week 7: Confessio amantis - the Apollonius story

Dear friends,

as you probably know, a strike for climate is going to take place in the premises of our faculty along with many academic institutions throughout the Republic. What might be the largest climate-concerned protest since 1989 is important to me for various reasons that I would like to share with you.

Firstly and foremostly, I along with my colleagues in the Universities for Climate movement perceive that the issue of tackling issues connected to global warming has been so far downplayed by the Czech governements in the recent years. Despite there being no wonder that in such precarious times like this year problems like the conflict in the Ukraine or fiscal unstability of the state are prominent, we believe that trying to adress the matter of the imminent threats to our environment is equally important. We are concerned that efforts to evade the burden of responsibility for our climatic future will result not only into what we think would be a moral failure, but also into a total disarray in which all current problems would become even more difficult to handle. Nonetheless, the reason why the UfC have decided to act is certainly related to this strong sense of that our Government is not able to deliver any adequate outline of an urgently-needed transformation which would lead to climatic, social, and economic sustainability, but it is also the withdrawal of green matters from the public sphere that has been of our concerns. Therefore we hope that the strike will succeed in raining public awareness of these issues and serve educative purposes at the same time. The strike will include many lectures, debates and screenings on the envromentalist topics to which I would warmly like to invite you (you can find more details about the programme of the strike at this URL: https://univerzityzaklima.cz/program-okupace-2022/).

This is by no means an effort to undermine the classes regularly scheduled for the week (even for me it was an ambiguous decision not to take part in lectures and seminars), we just strive to create a peaceful protest highlighting the matters described and providing opportunity for debating them. Should this post prompt you to spare a thought or two on the climate-related problems or to consider joining any part of the programme, it is more than I could have asked for.

Many thanks to dr. Znojemská for allowing me to present the strike here.

One of the recurrent motifs that I find quite fascinating in Gower is him stressing out the importance of royal blood. To some extend, this could be interpreted in the constraints of cultural translation (i. e. Gower feels urgent need to explain to the reader the unusual behaviour of the fisherman that does not correspond with the contemporary view on how a poor man should behave - lines 649-653), but I believe it to more than that. The repetitive highlightning of the fact that something would not have happened if it had not been for Apollonius' lineage (such as in l. 793-794) does not only occur because of the need to explain his abilities, but also to suggest that being of noble birth determines him to be successful. To quote an example of this, in lines 1016-1018 Gower puts this cry into the mouth of Pentapolis' citizens: "A worthi king schal ben oure lord: / That thoghte ous ferst an hevinesse / Is schape ous now to gret gladnesse" as if the fact that Apollonius is of royal blood meant that he must be a good ruler. To put it straight, I assume that in underlining the importance of noble origin, the author tries to justify the concurrent social division (which actually is not that much present in the latin version where more iniciative is ascribed to the peoples of the cities). By this, he present a specific message, if not moral, then I would argue that it is certainly a political statement.

Gower gives the story a context: it is an exemplum of Lechery, on of the Deadly Sins. The theme of incest is especially highlighted in his version. He uses words "spille" (destroy) describing Antiochus' actions towards his daughter (297). She, in turn, is portrayed as a pitiful victim: she does not know how to protect herself and is full of "drede" (303). The Latin text does not go into so much detail. It seems that the condemnation of incest is the main concern in Gower's version, although it touches upon other moral themes and motifs, such as mercy and chastity.

As Gower sets up in his title, his re-telling focuses on love more than anything - and the lack thereof. First, we get the long introduction that sets up our expectations, wherein Gower complains about the state of thing nowadays and how much better it was before, especially in the matters of love, yet the first image he then gives us of those good old days is the terrible rape scene. He dwells on it much more than the other versions, to really stress the utter betrayal of love, in this case parental love, and the horrible results of it.
The shipwreck scene highlights a bit more Apollonius' courage and leadership, as he tries in the face of disaster to steer the ship to safety, whereas the previous versions simply remarked that he was shipwrecked. Coupled with the emphasis placed on (im)proper love and honour, as once again repeated in the epilogue to drive the point home, it seems that Gower is trying to make it into much more of a traditional romance, highlighting those themes and characteristics that would be important for the image of a proper, high-born member of the court.

It seems Gower expects us to see some profound contrast between the incestual love of Antiochus and the proper love of Apollonius, something that is basically not apparent until the very ending, which, in turn, feels somewhat forced and, I dare say, silly. Whereas the original tale teaches something akin to the book of Job (Job loses all his family and status by the whim of God/Fortune, but never loses hope that life/God will yet show him a kinder face, which ultimately happens when Job is granted a new family and new wealth, the key value being endurance, patience, or, simply put, faith), this one slaps some ready-made moral about sexual conduct onto an unrelated story, very likely taking example from the bizzare interpretations of the secular Ovide Moralisé. The more one examines the moral, the more apparent its incongruity becomes: with Apollonius and his wife, it places much emphasis on all the norms and forms of courtship being observed and the marriage being proper, which would traditionally be contrasted with adultery, fornification, breaking of the forms x now Apollonius is not adulterous, he is married only in deed, but not in word, so technically he is guilty of fornification, but we all know that's not what the text is concerned about, it is incest - yet Gower seems to be constantly going around it, there are no comparisons made between Antiochus and Apollonius up until the end and there are little parallels to be found, only that while the righteous Apollonius suffers misfortune, the sinful Antiochus lives in comfort and wealth, until one day the slow workings of divine justice set things right, but that is not thematized by the ending moral.

I agree with the points my colleagues have made about Gower focusing in his story mainly on the motif of love/betrayal. He starts the narrative with a graphic description of incestuous rape which is a complete betrayal or parental love and contrasts this with his protagonist Apollonius, who is proper and chivalrous. There is also the theme of purity/chastity, exemplified by the scene where the princess wishes to die after she has been raped.

I agree with my colleagues' comments on sinful/proper love opposition and would like to add that this also affects Gower's Apollonius as a character. While in Latin version he simplycomes to ask for Antiochus' daughter's hand (and we can only guess his motivation), in Gower (375-382) he is driven by his passion. Now, the Latin Apollonius is quite passive in terms of love in general. For example, when his future love ails because of love to him and begs her father to let her marry him, neither Apollonius nor the narrator ever reveals his love for her, until they get married.