the abstract overcoming of barriers; rather, it is sexual relations with a woman who consciously complies out of the sense of love and desire which the seducer awakens in her. This calculated, finely-spun web, which leads to the increase of desire in the woman picked as a victim by the seducer, surely receives one of the most admirable renderings in the first part of Goethe’s Faust, in which Faust, with the help of Mephistopheles, “tortures” the initially innocent Gretchen until he can finally consume all of her devotion and passion, and she is ultimately ruined, together with her family–out of fear of public shame Gretchen murders her child, and because of her actions, both her mother and her brother die (the former when she Gretchen, wanting to sleep with Faust, unintentionally gives her an overdose of sleeping potion, and the latter when he tries to avenge Faust for abusing his beloved sister). As in his poetry and prose as a whole, which is imbued with literary strength and human wisdom, in Faust, Part I Goethe depicts seduction, temptation and the horrible consequences for Gretchen with both a classic, universal ethos and a Romantic, extremely personal pathos. Sexual relations are a source of pleasure for the seducer, of lust, but already in the next moment it changes into a state of post coitum triste, into an absolute sadness and emptiness (see Jurþiþ’s Fair Vida and Paoli, Amnon and Tamar, etc.). The seducer who in the ballad of Fair Vida is depicted as a “black Moor,” penetrates not only into the woman’s body but also into her soul, as well as her social position or role (in many interpretations, Fair Vida is offered a richer and more comfortable life if she gives in to the seducer and follows him). It is interesting that in stories of Fair Vida the tempter normally remains unpunished, for all the wrong he has done. He is not so much a real person as a symbolic element of testing, a mythological, tempting demon. The authors consider his destiny less than they consider the destiny of the deceived and seduced woman and her actions when she finds herself in temptation, as well as the consequences of her decision. Both the folk and

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the poetic and other literary variations of the motif of Fair Vida show how the heroine, either because of illusions, lust, desire or some other reason, transgresses a border. The narrative ends in error and regret.

CONCLUSION

Longing and testing have been central themes of a number of narratives of all nations and times from the oldest mythological and legendary folk traditions to contemporary literary works. Ever since man has lived on earth as a cognisant being, his ratio has been interwoven with sensations from the sensual world, instincts, desires and temptations, conscious or unconscious striving for comfort, and an instinctual avoidance of pain and unhappiness. In all times man has been aware that he might control the duality of his nature, the contradiction between reason and emotions, in order to make sense of the paths of his longing; he has made sense of his isolation, conquered emptiness, overcome passions that would otherwise control him, known how to renounce temptation of material riches, of power, “lonely” honours and influences, of illusory utility, of various fancies, illusions and attachments and live as a pure child of simple heart, and so forth–but the weakness of his nature entails that he has never been able to do so always. Many narratives from around the world which speak of human longing and temptation in various life situations–when it is necessary to choose between option and the other, often between the easier and the more difficult path–thus fulfil the poetics of pain and longing. This resonates also in many visual and musical works of art which, through expressive power, recreate moments and paint the feelings of individuals who have found themselves in temptation (such as the figures of Adam and Eve, Heracles at the crossroads, Samson and Delilah, and Odysseus, whom the Nymphs seduced and the Sirens beckoned). Temptation, abduction and seduction are also at the core of the ballad of Fair Vida, one of the most beautiful and oldest Slovenian folk ballads, and one which even today is among the most widespread in the Mediterranean region. Like those other works, Fair Vida, too, entails a poetics of pain. And only pain, as Nietzsche affirms, can help imprint truth into memory.338 A number of myths, narratives, ballads, epic and dramatic renditions, novels and other forms of literary texts offer descriptions of longing and temptation that speak not only of something that has passed, but also of that which is occurring in the present and will occur in the future, for as long as there are humans inhabiting the earth. In the attempt to determine the relation between originality and influence in the literary traditions of

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various nations, one must understand literature as a system of texts which exist in mutual relations. It is typical of these texts that later generations interpret them such that past and present are recreated into an interpretative reanimation of fundamental beliefs and values. Because in human existence there is never a situation in which longing for sense ceases, the interpretation of literary texts necessarily concerns the power of words and both their form and meaning. The interpretation of texts such as those that deal with the question of longing and temptation is never merely analytical or philosophical, but always applies to the situation in which the story occurs and to the feelings that are measured through the text. Interpretation, thus, is not only formalistic or analytical; the relation to the text is also social and dialogical. We do not stand beyond the text but before it, open to its questions when we enter a new situation and appropriate it anew each time. And so for example in the old ballad of Fair Vida elements of myth and history, artistic imagination and truth, are linked in a singular manner. A study of folk ballads about an abducted woman and mother in the Mediterranean space entails tracing appearances of the material in the conscience of the people as a core theme, namely of the one who is being tested or is in temptation, in a state of weakness and longing. Wherever possible, a comparative viewpoint is to be used–this is a matter of determining the same, related or contrastive parallels as well as local, ideal, and especially artistic interpretations, but also individual remodellings and variations. Like folk texts of various nations, the Bible also contains stories that arose from an oral tradition and which artistically describe significant events that formed the history of Israel. These stories also often have an especially rich symbolic significance in addition to historical and religious ones. The first part of this study presented central biblical texts containing the motif of longing and temptation. Already the second story of creation in Genesis, which speaks of the Fall of Adam and Eve (Gen 2, 4b-3, 24), describes human difficulties, irresolution and pain when it speaks of the first human pair, how they were overcome by temptation and thus fell into disfavour and were driven from paradise; the consequence of their poor decision was deviation into falsehood and a final burning sense of shame and guilt. This study shows that the entire direction of such biblical texts is shown in the future, that is, in the time of interpretation. The broad representation of similar motifs in folk traditions and literatures, from the

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oldest recordings, is based on the oral folk tradition, and even in literary texts by canonical world authors (such as J.W. von Goethe, John Milton, Thomas Mann), invites a comparison between various eras, languages and cultures as well as an uncovering of similarities and differences in terms of content and form. Here the question arises of the degree of the formative influence of the Bible on European and world literature. The study determines whether a text originally or in terms of sense adapts the Bible or literature, and it is especially interested in the effects of narrative and poems on readers who are faced with a similar crisis, albeit in another time and in other external circumstances. Among the many biblical stories about an abducted woman or about temptation there is that from the Book of Judges, which relates how the tribe of Benjamin in Shiloh, because of a dearth of women among themselves, lurks in the vineyards for the daughters of Shiloh as they were celebrating, and how each member takes a woman from among the dancers (Judg 21). Yet another biblical story tells of how the Old Testament King David stilled his sexual desire with Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah the Hittite (who was away at the battlefield at the time), after he had seen her bathing on the roof; when David later finds out that she has become pregnant by him, he has her husband sent to certain death in the first row of the fiercest battle, in order that her may marry her (2 Sam 11). The Second Book of Samuel also speaks about the irresistible temptation that overcame Amnon in the Old Testament when he raped his half-sister Tamar (2 Sam 13). Amnon tricked her by pretending to be ill, but after he had stilled his desire, he had her sent forth, and felt a disdain for her that was greater than his previous “love” for her. All of these biblical stories, especially that of Adam and Eve, call for further studies into the relevant literary creations for which they provide the basis. On the other hand, there are also biblical texts which deserve a systematic comparative study, especially the tale of Samson and Delilah (Judg 16, 4-22) and about the “loose” or “strange woman” in Proverbs 1-9. The first part of the study deals with the motifs of abduction and temptation in Old Testament narratives and in other literary genres, while uncovering their echoes and significance in literature; the second part of the study deals with these motifs in the finest Slovenian national ballads, songs about Fair Vida, as well as in similar ballads originating in the coastal regions of Sicily, Albania and Calabria, but also in some of their

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later literary interpretations in poetry and prose (such as in Prešeren, Jurþiþ, Cankar and Pahor’s literary treatment of the motif of Fair Vida). From the perspective of testing, the study presents other typical folk and artistic poetic renderings of abduction or tempting of a woman (such as Prešeren’s ballad “The Water Man”), but also folk tales (the Slovenian national folk tale from Prekmurje about Fair Mankica, etc.) as well as literary works (such as Goethe’s Faust, Part I), which had a particular resonance in the Slovenian European space and which were influenced by the folk, mythological or biblical tradition. Already Ancient Greek and Roman literature speaks of abducted women; the Roman historian Titus Livius reports how the first Roman king Romulus, after establishing the city of Rome, intended to provide wives for the citizens. He invited the neighbouring tribe of the Sabines to a celebration, and then abducted their woman and took them off to Rome. Ancient Greek mythology also abounds with scenes of seduction and abduction of women. And so there is, among others, the Ancient Greek myth of Europa, which relates how the beautiful Europa, the daughter of the Phoenician King Agenor, was lured to Crete by the king of the gods Zeus after he appeared to her in the form of a mighty white bull. Because the beast seemed extremely benevolent, she perched upon its back. Zeus immediately strode off into the sea with her, making her his prisoner by swimming to Crete and stowing her away in a cave, where she later gave birth to three sons. Among the most famous stories from Greek mythology is that of the abduction of Helen: with the aid of Aphrodite, the goddess of love, Paris convinced the lovely Helen to leave her husband, Menelaus the king of Sparta, and sail away with him to Troy. During the extended war that followed between the Greeks and the Trojans, Helen felt the tension between her role as wife of one in line for the Trojan throne and the role of the former wife of a Greek king. The Iliad tells of how the news of a détente gave rise to longing in Helen for her former husband, her parents and the city she left behind. After the fall of Troy, Helen and her first husband find their way back to each other. The relation between the tempter and the tempted is often reversed, and there are many stories about how a woman with her charms attracts and seduces a man (though not always successfully). For example, in Homer’s Odyssey the divine nymph Calypso holds out the prospect of immortality

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to the hero in hopes of binding him to her. However, his love for his wife and his homeland is stronger than any promise of immortality. Neither the nymph’s divine beauty nor loving delight can lead him away, and after visiting the land of the Phaeacians and the girlishly charming princess Nausicaä who awaits him there, he returns home. The motifs of ballads of the Middle Ages, including the Slovenian ballad of Fair Vida, did not come into being exclusively in connection with particular events that could be precisely proved by historians. Their source is also linked with artistic accounts of desire, in which imagination is also allowed. From the traditions in all Mediterranean nations a number of stories and songs were known that contained attractive elements as an echo of significant experiences of the people. These were transmitted in various regions and in various times from mouth to mouth, from scribe to scribe, and thus received various new “guises” that would be attractive for a particular time and surrounding. Many creations preserved an enduring value, but others were often forgotten. Sometimes they lived forth in various transmissions, such as when the form was carried over to new contents. And so it is that the old Slovenian ballad of Fair Vida, with the figure of the “black Moor” who abducts Vida, first characterizes the Moorish danger, and later the danger of the Turks. In addition to mythological elements we also see in the ballad indubitable traces of historical accounts of events in the European Mediterranean space. And so the symbol of the “black Moor” refers to Moors from Spain, Sicily and North Africa who from the 9th until the 11th centuries attacked Adriatic coastal cities. Some Moors were pirates, but there were also merchants who sailed the seas trading in everything from Arab medicines to slaves. From the 15th century forth, when memory of the struggle against the Saracens had already faded, Moors were replaced in poems and legends by Turks, who first set foot on Slovenian land after the battle of Nikopol in 1396. They were definitely in Slovenia in 1408, and their attacks continued, with interruptions, until the late 16th century, and even into the 17th century in eastern regions of Slovenia. Historical events are retained in folk songs, but also in later literary narratives of Fair Vida (such as in Jurþiþ’s novel of the same name) artistically reformed such that through the interweaving of elements of elegy and tragedy they emphasise primarily the fate of a weak woman as well as her strength (Slovenian and Sicilian variants of the ballad of an abducted woman who refuses to yield to the tempter, and leaps from the ship into the sea, drowning). Most often, however, it is powerlessness that is emphasised, as she cannot resist her abductor or seducer.

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In addition to mythological and historical import, the ballad also had great symbolic meaning, which originated as the fruit of artistic imagination. Symbolic meanings could arise in connection with old mythological traditions–the “black Moor” who takes away and abducts Fair Vida in some folk variants of the ballad of Fair Vida evokes the demonic abductor from beyond the seas, similar to way that the Underwater Man, about whom Prešeren wrote his famous poem, abducts the haughty Urška and takes her with him to his underwater kingdom at the bottom of the Ljubljanica river; symbolic meanings also arose in connection with contemporary historical and social circumstances–the “black Moor” in Ivan Cankar assumes the form of a rich estate owner, who “takes away” Fair Vida, so she leaves her poor husband and departs with him, to claw her way out of poverty. At the same time, Cankar changes Vida into a symbol of insatiable human longing for the unachievable. In Boris Pahor the seducer symbolizes an attempt at assimilating Slovenians to the larger Italian nation and its richness in historical, economic and artistic terms– Pahor’s Fair Vida, as a member of the Slovenian minority in the Trieste border region in the time after the Second World War feels ashamed at her Slovenian roots and her language and assimilates herself to the majority Italian population. The elements taken over from older narratives, including the individuals or transmissions of figures and acts onto new individuals, all brought about changes. Although it erased some of the original aspects, other aspects arose and became new contentual links, offering a different attitude and different moral judgements, and these changes are both interesting and significant. The poems influenced people with the breadth of the actions contained therein, their lyricism or with the social import ascribed to an event, but also with their emotional perception. Seeking out links with the past is always a valuable undertaking, as links with the past also mean links with the future. Historical memory is by no means merely factual but is broader, spiritual and, above all, also artistic. Although in the artistic material the forming differs from those in historical writings, in the depth of the soul all phenomena and all created things meet; and even though they are sometimes dispersed in their elements or entirety, they meet anew, bring distress and express the richness of the human spirit. In all types of the ballads of Fair Vida, but also in the biblical and Ancient Greek stories of temptation and abduction, males give themselves over to

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their passion, and in so doing always lay the seeds of great tragedy. Men act according to the urges of their passions, which have a violent effect on events as a whole and the lives of all individuals with whom they have contact. In the moral realm, the inclination for division in rank and class goes so far that the king’s heroes, noblemen and lords live convinced that also their giving themselves over to their passions is entirely legal, and that this right arises from their position, and they reject any thoughts of the possible consequences of their behaviour, be these external (causing war, conflicts between people, the death of a child, of a husband...), or internal (the spiritual consequences for the abducted one, the deceived woman). Their ardent haughtiness precludes any practical thinking. In judging the motif of the abduction of a woman in all of these types of texts we can discern that there is an autonomous probability and directness to the conflicts in which the woman are captured. Especially in the first type of ballad about an abducted woman and mother the woman emits an integral physical and spiritual dignity that is not merely something external but is also a constituent part of her being. In these tragic stories, as well as those that follow, once can all the more clearly see the opposition between the victims of a seeming virtue and a man subjugated to lustfulness, tyranny and psychopathic behaviour, since the consequences of his actions are fatal. The protagonists in the folk ballad of Fair Vida, on the other hand, do not lead one to intuit such a psychological richness of the internal world, a sort of richness of experience as in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, for example; rather, they move in the indeterminate space between typical figures and ideas and are in essence more than individual persons with their own destiny. There is a dispersed and metaphorical interlacing of various themes–from testing, temptation, to guilt, regret and longing. At the same time one sees the presence in all the ballads of an expressed and sharp opposition between the central figures: between the weak woman and the forceful abductor or tempter; in a symbolic, figurative sense this can mean the opposition between good and evil that rages in the world.339 Almost all of the folk versions and artistic interpretations of the motif of an abducted or seduced woman end with a scene of suffering. The weak Fair Vida recognizes evil and hell through suffering. In contact with an innocent and spiritually pure, but weak woman, the abducting force and sin is transformed into a redemptive suffering. It is thus no accident that in Jurþiþ’s novel, after all the horrifying deaths that occur as a result of

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Vida’s fatal mistake and her adultery, after years of her penitential suffering and regretting, her child becomes pure and unstained. Vida is strongly affected in Jurþiþ’s novel by her guilt, but at the same time she looks beyond herself–to her husband, lover and others–in searching for the evil that she herself has carried out.

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NOTES

1

See St. Augustine Confessions, trans. by Henry Chadwick (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998), 3. The original Latin reads: “Magnus es, domine, et laudabilis valde: magna virtus tua, et sapientiae tuae non est numerus. Et laudare te vult homo, aliqua portio creaturae tuae, et homo circumferens mortalitatem suam, circumferens testimonium peccati sui et testimonium, quia superbis resistis et tamen laudare te vult homo, aliqua portio creaturae tuae. Tu excitas, ut laudare te delectet, quia fecisti nos ad te et inquietum est cor nostrum, donec requiescat in te.” 2 Sura 20,85 contains Allah's statement to Moses: “We have tested thy people in thy absence: the SƗmirƯ has led them astray.” 3 Homer, Odysseus. 9.105-306; 23.1-116, 153-240. 4 Plutarch, Cleom. 7.3. 5 Kazimakis, Cyr. 1.21.30. 6 Strabo, Geog. 16.4.24. 7 Menander, Frag. 42.319. 8 Homer, Odysseus 16.225-320. 9 Anonymi, Vita Aesopi 64.2. 10 Historia Alexandri Magni 1.23.13 Recension beta, cf. 1.23.16; 1.26.78 Recension gamma. 11 Josephus, Jewish War 4.5.4 § 340. 12 Plutarch, Mor. 230A, cf. Anonymi, In Aristotelis Artem Rhetoricum 98.29; sch Hecuba 1226.1. 13 Lucilius, Grk. Anth. 11.183. 14 Galen, Ant. Lib. ii 14.2.6. 15 Anonymi, In Ethica Nichomachea Commentaria 454.10. 16 Polybius, Hist. 21.4.7. 17 Diodorus Siculus, Bib. Hist. 2.58.5. 18 Arrian, Epict. Diss. 1.9.27. 19 Ps.-Apollodorus, Bib. 2.5.9. 20 Ps-Apollodorus, Bib. 3.98.2. 21 See “Testing and Trial in Secular Greek Thought,” Dictinary of New Testament Background, ed. Craig A. Evans and Stanley E. Porter (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2000), 1207-10. 22 Ibid., 1208. 23 Ibid., 1209.

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See Select Papyri: Poetry. Texts, translations, and notes by D. L Page (Loeb Classical Library 360; Cambridge, MA / London: Harvard University Press, 1941, 2000), 126-29. 25 See Philo of Alexandria, Virt. 65. 26 See Chaim Rabin, “The Translation Process and the Character of the Septuagint,” Textus 6 (1968): 9-10. 27 See “Testing and Trial in Secular Greek Thought,” 1210. 28 See the illuminating comparative description fo “the two syles” (Greek and Biblical) of presenting reality by Erich Auerbach, Mimesis: Dargestellte Wirklichkeit in der abendländischen Literatur (Bern / Stuttgart: Francke, 1946, 1988), chapter 1, pp. 5-27; English translation by Willard R. Trask, Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1968, 1991), chapter 1, pp. 3-23. 29 See Adrianus van Selms, “Yammu's Dethronement by Baal: An Attempt to Reconstruct Texts UT 129, 137 and 68,” Ugarit Forschungen 2 (1970): 264. 30 See F. J. Helfmeyer, “nissâ; massôt; massâ,” Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament, volume 9. Edited by G. Johannes Botterweck, Helmer Ringgren, and Heinz-Josef Fabry; translated by David E. Green (Grand Rapids, MI / Cambridge: William B. Eeerdmans, 1998), 443-55. 31 See Joachim Hans Korn, ȆǼǿȇǹȈȂȅȈ: Die Versuchung der Gläubigen in der Griechischen Bibel (Beiträge zur Wissenschaft vom Alten und Neuen Testament IV/20; Stuttgart: W. Kohlhammer, 1937); Heinrich Seesemann, “peîra , …,” in Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, edited by Gerhard Friedrich; translated by Geoffrey W. Bromiley, volume 6 (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1968), 23-36. 32 See James H. Charlseworth, ed., The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha: Apocalyptic Liteature and Testaments (London: Darton, Longman & Todd, 1983), 640. 33 Published in Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1960. 34 See “Bible as Literature,” in Foundations for Biblical Interpretation: A Complete Library of Tools and Resources, edited by David S. Dockery, Kenneth A. Mathews, and Robert B. Sloan (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman, 1994), 70-71. 35 See On Christian Doctrine 4.6-7. 36 Such is the view of John Barton in his Reading the Old Testament: Method in Biblical Study (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1984), 1-19. Kenneth A. Mathews differs with Barton, since the Bible asserts for itself the purpose of Scripture: “Any pursuit inconsistent with the Scripture's own goals distracts the reader from the self-conscious purspose of the text.” See Kenneth A. Mathews, “Literary Criticism of the Old Testament.” In: Foundations for Biblical Interpretation: A Complete Library of Tools and Resources, edited by David S. Dockery, Kenneth A. Mathews, and Robert B. Sloan (Nashwille, TN: Boradman & Holman, 1994), 205, n. 1. 37 See his presidential address for the Society of biblical Literature in 1968, entitled “Form Criticism and Beyond,” Journal of Biblical Literatue 78 (1969): 1-18.

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See “Literary Criticism of the Old Testament,” 208. Ibid., 211. 40 See “Myth versus History: Relaying the Comparative Foundations,” in The Bible and the Ancient Near East: Collected Essays, edited by Jimmy Jack McBee Roberts (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2002), 71. 41 Cf. K. A. Kitchen. On the Reliability of the Old Testament (Grand Rapids, MI / Cambridge: William B. Eerdmans, 2003). 42 In this regard certain ground-breaking modern authors from the field of existential hermeneutics are especially illuminating. In addition to Hans-Georg Gadamer, the following have also made great contributions: Rudolf Bultmann, Glauben und Verstehen, 3 vols. (Tübingen: J. C. B. Mohr, 1933, 7th edition 1972) and Geschichte und Eschatologie (Tübingen: J. C. B. Mohr, 1957, 2nd edition 1964); Paul Ricoeur, De l'interprétation: Essai sur Freud (Paris: Les Éditions du Seuil, 1965) and The Symbolism of Evil, translated from the French by Emerson Buchanan (Boston: Beacon Press, 1967); F. D. Vansina, ed., Paul Ricoeur: Primary and Secondary Bibliography 1935-2000 (BEphThL 148; Leuven: University Press–Uitgeverij Peeters, 2000). 43 For an overview of the historical sources and establishing of the text cf. the standard commentaries: Harmann Gunkel, Genesis (GHAT I/1; Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1901, 8th edition 1969); John Skinner, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Genesis, 2nd ed. (ICC; Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1910, 2nd edition, reprinted 1969); Gerhard von Rad, Das erste Buch Mose: Genesis, 11th ed. (ATD 2-4; Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1949, 11th edition 1972); English translation by John H. Marks, Genesis, 9th ed. (OTL; London: SCM Press, 1961, 9th edition 1991); Umberto Cassuto, A Commentary on the Book of Genesis: From Adam to Noah (Jerusalem: Magnes Press, Hebrew University, 1961, 3rd edition 1978); A. A. Speiser, Genesis (AB 1; Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, 1961); Claus Westermann, Genesis: Kapitel 1-11 (BK.AT 1/1; Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchener Verlag, 1974); English translation by John J. Scullion, Genesis 1-11: A Commentary (London / Minneapolis: PCK / Augsburg, 1984). 44 The oldest variation of the story of Adam and Eve (see Gen 2) is the myth of the King of Tyre. This myth also focuses on the character of the first human (see Ezek 28:11, 13, 15), as well as Gen 3 in which cherubs also stand at the East of paradise. A comparison of Gen 2-3 and Ezek 28 shows that the creation of Adam was originally that of a regal individual (see Ezek 28:12-13). However, Gen 2-3 eradicated all regal characteristics in order to allow for a more general significance. Cf. Walther Zimmerli, Ezechiel 2 (BK.AT 13/2; Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchener Verlag, 1969), 661-96. 45 Viewed from the perspective of history of religions, Adam belongs to the category of primeval man. The wise king Adapa in Akkadian mythology also belongs to this category. He, too, has eternal life, but due to a disagreement he refuses the offered food of life and thus loses eternal life. In the Bible we find references to the Hebrew story of the primeval man, for example in Job 15:7 and Ezek 28:1-10. In these representations the first man lived in a sort of divine garden 39

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or a divine mountain, because he was thus close to God. The first man tried to usurp divine wisdom through trickery. For this he was cast off of the mountain and banished from the heavenly garden. In both accounts of Genesis these mythological elements are clear and linked with etiological motifs. Both the Yahwist (Gen 2:4b-25) as well as the Priestly account of the Creation (Gen 1:12:3a) try, in the language of their time, to answer the question of human genesis and end, of the meaning of live and its fleetingness, of the experience of guilt and human dissatisfaction, of the mystery of the polarity of man and woman as well as of man's own possibilities and tasks. In late Judaism, especially in the Apocalypse, Adam as seen as an ideal figure (Sir 49:16). In other scripture he is seen as the first Fallen man (4 Esd 4:11), one who becomes a type enclosed within himself and alienated from God. As a person who rebelled against his Creator, he has become lost to himself. 46 Sigmund Freud, the first proponent of psychological drives, established the pleasure drive, by which desire moves and forms all other drives. The fundamental desire is, in his conviction, of a sexual nature. Alfred Adler, his pupil and dissenter at the same time, saw the primary drive in the human wish for power and with that for honour; he speaks of a feeling of inferiority and power, which is crucial for individual and society alike. Carl Gustav Jung, Freud’s ally and then foe of sorts, says the fundamental drive is human self-realization, that is, for personal advancement, and thus went even further than Freud. Viktor Frankl, the Viennese Professor of Psychiatry, who spent some of the war years in the concentration camp at Dachau, sees the fundamental urge in a person's aspiration for the meaning of life. From a psychological viewpoint man sees the meaning of his life in happiness; the psychological contrary of this would be to want something which does not keep happiness in view, or even works against it. The second question is, in what does man see happiness? a meaning for or goal of his life? Some see it in the satisfaction of their desires, others in achieving honour and power, others still in the “completion” of human being or “realization” of oneself, we can also say in advancement/improvement. Others still in unselfish love for one’s closest, that is, in the service of man; and many see the meaning of life in God, in living in harmony with his will and praising and respecting it in their life. 47 Hermann Gunkel, Genesis, p. 10, states: “Diese Drohung geht nachher nicht in Erfüllung: sie sterben nicht sofort: dieser Tatbestand ist nicht hinwegzuerklären, sondern einfach anzuerkennen.” (“This threat is not carried out: they do not die immediately: this state of affairs cannot be explained away, but must simply be acknowledged”). To this and similar statements Claus Westermann responds, Genesis 1-11, p. 225 (English translation): “The death penalty, as shown above, is not really a threat; it is, in the context, much more a warning. After the man and the woman have eaten from the tree, a new situation arises in which God acts differently from the way he had indicated. This ‘inconsequence’ is essential to the narrative; it shows that God’s dealing with his creatures cannot be pinned down, not even b what God has said previously. And so even God’s acts and words are open to misinterpretation and the serpent makes use of this.”

