Death And His Brother Sleep | The Odyssey Online
Start writing a post
Entertainment

Death And His Brother Sleep

A look at some of Shakespeare's influences.

897
Death And His Brother Sleep
wikipedia

A couple of months ago, I talked about Hamlet's major soliloquy in Act III, scene i of Hamlet, focusing on the originality of his identification between sleep and death. In my Bardolatrous zeal, I may have overstated this somewhat. Make no mistake; Hamlet does expand upon and develop this idea to near perfection. But, there were hints to this connection long before even the historic Hamlet was born in Medieval Denmark.

The idea that sleep and death could be at least metaphorically connected is first hinted at in Greek mythology (pretty much everything in modern culture is ultimately derived from either Shakespeare or the Greeks and Romans). Specifically, the daemons (supernatural beings higher than humans, but not gods) who represented Sleep (Hypnos) and Death (Thanatos) were twin brothers, children of Night (Nyx) and Primordial Darkness (Erebus). Whilst they don't directly interact with each other in any surviving myths, there is at least one image (an illustration of a scene from Homer's Iliad on a vase) where, significantly, they're working together to carry a fallen hero (Sarpedon) to his final resting place.

Meanwhile, in Roman literature, we have another tantalizing hint at this connection in Virgil's epic, The Aeneid. In Book VI, the Trojan prince and legendary founder of Rome, Aeneas, must venture into the Underworld so that he can get directions from his recently deceased father on where to go next in his journey. When this is done, Aeneas must leave the Underworld by exiting through an odd gate, with one half made from ivory, and the other half out of horn. This is interesting because, in Classical mythology, dreams were said to come to the mortal world through a gate made from horn and ivory. This has lead to several interesting theories that Virgil may be inferring a connection not only between the states of sleep and death, but he also may be hinting that the afterlife is a sort of psychic state.

In an example closer to Shakespeare's era, this idea was also explored by the 14th century Florentine poet, Dante Alighieri (another major source of Everything), in the Inferno section of The Divine Comedy. One of Dante's major innovations was to make the torments of Hell, a region he explores with Virgil, the physical manifestation of the psychic state during the sin being punished. This implies that Hell has a deep connection with our mental states, but Dante, a devout Medieval Catholic, still maintains the objective existence of Hell. Given how much Italian culture influenced Shakespeare's England (several plays of the era, including many of Shakespeare's, take place in Italy), it's very likely that Shakespeare was influenced by Dante. And finally, in Doctor Faustus, Mephistopheles says that Hell is anywhere without God. And the writer of Doctor Faustus was Christopher Marlowe, a contemporary of and major influence on Shakespeare.

Greek myth, Roman literature, and Dante- with these rivers of thought flowing into his mind as raw material, it should be no surprise that Shakespeare was able to create the masterpieces that he did. However, it takes more than just having the right inspirations to create literature on the level that he did- it also requires natural genius.

Report this Content
This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator.
ross geller
YouTube

As college students, we are all familiar with the horror show that is course registration week. Whether you are an incoming freshman or selecting classes for your last semester, I am certain that you can relate to how traumatic this can be.

1. When course schedules are released and you have a conflict between two required classes.

Bonus points if it is more than two.

Keep Reading...Show less
friends

Whether you're commuting or dorming, your first year of college is a huge adjustment. The transition from living with parents to being on my own was an experience I couldn't have even imagined- both a good and a bad thing. Here's a personal archive of a few of the things I learned after going away for the first time.

Keep Reading...Show less
Featured

Economic Benefits of Higher Wages

Nobody deserves to be living in poverty.

300867
Illistrated image of people crowded with banners to support a cause
StableDiffusion

Raising the minimum wage to a livable wage would not only benefit workers and their families, it would also have positive impacts on the economy and society. Studies have shown that by increasing the minimum wage, poverty and inequality can be reduced by enabling workers to meet their basic needs and reducing income disparities.

I come from a low-income family. A family, like many others in the United States, which has lived paycheck to paycheck. My family and other families in my community have been trying to make ends meet by living on the minimum wage. We are proof that it doesn't work.

Keep Reading...Show less
blank paper
Allena Tapia

As an English Major in college, I have a lot of writing and especially creative writing pieces that I work on throughout the semester and sometimes, I'll find it hard to get the motivation to type a few pages and the thought process that goes behind it. These are eleven thoughts that I have as a writer while writing my stories.

Keep Reading...Show less
April Ludgate

Every college student knows and understands the struggle of forcing themselves to continue to care about school. Between the piles of homework, the hours of studying and the painfully long lectures, the desire to dropout is something that is constantly weighing on each and every one of us, but the glimmer of hope at the end of the tunnel helps to keep us motivated. While we are somehow managing to stay enrolled and (semi) alert, that does not mean that our inner-demons aren't telling us otherwise, and who is better to explain inner-demons than the beloved April Ludgate herself? Because of her dark-spirit and lack of filter, April has successfully been able to describe the emotional roller-coaster that is college on at least 13 different occasions and here they are.

Keep Reading...Show less

Subscribe to Our Newsletter

Facebook Comments