On the surface, Thomas Harris' books are crime novels, thrillers. In these books, we are often given insight into the thought processes of the detectives. We learn how they gain insight into the serial killer's inspiration.
In Red Dragon Will Graham, retired, is coaxed back into service to help the FBI catch a serial killer, The Tooth Fairy. They need him because of his particularly keen insights. When Graham makes a connection in his mind, he says, "Match. Match." In Hannibal, Rinaldo Pazzi also says, "Match. Match," when he makes the connection between the painting "Primavera" and the serial killer, "Il Mostro". Harris says, "In that moment when the connection is made, in that synaptic spasm of completion when the thought drives through the red fuse, is our keenest pleasure." It seems Harris is urging us to make connections, to look at the clues and determine HIS inspiration.
When Pazzi receives his revelation, he is looking up at the windows of the Palazzo Vecchio where his ancestor was slain. During Hannibal's lecture to the Studiolo, he describes how Judas is depicted hanged with his face upturned. In a 9th Century diptych, "He's still looking up." Harris tells us that we are not a reflective culture. That previous generations looked to the stars. There are numerous other references throughout the book to "looking up". So, let's have a look.
The first thing we see is the name of our female protagonist, Starling. Then in the very first chapter, we have water, fish, crabs, a ram, and the smell of goats. Throughout the rest of the book, we'll find the bull, the lion, the archer, the scorpion, the scales, the twins, and the virgin, sometimes over and over again. Then, there are Mischa's star-shaped hands, Daddy's star, the morning star, "Would You Like to Swing on a Star?", etc. I will not go into detail about all of these as some of them are mentioned only in passing, but it is apparent that Harris used the stars in the construction of his story.
At the end of SOTL, Hannibal writes Clarice a letter in which he says he has windows and can see Orion. Then he says, "Some of our stars are the same. Clarice." What does that mean?
In Hannibal, Harris mentions Orion again. The plane which carries Hannibal home, is flying through Orion, the great constellation of the Hunter. So, who is Orion? What's his story?
Orion was always getting into trouble with women. He tried to force himself on Merope when he was drunk and was blinded for the offense (though Hephaestus returned his sight). He was perpetually chasing after the Pleiades. But one particular attraction eventually led to his doom. He was infatuated with Artemis, the chaste, goddess of the hunt, associated with deer, protector of children, twin sister of Apollo. Unconstrained by a husband, Artemis was free to pursue her more masculine interests. Those who threatened her chastity were severely punished. Now either Apollo or Artemis, (I've read differning accounts), noticed Orion's attentions and sent a scorpion to kill him.
It is easy to see the similarities here with the story of Krendler and Clarice. Krendler is a boastful womanizer who at one time pursued Clarice. Clarice is a chaste hunter of serial killers, associated with deer (her "ponytail bouncing like the flag of a white-tailed deer"), who saves Evelda's baby. Match. Match. Match.
The scorpion then is Hannibal. He kills Krendler and he stings Clarice with the needle many times. But I don't feel the keen pleasure of the match here. There must be something else to link Hannibal to the Scorpion. And there is. The constellation Scorpio contains an asterism known as the Fish-hook. You will recall that when Hannibal leaves Florence, he stops at a church and retrieves his passport and other identification suspended in the Devil's Armor by a fish-hook. Match! Hannibal is identified with the Scorpion.
The notion of twins here is interesting. Besides Artemis and Apollo, there's another set of famous twins and they are immortalized in the stars, Castor and Pollux, Gemini. Castor and Pollux were the offspring of Leda. Pollux's father was Zeus who came to Leda in the guise of a swan. Leda and the Swan. The artwork in Hannibal's rented house. Match. Castor was Leda's son through her husband, Tyndareus. The twins also had two sisters born with them, Helen of Troy who was Zeus' daughter and Clytemnestra, Tyndareus' offspring.