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Claus Westermann’s explanation in Genesis 1-11, p. 253, is very unconvincing, if not contradictory: “If one follows what is happening here word-for-word as it is portrayed, then one cannot interpret human conduct and what the people say from v. 8 on as belonging to repentant sinners caught in the act. The structure of vv. 813 shows that it is only when God questions the man in v. 11, ‘have you eaten of the tree …?’ that the crime comes to light. It is not the man conscious of his guilt who exposes the crime, but the judge with the accusation implied in the question and the three times repeated, ‘you have done,’ vv. 11, 13, 14. The man must first be told that he is guilty and has committed a crime.” Umberto Cassuto, A Commentary on the Book of Genesis, Part One, 158, convincingly rejects such a formalistic explanation. About verse 8 (p. 155) he states that Adam “is unable to silence the voice of his conscience and to obliterate the traces of his misdeeds; at every step he encounters objects that remind him and others of the transgression that he has committed.” About vv. 10-11 (pp. 156-157) he aptly and convincingly observes: “He offers an excuse for hiding himself, without perceiving that his very excuse provides evidence of his misdeed. … It is clear that these are not the questions of one who is ignorant of what has happened. … The purpose of the interrogation is only to force him to make a complete confession; after what he has already said, the accused can no longer deny his guilt.” About the meeting between the Yahwist and Eve in Gen 3:13, Cassuto states (p. 158): “Here it is clearer still that the question is merely rhetorical. The woman’s deed is already known from the man’s answer; there is no need, therefore, for further questioning in order to establish the facts. It is difficult to understand how a number of commentators could interpret the question as having the purpose of ascertaining what the woman had done. … In all these instances the question resembles an ejaculation, the meaning being: How could you do so terrible a thing!” 49 Hans Wildberger, Jesaja: Kapitel 13-27 (BK.AT 10/2; Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchener Verlag, 1978), 542-44, states: “Stammt das Stück nicht von Jesaja, wird allerdings die Frage nach der Abfassungszeit scher beantwortbar. Die vorexilischen Propheten sagen in der Regel, wen sie meinen, wenn sie von Fremdvölkern sprechen. Wenn der Verfasser des Liedes das nicht tut, könnte das seinen Grund darin haben, dass er überhaupt nicht von einer bestimmten historischen Persönlichkeit sprechen will (es wird auch nicht gesagt, wer der Gegner des Tyrannen ist, sondern vom Repräsentanten der Weltmacht überhaupt … Das heißt allerdings nicht, dass nicht doch mit einem geschichtlichen Bezug zu rechnen wäre, auch die Apokylyptik spricht nicht in einen geschichtslosen Raum hinein. Aber es bedeutet doch, dass dieser Bezug letztlich unwichtig ist: es geht um den Typus, nicht um die konkrete geschichtliche Gestalt. Es wiegt darum für die Exegese nicht schwer, wenn sie in ihren Versuchen der historischen Ortung des Liedes so unsicher ist. … Das will nicht heißen, dass das Gedicht überhaupt religiös bedeutungslos sei. Aber seine Religiosität kündet eine weltimmanente Gerechtigkeit und liegt auf der Ebene dessen, was zu bezeugen im Alten Testament sonst im besondern Anliegen der Weisheit ist.” (“If the work is not by Isaiah, the question about its time of creation becomes downright answerable. The pre-exile prophets, as a rule, state whom they mean when they speak of foreign tribes. If the

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composer of the song does not do that, it could be because he did wish to speak of any particular historical personality (it is also not mentioned who the adversaries of the tyrant is, but of the representative of the world power per se … This, however, does not mean that one leave out a historical relation, as even apocalypticism does not speak of a realm outside of history. It does, however, mean that this relation is ultimately not important: what matters is the type, not the concrete historical figure. It is not problematic for this exegesis, if it is so unsure in its attempts at historical determination. … This does not mean that the poem is entirely without religious significance. But its religiosity announces a world-immanent justice and lies at the same level as that which is testified to in the Old Testament and in the specific matter of wisdom.”) 50 Walther Zimmerli sees an unambiguous reference to the first man in this prophecy. In his commentary Ezechiel, volume 2, pp. 688-89, he writes that the nobleman’s tale her is told in terms of primal man, man per se. This has the consequence that the reader cannot distance himself from the story; rather, he identifies with this ‘everyman’ tale. 51 Cf. translations and commentaries: Erich Ebeling, “VI. Das Gilgamesch-Epos,” in Altorientalische Texte zum Alten Testament, ed. Hugo Gressmann (Berlin / Leipzig: Walter de Gruyter, 1926, reprinted 1965, 1970), 150-98; Hartmut Schmökel (introduction, translation, comments), Das Gilgamesch Epos (Stuttgart: W. Kohlhammer, 1966); S. N. Kramer (introduction, translation), “Sumerian Myths and Epic Tales: Gilgamesh and the Land of the Living; The Death of Gilgamesh,” in Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament, edited by James B. Pritchard (Princeton / New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1969), 47-52; E. A. Speiser (introduction, translation), “Akkadian Myths and Epics: The Epic of Gilgamesh,” in Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament, 72-99; A. K. Grayson (introduction, translation), “Akkadian Myths and Epics: The Epic of Gilgamesh: Additions to Tablets V-VIII and X,” in Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament, {503-5007}; Marko Avsenak (translation) in Franþek Bohanec (accompanying text), Ep o Gilgamešu (Ljubljana: Mladinska knjiga, 1978); Andrew George (introduction, translation), The Epic of Gilgamesh: The Babylonian Epic Poem and Other Texts in Akkadian and Sumerian (Allen Lane: The Penguin Press, 1999); Jean Bottéro (introduction, translation, comments), L’Épopée de Gilgames: Le grand homme qui ne voulait pas mourir (Paris: Gallimard, 1992); Giovanni Pettinato (introduction, translation, comments), La saga di Gilgamesh (Milano: Busconi, 1992); Raymond Jacques Tournay (introduction, translation, comments) and Aaron Shaeffer, L’épopée de Gilgamesh (Paris: Les Éditions du Cerf, 1994). 52 St. Augustine Confessions, trans. by Henry Chadwick (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998), 202. 53 See Søren Kierkegaard, “The High Priest: Hebrews 4:15,” in Without Authority: Kierkegaard’s Writings, edited and translated by Howard V. Hong and Edna H. Hong. Volume 18 (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1997), 121-22. 54 The exemplary quality of the story of Joseph has been described by, among others, Wolfgang von Goethe in his autobiographical Dichtung und Wahrheit. He

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notes that the story of Joseph is the most interesting, entertaining and, in terms of teaching, the most sublime that can be imagined. The movement, however slow, is fascinatingly inevitable, as the story progresses from Joseph’s simple, colourful garment to the salvation of a great people. 55 For an overview of the history of interpreting the story of Joseph, cf. Hans Priebatsch, Die Josephsgeschichte in der Weltliteratur: Eine legendengeschichtliche Studie (Breslau: M. & H. Marcus, 1937); Margarete Nabholz-Oberlin, Der Josephroman in der deutschen Literatur von Grimmelshausen bis Thomas Mann. Inaugural-Dissertation zur Erlangung der Doktorwürde der Hohen PhilosophischHistorischen Fakultät der Universität Basel (Marburg: Hermann Bauer, 1950); Manfred Derpmann, Die Josephgeschichte: Auffassung und Darstellung im Mittelalter (Beihefte zum “Mittellateinischen Jahrbuch” 13; Ratingen: Henn., 1974); Erika Glassen, “Die Josephsgeschichte im Koran und in der persischen und türkischen Literatur,” in Paradeigmata: Literarische Typologie des Alten Testaments 5,1, edited by Franz Link (Berlin: Duncker & Humbolt, 1989); Shalom Goldman, Wiles of Women: Joseph and Potophar’s Wife in Ancient Near Eastern, Jewish and Islamic Folklore (Albany / New Aork: State Uniersity of New York Press, 1995); Elisabeth Frenzel, “Joseph in Ägypten,” in Stoffe der Weltliteratur (Stuttgart: Alfred Kröner, 2005), 453-57. 56 Louis Ginzberg, the editor of the first large collection of classical Jewish “folk” literature, draws attention to this in the work The Legends of the Jews, I-VII (Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society of America, 1909, 1937, 1968). In this work Ginzberg collects stories from all the most important Jewish sources of the Church Fathers about all the biblical figures, which are based on biblical sources. Legends about Joseph are collected in Volume II, pages 1-184. In the general introduction to the First Volume (p. XIV), the author writes: “The luxuriant abundance of the material to be presented made it impossible to give a verbal rendition of each legend. This would have required more than three times the space at my disposal. I can therefore claim completeness for my work only as to content. In form it had to suffer curtailment. When several conflicting versions of the same legend existed, I gave only one in the text, reserving the other one, or the several others, for the Notes, or, when practicable, they were fused into one typical legend, the component parts of which are analyzed in the Notes.” In terms of resonance the variant of the story of Joseph in Jewish, Christian and Muslim tradition it seems self-explanatory that in the present comparison of the oldest interpretation of the biblical story of Joseph of Egypt we limit ourselves to the main perspectives that are concerned with testing, and we find them in all the classical sources. 57 Regarding both general and specific issues see especially the expert commentaries: Carl Friedrich Keil, Genesis und Exodus, 3rd edition (Biblischer Commentar über das Alte Testament; Giessen / Basel: Brunnen-Verlag, 1878; 4th edition, Giessen: Brunnen Verlag, 1983); Hermann Gunkel, Genesis, 8th edition (Göttinger Handkommentar zum Alten Testament; Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1969); John Skinner, Genesis (International Criticcal Commentary on the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments; 2nd edition; Edinburgh: T. &

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T. Clark, 1930); B. Jacob, Das erste Buch der Tora: Genesis (Berlin: Schocken Verlag, 1934); Gerhard von Rad, Das erste Buch Mose: Genesis, 11th edition (Das Alte Testament Deutsch 2-4; Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1981); E. A. Speiser, Genesis (Anchor Bible 1; Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1982); Claus Westermann, Genesis (Biblischer Kommentar, Altes Testament I/3; NeukirchenVluyn: Neukirchener Verlag, 1982). 58 The Old Testament warns against envy as a natural social behaviour (Sir 14:8), while the New Testament also deems it a sin (Mt 20:15; Rom 1:29; 1 Tim 6:4). In the Bible envy is a source of sin and evil (for example Cain’s fratricide, Gen 4:3f.). Envy is also a source of evil in the story of Joseph and his brothers (Gen 37-50). 59 Humans have always been profoundly agitated by the paradoxical nature of dreams: they have too much in common with events from real life to be mere delusion; at the same time, however, they are too unusual to be part of that everyday reality. In the Bible they are experienced as a sort of other world. Because they were often incomprehensible, they needed to be explained. The interpreting of dreams was a widespread practice over the entire old Middle East; using books of dreams, soothsayers and sorcerers tried to unlock them (see Dan 2). The Old Testament rejects soothsayers and sorcerers (Deut 19:10), but recognizes interpreters of dreams who correctly interpret dreams with the help of God (such as Joseph in Gen 40:8, and Daniel). In the Old Testament dreams serve Jehovah and do not have an autonomous import. Cf. Anton Grabner-Haider, Jože Krašovec et al. Bibliþni leksikon (Celje: Mohorjeva družba, 1984), 645. 60 See Gerhard von Rad, Das erste Buch Mose: Genesis, 284. 61 For a translation of “The Tale of Two Brothers,” see “Die Geschichte von der Ehebrecherin,” in Altorientalische Texte zum Alten Testament, ed. Hugo Gressmann (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1926, 1965, 1970), 69-71; John A. Wilson, trans., “Egyptian Myths, Tales, and Mortuary Texts: The Story of Two Brothers,” in Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament, ed. James B. Pritchard (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1969), 23-25; Miriam Lichtheim, trans., “Egyptian Canonical Compositions: C. Individual Focus: The Two Brothers,” in The Context of Scripture. Volume 1: Canonical Compositions from the Biblical World, ed. William W. Hallo (Leiden / New York / Köln: E. J. Brill, 1997), 85-89. The quoted passages are from Miriam Lichtheim’s translation. For interpretations of the text, see A. H. Gardiner, Late-Egyptian Stories (Bibliotheca Aegyptiaca 1; Brussels: La fondation égyptologique reine Élisabeth, 1932), 9-29; F. Jesi, “Il tentato adulterio mitico in Grecia e in Egitto,” Aegyptus 42 (1962): 276-96; E. Brunner-Traut, Altägyptische Märchen. Märchen der Weltliteratur. 2nd ed. (Düsseldorf / Köln: Diederichs, 1965); W. K. Simpson, ed., The Literature of Ancient Egypt: An Anthology of Stories, Instructions and Poetry, 2nd edition (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1973), 92-107; E. Blumenthal, “Die Erzählung des Papyrus d’Orbiney als Literaturwerk,” Zeitschrift für ägyptische Sprache und Altertumskunde 99 (1973): 1-17. 62 All codes of law of the old Middle East called for the death penalty for rape and adultery. Cf. The Hamurabi Code of Law § 29-33; The Hetite Code of Law 197, etc.; in Gen 22:23-24 it is written: “If a man is found lying with the wife of another

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man, both of them shall die, the man who lay with the woman, and the woman;” “the young woman because she did not cry for help though she was in the city, and the man because he violated his neighbor’s wife; so you shall purge the evil from the midst of you.” 63 See Stanley Lombardo, Iliad (Indianopolis, IN: Hackett Publishing, 1997), 116, 117. 64 The source for Bellerophontes is Arist. Ach. 426, the myth Schol., for Stheneboia Schol. Arist. Vesp. 111,1047. Fragments in Loeb Classical Library, see no. 360, pp. 54-135, published 1941, edited by D. L. Page. 65 For the translation, see D. L. Page, ed., Select Papyri: Poetry: Texts, Translations, and Notes (Loeb Classical Library 360; Cambridge, MA / London: Harvard University Press, 1941, 2000), 126-29. 66 See esp. R. H. Charles, ed., The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament in English with Introductions and Critical and Explanatory Notes to the Several Books. Volume II: Pseudepigrapha (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1913, 1969); Harm W. Hollander and M. de Jonge, The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs: A Commentary (Studia in Veteris Testamenti Pseudepigrapha 8; Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1985); the translated passages that appear here are from R. H. Charles’s version. 67 Allotting the number ten to the number of times that God tested Israel and when Israel tested God clearly shows that the number is meant not literally but symbolically. 68 See Hollander and de Jonge, The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, 393. 69 Philo’s works are preserved because they had an enormous influence on Christian exegesists of the first centuries and they kept them in circulation, with up-datings and various additions. See David T. Runia, Philo in Early Christian Literature: A Survey (Compendia Rerum Iudaicarum ad Novum Testamentum III/3; Assen: Van Gorcum / Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1993); the same, Philo and the Church Fathers: A Collection of Papers (Supplements to Vigiliae Christianae 32; Leiden / New York / Köln: E. J. Brill, 1995). 70 Philo of Alexandria touched on the story of Joseph in several of his works, which is why a holistic picture of his views must consider all of the collected works: Leopoldus Cohn and Paulus Wendland, eds., Philonis Alexandrini opera quae supersunt, 6 vols. + Index Philoneus (Berolini: Typis et impensis Georgii Reimeri, 1896-1902; reprinted in Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1962), special volume VI: “De Iosepho,” 61-118; Leopold Cohn, Isaak Heinemann, Maximilian Adler and Willy Theiler, eds., Philo von Elexandria: Die Werke in deutscher Übersetzung, I-VI + Philo Index, I-II (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1962), special volume I: “Über Joseph,” 153-213. See also the Greek and English edition in Loeb Classical Library, Philo, volume VI, trans. F. H. Colson (Cambridge, MA / London: Harvard University Press, 1984), pp. 137-271: “On Joseph (De Iosepho).” 71 See The Works of Philo Judaeus: The Contemporary of Josephus Philo of Alexandria, trans. Charles Duke Yonge (Downpatrick: G. Bell & Sons, 1894), 241. 72 Translations from Arthur J. Arberry, The Koran: Interpreted (Oxford World’s Classics; Oxford: University Press, 1998). See also Max Henning and Annemarie

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Schimmel, Der Koran (Stuttgart: Philipp Reclam, 1960, 2001); Hafiz Muhammed Pandža and Džemaluddin ýauševiü, Kur’an þasni (Zagreb: Stvarnost, 1969). 73 See Ginzberg, The Legends of the Jews, volume II, 50-51: “She commanded her maid-servants to prepare food for all the women, and she spread a banquet before them in her house. She placed knives upon the table to peel the oranges, and then ordered Joseph to appear, arrayed in costly garments, and wait upon her guests. When Joseph came in, the women could not take their eyes off him, and they all cut their hands with the knives, and the oranges in their hands were covered with blood, but they, not knowing what they were doing, continued to look upon the beauty of Joseph without turning their eyes away from him.” 74 Original title Joseph und seine Brüder, I-IV (Frankfurt am Main: S. Fischer Verlag, 1933-43). 75 Here certain explorations of Mann’s literary interpretation of the Joseph story should be mentioned: Nabholz-Oberlin, Der Josephroman in der deutschen Literatur von Grimmelshausen bis Thomas Mann, 49-78; Gerhard von Rad, “Biblische Joseph-Erzählung und Joseph-Roman,” Neue Rundschau 76 (1965): 546-59; H. Abts, Das Mythologische und Religionsgeswchichtliche in Thomas Mann’s Roman “Joseph und seine Brüder” (Bonn, PhD dissertation 1949). 76 Mann’s Joseph occasionally, especially in the second half, evokes Goethe’s Faust in certain regards; Mann was strongly drawn to Goethe because of his fecundity and optimism. In the novel Thomas Mann draws on Goethe’s youth work, and epic prose poem about Joseph in which Joseph is shown in the spirit of Klopstock. Joseph is depicted in a similar way in the second biblical epic or the religious writings of the 18th century. 77 Here the author presents Jacob’s life, his struggle to obtain the birthright of his older brother Esau from his father Isaac; Mann constantly intertwines the story of the young boy Joseph, whom Jacob had with “lovely Rachel,” and describes the moment of his birth, his way of life and habits as well as the death of Joseph’s mother Rachel. He especially emphasises the extraordinary love relationship between the wise, venerable, manly and emotional Jacob and the young boy. 78 See Thomas Mann, Joseph and his Brothers, trans. John E. Woods (New York / London / Toronto: Everyman’s Library, 2005), 1378-79. 79 Ibid., 1491-92. 80 Ibid., 317. 81 Ibid., 330. 82 Ibid., 411. 83 Ibid., 412. 84 Ibid., 413, 414. 85 Ibid., 414. 86 Ibid., 414. 87 Ibid., 414. 88 Ibid., 414. 89 Ibid., 414. 90 Ibid., 422. 91 Ibid., 423.

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Ibid., 424. As Mann writes, one day Jacob had lovingly given Joseph a precious article of clothing, a ketonet that had belonged to his late wife Rachel, Joseph’s mother. Rachel had worn this gown as a bride and it thus had the symbolic sense of a sort of choosing. As in all antique societies, dress was a marker of societal status; in the Bible this gift could also signify a sort of royal circumstances (see 2 Sam 13:18). The issue of the robe bears a resemblance to Christ’s robe, which was taken from him by the soldiers as he was crucified. Like Joseph’s brothers, who had wanted to murder him in the knowledge of how far above them he was, the Jews were offended when they heard that Emmanuel would be greater than all of the holy fathers and that the entire world would honour him (see Jn 8:58), which is why they wanted him dead (see Mt 21:38). 94 As Stanko Gerjolj argues, some interpretations of the biblical story of Joseph’s coat see it as Leah and Rachel’s wedding cloak, which according to the tradition of the time would be given to the first-born and would manifest his right to the leading poistion. Cf. Stanko Gerjolj, Živeti, delati, ljubiti (Celje: Mohorjeva družba, 2006). Cf. also J. Norman Cohen, Self, Struggle and Change: Family Conflict Stories in Genesis and Their Healing Insights for Our Lives (Woodstock: Jewish Lights Publishing, 1996), 153. 95 See Joseph and his Brothers, 451. 96 Ibid., 455. 97 Ibid., 464. 98 Because Joseph “died young,” his “vital energies were quickly and easily restored on the far side of that pit; but that did not prevent him from drawing a sharp line between his present life and the previous one that had ended in the pit, so that he no longer regarded himself as the old, but as a new Joseph” (p. 543). With the expressions “old” and “new Joseph” Mann characterises the decisive split between the present and the past lives of Joseph. The previous Joseph was “dead, and the oil with which he had been allowed to cleanse himself of the dust of the pit had been no different from the oil laid in the grave of a dead man in order that he may anoint himself in the next life” (p 543). 99 See Joseph and his Brothers, 544-45. 100 Jacob himself has gained the rights of the firstborn by tricking Isaac, whom old age had blinded; he covered his hands with goatskin in order to be more similar to the hirsute Esau, his older twin. The brothers take the blood of a goat and drench the coat, Jacob’s precious gift to Joseph, in it, thus hoping to avoid the charge of fratricide and to conceal the crime, creating a scenario that would arouse the thought in Jacob that his son was killed by wild animals. In this context the prophet’s words gain in strength: “Rachel is weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are no more.” (Jer 31:15) From this point Joseph is dead to Jacob as well as to his brothers, as the coat, which is proof of death, has “legal authority and the brothers are absolved of the duty to answer in future for their brother.” Cf. Marko Rupnik, Lectio divina o egiptovskem Jožefu in avtorjeva razlaga kapele Odrešenikova mati (Koper: Ognjišþe, 2000), 42-43. 101 See Joseph and his Brothers, 557-58. 93

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Ibid., 558. Ibid., 759. 104 On the motif of the rejected woman in world literature and in Thomas Mann, cf. Elisabeth Frenzel, Motive der Weltliteratur, 160-70. 105 See Joseph and his Brothers, 815. 106 Ibid., 816-17. 107 Ibid., 886. 108 Ibid., 886. 109 Ibid., 906. 110 Ibid., 909-910. 111 Ibid., 915-16. 112 Ibid., 916-17. 113 Ibid., 918. 114 Ibid., 941. 115 The motif of the murder of the husband was found by Thomas Mann in the Jewish tradition, as it appears in Joseph’s testament 5.1; Cf. Hollander and de Jonge, The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, 379. 116 See Joseph and his Brothers, 931. 117 Ibid., 983. The figure of Potiphar’s wife in Thomas Mann evokes in some regards that of Potiphar’s wife in the patrichard Joseph und Zulika by the Swiss author Johann Jakob Bodmer in 1753–here the seductress is transformed into a sentimental feminine soul who becomes the victim of Satan’s whispering. In the novel Thomas Mann goes further: he says that she never again encountered Joseph and that when she failed the attempt at fleeing from an honourable life to a human one, she had to return to her earlier form of life. She felt more warmth than before for her husband, and was grateful to him that he judged “like a god, raised about the human heart” and became from then on unconditionally devoted to her honourable husband.” Neither did she damn Joseph for the suffering that he caused or that she caused because of him; why suffering out of love is something special and thus none who has done so has ever repented. Joseph marries the daughter of the great priest of the sun-God Horakhte, who was chosen for him by the Pharaoh himself, with the sixteen-year-old Asenath. She gave birth to two sons of Joseph, Ephraim and Manasseh. 118 See Joseph and his Brothers, 1056. 119 Ibid., 1325. 120 Ibid., 1326. 121 Ibid., 1358. The words evoke the New Testament’s report of Christ’s resurrection, when the woman appears before an empty grave; the stone before it had rolled away (see Mt 28:2; Mr 16:3-4; Lk 24:2; Jn 20:1). 122 Perhaps Joseph orders that Benjamin receive five times more food than the others in order to verify whether they are still as envious as they were when they saw the special love that the father Jacob had shown for Joseph. This is why the cup was hidden in Benjamin’s bag–Joseph wanted to confirm whether the brothers would hand him over as a thief or whether they would see it as a communal act. He 103

