Henry Reynolds' Mythomystes and the Continuity of Ancient Modes of Allegoresis in Seventeenth-Century England

Abstract

Henry Reynolds' Mythomystes revives the ancient Greek notion that myth is the allegorical expression of natural philosophy. While Reynolds acknowledges the common Renaissance practice of moral and psychological al-legoresis, he insists that the truth-seeking exegete must read the ancient myths as “meere matter of Nature.” Most of the examples of allegoresis in Mythomystes reflect the interpretations of the pre-Socratic philosophers, while the divine sense of the Narcissus commentary recalls the eschatology implied in some of Plato's myths. In method Reynolds' allegoreses are syncretic, like those of Philo and Origen, and etymological, like those of the Stoics. Involved in the syncretism is a sort of Euhemerism that ascribes Hebraic mortality to otherwise pagan gods. A spatial, rather than a temporal, typology is also part of Reynolds' method. The etymologies in Mythomystes resemble those in Cicero's De Natura Deorum. Though Reynolds' theory, practice, and method of allegoresis are ancient, his concern with knowledge of the secrets of nature, like Bacon's, is modern. However, Reynolds' instrument, mythological allegoresis, seeks to recover: Bacon's, induction, to discover.