Underground Rivers - University of New Mexico

Chapter 6 -- And Back to the Cross
In the manner of earlier chapters, following are correspondences to Homer's saga.
Odyssey (c. 855 BC) The Divine Comedy (1314)
Author Homer Dante
Protagonist Odysseus Dante
Setting
Opening
Mythical Mediterranean,
Mythical times
Tell me, O muse, of that
ingenious hero who travelled
far and wide after he had
sacked the famous town of
Troy.
Inferno, Purgatorio and
Paradiso, 1300
DRAFT 1122//66//22001122
Midway upon the journey of our
life I found myself within a
forest dark, For the
straightforward pathway had
been lost.
Lotus Eaters
Cyclops
Characters Sirens Hearing the Sirens, thou mayst
be stronger.
Summary
Rivers
Acheron Ferried across
Cocytus Lowest circle of Hell, a lake
frozen by the flapping wings of
Lucifer
Styx Surrounding the lower part of
Hell
Pyriphlegethon Phlegethon
So let us summarize what transpired in this and the previous two chapters, three segments of
time, each in the range of 500 years.
The early Church assumed a neo-Platonic bent, elevating spiritual understanding above insight
mired in worldly observation. To whatever minor degree the corrupted world merits
consideration, so would hydrology, but the theology demands our attention.
The Arabs preserved a more-phenomenological Aristotelian world view and within that context,
the lore of underground rivers expressed of Greek and Latin writings.
Intellectual vitality, both Arabic and European, came with the recognition of Greek legacy, a
spectrum extending from the highest order of cosmology to the deepest channels within the earth.
Resurgent Christendom emerged more Aristotelian, more empirical. Underground rivers with
mythical underpinning were again instruments of Christian instruction, albeit within the era's
Christian bounds. Ecclesiastes 1:7 remained the pulpit theory of subterranean streams, but an
awakened intellectualism was beginning to seek a broader understanding of the workings of
God's world.
Uppddaatteess aatt hhttttpp::////www. .uunnm. .eedduu//~rrhheeggggeenn//UnnddeerrggrroouunnddRi ivveerrss. .hhttml l
58