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wants to convince himself of their love for their father. Cf. Marko Rupnik, “Brate išþem,” 96. 123 See Joseph and his Brothers, 1372. 124 Ibid., 1372. 125 Ibid., 1372. 126 Ibid., 1375. 127 Ibid., 1375. 128 Ibid., 1376 129 Ibid., 1376. 130 Ibid., 1376. 131 Ibid., 1377. 132 Ibid., 1377. 133 Ibid., 1377. 134 Ibid., 1381. 135 Ibid., 1388f. 136 Ibid., 1406. 137 Ibid., 1423. 138 Ibid., 1424. 139 Ibid., 1492. 140 Goethe’s comment on the Joseph story from the Bible raise our attention: “Extremely graceful is this natural story, only it appears too short; and one feels called upon to paint it in detail.” See Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, The Autobiography of Goethe. Truth and Poetry: From my Own Life. Translated by John Oxenford and Alexander James William Morrison, London: Bell and Daldy, 1867. p. 116. 141 See Joseph and his Brothers, 319. 142 Cf. Janko Moder's accompanying notes to his Jožef in njegovi bratje, IV, 586. 143 Cf. Margarete Habholz-Oberlin, Der Josephroman in der deutschen Literatur von Grimmelshausen bis Thomas Mann. Inaugural-Dissertation zur Erlangung der Doktorwürde der Hohen Philosophisch-Historischen Fakultät der Universität Basel (Marburg a. d. Lahn: Hermann Bauer, 1950), 43-48. 144 The Die Josephslegende ballet was created by Pia and Pino Mlakar at the invitation of Milan Prediü the director of the National Theatre in Belgrade on the suggestion of the (Slovenian-born) director of that theatre, Ivan Brezošek. Pino appeared in the role of Joseph, and Pia in the role of Potiphar. The ballet was presented on 3 March 1934 before a sold-out National Theatre in Belgrade; in 1936 it was performed again in Zurich, and in 1941 in the Munich opera. The legend of the Joseph in Egypt in the choreography of Pino Mlakar, which was the same as thirty years previously in Munich, was carried out at the 1964 Salzburger Festspiel by the Zagreb ballet with Aleksej Judeniþ in the role of Joseph. Pia and Pino Mlakar adapted the choreography and the emphasis of their experience of the Joseph story and ballet in general. They knew that the librettist Hugo von Hofmannsthal and Harry Kessler had conceived this ballet together with Sergei Pavlovich Diaghilev, and that these creators had envisioned the ballet as a visual biblical story in the style of Paolo Veronese. Similarly to Veronese’s large-scale

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canvases with motifs from The Wedding at Cana or Feast in the House of Levi the Die Josephslegende in the theatre content was to be focused on showing the exquisiteness and corruption of the Pharaoh’s court, with Joseph and Potiphar’s wife being in the centre. 145 The Russian dancer, choreographer and dance theorist Michail Michailovich Fokin, who was born 1880 in Saint Petersbourg and died 1942 in New York, choreographed almost 70 works, including Ana Pavlov’s Swan Song (1905), Petrouchka (1911) as well as Daphnis et Chloe (1912). 146 It was at this time that Strauss’s score was being created. The fifteen-minute solo by Joseph, who had been previously bland and ineffectual, presented them with a challenge. They used it as the starting point of the ballet as a whole and in it showed Joseph’s world’s of purity and reverence for God, his shepherd nature. In contrast to Hofmannsthal and according to musicologists, who ascribed the blandness of Joseph’s dance performance to Strauss (since Joseph’s solo is devoid of religious feeling) Pia and Pino Mlakar discovered that Hofmannsthal’s accusation of Strauss was unjustified. Strauss’s belief was that the characteristic style of a mazurka was of appropriate musical value. They discovered that music was the key to solving the difficulties of Joseph’s solo. Cf. Pino Mlakar, Ples kot umetnost in gledališce (Celje: Mohorjeva družba, 1999), 130. The German composer and conductor Richard Strauss, who was born 11 June 1864 in Munich and died 8 September 1949 in Garmisch, was most known for his operas, primarily Salome (1905), Elektra (1909), Der Rosenkavalier (1910), and Die Fraue ohne Schatten (1919). In Pina Mlakar’s view “opera and ballet are closely related. This theatrical genre emerges half from physical and half from spiritual narrative ingredients. The tangible elements of sing, words, music, dance, costume, scenery, and scenes are interchangeable, but they weigh heavily on the unity of the artistic work. It is created by the magical dance and music. This magic is not created by exhibitionist but the link between spirit and body.” Cf. Pino Mlakar, Ples kot umetnost in gledališce, 51. 147 Cf. Pino Mlakar, Ples kot umetnost in gledališce, 131-33. Choreographing events from the appearance of the angels, the procession with the suicides victim and removal from the scene to Joseph’s gratitude at the holiness of existence is accompanied and fulfilled by Strauss’s dolourful, hymn-like, music. The legend about Joseph of Egypt is taken from this work by Pino Mlakar. 148 Cf. Pino Mlakar, Sreþne zgodbe boleþina (Ljubljana: Slovenska matica, 2005), 13. 149 Such a tortured variety of passion has been described by Peter Trachtenberg in The Casanova Complex. Cf. John Welwood, Journey of the Heart: The Path of Conscious Love (New York, NY: HarperCollins, 1990), 92-93. 150 See St. Augustine Confessions, trans. by Henry Chadwick (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998), 4. 151 Pino Mlakar illuminates the concept of ballet in the sentence, “that man is [made up of] psychic and physical content” and that “this corresponds to a single axiom: beauty is truth, truth beauty, truth is beauty, and both are the same as the ethos that is the third reality. The unity of this holy trinity is the axiom of art.” Cf.

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Franþiška Slivnik and Ivo Svetina, eds., Vojko Vidmar: Baletni plesalec (Zbirka Opus; Ljubljana: Slovenski gledališki muzej, 2001), 5. 152 Already as a pupil at the high school or “Gymnasium” in Maribor Pino Mlakar felt the “sad feeling of licentiousness” along with the insatiable sweetness of its basic satisfaction; he also felt a strict ethical call for a creative, spiritually harmonious life. Already as a young man he recognized, and later he confirmed when observing ballet performance, that dance, “loses at once its brilliance if the choreographer or the interpreter neglects the spiritual sphere of physical articulation.” See Pino Mlakar, Sreþne zgodbe boleþina, 11. He clearly saw that the principle of the basic libido of the projected or described individual can neglect the spiritual side of erotic affect, and tends to depart from the searching for original movement, satisfying itself with the shock that is shamelessness. Cf. Pino Mlakar, ibid., 11. About the strength of the spirit in relation to physical sensuality in dance Mlakar concluded: “The principle of libido submissive dancingly eradicates the need for life’s creative value, which means the orphaning, if not the disappearance, of art.” Cf. Pino Mlakar, ibid., 11. In contrast to this Pino Mlakar wanted to show through dance that man “in his conditions, trials, represents a personal battle and existence, presented in his manner.” Cf. Pino Mlakar, ibid., 11. 153 For a comparative presentation of the Samson story, see Theodor H. Gaster, Myth, Legend, and Custom in the Old Testament (New York / Evanston: Harper & Row, 1969), 436-43; Varese Layzer, Signs of Weakness: Juxtaposing Irish Tales and the Bible (Journal for the Study of the Old Testament. Supplement Series 321. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 2001), esp. pp. 104-80. 154 See Jewish Antiquities 5.8.267-317. His connection with the Philistine wife Dalala (for the biblical Delilah) he interprets: “Howbeit he was already transgressing the laws of his forefathers and debasing his own rule of life by the imitation of foreign usages; and this proved the beginning of his disaster. For, being enamoured of a woman who was a harlot among the Philistines, Dalala by name, he consorted with her; and the presidents of the Philistine confederacy came and induced her by large promises to discover from Samson the secret of that strength which rendered him invulnerable to his foes.” (5.8.306-307). In relation to the end of Samson Josephus comments: “And it is but right to admire the man for his valour, his strength, and the grandeur of his end, as also for the wrath which he cherished to the last against his enemies. That he let himself be ensnared by a woman must be imputed to human nature which succumbs to sins, but testimony is due to him for his surpassing excellence in all the rest.” For the translation see H. St. J. Thackeray and Ralph Marcus, Josephus in Nine Volumes, volume V (Loeb Classical Library 281; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, 1934, 1988), 139-43. 155 For a more detailed discussion on Proverbs 1-9, see Claudia V. Camp, Wisdom and the Feminine in the Book of Proverbs (Bible and Literature Series 11; Sheffield: Almond Press, 1985); idem, Wise, Strange and Holy: The Strange Woman and the Making of the Bible (Journal for the Study of the Old Testament. Supplement Series 320; Gender, Culture, Theory 9; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 2000).

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See Xenophon, Memorabilia 2.1.21-33. The figure of Mephistopheles has, as a symbol of evil, inspired many writers. Dostoyevsky, for example, devoted an entire chapter of The Brothers Karamazov to him, while Thomas Mann’s Doctor Faustus connects the Faust legend to the catastrophes of Nazi German and Europe in the mid-20th century. It is widely believed that Goethe was moved to the story by personal experiences, as well as a news item about a young, unmarried woman who committed infanticide. 158 In the folk tradition witches are thought to carouse on the Blocksberg, or Brocken, in the Harz Mountains each April 30–which is anniversary of the day before which Saint Walburga's bones were removed to nearby Eichstätt. 159 The Medieval story of Faust ends with the Latin statement “iudicatus es.” 160 Cf. Eleazar Meletinsky, The Poetics of Myth, trans. Guy Lanoue and Alexandre Sadetsky (London: Routledge, 2000), 7: “The Romantic philosophy of myth, which is perhaps most clearly delineated in the works of Christian Heyne, K. P. Moritz, the theoretical critiques of Friedrich and Wilhelm Schlegel, Georg Friedrich Creuzer, Johann Görres, A. I. Kanne, and the Grimm brothers, found its highest expression in Schelling.” 161 In Greek mythology the Sirens were young women who were birds or fish from the waist down; they seduced men through their song, leading them to destruction. 162 Cf. Jean Chevalier and Alain Gheerbrant, A Dictionary of Symbols, 616. 163 The Archer, or Sagittarius, is a star in the constellation of the same name, and in the poem the word is likely meant as a symbol for the happiness of Prešeren's competitor in love, Julija's groom Joseph Scheuchenstuel. The poem was first published in Illyrisches Blatt 3 (March 1838). Cf. Janko Kos, “Notes to: F. Prešeren,” Poezije in pisma (Ljubljana: Mladinska knjiga, 1998), 446. 164 See “The Fisherman,” in France Prešeren–Poems, trans. R. De Bray et. al. (Ljubljana: DZS, 1997), 39-40. 165 Jenko is the main Slovenian poet between Prešeren and the lyrical period of Modernism at the turn of the 20th century. Whereas Prešeren's poetical structure became seminal for the development of Slovenian poetry, Romanticism in its late phase took, through Simon Jenko, an additional step in the development of Slovenian poetry. Cf. Boris Paternu. “Slovenska poezija (1972),” in Pesništvo realizma, ed. Gregor Kocijan (Ljubljana: DZS, 1998), 231-32. 166 The “folk song” model was personalized, which created a new type of poetry, one that was now intellectual and philosophical, now purely sentimental, preimpressionistic, and now offered prosaic description, etc. The narrative style freed itself of rhetorical syntax and metaphor. Also the spiritual texture of his poems points out the novelty which the classically Romantic has not yet accepted: the opposites and contradictions begin to encompass extreme positions, the gap between hope and despair is suddenly narrowed, spiritualism meets directly with sensualism, elegy with irony and humour, seriousness with play, and the poet's eye focuses on the moment. 167 Quoted by Iztok Ilich in: Simon Jenko, Pesmi 1865, druge pesmi, proza, ed. Iztok Ilich (Slovenska klasika; Ljubljana: DZS, 2002), 287. 157

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168 See Simon Jenko, Zbrano delo. Prva knjiga: Pesmi 1865 / Nezbrane lirske pesmi (Ljubljana: DZS, 1964), 115-17. 169 See also Heine's poem Ein Fichtenbaum steht einsam, in the cycle Traumbilder from the collection Buch der Lieder, first edition 1827; cited by France Bernik, Simon Jenko: Monografija (Maribor: Litera, 2004), 132-33. 170 Cf. Boris Paternu, Slovenska proza do moderne (Koper: Lipa, 1965), 34. 171 Generally these beings were on the lookout for seafaring men; they can also be images of death. As in Egyptian traditions, where death was represented as a birdlike figure with a human head, Sirens also stood for the soul of a dead man who had not fulfilled his destiny. Converted by the gods into hellish spirits, their beautiful music cheers by presaging music of the next world and the islands of delight. Thus are they portrayed on some sarcophagi. 172 The waves whipped up by the storm are comparable to dragons from the deep. They symbolize the sudden emergence of the unconscious. Cf. Jean Chevalier and Alain Gheerbrant, A Dictionary of Symbols, 1090: s.b. “waves.” 173 The first literary rendering of the Lorelei was by Clemens Brentano (1800). The ballad of the golden-haired Lorelei, commonly sung in Germany, speaks of the evil destiny that befalls men who are prey to charming feminine beauty and relates that the power of love in meeting a fatal woman can be ruinous and deceitful. 174 See Margarete Nabholz-Oberlin, Der Josephroman in der deutschen Literatur von Grimmelshausen bis Thomas Mann, 58: “Die entscheidenden Momente seines Lebens stehen völlig unter der Kontrolle seines aktiv wirkenden Geistes. So kann er sich dem Verführungsversuch von Potiphars Weib entziehen, nicht weil er im letzten Augenblick Jaakobs Antlitz wie eine Geistererscheinung erblickt, sondern weil sein Geist rechtzeitig aus eigenem Willen das Mahnbild hervorbringt.” (“The decisive moments in his life are completely under the control of his actively functioning intellect. He can thus avoid the attempt at seduction by Potiphar’s wife–not because he in the final moment sees Jacob’s face as a spectral appearance, but because his intellect, of his own will, produces the image of warning in time.”) 175 In conjunction with the handing-down of the oral tradition a number of questions arise, such as that of memory and literal memory, the question of the uniformity of variants with an individual singer (whether the repetitions were verbatim or not), the question (of a rather quick) changing of the poem with the handing-down among various singers and so on. Cf. Jack Goody, The Interface Between the Written and the Oral (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987), 86-95. 176 Many variants are recorded in: Karol Štrekelj, Slovenske narodne pesmi, volume I (Ljubljana: Slovenska matica, 1895-98), 124-33, songs no. 73-77. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines “to abduct” as “to seize and take away (as a person) by force”; a secondary meaning of “abduction” is “the unlawful carrying away of a woman for marriage or intercourse.” The Slovenian definition of “ugrabiti” or “to abduct,” like the English one, entails “taking someone’s liberty through force or subterfuge, usually for ransom, revenge.”

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177 See Zmago Šmitek, “Neevropski motivi in vplivi v slovenskem ljudskem izroþilu.” Primerjalna književnost 2 (1983), 36. Cf. also Ivan Grafenauer, Lepa Vida: Študija o izvoru, razvoju in razkroju narodne balade o lepi Vidi (Ljubljana: Akademija znanosti in umetnosti, 1943). 178 Cf. Ivan Grafenauer, “Slovenska narodna balada o Lepi Vidi,” Dom in svet 5 (1937-38): 231. 179 Songs, stories and tales of the widest variety existed long before they were written down, and the oral forms lived on as “oral” forms even after written literature asserted itself. The thesis that Homer's poetry, for example, was primarily oral poetry was put forward in then-Yugoslavia in research by Milman Parry and A. B. Lord. See Jack Goody, The Interface Between the Written and the Oral (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987), 78-80. 180 Myth in the sense of “story,” “tradition”–that is, the story of events which occurred in an imaginary time from the very beginning onward. Whereas a story in the narrower sense of legend or tale speaks of the profane, a myth is a story about the sacred, a holy story. In terms of content myths can be cosmological, etymological, eschatological and about rebirth. 181 In myths some philosophers who were sensitive to human irrationality have seen a special expression of the human spirit (F.W.J. von Schelling, E. Cassirer, P. Ricoeur), psychoanalysts and deep psychology examined myth in connection with the unconscious and dreams (S. Freud, C. G. Jung) and accordingly have studied myth from the viewpoint of subconscious human forces. Structural anthropology gave recognition to the logic of mythical thinking as merely another type of rational logic (C. Lévi-Strauss). Regarding the explanation of myth in the framework of the history of religion it is important to mention Mircea Eliade, for whom myth is one of the most important forms of hierophany, or revelation of the holy. See Drago Bajt, Marta Kocjan-Barle, eds., Splošni religijski leksikon: Slovenian Edition, translation of the Croatian work Splošni religijski leksikon, ed. Adalbert Rebiü (Ljubljana: Modrijan, 2007), 766-69. 182 The mythical conception is an expression of the individual's unconscious conflicts (S. Freud–Oedipus, Electra), or the collective paradigms, archetypes, and expression of the collective unconscious (C. G. Jung). 183 The tragic story of a mislead girl is also found in Faust, by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s masterful text (1808, 1832), which is the most complete working-out of the story of Doctor Faust and his thirst for knowledge and his contract with the devil, which alongside the romance about the tragic love between Tristan and Isolde and the story about the licentious Spanish nobleman Don Juan who seduced a girl of noble family and killed her father, who tried to avenge her. This popular legend is the best-known and most inspired legend of the classical and Romantic period of European art. The first part of Goethe's Faust portrays the tragic story of a fallen girl, while the second part shows the recognition of the main hero that he can only be happy if he improves the world in which he lives. Faust's search for the meaning of life, Gretchen’s pain and Mephistopheles’ cunning evil inspired many musicians and writers, including (as mentioned above) Dostoyevsky and Thomas

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Mann, whose Doktor Faustus linked the Faust myth to the catastrophic events of Germany and Europe in the mid-20th century. 184 On the Serbian translation, cf. Ivan Grafenauer, “Slovenska narodna balada o Lepi Vidi,” Dom in svet 5 (1937-38), 237. 185 See Vuk Stefanoviü Karadžiü, Srpske narodne pripovjedke (Beograd: PosvetaNolit, 1985), 113-17, tale no. 12: “Zlatoruni ovan.” 186 See Rybnikov, Pjesni, volume II, no. 52, 53; volume III, no. 56. 187 Cf. Otto L. Jiriczek, Kudrun und Dietrich-Epen in Auswahl mit Wörterbuch (Berlin / Leipzig: G. J. Göschen'sche Verlagshandlung, 1912). On the influence of songs about Gudrun on other literary motifs, see Mirko Križman, “Pesmi kot zrcaljenja zgodovinskih dogodkov ali kot literarni vplivi,” ýasopis za zgodovino in narodopisje 1-2 (1999): 317-42. The versification of Gudrun or the Song of Gudrun came into being after the Song of the Nibelungen, around 1240, on the basis of several earlier poems or narratives. In this one can recognize older heroic songs, sagas and ballads from the northern and southern German language areas. While Kriemhild in the Song of the Nibelungen is gentle but extremely vengeful, such that she changes into a demonic being, Gudrun’s heroic suffering and patience, who even prays for her enemies. 188 The Moors, who from the 8th century onwards, when they conquered almost all of Spain lorded over the entire Mediterranean and from the 9th century onwards– after the death of Charlemagne–pillaged over all of its shores. When in the mid10th century the Cordoban caliph united the African and Spanish Moors into a single country and also had control of Sicily, as well as Calabria and parts of Apulia, Moorish pirates plundered deep into European countries. Such pillaging lasted about until the Crusades, and sea journeys were disturbed by pirates from northern Africa, especially Tunisia, until well into the 19th century. 189 The earliest date the ballad of Fair Vida could have been 1492, when the Spanish conquered Granada. The special circumstances in the Adriatic sea, especially the early development of the Venetian sea powers, led to the Adriatic and its shores being more secure against the Moors than was the open Mediterranean in the high and late Middle Ages; the Adriatic was open to the Moors when they conquered Sicily in 827 and settled also in Calabria and on the shore areas elsewhere in lower Italy, especially at the entrance to the Adriatic sea, such as in Bari. At that time the Saracens threatened not just villages but also fortified Dalmatian cities, and in 866 they even laid siege to Dubrovnik. At the time they plundered at will the entirety of the Adriatic shores. Captured slaves were taken to African and Spanish harbours, also by Venice, as Venice was the most important market for slaves from Slavic areas. The Moors, who were supported by dissenting Christian states and leaders, remained lords over Sicily up until the 11th century, when they were conquered in the years 1069-1091–that is, before the Crusades–by French Normans. 190 The Old Russian epic, preserved in old yearbooks and in songs about the raid of Prince Igor’s Campaign, has a similar metrical scheme to that of the ballad of Fair Vida. Cf. Dmitrij Lihaþev, Slovo o polku Igoreve (Klassiki i sovremenniki. Poètiþeskaja biblioteka; Moskva: Hudožestvennaja literatura, 1987). Cf. also

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Vladimir Andreeviþ Favorskij, “Slovo o polku Igoreve” v gravjurah V. A. Favorskogo: risunki, èskizy, gravjury (Moskva: Iskusstvo, 1987). About this Old Russian epic see also Franc Jakopin, Staroruski ep Slovo o polku Igoreve (Ljubljana: Državna založba Slovenije, 1954); cf. also Rajko Nahtigal, Staroruski ep Slovo o polku IgorevČ (Opera / Academia scientiarum et artium Slovenica, Classis II: Philologia et litterae; 8. Institutum linguae Slovenicae; Ljubljana: Slovenska akademija znanosti in umetnosti, 1954). A common source of these old Slovenian and Old Russian prosody is to be found in the lengthy Old Germanic epic line, which is also composed of two parts, which have again two thought emphases of thought and are linked by alliteration. The language also attests to the age of the Slovenian song of Fair Vida. Ivan Grafenauer is convinced that in the ballad of Fair Vida, in contrast with typical Slovenian national songs the language is as pure as that in only the oldest Slovenian linguistic monuments, prayers of The Lord’s Prayer (Our Father), Profession of Faith and the Freising Manuscripts. Cf. Ivan Grafenauer, “Slovenska narodna balada o Lepi Vidi,” 237. 191 Cf. France Prešeren, “Of the Fair Vida,” trans. Nada Grošelj, in France Prešeren–Izbrane pesmi / Selected Poems, ed. Uroš Mozetiþ (Ljubljana: Mladinska knjiga, 2007), 24-31. 192 Abduction is included among the many forms of physical, psychological and sexual violence against women that has been spread throughout the ages to limit their freedom and rights. The Criminal Law book of the Republic of Slovenia defines this as “a criminal act that encompasses cases where the perpetrator abducts someone with the intention of forcing him/her or another to do something, not to do something, or suffer.” Cf. Sonja Božiþ, Jana Uršiþ, Tatjana Strojan, Ana Ziherl, Ana Buþar, Poti iz nasilja (Ljubljana: Pravno-informacijski center nevladnih organizacij–PIC / Legal and Information Center for NGOs (Metelkova 6), 1999, 86. 193 Cf. Božiþ, Jana Uršiþ, Tatjana Strojan, Ana Ziherl, Ana Buþar, Poti iz nasilja, 89. Abduction has a wide variety of forms and already decades before received dissemination of human trafficking, especially with women for sexual exploitation, which has its historical, cultural, sociological, legal, criminal, political, psychological as well as other roots and consequences. On human trafficking, cf. Jurij Popov, Trgovina z ljudmi: Somrak civilizacije ali kaos globalizacije (Ljubljana: Društvo Kljuþ–center za boj proti trgovini z belim blagom, 2002). 194 Cf. Robert A. Johnson, She - Understanding Feminine Psychology (New York: Harper Paperbacks, 1989), 12. 195 On the motifs of abduction and coercion of women, cf. Elisabeth Frenzel, Motive der Weltliteratur (Kröners Taschenausgabe 301; Stuttgart: Alfred Kröner Verlag, 1999), 170-85: “Frauenraub, Frauennötigung.” 196 His history is primarily of a mythical nature; it is a matter of an unreliable antique legend, and the sources were taken primarily from the oral tradition. 197 Cf. Arthur Cotterell, Miti in legende: Ilustrirana enciklopedija (Ljubljana: Mladinska knjiga, 1998), 90. 198 For the translation see Charles Martin, Metamorphoses: A New Translation (London: Penguin, 2005), 86-87.

