C h a p t e r 4

T h e B i r t h - D e a t h - R e b i r t h A r c h e t y p e

Oa t of life comes death and ou t o f dea th life,

oa t o f tlie young the old, and ou t o f the old the young

out o f waking sleep and ou t o f s leep waking,

tlie stream of creat ion and dissolution never s tops .

Herac l i tus

l'lie 'Ui~ili-Ueiltb-Rebirth' archetype draws on the beliefs and prac-

tices o f the piiiiiitive nature cul ts t o project the fundamental pa t te rn of

all life, the plieilomena o f life and death a s is evident in nature. Origi-

nating in "the daily round o f the sun, the waning and waxing moon, the

cycle of the year, and the rhythm of organic birth, death and new birth"

which "represent a miracle o f continuous arising that is fundamental t o

the nature o f the universe" (Campbell, Orierztal Myllzology 3 ) . many o f

the myths and r i tuals o f primaeval man ( t raced and recorded in J .G.

Frazer 's T%e olden Hn~igh) revolve around a "single pat tern o f signifi-

cance" (Frye, "fhe Archetypes o f Literature" 94): the cyclic nature o f

all life, the a\\?-inspiring mystery o f life and death .

Fi'lie myiliic mind which sought t o "synthesize the world into an

.. 0 1 - ~ a n i c whole. visuslized "all the earth and all upon this planet as one"

( D a y 2 5 5 ) . l a 11:r ireIeritIess grind o f the seasons , in the recurr ing

p . ~ ~ ~ c r n ; , o!'dzi n i i i i tiiplit, o f s lsep and waking, o f life and death, mythic

man discerned a kinship not only between himself and the different ani-

mate forms of life, but also with the inanimate elements o f nature. "The

ceaseless ebb and f low o f the sea" suggested t o him "a subtle relat ion,

a secret harmonv between i ts t ides and the life o f man, o f animals and

o f plants." Tile "flowing tide" was "a cause o f exuberance," indicative

"of prosperity and of life." while the "ebbing tide" seemed "a melancholy

emblem of failure. of weakness and of death" (Frazer 34). Even the image

of "the river that breaks into the free ocean" was symbolic to him o f "his

own life and ileatli" (Bodkin 6 8 ) .

The myths which embody this rhythm o f nature, this cycle o f birth,

growth, death and decav, a re constructed "around a figure who is partly

the sun, partly vegetative fertility and partly a god o r archetypal human"

(17rye, "The Archetypes of Literature" 94). Enshrined in these "myth[s]

of eternal return" (Campbell, Orrer~t~11 Mythology 3), is the universal figure

of tlieudyirig and reviving god" "the sun-god. dying at night" t o be "re-

born at dawn, or else with an annual rebir th a t t h e winter solst ice, o r

he may be a god o f vegetat ion dying in autumn and reviving in spring"

(Frye, Allrrtom\. 158-159). Incorporating the seasonal, the lunar and solar

cycles, even t ! ~ e menst rua t ion cycle, and the ebb and f low o f the sea ,

the myths etnpliasize the fact that "t!lere never w a s a t ime when tirile

was not . Nor will there be a time when this kaleidoscopic play o f e ter -

nity in time \\- i l l have ceased" (Lanipbell , Orierttnl M ~ ' t l r o l o g ~ ~ 3 ) .

The Nature myths, archetypes in themselves, give "archetypal sig-

niticance to the ritual" (Frye, "The Archetypes o f Literature" 93), inter-

preting "nature's life-ritual t o man" (Brophy 8 ) . The natural forces an-

thropomorphized in the persons o f the divine pairs: Osiris-lsis (Egyptian

m y t h o l o g y ) ; At t i s -C 'ybele ( P h r y g i a n m y t h o l o g y ) ; T a m m u z - I s h t a r

(Babylonian) ; Adonis -Venus (or ig ina l ly Babylonian and Syr ian , l a t e r

adap ted t o the G r e e k ) represent t h e "yearly decay and revival o f l ife,

especially o f vegetable life." (Frazer 325) .

The myths o f Diana and Orion, Diana and Hippolytus, the Bacchic

rites o r the rites of Dionysus enacting the drarna o f his death and resur-

rcction, the figures of rile young Persephone, the spring maiden, abducted

bv Pla to , the God o f the dead and her s o r r o w i n g mothe r Demete r t h e

c o r n - ~ o d d e s s , honoured in the Eleusinian myst ic r i tes as t h e seed-corn

and the ripe ears of corn (397) , even the death and resurrection of Christ

himselfa>reseen by some as giving substance t o what Frye considers "the

archetype of archetypes": the Bir th-Death-Rebir th archetype.