Pollux, being the child of Zeus, was immortal but his brother was not. They were inseparably close. But then Castor was killed in a war. Inconsolable, Pollux pleaded with Zeus to bring him back, to give him immortality. Zeus reunited the twins and they spent half their time in heaven and the rest in the underworld [Buenos Aires]. Two beings united in one constellation, some of whose stars are the same. Match. This story resonates well with the story of Hannibal and Mischa/Starling. If we realize that it was Helen who was Pollux's true twin we can better understand the gender switch. Also, Castor is associated with horses, as is Clarice with her Mustang and her old friend Hannah. [It's interesting to note that the constellation Gemini, to the Mayans, is a pig. More on Mayans later.]
But there's more and it was this realization that has led me to a new appreciation of the ending to the movie. I had heard that Harris helped them with the ending and now I am sure of it. During the dinner, Krendler offers Clarice a job taking dictation, etc. Clarice then appears to weigh the issue, "using her hands like the Scales of Justice." Libra. I won't belabor the point about Clarice and Justice. What's interesting to me is that Scorpio and Libra share a few stars. "Some of our stars are the same." Match. And one must chop off the claw of the Scorpion to make the constellation Libra!
Apparently, Harris is creating a mythology to explain the stars much like the ancients did. These stories were very effective devices to help one remember when it was time to plant, when it was time to harvest, etc. One could call it a primitive memory palace. Match again!
What a keen pleasure indeed.
3/15/01The constellation Carina represents the keel of a ship. It had once been part of a larger constellation, Argo Nevis, along with Puppis and Vela, the stern and sails respectively. It has also been associated with Noah's Arc. Near this constellation is Columba, the dove. For the Greeks, this great ship was that used by Jason and the Argonauts in their quest for the golden fleece. Well into their journey the Argonauts met Phineas, an aged seer. Poor Phineas was being punished by Zeus for revealing the god's nefarious activities. Whenever Phineas tried to eat, Harpies swept down and defiled his food.
After killing Pazzi, Hannibal joined a tour group for their last three days in Europe in order to fly inconspicuously back to the US. He crossed the Atlantic in a Boeing 747, the largest passenger plane there is, i.e. a great ship. And when he tried to eat the lovely meal he brought, the woman with the children touched his bread with a diaper-dipped finger and the flight attendant took away his wine. And when he fell asleep, he had a "prophecy".
To punish Cassiopeia for her boasting, the maid Andromeda was chained to a rock to be sacrificed, devoured by the sea monster Cetus. But Perseus, aboard Pegasus, saved her and they eventually got married.
In this drawing of the constellation, Andomeda is shown in a seated position. Her feet are bare. Her left breast is exposed and she has a star for a nipple. From her wrists dangle chains. Compare that to Hannibal as he is being prepared to be fed to the pigs. Hannibal is seated, each leg strapped to a tine of the forklift. His feet are bare. Cordell had crisped his nipple and had to smother the "widening circle of fire on the doctor's shirtfront." There is an IV in each hand, "like a parody of something Cordell couldn't quite remember." Andromeda.
Clarice comes to rescue Hannibal in her Mustang. But Clarice is injured. Hannibal puts on her boots (walks in her shoes and/or a punning reference to Bootes?) and they drive off in the Mustang to get "married".
In Egyptian astrology, Osiris was located in Orion. Mason is associated with Osiris, as explained quite admirably by Timothy Mason. But he also has some relation to Orion. Orion had two faithful dogs (Canis Major and Canis Minor). Mason had "Skippy and Spot all waggy at [his] feet."
But Mason is also associated with Pisces, the Fishes. Recall, he looks like something from the "deep, deep ocean". He's on a respirator, he has no eyelids or lips, he keeps his eye moist like the fishmongers do ... In Silence we had the slaughter of the lambs (Aries). In Hannibal, the Fish (Pisces) meets his doom. Every two thousand years or so, the sun changes its astrological position at the vernal equinox. It had been in Aries, then 2000 years ago it entered Pisces. Now, we are entering the Age of Aquarius. It seems Harris has written a mythology to commemorate this event and he is incorporating the myths of the past in doing so. A bold undertaking!