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For the translation see Stanley Lombardo, trans., Iliad (Indianapolis, IN: Hackett Publishing, 1997), 122. Many of the North German epics of the Middle Ages, such as the Hildebrandslied, also speak of abduction. Cf. Willem Pieter Gerritsen, Antony G. van Melle, eds., A Dictionary of Medieval Heroes: Characters in Medieval Narrative Traditions and their Afterlife in Literature, Theatre and the Visual Arts (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2000), 158. Cf. also Elisabeth Frenzel, Motive der Weltliteratur, 173. We also find the motifs of tempting or abducting in one of the most important chroniclers of Medieval France, Jean Froissart (c. 1337-c.1405), and the theme is dealt with in the work of the Mexican-born Spanish dramatist Juan de Ruiz de Alarcón y Mendoza (Mexico City, c. 1580 - Madrid 1639), one of the greatest Spanish-American dramatists of the golden era (c. 1581, Realde Taxco–Guerrero 1639), and William Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure as well as in many other fine works of world literature up to the present. 200 As Kajetan Gantar discerns, the poet's psychological subtlety is also revealed in what Odysseus leaves unsaid. Odysseus at the court of King Alcinous at the presence of Nausicaä only fleetingly mentions the nymph Calypso, and to his wife Penelope he does not even mention this meeting when telling about the island of the Phaeacians. Cf. Kajetan Gantar, “Spremna beseda,” in: Homer: Odiseja (Ljubljana: Mladinska knjiga, 1994), 109-48. 201 Slovenians were among the first Slavs to convert to Christianity (in the 8th or 9th century), which is why memories of the common Slavonic gods are less present than elsewhere in the Slavic world. This is we prefer to speak of Slovenian mythology. In Slovenia there are more than fifty mythological beings. Remnants of former Slovenian mythology can be found in the realm of folklore. Cf. Arthur Cotterell, Miti in legende: Ilustrirana enciklopedija, 32-33. 202 The concept of cosmic dualism is characteristic of old eastern religion; this is echoed in tales and similar literary forms that rank among the oldest documents of humankind's literature. In them the difference between good and evil is clearly profiled, and the ultimate belief in the victory of good is revealed. And so in the romance Ramayana we can read about the heroic king Rama. When he lived with his wife in the woods, Sita was kidnapped by the demon-king Ravana and taken across the sea to Sri Lanka. Rama found her on the island Lanka, killed Ravana in a ferocious battle and rescued Sita. 203 Cf. Karol Štrekelj, Slovenske narodne pesmi, volume I (Ljubljana: Slovenska matica, 1895-98), 142-43, song no. 86: “Trdoglav in Marjetica.” Trdoglav is sometimes an “underwater man,” and elsewhere is devil-like. Cf. Zmago Šmitek, Mitološko izroþilo Slovencev, 236. The motif of demons who abduct women also appears in Slovenian folk tales. There, for example, the demon, a “witch from a Moorish place” abducts three princesses and imprisons them in a windowless and doorless castle. Cf. Zmago Šmitek, Mitološko izroþilo Slovencev, 334. Cf. also Pavle Rožnik, Lepa Mankica in druge prekmurske pravljice / A szép Mankica és egyéb murántúli mesék (Murska Sobota: Pomurska založba, 1978), 144, 152. 204 Cf. Pavle Rožnik, Lepa Mankica (folk tale). In: Pavle Rožnik, Lepa Mankica in druge prekmurske pravljice / A szép Mankica és egyéb murántúli mesék, 96.

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Cf. Pavle Rožnik, Lepa Mankica in druge prekmurske pravljice / A szép Mankica és egyéb murántúli mesék, 98. 206 Cf. Pavle Rožnik, Lepa Mankica in druge prekmurske pravljice / A szép Mankica és egyéb murántúli mesék, 100. 207 Zmago Šmitek, Mitološko izroþilo Slovencev: Svetinje preteklosti, 165-66. The Koþevje Germans were a German-speaking community or “island” in the area around the town of Koþejve. This ballad also has certain south-Slavic parallels. For example, in the Serbian folk epic the brothers Jakšiü and their sister, who has been abducted by a stranger (most often a dark-skinned Arab), is rescued by the brothers and returned home. The Koþevje ballad “Scheane Mêrarin” allegedly stems from Croatian, Serbian and Slovenian (Bela Krajina) songs about Primorka, an inhabitant of the coastal region. Cf. Jakob Kelemina, “Die Meererin,” SüdostForschungen 5 (1941): 823-31. Quoted by I. Grafenauer, Ivan Grafenauer, Lepa Vida: Študija o izvoru, razvoju in razkroju narodne balade o Lepi Vidi, 20. The Koþevje ballad about Primorka/the Meererin likely originated at the outset of the 14th century, but contains elements that are rather older. The male twins who take the girl home can be identified with the divine twins from Indo-European mythology. 208 Cf. Karol Štrekelj, Slovenske narodne pesmi, volume I (Ljubljana: Slovenska matica, 1895-1923), song no. 81, pp. 137-38: “Povodnji mož (Kranjska).” 209 In the 1930s, the literary historian and folklorist Jakob Kelemina wrote about how the Underwater Man abducted girls and women. Cf. Jakob Kelemina, Bajke in pripovedke slovenskega ljudstva: Z mitološkim uvodom (Celje: Družba sv. Mohorja, 1930; Bilje: Studio Ro, Založništvo Humar, 1997). The quotations from this study are taken from the most recent editions of this book; Cf. Jakob Kelemina, Bajke in pripovedke slovenskega ljudstva: Z mitološkim uvodom, 18292. The Underwater Man, a mythological and acquatic Slovenian figure, is described as having luminescent hair and green skin, and webbed fingers and toes. He is allegedly seen in all larger Slovenian rivers and lakes, and likes to linger near waterfalls and pools (tolmun). In the Ljubljanica river, which traverses the capital Ljubljana, he appears at night, often assuming a human form. Cf. Klemen Lah and Andreja Inkret, Slovenski literarni junaki: Mali leksikon (Ljubljana: Mladinska knjiga, 2002), 341-43. 210 Cf. Janez Vajkard Valvasor, Slava vojvodine Kranjske: Izbrana poglavja, trans. from German by Mirko Rupel (Ljubljana: Mladinska knjiga / Svete knjige, 1984), 264-65. Valvasor's writings, originally in German, were first translated into Slovenian by Mirko Rupel, and in 1936 Rupel published the first book of his writings in Slovenian, “Valvasorjevega berila.” An illustrated edition of Valvasor’s works was published in 1951. The overwhelming majority of the book, which consists of over 350 large-format pages, is taken from Valvasor’s Slave Vojvodine Kranjske. Cf. Bogomil Gerlanc, “Ob novem natisu Slave,” In: Janez Vajkard Valvasor, Slava vojvodine Kranjske, pp. VI-VII. 211 See Janez Valjkard Valvasor, Slava vojvodine Kranjske, 307-8. 212 Cf. Jakob Kelemina, Bajke in pripovedke slovenskega ljudstva: Z mitološkim uvodom, 182.

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213 For the English translation, see “The Water Man,” trans. Tom Priestly and Henry Cooper, in France Prešeren–Izbrane Pesmi / Selected Poems, ed. Uroš Mozetiþ (Ljubljana: Mladinska Knjiga, 2007), 32-39; France Prešeren–Poems, trans. R. De Bray et. al. (Ljubljana: DZS, 1997), 39-40. 214 The ballad was first published in 1830 in the first volume of Kranjske þbelice under the title “The Underwater Man” and the subtitle “A Ballad from Valzavor.” Cf. Miha Kastelic, ed., Kranjska þbelica, volume I (Ljubljana: Jožef Blaznik [Joshef Blasnik], 1830), 40. This differs from the version published later in Poezija to the extent that Janko Kos argues it could be regarded as an original stylistic variant of the text. Cf. Janko Kos, “Notes,” in France Prešeren: Zbrano delo, volume I (Ljubljana: DZS, 1996), 266-68. Prešeren was allegedly prompted to write the poem after having been rejected by Zalike Dolenþeva. 215 Zmago Šmitek, Mitološko izroþilo Slovencev: Svetinje preteklosti, 166. 216 Cf. Karol Štrekelj, Slovenske narodne pesmi, p. 130-31 (no. 75); quoted by Zmago Šmitek, Mitološko izroþilo Slovencev. Svetinje preteklosti, 166. In this context the Bulgarian folk play is also interesting, namely that the Sun rides on a horse across the sky, and stops at midday for lunch at its palace. In many religions the Sun offers life, and so its rotating was followed and observed in a cultic manner, with its position throughout the year determining individual holidays. The renowned Sun gods are the Vedic Surya, the Sumerian Utu and the Babylonian Shamash. In ancient Egypt the Ra was honoured as the sun god, the Greek god Helios became the Roman Sol. Cf. Drago Bajt and Marta Kocjan-Barle, eds., Splošni religijski leksikon, 1142. 217 Cf. Ivan Grafenauer, Lepa Vida. Študija o izvoru, razvoju in razkroju narodne balade o Lepi Vidi, 91 (no. 15); quoted by Zmago Šmitek, Mitološko izroþilo Slovencev: Svetinje preteklosti, 166. 218 Cf. Karol Štrekelj, Slovenske narodne pesmi, volume I, song no. 92, pp. 150-51: “Ribniška Alenþica (Kranjska).” 219 Cf. Karol Štrekelj, Slovenske narodne pesmi, volume I, song no. 117, pp. 18485: “Sestra noþe sestrinega ljubca (“Brajdika in Aniþka”) (Gorenjska).” 220 Cf. Karol Štrekelj, Slovenske narodne pesmi, volume I, songs no. 71 and 72, pp. 122-24: “Zarika in Sonþica (Iz Srednje vasi na Gorenjskem).” 221 Cf. Zmago Šmitek, “Neevropski motivi in vplivi v slovenskem ljudskem izroþilu,” Primerjalna književnost 2 (1983): 36. Cf. also Ivan Grafenauer, “O Zariki in Sonþici in še kaj o ‘španskih’ junakih,” Dom in svet 51 (1939): 78-89. 222 The romance about the pilgrimage of Saint Jacob of Compostela most likely arrived in Slovenia near the end of the 13th century, when there was a pronounced interest in crusade stories from Spain. The story was brought over by a Slovenian pilgrim who became familiar with the material on the way in France, Spain or Italy; it might also have been a student who lived for a time in one of those countries. Slovenia’s links to Spain were already established in the 12th century when the Arab schools that existed there became the scientific centres for Europe. As that time Slovenian Herman de Carinthia was working in Spain, and he translated parts of the Koran and many other writings from Arabic into Latin. Cited

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in Zmago Šmitek, “Neevropski motivi in vplivi v slovenskem ljudskem izroþilu,” 43. 223 Cf. Karol Štrekelj, Slovenske narodne pesmi, volume I, song no. 92, pp. 150-51: “Ribniška Alenþica (Kranjska).” 224 Cf. Karol Štrekelj, Slovenske narodne pesmi, volume I, song no. 93, p. 152: “Ribniška Jerica (Kranjska).” 225 The song about King Matthew saving his bride is recorded in various forms in: Karol Štrekelj, Slovenske narodne pesmi, volume I, songs no. 1-8, pp. 3-24. 226 Cf. Karol Štrekelj, Slovenske narodne pesmi, volume I, song no. 1, pp. 3-6: “Kralj Matjaž reši svojo nevesto (Gorenjska).” 227 It is telling that strangers, especially unbelievers, are also always portrayed as negative characters in the Slovenian tradition–as lying, heartless, arrogant individuals, as slave traders and persecutors of Christians. Mistrust or fear of all that was foreign, because it could some way or the other bring misfortune, originated from the difficult historical experiences but also partly from the lack of perspective and confinement in narrow spatial and social surroundings. Cf. Zmago Šmitek, “Neevropski motivi in vplivi v slovenskem ljudskem izroþilu,” 31. 228 Cf. Karol Štrekelj, Slovenske narodne pesmi, volume I, song no. 641, pp. 603-4: “Sveta Barbara vržena v jeþo (Iz Koziz pri Zilji).” 229 Cf. Karol Štrekelj, Slovenske narodne pesmi, volume I, song no. 645, pp. 607-8: “Sveta Uršula streljana (Štajerska).” 230 Many stories about abduction are also linked to the tradition of successful escape from Turkish captivity. As Šmitek writes, this tradition was directly based on the stories of escapees or on written reports and literary adaptations that were familiar throughout Europe. Cf. Zmago Šmitek, “Neevropski motivi in vplivi v slovenskem ljudskem izroþilu,” 36-37 231 This was put into a literary form in 1882 and the book version that appeared two years later enjoyed enormous success in rural surroundings. Cf. Jakob Sket, Miklova Zala: Povest iz turških þasov (Celje: Mohorjeva družba, 2002), 113. 232 Cf. Milko Ukmar, “Nove smeri v raziskovanju slovenskih ljudskih izroþil in Lepa Vida: Dostavek o Lepi Vidi,” Dom in svet 52 (1940): 411-12. 233 Cf. Ivan Grafenauer, “Slovenska narodna balada o Lepi Vidi,” Dom in svet 49 (1937-38), in Yearbook, pp. 233-34 (Kramar’s variant from Goriþica near Ihanu). According to Ivan Grafenauer this is the first variant type–the type from Ihan with a tragic outcome. In the song the abducted Fair Vida cannot come to terms with the destiny of becoming a slave and mistress of the black Moor, of an unbeliever, and thus jumps into the sea and drowns. 234 Albania (Albanian Shqipëria, which means land of the eagles) was Italian land in the past, a mere 76 kilometres across the Adriatic Sea, or eastern forces (the Ottoman empire), who spread into Europe. 235 Cf. Milko Ukmar, “Nove smeri v raziskovanju slovenskih ljudskih izroþil in Lepa Vida: Dostavek o Lepi Vidi.” Dom in svet 52 (1940): 411-12. This article indicates where the first variants appeared and where they are still to be found. 236 Cf. Ivan Grafenauer, Lepa Vida: Študija o izvoru, razvoju in razkroju narodne balade o Lepi Vidi, 237.

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237 The Albanian original is published in: Ivan Grafenauer, Lepa Vida: Študija o izvoru, razvoju in razkroju narodne balade o Lepi Vidi, 46-48. 238 This is most probably a typo for “te” 239 This Calabrian variant by Girolam De Rada was printed in the booklet which was published by Michele Barbi. Cf. M. Barbi, Poesia popolare italiana, Studi e proposte, G. C. Sansoni. Firenze (1939), 91-92. It was from this publication that Ivan Grafenauer took the ballad and published it in his book in Albanian, Italian, as well as in Slovenian translation. Cf. I. Grafenauer, Lepa Vida. Študija o izvoru, razvoju in razkroju narodne balade o Lepi Vidi, 45, 51-52. 240 Quoted by I. Grafenauer in Lepa Vida. Študija o izvoru, razvoju in razkroju narodne balade o Lepi Vidi, 52. 241 Ivan Grafenauer cites the song in the Italian original and in Slovenian translation, Lepa Vida. Študija o izvoru, razvoju in razkroju narodne balade o Lepi Vidi, 52. 242 Here one line, apparently speaking of a low price for two pounds of silk, is missing. Cf. Ivan Grafenauer, Lepa Vida: Študija o izvoru, razvoju in razkroju narodne balade o Lepi Vidi, 48. 243 This is a typo for “ghetto,” as Ivan Grafenauer states. Ibid., 49. 244 Ibid., 48-50. 245 The copy of the Italian translation was provided for Ivan Grafenauer by Milko Matiþetov. For the Italian and Slovenian translation, see Ivan Grafenauer, ibid., 4850. 246 Quoted by Ivan Grafenauer, ibid., 53-57. 247 According to Grafenauer, it is clear that this is not original. Ibid., 174. 248 Quoted in Ivan Grafenauer, ibid., 61. 249 Quoted in Ivan Grafenauer, ibid., 61. This Sicilian narrative was recorded by Vincenzo Russo and published by Michele Barbi. 250 Cf. France Prešeren, “Of the Fair Vida,” in France Prešeren–Izbrane Pesmi / Selected Poems, trans. Nada Grošelj, ed. Uroš Mozetiþ (Ljubljana: Mladinska Knjiga, 2007), 24-31. 251 Cf. Ivan Grafenauer, Lepa Vida: Študija o izvoru, razvoju in razkroju narodne balade o Lepi Vidi, 240. 252 The ballad of Fair Vida is preserved in Slovenia in a number of variants or traditions. There is the Dolenjska tradition of the folk ballad about an abducted wife and mother Vida, told in the Ribnica region (a fragment in the writing of Dr. Zmaga Kumer), a second known branch of variants of the ballad of Fair Vida in the Gorenjska tradition, which first came to prominence thanks to Radivoj Poznik in Kropa in 1868. After him, at the turn of the 20th century, both the linguist Anton Breznik and the organist Franc Kramar recorded a version of the Ihan variant, and in the period between the wars in Škofja Loka there was found another variant of the ballad of Fair Vida by the museum curator Stanko Vurnik. There remains a third branch of Fair Vida, a tradition from the Resia valley. An insignificant fragment in the writings of Badouin de Courtenay (1873) helped us to uncover in the years 1962-1968 up to seven new variants or at least fragments of the Resian Vida (sometimes called Lina, Marjanca). Cf. Milko Matiþetov, “Tri ljudske iz

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Rezije za pokušnjo pred Matiþino zbirko slovenskih ljudskih pesmi,” Sodobnost 17 (1969), 202. 253 Here Grafenauer states that some of the Moor’s words are missing. Cf. Ivan Grafenauer, Lepa Vida: Študija o izvoru, razvoju in razkroju narodne balade o Lepi Vidi, 62. 254 A fragment from Breznik's Ihan variant; from the group “Ihan's variant type with a tragic outcome.” Cf. Ivan Grafenauer, ibid., 40, 62. The Slovenian and Croatian motivic thread of luring onto a boat with medicine is best preserved in Breznik's writing of the Ihan variant. 255 Zmago Šmitek, Mitološko izroþilo Slovencev: Svetinje preteklosti, 236, 351. 256 Cf. Zmago Šmitek, ibid., 236. 257 Cf. Zmago Šmitek, ibid., 237. According to some researchers (France Bezlaj) the toponym “Devin skok” occurs elsewhere in Europe, for example at the Bay of Biscay and in England; thus it is not solely Slavic. Cf. The toponyms Maidenhead, Maidenwell/Maidwell, Maidenstone/Maidstone, etc. At the same time Bezlaj emphasises that elsewhere they are far less frequent than in the Alpine (and Balkan) space settled by Slavs. For this reason he writes that this is “a sort of early myth that was probably in the past common to various primitive peoples, but that died out among the Germans and the Celts earlier than among the Slavs.” Cf. Zmago Šmitek, Mitološko izroþilo Slovencev: Svetinje preteklosti, 237-38, 351. 258 This second type of ballad tells of how the black Moor lured the wife and mother onto the boat with the promise of a better life, in which she would nurse the Spanish prince, only to take her off to a faraway country. When Vida sees that she has been ensnared and deceived, in contrast to the woman from the earlier type of ballad, she does not collect her strength and leap into the water. She is overcome by desperation and intense longing for her lost child and husband. 259 Cf. Ivan Grafenauer, Lepa Vida: Študija o izvoru, razvoju in razkroju narodne balade o Lepi Vidi, 36. 260 This Dolenjska type of “Fair Vida” is preserved only in the Rudež-Smole variant, and differs in many elements from the Ihan type. 261 A similar motif of an abducted woman conversing with the sun and moon is to be found in some Croatian and Bulgarian folk songs. Because almost all of the later Slovenian writers, poets and dramatists leaned primarily on Prešeren's version of the tradition (1832), which for Slovenians is a veritable “pearl of Slovenian poetry” (Prešeren found the model for his ballad in Smole's collection of folk song, but did not preserve it), the theme of temptation, weakness and longing, contained in many later literary variations, importantly marks Slovenian literature from Romanticism onwards. Prešeren's ballad “Of the Fair Vida” is examined at greater length in an individual chapter of this book. 262 Cf. Ivan Grafenauer, Lepa Vida. Študija o izvoru, razvoju in razkroju narodne balade o Lepi Vidi, 242. The predecessor of the Dolejnska variant type of “Fair Vida” changed into the primal form of the Dolejnska variant type of Fair Vida. 263 The Bible warns man of the tempter in his various forms, most emphasizing one’s own “heart,” his personal response to temptation. It calls on man to take responsibility and the consequential blame of that which wants to resolve guilt by

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pushing it off onto other people. Cf. Bernhard Häring, “Temptation,” in The Encyclopedia of Religion, volume XIII (New York: Macmillan Publishing Company / London: Collier Macmillan Publishers, 1987), 390-95. In this case Vida attempts to solve her responsibility by accusing her elderly husband and sick child of being the cause of her actions. 264 Cf. Ivan Grafenauer, Lepa Vida: Študija o izvoru, razvoju in razkroju narodne balade o Lepi Vidi, 242-43. In the Rudež-Smole variant of the Dolenjska variant type this does not occur; only the motif of luring onto a ship is corrupted, but the sense is thereby strongly changed. Under the influence of a Koþevje variant, the motif of luring onto the boat is omitted, the departure of the boat is moved to a later position in the poem, and the Moor's consolation of the already abducted woman acquired the significance of an invitation, which Vida accepts. The core premise of the Dolensjka variant type, to which the Rudež-Smole type variant belongs, lies in Vida's unchanged love for her child and loyalty to her husband. 265 The text was first published by Avgust Žigon in Dom in svet 40 (1927): 38; quoted by Ivan Grafenauer, Lepa Vida: Študija o izvoru, razvoju in razkroju narodne balade o Lepi Vidi, 64-69. 266 This Rudež-Smole variant of the Dolenjska type of “Fair Vida” is in three manuscript forms: the anonymous manuscript “of Vida”; Prešeren's poem “The Poem of Vida”; Prešeren's completed “Lepa Vida.” Cf. Ivan Grafenauer, ibid., 6473. 267 France Prešeren's “Of the Fair Vida” excludes the Moor’s first call and Vida's doubt. 268 Cf. Bernhard Häring, s.b. “Temptation,” in: The Encyclopedia of Religion, 390395. 269 Cf. Ivan Grafenauer, Lepa Vida: Študija o izvoru, razvoju in razkroju narodne balade o Lepi Vidi, 19. 270 Originally: “po kadila v barko”–“for incense into the boat.” 271 Recorded by Radivoj Poznik in Kropa in 1868, sung by Mica Štular. First published in: Karol Štrekelj, Slovenske narodne pesmi, volume I, song no. 75, pp. 130-31: “(Iz Krope na Gorenjskem).” Quoted also by Ivan Grafenauer, Lepa Vida: Študija o izvoru, razvoju in razkroju narodne balade o Lepi Vidi, 81-82. 272 Cf. Zmago Šmitek, Mitološko izroþilo Slovencev: Svetinje preteklosti, 112. 273 This valuable variant was written down in 1923 by France Marolt in Hraše near Lesce. His text also contains the musical notation “singer's melodies” and “dancer's melodies” with the message that on the afternoon of 9. VII. 1923, to the accompaniment of the accordion, the two girls Lenka Šmon and Urša Hrastnik danced. Cf. Ivan Grafenauer, Lepa Vida: Študija o izvoru, razvoju in razkroju narodne balade o Lepi Vidi, 83-92. 274 Ivan Grafenauer, ibid., 19. 275 The extended Koþevje variant also leans on the Hraše variant. 276 Cf. Zmaga Kumer, Ljudska glasba med rešetarji in lonþarji v Ribniški dolini (Maribor: Obzorja, 1968), 280. 277 Robert Vrþon deals with this in his article in which on the basis of transcriptions of the song he attempts to present all of the recorded examples of

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this ballad in the Resia region and compare them. Cf. Robert Vrþon, “Variants of the Ballad of ‘Lepa Vida’ (Fair Vida) from Resia,” in Zbornik referatov 27. mednarodnega posvetovanja raziskovalcev balad (baladna komisija SIEF) Ljudske balade med izroþilom in sodobnostjo, ed. Marjetka Golež (Ljubljana: ZRC SAZU, 1998), 169-78. In the 1960s many colleagues from the Institute of Ethnomusicology carried out research with foreign researchers from Resia, an Alpine valley which lies in the Italian Alps and in which a small group of Slovenians still live. This minority has for centuries maintained its own folk culture, whose primary characteristics are a rather archaic Slovenian dialect and ancient forms of folk music, which has long been a subject of musical and linguistic investigations. This group of researchers recorded many cassettes and thus labelled a very important part of Resian vocal and instrumental music. One of the great discoveries of the time was the old Slovenian ballad of Fair Vida. 278 Cf. Milko Matiþetov, “Tri ljudske iz Rezije za pokušnjo pred Matiþino zbirko slovenskih ljudskih pesmi,” Sodobnost 17 (1969): 202. 279 The song is sung in the hamlet of Za Branon in Resia. On the basis of transcriptions of the original, in 1962 Milko Matiþetov wrote them in standard Slovenian. Cf. Milko Matiþetov, “Tri ljudske iz Rezije za pokušnjo pred Matiþino zbirko slovenskih ljudskih pesmi,” 203-4. “Morjana” (it. Amariana) is an isolated, conical peak (1905m above sea level) in the Carnolian Alps, to the Resians a weather marker on the western horizon. The reference to planting or sowing is a metaphorical expressing of the birth of Vida's child. This confirms the circumstances that below Morjana there is no field. As Ivan Grafenauer writes, in Resia “Fair Vida” is also preserved “deformed to the point that one cannot recognize it as a child's tale. It was transcribed by Jan Niecisáaw Baudouin de Courtenay (Materialy dlja dialektologii i etnologii I. Rez´janskije teksty I [1895], no. 1203)”. Cf. Ivan Grafenauer, Lepa Vida. Študija o izvoru, razvoju in razkroju narodne balade o Lepi Vidi, 24. 280 France Prešeren felt that the collecting and publishing of Slovenian folk ballads was of utmost importance for the Slovenian nation. Through the artistic handling of Slovenian folk traditions he wanted to elevate that tradition in terms of language and style for the world. See France Kidriþ, Prešeren. [Bibliografija] 1800-1838: Življenje pesnika in pesmi (Ljubljana: Tiskovna zadruga, 1938), pp. CCXXXVI and CCXXXVII. 281 Ivan Grafenauer is of the opinion that other poems about Fair Vida, which employ different motifs, should be separated from “our Fair Vida” if it is seen that there is no link between them aside from the name, or if it is proven that the “real Fair Vida is from a basis with no genetic connection to other poems about ‘Fair Vida.’” See Ivan Grafenauer, 16. 282 About Prešeren's work for the folk poem see, among others, Marko Terseglav. “Prešernovo delo za ljudsko pesem,” in the anthology Prešernovi dnevi v Kranju: Ob 150-letnici smrti dr. Franceta Prešerna (Kranj: Mestna obþina, 2000), 411-21; etc. 283 France Prešeren, Pesem od lepe Vide, in: France Prešeren, Pesmi in pisma, ed. Anton Slodnjak (Ljubljana: Mladinska knjiga, 1960), 116-19.