To t h e a rchaic mind, t h e f o r c e s o f na tu re , which fo l lowed " the

caprice of wilful spirils," had t o be regulated through niagical r i tes fo r

it was believed tha t "nothing work [ed ] a u t o ~ k a t i c a l l y . . . but inust 11;;

proper rites be incot-porated." the gods themselves having to be "aroused,

attuned, i :~ jo l c~ i , pi-opi~iatzcj, stimulated arid directed constantly and regu-

l a ~ l v " ( D a y 2 8 7 ) "TI,? priiiciple of life arid fertility whether [or ] ani!n::l

or \eyeinbic" \ Y C I C to i i i i ~ i "onc anti iiitli\~isil;Ie" (Frazer 3 2 5 ) . atid i l l order

t o procure his primary needs - food and offspring, and t o ensure 'self-

preservation and the continuation of the species, ' primitive man resorted

t o the "performance o f magical rites" (Frazer 325). The basic principle

that underlined ihe practice o f these rites was the belief that there was

a sympathetic relationsliip between t h e land and the people and "what-

eve r is d o n e t o the one must similarly affect t h e other" ( 3 7 ) . This is

t he sigrlificancc of the fertility rites o f yore, prevalent in almost all cul- . tures, vestiges of which exist t o this present day.

The fertility rites which included "the use o f scurrilous language,

the breaking of iibald jests" (394-95). castrat ion, sexual orgies , sacred

prostitution, the "rending and devouring" o f live animals and men (390).

the sacrifice of the divine king, the dismembering of the body of the king

( a i his subst i iute) , burying the pieces in different parts o f the country,

the drinking of the sacred blood; the torchlight processions, the fire rituals

and the water zeremoriics were all supposed t o ensure prosperity and plenty

in the human, animal and vegetable kingdoms.

The primitive mind which equated fertility with sexuality believed

that "the union of a pod and goddess [would] . . . assure o r restore the

fer-tility o f eaitli. herds and humans" (Day 268). Ceremonial intercours \ ,,

was supposed to engender~fertil i ty. fertile. The devadasi L

system or the sacred prostitirtion institutionalized in temples and preva-

lent i n many c i ~ i t u r e s , was il! keeping with this bel ief . The vegetatioii

gcid \ \ , a s n:ariic;i to a ~ o i i i l e s s 1 sacred prost i tute 1 priestess, ~ inbr id lzd

copulat ion bcinp considered a sacred ritual to ensure plenty.

Ceremonial dancing, singing of obscene songs were all part of this

i t i a v+llich ended i r i the vilest oryies, with the male votaries castrating

themselves and o f f i r ins their 'b!teding members' t o the goddess in a bid

t o please her arid aid fertility thus ensuring the vegetation god 's trium-

pliant return in Spring ((Frazei- 339) .

I'rirnitive iiiaii venerated the 'lingam,' symbolic o f the fertility pi-in-

ciple endowed i i i the iiiale organ, discerning that it was the sexual ini-

pulse that was responsible for the immortality o f the species

If Incest is violation o f a sacred taboo, warranting p u n i ~ h n ~ e n t on

ttie one hand, on the o ther hand, it is condoned, fo r in the mythic con- e

tes t ince.jt is syi:onyi7ioiis with fertility. The nature myths ignore "inces-

tiioiis . . . conduct . . tha t psychology deems incestuous" (Day 222)

for '-incest among deities bears no opprobr ium fo r the gods al-e [not ]

. . . bound by the laws and cus toms o f men." Moreover, incest is just

a regression to "dream time," to the "immemorial past," when such "tabu[s]

did iiot linld sway" ( 2 2 4 ) .

. . 1 he king was considered t o be divine, a representative o f the veg-

etation god liinlsell', an enibodirricnt o f the fertility principle, tlic priest-

ess beins h is consort . Thi fertility o f the land was considered t o be tii-

re i t ly liriked to :lie \:irili:y o t ' t l i r sacred king (236) . A henltliy vigoi--

011s r ~ ~ l c r - : 3 i . ~ s s ! :ppcscd : 1 : : I productivi ty o f ilie lii;?:! wiii!c a

iii:iir;ied iir si;:: k i i i q ;\.;s r : , . : ~ c : c c ? t o bring hlight on ills L??.:! n!:.i i!::

people. The king was, therefore, sacrificed at t he zenith o f his powers,

usually during the sunimer solstice o r the winter solstice t o save his di-

vine life from being weakened by age (Frazer 576); his spilt blood which

drenched the earth .was supposed to fertilize the land and inv igora te the

new king. a reincarnation o f the dead king.

As a col-ollal-y t o the sacrif ice o f the ailing king w a s the scape-

goat ol- savioiir- I'igul-e who was ritually sacrificed to free the t r ibe from

sin and sickness. in the Fisher King Myth, however, a di luted version

o f the sacrifice o f the divine king, a magic potion sufficed t o cu re the

king and res tore the land o f fruitfulness (Day 237).

