L01 Applying Interpretations_ William Blake’s The Ancient of Days
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Apr 3, 2024
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L01 Applying Interpretations: William Blake’s The Ancient of Days
William Blake (1757-1827) was an English writer, engraver, and painter. Blake’s
The
Ancient of Days
is an illustration of a god-like figure emerging from the clouds and holding a
compass—a scientific instrument used in mathematics and architecture. The title “Ancient
of Days” appears three times in the
Book of Daniel
with reference to the Christian God.
As you look at the image below, pay attention to elements that seem to you to have been
inspired by an aspect of classical mythology. Now, think about the interpretive
frameworks you just learned and try applying them to this image. How might these
frameworks cause you to interpret the painting differently?
An euhemerist reading of this painting might see Blake's Ancient of Days as inspired by a
mortal man, perhaps an architect (hence the compass), who was celebrated in his time and
later venerated as a god.
A metaphorical reading of this painting could interpret Blake's Ancient of Days as an
anthropomorphized (i.e., human-formed) depiction of a storm or of the weather, generally.
The Greek god Zeus, the king of the gods, is also the god of the sky and was imagined as
controlling the weather. Myths about Zeus' anger creating storms could be read
metaphorically as explanations for bad weather.
As you explored this image and thought about psychoanalysis, you may have noticed that
the Jungian archetype of the" wise old man" featured prominently; the divine figure
emerging from the clouds has long, white hair and a wizened visage. Yet the Ancient of
Days is not, in fact, depicted as old in his body. This is a type of depiction you will begin
seeing with frequency in the ancient statues of gods introduced throughout this course:
the long beard and hair associated with wisdom and age, but an athletic and youthful body
befitting the power of the major male deities. Freud's claims in the Oedipus complex about
humans' veneration of parental figures, like the father figure the Ancient of Days
represents, may have come to mind as well.
Structuralism might have seemed more difficult to apply to this painting. However, if you
think about how Blake's Ancient of Days likely represents the Christian god in an act of
creation, yet at the same time bears similarities to the supreme Greek god Zeus, you can
see how patterns in different stories and even across different religions might help to
organize and categorize myths. Identifying patterns across different myths will be an
important element of this course.
The final interpretive framework you encountered was feminist approaches to myth.
Sometimes, viewing myths through a feminist lens requires us to note what is
not
present
in a story. Here, we see what appears to be a powerful god who dwells in the sky and
controls or embodies the weather. You will see that throughout classical mythology there
are several gods who play this role of supreme sky god—all of them male. It was the earth
that was feminized in classical myth, with several instantiations of Mother Earth
goddesses carrying out their own acts of creation.
The purpose of this activity was to model for you the kind of image analysis you will be
asked to do for future assignments (for example, in discussion forum formats in Lessons 3
and 4, and in a short writing assignment in Lesson 5). If you did not understand one of the
interpretive frameworks well, or if you feel unsure about how to apply these interpretive
frameworks to an image, rewatch Videos 1.1 and 1.2 or reach out to your instructor for
guidance.
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