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284 Cf. France Prešeren, “Of the Fair Vida,” trans. Nada Grošelj, in France Prešeren–Izbrane pesmi / Selected Poems, ed. Uroš Mozetiþ (Ljubljana: Mladinska knjiga, 2007), 24-31. 285 Because of the Spanish setting Ivan Grafenauer concludes that the “black Moor” in Prešeren’s ballad is a member of the Moors. For people of the Middle Ages the term had an ambiguous meaning: firstly, it designated people of the Islamic faith; in the narrower sense it was an ethnic group that arose as a mixture of the Antique Moors with the Carthaginians, Romans, Vandals and Arabs. In the 8th century this Moorish mixture began to spread to the southern Iberian peninsula. Jože Pogaþnik, on the basis of the conviction that folk creators always wrote about a part of their lived experience, concludes that encounters with dark-skinned individuals were more likely to occur in the Turkish wars as well as during the Crusades. In Pogaþnik's view this points to an entirely different geographic area, which it is also possible to recognize in the folklorically different Serbian and Croatian linguistic expressions. 286 The expression “sensuality” is used here in the sense it has in the domain of traditional ethical and natural life; sensuality in a person is in this traditional “psychological,” philosophical, theological and moralistic sense, something that is neither reason nor will. 287 As Jože Pogaþnik argues, in the oral tradition the mythical does not exist independently of the real. Historical experience, however, was in the tradition of the Slovenian and Serbian and Croatian term “black Moor” always negative: “Mythological belief (black was a symbol of some sort of evil) was further linked to anthropological knowledge (dark-skinned person), and both functioned in the context of historical occurrences which coincided with mythological premises. The figure of the ‘black Moor’ or the ‘black Arab’ was, from a historical viewpoint, an attacker, a plunderer and abductor. This means that the material on which the potentially neutral (anthropological) meaning of the adjective ‘black’ was changed into a semantic term laden with affect and a negative connotation. The figure of the Arab (= Moor) was taken to be the figure of a violent individual; it is for this reason that the adjective ‘black’ is the result of the preceding inner evolution as well as the direct historical memory.” See Jože Pogaþnik, Slovenska Lepa Vida ali Hoja za rožo cudotvorno: Motiv Lepe Vide v slovenski književnosti (Ljubljana: Cankarjeva založba, 1988), 37. The word “black Moor” is thus shown as a cultural and historical, conceptual and aesthetically important ingredient of Prešeren’s ballad. It allows for numerous connotations and extends the tradition of hundreds of years in the conceiving of one of the archetypal themes of Slovenian folk tradition. After Prešeren this word disappears from further variations on the theme of Fair Vida, though the affective content remains–the Moor is changed into an abductor, but is always portrayed in the same negative, conceptual or affective frame as that of the Arab in tradition. The mythical material is, with this, entirely lost, though the ethical content remains. From a concrete event of the past the motif has been broadened into a general problem of evil in inter-human relations and with this it addresses the sensibility of the modern man.

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About the characteristics of the Romantic mentality and ethical codes in the times of Prešeren, see Jože Pogaþnik, ibid., 22-24. 289 Jože Pogaþnik sees in Vida’s flight a “profile of moral liberalism, which a few decades later even became a central theme in Slovenian literature.” See Jože Pogaþnik, ibid., 24. Liberalism originally meant an attitude of individual freedom with regard to actions, thoughts and expression. Progressive civic philosophy from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment strongly expressed its ideas–rationalism, individualism, and freedom conceived of in determinist terms. In modern liberalism the ethos of freedom also plays an important role. Libertas [Lat. libertas, “freedom”] is in Ancient Roman mythology the goddess of liberty, freedom. 290 Vida’s conversation with the Sun remains from the folk ballad, but with Prešeren it is formed in the sense of Romantic aesthetics, in which nature is man’s friend and it is to her that the poet directs his most intimate confessions. 291 In this section the term “sensuality” is used in its epistemological sense. Here sensuality is understood as the working of the senses and the input which the senses collect (as organs of a specific feeling or process of feeling: sight, hearing, touch, etc. Sensory stimuli are transmitted by the sense nerves into the brain, where they activate the sensory centres, and we become aware of them. In addition to the basic senses–sight, hearing, taste and touch–we have more complex senses, such as pain, comfort, etc., which reach into the world of our feelings); this is sensual experience in the broadest sense. The empiricists believed that sensuality is the main source of recognition; rationalists, meanwhile, more or less relegated the role of the senses. In Vladimir Truhlar’s view “the faculties of sense stems from the base of the human soul and are partly an effect of the forming that the bodily material accepts from the spirit. For this reason they are always […and] a priori received by the soul. And the reverse: spiritual faculties can only be realized through what has a priori been ‘sensed.’” See Karl Vladimir Truhlar, Leksikon duhovnosti (Celje: Mohorjeva družba, 1974), 102. 292 As Erich Auerbach ascertains, tears in the literature of the 18th century were beginning to acquire a meaning they did not previously have, as an independent motif. Literature began to use the power of their effect on the border between the spiritual and the emotional, which proved especially useful for mediating the stimulus represented by erotica and sensitivity which was very much in vogue at that time. In the visual arts as well as literature individual tears streaming from the eyes of a beautiful, lightly moved woman or flowing over her cheeks become ever more popular. See Erich Auerbach, Mimesis: Dargestellte Wirklichkeit in der abendländischen Literatur (Bern / Stuttgart: A. Francke, 1946, 1988); Slovenian translation: Vid Snoj, Mimesis (Ljubljana: Literarno-umetniško društvo Literatura, 1998), 293-94. 293 From the folk ballad France Prešeren borrowed only the motif, reworking it into a ballad that contains figures of that time. In Pogaþnik’s view the ballad “Of the Fair Vida” became an “expression of Prešeren’s recognition of himself, of the world and of life.” With Prešeren’s new poetic perspective the folk elements “shifted towards a new, qualitatively higher, level which is explicitly Prešeren’s.” Pogaþnik determines this on the basis of the “human dimension of the erotic,

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ethical and moral, world-view and aesthetic problematic” as well as from the entire inner structure of this work of art by Prešeren. See Jože Pogaþnik, Slovenska Lepa Vida ali Hoja za rožo þudotvorno, 31. 294 Great comfort could be brought to Vida by the Christian belief in the possibility of redemption, of which the ballad does not speak–hence her existential tragedy. At best we would be able to determine the influence of Christian religiosity in the final punishment of Fair Vida, because by committing herself to the sensual she has neglected her duty as a faithful wife and a caring mother. The opposition between sinful sensuality as well as the refusal of spiritual feeling belongs to the traditional moral outlook of Christianity. However, some contemporary Christian philosophers hold the view that physical sensations are intimations of future spiritual perfection. The attraction between men and women is, for example, in the view of the Russian philosopher Solovjov, “a spontaneous and biological expression of truth,” sensual love is “not yet love in the true sense of the word; it is, however, its intimation. It must be spiritualized.” So states Tomaž Špidlík, Osnove kršcanske duhovnosti (Maribor: Slomškova založba, 1998), 89. In Jože Pogaþnik’s view Prešeren’s poem is about pure humanism. Vida's problem is the “problem of the battle between egoism and altruism ... Prešeren, whose human standpoint was pure humanism , naturally presupposes subordination of the self to the good of the other; in Vida’s case, then, the child, who means the future, and the mother as such befits him. The child has the right to her subordination; Vida has the duty to motherhood.” See Jože Pogaþnik, Slovenska Lepa Vida ali Hoja za rožo þudotvorno, 24. 295 Here the focus is limited to analysis of Prešerens’s ballad Fair Vida from the viewpoint of sensuality and religion. Nevertheless, the problematic is, in this connection, significant. About the question of Prešeren’s world-view see: Janko Kos, Prešeren in kršþanstvo (Ljubljana: Slovenska matica, 2002); several chapters from: Janko Kos, Prešeren in njegova doba (Koper: Lipa, 1991); Taras Kermauner, “Tema kršþanske božjosti v Prešernovem Krstu pri Savici in the anthology Prešernovi dnevi v Kranju: Ob 150-letnici smrti dr. Franceta Prešerna,” in Prešernovi dnevi v Kranju: Ob 150-letnici smrti dr. Franceta Prešerna, ed. Boris Paternu et al. (Kranj: Mestna obþina, 2000), 59-71; Janko Kos, “Prešeren in Biblija,” in Prešernovi dnevi v Kranju, 227-39, and others. From the point of view of Christianity regarding human despair, which is ultimately expressed by Fair Vida, it actually stems from the human’s lack of knowledge, or concern, about the eternal self and with this about the relation to Power, which she has restored. In this, finally, lies the sin before God. See Søren Kierkegaard, Bolezen za smrt, translated from the German by Janez Zupet (Celje: Mohorjeva družba, 1987). In connection with the idea of the poem about Fair Vida it is reasonable to look into Prešeren’s relation to Greek Antiquity. See Le zaþniva pri Homeri … in Prešernovi dnevi v Kranju, 213-25; et al. 296 Cf. Jože Pogaþnik, Slovenska Lepa Vida ali Hoja za rožo þudotvorno, 40. 297 See Boris Paternu, France Prešeren in njegovo pesniško delo, volume I (Ljubljana: Mladinska knjiga, 1976), 141.

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See Jože Pogaþnik, “Pripoved o krizi zakona (Jurþiþeva Lepa Vida).” Accompanying notes. In: Josip Jurþiþ, Lepa Vida (Knjižnica Kondor; Ljubljana: Mladinska knjiga, 1975), 70-71. 299 Josip Jurþiþ, Lepa Vida, 14. 300 Josip Jurþiþ, ibid., 15. 301 Josip Jurþiþ, ibid., 15-16. 302 Josip Jurþiþ, ibid., 18. 303 Josip Jurþiþ, ibid., 48. 304 Josip Jurþiþ, ibid., 49. 305 Josip Jurþiþ, ibid., 57. 306 Josip Jurþiþ, the author of the first Slovenian novel (Deseti Brat [The Tenth Brother], 1866) turned to Prešeren's ballad in his novel about Fair Vida; the basis of the story was probably also influenced by his careful reading of the French Romantic writer George Sand (1804-1876), whom Dostoyevsky considered unique in the power of the soul and the force of her artistic gifts. The fundamental thought of her three most notable novels (Indiana, Valentine, Lélia) is freedom from male power and the assuring of freedom in personal emotion and physical devotion. All three female heroes suffer from great emotions and the desire that they tear themselves from slavery in the family, although this desire is paralysed by a fear of life. In such a spiritual situation they long for a dream prince to free them and guide them. 307 See Josip Vošnjak, “Lepa Vida,” in Dr. Josipa Vošnjaka zbrani dramatiþni in pripovedni spisi (Celje: Narodna knjižnica, 1893), 56. 308 Ibid., 57. 309 Ibid. 310 Ibid., 58. 311 Ibid., 61. 312 Ibid., 73. 313 Ibid., 75. 314 Ibid., 78. 315 See Jože Pogaþnik, Slovenska Lepa Vida ali Hoja za rožo þudotvorno, 117. 316 Cf. Jože Pogaþnik, ibid., 159. 317 The lecture, which was held in Portorož in February 1987, is reproduced in its entirety in Jože Pogaþnik’s book, pp. 160-61. 318 For Pahor the nation is something sacred, and loyalty to the nation entails a strict division between good and evil–everything that is conducive to the nation and its existence is historically just and grounded; that which is not, is wrong. This view was also the primary inspirational motivation for his novel The City in the Bay and the symbolism of Fair Vida. 319 Fascist Italy surrendered on September 8, 1943. Pahor’s novel describes the returning home of fascist Italian soldiers; expected to join German ranks, some switched sides and fought with the Italian partisans against the Germans. 320 The novel tells of the Slovenian partisans’ battle to free Trieste. There is a constant sense of the writer’s inner struggle against forgetting the past and his drawing attention to painful times for Slovenians from the coastal region. Pahor

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maintains an ironical relation towards fascism, and this is most vividly shown through internal monologue, but also through dialogues, especially those between the main protagonists Vida and Rudi Leban. Cf. Evgen Bavþar, “O pisatelju in delu.” Accompanying text. In: Boris Pahor, Mesto v zalivu (Trieste: Založništvo tržaškega tiska, 1989), 318. 321 See Boris Pahor, Mesto v zalivu (Ljubljana: DZS, 2004), 86. 322 Ibid., 49-50. 323 Ibid., 87. 324 Ibid., 96. 325 Ibid., 96. 326 Ibid., 96. 327 Ibid., 96. 328 Antique literature in its entirety is imbued with myth. Cf. Eleazar Meletinsky, The Poetics of Myth, trans. Guy Lanoue and Alexandre Sadetsky (London: Routledge, 2000). 329 See Boris Pahor, Mesto v zalivu (Ljubljana: DZS, 2004), 96-97. 330 Ibid., 96-97. 331 Ibid., 97. 332 Ibid., 97. 333 Ibid., 102. 334 Ibid., 160. 335 Ibid., 201. 336 Boris Pahor states, on the basis of his personal experience of life in connection with foreign Italian state apparatuses, that in some people who had assimilated to the foreign there was born in the area of the unconscious “a hateful inclination to those people from whom they had separated themselves” and “sometimes from this unconscious there were purely tyrannical intrusions.” Cf. Jože Pogaþnik, Slovenska Lepa Vida ali Hoja za rožo þudotvorno, 160-61. As Pogaþnik writes, border situations, ethnic mixing and socio-psychological variety stamped the atmosphere of the Trieste literature as Slovenian but at the same time not foreign to broader European literature. Hominess and cosmopolitanism, this real echo of the psychological ingredients of the population (the rural Karst–the cosmopolitan view of Trieste), was increased primarily through mental reasons. The experiences with fascism stamped another characteristic onto contemporary Slovenian literature: this literature returns to original, factual destiny, such as life, nature and history. Cf. Jože Pogaþnik, Slovenska Lepa Vida ali Hoja za rožo þudotvorno, 149. 337 Cf. Evgen Bavþar, “O pisatelju in delu.” Accompanying essay. In: Boris Pahor, Mesto v zalivu (Trieste: Založništvo tržaškega tiska, 1989), 315-16. 338 Cf. Harold Bloom, The Western Canon: The Books and School of the Ages (New York / San Diego / London: Harcourt Brace, 1994), 36. 339 The motif of temptation and abduction, such as seen in the various versions of the story of Fair Vida from the Middle Ages to the present, remains a relevant one. In contemporary literature there are many novels that contain the motif of abduction, often emphasising a political angle as well. From this perspective one of the most resounding is Gabriel García Márquez's News of a Kidnapping (1996), in

298

Notes

which the writer speaks of the abduction of Maruja Pachon and her enduring six months of captivity, as well as of other kidnappings that occurred around the same time in Columbia. In the novel Márquez, through a description of a series of actual kidnappings, draws attention to the societal words of a country in which terror and corruption, fulsome greed and yawning social differences are rampant, while brilliantly describes the fear and psychological trauma of the victims.

INDEX OF NAMES

Abraham, 6, 7, 10, 33, 49, 50, 56 Absalom, 126 Abts, Heinrich, 253, 274 Adam, ix, 1, 2, 7, 8, 10, 14, 21, 22, 23, 25, 26, 29, 31, 88, 89, 114, 178, 201, 208, 214, 234, 235, 236, 245, 246, 247, 267, 268, 269 Adler, Alfred, 268 Adler, Maximilian, 273 Aelus, 47 Agenor, 127, 248 Alberto, 211, 212, 213, 215 Alenþica, 135, 137 Alexander the Great, 5 Algranati, Gina, 153 Ali pasha, 137 Allah, 55, 56 Allen, Graham, 253 Almira, 138 Alter, Robert, 253 Amnon, 43, 126, 238, 242, 247 Andriü, Nikola, 253 Aniþka, 135, 136 Anteia, 4, 47 Anubis, 4, 9, 44, 45, 46 Aristotle, 117 Ashurbanipal, 28 Auerbach, Erich, 253, 266, 295 Avsenik Nabergoj, Irena, xii, 253 Bach, Alice, 253 Baker, David L., 253 Bal, Mieke, 253 Barbara, 138 Barbi, Michele, 165, 253 Barton, John, 253, 266 Bata, 4, 9, 44, 45, 46 Bathsheba, 125, 238, 247 Bavþar, Evgen, 253 , 297, 298 Bazerman, Charles, 254

Bellerophon, 4, 47 Benjamin, 64, 67, 74, 75, 76, 77, 79, 124, 125, 237, 247 Bercovitch, Sacvan, 254 Bernik, France, xi, 254, 281 Blake, Alenka, xi Blake, Jason, xi Bloom, Harold, 254, 298 Bodmer, Johann Jakob, 276 Bonhoeffer, Dietrich, 254 Boyarin, Daniel, 254 Božiþ, Sonja, 284 Bradstreet, Anne, 254 Brady, Jennifer, 260 Brajdika, 135, 136 Brenner, Athalya, 254 Brentano, Clemens, 281 Breznik, Anton, 141, 142, 168, 254, 290 Brezošek, Ivan, 277 Brown, Peter, 254 Bruzzano, L., 154 Buþar, Ana, 284 Buddha, 2 Bultmann, Rudolf, 267 Burlasová, SoĖa, 253 Burry, Alexander, xii Byron, George Noel Gordon, lord, 106 Calypso, 129, 238, 248 Camp, Claudia V., 254, 279 Candia, 141, 142, 148, 149, 150, 151, 152, 153, 154, 239 Cankar, Ivan, 7, 11, 205, 215, 216, 217, 218, 219, 220, 235, 248, 250, 297 Cassuto, Umberto, 267 Celestin, Fran, 255 Charles, R. H., 273

300

Index of Names

Chevalier, Jean, 280, 281 Clayton, Jay, 255 Cohen, Norman, 275 Cohn, Leopold(us), 273 Coogan, Michael D., 260 Corin, Andrew, xii Cotterell, Arthur, 255, 284, 285 Courtenay, Badouin de, 184, 290 Coyle, Nuala, xii Cravens, Craig, xii Crenshaw, James L., 255 ýauševiü, Džemaluddin, 274 Damjan, 216 Dante, Alighieri, 255 Darius, 3 David, 13, 43, 48, 90, 125, 126, 238, 247 Davidson, Richard, 255 De Rada, Jeronim [Girolamo], 142, 148, 153, 289 Delilah, x, 6, 10, 89, 90, 245, 247 Derpmann, Manfred, 271 Detienne, Marcel, 255 Di Floriano, Luigia, 184 Diaghilev, Sergei Pavlovich, 277 Dimant, Devorah, 255 Diodorus Siculus, 265 Dioniz, 215, 216, 217, 219 Dockery, David S., 255 Dolinar, 215, 217, 218, 235 Don Juan, 91, 241 Donna Candia, 140, 153 Donna Canfura, 140, 153 Dorica, 222 Dostoyevsky, Fyodor, 255, 280 Draisma, Sipke, 255 Dûdu, 68, 70 Dürer, Albrecht, 22 Edwards, Jonathan, 255 Eliade, Mircea, 282 Eliam, 125 Eliot, Thomas Stearns, 255 Ellens, J. Harold, 255 Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 255 Empson, William, 255 Epictetus, 3

Euripides, 4, 9, 47, 48 Europa, 127 Eve, ix, x, 2, 7, 10, 14, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 29, 30, 31, 33, 88, 89, 114, 178, 201, 208, 214, 234, 235, 245, 246, 247 Ezekiel, 27, 30, 32, 33 Fair Vida, ix, x, 9, 11, 12, 111, 112, 119, 120, 121, 122, 123, 129, 131, 132, 135, 136, 137, 139, 140, 141, 142, 153, 166, 168, 169, 170, 171, 172, 173, 174, 175, 176, 177, 178, 179, 180, 181, 182, 183, 184, 185, 186, 187, 188, 189, 191, 192, 193, 194, 195, 196, 197, 198, 199, 200, 201, 202, 203, 204, 205, 206, 208, 210, 211, 212, 213, 214, 215, 216, 217, 218, 219, 220, 221, 223, 224, 225, 226, 227, 228, 229, 231, 232, 233, 234, 235, 236, 237, 238, 239, 240, 241, 242, 243, 245, 246, 247, 248, 249, 250, 251, 252, 253, 256, 260, 261, 263, 264, 282, 283, 284, 286, 287, 288, 289, 290, 291, 292, 293, 294, 295, 296, 297, 298 Faust, 6, 8, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 97, 98, 242, 248 Favorskij,Vladimir Andreeviþ, 284 Fewell, Dana Nolan, 255 Firdousi, 73 Fishbane, Michael A., 255 Flaubert, Gustave, 256 Fokin, Michail Michailovich, 82, 278 Frankl, Viktor, 268 Frenzel, Elisabeth, 256, 271, 276, 284, 285 Freud, Sigmund, 268 Froissart, Jean, 285 Gadamer, Hans-Georg, 267 Galen, 265 Gantar, Kajetan, 285 Gaster, Theodor H., 256, 279 Gauguin, Paul, 227 Gerjolj, Stanko, xi, 275 Gerlanc, Bogomil, 286

Longing, Weakness and Temptation: From Myth to Artistic Creations Gerritsen, Willem Pieter, 256 Gheerbrant, Alain, 280, 281 Gibson, Jeffrey B., 3, 6, 256 Gilgamesh, 1, 8, 28, 29, 114 Ginzberg, Louis, 256, 271, 274 Glassen, Erika, 271 Glaucus, 47 Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von, 6, 8, 85, 91, 97, 242, 247, 248, 270, 277, 280 Goldman, Shalom, 256 Golež Kauþiþ, Marjetka, 256 Gomer, 30, 33 Goody, Jack, 256, 281, 282 Grabner-Haider, Anton, 272 Grafenauer, Ivan, 282, 283, 284, 286, 287, 288, 289, 290, 291, 292, 293 Grdina, Igor, xi Greene, Thomas M., 257 Gretchen, 242 Grošelj, Nada, 193 Gudrun, 122 Gunkel, Harmann, 267, 268, 271 Habholz-Oberlin, Margarete, 277 Hamburger, Michael, 85 Häring, Bernhard, 257, 291 Harris, Joseph, 257 Hays, Richard, 257 Hector, 128 Heine, Heinrich, 99, 100, 101, 102, 105, 106, 110, 111, 112, 113, 257, 298 Heinemann, Isaak, 273 Helen, 122, 128, 129, 225, 233, 234, 236, 248 Helfmeyer, F. J., 266 Heliodorus, 3 Henten, Jan Willen, 254 Heracles, 91, 245 Hercules, 10, 89, 91, 115 Hezekiah, 33 Hirsch, E. D., 257 Hitler, Adolf, 61 Hofmann, Peter, 257

