Mythological Characters in William Blake's Poetry

MYTHOLOGICAL CHARACTERS IN WILLIAM BLAKE'S POETRY
University of Montenegro
Faculty of philosophy – Nikšić
Department of English language
and literature
MYTHOLOGICAL CHARACTERS IN
WILLIAM BLAKE'S POETRY
Mentor: Marija Krivokapić
Candidate: Maja Kovačević

Nikšić, Decembar 2019.
Contents :
1. BIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM BLAKE................................................................................................ 2
2. WILLIAM BLAKE'S MYTHOLOGY................................................................................................ 5
3. MYTHOLOGICAL CHARACTERS IN WILLIAM BLAKE'S POETRY.................................21
4. CONCLUSION..................................................................................................................................... 41
5. B I B L I O G R A P H Y :.................................................................................................................. 47
1. BIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM BLAKE
“William Blake was born in London on November 28, 1757, to James, a hosier, and
Catherine Blake. Two of his six siblings died in infancy. From early childhood, Blake
spoke of having visions—at four he saw God "put his head to the window"; around age
nine, while walking through the countryside, he saw a tree filled with angels. Although his
parents tried to discourage him from "lying," they did observe that he was different from
his peers and did not force him to attend conventional school. He learned to read and write
at home. At age ten, Blake expressed a wish to become a painter, so his parents sent him to
drawing school. Two years later, Blake began writing poetry. When he turned fourteen, he
apprenticed with an engraver because art school proved too costly. One of Blake's
assignments as apprentice was to sketch the tombs at Westminster Abbey, exposing him to
a variety of Gothic styles from which he would draw inspiration throughout his career.
After his seven-year term ended, he studied briefly at the Royal Academy.
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In 1782, he married an illiterate woman named Catherine Boucher. Blake taught
her to read and to write, and also instructed her in draftsmanship. Later, she helped him
print the illuminated poetry for which he is remembered today; the couple had no children.
In 1784 he set up a printshop with a friend and former fellow apprentice, James Parker, but
this venture failed after several years. For the remainder of his life, Blake made a meager
living as an engraver and illustrator for books and magazines. In addition to his wife, Blake
also began training his younger brother Robert in drawing, painting, and engraving. Robert
fell ill during the winter of 1787 and succumbed, probably to consumption. As Robert
died, Blake saw his brother's spirit rise up through the ceiling, "clapping its hands for joy."
He believed that Robert's spirit continued to visit him and later claimed that in a dream
Robert taught him the printing method that he used in Songs of Innocence and other
"illuminated" works.
“Blake's first printed work, Poetical Sketches (1783), is a collection of apprentice
verse, mostly imitating classical models. The poems protest against war, tyranny, and King
George III's treatment of the American colonies. He published his most popular collection,
Songs of Innocence, in 1789 and followed it, in 1794, with Songs of Experience. Some
readers interpret Songs of Innocence in a straightforward fashion, considering it primarily a
children's book, but others have found hints at parody or critique in its seemingly naive and
simple lyrics. Both books of Songs were printed in an illustrated format reminiscent of
illuminated manuscripts. The text and illustrations were printed from copper plates, and
each picture was finished by hand in watercolors.
Blake was a nonconformist who associated with some of the leading radical
thinkers of his day, such as Thomas Paine and Mary Wollstonecraft. In defiance of 18th-
century neoclassical conventions, he privileged imagination over reason in the creation of
both his poetry and images, asserting that ideal forms should be constructed not from
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observations of nature but from inner visions. He declared in one poem, "I must create a
system or be enslaved by another man's." Works such as "The French Revolution" (1791),
"America, a Prophecy" (1793), "Visions of the Daughters of Albion" (1793), and "Europe,
a Prophecy" (1794) express his opposition to the English monarchy, and to 18th-century
political and social tyranny in general. Theological tyranny is the subject of The Book of
Urizen (1794). In the prose work The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1790-93), he satirized
oppressive authority in church and state, as well as the works of Emanuel Swedenborg, a
Swedish philosopher whose ideas once attracted his interest.
In 1800 Blake moved to the seacoast town of Felpham, where he lived and worked
until 1803 under the patronage of William Hayley. He taught himself Greek, Latin,
Hebrew, and Italian, so that he could read classical works in their original language. In
Felpham he experienced profound spiritual insights that prepared him for his mature work,
the great visionary epics written and etched between about 1804 and 1820. Milton (1804-
08), Vala, or The Four Zoas (1797; rewritten after 1800), and Jerusalem (1804-20) have
neither traditional plot, characters, rhyme, nor meter. They envision a new and higher kind
of innocence, the human spirit triumphant over reason.
“Blake believed that his poetry could be read and understood by common people,
but he was determined not to sacrifice his vision in order to become popular. In 1808 he
exhibited some of his watercolors at the Royal Academy, and in May of 1809 he exhibited
his works at his brother James's house. Some of those who saw the exhibit praised Blake's
artistry, but others thought the paintings "hideous" and more than a few called him insane.
Blake's poetry was not well known by the general public, but he was mentioned in A
Biographical Dictionary of the Living Authors of Great Britain and Ireland, published in
1816. Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who had been lent a copy of Songs of Innocence and of
Experience, considered Blake a "man of Genius," and Wordsworth made his own copies of
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several songs. Charles Lamb sent a copy of "The Chimney Sweeper" from Songs of
Innocence to James Montgomery for his Chimney-Sweeper's Friend, and Climbing Boys'
Album (1824), and Robert Southey (who, like Wordsworth, considered Blake insane)
attended Blake's exhibition and included the "Mad Song" from Poetical Sketches in his
miscellany, The Doctor (1834-1837).
Blake's final years, spent in great poverty, were cheered by the admiring friendship
of a group of younger artists who called themselves "the Ancients." In 1818 he met John
Linnell, a young artist who helped him financially and also helped to create new interest in
his work. It was Linnell who, in 1825, commissioned him to design illustrations for Dante's
Divine Comedy, the cycle of drawings that Blake worked on until his death in 1827.”1
2. WILLIAM BLAKE'S MYTHOLOGY
"This article seeks to explain some of the intersections between Blake's visionary
ideas and mythological systems that were current in the latter half of the eighteenth
century. The value of considering this subject lies in revealing some fresh insight into
Blake's aesthetic theory and to respond to the thesis that either writing or art begins with
the effacement of mythology or art equates with mythology. The article reveals that Blake's
approach to mythology is such that myths become subsumed within myths, and that from a
desire to critique the art of the mythographers from his period, Blake was able to deepen
his own enquiry into his aesthetic theorization. He was aware that in order to develop a
new creative system it was necessary to clear away the classical mythological remnants of
the past and challenge some of the more ancient systems of belief such as Druidism, which
1
poets.org/poet/william-blake
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predated most forms. As a consequence, Blake demonstrates a need to eradicate the
possibility of mythical ossification at every stage of his myth.
William Blake's mythology has been explained in diverse ways, due to the
complexity of its sources and Blake's tendency to absorb mythical stories into his narrative
and transform them within the context of his own mythical system. The Blakean scholar
Jason Whittaker has investigated the revival of interest in aspects of British mythology in
the eighteenth century and the way in which Blake interpreted these myths and absorbed
ancient stories into his descriptions of historical events in his own period. Blake's attempts
to appropriate aspects of ancient rituals, in order to demonstrate the connections between
them and the Napoleonic Wars or „the Terror” of the French Revolution, reveal a strong
interest in utilising ancient myth to reinterpret historical events. Blake had a fascination for
ancient stories that were retold in his period, most famously by Jacob Bryant in A New
System or Analysis of Antient Mythology (1774 – 76). Blake, as both artist and poet, had a
hand in engraving Bryant's book and was familiar with the references to Egyptian, Grecian,
and Druidic mythologies.”
Blake believed that the heroes of British Mythology, such as King Arthur, were
representative of an ancient glory. Further sources for Blake include Pierre Henri Mallet's
Northern Antiquities which explains the origins of references in Blake's Milton, a Poem
and his longer epic poem, Jerusalem, the Emanation of the Giant Albion to the
Scandinavian sacrificial ceremony of „The Wicker Man”. For Blake, the degeneration of
this original poetic imagination is represented in the growth of the church, attempting to
realize or abstract the mental deities from their objects. In the eighteenth century, there was
resurgence in the writing of religious poetry and an attempt to view the poet as divinely
inspired. In this climate, Blake's agenda to reinstate the poetic imagination in defiance of
the moral law took shape and required a reinvestigation of mythological origins. As a
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result, Blake promoted his mythology of Albion, the ancient man of British mythology as
an original embodiment of later myths and a representative of the golden age.
Blake regarded his visual and verbal art as imaginative and understood the nature
of the visionary in these terms. He considered visionary art to be a possible conduit for
what he regarded as eternal and uncorrupt. It reflects the fact that Blake's main artistic
agenda was to recover the eternal through the completion of his visionary art. Blake
specifically defines the world of Imagination as something which is synonymous with the
