The Character and Content of Water in Nonnus and Claudian

Abstract

While it is the common nature of water to mirror the exact image of the body, it alone boasts the strange power that it mimics not human forms but human character (mores).ClaudianAs Claudian observes, water can display some very human moods and emotions, such as anger or calm. It can be quite anthropomorphic. Rivers, springs, the sea are readily personified. But, further than that, when water is imagined, it can also reveal many of the fantasies, wishes, fears and preoccupations of the person who does the imagining. The rich symbolism of water comes about, at least in part, because of the readiness of people to project on to it, as if on to a screen, the contents of their psyche, the character of their inner lives. Sadistic or lustful drives, nostalgic longings and much more may emerge in dreams, fantasies and images associated with water. Even when an author's work teems with traditional aquatic imagery, such images have to be selected from the larger cultural storehouse and the consequent array and treatment of these has a particular cumulative effect. Certain attitudes may reveal themselves. Imagined water that is particularly turbulent, for example,mayreflect the turbulence of an author's psyche. Through an author's treatment of water one can often gain some idea of how changeable, comforting and threatening the world appears to him or her.