Blood sacrif ice was considered a 'magical guarantee ' t o rejuve-

nation (Gueriii 166). The blood, flesh and ashes o f the victims, offered

as a propitiatary sacrifice t o the earth goddess , w a s believed t o be en-

dowed with niagical properties. If semen had life generating powers, it

w a s supposed that even blood and swea t had the power o f fruct if ica-

t ion. The spi-inklins o f blood on the seeds and the land was a part o f

the fertility cirziilonies t o ensure productivity o f the land, while gashing

the body with knives t o make t h e blood f low freely w a s cons idered a

part o f the rain-inducing ceremonies (Frazer 66) .

Fire, which was equated with the sun, with the life-giving rays o f

t i i i : sun , was i ~ s c d a s a charm t o r e k i i i e the sun , t o ' gene ra te ' rail1

oi- even to S : < ~ L I :hc ~ : l i i l .

Fire festivals were a part of the midsummer and midwinter celebra-

t i ons . Bonfires w e i e lit, eff igies w e r e burnt and l ighted to rches were

carried around the fields to ensure fertility (Frazer 609, 61 I). "Wheel[sj

wrapped in conlbustibles" were "kindled and rolled down the hill" dur-

ing the summer solstice t o mark "the great turning point" in the sun's

career (622) . The f i res kindled dur ing midwinter o r the winter sol-

s t ice was supposed to help "the labouring sun . . . to rekindle his e s -

piring light" ( : ) 3 3 ) .

[:ire w;iS believed t o be endowed with both ' p roc rea t ive and

purificatory powers ' (Vickery 303). Living persons acting as vegetation

g o d s were burnt t o death in the belief tha t " the more the persons sen-

tenced t o desth. the grea ter would be the fertil i ty o f the land" (Frazer

6 5 7 ) . On the pi inciple o f sympathet ic magic, t h e burning o f the veg-

etation spirit "it1 a fire which represents the sun," ensured that "for a time

at least, vegetation [would] have plenty o f sun" (651).

Water was a prime symbol o f fertility in all the ancient cults (Adams

189) and the 'Adonis ceremonies," during which images o f Adonis were

cast into the iv;i:er were, "intended as charms t o promote the growth or

r5vival of vegi,taiion," or tn"secure a due supply of fertilizing rain." "The

cas tom of drenching with water a leaf-clad person who personified veg-

etat ion" was also supposed t o encour-age a bountiful supply o f rainfail

(l:rnzer 3 4 I ) .

,I hese mythico-ritualistic elements are cotnplemerited by the astral imag-

ery, t he nature imagery. the niythopoeic forms o f f lora and fauna, cen-

t ia l t o the worship o f the nature gods-Osir is , Att is and Adonis- to sub-

stantiate the 'Birth-Death-Rebirth' archetype, bringing home the dual reality

o f creat ion and dissolution, fertility and decay, life and death .

Jcffers employs these diverse mythic and ritualistic strands, weaving

t o s e t h e r the rich syinbols and images o f the nature myths into the vio-

lently explosive, colourful tapestry o f his narratives t o underline the cy-

clical nature of all life. The crux o f Jeffers's mythopoeic narrative is the

dramatization of the niystery o f life and death. Confronted by the grue-

some reality of the wars which made decimation o f entire peoples a possible

eventuality, Jeffers is forced to ponder on the question o f death, acknowl-

edging the fact that the "human condition is one o f ceaseless change, o f

inexorable gi-owth and decay" (Murray 2 13). Jeffers , however, uses

the nature myths which explain "the fluctuations o f growth and decay, o f

rzproduction and dissolution, by the marriage, the death and the rebirth

and revival o f the gods" (Frazer 324). not only t o deal with the issue o f

death, but also t o emphasize man's innate kinship with nature

The mythopoeic vegetation that f igure predominantly in Jeffers 's IC /-

l i a r r i i t i v ~ ~ t h e cypressp~,the oak trees, the pines, considered sacred t o the

nature sods--stress the theme o f immortality, o f regeneration, of life tri-

umphiiig over death. ' fhe "old cypresses . . . a thousand years" a!d, tlie .a

"ase-reddened r a n i 1 2 1 that was the wor ld ' s c radle " ( X I ' 49). a i -

quire a touch of immortality, compelling one to contemplate on the mys-

te r ies o f na tu re . Ceath , though inevitable. is not the end o f life, it is

o i ~ l y the portal t o a new birth, t o ' l ife after l ife. '

'The mythic s ignif icance o f t h e seasons is very much in play in

"Tamar," dividing the narrat ive "into t w o balanced parts ." Spring and

early summer is the period during which "life and relationships develop."

