Let Us Make Gods in Our Image: Greek Myth in Medieval and Renaissance Literature

Abstract

Early in the book of John a Pharisee, Nicodemus, “came to Jesus by night.” Jesus said to Nicodemus, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.” Nicodemus was quite puzzled: “How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” (John 3:1-4). John wants us to understand, of course, that Nicodemus is puzzled because he is not illuminated. Nicodemus cannot see with the eye of the spirit; he cannot understand allegory. He is spiritually blind, limited to a merely literal understanding. This notion of seeing things with the eye of the spirit, seeing things allegorically, was widely applied during the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Consider this passage from Erasmus, where he explains how a good Christian should look not just at art, but at the world : it behooves us never to be idle, but by means of some appropriate analogy, to refer whatever assaults our senses either to the spiritual world or - a more serviceable procedure - to ethical values and that part of man which corresponds to the spiritual world…. So it will come about that anything presenting itself to the senses at any time will become for you an occasion of righteousness. When this visible sun daily refreshes your physical eyes as it bathes the earth with new light, think immediately of … that joy of a pure mind illuminated by the radiance of God…. Recollect … places in the Holy Scriptures where here and there the grace of the Holy Spirit is compared to light. If night seems dark and foreboding to you, imagine a soul deprived of divine radiance and darkened by sin….If physical beauty is pleasing to the eye, think how splendid is beauty of soul. If an ugly face seems disagreeable, remember how odious is a mind steeped in vice. ( Enchiridion : 101-3)