Subject
Re: sarcophagus: "life keeper".
From
Date
Body
sarcophagus
"leaf=sarcophagus?"
' 'The Greek etymology of "sarcophagus" is "flesh eater". However, this is not really the Egyptian interpretation. In their ancient language, the sarcophagus might be called neb ankh (possessor of life).'
I had never given this matter any thought but the comment above makes sense when it points out that the Egyptian interpretation refers to "possessor of life". We might never be able to find out if VN had wanted to call our attention to this contradictory use of the word. Perhaps the green leaf for the green moth might have represented green=death, as Don suggested, but I don't think so.
The leaf in the Egyptian-sense of a sarcophagus holding "a dead and shriveled-up cocoon" could mean that, although "dead" ( emptied of its living moth), it is still the possessor of life since the soul ( the moth) has fled but one day re-incarnation shall take place and join body and soul again...Apparently this is something VN believed in, at least if we follow certain authorities on Pale Fire, but perhaps he didn't... These lines on sarcophagus appear as part of Kinbote's commentary and the original indicates a book of verses [Shakespeare's? Hamlet ( human skull) or Othello ( Moor )] and a glass-encased lagoon ( Lake Omega, perhaps? Snow-White's coffin, a kind of cocoon?)
And yet both versions keep the sonorous "still life in her style" ( a half-encased life, crystal-coffin silent life!) .
The German, Dutch and English name a "still life" what we, in Portuguese and in many other Latin-derived languages, call a "dead nature" ( nature morte). It is easier to believe Nabokov had this contrast in mind ( living/dead) than "sarcophagus" ( in Greek or following Egyptian's belief in afterlife ).He did speak French and his ability to think up words simultaneously in different languages seems to be undisputable...
From Wikipedia: "the expression 'nature morte' indicates a subject organized by inanimate objects ( fruits, flowers, vases) or dead animals and later, by metonymy, a work ( painting, photograph) that represents a "nature morte". The term came into use at the end of the XVII Century. Until then the expression used by Vasari ( "cose naturali") for the motifs painted by Giovanni da Undine. In 1650 in the Netherlands the expression stilleven appeared, followed by the German (Stilleben) and the English (still-life) and is translated as "Silent Life".
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"leaf=sarcophagus?"
' 'The Greek etymology of "sarcophagus" is "flesh eater". However, this is not really the Egyptian interpretation. In their ancient language, the sarcophagus might be called neb ankh (possessor of life).'
I had never given this matter any thought but the comment above makes sense when it points out that the Egyptian interpretation refers to "possessor of life". We might never be able to find out if VN had wanted to call our attention to this contradictory use of the word. Perhaps the green leaf for the green moth might have represented green=death, as Don suggested, but I don't think so.
The leaf in the Egyptian-sense of a sarcophagus holding "a dead and shriveled-up cocoon" could mean that, although "dead" ( emptied of its living moth), it is still the possessor of life since the soul ( the moth) has fled but one day re-incarnation shall take place and join body and soul again...Apparently this is something VN believed in, at least if we follow certain authorities on Pale Fire, but perhaps he didn't... These lines on sarcophagus appear as part of Kinbote's commentary and the original indicates a book of verses [Shakespeare's? Hamlet ( human skull) or Othello ( Moor )] and a glass-encased lagoon ( Lake Omega, perhaps? Snow-White's coffin, a kind of cocoon?)
And yet both versions keep the sonorous "still life in her style" ( a half-encased life, crystal-coffin silent life!) .
The German, Dutch and English name a "still life" what we, in Portuguese and in many other Latin-derived languages, call a "dead nature" ( nature morte). It is easier to believe Nabokov had this contrast in mind ( living/dead) than "sarcophagus" ( in Greek or following Egyptian's belief in afterlife ).He did speak French and his ability to think up words simultaneously in different languages seems to be undisputable...
From Wikipedia: "the expression 'nature morte' indicates a subject organized by inanimate objects ( fruits, flowers, vases) or dead animals and later, by metonymy, a work ( painting, photograph) that represents a "nature morte". The term came into use at the end of the XVII Century. Until then the expression used by Vasari ( "cose naturali") for the motifs painted by Giovanni da Undine. In 1650 in the Netherlands the expression stilleven appeared, followed by the German (Stilleben) and the English (still-life) and is translated as "Silent Life".
Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm