A

JOURNAL

OF POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY

January

1983

Volume 11 Number 1

1 25 43

Thomas Payne
Eve Adler William D.
Richardson

The Crito

as a

Mythological Mime

The Invocation to the Georgics

Melville's "Benito Cereno"; Civilization, Barbarism and Race

Marx Lenin
the Ass: a

73

Thomas G. West
Robert Sacks

and

87

The Lion
on

and

Commentary

the Book

of

Genesis (Chapters 31-34)

Book Reviews
129

Joseph M. Bessette

Bureaucrats, Policy Analysts, Statesmen:

Who Leads?
edited

by

Robert A. Goldwin

134

Robert F. Smith

Masters of International Thought Morality and Foreign Policy

and

by

Kenneth W. Thompson

interpretation
Volume
1 1

JL.

number I

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Interpretation

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The Crito

as a

Mythological Mime

Thomas Payne
Hillsdale College

The Crito begins

Crito.1

with

an

exchange of

information between Socrates

and

morning and how Crito got into the prison, he goes on to inquire why Crito did not awaken him upon entering. Answering with an oath, Crito says that he would not wish to be awakened
asks
yet

After Socrates

Crito if it is

himself if he Socrates it
would

were

in

Socrates'

situation and that

of

he

admires

sleeps

in the face

death. Socrates

responds

by

how pleasantly reminding Crito that

be unseemly for men of their age to be angry at the need of dying. The mention of death brings Crito to the point; he must tell Socrates hard and
grave news.

Socrates Crito

anticipates

Crito's it has

news
not

has

arrived.

answers that

asking if the ship from Delium arrived, but will arrive tomorrow.

by

Socrates disagrees; he believes that it Crito, who had been responding to

he knows this. Socrates
to him in a
Phthia."2

will

arrive

the

day

after

tomorrow.

Socrates'

questions, now asks

Socrates how in fertile

answers

that a

beautiful,
is

white-clad

lady, appearing

dream, has

prophesied:

"On the third

day

shalt thou arrive

The

white-clad

lady's

message
person

a second-person paraphrase of words could

spoken

by

Achilles in the first

in Iliad IX, the Embassy. Socrates

to
mean

have interpreted the dream's

in
exile

message

that in three days he

would

be

in Phthia. Instead, he
proves correct.

understands

that it means that the

he

will

die. This
the

interpretation hemlock
"fertile her

Three days
gates of

after

dream, Socrates drinks

as

and goes to

"the hateful

Hades,"

Achilles

might

say,

or to

Phthia,"

as the white-clad

lady

would

have it, if Socrates has interpreted

Socrates'

correctly.

This
erence

introductory exchange presents three contrasts. First. for being awake is contrasted with Crito's preference for being
nonphilosophic

pref

asleep;

Crito is like the

gadfly.3

Closely
of said

related

many who need the stinging to this first contrast is the second.
contrasted

of the philosophic

Socrates'

composure
calm also

in the face
plicitly his

death is

to Crito's
old

fear

of

it.

Socrates'

is

ex

to be due to
not

his

advanced

age, but it is
not.4

a reasonable contrast

result of

knowing

whether

death is

an evil or
Socrates'

The third
and

is

between Crito's
diction.5

prediction of

the time of

death

Socrates'

pre

Crito's

calculations are

based

upon

knowledge

of events outside

the

i. 2. 3. 4.

Cr.
Cr Ap. Ap.

4331-4466. 44b6.

The line from the Iliad

which

this

line

paraphrases

is

at ix.363.

3iei-io.
29a4-bl.
Socrates'

5.
\xx.

For
For

other examples of

predictive power

in the face

of

death,

see

Xen. Ap. Soc.

other examples of

angry

prediction see

//.

xvi.

85 iff.;

xxn.358ff.

2
prison,

Interpretation
Socrates'

while

prediction

is based

upon

his interpretation
to

of a

dream.

Nonetheless, Socrates is
exile.

correct; in three

His

predictive power

is

superior

to

days, he goes Crito's, if he has

Hades,

not

into

understood

the

lady
or as

correctly.

However the

lady

intended Phthia to be understood,

passage

whether as message

death

exile, her choice of a Homeric

to convey her
and

suggests

that

there is something Achilles-like in Socrates

take. His arrival at his destination
Achilles'

in the

journey

he is to

under

will

be

a sort of

homecoming, for Phthia

never saw

was

"dear

native

land."6

Achilles, however,
lady's
endeavor

Phthia again,
that

but

went

to Hades instead. In addition, the

will

message also suggests

Socrates
These

succeed

in

an

Achilles-like

in

which

Achilles failed.

suggestions and observations present a number of questions.

Is

Socrates'

superior predictive power connected with the openness towards enables

Hades

which

him to

conceive of

the

nether world as

fertile? How
can

can

Socrates in
said

the prison be

likened to Achilles in his tent? And how

Achilles
a

it be

that

Socrates
ful

was a success and

failure? Finally, if Socrates is

success

where

openness

Achilles has failed, is his superiority to Achilles toward Hades?

will address

also rooted

in his

the

This essay Crito as

itself to these
a
mime

questions

by

whole

is

of

Iliad IX in
revise

which

attempting to show that Crito and Socrates

plea that

ironically
Achilles'

re-enact and

philosophically
quarrel with of that

both the

ambassa

Achilles, giving up his

Agamemnon,
In

return

to the

battle line

and

haughty

plea.7

spurning

order to

demonstrate this, it
Achilles'

must

also

be

shown

that

Socrates'

trial

is the

equivalent of

quarrel with

Agamemnon
attempt reled.

and that

Crito's

reenactment of the role of the ambassadors

which

is

an

to reconcile Socrates to a political authority with

he had

quar

Further, Socrates, for his However,

Achilles*

part,

must

be

shown

to imitate

refusal proposal

of reconciliation escape. are

to political authority

by

his

resistance to

Crito's

for

these anticipated corollaries to the central thesis of this essay

almost

the exact opposite of the

urges

impressions

which a

first reading
verdict of

of the

dialogue creates, because Crito

nian

disobedience to the
obedience.

the Athe

jurymen
thesis

and

Socrates

argues

for

central

itself,

this essay

will

argue that the

In maintaining them and the keys to understanding this

reversal are suggested

in the three
not

contrasts of the

introductory

exchange.

The

imitation fluence
the

of

Iliad IX is

of philosophy. of

straightforward, but ironic This influence manifests itself in

exchanges

and revised
Socrates'

by

the

in
in

composure
and

face

death

and

informs the

between him
of

Crito; Achilles,
polar attitudes

however,
6. //.
7.

the chief actor of Iliad

IX, is

hater

Hades. The

ix.ioi. account of the

Homer's

Embassy

is divided into three

and

speeches,

plus an

introduction (11.
(11. 225-306).

205-224).

Odysseus is the first speaker,

it is he

who offers

Agamemnon's

gifts

He is

answered

re-enactment

Achilles (11. 307-429), who is followed by Phoenix (11 is similarly tripartite, its divisions being Crito's exhortation,

by

430-605).
Socrates'

The Crito's
and

rejoinder,

the dialogue with the

laws.

The Crito
toward death

as a

Mythological Mime
on the one

3
and of

of

Socrates,

hand,

Crito

and

Achilles,
for these

on the

other, form the

axis upon which

Socrates

Achilles'

revolutionizes

answer and conclu

thus reaps success

from it. In
avoid

order to present

the

argument

sions, and in order to

works

the awkwardness of attempting to

will

interpret two
of the

simultaneously, this essay

will

begin

with an analytical of

summary

Crito. This
the
special

be followed
of

by

discussion

the context of Iliad IX and of

return

Achilles'

significance

boastful intention to

to Phthia.

Finally,
of the

the essay

will conclude with an analysis of

the imitation

and revision

Homeric

story.

I
After Socrates tells him
tion8

about the white-clad

lady, Crito begins his

of such a sort

exhorta

by

pleading that the

impending
will

execution will work a a

twofold loss upon that

him. In the first place, Crito

lose

friend

he is

not

likely
not was

to find again; in the second, he will lose

will

face, for
used

the many, who do

know them well,

unwilling to

think Crito could have saved his the

money.

friend, but

that he

spend

The

word

by

Crito for friend is

imTrfdetog,
a

the useful one, not cbiXog, the dear one. Xenophon records how
useful

Socrates had been bad

reputation

to Crito when the sycophants

and

had threatened him

with

among the many

its

consequences.9

Again, in

the prison

this time, Socrates serves as Crito's counsellor about the opinion of the many

by

advising him that they should not care about the opinion of the many; the most decent men will know how the business was handled. Crito objects that
the many can do not
someone opinion

only the

smallest

evils,

but the greatest,

as

well,

if

has
of

bad

reputation

among them. In answer,

time.

Socrates dismisses the

do the

the many

for

second

It

would would

be good, he says, if the

many

could

do the

greatest evils,

because they

be

able to

greatest

but they do neither, for they cannot make Socrates does not say who can do this. Crito ignores
goods as well, goes on

a man wise or

foolish.
and

Socrates'

interruption

to

what

he deems

more serious considerations.

worried about

Although

worried about

the loss of reputation, Crito is not

the loss of property. He tells

Socrates

not

to worry about any

of the

heavy

fines

which might

be levied

against

him be

through the instigation

sycophants.

He
of

can

handle them; they

can

"backwardness'

8. Cr.
Achilles to

44b5-46a7.

Because

of

the

the mime, Crito's exhortation corresponds

to Phoenix's exhortation, the last speech in Homer's account of the Embassy. In his exhortation to
come

to the aid of the

was

Greeks, Phoenix
at

tells

his former

ward come

the story of

Meleanger,

the boar-hunter. Meleanger

angry

his relatives, refusing to

to their aid when their

city
was

was attacked.

Finally, he
no

came

to their aid as the enemy was climbing the walls and

firing
he
the

the city. The point of the story is that Meleanger was forced to aid fellow citizens
angry,

with whom

but

received

honor thereby. It is
aid of one's own.

tale designed to show the

justice

and

inevitability
9.

of coming to the Xen. Mem. II. ix.

Interpretation
off cheaply.

bought

Socrates
other

answers that

loss to Crito

and

many
the

things as

he is considering possible financial well. The useful Crito's wealth seems to

reputation.

be
not

more

important to Socrates than his friend's

what are

However, they

one

does

know

other

things on

Socrates'

mind;

perhaps

concern

Socrates'

reputation, which will

sonified about

be harmed

by
of

an

escape, according to the per

Laws

who appear at the end of the

dialogue.10
Socrates'

Crito does Cebes

not

inquire in town
and

these
not

other

things, but,

Socrates
and will
nobility. and

to worry about
expenses.

only money, because Simmias

mindful

mention of

cost, tells

and

are

defray
He

This said, Crito turns to

of

considerations of

justice

accuses

Socrates

treating his

children

unjustly

then abandoning his

duty

of

raising them. No

mention of and gives

by begetting duty to the city

them

is

made. vice

Such

conduct

is ignoble, according to Crito,

the appearance of

and

"lack

manliness"

of

(ctvavbgia,
prevent

also

"cowardice").

Indeed, Crito

Socrates'

scolds,

failure to

the trial from coming on, his unsuccessful

defense

manliness man's

his ridiculous counter-penalty also appear unmanly. This view of is closely related to Crito's view of justice; both assume that a first duty is to resist harm to himself and to his own. This appeal to
and
Socrates'

manly duty ends Crito's exhortation, and Socrates then responds. rejoinder considers only the questions On the surface,
and and

of

justice

nobility He begins by telling Crito that his zeal (ngo6vj.ua, eager dvuog) is worth much, if properly directed, but if not, is hard to bear. Subtly contrasting his
own calm not now

ignores the

preservation of

friends,

property."

reputation and

to Crito's agitation,

Socrates describes himself

as to
me."12

as the

"sort

of man,
which

for the first time, but always,

obey the reason

(Xoyog)

upon calculation seems

best to

The

reasons which

Socrates

will accept as

a result of
old

his calculating are not necessarily unchangeable. He will exchange reasons for new and better ones, but he has already taken into considera
the
power

tion

many to kill him. He reminds Crito that they had agreed many times before that some opinions are to be honored, others dis honored, and he tells Crito that it would be unseemly for men of their age
of

the

to change their agreed opinions

of

because

of

the approach of

death. The
to what

opinions

the many are not among those to be

honored, according

Socrates
are

Crito have previously agreed, but only the opinions of the sensible, who are few.
and

good and useful opinions.

These

After Crito
io.

again

agrees

that the opinions of the many are not valuable,

Cr. 53a8-54dl,
a

esp. 53e3-54bi.
which

Reputation, family
Socrates'

and

money

are also concerns

in the

Euthydemus.

dialogue in

Crito is

principal

interlocutor. Crito
Crito to
spend

wishes to spend
so that

money to
can enroll
refuses

send

his

son to the sophistic

brothers. Socrates

wants

money

he

in their classes; his

object

is to learn how to

appear wise without

arousing

envy.

Crito

to pay, reminding Socrates that it would be unseemly for him to study with the young. In the prison, however, Socrates has already fallen victim to envy because of his reputation for wisdom. See Leo Strauss, "On the Interpretation I, No. I, pp. 1-20.
Euthydemus,"

II. 12.

Cr. Cr.

46bi-50a5. 46TI-6.

The Crito

as a

Mythological Mime

5 specificity

Socrates turns his

ple.

rejoinder toward greater

by

means

of an exam

In

matters of

health, he

says, the

opinion of one man

only, the trainer,

is to be valued; the opinion of the many is worthless. Therefore, everyone, not just the athlete in training, should submit to the opinion of the trainer for
the sake of the body.

Similarly,

with respect

to the just

and

the unjust, the

base

and the

noble, the
of

good and the

ficial,
can

the opinion

the

bad, many is harmful. Therefore,

not

the opinion

of one

only is bene
to the

with respect

just,
to

the noble and the good, one should submit to the

expert

in these things, if he

be found. Socrates does

cannot

indicate

who this expert

is

or what ought

be done if he
one
who

be

found.13

The

alternative to
opinion of

following

the opinion of the

is

expert

is to follow the

the many, but the argument

opinion of the many in matters of justice, nobility and good is harmful. However, Socrates avoids saying exactly to what it is harm ful; he confines himself to such circumlocutions as "that which is helped by ness

implies that the

justice, but harmed by

injustice."14

This

phrase could mean that

it is the city

or

the soul of a man which is

by attending Not attending to the opinion of the many, however, can be harmful to the body, because the opinion of the many about justice is the law. Perhaps in recognition of this, the final part of rejoinder, immediately before the
to the opinion of the many.
Socrates'

harmed

personified

Laws appear,

addresses

the many should be respected

kill.15

itself to the possibility that the opinion of because of their power, especiallv the power to

Again he

reminds

Crito

of what

they had

always agreed
well

upon,

him if he
to

still remains of assents to

the opinion that to live

is

more

by asking important than

less

live. Crito

this, thus agreeing that the

power of

the many is

than the greatest.

Socrates then
well with

gives content to the concept of

living

well

by identifying living

living

justly. If to live

well

before Crito it

and

Socrates is

whether else

is to live justly, then the only question or not it is just to escape without the
explains what

permission of the means to

Athenians. All

is irrelevant. Socrates then

does wrong; therefore, it is never just to do evil to anyone, even in return for evil. This conclusion is very radical, and Socrates emphasizes its gravity by telling Crito that only a few will agree with it. Between those who believe this and the many who would do harm in
never return

live justly: justice

for harm, there

can

be

no common other

deliberations, but they

thinks
(deliberates).16

must

despise

one another when each sees

how the

When Socrates

previously discussed the distinction between the wise few and the foolish many, he drew no explicit political consequences from it, but the explicitly mentioned
consequences of the

distinction between the

harm-doing
Crito,"

many

and the

harmless

13.

See Leo Strauss. "On Plato's

Apology

of Socrates

and

in Essays in Honor of Jacob

Klein (Annapolis, Md.: St. John's College Press, 1976), p. 14. Cr. 47d3-5. See below, n. 17, for a corresponding
15. 16.

166.
circumlocution.

Cr.

48a

10-

1 1.

Cr.

49CIO-d3.

6 few

Interpretation
are

the many,

very serious. If there is no common deliberation between the few and but rather contempt, citizenship between them is difficult, if not impossible. For this reason, one wonders if a belief in harmful, or vengeful,
not a prerequisite of

justice is
the

many.

One

also wonders

for citizenship in the ordinary sense, for being part if the division of mankind according to knowl

edge

is

also the same as the

Socrates implication

suggests no

distinction according to opinions about justice. answer clearly. Instead, he mitigates the harsh political

between the harmless few and the harm-doing many Crito that the question which they must now examine in common has by telling become whether or not, in escaping without persuading the city, "we [Crito and
of the relations

Socrates] do harm
the
least."17

to some, and especially to those

circumlocution
matches

whom

we ought

to harm

This

the one encountered earlier, when

Socrates
etc.

spoke of what most obvious

which

is harmed

by

the opinion of the many about

Socrates'

justice,

The

the city
respect

meaning of the new circumlocution is the city, but if it is Socrates would harm by escaping, then position with
much

to the power of the many is

different than his

position

in the

prison of

of the

the many, awaiting execution, would suggest. It is not in the power many to do the greatest evils to Socrates, but it is in the power of Socrates to harm the city, the community of the many, by avoiding the worst the many are
capable.
Socrates'

evil of which

However,
clusively.

the meaning of
might mean

circumlocution need not own

be the city
and

ex

It

his

soul,

since

that certainly is something which

least

of all

should

be harmed

and which

is helped

by

justice

harmed

by

injustice. It
which

might mean

he

was

Crito's property or reputation or any one of the things considering when he interrupted Crito's discussion of financing
might mean who

the

escape.

Or he

his

own

reputation, how things

and

will

look "to the know that

most

decent

men,"

know Crito

Socrates

and

who

will

miserliness and unmanliness were not the reasons

prison

why Socrates

remained

in the

to die.
and of

Socrates
harmfulness

Crito do

not

themselves consider

directly
a

the

issue

of

the

the escape, but

they

examine

it through

dialogue between When Crito

Socrates
shows
asks and us

and

the personified "Laws and community of the

unable to

city."18

grasp how escape might entail harm to anyone, Socrates him to imagine the Laws stopping them as they were about to run away
of them what

himself

demanding
will

they intended

to do

by fleeing

"besides

destroying
The
to

the Laws and the whole city as far as in you lies (for your

part)."19

city

be destroyed if

private men overturn public

judgments, according
retort

the Laws.

Socrates
of

then asks Crito if

they

should

by saying

that the

judgment
1718.
19.

the city was wrong, and Crito

n.

agrees with an oath.

With this oath,

Cr. 4969-5033. See above, Cr. 50a6-54e2. Cr. 5oa8-b6.

14.

The Crito

as a

Mythological Mime

1
city and the injustice of its verdict be injured by the many, even if it

his second, Crito

and adds means

expresses anger against the

vehemence to

his

resolve not to

injuring

them. His first profane outburst took place in the

expressed

introductory
of

passages and

had

his

annoyance at the prospective

frustration

his

desire to sleep and his vexation at the thought of approaching death. However, neither Socrates nor the Laws attempts to defend the justice of the verdict of
the many.

The

matter

is

irrelevant, if it is
ask

wrong to do injury,

even

in

return

for injury. Instead, the Laws

Socrates if he had

not agreed with them to

obey the judgments which the city makes. They command him not to be aston ished at this question, but to answer, since he is accustomed to asking and answering. From this point on, the Laws press Socrates with a series of ex tended, Crito.
that
rhetorical questions which constitute the

bulk

of

the final part of the

Their

original

and

ostensible

purpose

is to demonstrate to Socrates

he has

agreed to abide

by

the city's judgments. The Laws do not attempt

or

further to
onstration

show either

Socrates
a

Crito how

escape will work

Socrates'

harm;

that dem

gives

way to

broad discussion is

of

Laws

which supports

their contention of agreement.

relationship to the Therefore, if one assumes

that the answer to the replaces,

later
to

question

also

the answer to the question

it

it is
and

reasonable would

suppose

provisionally that,

Socrates
that this

Crito

harm those

whom

they

ought to

by running harm the least,

away,
and

harm is done

by doing

violence

to the relationships which the Laws

claim constitute agreement.

The

body

of

the dialogue with the Laws is

marked

divisible into three

major

parts,

the divisions

being

by

very

short answers given

by

Crito

when

Socrates,

dropping
part of

the persona of the

their dialogue with

over

Laws, Socrates,

asks

him

questions

directly.20

In the first

the Laws pretend to a sort of patriarchal

if it is because he blames the Laws concerning he is trying to destroy them. Arguing that it was through them that his father wed his mother and generated him, they assert authority

him.

They

ask

marriage and education that

that

he

stands

in the

same unequal

parents.

Going
we

beyond

even

relationship to them this, they claim him as a

as a child

does to its

"But towards the fatherland

that

and

asking finally: toward the Laws, is it permissible for you

slave,
you
wise

if

try

to

destroy

destroy
more

the Laws and

supposing it to be just, ? Or are you so the fatherland

you,
more

should

try

to

that you

have

forgotten that the fatherland is

sacred

to

be honored than father

and
men who

and mother, and

and

holier before

gods

have

understanding?"21

persuade

Because the fatherland is sacred, the Laws say that "one is bound it or to do what it commands. And one must not surrender,
nor

either

to

nor give

way

leave the battle line, but, in

war and

in the

courts and

everywhere,

20. 21.

These

occur at

5 les

and 52d7.

Cr.

sia2-b3.

Interpretation
do
what

one must
of what

the city and fatherland command,

or one must persuade

it

is

just."22

After Crito
argument

agrees to what

the Laws have said,

they

ease

into their

second

by telling Socrates that law, were displeasing to him, he

away, the Laws
conclude

if the laws concerning any other could have left the city. Since he did not run
marriage, or
pleased

that

they

him

differently

from

others

(more

than others) and that he had "agreed to be a citizen according to us

in deed,
continue

but

not

in

speech."23

As further
and more

proof of

his

satisfaction with

them, the Laws,

as

which

become

more

the

spokesmen

for Socrates

they
.

their argument,

say to Socrates that "you never went out of the city

once to

for

theoria,

except

the

Isthmus,
city

unless

it

was

to

be

a soldier;

nor

did the desire to know In the third Socrates

speak as

another

and other

laws

seize you

[Socrates]."24

Laws become entirely spokesmen for brush aside his obligations to the city, family and friends and they solely of his duty toward himself and his reputation. Two alternatives
part of their argument, the

are open go to go to

to Socrates:

either

he may live

and go

into

exile or

Hades.

According

to the

Laws,

two types of exile are available:

he may die and he may

go

a well-governed and

place, such as Megara or

Crete,

or

he may

to the

disorderly
would

immoderate Thessaly. In
would

either place, the reputation which such

he

earn

by

philosophize.

running away In Thessaly, the barbarous him

and

be

that he could not continue to

would make sport of

versation about well-governed

him, but they his ignominious flight from Athens; serious con
chieftains would receive

justice
cities,

and virtue could not prosper proper

in this

atmosphere.

In the

con knowing demned for corrupting the young, would keep their sons from him; he would be considered an enemy of the Laws. Only in the kingdom of Hades would it be possible for Socrates to be received graciously. By dying in the prison,

parents,

that Socrates

had been

Socrates

would earn a good reputation

with

the laws of Hades

would put

because their for

into been

brothers,
exile,

the personified Laws of the

must with soon

dialogue,
reputation.

in

a good word

him. Since Socrates

go

to Hades anyway,

even

if he

goes

it is best to

go

good

This

conclusion

having

reached, the dialogue ends as

and

Crito is

unable to make

any

answer to

Socrates,

the Corybantes drown out any answer which

completes

he

might make.

This Crito's

the summary
Socrates'

of

the text of the

Crito. Common to both

of

exhortation and

rejoinder are

discussions
and no

harm-doing

and

of reputation. at

Crito is

seeks

to avoid

harm to himself
would

the cost of

harming
is

others.

Socrates

harm

his reputation, even one, and his concern

with

reputation

ambiguous.

Harm-doing

without
as

means

to

reputation

also the theme of

Iliad IX,

the

being harmed and as a following analysis of

that work will show.

22.
23.

Cr. Cr.
Cr.

5ib3-cl. 52d4-6.
52b2-ci.

See

n.

38.

24.

The Crito

as a

Mythological Mime

II
The
The
the ambassadors in coming to Achilles

purpose

of

was

to calm

his

anger, satisfy
wrath of

his

outraged

honor

and persuade

him to
of

return to

the battle line.

a

Achilles,

which

is the theme
Achilles'

the Iliad as

whole,

was

kindled

by

Achilles'

quarrel

with

Agamemnon,
prize of

and

it

set

in

motion a course

of events

ultimately led to Agamemnon deprived Achilles of his

which

death.25

The

quarrel

arose

when

honor, Briseis,

who was

dear to

him. This questionable, possibly unjust deprivation proved very costly to the Greeks. As a result of it, Achilles withdrew his obedience to Agamemnon,
and, in
order

to avenge the

insult,

asked

his

mother

to intercede for him

as

with

Zeus

so that the Trojans might prevail

in battle

as

long

he

remained absent were

from the battle line. When Zeus back to the

pressed
wall which protected

granted this request, the

Greeks

forced

their ships, suffering

heavy

losses. As Hector
was pre

the attack and threatened the ships with

fire, Agamemnon
to the fighting.

vailed upon of

to send Odysseus and Phoenix to Achilles to offer him the return

Briseis

and

many fine gifts, if he

stand."26

would

return

Achilles,
and

however,
return

spurned the

gifts, saying that in the tent of

Agamemnon,

"noble

base in like honor

Rather than

to Phthia to wed and to live a

facing the Trojan onslaught, he would long life in his father s house. The line
his intention to
in
Socrates'

in

which

Achilles informed the intended decree

of

ambassadors of
paraphrased

return

home
in

was

the line which the white-clad

Achilles'

lady homecoming

dream.
refer

and marriage must

be

understood

ence to the
or

fate that

Achilles'

life

would

be

either short and glorious

long

and obscure.

Achilles thought that

chosen

by

oath of

Tyndarus, he had

the former

alternative,27

coming to Troy, unbound by the but Agamemnon had

dimmed his glory by depriving him of Briseis and by showing ingratitude for his war-like service in the cause of the Greeks. This, far more than the loss of

Briseis, was the cause of his Therefore, when Achilles

cate

anger against

Agamemnon.28

sent

his

mother

to

Zeus, he
would

his honor

Hector's
Achilles'

by burning
quest

showing the Greeks that

of

they

was seeking to vindi be defeated without him. consummation of

the Greek ships

and

would

have been the

for glory
old

the perfection of his plans of vengeance.

Achilles'

Of

course, such a reburnishing of

tarnished glory would have cost him

prophecy was to be believed. Therefore, it seems that by spurning Agamemnon's gifts and abandoning the ships to Hector, Achilles had calculations and the reagain chosen glory over longevity. In fact,

his life, if the

Achilles'

25.
plot of

The

interpretation

of

Iliad IX here developed is based

upon

the

interpretation

of the

the Iliad as a whole set forth

I

by

Jacob Klein in "Plato's

Ion,"

Claremont Journal of Public

Affairs II, No.

26.

(Spring

1973), pp. 23-37.

//. //. //.

ix. 319. ix. 410-416.

ix. 363.

27. 28.

10
suiting

Interpretation
choice are more complicated.
earned

By

iously
before

him glory, Achilles

planned

returning to Phthia as Hector vicar to cheat his fate by achieving glory

returning to Phthia, only against Agamemnon but understands the infliction of the

Troy

and a

long

life in his father's house. Thus,

perfect vengeance one

by

Achilles

would achieve a perfect vengeance not

also against

fate, if by
harm

maximum of

on enemies with no cost

to oneself or to

one's

property

or

friends

What then
Phthia? The

Achilles'

upset answer

calculations

and

sent

him to Hades instead

not

of

lies in the fact that Achilles did

to

know that,

when

Zeus

granted

his
not

request

sealed.

He did

favor the Trojans in battle, his fate had been know this because he did not know himself and his limit
and vengeance. made on

less
to

appetite

for glory

It

was

this hunger
after

which

induced Achilles

Patroclus'

grant

request,
against

the

day

the embassy, to lead the

Myrmidons forward

the advancing Trojans. The stated cause for this

Achilles'

decision

was

that such action was necessary to save

own

ships;29

considerations of

Agamemnon
rescue

or

the

other

But

such

last-minute

would

Greeks had nothing to do with it. surely add to the humiliation of Aga

memnon.

non

and the sending forth of Patroclus, Agamem had distinguished himself in battle; this must have piqued Achilles.)

(Between the

Embassy

Moreover, Achilles
tioning him
Trojans
not to

permitted

Patroclus to

wear

his

own

armor, although cau

fight

with

Hector but to
and

confine

himself to
war-cry.

showing himself Achilles hoped to gain tion,

by

imitating

Achilles1

frightening the By this admoni

non,

by

against

showing to all Hector in the fullness

the

bonus in glory and vengeance against Agamem that his voice and form alone were sufficient even
a
of

his

might. made

He

also

hoped to

Patroclus'

save as

life,

since

decree
out of

of

Zeus had

the Trojans

invincible,

long

as

Achilles

stayed when

battle. This investment in

the

additional
was

however,

Patroclus,

image

of

Achilles,

glory went sour, himself moved to gain

Achilles'

glory by challenging Hector. Hector, invincible because of drawal from the fighting, slew Patroclus, thus bringing the Achilles away from Agamemnon and down upon himself. In order to avenge the loss of his friend, Achilles again

with

awful

wrath

of

went to his mother for help, asking her to persuade Hephaestus to provide armor to replace that which Hector had stripped from Patroclus. Thetis, who knew that Achilles was choice

renewing his
of

for glory

over a

long life,
thee."

reminded

her

son of

the

decree
his

fate,

saying:

"Short-lived, I

ween, must thou

be, O my boy, for straightway

answered

after

Hector is death

appointed unto

Achilles
out:
.

by cursing

wrath and

accepting his

death, crying

not succor native

my comrade at his slaying. land [Phthia], nor have I at all

that

may I die, since I did Therefore, I go not back to my dear been succor to Patroclus nor to all my

"Straightway

other comrades

have been

slain

by

noble

Hector.

Now

go

forth,

29.

//.

xvi. 49- 100,

especially 80-83.

The Crito

as a

Mythological Mime
the destroyer of him I

11

that I may light

on

loved,
it.

on

Hector;
"'"

then will I accept

next

death

whensoever

Zeus

willeth to accomplish

On the for

day,

the

third after the embassy,

Achilles

slew

Hector. Thereby, Achilles

gave
of

assured

his He

glory for also had hater his his

of

ever sealed

or so

he thought, but this

him

no cause

rejoicing.

his doom. From the death

was

Hector onwards, Achilles, the

not

Hades,

destined to

go to

Hades,

Phthia. His

vengeance and

glorification plans

were purchased at

the

highest price,

not cheaply,

contrary to

in Iliad IX.
of these considerations, the

In the light
point

embassy

emerges as a critical mid

in the

course of the events which constitute the

gone

last days

of

Achilles. If

home to Phthia, none of the subsequent, tragic events would have occurred; Achilles would have triumphed over Agamemnon, over death Achilles had
and over

fate,
and

without

tragedy. The

Platonic corpus, its

events as

Apology,
lish

his death,

Crito is similarly a midpoint within the trial, as reported in the standing between reported in the Phaedo. Therefore, in order to estab
Socrates'

and elaborate

the likeness

of of

the tragic,
the

harm-doing

hero
to

of the

Iliad to

the philosophic, harmless

hero

Crito, it is necessary
refused

begin
with

by

dis

cussing the context within which

the jail-break.

Socrates

to collaborate

Crito in

Ill

Socrates'

imitation

and revision of with of

the great deeds of

with political

Achilles, like
authority.

the great

deeds themselves, begin defied Agamemnon, began the

and

a quarrel

As Achilles

"king
his trial

over

the loss of

Briseis, Socrates defied

of philosophy.

the authority of the Athenians over the possible

quarrel at

loss

Socrates

with a self-conscious comparison

between Achilles
and

himself.

Having

refuted

both the

old

and the

new

accusers

having
in
a

accounted

for his

service accuser

to the Delphic god, Socrates to ask him if he

ran

adduced an anonymous

and

hypothetical

is

not ashamed to

be

engaged

business from

which

he

the

risk of

dying.31

Socrates contemptuously

an

swered that such considerations are

actions

irrelevant;

one must

only

consider

if

one's

are

just

or unjust,

those of a good man or those of a bad

man.

He

then called upon the example of

Achilles,

little

of

the risk of

dying

compared

according to Socrates, thought to the risk of dishonor. In making the

who,

comparison, he quoted exactly the the

words used

by

Thetis to

remind

her

son of

deadly

consequences of

by

Achilles to

read:

killing Hector, but he amended the passage spoken "Straightway may I die and bring judgment upon the
here beside the hollow ships,
and

wrong-doer,

lest I

remain

laughing-stock

and a

30. 31.

The Ap.

exchange

between Thetis

her

son

is //.

xvni.95-1 16.

28^3-5.

12 burden
which

Interpretation
on

the

earth."32

From

Achilles'

example, Socrates

extracted a principle stations

he

applied

to himself
or

as

well:

"whenever

someone

himself,
as

believing
seems or

that

it is best,
before him

is

stationed

by

commander, there he must,

it

to me, remain and run risks, in no way

else
disgrace."33

taking into

account either

death

anything

principle

had

made

a good

According to Socrates, obedience to this citizen, holding him to his assigned station at
would risk of

Potidaea, Amphipolis
philosophize,
god even

and

Delium. It
the

likewise lead him to

dying. The

continue

to

if he

must run

oracle of the

Delphic

had

commanded even at

otherwise,
assigned
what evil.

the command of the

him to philosophize, examining himself and others; to do Athenians, would be to leave the post
would also

him

by

better. It
think

be to

assume

impiously

that

he knew
greatest

most

people

they know, but do

told the

not,

that death

is the

Therefore, Socrates
upon condition

jury

that

if it

were

to release him

and spare

his life
the god

that

he

not

philosophize, he

would not

instead. Thus, Socrates defied the Athenians

on two

obey them, but grounds, first the

requirements of

his

service

to the god, and second what he has learned

from
or

that service: human wisdom, especially wisdom about

nothing.34

death, is
a most

worth

little

However,
Socrates

even though

he defied the Athenians in

dangerous way,

completely indifferent to self-preservation. He told the jurors that his disobedience would be a benefit to them, not an injustice, for, by his
was not

service to a gadfly.

the Delphic god, he had

exhorted

them to virtue, stinging them like than going

made

He did this

as

his

civic

duty

rather

into

politics

in the

many enemies; therefore, his daimonion, which has always kept him from harm, has kept him out of public life so that he could render his beneficial service. Thus the refutation
conventional sense. would

In politics, he

have

of the anonymous of

accuser,

which

began

with such contempt

for

considerations as a condi

self-preservation,

ended with concern with

self-preservation, but

tion of philosophy, not an obstacle to it.

Even

after

his

conviction

for

impiety, Socrates
for
a

continued the quarrel,

by

raising these
urged

issues in his
accusers.

proposals

counter-penalty to the death

sentence

by

his

but had left him in Pyrtanaeum. He many death to be

expected

great

Because his stinging service to the city was meritorious poverty, he proposed lifetime maintenance in the
the option
exile to
of

refused to consider

exile, an

option which

the

him to take. He knew

be

an

evil, but he did not know

go

an evil.

Therefore, it
be to

was

impossible for him to

the god. And

into

exile and

be silent, for that

would

disobey
life

it

was

undesirable to go

into exile, because the

unexamined

of exile would not

be

worth

living. 35

32.

Ap.

28d2-5.

Emphasis

added.

The

original

lines (II.
Socrates

xviii. 98-99)

had

read:

Straightway
a

may I die friend.

33.
34.

since

comrade."

might not

help

my

slain

substitutes a concern

for justice for

Ap.

28d6-l0.

35.

Ap. 28d6-29ci, especially 2934-6, bi-7. Ap. 37e3~38b5, especially 3835-6.

The Crito

as a

Mythological Mime

13

Socrates did say that he was willing to pay a fine, but only because he did not consider the loss of money an evil, and he was not accustomed to consider himself deserving of evil. Because proposals left the jury with no
Socrates'

alternative condemn

to the death penalty consistent with

its

own

dignity, it
him.
quarrel

voted

to

him by a greater majority than it voted to Perhaps it is difficult to see the similarity of
people to

convict

Socrates'

with

the

Athenian
anger

I, especially in provoking it. The qualities common to both are insolence Both Socrates and Achilles challenge political authority, Socrates
since
will

the quarrel of Iliad

Socrates

showed no

and

defiance.
the

by telling

Athenians that he
authority
of the

not

obey

ban

on

philosophy

Delphic

god over that of the

by setting up the Achilles Athenians, by demand

and
Achilles'

ing

that Agamemnon return

Chryseis. When Agamemnon

of

answered
withdrew
Socrates'

insolence

by depriving
convicting

him

Briseis, Achilles defied him,

when

his

obedience and plotted

vengeance;

the Athenians reproved to propose a serious

inso

lence

by

him, Socrates

refused

counter-penalty.

The counter-penalty they expected him to propose, exile, would have deprived him of philosophy, his Briseis, as it were. By proposing it, Socrates would

have

recognized

the authority of the

jury

to effect such a deprivation.

Instead,

he denied their authority

proposing nonpenalties. important differences between the two quarrels, dif there are Still, many ferences which are similar in their terms to the contrasts of the opening ex
change changes of

by

the dialogue.
made

The

most

important differences
used

are

reflected

in the

Socrates

in the Homeric text for

to

compare

himself explicitly
and no men
was

to Achilles. Socrates tion of

not
anger.

made no plans

vengeance or

harm-doing,

More importantly,
the
quarrel

the text as spoken

by

Achilles himself

spoken

during
and

with

Agamemnon, but

much

later,

after

Patro

clus'

death

the events of Iliad IX. When he spoke them, Achilles had at

himself,'

realizing that his wrath had been the cause of all his misfortunes, that it would at last exact the penalty of death, and that his plans for achieving vengeance, glory and longevity had failed. In revising, as

last become "wise to

well

as

imitating Achilles,
part

Socrates
of

Achilles'

mimed playfulness

words

in

reverse

order.

This backwardness is
start of

the ironic

of the god

mime.

From the
would

his last days, the

it.36

wise servant of the

Delphic

knew that he
to avoid

die

and accepted

the possibility of it

without clever plans

it

or

angry

attempts

to

avenge

His

superior predictive power antedated

the appearance

of the white-clad

lady,

and again was manifested

in

a calm acceptance of

ap his

proaching death. After the trial, the

refusal

Socrates'

next event prison.

in the

chain

leading

to

death

was

to

escape marked

from

As

noted

above, this refusal,

like the

refusal of a
pro-

Iliad IX,
36.

a crisis:

if Socrates had escaped, if he had

chosen

See Xen. Ap. Soc.

and

i-v.

Xenophon begins
and

by

writing.

"I think it
life."

worth while

to remember

Socrates
phon's

how he
says.

planned

for his defense

the end of his

Several lines later, Xeno

not

Socrates
opposed

"But,

by Zeus,

twice already when

planned

tried to think about

daimon

it. Apparently, Socrates

the end of his

life

by

planning

my defense, my a defense.

14

Interpretation
would of

longed life, he
greatest

lesson

Socrates'

probably have forfeited his place in history, because the life was his death.37 By dying as he did, he drama
the examined life to mere life
without philosophy.

tized the superiority

Socrates'

of

Crito
and

renewed

option

for the

unexamined

life, by

proposing

escape

exile.

In rejecting Crito's plans, Socrates

god over the

re-affirmed

his

obedience

to

the

Delphic This

authority

of

the

Athenians.
the difficult
and paradoxical corollaries

analysis supports the truth of

to the central thesis of this essay to escape, Socrates

even as
continued

which were mentioned at

its

start.

By

refusing

the defiance of the Athenians begun at his

who appears

trial,

he

appeared

law-abiding; Crito,
can

to be

Socrates

a reconciliation

to the authority he had

spurned.

law-breaking, offers However, before the

must

truth of these paradoxes

be

fully

accepted,

a number of questions which of

they
One
of

raise

about the

imitation

of and revision

Iliad IX

be

explored.

set of questions concerns

Crito. If Crito is to be
obtain

seen as

the ambassador
was

the

Athenians, how did he

his
principal

his

commission?

What loss

Socrates'

against

through

execution?

Another

set concerns

pending Soc

rates'

imitation in

of

perfection

vengeance and

Achilles. If, in rejecting reconciliation, Achilles calculated a glory, did Socrates as well calculate the consum And
what was

mation of some project?

this project? Did

it

aim at vengeance or exhortation and

glory

or at some other ends?

closer examination of

Crito's

Socrates'

rejoinder will provide

the answers.

Crito's
will a

exhortation

begins

and ends with talk about reputation,

how things
as

look, especially
and and wealth.

to the many. This seems to be

seems
unconcerned with

his

chief

concern,

befits

gentleman,

he

possible

harm to his family,

friends

However,
for

this

is only superficially
a means

true.

Crito

values repu

tation not

for its

own

sake, but as

of

protecting his

private affairs.

He fears
and

a reputation

being

contemptible, a

man unable

to protect his own,

paradox.

hence, easy
for the

to victimize.

His

position presents a

double

Out

of

concern

opinion of

the many, he would

disobey

the verdict of the many,

and out of concern

for his

and wealth,

he

would put

protecting family, friends these things in danger. These paradoxes are joined
reputation as a means of

by

a third.

When Crito
than for

says that

he

would

lose face

by

appearing to

care

for

money

more

friends, he implies
not

that those who condemned Socrates

an escape.

would also

blame him for

a man's

believe that Crito's his friends

first

arranging duty is to protect his

own

Like Crito, the many too from harm. They share helps
enemies,"38

opinion about manliness and

. .

justice. "The friends

and

good man succeeds and

justice is

helping

harming

or, if not

37.

1947), p. 96.

See Ernest Barker, Greek Political Theory: Plato and His Predecessors (London: Methuen, For a collection of testimonials concerning the death of Socrates see The Socratic

Enigma. A Collection of Testimonies through Twenty-Four Centuries. Herbert Spielberg, ed. (Indianapolis; Bobbs-Merrill, 1964). Also see Eva Brann, "The Offense of Socrates: A Re-reading
Apology,"

of

Plato's
38.

R. E. Allen, "Law

Interpretation VII, No. 2 (May, 1978), p. 1. in "Symposium; Plato and Justice in Plato's
Crito."

on

the

Language

of

The Crito

as a

Mythological Mime

15

harming
harmful

them, avoiding harm from them,

oneself and able

by

to take care

of one's

gaining a reputation for being own. It is in this sense, there

many:

fore,
of

that Crito is commissioned to represent the

he is the

ambassador

the opinion of the many concerning justice. In addition, Crito is the ambas the opinion of the many as to what things are of value,
what and

sador of

he is
the

the representative of the fear of death or,

opinion
related.

is the

same

thing,
are

of

that death is the greatest evil. Crito's three

According

to

what

Socrates

says

not

Apology and the Phaedo as well, the fear of honor, and the opinion that justice is helping friends
all characteristic of

closely only in the Crito, but in the death, the love of property and
and

commissions

harming
of

enemies are

the nonphilosophic

many.

True lovers
not

wisdom, on the

other

hand, do

not

fear death, because they do

know

whether or not

it is
39

the greatest evil, and

Moreover, in
ignorance
much as

the

they are of the opinion that justice is never harmful. Phaedo, Socrates goes beyond the Apology's professions of
evil of

about

the

death to say that

therefore
at

philosophers practice

nothing

so are

dying
die,

and

being dead;
to be
a

they

are of good cheer when

they

about to
not a

and

philosopher, but
many's

The

fear

of

angry dying lover of property and honor, like the death and their opinion about justice are
the necessity of

is

a sign that one

many.40

is

reflections of

the perishability and scarcity of money and

honor,

the things which the many

love. The

acquisition of

these goods requires competition, and their continued

enjoyment requires

that

they be defended

and

that there be retaliation against

all

who

threaten their secure possession. The many

those
who

direct

anger and

hatred
of

against

frustrate the acquisition,

or

jeopardize the possession,

these goods.

Therefore,
of

the nonphilosophic many

who robs

fear

and

hate death
ultimate

espe

cially, because
and

it is the thief
death

them of all. Death

is the

loss,

the hatred
of

epitomizes

the resentment of the many towards the

mortality

the things which

on the other

Philosophers,

they hold dear. hand, do not fear death, but

the many conceive
it.41

practice

it,

although

they do
can

not practice

death

as

It

would

be beyond the

scope of

this essay to discuss

fully

the philosopher's practice of

be

said that their practice entrails two activities.

death, but it Metaphysically, the death

in
order

of the philosophers

is the

journey they
the death
of

take in thought from the senses

to seek

wisdom

through the contemplation of "each of the

beings, itself by

itself
Justice,"

Practically,
Journal of

the philosophers

is

an

indifference to the
anticipates

Philosophy
commission

LXIX (October
when

5.

1972), p. 560. Allen that "the

argument

this essay's

thesis

about

Crito's
morals

he

writes

of

the Crito rests upon a

revolution

in

Men acting
another man.

by

the standards of popular morality condemned

Socrates
(op. cit.,

to death for
p. 566). 39.

impiety;
above, n.

acting

by

the same standards, urges him to

escape"

See

16 and n. 35.
and

40.
41.

Ph. 6ic8-68c3, especially 6434-6 Ph. 64bio-cl.

68b8-c3.

42.

Ph. 64C4-69es. especially 65a9-66a8.

and 78D4-80CI.

16

Interpretation

things of the

body,

to property

and

to

honor,

and to all the things which the

living.43 The philosopher con many love and which they think make life worth cerns himself with these things only as long as they contribute to, or distract from, the pursuit of wisdom. (Thus Socrates concerns himself with the opinions

of

the most

decent,

who

may know something

about

with

self-preservation,

by heeding
wisdom

the advice of the

justice and injustice, and daimonion.) Anger, whose

root of

is in

an attachment to perishable

wisdom, and because

things, does not contribute to the pursuit cannot be destroyed by enemies, the threat of

is unnecessary to protect it. Therefore, by urging Socrates to disobey the verdict for the sake of reputation, family and friends, Crito proposes to
vengeance

Socrates

a reconciliation with an

authority

more

fundamental than the

of the

verdict

of the many.
of

He

proposes submission to the

imperatives

loves

and

fears for

the

many. of

The perishability

the things which the many

love is

also responsible

Crito's
sake of of

paradoxical willingness

to risk money and other private goods

for the

reputation, and

it is the

protecting

private affairs.

interesting
to

Achilles'

paradox of sake of

cause of his anxiety over reputation as a means This perishability is also at the root of the more hatred of death, together with his willingness preservation of one

die for the

honor. The

beloved but

perishable

thing is often inconsistent with the preservation of other beloved things. The lover of property and honor, whether in the battle line or in the law courts
or at

home

on

his estate,

others.

It is,

of course,

must risk or give up certain things in order to gain desirable that things of little worth be traded off for

things

of greater worth.

This

requires

that the man of practical excellence be

aware of some actions are

ascending standard of value whereby he may judge if his trans profitable. At the beginning of his exhortation, Crito seems to be for the
sake of reputation and
would

willing to trade money

friend. At the

end of

it,

he

refers to

a criterion of manliness which

sacrifice all to reputation.

Achilles'

actions are also

informed

by

the same

standard of

manly

excellence.

But if
and are

reputation

itself is to be

valued

for the

sake of

the protection it affords

of what

this is clearly the case with

such transactions?

Crito's valuing
expresses

of reputation an

benefit

Crito himself

ill-articulated

awareness of

this problem
mias and

in the
are

middle of

his exhortation,

when

he tells Socrates that Sim Success

then

Cebes

willing to both
of as

foot the bill for the

escape and cover-up.

in the
cost

preservation

Crito's

reputation and of return

his friend's life

would

would

Crito nothing, just

and

Achilles'

to Phthia

have

purchased
cri

vengeance

glory cheaply

and without the sacrifice of

longevity. The

terion of manliness shared

manliness

by

Achilles

and

Crito

assumes

that the greatest

so as

is

a matter of shrewd calculation and superior

trading

to gain

giving up little or nothing of worth thereby. How to Socrates ever, according speaking in the Phaedo, this is profitless trading
the greatest goods, while
43.

Ph. 66bi-67b5,

8oc2-

The Crito

as a

Mythological Mime

17 What Achilles
and

done in the false

of as manliness

coinage of counterfeit courage or

virtue.44

Crito think
the

(dtvdgeia,

manliness) is but

an example of

false

courage of
ardice and

the many. The many, according to

Socrates,

are

manly

out of cow

fear.

Fearing loss, they

are emboldened order

to take risks;

fearing death,

they

stand

fast in the battle line in

to save themselves. The true economy,

according to Socrates, is to exchange all things for wisdom. This trading alone is truly profitable, because it exchanges perishable things of little worth for
what not

is supremely valuable and imperishable. It motivated by fear of death or loss.

conclusion to which this speeches and

alone

is manly because it is
Socrates'

The

discussion leads is that

revision of

Achilles'

deeds

amounts to the substitution of a true courage

for
the

fool's

courage and the replacement of

quarreling

over

pursuit of wisdom.

It

seems unfair

to reduce the courage

save

petty vanities of Achilles to

with

coward

ice

and

to compare

Crito's desire to

Achilles'

attempt to vindicate

money in arranging the jail-break to his honor by returning to Phthia. Such compar
of

isons

seem to

ignore the distinction between the love

appear oblivious

honor

and the

love

of

wealth.

They

to the difference between a heroic youth

early death execution. One

an

and an old man

nearing

a natural

death

apart

from

facing impending

must and

hatred

of

death
as

however, that his love of honor, all have

remember,
calls

Achilles'

anger and a common

courage, his

source, his "great

thymos."

Homer

it. Aquinas

calls

thymos the

irascible appetite, the

or

soul's response to an arduous good. generates

It is

aroused

by

frustration

loss,

and

it

the

anger needed

to

risk

death

and other

dangers in overcoming
obstacles

ob

stacles to the

fulfillment
as

of

desires. Thymos is

also the seat of pride and the

love

of

honor,
cause

the angry soul compares

itself first to the

to be

overcome original

and then
of

to

all

other can

things. The original object of desire and the

frustration

be forgotten

as the

angry

soul with

becomes

en

grossed over

in the

new

desire to

Achilles'

overcome.

quarrel

Agamemnon

Briseis

and

his

subsequent

indifference to her return; his

then at anger itself
ultimate all

anger

first

with

Agamemnon,
worthy

then with
of

Hector,
as the

illustrate this
honor
as the

point. most

Moreover, fear
which

deajh

loss

and

love

of

the same coin. By seeking a hoped to triumph over death by Achilles thought he immortal, glory courage and his anger are the passions lost. His not be what could gaining required to face the sacrifice of life necessary to this victory. The ultimate
good are the obverse and reverse sides of value of

this triumph can be

doubted,

and was

denied

by

Achilles himself. In

Odyssev XI, he tells Odysseus that he

would rather

be

a serf to a pauper than

whose

lord

of all

the

dead.45

If Odysseus is to be believed, the dead

of

love

of

honor is The

rooted

in love

grounds

for

Achilles'

property come to dissatisfaction

prefer with

dishonor to death.
as the greatest good are gifts offered

glory

revealed

by

the

angry hero himself in spurning the conciliatory

by

44.
45.

Ph. 68an-69ei, especially 69a6-b5.

Od.

xi. 489-91

18

Interpretation
of

Agamemnon through Odysseus. In the tent

Agamemnon,
other
who

"noble

and

base in
and

like honor
those under

stand,"

according to

Achilles. In

words,

Agamemnon

his sway

are not competent

to judge

is

noble and who

is base,

and, therefore,

his

prize of

they cannot be the sources of honor. By accepting back Briseis, honor, from Agamemnon, Achilles would have conceded the king's
judge
and
of

right

to be the
of a

honor. But if Agamemnon is

deer,"

"drunkard

with

the

eyes

dog

the heart of a

then to

be honored

by

him

would

to be dishonored.
would

The

appropriate

attitude

for Achilles to take toward him his

opinions

be the

same

indifference to him

and

as

Socrates

adopted

toward the opinion of the many concerning justice. Nonetheless, it was to and to show up Agamemnon that Achilles planned to return to Phthia path to glory is necessarily and that he sent Patroclus into battle.
'show'

Achilles'

through comparisons between himself and

men

his

rivals made

by

other men

either

like Agamemnon, whom Achilles despised, or men such as Homer, who sing only of Achilles but also of his rivals. But whoever their source, the opinions of men lacking knowledge are changeable, mixing truth with error
not

together.

Although these is

opinions always

never untarnished and

may be the source fleeting. The opinions

set

of glory,

the glory is

of men cannot provide

the

immortality
Achilles'

on which of

Achilles

his heart.
gifts
of reconciliation

rejection
awareness of
rates'

Agamemnon's
Achilles'

shows

dim
Soc

the

limits Crito

upon the competence of nonphilosophic opinion. mimes answer

rejoinder to
with of

to

Odysseus,
attack

and consistent

these observations about Crito's commission as ambassador of the opinion

Socrates'

the many,

answer

to his friend is

an

upon

the

authority
the noble
which

and competence of

Crito's

principal.

Not only is the

opinion of about

the many about

the
and

body

harmful to the body, but

also

their opinions

the

just,

the good are

incompetent, like
but harmed

those of Agamemnon.

They

harm that

is "helped
opinions

by justice,

by

injustice."

Incompetent
goaded

as

Agamemnon's
plan

may

be, however,

the sting of his

insults

Achilles into

ning

a perfect revenge as abjures vengeful

with

the means of self-glorification.

of

Socrates,

on the other most

hand,

justice. Instead

calculating how to do the

together
with we

harm
If

to enemies
calculates

the least harm to

avoid

himself, Socrates,
whom

the

Laws,

how to

harm to "those

should

harm the

least."

Socrates intends to
of

the many,

something by dying unreconciled to the opinion that is, if he intends to succeed where Achilles failed, he must
accomplish

do it
sion

by
of

not

doing

harm

by

escaping.

The

key
and

to

Socrates'

understanding

revi
Socrates'

Achilles'

project

is to

understand the

ambiguous object of

concern, "that which trate this enigma,

which

it

Socrates

uses

To pene be necessary to examine the two circumlocutions to discuss that which he might harm, and to reexamine

is helped
will

by

justice

harmed

by

injustice."

the "reasons

which

best,"

upon

calculation seem

in

order to

determine
it. be

what

he

seeks

to avoid
which

That

is

harming and what is helped by justice but

to be achieved

by

not

harming

harmed

by

injustice

could

either the

The Crito
soul of an

as a

Mythological Mime
man or

19
many.

individual

the city, the community of the

would

It is

quite

clear

it

off

that, from
as

by

going into exile, Socrates

represents

harm his

own soul

by

cutting

philosophic conversation.

However,

the opinion of the many about

justice,

Crito

it,

requires

that Socrates escape,

preferring the
the require

sleepy, unexamined life to the wakeful, examined life.

Socrates'

Therefore,
resolved

ments of

soul and the requirements of reconciliation to the opinion of

the many are contradictory. The contradiction cannot be

out

by

pointing
of the

that Socrates obeys the verdict of the

jury,

which

is

an

opinion

many. of

Socrates does

not

his

own calculation.

obey the verdict, but the Delphic god and the results He depreciates the opinion of the many about justice,

saying that it is

not

to be honored.

Thus, by remaining in

the prison to

die,

Socrates

runs

the risk of

doing

harm

by dishonoring
their

the opinion of the many.

This latter
about

sort of

harm is

quite serious potentially.

of regimes and

The

opinion of what

the many
city,"

justice is the foundation

call

laws,

the personified the

laws

"the fatherland

and

the laws and the community

proposed escape.

of

in

whose name of

they interdict

Socrates'

To dishonor the

opinion

the many can result in

harm to the body, property

politic,

and reputation,

especially
can also

the civic reputation, if the many choose to punish their detractors. It

lead to harm to the

of

body

if

men act upon their rejection of

the opinion

the

many.

The

Socrates'

case of

condemnation

for

impiety

and that of

Crito,

if Socrates had taken him up on his offer of escape, are sort of harm which dishonoring the opinion of the many

examples of causes. sum

the first
cases of

The

Critias
would

and

Alcibiades

are examples of
were

the

second sort.

In

harm himself, if he
the law

to

run

away, but in staying, he

then, Socrates risks harm be

ing

the many

by dishonoring
and

their opinion, preferring philosophy to the com

mands of

teaching
Scylla

this preference to others. Some way must

found to
appear

navigate this
prison

and

Charybdis,
of

and so

the statesman-like

Laws

in the
is

to assist Socrates to chart his course.

When the Laws

charge

accuse

Socrates

violating their

patriarchal

authority, their than that

most serious.

As

patriarchs, their

authority is

more majestic

which would stem not

from biological

parentage. reflects upon

They

claim

Socrates
wisdom

as a

slave,

merely as for their claim to

a son.

Their holiness

the need

for

in politics,

obedience

is founded

the opinion, vital to any political

community, that its laws

of

direct men in the right way life. This sanctity is the sign of political authority in its purest form, be cause "authority's hallmark is unquestioning recognition by those who are
and customs are wise and

asked to obey: neither coercion nor persuasion

patriarchs seem

is

needed."46

Thus the Laws

as

to be the spirit,

which gives

life to

a regime,

impressing

their

form

upon

the citizens and

one

fathering

their souls. the simple identification of the Laws

sense of the

For this reason,

personified

may
with

question

by

Socrates

laws in the ordinary

term,

and

espe-

46.

Hannah Arendt, On Violence (New York: Harcourt, Brace

and

World.

1970), p. 45.

20

Interpretation
with

daily
open

the

laws

of

Athens. Although

despots,
which

these

personified

Laws

are

to persuasion and change

in

way in

the basic

constitution

of a

regime

is

not.

Their persuasibility

and

mutability

are reminiscent of the author

best"

ity

of

the "reason which upon calculation seems

at

pealed

the

beginning
Socrates

of

the rejoinder.
or

to which Socrates ap In their despotic demand that Soc

rates not

leave the battle line

the law courts,

they

remind one of

the

lan

guage used

by
the

at

his trial in
pretension

justifying
to honor

his

philosophic service all

to the

Delphic

god.

And in their

also suggest

place assigned

to the soul
to
our

by

human things, they the Athenian Stranger in Laws V:

above
of gods and well-beloved sires. after the gods, and the most

Listen then, Of

all ye who gave ear

discourse

all a man's possessions, own

the

most

divine thing

truly

his

is his

own soul.

Now things

which pertain

to a

man are always of subject.

two sorts,

a stronger part ever prefer when

to be sovereign,

and a weaker part

to

be

So

a man should

those that
men

are sovereign

in honor before those that I

am

are subject.

Therefore,

I bid

honor their

own souls next to the gods,

giving

the right com

mand.47

Thus in the
while

Laws'

on the

surface, the

charge to

Socrates

not

to run away
political

is

made

name of on a

the despotic element of the authority of a

represent

community,

deeper level they

the uncompromising demands of the

philosopher's soul and of

philosophy

as

the alternative to the citizen's way of

life.
In the
second part of their

dialogue

with

Socrates,

the Laws temper their

despotism, becoming less imperious in their demands as they become more transparently ironic and progressively more specific in applying themselves to
Socrates
and

the confines

his relationship to Athens. Although Socrates may of the city "in he went abroad often "in
deed,"

never

have left
In the

Republic, his
interrupted

theoria

"in "in

deed"

to

see

the rites of a

foreign

goddess

was

speech"

by

a theoria

Although Socrates knew

the city
Laws'

other cities

from the city of pigs to the city of beauty. "in he preferred to live in Athens,
speech,"

whose

democratic

marketplace

of regimes

provided
use

him

with

ample

theoretical material for

investigation

and the

freedom to

it. Therefore, the

second argument against

the particular circumstances which permitted

running away is based upon considerations of Socrates to philosophize for sev

second argument

enty
of

years.

More generally, the

discusses the

reciprocal re

quirements of

philosophy for freedom and of politics for an ironic mitigation the implications of the philosophic way of life. Since the trial, however, the

special circumstances which permitted

Socrates

to philosophize no

longer

exist.

(Recall that the

the

daimonion,

Socrates'

old political no

adviser, has been

silent since antago

indictment.) The city is

the city

longer tolerant

of

Socrates,
a new

and

he has

nized

into condemning him. If the

philosophic and the political wavs

of

life
47.

are to coexist without

harming

one

another,

relationship between

Leg.

\.~]26e--j2ja.

The Crito
them
rates must

as a

Mythological Mime

21

be

established to replace the

new

and

Athens. This

fortuitous relationship between Soc relationship is the subject matter of the

Laws'

third argument.

In their third argument, the Laws discuss the alternatives open to Socrates in his last days: exile in a well-governed city, exile in a barbarous place, or a

journey
point to

to

Hades

by

way

of obedience to

the verdict. The three alternatives

philosophy:

the three political requirements for

freedom,
would

culture,

and a

good reputation

for the

philosopher.

In Thessaly, there

be freedom, but
culture, but

cultivated

interlocutors
be

would

be lacking. Crete
provided
with

offered

civilization, but free

and

dom

would

restricted.

Athens had

both freedom

the third requirement, a good reputation

the citizens, is available only the Athenians. The

of
Laws'

by

going to Hades in obedience to the

tion of Hades and
of

verdict of

men
Socrates'

their

brothers,
fate
after as a

the

laws

the underworld, is

third speculation about his

death

since

his

condemnation.

In his first
ac

speculation, he
tivities.48

spoke of

death

dreamless

sleep,

the

cessation of all

When he

speculated about

it

a second

time, he

said

that,

Hades, he
others
tion.49

could continue to philosophize by conversing about unjustly condemned, but without the possibility of further condemna The image presented is one of philosophy continuing under Utopian condi
without

going to justice with

by

tions,

the constraints of the legal and political order. Such conversa

with

tions would

be purely theoretical
Hades
as

nothing

at stake.

In the Crito, however,

which will

Socrates
well or

speaks of

political, as

having
life

laws

receive

him
the
the

ill,

according to

his desserts. This

third mention of
without

Hades

presents
and to

alternative

both to the
of

continuation of mere
without

philosophy

continuation clude
with

philosophy

politics.

Therefore, it is

possible

to con

Socrates'

some

confidence

that

gracious

reception

by

the laws of

Hades is intended to signify the continuation of philosophy beyond the death of Socrates in a new and friendly climate of opinion. This new atmosphere will be
made possible

because Socrates has

acted

to

earn

for philosophy
of

a reputation

for lawfulness,
though
gates

by

his

obedience

"in

deed"

to the verdict of the many.

of

Al

he

rejects

Crito's

plea on

behalf

the

opinion

the many, he miti

the full implications of that

rejection with

the aid of the Laws and under

the cloak of apparent lawfulness.

The

new

atmosphere

created

by

Socrates is the triumph

triumph over Hector and

of

nonvengeful what

justice, surpassing in glory

Achilles
could not achieve,

Achilles'

achieving

a triumph over

death.

By dying, Socrates
can not

avoids

harming
which

those

whom

he

ought

to harm the least. He does no harm to

an evil.

himself,
of that

because he does he
most

not consider

death

Death

deprive him life

desires,

to seek wisdom,

although a prolonged

could.

Nor

does he do any harm to the city and of philosophy to defer to the laws, resorting only to
48.
49.

its laws. Instead, he teaches the friends

persuasion

when

the in-

Ap.

40C9-e3. 4oe-4ic7-

Ap

22

Interpretation
Socrates'

competence avoids

many causes injustice. Indeed, harm but also is beneficial. By means of it, Socrates
of the

death
gains

not

only

for

philoso

phy

a new

opens

Achilles'

and thus he community of the the city to the ameliorating influence of philosophy. In comparison, attempt at a perfection of vengeful justice was a failure. It cost him

interlocutor, "the Laws

and

all that was

dear to him,
not
give whose

bringing
him
what

destruction

upon

him

and

his friends;

none

theless, it did
great

enemy, to

he truly wanted, victory over Hades, his hateful gates he delivered himself on the third day after
imitation
of

the Embassy.

In sum,

Socrates'

competitive

Achilles

can

be judged
superior to

for Socrates

on a number of counts.

Socrates

shows

himself He

victory Achilles

courage

in predicting events and in calculating his because he is not courageous out supremely
self or worthy.

advantage.

surpasses

Achilles in
what

of

fear, but
not not

out of

love for

is

Moreover, his

courage

does

bring

desolation

upon

him

that which he loves.

Although he does

hate death, he triumphs

over

it in both
case of
well

in the
least

as

of the ways open to nonphilosophers, but mutually exclusive Achilles. Not only did Socrates live to an old age, but he is at known to the ages as Achilles. However, before one can call

the contest between the two

heroes

ask whether or not the reasons

it. The
Plato

same

questions

can

a complete victory for Socrates, one must for undertaking it were grave enough to justify be formulated in different terms by asking why

chose

to present the story of Crito's visit to Socrates and to recount it

as a mime of
and

Iliad IX. Although Xenophon is

of

at great pains

to prove the piety

lawfulness
account of

Socrates, nothing

quite

like the Crito anything

appears

in his

writings.
Socrates'

His

Socrates'

trial does not contain

comparable to

likening
show

others.50

of himself to Achilles in refusing to give up philosophy, but it does Socrates predicting that philosophy would be perpetuated after him by Such predictions of vengeance in the face of death are characteristic of

Homeric heroes, but Xenophon's

suggestion of

any
at and

element of epic

heroism in

Socrates is subdued, if it can be said to exist Plato not only defends Socrates as law-abiding

all.

In the Crito, however, pious, but also as heroic,

hence worthy of imitation. The Crito and those parts of the Apology in which Socrates compares himself to Achilles seem to be prime examples of Plato's
peculiar and

treatment of Socrates. The old and ugly philosopher

and

becomes young
the

beautiful,

his

words

become

great

deeds. The
Socrates'

effects of

drama have been

recounts

powerful.

The

manner of

death, especially

resulting as Plato

it, has

elicited admiration

occasional rejections of

his

arguments
of

said that the greatest

lesson

for many centuries, even in the face of for remaining in the prison. It might be his life was his death,51 and Hegel considers the
course of world

event of critical significance

50.

for the

history. His understanding

See above,

n. 5.

See

also

Ap.

37CI-7.

51.

Ernest Barker, Greek Political Theory

p. 96.

Plato

and

His Predecessors (London: Methuen,

1947),

The Crito

as a

Mythological Mime

23 interpretation
which

of the place of

Socrates in

history
to

is

consistent with the

this essay has developed of the exchange between many,

and

Crito,

as ambassador of

the
god

Socrates.

According

Hegel,

Socrates'

service to the

Delphic

represented

the subjectivization of human consciousness and was in opposition

of

to the objective consciousness of the laws

cibiades carried the

the

ancient city.

Critias

and

Al

lawlessness implicit in
a

the subjectivization of

consciousness

into action, but Socrates took

the seed which had

different direction. After his death, however,

root

flowered in Socrates took

the subjectivity
of

in the Athenians
Socrates it in

themselves.
as the main

This awakening

of

thought
the

constituted of

turning-point of the

World Spirit,

and

implanting

a political com
History.52

munity made the personality of Socrates the vortex of World has been said here about the last days of Socrates shows that
the
was ways

What

at

least

one of

in

which

the

implanting

of subjectivized consciousness was achieved

by

the engrafting of the poet's art on to philosophy. The reasons for such a
reference

wedding can best be appreciated in the Republic. The Cave is the place

to the

imagery

of

the Cave of

of the nonphilosophic many, whose opin

wall and

ions

are

governed

by

the shadows on the

those who interpret them.

not serf wish

Once the

philosopher would

has left the Cave, he does

remain above

to return.
portionless

Like
man

Achilles, he
rather than since

rather

as

"the

of

be

king

over all the

outside

dead."53

But

return

he must,

and return

to rule,

his

experience

the Cave invalidates all that is seen within the

cannot

Cave. Still,
the sun be
cannot control

all the
carried

Cave-dwellers below. The

be

made

to leave the

Cave,

nor can

philosopher must

learn to

act politically.

If he

make

the Cave-dwellers see

by

the light of the sun, at least he can

the interpretation of the images on the wall. The image of Socrates as the effect of this image upon Western
civilization

hero

and

is the

great achieve

ment of

Plato.

52.

Meiner,
pp. 53.

G. W. F. Hegel, Vorlesungen uber die Geschichte der Philosophie, Werke XIV (Leipzig: Werke IX, 1923), pp. 39, 91-92, 102; Vorlesungen iiber die Philosophie der Geschichte, See
n. 45.

279-80.

above,

The Invocation to the Georgics

Eve Adler

Middlebury College,

Vermont

The Georgics

opens

with

brief

syllabus at
of

and

long

invocation before
syllabus

undertaking the development

of

its theme

I.43. Although the

the four books

is

clearly
vine,
of

applicable

to the agricultural content

field crops, the

livestock, bees
which

these agricultural topics do not discover

for

us the

theme
of

the poem. "We are thus

poem

forced
and

at once to
not

look for

a plan or structure

the

determines

is

determined location

by

the

agricultural

con

tent."1

In

epic and

didactic poetry, the

Vergil's didactic
of

expected

of a statement of the theme

is the invocation. Homer is the

the man, Muse.

model:

Sing
as

of the wrath, goddess;

Tell

me of

predecessors

follow Homer in this

things as his
and

matter:

Hesiod identifies the justice Works

and

Zeus

his theme in the invocation to the

nature of

Days (1-8); Lucretius identifies the

in the
Lucre
with

invocation to the De Rerum Natura (24-25). Vergil follows Hesiod Hesiod invokes the
enlightenment of

tius in the didactic gesture of associating the invocation to the gods

beneficiary
justice
of

or

pupil.

Zeus for the

Muses in teaching the Perses. Lucretius invokes the aid of

aid of the

Venus in teaching the nature of things for the enlightenment of Memmius. Vergil invokes the aid of all the agricultural gods and of Augustus in teaching something for the enlightenment of farmers who are ignorant of the way. But what is the something? Instead of explicitly naming his theme or doctrine as

his

models

do, Vergil has

embedded

it in the very

attributes

by

virtue of which

he invokes the
tion
of

patronage of

the gods and of Augustus. To construe the invoca

exposition of a

is to follow the dramatic

addresses.

thematic question which the

body

the Georgics

The first half

with

of

the invocation

addresses

the

agricultural

gods.

It begins

the

heavenly
Then it

bodies
moves

which mark out

the

progress of

the

agricultural year

in

the

sky.

to the

gods
midst

who serve,

protect and

improve

agricul

tural practice on earth.

service

In the

of these

it invokes Neptune. While the

of

it

attributes

to him

is the introduction
agricultural world

the

horse, his
reports

name

here

ex

tends our framework of the

so

from heaven

and earth to ocean;

strong indeed is this

effect

that Servius (ad

I.13)

that some

early
whom

copies of the poem read aquam

earth

(water) for

equum

(horse) here: "you for

of

The first half (the neighing horse / the roaring to ocean (12the invocation moves then from heaven (5-6) to earth (7-12)
first
produced

14) back to earth god is invoked.

I.

(14-22)

and

finally

back to heaven

again

(23). No

underworld

Brooks

Otis,

Virgil: A

Study

n:

Civilized

Poetry (Oxford,

1963), p.

148.

26

Interpretation
of

The vocabulary
ary: mutavit
gods'

the first half

of

the

invocation draws

special attention

to

those services of the agricultural gods that have been innovative

or revolution
novas 22.

8,

inv entis 9,

prima

12, inventrix,

monstrator

19,

The New in

inventions

caused or constituted
praises

the transition from

and

an

Old Age to

Age. Vergil's invocation

voked and

the new

blames the old; the

gods are

by

their services
sets a

in

inaugurating
path

the New Age. But the address to

gods'

Liber

Ceres

divergent

for

our reflections about the

your gift

inventions:
Chaonian

Liber
acorn

and nurturant

Ceres, if it
and mixed

was

by

that earth
with

exchanged

the

for fat grain,

I

Acheloan draughts

newly invented grapes,

your gifts

sing.

(7-9,

12)

The inventions
these
water

of wine and grain are replaced an original of

benefits to man; but Vergil diet

of

specifies that

inventions

acorns

and

water.
Age.2

Acorns

and

are, conventionally, the diet

to praise the gods

the race of the Golden

Can Vergil
Lucretius'

mean

account of age of

for ending the Golden Age? It is only in human origins, where the first age was not the Golden Age but
that the
acorn-and-

an

savagery,
wild

water

diet is
v 929, and

ascribed

to men who still

3

live "like Vergil is

animals"

(De Rerum Natura

936-44).

Perhaps, then,

following

Lucretius'

teaching here,
With the
contention
an

praising the gods for ending

an original

age of savagery.

question of the acorn

diet, Vergil has

opposed

introduced into his invocation the

views of

between two radically

original

human

history

as

fall from

paradise, and as a rise

from
of

an original savagery.
gods'

In the

context of this
man seem

contention, Vergil's examples

the

innovating heavenly

benefits to

things that are signs of man's the plow, the

curiously equivocal, for the same improvement from the Lucretian point of view
are also

calendar

the signs of man's

decadence

accord plow

ing

to the conventional accounts of the fall

sign of man's

from the Golden Age. The defined

is the

cultural year which

removal of

latter-day impiety towards his mother is marked out by the heavenly bodies
earth

earth, and the agri

was

by

the

Justice from

to the zodiac (11

474)."

2.

or even stands

Cf. Ovid, Met. 1 105; Tibullus 11. iii. 68-69; Juvenal vi 9. That the acorn itself suggests for the Golden Age here is shown by Cervantes, Don Quixote i.xi: "When Don
satisfied

Quixote had

his appetite, he took up

manner:

handful

of

acorns,

and

gazing

at them

earnestly,

held forth in the

called

following

'Happy

times and

fortunate

ages were

those that our ancestors

because gold (so prized in this our Iron Age) was gotten in that happy era any labors, but because those who lived then knew not those two words mine and thine. In that holy age all things were in common, and to provide his daily sustenance all a man needed to do was to lift up his hand and pluck his food from the invited him to sturdy oaks that
golden, not
without

gather their sweet,

ripe

fruit

'

Our knight

uttered this

long

have been spared) simply because the acorns they gave him reminded That the acorns Cervantes has in mind here are those of the Georgics is indicated most particularly by Don Quixote's reference in this discourse to the republic of the bees (Don Quixote, tr. Walter Starkie, New American Library 1964, pp. 117-119). See also Note 13 below. 3. On the acorn diet, cf. Stanley Schechter, "The Aition and Virgil's TAPA 105
Georgics,"

generously harangue (that might him of the Golden Age.

well

(1975).
4.

P- 357-

On the

plow:

Ovid, Met.

102,

108,

121-123, Am. m.viii.39. 41; Horace, Ep. xvi 43;

The Invocation to the Georgics

The
of

27
this contention between the two views
account of

body

of

the

Georgics

elaborates

human history,
and

developing

in

some

detail both the traditional

whether

the

Golden Age
curred and

the reasons

for questioning
was

the

Golden Age

ever oc
of

whether, if it did occur, it

the best age. In the

"theodicy"

I u8ff. we

discover that the Old Age, the time before the may indeed be identified with the Golden Age:
Before Jupiter,
or to
earth no

gods'

innovations,

farmers

subjugated the
men used

fields; it

was not

lawful to

mark off a

field

divide it

with a

boundary;

to collect

for

the common store, and the

herself bore

all things more

liberally

when no one exacted

them

from her.

(I 125-8)

Jupiter's innovations include the introduction atory character into wolves (1 invocation's praise of the
that Jupiter's
purpose

of venom

into

snakes and a pred

129-30).

gods'

While this may seem to contradict the innovations as benefits to man. Vergil asserts
was meliorative

in these innovations
the Golden
and also

(1 121-4,

133).

As

in the traditional
product of

account of

Age, Vergil

asserts that

impiety by

is the

Jupiter's regime,
536-40).

that the Golden Age of Saturn was superior throws these assertions into doubt
remind and

in

virtue
us

(11

But he

ing
his
11

that

it

brother"

was precisely the Saturnian life that was lived (11 533) and that the slaughtered cattle (caesis

by
. .

"Remus

iuvencis,
means

537)

which

illustrate the

supposed

impiety
m

of the

Jovian

race are the same

slaughtered cattle

(caesosque

iuvencos,

23)

which

Vergil himself

to

bring
how

as gifts to the shrines of the gods.

undermines

Vergil's

account of

the plague in

Book III further

belief in the

goodness of the

Golden Age

by

show

ing during
not

much

the Golden Age

has in

common with the occurrence of a plague:

the plague the earth

is

not cultivated with metal

implements;

the wolf is
and the

predatory; the deer lie down with the

dogs;

the snake

is harmless;

arts are useless

(111

5346.).

As Vergil
of

elaborates as

the

contention

between the two

views of

the direction

human

history

a whole,

so

he

elaborates

the related question about the

innovating
visibly
To this

roles of the gods named

in his invocation. The

heavenly

bodies that

guide

the year
the

have been

set

to do so as a benefit to agricultural man:

end

golden sun rules

the circuit that

world.

is

measured out

into fixed divisions

by

the twelve constellations of the

end"

(1 231-2)
prognostication

"To this

refers

to the arts of

agricultural

set

forth in the

preceding verses,
arts
which

204-230.

Prognostication

itself,

then, one
after all

of

the

Jovian-age

experience

forges

by

thought (1 133). is
place

achieved not

by
the

thoughtful experience alone

but in the first

because

of a

disposition

of

Seneca, Oct.

404-405, 414-416.

On

(= the departure of Iustitia

Dike, Virgo, Astraea, Erigone):

Aratus, Phaen. 96-136; Vergil, Eel. iv 6; Ovid, Met. I 1 50-151, Fasti 250; Seneca, Oct. Cf. W. H. Semple, "Notes on Some Astronomical Passages 396-399, 423-425: Juvenal, vi 19
Claudian,"

of

Class. Quart. 33 (1939).

pp. 3-4.

28 heavens
of

Interpretation

benevolently furnished
not exist until

as a

discoverable is to

guide.

On the

other

hand,

one

the chief uses of the starry guide

warn men of meteorological calamities

world

which

did

they

were

introduced into the

together with the

guide self
use

itself,
328).
a

and

which, as

a matter of

fact,

are caused

by

Father Jupiter him

(i

In the

beginning

there was perpetual spring (11 338); there was no

for

heavenly
The

calendar until the end of

the Golden Age brought the chang

ing
the the

seasons.

zodiac which

tells the

months

for the benefit

of men

of

farmers

was

not complete until constellation

Justice

abandoned the

company

(11 474) to become

are

Virgo. The times for the

harvesting

of

honey

indicated

by

heavenly bodies (iv 231-235); but before those bodies performed this benevolent office, honey was not produced seasonally by bees but dropped per
petually from the leaves of trees (1 131). According to Vergil's invocation, Liber improved
with

on primitive river-water

his invention
removed

of

the vine (1 9); but according to the Golden Age story,

Jupiter

the wine that originally

a

flowed in
not

primitive rivers

(l

132).

If

Bacchus'

invention is

benefit, it is
us are

still

so

praiseworthy

as the unculti

vated trees whose

benefits to

independent

of agriculture

(11 454); in fact

455-

Bacchus is
457).

blameworthy,
wine

since

intoxication has

often or

been destructive (11

Perhaps there

would

have been justice

reason

in the

plague

if the

beasts had been

are

drinkers; but their innocence

and the plague's

injustice

526specially brought out by the fact that they were water drinkers (in 530). Indeed wine appeared to be therapeutic for the beasts once they had suc

cumbed to the
wine soon who wine

plague; but this appearance

a
Bacchus'

brought them to

begins

by invoking
old

cruelly deceptive and in fact the specially gruesome death (m 509-514). Vergil, aid for his poem on the grounds that new
was at considerable pains as

is better than

river-water, has been

it
in

seems
order

to show us also the opposing view, the view which must

be

rejected

for the invocation to

stand. agricultural gods

The invocation to the

directs

our attention then to a con

gods'

troversy

about the

innovations,

which

the poem goes on to elaborate. We

agricultural gods

may formulate this duces the thematic

by

saying that the invocation to the

the relative merits of the

intro
New

problem of

Old Age

and the

Age,

the preagricultural age and the agricultural age. In particular,

it introduces
so,

as thematic the question whether the

whether the

Old Age
age.

was

the

Golden Age, and, if

Golden Age

was the

best
one

question

is itself twofold. On the

age

Vergil's treatment of hand, he suggests that there

Lucretius'

this twofold
never was a of

Golden Age: the first

and
age.

was, as

in

account,

an age

poverty,

and

human

history
dwell

as a whole

has been

an ascent

from

savagery that first

On the

other

Golden Age, meaning

and even to

or value

traditional picture

to concede that the first age was the its character, but only on condition that the of that Golden Age be reassessed: Vergil's references to the of the Golden Age regularly imply that it was not the best
on an

hand, Vergil is willing

age, that it

was

in

important way

savage

or

subhuman

age.

Vergil's

The Invocation to

the

Georgics
of

29

twofold treatment of the status treatment of the

the

Golden Age
of

corresponds to the twofold

happy
is,

man

near

the center

the poem:
who

happy

is he
rural poem.

who

knows the

causes of

things, but

happy

too is

he

knows the

gods

(n 490-494)
tius'

that

the rural gods as presented

by

Vergil in the

The

twofold treatment of both the

Golden Age

and

human happiness follows Lucre but only

11

treatment of the gods in the De Rerum Natura: one may conclude that
or

the gods do not exist,

condition ill

one

that their meaning

iv

may continue to speak be reassessed (cf. Lucr.

v

of

them

on

1-49,
and cf.

598-660,

18-30, 976-1021,

1050,

110-246,

159-1238;

Epicurus, "It
a slave to the

would

be better to follow the

myth

concerning the
x 134).
gods

gods than to

be

physicists,"

necessity of the The invocation to the

Augustus
since

D.L.

agricultural

is balanced

as a

future
not

god.

Naturally

then he is

invoked

by not by

an

invocation to
past

his

services,
precise

these

have
In

been divine ones, but

to speculation
or

by

his future
and

services.

The

nature

of these

is

open

prophecy,
Augustus'

Vergil

speculates or

prophesies.

sixteen

lines he delineates

possible and

impossible

future roles, and in three he exhorts him in the name of his future role to sponsor Vergil's present undertaking. The invocation to Augustus broaches the
subject of

future

history

necessarily in

relation

to past
and

history,

and

in

par

ticular to the
raised

question about

the status of the

Old

New Ages that has been

in the invocation to the

agricultural gods.

Augustus may become

the
great

an earth

god, solicitous
as author of

of cities and

lands,

whom

globe

will

acknowledge

fruits

and master of climates,

wreath of myrtle. crowning him in recognition of this character with If Augustus does become an earth god he will not be, like the earth gods of the

Venus'

first half

of

the

invocation,

the patron of a division of the earth or a division

of agriculture

(as wine, grain, forests, herds, flocks, olive, plow);

these divisions. All the gods whose care

instead, he
guard

will unite and oversee all

it is to

the fields (21)

of

are

subsumed under

the future god who will choose the care

lands;

all

the gods

who cultivate new

fruits

which

have
of

not

been

sown

(22)
who

are subsumed under the

who will

future
rain

god who will

be "author

fruits";
the

all the gods

god

send

down

sufficient

(23)

are

subsumed

under

future

climates."

Servius'

be "master be

of
worshipped

paraphrase minces no words:

Jupiter"

"whether

you wish to

in

place of

(ad

1 26).
will

But

perhaps

Augustus

will

become

a sea god.
whose

If so, he

be

a god of the

whole extent of extreme

the sea, immensi maris,

of

realm will reach even

to the

border

Thule. His

sailors

will

worship his

divinity
her

only (29-30).
to
procure

Tethys,

although she

Augustus
additional

as

has many daughters, her son-in-law. The potential

god

will spend all sea god

waves

Augustus is then
Servius'

not

just

an

sea

but

prince

of

sea

gods.

Again
worshipped

paraphrase

is be

straightforward:
tune"

"that is, "that is,

whether you wish above and

to be

in

place of

Nep

(ad
than

1 29);

the other sea gods, as if he were going to

gods"

better

both Neptune

the other sea

(ad

1 30).

30

Interpretation

But perhaps,

finally, Augustus
be
marvelous

will

become
This is

his

apotheosis will

indeed: he

will

sky god. If so, the manner of become an additional constel

to stellar

lation among the

signs of the zodiac.

no common translation

form;
mise

the zodiac, unlike the rest of the starry sky,

is essentially
calendar.5

fixed

and

closed system.

The

addition

to it

of

any

novum

sidus must

its

service to agricultural man

by disrupting
Jovian Age,

the

radically Indeed

compro
not since

the inauguration of the

agricultural a

with

the departure of

Justice

from

earth

(ii 473-474), has

of

new

constellation

been introduced into the

Augustus, then, be an event to match the acces sion of Jupiter? In the Fourth Eclogue, the return of the Golden Age is heralded by the return of Virgo from the zodiac to earth. Perhaps, if the deification of Augustus means the return of the Golden Age, his addition to the zodiac and her subtraction from it might be regarded as complementary. But, so far from
zodiac.

Will the deification

suggesting that Virgo will return to earth, Vergil specifies here that Augustus will take his place beside her in the zodiac (1 33). In conformity with this,
and

in

contradistinction

from the Fourth Eclogue, Vergil in the Georgics in

the

fact does
below.

not conceive of

future

as a returned

Golden Age,
Augustus'

as we shall see

Vergil's three cumulatively

Augustus'

speculations

or

prophecies

on a

divine
to

character

contrive to suggest that

future

history

history

be inaugurated
in

by

deification

may radically

alter the

Jovian dispensation. Neither

sign

a new prince of earth gods nor a new prince of sea gods nor a new

the zodiac is easily integrated into Jupiter's regime. These cumulative tions of

intima

future

revolution

are

emphasized

and

confirmed

in Vergil's fourth

speculation, the

negative one

that Augustus will not choose to

clear that of the

concerning the Underworld kingdom. In asserting become an Underworld god, Vergil makes it
choose, he would become
not an additional god

if Augustus did

so

Underworld but its

new

king. The

regime of

Dis is

secure only, as

it

seems, because Augustus

will choose not

The inclusion

of the negative

usurp his power (1 36). speculation, and its introduction by nam,

to
councils"

con

firms

that the
will

Augustus

issue in 1. 24 is not "what occupy but which of the four councils

choice
which

of

the gods

in

general

of

the gods he

will occupy.

Augustus is to have his

four kingdoms into

among the four kingdoms of the universe, those Jupiter divided the world upon his accession to the Jupiter has the
of

throne of Saturn (//. xv 187-93). Not since the accession of

government of the

four
a

quarters

been

at

issue. The future Age

Augustus is

to be inaugurated the universe

by

deification

whose potential effects on

the government of

have had

no parallel since

the transition from the Old Age to the

greatest

New Age. "For to become

power

a god

is the
wish

thing, but to have it

in

your

[to choose]
thing"

which

god

you

to

become is clearly

more than

the

greatest
5.

(Servius

ad

24).

We may say then that the invocation to

calendar each month

Thus tardis, 32,

suggests that

in

twelve-month

is

slower

than

in

thirteen-month calendar.

The Invocation to the Georgics

Augustus introduces the theme
will

31

of

future

history

in the form

of a problem:

how

the

Augustan dispensation be
of

related to

the Jovian dispensation?

The last three lines

which

Vergil is
the
of

invoking

invocation (40-42) finally phrase the request for Augustus. Augustus is asked to foster Vergil's under
the to join Vergil in compassion for "farmers
who

taking in
ignorant
that will

Georgics,

are

the

and upon

to begin to assume in this life the divine functions

become his

his deification. These Neptune. "Nod

Jupiter.6

requests are so phrased as

to

recapitulate

the speculation on the four kingdoms. "Grant an easy

as a potential
a

ad

dresses Augustus
addresses

assent to
with

him
of the

as

potential

"Pity,
as

my bold me, the farmers

earth

unde

who

are

ignorant
where

way"

addressess

him

a potential

god, in the

sphere

the three Kronides now share power. And

finally, "accustom
the

yourself

even now

to be invoked
of

prayers"

with

not

only

sums

future

characters

Augustus, but
Dis,
"the

also

plays

on

up these three possible idea of Augustus as a

potentially
to

reformed

that god who

awful

tomed to the prayers of men:

king,

is presently most peculiarly unaccus the hearts that do not know how

be

softened

by

human

prayers"

(iv

469-470).

four kingdoms,
place, and
probable

Vergil discounts the possibility that Augustus, given his choice among the might choose to rule the Underworld. But by putting it in last

discounting
section

it

at as

great

length

as

he

explores

each of the three

of

choices, he

gives

it

a particular emphasis. appear

The first two lines

the

Underworld

(36-37)

to advance the praise of Caesar both

by

Augustus'

implying
realms of

that

kingship

would

be

benefit to the Underworld ("the

Tartarus do

not even

hope to

get you as their rule

king")

and

by

for the
of

Augustus'

moderation of

desire to
next

("nor

would so relentless a

vouching desire
out

ruling come over Underworld section

you").
with

The

two

lines, though, instead

offer an overt

of

filling
and

the

further praise,
Augustus'

(quamvis)

weighty

challenge to the wisdom of

judgment:
and

Although Greece

admires

the Elysiun

fields,

Proserpina does

not care

to

follow

her

mother who came

to get

her. (1

38-9).

Augustus'

rejection

of

the possibility of ruling the Underworld is attributed

of

then not only to the

an opinion of
"Proserpina."

moderation

his desire to is
opposed

rule

but

also

to his

holding
him to

"Greece"

the Underworld which

by

the opinions of to allow

and rule a

His desire he

of

ruling is
the

more moderate than

kingdom

of which

entertains a

bad

opinion.

But his bad

and

opinion of

"Greece'

this

kingdom is

contrasted

with

admiration

of

the love of

"Proserpina"

for it. For the

attention

exposition of

this disagreement Vergil has not only

notion

explicitly located in the Underworld, but has

mate of the rape of
gods.

called

to the

un-Greek

that the Elysian

Fields

are esti

also

baldly

reversed

the popular

Greek

Proserpina ("Proserpina
attributes

was not able

to return to the upper

Proserpina,"

only Vergil
ix

this necessity to the will of

Ser-

6. Cf. Aen.

625: Juppiter

omnipotens, audacibus adnue coeptis.

32

Interpretation
The disagreement that Vergil indicates here between Augustus
the value of ruling the Underworld
such a

vius ad i 39). and

Greece
of the

on

is richly
only to

elaborated

in the

body
view

Georgics, but in
of

Augustus'

way

as

not

correct
view

in the light

the Greek view, but

also

to reform the Greek

can challenge

itself.
re

The jection

admiration of of

Greece for the Elysian Fields

Augustus'

tarus; but this is

miration

Tartarus only if the Elysian Fields are conceived as not where they are usually located by the Greeks. Greek
the

located in Tar
ad

essentially only rarely are they located in or related to Tartarus. Homer's Elysian Fields are located at the ends of the earth, near
analogue of

for

Elysian Fields

shows that these

Age;7

Fields

are

a spatial

the temporal Golden

Ocean

and

Zephyr,

and

inhabited

life for men,

Islands
of

without snow or rain or are at

the Blest too there the

the

by Rhadamanthus; they provide the easiest heavy storms (Od. iv 561-568). Hesiod's ends of the earth, by Ocean; Kronos rules

there,

and

167-169).
refreshed

happy heroes enjoy three growing seasons a year (W&D Pindar's Islands of the Blest are the site of the Tower of Kronos,
Ocean breezes
11
and

by

inhabited

by Rhadamanthus,

and

producing

golden

flowers (O.

68-76); but in
is the
one

another place

speaks of

that place as located

rarer view

"below"

and

(Fgg. 129 & 130) Pindar in juxtaposition with the rivers of

the grounds for Greece's

hell. This

Vergil

propounds as contempt

admiration of

the Elysian Fields.

Augustus'

is

challenged

by

a view of the

Underworld
praise
of

which sees

for ruling the Underworld in it the location of a

136-76)
and praise of

permanent

Golden Age. Vergil's

Italy

(n

Italian farmers (11 458-74, 493-540) identifies

temporal

agrarian

Italy

not

Golden Age but

"Greece"

also with

the spatial Elysian

Fields9

Fields.8

only with the Vergil shares the

admiration of

for the Elysian

and, since he locates them in

Tartarus, his admiration extends to the Underworld which Augustus contemns. With Proserpina's refusal to follow her mother back to the Upperworld,
Vergil
presents us with the

than the Upperworld entirely apart

ness.

The twist

or surprise

someone may love the Underworld better from any consideration of Elysian blessed in Vergil's line is that he improves on the popular

idea that

the myth: not constraint or trickery but her own will keeps Proser in the Underworld; something in Tartarus itself inspires loyalty or affec tion. Such an improvement on the myth is not unprecedented, however; it is advanced at some length by Socrates in the Cratylus, Vergil's
version of pina
403a-404d.10

Proserpina, like
of

the

Pherepapha

of

the

Cratylus, is

wise; she is the lawgiver

Book IV
7.

Of her laws Vergil

mentions one: that

Age?"

Eurydice
2

shall

follow
pp.

Or-

Cf. H. C. Baldry, "Who Invented the Golden

xvi 39-66.
of

Class. Quart.

(1952).

85-86.

8. Cf. Horace, Ep.

9.

in the peculiarly Greek east of the invoca Gordon Williams, Tradition and Originality in Roman Poetry (Oxford, 1968). p. 94. W. Y. Sellar, The Roman Poets of the Augustan Age: Virgil (Oxford, 1883), p. 220; M. C J. Putnam, Virgil's Poem of the Earth (Princeton, 1979). p. 10. G. Zuntz, Persephone (Oxford, 1971), pp. 400-402, discusses other possible sources for a tradition of a Persephone who does not return.
evident

Vergil's

favoring

Greece is already
of

tion to the agricultural

deities

II. 5-23;

cf.

The Invocation
pheus

to the

Georgics

33
The
condition that

back to the Upperworld (iv

at

487).
not

Orpheus

shall not
stipula

look back

Eurydice is imposed
tyrant,"

by

Proserpina but
"Greece"

by

Dis ("the

tions of the relentless

492).
and

The disagreement between Augustus

our attention matter

to which Vergil

directs
that

is then full

of

matter, and the

body

of

the Georgics
of

explores

in

close connection with connected

with

the historical problem

the three ages. The

Old Age is
Age is The Future
nected with

the Golden

Age, Elysium,

and

Saturn;

the New

connected with or

Jupiter,

agriculture,
related

Tartarus,
and

and

the powers of Dis.

a

Augustan Age is

to past

history

in

way that is
about

con value

the

disagreement between Augustus

"Greece"

the

of

ruling the Underworld. Vergil's revaluation of the

on men's

respective

claims

of the

Golden Age his

and

the

Jovian Age

hopes in the Georgics is the

moved

ground of

vision of a

Future Age. Vergil has here

of the
Age."

away

decisively
of

from the
not

cyclical vision
return of

Fourth Eclogue: the third The

revaluated

age of the

Georgics is

to be a

the Golden
able object

Golden Age
not

the Georgics is an
object of

understand

of men's

nostalgia of

but

worthy
an

their hopes. The

revaluated

Jovian Age
not

the Georgics

is

understandable object of men's presents

pride

but

a sound object of their

and

hopes. Vergil in the Georgics

as

both the Golden Age doomed

true way

the Jovian Age

dead

ends

in human history,

each

by

its

own

internal flaw. The Future Age, if it is to dead-end street,

will

set men on

the the

rather

than on a

have to

avoid or transcend

internal flaws

of

both

old ages.

best way is declaredly the aim of the Georgics: (1 41-42). Augustus, "Pity, with me, the farmers who are ignorant of the is asked to sponsor the ignorant of are who those way, compassion for in The teaching
of the true or
way"

Vergil's

poem which will teach

the

way.

Vergil knows the way, but it is

might

not

clear that

Augustus does.
who

Certainly

Augustus

be

moved

by

compassion

for those
Vergil's

do

not

exposition

know the way without knowing it himself; and certainly has raised a ques disagreement with of
Augustus'
"Greece"

Augustus'

tion about

wisdom.

At the
explicit

center

of

the poem, near the end of book

the

II, Vergil

presents

an

teaching
was all

about

best

way:

Blessed

he

who was able

to know the causes of things, and who trampled under

his feet he
who

fears, inexorable fate, and the roar of greedy Acheron. Fortunate too is knows the rural gods, Pan, old Silvanus, and the sister nymphs, (n 490-494)
ways are presented and

But two best

sented

here: the way

rural

of natural

by

Lucretius,

the way of

religion.

philosophy as repre No doubt Vergil implies

1 1

Vergil

can

be thought to have

returned

to the

position of

the

Fourth Eclogue in the Aeneid

account

Anchises'

only if
(Aen.
and the

teaching
Saturnian Age is

( vi 791-794)

is taken to be identical
not

with

Vergil's. In Evander's

vm 314-327), the

Saturnian Age is

the first age; the first age was an age of savagery,

distinctly

civilized

(characterized

by

law. kingship,

agriculture).

34

Interpretation

that the way of rural religion is second best: et ille (493) suggests concession; fortunatus suggests the danger as well as the delight of being favored by For

tune,

as

felix does not; lack

and

Vergil has just

natural

suggested that

it is only because
reconciled

of

his

own

of aptitude

for

philosophy that

he has

himself.
the nec

inglorius,
essity
of

to the

solaces of

Since the teaching

a
special

of

12 country life (475-489). the best way is conceived in the invocation

as

Augustus,

the relationship of this moment to the rest of

historical moment, namely the imminent deification of history is a principal This

concern of the poem.

Future Age; its The Old

unique

is the passageway from the New to the historical predecessor was the transition from the Old
moment

to the New Age.

security precisely because he understood the heaviness and futility of human life without development that Jupiter inaugurated his new regime, re
or stasis.

or

Golden Age

of

the Georgics

is

characterized

by

absolute

It

was

placing the dull

with

the sharp, the easy

with

the

hard,

the same with the

-146).

dif

ferent,
the

the static with the mobile, satiety

was not

with

desire (1

121

Jupiter

ended

willing that the way should be easy (1 122). This is the traditional myth, subverted only but crucially by the fact that Vergil does not attribute the origin of the hard way to human degenera
tion or to divine malevolence; the
verses

Golden Age because he

hard way is fall but

a

not

a punishment.

Vergil

re

absolutely the traditional value or meaning of the Golden

rise,
not a
raised men

Age, making
but
a

the Jovian or agricultural age not a

punishment

blessing. Jupiter
a progressive

from leisure to labor, from

and

a stagnant paradise

to

history, from sufficiency

in book I
in the

stupidity to
with

need and skill.

Vergil's

account

of

this transition

closes

human
with

condition

agricultural age: successful

a cautionary tale about the Agricultural Man is bursting

gnaws on

failed Agricultural Man, a pathetic throwback, his Golden Age relics, the acorns, with hunger in his belly and envy in his heart (1 158-159). While the Golden Age is the object of a poignant nos
abundant produce while

talgia in the
age or

Georgics, Vergil's doctrine is

its return; the

not a project of

looking for
On felix

nostalgia of civilized men

returning to that for the childhood Errors

of

of the world

is founded

on errors of

fact

and of

interpretation.13

fact,
of p.

12.

Arcadia,"

and fortunatus cf. R. R. Dyer, "Ambition in the Georgics: Vergil's Reieetion Auckland Classical Essays (Auckland, 1971), p. 148; M. C. J. Putnam, op. cit.,

150.

Cf. Plato, Politicus 268d-275b, and esp. 272b-d: Young Socrates says that he would not able and willing to judge whether the Age of Kronos or the Age of Zeus is happier; the Stranger suggests that in order to judge, one would need to know whether men in the Aee of Kronos used their leisure and speech for philosophy. In Don Quixote's discourse on the Golden Age (see Note 2 preceding). Cervantes explicitly develops the parallel: is the best
13.

be both

way of life, but it did not come into being until the end of the Golden Aue brought about the departure of Justice from her "proper bounds": "Therefore, as times went on and wickedness in
creased, the
rescue man order of

knight-errantry

knight-errantry

was

instituted
It is
a

to

defend maidens,
of

to protect widows, and to

orphans and
obliged

distressed

persons."

is

to

favor

knights-errant,"

Don Quixote, that "every though knights-errant did not exist in the Golden Aee
says

"law

nature,'

The Invocation to
because the
agery;

the

Georgics

35 Golden Age but Golden Age

an age of sav

childhood of the world was not a

errors of

interpretation,

because
man

even the

of

myth, rightly
gravis

understood, was
veternus

fatally

flawed for

by

its immemorial sluggishness,

enjoyment of a

(i 124); its security, its

communal

earth without

labor,

was tied to

the absence

of

culture,

or

the

freely inability

nurturant of men

to become

fully

human.
on

The Jovian Age,

a principle of

the other

hand, is

characterized

by

absolute

insecurity,

degeneration built into the very germ of agriculture. The Jovian regime was instituted by force and is maintained by force, but it never has had and never will have enough force to prevail absolutely; it is founded on a
conquest which

is in

principle

impossible

to sustain. In his critique of the Jovian

progressive

Age, Vergil
collapse.

propounds the view progresses

that Jovian culture is necessarily the closer it necessarily

comes

but that the further it

to ultimate

The division

essential
of man

mark

of

the Jovian Age is the

institution

of culture

by

the

from

nature.

static; culture does to

man's

not.

Nature includes the dull, the easy, the same, the In the Jovian order, nature is an obstacle and a threat
and violence are

development in culture; labor, art,

nature.

the ways of over

coming
a single

(variae artes,

Immoderate labor (labor improbus, 1 145), the several arts 133), human force (v/.v humana, 1 198) must be unrelenting;
man's

break in

vigilance

gives

purchase

to

degeneration,
man's a war

the

anti-

Jovian tendency of nature. From the inception of the

ture

agricultural

teaching
and

at 1

43,
as

life in

agricul

is

portrayed

as

life

against

nature,

even

against nature.

must respond to spring by ox groan and plowshare to be polished his to his by friction (1 43-46). making His labor on the land is like navigation, that familiar topos of fallen man's

Spring

melts and softens

the world, but the farmer

iron,"

unnatural

impiety

("before

we cleave

the

unknown sea with

"givens"

1 50).

Man

needs

to learn

nature's ways

in

order

to know the
skillful

of

task

is to tease his

advantage

from the

frustration

of

his task, but his her intentions

therefore he
ro

(1 50-56, 67-70).

Agricultural
must see to

man's

use of the soil

exhausts

it (1 77-78),

and

its

continued

productivity

by

his

strategems of

laying fallow,
war

tating

crops,

burning

the

fields,

cross-plowing (1 71-99). The farmer who uses

against

these strategems becomes a general, imperat arvis (1 99), in the

nature.

The

successful

farmer is

not

only

a skilled strategist

but is

also prepared combat

of

to enter hand-to-hand combat (communis, 1

104)

with

his fields. His

is

not

only

with

the soil itself but with all the

antiagricultural

conditions

nature gime.

against

which

Jupiter

pitted the

farmer

when

he instituted his
nitentia culta

new re

Man's labor in

cultivation yields

brilliant results,

(1 153),

(op. cit.,

p.

1 19)-

Cf. Friedrich Solmsen. "Hesiodic Motifs in

Plato,'

Entretiens Fondation Hardt

7 (i960),

pp.

181-188; and cf.

Note 17 below.

36 but
an

Interpretation
anti-Jovian weeds

counterrevolution

is

always

brewing,

and

the strength of

sterile

threatens eternally to choke out the fruits of

cultivation.

Unre

mitting
and the
which

vigilance

(adsidua rastra,

155) is the farmer's only hope

original

of con

tinued success. As soon as he lets up, nature asserts her

wilderness,

farmer

ends

up eating

acorns to remind

him

of that

Golden Age from

Jupiter has potentially redeemed him. Since the farmer's labor is war, his tools
underground

are

weapons,

arma

(1

160).

But

nature's

army

makes

sport of the armed

unless a

he

extends

his

vigilance even

farmer (inludant, 181) further: just underneath his threshing floor

lies in
wait

subterranean

community
"pests."

of creatures

laxity laboriously
bears

to emerge as

The

grain seed

itself,

which

for any moment of his he has bred long and

to a pitch of productivity appropriate to the aims of agriculture,

within

itself the

natural principle of

degeneration. The Fates themselves

of vigilance allow.

execute this principle works

insofar

as man's

lapses

Time itself
a

for

nature's

cause, for degeneration:

not a tranquil stream

but

rushing
stroke
river's

river, it

makes of

Jovian

progress an

missed, and progressive man

unrelenting rowing upstream: one is reclaimed by the natural direction of that

course, toward degeneration: I have

of seen grain seed

degenerate,

even after

the

laborious

selection and control selection process

many generations,

unless

the utmost

human

effort

keeps up the

by hand,
law
of

year after year without rush

fail. In

the same way all things, constrained

by

fate,

back to

baser
is

condition and are swept

backwards into

collapse and

oblivion

just

as a man who

barely

rent, if he
stream.

should relax

his

arms

managing to row upstream against the cur for just one moment, is swept headlong down the

(1 197-203)

Everything
Jupiter's

cultivated tends to

degenerates: everything fertile tends to become sterile, everything become wild, everything sharp tends to become dull.14 Under

regime no progress

is

ever

secure; every human achievement

even while

must

be

continually defended from degeneration

under way.

the next achievement is

The greater man's progress, therefore, the greater the probability his ever-extending frontiers against the wilderness will finally prove in capable of defense, and that his whole undertaking agricultural civilization it
that
self will collapse. of

The forces
the

degeneration has

reside

underground; in the Jovian dispensation.

Underworld

opposes cultivation and must never

Jupiter's

revolution

been

secured. never

ultimately uncultivate the world. He overthrew the government of

reconciled

Saturn, but his

survive
cultural

old opponents where

have

been

to his regime.
overthrow

They
laws

underground,
civilization.

they

continue to work

for the

of agri

These

subversive

forces be

and creatures

obey

natural

which make
14.

it impossible for them

151, 154. i97fi.;

ever to
11

either annihilated or converted to

Cf.

148-149.

37, 48, 53-62, 70, 207-211, 440-443; in 95-98,

100-102,

118-122, 464-465;

iv 495-496
and

is

significant

for its

echo of I

fero),

cf.

P. A. Johnston, "Eurydice

Proserpina in

the

Georgics"

199-200 (retro, fata. TAPA 107 (1977), p. 166.

The Invocation to the Georgics

Jovian
culture.

37
subterranean

They

range

from tiny

insect

pests to the

Furies in

hell,
in

and their

destructive intentions towards Jupiter's his fields

regime are everywhere

evidence.

The farmer
ravages of an

must

continually

secure

and storage mice

barns

against the

underground

network

of

pests, where
to undo
a

and

moles, toads.

weevils, and ants are always

observe

threatening
month

his labors (i ill

omen

i8off.).

He

must

the fifth

day
his

of each

as

day

of

for his labors, in

commemoration of

the giants and titans who challenged Jupiter's authority at

reign.

the

beginning

of

Jupiter

suppressed their rebellion and

imprisoned
But the
vol

them underground

under mountains

in fact, for

greater security.

canic rumblings and eruptions of

those same mountains

bear

witness

to the con

tinuing
to

power and

hostility

of

the giants and titans,

world

who are always

threatening
Tartarus

burst back into the daylight

(i 466-468,

471-475).

Finally

itself, the abode of the dead, continually threatens to engulf the upper world in final darkness, overthrowing all the projects of Jupiter's civilization. Tartarus is not only the passive recipient of all living souls at the time of their death; it
also sends

into the

upper world active

demons

of violence and

insane

destruc-

tiveness which

hasten is

and

Jupiter's

revolution not

has

never

multiply death through war and crime (111 551). been secured. The conquest and suppression

of

the Underworld

is the

source not

only
of

only unachieved but impossible, because life,15 as it is the abode of death but also of
Elysium. The
end of

the Underworld
not

only

of

the dead but also

of

the Underworld would be the end

on earth.

Elysium; it
This
pole

would also

be the
for

end of

life

is

always uppermost

us;

but the

other

is

seen

by

the black Styx

and

the

shades

beneath

our

feet. (1 242-3)
the Underworld are so disposed as to balance one another;

The Upperworld
there
of

and

suppressing one of them without destroying the pattern and fabric the universe. The Jovian Age is on the verge of collapse because the Jovian

is

no

project of world
will

expanding the

power of

the Upperworld at the expense of the Under

is necessarily not be a mere

that he

self-defeating.

If Augustus is to inaugurate
an age

an age which
which

repetition

of

Jupiter's fatal error,

will

be

secured against the

hostile

eruption of

the Underworld into the

Upperworld, it
in the light

is
of

urgent

reconsider

his

rejection of

ruling the Underworld

will

the views Vergil has

or

attributed

to Greece and Proserpina. Not

by

conquer

rule it rejecting Tartarus but by undertaking to inaugurate a future age which will not merely repeat the

ing

Augustus be

able

to

calamitous past.

Agricultural
the plants
and

man

has

the art of

breeding
nature.

of

reproducing
art of

with

improvements
plants

animals

he finds in
to

The

originating those

and animals,
man
would

however, belongs
have
no stuff

Tartarus;

without

the

Underworld,
solo

agricultural subest

to

cultivate

and

breed. Quippe
and

natura

Civilization,"

15.

Cf. G. B. Miles, "Georgics

3.209-294:

Amor

California Studies in

Classical

Antiquity 8 (1976).

pp.

I77~<97-

38

Interpretation
force
of generation resides underground.

n 49): the

This force is the

source of

the

spontaneous production of

plants,

while cultivation

is

the source of the re

production and

improvement

of them

(11

51-52).

Cultivation

by

fire is

effec

tive (1 84ff. ) because it somehow opens the soil to

occultas

underground

life-forces.
death

viris, or allows a life -juice to penetrate from below. Somehow

manure and ashes are a plant

fosters life;
The loftier
planted

the

fertilizers
must

of exhausted

fields (1 80-81).
vine and

is to be, the deeper it

great oak

be planted; the
whole strength

may be

shallow, but the

derives its

longevity

from

driving

its

roots of

down to Tartarus (11

reach toward

288ff.).
with

but the balance

its

heaven

Not its reaching to heaven. its reach toward Tartarus, is

many
generations

the cause why the oak

of men

is impervious to
Jupiter

storm and outlives

(11

293!?.).
shares with and with

Augustus
and

Jovian

man a

longing
is true in

for the

complete

final

suppression of requires

the anti-Jovian Underworld. But Vergil's

teaching in

the Georgics

the renunciation of this longing. It

that the

longing
it

to be freed from
can

subjection

to the Underworld is natural,

the sense that

be satisfied; it is satisfied, in fact,

was all

by

natural philosophy:

Blessed his feet

he

who was able

to know the causes of things, and who trampled under

and

fears, inexorable fate,

(11 483)

the roar of

greedy Acheron. (11 490-492)

result

The "parts in triumph

nature"

of over

an

Acheron

are

understanding of whose causes would heaven (11 477-478), earth (479), and
a

ocean

(479-482). Vergil here

ocean which

praises

Lucretius for
a complete

knowledge

of

heaven,

earth and

mastery of the Underworld. In the invocation, though, he blames Augustus for a contempt for the Underworld
accompanied

is

by

which

accompanies

sympathy
of

or admiration

for heaven, earth,

not a

and ocean.
rejec

The

philosopher's

mastery

the

Underworld is praiseworthy; knowledge

of

Augustus'

tion of the Underworld is

not master

blameworthy. Augustus is

philosopher;

he

will

the Underworld through

the causes of things. Nor will

he

master

it

by

Age has

shown

annihilating it; Vergil's account of the doom of the Jovian that this is both impossible and undesirable. Since neither
the Augustan Age secure mastery of the

knowledge

nor annihilation can give

Underworld, Augustus
The
gime
project

must reconsider

its

claim to

his

rule. of a new re

Vergil delineates for Augustus is the inauguration

world gone out of order and out of

in

Jovian

control;

Augustus is to honor

restore

the proper rank of fas and nefas, to reduce crime, to restore the

of agriculture which

has been

usurped
Mars"

by

war, to mend the broken laws be

tween cities, to pacify

"impious

(1 498-514).
and nefas

As things

stand now.

in

the twilight of the Jovian

Age,

with

fas

reversed, it

seems that virtue

is

confined

to an apolitical rural

life

which

imitates the Golden Age (11

life

458-460.

467-474, 500-501, 5L3-540),

and vice to a political urban

which parodies

the Jovian Age (11 461-466, 495-499, 501-512).

things appear

in the twilight

of

the Jovian

Age;

it would

But this is only the way be an error to proceed,

The Invocation to the Georgics

on

39

the basis of this appearance at this time, to end the life in cities and restore

the Golden

Age,

nor

is Augustus
of

counseled

to do

this.16

The Future Age is

which

not

to

be

a return

to one

the previous failed ages, both of

are

doomed

by
of
of

their principles to repeat their

unknown:

failures unceasingly, but

Jovian Age
while

a turn to

something
principles

hitherto

the Augustan Age is to avoid the self-defeating

and the

both the Golden Age

preserving
of

the excellences
secure

both. The

excellence of the

Golden Age is its Golden Age is its

secura quies.

peace;

the excellence of the Jovian Age is its invitation

human its

perfection.

The

self-defeating
which

principle

of the

gravis

veternus, the torpor

own

bars, among
enemies

other

things, the full

consciousness of

happy

state.17

The self-defeating
cile

principle of

the Jovian Age is its permanent failure to

permanent and against

recon

its

to its regime, and hence its state of

principle of each age

increasing
the excel
which

warfare.

lence

of

The self-defeating the other. But both

militates

Augustus'

project

is to inaugurate both flaws.

regime

should preserve

excellences and avoid

If he is to

avoid

the self-destructive flaw of the Jovian

have to insure the

whose
present

reconciliation of

his

subjects

to

Age, Augustus will his regime unlike Jupiter,

gives laws among Georgics (iv 561-562),

initial failure to
state

reconcile

the Giants and Titans was the seed of the

of permanent

underground

insurrection. "He
close of the
which

says Vergil at the consenting for that part of his policy Augustus praising

peoples,"

implements Vergil's teach

perfect

ing. But if the

Augustan Age,
come

consent

of not

the

peoples

to the

laws is to be

in the
have to
world;

as

it has

been in the Jovian Age, that

as
well

consent will parts of

from the Underworld

must

as

from the

other

the
of

Augustus

then to

reconsider make

his

rejection of

Tartarus in the light

Proser

pina's willingness
peace"

is to be

perfect

consenting Underworld. And if "secure in the Augustan Age, as it was not in the Golden

laws for

Age,
of

then Augustus must again

reconsider

his

rejection of

Tartarus in the light

its

being

the

location

of

Elysium,
of

where

the good enjoy secure peace with

the

consciousness of victorious

their own felicity.

The

procession

Augustus

at

the close of the Georgics

is

by

water, earth,
world

and

sky

Euphrates,
in book III
Vergil

the peoples, Olympus

contrasted with

but

not

by

Under

(iv

560-562).
prefigured

Although it is here

Vergil's "ignoble
through

it is

by

Vergil's

own victorious procession above earth and

the same three

mouths of men

quarters.

will

lift himself

fly

in the

(m 9);

bring

the Muses down from the

peak of water

Aonius (in 11);

13-15)-

and erect a temple of marble on a green

field

near

the

(111

All

of

Greece

that same

Greece which, in

opposition

to

Augustus,

entertains accord

ing
1

to Vergil

an admiration

for Tartarus

Elysium will as the site of

leave the

Lucretius,'

16.

Cf. Dver,

op.

cit., p. 160. and Benjamin

Farrington,

"Vergil and

Acta Classica

(1958).
17.

PP- 47- 49qualified all

Cf. Vergil's

felicitation

of the

of the

Golden Age: "O

too

happy

the farmers, if

Italian farmers among whom remain the last traces m 458-459. they but knew their own
good,"

40

Interpretation
and

Alpheus

the groves of Molorchus to compete in Vergil's triumphal games.

myrtle will

Vergil himself, wearing the olive wreath (m 21; as Augustus will wear the wreath, 1 28), will distribute the prizes. The temple he will dedicate

be

Augustus'

ornamented with representations of spheres:

water

achievements and glories

in three
Vergil

(m 26ff.),

earth

(111 3off.), and, climactically, the

the

Underworld (in
means

37ff.).

to enshrine
and

in his temple

representations

of

Furies,
not as

the

grim river pendent

Cocytus,
which

the punishments of Ixion and

of

Sisyphus;

inde

scenes, but as objects of the fear

I nvidia infelix. baleful Envy. The

Underworld

Augustus rejects, Vergil

means to enshrine

in his temple in

averting Invidia. Unlike Jupiter's regime, perpetually threatened by the subversive invidia of Underworld forces, will be secured from
role of
Augustus'

its

the invidia of the vanquished (in 25-33)

by

no other

force than that

of

the

Underworld itself. The

natural

knowledge
the

of

the causes of

is felix, blessed, because in his things he leaves behind the fear of Acheron and
philosopher

hope

of

Elysium; but

the Augustan
peoples rooted

Age

will

be felix only

by

averting the
and

infelix envy of the subject for bliss, both of which are

through

fear

of punishment
Augustus'

longing

in the Underworld.

quarrel with
arbitrated

Greece

and

Proserpina

about the value of

ruling the Underworld is

of

by

the conditions of

Augustus'

supreme project, the

senting peoples. The Augustan Age will not Jovian Ages unless Augustus is persuaded by Greece The Aristaeus
suasion of myth

laws among con giving be able to redeem the Golden and

and

Proserpina.
to the per

is Vergil's

most

fully

developed
and

contribution

Augustus to the

views of

Greece

Proserpina.18

The

shape of the cli

Georgics is determined
max of

by

its theme

as adumbrated

in the invocation: the

thematic question

the

Georgics is
wise

a myth which refers to the

whether

Augustus is
of

to reject the claims of the

Underworld kingdom. The

of a solution

climax

the Georgics

thereby

completes

the

teaching
and

to the thematic
affected

problem of the

invocation: how is the hope for in the

a redeemed about

Future Age

by

the

disagreement between Augustus

the powers

Greece

the value of ruling

the Underworld? The Underworld

unique source of

climactic myth of the

Aristaeus'

Georgics is the
Orpheus'

which complement of

and

arts:

Aristaeus, the Jovian man, has the art ing; Orpheus, the Saturnian man, has
resurrection.

breeding

but

not the power of creat

the art of poetry but not the power of Lucretius trampled inexorable fate beneath his feet; but in the
exorable and

myth, fate

is

both Aristaeus

and

Orpheus find

that the

laws

of

fate

can

be bent,

with the aid of religious observance and music respectively.

18.

On

the

Aristaeus

epyllion cf. esp.

and

B. Otis,
pp.

op.

cit., pp. 187-214, 408-413;

F. Klingner, Fourth

Virgils Georgica (Zurich

Stuttgart,

1963),

193-239; C.

Segal. "Orpheus
pp.

and the

Georgic: Vergil
gustan

on

Nature

Civilization,"

and

AJPh

87 (1966),

Culture

and a

Radical Alternative: Virgil's

Georgics,"

of

Art in Virgil's
op.

Georgics."

Arethusa 5 (1972)

pp.

Bradley, "Au Arion 8 (1969); A. Parry, "The Idea 35-52; P. A. Johnston, op. cit.; M. C. J.

307-325; A.

Putnam,

cit., pp. 271-323.

The Invocation
To turn
aside

to the

Georgics

41
turn aside not

source of

death but

from ruling the Underworld is to also from the source of life.

fancy. Twelve

only from the

of

Vergil's
world

observation

that Augustus is resistant to the claims

the Under

kingdom is
in his

not a poetic

years after the publication of the

confirmed this obser

Georgics (and two

vation

years after

Vergil's death), Augustus

the

of 17 B.C. celebrating These games, ceremonially marking the passage from one age to the next, had traditionally been celebrated principally in honor of Dis and Proserpina. Au gustus substituted

singular manner of

Centennial Games

Jupiter

and

Juno, Apollo
Augustus

and

Diana

as the

tutelary

gods of of gods

the to

festival; Dis

and

Proserpina did
offered.19

not appear at all

among the group

whom sacrifices were

designed to
ness; he
and not

emphasize an apparent new

was evidently freedom from the

following
old

policy

forces

of

dark

shared with

Vergil the

conviction

that

just the
of

next centennium

in

a series.

ushering in a new age But if Augustus had been open to

was

he

the

Georgics, he could not have abolished the ancient ritual teaching basis of the Centennial Games, which had recognized and honored the double life.20 nature of Hades as the source of endings and beginnings, death and
the

The Vergil
a partisan of

of

the Georgics

was

the prophet of a future Roman

Empire,

not

the one that actually came into being. He envisioned an empire

that would not require, as the Jovian regime did require, the perpetual denial
and suppression of the wild,
would

the primitive and the

as

underground.

This

empire

therefore not

be doomed,

the

Jovian

regime

was

doomed, by

the

eventual eruption of

those suppressed

forces into the daylight

world.

If Augustus

had been

open

to the

teaching
was

Roman Empire Vergil's vision,

the sacred oak:

which now
which

Georgics, he must have founded not the belongs to ancient history, but the future empire of
of

the

to have the same virtue that gives its strength to

Foremost is the just

so

oak: as

high its

as

it

deep

does it

sink

roots

stretches its crown up toward the breezes down into the depths of hell. (11

of

heaven,

29I-292)2'

19.

For
and

the

inscriptional
119.

evidence cf.

G. B. Pighi, De Ludis Saecularibus (Milan, 1941),

of the old

pp.

73-75
20.

Cf. Horace, Carmen Saeculare. Cf. Athene's solution to the conflict between the Underworld Furies
108

dispensa

tion

and
,

the justice

of

the

new

gods,

Aeschylus,

Eum.

778-1047;

also

Apollo's suggestion,

644-65 1
21

that the regime of the new gods could

involve the

reconciliation of

Zeus

and

Kronos.

For helpful

suggestions on earlier versions of this and to the anonymous readers of

Professor

Murray Dry,

essay I am indebted to my colleague, Interpretation.

Melville's "Benito Cereno":

Civilization, Barbarism,
Georgia State

and

Race

William D. Richardson

University

INTRODUCTION

Melville's "Benito
obvious political

Cereno,"

tale of

shipboard

slave rebellion,

has

an

theme: the clash between

modern civilization and

barbarism. funda

Within the
mental

context of this

theme, Melville

addresses some of the most

problems

political

problems

confronting

man

involving

the tensions

between

conventional and natural

inequality; between

the preservation of exist

of a secular state and
and

ing

political orders and

revolution; between the

demands
the

those of a state captivated

by

religion; between
and

democracy
law;
and,

aristocracy;

between the
the

requirements of

justice

those

of

finally, between
par

dictates

of reason and those of

prejudice.1

unreasoning forces

such as prejudice

ticularly
The may

racial

subtle

way in

which

Melville treats the

"Benito

civilization-barbarism theme

Cereno"

explain

why many complexity

reviewers of

fail to

perceive either the

work or

number and
ville's

of the political problems addressed

in the

Mel

racial

In addressing these problems, particularly that of prejudice, Melville approaches them on two different levels. On the sur
teachings about
the work, he seems to be speaking to the
man of

them.2

face

of

the white, Northern or Southern

political s
Cereno"

ordinary citizen of America commerce who is the product of modern

"Benito

philosophy overwhelming sway in America. This citizen reader of derives a simple meaning from the tale: slave uprisings are
and

unquestionably wrong
cumb

their participants, accordingly,

inevitably

must suc

to

such superior white men of commerce as

Captain Amasa Delano. In

those qualities
which

this view, Delano is the tale's

average

hero; he

embodies

the

American

citizen admires:

hard work, Protestantism, bravery, loyalty,

1979 Annual

The

present article

is

a revised version of a paper presented at the

number of people

Meeting

of the

Southern Political Science Association. A

have

commenting on various drafts of this manuscript. The author Cox, Paul M. Dowling, and Thomas J. Scorza for their suggestions.
1.

generously of their time in is particularly indebted to Richard H.

given

thoughtful

discussion

of some related and

themes in

Billy Budd may be found in Thomas J.

of

Scorza, "Technology, Philosophy,

Political Virtue: The Case

Billy Budd,

Sailor,"

Interpre

tation, 5, No. 1 (Summer 1975), 91-107. Also see Scorza, In the Time Before Steamships: Billy Budd, the Limits of Politics, and Modernity (DeKalb. 111.: Northern Illinois Univ. Press, 1979). American Literature, For example, see Rosalie Feltenstein, "Melville's 'Benito 2
Cereno',"

19 (1947),
Emerson

pp. 245ff. ;

F. O. Matthiessen, American Renaissance: Art

and

Expression in the Age of

and

Whitman (New York:

and

Oxford,

1941), p. 508; and especially Hugh W.

i846-i8gi

Hetherington,

Melville's Reviewers: British

American,

(Chapel Hill: Univ.

of

North Carolina

Press,

1961), pp. 248-55.

44

Interpretation
and a sense of

honesty, frugality,
Cereno"

justice. This

citizen perspective of such

encomiums

"Benito

"thrilling"

largely

explains

why the tale evoked

as

"powerful"

and

from

reviewers who were

themselves

average citizens address

ing

like

audiences.

However,
story) is

the very art for which Melville

is

praised

(writing

a good short one which

also responsible

for veiling

another

meaning

of the tale

is

sympathetic antipathetic

to portions of what I have termed the "citizen

perspective

but

only painstaking attention to Melville's use of symbolism, contra diction, and structure. It is veiled partly because its teaching does not support the citizen perspective addressed on the tale's surface and, for that reason, it
through the most
could

to much of it. This other, deeper meaning reveals itself

be dangerous to

and subversive of

the American regime. Another reason

the deeper meaning remains veiled

is

related

to but nonetheless separate from

the first: Melville seeks to address and teach those

individuals

who possess

the

capacity truth, be

of mind

to unravel the

hidden meaning,

dedication to the

pursuit of

and

the strength of character requisite to a proper understanding and use

of the veiled teaching.

most appropriate

It

would appear

that those to whom this

or

knowledge

would

would

be

either statesmen

the teachers of statesmen.

referred

Consequently,
man

this hidden meaning hereafter

will

be

to as the "states

perspective."

Before

one

can

attempt to

understand

this statesman per

spective,

however, it is necessary

that one comprehend the simple or citizen

perspective as

is facilitated
In

fully as possible. The surmounting of this preliminary obstacle by an understanding of the political environment of the brief, the United States of that period was being severely buffeted by the
1850s.3

controversy As a
states.4

over

admitting

sections

of the

territories as either slave or free

over

consequence of the various

coalesced

recurring disagreements

this

issue,

many

citizens

composed
no

primarily of longer derived much

into two violently opposed camps: the abolitionists, Northerners from regions (such as Massachusetts) that
or

any

commercial

benefit from slavery,

and

the

pro-

slavery

faction,

composed

slave-owners who

largely, but certainly not exclusively, of Southern obviously had a large investment in slaves. Another part of
but
was nonetheless was

the American citizenry was uncommitted to either extreme

affected

by

the turbulence produced

an uncertain

by

the

contending factions. It

these

citizens

occupying
Cereno"

middle ground that each of the two extreme

of

3. "Benito originally appeared in the October, November, and December 1855 issues Putnam's Monthly Magazine. Shortly thereafter, Melville incorporated it into a collection of his shorter stories entitled The Piazza Tales. A strong suggestion of Melville's estimate of the merit of

is found in the fact that he originally intended to call his collection "Benito Other Sketches. See The Letters of Herman Melville, ed. Merrell R. Davis and William H. Gilman (New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, i960), pp. 178-79; hereafter cited as Letters. 4. For a discussion of this controversy, see Harry V. Jaffa, Crisis of the House Divided: An Interpretation of the Issues in the Lincoln-Douglas Debates (Seattle: Univ. of Washington Press,
"Benito
Cereno"

Cereno'

and

1973), especially

pp. 41-62.

"Benito
factions As

Cereno"

Civilization, Barbarism,
win

and

Race

45

sought either to

to their respective positions or,

failing

that, to

manipulate

to their partisan advantage. this factional conflict, the political climate was such that a

a result of

prudent man would citizens

have been ill-advised to

attempt to reason with

his fellow

about, for example, the merits of the black slaves; and only a fool would have been so bold as to speak openly to whites about black equality or, worse, about black superiority. Similarly, discussion about the justice or injus
tice of

slavery

was also

likely

to

deprive

one of an attentive audience.

rea

sonable man who manipulate get

desired to teach his fellow

of

citizens

the contending passions

the attention of

the moment in such a way that

had to have the ability to he could

and

keep

skillful

teacher could

his intended audience; that accomplished, the then carefully attempt to dampen those passions in such a
attempts to present

way as to permit reason to state its case. To understand both the way in which Melville

his teach

ing

in these

volatile

times,

as well as that

meticulous

in

one's

considerable extent

reading of "Benito by the knowledge that the tale is

event which occurred
Cereno,"

Cereno."

teaching itself, it is necessary to be This effort is enhanced to a

woven around a published

account of an actual

in

1805.

The initial

entrance

into

the mysteries of "Benito

work and

therefore, lies

outside

its text in

part of a

by

the real-life Captain Amasa Delano entitled A Narrative of Voyages

Travels.5

On their surfaces, Delano's

Cereno"

autobiographical

account and
versions

Mel

ville's

"Benito

seem

narrative sections which are of

very similar. bolstered by depositions from

are

For example, both

have
some

courts of

law,

the names in both tales

similar.

These similarities,
as
an
author

identical, and the main story-lines are very however, in no way detract either from Melville's
from the
greatness

stature

and

teacher or

of

"Benito

Cereno."

Melville obviously said (and could be

came upon
made

Delano's

account and was

intrigued

by

what

it

to say)

about man.

The

real -life

Delano,

the hero of

his

own tale and a main character

saw

blind to the lessons Melville

in Melville's, certainly appears to have been in the autobiographical account. For Melville,
could.6

the real-life incident contained the necessary ingredients to reveal man more
ever starkly than any purely fictional account The real usefulness of Delano's account becomes apparent when one looks at the differences, rather than the similarities, between the two narratives. In other words,

in those

places where

Melville

chose not

to follow Delano's ac

count

but instead deviated from it, the

reader

is justified in assuming that he

5.
and

See Chapter

of

Southern Hemispheres.

Captain A. Delano's A Narrative of Voyages and Travels, in the Northern This chapter is reproduced in A Benito Cereno Handbook, ed.
advantages of

Seymour L. Gross (Belmont, Cal.: Wadsworth, 1965). PP- 71-98. to Hawthorne, Melville discusses the 6. In the "Agatha
Letter"

having

"a

skele

beauty."

ton of

reality to build about with fullness August 13, 1852 in Letters, p. 157.)
actual

and veins and

(Melville to

Hawthorne,

46

Interpretation
importance to those deviations. Close
attention

attached some

to these altera

tions reveals some

changes

interesting

things. For

instance,

one of

the most obvious

of

Melville

makes

in Delano's

account

involves the

dating

the events:

Delano

contended

slave-transporter

that, up until the time he encountered it, the rebellious had been at sea from December 20, 1804, until February 20,

1805,

a period of

is

at

sea

62 days. In Melville's tale, however, the slave-transporter from May 20, 1799, until its meeting with the American ship on
a period of

August 17, 1799,

89

days. With this

manipulation

of

the

dates,
against

Melville brings
considers

several

things

into focus for the

matter of

reader.

First

of

all,

when one

the immediate subject

the tale
year

blacks rebelling

their enslavement
able

by

whites

this change to the

importance, for
struggle

that year was the midpoint of

1799 assumes consider the French Revolution and The

year

its famous
nificant

in the

name

of the

rights

of man.

is

also

in that it

was

the midpoint of the American

slavery7

Constitution's

20-year

sig ban

on

the

prohibition

of

ban

which

permitted, and to an extent in

creased, the enslavement and transportation

as that
culates

of

black

slaves aboard vessels such

depicted in "Benito

Cereno."

Lastly May
of

and most

significantly, if one cal

the midpoint between

20th, the date the

slave-transporter

left port,

and

August 17th, the date

made:

covery is

the center of

its fateful meeting with Delano, a startling dis the 89-day voyage falls on July 4th. Thus, on the

day

that whites throughout America were

mild

comparatively

tyranny

of

celebrating their liberation from the Great Britain, the blacks on board the slaveof the

transporter were not only

free from the tyranny

makes

whites, but

were also

exercising self-government. The final important change Melville

concern us at the moment

in Delano's
of

account

that will

is

"rechristening"

the two ships

involved. The
Bachelor'

American

ship's

name

is

changed

from the Perseverance to the

a sense of

Delight. The

new name

may be intended to convey

Delano's
who

charac

ter. The American captain

is

portrayed as a
crew"

fastidious bachelor

delights in
of

"the

comfortable

family

of a

on

board his orderly

ship.8

In terms

the rebellion that occurs aboard the slave-transporter, the change of its name

from the Tryal to the San Dominick

nificance.

seems to

be laden

with

much more

For instance, there is

an

island

off the southern shore of the

sig United

States

which

bears the

same
was

name as

the

island

of

Santo Domingo

the first land of the New World

makes this

slave-ship in Melville's tale. This discovered by discoverer

9.
one of and

Christopher Columbus. (Fittingly, Melville

7.

serve as

the

Constitution

of

the

United States
also

of

America, Article I, Section

8. Bachelor's Delight Melville

groups
Bachelors."

may have reference to more erotic matters. In together two of his shorter stories, "The Tartarus ot
resplendent with sexual

his collections,
of

Maids"

"The Paradise

The former is

posite, namely, an sense,

the latter concerns the op implied denial of certain desires in favor of attention to things of the mind. In a
while

innuendoes,
of

these two stories

portray the two

extremes

bachelorhood: dissipation through

the

over

indulgence in

bodily

pleasures end.

and, conversely,

a subjugation of

desires to the

rule of reason

in

pursuit of some

higher

"Benito Cereno": Civilization, Barbarism,

figurehead
of

and

Race

47

the San

Dominick.) It

was also on

this island that the Spanish

first introduced slavery into the Western Hemisphere, in 1493. Lastly, this island was the scene of devastating and to the whites in neighboring Amer That ica fearsome slave rebellions from the late 1790s until the
mid-i8oos.9

the significance of the name San Dominick should have been

recognizable

by

the average citizen of the 1850s

of

can

be

surmised

from the fact that

popular

mention even

these

slave rebellions was not uncommon

in the
of the

press; there is
magazine

mention of them

in

one of

the same

issues

monthly

in

which

"Benito

Cereno"

initially

appeared.10

THE CITIZEN PERSPECTIVE

The first thing that case of "Benito

strikes

the reader's eye in any work

is

the title. In the

Cereno,"

the title

is unusual,
mean?

one could even

does
lates

one pronounce

it? What does it

It turns

out

say strange. How to be a Spanish name,

specifically, the name of one of the three main characters in the tale. It trans
as

"Pallid Benedictine

(monk)."

One

who

has

read

clined

to ask why the author did not give it a good

Delano."

the story may be in American title, such as to be the

good-

"Captain

After all, the American hero. (Would

captain

appears

hearted,
to
we will

courageous

a reader of the

1850s even

have bothered

wonder

why the tale

was not named after

the

apparent antihero,

Babo?) As
neither

see, the

strangeness of

the title

is indicative
what
Cereno"

of

the tale

itself, for
be.

it

nor

any of its main characters are really Unlike the title, the text of "Benito
main

they

seem to

is in English. It is divided
action and

into two
short

parts:

long

narrative

of the

dramatic

relatively

deposition before
close

a viceregal court
examination

by

Benito Cereno, the

captain of the reveals

San Dominick. A
some

of each of these parts,

however,
to
so as

interesting

things.

First

of

all.

it is

there are only two main parts; actually,

entirely the deposition is situated

could

not

correct

state

that

to sever

the

narrative

into two

unequal parts.

Consequently, it

be

said that events s

"Benito

Cereno"

is

composed of three parts: a

long

narrative

describing

from the

Bachelor'

time of the San Dominick's meeting

until
9.

with

Delano's ship, the

Delight,

the latter's

crew

retakes

it;

the

deposition;

describand a short narrative

Herbert Aptheker. American Negro Slave Revolts

"About

(New

York: International Publishers,

1943), pp. 96ff.

Niggers"

io.

The

author of an article

crudely
the

entitled

blatantly
the white masters

parodies

the uprising on to that revolt.

Santo Domingo in
(See Putnam's
the

order

to

expose

ridiculousness of

reactions

Monthly
the

Magazine. December 1855,

p.

609.) The fact

that this author could

uprisings suggests

that he believed his

readers would

Domingo

was

subject.

That knowledge

Americans

of the

1850s also can

novel
written

popular antislaverv

was commonplace among literate of be inferred from the fact that in Uncle Tom's Cabin, the widely in 1851. the island is briefly mentioned almost casually in the slaves
should

readily Santo Domingo

understand

that the

island

of

parody Santo

course

of a

discussion

about

how

be

treated.

(See Harriet Beecher

Stowe, Uncle

Tom's Cabin [New York: Airmount, 1967]-

P-

252.)

48

Interpretation
other

ing, among
enroute

things,

a conversation

between Delano

and

Benito Cereno
most of

to Conception
narrative

after

the Spaniard's rescue.

Chronologically,

this final

belongs

with

the first part, for it relates events which oc two paragraphs describe events

curred prior

to the deposition. to the

(Only its final

be readily

occurring The first

parts: after

subsequent

deposition.)
can
subdivided

long

narrative

into two very

unequal and

Delano's

actions prior

to

boarding
This

the San Dominick (pp.

109-16)

boarding

it (pp.

116-234).

extensive

last

portion

then can be sub

divided further according to the seven cycles of suspicion Delano experiences while on board the San Dominick: first cycle (pp. 116-40), second cycle (pp.
140-54), third
185-89),
cycle

(pp. 154-66), fourth

cycle

(pp. 166-84), fifth (pp.

cycle

(pp.
re

sixth cycle

(pp. 189-208),
the San

and seventh cycle

208-32).
of

(The

maining
the

16 pages of the narrative

recapture

detail Delano's
and

whites'

of

Dominick,

the

discovery journey

the rebellion,

to the viceregal

court.) This suspicion, (and

subdivision reveals a series of upon

interrelated

suspicions

in

which each

building

those which precede

it, is progressively

more

alarming

nearer

to the "truth").

Interestingly,

the central cycle (pp. 166-84). which

is

also one of

the shortest, concerns an

an old

intriguing

Gordian-like knot tossed to

Delano
of

by

Luys Galgo,

knotmaker. In the

Dominick

utters the only words of August 17th; clearly and unmistakably he perplexedly holding the knot, to "Undo it, cut it, Subdividing the main narrative in this manner does on

Spanish, Galgo

rapidly spoken words English heard on board the San

urges

midst of

Delano,
its

who

is

quick.""

not alter

most

dis

tinctive

feature; it

still

reveals

little to the first-time

while presented

reader

that is not also

being

revealed

to Delano.

Thus,

slowly takes the reader through the same

confounding) the American. As
prejudices,
and reason with

in the past tense, the narrative labyrinth confronting (and generally

the reader's opinions, passions,

Delano,

true understanding of

alternately both hindrances to and vehicles for a the events occurring on board the San Dominick. In this
are

sense, the narrative presents the tale

from the
with

perspective of an

American

citi

zen, that and, in

a

is, it

corresponds more

closely

reality

than

limited sense, it is

analogous to the sources

does the deposition, from which the citizen-

reader would witnessed.

normally receive his information about events which he has not It is through such sources newspapers, eyewitness accounts, biog
that his opinions and prejudices are either reinforced,

raphies,

hearsay

left

"Benito Ce Captain Amasa Delano readily can be seen to be the tale's hero, for it is through his actions that the San Dominick is both put in a position to be rescued (by means of his Good Samaritan act of piloting it to an anchorage) and then actually rescued means of the by ingenuity, weaponry, and courage. It is also from the citizen perspective that one might be inclined
surface or citizen perspective of
reno,"

unchanged, or

altered.

From the

Americans'

Cereno"

Herman Melville, "Benito in The Piazza Tales (New York: Dix & Edwards, 1856), p. 182. (Unless there is additional explanatory material, subsequent references to "Benito will be incorporated into the text.)
11.

Cereno,"

"Benito
to praise

Cereno"

Civilization, Barbarism,

and

Race

49

lavishly

the defeat and punishment of the treacherous blacks. The fact

that

in both body and mind by his experiences may merely indicate the American's superior strength of character; in the manner of Theseus, he can journey (albeit unwittingly) into the maw of Hades and
remains unaffected emerge unscathed.

Delano

Delano's

suspicions while aboard the

San Dominick

could

be described normally do

as

the reactions of a typical good-hearted

expect nefarious

American;
slaves.

such men

not

treacheries at the hands of other white men, and

them

tainly do
aware of

not expect

from docile black

to

they cer However, it is sufficiently

the American

reassuring to the

citizen-reader
and

know that,
more

once

is

made

duplicity

wrong-doing, he is

than

equal

to the task of setting

matters right.

THE STATESMAN PERSPECTIVE

In

addition to the citizen

perspective, "Benito

Cereno"

also

has

deeper

At this deeper meaning one which I have termed "the statesman level, Melville attempts to impart an important political teaching. It is at the

perspectiv

level

of the statesman perspective that the reader confronts the main

confrontation

theme

of

"Benito Cereno": the

as played out

between

modern civilization and

barbarism
and

by

the

blacks

and whites on

board the San Dominick

in the

Lima

courtroom.

To

understand

this theme properly, we must examine the tale

from its

beginning
the

with great care.

ville expected cated

even required

That this may be the way in which Mel the work to be approached seems to be indi
the conclusion of the deposition:

by

narrator's remark at

[T]he

nature of

this narrative,
more or

unavoidable, has the

order of

less

besides rendering the intricacies in the beginning required that many things, instead of being set down in be
retrospectively, or
Cereno"

occurrence, should
action colors

irregularly

given

(p. 264).

The dramatic
men

in "Benito

concerning the

relations

between
least
a

of

different

is

presaged

by

conspicuous

absence

or

at

muddying

of colors

in

the opening

paragraphs:

The morning was one peculiar to that coast. Everything was mute and calm; every thing gray. The sea, though undulated into long roods of swells, seemed fixed,
and was sleeked at the surface
mould.

like

waved

lead

that

has

cooled and set

in the

smelter's

The sky

seemed a

gray

surtout.

Flights

of troubled

gray fowl, kith

and

kin
and

with nights of

troubled

gray

vapors

among

which

they

were mixed, skimmed storms.

low

fitfully
ent,

over

the waters, as swallows over

shadows

meadows

before

Shadows

pres

foreshadowing deeper

to come (pp. 109-10,

italics
no

added).

Even the San Dominick,

exceptions

upon

entering the harbor, displays

white

colors.12

The only

to this scene are the

one of the

noddy ("strange

fowl")

somnambulis-

12.

Later on, in

Babo using the predominately

red and white ensign of

few departures from the prevailing lack of color, the reader sees Spain as a barber's bib for Benito. Shortly

thereafter, the ensign's redness is matched

by Benito's

blood (pp. 203,

205).

50

Interpretation
perched

tically

in the San Dominick's rigging,

Friars"

and

the black

figures

at

its

portholes

(who

appear to

be "Black form

to the approaching Delano).

Even
to

these vivid examples of the extremes of white and

black, however,
different
races will

seem

blend together in the

overall picture

to

a veil of gray.
men of

My

examination of

the relations

between

be

pat

in "Benito Cereno"; that will discuss then Benito, and, finally, Babo. Aside from Delano, is, I first the Spanish knotmaker and these men, there are only two other characters
terned after Melville s treatment of the main characters

Delano's

mate

who

various characters will

actually speak in the narrative. The order in which the be treated also reflects the number of speeches each of
out and

them

makes.13

Babo
speak

stands

black

man and

to

directly

in this treatment both because he is the only because he speaks so little in comparison to

Delano

Benito Cereno.

THE STATESMAN PERSPECTIVE: CAPTAIN AMASA DELANO

Captain Delano, (p. 128), has been

the San
the charade

"good

sailor"

who

heads

"comfortable

crew"

family

of a

castigated

Dominick."1*

for proving "to be amazingly stupid aboard Delano does fail to perceive the Admittedly, reality behind

Babo,

the slave
point

leader,

causes to

be

acted out

before him. How is that

once

ever,
steps

an

important

to be made about Delano's obtuseness

he

board the San Dominick, he is removed from all of his familiar guideposts. The San Dominick is strange to the American in many ways. Aside
on

from its lack

who

of

any

identifying

ensign, there is the slovenly

and

to

Delano,

is

used

to the orderliness of

his

sealer

disturbing

physical neglect of the

ship.

The

strangeness
of

is heightened

by

the conditions on

board,

which produce

"something
Delano is
and
whose

the effect of enchantment.

cast

adrift;

as a man whose

The ship seems actions are directed by his

unreal."15

Amasa

expectations

expectations

are governed

by

that which

he has experienced, he

flounders
past

when

the actions of other men

experiences.16

Thus,

when

his

Delano continually seeks some judge them. The most obvious example
whaleboat.

closely conform to his own is swimming with strange suspicions, standard, some familiar object, by which to
not mind

do

of

this

involves Rover, his household

what seems to

When Delano's

anxieties about

the situation on board the San Dom

inick force him to

confront the
sight of

possibility that

be true may

not

be true

at

all, the

Rover,

as reliable and predictable as a Newfound-

13. Delano speaks 59 times, Benito 54, and Babo 16. Comparatively, the knotmaker speaks only three times and the mate once. 14. J. Hagopian, Insight I: Analyses of American Literature (Hirschgraben- Verlag: Frankfurt
am

Main,
15.

1964),

p.

152.
p. on pp.

"Benito
are

Cereno,"

118.

Similar

references to the
and 266.

"aura"

of enchantment aboard

the

San

Dominick
16.

found

161, 177, 178, 231,

a man

In essence, Delano is

forced from

the

Cave. (Cf. Plato, Republic 5143-5170

"Benito Cereno": Civilization, Barbarism,

land dog,
threatened
serves to calm

and

Race

51
thoughts.17

him

and to

by

the strange,

Delano's

dispel his unsettling When recourse is to reject it and to take confi

dent

refuge

in the familiar.
not stupid can

That Delano is
strange or

be

seen

"seeming"

finally
from his

conforms to the
sailor

readily by his familiar or

actions

once

the
with

"being."

When,

the assistance of a

Portuguese
eyes"

drop
blacks
as

(p. 238)

and

manning the oars of Rover, the "scales he is able to see Babo and the other
and

mutineers, Delano takes

and

immediate

decisive

action.

The American
as
a

is, first
enced

foremost,
him to

man

of action.

His

extensive

experience

sea

captain enables

terrors of the sea

continues

Benito
not

to

"moralize"

previously courageously and skillfully. This is his world. When to be dejected after having been saved, Delano, in urging him about the past, refers to known nature, his "Warm friends,
.

use

known nature; he

confronts the

experi

steadfast

friends

the

trades."18

Delano's knowledge

of and

faith in the predictable,

useful ways of nature

his corresponding ignorance of the natures of men) befit a modern American. Delano is a representative of a regime which is unsurpassed in its

(along

with

production of
man's

wealth, technology, and

Cereno"

all manner of

things which tend to make

life

on earth easier.

This image

of at

Delano

as a representative of mod
ways.

ernity is depicted in "Benito First, of course, there is Delano's

cial man who engages

in

least two important

occupation:
which

in that activity
wealth

he is preeminently a commer alone is capable of procuring for

time-

a nation the

necessary
and

that enables other citizens to pursue such

as

consuming displays both the fruits

visions

expensive of

enterprises

technological development.

Delano

his

occupation

(as

when

he twice has

excess pro

brought to the San Dominick)

chief concern

and the

occupation's

(as

when

he

arranges

is that moneymaking for payment from Benito

art which

Cereno for
were

all of

those provisions

which

the reader

initially

may have

assumed

being

provided

free

by

Good Samaritan).

Second,
reader.

the technological superiority of the Americans

of nature
which

is displayed to the be
in

The knowledge

enabled

technological marvels to

produced was not gained

merely

by

diligent

observation of nature's ways;

"vexed"

obviously revealing her secrets. Thus, when it finally comes to a battle between the less civilized (or less modern) Africans and the Americans, the former are armed

Francis Bacon's

apt word,

nature

was

at some point

into

only with hatchets (which, incidentally, they procured from the whites), while the latter possess the great equalizers, cannons and muskets. Consequently, the
whites are able

to

lay

back

out

of

any

considerable

danger

and

direct
17.
18.

accurate

fire

at the

blacks

massed on

the San

Dominick'

s stern.

relentlessly Once the

Cereno,"

"Benito
Cereno,"

pp.

179, 183-84. 185-86,

268.

and

188-89.
of

"Benito
"steadfast"

p.

That these
even

"friends"

"Warm"

and

that

they may

have been uncaring

jot"

Delano's may have been less than is suggested by and unfeeling

(p.
227).

the

previous

statement

that "nature

cared not a

about men's troubles

52

Interpretation

blacks have been considerably reduced in both arms and numbers, the whites board and eventually overcome them. (It is one of the paradoxes of the con
frontation between the bination
blacks'

civilized whites and

and

the barbaric blacks that the com

of commerce

technological progress which here results

in the

reenslavement also

the abolition of that institution.

ultimately made it politically feasible to move for Machines eventually rendered slave labor un
then undesirable.)
of what

economical,

inefficient,
subtle

and

more

presentation

may be

referred

to as the art versus

nature

aspect of

black-white

relations aboard the

San Dominick involves De

lano's boat, Rover. On the second and central of the three roundtrips Rover makes between the Bachelor's Delight and the San Dominick, there is a reveal

ing

Cereno

incident concerning the distribution of its cargo stops him, Delano intends to dispense only fish,
and pumpkins

of

foodstuffs.

Before

water

(the "republican

element"),
and sugar

to the

blacks,

while

exclusively for the whites. In other ited to those goods which are wholly the product feast
on

reserving the soft bread, cider, words, the blacks are to be lim
of nature while

the

whites

those goods

which are produced

by

man's art

(pp.

189-92).
whites

In essence, the
that which most the modern
ences.19

crucial

difference between the blacks

civilized

and the

(and

distinguishes the less

from the

more civilized men

in

world) involves the

blacks'

ignorance
well

of art

or

the useful

sci

Babo, for

example, may know

the art of ruling men, but this

knowledge ultimately proves insufficient when he is confronted by Delano who, while deficient in his knowledge of men, nevertheless possesses a sufficient knowledge
The
of

the useful sciences to vanquish the

blacks.20

matter of

Delano's ignorance

of the

natures

and

ways of men

(and,

hence,
of

ruling them) is, of course, one of the principal criticisms him. This ignorance is detailed in one of the narrator's early descriptions
of the art of

of the

American:
surprise

Captain Delano's into

[at the
not

actions of the strange

ship]

might

have deepened

some uneasiness
not

had he

been

a person of a

singularly

undistrustful good
and

nature,

liable,

except on

extraordinary

and repeated

incentives,

hardly

then,

to indulge in
man. a

personal

alarms, any way

Whether, in

view of what more

involving humanity is capable,

the

imputation
such a trait

of malign evil

in
with

implies, along
intellectual

benevolent heart,

than

ception, may

be left

to the wise to

ordinary determine (p.

quickness and no).

accuracy

of

per

Delano's

good nature put

(that is, his

willingness to

excuse, overlook,

forgive,

and, in general,
19.
with a

the best

face

on

the unexpected actions of real or imagand the comparison of and

Consider the discussion

"particular kind
of

of

knowledge"

both the piloting art in Republic 341c

"knowledge

itself"

438d, respectively.

20.

The

blacks'

ignorance
in the

of these useful sciences

act of

is

also

depicted in
255).

the

killing

of

the mate.

Raneds,

when

he

was

taking
.

a navigational

fix (p.

superstitious

ignorance, had

the effect of

assuring the
"

preservation of

That murder, inspired by Benito Cereno, for he was

"the only remaining

navigator on

board

(p.

255).

"Benito
ined

Cereno"
.

Civilization, Barbarism,

and

Race

53
behind
to
men's

inferiors21)
until

makes

him ill-suited to decipher the true

not

motives

actions.

Because he is it

by

nature

suspicious, Delano is

unable
able

combat

malignity
react;

confronts

him face-to-face.

Only

then

is he

belatedly

to

only then do his abilities as a man of action save him from harm. Undoubtedly, if malignity ever failed to identify itself openly when it con fronted him, Delano would succumb to it. For example, Babo's original plan
was

to make Benito Cereno "captain of

ships"

[the]
on

two

(p. 258)

by killing

Delano
plan

during
would

stealthy, nighttime attack

the Bachelor's Delight. Had this

a

not

been thwarted

by

Benito's flight,

Delano

familiarity

with

have been easily overcome by Bible,22 the he must have been aware
met

peacefully slumbering Amasa Babo's men. (Given Melville's

of

the

irony
at

in the fact that hands

of

Delano's biblical namesake, Amasa,

treacherous Zoab as a

his
own

bloody

death

the

the

direct

result of

his

trusting
black

nature.23)
men

The
can

subject of

the relations between

white and

in "Benito

Cereno"

be

opened more on

the blacks

examining the way in which Delano perceives board the San Dominick. In Delano's initial encounter with

fully by

Benito

and

Babo,

the narrator

describes

the

black's face
.

as
.

showing "occa
blended"

sionally, like
as

a shepherd's

dog,

sorrow and affection

equally

he mutely looked up at the Spaniard (p. 120). Later, the narrator relates that, "like most men of a good, blithe heart, Captain Delano took to negroes,
not

philanthropically,
201).

but genially, just

as other men to

Newfoundland

dogs"

(p.

that is compared to a dog, There is only one other thing in "Benito an inanimate object which, as and that is the previously mentioned Rover such, is totally obedient to Delano's will. In animating his household boat (by

Cereno"

giving it a dog's name and bone in her mouth") and in

by describing it as a "good dehumanizing the negroes (by

is

dog"

with

"a

white or re

minimizing

jecting
der"

their exercise of their own wills), Delano is depicted as a "comman

who

is both

confident

that his will

able to predominate and most con so taken

with

tent when it does so.

and complete

In fact. Delano is
of

the

apparent

loyalty

subservience

Babo that he

lightly

offers

to

buy
an

him from
acquisition

Benito Cereno (p.

would

168).

(Delano probably believes that

to

such

be

an admirable complement one assumes

Rover.)
compliment

Even if

that this offer was only the spontaneous and exuberant

expression of what

Delano believed to be the highest

a

he

could

be
that

stow on

Babo (that is,

serious

desire to
about

own such a

fine slave),

one must admit

it

raises

questions

Delano's

view

of slavery.

While it is true

"slave"

21.

him

as

In Delano's eyes, Babo is certainly an inferior, for his conventional label of such. Benito, the ineffectual invalid, is treated with respect by Delano, but it is his
the
respect

brands
to

office

which

is

given;

Delano's

manner towards

Benito himself is tinged

with pity.

22.

See William Braswell. Melville's Religious Thought: An

Essay

in Interpretation (Durham,

North Carolina: Duke

23

University Press,

1943).

II Samuel

20:9-12.

54

Interpretation
is the only
character

that the American

in the

work who

openly

expresses some

disapproval

of

words and actions.

slavery (pp. 210-11), this fact is belied by the For instance, when the rebellion is
blacks'

captain's other

finally

revealed

does Delano do? Does this democratic man, a representative of a him, regime founded upon the recognition of man's natural rights, rejoice at or even
to
what
blacks'

acquiesce

to the

freedom? No!

Entirely
blacks'

on

his

own

initiative

even

"owner"

against

the advice of Benito

Cereno,

the

probable

Delano
action

undertakes

forcefully

to reenslave them. His motivation

for this

is

not

but it may be related to the fact that, in addition to being a democrat, he is also a law-abiding commercial man. However, in urging his crew to recapture the San Dominick, Delano does not mention that the blacks entirely
clear,

have unlawfully broken their bonds or that they have terrorized the board the ship. Rather, Delano tells them that Benito Cereno has ship up for lost among
all of and

whites on

given

the

that, if they recapture it, great riches will be divided them. Delano does not speak to his crew's reason or to their
to their basest
passion: greed.

sense of

justice, but

In this sense, it is in the

after

Americans'

self-interest
commodities). gotten as

to reenslave the blacks

(who,

all, are valuable

to be
matter

But beyond the immediate

the
blacks'

question of the

possible gain

a consequence of apparent

return

to

bondage,
is

there

is the is

of

Delano's

lack

of reflection on

the whole subject of the

conventional

justice

or

injustice

of slavery.

Evidently
are

convinced that what

unalter

able, he seems to accept slavery's existence

of the trades:

much as

he

accepts

the existence

both

"natural"

occurrences to

be

accepted and used accord

ingly. There

are

two major episodes which support this view:

Delano's distribu

tion of the supplies and

his thoughts
with

on negro

inferiority.

When Rover

laden

water, pumpkins,

bread,

cider,
the

and sugar

returns

to the San Dominick the second

unequal

time, Delano begins

(p.
192).
what

distribution board

of the provisions

previously It is possible, of course, that the

he believes to be
viewed
proper con

mentioned

"benevolent"

Delano is only conforming to

a slave ship.

duct

on

However,

when

the

incident is

in

conjunc

tion with the narrator's earlier comments, one can conclude that
accepts
as natural

the conventional

inferiority

of

Delano readily the blacks. When Delano.

wrestling might be

with

his fourth

suspicion about a

conspiracy, fears that Benito Cereno

aligned with the

negroes, the narrator remarks:

with some evil was

The whites, too,

would

he

not

be

by nature, were the shrewder race. A man likely to speak well of that stupidity which
intelligence from
had dark
which

design,
unlikely.

blind to his de

pravity, and malign that

perhaps.

it

might not

be hidden? Not

But if the

whites

secrets

who ever

Benito be any way in complicity heard of a white so far

with

the

concerning Don Benito, could then Don blacks? But they were too stupid. Besides,
to apostatize

a renegade as

from his

very species

almost,
24.

by leaguing
Cereno,"

in
p.

against

it

with

negroes?24

"Benito

80. The

narrator's

those of Delano presents the reader with some

deft mingling of what may be his own views with difficult problems. First, who is the narrator? He is

"Benito
No

Cereno"

Civilization, Barbarism,
is
given that

and

Race

55
a

explicit evidence

Delano,

an

American Protestant from

northern
with

state, has had previous contact with black slaves; his prior associations blacks seem to have been limited to free men of color. These free men,
are

however,
will.

depicted

as

being
man

actually

or

potentially

subservient to

Delano's
com

The

reader

is told

of

the black sailor serving under Delano's direct

"benign"

mand and

the black free

201).

Prior to his
of

experiences
Benito"

(p. working playing under his with Babo ("This is an uncommonly intelligent
or gaze

fellow

yours, Don

intelligent, (secretly)
could
on others

willful

black

[p. 215]), Delano probably had no contact with men. The thought that blacks, like whites,

have both the capability and the desire shrewdly to force their own wills is totally outside of Delano's experience and, hence, knowledge. He
white men

knows

to be capable

of

deceit;

consequently, his recurring suspi

face[s],"

cions center on

that mulattoes, particularly those

Benito Cereno. And he is willing to allow for the possibility might be having "regular European
attributes

equally dangerous, though he blood (p. 212).

this to the fact that

they have
a

white

quence

Delano's ready acceptance of the conventional view of blacks, of his lack of experience with them, plays a major part in
as

conse

deluding
of

him

to the reality
role:

on

board the San Dominick. He

sees the

blacks in their

accustomed

subservient

to the will of the whites. The

few instances

black

willfulness or misbehavior

the attack on the cabin-boy, the stomping of

ensues when

the white sailor, the abrupt, menacing silence that suddenly

Delano

half-jokingly
quences of suffered

threatens the

jostling

blacks

are

dismissed

as

being

the conse

Benito Cereno's inadequacies

of

as a commander and of the miseries

because

the

calm.

Those

occurrences

fail to jar Delano

out of

his

preconceptions about what whites

he believes to be the

natural order of

things, namely,

This
ture of
of

ruling blacks. aspect of Delano's

man

character

is

related

to

his understanding
clearly barbarous

of

the na

an

understanding that perhaps stands most

revealed

in

one

his solitary
His

musings about some characteristics of

people:

attention

had been drawn to

slumbering

negress.

the lacework
never

of some rigging,

lying,

with youthful

partly disclosed through limbs carelessly disposed, under

other

identified. Is he Melville speaking his

some of

own mind?

Among
of

reasons, the contradictions

between

the

narrator's views

and the

teaching
them to

the tale strongly argue against such a

pp.

simplistic not

identification. The
one might

narrator's views about

blacks (for example,

180 and

199-200)

are

that unusual;

reasonably

expect

be

uttered

by

typical

American

of the

1850s.

From

this perspective,

it

might

be

more

plausible narrator's

to see the narrator as an intelligent

representative

type of that era.

and the

Secondly, both the

of

deceptiveness in mingling his

views

with

Delano's

similarity

his

views with

those of the American suggest the possibility that

the treatment of Delano may be open to

or

question.

If the

narrator

is

being less

than candid about

the reader will be altering information about the American, Delano, if he is withholding It may be, of course, that one of the reasons hampered in his quest for Delano's "true for the narrator's substitution of his own views for Delano's is to illustrate the pitfalls of tales that
are retold.

The

reteller

(in this case, the narrator) may

well

filter the

"facts"

through the medium of

his

own opinions

before presenting them to his

audience.

56
the

Interpretation
lee
of

the

bulwarks, like
was

doe in the

shade of a woodland rock.

Sprawling

at

her lapped breasts

her

wide-awake

lifted from the deck,

crosswise with

fawn, stark naked, its black little body half its dam's; its hands, like two paws, clamber
rooting to
roused get at

ing

upon

her; its

mouth and nose

ineffectually
at

the mark; and mean

time

giving The uncommon distance

a vexatious

half-grunt, blending
the child
as

with

the composed snore of the negress.

the mother.

vigor of

length

She

started up,

at a

facing

Captain Delano. But

if

not at all concerned at

the attitude in

which she

had been caught,

delightedly

she caught

the child up, with maternal

transports, covering it with kisses. There's naked nature, now; pure tenderness
well pleased.

and

love,

thought

Captain Delano, particularly than

This incident before. He

prompted

him to

remark

the other negresses more

was gratified with

their manners:
and

like

most uncivilized women,

they
a

seemed at once

tender of

heart

tough of constitution;
as

their

infants

or

fight for

them.

Unsophisticated

equally ready to die for leopardesses; loving as doves

savage"

This tranquil is certainly

portrait of

the unenlightened "noble

in

a state of nature

attractive

to

Delano.26

The

peacefulness of
"fawn,"

the scene

is modified,
"rooting,"

however, by its
"half-grunt,"

"doe,"

"dam,"

animal

imagery;
"doves."

"paws,"

"leopardesses,"

and

It is important to

note

that while

roughly

one-half of

these words represent

use of this

innocence,

the other one-half repre

suggests

sent savagery. ness of a

Melville's in

double-edged

imagery
are

his

aware

duality
dove

nature

that Delano does

not seem

to perceive. The

fawn,

doe,
(or

and

all represent

innocence; however, they

even

incapable

of

savagery

at

least

effective

savagery)

if their lives

or the not

are at stake.

The leopardess,

on

the other

hand, is

lives of their offspring helpless in the face of

danger; her savagery probably can match that of the fiercest predator. Among her own kind, though, the leopardess can be as "loving as [a] dove."27
Melville's
suggests anced a attribution of

this

dual

nature

to the "uncivilized

wome

[black]

questioning
can or

of whether

nature

will

survive
man.

in

human beings possessing this dual or bal that is. in the world of
"civilization,"

white,

Christian, Western
in "Benito

To judge from

almost

all

of the

white

men

Cereno,"

porrayed

cence

in their
"Benito
of

world.

imbalance between savagery and inno Benito Cereno, the physically and spiritually debilitated
there
an

is

pp. I74~75 (italics added). These passages are strongly reminiscent of Rousseau's Second Discourse. Cf. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The First and Second Discourses, ed. Roger D. Masters, trans. Roger D. and Judith R. Masters (New York: St. Martin's 25. portions

Cereno."

Press, 1964), especially pp. 117 and 137. 26. Appropriately, the phrase "there's
"nature."

nature"

naked

contains the work s central reference to

27.

The

savage side of the negresses

is

revealed

by

Benito in his deposition. He

claims that

they "used their utmost influence to have [him] made away with; that, in the various acts of not gaily, but solemnly; and before the engagement with the murder, they sang songs and danced boats, as well as during the action, they sang melancholy songs to the negroes, and that this
melancholy tone
"(p. 261).
was more

inflaming

than a

different

one would

have been,

and was so

intended

"Benito Cereno": Civilization, Barbarism,

and

Race

57
a man

Spaniard, is forced
and authority.

to masquerade (none too effectively) as

of power

As
on

we will

see, Benito is

neither

the embodiment of dove-like

savagery.

innocence nor,
Delano
might

the other

hand, is he

capable of animal

Captain

be

predominance of

nearly balanced nature; however, the his innocence (in the form of an inability to perceive veiled
said to possess a more

evil)

argues against of

this view.
exceptions

One
scribed

the
a

few

among the
one who

"centaur"

as

(that

is,

is the helmsman, who is de is half-human and half-beast) and a

whites

bear"

"grizzly
tions,
served a
coupled

(pp. 172-73, 221). These characteriza casting "sheep's with the brief description of his actions while he is being ob
and several of the

eyes"

blacks, suggest that he may indeed possess sheep masquerading as a bear, but the reverse. (It is noteworthy that this disguised bear is one of the three whites killed by the attacking sailors during the retaking of the San Dominick [p. 244].)

by

Delano

balanced

nature.

He is

not a

The

most prominent example of one who might seem

to exhibit an appropri

ately balanced
nor we
will

nature

in

white civilization

the artful innocence with which

see.

is black Babo. Neither his savagery he covers it can be denied. However, as

which

it is this

veil

of

feigned innocence

lends

considerable

credence

to the argument that Babo's nature

too much savagery and

is in fact grossly unbalanced. He is too little true innocence. Nevertheless, Babo's eventual
be taken
to a

defeat

by

Delano

should not

is

not a substantial asset

overwhelming evidence that his nature black slave in white civilization. But for Benito's
as

impulsive

and

desperate

leap

into Delano's boat, Babo probably

would

have

triumphed over the Americans as well.

THE STATESMAN PERSPECTIVE: BENITO CERENO

That Melville

attached

considerable
several

importance to the
of

character of

Benito

Cereno
the

can

be inferred from
name.

factors. First,
of

course, is the fact that

characters, the name

work

bears his

Additionally,
is the only

the three

main

of this

Spanish
main

captain

one

that Melville has not taken

narrative.28

directly
Melville

from his
alters

source, the real Captain Amasa Delano's

the name from Bonito Sereno ("Blessed

one

Serenity")

to Benito Cereno

("Pallid Benedictine [monk]"). In

sense, it may be that Melville took ironic

delight in the
terized

original

name's

meaning,

for this Spaniard

was

by

"blessed

serenity."29

However,

the change to a name

hardly charac having a de

cidedly Catholic cast is particularly revealing in that it serves to emphasize the religious differences of the three main characters: Captain Amasa Delano hails from Duxbury, Massachusetts, a seafaring town of practical, Protestant Amer icans; Benito Cereno is a member of an old Catholic Spanish aristocracy; and
28.
29.

See Amasa Delano in Gross,

p.

80.

See Hagopian,

p.

151.

58

Interpretation
almost all

Babo, like
practiced out.

the

other

blacks, is evidently
course,
causes

a pagan.

It is

interesting
to stand

to note that Benito's and Babo's respective religions are the only ones actually

in the

tale.30

(This,

of

Delano

and

his

religion who

Thus, it is

the representative of modernity, the

American,

has the in
as

least

association with religious practices.

It is

also this representative who,

confronting his

suspicions

on

board the San Dominick, dismisses them

"superstitions.")
The importance
of

the linkage of Catholicism with the

major problems

Spaniard, Benito
tale, namely,

Cereno,
"Benito
alliances

points

to another of the

treated in the

the captivation of a state

Cereno"

by

a religion.

The

references

to Spain's Charles V in

suggest

that

decay
and

and enervation are related to unfortunate

religious spheres

between the

political

or, perhaps more accu

rately,

conquests of

the political sphere

by

the religious sphere (p. 126). Charles

due to the fact that he is the only Spaniard among the three actual political rulers mentioned in the tale. (There is substantial textual evidence which supports the suggestion that an 1851 ar
V
assumes a position of some prominence

ticle on Charles V which appeared in

second

Fraser'

Magazine

served

Melville

as a

source

alongside

Delano's Narrative
of

parallels

between Emperor Charles V

for "Benito Cereno."31) The who renounced his earthly rule Spain, Cereno
are of

in

order

to retire to a monastery, and Don Benito

world

Chili,

who also

turned

from the
after

of

men

to a monastery,
reside at a

striking.

For example,
Pyrenees.32

Charles V,

abdicating, decided to

monastery in the
a

Amasa Delano, in approaching the San Dominick, thinks it monastery

Pyrenees"

"whitewashed among the

weakness,

after a

thunderstorm, Charles V,

seen perched upon some

afflicted with

dun

cliff

(p.

113).

debilitating

physical

was

pain."33

forced to travel to the monastery "in a litter, and Benito Cereno likewise was forced to a litter on
viceregal courtroom

often which

suffering great he was carried

to

from the Spanish

the symbol of the political world

the monastery on Mount Agonia (p. 270).

Benito Cereno, the "Pallid Benedictine

30.

[monk],"

thus could be equated

In his deposition, Benito describes how his boatswain, "who knew how to swim, kept the longest above water, making acts of contrition, and, in the last words he uttered, charged this
deponent to
we read of cause mass

to be said

for his

soul to our

Lady

Succour"

of

(p.

254).

In the narrative,

the blacks

having

worshipped the

beckoning,
of

open sea

(p. 240).
V," Fraser'

31.
and

See William Stirling. "The Cloister-Life

1851,
pp.

Emperor Charles
of

Magazine, April

for "Benito is found in H. Bruce Franklin, The Wake of the Gods: Melville's Mythology (Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 1963), pp. 136-52. However, Hershel Parker, in "'Benito and Cloister-Life: A Re-Scrutiny of a Studies in Short Fiction, 9 (1972),
work as a source
Cereno" Cereno'
"Source',"

May

367-80 and 528-45.

A discussion

Stirling's

221-32,
32.

argues that Melville may not have drawn upon Stirling's article as a source. Almost from its inception, reign as the Holy Roman Emperor was beset
Charles'

by

strife

between the emerging Protestant sect led mented by gout and his failures to achieve

by

Luther

and

his

own

Roman Catholic Church. Tor

by

political

or

various nations

reconciliation between the Protestants and the Catholics military means, Charles abdicated after renouncing his claims to the crowns of during 1555-56- See The New Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1974 ed.
p. 370.

33.

Stirling,

"Benito
with

Cereno"

Civilization, Barbarism,

and

Race

59

Charles V,

the ruler who so

tines."34

By directing

attention to the

delighted "in conversing with the Benedic earthly demise of Charles V's great empire,
which religious conflict can

Melville may be emphasizing the way in political involvement in religious conflict possibility of earthly happiness. This point is ironically made in the

or, rather,
of the

be

decidedly
disposition

destructive

gruesome

of the corpse of

Aranda,

slaves'

the

master.

After

having

main-deck, Babo witnesses the completion of the other

which:

had Aranda dragged, half-dead, to the his murder (p. 253). Overruling

blacks, Babo mysteriously

causes the

body
[On]

to

be taken below,

after

nothing
rise, the
a

more was seen of

it

for three days

on

the

fourth

day

at sun

deponent [Benito
which

Cereno] coming
substituted

deck,

the negro Babo showed

him image

skeleton,

had been

for

the ship's proper

figure-head
[T]he
"'

the

of

Christopher Colon, the discoverer

.

of

the New
with

World

negro

Babo

said words to this effect:

"Keep faith

the

blacks from here to Senegal, leader

(pp.
253-54).

or you shall

in

spirit, as now

in body, follow

your

Melville here
ever,

arranges a
of a

instead

chilling parody of the Resurrection of Christ. How flesh, blood, and bones Christ arising from interment, Mel

ville produces

There is

also
of

only the bones, signifying the emaciated state of Catholic Spain. considerable significance in the replacement of the original
with

figurehead
pher

Christopher Colon Colon

Aranda-Christ's

skeleton.

It is Christo
World"

("Christ-bearer")

"the

discoverer

of

the

New

who
glory.35

symbolizes are

innovation,

courage, acquisitiveness, and, above all,

These
even

precisely the

qualities

that are considered unimportant or secondary

"captured"

undesirable

by

the Roman Catholic religion

and
potential which

which

Spain. Spain's

image

of greatness
replaced

(represented

by

Christopher

Colon) is

thus

fittingly

by

one

starkly deemphasizes the

physical

things of

this world.

Aside from the

and

religious symbolism

found in the
reader

character of

Benito Cereno
a considerable narrator

his ship, the San Dominick, the in attempting to

understand

is

confronted

by

enigma

Benito the

man.

For

one

thing, the

does does

not on

directly

comment on

Benito's innermost thoughts

speeches

and motivations as
notable

he

Delano's. Additionally, Benito's

are

with two

tions (pp. 265-66, 267)

pled with
reader

uniformly

short and on

frequently

unfinished.

excep Cou

his

real

physical

dependency
about

Babo,

these things suggest to the

that the character of Benito

Cereno is

somehow

incomplete.
a
twenty-nine-

What is explicitly known

year-old

Benito Cereno is that he is Spanish seafaring

member of a well-respected,

family

(p.

153).
all

We

also

know that before the mutiny, he

Stirling,
p. 543. references

captained a slave-transporter;

in

prob-

34.

35

Melville's

to "New

the man from the New Found

Land, Delano,

who saves

dogs may be a play on an aspect those from the Old Land.

of this:

it is

60

Interpretation
prior

ability, he had been so engaged for some time

and

to the embarkation of

Babo

the

other

blacks.36

We
with

are

given

description
(p.

of

Benito's attire,

which

is in

stark

contrast

his

physical

condition

136).

The

contrast use

is

duly

noted

by Delano
imagery,

during

his

second suspicion

and, in

another

of graphic

animal

the narrator comments on Delano's thoughts:

But the Spaniard

was a pale

invalid. Never infantile

mind.

For

even

to the

degree

of simu

lating

mortal

disease,

the craft of some tricksters

of

had been known to

attain.

To be

think that,
couched

under

the aspect

weakness, the most

paw

savage energies might

those velvets of the

Spaniard but the silky

to

his tangs (pp.

15354).

In reality,
adrift

of course,

Benito Cereno is devoid

energie

of

"savage

Delano,

again, is portrayed as

being drastically
as

misled

by

pearance.

Benito is

no

centaur or

sheep cumbrously masquerading

sword, the empty

bear casting sheep's a bear. His impotence is highlighted

Benito Cereno's ap eyes; rather, he is a

by

his

scabbard of which

is later suggestively

revealed

to have been

stiffened"

"artifically
In
one suspicion

(p.

269).
never

(which he

entirely dismisses), Delano, in pondering

Benito's debilitated condition, is

[T]he young
window;
united?
and captain

said

by

the narrator to think that:

had

not got

into

command at the

hawse-hole, but

the

cabin-

if so, why

wonder at

incompetence, in youth,

sickness, and

gentility

(p. 138).
seen as a man

That Melville intended for Benito Cereno to be

or

originally
use and

unfit

poorly

suited to

command
"command"

can
and

be inferred from the

"commander."

selective

that

is

made of

the words

Only

Delano

Babo

are

ever portrayed as

actually issuing commands (pp. 220-21, 251, 253-55. 26061). On those few occasions when Benito Cereno feebly hazards giving an
order, he does so only

It is

highly ironic,

at the silent, menacing behest of Babo (pp. 147, 224). then, that Delano believes Benito Cereno to be one of those

"paper

captains"

who

"has little

of command
of

but the

name."'7

Implicit in this interpretation,

unlike

course, is the

view

that Benito

Cereno,

Babo

common

possibly Delano, is not born leader who rules because of a recognition of his natural superiority. Evidence for this view may be
and

36.
slept on

In his deposition, Benito Cereno deck (p. 250, italics

none wore
after added).

notes that the

blacks,

He

also states that

all

tractable

fetters."

"as is customary in this navigation because Aranda "told him that they were
would not

If Aranda believed this, he obviously

with

him. However,
sealer,

bring

fetters

the uprising, the blacks were shackled (pp.

would not

246

and

263).

Delano,
conceiv previous

captain of a

probably

have had

such

items

on the

Bachelor's Delight,
on

ably,

the chains were secured

from the San Dominick, The

which

had them

board from

voyages.

37.

"Benito

Cereno,"

p. office

141.

irony

is heightened
the

when

it is later

revealed that

Benito

does, indeed, hold his

255)-

by

a paper

grant

result of a

written

agreement with

Babo (p

"Benito

Cereno"

Civilization, Barbarism,
of

and

Race

61
of

found in the division

tive

the work

itself. The first three-fourths

Babo's Babo's
and
a

the narra

is devoted to
matter

a presentation of

control of the situation.

control

His

"rival"

in this
who

(which is
succeeds

not a charade

is

quite

real) is

narrowly
of

in

discovering

crushing
leader

the rebellion. It is

Delano, Delano,

a man

action,

who conquers

Babo,

par

excellence,

and recovers

Benito Cereno's
devoted to
a court of

"command"

for him. The last legal

quarter of the work

is primarily

a selective presentation of

evidence

(Benito's

deposition) from

law. Even here, the

of

word of

Benito Cereno is momentarily doubted

viceregal
court
at

(P- 247)-

The

statement

Benito before the it in

Lima differs from

the narrative,

the narrative which precedes

we

several ways.
who or

In the

case of
which

are

confronted

with

narrator

recounts not

events

occurred reader

events to which
at

he may

may

have been

have already witness. Here the

events:

is,

the very

least,

two stages removed from the actual

he is
the

reading
reader

an

account

of events

distanced from him both

from the
and,
actual
are

by

time and

by

selective medium of

the narrator. In the case of the

removed

is

even

further

events. not

deposition, however, the First, the events de

verifiable events.

scribed
reader.

have already

occurred

hence,

directly
a notary.

by

the

Second,

the deposition is

one

man's

version of those

that man's version

is transcribed for the

court

by

Third, Fourth, because

that man's version was taken

rator

down in Spanish, it

to translate it into English.

Finally,

the

was necessary for the nar document is selectively extracted

and presented

(not necessarily sequentially)

more removed

by

the

narrator.

The deposition, then, is

to describe than is the
volved

narrative.

from that reality which it purports Despite (or because of) the distancing in it may the deposition has
that
"key"

in the deposition, the instances

of some of

narrator advises

serve as the

to the narrative. This claim comes after

vealed

dispassionately

re

the most

horrendous, inhuman,

and pitiful actions

men
ment

have

ever committed against

their fellow men. On the basis of this

docu

a statement

devoid
men

of

the human passions and sentiments which animate

the actions
reasoned

of most

a court of

law is

presumed

to

be

able

to reach a
confront,
or

judgment

on

the

most passion-laden questions men can ever

namely,

should certain order

men

be

enslaved and should certain men

men

live

die?
the

Thus, in
Lima properly

for ordinary

men

like Benito Cereno

and

the

judges

of

court

to enter into the philosopher's realm of reason, all elements not

passion and spirit)

belonging to that realm (for example, forcefully dampened and excluded from it. This

have to be
not

is

task, however, that is

only exceedingly difficult for ordinary human beings to accomplish, but one that may produce inappropriate solutions for the political community s funda
mental reason
which problems.

In

other words,

there may be cases

in

which unadulterated also

cannot

(or

should

not) be achieved
more

by

men.

There

may be

cases

deserve

even

demand

than reason. The

matter of

the enslave

ment of

human beings

goes against reason,

but

reason

(if

one

is to judge

by

62

Interpretation

slavery's

longevity)

often goes

unheeded
needed

and.

hence, is insufficient
cannot

to over

come slavery.

One thing that is

against

is

an alliance of reason with a noble

passion that cries out men.

slavery in terms that

would seem

fail to

affect

most

Melville's implication, therefore,

cannot

to be that the problem of

ultimate resolution

slavery

be properly decided
where what

by

the

law; its

lies in

the political realm,

the passions, opinions, and prejudices of the

citizenry

largely
The

dictate

is

and

is

not

feasible.
omissions seems

matter of the

deposition's

to bear on this problem of

the proper forum for the resolution of political questions.

quite selective point at which

By

means of

being

in presenting
the narrative
nature

one man's version of what

transpired prior to the

the extremely

limited

began, Melville may be attempting to emphasize of legal proceedings. For instance, there is a real

Cereno may be as selective as the narrator is in telling possibility his story; in short, he (as well as the narrator) may be lying. By the very nature of legal proceedings, the volume and the number of sources of informa
that Benito tion which the court will accept are limited. From this narrow range of

infor

mation,
most

however,

a court of

law

frequently

makes

decisions

which

have the

profound

consequences

for the

political

opinions, passions, prejudices,

and spiritedness

community the place where generally have a say equal to.

law it
represents

if

not greater

than, that

of reason.

What

we

do know

about

the courtroom
authority.

and the

is that it

is the

origin of

Benito Cereno's

from that

of Babo only in the sense dation: force. Babo and the other blacks

authority is distinguished that it is further removed from its foun

court's
were

The

enslaved

by

force

and

their

enslavement was maintained

card

by authority of the law. Babo uses force to dis his bondage and, in turn, to enslave the whites. In a sense, Benito's and Babo's paper agreement constitutes the imposition of law: Babo agrees to
his
sword

sheath

in

return

for the

whites'

acquiescence to

his

will

(p.

255).

In both
other.

cases of

enslavement, force is the source of one race's

rule over the

The

court

is

also representative of

the world where paper titles (of

are

which

Benito's

family
and

has

several

[p. 153])

dispensed

and

upheld; it is here that

Benito Cereno's
accepted

version of what

transpired on board the San Dominick is

finally

here that

punishment

is

meted

out

to those

who

transgressed

against the
of

law.
that

Consequently, it is here
which case

that one must consider the question

justice,

is, in

that of

Babo's

revolt or that of the court's

blacks'

punishment

is justice done? An

argument can

be

made

that the

sav

agery is merely retaliatory; that it is the

of an enormous
upon

swift punishment of the perpetrators

was
still

flicted

enslavement wrong them. In regard to some

could

that had been and

beins in

of the excesses that occurred not

during

the
of

uprising,

one

argue

that,

while

excusable,

they

are

reflections

the possibility that great evils sometimes

greater evils

may

require the commission of even

if the initial

ones are to

be

overcome.

Thus, the

slaves

believed

"Benito
that

Cereno"

Civilization, Barbarism,

and

Race

63
would

they had

to

kill Aranda in

order to ensure that their

no question

liberty

have

more permanence

that, up until the time of the revolt, the blacks, by being enslaved, had been grievously wronged, and that the whites on board the San Dominick were, to various degrees, the
perpetrators of that wrong, the
slaves'

(p. 252). Since there is

initial

revolt

may be

seen as the

imposi

tion of a

form

of

expedient,

absolute

justice.
the

The

ultimate return to

"legal

justice"

imposition
revolt.38

of punishment after

a set and ponderous procedure of

ascertaining guilt sary response to the excesses occurring during the be seen as an abrogation of absolute justice and a
rule of the whites.

might

be

seen as a neces could

Alternatively, it

reimposition of the unjust

Some
of

support

for this latter

view can

be found in the fact

that the only accounts men, particularly

the revolt given to the court are provided

247-48).
view on

by
of

white

by

Benito Cereno (pp.

know
what

The in the
come

reader

does

not

Benito's

the enslavement

black

men was prior

to the

revolt.

slave

trade

by

As previously mentioned, however, he participated captaining a slave-transporter. Since Benito Cereno had
(p. 153)
and

from

wealthy

family

undoubtedly had

not

been

compelled

to participate in the slave trade tions

necessity, any moral reserva by he may have had about that occupation were insufficient to prevent him from becoming involved in it. This fact alone should suffice to cast doubt on
economic

the simplistic view that Benito

Cereno "belongs to [the] group

reader sees

of

good,

harm

less

men and women.

"39

At the
spite

conclusion of the

narrative, the

that Benito

Cereno, de
a physical

having

been liberated from the rebels,

so complete that

continues to suffer
unable even

from

and spiritual collapse

he is

to bear the sight of

of

his former master, Babo (pp. 239, 269). After his rescue cries, "[Y]ou are saved: what has cast such a shadow upon
negro"

Benito, Delano
The Spaniard

you?"

(p. 268). This response could be interpreted mournfully replies, "The to mean that Benito has finally discerned what Delano has not, namely, that the
enslavement of either race enced sides
what and

is

wrong.

Both Benito

and

Babo have

now experi

Delano has

not:

freedom
of their

and enslavement. experiences.

They

have

seen

both

have lived to tell

One problem, however, is

mute upon

that neither one of them really

does
on

tell.

Babo becomes completely

being

reenslaved.

While Benito,

the other

hand,

renders a statement of the

events when
slavery.

he is liberated, he expresses neither approval nor disapproval of his failure to make a passionate outcry against slav Benito's silence

ery may be the result of the horrors he has experienced as a slave of the blacks: Oh, my God! rather than pass through what I have, with joy I
"

would

have hailed the

This
view

most terrible

gales; but

"

(p.

132).

38.

is

similar

to that advanced

by
pp.

Abraham Lincoln in the Lyceum Speech

of

January
39.

27, 1838. Cf. The Collected Works of Abraham

Lincoln,

ed.

Roy

Basler

(.New

Brunswick.

New Jersey. Rutgers Feltenstein,

University Press,
p. 252.

1953),

I,

108-15.

64 One

Interpretation
could also see

Benito Cereno's
remains

response to awe of the

Babo

as an
will.

indication that
Benito Cereno

he is has
The

still

subjugated, that he
to fear the

in

black's have

real cause

black, for his

experiences

convinced

him that freedom.

the negroes are capable of

shadow of

inflicting

great

harm in
over

order

to win their

the negro looms so

whites

large

Benito

and

the other (presum

ably unsuspecting) but also from the world;

a

that Benito withdraws not

accompanied

by

the monk

only from the slave trade, Infelez (Unhappy), he enters

suffering,

monastery

on

Mt. Agonia (Agony), where,

after three months of

he dies (p.

270)..

THE STATESMAN PERSPECTIVE: BABO

Babo has been preemptorily dismissed by one commentator who contends that, "as his name suggests [Babo] is just an animal, a mutinous baboon.
.

While it is true that the

true that Melville

name

may have

connotations of

barbarism, it is
Babo

also

deliberately

enlarges the role that the real

played

in

the

revolt

to the point where every act, every atrocity of the rebellion to the "negro
Babo."41

is

now even

directly
states

attributable

Benito Cereno's deposition

that it was

by

Babo's
divulge"

command

that the Ashantee Yan

a

"prepared]"

the
as reason

skeleton of

Don Alexandre Aranda "in

(p.
260).

way

so

long

is left

him, [he]
does the

can never

There does, therefore,

careful
reader

seem

to be some support the

for this

view.

What,

then,
and

do

with

fact

that

it is Babo

who

formulates
is

orchestrates the

incredible
and

charade

in

which the whites are made

to appear to
ac

be

still

in

control

the blacks to

be in loose

captivity?

This

charade

complished,

furthermore, with a cast of negroes ranging from the rawest savages (the Ashantees) to venerable patriarchs (Dago and the oakum-pickers) and an ex-king (Atufal). Additionally, it requires the willing or unwilling connivance
of

the whites, some of

whom

(for example, Don Joaquin

and

Luys Galgo)

are

men of

intelligence deception

and courage. were

Finally,

the

planning
of

and preparation
of

for the

complex

done

within the

two or three hour period

time be

tween the San Dominick's entrance

into the harbor

and

St. Maria

and

Delano's

coming
charade

on

board. The

qualities of

intellect

leadership
nor an

required to stage this

successfully Babo, "that hive of

It has

are not those one would associate with

subtlety,"

"just

anima

an

is

neither a

baboon

ordinary human be
of

ing.
also

been

remarked that
evil."42

evil

for the

sake of

Babo is "hatred for the happiness Babo's previously discussed veiled

Leader'-

hatred,

savagery lends
The Virginia

Stanley T. Williams. Quarterly Review, 23 (1947),

40. 41.
42.

'"Follow Your 73
pp.

Melville's 'Benito

Cereno',"

Cf. Delano

in

Gross,

83-89.

Williams,

p. 75.

"Benito

Cereno"

Civilization, Barbarism,
even

and

Race

65
The
ques

some support

to this view. He could

be

seen as

Satan

incarnate.43

tion then

becomes, Why flicting retaliatory evil, which

that which

is he

evil?

I have already

suggested that

Babo is in
than

may

require

the use of

an even greater evil

it

seeks to overcome.

This is

a considerable part of

Babo's role,

but,

as with

Babo himself, there

are more subtleties of of

involved.
observe the similar

One way of commencing an examination ities between the character of Babo and that
Both
white

Babo is to

Iago in Shakespeare's Othello.

and

of these characters

white

Iago

with

black Othello

black Babo

with

Benito

plicity,
office

are exceedingly private individuals who, through their great du important political figures to Babo, occupying the humble bring of a valet, deceitfully overcomes, manipulates, and eventually destroys
ruin.44

the supreme political leader

mander of

of

the San Dominick

the part of a

Benito Cereno, the

com

the ship.

Iago, playing
of

responsible

for the destruction

position

faithful counselor, is ultimately Othello's love for Desdemona, Desdemona

and

herself, Othello's
weavers of evil

in Venice,

finally

Othello himself. Both

of these

stubbornly

refuse to utter a single word when their crimes are

discovered

and

they
like

are

captured:45

[Iago]

works

a confidence

man; only the quality intrinsic to the

a

one

he tempts himself

enables

him to

succeed.

He is

faithful
In

mirror of all around

him; he

adapts

to those ters

with whom

he

speaks.

a sense, we would not would see

know the

other charac

in

the play

without

Iago. We
masks

them only

as

they

appear

without

penetrating the
outset

that conceal their real natures.

Iago

alone

in ordinary life, lets us

unre-

know from the

vealed until

those weaknesses

in

others

that would otherwise stand

the crises of their

care about

lives. Iago
a

shows the

hidden necessity in men, the

things

they

most;

he has

diabolic

insight.46

Like Iago, Babo

acts

as a mirror,

reflecting back both to Delano

and to the

reader what each wants

to see.

It is slavery itself, however, which must bear some of the responsibility for Babo's own acquiescence to and, finally, participation in the brutish treat43 One of the most board the namesake

remarkable

ironies in Melville's tale is the way in

patron

which

the pagan

Babo,

Dominicans'

on

of the
on the

saint, plays the part of Satan to its

a manner reminiscent of

fullest,

Dominicans'

inflicting

inhuman tortures

Spanish Catholics in

the

Benito Cereno heretics. This irony reaches its height when Babo in the cuddy, which is furnished with reminders of the Inquisitions (pp. 197-98). The Inquisitions, although later expanded to include trials of political as well as religious heretics, originally were directed against followers of the various Manichaean sects. These sects were composed of believers
tortures of pagans and

"tortures"

in

fundamental

duality

of good and evil

in the

world.

For them Satan

was a cornier of men with

Christ.
44.

owe

recognition

of

the

similarities
Cereno',"

between Babo

and

Iago to Arthur L. Vogelbeck,

"Shakespeare
45.

and

Melville's 'Benito
Cereno,"

Modern Language Notes,

67

(1952)-

n.l-16.

Cf. "Benito

p.

269, and William

v.ii. 300.

Shakespeare, Othello,

ed.

Alvin Kernan (New

York: New American Library, 1963),

46.
with

Othello,"

Allan Bloom, "Cosmopolitan Man

and

the Political Community:

1964). p. 39.

in Allan Bloom Portions

of the

Harry V. Jaffa, Shakespeare's Politics (New York: Basic Books, following discussion owe much to Bloom's treatment of Iago.

66

Interpretation

ment of the whites once one

must ask
what

they

are enslaved enables one

by

the blacks. To

understand

this,
treat

it is that

group to

identify, label,
In

and

another
real or

group as inferior. The answer lies in the former imagined dissimilarity between itself and the other
to be
alike

group's recognition of

group.

order to

treat one another as equals,

ceived

it is necessary that both groups readily be per in certain crucial ways. Thus, sentient men distinguish

themselves

from

sentient animals

by

acknowledging

such

things

as

the

latter's

lack

of reason and speech.

Consequently,

men neither extend

the same rights

to brutes as
them.47

they do

to their fellow men nor do

they

recognize

any duties to

When the Christian Western

world reintroduced

slavery,

it

concentrated on

be physically distinguishable from their enslaving masters. In so doing, it drastically affected both the character of slavery itself and the consequences which ultimately would follow from that institution for
some men who would always

the Christian West. The

the

ease with which one could perceive unlikeness

between
whites

black

slaves

and the white masters

is

one explanation

why many

could consider

the

blacks to be inferiors

and

to act on that

perception.48

This

same perceived

unlikeness, undoubtedly augmented

by

the remembrance of past

blacks'

inhuman
to the

actions

by

the whites, may

explain

some of the

inhumanity

whites when

the roles of master and slave are reversed. It might even

previous

be

whites'

said

that the
own

treatment of the blacks as less than men

limited their
masters.49

claims

to humane treatment when the blacks

became the

Slavery
he

has

convinced

Babo

exhibits no qualms about everyone on

ing

board the
men

malignity of white men; consequently, horrendous means to control them. By forc using San Dominick to appear to be what they are not
use them

of the

(that

is, black free

men).

to appear to be slaves and white slaves to appear to

be free

Babo hopes to

in

order

to advance his own purposes.

reach

Babo has only one none-too-realizable desire: to free negro state. Of course, it may be that Babo

Senegal

or some other

uses this goal as a means of

securing the ready compliance of the other blacks. Some of Babo's actions his failure to order the San Dominick to flee when Delano's ship is first
sighted; his suicidal
goals was

leap

into Delano's boat

suggest

that one of

his

main

to punish whites for their parts in or acquiescence to the evil of

when

slavery.

Thus,
a

the ostensible goal of

reaching Senegal is denied him

likeness

by

47.

For

discussion

of the connection
of

between Foreign

a recognition of

and the extension of

and the

rights, see

Joseph Cropsey, "The Right

Aid,"

in his Political Philosophy

Issues

of Politics (Chicago: 48. Consider the

University

of

equation of

Chicago Press, 1977), pp. 191-94. Babo with a shepherd's dog and Delano's

naive perception of

blacks

as

relatively
pp. are not

care-free

(and, hence, thought-free),

inhumane ability to
actions

Cereno,"

happy-go-lucky
by

individuals. See "Benito

120 and 199-201.

49.
revolt.

We

told of any

inflicted

the whites on the blacks prior to the

However, judging by
doubts
as to

the

actions once
act

they

are again the masters, the reader

Cereno,"

is left

with no

the

brutishly. See "Benito

p.

263.

"Benito Cereno": Civilization, Barbarism,

Benito Cereno's flight, Babo
centred

and

Race
in

67
to seek "the

abandons the other rebels

order

purpose of

his

soul"

(p.

237): the

destruction

of

Benito Cereno, the

the San Domi

principal representative of white

malignity toward blacks

aboard

nick, in

body

as well as

in

spirit. captured and

as well as

That Babo ultimately is inevitable. His knowledge

with other men

fails to

reach

his deeds

now make

Senegal may have been him unfit to dwell

referred

in

a political community. nature

What I have

to as his dual

(and unbalanced)

is

an

incongruous

combination of the

lowest

and

the to

highest
exclude

attributes of man,

either alone of which would

be

sufficient reason

him from that himself

community.

After his capture,

mute.

of

course, Babo chooses

to

exclude

redress through

by remaining his deeds, Babo refuses to

the

Deprived
seek

of

the opportunity to seek

words.50

it through his

His

mute

ness, therefore, may be the result of a

of persuasive speech could move man.

recognition on

part

that no

amount

white man
blacks'

to act

justly

toward the black

Consequently, force may be

Cereno
reacts
rule who of

the

only

recourse.

(It is

interesting
sub

to note that Benito

in

a similar manner when

he is totally
with alter

ject to the
of a man

the blacks:

his

"muteness"

is

consistent
will

the conduct

has little

reason

to expect that words

his

captor

treatment of

him [pp. 126-27].) facets to the

character of manner

There
tion. Of
of order

are other
particular

Babo
which

which

deserve

some

atten

interest is the

in

Babo

establishes a

degree

among the blacks

caulkers
who

and whites on sit

board the San Dominick. He

appoints

four elderly
ally, he
and sets

attempting, with words, to

"raw"

maintain

picking oakum while overseeing the deck and discipline (pp. 1 18-19, 257). Addition
warriors at an equal

stations six

Ashantee

height
result

above the

deck

them to polishing hatchets (pp. 119,

257).

The

is

combina-

50.

In

a sense,

Babo's

muteness

in the face

of

the white man's injustice is

a confirmation of

his in

unfitness

for

civil society. and

Aristotle

states

that "speech is designed to indicate the advantageous and

the

harmful,

therefore also the right and the wrong;

other animals that

for it is the

special

property

of man

distinction from the

and the other moral

he

alone

has

perception of good and

bad

and right and

wrong
with

See Politics
possible

1253312-18.
of

There is
whom

also

another

explanation

Babo's

muteness.

Montaigne,

an

author

reasonably familiar (see Merton M. Sealts, Jr., Melville's Reading [Madison, Wisconsin: The University of Wisconsin Press, 1966], p. 80), wrote an interesting essay entitled (see Michel Eyquem de Montaigne, Complete Works: Essays, Travel Journal. "Of Melville
was
Cannibals"

Letters,
which

trans. Donald

M. Frame [Stanford, Calif.: Stanford

University Press,
or

1957],

pp.

150-59).

bears

on the civilization-barbarism

issue. Montaigne describes how defeat

certain

South American

savages, when captured, would refuse to acknowledge

muteness might

to give evidence of fear. Babo's

relates that

be

construed as such

defiance. Additionally. Montaigne

order

the conquerors

eventually

would cannibalize

their captives in
the

to exhibit the utmost contempt for them. The

might

cannibalization of contempt.