experience of an after – life.
For Blake then, true imaginative endeavour has no connection with corporeality,
but it is possible to achieve a state of vision that can produce perfection in a work of art or
literature. The redefining of imagery, beliefs, geography, and history is common in Blake's
art, and to this list should be added the fact that Blake comments upon his own visionary
experience and life experience. Myth itself becomes a fluid, unsystematic set of images in
Blake's artistic imagination and, in placing elements of aesthetic, cultural and social life in
his dynamic ever – shifting mental landscape, Blake is consciously redefining mythical
traditions that structure his visionary system. Blake permits the idea that allegory can
contain vision and yet refutes the possibility that this can be placed in the same category as
truly imaginative art. Placed in the same category as truly imaginative art. One conclusion
to which this leads is that certain forms of art, mythology and literature, did not herald a
golden age for Blake, and he is specific about what he regards as perfect: Milton,
Shakspeare, Michael Angelo, Rafael, the finest specimens of ancient sculpture and
painting, and architecture, Gothic, Grecian, Hindoo and Egyptian, are the extent of the
human mind. To this list Blake added a number of artists and writers, and in particular, the
Biblical prophets who were admired for their, sublime and divine images. Blake considers
mythology and art to be differentiated according to their purity of vision and the medium
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of mythology known as fables and allegory is therefore only valued if it is the result of a
visionary tradition.
Blake's description of art serves as a basis for his conception of the nature of
mythology, as he regarded different mythologies and belief systems as surrendering to the
corruptions of their age. As myth might be regarded as a set of organising images that are
used to make sense of both the inner and outer chaos of existence, what is considered to be
mythological, from Blake's perspective, might be questioned in the same way as art.
Blake's Albion, the primal man is presented as the predecessor of all later mythologies, and
when Blake describes this spiritual fall and redemption, the former of which occurs when
Christ is rejected, the subjects of mythographers, are depicted as expressions of this fall.
The reason for this is Blake's belief that there are different expressions of an original
universal mythology. Albion, as the progenitor of all men, is to be seen as the true man,
who was faithful to the poetic genius, as are Blake's favoured artists.
However, there are corruptions of the original ancient mythology, found in the
sacrificial rites of the Danes or the Druids. In Blake's poem Jerusalem, there are many
references to the Druidic mythology reflecting their stone circles and oaks as reminiscent
of a corruption across Albion's land. Albion's sons and daughters become forces of evil
within Blake's mythology, and represent despised figures from Blake's life and characters
from ancient British mythology.
Albion is represented throughout history. Blake cites Arthur as a figure whose
actions and experiences resemble those of Albion. This suggests that Blake had a notion of
archetypal recurrence, and applied similar, if not identical, principles to his conceptions of
mythology as he did to art. He states that the giant Albion, was patriarch of the Atlantic, he
is the atlas of the Greeks, one of those the Greeks called titans. Which particular fables
spring and from which they, in turn, take their meaning. The figure of Albion, from this
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critical perspective, can be viewed as a binding mythological force in the universe, whose
wholeness is realized when the Last Judgment takes place. However, prior to the Last
Judgment and with the blight of Albion's errors, all mythology is corrupted and acts as a
corrupting force. It is only at the end of Jerusalem, with Blake's one hundredth engraved
plate that Blake's Zoas, the powers of Albion, set about the task of renovating the cosmos.
Los is carrying the sun, Urthona is holding a callipers and a large blacksmith's hammer and
Enitharmon is hanging a veil or curtain across the starry backdrop in order to accomplish
this task. This suggests that Blake's own mythological figures are those that are fit to
reconfigure the universe and other mythologies, have been unsatisfactory and thus
corrupting. The emblems of druidic sacrifice, as representative of human error, are
dispensed with by the harmonious work of the archetypal forms that have been in
opposition to each other for the majority of the narrative.
The latter point is crucial in representing Blake's consciousness as a mythical
rebuilder, as the Druid culture in Blake's period was viewed as being the most ancient. The
decline of civilization since what Blake interpreted as a golden age. traceable to the Giant
Albion, heralds a decline of Vision, art and literature, as a result of a loss of imagination,
summarized in the figure of Christ. This corruption of the Visionary insight is explained
with reference to other cultures, such as the Roman and the Grecian, whereby the
inspiration behind mythological story – telling, is contaminated by a culture devoted to
war. Blake's poetic may be said to be radical in the sense that it challenges and subverts the
ideologies and conventions of classical and neo-classical aesthetic paradigms.
Blake incorporates familiar mythical structures in the form of frequently negative
symbolic referents within his later writing, such as Milton, The Four Zoas, and
Jerusalem. Biblical and mythical names are placed alongside Blake's less familiar
mythical creations of the Zoas, the four powers that constitute the original man, Albion. In
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Blake's Jerusalem, place names, or locations are decontextualized so that geography itself
becomes a visionary landscape in which places and figures of the Holy land are removed to
London. Names of Hebraic origin are placed within Blake's own mythology and are thus
transmuted into an aspect of an alien, private mythology, which does not allow the Biblical
myth the luxury of remaining as a defined untouched monolith of meaning. This is but one
example of a consistent urge in Blake to reshape history by re-contextualizing mythical or
historical personages or places. This involves a vision of the human psyche that includes
the rebranding and reshaping of the artistic persona and, in doing so, places the myth-
maker at the heart of his myth. On one hand, Blake's myth can seem to take on a life of its
own, free from the constraints of other myths, but the artist also feels an incessant need to
reinvent his mythical figures.
Blake's quest towards a mystical vision of reality reveals his constant attempt to
overcome the material world and, by means of his spiritual existence, to reach and observe
the immanence of the eternal one. Such a striving accounts for Blake's constant need to
reject or revise the mythical systems popular in the eighteenth century and any aspect of
his own mythology that remains enslaved by the circumstances of history.
Blake’s mythology can be described as colourful, changing, creative, spiritual and
highly symbolic. There is no a date or a turning point which would had made Blake to start
creating his mythology, or from which we can trace it. In fact, it was more a process than a
sudden “illumination”. However, it is accurately to say that he developed the mythopoesis
extensively in his Prophetic Books, which were a private collection of poems in which he
worked through a great part of his lifetime. Despite this, during his early life he wrote
some philosophical works that I consider the principle or base of his religious views which
would later encourage him to work a mythopoesis. In these works, not only did he
expressed his ideas about religion, society and such, but he begins to define some concepts
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that will be key later in his thoughts about art, poetry, religion and philosophy. The
prophetic works are Blake’s private project in which he constructed his mythopoeia.
He encoded his revolutionary spiritual and political ideas into a prophecy for a new age.
This desire to recreate the cosmos is the heart of his work and his psychology. His myths
often described the struggle between enlightenment and free love on the one hand, and
restrictive education and morals on the other.
The prophetic books of the English poet and artist William Blake are a series of
difficult and obscure poetic works. While Blake worked as a commercial illustrator, these
books were ones that he produced, with his own engravings, as an extended and largely
private project. In them he elaborated, with some false starts, a personal invented
mythology .The mythopoeia is largely Biblical in inspiration; apart from that, it has been
extensively debated for both its political and religious content.
The prophetic books have at times in the past been dismissed as lacking in good
sense. This position is now rarely to be met with in scholars of English literature, Blake
having been one of the major beneficiaries of critical fashion during the twentieth
century. Northrop Frye, and following him Harold Bloom, have suggested that the
difficulty of reading Blake's prophetic works can be overcome, and that the dismissive
“mystical” applied to them is largely an obfuscation. “Mystical” as to the poetic language
has been indeed the equivalent of “visionary” applied to the engravings. Since the
prophetic books were not highly regarded, where Blake's very direct lyric poems were
considered unproblematic, they had a tortuous publication history.
Some see him as true nonconformist radical who numbered among his associates
such English freethinkers as Thomas Paine and Mary Wollstonecraft. But for Blake
freedom could not come about except through the imagination. The Bible presented a
view, not of freedom, love, innocent happiness and above all, imagination, but law. The
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world's images were all wrong. Blake would put it right with a series of narrative poems in
the new medium, to illustrate the nature of imaginative truth. Poems such as “The French
Revolution”, “America”, a “Prophecy”, ”Visions of the Daughters of Albion” and
“Europe, a Prophecy” express his condemnation of 18th – century political and social
tyranny. Political revolution was not in itself the antidote to tyranny, but a symptom of
mankind's awakening to the freedom of the spirit. In the exercise of the imagination, the
purity and inviolability of innocence would reveal itself. The need for law, and tyranny
itself, would not wither at the hand of war, but at the breath of the free imagination.
Theological tyranny is one subject of The Book of Urizen , and the dreadful cycle
set up by the mutual exploitation. Typically Blake did not reject his beliefs, but went on to
