What is that Monster? - Part 1

Though there is much more background information that can be delved into on the history of the emblem art form, I’m excited to get right into some analysis. This is really the exciting part of it all. For anyone who enjoys exploring a mystery or extracting the jewel of wisdom from a great secret, you can’t help but be intrigued by this. I’m doing this in parts to hopefully increase that sense of unveiling the mystery and stoke the sense of wonder and allure.

Emblem 188 from Andrea Alciato’s Emblemata 1621 edition.

I have presented this page from the 1621 edition of Alciato’s Emblemata, and the text is in Latin. For now I want to just leave you with the original page un-translated…well, I’ll give you the title which translates to “That Ignorance Must Be Banished”. Maybe you can decipher a few words, but the important thing and the approach I want to promote is to first contemplate the image—think about what you know of the sphinx, the stories, legends and other images of it you might have seen.  The image may look crude and not expertly rendered, but to me that is part of its charm. Why would the sphinx be associated with ignorance? Might the different aspects of a sphinx—its conglomeration of different animal parts—hold deeper meaning than just a fanciful beast? Maybe a good place to start in unraveling this idea of sphinx is to look at one of the earliest stories about this monster. If you aren’t familiar with the story of Oedipus and the Sphinx from Greek mythology, here’s a summary, written by Hoakley:

“When he neared Thebes, Oedipus came across the Sphinx, a ferocious beast with the head and bust of a woman, and the body of a big cat (usually a lion). The Sphinx had effectively put Thebes under siege, by refusing to let anyone past unless they successfully answered her riddle. Those who failed were killed, possibly by being flung from the nearby cliff, although some appear to have ended up providing the Sphinx with her next meal instead.

The riddle of the Sphinx was: “Which creature has one voice and yet becomes four-footed, two-footed, and three-footed?”

Oedipus correctly guessed a person (crawling infant, adult, and the elderly walking with a stick), causing the Sphinx to self-destruct, probably by throwing herself from the cliff.”
               text writtern by author, Hoakley, https://eclecticlight.co/2017/05/28/the-psychology-of-the-riddle-oedipus-and-the-sphinx/

In the following post I will provide a fully translated version of this emblem and we can breakdown what exactly is going on here, and why Alciato is linking the sphinx to ignorance; it should be interesting. And, as always, if you have any questions or comments about anything you’ve read or seen here, please feel free to comment on this post or on Facebook.