\Vhen Tamar and Lee are forced into a growing awareness o f each other,

only to be separated by the "mid summer crisis," which heralds in its wake

the r ipeness and decay o f autumn, and the inevitable approach o f a

wintry death (Murray 213).

Tamar is l sh tar and Isis, Cybele and Venus, while Lee is Tammuz

and Osiris, Attis and Adonis . Tamar is "doubly mythical" (Carpenter ,

l<ohitr.sotl ./effet.i..~ 6 0 ) . her " luckless name" ( X I ' 1 3 ) emphas iz ing her

mythical qual i ty. T h e name, Tamar, i t se l f is accord ing t o Brophy, an

etymological derivative, "the JJebrew equivalent for Ishtar, the Babylonian

goddess , v i rs in-mother-s i s te r -mis t ress o f t h e fer t i l i ty g o d , Tamniuz"

(Zrophy 13). She is also DianaIArten~is, the goddess o f the moon, whose

temple at Aricia i s associa ted with the fer t i l i ty cu l t . The " fores t o f

cypresses" ( S I ' 8) surrounding the house of Cauldwell is reminiscent o f

the "valley thick enciosed with cypresses and pines, sacred t o the hunt-

ress queeii, Eiana" (Uulfinch 38) .

D:- ~ , ~ ~ , t , .... iYrazzr notes in 7'/7i. (;o/cieii Boiig/7, was o r i ~ i n a l l y a greai

s u d d e s s o f fertility i i i id (in the principles o f early religion, she \vho

fertilizes nature, must herself be fertile, and t o be that she must . . . have

a male consort" ( 7 ) . Her consor t a t Troezen w a s Hippolytus, but she

had other lovers as well, as recorded in the myths of Orion and Endymion.

I t is on this Fertility principle that Tamar t akes three lovers t o herself .

In the light of the fertility myths, Tamar's relationship with Lee also takes

on added significance and may be likened to the incestuous relationships

between the divine pairs --Cybele and Attis, lshtar and Tammuz, Isis and

Osiris. Incest, here, only signifies "a return t o beginnings and dissolu-

t ion o f all soiilil values . . . a recreation . . . imitating the cosmogonic

111yt11" (I3rapJi~. 6 8 )

7 7 lamar belongs t o the world o f myth. As a woman, she is mythic

in herself, ". . . not only a s a source and g iver o f life, but a l so in the

magic o f her touch and p resence . T h e accord o f her seasons with t h e

cycles of the moon is a matter of mystery also" (Campbell, XIjt l7 .s to Live

Hv 2 8 ) . She is in touch with life-death-life nature every moon cycle of

her life. Nature's inexorable cycle of life, death and rebirth finds an echo

in the depths of her being. The cyclic nature of all existence is embodied

within herself in the periodical "filling and emptying" o f "the red vase in

her belly," thiis giving her the intuitive know!edg: that "zeniths fade and

evpi iz and what is left is reborn in unexpected \rays" (Es tes 184) .

l 'amar, a personi f ica t ion o f the f o r c e s of na ture , is all woman

stanipcd with "tlic mark of the moon". She is alsc the half moon stepping

O L I ~ of Iiel- h i ~ s k o f water t o dance in heaven; she is the white moonrise

which only dwellers oii eastern shores have the privilege of watching. She

i s a lso t h e ear th gaping "wi th harsh heat c racks . . . 1 At the end o f

summer / Opening sick mouths," hoping for rain. She is both the evening

s tar and the sea . The sea and she a re both voiceless . She moves her-

self "continually on the fret / of her tailt nerves," a s the sea moves "on

the obscure bed of her eternity" (Sf' 26). Tamar is no mortal being. She

is eternal as the sea, one with the elements o f nature. "The ancient wa-

ter, the everlasting repetition o f the dawn" (4), the slow pulse o f the ocean

beat" ( 3 ) , find resonances in her. She i s both t h e rain and the s to rm:

sobs rend her voice,"like rain breaking a storm" (29). She belongs t o

ni> particular a g e o r time: ". . . time s tands still . . . all times a r e now,

today plays on / last year and the inch o f o u r f u t u r e / Made t h e f i rs t

morning o f the world , . . " (41) .

'The t in~elessness of myth is hinted at here. This "reduction o f time

and space," is according t o Brophy,-"characteristic o f the myths o f cos-

ni:>goiiic dissolution aiid recreation" (53). Tamar transcends time t o claim

kiiisliip with the forces o f . na tu re : She "Naked and not ashamed," " i n

the starlight and little noises of the rising tide / . . . bore a third part /

With the ocean and keen s t a r s in the cons is tence / And dignity o f ilic

wor!d . . . ' ' ( ,Y IJ 29) .