improve them. Now he understood that it was too simple to see the world's problems as the
hostility of evil minds against good – the tyrant threatening the innocent imagination. His
new visions emerged in his enthusiasm for the plan of a great epic, Vala, which he started
writing on the black proofs of his Night Thoughts designs. The black proofs of his Night
Thoughts designs. Among the Prophetic Books is a prose work, “The Marriage of Heaven
and Hell” which develops Blake's idea that “without contraries is no progression.”
Blake was experimenting in narrative as well as lyrical poetry at this time. Tiriel, a
first attempt, was never engraved. The Book of Thel, with its lovely flowing designs, is an
idyll akin to Songs of Innocence in its flowerlike delicacy and transparency. In Tiriel and
The Book of Thel Blake uses for the first time the long unrhymed line of 14 syllables,
which was to become the staple metre of his narrative poetry. The fragment called The
French Revolution is a heroic attempt to make epic poetry out of contemporary history. In
The Marriage of Heaven and Hell satire, prophecy, humour, poetry, and philosophy are
mingled in a way that has few parallels. Written mainly in terse, sinewy prose, it may be
described as a satire on institutional religion and conventional morality. In it Blake defines
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the ideal use of sensuality. Blake reverses the tenets of conventional Christianity, equating
the good with reason and repression and regarding evil as the natural expression of a
fundamental psychic energy.
Rather than accepting a traditional religion from an organized church, Blake
designed his own mythology to accompany his personal, revealed religion. Blake's
personal religion was an outgrowth of his search for the Everlasting Gospel, which he
believed to be the original, pre – Jesus revelation which Jesus preached. In Visions of the
Daughters of Albion Blake develops the theme of sexual freedom. The central figure in
the poem, Oothoon, finds that she has attained to a new purity through sexual delight and
regeneration. In this poem the repressive god of abstract morality is first called Urizen.
The Prophetic Books describe a series of epic battles fought out in the cosmos, in
history, and in the human soul, between entities symbolizing the conflicting forces of
reason (Urizen), imagination (Los), and the spirit of rebellion (Orc). America, illustrated
with brilliantly coloured designs, is a powerful short narrative poem giving a visionary
interpretation of the American Revolution as the uprising of Orc, the spirit of rebellion.
Europe shows the coming of Christ and the French Revolution of the late 18th century as
part of the same manifestation of the spirit of rebellion. The Book of Urizen is Blake's
version of the biblical Book of Genesis. Here the Creator is not a beneficent, righteous
Jehovah, but Urizen, a “dark power” whose rebellion against the primeval unity leads to
his entrapment in the material world. The poetry of The Book of Urizen, written in short
unrhymed lines of three accents, has a gloomy power, but is inferior in effect to the
magnificent accompanying designs, which have an energy and monumental grandeur
anticipating the quality of those of Jerusalem, Blake's most splendid illuminated book.
Blake's saga of myths is continued in The Book of Ahania, a kind of Exodus following the
Genesis of Urizen, and in The Book of Los. In The Song of Los Blake returns to the cosmic
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theme and brings the story of humanity down to his own time. By this time Blake seems to
have reached his spiritual nadir, and his poetry peters out in the last of the Prophetic books.
He had lost faith in the French Revolution as an apocalyptic and regenerating force, and
was finding his attempt at a synthesis based on the ”contraries” of good and evil
inadequate as an answer to the complexities of human existence.
Grandiose, superhuman figures gesticulate across his pages; and since they crowd
past, not to entertain us but to evangelise, bearing names we have never heard of and
associations we can slowly grasp, it is not surprising that Blake's major poetry, far from
bringing him fame, brought only ridicule. When later he added to his myth the fumblings
of antiquaries – notably the theories of William Stukeley – who identified Eastern
religions with ancient Britain, linked the Syrian mother-goddess with Avebury and the
Druids with the biblical patriarchs, even his best friends found it almost impossible to
follow his imaginative fights Blake created a complex personal mythology and invented
his own symbolic characters to reflect his social concerns. In 1800, at the invitation of
William Hayley, a Sussex squire, Blake and his wife went to live in a cottage provided by
Hayley at Felpham on the Sussex coast, where he lived and worked until 1803 under the
patronage of Hayley. There he experienced profound spiritual insights that prepared him
for his mature work, the great visionary epics written and etched between about 1804 and
1820. Milton , Vala, or The Four Zoas (that is, aspects of the human soul), and Jerusalem
have neither traditional plot, characters, rhyme, nor meter; the rhetorical free – verse lines
demand new modes of reading. They envision a new and higher kind of innocence, the
human spirit triumphant over reason.
In his new vision of the ideal world, all beings are united in one perfect Human
Form. After the Fall – whichh as always in Blake is a failure of the imagination – the
Human is fragmented, and hostility arises between his now separated elements. None of
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these elements is perfectly good or evil; the creatures of the earlier myth, Orc, Urizen and
Los, are now all damaged pieces of the Universal Human Form, and none will be complete
without the rest. From this time on, Urizen, the great evil of America (1793), becomes less
hated and more pitied. Even Vala, the female form who is at first blamed for the
disintegration, is at last regenerated. In 1804 – 08 Blake engraved Milton. This poem is a
comparatively brief epic, which deals with a contest between the hero (Milton) and Satan;
it too is couched in the prophetic grandeur and obscurity of Blake's invented mythology.
Milton's struggle with evil in the poem is a reflection of Blake's own conflicts with the
domineering patronage of William Hayley.
Jerusalem is Blake's third major epic and his longest poem. Begun about 1804,
and written and engraved soon after the completion of Milton, it is also the most richly
decorated of Blake's illuminated books, and only a few of its 100 plates are without
illustration. Although the details are complex and present many difficulties, the poem's
main outlines are simple. At the opening of the poem the giant Albion (who represents
both England and humanity) is shown plunged into the “Sleep of Ulro,” or the hell of
abstract materialism. The core of the poem describes his awakening and regeneration
through the agency of Los, the archetypal craftsman or creative man. The poem's
consummation is the reunion of Albion with Jerusalem (his lost soul) and with God
through his acceptance of Jesus' doctrine of universal brotherhood. It is a complex
development. In his mythology the Druids of Ancient Britain are identified with the
patriarchs of the Bible, and the Giant Albion – the Spirit of Britain – is identified with the
Israel of the Bible. Thus Albion is the Holy Land, London is Jerusalem, and Jesus did
indeed walk (in the truth of the imagination) across these hills. The solution to the
disintegration of man is reconciliation through forgiveness, and the reconciliation of Christ
and Albion brings about the reunion of the disintegrated Eternal Human, who appears then
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as Christ himself. It is not enough now, as in The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, to find
one's own imaginative life. The Human Form Divine will not be re-created until the whole
nation, the whole of mankind, the whole universe, is drawn together; but this can begin in
the smallest of single actions. Blake has returned to the idealistic hope of America, but now
his thought is less simple and more mystical; yet as the pages of Jerusalem show, no less
radical.
“The Book of Urizen” is essentially the creation story in Blake's mythology, in
which Urizen is the Creator sent into the shadows of reality. Other characters include the
Eternals, Los, Enitharmon, and Orc, as well as the minor characters Thiriel, Utha, Grodna,
and Fuzon, representing the four elements: air, water, earth, and fire, respectively. The
characters in these poems are the gods of Blake's complex mythology. The poem deals
with the disintegration of wholeness and a fall from a higher state of consciousness. A
parallel exists between the poem as a creation story and the creation story of the ancient
Gnostics. The Gnostics believed that the creator of the physical world was a tyrant who
assumed his position as the only god to rule over his creation. The creator in Blake's
mythology, Urizen, then parallels the creator of the Gnostic belief system. “The Book of
Urizen” is the tale of a rebel god that creates laws for his world that only cause the spiritual
fall of those subjugated to the laws .Urizen's formation of law is symbolic of the laws that
are assumed and passed along in civilization from generation to generation. The rules
ultimately cause problems because they cannot be followed. This is a work that is
concerned most directly with the problem of the limits that we place on our perception in
our acceptance of the natural world. The psychology of the poem is that humanity makes
the fall of Urizen whenever it sees the world without imagination, which is, for Blake, the
final word on truth for the individual. The great value of Blake's poetry is that it provides a
kind of outline of the unconscious mind .In exploring the mythological world of Blake, we
15
are really exploring out own minds. Blake stresses the importance of being able to discern
the meanings of the symbols of our unconscious. The archetypes in the collective
unconscious are the source of Blake's visions. The characters in the poem are archetypes
for human “modes of perception”. To fully grasp the relation between the characters and
the human mind, the actions and attributes of the characters must be explored. Urizen is the
force breaking away from the collective to create the individual human psyche. In Eternity,
rather than time and space, reality is based on relationships. For example, Urizen's
abandonment of the Eternals does not take place in a world of direct cause and effect, as
ours, but in a world where significance depends on response.
Urizen makes the mistake of seeking to solidify his limited conception of truth into
law, and then religion. Blake believes that religious texts should be read metaphorically,
rather than literally; in addition, he did not see the need for only one religious text to be the
