Potiphar's Wife

 Further Notes on
Joseph and His Brothers

"Love is an illness, though perhaps more like pregnancy and the labors of childbirth, and thus, so to speak, a healthy illness, even if, like them, it is not without its dangers.  The woman's mind was dazed, and although as an educated Egyptian she could express herself with literary and, after her own fashion reasonable   eloquence, her ability to differentiate between what was permissible and impermissible was greatly diminished and blurred." (p 916)
 
In other words she was smitten with love, a condition entirely new to her, after many years in a merely symbolic relationship with Potiphar who, for reasons too recondite, or perhaps merely complicated, to relate, was not in any position to demand or persuade her emotional or physical participation in his bedroom.  No, his wife, Mut-em-enet, referred to simply as Mut, has fallen "head-over-heels" for Joseph.  Joseph, too, is confused as his growing maturity has increased his masculinity yet his position as Potiphar's chamberlain following the death of Mont-kaw, settled a new formality in his relations with Potiphar and his household, including Mut.  He was not a little dazed by the apparent change in her look and language used toward him and would fend off presents she offered as inappropriate for one in his position.  It is only when he reluctantly refuses a gift of "festive garb" that a realization occurs, his eyes suddenly cleared of the mist that had hampered them, which the narrator compares to the reaction that Gilgamesh had "when Ishtar besieged him because of his beauty and solicited him, saying: "Come then, Gilgamesh, you shall pair with me and impart your fruit to me," while holding out to him the splendor of many gifts should he comply with her wish."(p 920)

Joseph reflects on this and on Mut's rash actions and deliberates, concluding that "I understand myself in him [Gilgamesh], as I understand him through myself. . . and girded himself with his chastity against your pursuit and your gifts."(p 921)  Thus Joseph reflects on the chastity required and the reasons, enumerating seven reasons of varying validity and strength, perhaps the strongest of them being his loyalty to Potiphar and his recognition of the power of the covenant that he must maintain with his fathers, both Jacob his earthly father and God his spiritual father.  This is done as the years have passed and his memory of his earthly father seems to dim and with it the memory of what Jacob must continue to feel in his mourning for his dead son, yet Joseph's relation with his god seems to be continually refreshed bringing strength to his will that yields unexpected success in his dealings with the Egyptians for someone who is still a foreigner in their midst.
These internal vows determine that the narrative will be one of a smitten woman who, in spite of her relative power over Joseph, is hindered and thwarted in her increasingly heated and threatening attempts to conquer him in the sense that one gains the love of another.  Her increasing desire leads the narrator to compare her state that of a witch and the familiar metaphor of witchcraft in the tempting of a man is one that would fit her with the exception that she lacks any control over her actions.  Returning to a classical trope one would better describe Mut as being under the spell of Eros, engaging in an increasingly irrational series of actions that appear Maenadic in their Dionysian fury.  Through all their relations it appears that Joseph and Mut are talking past one another.  While Joseph is certainly aware of Mut's  desires (although perhaps not their strength), she is definitely not aware of the power of his reasons for chastity, especially a covenant with a god that is literally unknown to her.
 
At the same time, the evil dwarf Dudu is attempting to use the situation to his own benefit by persuading Potiphar to banish Joseph based on his telling tales about the so-called affair between Mut and Joseph.   Joseph, who does not appreciate the danger Dudu presents, remains unaware of these machinations.  We all know the outcome of these events, but the lengthy narrative once again demonstrates Thomas Mann's ability to create interest through detail and suspense and in this instance through relating a powerful story of unrequited love.  The power of the story raises Mut to the level of quintessential or perhaps even an archetypal woman; one who would compare with Eve or Delilah, Clytemnestra or Penelope.  

Joseph, for all his saintly chastity and growing maturity, is still a person who is both demonstrably hindered by his own "amor propre" and is overtly hubristic, losing sight of all the potentialities and possibilities of his situation.  Could not he have confided in Potiphar when Mut first approached him?  Potiphar certainly loves Joseph as the son that he never had, but this love will eventually be tested when Potiphar is faced with the pleading of his wife when she changes her fury from the pursuit of love to the rage for revenge. 