'Tarnar, a lso visiialisec! as the "fallen flower," is equated with the

(ii-eat Cellic Marlier who is syi i ib~lica!ly represerited as both nioon and

f lower (Burland 89). In the imag.; o f the fleeting beauty o f the f lower

that blooms only t o fade and fall is epitomized the t ransi toriness o f all

forms of life. Jeffers captures the quintessence o f this evanescent reality

i n "Shine Perishing Republic":

. , . the f lower fades t o make

fruit , the fruit ro ts t o make earth.

Out o f the mother; and through the spring exultances,

ripeness and decadence; and home t o the mother. (OH 782)

Ripeness and decadence a re both essential facets o f the na ture o f

all life. The fruit must ro t and the seed decay t o ensure the perpetua-

tion o f life, and what is t rue o f vegetat ion is t rue o f humanity a s well,

fo r humanity is but part o f na tu re , pa r t o f t h e cosmos . Jung ' s w o r d s

explicate this idea h r t h e r :

71'he psyche is not o f today ; i t s ances t ry g o e s back many

millions cjf years. lndividual consciousness is only tlie flower

and frui t o f a season , s p r u n g f r o m t h e perennial rh izome

beneath the ear th the roo t mat ter is the mother o f all

things ( 1 / 7 c , I'ortnblc .Jzing XXI)

'faninr is no trznsienr phenon~enon. She is thenfallen flower" to whljnl

>, lii'e i-etiirns. :<he is t ! i ~ "rcjot matter," "the mother o f all :liil~zs, f!!: C.:r-

t i le mothzl- enr!!~, "!he [bas:.! mztter in wlrich seeds a re laii', ;:- - , ,..- .',

warmed. incubated, saved" (Es te s 3 8 1 ) . T a ~ n a r herself claims that she

has "lived at the niuddy root / IJr~c!e.r t he rock o f things." ITers is ziot

t~ , lL .. heclio,- heis i s [ h e . G l . . . : - , y n .;..,, (!;P 41) spanning aeons o f t i ~ n c ; 2iie is

tile -fountain" of all experience (Sl ' 42). She has the "freedom," she is

ful ly alive, "iiot half dead and half living" (41), having the "power" o f

instinctual l ife. She knows no morality as 'morality is restr icted t o the

c - ,,a f i L S L a -..- of consciousness. "Instinct," as Jung expounds, "is nature and

seeks t o perpetuate nature, whereas consciousness can only seek cul ture

o r its denial . . . . A s long a s w e a r e submerged in na ture , w e a r e un-

conscious, and we live in the security o f instinct which knows no prob-

lems " (7 'ke l 'or tnhlc .111/7g 4) .

'faiiiai- is free, free as the winds, fierce a s the storms that lash the

Carnie! Coas t . She is the "South wind raging around the gables o f the

house" of Cauldwell, "and through the forest o f the cypresses" (Sl' 6 , 8 ) ,

the "giant guarding the granite and sand frontiers o f the last ocean" ( I I ) .

The gnarled cypresses , a thousand yea r s o ld and the "age-reddened

gi:inire i -l'liat was thc world's cradle," are all external manifestations o f

licrself ( 4 0 ) . She is not a flesh and blood human being, b ~ i t a c rea ture

v ~ l l o belongs t o the ivorld o f myth. "The charac ters of t rue myth," a s

stated by b.1. Czarpenter, "are never fully rounded human beings but pri-

marily personif icat ions o f natural forces . . . . They are super hunian

oi i i j l i Itiinian h u t not the hunian he roes o f the la ter t r aged ies . . ."

( I !< jh ; t i . ~ ( i i ; .i'~,ff'<i.s . . 5 t, ) .

This argument is substar~t iated in the following description o f Tamar:

. , . she was whi te stoile, . . .

Passion a n 3 dec:?;iii 2 n d grii.f had str ipped awi!y

Whatever i s rounded and approachable

I n t he body of woman, hers looked hard, long lines

Narrowing down from the shoulder bones, no appeal , . .

(SP 29).

Jeffers , t he master sculp tor , has chiselled "idols" o u t o f "white

s tone." "idols" hi- ":;od t o enter," "bodies" fo r the God o f Na tu re t o

diiell in. l i e invites the swift, strong, beautiful God o f Nature "to enter

and possess" the "puppets" he has fashioned. Tamar is the Nature spirit

in.vested, as Jeffers himself tells us, with "the swiftness o f the swallow,"

"the strength of the stone shore," "the beauty o f the fountains of the sun"

( l -5 ,\

Jeffers wonders aloud, for our enlightment, what it was that gave

her tlie inherent freedom o f her charac ter :