Aranda

by

black

savages

certainly

be

perceived as an

instance

of such

It is
within

appropriate

to note that Melville's first novel,

Typee,

treats the

civilization-barbarism

issue

the context of a white sailor

living

work, see

Thomas J. Scorza,
1979),

"Tragedy

among cannibals. For a thoughtful interpretation of this Interpretation. 8. in the State of Nature: Melville's
Typee,"

No.

(January

103-20.

68

Interpretation
force: if the
caulkers should prove

tion of persuasion and

insufficient (as they

threat of

eventually did),

the warriors could

be

unleashed.51

The

omnipresent

force

which

previous and the

discussion

underscores the Delano continually feels (pp. 139-40, 143) about its being the foundation upon which both the whites

blacks successively
arrangement of

rule one

another.52

That this

the oakum-pickers and the hatchet-polishers is not

entirely satisfactory is
the

apparent

from the disruptions that

occur

(for example,
events are problem

knifing

of

the cabin-boy and the

not overlooked

by

a reproachful

stomping Delano (pp. 124. 140-41,

of the sailor).

These

167).

The

is that the threat

only the

of

force is directed only

to deter them. The

against the whites; the

blacks have

admonitions of the oakum-pickers and a recognition of the

passions of

desperate

ness of their situation

the moment can and

do Of

overcome these restraints, with the

inevitable

results

that Delano witnesses.

course, the

separation of

the elements of persuasion and force may be a re

flection hours

of

the confidence that Babo

has in his fellow blacks. If

so.

the

fact

that the disruptions were comparatively few in number

or so on

during

Delano's twelve

board

would seem

to indicate that this confidence was not en

tirely misplaced. However, when

Babo
abandons

one

looks

at

the excesses of the blacks

during

the revolt and

when

for days afterwards, blacks is

blacks'

as well as at possible

the tumult on board the San Dominick to

see

it, it is

that the self-control of many of the this

negligible.

Of course,

one should not wonder at

fact in

men who

(aside from

Atufal) have probably never known self-rule in their lives. The unsuitability for self-rule only serves to make Babo's failure to provide
force
all the more remarkable.

an effective police

This failure

recalls

Fleece's

enforced sermon to the sharks

in

Moby
wicked

Dick:
ye so much

Your woraciousness, fellow-critters, I don't blame

can't

for; dat is

natur, and
sartin;
more

be helped; but to
you gobern

gobern

dat
"

natur, dat
you

is de

pint.

You is sharks,

but if

de

shark

in

you.

why den

be angel; for

all angel

is not'ing

dan de

shark well goberned.

may be due primarily to the fact that Babo is is so complete that even the leadership ex-king of his own country acquiesces to his will (even though Babo, bv his own claim, was a land).54 slave in that same Atufal, the magnificently proportioned giant garbed
order maintained at all a

That

is

natural

leader. His

in false
only
the

chains

who evokes of

the awe of the sight-loving

Babo.55

Delano,

proves to

be

lieutenant
with

the small-statured, wily

enforced

Melville's
slave

continual

em-

51. 52.

Compare See
pp.

Socrates'

detention

by

Polemarchus'

(Republic 327b).

62-63

of this article.

53.

Herman Melville,
and

Moby

Dick: An Authoritative Text: Reviews

ed.

Analogues

Sources: Criticism,
p.

Harrison Hanford
Babo's

and

and Letters by Melville: Hershel Parker (New York: W. W.

Norton,
54.

1967),

251.

The

narrator

describes Atufal

as

"countryman"

(p. 147). It is

also

that Babo is a native of

55.

carefully

stated

Senegal (pp.
abundant

249-50).

Again, there is

irony

in Delano's

good-humored references to the

Africans; it is Delano

who

is easily

sight-loving

seduced

by

sights

(pp. 192,

204).

"Benito

Cereno"

Civilization, Barbarism,

and

Race

69

phasis on the added

misleading import here. This

slave and

nature of appearance as opposed to

disparity

faithful
ironic

his "bitter in

hard"

reality takes on is easily seen in the image of the humble, but feeble master. This image assumes

proportions

a scene where

Benito,

unbeknownst

to

Delano, is being

menacingly
sees

shaved

the slave
creature of

by Babo. According "evincing the hand of a

his
own

to the narrator, Delano believes he

"the
and

tasteful
until

hands"

(p.

209).

calmly making Benito is the master Babo,

while of course,

Benito the slave; up

could

the moment Benito escaped,

. .

Babo,

the "Nubian

sculptor,"

have "finish[ed] off [the] pale and rigid readily white at any time. As this situation symbolically indicates, Babo holds in his hands the greatest earthly power over everyone on board the San
statute-head"

Dominick

that of life and death. In short,

a

Babo is

tyrant. In
at

him,

not
was

in
no

Benito, is "lodged
earthly The (p.

dictatorship
apparent

beyond which,

while

sea, there

appeal"

126).

irony

in Benito's

dictatorship
scene.

and

Babo's

actual one

is

deftly

developed in his
point

state about

shaving the narrator generally has confined of mind; here, however, he seems to interject

memorable

With few exceptions, up until this himself to comments about Delano's

some of

his

own

views

blacks. The

manner

in

which

he does so, however, do

appears

intended to

leave the impression that the

plausible

expressed views are

Delano's. The deception is

to be out of character for

because the

narrator's views

not seem

the American. The narrator states that:

about one's person.

There is something in the negro, which, in a peculiar way, fits him for avocations Most negroes are natural valets and hair-dressers; taking to
and

the comb and brush congenially as to the castinets,

with almost equal satisfaction.

flourishing

them

apparently

There is, too,

a smooth

tact about them in this

employment, with a marvelous, noiseless,

singularly pleasing to behold, And above all is the great gift

meant.

and still more so of good-humor.

gliding briskness, not ungraceful in its way, to be the manipulated subject of.
Not the
mere grin or

laugh is here

Those

were unsuitable.

But

a certain set

easy cheerfulness, harmonious in every

glance and

gesture; as though
added

God had

the whole negro to some pleasant tune.

When to this is
of a

the

limited

mind, and that

one

arising from the unaspiring contentment susceptibility of blind attachment sometimes inhering in

docility

indisputable inferiors,
and

readily

perceives

why those hypochondriacs, Johnson

took to
race, their

Byron

it may be, something like the hypochondriac Benito Cereno

almost

their

hearts,

to the

exclusion of

the

entire white

serving men, the

negroes, Barber and Fletcher.

But if there be that in the

the morbid or
cynical

negro which exempts

him from the inflicted

sourness of

mind,

how, in his
(pp.

most

prepossessing aspects, must

be

appear

to

benevolent

one?

199-200).

When

viewed

from the

perspective of what control

ing
the

scene

Babo is completely in
of the
narrator's

and

is really happening in the shav is secretly terrorizing Benito

overwhelming.

irony

comments

is

almost

Babo is very
statement,
which

far from
Babo is
"exempts

being
proof

an

"indisputable
whatever

inferior"; contrary
"in the

to the

narrator's

that

is

it is

not

something

mind."

him from the inflicted

sourness of the morbid or cynical

70

Interpretation
portrait of

Melville's

Babo is

study in

contrasts: master and slave,

feared

tyrant and worshipping subject, evil-doer and savior. At the very

possession of tyrannical power suggests the

least, Babo's
reenslave

possibility that
who

such power even

tually may (have to) be

blacks. This dire
contains

used

against

the whites

would

the

prospect

brings to

mind

Yoomy's

speech

in Mardi.

which

forebodings

of

retaliatory
yet

evil:
a

Pray, heaven!
relent, all

they may

find

way to loose their bonds

tribe of

without one

drop

of

blood. But hear me, Oro!

were

there

no other way, and should

their masters not

honest hearts

must cheer this and

chains with
whoever

blades thrice edged,

thrall.56

gory to the haft! 'Tis

Hamo on; though they cut their right to fight for freedom,

be the

CONCLUSION

The interaction
Melville

of

Babo, Benito Cereno,

fatalism. Each

and

Amasa Delano is imbued has

an

by

with a sense of

character

opportunity to avoid
rejects

the course of action

alternative.

he ultimately follows; each one brusquely Benito Cereno could have prevented the uprising

any

other

altogether

by

in

"customary."

sisting that the slaves wear

fetters,

as would seem
word

to have been

Instead, he serenely
blacks (who
250).

accepts

his friend's

outnumber could sailed

the whites
accepted

Babo

have

sixty nearly four to one) are tractable (p. the counsel of his former king, Atufal, and

that the one

hundred

and

by

immediately
Delano

in the harbor (p.

and the

256).

away from St. Maria after the American ship was sighted In so doing, he would have avoided contact with
and

Bachelor's Delight,
could

he

might

have

succeeded
of

in reaching
and re

Senegal. Delano

have heeded the

worried

advice

his

mate

frained from offering his

Melville
seems

personal assistance

to the San Dominick (p. 112).

to have intended to leave the reader with the

and

foreboding
apparent

that the clash between whites

masters and apparent

blacks,

masters

and

slaves

(or

slaves) is

unavoidable.

The image

of an

inevitable link potentially de s San

Dominick'

age

one that

is in

some ways apparent

mutually

supportive as well as

structive
gangway:

is vividly

in the

leave-taking
a

scene at the

And so, tains, he

still

presenting himself Don Benito

across

as

crutch,

and

[Babo]
it in his,

advanced with them

towards the gangway:

walking between the two cap while still, as if full of

of

kindly
56.

contrition,

would not

let

go

the hand

Captain Delano, but

retained

the

black's

body."

Herman Melville, Mardi

p.

and a

Voyage Thither,

ed.

Harrison
Press

Hay ford,
and

Hershel Parker,

and

G. Thomas Tanselle (Evanston, 111.: Northwestern

1970),
57.
are as

University

The

Newberry

Library.

533.
Cereno,"

"Benito

p.
up"

233.

In the context, the implication

a

seems

to be that the two captains

being

"braced
of

by

the

black. Taken

symbolic

the crucial part slaves

step further, one could played in the development

see the
of

the

black's supporting Spanish-American

role and

American

regimes.

"Benito
The

Cereno"

Civilization, Barbarism,
the races on

and

Race

71
all occur within

relations

between

board the San Dominick

role of masters

the enveloping embrace

each race are
we

of slavery.

It is in the
each other.

that members of

the

most

inhuman to
actions

Thus,

on

the part of the

blacks.

are

told of

horrifying
are

taken against the subdued whites: trussed,

wounded

Spaniards

hurled

alive

into the sea;

noblemen are

hacked to death
conduct of the

in their beds;
whites, once
after

one white man

is presumably hideous

cannibalized.

The

they

are

again

the masters, is distinguishable only

wounds on

by

degree:

having

inflicted the

most

the

blacks

with

long-edged

sealing spears, the whites shackle them to the ship's deck, where they evidently languish, for no mention is made of medical treatment; while shackled, several
of

the blacks are

brutally

murdered

by

vengeful

whites.58

The

cause of this

inhu

man
ment

treatment of fellow human beings is

perhaps

best

summed

up in

a state

Captain Delano

makes

in the in

wake

of the

earlier

shaving

scene:

"Ah,

this slavery breeds ugly passions

man"

(pp.

210-11).

As for the
when

rebellion after

itself, its
Dominick'

end

may
and

seem

to have been foreordained

Delano,

first Benito Cereno

s
of

then Babo

leap

into the boat, ap

pears

to imitate the San

stern-piece:59

At this juncture, the left hand

Captain Delano,
was

on one side, again clutched the a speechless

half-reclined Don Benito, heedless that he

in

faint,

while

his

right

foot,

on the other side, ground the prostrate negro; and

his

right arm pressed

for

added speed on the after[-]oar,

utmost

his

eye

bent forward, encouraging his

men

to their

(pp.

236-37).

However,
penultimate

there are several discrepancies between the scene in the boat and

is that, up until the the conqueror from the unable to distinguish Delano is moment, bottom. He is to the boat's Benito Cereno and Babo pins both conquered, for he convinced that both master and slave are allied against him. Additionally, the
that depicted on the stern-piece. The most obvious one
stern-piece's victorious of

figure is described
"pale"

as

being
The
on

"dark"; both Delano

suggestion

and

Benito

are

members

the

white

race.

that Delano's

victory may be

illusory
one are

(like his
the

perceptions
"satyr."

board the San Dominick) is

to the Oxford English

fortified

when

considers

According
to

Dictionary,
partly

satyrs

"one

of a class

of woodland gods or

demons, in form
Bacchus"

human
added).

and

partly

bestial,

supposed

be

companions

of

(italics

I have already discussed how Melville uses the duality of man's nature. In this portrait of
Cereno,"

animal

imagery
the

to emphasize

a victorious
actions of

satyr, he adds an
and whites

58.

"Benito

pp.

253, 260, and 262-64. The

freed blacks

toward each other perhaps should

peculiar
natures

be

seen

in the light

of

Delano's
seems

earlier reflection cancel

that there "are

on

whom

prolonged

physical

suffering

to

kindness'

(p.

125).

Two

questions

immediately

suggest themselves:

every social instinct of What are those peculiar na

tures?

And,

would

Delano's

responses

to the blacks (and to the whites) have been different had

he
his

been

newly-freed slave?

59.

"[Uppermost and central of which

foot

on the prostrate neck of a

writhing

[stem-piece] figure, likewise

was a

dark

satyr

in

mask,
p.

holding
1 15.

Cereno,"

"Benito

72

Interpretation
element. of

ironic

followers
conflict.

Consider the image of one of these supposedly lustful, playful Bacchus triumphing over a formidable opponent in a physical Then turn to the narrator's description of the negro as one having
a certain
and

"the

great gift of good-humor glance

every

gesture;
200).

as

though

easy cheerfulness, harmonious in God had set the whole negro to some

tune"

pleasant

(p.

According
dark

to the stern-piece and the

reality

aboard

the San
seem to

Dominick,
to

the carefree satyr and the cheerful negro are not what
satyr"

they
per

be. The "masked

whom

is Babo, who,

unmasked

(and

haps

knowing

the ultimate victory

after

the gaze of the

being

belongs), later "met, unabashed, beheaded (p. 270).

Marx

and

Lenin

Thomas G. West

University

of Dallas

The dispute
of

over the practice.

Marxism in

relationship of Marx and Lenin concerns the meaning Was the Lenin-led Russian revolution of 191 7 a Marxist
post-Lenin

revolution?

And beyond that, is the executing Marx's

or with a

Soviet Union,
Are

Stalin, faithfully
sophical

vision and testament?

including that of we dealing here

philo grown

with a political movement guided

by

radically revolutionary Western

mixture of

teaching,

despotic,
or with

violent, bureaucratic home

some

Rus

sian

tradition of absolutism,

both? At

stake

is

an

adequate

understanding

of

Marx's thought interpretation

and

and an appreciation of

its

political

consequences.

The two

principal

lines

of

are well settled.

On

one

side, the

hard-line Soviet
quently
other agree:

communists
and

the hard-line Western anticommunists fre

Lenin,
and

the Soviet

Union,

are

thoroughly Marxist. On
are

the

side,

Western liberals like Robert Tucker

inclined to

see

break

between Marx

Lenin,
will

and

between Lenin

and

Stalin.

The

present

essay

argue

that the core of Marx's thought was his life

long
His

relative

dedication to the revolutionary transformation and liberation of humanity. indifference toward the historical-determinist side of his own doc
Marxism"

trine can be seen

case of

most

Russia,
in

which

easily in his repudiation of "orthodox Marx thought could achieve socialism

in the

without

passing

through the stage of capitalism. Therefore Lenin's revisions of Marxist

undertaken

order

to make possible the radical revolution

dogma, in Russia, con

in

formed to the
the same

essential

Marx. And Stalin's

extension of

Lenin

was executed

spirit.

MARX

Marx's fundamental
wavered

conception of

from the time

a

of

its first
of

"Contribution to
This
the
1980

Critique

philosophy never in his essay entitled Introduction."1 In Hegel's Philosophy of Right:

the
political mission of
programmatic statement

paper was assisted

by

a research grant

from the Earhart Foundation. It

on a
panel

was presented at

meeting Claremont Institute for the

thesis argued here to me his
1.
53-65.
was

of the

American Political Science Association

sponsored

by

The

Study
out on

of

Statesmanship
and

and

Political Philosophy. The heart

who

of the

worked

by

Leo Paul S. de Alvarez,

Lenin.

generously

made available

unpublished

lectures

Marx
ed.

The Marx-Engels Reader, This

edition will

Robert C. Tucker.
referred

2nd ed. (New

York: Norton, 1978),

Einleitung,"

pp.

henceforth be

to as Marx. Quotations from this essay in the text

are and

my

translations

from "Zur Kritik der Hegelschen Rechtsphilosophie.

378-391-

Karl Marx

Friedrich Engels, Werke, I (Berlin: Dietz Verlag, 1961),

74

Interpretation
of of

that essay Marx set forth the kernel

his revolutionary
otherworldly
and

thesis.

Philosophy has
put

already
religion,
which

exposed

the

false

promise

salvation

forward

by

a promise that was meant to conceal

the political oppression under

people

abolish

the political conditions

actually live. The next for the

final task, initiated illusion

religious

by Marx, is to by destroying the exist

ing
as of

society and liberating men from their dependence on men, just they have been liberated from their supposed dependence on God. The spirit this revolution is Marx's radicalized Hegelianism; the matter must be found
order of one

in the

no stake complete

in existing society that has nothing of its own, has in maintaining the current order, and has everything to gain from a annihilation of it. That class, says Marx, is the proletariat.
class of men

The
relation

philosophical core of of

Marx's

program

lies in its become

novel account of

the

theory

to practice, of head to

heart,

of reason to passion.

These

pairs,
tion.

which

have hitherto been distinct,

will

one through the revolu

Action,

the revolutionary negation of the existing state of

things,
other

will

be perfectly rational, for it will now be informed sciousness that seeks the liberation of mankind from

by

the philosophical con

chains.

On the

hand,

thought without action is now meaningless. With the successful culmination of the critique of religion,

thinking has

gone as

far

as

it

can go without

becom

politically Philosophy is ready to be at (aufgehoben). Matter is ready to be informed by

ing

active.

once completed and abolished

reason:

the only barrier to the

to exist

embodiment of reason

in things is

some men's passionate attachments anger of

ing
that

conditions.

Hence passion, the

the revolutionaries, can cancel

the reactionary passion of the good citizen,

issuing

in

future

state of affairs

is completely rational. Physical violence in the service of negation of the present is reason, for through violence the long night of men's dependence on

God,
As

on other

men, and on things

will

finally

end.

a consequence of the

incipient
sake of

union of

theory

and

practice,

theory be

comes criticism, not

for the
It is

stating the truth

the enemy. "Its

[criticism's]

essential

denunciation.

not a matter

destroy feeling is indignation, its essential task of knowing whether the opponent is a
him."

in speech, but to

noble, equal-born, or

interesting
in
whose

opponent; what matters is to

passion of

strike

Reason becomes passion; but the

the philosopher is not enough.

begins."

"It is the

philosopher

brain the

revolution

But: "The

weapon

of criticism cannot replace

overthrown

by

material

as

it

masses."

seizes

the

be force, but theory too becomes a material force as soon The insight of the philosopher, passionately expounded,
must

the criticism of weapons, material

force

will

become the angry

of

consciousness of the people.

The people, the

material

embodiment

philosophy, will then

carry

out

the revolution that will cul

minate

in "universal human
made

emancipation."

Marx has
ever

up his

mind

about the nature of

the revolution

before he indus

turns

his

attention class.

to the actual men and women who compose the

"proletariat"

trial

which

working is capable

The

first

emerges

as
and

that

group in society

of

being

seized

by

Marxist theory,

its

expected openness

Marx

and

Lenin

75

to Marxism is attributed to its supposed utter

degradation, its
It is the

"radical
vehicle of the

its total

enslavement

in contemporary defines the

"passive"

society.

revolutionary
passive

consciousness and purpose

discovered

by

philosophy.

It is this

capability
worth

that

proletariat

here,

not

the empirical

fact

of

its

being
free,
as of an

the industrial working class.

It is

not as

noting that Marx in this essay laborer. The later account of man
on

elaboration

the present statement of

man makes

human labor is that

what we

himself:

as

of man as essentially laborer may be understood man as free, for the meaning his own product, he does not

speaks

as

depend for

he is

on

anything

outside of

himself.2

From here
an account of
revolution.

turn to the 1844 Manuscripts and The German

emancipation"

Ideology for

"universal human
so

or

communism, the goal of the

We do

in

order to explain

more

fully

Marx's
in

theoretical con
which mankind

victions about

human

nature.

Communism is that
on

condition

has

overcome all man

dependence
on

anything

outside of

itself,

and

in

which no

in

dividual

is dependent

any

other man.

The

existence of private

property,
the

namely property held

nonowners

by
on

some to the exclusion of

others, not only

makes

dependent

the owners for their subsistence; property also en

kindles the
attaches

artificial passion of avarice outside

in the heart
desire that
of others

of

the owner, a passion that

him to something
their own to the
which we

himself, his
all

property.

By
pp.

property, things
of

communism will abolish

people

abolishing private now have to possess

70-93).

exclusion might

(Marx,
were

Even the
will

bodily
change man

senses,

have thought

irreducibly
will

private,

their character. From

social.

being

and

"Need

or enjoyment

narrowly individual, they have consequently lost their

become hu
egotistical

nature.

In the
own

same

way, the senses and enjoyments of other men

have

appropriation

become my
only
private

(Marx,

p.

88). Communism

will overcome not

and private

property but privacy as such. The family too, with private children, will be abolished. In such a state of things there
distinction between "one's
as
own"

spouses will no

longer be
not think

and

"the
community.

for

men will

of their own

rule of some men over

anything apart from the others for the sake of their

ground of

Therefore the

own private advantage will

disappear. With the only way to the

193)

controversy abolished, politics will give

of economic production

noncontroversial

management

(Marx,

p.

Marx's
markable

communist

vision

rests

on

the

remarkable

premise
with

for

professed

materialist

that

man's

body,

especially re its seemingly

common.

indisputable quality of The doubtless fact that

belonging
each

to each,
own

dies his Not

become essentially death cannot faze Marx's

can
own

deep
man:

faith
com-

in

destiny.3

man's socialized

even

his

human

nature

limits

2.

Marx describes
pp.

man

as

homo faber in Economic

and

Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844,

Marx,
3.

70-93 Leszek Kolakowski. Main Currents of Marxism,

1978), pp. 413-414-

vol.

I: The Founders (Oxford: Clarendon

Press.

76
munism man

Interpretation
limitations'

means

"the

casting-off of all must

natural sense

(Marx.
"master

p.

192).

If

is to be truly free, he in Descartes's

older

become in every

and owner of

phrase.5

As Marx became
were not quite

he began to

realize that the

existing working
prime matter

classes

totally dehumanized have-nots, human

waiting to

be formed The

by

Marx's theory-inspired indignation in the

service of revolution.
with

real-world workers never ceased

disappointing

Marx

their

contemp

tible backsliding and gullibility to bourgeois blandishments. Therefore Marx gradually developed a doctrine of a party organization of intellectuals and ad
proletariat into the revolution. A party becomes distinct from the workers themselves necessary to the extent that the workers are not the embodiment of pure negation posited in the Hegel essay vanced
workers

who

could

lead the

discussed

earlier.

So far

as the workers

do have things

of

their own

and of

course most workers were and are spoken of

far from the destitute

near-animals

Marx had

they

will

be

afflicted

by

the very same bourgeois passions and

as

prejudices

that move their rulers. As

proletarian of

far

know, Marx
addressed

never confronted

the

reason

for

backwardness

with

the clarity that I have

just

stated

it.

but his doctrine

the party

is

implicitly

to this difficulty. The

party has "over the great mass of the pro letariat the advantage of clearly understanding the line of march, the condi (Marx. tions, and the ultimate general results of the proletarian
Communist Manifesto
says that the
p. 484).

announced

The party is the organizational embodiment of the philosophical truth in the Hegel essay, and it mediates between the isolated philosopher

Marx in his study and the ignorant, unformed masses of the workers. Since Marx never faced (except in passing) the degree to which the
were

workers

infected

by

bourgeois

passions or otherwise

failed to

develop

real revolu

tionary

ardor, he never had to conduct an explicit discussion of the gap between

party.6

the workers and the communist

Perhaps Marx
charge of

suppressed

the problem
of

for tactical

reasons:

he

might

have feared the

"Blanquism,"

forcing

from the top down onto an unwilling populace. Or perhaps he deceived himself by allowing his fervent hope for revolution to divert him
an elitist revolution

from
Marx

cold

reckoning
an

with

the

fact
of

of worker recalcitrance.

In any event,
and after a

also

avoided

account

the role of the party

during
a

revolutionary between the strength

seizure of power of

by lingering bourgeois habits

in Plato's Republic

the proletariat. There

is

direct

proportion

in the

workers and

the need

for

a philosophical elite

to oversee the transition to communism. Marx's silence

communism are

4.

The

expectations

from

less

extravagant

because Socrates

is

aware

that nothing can change the private character of the

on

body

(Republic

464d).

5.

Discourse

Method, Part 6.
League'

6. He touches

on the

(Marx,
Council
1964),

pp. 501-51 1

and

gap in "Address of the Central Committee to the Communist in the circular letter "Der Generalrat an den Foederalrat der romanischen

Schweiz"

("The General Council [of the International Workingman's

Association]

to the Federal

of

Romance
386-387.

Switzerland,"

1870). Marx and

Engels, Werke, XVI (Berlin: Dietz Verlag,

pp.

Marx
on

and

Lenin

11

this question provided a legitimate opening for

Lenin,

who was compelled

worker

to grapple with the

fact, by
which

the year 1900 obvious to everyone, of

indifference to

radical revolution.

The doctrines for internal

nomic part of renders of

Marx is

so

famous

dialectical materialism, the

stages of

contradictions of

capitalism, the invariable

the

history
all

of eco

development, the historical

Marx's
articulation of

inevitability

of

revolution7

these were

the changing structure

of material conditions

that

them ripe

for
But

revolution.
points

Marx

of course was convinced

that the logic

the historical

process

without question

to man's ultimate liberation

and socialization.

whenever a conflict arose

between the details

of

any

of

these doctrines and the possibility of achieving the revolution in some other way, the doctrines were always the pates, the project

first to

go.

Just

as the

Hegel essay
and

antici

for the

emancipation of man

is the core,

the

material

for

its

is only the periphery. Evidence for this claim goes well beyond the
realization of

notorious sketchiness and

self-

contradictions
trines.8

Marx's

written

statements on

many

of

his best-known doc

and

It is simply this: during the last five repeatedly jettisoned the "orthodox

years of of

Marxism"

his

his life, Marx explicitly earlier career, and he

precisely with a view to Russia. Tibor Szamuely has summarized the relevant letters and statements of Marx on this topic in his fascinating study,

did

so

The Russian

Tradition.9

Throughout his life, Marx's

statement

opinions on

Russia had been

governed

by

this

before
and

all

in the Critique of Political Economy: "No the productive forces for which there is room in it have developed;
relations of production never appear

social order ever perishes

new, higher

before the

material con
itself"

ditions

of their existence
p.

have

matured

in the

womb of

the old society

no communist
Engels'

(Marx,

5).

Since Russia be

was still
until

mired

in its feudal stage, had

revolution

could

expected

capitalism

fully

developed.

ortho 1875 attack on Tkachev, undertaken at Marx's suggestion, was strictly tradition of the village Russia's that dox. He ridiculed Tkachev for believing commune (obshchina) could provide a unique occasion for bypassing the rav

ages of capitalism and pp. 294-300).

proceeding

directly

to a socialist revolution

(Szamuely,

But suddenly Marx changed his mind. In an 1881 letter to the Russian Marxist Vera Zasulich, he asserted that "there is no inevitability about a capi Further: "If the revolution rather, the talist development in Russia
takes place at the the
untrammelled proper

contrary."

time, if it

concentrates

all

its forces

on

assuming basic

development of the

village

commune, then this latter would

feature shortly become the basic

7.
pp.

of the rebirth of

Russian society

and the

statements of these doctrines may be found in Critique of Political Economy (Marx, German Ideology (Marx. pp. 148-163), Capital (Marx. pp. 294-302). The 3-6), 8. Kolakowski. pp. 325-334. 363-375.

Clear

9.

New York: McGraw-Hill. 1974

78

Interpretation
of

feature
italism"

its superiority to the

pp.

countries that remain under the yoke of

cap

(Szamuely,
in his

378-379).

Somewhat
Russian

more

cautiously, Marx repeated

the point

1882 preface to the

edition of the

Communist Mani

festo) (Marx,

p. 472).

Moreover, Marx

threw his tactical support to the

Russian

Narodnaya Volya ("People's Will"),

a conspiratorial terrorist organization aim

ing

at a seizure of political power on

behalf

of the people.

And

after

Marx's

death in 1883 Engels carried on this new Marxism that anticipated revolution without broad participation by the proletariat or people. Russia, he said, "is one
of

those
. . .

exceptional

cases

where

handful
of

of people

can

make

revolu

tion.

And if

ever

the Blanquist

fantasy
p.

convulsing
of

an entire

society letter

by
is

means

of a

small

conspiracy had any

chance

success

then the place this

Petersburg"

undoubtedly
written

(Szamuely,
deliberate
repudiation

as

of

Remarkably, Plekhanov, the founder

402).

was

of

orthodox

Marxism in Russia, This revealing

pressed or
ism.10

who had been conscientiously applying the Marxist fundamentalism to the Russian situation.

principles of

episode

in the

careers of

Marx

and

casually dismissed in scholarly But Marx and reversal is

Engels'

as well as so

Soviet treatments
and

Engels is typically sup of Marx

so

striking,

enduring, that it

cannot

be ignored.

They

were

clearly opposing their earlier revolutionary pol

not on a small elite

itics,

which

had apparently been "founded

historical development, encompassing not class, directed not at a coup d'etat but at

conspiracy but on the laws of but the whole working

was

a great popular socialist

(Szamuely,
Marxism"

p.

388).

But

of

how

much

importance

the earlier "orthodox

reports that

to Marx himself?

Evidently
to say,
case

very little. Engels

with a view

in Marx's
Marxist

later
of

years

he

was accustomed

to the rapid popularization

am

orthodox

myself!"

Marxism, "In that (Szamuely, p. 389).

When

I know only that I

not

For Marx the

core was always the revolution. prospects

Everything

else

was subject to revision.

for
of

European

upheaval

in his teaching began to dis

appear, especially after the utter

failure
pp.

the Paris

Commune in 1871, Marx

successes of the

began to lose heart (Szamuely,

373-376).

The dramatic

Russian terrorists may have kindled in Marx a new hope, one which was not dependent on the unreliable industrial proletariat. His turn to the avowedly
violent,
radical elitist

Narodnaya Volya is in
philosophers

an

important

sense a return to the original,

Marx: "The

ways; the point,

of revolution

have only interpreted the however, is to change it."11 If there was no

might

world,
present

in

various

likelihood

in Europe, Russia

seemed to offer a new opportunity.

If Marx had his

embrac-

lived

long

enough, he

have

elaborated the

implications

of

10. Pointed out by Szamuely, pp. 371, 379, and 402. Examples: Kolakowski barely mentions it, p. 259; Tucker suppresses it in his selections "On Social Relations in Russia. 'Marx. pp. 665-675; Isaiah Berlin, Karl Marx. 3rd ed. (London: Oxford University Press, 1963), pp.
"

273-

274, mentions the episode but

11.

passes no.

it
11,

over with minimal comment.

"Theses

Feuerbach,"

on

Marx,

p.

145

Marx

and

Lenin

79
which

ing
the

the Narodnaya

Volya,

certainly

could

have led to
after

a reassessment of
power of

the orthodox
the

revolutionary potential of the workers. Instead, doctrines that he had spelled out over lesser known,
cautious steps

his death, the recently in

so

many

years overwhelmed

he had taken

more

different

direction.

However, the revolutionary heart of Marx, most visible in his earlier writ ings, but pulsing beneath the surface of all his works, endured. A kindred
spirit was revisers. needed

to revive this Marx from the detritus

of

his

admirers

and

That

spirit was

Lenin.

LENIN

What Is to Be Done? (1902), Lenin's

renewed

most

important book,

puts

forward

revolutionary Marxism that

character of the workers are and

frankly

confronts the

disappointingly
nineteenth

non-

revolutionary Lenin argues that the revolutionary Marxist party

to revolution.

working incapable
that a

class

in the late

century.

of

spontaneously

developing

true

consciousness
must

tightly

organized, elite,

conspiratorial

therefore take upon itself the task of

leading

the workers

The background
predictions serve
ment of
Army"

of

What Is to Be Done? is
out

as

follows. Marx's

economic

had turned
of

to be simply incorrect. The growing "Industrial Re

the unemployed, the

declining
the

rate of

profit, the impoverish

the workers, the collapse of a middle class between bourgeoisie and

proletariat, the

increasing
so were

radicalization of

workers12

none of

these things

had

occurred or appeared
and

likely

to occur.

Quite the

contrary:

profits were

in

workers'

creasing,

wages; unemployment was

low;

the middle

class was growing; and workers were

circumstances.

increasingly

satisfied with their material

Where had Marx

whose

gone wrong?

Eduard Bernstein,
1899,
provided one

Voraussetzungen

des Sozialismus
own

appeared

in

response.

Following

Marx's

teaching

that Marxism

is

workers'

workers'

movement, Bernstein argued that the

party, the

Social

Democrats,
economic

should

follow the

spontaneous

desires

of

the workers for social and

reforms, postponing

indefinitely
is,
of

the revolutionary overthrow of capi

"revisionism"

talism.
pean

Bernstein's
parties.

course, the ancestor of today's Euro

views were adopted

Socialist

Within Russia, Bernstein's

by

a por

tion of the Social-Democratic party that became known as

"Economists."

Lenin directs Economism.

can never alternative

most of

his fire in What Is

to

Be Done?

against this

heresy

of

By

abandoning the destruction of capitalism, under which men

argues, the

be free, he
has two

Economists have

abandoned

Marxism. Lenin's

principles:

(1)

the revolutionary consciousness which the

12.

These

claims are advanced

in Capital

and the

Communist Manifesto.

80

Interpretation

intellectuals already possess will never be attained by the workers through the spontaneous development of working-class anger in the historical dialectic;

(2)

the party

is the instrument for the formation, preservation,

Lenin
reaches

and

dissemina

tion of that consciousness.

vation that

his first

principle

through the obser

by

themselves, spontaneously,
(concerned

the workers can

only

achieve

trade

union consciousness

with wages,

job security,

unemployment com

pensation, and the

like)

and not
and

destroy
come

capitalism root

revolutionary consciousness (which seeks to branch). Left to themselves, the workers will be

dominated

by

the regnant
when

bourgeois
the

ideology

(chapter

2).

revolutionary

intellectuals,

armed with

They will only be Marxist theory, come

into

active

contact with

them. Hence the central importance of agitation and

The vehicle of this activity is the party. The teaching on the party is Lenin's second principle. There is an essential difference, he insists, between an organization of workers and an organization
propaganda.

of revolutionaries
workers.

(chapter 4). A trade

union

must

be large

and

open

to all

But

revolutionary

organization must

be

small, secret, and conspira

torial.
can

It is

essential that those so

only do for

workers are not. pensable

if they are Talent and intelligence into

in the party know what they are about, and they thoroughly educated in the tenets of Marxism. Most
are rare

qualities, and

they

are

indis
pro

effective revolutionaries.

Only
a

dedicated, educated, full-time

fessionals
will

can

form the

proletariat

be immune from the insidious for freedom

of criticism

effects of

revolutionary class, and only they bourgeois ideology. There is no

within the party (chapter 1): since the party in possession of the truth, freedom to criticize amounts already to freedom to advocate bourgeois ideology. Nor should the party be democratic: place professionals are

only those
there
will

who

know the truth

are

qualified

to

determine its

leadership

and

membership.

Finally,

the party organization must be

tightly

centralized so

that

be

no confusion about the mission to

be

accomplished or the means

to be adopted.

There is Marx's here to

no

doubt that Lenin in What Is

statements.

to

Be Done?

goes

well

beyond

explicit a

But there is

very

real problem

for

orthodox

doubt that he is responding Marxism, namely worker indifference

also no

to the revolution, in the spirit of the young (and old) Marx. The
consciousness over

the spontaneous
essay.

historical
There he

process
presented
a

goes

primacy of back to Marx's

as a philoso

initial
pher

assertions whose

in the Hegel

himself

conclusions

compelled
of

him to look for

historical,
of

empirical

vehicle

for the

realization

his theory. And Lenin's doctrine

In the face
will

the

party

follows from the

Marx's insight

discovery

of worker recalcitrance.

of that recal

citrance, Lenin appropriately turns to an organization that

and

institutionalize
split

infuse it into the

proletariat.

The

temporary
noted

between Com

Marxist intellectuals

and actual workers

and

had already been

by

Marx in the
to the

Communist Manifesto
munist

the Address of the

Central Committee
and

League. Lenin faced that difference squarely

proceeded to think

Marx

and

Lenin
kind
of

81
party
would

through what

be

needed to close the split.

such

The historical had

He

facts

at the

turn of the

to go, or the periphery.

century Lenin jettisoned the periphery, Bernstein the

not

were

that either the core of Marx

core.

Lenin, however, did

tried to preserve
talism

want to reject of the

Marx's teaching

on capitalism. strength

it in the face

manifest

by

attributing that

strength to the export of

continuing finance capital to the The

of capi coun

tries and colonies of what is now called the "third

gained

world."

super-profits

through this
published

Imperialism,
in
191

his book
proletariat
now

Highest Stage of Capitalism (as he entitled 7), enabled the European bourgeoisie to bribe its
the

into

contented

submission.

His

argument contains the germ of the

familiar Soviet
suggests
relation

claim of

Western

exploitation of the third

world,

and

it

even

the
of

inference

that entire countries can stand to other countries

proletariat.13

in the

bourgeoisie to

This

clever

revision modifies

certainly obviously

cannot claim to represent orthodox

Marxism. But again, it

false Marxist dogma in the

tions are

spirit of

Marx's teaching that the

a

material condi

becoming ripe for revolutionary upheaval. In Imperialism Lenin followed Marx in his quest for

dialectical-material

ist historical

process that would guarantee the overthrow of capitalism and the

transition to socialism. Therefore his overall teaching, like

a tension

Marx's,

suffers

from

its apparently determinist periphery. Also like Marx, Lenin never explained the relation be satisfactorily tween the two strains in his thought. And finally, both men turned away from
philosophical-voluntarist core and

between its

determinism
of

when

they dealt

with the

Russian situation, Marx in his

support

Narodnaya Volya, Lenin

during

the actual experience of the Russian revolu

tion, as we will now see. Lenin takes the final step in his condition of the workers in
Written in 1920,

extension

of

Marx to

cover

the

actual

"Left-Wing"

Communism: An Infantile Disorder.

during

the third year of Bolshevik rule

in Russia, it

reflects

the harsh lessons of the

revolution.

Lenin learned that his

optimistic.

earlier account of

the

consciousness was

ferent to revolution; they reactionary (Lenin, abolished in Russia

pp. and

oppose

if anything too it. To some

They

are not

only indif positively has been

or

extent the workers are

573-575).
all

Although industrial

capitalism

the landlords and capitalists

stronger after will

have been killed

driven out, the bourgeoisie is

552-553).

the revolution than before it (pp.

The

class

struggle

continue

"for

years

alter

the proletariat's

conquest of

(p.

569).

The institutions

of capitalism were
habit."

easy to

over

throw, but two

attachment

stubborn obstacles remain:

(1) "force

of

the powerful

society"

to "the forces and traditions of the old

which continues
"habit"

(p. 569),

and

(2)

scale"

"small-scale

"spontaneously
love,
and

and on a mass

(p.

553).

Lenin

calls

what
people

we

referred

to earlier as "bourgeois pas

the inclination of
13.

to acquire,

defend

what

is their
pp.

own

The Lenin Anthology,

referred

ed.

Robert C. Tucker (New York: Norton. 1975),

251-259.

Hereafter

to as Lenin.

82

Interpretation
in the
community.

to the exclusion of others this "force of habit

Springing
are

from

and

reinforcing
upon mil private

in

millions

and tens of

"millions

lions

proprietors' producer

of

petty
to

and

"small commodity (pp.

whose

mode of production continues

to foster the

nonsocialist

habits that

stand

in the

way presumably includes everything from

of the transition

communism

569-570). "Small-scale
a neighbor mend a workers

production

helping

fence to

rais
rest

ing
of

vegetables

in

a private garden.

Since the

(and

fortiori the

the people) "can (and must)

be

remolded and re-educated

work,"

only

by

very

pro

longed,

slow, cautious organizational

on

the party must continue to rule

dictatorially
is
a most

behalf

of

the workers

just

as

it

earlier took the

lead in making
dis

the revolution (p. 569). "The

force

of

habit

of millions

and tens of millions

formidable

force,"

and

only "absolute

centralization and rigorous

cipline

in the

supervised

by

the vigilant class consciousness of the

proletarian vanguard of cess

intellectuals,

can

(pp.

553-569).

This

process will take

bring the revolution "very many

of the

to ultimate suc

years"

(p.

574).

The

"proletarian
of

vanguard,"

Lenin admits, is the Politburo

of close colleagues

Lenin

and a

handful
of

tenacity
not small

and

breadth

lingering

party, consisting We may infer that the bourgeois habits, which Lenin apparently did

(p.

572).

foresee, led him

to this logical

restriction of

body

of

of

the

party.

unquestionably trustworthy and enlightened Lenin's unbreakable faith in Marx's vision him

revolutionary authority to the officials at the head

of emancipated

hu

manity

at the end of the struggle permitted principle

of

no other solution.

He is simply
who must exclude

extending the
others

What Is to Be Done?, namely, that those

possess the philosophic wisdom

concerning

what

is to be done

from

power

to the extent that those others remain unenlightened and

stronger the

tainted

by

bourgeois ideology. The

bourgeois "force

habit,"

of

the smaller and more despotic must tionaries. Against such

ance

be the governing

organization of revolu

immense resistance,
be

against the

disheartening

appear

that human

nature remains men can

the same after the revolution as

entrusted with the

before it, only

mission

the wisest and

of

firmest

terribly difficult

leading

mankind

to communism. With

Stalin

we reach

the end of this road:

in the face

of such tremendous
one

opposition, both within and without the Soviet

with

Union, only
the task of

man, the wisest and strongest of all, can be entrusted

socialism.

building

Lenin is

sometimes

reproached

blurring
means

his

philosophical subtleties

for vulgarizing Marx, making him crude, because of his own preoccupation with the
sense,
self-

revolution.14

This

charge

is, in

one

refuting:

Marx's

"philosophy"

nothing if not the union of theory incessant refrain of "revolution, Marx's wide-ranging
Lenin,
p.

and practice.

It is true that Lenin's

revolution"

appears

rather crude

in

contrast on the

with

and sophisticated

interests. Lenin's insistence

14.

xlviii; see the remarks of

philosophy,"

Main Currents of Marxism,

kowski's

general assessment of

on what he calls Lenin's "excursion into II: The Golden Age, pp. 447-458 (although Kola Lenin's relation to Marx is close to my own: pp. 381-384). vol.

Kolakowski

Marx

and

Lenin
of

83

impossibility
to

be

a more consistent

separating philosophy from practice may, however, show him Marxist than Marx himself. Nor can Lenin's under

standing of the fundamentals of Marxism be faulted. If anything, he correctly drew the conclusions about the role of the party that Marx approached but never really faced and which were certainly implicit, at least for the Russian
situation, in his
are
post-

1877

embrace of the
who miss

Narodnaya Volya. The

real

"vul-

garizers"

those scholars

the central point of Marx's

over rude

life

when

they

appeal

to the superiority of
show

opinion

they

view, repudiated

theory they are still unawares under the spell of the older by Marx, that philosophical insight is higher than and separate
pristine

practice.

In this

that

from

political action. often asserted that

non-Marxist
tradition"

Likewise, it is
native

Lenin's

real roots are

to be

found in "the
in the
own

tradition."

Russian,

revolutionary
of

and onto which

indirectly
engrafted

"Russian

autocratic
of

the

Tsars,

he

his

highly
were

idiosyncratic brand

Marxism.15

In the first place, the

nineteenth-cen native

tury Russian
inspired
and

revolutionaries, far from arising spontaneously from

soil,

by

the French Revolution (whence the

name

"Russian Jacobin

And

by the radical socialist tendency in French and German philosophy. beginning with Tkachev in the 1850s, these revolutionaries were directly Narodnaya Volya explicitly held Marx in high influenced by Marx
ism")
himself.16

regard cialists

(Szamuely,
who were

pp.

381-384).
orthodox

The

extent of

Marx's

effect on

Russian

so

been properly appreciated, denied it, and Western schol partly because Marxist historians have vigorously ars have generally accepted that denial (Szamuely, pp. 319, 382).
not

Marxists has

not

Second,
gerated. and

the alleged Russian tradition of autocracy has been much exag

and political customs restrained

Religious

the authority of the

Tsars.

by

the eve of World War I there was a considerable degree of political

and

private

liberty
so

in

Russia.17

Certainly

old

Russia had its

who

share

of cruel

monarchs; but
out as the

did England

and

France. Peter the Great,

is

often singled

ited,
Peter Lenin

and was

exemplary Russian autocrat, hated the Russian traditions he inher he tried to destroy them by whatever means he could; in return,

"probably personally

the most

hated

of all

Russian

Tsars."18

After

seized power

by
pp.

force

of arms
terror"

in 1917, he
order

was compelled

to employ
against

"organized,
15.

systematic mass

in

to secure

his

dictatorship
see also

Tucker, in Lenin,

xxvi and xxxiii; on

Lenin's debt to Tkachev,

1966), p. 73.

David Shub,

Lenin: A Biography,
16.

rev. ed.

(Harmondsworth:

Penguin,

Szamuely,

pp.

194-195, 233, 289. Although

Szamuely

the connection between the Russian revolutionary tradition and

makes every effort to minimize its European antecedents, the evi

dence he
17.

presents rather supports

the opposite view.

about

Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn, The Mortal Danger: How Misconceptions

pp.

Russia Imperil
antidote

America (New York: Harper Colophon, 1981),

widespread

14-16.

This book is

healthy

to the

tendency in Western scholarship

to Marxism.
pp. 92-1

to attribute the evils of Soviet politics to the

Russian

heritage
18.

rather than

Szamuely,

10,

whose evidence contradicts

his

contention

that Peter was merely a

variant on an older

Russian despotic

tradition.

84

Interpretation

the opposition and then open revolt of

"every
was a

stratum of

the Russian

people

(Shub,

pp.

348, 353).
shown

We have

in

what sense of the

Lenin

Marxist. It

should now

be

evi

dent that the

reign of

government

Soviet Union,

including

and
goal

especially the
of

Stalin, has
of

remained

faithful to the fundamental

condition

Marx: the

transformation
1
now

the

human

through

9 17, become actual, the

somehow as

that the

dictatorship
manifest

of the proletariat or rather of of

revolutionary its

action.

After
has

vanguard

persistence

bourgeois habits

and

ideas

must

be dealt

with.

So the

violence praised

by

the embodiment of reason becomes applied not only

of the

Marx in the Hegel essay against former mem

bers

bourgeoisie, but
corrupted

also against

those workers (and others) who con

tinue to
profess

be
their

by

the old ways.

Even party members,

gain.

who

fervently
place-

Marxism,

are suspect,

for their

ranks are shot through with

seekers and men ambitious

used

for

private

Hence

violence

may have to be

against

them as well. In

fact, insofar

as anyone

takes of the old, bourgeois passions, the chief of

in the society still par which is the desire to have

things of one's own apart from the community, all men are enemies of the
people and are
sions endure.

legitimately

subject

to despotic treatment as

long

as

those pas

The despotism
spite of

and wholesale violence of of

Marxism in

practice arise not

in

but because

the high ideals of

"soft"

Marx, Lenin,
who

and

Stalin. The
sights

Bern-

steinian revisionists and other

Marxists19

lowered their

became

parliamentary democrats. Radical Marxism maintains that tionally called human nature is changeable "man makes
good
man

what was tradi and that

himself"

can

and

will

become

wholly social,
and concerns.

communal

being, leaving behind

forever his
and peace.

private

passions

All

can

live together in
price and

harmony
bear any
of

If Marxism is right,
order

mankind should

burden in
date

to

bring

about this millennium.

other

pay any To accept

and to accommo

man's

selfishness

and

present

limitations
must
will

would

be

betrayal

humanity. The ignorant, reactionary masses good to adopt the ideas and attitudes that
transition to
pure

be

compelled possible or man

for their
the
must

own

make
men

eventual

communism.

The ruling

wise

stop

at

nothing to eradicate the remaining

bourgeois have

passions and

ideology, especially
result.

if

education

and propaganda alone

not yielded

their expected
appear

If

the current governments of the

contrast
with

Soviet Union

and

China

moderate

in

the Maoist and

the party officials

Stalinist periods, that is perhaps only because fear that they, like Stalin's underlings, might well bc caught
or else

in the faith. But for

whirlwind

because they have tacitly Marxism is

wrong?

abandoned their

Marxist

what

if the

premise of

What if ambition, the desire

one's own
a

private gain,
19.

and the

irrational

preference

for

are

sown

in the

The

expression

is from Bertram D. Wolfe, Three Who Made

1964). p.
157.

Revolution,

4th ed. rev.

(New York: Dell

Delta,

Marx
nature

and

Lenin

85
of can

of

man?