3/12/01
I read a book a couple of years ago called, The Origins of the Mithraic Mysteries: Cosmology and Salvation in the Ancient World, by David Ulansey. Remembering this fascinating book put me on the idea of the precession of the equinox. Last night I pulled it out again and started skimming through it and found a few things that might be pertinent here.
Mithraism was a cult which began in the city of Tarsus (the birthplace of the Apostle Paul) in the first century BC. It was a mystery cult which required a number of initiation rites in order to learn all its secrets. The major symbol of Mithraism was a tauroctony, a stone engraving showing Mithras slaying a bull. Often included in these tauroctonies were the images of a scorpion, a dog, a snake, a lion, a crow, a cup and the whole was often encircled by the zodiac. Mithras is nearly always depicted looking away from the bull that he is killing.
I won't go into all the details, but Ulansey quite convincingly makes the argument that Mithras is Perseus. The constellation Perseus is just above that of Taurus the Bull. Mithras looks away just as Perseus looks away from the Medusa. But perhaps, most interestingly for us, is another symbol of Mithraism used in the 5th level of initiation (the Perses level), the curved knife. Perseus is associated with a particular curved knife called the harpe. Hannibal, of course, wields a Harpy.
Another important symbol of Mithraism is the Gorgon. The Gorgon was a snake-haired monster who was so horrific just one look at her would turn a man to stone. Perseus defeated her using a mirror and then he chopped off her head. Mason has snake-like hair. Hannibal suggested the mirror and then he broke Mason's neck, effectively severing his head from his body. (I wonder if, in the movie, all those statues in Mason's house are men turned to stone. Notice also that at the Palazzo Capponi, Hannibal has a collection of busts, or heads.)
Mithraism grew out of the newly acquired knowledge that the vernal equinox had once been in the constellation Taurus but was now in Aries. This had a profound effect on those who pondered the implications. The belief was that he who could conquer the forces of the cosmos (in this case, Mithras) could grant salvation. It is not an uncommon thought. Paul (of Tarsus) entertained similar ones.
3/20/01
It's interesting to note that in the Old Testament, the Hebrews threw out the golden calf (Taurus?) and smeared lamb's blood (Aries?) on the doorways round about the vernal equinox. And the Hebrews probably learned about the precession of the equinox from the Egyptians. Perhaps the Mithraists didn't have such a secret after all.
Now, if the sun is in a particular constellation at the vernal equinox the constellation cannot be seen. You cannot see stars in the daytime. So, during the Age of Aries, astronomers (the dead nightwatchmen?) looked for the rising of a certain star from the opposite side of the zodiac, specifically Antares (ie, anti-Aries). Antares is also known as the heart of the Scorpion as it resides in the center of the constellation Scorpio. It's rising heralded the beginning of Spring. From the movie: Vide Cor Meum? See my heart? (Song lyrics)
But things have changed now. We just haven't kept up. Aries is still considered the first sign of the zodiac when in fact it should almost be Aquarius. (It's impossible to pinpoint the transition to a new age so they say it is "dawning".) People born now at the end of March should have as their "sun sign" Pisces or Aquarius, not Aries. So whatever it is you thought your sign was, you're probably off by 1 and maybe 2. Not that it matters.
Anyway, the precession happens because of a wobble in the earth's rotation. The North Pole ever so slowly goes round in a circle which means the Pole Star changes over time. It is now approaching Polaris, but the other Pole Stars are: Al Deramin ("right arm", Cepheus), Deneb ("tail", Cygnus), Vega ("swooping vulture", Lyra), Alpha Draconis ("dragon star", Draco). It takes 25,800 years for the earth to make one big wobble through all the signs of the zodiac, and around to all the Pole Stars. Harris mentions the Pole Star at the end of Chapter 48 as Hannibal is flying to the New World. "See [the airplane] cross the Pole Star, well past the point of no return..." (p 257)
There are 12 hours on the face of a clock. There are 12 months in a year. And there are 12 "ages" (zodiac constellations) in a Great Year, (recall the Magnus Annus referenced in Yeats' Two Songs From a Play as alluded to by the phrase "resinous heart" (p 291) and by the video huntsman who begins field-dressing a deer at the "ANN-us" (p 293).)