. . . Was it t h e wild rock coas t

ol' her hl-ceding and the reckless wind

1.. e (,,,-* L,LLen t rees and the gaunt booming crashes

of breakers ~ l n d e r the rocks , o r the amplitude

And Wing-subduing immense earth-ending water

'lliat nio\.es ,111 t he west that gave her this freedom? (9)

Tsinar cpitoniizes :he spirit o f the Wild West. t he distilled spirit

of LVild, tiiitnini.d N a t u r e . She i , the Goddess o f Nature manifest in all

! r of i f . She is both the "we j k sea" and the "female ftiry" ( 2 3 ) o f

tlie eleme;its. She is nature in her creat ive and de j t ruc t ive phase. She

i s both healer and destroyer. Life in tune with death. Death is not an alien,

nlaIienant .. force, i t is a regenerative, transformative force for life is a "dance

with death" (Estes 185). "the fruitful union of the powers o f fertility" being

. inevitably followed by "the sad death o f one at least o f the divine partners

and his joyful resurrection" (Frazer 324). Incest here only signifies "a re-

turn to besinnings and dissolution of all social values . . . a recreation

imitating the cosmogonic myth" (Brophy 68).

Lee is Orion or Endymion, beloved of Diana, the moon goddess. Lee,

who drunlcenly spurs his horse over the sea-cliff, is a hunter like Orion

blinded by "Monterey rye whiskey and worse" (SP 4). Like Orion, who is

blinded and left for dead on the seashore (for attempting to ravish Merope),

I.ce is discovered in a semi-conscious state on the seashore. The "icy t in -

gers" of the sea creep over his "loose hand" and hair, recalling his "sleepy

soul" from death's cold embrace. Restored to sight by the sun-god's beams,

Orion finds relilge in Diana's sanctuary; while Lee, who is beaten upon by

fierce rays of the sun from dawn to dusk gains nev insight, resolving to be

"decent" (4) . Lee, who finds rest and pea:e in Tar iar 's presence, is happy

to remain by her side and watch the fores grow p the hill" (4 ) . Tragedy

however befalls both Lee and Orion both meeting their untimely deaths at

the hands of their divine consorts.

The heavenly lu~ninar ies , the "grave Oric n" and Diana, the moon

goddess, are mute witnesses to the tragedy of heir human counterparts .

The ceiestial protagonists are, hosvever, unmov:d b y the li t t le accidetlt"

grave Or ion 1 moved northwest from t h e naked shore , while the moon

moved t o / meridian . , . " ( S P 3 ) . The moon, a silent spectator , con-

tiiiiizs to watch over the sleeping f igure o f Lee / Endymion, even day-

light failing t o banish her hovering presence: "Far seaward / The day-

light moon hung like a slip o f cloud against t he horizon" (4).

Lee is a sacrificial figure, marked out for death. Stella's prophetic

vision of Lee "lying all bloody on the sea-beach / By a dead deer,its blood

dabbling the black weeds o f the ebb"(5) under the constellation Orion,

is significant within the "mythic and cyclic context" (Brophy 20). The

August vision seen when "the s tars they call t he Scorpion, the red bead

with the curling tail" (Sl' 5), was overhead, i s p o r t e n t o u s . The astral

si::n . Scorpion, indicates summer, soon be over taken by Orion, uslier-

ins i n a pcrioc! of stagnation and decay. "Orion is winter" (S), the time

o i i!eath and destruction. It is also an "expectant time ( the Gorl o i veg-

e t u t i o ~ ~ n o t yct being reborn), a moment awaiting renewal" (Drophy 20) .

Lee, the nature God is allowed t o live through o n e vegetal ion cycle in

t he ci:iirsc o f the narrutiv::--froill o n e win te r t o t h e n e x t . Lee wiio is

:~c.;:i!eti ::::: wiiite:, a1 sun;.: .;!l!cn "sando~vil reddened the se:," i.: n.:::::!

. . . i)acI( I D I . 1 1 : 1 r :... :i~i.:r.-:nistress, t he nature G o i < ; : . ; :., ' ' i : .?

big wcst~val-d bedroom" (.\'I' 6 ) . 12ed is the colour o f sacri::::, cT :.:. L, - - 7

. . of murder . . ." (Estes ll;:), W!iile sanset , west, Orion, wir;t!:r pc!:;t!ng

to,var,js t h e c ] o s c !!;,. r!.- . . .' .! . . .. .- .'-. .., . i::!icr:tive of death :.:,.! d i r s o 1 ~ 1 -

. " tioil "'!'!I,: itlca o f (lie I : I I ! , : . !h-: 1iea:i being in the west" (Si!il;!:d 37 )

was deeply ingrained in the primitive mind. Death is inevitable in the

cycle o f life, and Lee t o o will face death in d u e course o f t ime. Tamar,

with a sense o f foreboding, calls to mind the dreadful vision. Lee com-

fo r t s her saying. "Tamar, Tamar I Winter is over , visions a re ove r and

vanished, the fields are winking full o f poppies . . ." (SP 5 ) .