Joseph and His Brothers by Thomas Mann, John E. Woods, trans. Everyman's Library, 2005 (1933-43)
Image of Joseph and Potiphar's Wife by Guido Reni.

First Friday Lecture

Mythology in the Cradle 
of Civilization

"Many of us recognize the classical mythology of Greek and Roman civilizations, but the battling gods of Mesopotamia are less known. One reason for this “ignorance” of Mesopotamian myth is the traditional view of the Bible in Western civilization, which holds that monotheism superseded the mythology of the Ancient Near East. This lecture questions this traditional view by looking at select texts from Mesopotamia and the Bible, to see how some Biblical passages depend on the mythological worldview of Mesopotamia. In particular, this lecture will focus on the mythic battle among the gods in Mesopotamian texts and in the Bible."  -  from the Introduction to the Lecture

"'It is Gilgamesh who will venture into the Forest.'

The old men said: 'Though you are strongest of all,

do not put all your trust in your own strength.

Let Enkidu, who knows the way to the Forest,

who knows the wilderness, let him go first.

Enkidu the companion who will not forsake you."

Epic of Gilgamesh*

The Epic of Gilgamesh has long been a favorite of mine but my horizons, with regard to the myths of ancient Mesopotamia, were expanded considerably by the infectious passion of Stephen Hall in his lecture on "Mythology in the Cradle of Civilization".  The first Friday of each month the Basic Program of Liberal Education for Adults at the University of Chicago presents a lecture.  This past Friday Stephen Hall, Instructor in the Basic Program, was the presenter.
He began by defining the "Cradle of Civilization" as that area from the Persian Gulf surrounding the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers and arcing to the west ending up in what is today Syria, Lebanon, and Israel.  Also known as "the fertile crescent", this area has been the cradle of civilization as defined by urban societies since before 3000 B.C.  It is only in the twentieth century that a renaissance in Middle Eastern studies has led to an expansion and deepening of our knowledge of the art, architecture, and above all, the texts that delineate the myths of the cultures of this region.  Even our understanding of two of the most famous texts, the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Bible, has been enhanced over the last century.
Most of us are familiar with the Bible and its presentation of a monotheistic world view.  But according to Stephen Hall this represents a synthesis of earlier myths from earlier civilizations.  These Mesopotamian civilizations were multi-ethnic and polytheistic.  The Sumerian, Assyrian, and Babylonian pantheon of gods were not unlike those in the more familiar pantheon of gods of Greece and Rome that are part of the heritage of Western Civilization.  However, they preceded the Greek gods by millenniums.  Stephen Hall continued to discuss the nature of mythology.  What are myths -- are they just stories of gods?  He presented the classical view that there was a distinction between mythos and logos:  Mythos is best represented by the "wonders" in the Histories of Herodotus who weaves tales that seem more miraculous than historical to our modern ears;  while Logos is best represented by the History of the Peloponnesian Wars of Thucydides who claimed to adhere to real events in the presentation of history.
There is also the example of the Epic of Gilgamesh that presents mythos in its earliest form.  Here we have the story of Gilgamesh and his friend Enkidu whose relationship seems to mirror the clash between urban civilization and Nature with the wild side of Enkidu tamed much as the urban societies tamed Nature and ruled over the surrounding agricultural groups.  All of this background in myth was shown to be incorporated in the Bible through the examples of the beginning of Genesis, and selected other passages (notably Psalms, 74, 77, and 89).  It was in these passages, when read closely (and enhanced by Stephen Hall's knowledge of the original Hebrew text), that you could begin to see how aspects of the earlier Mesopotamian myths were incorporated and subsumed into the Bible.  Among these was a battle among the gods with Yahweh of the Bible a decisive victor.  The result of this exegesis was revelatory for me regarding the meaning and importance of myths that can be identified with the "Cradle of Civilization"

* Gilgamesh : A New Rendering in English Verse by David Ferry. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1992