final authority. Urizen is the creator of the human mind that is disconnected from the
wisdom of the Eternals, and that is why the Eternals gave him a place that is “solitary” .He
is the corrupted human will, which deviates from the will of the Eternals. Urizen is seen as
both God of the Old Testament in his prescription of laws, but also as Satan, which can be
likened not only to state religion, but also to the state itself .”The Book of Urizen” is not
meant to rewrite the Bible, but rather to parody it. Urizen's name is derived from the Greek
word “ourizo” which means to “bound” or “limit”. He lives up to his name by being a
constant source of separation throughout the poem. The most important lesson the poem
teaches is that obedience to moral laws does not lead to salvation, but to slavery. Blake
continuously stresses that morality and metaphysics should be left to the personal intuition
and imagination.
The longest elaboration of this private myth – cycle was also his longest poem –
The Four zoas: the death and judgment of albion the ancient man, written in the late
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1790's but left in manuscript form at the time of his death. In the complex
mythology of William Blake, Albion is the primeval man whose name derives from the
ancient and mythological name of Britain, Albion. In the mythical story of the founding
of Britain, Albion was a Giant son of Poseidon, the Greek god of the sea. He was a
contemporary of Heracles, who killed him. Albion founded a country on the island and
ruled there. Britain, then called Albion after its founder, was inhabited by his Giant
descendants until about 1100 years before Julius Caesar's invasion of Britain. In this work,
Blake traces the fall of Albion, who “was originally fourfold but was self divided.” 2This
theme was revisited later, more definitively but perhaps less directly, in his other epic
prophetic works, Milton: a Poem and Jerusalem: The Emanation of The Giant Albion.
The titular main characters of the book are who were created by the fall
of Albion in Blake's mythology. It consists of nine books, referred to as “nights”. These
outline the interactions of the Zoas, their fallen forms, and their Emanations. Blake
intended the book to be a summation of his mythic universe but, dissatisfied, he abandoned
the effort in 1807, leaving it unfinished and unengraved.
In particular, Blake's God/Man union is broken down into the bodily components
of Urizen (head), Urthona (loins), Luvah (heart), and Tharmas (unity of the body) with
paired Emanations being Ahania (wisdom, from the head), Vala (nature, from the
heart), Enitharmon (what can't be attained in nature, from the loins), and Enion (earth
mother, from the separation of unity). As connected to Blake's understanding of the divine,
the Zoas are the God the Father (Tharmas, sense), the Son of God (Luvah, love), the Holy
Ghost (Urthona, imagination), and Satanwho was originally of the divine substance
(Urizen, reason) and their Emanations represent Sexual Urges (Enion), Nature (Vala),
Inspiration (Enitharmon), and Pleasure (Ahania).
2
Blake, William, Blake’s America a Prophecy, 1984, p.23
17
3. MYTHOLOGICAL CHARACTERS IN WILLIAM BLAKE'S POETRY
In many of his prophetic books we find the same recurring characters, which
usually are symbolic, representing several Blake’s concepts and ideas, and the names of
the characters find its sources in the Bible and classical myths. Tharmas is one of the
four Zoas, who were created when Albion, the primordial man, was divided fourfold. He
represents sensation, and his female counterpart is Enion, who represents sexual urges. He
is connected to the God the Father aspect of the Christian Trinity and is the begetter of Los.
Tharmas is mostly peaceful, and flees during most of his fights with Urizen. He is depicted
in various ways ranging from a youth with wings to an old bearded man.
Picture 1. William Blake’s Four Zoas
Tharmas is both the last Zoas described but also the first in the number. His aspect
as a Zoas is Sensation. As connected to the Trinity, Tharmas is seen as God the Father. As
a body part, he is the loins with his mate Enion representing sexual urges. He is also
represented as a shepherd. Tharmas is connected to the direction point West and his fallen
state is to mark the Circumference of the world. His elemental connection is to water and,
in turn, to time. His artistic aspect is Painting and his particular sense is Tongue, which
18
represents taste and speech. He represents both free speech but also false speech. In his
divine state, Tharmas is peaceful and idyllic. However, during war the among the Zoas, he
fights until he is defeated and falls. His name is possibly a back formation from their
daughter's name, Enitharmon. Tharmas is the unifier of the Four Zoas. When Tharmas
vanishes, he is replaced by chaotic nature.
As connected to the body and sensation, his fallen state's separation from Enion/sex
causes him to turn into the spectre Eternal Death. Through Enion, he creates poetic instinct
along with the children forms of Urthona/Los and Enitharmon. When separated from
Enion, she creates the “Circle of Destiny”, and, with it, the Gate of the tongue, which
Tharmas is connected to, was closed. He is at conflict with himself, and through the
conflict he becomes human. This caused him to hate, and he feels thwarted by being
unable to have sex. He seeks out Urthona and Enitharmon to redeem the universe, but Los
refuses and Tharmas separates Urthona and Enitharmon, which causes Urthona to become
the spectre Los. However, he soon reunites them. Tharmas battles against Urizen, but
normally ends up fleeing. During the Last Judgment, Tharmas and Enion are seen as two
children and are able to experience and idealistic sexual relationship. They are also able to
assume their divine forms and Tharmas awakens both Los the Eternal Prophet and Albion
the Eternal Man. They join in with the harvest after the Final Judgement.
Urizen is the embodiment of conventional reason and law. He is usually depicted
as a bearded old man; he sometimes bears architect's tools, to create and constrain
the universe; or nets, with which he ensnares people in webs of law and conventional
culture. Originally, Urizen represented one half of a two – part system, with him
representing reason and Los, his opposition, representing imagination. In Blake's
reworking of his mythical system, Urizen is one of the four Zoas that result from the
division of the primordial man,Albion and he continues to represent reason. He has paired
19
female equivalent, Ahania who stands for Plasure. In Blake's myth, Urizen is joined by
many daughters with three representing aspects of the body. He is also joined by many
sons, with four representing the four elements. These sons join in rebellion against their
father but are later united in the Last Judgment. In many of Blake's books, Urizen is seen
with four books that represent the various laws that he places upon humanity.
In Blake's original myth, Urizen, the representation of abstractions and an
abstraction of the human self, is the first entity. He believes himself holy and he sets about
establishing various sins in a book of brass that serves as a combination of various laws as
discovered by Newton, given to Moses, and the general concept of deism. The rest of the
Eternals in turn become indignant at Urizen turning against eternity. This torments Urizen,
and Los soon after appears. Los's duty within the work is to watch over Urizen and serve
as his opposition.
In terms of Blake's Orc cycle, Urizen serves as a Satanic force similar to Milton's
Satan. After Urizen defeats the Orc figure in the Garden of Eden story, the Orc figure, in
the form of Urizen's son Fuzon, battles against him in a story based on Exodus. Urizen, as
a pillar of cloud that hinders the Israelites in their journey home, battles against Fuzon, as a
pillar of fire that guides them by night. Eventually, Urizen is able to destroy his rebellious
son and impose laws upon the Israelites in the form of the Ten Commandments. This also
leads to a death of the Israel culture, and the Israelites under Urizen are imprisoned in a
similar manner to how they were under the Egyptians. Symbolically, the Orc cycle
describes how Urizen and Orc are part of one unified whole with Urizen representing the
destructive and older essence while Orc is the young and creative essence3.
In Blake's later myth, Urizen represents the fallen, Satanic figure although he is
also the creator figure. Among the Zoas, he represents the south and the concept of reason.
He is described as what binds and controls the universe through creating laws. He is
3
Damon, S. Foster, A Blake Dictionary, Hanover: University Press of New England, 1988, p.56
20
connected to his Emanation known as Ahania, the representation of pleasure, and he is
opposed to the Zoas named Urthona, the representation of Imagination. His name can
mean many things, from “Your Reason” or a Greek word meaning “to limit”. He was the
fourth child of the characters Albion and Vala. He is said to represent the Heavenly host,
but he experiences a Satanic fall in that he desired to rule. He is motivated by his pride and
becomes a hypocrite. When Albion asks for him, Urizen refuses and hides, which causes
him to experience his fall. After his fall, Urizen set about creating the material world and
his jealousy of mankind brought forth both Wrath and Justice.
In the material world, he had Steeds and a Chariot of Day that were stolen from
him by Luvah. This occurred because he, reason, sought to take over the Northern lands of
Luvah, Imagination. After setting to take over Imagination, Luvah's stealing of the horses,
which represented instruction, showed how emotion could dominate over reason.
Within the early works, Urizen represents the chains of reason that are imposed on
the mind. Urizen, like mankind, is bound by these chains. The poems emphasis an
evolutionary development within the universe, and this early version of a “survival of the
fittest” universe is connected to a fallen world of tyranny and murder4.
Urizen's daughters started as the children of light and are possible images of either
the planets or of the stars. After his fall, they gain human form. Three of his daughters are
Eleth, Uveth and Ona, which represent the three parts of the human body. Together, they
also organize the waters of Generation, they are the creators of the Bread of Sorrow, and
read from the Book of Iron. At the Last Judgment, they watch over Ahania. His sons are
differently organised, in different poems: as Thiriel, Utha, Grodna, Fuzon, aligned with
the four classical elements; or as twelve, aligned with the signs of the Zodiac, and builders
of the Mundane Shell and seek to keep mankind from falling. Fuzon directly rebels against
4
Damon, S. Foster, A Blake Dictionary, Hanover: University Press of New England, 1988, p. 60.
21
Urizen, is able to cut Urizen's loins, and is crucified for his actions. In later versions of the