.famar is, as yet, unaware of her role as sacrificing priestess I death

godtiess, whose duty i t is to ensure the perpetuation of vegetation. Lee.

thl-ough death, will achieve a measure o f immortality; his life will con-

t inue to flourish in the grass that g r o w s over his mortal remains, grass

nurtured on his life blood.

Lee 's recovery t akes a full t h r e e months : ". . . he tha t fell in

December I Walked in the February fields" (5) .

The number three which recurs constantly throughout the narrative

suzgests "the cyclic pattern, the half circle comprising origin, zenith and

descent; agony, annihilation and rebirth; twilight, night and dawn" (Brophy

72) . 'fhe cosmic drama o f sunrise and sunset; o f dawn, high noon and

n ish t , dcalt with in the opening s tanzas o f the poem, ref lects the life-

death s truggle apparent in all forms o f life. "Three" is the "dynamic of

c!?;!nge, the harmonic of unity and duality" (73), and emphasizes the 'birth-

death-rebirth' theme, which forms the backbone o f the narrat ive.

Lee, who is incapaci ta ted i l l December, is back on 11is feet i l l

l eb rua ry . l l i s heart is fillc::l \\it11 "the beauty o f things" ( X I ' 4 ) , and lie

i?lLlses. " I t would be i ~ e t t e r f(>r !nc to be a cripple 1 Sit on the s teps and

watch the forest grow up the hill . . ." (XI ' 4) . He unconsciously iden-

tities himself with "the limping fertility God" (Brophy 20). Wounds, blind-

ness etc symbolize castration which was part o f the fertility ritual (67).

I.ee is the newly resurrected AdonisIAttis who is, a s yet , recupera t ing

from his dea th -wounds . The annual spectac le o f the dea th and resur-

rection of AdonisIAttis practised by the people of Babylonia. Syria, Greece

and I'hyrgia were intended as "charms t o promote the growth o f vegeta-

ti or^" (l'razei. 3 4 l ) . Vot ;~r ies o f the goddess Cybele, identifying them-

selves with Attis, sacrificed their virility in her service in the belief that

i t would I-esursect Attis who had unmanned himself . . . and bled to death"

under a pine tree (347). The castrated "instruments of fertil i ty" were, like

"the of f t r ing o f blood:' supposed to recall Attis t o life ( 3 1 9 ) .

'l'lrc resi~rrectc.d L,ee contemp!ates '' t he drawn scars / o f the old

wound on his leg" ( X I ' 10). He is Adonis ,who w a s " o v e r c o n ~ e by the

boar of wintcr;' and the "old wound" he contemplates is "Adonis 's t ra-

ditional thigh -wound being a s c lose t o cas t ra t ion symbolically a s i t is

anntoniically" (Frye, At ln to r~~y 189). He is the spring God \vho is eager

t o :velcci~i~e rlie sp r i ng , t o ' h a t c h the spring c o m e home" (X I ' 5). His

name, itself, cal:s t<> m i n d 21-een f:elds and meadows (13roplly 20), while

l 'amar is ihc spr-iny maiden, ?c.rsel)hone, back frorn hcr wintry !~ome. 111c

home of the dead in t!i- ~~r:!erwoi-!d. 'S!le fie!ds are a visual treat, "winl:in~

full o f pnliries" (.\'I' 5 . '..':..:cl- is far bclliricl and Lcc as a pal-t o f tllc

.. , I s t r i s t i ! : I i a w e o r two wi t11 s i l i ~ i i ~ ~ g

irises" (.\'I' 5) , but tlic shadow of death, however, continues t o hover in

the background. The "withered," "faded irises" that Lee is forced t o dis-

card suggest death, while the red poppies which seem t o be dyed in blood

call t o mind the sacrificial vict ims o f t h e pas t . F lowers like m e m o -

nes,violets, t h e red poppies which seem t o b e sacred t o AdonisIAtt is ,

a re believed to sp r ins from their spilt b lood every spring (Frazer 325 ,

347), ephemeral haunts o f their immortal spirits.

The winter sun disappears and "the sou th wind 1 Raging around

t h e gab les o f the h o u s e and through the fores t o f t h e cypresses" (SI'

6) , inakes the "house creak all her timbers" (S), heralding both destruc-

tion and re i~~venat ion . The approaching vernal equinox "is associated with

violent s torms invigorating but violent enough t o sweep away the dead

for-ms of winter" (Wcston 51). The storm, however, fails t o bring in i ts

wake the much awaited rain: "When it rains it will be quieter," Tamar

thought , but "not a drop fell" (Sf' 6).