301

Hofmannsthal, Hugo von, 38, 81, 82, 277 Hollander, Harm W., 273, 276, 257 Homer, 1, 4, 9, 10, 47, 89, 111, 122, 128, 129, 225, 233, 234, 236, 238, 248, 265, 282, 285 Hosea, 30, 31, 33 Hribar, Tine, 257 IblƯs (Satan), 2 Ilich, Iztok, 280 Ilinka, 170 Inkret, Andrej, 259 Iobates of Caria, 4 Irena, 3, 4, 142, 145, 146, 147, 148, 153, 154, 239 Isaiah, 26 Jacob, 38, 40, 41, 42, 44, 48, 51, 52, 56, 60, 61, 62, 64, 66, 67, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 79, 80 Jacob, B., 272 Jael, 90 Jakobson, Roman, 17 Jakopin, Franc, 284 James, 9, 15, 34 Jeffrey, David Lyle, 257 Jelovšek, Ana, 99, 105 Jenko, Simon, 99, 105, 106, 110, 111, 112, 113, 257, 280, 281 Jeremiah, 33 Jerica, 137 Jesus, 5, 10, 29, 34, 35, 53 Jiriczek, Otto L., 283 Joab, 125 Job, 7, 10, 29, 311 Johnson, Robert A., 284 Jonadab, 126 Jonathan, 90 Jonge, M. de, 273, 276 Joseph (of Egypt), 9, 40, 42, 43, 44, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 56, 57, 58, 60, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 116, 117

302

Index of Names

Joseph of Egypt, ix, x, 2, 4, 10, 37, 38, 39, 41, 55, 59, 61, 81, 86, 87, 115 Josephus, 90, 265 Judah, 67, 75, 76, 77, 79 Judeniþ, Aleksej, 277 Jung, Carl Gustav, 268 Jurþiþ, Josip, 7, 205, 206, 208, 210, 211, 213, 214, 241, 242, 248, 249, 251, 252, 296 Juvan, Marko, 258 Karadžiü, Vuk Stefanoviü, 258, 283 Kastelic, Miha, 258 Kazimakis, 265 Keefe, Alice, 258 Keil, Carl Friedrich, 271 Kelemina, Jakob, 134, 258, 286 Kermauner, Taras, 295 Kermode, Frank, 253 Kessler, Harry, 38, 81, 277 Kidriþ, France, 293 Kierkegaard, Søren, 35, 36, 270, 295 Kim, Jichan, 258 Kitchen, K. A., 267 Kleomenes III., 3 Klímová-Rychnová, Dagmar, 258 Kocijan, Gregor, 258 Kogoj, Andrej, 211, 213, 214 Kólkar, Ana, 184 Korez, Jera, 168 Korn, Joachim Hans, 258, 266 Korytko, Emil, 258 Kos, Janko, 258, 280, 287, 295 Koulikourdi, Carol, xii Kramar, Franc, 289 Krašovec, Jože, xi, 272, 259 Kresnik, 130, 238 Križman, Mirko, 259, 283 Kropej, Monika, 259 Kugel, James L., 259 Kumer, Zmaga, 184, 259, 289 La Bella, 154, 165, 166, 170 Lady Irena, 148 Lah, Klemen, 259 Laomedon, 3

Layzer, Varese, 259, 279 Leah, 64, 77 Leban, Rudi, 221, 222, 223 Legiša, Lino, 262 Lepa Vida, 9, 173, 174, 175, 185, 191, 192, 193, 205, 210 Lermontov, Mikhail, 106 Lévi-Strauss, Claude, 17 Lihaþev, Dmitrij, 283 Lina, 184 Livius, 127 Lombardo, Stanley, 273 Lord, Albert B., 12, 259, 282 Lorelei, 99, 100, 101, 102, 106, 111, 112, 113 Lucilius, 265 Luthar, Oto, xi Lüthje, Reinhard J., 259 Lycaon, 3 Majda, 227 Mankica, 131, 132, 248 Mann, Thomas, 6, 9, 38, 39, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 72, 73, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 84, 117, 247, 259, 274, 275, 276, 280 Margaret, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99 Marjanca, 184 Marjetica, 130, 131 Marlowe, Christopher, 8, 259 Marolt, France, 182, 183, 292 Márquez, Gabriel García, 259, 297 Martha, 93 Mather, Cotton, 260 Mathews, Kenneth A., 15 Matiþetov, Milko, 289, 292 Matthew (King), 137, 139, 167 Meererin, 132 Meletinski, Jeleazar, 259 Meletinsky, Eleazar, 99, 280, 297 Menander, 265 Menelaus, 122, 128, 129, 233, 236, 248 Mephistopheles, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 97, 98, 99, 242 Metatron, 76

Longing, Weakness and Temptation: From Myth to Artistic Creations Metzger, Bruce M., 260 Meyers, Carol, 260 Michal, 90 Micika, 132 Mihurko Poniž, Katja, xi, 260 Miklova Zala, 138, 237 Milena, 217, 218 Millar, Amanda, xii Milton, John, 8, 22, 90, 247, 260 Miner, Earl, 260 Mirko, 138 Mlakar, Pia, 82, 83, 277, 278 Mlakar, Pino, 82, 83, 84, 87, 277, 278, 279 Moder, Janko, 277 Mohammed, 55 Molière, Jean-Baptiste, 241 Moses, 2, 48, 54 Moule, Charles Francis Digby, 260 Moyise, Steve, 260 Mrva, 215, 216, 217 Muilenburg, James, 15 Mut, 71 Mut-em-enet, 68, 70, 72 Nabergoj, David, xii Nabergoj, Jurij, xii Nabergoj, Tomaž, xii Nabholz-Oberlin, Margarete, 260, 271, 274, 281 Nahtigal, Rajko, 284 Nausicaä, 129, 249 Niditch, Susan, 260 Nietzsche, Friedrich, 245 Norfleete Day, Janeth, 260 O’Day, Gail R., 260 Odysseus, 3, 129, 225, 238, 245 Ogrin, Matija, xi Ovid, 4, 48, 127 Ovsec, Damjan, 260 Page, D. L., 273 Pahor, Boris, 220, 221, 222, 224, 227, 228, 229, 235, 248, 250, 253, 262, 296, 297 Painchaud, Louis, 261 Palma il Vecchio, Jacopo, 22 Pandža, Hafiz Muhammed, 274

303

Paoli, 206, 207, 208, 209, 241, 242 Paris, 122, 128, 233 Paternu, Boris, 205, 261, 280, 281, 295 Periü-Polonijo,Tanja, 261 Petriconi, Helmuth, 261 Philip of Macedon, 3 Philo of Alexandria, 39, 53, 54, 55, 116, 266 Pinto, V. de S., 103 Plett, Heinrich F., 261 Plutarch, 265 Pogaþnik, Jože, 204, 205, 261, 293, 294, 295, 296, 297 Poljanec, 215, 216, 219 Polybius, 265 Poniž, Denis, 261 Popov, Jurij, 261, 284 Potiphar, 2, 9, 10, 38, 40, 42, 43, 44, 51, 52, 53, 54, 56, 58, 62, 68, 70, 71, 72, 73, 79, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 116, 117 Poznik, Radivoj, 135, 179, 180, 205, 289, 291 Prediü, Milan, 277 Prešeren, France, ix, 6, 7, 10, 99, 102, 104, 105, 106, 110, 111, 112, 113, 134, 166, 171, 172, 173, 191, 196, 197, 198, 202, 203, 204, 205, 215, 216, 219, 220, 223, 225, 226, 227, 228, 233, 238, 241, 248, 250, 261, 262, 263, 280, 284, 287, 289, 291, 292, 293, 294, 295 Prestel, David, xii Priebatsch, Hans, 271 Primic, Julija, 99, 104 Prior, Paul A., 254 Prodicus, 91 Proetus, 4, 47, 48 Ps.-Apollodorus, 265 Puhvel, Jaan, 262 Rabin, Chaim, 266 Rachel, 64, 66, 77 Rad, Gerhard von, 267, 272, 274 Rama, 238 Rebolj, Matjaž, xi

304

Index of Names

Rembrandt, 22 Ricoeur, Paul, 267 Roberts, Jimmy Jack McBee, 16, 262 Rollins, Wayne G., 255 Romulus, 127, 248 Rožnik, Pavle, 262, 285, 286 Ruben, 65, 67, 76 Rubens, Peter Paul, 22 Rudež-Smole, 290, 291 Rudi, 221, 222, 223, 224, 225, 226, 227, 228, 229 Ruiz de Alarcón y Mendoza, Juan, 285 Runia, David T., 273 Rupnik, Marko, 275, 277 Rusalka, 101, 111 Russo Vincenzo, 165 Rybnikov, 283 Ryken, Leland, 13, 262 Saint Augustine, 1, 15, 35, 86 Saint Jacob, 136 Saint Paul, 35 Salomon, 122 SƗmirƯ, 2, 309 Samorod, 206, 207, 208, 209, 210 Samoyault, Tiphaine, 262 Samson, x, 6, 11, 89, 90, 245, 247 Satan, 2, 7, 9, 10, 56, 91, 115, 197 Saul, 90 Sawyer, John F. A., 262 Schüssler Fiorenza, Elizabeth, 262 Scibilia Nobili, 140 Selms van, Adrianus, 266 Seneca, 4, 48 Serajnik, 138 Shakespeare,William, 251, 285 Shimeah, 126 Simþiþ, Zorko, 262 Sims, James H., 262 Sisyphus, 47, 48 Sita, 238 Sket, Jakob, 262, 288 Skinner, John, 267, 271 Slivnik, Franþiška, 279 Slodnjak, Anton, 262

Smole, Andrej, 191 Sodja, Martin, 211 Solomon, 1, 48 Solovyov, Vladimir Sergeyevich, 295 Sonþica, 136 Speiser, A. A., 267, 272 Steinbeck, John, 262 Sternberg, Meir, 262 Stheneboea, 4 Still, Judith, 264 Stiller, Frauke, 262 Stojan, 222 Strabo, 265 Strauss, Richard, 38, 39, 81, 278 Strojan, Tatjana, 284 Svetina, Ivo, 279 Šefer Urška, 133 Šmitek, Zmago, 263, 282, 285, 286, 288, 290, 291 Špidlík, Tomaž, 295 Štrekelj, Karol, 263, 281, 285, 286, 287, 288, 291 Štular, Mica 179 Tabubu, 71 Tamar, 43, 126, 238, 242, 247 Taylor, Bayard, 92 Terseglav, Marko, 263, 292 Theiler, Willy, 273 Theocritus, 127 Titus Livius, 248 Tizian, 22 Tonþek, 210 Trachtenberg, Peter, 278 Trdoglav, 130, 131, 238 Truhlar, Karl Vladimir, 294 Twain, Mark, 101 Ukmar, Milko, 288 Undines, 112 Uriah, 125, 247 Ursula, 138 Uršiþ, Jana, 284 Urška, 111, 133, 134, 250 Utnapishtim, 1 Valentine, 95, 96

Longing, Weakness and Temptation: From Myth to Artistic Creations Valvasor, Janez Vajkard, 132, 263, 286 Van Melle, Anthony G., 256 Vanhoozer, K. J., 263 Verkoviü, Stefan I., 263 Veronika Deseniška, 170 Vevar, Štefan, 263 Vida, 206, 207, 208,209, 210, 211, 212, 213, 214, 215, 216, 217, 220, 222, 223, 224, 225, 226, 227, 228, 229, 234, 235, 236 Vondel, Joost van den, 22 Vošnjak, Josip, 7, 210, 211, 296 Vovko, Andrej, xi Vraz, Stanko, 263 Vrþon, Robert, 263, 291 Vurnik, Stanko, 289 Wanda of Krakow, 170

Wells, C. J., 263 Welwood, John, 278 Wendland, Paulus, 273 Westermann, Claus, 269, 272 Wildberger, Hans, 269 Wilson, John A., 263 Worton, Michael, 264 Xenophon, 91, 280 Yahweh, 21 Zalika, 139 Zarathustra, 2 Zarika, 136, 331 Zavrtanik, Danilo, xi Zeus, 47, 48, 127, 237, 238, 248 Ziherl, Ana, 284 Zimmerli, Walther, 270 Zogna Riin, 140, 141, 142 Žigon, Avgust, 291

305

INDEX OF SUBJECTS

Abduction, 111, 120, 122, 124, 127, 128, 129, 130, 131, 134, 137, 138, 139, 140, 141, 142, 162, 165, 166, 167, 172, 189, 190, 231, 233, 235, 237, 238, 239, 240, 245, 247, 248, 251, 282, 285, 286, 289, 299 Ability, 54, 71, 219, 231, 237 Abuse, 48, 124, 172, 232 Acknowledge, 12, 15, 72 Action, 14, 34, 74, 113, 205, 213 Addition, 40, 57, 66, 120, 153, 189, 205, 207, 222, 241, 246, 249, 250, 267 Admiration, 70 Admire, 280 Altar, 96, 124, 147, 148 Ambition, 53 Anger, 42, 45, 46, 217 Angry, 62, 64, 84 Answer, 25, 70, 75, 94, 130, 195, 201, 208, 214, 268, 269, 276 Anxiety, 111 Arrogant, 289 Art, ix, 8, 12, 13, 22, 52, 57, 69, 81, 91, 95, 115, 120, 123, 194, 205, 235, 245, 279, 280, 283, 296 Artist, 118, 121 Ashamed, 24, 32, 73, 128, 201, 209, 250 Aspect, 15, 31, 82, 234 Attention, 11, 3, 9, 12, 30, 40, 51, 54, 64, 68, 78, 136, 271, 278, 298, 299 Authority, 30, 58, 62, 127, 197, 276 Autobiographical, 270 Awareness, 12, 13, 15, 17, 24, 39, 43, 54, 55, 60, 68, 81, 84, 85, 199, 201, 202 Bad, 53, 68, 98, 116

Bearing, 1, 48, 70, 73, 211 Beasts, 23, 24 Beautiful, 11, 38, 47, 63, 70, 72, 73, 78, 79, 97, 99, 102, 104, 105, 107, 109, 111, 112, 113, 125, 126, 127, 128, 130, 131, 134, 136, 137, 138, 151, 152, 158, 167, 170, 171, 184, 189, 196, 198, 223, 228, 232, 233, 239, 240, 241, 245, 248, 282, 296 Beauty, 11, 28, 39, 58, 61, 71, 72, 80, 84, 87, 90, 92, 95, 103, 107, 109, 111, 127, 129, 131, 138, 147, 148, 159, 170, 210, 217, 218, 224, 233, 236, 238, 240, 241, 249, 274, 279, 282 Bed, 47, 92, 126, 136, 194, 195, 197, 199, 207, 215 Beginning, 8, 34, 50, 56, 61, 89, 117, 165, 203, 204, 207, 268, 280, 283, 289, 296 Belief, 7, 9, 61, 62, 73, 198, 219, 279, 286, 294, 296 Believe, 48, 50, 59, 77, 80, 198, 200, 213, 218, 222 Benefactor, 30 Benevolence, 133, 148 Betray, 238 Better, 1, 2, 31, 32, 42, 68, 69, 72, 116, 128, 129, 133, 171, 227, 228, 291 Birth, 24, 34, 43, 47, 127, 130, 132, 138, 142, 221, 225, 232, 233, 237, 248, 274, 277, 278, 293 Bitter, 69, 167, 195, 199, 200, 201, 202, 216, 241 Bitterness, 202 Bless, 52, 53, 213 Blessed, 50 Blessing, 48, 56, 77

Longing, Weakness and Temptation: From Myth to Artistic Creations Blood, 42, 48, 66, 67, 70, 71, 75, 96, 98, 151, 159, 213, 215, 217, 227, 237, 274, 276 Bodily, 215, 219, 295 Body, 53, 61, 63, 67, 69, 70, 71, 72, 79, 83, 84, 87, 106, 130, 148, 217, 219, 242, 279 Book, 4, 13, 7, 13, 15, 50, 55, 61, 62, 63, 72, 96, 128, 132, 285, 287, 289, 290, 292, 298 Bread, 33, 115, 151, 152, 162, 181 Breath, 70, 203, 207 Brother, 9, 10, 31, 41, 42, 44, 45, 46, 56, 61, 62, 64, 65, 67, 74, 75, 76, 77, 79, 93, 95, 98, 126, 131, 132, 138, 158, 170, 208, 209, 210, 242, 274, 276 Built, 124, 125, 148 Burden, 40 Burdened, 41, 42, 211, 217 Calmly, 236 Care, 12, 98, 123, 148, 194, 196, 198, 199, 202, 203, 211, 212, 236, 238, 297 Centre, 84, 86, 107, 114, 279 Change, 10, 31, 50, 68, 72, 82, 118, 183, 217, 238, 240 Character, 3, 10, 14, 15, 44, 71, 82, 172, 203, 209, 214, 227, 229, 230, 235, 267 Child, 34, 51, 63, 64, 74, 86, 119, 141, 142, 148, 152, 165, 166, 167, 168, 169, 171, 172, 173, 178, 181, 182, 184, 188, 189, 191, 194, 198, 199, 200, 201, 202, 203, 206, 208, 209, 210, 212, 213, 214, 215, 221, 223, 224, 225, 232, 233, 234, 235, 236, 237, 238, 239, 242, 245, 251, 252, 291, 292, 293, 294, 296 Childhood, 96, 218, 229 Children, 13, 3, 51, 52, 53, 63, 76, 90, 124, 198, 237, 276 Church, 92, 93, 95, 148, 152 Command, 23, 25, 35, 48, 74, 77, 122, 165, 231, 242 Commit, 50, 91

307

Compassion, 39, 51, 115, 196, 201, 216, 237 Conceal, 218, 222, 276 Conception, 55, 59, 116, 203, 283 Condemn, 222 Condemnation, 9, 213 Confess, 31, 93 Confession, 33, 70, 113, 196, 197, 206, 215, 269 Confessional, 216 Confessions, 295 Confidence, 72, 89, 133, 197 Conscience, 21, 67, 68, 98, 114, 172, 198, 204, 212, 233, 246, 269 Consciousness, 189, 219, 229 Consequence, 32, 71, 246, 270 Consider, 11, 17, 90, 162, 242, 273 Consolation, 171, 199, 204, 241, 292 Console, 183, 200, 213 Contemporary, 10, 16, 227, 245, 250, 296, 299 Contradiction, 40, 54, 106, 115, 130, 245 Contrary, 43, 50, 61, 82, 268 Contrast, 1, 2, 13, 16, 45, 61, 62, 63, 67, 71, 78, 79, 82, 84, 91, 110, 129, 134, 139, 148, 154, 170, 172, 178, 189, 203, 216, 218, 233, 236, 238, 239, 240, 279, 280, 285, 291 Conversation, 71, 172, 189, 197, 198, 215, 225, 295 Conviction, 65, 268, 294 Convinced, 41, 65, 75, 85, 117, 137, 197, 198, 208, 248, 251, 285 Core, 28, 29, 48, 61, 74, 114, 115, 245, 246, 292 Corruption, 4, 35, 279, 299 Court, 40, 41, 42, 56, 62, 67, 68, 71, 73, 81, 83, 112, 116, 117, 119, 171, 190, 197, 199, 219, 221, 223, 225, 228, 233, 237, 238, 279, 286 Cries, 77, 124, 135, 176, 177, 182, 183, 184, 196, 200, 207, 209, 214, 216, 226, 228 Crime, 57, 75, 77, 96, 97, 210, 269,

308

Index of Subjects

276 Criminal, 127, 285 Critical, 6, 15, 17, 21, 204 Cross, 130, 169, 182 Cruel, 66, 112, 194 Cry, 43, 69, 104, 119, 154, 158, 169, 176, 177, 178, 207, 209, 210, 273 Cultural, 11, 16, 19, 26, 44, 60, 71, 220, 222, 228, 229, 285, 295 Culture, 10, 6, 12, 17, 19, 56, 120, 123, 184, 221, 228, 235, 239, 293 Cunning, 91, 120, 133, 139, 141, 179, 189, 225, 231, 233, 237, 283 Curse, 25, 114, 213 Danger, 11, 26, 35, 45, 61, 72, 82, 111, 112, 117, 129, 189, 208, 222, 223, 226, 249, 289 Dangerous, 36, 48, 102, 104, 105, 113, 225 Daughter, 69, 90, 107, 109, 122, 125, 127, 161, 162, 164, 165, 166, 170, 211, 214, 222, 248, 277 Dead, 67, 76, 77, 79, 82, 93, 106, 154, 159, 182, 200, 276, 282 Deadly, 101 Death, 1, 5, 9, 25, 26, 28, 34, 38, 43, 45, 48, 49, 50, 54, 60, 62, 66, 67, 76, 77, 83, 85, 86, 90, 91, 93, 97, 98, 99, 102, 111, 112, 114, 148, 152, 167, 169, 170, 172, 182, 198, 202, 210, 213, 214, 216, 218, 219, 222, 234, 239, 247, 251, 268, 272, 274, 276, 282, 284 Deed, 74, 77, 269 Deep, 14, 21, 23, 29, 66, 103, 121, 130, 132, 137, 177, 204, 219, 225, 239, 282, 283, 284 Defeat, 90, 138 Defence, 41, 65, 236 Degree, 13, 40, 88, 117, 247 Deserve, 13, 70, 247 Desire, 1, 2, 3, 4, 9, 11, 22, 24, 31, 34, 35, 40, 51, 52, 68, 69, 70, 71, 80, 83, 85, 90, 92, 99, 102, 111, 113, 114, 154, 167, 208, 213, 237,

238, 241, 242, 243, 247, 249, 268, 297 Despair, 30, 36, 93, 211, 281, 297 Destiny, 11, 22, 29, 30, 60, 67, 82, 87, 114, 141, 142, 167, 170, 172, 182, 196, 197, 199, 205, 217, 219, 234, 242, 251, 282, 289, 299 Destruction, 4, 113, 115, 124, 281 Destructive, 42, 86, 203 Devil, 9, 115, 198, 283, 286 Devoted, 57, 73, 87, 277, 281, 283 Die, 23, 24, 25, 28, 42, 46, 47, 48, 66, 77, 85, 100, 114, 124, 125, 132, 138, 151, 152, 162, 170, 172, 206, 210, 219, 234, 242, 268, 269, 273 Difference, 20, 23, 24, 29, 115, 117, 286 Dignity, 203, 215, 251 Disappointment, 31, 32, 83, 113, 213, 214, 217 Disdain, 66, 247 Dissatisfaction, 197, 241, 268 Distress, 7, 49, 66, 74, 77, 203, 250 Divine, 13, 26, 37, 39, 41, 62, 63, 101, 129, 217, 248, 249, 267, 268, 287 Dog, 162 Doubt, 6, 33, 224, 234, 235, 292 Drama, 8, 10, 22, 118, 205, 214, 215, 216, 217, 218, 219, 220 Dread, 97 Dreadful, 132 Dream, 41, 64, 65, 73, 97, 106, 113, 114, 223, 228, 297 Dress, 69, 92, 276 Drunken, 215, 216 Duty, 99, 110, 117, 226, 276, 296 Dying, 77, 95, 154, 173, 219 Earth, 7, 25, 26, 27, 29, 30, 35, 39, 48, 51, 66, 73, 82, 83, 84, 86, 99, 114, 115, 118, 130, 131, 132, 200, 204, 213, 219, 227, 238, 245 Effort, 11, 68, 223 Elder, 31, 32, 44, 45, 46 Elderly, 172, 182, 183, 292

Longing, Weakness and Temptation: From Myth to Artistic Creations Emotion, 43, 82, 191, 203, 239, 297 Emotional, 1, 60, 61, 72, 75, 78, 79, 83, 110, 178, 196, 202, 203, 204, 208, 216, 218, 229, 241, 250, 274, 296 Encounter, 91, 93, 99, 111, 129, 184 Endure, 35 Enemy, 8, 21, 48, 54, 56, 90 Enjoy, 239 Enjoyment, 78, 84, 215 Envy, 8, 41, 42, 49, 54, 65, 66, 68, 86, 138, 272 Eternal, 26, 27, 29, 55, 82, 86, 93, 130, 203, 216, 219, 220, 267, 297 Eternity, 115, 206, 218, 219, 241 Ethical, 53, 55, 60, 80, 82, 87, 112, 115, 116, 117, 203, 228, 236, 239, 240, 280, 294, 295, 296 Event, 1, 3, 9, 14, 16, 81, 92, 120, 170, 208, 211, 214, 221, 240, 250, 295 Evil, 1, 3, 4, 7, 10, 14, 20, 23, 24, 25, 26, 28, 30, 34, 38, 40, 46, 47, 50, 51, 53, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 63, 67, 68, 70, 75, 76, 84, 86, 91, 98, 111, 114, 118, 119, 130, 137, 141, 161, 162, 164, 170, 197, 208, 214, 216, 232, 234, 239, 241, 251, 252, 272, 273, 281, 282, 283, 286, 294, 295, 298 Example, 10, 22, 26, 33, 37, 44, 61, 74, 80, 81, 106, 111, 120, 124, 130, 138, 142, 184, 197, 221, 225, 242, 246, 248, 251, 267, 272, 281, 283, 286, 287, 291, 296 Exile, 61, 66, 269 Exist, 10, 31, 47, 68, 88, 217, 229, 230, 246, 294 Existence, 7, 8, 12, 17, 25, 40, 42, 79, 86, 87, 93, 115, 136, 197, 200, 204, 211, 218, 219, 228, 229, 236, 246, 279, 280, 298 Existential, 11, 39, 80, 86, 116, 121, 191, 196, 217, 240, 267, 296 Experience, ix, 1, 3, 6, 9, 13, 14, 15, 16, 21, 29, 35, 60, 63, 68, 70, 74,