What if the love

an

immortality
be
shared
never

and

truth,

man's

deepest

longing, issues in
friends
Leninist
the
will an

activity that
when which

only

by

few thoughtful
of

authoritative

activity that, opinion from

politicized,

escapes

the despotism
are

it begins? If these things be in

so,

a Marxistwar against who

political regime will as well

always

a state of cold or

hot

most powerful

as the most noble propensities of

the people,

forever be

hiding

their true concerns

will

from

the party's watchful eye. The

"reactionary"

supposedly wise rulers lace. These rulers will

tyrannize over a

permanently

popu

consist of a promise of
of

its faith in the

illusory

fanatical minority that, like Lenin, places the eventual total liberation of humanity; a for the
sake
and

larger group consisting

of

those giving mouth-loyalty to Marxism

the private profit or honor that comes

from

offices of political power;

the

largest group, those

Marxism-Leninism

who are mixtures of

these two qualities.

exercises

a tremendous attraction over

Westerners dis

gusted

by

the crass

display

of greed and self-indulgence unleashed

by

modern

liberalism. It
own vent

also appeals

traditions corroded
their

nonWesterners who, having seen their strongly to Western skepticism and freedom, and wishing to by

inchoate

resentment

over

this

loss, enviously desire

to pull down

those who have

"scientific"

profited under

the

post-traditional own and

liberty
of

and

rationalization

for their

despotic
might

passions.

gladly embrace Marxism is also

impressively
emerging
urgent

backed

by

the authority

the Soviet
of

as the world's most powerful nation.

In light

these

Union, facts, the

whether

now most

theoretical question of our time is the question concerning the nature

of man.

For

unless

this question

is answered,

we will not

know

Marx

ism-Leninism is
But

mankind's

best hope

or a monstrous

injustice.

entirely in the dark about this question. For our own Declara tion of Independence epitomizes, according to its author, the thought of a long Aristotle.20 That tradition of political philosophy stretching back to Cicero and
we are not

tradition,
human
us

whatever

its disagreements, teaches

men

to respect and to cultivate

on reason

their reason yet

passions.

without

forgetting
to the

the

limits forever imposed

free

by

the

return

classical roots of

government will enable argu

confidently to oppose the ment and in action.

radical prescriptions of

Marxism-Leninism in

20.

Thomas Jefferson, Letter to

Henry Lee, May 8.

1825.

The Lion A

and

the Ass:
on

Commentary

the Book of Genesis (Chapters 31-34)

Robert Sacks
St. John's College, Annapolis
and

Sante Fe

CHAPTER XXXI

AND HE HEARD THE WORDS OF LABAN'S

SONS, SAYING, JACOB HATH

TAKEN AWAY ALL THAT WAS OUR FATHER'S AND OF THAT WHICH WAS OUR FATHER'S HATH HE GOTTEN ALL HIS GLORY. 2. AND JACOB BEHELD THE COUNTENANCE OF
WAS NOT TOWARD HIM AS BEFORE.

LABAN, AND, BEHOLD,

IT

3.

AND THE LORD SAID UNTO

JACOB, RETURN UNTO THE

LAND OF THY

FATHERS AND TO THY

KINDRED;

AND I WILL BE WITH THEE.

God has
us of

spoken

for the first time

since

Jacob's dream. His

said
father'

words

remind
out

of from thy kindred and from thy s house, unto a land that I will show thee. Now He says return unto the land of thy fathers and unto thy kindred and I will be with thee. Superficially there doesn't seem to be much difference between the two, and God's voice to Jacob seems as crucial

the first time He spoke to Abraham. Back then He

and

Get thee

thy country

as the voice which came to quite

Abraham. Within the context,

return made

however, they
after

are was

different. Jacob had already decided to born, and the anger of Laban's sons must have
tion obvious to Jacob.
claims that

home

Joseph

the urgency of the situa

Jacob

was confused and

In his commentary to Verse Three Professor Hartum did not know what to do about the prob
to return.
'

lems

until

God

told

him

But

given

Jacob's

character

it

hardly

seems state

likely
and

that

he

would

have been

at a

loss. Under these conditions, God's

ment would appear

to be pointless since Jacob had already decided to return

manifest.

the need for swift action was

God,

who

has been

silent since
nothing.

the dream, has spoken, but His words,

so meaningful to

Abraham, say

4.

AND JACOB SENT AND CALLED RACHEL AND LEAH TO THE FIELD UNTO

HIS FLOCK. 5.
AND SAID UNTO

THEM, I SEE

YOUR FATHER'S

COUNTENANCE, THAT IT IS

NOT TOWARD ME AS BEFORE; BUT THE GOD OF MY FATHER HATH BEEN

WITH ME.

6.

AND YE KNOW THAT WITH ALL MY POWER I HAVE SERVED YOUR FATHER.

1.

The Bible

with

Commentary

by

Prof. A. S. Hartum, Yavneh

Publishing House,

Tel Aviv,

1972, p. 115 (Hebrew).

88
7.

Interpretation
ME,
AND CHANGED MY WAGES TEN

AND YOUR FATHER HATH DECEIVED

TIMES;

BUT GOD SUFFERED HIM NOT TO HURT ME.

8.

IF HE SAID

THUS,

THE SPECKLED SHALL BE THY

WAGES;

THEN ALL THE

CATTLE BARE SPECKLED: AND IF HE SAID

THUS,

THE RINGSTRAKED SHALL BE

THY HIRE". THEN BARE ALL THE CATTLE RINGSTRAKED.

Jacob begins
a serious and

by calling his wives together. His plans to leave are made at formal family gathering. The fact that it is a planned occasion
gives

rather than a chance announces

meeting his decision to his

so

it dramatic

character.

wives and reminds them of

In this meeting Jacob his constant labors for

their

father. But

far

as we can tell
wages

Verse Seven is

an exaggeration. as we

Laban

had indeed
Laban's
that the

changed

his

in the

case of

his marriage, but

have seen,

actions on that occasion were not purely unjust. It has been argued difference between Verses Thirty-five and Thirty-two of Chapter Thirty a second time
a

indicate
since

in

which

Laban had

changed given again

Jacob's
it

wages.

However,
impossible

even

third account of the wages

author

is
has

by

Jacob himself in Verse

almost

Eight for

of the present chapter the

made

us to reach

any firm

conclusion about

Laban's

character.

9.

THUS GOD HATH TAKEN AWAY THE CATTLE OF YOUR

THEM TO ME

FATHER,

AND GIVEN

IO.

AND IT CAME TO PASS AT THE TIME THAT THE CATTLE

CONCEIVED,

THAT I LIFTED UP MINE

EYES,

AND SAW IN A

DREAM,

AND BEHOLD. THE

RAMS WHICH LEAPED UPON THE CATTLE WERE

AND GRISLED. 1 1
.

RINGSTRAKED, SPECKLED,

AND THE ANGEL OF GOD SPAKE UNTO ME IN A AND I

DREAM, SAYING. JACOB:

SAID,

HERE AM I.
LIFT UP NOW THINE

12.

AND HE

SAID,

EYES,

AND

SEE,

ALL THE RAMS AND

WHICH LEAP UPON THE CATTLE ARE

RINGSTRAKED, SPECKLED,

GRISLED;

FOR I HAVE SEEN ALL THAT LABAN DOETH UNTO THEE.

13.

I AM THE GOD OF BETH-EL, WHERE THOU ANOINTEDST THE

PILLAR,

AND WHERE THOU VOWEDST A VOW UNTO ME: NOW

ARISE, GET THEE OUT

FROM THIS

LAND,

AND RETURN UNTO THE LAND OF THY KINDRED. and

In Verses Eleven
cattle through a

Twelve Jacob tells his

reader

wives
no

that he

learned

about the of the

dream. The
about

however has

direct knowledge

dream but knows

not

be

good enough

it only from hearsay, which in the since Jacob has two serious problems

present case
at

may
must

hand. He

persuade

his

wives

to leave their

was not as
as

far

as

we

willing to do so know, is still

father's house, and, as we shall see, Rachel as Rebekah had been. At the same time, Rachel, jealous of Leah in spite of the birth of Joseph,
problems as well.

and

Jacob

must

face his domestic

In Verse Thirteen Jacob

reminds

his

wives of the most serious reason

for

his

return.

He had

vowed to return after the

dream

at

Beth-el. The fact that

The Lion
he
mentions

and the

Ass

89
after

the

dream

immediately

his story

about a second

dream

would

in itself

raise some

doubts

about the supposed second

dream.

14.

AND RACHEL AND LEAH ANSWERED AND SAID UNTO

HIM, IS

THERE YET

ANY PORTION OR INHERITANCE FOR US IN OUR FATHER'S HOUSE?

15.

ARE WE NOT COUNTED OF HIM STRANGERS? FOR HE HATH SOLD US,

AND HATH QUITE DEVOURED ALSO OUR MONEY. l6.

FOR ALL THE RICHES WHICH GOD HATH TAKEN FROM OUR

FATHER,

THAT IS

OURS,

AND OUR CHILDREN'S: NOW

THEN,

WHATSOEVER GOD HATH

SAID UNTO THEE, DO.

Since Rachel's
spoke and

name

Leah

agreed.

the same words at their

mentioned first, this may be an indication that she It is unlikely that the Bible means that they spoke the same time as if in chorus. By raising the spectre of succeeded

is

father, Jacob has

and

in presenting
domestic

the

situation

in

such

way
of

that Rachel and Leah can agree. The wives are now more than willing to leave the country, there
seen

is

finally

peace.

The

complete

success

Jacob's

plan can

be

in Verse Sixteen

when

the words our

and

children are used.

Up

to that point the distinction between

mine

thine was

fairly

clear, at

least to Rachel.

17. l8.

THEN JACOB ROSE

UP,

AND SET HIS SONS AND HIS WIVES UPON

CAMELS;

AND HE CARRIED AWAY ALL HIS

OI-

CATTLE,

AND ALL HIS GOODS WHICH

HE HAD GOTTEN, THE CATTLE

HIS GETTING, WHICH HE HAD GOTTEN IN

PADAN-ARAM, FOR TO GO TO ISAAC HIS FATHER IN THE LAND OF CANAAN.

19.
AND LABAN WENT TO SHEAR HIS SHEEP: AND RACHEL HAD STOLEN THE

IMAGES THAT WERE HER FATHER'S.

Rachel is
still

unable

to

commit

herself

fully

to the New Way. Her

father's

gods

hold

fascination for her. The becomes

clear.

reason

for Jacob's

exaggeration

in Verse

Jacob may have purposely exaggerated Laban's deceit in order to tempt Rachel into picking up the notion and expressing it with even greater fervor. If this was his plan he obviously met with great

Seven

now

success

in Verse Fifteen. Rachel has

some

doubts

about

the

New

Way

and

is

still attracted would

by

her father's

gods.

Without this

ruse

have

succeeded

in convincing Rachel

that she should

it is unlikely that Jacob leave.

20.

AND JACOB STOLE THE HEART OF LABAN THE

SYRIAN, IN THAT HE

TOLD HIM NOT THAT HE FLED.

21

SO HE FLED WITH ALL THAT HE HAD; AND HE ROSE UP AND PASSED OVER THE RIVER, AND SET HIS FACE TOWARD THE MOUNT GILEAD.

22.
23.

AND IT WAS TOLD LABAN ON THE THIRD DAY THAT JACOB WAS FLED. AND HE TOOK HIS BRETHREN WITH
DAYS'

HIM,

AND PURSUED AFTER HIM

SEVEN

JOURNEY; AND THEY OVERTOOK HIM IN THE MOUNT GILEAD.

90
The
as will

Interpretation
heart of Laban mean his daughters and his grandchildren, become obvious in Verse Twenty-six. The verse would seem to indi
words

the

cate that

his

children

meant

a great

deal to Laban. but form that

since

his

character

is

still obscure we cannot

be

sure what
start

feeling

took.

Jacob had
These

three-day head

during

which

time

he

crossed

river.

certainly remind one of the flight from that other land of where the Jews again with a three-day head start crossed a great magic, Egypt,
conditions river

(see Ex.

3:18 and 15:22).

24.

AND GOD CAME TO LABAN THE SYRIAN IN A DREAM BY

NIGHT,

AND

SAID UNTO HIM, TAKE HEED THAT THOU SPEAK NOT TO JACOB EITHER GOOD OR BAD.

For the meaning of the words good or bad see the commentary to Gen. 3:5, in which the phrase the knowledge of good and bad was shown to be
equivalent

to political knowledge and

hence to

imply

political power.

25.

THEN LABAN OVERTOOK JACOB. NOW JACOB HAD PITCHED HIS TENT

IN THE MOUNT: AND LABAN WITH HIS BRETHREN PITCHED IN THE MOUNT OF GILEAD. 26.
AND LABAN SAID TO

JACOB,

WHAT HAS THOU DONE, THAT THOU HAST

STOLEN AWAY MY HEART IN THAT THOU HAST STOLEN AWAY MY DAUGH

TERS,
27.

AS CAPTIVES TAKEN WITH THE SWORD?

.

WHEREFORE DIDST THOU FLEE AWAY SECRETLY

AND STEAL AWAY FROM AWAY WITH

ME AND DIDST NOT TELL

ME, THAT I MIGHT HAVE SENT THEE

WITH TABRET AND WITH HARP?

MIRTH,
28.

AND WITH

SONG,

AND HAST NOT SUFFERED ME TO KISS MY SONS AND MY DAUGHTERS?

THOU HAST NOW DONE FOOLISHLY IN SO DOING.

Laban

accuses

Jacob

of

himself to have been

not

able

stealing his daughters to command the love

by
of

force. He

fully

believed

his daughters

and could

self as

imagine that they would have fled by their own doing. He presents him a doting father who is genuinely hurt by the sudden departure of his
As
we shall

in the commentary to Verse Forty-three this picture of his character is not completely false. Laban is a very wealthy man and would have enjoyed the ceremonies which he describes in Verse Twenty-seven since it would have been an occasion for him to assert his
children.

see more

fully

patriarchal position.

29.

IT IS IN THE POWER OF THE GOD OF MY HAND TO DO BAD UNTO YOU:

BUT THE GOD OF YOUR FATHER SPAKE UNTO ME

YESTERNIGHT, SAYING, TAKE

THOU HEED THAT THOU SPEAK NOT TO JACOB EITHER GOOD OR BAD.
30.

AND

NOW, THOUGH THOU WOULDEST NEEDS

BE

GONE, BECAUSE THOU

The Lion

and the

Ass

91
HOUSE, YET WHEREFORE HAST THOU

SORE LONGEDST AFTER THY FATHER'S STOLEN MY GODS?

Laban has become

reconciled

to the

loss

of

his

power over

his daughters. his

God

Jacob,

and their children.

At the

same time

he

wishes

to remind Jacob of

magical powers and of

the

fact that he

could

have

availed

himself

of the

of my hand rather than follow the commandment of the God of your father. had he so chosen. In this manner Laban can preserve his patriarchal role by
presenting himself
speaks of

as

the

cause

of

Jacob's freedom. At the

same

time he

God of your father using the plural form of the word your, acknowledging his awareness that his daughters and grandchildren have joined
the

the New Way.

While Laban had

entertained

hopes that

one

day

Jacob

would accept

him

as

his

patriarch and

wishes

to

return stolen

carry to his

on the tradition of own

Haran, he
even

can understand that cannot understand

own sons

Jacob

fathers. What Laban

is why
to carry

Jacob has
on

his

gods,

making it impossible

for his

that tradition.

31

AND JACOB ANSWERED AND SAID TO

LABAN, BECAUSE I WAS

AFRAID: FOR

I SAID PERADVENTURE THOU WOULDEST TAKE BY FORCE THY DAUGHTERS

FROM ME. 32. WITH WHOMSOEVER THOU FINDEST THY

GODS, LET HIM NOT

LIVE: BEFORE

OUR BRETHREN DISCERN THOU WHAT IS THINE WITH ME, AND TAKE IT TO
THEE. FOR JACOB KNEW NOT THAT RACHEL HAD STOLEN THEM.

In Verse Thirty-one the

tion of Laban's crimes

reason made call

is

explicit.

for Jacob's secrecy as well Jacob was aware

as
of

his
the

exaggera

fact that his

Laban

was

what

one

might

big

daddy. The devotion to his children,

and all

which came

to light

in Verses Twenty-seven
He
would

Twenty-eight is based
men

on

desire for
recognise

possession.

like to

see

happy,

so

long

as

they

him

as the author of that

happiness.
at

referring to Laban's men as our brethren Jacob is able, to assuage Laban by retaining some form of family tie.

By

least in part,

33.

AND LABAN WENT INTO JACOB'S TENT. AND INTO LEAH'S TENT AND

MAIDSERV

INTO THE TWO

TENTS; BUT HE FOUND THEM NOT. THEN

WENT HE OUT OF LEAH'S TENT AND ENTERED INTO RACHEL'S TENT.

In making the last. In his mind

to
understand

rounds

of the

tents Laban decided to search Rachel's tent

suspicious

she

was

the

least

in the family. Laban's failure

Isaac's blindness
more with re

his daughters is
From
what

not altogether unlike we

gard

to

his
was

sons.

know

of

them, it is

than
and

likely
Laban

that
was

Rachel

the daughter who always sat on her daddy's

well-pleased.

lap,

undoubtedly

Ironically,

those very facets of Rachel's character

92
which

Interpretation
led her to
steal

the gods were also the facets

which made

her the least

suspect

in Laban's

eyes.

34.

NOW RACHEL HAD TAKEN THE IMAGES. AND PUT THEM IN THE CAMEL'S
AND SAT UPON THEM. AND LABAN SEARCHED ALL THE

FURNITURE,

TENT,

BUT FOUND THEM NOT.

35.

AND SHE SAID TO HER

FATHER, LET IT NOT DISPLEASE MY LORD THAT I

CANNOT RISE UP BEFORE THEE; FOR THE WAY OF WOMEN IS UPON ME. AND HE

SEARCHED, BUT
grotesque

FOUND NOT THE IMAGES.

parody Rachel mimics her husband by lying to her father, but Rachel's lie depends on Laban's decency in a delicate matter, and is therefore
In
cowardly.

On the

use of

the word way, see the commentary to Gen.

18:11.

In this
reflec still

instance,

the word

for way is the

more normal word

for

a road,

but the

tions concerning the status of nature in the commentary to Gen.

18:11

hold force.
36.
AND JACOB WAS
AND CHODE WITH LABAN: AND JACOB ANSWERED

WROTH,

AND SAID TO

LABAN,

WHAT IS MY TRESPASS? WHAT IS MY

SIN, THAT THOU

HAST SO HOTLY PURSUED AFTER ME?

37.

WHEREAS THOU HAST SEARCHED ALL MY

STUFF, WHAT HAST THOU

FOUND OF ALL THY HOUSEHOLD STUFF? SET IT HERE BEFORE MY BRETHREN

AND THY

BRETHREN, THAT THEY MAY JUDGE BETWIXT US BOTH.

now

Jacob is
advantage. upon

able to use the compromise made

in Verse Thirty-two to full

retaining family ties he can assert his independence by calling their common brothers to judge them. In so doing he has skillfully ren

By

dered harmless any to break them.

claims which those ties can make upon

him,

without

having

38.

THIS TWENTY YEARS HAVE I BEEN WITH THEE; THY EWES AND THY SHE

GOATS HAVE NOT MISCARRIED I NOT EATEN.

YOUNG,

AND THE RAMS OF THY FLOCK HAVE

It is
extent
word

possible
all

that Verse
on

Thirty-eight
we are

contains

pun,

though to

large

it for
be

depends

how

to understand Genesis 35:2. The Hebrew

name

ewes

is identical to Rachel's
Your Rachel
sentence
of

in Hebrew. Therefore, the

verse

could
of

read

has is

not miscarried,

in

reference to the

birth

Joseph. However, the

which,

more complicated. were

There

are two

Hebrew

letters
'sh'

in the days
pronounced

the author,

written

though one

is

like the English V,

way

and the other

in identical fashion, like the English

to

The

sentence read either

would make sense with regard

Rachel. If

we

take the alternative the sentence would read /

have

not

been

able to make

your

Rachel

wise.

This

pun

may indicate that Jacob has

seen

through Rachel's

The Lion
trick and
of this

and the

Ass

93
the presence of the gods. For

is

quite

aware of

further

verification

possibility

see

the commentary to Gen. 35:2.

39.

THAT WHICH WAS TORN OF BEASTS I BROUGHT NOT UNTO THEE; I BARE

THE LOSS OF IT; OF MY HAND DIDST THOU REQUIRE BY

IT,

WHETHER STOLEN

DAY, OR

STOLEN BY NIGHT.
THE DAY THE DROUGHT CONSUMED

40.

THUS I BY

WAS; IN

ME, AND THE

FROST

NIGHT,
spite of

AND MY SLEEP DEPARTED MINE EYES.

In

Jacob's

exaggerations to

his

wives

concerning Laban his

actual

service seems

to have been beyond

reproach.

41

THUS HAVE I BEEN TWENTY YEARS IN THY HOUSE; I SERVED THEE FOUR TEEN YEARS FOR THY TWO

DAUGHTERS,

AND SIX YEARS FOR THY CATTLE:

AND THOU HAST CHANGED MY WAGES TEN TIMES.

42.

EXCEPT THE GOD OF MY

FATHER,

THE GOD OF

ABRAHAM,

AND THE FEAR

OF ISAAC, HAD BEEN WITH ME, SURELY THOU HADST SENT ME AWAY NOW
EMPTY. GOD HATH SEEN MINE AFFLICTION AND THE LABOUR OF MY AND REBUKED THEE YESTERNIGHT.

HANDS,

The

words which

have been translated

the

fear of Isaac

are unclear,

because

they

contain

the same ambiguity which the genitive or

understand whether

possessive

in English. It is difficult to
taken
as a
subjective or are refer

the words of
similar

usually does Jacob are to be

whether

objective

genitive.

It is

to asking

"Caesar's
whether whether

those people whom Caesar sends out to

and

murder

or

they

to Brutus

Cassius. Here
whom

we

are

faced

with

deciding

Jacob has

referred

to the God

Isaac fears,

or the

God

on account

of whom one must

fear Isaac. The latter interpretation, however, In this sense, there

might

seems more

likely

under

the

circumstances.

be

a reference

to

Genesis 26:29,

which

Abimelech

finally

perceived

that which was to

where

be

feared in Isaac. However, in forced to lie to

to
a

the light of Chapter

Twenty-seven,

he

was

blind

old man

in

order

to obtain the

blessing

that was denied

was

Abimelech,

one must

wonder what

strange

mixture

of thoughts

going

through Jacob's mind as he spoke to Laban.

43.

AND LABAN ANSWERED AND SAID UNTO

JACOB, THESE DAUGHTERS ARE

MY DAUGHTERS. AND THESE CHILDREN ARE MY CHILDREN, AND THESE

CATTLE ARE MY CATTLE, AND ALL THAT THOU SEEST IS

MINE; AND WHAT

CAN I DO THIS DAY UNTO THESE MY DAUGHTERS, OR UNTO THEIR CHILDREN

WHICH THEY HAVE BORN

In Verse Forty-three
Though benevolent, he dants. The Hebrew
one should translate

we

finally
the
a

have

a clear statement of

Laban's

position.

claims

contains
what

can

right to complete mastery over his descen beautiful ambiguity making it unclear whether I do this day unto these my daughters or what

94
can

Interpretation
this

for my daughters. The reader is never quite sure whether Laban's words are intended as a threat, or whether they are words of frustra tion because he can no longer be the sole cause of their prosperity nor can I do

day

he

give them

his

own

way

of

life.

44.

NOW THEREFORE COME

THOU,

LET US MAKE A

COVENANT, I AND THOU;

AND LET IT BE FOR A WITNESS BETWEEN ME AND THEE.

Laban, willing
at

to admit that he has

lost,

wishes

to establish a covenant

which would recognize

the independence of each house. In this sense,

with

he hopes

least to

achieve

parity

the New Way.

45. 46.

AND JACOB TOOK A

STONE, AND

SET IT UP FOR A PILLAR.

AND JACOB SAID UNTO HIS BRETHREN. GATHER STONES: AND THEY TOOK AND MADE AN HEAP: AND THEY DID EAT THERE UPON THE HEAP.

STONES,
47.

AND LABAN CALLED IT JEGAR-SAHADUTHA: BUT JACOB CALLED IT

GALEED. 48.
AND LABAN

SAID, THIS HEAP IS

A WITNESS BETWEEN ME AND THEE THIS

DAY. THEREFORE WAS THE NAME OF IT CALLED GALEED; 49.

AND

MIZPAH;

FOR HE

SAID, THE LORD

WATCH BETWEEN ME AND THEE,

WHEN WE ARE ABSENT ONE FROM ANOTHER. 50.

IF THOU SHALT AFFLICT MY

DAUGHTERS, OR

IF THOU SHALT TAKE OTHER

WIVES BESIDE MY DAUGHTERS, NO MAN IS WITH US;

BETWIXT ME AND THEE. 51
.

SEE, GOD IS WITNESS

AND LABAN SAID TO

JACOB, BEHOLD THIS HEAP, THEE;

AND BEHOLD THIS PIL

LAR,
52.

WHICH I HAVE CAST BETWIXT ME AND

THIS HEAP BE WITNESS AND THIS PILLAR BE

WITNESS, THAT I WILL

NOT

PASS OVER THIS HEAP TO

THEE,

AND THAT THOU SHALT NOT PASS OVER THIS

HEAP AND THIS PILLAR UNTO

ME,

FOR HARM.

This

covenant established the

character

borders between Syria

which were established

and

Israel.

They
As
we

are

different in

from those

with

the Philistines.
re

The Philistine border

member, the
of

separated people who were at opposite poles. of

it, like

the

firmament

heaven, divided
with

a small realm of order was established

from
men great

surrounding
the same

world of chaos. at a

The border

Syria
was

by
a

family

time of

friendship
covenant

and

made

clear

by

heap
either

of stones called

Galeed. The

side, and hence the

heap

is

also given an

is impartial to the superiority of Aramaic name, Jegar-Sahadutha.

not mark a

This

border,

unlike

the Philistine
worlds.

between two different

children, now the

lives

on

sharp distinction Part Laban's world, his daughters and grand the other side. We must consider that relationship in
of

border, does

following

paragraphs, in which we shall

try

to outline the consequences

of this covenant.

The Lion
The terms
gests

and

the

Ass

95
Abrabanel in his
commentary'

of the covenant are unclear.

that it

would

have been better to translate Verse Fifty-two

as:

if
a

you

sug fail

to come over
trouble.

in times of trouble then I will not come over to In other words, Abrabanel understands the covenant
than merely a

you

in time of

as

treaty

of

mutual alliance rather

treaty

of non-aggression.

The

curious role

which

Syria

plays

emerges

in their first lives

of

contact.

After the death

in the coming to be of the New Way of Joshua there was a deteriora dream
was

tion in the
nected

the people.

God's

original

for

loosely-con
of

group

of tribes

deriving

their unity from the

joint

celebration

the

Jubilee Year. We
at the time of

must remember

that Moses was even

forced to

remind

God

his death that

a new

leader had to be

appointed.

Apparently,

had

men

tribes

would

been up to it, Joshua would not have been needed, have lived in harmony (Num. 27:i5ff.).
of

and the several

After the death

which

Joshua there

was

glorious

but

short-lived

period

in

the tribes lived together in comradeship

also meant their and

without a

leader (Judg.

1:1-3).

but their freedom

with

disunity,

and

they quickly began

for

to mingle

the
sold

Canaanites

to

accept

their gods. In punishment

their

laxities

Israel into the hands of Syria (Judg. 3:8). Othniel, Caleb's younger kinsman, was able to save the people in a short war. This apparently insignifi cant incident was to establish a relationship between Israel and Syria that God
would

continue

until each was

importance
strument

since

both the fact that God

action

destroyed. Even the phraseology is of special used the Syrians as his special in

and

the fact that God's

is

couched

in terms

of

money

will

play a role in the future history of their relationship. The next battle between Syria and Israel came about suddenly Syria attacked,
attacked

when

the Syrians

were

by

David (see II Sam. 8:5). A third in its

10:6).
own

skirmish occurred when

not

name,

Ammonites (II Sam.

During

in the pay the battle the Syrian forces suffered but

as
mercenaries

of the a great

defeat, but their leader, Hadad,

of

escaped

to

Egypt, only

to return after the death

King
The
of

David (I Kings

11:16-21).

serious

Asa

Judah
of

borders Syrians father

other

relationship between Israel and Syria began in the reign of King Baasha of Israel built the fortified city of Ramah on the Judah. At that time King Asa hired the Syrians in order to attack
when

the northern
on

kingdom, in hopes

of

destroying

Ramah. Asa

appealed

to the

the grounds of a

league between

thee and me and

between thy
of

my father (I Kings 15:17-21). Since there is no treaty between Syria and the Sons of Jacob, we must
and which

mention assume

any

that the

formal treaty
the

began

what will turn out

to be a strange series of wars

is

treaty

which appears

here in the Book

of

Genesis.
which

Unfortunately

the taste

for foreign wealth,

he

was paid

for

destroying
of

Ramah, led Benhadad,

2.

the Syrian

king,

to

threaten the complete

destruction

Op.

cit.. p. 334-

96

Interpretation

the northern kingdom if

refused

they did

not

to pay

and were able

to repel the

pay him a forces Samuel

great price. of

The

men of

Israel

Benhadad (I Kings

20).

Between the two wars,

men

a strange prophet arose

in Israel

who was unlike earlier

the

that we have seen so

far,

such as

and

Nathan. The

Prophets
were

were at wise who

home in the

palace and reprimanded were

the kings

from

within.

They

men, but

they
the

lived

with

people.

rarely mysterious men. The new prophet was a man He fought openly against the king, and his tools Unlike the
miracles at the time of
starvation or

were rhetoric were meant

and miracles.

Moses,

which

to save a whole people

from

from

a great

army, these miracles would often touch only one family. The name of the
such prophet was

advancing first fol be

Elijah (I Kings

17:18).

Elijah's disfavor

at court was caused

largely by
persuaded

Ahab's wife, Jezebel, Ahab to

outlaw

lower
of the

of the prophets of

Baal

who

had

the prophets

Lord. It is in this

context

that bands of prophets who seemed to

men of

low degree

even as

late

as the reign of

King

Saul became

respectable

in

some quarters.

One

can see a similar movement

in the

works of

Tacitus. When the

state as of

a whole
prime

became petty
of

and

the individual wishes of the sovereign

became

importance,
part
which

those men who

in better times
high

would

have thought them

selves
within

the state now looked for a private and more individual world to live.

In

such

days,

when

political

goals are

no

longer

available, those who are not

search

directly
way.

involved in the
search

pettiness of

the great often

of the

for

more

private

Their

for

replacement

lost

political whole

leads them to
Saul

desire for

personal

In this way, the band

of prophets who could

unity only invoke

with a cosmic whole.

our

laughter in the

days
kind.

of

David

and

now

become

fascinating

alternative to much of man

During
and went

Jezebel's
in the

persecution

of

the prophets, Elijah arose,

ate

and

drank

mount

of God (I Kings
the
as

Jehu,

Syria,

Horeb the forty During this period Elijah was sent to annoint son of Nimshi, to be king over Israel, and Hazael to be king over if Syria were an integral part of the New Way (I Kings, Chaps.
strength

of

that meat

days

and forty nights unto

19:8).

18 and 19).

After Ahab's victory over the Syrians the author tells another curious story. King Ahab saw the vineyard of a man named Naboth near his house and de
cided

that

he

wanted

it.

Being

the

king
unto

he

offered

Naboth

larger

and much

better
give

vineyard

for it. Naboth

replied:

The Lord forbiddeth

thee (I

me that

should

the inheritance of my

father
is

Kings

21:3).

But Ahab had

wife named

Jezebel. It

would

be difficult to imagine

having

to take such facts

into

consideration when one

Nathan. But the killed Naboth

results

and presented the

was

relationship between David and in the story of Naboth are clear. Jezebel had Naboth vineyard as a gift to her husband, Ahab. The story of
the

discussing

the story of a man who preferred his father's vineyard to the vine

yard of a

king.

The Lion

and

the

Ass

97
With the

David had done

of

much worse.

help

of

Joab he killed Uriah because But David's

passions

his desires for Bath-sheba,

while

Ahab killed

no one.

were

his

own and

Ahab

was

henpecked.
of

David lost the

yard.

kingship

because

Nathan's

simple parable of the

sufficient were

Bath-sheba, and Ahab died for a vine lamb, spoken privately and quietly to a
he had done (II Sam.
and
was not mess

close

friend,

was

to remind David of what

12:1-13).

But times

different. Ahab

David,
a

Elijah

was not

Nathan. Elijah
could not

shouted the whole

bloody
s

from

rooftop,

and still

Ahab

hear.
Naboth'

Following
attempt

the story

of

vineyard, there is the story

of

the

false

to reunify the North and the South

attacked
and not

during

the

war

in

which

Jehoshephat
the country

and

Ahab

Syria in
Jacob

order to take the

heights

of

Gilead,

in

which

Laban

signed their treaty.

wisdom of

During

this war Ahab was killed

because he had The first

trivial
one of

learned the

Naboth.

chapters of of

the Second Book of Kings are filled with the apparently

and

stories

Elijah
a

his petty
peasant

miracles

among the

people.

However,
the

his followers,

little

girl,

was sold as a slave

to

Naaman,

captain of

the Syrian army and a leper (II Kings 5:2). The young girl persuaded
go

Naaman to

to Elijah to be cured. The cure-all

immediately

led to Naaman's

becoming
and

a crypto-follower of

Elijah,

and

led

a new

relationship between Syria

and
one

Israel.
contains another war
war

Chapter Six
should

between Syria
Elijah. It is

Israel or,
of

perhaps one
non-

say, a

between Syria

and

the strangest

wars which was never

fought in history. The

of

King

of

Syria decided to

make war of

on

Israel. But the

who

King

Israel

was

able to of all

escape thanks to the advice

Elijah
even

had

miraculous

knowledge

that the

King

of

Syria planned,

in the privacy of his own bedchamber (II Kings 6:12). A band of Syrians was then sent to capture Elijah. His own followers
prayed

were

frightened, but Elijah

great
when

to the Lord to open their eyes and

around the

ern

threw a fog valley full of fiery chariots. Elijah the fog lifted they found themselves in Samaria, the capital of the north kingdom. The war ends with the following statement: So the bands of
and
came no more what seemed

they Syrians,

saw

Syria

into the land of Israel (II Kings 6:23).

to

But

be

a most miraculous

ending

proved

only
that

beginning,

for

the

next

verse

reads:

And it

came and

to pass

after

this

Ben Hadad looked des

of

gathered all

his host

and went

up
of

besieged Samaria (II Kings 6:24). The

the whole
army.

band had left only to be

perate,
and there

replaced

by

The

siege

was not a

bit

food in the city, but because

Elijah the

whole Syrian army, thinking they heard the hoofs of a great army, suddenly left one night, leaving their food for the starving city (II Kings 7:6-16). After the war which wasn't, the King of Syria became ill and, having heard

of the

fame that Elijah had

Hazael to find

got
out

during

the time

he

spent

among the people,

servant to tell

sent

his
that

servant

his fate. Elijah told the

as

the

he

would

certainly recover, though,

he told Hazael privately, the

king king

98

Interpretation
Elijah then began to
weep.

would not recover.

Now

we

must remember

that
as

this servant,

Hazael, is

the man whom Elijah had already been sent to anoint

19:15).

King
great

of

Syria (I Kings

When Hazael
anointed

asked
of

told him that

he, Hazael, God's

of

King

Elijah why he wept Elijah the land of Syria, would do

apparent contradic

harm to the Children

as we shall see,

Israel (II Kings 8:12). This

tion,

is

central

to the theme of Israel's relationship to this point on, will

which

Syria

as

understood

by

the author.

Syria, from
God's whip,

in

an

ever-increasing
God
sold

way

continue

the

role of of

it had

assumed
when

back in the first Israel

chapter of the

Book

Judges,

where our

story began

into the hands of Syria.

In the

following
had
also

verses

Hazael became

Jehu,
9:6).

who

been

anointed

by

Syria (II Kings 8:15), and Elijah, became King of Israel (II Kings

King

of

Jehu successfully killed the sons of King Ahab, their mother Jezebel, and all of her followers, who had turned to the worship of Baal. Though he de stroyed much of the corruption into which Jezebel had led the country, he

himself did

not

follow the
(II Kings

ways

of

the

Lord,

and

the

Lord

sent

Hazael to

attack the north

10).

Meanwhile, in

the southern

kingdom,

there was a great confusion

in the

ruling line which only by good fortune led to the reign of King Jehoash. The reign of Jehoash was the first glimmer of sobriety that either nation had known in
a

long

time. Through the mismanagement of the priests the Temple

coffers

had

fallen into disrepair, its

this situation the High
collect enough wealth

empty

and a

the people over-taxed. In spite of

Priest, by putting
from the donations

box in the
the

sanctuary, was able to

to repair the Temple. But suddenly

overshot

already over-burdened people God's anointed whip for the north, Hazael,
and plundered

of

his mark, turned

upon

the south,

the

Temple (II Kings, last campaign,

Chaps. God

1 1 and 12.
without

Apparently
once

reflecting
after

on

the consequences of the

north

again

sent

Hazael into the

against
was

Johoaz.
over the

the son of Jehu

(II Kings 13:3). Sometime

that campaign

Lord

again used

his Syrian

whip.

This time he
15:37).

sent

Rezin,

the

King
of

of

Syria,

to punish Judah

in

the south (II

Kings for

During
and

the attack

Ahaz,
was

who was then

south,

sent

help
That

to

Tiglathpeleser, King
the silver that

Assyria. But the in the House

were

ruling the price for

the Lord

Assyrian
(II Kings

help

was

the gold
was

of

16:7).

Syria's final battle. Her forces

completely de

feated, and the country became a permanent province within the Assyrian Em pire. Unfortunately, Israel had failed to learn the final lesson taught bv Svria
when

it

attacked

King

Jehoash

that whips often

to put a

go

beyond their

mark.

The

Assyrian army between Syria

turned

which was called on and

final

end to the

delicate balance
the

Israel,

which

had lasted

since
of

the days

of

Judges,

re

five

years

later

under

the

leadership

Shalmaneser,
and

and the northern

kingdom
The

was

utterly destroyed.
that

covenant made

day

between Laban

Jacob lasted twelve

years.

The Lion
Israel
was

and the

Ass

99
and

in

constant need of a goad,

rid

God

appointed
of

Syria

that task.

When Israel tried to When

mained,

herself

of

the

Whip

she

lost ten

her tribes.

city

of

Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, came to destroy the little that re Gedaliah, the last regent of the south, was captured and killed in the Mizpah, the site on which the covenant of Jacob and Laban had been

made.

We began
one was

by

comparing Syria in the

were our

east with

Philistia toward the

Jehu

sea.

The

that great otherness who could never

be beaten; the
the

other was part of

ourselves.
were

They

mother,

Rachel; they
Syria
was

were our whip.

and

Hazael

anointed with the same oil.

beatable enemy, but to beat

There be two

them meant

death.

But what, then, is

answers.

history

in the hand

of our author?

can

men of

According to the traditional understanding, which was shared by the mass of living in the west up until recent times, history was the providential plan a Divine Being who cared for justice and who ensured that history worked
That tradition
also understood the

toward that goal.

Book

of

Kings to be

a per

fect

account of those times

modern

inspired

by

that same

Divine Being.
with

In

times scholars have openly disagreed

this assumption and

have

substituted

for it

the notion that the

not

Book

of

Kings

was of

human origin,

but unfortunately they have

sumption.

reckoned

with

the consequences of that as

One
ago

minor example of

the
a

that the necessity of

of a

difficulty is king in Israel

as

follows:

we pointed out some

time

became

clear when the

misused

Bethlehemite
the men
of

concubine

Levite from Ephraim

was

horribly

by

Gibeah, in

city they had spent the night since Jerusalem was still in the hands of the Jebusites (see commentary to Gen. 22:6). The Biblical account of that story is only intelligible when we remember that for Israel to have a king
whose

necessarily implies that Israel will also require a prophet. Thus it was that Samuel, born of a prayer offered in Shiloh, was from Ephraim, that Saul, the first king, was from the city of Gibeah, and that David, the true king, not
only
came

from Bethlehem, but

account

was

finally

able

to conquer the city of Jeru

salem.

Had that

been in

an

isolated incident,
of the and that the

one might

have

assumed

it to be

are five names that play first story is clearly intended by the author to give a reason for the necessity of the second story. The consistency of Syria's actions might also be accidental. But, as we saw in the case of the

the work of chance,

crucial roles

spite

fact that there

in both stories,

date

of

Noah's birth,
we

such

things have

happened before. In

what remains of our

commentary
to
ascribe

hope to

convince the reader that such accounts occur too often

them to chance.

If
a

one

does

not make

the traditional assumption that

history

is

arranged
would

by

Divine

Being

one must give another account of such a story.

One

sup-

100
pose that

Interpretation
in the days
and one
of

the author there were many stories about a man named

of the

Samuel,

is

reminded

England, Some say Louisiana man, And

he
was

that
a

he

was

line Some say John Henry was from from Spain, I say he was nothing but a

leader of a steel driving gang. If this line from an American folk tune adequately describes the accounts which faced the redactor,

free

to arrange his materials in the most

of the

meaningful way.

Samuel

was

from Ephraim because

many cities might have claimed Samuel as there have been countries claiming John Henry. But for our author he could only have come from Ephraim.
happened,"

Levite. So far

as one can

tell,

as

The

attempts of modern scholars

to find

out

"what really

given simplest sense of

the assumption that there

is

not a

Divine Providence in the

the word,
of

would

then

be

even more
on

fourteenth-century
on them.
wars

England

difficult than trying to rewrite the history the basis of Childe's English and Scottish
of

Popular Ballads,

or even

in the light

nothing

more

than a thoughtful book

based

The Syrian

also

tell a tale.

Laban's
with the

covenant

with

Jacob
The

preserved numerous

Israel from herself

by

providing her

whip

she needed.

Books
must

of

Chronicles
contained

which

the author mentions throughout the Book of Kings

have

the accounts of these wars, and in the hands of our author

they became
53.

a tale.

THE GOD OF

ABRAHAM,

AND THE GOD OF

NAHOR, THE GOD OF THEIR

FATHER, JUDGE BETWIXT US.

ISAAC.
54.

AND JACOB SWARE BY THE FEAR OF HIS FATHER

THEN JACOB OFFERED SACRIFICE UPON THE

MOUNT,

AND CALLED HIS AND TARRIED ALL

BRETHREN TO EAT BREAD: AND THEY DID EAT NIGHT IN THE MOUNT.

BREAD,

Laban

swears

by

the God of
are the

Abraham

and

by

the God of
as

Nahor, Abra
joined
on

ham's brother. These

that day.

two gods which Laban sees

the god of
eyes

being

He

also either.

swears

by

Terah,

whom

he

understands will

to be

higher than
side

In Laban's

two great traditions

live
swears

side

by
the

and will

be judged
(see

by

one

which

is beyond both. Jacob

31:42).

by

solidity

of tradition

commentary to Gen.

CHAPTER XXXII

I.

AND EARLY IN THE MORNING LABAN ROSE UP, AND KISSED HIS SONS AND HIS

DAUGHTERS, AND BLESSED THEM:

AND LABAN

DEPARTED,

AND RE

TURNED UNTO HIS PLACE.

2.

AND JACOB WENT ON HIS

WAY,

AND THE ANGELS OF GOD MET HIM.

3.

AND WHEN JACOB SAW THEM HE

SAID, THIS IS GOD'S HOST;

AND HE

CALLED THE NAME OF THAT PLACE MAHANAIM.

The Lion
There is

and

the

Ass

-101

some

discrepancy

about the status of

these three verses. The tradi

to the story of Laban or
gen

tion seems to

be divided

as to whether

they belong
orthodox

to the story of Esau. We have followed the Hebrew text as it has been

erally

accepted

in the West. The

section with

more

division

within

the Jewish

tradition

begins the

Verse Four. The

King
in

James translators begin

the chapter with

Verse Two.
Mahanaim to the
place which

Jacob

gave the name

he

saw the angels.

In English the
ence of

name means

The Two-Camps. In

addition to the obvious refer

to the

the present chapter, the name may

distinction between Esau's camp and Jacob's camp in Verse Seven have been given for other reasons as
of

well.

Jacob thinks
of

the angels as

being

divided into two camps,

perhaps

because
role

the relationship between Syria and

Israel, both

of whom

have their

to play in the New Way. These considerations may have led him to re

member another

division

which was still

in

need of clarification

the division

between him

and

his brother, Esau.

Mahanaim,
death
of anointed

King king

lived up to its name. At the Saul, Mahanaim became the capital of Ishbosheth, whom Abner in place of David (II Sam. 2:8-29). But when David was forced
the city of the two camps,

fully

to flee Jerusalem

during

Absalom's

revolt

and

had
and

provisions were given of

to him

by
the

Shobi, Machin

but lost the country, Barzilai, again in the city

all played a role

Mahanaim. Twice

during

history

of

Israel it

in the divi

sion of

the country into two opposite camps. the revolt of Absalom a man named

During

Shimei, from
him for

the house of

Saul,

took advantage of David's weak position to curse

having

taken the

kingdom. David's

men were about

to kill Shimei when David stopped them (II

Sam.

16:5-11).

Apparently, he

realized a certain

justice in
advise

the man's curses,

even though

to

it eventually became necessary for him to have Shimei killed (II Sam. 17:24-27; I Kings 2:8,9). Shimei's curse,
when north and south were

his son, Solomon,

which

bore its fruit

was also placed upon the

House

of

David

completely while Shimei

severed under was

Jeroboam,

in the

City

of the of

Two-Camps. Apart from the

long

lists

of cities

mentioned

in the Book

Joshua,
Bible.

the city of Mahanaim never appears outside of this context in the

4.

AND JACOB SENT MESSENGERS BEFORE HIM TO ESAU HIS BROTHER UNTO

THE LAND OF SEIR, THE COUNTRY OF EDOM.

Throughout the

whole

of this chapter

it

will

be

essential

to remember that

Jacob

sent messengers

to

nor was
sections.

it forced

upon

his brother, Esau. The meeting was neither accidental Jacob. The chapter itself falls apparently into two main

In the first

section

Jacob, contrary
as such

to

his

nature,

will

appear as

coward and

has been interpreted

a

by

many

readers.

In the latter
of

section
con-

he

will

fight

battle

adequate

to any Greek hero.

In the light

this

102

Interpretation
it may become necessary to
revise

tradiction

the traditional understanding of

the

first

section.

5.

AND HE COMMANDED

THEM, SAYING, THUS SHALL

YE SPEAK UNTO M*i

LORD

ESAU; THY SERVANT JACOB SAITH THUS, 1 HAVE SOJOURNED WITH LABAN,
AND STAYED THERE UNTIL NOW:

6.

AND I HAVE

OXEN,

AND

ASSES, FLOCKS, AND MENSERVANTS, AND

WOMEN-

SERVANTS: AND I HAVE SENT TO TELL MY LORD, THAT I MAY FIND GRACE

IN THY SIGHT.

Jacob introduced himself in the

stand

politest

the reasons

for

what

some

people call

way possible. We can now under Jacob's greed in the preceeding

empty-handed, and it

chapter.
crucial

In

spite of

the

blessing, Jacob had left Isaac

any burden
or threat to

is

that

he

show

Esau that from

not pose

an economic point of view

he had become

independent

and

did

his brother.

7.

AND THE MESSENGERS RETURNED TO

JACOB, SAYING, WE CAME TO

TO MEET THEE,
AND

THY

BROTHER

ESAU, AND

ALSO

HE

COMETH

FOUR HUN

DRED MEN WITH HIM.

On the basis
to know

of

the grammar of this verse it is

when

difficult if

not

impossible his way

whether

Esau left home

he

received

the news

from Jacob's
on

messenger or whether when

he had

advance

knowledge

and was

already

he

met

the messenger.
men see

On the four hundred

commentary to Gen.

33:1.

8.

THEN JACOB WAS GREATLY AFRAID AND DISTRESSED: AND HE DIVIDED THE PEOPLE THAT WAS WITH HIM, AND THE

FLOCKS, AND HERDS,

AND THE

CAMELS, INTO TWO BANDS;

9.
AND

SAID,

IF ESAU COME TO THE ONE

COMPANY, AND SMITE IT, THEN

THE OTHER COMPANY WHICH IS LEFT SHALL ESCAPE.

If trouble

starts

Jacob

considers

only two

possibilities:

he

will either of

tured or he will escape. He does not consider the

brother. The

word

which

we

possibility have translated distressed is usually translated

be cap attacking his

fear, but it
horrible
Amnon had
13:2),
where and

can

also

situations
when

distressed, especially with regard to difficult or among friends or family. It was the same feeling which he felt an unconquerable desire for his sister Tamar (II Sam.
mean

it

was also

the

feeling

which

David felt

after the attack on

Ziklag.

his

wives were captured and

his

own men about to stone

him (I Sam

30:6).

Jacob's camp in two is surely part of the having Two-Camps, but it also reminds important division between the two brothers.
of named

The division

reason
us of

for his

the place The

the more

The Lion
IO.

and

the

Ass

103
FATHER, ABRAHAM,
AND GOD OF MY

AND JACOB

SAID, O
.

GOD OF MY

FATHER,

ISAAC

THE LORD WHICH SAIDST UNTO ME, RETURN UNTO THY

COUNTRY,
II.

AND TO THY

KINDRED,

AND I WILL DEAL WELL WITH THEE:

I AM NOT WORTHY OF THE LEAST OF ALL THE

MERCIES,

AND OF ALL THE

TRUTH, WHICH THOU HAS SHEWED UNTO THY SERVANT: FOR WITH MY
STAFF I PASSED OVER THIS
12.

JORDAN;

AND NOW I AM BECOME TWO CAMPS.

DELIVER

ME,

I PRAY

THEE,

FROM THE HAND OF MY

BROTHER, FROM

THE HAND OF ESAU: FOR I FEAR MOTHER WITH CHILD.

