Book 4, lines 598-655

[Previous: lines 565-597]

John  narrates. Jesus, in the widerness, is tempted by Satan.

Atque equidem memini (vix actus volvitur annus)
nuper Ioannis comperta caede recenti,
quem rex, uxorem praereptam reddere fratri                   [600]
admonitus, tenebris ferro obtruncârat in atris,
urbibus his abiit cautus, populisque relictis
digressus: sylvae elapsum accepere profundae.
Nec rex ipse Erebi, generis fœdissimus hostis
humani, nostras qui recto avertere mentes                       [605]
nititur, abstinuit dominove, Deove pepercit.
Forte etenim comitum strepitus, turbamque sequentum
dum fugeret quondam, se clam subduxerat heros
caetibus, et solus lucis degebat in altis.
Iamque quater denos frugum sine munere soles               [610]
condiderat, totidemque famem per inhospita noctes
pertulerat; cùm iam tempus ratus esse nocendi,
affuit extemplo multis cum millibus hostis
noctipotens, quos tartareis ducebat ab antris
flammea semiferi capitis gestamina quassans:                  [615]
iamque sui frustra spe praemia percipit astûs.
Ergo illi meditans nequicquam illudere dictis
talibus aggreditur: ‘Superi tu certa Parentis
progenies, verusque Deus, tibique omnia parent,
quid durare fame confecto corpore pergis?                        [620]
Nec subitò in totidem convertere adorea liba,
haec circum quae saxa vides ingentia, tentas?
Non divum latuere doli, atque haec reddidit ore:
‘Sunt mihi mortali tostae pro munere frugis
sermones patris auditi, divinaque verba;                           [625]
quae quoties animo repeto memor, effugit omnis
pulsa fames subitò, mensaeque oblita cupido.’
Dixerat: his tamen auditis haud destitit hostis
congressu victus primo; pugnamque retentat,
atque aliis super, atque aliis assultibus instat;                   [630]
terque novos semper caepti irritus integrat astus,
nequicquam nunc regnorum, nunc laudis inani
immotum tentans animum praevertere amore.
Ut cùm sollicitum tollunt mare fluctibus Euri,
crebra ferit, saevitque minaci verbere in alta                     [635]
littora, sed saxis allisa revertitur unda.
Nec Deus, haec subitò quamvis praesentiat, arcet
conantem; patiturque dolos sibi nectere vanos.
Nunc se marmorei supra fastigia templi,
nunc rupem supra, scabrumque crepidine saxum               [640]
subvectari ultro sinit, et spem accendit inanem.
Cùm verò, vicisse ratus, jam gaudia dira
conciperet frustra ille inhians, se protinus heros
ipse Deum claro confessus numine coram
irrita furta dolosque exibat semper apertos.                      [645]
Qualis, ubi excussis per plana evasit habenis,
liber equus ludit famulos hinc inde sequentes,
saepe hïc dissimulans, atque illic improbus haeret,
perque viam oblatas interdum pascitur herbas:
ast ubi jam videt instantes, elabitur, alteque                       [650]
emicat, et spatia transmittit maxima campi.
Quam speciem expertus nequicquam ubi denique sensit
hostis atrox, abiit victusque, Deumque reliquit;
aui volucres centum pluma pernice ministri
astabant missu genitoris, opemque ferebant.                      [655]

