Chapter 2 Matter as a Mirror: Marsilio Ficino and Renaissance ...

Matter as a Mirror 71
lels the two stories by maintaining that soul is attracted by a mirror image of
its own and loses itself therein; the soul is subsequently devoured like Dionysus,
not by the Titans but by its own passions. 79
The story of the disfigurement of Dionysus is not only reminiscent
of the myths of creation in the Hermetic Pimander and of Plato’s Demiurge,
but also illustrates how mirrors were thought to produce images: first, the
reflecting surfaces receive the forms; then, in a metamorphosis from passive
into active, they transform the received images and give them forth again. In
this context, the Dionysian mirror functions as a highly ambiguous metaphor
for distortion and disfigurement as well as for the soul’s desire to descend into
the corporeal world. This metaphorical construction fulfilled a crucial role in
Neoplatonic cosmologies. Pépin goes even so far as to maintain that Plotinus’
entire theory of matter as a reflection of soul refers to the Dionysian mirror. 80
Ficino was familiar with at least some of these ideas and the relevant passages
in Plotinus, and was also aware that Dionysus features in Greek mythology as
the god of matter and generation. 81
What is common to all of these stories is the idea that mirror reflections
are identified as instrumental for self-cognition as well as self-deception,
and that the mirror has the capacity to change the active gaze into a passive
object that is victimised by its own glance. According to Ovid, Narcissus’
gaze transforms him into a motionless statue: “Spellbound by his own self,
he remained [by the pond] motionless, with a fixed gaze, like a statue carved
from Parian marble.” 82 Let me emphasize that the story of a creative Narcissistic
glance, as will become clearer soon, also entails a confusion between
the concepts of reflection and of imprint. Within this Neoplatonic context,
79 Hadot (1976) 102; with references.
80 Pépin (1970) 315–316 says that according to Plotinus (Enneads IV, 3, 12–14) the
soul is never severed from its origin and emits only images (eidola) which are reflected
on matter (Enneads I 12, 21–31). The mirror as a base that repels the images instead of
absorbing them becomes the central metaphor for matter in Plotinus (Pépin, 1970, 318):
“les multiples dévelopements de Plotin sur la matière comme miroir laissent supposer que
c’est le cas du miroir de Dionysios.”
81 Enneads IV 3, 12; In Phaedrum in Ficino (1981) 134–135: “Nymphae sunt numina,
quae generationi praesunt. Ideo dicuntur aquas inhabitare vel sylvas quoniam generatio.
Et per humorem expletur et descendit ad sylvam, id est, materiam primam. Dionysus his
est preaefectus. Est enim, Deus generationi regenerationique praesidens. Ideo forte bis
natus fingitur huic conveniunt hymni.”
82 Trans. Ovid (1955) 85; Metamorphoses III, 417–418.