HIM, LEST

HE WILL COME AND SMITE ME,

Jacob

crossed the river with

his

magical

staff, which

had

served

him

well

in Laban's country by insuring the proper birth of the to Gen. 30:37), but on this side of the river there is
that Esau may

cattle
no

(see commentary

magic.

Jacob fears
the

try

to

destroy

the

whole

of

his line in

order to recapture

birthright.
13.
AND THOU

SAIDST, I WILL SURELY DO THEE GOOD, AND MAKE THY SEED

AS THE SAND OF THE

SEA, WHICH CANNOT BE NUMBERED FOR MULTITUDE.

makes reference to the other

In Verse Thirteen Jacob

half

of

God's bless

ing to Abraham, the half which Isaac did not receive. As we remember, God's blessing to Abraham contained two similes for manyness. The first simile was the stars of the heavens; the other, the sand on the seashore. Isaac's blessing
only
no

contained a reference to the

reason

to confuse him

by

highest simile, the stars of the sky. God saw giving him the lower blessing because, unlike
the threats and trials which Jacob would

Jacob, he was never forced to face meet. Jacob, as we shall see in this
more

chapter, is

more aware of the

lower

and

difficult

side of

the blessing.

14.

AND HE LODGED THERE THAT SAME

NIGHT;

AND TOOK OF THAT WHICH

CAME TO HIS HAND A PRESENT FOR ESAU HIS

BROTHER;
would

The

phrase

was said

of that which came to his hand in the commentary to Verse Five.

GOATS,

tend to substantiate what

15.

TWO HUNDRED SHE

AND TWENTY HE

GOATS,

TWO HUNDRED

EWES,
l6.

AND TWENTY RAMS.

THIRTY MILCH CAMELS WITH THEIR

COLTS, FORTY KINE,

AND TEN

BULLS,

TWENTY SHE ASSES, AND TEN FOALS. 17.

AND HE DELIVERED THEM INTO THE HAND OF HIS

SERVANTS,

EVERY

DROVE BY

THEMSELVES; AND SAID UNTO HIS SERVANTS, PASS OVER BEFORE

ME,
l8.

AND PUT A SPACE BETWIXT DROVE AND DROVE.

AND HE COMMANDED THE

FOREMOST, SAYING, WHEN ESAU

MY BROTHER

MEETETH THEE, AND ASKETH THEE.

SAYING,

WHOSE ART THOU? AND

WHITHER GOEST THOU? AND WHOSE ARE THESE BEFORE THEE?

104
19.

Interpretation
SAY,
THEY BE THY SERVANT JACOB'S; IT IS A PRESENT

THEN THOU SHALT

SENT UNTO MY LORD ESAU: AND,

20. AND SO COMMANDED HE THE

BEHOLD,

ALSO HE IS BEHIND US.

SECOND,

AND THE

THIRD, AND ALL THAT

YE SPEAK UNTO

FOLLOWED THE

DROVES, SAYING, ON THIS MANNER SHALL

ESAU,
21.

WHEN YE FIND HIM.

AND SAY YE MOREOVER,

BEHOLD,

THY SERVANT JACOB IS BEHIND US,

FOR HE

SAID,

I WILL APPEASE HIM WITH THE PRESENT THAT GOETH BEFORE

ME,

AND AFTERWARDS I WILL SEE HIS FACE; PERADVENTURE HE WILL

ACCEPT OF ME.

The
are

words

which

have been translated

peradventure

he

will accept

of

me

literally
at

discussed
will

lift my face. It is the expression which was length in the commentary to Gen. 19:21. Jacob hopes that Esau
perhaps
will

he

be willing to

accept

him

as the recipient of the

New

Way

in

spite of

the

natural order.

22.

SO WENT THE PRESENT OVER BEFORE HIM: AND HIMSELF LODGED THAT

NIGHT IN THE COMPANY. 23.

AND HE ROSE UP THAT

NIGHT,

AND TOOK HIS TWO WIVES, AND HIS TWO

WOMENSERVANTS,
JABBOK. 24.
AND HE TOOK

AND HIS ELEVEN SONS, AND PASSED OVER THE FORD

THEM,

AND SENT THEM OVER THE

BROOK,

AND SENT

OVER THAT HE HAD.

The Ford
21:24).

ofJabbok was

the limit

of

the

war

between Israel

and

Sihon (Num.

It

was established as

the border between Israel and their

brothers,
in the
the

the
war

Lot. Although they did not take Ammonites, with the Amorites in the time of Balak, the Ammonites were
the
sons of

part sent

to punish Israel at the time of

own

Jephthah,

the man who

daughter.
under

ites,

the rule

first battle.

Shortly after the establishment of of King Nahash, again attacked in what proved The call to arms which Saul made by sending out
(see commentary to Gen. 22:6)
unification of the people. was

by foolishly sacrificed his Saul's kingship the Ammon

to

Lord

be Saul's

the divided
act as

carcass of an ox

his first decisive

king

and

led to the

About the

same time

that David became

letters

of condolence

to

Hanum,
Hanum

the son of
the son

king, Nahash died, and David sent Nahash, saying: Then said David, I
as

will show

kindness
and

unto

of Nahash

his father

showed

kind

ness unto me,

David

sent to comfort

him

by
war

the

hands of his
Saul it is

servants

for

his father
(II Sam.

and

David's

servants came unto the

a

land

of the children of Ammon

conceivable
no such

10:2).

Since Nahash had fought

with

that David had

become

friendly

with

him

during

that war.

Nonetheless,

in the Bible, and bearing in mind the war be tween Israel and Ammon, David's words do appear a bit suspicious. At any rate, so it seemed to the princes of Ammon, who advised Hanum not to accept
was ever mentioned

friendship

The Lion
David's

and the

Ass

105
war

offer

of

friendship. A
Esau

ensued,

and

for the

second

time

in its

history

Jabbok

was of

the scene of a bitter battle between brother

and

and

brother.

Since the days

Jacob fratricide
and

seems to

have haunted the river,

revealing itself through Jephthah

25.
AND JACOB WAS LEFT

David.

ALONE; AND THERE WRESTLED A MAN WITH HIM

UNTIL THE BREAKING OF THE DAY.

Jacob

spent the

night

alone

as to what the outcome would

alone since

preparing to meet his brother, full of doubts be. No man has ever been described as being
was made.

Man in the Garden before Eve

and the
must

That

same combination which

of the ceived

highest
in Man

lowest,

the fullest and the emptiest,

God

per

have

gone through

Jacob's thoughts
of a

and

feelings that

night.

Jacob's
of

lonely
word.

night

turns out to be the night

with

hero in the Greek

sense
on

the

He

wrestles

being
last

greater we

than

himself, standing battle,

his

own

two feet

and

in

foreign land. As
was

shall

see

in the commentary to
or who

Verse Thirty-two, Jacob

will ever

the

man ever

to fight such a

face

being

alone

in

such a way,

in the Bible.
HIM,
HE TOUCHED

26.

AND WHEN HE SAW THAT HE PREVAILED NOT AGAINST

THE HOLLOW OF HIS

THIGH;

AND THE HOLLOW OF JACOB'S THIGH WAS OUT

OF JOINT, AS HE WRESTLED WITH HIM. 27.

AND HE

SAID,

LET ME GO FOR THE DAY

BREAKETH,

AND HE

SAID, I WILL

NOT LET THEE

GO,

EXCEPT THOU BLESS ME.

matched.

the

During being

the battle the sides are evenly

When
sun

fighting
about out

as

man

is

not

able

to overcome Jacob.

As the

was put

to

rise

he

touched the hollow of Jacob's thigh and the thigh

was

of

joint. In

Biblical anatomy the thigh represents the progeny, those who are to come after (see Gen. 24:2 and commentary). All of Jacob's sons have, in one way or
another, been touched. From that
perhaps there will

day

on

they

will

limp
of

bit

as

did Jacob,

and

be

no room within the

place again.

foundations

the New

Way for

such

battle

ever

to take

God had blessed many men during the course of the book, but no had ever asked for a blessing. Suddenly, Jacob has not only asked but
demanded
one.

man

even

In the

past,
a

blessings have implied the uncertainty full

command of

of the

fu

ture, but the heroic implies Jacob is a hero. Why then ing? Such
a

the

situation and at moment

this

moment

should

Jacob take this

to demand a
what

bless
would

feeling

could

only

arise

in

a man capable of

facing

he

rather not meet.

We

shall see more of

this as the story unfolds. SAID, JACOB.

28.
29.

AND HE SAID UNTO HIM. WHAT IS THY NAME? AND HE AND HE

SAID, THY NAME SHALL BE CALLED NO MORE

JACOB, BUT

ISRAEL: FOR AS A PRINCE HAST THOU POWER WITH GOD AND WITH AND HAS PREVAILED.

MEN,

106
30.

Interpretation
MI. I PRAY THEE, THY NAME.

AND JACOB ASKED HIM. AND SAID, TELI

AND HE

SAID,

WHEREFORE IS IT THAT THOU DOST ASK AFTER MY NAME?

AND HE BLESSED HIM THERE.

3I

AND JACOB CALLED THE NAME OF THE PLACE PENIEL: FOR I HAVE SEEN

GOD FACE TO

FACE,

AND MY LIFE IS PRESERVED.

The city
twice again
summer's

of

Peniel,

which

is

sometimes
as nice

called

Penuel,
as

will

be

mentioned meet

in the Bible. Gideon,

was once were

fellow

one

might and

on a

day,

chasing two kings of

of

Midian. Zabah
Ammon

Zalmunna. in the

The Midianites
25:2), hence

descendants

Abraham through his wife, Keturah (Gen.

of mentioned

even

closer

to Israel than the sons

While chasing Midian the men of Gideon came to Penuel food and shelter, but were turned away. They finally caught the for asking king of Midian, but were about to let them free when Gideon discovered that last
commentary.

they had killed

but he
could

all

of

his brothers. He told his

perhaps

oldest

son

to

kill the kings,

not

do it.

because Midian, too,

The kings
were

was

his brother. But

and

Gideon himself

saw what was needed.

killed, his brothers,

the men of Penuel with them

(Judg., Chap. 8).

more

Penuel is

mentioned

one

time

in the Bible.
of

Immediately

after

Jero

boam's

revolt,

which

led to the division

the country

into two

separate

monarchies, the text reads as

follows:
and

Then Jeroboam built Schehem in Mount Ephraim,

dwelt therein:

and went out

from thence, kingdom

and

built Penuel. And Jeroboam house of David:

Rehoboam

said

in his
go

heart,

now shall

the

return

to the
at

if this people

up to do

sacrifice

in the

house of the Lord

their

Jerusalem,

then shall the

heart of this

people turn again unto

Lord,
to

even unto

King

ofJudah, and

they

shall

kill

me, and go

again
calves

Rehoboam

King

ofJudah.

Whereupon the
much

King

took counsel, and made two

of gold,

and said unto

them, It is too

for
out

behold thy
one

gods,

O Israel,

which

brought

thee

up

you to go up to Jerusalem: of Egypt. And he set the

in Bethel,
to

and the other put

he in Dan. And

this

thing became

a sin: for the

people went

worship before
the city

the one, even unto

Dan. (I Kings 12:25-30)

Penuel

was

in

which

Jeroboam
author's

made

his decision to build the

the symbols
which

shrines of the north which,

vided

in the

eyes,

were

di

Israel from Judah, brother from brother,

and caused the

wars

between

them (see commentary to Gen. 20:7). Gideon and his

brothers,

the Moabites.

Judah

and

Israel

throughout

its

history Penuel,

like the Jabbok, had been the

to be
estab not

scene of

fratricide.

After
erected

leaving his brother, Jacob would build the first house ever by a follower of the New Way (Gen. 33:17), and he is about to
who will conquer

lish
that

New People
will

their own land. Jacob's great

will

fear is

he

be killed

by

his brother but that he

be forced to

repeat the

act of the

founder

of the

first city
reads

Cain.
and

Verse Thirty-one,

which

Jacob

called

the

name

of the place

The Lion

and the

Ass

107
and

Peniel; for I have

play Gen.
on

seen

God face to face

my life is preserved,

contains a

words, since the name Peniel or Penuel means the

33:10

Jacob

will

liken this face to the face

Aside from

of

face of God. In his brother, Esau, and it

which will

was mentioned

twice in connection with the destruction of Sodom and Gomor

27).
one passage

rah

(Gen. 19:13,

in

Deuteronomy

be

discussed later in this commentary the phrase will only appear five more times in the Bible. Although they are apparently not connected with one another they
are all to

be found in the book

was

of

Exodus between

32:11 and 34:24.

was still

Israel

worshipping the

Golden Calf, but Moses

up

on

the

mountain when

The Lord

said

to

Moses, I have
let Me
I

seen this people, and

behold, it is
wax

a stiff-necked

people: now

therefore

alone, that

My

wrath

may

hot

against

them,

and

that I may consume them: and

will make

thee a great nation.

The text

continues:

And Moses besought the face of the Lord, his God, and said. Lord, why doth Thy wrath wax hot against Thy people, which Thou hast brought forth out of the land of
Egypt
with a great power, and with a

mighty hand? Wherefore

should

the

Egyp
moun
wrath

tians speak, and say.

For mischief did He

bring

them out to
earth?

slay them in the

tains,

and to consume them from the

face of the

Turn from
and

Thy fierce
Isaac
and

and repent

this evil against to

whom

Thy

people.

Remember Abraham

Israel,

Thy

servants

Thou

swarest

by

Thine

own self.

(Ex. 32:9-13)
Moses'

God is

as

wedded will

to Israel as

they

are to

Him.

argument what will

is that if God do
another

Israel fails God

have failed too. If Israel is destroyed

pick

for

a people?

Could He

up the pieces and start again? How could

all

people

ever trust

Him? But

this happened before Moses discovered

to the

what

they had done. When Moses

ment and returned

returned

to God to

make atonement

camp he meted out speedy punish for the people. This time he said:
me,

Yet

now

if You

will forgive their sin; and

if not, blot
Lord

I pray Thee,

out

of

Thy book

which

Thou hast
will

written.

And

the

said unto

Moses, Whosoever hath

sinned against

Me him

I blot

out

of My book. (Ex. 32:32,33)

a more

After the

sin of

the Golden
ever

Calf, Moses had

distant

relation

to the

had before. The story of this change has already been people Lord told in the commentary to Gen. 15:9. At that time it was said that The requested that had 33:11). After Moses spoke with Moses face to face (Ex.
than he had

God
of

show

him His

ways

in

order

that

he

might

be

able

to meet the requirements

with thee

his
But

new position,
when

God

answered:

My face

shall

be

(Ex.

32:14).

Moses

asked

to see that
man see

face he

was told and

Thou

canst not see

My

face: for

there shall

be

no

My face

live (Ex. face

of

33:20).

However,
death.

it is

unclear as yet what relation

there

is between

the

God

and

Instead
another

of

way.

God decides to answer the needs in revealing His face to Moses, He says: And it shall come to pass while My glory passeth by

108

Interpretation
and will cover

that I will put thee in a cleft of a rock

while

thee

with

My hand

pass

by:

and

will take

but

My

face

will

not

be

seen

away Mine hand and thou shalt see My back (Ex. 33:22,23). What Moses in fact saw is
Moses'

described in the

chapter which

follows

the one

containing

request.

The

relevant verses read:

And the Lord passed

by before

him

and

proclaimed,

The Lord,
in

the

Lord God,
truth,

merciful and gracious,

long-suffering,

and abundant

goodness and

keeping
upon

mercy for thousands

sin, and that
will

(of generations), forgiving iniquity

no means clear
children s children unto

and transgressions and

by

the guilty: visiting the

iniquity

of the father

the children, and upon the

the third and fourth generations.

(Ex. 34:6,7)

What Moses

saw was

the great effect which, according to the

Bible,
most

tradi

tion may have upon the men who are

mental

born into it. Perhaps the importance be bad

funda
It is

teaching

of

the Bible

is the

radical

of traditions upon the or good.

lives
the

of those who share

claim of

them,

whether

those traditions

further

the Bible that ultimately just and good traditions outlast

even

bad traditions, but that

mankind.

bad traditions have

strong hold

on

the souls of

This theme

was mentioned

cussed several verses related passages

in

which

in the commentary to Gen. 26:11 where this theme was repeated. Aside from this
the

we

dis

and the

the words

visit

iniquity

will appear

only

once again

in the

books
of

of

the Bible

with which we

Leviticus there is is
near

long

passage which

have principally been concerned. In the Book begins: None of you shall approach
nakedness:

to any that

The

nakedness

of kin to him, to uncover their of thy father or the nakedness of thy

am the

Lord.

mother shalt thou not

(Lev.

i8:6ff.).
passage continues

The

take as well as

laws

against

by listing the various forms which the sin of Ham can homosexuality and sodomy. The section then ends
I
cast out

by

saying:

Defile

not ye yourselves which

nations are

defiled
the

in any of these things: for in all these the before you: and the land is defiled: there
and the

fore I do

visit

iniquity thereof upon it,

18:24,25).
visit

land

itself vomiteth
to

out

her

inhabitants (Lev.

In this case, too, the term

the

iniquity
of

does

not refer

individual individual
and

pun

ishment for
which

an

individual

sin.

The land Flood. It

Canaan had become like the

had decayed

world men

had

existed prior to the on which

was not the actions of

rested which

but the foundations

its tradition

had to

be

replaced.

These two

notions

the

face of God

and

visit

the

iniquity

appear

to be

connected with the sense

foundations underlying
just traditions. It
the Book of

tradition.
ensures

is the

guarantor of
unjust

The face of God in that that just traditions will last

longer than

traditions.
of

Chapter Thirty-four
tion of God's

Exodus,

which

begins

with

the

descrip

back,

ends with the

laws concerning the

annual sacrifice at the

The Lion
place which

and the

Ass

109

God
will

shall mention.
cast out

Verse Twenty-four before

of

that chapter reads as fol

thy borders: desire land when thou shalt go appear at the any thy up to face of the Lord thy God three times in a year (Ex. 34:24). It is curious that this passage should follow immediately after the other discussion of the face of
thee and enlarge
neither shall

lows: For I

the nations

man

God, especially in
tains the notion of

the light of its relation to

death,

since sacrifice also con

death. Apparently, the

of

vision which

Moses had been denied

in the

earlier part at

the chapter

has become

the communal property of all

verse connects this

Israel,
vision notion

least in
the

some

highly
of

mitigated

form. Since the

would

security inner unity tended to promote. Here

of the

with

Israel's borders it
the people
which

seem

to go beyond the

of

the yearly sacrifices were

in

the establishment of

face of God seems to be connected with tradition in the double sense of unifying the community
again the

itself

and

radically

distinguishing

it from

others which

may

lay

claim

to

natural

kinship.
The face of God will be mentioned once more in the Torah. At the death Moses the author writes: And no prophet in Israel has yet arisen like unto
whom the

of

Moses

Lord knew face to face (Deut.

33:20

34:10).

Apparently,
seems

what

had
a

been

stated

in Ex.

has

proven

to

be true. Moses

to

have had

vision of the

Some

moderns

face of God only at his death. poke fun at Goethe for

Their

having
man.

suggested

that Moses com

point of view

mitted suicide. of modern one wishes

argument rests on the notion a stable

that, from the

psychology, Moses was to be overly kind to the

perceptions

That is undoubtedly true if of modern psychology. What

Moses

and

Goethe may have seen,

were

even

though

it has

escaped

the

modern

commentators,

the problems which we indicated in the commentary to

Gen. 20:7 concerning the stature of Moses. Nothing could have been possible had he not almost become a god. Everything would have failed if he had
achieved

that state. His death scene reads as follows:

the

So Moses

of the Lord died in the land of Moab according to the word of the Lord. And He buried him in the land of Moab over against Beth Peor but no
servant

man

knoweth of his

sepulchre

to this

day. And Moses dim

nor was

was an

hundred

and

twenty

years old when

he died; his

eye was not

his

strength abated.

(Deut.

34:5-7)

Had Moses died

one

day

in front

of

the people and his grave been

known,
may

he

would either

have lost his

position or apotheosis would

have been inevitable

of

(see commentary to Gen. 49:5). This is surely the insight very well have been shared by Moses.

Goethe

and

The face of God had been

alluded

to early in the Book of Genesis. After

complains

he

is

told

to become
shall

wanderer

Cain

to God and

says:

From

Thy

face I been

be hid (Gen.
with

4:14).

From the very

beginning

the

face of God had

connected

death.

110

Interpretation
19:21

In the commentary to Gen. significance of the term to lift

there

was

lengthy

discussion

of

the

the

face. At that
The term

point the

discussion mainly

turned around the concept of lifting.

major

seemed

to contain one of the

threads

which

holds

our

story together. It is the

process

by

which

the be
man. pure

ginnings of things slowly become molded to fit the needs and abilities of If it is the face that is lifted it would seem that the face represents the

beginnings

on which

the edifice stands.

32.

AND AS HE PASSED OVER PENUEL THE SUN ROSE UPON

HIM,

AND HE

HALTED UPON HIS THIGH. 33. THEREFORE THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL EAT NOT OF THE SINEW OF THE

HIP MUSCLE WHICH IS UPON THE HOLLOW OF THE THIGH UNTO THIS DAY:
BECAUSE HE TOUCHED THE HOLLOW OF JACOB'S THIGH ON THE SINEW

OF THE HIP MUSCLE.

hip muscle commonly has that meaning in this is the only passage in the Bible in which it but other Semitic languages, has this meaning. It normally means forgetfulness. The passage may be related
The
word
which

is translated

to Noah's drunken stupor,

in

which we all participated.

Before it

was possible

for the
cated

new world

to arise, all recollection of the

sleep.

antediluvian world was eradi vision

in Noah's drugged
erased

Similarly, Jacob's

of the

face of God

had to be
was

before the New

Way

could arise.

However,

when that

step
of a

made, something
most proper

vital seems also

to have been lost. The New though there may be

Way
a

seems

to be the

way for men,

even

in it

bit

limp.

CHAPTER XXXIII

AND JACOB LIFTED UP HIS

EYES,

AND LOOKED AND, BEHOLD, ESAU CAME.

AND WITH HIM FOUR HUNDRED MEN. AND HE DIVIDED THE CHILDREN UNTO

LEAH,

AND UNTO

RACHEL,

AND UNTO THE TWO HANDMAIDS.

is both reassuring and disturbing. The four hundred men, like the four hundred years in Egypt, the forty days
The
sight of men
which

Esau's four hundred

Noah

spent on the
more

Ark,

the

forty

days

which

Moses

spent on

the moun

tain,

many that Jacob will be safe, but

and

instances, signify
we cannot

a period of waiting.
sure

We

can

be

certain

be

that that safety will

last forever.

During
2.

the remainder of the chapter we shall be forced to consider later times.

AND HE PUT THE HANDMAIDS AND THEIR CHILDREN

FORFMOST, AND

LEAH AND HER C HILDREN AFTER, AND RACHEL AND JOSEPH HINDERMOST. 3.
AND HE PASSED OVER BEFORE THEM. AND BOWED HIMSELF TO THE

GROUND SEVEN TIMES, UNTIL HE CAME NEAR TO HIS BROTHER.

The Lion
4.

and the

Ass

-111

AND ESAU RAN TO MEET

HIM,

AND EMBRACED

HIM,

AND FELL ON HIS

NECK,

AND KISSED HIM: AND THEY WEPT.

The

reason

for the

order

in

which

Jacob

placed

his

family

has been debated

for

millennia.

The handmaids

and their children

the others from Esau's men

whether

in

case

first to protect obviously there should be trouble. The problem is

come safest place or whether

Rachel is last because it is the

Leah is

put

in

the middle because

it is the

safest place.

The

problem

is

somewhat

important his
wives

because Jacob's

character

depends to

a certain extent upon which of

he

prefers.

The

present commentator

does

not

know the

answer to the question

involved.

Jacob led the party

seems almost

not

knowing

how his brother

order to
was

would greet

him. This hero

men

to abase

himself in

avoid what

the

four hundred

imply
and

to

be the inevitable.
on

Everything

done to

escape conflict will

between him

his brother
ran

this land

where so often

brothers

kill brothers.
Abraham
on

Esau
the

to greet
ran

his brother in

a manner that reminds us of

day

he

to greet the three strangers that were standing

by

his

tent.

Esau
weep.

embraced

Jacob, fell they

will

upon

his neck, kissed him,

of

and

the two began to

Tears,
where

and

particularly the tears

emerge

joy,

will

reappear

Joseph,
(Gen.

as

the highest form of

in the story of passion in the book

45:1).

5.

AND HE LIFTED UP HIS EYES AND SAW THE WOMEN AND THE AND

CHILDREN;

SAID,

WHO ARE THOSE YOU'VE GOT THERE? AND HE SAID, THEY ARE

THE CHILDREN WITH WHICH GOD HAS GRACED THY SERVANT.

6.

THEN THE HANDMAIDENS CAME AND THEY BOWED THEMSELVES.

NEAR, THEY

AND THEIR

CHILDREN,

7.

AND LEAH ALSO WITH HER CHILDREN CAME

NEAR, AND BOWED THEM RACHEL, AND THEY BOWED

SELVES;

AND AFTER CAME JOSEPH NEAR AND

THEMSELVES.

8.

WHICH AND HE SAID: WHO ARE ALL THIS CAMP THAT YOU'VE GOT THERE I MET UP

WITH, AND

HE

SAID,

THESE ARE TO FIND GRACE IN THE SIGHT

OF MY LORD. 9.
AND ESAU SAID: I'VE GOT
YOURSELF

PLENTY, BROTHER,

KEEP WHATCHA HAVE FER

IO.

AND JACOB SAID:

NAY, I PRAY THEE. IF

NOW I HAVE FOUND GRACE

MY HAND: FOR THEREFORE I IN THY SIGHT, THEN RECEIVE THE PRESENT AT SEEN THE FACE OF HAVE SEEN THY FACE, AS THOUGH I HAD

GOD,

AND

THOU WAST PLEASED WITH ME.

arrived. His language is simple Esau, friendly and a bit seedy, has finally it. Jacob is still unsure of his in and direct, and one can almost hear a twang seems largely unintelligible. If, as was suggested ground, and his cold formality

in the commentary to Gen. 25:22, Esau is

stray

mixture of

the way of Jacob

112
and the

Interpretation
way
of

Ishmael, he clearly
what other

presents

himself

at this point as the

best that

that

mixture could provide.

He is simple, rough, forms that in

a

and

loveable. It
take.

still remains

to be seen,

however,
contrast

mixture can

Jacob, in

striking since such The only difficulty that remains is to understand the phrase / have seen thy face, as though I had seen the face of God, and thou wast pleased with me. Hebrew is a loosely-constructed language, and the relations between phrases
must often

very formal dialect. The contrast is formal language is rarely, if ever, found in the book.
to

Esau,

speaks

be

gathered

from the

context.

The tense
of the

systems are not as sophis

ticated as in

English,
had
seen

and part of

the

beauty

to suggest relations rather than to spell them out. In the context, it to translate /

language lies in its ability is possible

thy face,

as

though,

looking

at the

face of God, but

thou
see

wast pleased with your

me;

however,

some moderns translate the phrase:

For to

face is like seeing the face of God, and you have received me favorably. In the light of the discussion in the commentary to Gen. 32:31 the use of the word but may make more sense out of the passage. As we saw there the face
of God seemed fact discovered.
more related

to Jacob's fears than to the brother

which

he in

I I

TAKE,

I PRAY

THEE,

MY BLESSING THAT IS BROUGHT TO THEE; BECAUSE

GOD HATH DEALT GRACIOUSLY WITH ME, AND BECAUSE I HAVE ENOUGH.
AND HE URGED

HIM,

AND HE TOOK IT.

In Verse Eleven Jacob beseeches Esau to in this had

case

accept

his blessing. The

blessing

is the

cattle which

not

seen

each other since

Esau had originally refused. The two of them Jacob had stolen his brother's blessing. Esau
was a

may have feared that the

blessing

material

blessing. Jacob thought it

in
order

necessary then to Esau that he

leave his father's house

empty-handed

to assure

would not

have
sate

considered a

lose anything in that sense. Thinking that Esau may certain risk to have been involved Jacob wishes to compen returning the blessing.

his brother

by

12.

AND HE

SAID,

LET US TAKE OUR

JOURNEY,

AND LET US GO, AND I WILL

GO BEFORE THEE.
13. AND HE SAID UNTO

HIM, MY LORD KNOWETH THAT THE CHILDREN

ARE

TENDER,

AND THE FLOCKS AND HERDS WITH YOUNG ARE WITH ME: AND

IF MEN SHOULD OVERDRIVE THEM ONE 14.

DAY, ALL THE

Ft OCK WILL DIE.

LET MY LORD, I PRAY

THEE, PASS

OVER BEFORE HIS SERVANT: AND AS THE CATTLE THAT GOETH BEFORE

I WILL LEAD ON

SOFTLY, ACCORDING

ME AND THE CHILDREN BE ABLE TO ENDURE, UNTIL I COME UNTO MY LORD UNTO SEIR. 15.
AND ESAU

SAID,

LET ME NOW LEAVE WITH THEE SOME OF THE FOLK

The Lion

and

the

Ass

-113

THAT ARE WITH ME. AND HE SAID, WHAT NEEDETH IT? LET ME FIND GRACE
IN THE SIGHT OF MY LORD. l6.

SO ESAU RETURNED THAT DAY ON HIS WAY UNTO SEIR.

of

In the light

Esau's

friendliness, Professor Von

makes

Verse Four in
tunate

which

Esau kisses Jacob

the scene
Him"

the

Rad in his commentary to following remark: The unfor

which changed

disfiguration of
"He Kissed

by

the

late Jewish Midrash,

Him,"

the words

to

"He Bit
on

completely misses the narra

tor's conception. sees,

good

In his discussion

the present verses, Von Rad says One

in

however, how little

confidence
Esau'

Jacob has
s

his

turn

of

affairs

for the Per

by

his

stubborn refusal to

friendly
the

offer to accompany of

him.1

haps it
more

grasp accuracy than did Professor Von Rad. In Verse Twelve Esau extends an invitation to his brother to

will

be

possible

for

us to

intention

the Midrash with a bit

come and visit

the land of Seir.

Apparently during
by

Jacob's
of

absence

his brother Esau had been

able to establish a

homeland for his half Joshua

near

the sons of Isaac.

This homeland
he
sketched

was mentioned once again

the end of

his life

when

for the
2.

people

the

history

of

their journey. Thus in

saith the

And Joshua

said unto all the people,

thers

dwelt

on the other side

of the

river

old

time,

even

Lord God of Israel, Your fa Terah, the father of

And I
took your

Abraham,

and

the father ofNachor: and the other side

they

served other gods. 3.

father Abraham from

of

the river, and

led him

throughout all the

land of Canaan, and multiplied his seed, and gave him Isaac. 4. And I gave unto Isaac Jacob and Esau: and I gave unto Esau Mount Seir, to possess it; but Jacob his
children went

and

down

unto

Egypt.

5.

sent

Moses

also and

Aaron,

and

plagued out.

Egypt, according
Egyptians
7.

I did among them: and afterward I brought you 6. And I brought your fathers out of Egypt: and ye came unto the sea; and the
to that which
pursued after your fathers with chariots and

horsemen

unto the

Red Sea.

And

when

they

cried unto

the

Lord, He

put

darkness between

you and

the

Egyptians,
what

and

brought

the sea upon them and covered them: and

and ye

your eyes

have

seen

I have done in Egypt:

the

dwelt in the

wilderness a

long

season.

8. And I
and

brought you into

they fought with

land of the Amorites, you: and I gave them into

which your

dwelt

on

the other side

Jordan;

hand,

that ye might possess their

son

land:

and

I destroyed them from before

you. 9.

Then Balak the

sent and called

ofZippor,

King

of Moab, arose and warred against Israel, and Beor to curse vou: 10. But I would not hearken
you still: so

Balaam the

unto

Balaam;

therefore

of he blessed

son

I delivered

you out

of his hand. (Josh. 24:2-10)

the
proper word

Jacob feels that this is

not

time to visit his brother and gives

which

his

reasons

in Verse Fourteen. The

ever

is translated
significance which

cattle

by King
in the
accom
pos-

James rarely if
sense of
plished.
3.

has that

meaning.

Its primary
of the object

is

work,

craftsmanship or,

more generally,

something

must and

be

It

often
op.

has the
cit.,
pp.

significance

of labor,

hence,

Von Rad,

322-23.

114
session.

Interpretation
But
a more obvious

translation for Verse Fourteen

would read: at

the

pace

of my work and at the pace of the children. Jacob's children are still young, and he must defer his
speech

visit

for

a while.

Joshua's

to the people seems to say that the sons of Isaac were

divided

into two
years of

peoples: one was sent grew

into Egypt,

where

they

suffered

for four hundred in the land

but

into

nation; the

other was established

immediately

from Egypt, Israel, according to the pace of their work and at the pace of the children, finally arrived in the land of Seir, which had been established in order that they might have free passage to the new land.

Seir. On their

return

But

at

that time passage was denied them (Num. 20:14-23). Now it had been that the land
of

long

established

the Edomites should be the borders of Israel to

(Num. 34:3),

and

it

was under no circumstances

belong

to
s

Israel, because

it belonged to

their

brother, Esau (Deut.

2:5).

After Edom

decided to take the longer Moabites. This longer

people,
who

route through the

land

of their other

denial, Moses brothers, the

of the

route was the main cause

over

for the dissatisfaction

(Num.
21:4).

became disheartened

the

long journey

Ulti

mately, it led to the necessity of capturing the land of the Amorites, east of the Jordan river, and destroyed the dream of a unified people, living as a whole within a well-defined area. This history is repeated by Jephthah at the out

break

of

his

war against

the Amorites. The passage reads as

saith

follows:
land of Moab,
and nor

And
the

said unto

him, Thus
children

Jephthah, Israel
when

took not awav the

came

land of the

of Ammon: but

Israel

up from Egypt,
to

walked

through the wilderness unto the Red

the

Sea,

and came

Kadesh;

then

Israel

sent messengers unto

thy land: but

they

the

sent unto

the

King King

of Edom, saying, Let me, I pray thee, pass through of Edom would not hearken thereto. And in like manner

King

of Moab: but he

would not consent: and

Israel

abode

in

Kadesh. Then they

went

along through
of Arnon, but

the wilderness, and compassed the

land of

Edom,
Arnon
the

and the

land of Moab,

and came

by

the east side

pitched on
was

the other side the

came not within the

of the land of Moab, and border of Moab: for

king

of Heshbon;

border of Moab. And Israel sent unto Sihon King of the Amorites, and Israel said unto him, Let us pass, we prav thee, through

thy land into my place. But Sihon trusted not Israel to pass through his coast: but Sihon gathered all his people together, and pitched in Jahaz, and fought against Israel. And the Lord God of Israel delivered Sihon and all his people into the hand
of Israel,
the
and

they

smote them: so

Israel possessed

all the

land of the Amorites,

inhabitants of that
word

country

(Judg. 11:15-21)
close

The Hebrew
with the
within

for bite is

to the word for

to

kiss,
see

and

by

playing
of

two words the Rabbis were

of

trying

indicate
we

a strange

kind

unity

the tale

Esau. As that tale developes Rabbis

will

that the unity of

opposites which the

imply

captures the strange status that the

Edomites

have in the book extremely well. It is lamentable that Professor Von Rad
cance of the

was unable

to see the full signifi

not

back of God. To

speak

less metaphorically he did

fully

under-

The Lion
stand

and

the

Ass

-115

the Biblical notion of the

we and are aware of

importance that tradition

The lack

plays

in

our

lives

whether

it

or not.

of the notion of nature

our

in the

Platonic
and

Aristotelian

sense within

the Bible means that much of

upon

thought

seems

many to be the

of our actions

depend radically

the thoughts around us. God

guarantor that good

traditions

will

last longer than bad tradi

take hold
of us and

tions on a wide scale,

but that bad traditions

If this

can also

that

it is difficult to
would

shake them off. chance of us

were not

the case, good traditions too

have little

childhood can

influence

catching hold. The things that are in the air in our beyond our awareness if we do not consider them
this concept of the back of God Professor Von

carefully.

Had he

understood

Rad may have judged the

statement of the

Rabbis differently.

17.

AND JACOB JOURNEYED TO

SUCCOTH,

AND BUILT HIM AN

HOUSE,

AND

MADE BOOTHS FOR HIS CATTLE: THEREFORE THE NAME OF THE PLACE IS CALLED SUCCOTH. l8. AND JACOB CAME PEACEFULLY TO THE CITY OF

SHECHEM, WHICH IS IN

THE LAND OF

CANAAN, WHEN HE CAME

FROM

PADAN-ARAM; AND PITCHED

HIS TENT BEFORE THE CITY. 19.

AND HE BOUGHT A PARCEL OF A

FIELD, WHERE HE HAD HAMOR,

SHECHEM'S

SPREAD HIS

TENT,

AT THE HAND OF THE CHILDREN OF

FATHER,

FOR AN

HUNDRED PIECES OF MONEY. 20.

AND HE ERECTED THERE AN

ALTAR, AND CALLED IT

EL-ELOHE-ISRAEL.

And Gideon
were with

came

to

Jordan,
yet

and passed over,

he,

and the three

hundred

men

that

him, faint, pursuing Give, I prav you, loaves of bread unto

and

them.

And he

said unto the men ofSuccoth,

the people that follow me; for

they be faint,
the princes
we

am

pursuing
said,

after

Zebah

and

Zalmunna, kings of Midian. And

ofSuccoth

should give

Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna now in thine hand, that bread unto thine army? And Gideon said. Therefore when the Lord
and

hath delivered Zebah

the thorns

Zalmunna into

mine

hand,

then
went

will

tear

your

flesh

with

of the

wilderness and with

briers. And he

up thence to

Penuel,
of When

and spake unto them

likewise:

and

the men

of Penuel
tower.

answered

him

as the men

Succoth had I

answered

him. And he
will

spake also unto

the men

of Penuel,
and

saying,

come again

in peace, I

break down this

with

Now Zebah

Zalmunna
that were

were

in Karkor,
the

and their

hosts

them,

about fifteen thousand men, all

left of all
in tents
secure.

hosts of

the children of the east: for there fell an

sword.

hundred

and

twenty

thousand men that

drew

And Gideon

went

up

by

smote on the east ofNobah andJogbehah, and

of them that dwelt the host: for the host was

the way

And

when

Zebah

and

Zalmunna fled, he
and

pursued after them and took the two

all the

kings of Midian, Zebah

the son

and

Zalmunna,

discomfited

host. And Gideon

young man him the princes

of Joash

returned from

battle before
of him:

the sun was up, and caught a

and

of the

men ofSuccoth, and enquired

he described

unto

even threescore and seventeen men. ofSuccoth, and the elders thereof,

And he

came

unto the men ofSuccoth, and said.

upbraid

Behold Zebah
and

and

Zalmunna,
now

with whom ye

did

me, saving.

Are the hands of Zebah

Zalmunna

in thine hands,

116

Interpretation
bread
unto

that we should give

thy

men

that are weary?

And he took the

elders

of

the city,

and

ofSuccoth.

of the wilderness and briers, and with them he taught the men And he beat down the tower of Penuel, and slew the men of the city.
thorns

(Judg.

8:4-17)
which was related

This story,
very

strange aspect.
each

It is in

asking In that
other

for

help

and was

in the commentary to Gen. 32:30, has one way doubled. Gideon went to two different cities turned away by both in exactly the same words.
see

context

it is difficult to

why the story

should

be told twice. The

city involved is Succoth. The present chapter ends by talking about the Succoth just as the former chapter ended by talking about Penuel, but city Penuel and Succoth say the same things. Nothing has truly been accomplished
of

in the
with

present chapter.

The

problems which

Jacob faced

when

Esau

approached

his four hundred later.

men will

necessarily be faced

once more

four hundred

years

After the meeting with his brother, Jacob decided to become the first fol lower of the New Way to build a house. Earlier in the book we saw a dif

ference between Lot, who depended who lived in a tent with merely an ingness to live
own.

upon

doors

and

houses,

and

Abraham,

opening.

The

open

tent showed a will

together with the whole

instead

of the need to establish one's

of of

The

original

founder

of

cities, and hence

avoided the

houses,

was

Cain. Now
can

that

Jacob believes himself to have

a

fate

Cain he feels that he

build

house securely

without

endangering his brother.

CHAPTER XXXIV

AND DINAH THE DAUGHTER OF

LEAH,

WHICH SHE BARE UNTO

JACOB,

WENT OUT TO SEE THE DAUGHTERS OF THE LAND.

Dinah had begun to

settle

down in her

new

home

and went out

to look at

the other girls of the city. We are not told why,

to see the local customs of dress

to

and

but presumably she wanted language, perhaps in order to know how

dress

and comport

herself.

2.

AND WHEN SHECHEM THE SON OF HAMOR THE

HIVITE, PRINCE

OF THE

COUNTRY,

SAW

HER,

HE TOOK

HER,
of

AND LAY WITH

HER, AND DEFILED HER.

name was

The Hivites

were

descendants

Canaan, but their

notably

in Abram's dream (Gen.

with

lacking

15:20).

Nonetheless,

the others
of

Book

in the very first list of lands Exodus. If their lands were not part of the
chapter

their name will appear along to be conquered given in the

original promise then the

following

may

make

their ultimate

fate intelligible

to us.

The Lion

and the

Ass

-111

The city of Shechem has a rather interesting history. It was here that Abra ham built the first altar when he returned from Egypt (Gen. 12:6), and it was here that Joshua
Moses had
read

the law to the people

for the last time before his death

24: iff).

as

commanded

(Deut.

11:30 and

Josh.

The

rest of

its

history

will emerge

in the

comments to the

remaining

verses of

the chapter.

3.

AND HIS SOUL CLAVE UNTO DINAH THE DAUGHTER OF

JACOB,

AND HE

LOVED THE 4.

DAMSEL,

AND SPAKE KINDLY UNTO THE DAMSEL.

AND SHECHEM SPAKE UNTO HIS FATHER DAMSEL TO WIFE.

HAMOR, SAYING, GET ME THIS

bear in

In trying to interpret what happens in Chapter Thirty-four we mind that Shechem is in love with Dinah. Otherwise, the
simple.

must always answers will we will

be too

We

will not

have faced the

real problem and

hence

have

learned

nothing.

5.

AND JACOB HEARD THAT HE HAD DEFILED DINAH HIS DAUGHTER: NOW

HIS SONS WERE WITH HIS CATTLE IN THE FIELD; AND JACOB HELD HIS PEACE UNTIL THEY WERE COME.

Jacob,
the

who

earlier generation,

dealt successfully with his brother when facing decided not to intervene in the present
Therefore he

the problems of
affair.

The

rela

tion between Israel and its neighbors once a house had been built became the
problems of another generation.
remained silent and waited

for

Dinah's brothers to

arrive.

6.

AND HAMOR THE FATHER OF SHECHEM WENT OUT UNTO JACOB TO COM

MUNE WITH HIM.

Hamor
on

and

Shechem decided to handle the

older generation.

problem

in

a more

formal way

the level of the

7.

AND THE SONS OF JACOB CAME OUT OF THE FIELD WHEN THEY HEARD IT: AND THE MEN WERE GRIEVED, AND THEY WERE VERY

WROTH,

BECAUSE

HE HAD WROUGHT FOLLY IN ISRAEL IN LYING WITH JACOB'S

WHICH THING IS NOT DONE.

DAUGHTER;

Jacob's

sons are

accused

Shechem
grounds

of

having
an

done

deed
used

which

thing is

not

done. Those
against

the same

which

Abimelech

in his

accusations of

Abraham (Gen.
conduct available

20:9).

Such

appeal

presupposes

some measure

human At the
point

to

all men whether

same time

the words

they live under divine law or not. because he had wrought folly in Israel seem to
rape and used

forward to the laws concerning In this verse the word Israel is

adultery

given

in Deut.
as

22:20-30.

for the first time

the name of a

118-

Interpretation
The
attack on

people.

Dinah

seems a

to have been the occasion which pulled

nation.

together the sons of Jacob

into

whole

In this sense, it is
of

similar com

to the

crimes of

the men of

Gibeah

and

Saul's

hewing

the

oxen

(see

mentary to Gen. 22:6). Professor Von Rad is

ter,4

surprised at

Jacob's

passive role

in the

present

but Verse Seven

appears

to show the reasons for Jacob's passivity.

allow

chap He is diffi

in fact taking this opportunity to Within this context it may be culty

ence which

the second

generation to come consider

together.
of

of some

interest to

the kind

has

arisen

in

modern

times because of the notion that modern sci

arose a peculiar

is the

paradigm of

intelligibility. On this foundation there

with

conclusion.

Biblical interpreters began

the clear Aristotelian notion that

that which can be turned it about

example of

known

with

absolute

into the

assumption that the mundane

when

certainty is the mundane. is the true. A

to distinguish the
that Verse

They

have

rather good

this appears

men

attempt

sources

behind

the stories told

in the Bible. Von Rad

and

argues

Six interrupts the

either a gloss or

flow between Verses Five

Seven. It must, therefore, be

the shreds of a second account

thoughtlessly left in

by

the redactor.

There is flow in the

returned
Hamor'

no reason to
manner

assume,

however,

that the author wished

would

his story to is dropped, force

of

in

which

Professor Von Rad

like. When the brothers

they found Hamor

and

their father conversing. If the verse

would

s appearance

in Verse Seven

be less intelligible,

and the

the final words of Verse Five would be lost. While this explanation may,
a certain point of more

from

view, be less mundane than Professor Von

Rad's, it

seems

in

keeping

with the

dramatic force

of the passage.

8.

AND HAMOR COMMUNED WITH

THEM, SAYING, THE SOUL OF MY SON DAUGHTER; I

PRAY YOU GIVE HER HIM TO

SHECHEM LONGETH FOR YOUR WIFE. 9.

AND MAKE YE MARRIAGES WITH

US,

AND GIVE YOUR DAUGHTERS UNTO

US,
IO.

AND TAKE OUR DAUGHTERS UNTO YOU.

AND YE SHALL DWELL WITH US: AND THE LAND SHALL BE BEFORE YOU;

DWELL AND TRADE YE THEREIN, AND GET YOUR POSSESSIONS THEREIN.

Hamor,
merged

the

father,
proposal

proposed

more

than the marriage between Dinah and

of

Shechem. His

is that the tribe

Israel

and the tribe of the

Hivites be

into

a single whole.
years

Four hundred
of

later,

after

Joshua

and

his

men

had

conquered the cities

Jericho

and

Ai, many
some

of the

Hivites from Gibeon,

wiser

having
bit

heard

of the con
put on

quest, decided that it would be

old

to capitulate than to fight.

of wine

They
in

clothes, took

dry, moldy

provisions and a

a ragged

sheepskin,
4.

and went

to visit Joshua in the city of Gilgal.

Claiming

to be from

Op. cit.,

p. 228.

The Lion
a

and the

Ass

-119

distant land these

and

men again proposed of

signing

a convenant

between the Hi
and

vites

the

Children

Israel. Joshua

accepted

the offer,

though the
abide

covenant

had been
made

arranged under

false

pretenses

he felt bound to
drawers of

by

its

terms, but

them serve as

hewers of

wood and

water

for the

house of my God (see Josh. 9:23). The only city as a whole that was allowed to remain with all its inhabi tants after the conquest was Gibeon (Josh. 11:17). Five of the Canaanite

kings, in
the

retaliation

for

what seemed to them a

betrayal,

then decided to attack

and

Hivites in Gibeon,

who sent

to

Joshua for help. Joshua

Jerusalem (Josh.

his

men arrived under

from Gilgal
the

and were able to

of

defeat the Five Kings,

of

who were

fighting

leadership

Adonai-Zedec, king
to capture the

10:3).

Joshua, how
till the

ever,

was not able

city itself; this

conquest was to wait

time of David.

The country was divided. Some followed David, but some were still loyal to the House of King Saul and rallied around Abner. These troubles came to an
end when

Joab killed Abner Joab returned,

after after

the

war

games

that

had

taken

place

at

Gibeon,
21:1).

where

Absalom's

revolt, to

kill Amassa (II Sam.

The three-year famine

David
was explained

which

occurred

near the

end

of

the reign of
crimes which

King
Saul
of

by

the Lord as the

being

a punishment
retribution

for

had

committed

against

Gibeonites, in

for

which

members

Saul's house (II Sam. 21:4) were condemned to death. In general the lower, but perhaps necessary face
tributed to the rise of the

of politics

which

con

kingdom

and

Hivite city
appeared

of

Gibeon.

Interestingly

its stability centered itself around the enough, it is also the place where God
his
request

to

King

Solomon
3:8).

and answered

for the

possession of polit

ical

wisdom

(I Kings

By
city

all that can

be

gathered

from Chapter Nine

of the

Book

of

Judges, the
and

of

Shechem
a tale. of

also continued

to have many Hivite

inhabitants,

therein,

too, lies

The Book

Judges
and

can

be divided into two parts, Chapter One through

the Judges as a continuous cycle. The people
of their

Chapter Sixteen,

Chapter Seventeen through Chapter Twenty-one. The first

sixteen chapters present

life

under

constantly falling brought in the form of

are

into the
an

ways

neighbors,
and

some a

punishment

is
a

attack
after

from the outside, his death the

hero

arises

for

time to save the

country.

But

cycle
and

begins

all over again.

This
the

was

the

period

of

Ehud, Deborah, Gideon,

who

Jephthah. It

closes with

private

hero, Samson,
lasted
of the

fights his

own war against years.

the Philistines.
must remember also

These
as

cycles also years next.

about

four hundred last be

One

that,

in the

kings,

the

year under one

ruler was

the

first

year of

the

Therefore,

one year must

subtracted

from

each

before they

can

be

summed.