------------

And I remember (hardly a year ago)
when John was executed, for telling
the king to return his wife, snatched from his brother—, [600]
sharp steel beheaded him in a dark dungeon.
It was time to be cautious, leave the cities,
slip away, take refuge in the deep forest.
Here Erebus’ king, foulest enemy
of mankind, always trying to soil our minds,                    [605]
decided to make a trial of God’s son.
Withdrawing from the hubbub of followers
the hero fled and hid himself away
alone, secretly; and remained apart
enduring a desert fast for forty days                                  [610]
and for as many inhospitable nights.
Believing the time was right, the Lord of Night
appeared, with many thousands of the enemy,
nightpotent, led from the dens of the damned—
and shook his bestial and flaming head.                            [615]
He saw, vainly hoping, the rewards for cunning;
To that end, plotting what words to use
he made his advance: ‘O true son of God
true god yourself, whom all things obey,
why do you endure this weary hunger?                             [620]
Why not turn into as many loaves of spelt
these big rocks you see lying all around?’
This did not fool the divine one, who replied:
‘Instead of the mortal food of baked grain
I have the divine words of my father;                               [625]
and as often as I recall them, all
hunger flees, all appetite vanishes.’
He spoke: but the enemy did not retreat
though he’d been bested in this encounter,
but resumed the assault, again and again—                      [630]
three times his new tricks failed him, and he
offered now power, now empty flattery,
attempting to pervert his steadfast soul.
He was like Eurus, the East Wind, roiling the sea,
sending huge waves raging onward to strike                    [635]
the shore, only to dash on rocks and roll back.
Yet the god, sensing the treachery, did not
ward him off, but allowed him to continue
tempting him, from atop marble temples
or a cliff above a rock ledge with sharp jags                    [640]
below—he encouraged his foe’s empty hopes.
But when the dire one though he’d prevailed, looked
with greedy eye on victory—the hero
manifested his numinous power as God,
and left behind his empty treachery,                                [645]
like a horse that has shaken off its reins
and runs free across the fields, sporting with those
who chase after him, sometimes seeming to stop
and feeding on the grass and vegetation,
but as soon as they approach, slipping off                       [650]
dashing away and covering huge distances.
Where, finally, he saw that his tests had failed
the ruthless enemy slunk off in defeat, leaving God:
his Father sent a hundred winged angels down
to stand by him and minister to all his needs.                 [655]

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The Gospel account doesn’t say what kind of bread would have resulted if the devil had been successful in tempting Jesus (in the Vulgate it’s simple panis, ‘bread’); but Vida specifies adoreus, spelt. This can’t be for prosodic reasons, since panis fits the metre fine; so perhaps it’s because , according to Lewis and Short, spelt was more than just a type of bread, but also ‘a reward of valor (in early ages this usually consisted of grain); hence, trop., glory, fame, renown ... in lordly honor, viz. by the defeat of Hasdrubal, Hor. C. 4, 4, 41.’

The gospel accounts of this episode specify three distinct temptations.

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry. Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.”

But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’ ”

Then the devil took Him up into the holy city, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written:

‘He shall give His angels charge over you,’

and,

‘In their hands they shall bear you up,
Lest you dash your foot against a stone.’”

Jesus said to him, “It is written again, ‘You shall not tempt the LORD your God.’ ”

Again, the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to Him, “All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me.”

Then Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the LORD your God, and Him only you shall serve.’ ”

Then the devil left Him, and behold, angels came and ministered to Him. [Matthew 4:1-11]

Vida, though, seems to lose interest after the first.

The simile by which Jesus is compared to the rocky shore repelling the satanic waves is a midrash on Virgil (of course, Virgil). Urged by Turnus, the Latins petition Latinus to declare war on the Trojans, but he refuses:

Ille velut pelagi rupes immota resistit,
ut pelagi rupes magno veniente fragore,
quae sese multis circum latrantibus undis
mole tenet; scopuli nequiquam et spumea circum
saxa fremunt laterique inlisa refunditur alga. [Aeneid 7:586-90]

‘He like an unmoved ocean cliff, resists; like an ocean cliff which, when a great crash comes, stands steadfast in its bulk amid many howling waves; in vain the crags and foaming rocks roar about, and the seaweed is whirled back.’