309

78, 80, 83, 87, 100, 110, 112, 113, 114, 118, 120, 121, 123, 129, 178, 184, 189, 198, 217, 219, 220, 224, 226, 228, 251, 268, 278, 294, 295, 297, 298 Expose, 30, 86 Face, 31, 41, 54, 56, 63, 82, 84, 87, 90, 95, 118, 165, 196, 201, 206, 208, 218, 226, 282 Factory, 222 Failed, 4, 44, 47, 277 Fairy, 12, 99, 183, 200, 229 Faith, 7, 10, 16, 29, 33, 39, 40, 49, 61, 65, 79, 114, 165, 170, 214, 217, 294 Faithful, 5, 35, 40, 49, 50, 55, 58, 60, 90, 103, 104, 105, 167, 173, 214, 227, 296 False, 2, 68, 69, 128, 241 Fame, 30, 52 Familiar, 13, 110, 136, 191, 205, 288, 289 Family, 10, 31, 41, 44, 53, 60, 62, 67, 74, 75, 80, 90, 105, 117, 120, 179, 189, 198, 199, 200, 201, 203, 211, 235, 237, 239, 242, 283, 297 Fast, 75, 106, 109, 110 Fatal, 31, 36, 66, 85, 90, 171, 191, 198, 201, 233, 251, 252, 282 Fate, 8, 10, 67, 70, 75, 140, 200, 201, 216, 221, 229, 240, 249 Fateful, 178, 200, 208 Father, 23, 31, 41, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 49, 50, 51, 54, 56, 60, 62, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 79, 90, 93, 97, 126, 127, 138, 165, 166, 167, 170, 177, 182, 183, 195, 200, 201, 202, 203, 211, 214, 215, 219, 221, 274, 277, 278, 283 Fault, 42, 141, 167, 220 Fear, 7, 30, 34, 35, 41, 44, 62, 69, 70, 74, 77, 84, 102, 106, 111, 115, 128, 203, 208, 209, 229, 242, 289, 297, 299 Fearful, 41, 83, 94, 134, 136, 218

310

Index of Subjects

Feast, 31, 82 Feel, 39, 64, 65, 66, 78, 93, 94, 204, 213, 215, 227, 234 Feeling, 32, 41, 81, 86, 115, 133, 196, 207, 219, 220, 268, 279, 280, 295, 296 Fellow, 22, 73, 84, 94, 95, 228 Figure, 10, 11, 12, 22, 30, 32, 37, 39, 40, 74, 79, 80, 82, 84, 86, 87, 95, 101, 104, 110, 112, 117, 123, 130, 132, 133, 134, 135, 141, 167, 170, 196, 214, 215, 216, 217, 218, 223, 227, 229, 232, 237, 238, 249, 268, 270, 277, 281, 282, 283, 287, 295 Final, 15, 30, 50, 59, 61, 62, 63, 69, 80, 81, 93, 116, 189, 202, 204, 215, 219, 228, 246, 282, 296 Finding, 3, 84, 125, 131, 212 Floor, 207 Folk, ix, 7, 10, 11, 12, 16, 21, 22, 57, 96, 97, 99, 106, 119, 120, 122, 123, 129, 130, 131, 132, 134, 135, 136, 137, 138, 139, 140, 167, 168, 170, 171, 172, 178, 189, 191, 196, 200, 203, 204, 205, 211, 212, 214, 215, 216, 220, 221, 223, 224, 226, 228, 231, 233, 234, 235, 236, 237, 240, 242, 245, 246, 247, 248, 249, 250, 251, 271, 281, 286, 287, 288, 291, 292, 293, 294, 295, 296 Force, 31, 32, 58, 82, 84, 86, 88, 117, 118, 120, 124, 126, 137, 139, 141, 178, 198, 207, 209, 211, 231, 232, 251, 269, 282, 297 Foreign, 33, 38, 54, 90, 120, 122, 136, 137, 140, 171, 172, 210, 216, 220, 221, 224, 225, 226, 228, 229, 231, 269, 280, 288, 289, 293, 298, 299 Forgive, 9, 32, 63, 77, 209, 214 Forgiven, 77 Forgiveness, 39, 41, 43, 57, 62, 63, 74, 77, 198, 202, 214, 216 Fortune, 77 Free, 6, 8, 34, 50, 51, 52, 54, 56, 63,

66, 67, 71, 79, 90, 94, 96, 97, 215, 217, 225, 297, 298 Freedom, 5, 22, 32, 34, 40, 42, 65, 70, 71, 82, 86, 98, 129, 139, 196, 197, 222, 285, 295, 297 Friend, 93, 94, 126, 223, 295 Fulfil, 245 Funeral, 124 Future, 19, 41, 65, 88, 92, 114, 116, 197, 245, 246, 250, 276, 296 Gentle, 41, 66, 104, 127, 128, 214, 284 Glorious, 61, 82, 119 Glory, 76 Goal, 10, 11, 19, 31, 32, 86, 99, 104, 105, 112, 114, 118, 204, 242, 268 God, 2, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 13, 14, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 70, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 86, 87, 91, 95, 96, 98, 114, 115, 116, 117, 124, 133, 170, 197, 201, 204, 207, 209, 211, 212, 213, 217, 255, 268, 269, 272, 273, 277, 279, 297 Gold, 27, 29, 52, 92, 107, 109, 113, 122, 130, 151, 152, 154, 158, 161, 162, 195, 201, 223, 224, 225 Golden, 1, 63, 77, 101, 107, 109, 110, 113, 130, 131, 135, 137, 171, 173, 177, 181, 182, 184, 195, 201, 216, 228, 282, 286 Good, 3, 14, 15, 20, 23, 24, 25, 26, 28, 37, 40, 41, 42, 44, 45, 46, 48, 49, 51, 53, 55, 58, 60, 61, 63, 68, 72, 75, 76, 77, 91, 95, 97, 114, 116, 117, 118, 119, 129, 130, 132, 133, 147, 182, 187, 188, 197, 208, 214, 227, 239, 251, 286, 296, 298 Grace, 47, 52, 148, 203 Grave, 42, 66, 74, 75, 96, 98, 136, 148, 182, 195, 200, 213, 219, 276, 277 Greed, 241, 299

Longing, Weakness and Temptation: From Myth to Artistic Creations Guide, 112, 115, 116 Guilt, 25, 27, 31, 34, 41, 60, 61, 66, 67, 73, 74, 75, 97, 115, 121, 125, 134, 172, 173, 182, 184, 196, 198, 201, 202, 203, 204, 207, 209, 210, 214, 215, 216, 220, 234, 237, 240, 246, 251, 252, 268, 269, 292 Guilty, 46, 62, 66, 68, 74, 75, 87, 210, 217, 269 Happen, 4, 62, 80, 93, 99, 128 Happiness, 2, 21, 64, 77, 91, 204, 206, 216, 217, 224, 234, 235, 268, 281 Happy, 14, 47, 61, 77, 94, 183, 208, 210, 212, 216, 217, 224, 283 Harbour, 142, 158, 161, 227 Harmony, 25, 72, 87, 88, 117, 130, 268 Hate, 47, 54 Hatred, 4, 42, 43, 64, 65, 68, 79, 214 Head, 12, 46, 66, 77, 95, 96, 106, 109, 110, 126, 127, 135, 137, 161, 207, 224, 282 Health, 162, 167, 218, 232 Heart, 2, 27, 28, 33, 34, 37, 41, 47, 54, 57, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 103, 104, 105, 110, 113, 126, 137, 162, 167, 194, 195, 196, 197, 199, 200, 202, 203, 208, 213, 215, 216, 227, 245, 277, 292 Heaven, 26, 27, 52, 86, 103, 164, 170, 182, 218, 219 Heavenly, 14, 104, 110, 268 Hell, 197, 200, 251 Hero, 1, 29, 81, 87, 90, 91, 111, 114, 129, 135, 137, 139, 141, 162, 169, 221, 223, 232, 241, 249, 283 Holy, 39, 98, 136, 276, 279, 283 Home, 27, 31, 43, 45, 46, 47, 52, 64, 71, 75, 77, 92, 93, 107, 109, 119, 120, 123, 127, 129, 131, 132, 135, 136, 137, 138, 139, 142, 147, 151, 162, 165, 166, 167, 171, 172, 173, 176, 179, 180, 181, 182, 184, 189, 194, 195, 197, 198, 199, 200, 202,

311

203, 207, 209, 212, 213, 215, 219, 220, 222, 223, 224, 225, 228, 232, 233, 234, 235, 236, 237, 249, 287, 298 Honest, 72, 79, 85, 91, 96, 133, 197, 208, 210 Honesty, 57, 147, 148, 209 Honour, 22, 42, 65, 124, 209, 268, 276 Honourable, 277 Hope, 39, 53, 92, 97, 98, 104, 105, 115, 119, 141, 190, 200, 281 Hopeless, 77, 82, 183, 189, 196, 202, 215 Horizon, 293 Horrific, 72, 78, 131, 183, 189 Horror, 67, 102, 198 Horse, 47, 137, 151, 152, 288 House, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 48, 51, 52, 57, 62, 70, 90, 91, 125, 126, 132, 166, 188, 206, 212, 213, 215, 216, 218, 219, 222, 274 Human, ix, x, 1, 4, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 20, 21, 22, 24, 26, 29, 30, 31, 32, 34, 35, 36, 38, 39, 40, 44, 54, 55, 59, 60, 63, 67, 68, 78, 79, 80, 83, 84, 86, 88, 91, 107, 109, 111, 113, 114, 115, 116, 117, 120, 122, 129, 130, 132, 168, 178, 189, 196, 201, 204, 211, 214, 218, 219, 221, 226, 227, 229, 231, 232, 236, 239, 241, 242, 245, 246, 250, 267, 268, 269, 277, 280, 282, 283, 285, 287, 295, 296, 297 Humanity, 1, 28, 99 Humankind, 1, 8, 13, 29, 30, 34, 114, 115, 286 Humans, 2, 8, 9, 10, 24, 91, 114, 115, 218, 220, 245 Humiliation, 83 Hurt, 73, 74, 200 Husband, 13, 24, 31, 32, 43, 45, 46, 50, 51, 52, 68, 72, 84, 90, 93, 119, 123, 125, 128, 131, 132, 136, 137, 141, 142, 148, 151, 152, 154, 158, 159, 161, 162, 165, 166, 167, 171,

312

Index of Subjects

172, 173, 176, 177, 178, 180, 182, 187, 188, 189, 191, 194, 195, 196, 198, 199, 200, 201, 202, 203, 205, 206, 208, 209, 210, 211, 212, 213, 214, 215, 217, 219, 221, 222, 223, 224, 228, 233, 234, 235, 236, 237, 239, 247, 248, 250, 251, 252, 277, 291, 292 Hypocritical, 236 Idea, 39, 50, 60, 71, 72, 84, 87, 88, 216, 297 Ideal, 38, 39, 40, 81, 86, 87, 105, 213, 246, 268 Ideological, 5 Illness, 43, 71, 167, 196 Imperfect, 10, 26 Inability, 25, 30, 189 Incomprehensible, 115, 214, 272 Individual, 14, 19, 30, 32, 34, 35, 36, 37, 48, 59, 63, 82, 86, 87, 113, 114, 115, 116, 117, 119, 121, 123, 138, 189, 205, 220, 223, 229, 235, 246, 251, 267, 268, 280, 282, 283, 288, 292, 295, 296 Influence, ix, 6, 8, 14, 17, 38, 88, 99, 115, 130, 220, 221, 245, 247, 273, 284, 292, 296 Injustice, 57, 58, 64, 73 Innocence, 21, 58, 170 Innocent, 44, 45, 58, 69, 74, 75, 81, 96, 129, 130, 139, 242, 251 Insidious, 58 Instance, 6, 31, 69 Insult, 43, 65, 87, 222 Insults, 65, 85 Irony, 13, 14, 201, 215, 228, 281 Irrational, 61, 210, 211 Jail, 51, 58, 68, 74, 84, 136, 138 Jealous, 38, 70, 79, 211, 223 Jealousy, 37, 40, 41, 55, 62, 86, 211, 223, 224 Joy, 77, 79, 97, 194, 208, 218, 241 Judge, 46, 89, 236, 269 Judgement, 26, 27, 29, 42, 56, 59, 67, 81, 94, 116, 178, 202, 214, 229

Just, 40, 43, 44, 46, 49, 55, 62, 66, 72, 73, 76, 77, 87, 112, 113, 127, 130, 132, 161, 178, 179, 182, 184, 198, 199, 207, 210, 214, 218, 221, 222, 223, 225, 234, 235, 239, 240, 284, 298 Justice, 69, 73, 117, 198, 216, 270 Justified, 11 Keep, 23, 33, 34, 75, 128, 134, 207, 208, 268 Kill, 28, 45, 46, 47, 50, 85, 124, 210 Kind, 7, 17, 74, 82, 88 Kiss, 62, 83, 206 Knife, 57 Know, 7, 9, 11, 24, 32, 33, 36, 45, 46, 58, 64, 69, 70, 71, 75, 76, 81, 114, 115, 123, 181, 195, 196, 200, 201, 206, 209, 210, 211, 212, 213, 215, 226, 297 Land, 38, 45, 48, 52, 56, 63, 66, 67, 73, 76, 120, 124, 125, 128, 134, 136, 140, 148, 165, 166, 172, 191, 217, 224, 231, 249, 289 Law, 39, 45, 48, 69, 71, 147, 148, 152, 166, 210, 211, 272 Lecture, 11, 91, 221, 298 Letter, 35, 125 Level, 15, 30, 76, 78, 80, 168, 173, 217, 232, 236, 240, 270, 293, 296 Lie, 42, 43, 51, 83, 125, 126, 176, 177, 183, 189, 197, 209 Life, 1, 2, 7, 13, 14, 22, 23, 25, 26, 28, 29, 31, 34, 35, 37, 42, 48, 49, 53, 54, 55, 59, 60, 64, 66, 67, 68, 69, 74, 75, 76, 77, 79, 80, 84, 85, 88, 91, 96, 97, 100, 106, 110, 111, 112, 113, 114, 115, 117, 124, 129, 136, 137, 138, 139, 140, 167, 171, 173, 178, 189, 190, 191, 194, 197, 198, 202, 203, 204, 206, 207, 210, 211, 212, 215, 217, 218, 219, 220, 222, 223, 224, 225, 227, 228, 229, 232, 233, 234, 235, 236, 237, 238, 239, 240, 241, 242, 245, 267, 268, 272, 274, 276, 277, 280, 282, 283, 288, 291, 294, 296, 297, 298, 299

Longing, Weakness and Temptation: From Myth to Artistic Creations Light, 14, 32, 56, 67, 82, 89, 96, 103, 117, 130, 178, 201, 207, 217, 218, 236, 269 Literature, ix, x, 11, 1, 3, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 19, 22, 28, 30, 32, 38, 88, 89, 116, 121, 122, 124, 173, 205, 215, 216, 231, 235, 240, 241, 246, 247, 248, 258, 262, 271, 277, 283, 286, 292, 295, 296, 298, 299 Living, 21, 25, 29, 77, 86, 91, 95, 98, 130, 133, 184, 212, 213, 214, 220, 222, 225, 228, 229, 268 Local, 12, 105, 138, 246 Loneliness, 69, 129, 170, 178, 217, 233, 237 Lonely, 166, 234, 245 Longing, ix, x, 11, 1, 2, 3, 9, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 20, 22, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 35, 70, 71, 82, 88, 89, 99, 105, 106, 110, 111, 112, 115, 119, 121, 128, 129, 178, 182, 184, 189, 198, 199, 201, 202, 203, 204, 206, 214, 216, 217, 218, 219, 220, 221, 222, 224, 226, 233, 236, 237, 240, 241, 245, 246, 248, 250, 251, 291, 292 Lord, 9, 51, 57, 58, 66, 75, 158, 179, 182, 195, 201, 231, 237 Love, xii, 1, 2, 32, 34, 38, 39, 43, 47, 48, 50, 51, 54, 57, 58, 64, 66, 68, 69, 70, 71, 73, 75, 76, 79, 85, 89, 90, 94, 99, 100, 102, 103, 104, 105, 110, 111, 112, 113, 115, 126, 128, 129, 131, 138, 141, 152, 154, 164, 165, 166, 167, 173, 178, 182, 196, 199, 200, 201, 203, 205, 207, 210, 211, 212, 213, 214, 215, 216, 217, 228, 229, 232, 236, 239, 242, 247, 248, 249, 268, 274, 277, 278, 281, 282, 283, 292, 296 Loving, 42, 64, 68, 72, 92, 105, 111, 112, 129, 137, 167, 200, 206, 208, 249 Lovingly, 104, 276 Mad, 207, 214

313

Malicious, 47, 112 Man, 2, 3, 7, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 38, 39, 43, 44, 45, 47, 48, 51, 52, 54, 56, 58, 59, 60, 62, 63, 66, 67, 69, 70, 71, 75, 76, 77, 79, 81, 83, 84, 87, 88, 89, 92, 94, 104, 105, 106, 111, 112, 113, 114, 115, 117, 122, 125, 126, 128, 129, 130, 133, 136, 138, 139, 152, 154, 166, 171, 172, 176, 182, 194, 195, 196, 199, 200, 202, 205, 206, 207, 208, 210, 211, 214, 215, 217, 224, 227, 231, 235, 240, 241, 245, 248, 251, 267, 268, 269, 270, 272, 273, 276, 279, 280, 282, 286, 292, 295 Manifest, 10, 11, 50, 52, 56, 57, 114, 276 Manner, 34, 37, 54, 60, 67, 79, 82, 83, 87, 106, 116, 120, 133, 198, 203, 212, 220, 224, 241, 246, 268, 280, 288 Market, 154, 159, 284 Marriage, 30, 69, 93, 124, 138, 139, 166, 170, 172, 205, 206, 211, 212, 214, 233, 282 Marry, 50, 125, 138, 161, 162, 164, 200, 205, 213, 237, 247 Masculine, 71 Master, 11, 14, 38, 41, 42, 43, 45, 51, 52, 53, 57, 68, 71, 81, 84 Mean, 15, 26, 30, 69, 95, 219, 250, 251, 269, 270 Meet, 4, 98, 118, 213, 227, 250 Memories, 189, 216, 286 Memory, 16, 51, 54, 123, 138, 205, 220, 222, 237, 245, 249, 250, 282, 295 Mercy, 29, 39, 43, 58, 59, 82, 96, 115, 158, 170, 183, 214, 216 Midnight, 92, 107, 109 Mighty, 34, 49, 75, 106, 164, 235, 248 Mind, 6, 7, 12, 27, 28, 62, 64, 70, 71, 76 Misery, 98

314

Index of Subjects

Mission, 32, 33, 41, 64, 67, 84, 85, 90 Mistress, 51, 52, 69, 71, 72, 179, 211, 213, 233, 236, 289 Mocking, 223, 224, 239 Money, 74, 136, 151, 152, 161, 162, 170, 233 Moral, ix, 2, 7, 8, 22, 37, 38, 39, 59, 84, 90, 116, 117, 137, 198, 202, 250, 251, 295, 296 Morality, 10, 40, 90, 117, 167, 172, 196, 209 Mother, 23, 25, 44, 45, 46, 66, 74, 77, 92, 93, 94, 96, 97, 98, 120, 121, 128, 131, 132, 136, 138, 140, 141, 142, 147, 148, 152, 162, 165, 166, 167, 168, 169, 170, 171, 172, 181, 182, 191, 209, 211, 215, 222, 229, 231, 232, 233, 234, 235, 237, 238, 240, 242, 246, 251, 274, 276, 291, 296 Motif, ix, x, 11, 2, 4, 7, 11, 23, 28, 29, 47, 48, 54, 89, 90, 100, 105, 106, 110, 116, 120, 122, 124, 127, 130, 131, 135, 136, 137, 140, 141, 142, 148, 154, 165, 167, 168, 170, 171, 172, 173, 205, 212, 215, 219, 220, 221, 231, 232, 233, 234, 235, 239, 243, 246, 248, 251, 277, 286, 292, 295, 296, 299 Mountain, 128, 219, 268 Murder, 42, 48, 210, 214, 215, 276, 277 Mysterious, 75, 78, 80, 84, 110, 113, 140, 197, 218 Mystery, 22, 29, 117, 119, 268 Naked, 24, 51, 71, 103, 104, 114, 222 Name, 4, 25, 44, 51, 72, 74, 105, 133, 223, 249, 280, 281, 294 Narrow, 10, 63, 115, 229, 289 Nation, 2, 11, 12, 67, 220, 221, 225, 226, 228, 229, 235, 250, 294, 298 National, 2, 8, 88, 90, 99, 122, 140, 171, 228, 235, 247, 248, 285 Natural, 1, 2, 10, 12, 32, 53, 112,

130, 198, 225, 272, 278, 294 Nature, 3, 9, 10, 11, 14, 15, 22, 23, 29, 30, 31, 32, 40, 69, 71, 72, 75, 82, 84, 85, 111, 116, 119, 129, 130, 133, 172, 178, 189, 199, 201, 211, 214, 228, 238, 241, 245, 268, 279, 280, 285, 295, 299 Near, 4, 16, 38, 47, 62, 76, 93, 97, 109, 126, 127, 132, 134, 136, 161, 170, 173, 182, 205, 211, 213, 222, 287, 288, 289, 293 Need, 11, 34, 72, 92, 116, 178, 207, 216, 221, 229, 238, 239, 269, 280 Neighbour, 92, 138, 221 Noble, 43, 47, 57, 135, 142, 161, 178, 200, 211, 232, 233, 239, 283 Obedience, 7, 8, 10, 39, 64, 196 Objective, 88 Obtain, 32, 274 Obvious, 59, 189, 196 Old, 44, 63, 73, 74, 75, 77, 85, 97, 101, 119, 120, 121, 122, 130, 131, 133, 134, 165, 172, 173, 176, 177, 178, 182, 184, 186, 187, 194, 196, 212, 216, 218, 221, 222, 223, 224, 225, 226, 234, 235, 236, 238, 239, 246, 249, 250, 272, 276, 277, 284, 285, 286, 293 Opponent, 167 Opportunity, 92 Opposition, 37, 82, 84, 85, 117, 165, 167, 214, 229, 237, 251, 296 Order, 2, 3, 4, 8, 9, 10, 12, 17, 23, 30, 32, 33, 36, 37, 38, 41, 44, 45, 46, 50, 51, 52, 66, 68, 74, 78, 88, 93, 97, 115, 122, 123, 138, 148, 159, 170, 191, 197, 198, 208, 211, 213, 219, 221, 222, 225, 245, 247, 267, 269, 276, 277 Original, 16, 21, 31, 39, 49, 60, 80, 88, 90, 100, 102, 116, 122, 123, 140, 141, 142, 148, 154, 159, 163, 165, 168, 191, 204, 228, 232, 238, 250, 265, 280, 288, 290, 293, 299 Overcome, 3, 9, 24, 41, 43, 53, 66, 69, 74, 82, 83, 84, 89, 92, 99, 112,

Longing, Weakness and Temptation: From Myth to Artistic Creations 133, 169, 173, 182, 208, 218, 236, 237, 241, 245, 246, 291 Overwhelmed, 97 Pain, 69, 91, 95, 98, 101, 123, 172, 183, 184, 189, 199, 200, 202, 206, 210, 215, 216, 217, 234, 241, 245, 246, 283, 295 Paradise, 1, 21, 28, 114, 178, 201, 246, 267 Parents, 30, 128, 164, 165, 166, 206, 248 Passage, 13, 15, 23, 43, 55, 183 Passion, 48, 51, 69, 80, 81, 83, 85, 86, 90, 110, 113, 203, 204, 208, 212, 213, 242, 251, 279 Passionate, 81, 211 Patience, 49, 51, 284 Peace, 31, 52, 63, 77, 124, 128, 199, 204 Peaceful, 38, 83, 101, 212, 238 Penance, 95 People, 3, 5, 7, 10, 11, 13, 26, 32, 34, 37, 44, 53, 54, 56, 61, 62, 63, 67, 68, 76, 79, 80, 90, 114, 120, 123, 124, 125, 129, 138, 141, 164, 184, 196, 209, 210, 222, 226, 227, 229, 231, 232, 237, 246, 249, 250, 251, 265, 269, 271, 292, 294, 298 Perfection, 31, 82, 115, 296 Person, 3, 4, 5, 24, 32, 34, 36, 41, 71, 87, 90, 118, 129, 170, 202, 206, 216, 217, 218, 220, 235, 239, 242, 268, 282, 294 Personal, 2, 11, 69, 88, 90, 100, 110, 113, 190, 196, 203, 204, 215, 216, 220, 222, 229, 232, 237, 239, 242, 268, 280, 281, 292, 297, 298 Philosopher, 3, 91, 296 Philosophy, 1, 5, 22, 99, 100, 281, 295 Physical, 63, 69, 71, 84, 87, 112, 115, 117, 118, 124, 138, 172, 173, 189, 203, 216, 217, 218, 236, 239, 241, 251, 279, 280, 285, 296, 297 Pilgrim, 136, 288 Place, x, 2, 23, 29, 30, 36, 38, 41,