120
Foreign
ruler

Interpretation
Years in Judge
power

Years to be
counted

Ref. in Judges
3:8 3:11

Chushan Othniel
Moab Ehud Hazor Deborah Midian

8
40

7
39 17 79 19 39 6

18

3:14
3:30

80
20
40

4:3
5:31

7 Gideon
Abimelech*

6:1 8:28
9:22
10:2

40

39
2 22 21

3 Tola
Jair

23
22

10:3
10:8

Philistine & Arnon Jephthah

Ibzan

18

17
5

6 7
10

12:7

12:9
12:11
12:

Elon Abdon Philistines

9
7 39
19

8
40

14

13:1

Samson
TOTAL

20

15:20

393
somewhat

*Abimelech is

in

class

by

himself

since

he

can

neither

be

called

judge

nor

foreign

ruler.

It

should rulers

be

noted

that

if the law

of

foreign

then the period

of

involved

would

After the death

Samson the

author

does not apply to the be precisely four hundred years. introduces a phrase for which he has
subtraction

carefully
played

prepared

the reader
of

by
and

these endless struggles.

Chapter Seventeen
which

concerns the
such

an

story important

Micah

his

establishment of

the private altar

role

in the fall

of the

Jubilee "tear. At this

point

the author

introduces the
(Judg.

phrase with which the

book

as a whole will conclude:

because
in his

there was no

king

in Israel

and every man

did

that which was right

with the

own eyes of

17:6).

This

part of the

book

culminates

final
and

story the innocent

the

book, in
men of

which

the tribe of Benjamin

was

almost

destroyed

Shiloh

were all

killed

by

the

feeble
cycles

attempts of the crowd

to establish their twisted notions of

justice. The

in the

earlier part of
under

the book were

intended
urgent

by

the author to show the pointlessness of life

the

Judges

and the

need

for

king. In the latter half

of

the book he

is

more explicit about

the solution.
under no

The author, however, is

tion. In

delusion that
system

kingship

is

a perfect solu
would

his

mind

the

loosely-connected
possible.

under the

Judges

have

been
after

preferable

if it had been

This facet

of

his thought is

made clear

the death of

Gideon.
his life Gideon
was offered

Near the

end of

kingship by

the people, and

The Lion
though

and the

Ass

-111

he

rejected

the offer it

whet

the

appetite of

his son, Abimelech,

whom

Gideon had
reasonably
convinced

by

a concubine

clear

from the city of Shechem. In the context it becomes that Shechem was still inhabited by the Hivites. Abimelech Shechem to be
crown

the men of

him

king by

arguing that, if he flesh (Judg. Shechem

as

were

not made and

king, they

would

ruled

by

the three-score and ten sons of

your

Gideon,
9:2).

he

also reminds

them that he was

considered

bone
and

and your
men of

Presumably, Abimelech
from
another concubine and

himself

the

being
the

people not related

to the sons of Abraham.

In

other words

the men of Shechem appeared to have remained Hivites.

Gideon,
of

Upon taking the kingship, Abimelech succeeded in killing all of the sons of except one, whose name was Jotham. Jotham then went up to the top Mount Gerizim, the
mountain of

curses,

which was

by Shechem,

and told

the parable of the trees.

And

they told it to Jotham, he went and stood in the top of Mount Gerizim, and lifted up his voice, and cried, and said unto them. Hearken unto me, ye men of Shechem that God may hearken unto you. The trees went forth on a time to anoint a
when

king over them; and they said unto

tree said unto them,
and man, and go to

the olive tree, Reign thou

wherewith

over us.

But the

olive

Should I leave my fatness,

by

me

they honour God

to the

be

promoted over

the trees?

And the trees

said

fig

tree,

Come thou,

and reign over us.

But

the

fig

tree

said unto

sweetness, and

my

good

fruit,

and go

to

be

promoted

them. Should I forsake my over the trees? Then said the

vine said unto

trees

unto

the vine,

Come thou,

and reign over us.

And the

them,

should

I leave my Then

wine, which cheereth

God

and

man,

and go to

be

promoted over

the trees?

said all

the trees unto the

bramble. Come thou,

truth ye anoint me

and reign over us. over you, then

And the bramble

said unto the

trees,

If in

king

of the bramble, if not, let fire have done and devour the cedars of Lebanon. Now therefore, if ye truly and sincere Jerubbaal well with ly, in that ye have made Abimelech king, and if ye have dealt his hands; for and his house, and have done unto him according to the deserving of
come and put your trust

in

my shadow, and

come out

mv father fought for you, and adventured

his life far,

and

delivered
this

you out

day, hand of Midi-an: and ye are risen up against my father's house A-bimeslain his sons, threescore and ten persons, upon one stone, and have made because he is your lech, the son of his maidservant, king over the men of Shechem, Je-rubba-al and with his house brother; if ve then have dealt truly and sincerely with
and

of the have

this

dav,

then rejoice ve

in A-bime-lech,
and

and

let him

also rejoice

in

you:

but

if not,

let fire

come out from and

A-bime-lech,

devour the
men

of Millo;

let fire

come out

from the

of Shechem, and the house of Shechem, and from the house of

men

Millo,
and

and

devour A-bime-lech. And Jotham

ran away, and

fled,

and went to

Beer,

dwelt there, for fear of A-bime-lech his brother. (Judg.

parable

9:7-21

This
has his

seems

to argue that in a well-running state each good man

within

own proper

function

the

whole.

The unity

of

the whole can only

be

preserved possible

if

each

man contributes a
man

his

particular excellence.
excellence.

Therefore,

the

only

king
is

is

who

has

no

This, from the highest

point of view,

the

author's argument against

kingship.

122 The
way.

Interpretation
author

then plays upon the feelings of the reader in a most marvelous

attacked

Abimelech is

by

another pretender whose name

is Gaal. As the

battle is going on the reader tends to forget Abimelech 's past deeds and almost accepts him as a hero in the light of Gaal's attack. But after the attack is
over, the
author

is

quick

to remind us who our hero Abimelech really

is.

By

this device the author forces us the desire for a

into the
men of

same

chaotic

confusion

into

which

king

had led the

Shechem. It seems, however, to be

the author's view that at such a point only the rise of a proper
an end

king

can put

to such

chaos.

The tenuousness
the great split

of

this solution becomes evident when we remember that

came about when

in

the

kingdom

Jeroboam became king,

also

in

the city of Shechem.

1 1
AND SHECHEM SAID UNTO HER FATHER AND UNTO HER

BRETHREN,

LET

ME FIND GRACE IN YOUR EYES AND WHAT YE SHALL SAY UNTO ME I WILL GIVE. 12.
ASK ME NEVER SO MUCH DOWRY AND

GIFT,

AND I WILL GIVE ACCORDING

AS YE SHALL SAY UNTO ME: BUT GIVE ME THE DAMSEL TO WIFE. 13.
AND THE SONS OF JACOB ANSWERED SHECHEM AND HAMOR HIS FATHER AND

DECEITFULLY,
14.

SAID,

BECAUSE HE HAD DEFILED DINAH THEIR SISTER: WE CANNOT DO THIS

AND THEY SAID UNTO

THEM,

THING, TO GIVE OUR

SISTER TO ONE THAT IS UNCIRCUMCISED; FOR THAT WERE A REPROACH UNTO us: 15. BUT IN THIS WILL WE CONSENT UNTO YOU: IF YE WILL BE AS WE

BE,

THAT EVERY MALE OF YOU BE CIRCUMCISED:

Seeing
During

that Jacob

has decided to let the

takes over the

younger generation control the situa

tion, Shechem

at this point

their

discussion from his father, Hamor. forty-year journey, the Jews did not practice circumcision.

After they crossed the Jordan, Joshua's first act was to circumcise all of the men. This took place in the city of Gilgal, the same city in which the Hivites
signed their

false

covenant with

Israel (Josh. 5:1.10

and 9:6).

In the commentary to Gen. 17:6 we discussed the notion of circumcision and tried to see its relation to the Covenant. It signified a division between
the unprepared chaotic world about us and the order which can be established

in the
of

small realm and

included

within

the Covenant. This

was

true

both

at of

the time

Noah

at the

time of
a

Abraham. Circumcision in the Book

prerequisite

Exodus

is

understood to

be

bration. It is that

fragment

of

all

cele necessary for the possibility of freedom within the ordered that is. During their nomadic life in the Sinai desert the which allows

for partaking in the Passover

Israelites,
confined.

though

they had

the

Law, had

as yet no place

in

which

they

were

Since there

was no

border

distinguishing

them

from

the outside there

was no circumcision.

They

were rather

like the blessed fish.

As

soon

as the people

crossed the river

Jordan the

manna on

which

thev

The Lion
had fed for
eat of the

and the

Ass

123

forty
of

years ceased.

Joshua

circumcised the men, and

they began
Saul to

to

land in the city of Gilgal. Samuel first crowned Saul king privately. At that time he
the

fruit

sent

visit

the

prophets and told him to go to the city of Gilgal to begin the ending war against the Philistines. He was told that before the war there would be a sacrifice but that he should wait until Samuel came to participate (I Sam.
never-

10:8).

Saul
when

was

then crowned publicly in the city of

Gilgal (I Sam. 11:14), for Samuel but

DUt

the time for the war arrived

he did Saul

not wait

performed

the sacrifice himself. At this time tinue (I Sam. 13:14).

was

told that his line would not con

The Hivites

at

Shechem

and

at

Gibeon; Saul
The lower, but

and

Gilgal; Abimelech

and

Abner; Amassa
politics confused or

and circumcision!

perhaps

necessary, face

of

continually peered from among the Hivites. Kingship is thus in a way intermingled with circumcision because it is a lower alternative as
of

means

distinguishing
of the

between
a

political

order of

and

political

chaos.

The

present

story
that

Hivites is

foreshadowing
later
at

their attempt to join that

political order
minder

four hundred
were

years

the time of Joshua. It

is

also a re

they

the first to substitute a

king

for the Covenant

during

the

reign of

Abimelech.
accused

Dinah's brothers
stand
what

Shechem
means.

of

defiling
main
should

her. We

must

try

to under

that accusation
of

The

source

of the

defilement is the Book

things
which

Leviticus. We

begin

by
a

laws concerning listing the kinds of dead

animal sore

can

defile

a person

by

touch: the

body
the

of

(Lev.
(Lev.

5:2); that
15:1-16);

which

comes out

of

man

(Lev. 5:3);
and

male sperm

(Lev.

15: a

16-18);

running of any Menstrual Fluid (Lev.

13).

15:19-33). cases

Defilement is

also

caused

by

leper (Lev. Chap.

In

all

of these

anyone who touches

the object or who comes in contact with someone who had

must wash, and must

thus been defiled has himself become defiled. He

the state of defilement
case of
until

he

remains

in

evening,

when

he

bring

a sacrifice.

In the

birth the defilement

Lord
spake unto

period

is

much

longer:
unto the children

And

the

Moses,

saying,

Speak

if

a woman

have

conceived

seed, and

born

a man child: then she shall

of Israel, saving, be unclean

seven

days: according
And in the

to the

unclean.

eighth

day

days of the separation for her infirmity shall she be the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised. And
and

she shall then continue

shall touch no

in the blood of her purifying three

nor come

hallowed thing,

into the sanctuary,

purifying be fulfilled. But

weeks,
as

if she

bear

a maid child, then she

thirty days: she days of her shall be unclean two

until the

in her

separation: and she shall continue

in the blood of her purifying

threescore and six

days. (Lev. 12:1-5)

also

Defilement may
Another
other source

be

caused

by

adultery

or of

sodomy (Lev.

18:20-23).

of

defilement is the eating

than those which have a split hoof and

s creeping things and animals chew a cud (Deut. 14:6). The

124
reason
who

Interpretation
given

for this is: For be

a

thou art a

holy
who

people

unto

the

Lord thy God

all

has

chosen thee to

treasured people unto

Himself above

the Na
neither

tions on
enter

the earth

(Deut.

14:2).

People

have been defiled may

(Num. 9:11).

the sanctuary nor partake in the Passover service, though another meal
one month

is

held

later for those

who could not participate remind

The

examples

first

mentioned

one

of

what

has been

said

about

foreskins (see commentary to Gen. 17:6). At that time we saw that the world came into being in an incomplete state; either something was missing or there
was

the notion of

something extra that had to be cut off. There is something very similar in defilement. Creatures living according to their normal way excrete

beyond themselves in many ways. Life is impossible otherwise. Most of the sources of defilement have their origin in the inability of the body to remain
within

its

own confines.

Something
are also

extra or superfluous

is

always

being

formed.

Presumably by all rights,

from
which

dead bodies disappear

was

the source of

at

the time of

defilement because they should, death, or at least return to the dust

itself
contains

it

taken.

Even the
proper

world

do

not

quite

fit into their

categories

and

are

many animals hence unfit for

which

holy

people.

Since
the

political

freedom is
wild

understood as
which

being
at

freedom

of the

ass,

is

more

radically distinguished from home in the freely flowing Passover

appears to meal.

world, no one who

has been

so

defiled may

partake of the

It

is

a celebration of

freedom in the

political sense.

The law

be

nec

essary because it is often difficult to distinguish the two kinds of freedom. In the eyes of the brothers, and most particularly in the eyes of Levi, the marriage between Shechem and Dinah, and hence the unification of the Chosen People
with

the

Hivites, is
but

defilement because it threatens the

major plan of

beginning
ment

in

a small

concentrated way.

Apparently
the

the concept of defile

the necessity of
will grow after

is

another expression of

the cosmological

foundations for
hopes that it

beginning
it has been

life

under

law in

a small

way

with

established.

16.

THEN WILL WE GIVE OUR DAUGHTERS UNTO YOU. AND WE WILL TAKE

YOUR DAUGHTERS TO BECOME ONE PEOPLE. 17.

US,

AND WE WILL DWELL WITH

YOU,

AND WE WTLI

BUT IF YE WILL NOT HEARKEN UNTO

US,

TO BE CIRCUMCISED: THEN

WILL WE TAKE OUR 18. 19.

DAUGHTER,

AND WE WILL BE GONE.

AND THEIR WORDS PLEASED

HAMOR,

AND SHECHEM HAMOR'S SON.

AND THE YOUNG MAN DEFERRED NOT TO DO THE

THING, BECAUSE

HE

HAD DELIGHT IN JACOB'S DAUGHTER: AND HE WAS MORE HONORABLE THAN ALL THE HOUSE OF HIS FATHER. 20. AND HAMOR AND SHECHEM HIS SON CAME UNTO THE GATE OF THEIR
AND COMMUNED WITH THE MEN OF THEIR CITY,

CITY,
21
.

SAYING,

THESE MEN ARE PEACEABLE WITH US; THEREFORE LET THEM DWELL

The Lion
IN THE

and the

Ass

125
LAND, BEHOLD, IT IS LARGE

LAND,

AND TRADE THEREIN; FOR THE

ENOUGH FOR

THEM;

LET US TAKE THEIR DAUGHTERS TO US FOR

WIVES,

AND

LET US GIVE THEM OUR DAUGHTERS.

22.

ONLY HEREIN WILL THE MEN CONSENT UNTO US FOR TO DWELL WITH

US. TO BE ONE PEOPLE, IF EVERY MALE AMONG US BE CIRCUMCISED,

AS THEY ARE CIRCUMCISED
23.

SHALL NOT THEIR CATTLE AND THEIR SUBSTANCE AND EVERY BEAST OF

THEIRS BE OURS? ONLY LET US CONSENT UNTO

DWELL WITH US.

THEM,

AND THEY WILL

Hamor Jacob's

and

Shechem have decided to

Verse Twenty-one, in

accept the arrangements proposed

by

sons.

which

Hamor

sees

that the men have come

in peace, is
the
moment

reference was

to Verse Eighteen of the last chapter.

convinced

At least for
could

Jacob

by

his

encounter with

Esau that he

settle

peacefully

on the

land

without

Hamor'

s speech to the men of

customs

any wars. his city indicates that he

would expect

Hivite
will

to prevail,
way.

and

long

after

they

are

gone

Hamor
of

and

Shechem

have their

The Hivites in Shechem, followers

Abimelech,

the son of

Gideon,
the early
man's

will

be the first to introduce

kingship

into Israel. The

personal cove

nant of circumcision

linking
point

each man with

his fellow

which was sufficient covenant.

in

time of the Judges will be replaced

by

a political

Each

duty

from that

forward

will

be to the

king

and not

to his nearest

neighbor.

24.

AND UNTO HAMOR AND UNTO SHECHEM HIS SON HEARKENED ALL THAT

WENT OUT OF THE GATE OF HIS

CITY;

AND EVERY MALE WAS

CIRCUMCISED,

ALL THAT WENT OUT OF THE GATE OF HIS CITY. 25.

AND IT CAME TO PASS ON THE THIRD

DAY, WHEN THEY WERE SORE, BROTHERS,

THAT TWO OF THE SONS OF

JACOB,

SIMEON AND LEVI DINAH S

TOOK EACH MAN HIS SWORD AND CAME UPON THE CITY BOLDLY, AND
SLEW ALL THE MALES.

26.

AND THEY SLEW HAMOR AND SHECHEM HIS SON WITH THE EDGE OF THE

AND WENT OUT. SWORD, AND TOOK DINAH OUT OF SHECHEM'S HOUSE,

It may be that Simeon and Levi were serious in Verse Seventeen when they accept the proposal. said they would leave if the Hivites were unwilling to

They

may have been

more concerned about

the deeper problems of

defilement

in the sense of defiling the New Way. We have already seen the grounds of their fears when discussing the role the Hivites played in the growth of king
replace the covenant. The two-sided character of the ship and its attempt to insight which Simeon and Levi demonstrate will be discussed in the commen

tary

to Gen. 49:5.
as a class

The Levites
episode of

first

rose

to significance

immediately following

the

the Golden Calf:

126

Interpretation
stood

Then Moses

in the

gate

of the camp

and

said,

Whoever is

Lord'

on the

side,

let him he

come

to me,

and all

the sons

said unto

them, thus

saith

of Levi gathered themselves together. And the Lord God of Israel, Put every man his sword by his
and

side, and go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp,

slay

every man

his brother,
32:26-27)

and

every

man

his

companion, and every man

his

neighbour. (Ex.

The

virtue/vice of zeal can

already be

seen

in Levi here in the Levi

and

present chapter
will

from Genesis,

and a more complete picture of

Simeon

be

given

in

the commentary to Gen. 49:5.

27.

THE SONS OF JACOB CAME UPON THE

SLAIN,

AND SPOILED THE

CITY,

BECAUSE THEY HAD DEFILED THEIR SISTER. 28. THEY TOOK THEIR SHEEP. AND THEIR

OXEN,

AND THEIR ASSES. AND

THAT WHICH WAS IN THE CITY. AND THAT WHICH WAS IN THE FIELD. 29. AND ALL THEIR

WEALTH,

AND ALL THEIR LITTLE ONES. AND THEIR

WIVES TOOK THEY CAPTIVE. AND SPOILED EVEN ALL THAT WAS IN THE
HOUSE.

While the

other

brothers did

not

take

part

in the massacre, they

were quick

to enjoy the spoils. The

Way Way

full story of the dangers which lie ahead for the New became clear to Jacob as he quietly watched his sons. Zeal for the New in the light of foreign opposition will lead to a war, and the availability foreign
goods will

of conquered

tempt them

from the

way.

This is the

great

danger

which we

have

seen ever since

Chapter Fourteen.

30.

AND JACOB SAID TO SIMEON AND

LEVI,

YE HAVE TROUBLED ME TO MAKE

ME TO STINK AMONG THE INHABITANTS OF THE

LAND,

AMONG THE CANAAN

ITES AND THE PERIZZITES: AND I BEING FEW IN NUMBER THEY SHALL GATHER THEMSELVES TOGETHER AGAINST ME, AND SLAY ME; AND I SHALL
BE

DESTROYED, I
point we word

AND MY HOUSE.

At this bled. The in

see

Jacob's

reflections on what
not

he has

seen.

He is

trou

for

troubled
with

is

times in the
reflect

books
way

which

we

very common have been dealing,

one. and

It

appears

four

the passages all

one

or

another

the difficulties which Jacob has just become

aware of.

After the battle

of

Jericho, Joshua
follows: And

commanded the people not to take spoils.

The

verse

reads

as

ye

in any

wise

keep

yourselves

from the

accursed things

lest

ye make accursed when ye

make the

camp of Israel

a curse and trouble

take of the accursed thing, and it (Josh. 6:18). Joshua was dis

turbed that the men would be more attracted things than

by

the

ways

of

the conquered

by

the New

Way

which

they

were to establish (see

commentary to

Gen.

14:1).
word

The

trouble appears

for

second

time in the same general context.

The Lion

and the

Ass

111
and

After the battle

suffered a great

of

Jericho, Joshua

his

men

attacked

the city

of

Ai but
who

defeat. This defeat

was caused

by

a man named

Achan

had been
city.

attracted

by

Babylonian

garment which

he found in the
The Lord

conquered

After the

cause of the

defeat had been discovered the text

thou troubled us?

reads as
shall

fol

lows: And Joshua

thee this
after

said,
all

Why hast
stoned

trouble

day. And

Israel
them

him

with

stones, and
7:25).

burnt

them with

fire,
his

they had
the

stoned

with stones

(Josh.

Before going
men

out onto
order:

his first battle

against the

Philistines, Saul

gave

following
so

Cursed be

the man that eateth

any food

until

I may be avenged on mine enemies. So none of the people tasted any food (I Sam. 14:24). His son Jonathan did not hear the command because he had sneaked into the camp of the enemy where he was doing single
evening
that
combat.

During

the battle he found a honeycomb

and

dipped his hand into it.

The text

continues:

And put his hand to his of

the people and said. the

mouth; and

his

eyes were enlightened.

Then

answered one

ing, Cursed be
Then
eyes said

Thy father straitly charged the people with an man that eateth any food this day. And the people
see,

oath, say
were

faint.

Jonathan, My father hath troubled the land:

enlightened,

have been

because I

tasted a

little of this

I pray you, how mine honey. How much more,

enemies which

if haply They
very

the people

had

eaten

freely today

of the spoil

of their

they

found? For had there

smote

not

been

now a much greater slaughter

among the Philistines?

and the people were

the Philistines that the

people

day from

Michmash to Aijalon:

faint. And

flew

upon the spoil, and took sheep, and oxen, and

calves, and

slew

them on the ground: and the people

did

eat them with the

blood.

(I Sam. 14:27-32)

After the battle Saul

eaten even stances

made

an

oath

that

he

would

kill the

man

who

had

if it

were

his

own

son, but when the people

discovered the

circum

they

refused

to have Jonathan killed. These two passages, one from the the
other

Book
sides

of
of

Joshua

and

from the First Book

cases

of

Samuel,
is

present

both

the argument,
and

and

in both

the

word

troubled

used

(Josh.

6:18,

7:25,

I Sam. how

14:28).
much

Any
of

leader is
spoil

placed on a

middle.

When

and

the

should

be

given

matter which can

attraction
ruption. which

only be solved, if at all. by the most Achan felt for Babylonian things became the
the
enlightenment

very thin line in the is a very difficult astute of leaders. The

symbol of cor

And

yet

which

Jonathan
of

received

from Philistine David

re

honey
ceived.

in Verse Twenty-seven

reminds

one

the wisdom which

The

word

troubled also appears

in the Book

of

Judges

where

Jephthah did
swore that

the very

opposite.

Before going into battle

would consecrate

against the

Amonites he

if he
door

won upon

the battle he

the first

thing

that came out of

his

his

return.

The first

one

to greet

him

after

the war was

daughter,

and the text says that

Jephthah

was troubled.

his young Apart from these in books.

appears stances the word troubled never

in any

of the twelve

128

Interpretation
who

Jacob,
one of avoid

had left his brother full

the land.

establishment of

By joining

of hope, now sees no possibility for the in the Covenant, the Hivites had become and

the brothers. The war, chaos,

fratricide

which

Jacob had hoped to

had already begun.

chapter we can see

In this
can see

the simple

and

the whole of man. Levi's zeal for the New

where

forthright way in which our author Way has led to a horrible

greatness of

act,

but

is the

author

who

has faced the true

America
see the see the
not

without

forgetting

about men

like

Sitting

Bull

and

Black Elk? Some

black

and

senseless

destruction

of the

Crusades,

some

its

glory.

To

highest is
one

almost as common as to see the and one

lowest. But to
all mixed

see them

both,
not

today

tomorrow, but

as

they happen,

together,

letting

the one blind the eyes to the other, that is rare and a sign of greatness.

31

AND THEY

SAID,

SHOULD HE DEAL WITH OUR SISTER AS WITH AN

HARLOT?

Harlotry
Way. The

sons remind

in the Bible is constantly used as a Jacob of the alternative.

metaphor

for

leaving

the New

Book Reviews
Bureaucrats, Policy Analysts, Statesmen: Who Leads'? Edited by Robert
win.

Gold-

(Washington, D.C.: American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, 1980. Pp. 133. $10.25.)

Joseph M. Bessette
Catholic

University
of

The title standing bated for term, is decade

of

this collection

of seven original essays suggests

that an

under

the task of contemporary political

leadership
as we

must combine

both the
and

traditional and the novel.

several

Statesmanship

has been studied, discussed,

and

de
the

thousand years.

Bureaucracy,

a much more recent phenomenon,

commonly has been the subject is

newer

understand

of syste

matic reflection

for less than

a century.

Policy

analysis

still,

barely

or

two old.
and

Most simply defined, it is the

techniques
of

application

of the

data

gathering

analytical

the social

sciences

to

the matter of

choosing among

specific public

Policy
In

analysis

is

one of the

policy alternatives. few true growth fields in American have

academia.

recent years

many

of our most prestigious universities

established ad

vanced graduate programs vivid

in

public

policy, and others are not far behind. A

indication

of

the academic respectability of this new field of study is the

fact that both Harvard

University

and

the

University

of

California

at

Berkeley

now offer doctorate degrees in the field. The popularity of such programs stems from their avowed purpose to improve political decision making. Poli

ticians, it is claimed, will make better policy in areas like health, transporta tion, and education if they are informed by the results of systematic policy
The policy analyst becomes the indispensable aid to the tician. For over a decade in this country, university faculty and
analysis. practical poli

administrators

have debated
applied

whether

the knowledge generated at universities can or should

be

to

solve society's problems.

Those

responsible
"yes."

for the

creation of public

policy The first

of

programs

have

answered an emphatic

purpose of

Robert Goldwin's

collection of

is to

assess

the contribution

policy

analysis

to

political

leadership. Six

the essays address this

issue

explicitly.

The first,

by

Edward Banfield,

attacks

policy

analysis

for the failure

political

of

its formal

analytical

(often mathematical) techniques to

to make public issues even more

capture

reality,

for its tendency

difficult to handle involved in

by

emphasizing the

complex

interrelationships

and

consequences

for its inability to help with the essential tasks of any policy decision, and political leadership. The next three essays all defend policy analysis, though for
somewhat

different
at

reasons.

Mark Moore,
the

a professor at the

Kennedy
intuition

School

of

Government
new science

Harvard

University

leading

institution for instruction in the

to
and judg-

defends policy

analysis as an essential aid

130
ment

Interpretation
of on

political

in making the numerous "particular substantive demanded leaders in the contemporary world. Laurence Silberman, reflecting undersecretary
of

his

experience as

labor,

praises the use of

policy

analysis

in

evaluating

programs which more often serve

the
of

interests

of governmental

bu

reaucracies than the citizens. several examples of sions

Gustave Shubert done

the Rand

Corporation

relates

how

analyses

by

Rand improved among

governmental others.

deci

in the

areas of

housing,

welfare, and energy,

The

next two essays take a more critical approach to what policy analysis

can contribute
on natural gas

to wise leadership. In his case study of the debate in Congress deregulation in 1977-78, Michael Malbin argues that the heavy
econometric analyses

reliance

on

sophisticated

only

obscured

the underlying

economic and political assumptions which were

the real issue.

Herbert Storing,

in

a comprehensive reflection on

time of

American statesmanship left unfinished at the his death in 1977, takes strong issue with the notion, central to sys

tems analysis or policy analysis, that all rational decision making

economic
not on and

in

nature.

The

volume's

final

essay,

by
of

is essentially Werner Dannhauser, focuses

policy

analysis

but

argues

that while

relationship statesmanship is very

on the

much

statesmanship to bureaucracy, in jeopardy in the modern

world, the great threat

is

not

the political philosophy that

bureaucracy (or presumably policy analysis) but informs liberal democracy.

sound

None

of

the contributors to this volume argues that the techniques of modern

social science will replace as articulated

intuition,

judgment,

and prudence.

The issue, be
reduced

here, is

not whether

contemporary statesmanship
world.

can

to policy analysis, but rather whether policy analysis is really

sound political

necessary for
word,

leadership
decision
its

in the

modern

Does it, in

actually

improve
cludes view

political

making?

It is

a weakness of

this volume that it in

no

proponents

of the

most radical

claims

held

by

some of

practitioners that the unrefined

for policy analysis, for the deliberations of prac

tical politicians must

comprehensive social

eventually give way to the sophisticated techniques of a science. The range of debate is thus circumscribed bv the
of

rather
might

moderate

character

the claims made

for policy
volume. case

analysis

and,
is also

one

say, the good sense of

its defenders in this

But this

the

source of the volume's greatest strength.

Because the
must

for policy

analysis even

is

so

reasonably

and

effectively presented, it

be taken seriously

by

those who are normally skeptical about the claims of modern social science (a

group that includes many readers of this journal). The case for policy analysis begins with the sensible proposition that in reaching decisions on complex public policy issues the intuition of politicians
decide how best to

Shubert shows, for example, that if one wants to meet the housing problem in large cities, it is necessary first to determine precisely what the is. This means collecting and analyzing in a systematic way an enormous amount of data, a task for which
not a

is

sufficient

guide.

"problem"

most

ordinary

politicians

have

neither the

time,

interest,

nor

training. When

Book Reviews
the

-131

Rand Corporation

carried out such a

study for New York

more

City
and

it

was

dis

covered

that the city "was annually

losing

housing

units

through dete

rioration and abandonment

(38,000

units a year

between 1965
a
redirection

1967) than

it

could

policies
stock.

This possibly from emphasizing new

some

build."

finding
City

led to

of governmental

construction to

Although

New York

preserving the existing housing politicians may have intuitively believed

that the most effective way to meet the city's the

decay
sound

of

existing units, many

the

others

housing problem was to prevent (apparently most) believed that new

Shubert'

construction was

most cost-effective solution.

s well taken point

is

that
on

decision making in areas like housing policy cannot rest intuition alone, but must be informed by systematic empirical analysis. Silberman's brief reflections on his service in the department of labor essen
political

tially
man

confirm

is the

one

Shubert's claim, although from a different perspective. Silber defender of policy analysis in the volume who is not himself a
of

policy analyst. As a political executive interested in the effectiveness department programs, he found policy analysis extremely useful as a
weight

labor

counter

to the

often exaggerated claims of committed.

bureaucrats for the

more than

programs

to which

they
its

were

institutionally
A
sound

Something

intuition

or common

sense

is

needed

to determine whether a governmental policy is really achieving

objectives.

judgment

on whether

to maintain, expand, reduce, or

eliminate

existing

programs requires some

measurement, however

imprecise,

of

their costs,

benefits,

and

consequences.

How

else

are

we

to

know

whether

Head Start is
gram

is

improving educational performance, whether the Food Stamp pro leading to more nutritious diets, or whether job training efforts are
dent in the hardcore
of the most
are
unemployed? and

making

Many
however,
good

important

interesting

political questions

and

issues,
dis

inherently
(not

resistant

to measurement, especially quantification. A

whether

example

mentioned

in the volume) is

the widespread

semination of pornographic materials contributes

to moral

analyst

it into

an

is to say anything intelligent about such a issue that is amenable to his techniques: for example, does the dis

decay. If the policy question he must transform

semination of

dency,

as

pornography lead to an increase in antisocial behavior. The ten Storing notes, is to focus on "utilities and costs that are measurable
even though

over those that are

the immeasurable utilities and costs may

as

be ultimately
measurable

more

important. Moreover,
of

Banfield

points

out, the

focus

on

effects

policy innovations necessarily

there can

emphasizes

short-term of these.

over

long-term

consequences, regardless of the relative

importance

With this

reservation

be little doubt that

political

careful empirical analysis

is

an

essential

ingredient
this

of sound not quite

decision making in many policy

of

areas.

Nonetheless,

is

the same as saying that policy analysis, as

taught at institutions like the

Kennedy

School

Government, is

essential.

As

Moore shows, policy

more

analysis

involves both the gathering

that

of empirical causal

data and,

distinctively,

the

organization of

data into "elaborate

chains

132

Interpretation
in
mathematical

often expressed real world.

form, intended

"model"

to constitute a

of

the

These

models purport

to predict, through "rigorous

the consequences of alternative governmental policies more precisely than

possible through common
not

is

sense reasoning.

It is the

analytical

technique,

and

the data gathering, that is the core of policy analysis and that raises the

most serious questions about

its

contribution

to political decision making.

Like

a computer

that replicates human mathematical calculation, the

formal

models and causal chains of

policy

analysis are

ous and systematic way,

the

mental

designed to replicate, in a rigor processes of a decision maker intent on

maximizing the

achievement of certain specified goals.

Policy

analysis

does

not

determine
best to

goals

this

is

still a matter of practical

judgment

but it does

claim

to improve upon, and therefore supplant, common sense reasoning about

achieve posited goals.

how

The policy analyst asserts that to the extent that we wish to enhance the role of reason in political decision making we must adopt his methods. As Shubert implies, if a politician rejects the conclusions policy
analysis

of

he does

so

because
not

of

"values,

particular special an

interests,

considerations,"

and

political

because there

exists

equally legitimate

alternative

way

of

reasoning
as

on

the

merits of public policy.

In his penetrating

critique of this view

Storing
is

argues that practical reason

ing,

or

prudence,

traditionally
He

understood

not reducible

maximizing

calculation.

offers the example of

the Office of

simply to Management

utility-

and

Budget,
ernment. would

an

indispensable economizing force in contemporary American gov "But is it Storing asks, '"that the OMB should govern
imaginable,"
.

that be reasonable? to

pelled

face the issue it

of cost/benefit.

It is surely important that generals be com But must not generals remain
.

generals?

Could the OMB defend the

protect

country?

Could it

conduct

foreign

rela

tions? Could
requires some

individual
the meaning
or of

Rational "an decent

political

attention to

defense,"

adequate
of

decision making "the legiti for the

elderly.

minorities,"

mate

rights

of

standard

living

Storing
able

maintains that
of practical

"such

views"

end-oriented

are

"independent, indispens
use of various econo

bases

rationality."

Malbin
metric served

makes a similar point when

he

shows

how the
on

analyses

during

the

debate in Congress

natural

gas

deregulation ill
crucial

the

deliberative
assumptions.

process

by deflecting
these

attention

away from the

underlying or justice that

Some

of

were political assumptions about

equity
two
of a

reflected

fundamental
In this

principled

differences between the

surprisingly,
were

political parties.

But

other

assumptions,

perhaps more

technical economic

nature.

case the

key

elasti

premise was

"supply

how readily
no

increased price. There was simply objective way to determine in advance supply elasticity; consequently the issue turned simply on whether one had a basically optimistic or pessi mistic view about the of a free market ability economy in natural gas to improve supplies to a significant degree. Policy analysis did little to clarify, and much
natural gas supplies would respond to

Book Reviews
to obscure, this

133
analysts could

fundamental issue. Malbin indicates that policy

of

do

better job

highlighting

the technical

assumptions crucial

to their con

clusions.

Nonetheless,

the problem remains that the

artificial precision of quan

titative studies may continue to obscure the principle, if not in practice

at the

deeper

political

issues that

are

in

heart

of the

decision

process.

Whereas these

criticisms aim to show that

its claims,
and

others

focus

on the rather

policy analysis does not live up to limited nature of the claims themselves
analysis contem

how far they fall short of true statesmanship. Proponents of policy maintain, as Moore argues in this volume, that statesmanship in the
porary
will world emerges out of

choices"

the

"day-to-day
analysis

on

"specific

substantive analysis
modern

issues."

Statesmen

need

policy

because only through policy

this volume suggest,
whether

the right choices be made on the complex and detailed issues

governments

face. As

several

contributors to

however,
not

this

view

misunderstands

the task of statesmanship,

or

policy
to find

analysis

is

essential

to choosing particular policies.

leadership"

For Banfield the "essential tasks

of political

are

"first,

the terms on which ambitious, vindictive, another, and beyond that, to foster a
what can and cannot

and rapacious men will restrain one opinion

public

that is reasonable about

That particular policy maximize social designed to decisions are carefully utility at the least cost will mean little if the interests and passions of men render them unwilling to abide enacted law or if the public expects and demands from government

better."

be done to

make

the society

by duly
more

possibly deliver. Dannhauser reinforces the latter point by cooperate "in the educating and shap calling for Congress and the President to one that will protect us not only from the dan of a true public
than

it

can

opinion,"

ing

nihili

gers of

bureaucracy, but, in Storing's

with

more

importantly, from "communism

and

Nowhere in this
cussed than

volume

is

the nature of statesmanship more

incisively
and

dis

analysis of

"American Statesmanship: Old

New."

Those familiar

Storing's
will

writings and

teaching during
in

two decades at the

University
lifetime's
traces the

of

Chicago

recognize

the essay as a masterful

experiment

integration

of a

reflections

on

the American

popular

government.

It

decay
of the

of

American statesmanship along two

clear-eyed
appreciation

parallel paths:

the trans
well

framers'

formation

of

the strengths as

as

the dangers
science

of popular government

into

a simple populism; and the rise of the

of

decision making

as a replacement

for the
system.

ends-oriented

characteristic

of the architects of the

cases of traditional

American

The

result

reasoning is that while

ex

we still

have

statesmanship, we

"have to

very large

tent, lost the understanding management decision

sides of

of

the

legitimacy

of

nonpopulist,

nonscientific-

Consequently,
In the

"these nonpopulist, nonscientific

even when

American statesmanship tend to be done poorly and,

done

well, tend to

be done

under

course of

describing
of

and explain

ing

these

trends.

Storing

articulates

five ingredients

true

statesmanship:

public

instruction,

sound practical

reasoning (what he

calls the

"judicial

model

134
of

Interpretation
moral

rationality),
and

stature, a grasp of the

proper ends

of an

institution

or

nation,

decisiveness.
and

If,
it is
and

as

Storing

Dannhauser argue, true statesmanship is in

the rise of policy analysis

jeopardy

in

contemporary America,
more

is

hardly

the cause.

Rather,

like the

effect.

The

attractiveness of

the

systematic

data gathering

analytical

techniques of this new

and a

growing

number of elected officials

field among its teachers, practitioners, is testimony both to the role which in
our political of

the desire to serve the public good continues to play to the absence

life,

and

from

our public

discourse

of a clear

understanding

traditional

conceptions of political well

leadership. Liberals

and conservatives alike would

do

cautiously before attaching high hopes to these new techniques. And there is no better place to begin for thinking through the implications of
to
proceed

the new policy science than this

fine

volume.

Masters of International Thought. By Kenneth Thompson. (Baton Rouge and London: Louisiana State University Press, 1980. Pp. xi + 249. $20.00.)

Morality

and

Foreign Policy.

London: Louisiana State

By Kenneth W. Thompson. (Baton Rouge and University Press, 1980. Pp. xiii + 197. $16.95.)

Robert F. Smith
Skidmore College

These books international

continue
as

Professor Thompson's

quest

for

a viable

theory

of

politics

the basis for effective and

moral

foreign

policies.

In

Masters of International Thought, he examines the life and writings of eighteen theorists whose principles of international politics transcend particular foreign policy problems. In between morals and
terests"

Morality

and

Foreign Policy, he

examines

the

"relations

politics or

between

moral principles and

the national in

with emphasis on

international
on

politics. of their

The

masters
as

are

selected

the

basis

writings, reputations,

and

influence,

well

as on the effect
master

lectual development. Each

that master's personal
world

they have had on Thompson's own intel is the subject of a separate essay, in which
and

background
assessed.

impact

on the

intellectual

and political

is

presented and

Leading

assumptions,

concepts, principles,

of primary and secondary writings is provided. The essays arc organized under four categories. The first, normative thought, includes the Christian realists Herbert Butterficld,

and overall

theory

are analyzed and appraised.

bibliography

Reinhold Niebuhr, Reverend John

second,

Courtney Murray,

and

Martin Wight. The includes

European-American
of power theorists:

concepts of power and politics,

leading
Spyk-

balance

E. H. Carr, Hans J. Morgenthau, Nicholas

and

man, Arnold

Wolfers, John Herz,

Karl Deutsch. The

cold

war

analysts,

the third category, are Walter

Lippmann, George F Kennan, Louis J. Halle, Jr.,

Book Reviews
and

135

Raymond Aron. And the fourth, world order theorists, includes Wright, David Mitrany, Charles De Visscher, and Arnold Toynbee.
The
of

Quincy

masters share

important
on a

characteristics.
of

the world and

part,

variety is historical, empirical, and deductive. for

methodology. and peace.

draw

All have a broad understanding disciplines. Their method, for the most

Only
are

Deutsch is

behaviorist

with a special concern classical were

All

normative, committed to the

and

values of

justice

Many

have European backgrounds

perhaps, all are
while

trained

in the

classical tradition.

Most important

in

some

measure political realists. sionaries

Even the

world order

theorists,

in

a sense vi

and

idealists,
can

role of power

to adjust their

Each theorist

sufficiently pragmatic, practical, and aware of the ideals to the limits of existing power relations. be singled out for a unique contribution to international
of

are

theory: Butterfield the

for his historical treatment

of
realism

international ethics; Carr

use

as

leading

advocate

during

the

1930s; Deutsch for his

of

modern social science

techniques in behalf of traditional values; Lippmann and

on concrete

Kennan for their influence

and so on.

policies;

Mitrany

for his theory

of

func

But international theory is especially indebted to Niebuhr, tionalism; Thompson believes, in particular for his conception of political morality. Nie

buhr, Thompson declares, affirming Kennan's

"father
all."

assessment,

is the intellectual

of us mentors at

Fittingly, Thompson's former

Wright
and of

the

University

of

Chicago, Quincy

Hans Morgenthau, for his

are given special praise.

Wright is lauded for his

breadth

interests,
and

commitment
warm

to scholarship, contribution to the understand

ing
for

of

war,

and

humane
role

approach

to

teaching

and concern

students.

Morgenthau 's

special

was

to turn American scholars and

realism.

statesmen at a
with

away from idealism and toward political time when idealism was still popular and
the Soviet Union
and
was

Advocating

realism

post-

World War II devoid

cooperation

expected, Morgenthau was subjected to

charge

harsh

criti

cism,

in

particular

the

that his

theory

was

of

morality.

Perhaps reacting to this, Thompson makes a special effort to demonstrate the moral dimensions of Morgenthau's teachings. He also offers a moving tribute to Morgenthau's personal morality, ending with the assertion that "I can say with

Walter Lippmann, he
Thompson is
others

was

indeed the

most moral man

knew"

ever
wish

(p.

90).

moved

by

the "simple,
of

straight-forward

to share with

the

wisdom and

knowledge His

leading

writers

in international is judicious. The

essays

He has done this

admirably.

choice

of masters

are well-organized,
an

clear,

informative,
As

and useful.

Individually, they
politics
as

serve as

introduction to
principal

each theorist. and

a whole,

they

provide an excellent

survey

of the

concepts

theories of

international

modern,

developing discipline. Morality and Foreign Policy is

philosophers,
stract
moral

more

difficult

and complex.

Most

political ab de-

starting
principles

with on

Socrates, have known

concrete

that attempts to

impose

historical

situations can

be extremely

136
structive.

Interpretation

They
all

know that the kind

a compromise

of

justice actually

possible

required,

in

cases, practically between the ideal and existing politics only measured the deficiencies of the latter. This awareness negated self-righteousness and enhanced moderation. It
prevented most philosophers

between theory

and practice.

The distance

from trying to
seems

make a virtue out of compromise.

Thompson, in
promise
stated more

contrast,

sometimes

to be elevating the necessary com

between the ideal

and

the possible

into the highest

moral principle, or

generally, to argue the moral superiority of political realism over

system.

any

other

thought

He does

so

by

analyzing the
"respected
and

relations

between

morality His
and

and

foreign policy

by drawing
and

on a

enduring

body

of

thought"

political and moral

claims,

however,
more

are modest.

pitting opposing If he can crystallize the

efforts will

views against one another. main

lines

of

debate

define them

sharply, his

have been

worthwhile.

Thompson begins first

by

his

analysis.

Politics,
and

and

constructing a perspective from which to conduct especially international politics, are characterized by desire to be
moral

conflict.

Men

nations

but they

are

also

selfish

and

immoral. Under these conditions, only proximate morals, or moral which reflect both good and evil are possible as guides to human That

maxims,
conduct.

faculty

which can

inform the is

statesman or

theorist about morality and

its de

proper

relationship

with politics

moral reasoning.

Moral reasoning
show

can

lineate
nection on

practical concepts of

morality,

justify

moral

maxims, and

the con

between the morally desirable and practically possible. In sum. it "calls those who would be moralists to be political realists as (p. 28).
well"

By
"case

political

reasoning,

Thompson then

issues"

examines

the "great

and

in morality in American foreign policy history. In his historical analyses, assessments, and policy recommendations, Thompson is at his best.
He
reiterates the realist critique of such moralistic concepts as
alliances,"

shows

"no entangling Manifest Destiny, Wilsonianism, and the Truman Doctrine and how they have led to erroneous policies. He analyzes and assesses
relations with

American for

the Third

World,
He

our

foreign

aid programs, and

Presi He

dent Carter's human

argues more

rights policy.

criticizes

Kissinger's

"personalism."

sensitivity to the problem of the Third World and stressing of

aid policies should
our

our mutual

interests. Our foreign

be

more

discriminate

and

better
avoid

related to our national

excessive

interests. And,

human

rights policies should

idealism. Here, Thompson's

the
view

assessments

and

recommenda

tions,

grounded on political
expresses
sense

realism, are always eminently

that a
and

reasonable.

Thompson
not

philosophy
not

of

international full

relations

is

in the fullest

philosophy

therefore does not have to bc concerned

with

fundamental

questions.

That is, it does

account
can

have to

give a

account of

itself. This view, I think, helps

arguments.

for the
given

problems

in his theoretical
efforts to show
critical of other

Only

few illustrations little

be

here. In his

the

superiority

of political or proximate with

morality, he is

highly

moral

theories. He denies

or no argument

the ability to provide moral

Book Reviews
guides

137
natural

to politics of such diverse thought as classical and Christian

law

theories,
and

"bourgeois

individualism,"

modern

rationalism,

naturalism,
writers with

Marxism,
whom

liberalism. In

most

cases, he doesn't

identify

the

these theories are connected.

and

He

gives

scant attention

to their differ

ences,

especially their views toward the relationship between

moral principles were

theory

and

practice.

He

seems to assume that traditional political philosophers who postu also

lated

universal

determined to implement them in

political

practice. ern

That is. he fails to distinguish between

also seems

philosophy

and mod

ideology. He

to forget that

most political philosophers were recommended regime.

in

sense realists
lian"

in foreign defense

policy. of

For example, Plato

"Machiavel

tactics in
can

the

Republic,

the

ideal

In short, before
reflects

Thompson

justifiably

claim

that realism "more adequately

the com

plexities and problems of politics with

fewer

illusions"

than these other

theories,

he

would

have to

subject them to a

deeper

and more comprehensive critique. not make clear

In his
source.

account of practical admits

morality,

he does

its

ground or

He

the existence of universal principles of morality,

practical

but he

doesn't

seem

to

derive

morality from

such principles.

He

stresses the

importance
of

of actual

conditions,

including
show

"moral maxims", but he doesn't

existing laws and norms as sources how moral principles derived from
politics

such conventions can

be binding. And finally, he describes domestic

as characterized
moral

by

the prudent statesman

formulating
and

and

applying
of

proximate

principles, aided
good and

by
a

checks

and

balances

separation goals and

power,

in

balancing

evil give

and

reconciling conflicting
account

interests. He
principles,

does not, however,

clear

of

those

constitutional

universally true, that govern and processes. make possible these political Or, he doesn't consider clearly the that possibility that proximate morality depends upon at least the belief
which a preponderance of citizens are

believe

"fixed"

principles of

morality
this

exist.

Nevertheless,
vides an

book, along
foreign

important

contribution

Masters of International Thought, pro to international theory and a sound basis for
with

reasonable and effective always

policies.

Actions stemming from

political real

ism will be, it seems to me, somewhat self-serving and therefore a bit shameful. Yet, few would doubt that foreign policies based on realism are more moral than those based on idealism or cynicism. They are far more likely
to benefit
not

only the
objects.

nation

that pursues realistic policies

realism

but

also the nations

that are their

That is,

in foreign policy
be

contributes

to mod

eration and restraint and culties

thereby

enhances world peace.

Those theoretical diffi

met with a paraphrase another context:

that realism encounters, therefore, might well

admonition

of

Justice Holmes's

cited

by

Thompson in isn't

if the

conclusions are

sound,

how they

are arrived at

always so

important.

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and Business Office: 66 West 12th Street, New York, N.Y. 1001 1 Room GF341

Editorial

Forthcoming

Articles

Arlene W. Saxonhouse
Pollingue Nichols

An Unspoken Theme in Plato's Gorgias: War The Good Life, Slavery, Acquisition:

Mary

and

Aristotle's Introduction to Political Science

Catherine Zuckert

Aristotle

on

the Limits and Satisfactions of

Political Life Fuller

Temporal Royalties

Timothy

and

Virtue's

Airy

Voice

in The Tempest
Barnouw The Pursuit Happiness in Jefferson,
and

Jeffrey

of

and

its Background in Bacon Robert Sacks

The Lion
on

Hobbes

and

the Ass: a

Commentary

the Book

of

Genesis (Chapters 35-37)

ISSN 0020-9635