Milton lifts Vida’s simile for his own brief epic of Jesus’s temptation, Paradise Regained:

[As] surging waves against a solid rock,
Though all to shivers dashed, the assault renew,
(Vain battery!) and in froth or bubbles end—
So Satan, whom repulse upon repulse
Met ever, and to shameful silence brought,
Yet gives not o'er, though desperate of success,
And his vain importunity pursues. [PR, 4:18-24]

The comparison, though, reemphasises how, well, truncated Vida’s treatment is. Milton of course gives us all the temptations recorded in the Bible; Vida more or less gives up a third of the way in.

The detail at the end of the episode, in which the angels comfort Jesus, is similarly only glancingly mentioned in Vida. Milton goes to town on it:

So Satan fell; and straight a fiery globe
Of Angels on full sail of wing flew nigh,
Who on their plumy vans received Him soft
From his uneasy station, and upbore,
As on a floating couch, through the blithe air;
Then, in a flowery valley, set him down
On a green bank, and set before him spread
A table of celestial food, divine
Ambrosial fruits fetched from the Tree of Life,
And from the Fount of Life ambrosial drink,
That soon refreshed him wearied, and repaired
What hunger, if aught hunger, had impaired,
Or thirst; and, as he fed, Angelic quires
Sung heavenly anthems of his victory
Over temptation and the Tempter proud:— [PR, 4:581-95]

It reminds me of this superbly creepy James Tissot image, ‘Jésus assisté par les anges’ (c1900), presently in the Brooklyn Museum:

And talking of images: that lovely spock-eared, chicken-footed Satan tempting Jesus at the head of the post is by Simon Bening, and is roughly contemporaneous with Vida's ongoing work.

One last thing: John the Baptist, beheaded by Herod, is folded by Vida into the beginning of this passage, disposed of in a three lines. This is an odd decision by Vida, I think: as John's death is, in the Gospels, a large and detailed episode. Mark records how the Tetrarch Herod Antipas, hearing stories about Jesus, asking whether this is John the Baptist raised from the dead. Mark goes on to explain how John had been executed, after rebuking Herod for marrying Herodias, the ex-wife of his brother, whose name Mark gives as Philip. Herodias demands his death, but Herod is reluctant to do this, knowing he to be a ‘righteous and holy man’. Then Herod's daughter Herodias (other versions of the Gospel call her the daughter of Herodias) dances before Herod, who is pleased and offers her anything she asks for in return. When the girl asks her mother what she should request, she is told to demand the head of John the Baptist. Reluctantly, Herod orders the beheading of John, and his head is delivered to her, at her request, on a platter [Mark 6:17–29]. Theologians have issues with this passage:

There are a number of difficulties with this passage. The Gospel refers to Antipas as ‘King’ when he was actually only Tetrarchm and the ex-husband of Herodias is named as Philip when he is known to have been called Herod. Although the wording clearly implies the girl was the daughter of Herodias, many texts describe her as ‘Herod's daughter, Herodias’. Since these texts are early and significant and the reading is ‘difficult’, many scholars see this as the original version, corrected in later versions and in Matthew and Luke. Josephus says that Herodias had a daughter by the name of Salome.

Scholars have speculated about the origins of the story. Since it shows signs of having been composed in Aramaic, which Mark apparently did not speak, he is likely to have got it from a Palestinian source. There are a variety of opinions about how much actual historical material it contains, especially given the alleged factual errors. Many scholars have seen the story of John arrested, executed, and buried in a tomb as a conscious foreshadowing of the fate of Jesus.

Here's ‘Saint John Baptist’ (1959) by Daniel Berrigan:

In the mirror a sword made descending
briefer than image a stream carries
beyond, I saw John old: eyes cold, hair silver.

Look how I save you, sang the blade strongly:
freedman: do not upbear on shoulder
dwarfing honors, prophecies by rote,
a stalemate heart.

I caught in two hands this unripe storm-shaken fruit,
by hate (by love) tossed down. Held it for thanksgiving
to taste at soul's mouth its salt vigor.

[Next: lines 656-689]