Now the concept of a Great Year is very old and very confusing. For the Stoics it probably dealt with planetary alignments rather than the precession but what might be of interest here is the belief that at the end of a Great Year there would be a conflagration. The universe would be destroyed by fire and created again for another Great Year. A somewhat apocalyptic belief to which I will return later.
I mention the Stoics because, for one, Marcus Aurelius was a Stoic ("Read Marcus Aurelius") and Jack Crawford has been described as stoical, but also because one of the greatest centers of Stoic thought was none other than Tarsus, the birthplace of both Mithraism and St. Paul. [Note that "tarsus" means "foot".] The Stoics were great believers in Fate and astrology and the allegorical interpretation of natural forces. And they had a significant influence on the people of that time.
(OK, where was I? Hmmm ...)
The Stoics honored a number of Greek heroes and used them to allegorize natural forces or scientific theories. Hercules, Castor and Pollux, and Aesculapius were all important to them. But there was another mythological figure, who isn't quite a hero, that the Stoics honored, namely Phaethon. Phaethon was the son of Helios the sun god. One day he asked daddy for the keys to the chariot, drove too close to the earth and nearly set the world on fire. The Stoics chose Phaethon to represent their notion of the conflagration, the end of the Great Year. The Mithraists borrowed this idea and further identified Phaethon with Mithras. But for them, Mithras/Phaethon was responsible for the end of an Age, not the Great Year.
There is another mythological figure whose story is similar to Phaethon's. Perhaps you've noticed already? His daddy made him a pair of wings and told him to stay in the middle but the boy got too close to the sun, his wings were scorched and he fell into the sea. Icarus. (See my section on Icarus to see how Icarus relates to Hannibal.) Dante links Phaethon and Icarus in the Inferno, Canto XVII, "When Phaethon spurned the reins, so that the sky that one still sees was scorched, I doubt there was greater fear (Nor when pathetic Icarus felt his thighs unfeathered from the melting wax, to hear his father crying, 'You are falling now!')" So that the sky that one still sees was scorched is a reference to the Milky Way, and there are some interesting things to say about that, but perhaps another time. You can probably see where that's going anyway.
So, what of the Twins then, Castor and Pollux, the Dioscuroi, the Sons of God? I've already briefly mentioned the notion of twins in Hannibal so what were the Twins to the Mithraists? Let's have a look.
This picture shows a typical tauroctony. There's Mithras slaying the bull while looking away. There's a dog, a snake, a scorpion, a lion and a crow. Another common feature of tauroctonies are the two fellows on the left. Notice how they are dressed, very much alike and very much like Mithras in their felt caps. (In the movie, Hannibal is fond of hats/caps. Mason wears one too.) We can say they are twins. But one holds a torch pointing upward, the other holds his torch pointing down.
To the Stoics, the Dioscuroi represented the two celestial hemispheres. To the Mithraists, the torchbearers are a little more specific. Notice in the background two trees. The one on the right is in leaf and with it there is a torch pointing up and a bull's head. The tree of the left is in fruit. The torch is pointing down and there is a scorpion at its side. The trees represent the seasons, spring and fall. The twin torchbearers then are the equinoxes. Torch up being the vernal equinox, torch down the autumnal equinox. The bull and scorpion are the constellations in which the equinoxes are located. This relates nicely to the connection of the Dioscuroi to the celestial hemispheres because it is at the equinox when the sun (torch) crosses from one hemisphere to the other.