children, they are wise and dwell with Urizen. They, with Urizen, fall after Luvah takes
over Urizen's realm. After their fall, they are tortured in hell, and Urizen's creation of
science is seen as his domination over them. However, the four sons are placed in charge
of Urthona's armies and rebel against Urizen's rule. During the Last Judgment, the sons get
rid of their weapons and celebrate Urizen's return to the plow, and they join together for
the harvest.
Urizen is described as having multiple books: Gold, Silver, Iron, and Brass. They
represent science, love, war, and sociology, which are four aspects of life. The books are
filled with laws that seek to overcome the seven deadly sins. He constantly adds to the
works, even when he faces his opposition in Orc, but the books are destroyed in the Last
Judgment. The Book of Brass sets forth Urizen's social beliefs that seek to remove all pain
and instill peace under one rule. The attempt to force love through law encouraged the
Eternals to put forth the Seven Deadly Sins that Urizen hoped to prevent.
Urizen is an eternal self-focused being that creates itself out of eternity, and, it is
only Urizen, the representation of abstractions and is an abstraction of the human self that
exists in the beginning. Eventually, he creates the rest of creation but is tormented from the
rest of the Eternal essence. Urizen is seen as the essence of the eternal priest and is
opposed by Los, the eternal prophet. He is said to have a throne of silver/love. His realm
included his children and was surrounded by justice and eternal science. In Vala, or The
Four Zoas, Urizen was said to have been born as the son of Albion and Vala, and is the
fourth son. He was made the leader of Heaven's host and commanded the material sun. The
work also describes his fall. Urizen appears in Jerusalem The Emanation of the Giant
Albion in a form similar to the previous works. Urizen is the organiser of the universe
22
while Los is the forger. He creates Natural Religion, and, in his returned form after Albion
awakes, he is a farmer.
Urizen has clear similarities with the creature called the Demiurge by Gnostic sects,
who is likewise largely derived of the Old Testament god (more specifically, like Blake's
Urizen, the demiurge is a radical remodelling of that figure achieved by expanding that
figure's original contextual setting, or by removing him to one that is almost completely
new). Speculative Freemasonry is another possible source of Blake's imagery for Urizen;
Blake was attracted to the Masonic and Druidic speculations of William Stukeley.
The compass and other drafting symbols that Blake associates with Urizen borrow from
Masonic symbolism for God as the “Great Architect of the Universe”.5
Luvah is one of the four Zoas, who were created when Albion, the primordial man,
was divided fourfold. He represents love, passion, and rebellious energy.
His Emanation (female counterpart) is Vala; his fallen form is Orc. Throughout Blake's
mythological system, he is opposed to Urizen, the representation of reason. He is also
connected to Jesus, who takes upon his form as the being of love after Luvah falls and
turns to a being of hate.
Luvah represents a generative aspect that is connected to experience. In Blake's
system, Luvah, the third Zoas, represents emotion as the Prince of Love, and his name may
be connected to the word “lover”. Love is the supreme emotion, and it is connected to all
others, including hate. Luvah is connected to the heart. He is connected to Jesus, and the
Incarnation is the result of Luvah transforming into hate; Jesus replaced Luvah's physical
form after Luvah descended from his position. As such, Jesus is the physical aspect of
Love and he suffers what Luvah would suffer. When Urizen witnesses Jesus in that form,
he becomes upset and afraid of the new Luvah.
5
23
Luvah's emanation, Vala, originated as two innocent individuals that were
separated by Vala being impregnated by Albion. From that union, Urizen was created.
When the Fallen Man looked upon Vala, she was separated from Luvah, and she hid from
him. Urizen joins with Luvah in order to control mankind, with Urizen seeking to dominate
the imagination and would allow Luvah to dominate reason. However, Luvah does not
accept but does steal Urizen's horses, which sparks a war between the two. During this
time, Urthona falls and divides. Urizen soon withdraws from the war, and Tharmas strikes
down both Luvah and Vala, which causes them to both fall. As this happens, Albion is
brought low, and Urizen becomes the ruler. Urizen punishes Luvah by placing him within
the Furnaces of Affliction, with Vala feeding the furnaces. The furnaces causes Luvah to
melt, and Urizen uses the metallic remains of Luvah to create the universe, which
represents reason's solidification of emotions. This leads to Luvah, in the form of a cloud,
constantly tormenting Albion, which represents suppressed desires. Albion opposes Luvah,
and he falls. Soon, he is born from Enitharmon in the form of Orc. Thus, he transitions
from Love into Hate. From him comes wars, including the Napoleonic Wars, and he stars
wrecking the body of Albion.
After Orc is born, the jealous Los uses the Chains of Jealousy to bind Orc upon a
mountain. While bound, his imagination is able to exist in a cave located in Urizen's
kingdom, which wakes up Urizen. When Urizen seeks out Orc, Orc is freed as he changes
into a serpent. The form is corrupted and he is turned into a satanic image. Orc spends his
time rebelling against Orc, and it is only when Urizen stops fighting Orc that Orc is able to
become Luvah.
After the Final Judgment, Albion makes Luvah the servant of Urizen, which
represents reason controlling love and ensuring that there is only creation. Albion tells
24
Urizen to let Luvah rage enough to allow for the hate to burn out. Luvah's role in the
harvest, he is a singer and is able to unite with Vala before joining Albion.
The history of Luvah's origins, war on Albion, and his involvement as Orc are
described in Vala along with descriptions of his return to his Luvah state after the Final
Judgment. Blake's Milton a Poem describes various aspects of Luvah's story, including his
tomb at Golgonooza where the dead Luvah resided. In Jerusalem the Emanation of the
Giant Albion, Luvah is connected with the various warring individuals through Los's
dividing of the world of life and death. The work also explains how Jesus allowed for
Luvah to fight against Albion, as Luvah's hate must be expressed before it can be purged.
Urthona is the inspiration and creativity, and he is a blacksmith god. His female
counterpart is Enitharmon. Urthona usually appears in his “fallen” form, that of Los.
Urthona (likely intended to imply “earth owner”) is one of the Four Zoas and
represents both the north and imagination within the individual. He is aligned with the
Christian Trinity in the aspect of the Holy Ghost and is opposed to Urizen, the Zoa of
reason. He is the last to be created, and his corresponding element is Earth. In his eternal
form, he is portrayed as a blacksmith, working in his forge in Golgonooza. In terms of
senses, he is represented by the ear, in terms of art he is represented by poetry, and in his
fallen form, his profession is religion. He and Luvah are the guardians of the gates of
heaven. Unlike the other Zoas, he does not have a direct Emanation counterpart;
instead,Enitharmon is usually described as an emanation from Urthona's fallen state, Los.
In his original state, Urthona represents the loins of the body. As a blacksmith, Urthona is
connected to the animal the Mole, which is symbolic of mining aspects6.
Urthona rarely appears directly in Blake's work, usually taking the form of Los,
who plays a prominent role in the fall and redemption of mankind, most notably described
6
Damon, S. Foster, A Blake Dictionary, Hanover: University Press of New England, 1988, p. 7
25
in Jerusalem the Emanation of the Giant Albion. His place within the fall is as a
blacksmith who prepares the items for divine farming, and he is able to realize the
problems of the Eternals struggling against each other. When Luvah and Urizen went to
war over the state of mankind, Urthona was split from Los, a Spectre of his form, and he
became a serpent. The Urthona form joined with the unconscious mind called Nadir.
He has four aspects in the fallen world, with Los being Urthona's aspect of
humanity, Enitharmon as the Emanation connected to Los, a Spectre form, and a Shadow
form. When Los dies and destroys both the sun and the moon, Urthona is reborn but then
disappears.At the time of the Last Judgment and the feast in heaven, Urthona is already
present when the others arrive. He is subsequently connected to the god Vulcan, and he is
the miller during the harvest before he becomes the baker of the “Bread of Ages”. In the
end, he is united with all of his aspects.
Urthona appears on his own in many works. An early mention of Urthona comes in
“A Song of Liberty” of that describes how Urizen is buried underneath Urthona's realm.
In America a Prophecy, the figure of the Shadowy Female is described as one of his
daughters and Orc, as a serpent, is wrapped around Urthona's pillars. In Europe a
Prophecy, Los describes that Urthona is resting while Urizen is free from his chains.
Urthona's background and origins are described in Vala, or The Four Zoas. The
work describes the relationship between Los and Urthona and how the Emanations of
Urthona and Los operate. It also describes his regeneration at the Final Judgment. Blake's
poem Milton a Poem describes aspects of Urthona, such as his connection to the North and
to Poetry. The work also describes Urthona as dark. In Jerusalem The Emanation of the
Giant Albion, Blake explains how Urthona is divided within the world and elaborates on
other aspects of his history.
26
Enion represents sexuality and sexual urges while Tharmas represents sensation.
In her fallen aspect, she is a wailing woman that is filled with jealousy. After the Final
Judgment, she is reunited with Tharmas and able to experience an idealised sexual union.
Enion is an Emanation, a female essence that is part of one of the divine Four Zoas.
She is connected to Tharmas, who is the western and water based Zoas. He is connected to
the senses and to the body, and her aspect is sexual desire. It is possible that her name
comes from letters used in Enitharmon's name, with Tharmas being the middle portion of
the name and hers representing the rest. Tharmas represents a unity within the spirit, and,
when Enion is separated from him, she becomes the image of the earth mother. Enion has
the power to generate the world. She and Tharmas were able to get along until innocence
was taken from their relationship. She wanted to join with Tharmas but could not because
of the idea of sin. Along with creating nature, she creates the “Circle of Destiny”, which
removes Tharmas's aspect of speech by shutting the Gate of the tongue7.
After her separation from Tharmas, she becomes jealous and attacks other
Emanations from his being even though they are her own children. Enion then separates
