gotthold ephraim lessing 1729–1781 - St. Francis Xavier University

474 / GOTTHOLD EPHRAIM LESSING
It is no better than the scrolls that issue from the mouths of figures in old
Gothic paintings.
It is true that when Apollo rescues Hector from Achilles, Homer has the
latter make three further thrusts with his spear into the thick mist (τρς δ’
’ηέρα τψε βαθει^αν). 8 But in the language of poetry this means only that
Achilles was so enraged that he made the three additional thrusts before
realizing that his enemy was no longer before him. Achilles did not see an
actual mist, and the power of the gods to render invisible did not lie in any
mist, but in their ability to bear the object away swiftly. It was only to show
that this abduction took place too quickly for the human eye to follow the
disappearing body that the poet first conceals it in a mist or cloud. And it
was not because a cloud appeared in place of the abducted body, but because
we think of that which is wrapped in mist as being invisible. Accordingly,
Homer sometimes inverts the case, and instead of rendering the object invisible,
causes the subject to be struck blind. For example, Neptune blinds
Achilles when he rescues Aeneas from his murderous hands by suddenly
snatching him out of the thick of the fight and placing him in the rear. 9
Actually, however, Achilles’ eyes are no more blinded than, in the former
example, the abducted heroes are wrapped in a cloud. The poet merely makes
this or that addition in order to make more palpable to our senses that extreme
rapidity of abduction which we call disappearance.
However, paint ers have appropriated the Homeric mist not only in those
cases where Homer himself used it, or would have used it (namely, in rendering
persons invisible or causing them to disappear), but in every instance
where the spectator is supposed to see something in the painting which the
characters themselves, or some of them, cannot see. Minerva became visible
to Achilles alone when she prevented him from assaulting Agamemnon.
1 I know of no other way to express this, says Caylus, than by concealing
her from the rest of the council by a cloud. But this is in complete violation
of the spirit of the poet! Invisibility is the natural condition of his gods; no
blindfolding, no interruption of the rays of light is needed to prevent them
from being seen; but an enlightenment, an increased power of mortal vision
is required, if they are intended to be seen. Thus it is not only that in painting
the cloud is an arbitrary and not a natural sign; but this arbitrary sign
does not even possess the definite distinctness which it could have as such,
for it is used both to render the visible invisible and the invisible visible.
Chapter Fifteen
As experience shows, the poet can raise to this degree of illusion the represen
ta tion of objects other than those that are visible. Consequently, whole
categories of pictures which the poet claims as his own must necessarily be
beyond the reach of the artist. Dryden’s Song for St. Cecelia’s Day 2 is full of
musical pictures which leave the paint er’s brush idle. But I do not want to
stray too far from my subject with such examples, from which in the final
8. Iliad 20.446 [Lessing’s note].
9. Iliad, 20.321– 29 [Lessing’s note]. Neptune:
Poseidon, god of the sea. Aeneas: Trojan ally, a
son of Aphrodite and later the found er of the
colony that became Rome.
1. Iliad 1.194– 98.
2. Also called Alexander’s Feast, this ode was written
in 1687 and set to music by Handel in 1739
[translator’s note]. john Dryden (1631– 1700),
En glish poet, dramatist, and critic.