Another important figure in Mithraic iconography was the lion-headed god. This creature had a man's body, a lion's head and two sets of wings. Spiraling around the body was a serpent whose head typically rested on top of the lion's head. Carved on the body of the lion-headed god between the coils of the snake were signs of the zodiac. Occasionally, the head of Medusa was on its chest. The figure was also typically shown holding a key and standing on a sphere.
It was a very complex deity. According to Ulansey, it represented the organization of the cosmos in its entirety. The sphere on which it stood was the celestial sphere. The snake is Cronos (Unaging Time). The spiraling of the snake mirrored the path of the sun through the zodiac - the spiral was used by Dante in his Divine Comedy (more on that later). The key opened the celestial gates through which a soul would ascend or descend. Janus, as you'll recall, was the god of gateways and he frequently held keys. Janus was also a two-headed god, one head looking forward in time, the other backward. Interestingly, there was a two-headed sculpture found in a mithraeum. One head was the lion's head, the other, the Gorgon. Ulansey believes that both the lion-headed god and Medusa represented Helios, the sun god, father of Phaethon. The sun was thought to control time. Its movement determined the hours, days, months and years. Since Perseus slew Medusa, Mithras, as lord of the precession, held dominion over the entire cosmos (the lion-headed god). He manipulated the celestial equator and the ecliptic to change the position of the sun at the equinox. In so doing, he manipulated Time. Hannibal, of course, wants to alter time as well.
So, if the Roman god Mithras was really Perseus, how did he come to be called Mithras? Many believe that Mithras was a god borrowed from the Persians, named Mithra. But the two gods, aside from their names, are quite different. More likely is the notion that Mithras got his name from Mithridates Eupator, who during the first century BCE controlled most of Asia Minor. The name Mithridates means "given by Mithra" - the Persian god. This Mithridates had himself portrayed on coins as Perseus because he believed Perseus was the ancestor of the Mithridatic dynasty. Perseus was strongly associated with Persia. Mithraism was a mystery cult and the knowledge at the core of the religion would need to be kept secret. Choosing a name very similar to an existing, foreign god would certainly muddy the waters a bit. Harris might be pointing us to Mithridates/Mithras through his mention of Scarlatti in Section II. Mitridate Eupatore is said to be one of Scarlatti's finest operas.
There is another book that has been helpful in understanding the cosmology behind Hannibal. The author is John Freccero who wrote the forward to Pinsky's translation of the Inferno which Harris acknowledges at the end of Hannibal. The book is called Dante: The Poetics of Conversion. It has been a boon.
The book is a collection of essays, the major thrust of which is to show how Dante's Divine Comedy is a spiritual autobiography, a story of conversion from the pilgrim who once was to the author who wrote the story. The act of conversion is one which requires a good deal of self-reflection (mirrors anyone?), death of the old self and rebirth into a new life.
One of the essays is entitled, "The Dance of the Stars." Here Freccero describes the old idea of the movement of the stars as an allegory to the "most perfect movement of the mind". The perfect movement of the stars represents the goal of perfect rationality. The word "consider" comes from cum siderare, to move with the stars.
To Dante, Christ was the sun, the Church was the moon (the sun and moon are often portrayed as lovers), the 12 Apostles were the 12 signs of the zodiac and the emblem of Christianity, the Cross, was the intersection of the celestial equator with the ecliptic, otherwise known as the position of the equinox, Christ on the cross - his death and resurrection at the vernal equinox.
In his discussion of the correlation between Christian belief and the stars, Freccero quotes Revelations, Chapter 12: "A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars;" He stops there, but I'll continue, "and she was with child; and she cried out, being in labor and in pain to give birth. Then another sign appeared in heaven: and behold, a great red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads were seven diadems." Which gives us the inspiration for Blake's Painting, The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed with the Sun, and Harris' second novel, Red Dragon.
COMING SOON: More on Dante and the stars
On a related topic, I've written this on Venus.
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