the free aspects, called Jerusalem, from Tharmas's soul and hides from him in what
becomes the material world, known as Ulro. She is able to use her power to separate from
Tharmas his Spectre, which is a selfish, sexual form of Tharmas. From the union of the
two comes Los and Enitharmon, which represents Imagination and Poetry.
However, Los and Enitharmon flee. Enion is outraged and believes that the world is cruel.
Tharmas allows Enitharmon to hide with him for protection, but Enion soon finds and kills
her.
7
Bloom, Harold, The Visionary Company, Ithaca: Corrneu University Press, 1933, p. 4.
27
Enion is reduced to wailing and singing. Her song has the power to either create
madness or to bring about an apocalypse. The actual song describes lost innocence and the
nature of pleasure. Enion can do nothing but wander and be disconnected from Tharmas,
even though Tharmas keeps trying to return to her. Albion, the original essence, resigns
from power as he was dying because of her wailing, and Urizen, who replaces him, is
terrified when he witnesses her. The wailing is used by both Los and Enitharmon to divide
Urizen from his Emanation, Ahania. In a human form, Tharmas continues to seek her but
he can only hate her. Eventually, they reconcile enough for Tharmas to ask her to come
back, but Enion had dissolved into just a wailing voice. During the Final Judgment,
Tharmas and Enion are reunited, and the two become like children that are able to enjoy
each other sexually. They form an idealistic sexual unity. Eventually, Enion is restored to
her form and she joins the rest at Albion's feast.
Enion is introduced in Vala, or The Four Zoas as her division from Tharmas
begins the work. The work describes their sexual and moral struggles. She is a jealous
lover and eventually hides from him. She is depicted as a wailing voice and is the essence
of sexuality, jealous, and physical passions. In Milton a Poem, she is described as a
wandering, wailing voice. In Jerusalem The Emanation of the Giant Albion, Enion is
questioned as being dominant, and the birth of Los and Enitharmon changes.
Ahania is female counterpart, of Urizen, Zoas of reason, in William Blake's
mythology. She is the representation of pleasure and the desire for intelligence. Although
Urizen casts her out as being the manifestation of sin, she is actually an essential
component in Blake's system to achieving Divine Wisdom. She is a figure of the goddess
of wisdom. It is through her that the sons and daughters of Urizen are born. In the original
myth, her son Fuzon rebels against his father and is responsible for separating Urizen and
28
Ahania. In his later version, Ahania is separated from Urizen after he believes that she is
sinful.
Ahania represents pleasure and is connected to the Zoas Urizen, who represents
reason. They are divided because Urizen is unable to understand the necessity of pleasure
for the mind. In Blake's early myth, Ahania and Urizen are united until their son Fuzon
separates the two by cutting his father's loins apart. She is labeled as Sin by Urizen. Ahania
is the representation of a wisdom goddess, as she is an emanation of Urizen, who is
connected to the head.
In Blake's later myth, she provides Urizen with twelve sons and three daughters,
which represent the Zodiac and the three parts of the body. However, Urizen believes that
Ahania has too much influence and denies her the ability to come to the marriage
of Los and Enitharmon. In return, she becomes cold and distant. Eventually, Los and
Enitharmon bring Ahania to hear Enion's wailing8. After Enion reveals the fallen world to
Ahania, she represents intellectual desire and has a sexual element. Although she is cast off
as being sinful, she is necessary for Divine Wisdom and is essential for any act of
creation.Urizen tells her that he is afraid that Orc, the one that would overthrow him,
would be born, and Ahania describes her vision of dark future.
Urizen, upset, separates from her because she is not obedient enough for him. In
despair, she enters the Caverns of the Grave. She returns on the Last Judgment when
Urizen stops trying to control everything. This action allows Urizen to regain his previous
form. In the feast after the Final Judgment, she is reunited with Urizen.
Ahania is described in The Book of Ahania (1795), which gives her origins. She
was originally part of Urizen until her son, Fuzon, rebelled against Urizen. This established
her as a separate entity, and Urizen named her Sin. The work ends with Fuzon's death by
the hands of Urizen. Eventually, this version was overwritten in Vala, or The Four Zoas.
8
Bloom, Harold, The Visionary Company, Ithaca: Corneu University Press, 1933, p. 10.
29
The later version describes her more as his shadow counterpart and of their many children.
Urizen is a jealous lover, which causes her to despair. Eventually, she is separated from
Urizen when she hears Enion's lament. Ahania appears in Milton a Poem, and she is
described as lamenting after she is cast out. In Jerusalem The Emanation of the Giant
Albion, Ahania is described as a shade when Los is able to see the four Emanations.
Enitharmon is a major female character in William Blake's mythology, playing a
main part in some of his prophetic books. She is, but not directly, an aspect of the
maleUrthona, one of the Four Zoas. She is in fact the Emanation of Los,. The
Zoa Tharmas has emanation Enion, and Enitharm(as) – on is one derivation of her name.
That should perhaps be read in the inverse direction though, as a construction of the
Tharmas/Enion pair's names. Within Blake's myth, she represents female domination and
sexual restraints that limit the artistic imagination. She, with Los, gives birth to various
children, including Orc.
Enitharmon represents spiritual beauty and poetic inspiration. She is symbolised by
the moon and she is characterised by Pity. With Los, she is connected to the North in that
they were from Urthona, who dominates there. As poetic instinct, Enitharmon is
represented as being born of the sexual problems that happen during puberty. She rules as
the Queen of Heaven in Blake's works. 9[12] In Enitharmon's connection to Urthona, she is
a goddess that represents what cannot be found within nature. In a natural cycle within
Blake's myth, there is a repeating image of an Old Woman, who is represented by Rahab,
Enitharmon, or Vala based on which part of the cycles are being discussed.Enitharmon
represents what Los is trying to create, and he cannot have Enitharmon until he is able to
complete his duty. In her connection to space, she represents the psychological aspects of
unbound space upon the mind.
9
Bloom, Harold, The Visionary Company, Ithaca: Corneu University Press, 1933, p. 10.
30
Unlike the other Emanations, she is not a shade of a divine form, but serves as a
material wife of Los as well as his Emanation. Blake's early myth describes how she was
born after Los gave a material form to Urizen, and she was born as the first female. In his
later myth, the sight of Enitharmon's birth caused Urthona to fall and be born from Enion.
In that version, both Los and Enitharmon spring from Enion. After her birth, Enitharmon
declares that women will rule the world, with Man being given Love and Women being
given Pride.
This would create within men a fear of female dominance that would in turn bring
them under control of the females. In her sexual system, there are four parts: Manathu –
Varcyon (desire), Antamon (sperm), Theotormon (frustration), and finally Sotha (war).
These are represented by sexual desire being contained to Ethinthus (body), which leads to
Leutha (guilt), followed by Oothoon (frustration) and ends with Thiralatha (erotic dreams).
In the last stage, war is the ultimate result of sexual repression. 10This war is connected to
general war and to energy as a whole. Sex is supposed to lead to imagination and love.
Love is supposed to leave one to a higher state, and the perversion of sexuality, in Blake's
view, leads to destruction.
The Female Will is born from an object of affection refusing to give up its
independence, and the concept represents what prohibits an individual from being able to
have true vision. Under Eitharmon's rule, representing the rule of the Female Will, leads to
Los and Enitharmon entering into a constant state of strife with each other. However, the
conflict also leads to Los pursuing her and the two procreating. Urizen is able to take
advantage of the struggling between the two by tempting them with the ability to
judge Luvah and Vala. This causes both of them to lose the last bit of their innocence.
Their union was thereafter filled with both envy and jealousy. Their union also causes
Enion to lament over the fallen state that began from this.She is married to Los, and
10
Ibid, p. 11.
31
through their marriage Orc, the representation of revolution, is born. This symbolises the
relationship between art and revolution. Los, however, grows jealous of Orc and chains
him to a mountain. Enitharmon tries to intervene but Los is unable to release Orc.
Following Orc, Enitharmon gives birth to many children.
Enitharmon appears in Europe a Prophecy, which compares her rule in regards to
the fall of Christian culture. The work is devoted to Enitharmon's domination of the
material world and puts forth various sexual rules through religion. Blake describes how
these rules are errors found in orthodox Christianity. The Book of Urizen describes how
Los's pity, Enitharmon, separated from him and became the first female after Los created a
form for Urizen. In Vala, or The Four Zoas, she is similar to Eve and she is the tempter of
Adam. The work also describes the connection of poetic instinct and sexuality, along with
pointing out how she and her daughters are able to create various things, such as a body for
various Spectres to be created. Milton a Poemdescribes how Enitharmon gave birth to
many children, which included Milton himself. In the work, she is described as being
connected to Space while Los is connected to Time. In Jerusalem The Emanation of the
Giant Albion, she is connected to poetry, and she realizes that she must eventually vanish
in the end. Enitharmon is described as having a Looking Glass, which reflects the Eternal
world in the Material world. This image appears in the 99th illustration of Blake's to the
works of Dante. The design shows the Queen of Heaven, who represents feminine rule and
the glass is of materialism.
Rintrah first appears in The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, personifying
revolutionary wrath. He is later grouped together with other spirits of rebellion in The
Vision of the Daughters of Albion The central narrative in The Vision of the Daughters
of Albion is the female character Oothoon, called the “soft soul of America”, and of her
sexual experience. S. Foster Damon (A Blake Dictionary) suggested that Blake had been
32
influenced by Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Women, published in
1792.
Oothoon is in love with Theotormon, who represents the chaste man, filled with a