315

43, 46, 59, 62, 65, 69, 76, 82, 85, 125, 129, 133, 134, 136, 147, 148, 152, 154, 159, 170, 187, 191, 196, 205, 208, 213, 215, 218, 220, 221, 236, 286 Play, 8, 22, 63, 79, 104, 105, 111, 211, 217, 228, 281, 288 Please, 154 Poem, 30, 73, 85, 100, 101, 102, 104, 105, 106, 110, 111, 112, 113, 134, 142, 144, 156, 158, 165, 171, 172, 178, 182, 184, 191, 196, 198, 199, 200, 201, 202, 203, 204, 205, 215, 219, 250, 258, 270, 274, 281, 282, 288, 292, 294, 296, 297 Political, 5, 15, 37, 61, 285, 299 Politician, 53, 54 Poor, 63, 72, 94, 109, 114, 131, 136, 147, 170, 177, 183, 195, 201, 213, 214, 219, 228, 229, 233, 246, 250 Portray, 40, 53, 203, 216, 218 Portrayal, 198, 202, 216 Position, xi, 7, 73, 76, 85, 114, 116, 122, 172, 196, 220, 227, 233, 240, 242, 251, 288, 292 Possibility, 12, 26, 35, 39, 62, 86, 87, 91, 139, 197, 198, 202, 232, 296 Poverty, 136, 235, 250 Power, x, 1, 10, 20, 22, 28, 29, 30, 34, 36, 37, 39, 41, 49, 56, 63, 86, 87, 101, 110, 111, 112, 117, 127, 167, 229, 236, 245, 246, 268, 270, 282, 284, 296, 297 Prayer, 46, 49, 65, 136, 138 Precious, 93, 120, 122, 141, 142, 167, 171, 173, 231, 232, 276 Premature, 213 Premonition, 61, 72 Pressed, 228 Pride, 26, 33, 174, 175, 192, 193 Priest, 208, 209, 210, 277 Primacy, 14 Primary, x, 10, 12, 51, 55, 59, 88, 99, 119, 182, 189, 191, 205, 206, 240, 268, 293, 298

316

Index of Subjects

Principle, 10, 19, 91, 280 Problem, 94, 204, 229, 295, 296 Profound, ix, 1, 78, 79, 85, 99, 167, 168, 178, 200, 211, 213, 237 Profoundly, 38, 76, 85, 86, 118, 272 Proud, 1, 27, 47, 64, 83, 225 Psychological, 2, 3, 12, 21, 24, 37, 38, 41, 55, 59, 61, 65, 68, 69, 71, 72, 79, 80, 122, 203, 210, 216, 228, 231, 235, 239, 240, 251, 268, 285, 286, 294, 299 Punishment, 23, 25, 26, 33, 44, 45, 66, 68, 70, 84, 196, 198, 235, 296 Pupil, 268, 291 Pure, 103, 105, 129, 148, 171, 216, 245, 251, 252, 285, 296 Purpose, 15, 16, 26, 33, 69, 238, 266, 269 Quiet, 181, 203, 207, 217 Real, 33, 46, 80, 81, 86, 99, 106, 120, 124, 133, 208, 216, 217, 226, 228, 235, 236, 242, 272, 294, 299 Reality, 13, 16, 19, 59, 60, 61, 65, 80, 83, 86, 99, 111, 120, 121, 172, 196, 200, 204, 215, 217, 218, 227, 229, 233, 239, 240, 241, 266, 272, 279 Realizing, 42, 136, 213 Realm, 12, 66, 189, 198, 230, 239, 241, 251, 270, 286 Reason, 6, 7, 8, 19, 26, 27, 37, 38, 39, 43, 44, 53, 58, 62, 71, 79, 83, 115, 130, 138, 154, 182, 189, 196, 198, 201, 204, 210, 214, 217, 226, 243, 245, 291, 294, 295 Recognition, 19, 20, 24, 26, 31, 33, 58, 60, 73, 117, 152, 183, 184, 189, 200, 201, 219, 229, 283, 295, 296 Reconciliation, 41, 44, 60, 62, 74, 77, 80, 81, 82, 88 Redemption, 8, 26, 30, 119, 219, 296 Reflection, 115, 205 Regard, 15, 31, 35, 36, 39, 43, 51, 60, 66, 69, 72, 80, 130, 205, 267,

295 Relation, ix, 5, 8, 26, 27, 32, 38, 39, 51, 60, 116, 120, 173, 178, 196, 203, 209, 211, 223, 236, 245, 246, 248, 270, 280, 297, 298 Relationship, 2, 3, 5, 11, 12, 14, 15, 64, 72, 89, 105, 215, 274 Religion, 8, 19, 29, 270, 283, 286, 297 Religious, x, 2, 5, 6, 14, 16, 19, 32, 37, 60, 80, 82, 86, 117, 204, 246, 274, 279 Remember, 32, 218, 225 Repent, 31 Report, 25, 28, 31, 47, 57, 123, 132, 133, 277 Represent, 7, 8, 57, 111, 179 Resist, 1, 54, 65, 124, 249 Resistance, 43, 78, 171, 172, 190, 206, 214, 233, 234 Respect, 5, 23, 35, 38, 48, 51, 71, 211, 227 Responsibility, 2, 13, 25, 31, 43, 117, 196, 199, 234, 292 Responsible, 10, 69, 202 Result, 5, 6, 10, 17, 31, 32, 34, 41, 42, 60, 71, 72, 84, 90, 114, 115, 116, 196, 198, 200, 229, 251, 295 Resurrection, 29, 182, 219, 277 Reveal, 31, 59, 70, 197, 199, 218 Revelation, 9, 33, 62, 64, 209, 227, 283 Revenge, 4, 40, 43, 47, 55, 62, 63, 68, 77, 83, 85, 86, 87, 132, 137, 209, 210, 215, 282 Reward, 136 Rich, 55, 73, 114, 141, 142, 164, 170, 179, 190, 215, 217, 229, 233, 235, 236, 238, 246, 250 Richness, 61, 121, 217, 235, 239, 240, 250, 251 Right, 14, 62, 75, 76, 82, 92, 107, 109, 125, 127, 128, 147, 151, 152, 169, 207, 213, 223, 224, 226, 251, 276, 280, 296 Righteous, 4, 6, 7, 11, 37, 47, 54, 56

Longing, Weakness and Temptation: From Myth to Artistic Creations Rise, 3, 19, 40, 41, 46, 61, 62, 65, 66, 67, 68, 72, 78, 81, 110, 114, 130, 136, 173, 182, 206, 226, 241, 248 Role, x, 2, 10, 30, 31, 39, 40, 53, 55, 56, 59, 60, 61, 65, 68, 71, 79, 84, 87, 90, 128, 138, 142, 152, 199, 207, 220, 222, 226, 238, 242, 248, 278, 295 Rule, 269, 280 Sacred, 38, 39, 40, 80, 86, 87, 283, 298 Sacrifice, 50, 76, 81, 85, 139, 148, 203, 204, 239 Sad, 67, 101, 102, 112, 183, 226, 227 Sadness, 41, 43, 136, 167, 169, 171, 172, 198, 213, 234, 242 Saint, 256 Salvation, 31, 139, 271 Satire, 27 Satisfaction, 217, 222, 268, 280 School, 220, 226, 280, 288 Self, 1, 8, 13, 15, 41, 54, 64, 65, 66, 72, 80, 81, 84, 85, 86, 113, 139, 203, 204, 207, 208, 222, 235, 239, 266, 268, 271, 296, 297 Selfish, 207 Selfishness, 235 Sensation, 91, 117 Sense, 2, 5, 7, 11, 13, 14, 16, 20, 26, 31, 37, 38, 39, 42, 55, 65, 71, 73, 75, 78, 79, 80, 81, 83, 85, 87, 88, 89, 94, 97, 111, 115, 116, 117, 118, 129, 154, 166, 171, 189, 198, 203, 204, 209, 214, 215, 218, 223, 226, 227, 228, 229, 234, 239, 241, 242, 245, 246, 247, 251, 276, 283, 292, 294, 295, 296, 298 Senseless, 218 Senses, 59, 80, 89, 94, 97, 100, 110, 117, 118, 189, 209, 216, 217, 218, 219, 220, 221, 224, 226, 237, 295 Sensitive, 39, 87, 129, 238, 283 Serpent, 8, 24, 25, 70, 94, 268 Serve, 43, 50, 69, 72, 94, 123, 137,

317

171, 272 Sexual, 84, 85, 90, 237, 241, 242, 247, 268, 285 Sexuality, 72, 203, 239, 241 Shame, 8, 25, 31, 32, 44, 47, 48, 52, 69, 71, 96, 126, 210, 215, 220, 226, 227, 228, 234, 235, 242, 246 Shameful, 9 Sickness, 43, 200, 218 Silent, 36, 38, 40, 54, 74, 78, 109, 119, 126, 167, 169, 208, 234 Sin, 1, 6, 9, 10, 21, 25, 34, 35, 42, 48, 52, 67, 71, 74, 88, 95, 96, 110, 114, 125, 146, 149, 170, 178, 183, 185, 186, 192, 210, 218, 228, 236, 251, 272, 297 Sinful, 34, 296 Sinfulness, 115 Sinner, 8, 95, 178, 234 Sinners, 57, 269 Sister, 43, 93, 97, 126, 130, 136, 147, 148, 151, 152, 170, 184, 222, 238, 242, 247, 287 Sit, 27, 128 Sky, 104, 131, 288 Sleep, 23, 42, 45, 47, 83, 162, 194, 199, 206, 208, 216, 217, 242 Societal, 59, 79, 168, 203, 205, 232, 276, 299 Society, 10, 60, 117, 214, 268 Sole, 39, 80, 81, 238 Solidarity, 31, 32, 35, 52, 88 Son, 7, 26, 31, 38, 40, 41, 43, 45, 47, 50, 56, 64, 76, 77, 90, 126, 128, 130, 131, 132, 138, 147, 148, 162, 171, 179, 181, 182, 183, 184, 187, 188, 189, 194, 195, 196, 197, 199, 200, 202, 210, 211, 214, 219, 221, 222, 236, 237, 238, 276 Song, 12, 97, 99, 100, 103, 104, 105, 113, 119, 120, 122, 123, 129, 132, 135, 136, 137, 139, 142, 148, 152, 153, 154, 159, 162, 163, 164, 165, 167, 169, 170, 171, 173, 177, 178, 179, 182, 184, 188, 189, 194, 212, 214, 218, 221, 224, 228, 232,

318

Index of Subjects

233, 234, 235, 239, 270, 281, 285, 286, 287, 288, 289, 290, 292, 293 Soul, 21, 31, 37, 40, 48, 49, 58, 59, 61, 64, 66, 70, 79, 82, 86, 87, 95, 96, 104, 106, 115, 117, 118, 190, 201, 217, 231, 241, 242, 250, 277, 282, 295, 296, 297 Source, xii, 10, 11, 16, 21, 34, 39, 44, 51, 59, 69, 119, 120, 147, 196, 229, 242, 249, 272, 273, 285, 295 Speak, 4, 16, 23, 29, 30, 32, 35, 37, 38, 40, 41, 46, 49, 50, 62, 63, 67, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 79, 80, 81, 83, 84, 93, 99, 106, 114, 123, 124, 125, 126, 130, 131, 134, 136, 138, 139, 148, 162, 165, 171, 172, 178, 198, 199, 202, 208, 211, 221, 226, 233, 238, 245, 246, 247, 248, 268, 269, 270, 282, 283, 285, 286, 296, 299 Speaking, 36, 118, 189, 287 Spirit, 38, 44, 50, 51, 54, 59, 61, 63, 72, 73, 75, 79, 81, 82, 84, 87, 115, 117, 130, 204, 216, 250, 274, 279, 280, 283, 295 Spiritual, 8, 14, 21, 32, 37, 38, 40, 44, 53, 54, 55, 57, 59, 60, 72, 82, 83, 84, 85, 87, 113, 115, 116, 117, 118, 138, 168, 173, 190, 196, 202, 203, 204, 205, 206, 214, 216, 218, 219, 220, 228, 232, 234, 235, 236, 241, 250, 251, 279, 280, 281, 296, 297 Splendid, 93, 141, 224 Stand, 7, 47, 89, 95, 97, 127, 218, 246, 267 Stay, 46, 136, 212, 214 Stem, 48, 51, 65, 119, 124 Step, 29, 71, 83, 158, 269, 281 Stick, 136 Stone, 29, 75, 224, 277 Stop, 50, 101, 134, 135, 181, 184, 202, 226 Story, ix, 1, 4, 8, 9, 10, 14, 21, 22, 23, 25, 26, 29, 30, 31, 33, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 46, 48, 49,

50, 51, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 73, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 83, 84, 85, 89, 90, 91, 101, 106, 114, 115, 116, 117, 121, 122, 125, 126, 129, 170, 171, 178, 201, 209, 210, 211, 214, 215, 216, 221, 223, 225, 226, 234, 236, 237, 238, 239, 240, 246, 247, 267, 270, 271, 272, 273, 274, 276, 278, 280, 281, 283, 288, 297, 299 Stranger, 62, 133, 134, 190, 287 Strength, 11, 29, 31, 35, 43, 45, 53, 55, 61, 65, 81, 82, 84, 85, 89, 90, 96, 114, 115, 116, 117, 207, 217, 242, 249, 276, 280, 291 Strong, 1, 6, 11, 89, 90, 107, 197, 198, 199, 202, 203, 214, 220, 238 Struggle, 70, 124, 130, 138, 227, 228, 235, 249, 274, 298 Study, ix, x, xi, 2, 3, 12, 15, 16, 19, 39, 59, 60, 88, 89, 120, 246, 247, 248, 287 Sublime, 91, 203, 271 Subsequent, 10, 50, 196 Succeed, 84, 137 Success, 28, 35, 54, 72, 221, 289 Successful, 43, 67, 79, 83, 122, 238, 289 Suffer, 31, 76, 87, 212, 217, 271, 285, 297 Suffering, 1, 7, 11, 38, 42, 66, 70, 74, 140, 167, 173, 178, 200, 201, 202, 203, 210, 211, 214, 216, 217, 218, 219, 234, 235, 241, 251, 252, 277, 284 Suggest, 69, 89, 205 Suggestion, 43, 50, 52, 75, 136, 278 Suicide, 84, 86 Sun, 41, 56, 65, 101, 109, 130, 131, 176, 181, 182, 183, 184, 188, 189, 194, 199, 200, 202, 219, 225, 277, 288, 292 Survive, 152, 165, 199, 207 Sweet, 69, 101, 102, 112, 115, 181, 183, 194, 222

Longing, Weakness and Temptation: From Myth to Artistic Creations Sweetness, 218, 280 Symbol, ix, x, 2, 11, 30, 39, 53, 87, 91, 112, 217, 219, 221, 228, 241, 249, 250, 281, 283, 294 Symbolic, 11, 75, 99, 111, 120, 122, 124, 189, 198, 242, 246, 250, 251, 276 Symbolism, 38, 90, 99, 182, 215, 298 Sympathy, 13, 70, 72, 222 Table, 107, 109, 137, 206, 207, 274 Task, 16, 45, 77, 227 Teacher, 93 Temptation, ix, x, 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 20, 21, 22, 24, 25, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 40, 45, 47, 49, 51, 53, 55, 57, 58, 68, 70, 84, 88, 89, 90, 99, 102, 106, 110, 111, 112, 114, 115, 117, 119, 121, 124, 125, 126, 129, 137, 141, 172, 178, 197, 206, 221, 223, 225, 226, 233, 234, 235, 237, 238, 239, 240, 241, 242, 245, 246, 247, 251, 292, 299 Tendency, 38, 40, 53 Think, 31, 48, 62, 74, 76, 98, 99, 118, 207, 213, 219, 224, 226 Thinking, 34, 35, 36, 64, 68, 101, 212, 225, 226, 251, 283 Thought, 3, 4, 5, 37, 38, 39, 51, 55, 61, 66, 68, 71, 77, 80, 81, 92, 96, 115, 166, 173, 208, 216, 219, 226, 227, 238, 276, 281, 285, 297 Threat, 25, 26, 41, 65, 117, 268 Threatened, 227, 284 Time, ix, 1, 5, 11, 27, 28, 38, 42, 43, 46, 52, 54, 55, 57, 60, 61, 62, 66, 67, 68, 69, 72, 74, 77, 78, 79, 88, 94, 96, 98, 99, 114, 115, 120, 124, 125, 127, 131, 133, 136, 137, 138, 147, 162, 167, 169, 172, 177, 184, 190, 191, 196, 198, 204, 205, 206, 212, 213, 216, 219, 220, 221, 222, 223, 227, 229, 235, 237, 239, 241, 246, 247, 249, 250, 251, 252, 268, 269, 272, 276, 279, 282, 283, 284,

319

288, 289, 291, 293, 296, 299 Tongue, 47, 69 Torture, 52, 83, 85, 238 Tortured, 83, 84, 172, 233, 279 Tragedy, 4, 91, 167, 168, 198, 210, 222, 239, 249, 251, 296 Tragic, 11, 14, 22, 68, 72, 84, 91, 110, 142, 167, 172, 189, 196, 203, 210, 228, 232, 234, 239, 251, 283, 289, 291 Tried, 3, 41, 49, 50, 70, 72, 134, 198, 205, 220, 268, 283 True, 5, 13, 32, 33, 39, 64, 74, 76, 80, 89, 95, 97, 104, 105, 137, 140, 178, 199, 201, 209, 210, 214, 215, 223, 225, 228, 296 Trust, 9, 25, 54, 58, 73, 77, 141, 198, 200, 211, 213, 232, 238 Truth, 13, 33, 35, 36, 45, 46, 52, 57, 58, 69, 80, 104, 105, 121, 201, 204, 209, 224, 225, 228, 231, 240, 245, 246, 279, 296 Try, 3, 9, 49, 50, 268 Turning, 40, 116, 134, 202, 207, 219, 274 Ugly, 73 Ultimate, 10, 29, 69, 91, 114, 211 Unconscious, 12, 120, 189, 210, 228, 245, 282, 283, 298 Understand, 11, 12, 33, 35, 36, 65, 88, 226, 246, 269 Universal, ix, 1, 7, 11, 13, 14, 30, 32, 79, 121, 122, 129, 196, 205, 240, 242 Unjust, 55 Unsettling, 91 Unwillingly, 80, 206 Useful, 296 Vain, 62, 98 Value, 16, 44, 53, 55, 60, 75, 120, 168, 202, 239, 249, 280 Victim, 10, 11, 33, 45, 139, 142, 203, 208, 231, 232, 235, 237, 240, 242, 277, 279 Victory, 37, 49, 53, 55, 56, 61, 73, 81, 90, 113, 117, 227, 286

320

Index of Subjects

View, ix, 1, 7, 9, 12, 14, 31, 38, 51, 83, 90, 122, 196, 204, 205, 221, 226, 266, 268, 279, 294, 295, 296, 297, 298, 299 Violence, 10, 38, 61, 78, 86, 87, 225, 234, 285 Virtue, 5, 10, 44, 48, 68, 70, 72, 95, 115, 116, 232, 251 Vision, 56, 64, 84, 106, 107, 111, 112, 117, 214 Visit, 97, 208, 236 Visited, 210 Want, 36, 42, 71, 76, 114, 126, 131, 135, 151, 152, 162, 184, 207, 211, 212, 222, 224, 225, 226, 227, 268 War, 125, 127, 128, 137, 222, 225, 248, 251, 268 Weakness, ix, x, 2, 3, 8, 9, 11, 12, 15, 16, 24, 33, 34, 35, 81, 90, 99, 119, 121, 124, 166, 171, 197, 211, 235, 236, 237, 240, 245, 246, 292 Wealth, 27, 49 Wicked, 10, 34, 45, 51, 74, 111, 112, 169, 180, 182 Wickedness, 42 Wide, 83, 91, 115, 119, 129, 131, 134, 182, 220, 285 Widower, 206, 208 Wife, 2, 4, 9, 10, 23, 24, 25, 31, 32, 38, 40, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 56, 57, 58, 62, 64, 68, 70, 71, 72, 73, 76, 77, 79, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 89, 90, 117, 119, 121, 123, 125, 126, 128, 129, 130, 131, 136, 137, 139, 141, 142, 148, 152, 154, 162, 165, 167, 168, 170, 173, 178, 194, 209, 210, 228, 231, 232, 233, 234, 235, 236, 237, 238, 240, 247, 248, 249, 272, 273, 276, 277, 279, 280, 282, 286, 291, 296 Will, 3, 7, 8, 16, 23, 24, 25, 27, 28, 29, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 39, 45, 46, 47, 48, 50, 51, 53, 55, 56, 57, 58, 62, 66, 69, 70, 72, 75, 76, 77, 81, 85, 90, 92, 94, 96, 98, 99, 104,

105, 106, 110, 112, 115, 117, 125, 126, 129, 131, 135, 136, 137, 138, 139, 141, 147, 148, 151, 152, 158, 159, 161, 162, 165, 166, 169, 171, 173, 176, 177, 178, 181, 182, 183, 184, 187, 189, 190, 194, 195, 196, 197, 198, 199, 200, 201, 206, 207, 208, 210, 211, 212, 213, 218, 219, 221, 229, 234, 238, 245, 268, 269, 282, 284, 294 Wisdom, 1, 9, 25, 27, 28, 29, 30, 34, 56, 87, 93, 115, 116, 242, 268, 270 Wise, 24, 44, 47, 56, 94, 208, 229, 267, 274 Wish, 31, 55, 68, 75, 81, 85, 128, 164, 211, 228, 268, 270 Witness, 1, 43, 48, 57, 73, 93, 110, 120, 124, 159, 167, 171, 204, 238 Woman, 4, 10, 11, 21, 23, 24, 25, 30, 31, 32, 33, 43, 44, 45, 47, 49, 50, 51, 52, 57, 58, 69, 71, 72, 79, 83, 84, 85, 89, 90, 99, 110, 114, 115, 119, 120, 122, 123, 124, 125, 126, 127, 128, 129, 131, 132, 134, 135, 136, 138, 139, 140, 141, 142, 148, 154, 158, 159, 162, 165, 166, 167, 168, 170, 171, 172, 189, 191, 196, 203, 205, 208, 209, 211, 220, 221, 229, 231, 232, 233, 235, 236, 237, 238, 239, 240, 241, 242, 246, 247, 248, 249, 251, 268, 269, 273, 277, 280, 281, 282, 291, 292, 296 Wonder, 63, 74, 80, 116, 117, 122, 167, 240 Word, 6, 7, 13, 33, 37, 49, 50, 55, 65, 70, 71, 72, 79, 98, 117, 124, 147, 236, 269, 281, 295, 296 Words, x, 2, 3, 4, 6, 32, 43, 46, 50, 62, 63, 66, 69, 70, 71, 72, 75, 77, 80, 93, 98, 115, 123, 161, 197, 198, 199, 200, 202, 206, 211, 212, 213, 216, 218, 219, 222, 224, 226, 238, 246, 268, 276, 277, 279, 291, 299 Work, xi, 9, 12, 16, 17, 28, 38, 42,

Longing, Weakness and Temptation: From Myth to Artistic Creations 45, 48, 54, 59, 81, 82, 91, 101, 115, 117, 132, 176, 177, 191, 205, 214, 220, 222, 233, 266, 271, 274, 279, 283, 286, 294, 296 World, ix, x, 1, 2, 10, 11, 12, 14, 16, 19, 22, 27, 29, 32, 35, 37, 38, 47, 53, 55, 59, 60, 61, 64, 67, 68, 70, 75, 76, 77, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 86, 88, 89, 91, 93, 98, 99, 110, 111, 115, 116, 117, 118, 121, 124, 127, 128, 130, 131, 134, 135, 182, 190, 197,198, 200, 210, 211, 213, 216, 217, 218, 219, 220, 224, 225, 229, 240, 245, 247, 251, 270, 272, 276, 277, 279, 282, 283, 286, 294, 295, 296, 297 Worth, 65, 93, 232 Worthy, 41, 52, 54, 164, 165, 203, 213, 228, 240, 279 Wound, 28, 173 Wrath, 280

321

Writer, 7, 8, 14, 40, 64, 70, 72, 73, 74, 77, 78, 80, 81, 91, 106, 127, 220, 227, 228, 229, 235, 297, 298, 299 Wrong, 2, 4, 9, 14, 31, 45, 87, 103, 104, 126, 169, 175, 242, 298 Wrongdoing, 31, 117, 214, 224, 234 Yellow, 128, 137, 176, 177, 181, 182, 194, 199 Young, 10, 37, 38, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 52, 63, 68, 71, 79, 83, 85, 90, 95, 103, 104, 112, 120, 122, 123, 125, 126, 130, 133, 134, 135, 137, 138, 140, 141, 142, 148, 151, 158, 162, 165, 168, 169, 171, 172, 173, 178, 181, 187, 188, 189, 191, 196, 197, 203, 205, 206, 208, 211, 214, 215, 218, 221, 231, 232, 233, 234, 236, 237, 238, 241, 273, 274, 276, 280, 281 Youth, 32, 45, 68, 75, 134, 224, 274