E. For descriptions of the Martichoras and other monsters, appearing page 287 in the original and [253] in the translation, see also Rabelais' Pantagruel, Book V, Chap. XXX.
[1] Needless to refer to the comedies of Aristophanes, with which English readers have been familiarized through the Bohn translations. The reference to Claudius ius Drusus seems based upon the following lines in Suetonius: "Dicitur etiam meditatus edictum, quo veniam daret flatum crepitumque ventris in convivio emittendi: cum periclitatum quemdam prae pudore ex continentia reperisset." (Suetonius-Tiberius Claudius Drusus: 32.)
[2] The so-called divinities, Deus Crepitus, Dea Pertunda, Deus Stercutius, Dea Rumina (or Rumilia), Dea Mena, concerning whose curious attributes the reader may consult English or French classical encyclopedists, were doubtless regarded by the intelligent classes of antiquity much as certain religious superstitions are regarded by educated moderns. It is true that they furnished grotesque themes to artists; but many existing superstitions regarding elves and goblins have inspired modern sculptors, painters and designers. Certainly, seriously worshipped as deities, Priapus might seem equally contemptible as a divinity; but his worship, degenerate as it became in later years, was primitively symbolical. The obscene image merely typified the procreative Spirit of Nature. The eccentric gods and goddesses above referred to had no such excuse for being. As previously observed, however, Flaubert artistically represents these divinities not as they were really considered in the antique world, but rather as they would have appeared to the eyes of zealous Christians in the third century—infamous and loathsome.—Translator.
CONTENTS
[INTRODUCTION]
[ARGUMENT]
[THE TEMPTATION OF ST. ANTHONY]
[I]
[II]
[III]
[IV]
[V]
[VI]
[VII]
[NOTE]
[ADDENDA]
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
(by Odilon Redon, which were added especially for this PG e-book.)
... through the long hair half hiding her face, I thought that I could recognize Ammonaria ... [6]
Saint Anthony: Help me, O my God! [16]
And there are columns of basalt everywhere,... The light falls from the vaults above [38]
there is a sweetness in my kisses as of a fruit dissolving within thy heart ... [58]
... a long blood-colored chrysalis [100]
... the flowers fall and the head of a python appears [105]
... and in the darkness beside him people are praying... [107]
... and he beholds an arid plain, mamillated with knolls [113]
She drags a black sponge from her bosom, covers it with kisses ... [115]
I have buried myself in solitude, like the rhinoceros. I dwelt in the tree behind me [119]
Helena - Ennoia [125]
... instantly arise three goddesses [157]
Intelligence became mine! I became the Buddha. [165]
... and eyes without heads were floating like mollusks [167]
I, the first consciousness of Chaos, arose from the abyss that I might harden matter, and give a law unto forms [168]
Here is the Good Goddess, the Idæan of the mountains [178]
I am still the Great Isis!—none has yet lifted my veil! My fruit is the Sun! [188]
... he falls head foremost into the abyss [206]
Anthony: What is the purpose of all that? The Devil: There is no purpose. [224]
The Old Woman: Of what art thou afraid?—a wide, black hole! Perhaps it is a void! [235]
Death: Mine irony depasseth all others! [240]
Death: It is I that make thee awful! Let us intertwine! [241]
Anthony: Somewhere there must be primordial figures, whose bodily forms are only symbols [242]
I myself have sometime beheld in the sky, as it were, forms of spirits [242]
The Sphinx: ... and yet my gaze, which naught can deviate, remains fixed, gazing through all intervening things, upon a horizon that none may reach. The Chimera: I am light and joyous! [245]
The Sciapods: The head as low as possible—That is the secret of happiness. [249]
The beasts of the sea round as wineskins [258]
Divers peoples inhabit the countries of the Ocean [258]
Day at last appears ... in the midst thereof and in the very disk of the sun, beams the face of Jesus Christ. [260]