false sense of righteousness. Oothoon desires Theotormon but is suddenly, violently raped
by Bromion. After Oothoon is raped neither Bromion nor Theotormon want anything to do
with her. Theotormon's name is derived from the Greek “theos”, which means god, and the
Latin “tormentum”, which means twist or torment. The name of his rival Bromion is Greek
meaning “roarer”.
Bromion represents the passionate man, filled with lustful fire. Oothoon is the
representation of a woman in Blake's society, who had no charge over her own sexuality.
Blake has the Daughters of Albion look to the West, to America, because he believed that
there was a promise in America that would one day end all forms of discrimination. It was
to be in America, that races would live in harmony, and women would be able to claim
their own sexuality. At the same time, Blake recognizes that though America has freed
itself from British rule, it continues to practice slavery.
Blake used Plato's Allegory of the cave in Visions of the Daughters of Albion as a
theme for the three characters not being able to understand the true nature of reality,
without being hindered byconvention. It has been argued that Theotormon is a mythicised
version of John Stedman, whose book about his experience of slavery and brutality
in Suriname on the coast of South America was being illustrated by Blake at the time.
4. CONCLUSION
In order to establish a new system of mythology Blake needed to investigate the
aesthetic, philosophical, and mythological traditions that informed his period. His gothic
artwork attempts to efface rationalistic systems such as Classicism and to replace them, but
33
at the same time remains in a debate with these diverse mythologies. Blake struggles to
escape from the constraining influences of philosophical, mythical, and aesthetic systems
that arise from historical conflict, arguing that where culture is devalued by acts of
violence, pecuniary practices and thoughts of vengeance. Thus, in attempting to reshape
myth, Blake asserts that no organizing set of images used to make sense of culture can
develop into an aesthetically pleasing system until the golden age returns. Classicism is
affiliated with war rather than art, and mythical fables are devoid of vision. In arguing thus,
Blake defies the classical, mythological and symbolic inheritance of the eighteenth century
and establishes himself as an arch myth – maker.
The characters in Blake's myth have to be treated more like a repertory company,
capable of dramatising his ideas On the other hand the psychological roots of his work
have been revealed, and are now much more accessible than they were a century ago.
Although Blake was yet to formulate his mythological system, several preliminary
elements of that system are present in microcosm in Tiriel. According to Peter Ackroyd,
“the elements of Blake's unique mythology have already begun to emerge. It is the
primeval world of Bryant and of Stukeley, which he had glimpsed within engravings of
11
stones and broken pillars. Elements of his later mythology are thus manifested
throughout the poem.
America, like many of Blake's other works, is a mythological narrative and is
considered a “prophecy”. However, only America and Europe were ever given that title by
Blake. His understanding of the word was not to denote a description of the future but to
describe the view of the honest and the wise. America was also the first book that Blake
11
34
titled a Prophecy. This change indicates that he was no longer dramatizing history, as
in The French Revolution, but instead "recording the formula of all revolution”. 12
In regards to the prophetic works, the character Oothoon represented America
in Visions of the Daughters of Albion and she is raped by the character Bromion. The
book represents her as trapped by a philosophical system created by John Locke, and no
one is able to hear her pleas except for the daughters of Albion. The implications of the
work are taken up again in America with the King of England trembling as he witnesses
Orc and the rebelling colonies. Although there is a vision of rebellion, there is no actual
freedom at the end of the poem just as in the Visions of the Daughters of Albion.
Unlike the Visions of the Daughters of Albion, America, as well as Europe,
describes nations that are trying to determine their own destiny instead of individuals
trying to deal with theirs. The Song of Los is connected to both America and Europe in
that it describes Africa and Asia, which operate as a sort of frame to the other works. As
such, the three works are united by the same historical and social themes.
Jerusalem tells the story of the fall of Albion, Blake's embodiment of man, Britain,
or the western world as a whole.
The poetic narrative takes the form of a “drama of the psyche”, couched in the
dense symbolism of Blake's self-constructed mythology. Because Blake's later poetry
contains a private mythology with complex symbolism, his late work has been less
published than his earlier more accessible work. Blake's later writings show a renewed
interest in Christianity, and although he radically reinterprets Christian morality in a way
that embraces sensual pleasure, there is little of the emphasis on sexual libertarianism
found in several of his early poems, and there is advocacy of “self – denial”, though such
abnegation must be inspired by love rather than through authoritarian compulsion.
12
Ibid, p. 28.
35
[16] Berger
13
is especially sensitive to a shift in sensibility between the early Blake and the
later Blake. Berger believes the young Blake placed too much emphasis on following
impulses, and that the older Blake had a better formed ideal of a true love that sacrifices
self. Some celebration of mystical sensuality remains in the late poems However, the late
poems also place a greater emphasis on forgiveness, redemption, and emotional
authenticity as a foundation for relationships.
Blake is frequently referred to as a mystic, but this is not really accurate. He
deliberately wrote in the style of the Hebrew prophets and apocalyptic writers. In his filthy
London studio he succumbed to constant visions of angels and prophets who instructed
him in his work. It is the difficulty of Blake's visionary poetry, rather than the vividness
that has captured the commentators. They have sought high and low in the mystical
philosophies, or in the politics, of East and West for the “key” to his work. It is true that he
has a habit of allusiveness that is certainly obscure. In the famous song, for example,
England is 'clouded' by spiritual blindness more than by cumuli, and the 'Satanic mills' are
the shackles of the mind, of which the Industrial Revolution is only one manifestation. The
difficulty is not to be solved by finding a missing key. It is something less systematic; the
problem of Blake himself.
Each of Blake's new enthusiasm reshapes the legend of his poems. As Blake refines
his beliefs, he refines his myth too. The function of Orc and Urizen in America is quite
plain; one fights for freedom, the other for law. In The Book of Urizen it is much more
complex, and by Vala and Milton they have had to be altered almost out of recognition,
but they are never quite abandoned. Blake was not by instinct a narrative poet. He tended
to 'improve' his longer poems by a process of accumulation rather than by following the
demands of the narrative. His mind was like an untidy desk. He threw nothing away, and
often used old material for new tasks. One never knows what one will find. The reader
13
36
ploughing through pages full of “dismal howling woe” comes across an unexpected line of
startling beauty which only Blake could have written. It is therefore no use trying to
understand Blake by means of a key. No one scheme fits all his works; each stage grows
out of the one preceding it. Each enthusiasm gives a striking new turn to his legend and its
imagery, but the new is always superimposed on the old. If we can understand the series of
enthusiasms, we can begin to find our way through the difficulties of his work.
It is easy to dismiss Blake as 'primitive', an artist whose attraction resides in his
naivety, which is lost when the work becomes heavy and charmless. This is also too
simple. There is an odd contradiction at the heart of Blake's writing. He repeatedly called
for art to concern itself with the “minute particulars” of life. On the other hand he criticized
Wordsworth for paying too much attention to the details of nature at the expense of inner
realities. More important, much of his poetry disregards his own rule. Words like
“howling” and “dismal” appear far too often. His lyrics are usually marvels of conciseness,
but he chose to express his dearest beliefs, not as “minute particulars”, but as cloudy,
generalized figures representing eternal states of humanity. Milton ceases to be a
seventeenth – century poet and becomes a state of Los, the eternal spirit of the imagination.
From first to last, Blake champions the imagination, but too much misplaced convention.
At his greatest, he become eternal; at his worst, the eternal becomes a scheme.
Here if anywhere else, lies the “key” to Blake. He was not a “Romantic” writer,
whatever that is; he was neo – classic by training and inclination. He had no time for
classical myth, but that is irrelevant. His instinct was to create – inspired by his own
visions – not symbols out of mystical tradition, nor vivid observations of human life, but
representative figures to embody both the inner nature of the subject and his own response
to it. His long epic poems are made up of a mixture of inspiration, pig – headedness,
evangelic fervour and profound imagery. When he failed, he became obscure or tedious –
37
often both. When he succeeded, he created a kind of magic of which no other poet has
been capable. He blundered into greatness, just as he often blundered away from it. Yet
there are many occasions, as his mystical figures move across the abyss, when all the
elements come together, and then he produces poetry of a unique kind of genius, which
leave the reader in something more than admiration – in wonderment14.
5. B I B L I O G R A P H Y :
1. www.poets.org/poet/william-blake
2. Blake, William, Blake's America a Prophecy, 1984.
14
Behrendt, Stephen C. - Reading William Blake. London, Macmillan Press, 1992,
p. 87.)
38
3. Bloom, Harold, The Visionary Company, Ithaca: Corneu University Press,
1933.
4. Damon, S. Foster, A Blake Dictionary, Hanover: University Press of New
England, 1988.
5. Ketlin Rejn, „Knjiga o Blejku“, Dveri, Beograd, 2007.
6. Marko Grčić, „Blejk vječno jevanđelje“, Grafički zavod Hrvatske, Zagreb,
1980.
7. Northrop Frye, „Blake’s Introduction to Experiance“, „Blake, a Collection
of Critical Essays“
8. Suzana K. Langer, „Poesis“, „Nova kritika“, Prosveta, Beograd, 1973.
9. Thomas, Edward, A literary pilgrim in England, 1917.
10. Vilijam Blejk, „Izabrana dela“, Plato, Beograd, 2007.
11. Wilson, Mona, The life of William Blake, The Nonsuch Press, 1927.
12. Wright, Tomas, Life of William Blake, 2003.
39

Mythological Characters in William Blake's Poetry

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MYTHOLOGICAL CHARACTERS IN WILLIAM BLAKE'S POETRY

WILLIAM BLAKE'S POETRY

Mentor: Marija Krivokapić

Candidate: Maja Kovačević

1. BIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM BLAKE................................................................................................ 2

2. WILLIAM BLAKE'S MYTHOLOGY................................................................................................ 5

3. MYTHOLOGICAL CHARACTERS IN WILLIAM BLAKE'S POETRY.................................21

1. BIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM BLAKE

In 1782, he married an illiterate woman named Catherine Boucher. Blake taught

“Blake's first printed work, Poetical Sketches (1783), is a collection of apprentice

readers interpret Songs of Innocence in a straightforward fashion, considering it primarily a

each picture was finished by hand in watercolors.

century neoclassical conventions, he privileged imagination over reason in the creation of

Swedish philosopher whose ideas once attracted his interest.

of innocence, the human spirit triumphant over reason.

miscellany, The Doctor (1834-1837).

2. WILLIAM BLAKE'S MYTHOLOGY

predated most forms. As a consequence, Blake demonstrates a need to eradicate the

possibility of mythical ossification at every stage of his myth.

to appropriate aspects of ancient rituals, in order to demonstrate the connections between

and Druidic mythologies.”

an original embodiment of later myths and a representative of the golden age.

experience of an after – life.

mythology, as he regarded different mythologies and belief systems as surrendering to the

from ancient British mythology.

Albion is represented throughout history. Blake cites Arthur as a figure whose

corrupting. The emblems of druidic sacrifice, as representative of human error, are

opposition to each other for the majority of the narrative.

The latter point is crucial in representing Blake's consciousness as a mythical

inspiration behind mythological story – telling, is contaminated by a culture devoted to

ideologies and conventions of classical and neo-classical aesthetic paradigms.

Blake incorporates familiar mythical structures in the form of frequently negative

example of a consistent urge in Blake to reshape history by re-contextualizing mythical or

reinvent his mythical figures.

his own mythology that remains enslaved by the circumstances of history.

Blake’s mythology can be described as colourful, changing, creative, spiritual and

sudden “illumination”. However, it is accurately to say that he developed the mythopoesis

restrictive education and morals on the other.

The prophetic books of the English poet and artist William Blake are a series of

private project. In them he elaborated, with some false starts, a personal invented

extensively debated for both its political and religious content.

“mystical” applied to them is largely an obfuscation. “Mystical” as to the poetic language

considered unproblematic, they had a tortuous publication history.

Revolution”, “America”, a “Prophecy”, ”Visions of the Daughters of Albion” and

described as a satire on institutional religion and conventional morality. In it Blake defines

fundamental psychic energy.

Rather than accepting a traditional religion from an organized church, Blake

magnificent accompanying designs, which have an energy and monumental grandeur

inadequate as an answer to the complexities of human existence.

of antiquaries – notably the theories of William Stukeley – who identified Eastern

human spirit triumphant over reason.

disintegration, is at last regenerated. In 1804 – 08 Blake engraved Milton. This poem is a

domineering patronage of William Hayley.

through his acceptance of Jesus' doctrine of universal brotherhood. It is a complex

disintegration of man is reconciliation through forgiveness, and the reconciliation of Christ

“The Book of Urizen” is essentially the creation story in Blake's mythology, in

ours, but in a world where significance depends on response.

of Britain, Albion was a Giant son of Poseidon, the Greek god of the sea. He was a

prophetic works, Milton: a Poem and Jerusalem: The Emanation of The Giant Albion.

of Albion in Blake's mythology. It consists of nine books, referred to as “nights”. These

intended the book to be a summation of his mythic universe but, dissatisfied, he abandoned

the effort in 1807, leaving it unfinished and unengraved.