Tlic drearn o f the wild white horse, trampling her with its hooves.

gives 'Tainar "mystical foreknowledge" (1 1) o f her own primeaval instincts.

Spring, the mating season, inspires in Tamar a longing fo r the physical

consu~nr: lat ion o f the i r l ove . She weari ly exclaims, "What a r e we

for'?. . . to want and :vr.nt r i rd [lot d? re know it" (S) , While L.ee's pas-

sion, his "Fever" too is mad$fierirr-" ( 9 ) . "A hundred times he wanted

Tnmar, to s l~o \v I I ~ I - sonle new hca~r ty 1 of canyon wildflowers . . . " (7 ) .

'1-he tide o f life pro\,es t o o strong for them, and they can d o nothing t o

stem its flow. The spring fever in the air stimulates their senses and takes

possession of them. Tlie "mad, white April sun," injects a spirit o f reck-

lessness into their veins. Mother Nature carries them in her stride throwing

them at each other. A hidden covert, "arched with alder, overwoven with

willow" (9). on the bank o f a hidden pool in Mal Paso , serves as the i r

marriage bed. The "sweet, green, cool" (8) , "watery floor under the cave

of fol iase" beckons them (10). According t o Jessie L Weston:

l ' he presence o f water , e i ther s ea o r river, is an impor tant

feature in the Adonis cul t . . . . Throwing into o r drenching

with water is a well known part o f t h e ' fer t i l i ty Ritual; ' i t

is a case of s:zmpathetic magic act ing as a rain charm. (5 1)

There is also a hint o f baptismal imagery: a going down into t h e

wilier symbolizing death o f the old se l f and a rebirth t o a new ident i ty

(Llrophy 0 8 ) . T h e watery sacrif ice o f her l i fe before Lee, the fer t i l i ty

God, "restores her t o a full sense o f life's significance" (Vickery, A<ylh

crild I . i le i .ot~~/ .c . 309 j .

' famar wades into the pool , "desire in water / unhidden and llalf

rcllected among the in!erbranching ripples . . ." (SI' 9) . Lee, too, drowns

his body "in the watery floor" (10). Water signifies the "~nys tcry of cre-

ation, birth - dez1.h - resurrec!ion; . . . fertility and growth" (Guerin 157).

Tanlar is the fertility sodd?ss , wantonly abandoning herself into the hands

of the fcrril i ty G o d : "Lee 1 We have s topped being clli ldren; 1 w o i ~ l d

have d ~ ~ o w i ~ e c i myself, 1 I S you liadn't taught me swimming . , ."(Sf' 10).

Lee refuses t o take the hint and Tamar goes a s t ep further , forcing his

hand: " . . . 1 want . . . death . . . ," she cr ies , s l ipping face down in

"the harmless water." Lee alarmed, drags her t o the bank, where Tamar

"the white desire." clings t o him, refusing t o let him go. "So they were

joined (like drowning folk brought back / By fo rce t o bi t ter life) pain-

fully, without joy" (St' 10) . The ritual union accomplished, Tamar, the

Natul-e goddess, awaits the rain. The wheel o f Nature ploughs on, Spring

i n due time giving way to summer. T h e marriage o f the Ear th Goddess

and the Year-God having been solemnized, the honeymoon continues for

five months. Towards the end o f summer, in August, Tamar wrestles with

herself, resisting the onward, irreversible march o f time.

The spring maiden, who longs t o retain her youthful v igour and

beauty, s t rugsles against the inevitable onrush o f the seasons. She, who

longed for union. fights against the "plant o f unescapable fate," which

has ent renched i tself within her. The spark o f life tha t has taken roo t

within her, is a threat t o her very existence; she would rather be "ster-

ile end sacred," "fruitless," ever youthful (16).

Nature , however , has fulf i l led i t s b io logica l necess i ty o f t h e

p ropaga t ion o f the species . Tamar plans t o cheat on Nature : she who

"entered water 1 to compass love might enter again to escape love's fruit"

( I 0 ) .

h4:.an\:l~i!c. O:!\,id Cauldwel l , an o lder version o f Lee. is a l so

arouscd by the sight o f l 'arnar's beauty. He is the year-God who lingers

on , defying old age . His lover-sis ter , Helen, f o r whom he had made a

sea-weed bed, is long dead; however, t he "ghost o f law con temptuous

youth slid th roush the chilly vaults o f the stiff arteries" at the sight of

Ta~ilar .'bendirlg 1 over the bed loose hair like burnished metal . . ." (SP

13) . Spr ing is i n t he air, and even in the o ld the des i re fo r l o v e and

union is revived.

Tamar watches the "pacific surge heavy with summer rolling south

east I'rorn a f a : I 31-isin" (16 ) . Spring has given way t o summer ". . .

the cypress trunks and branches [are] swollen with blood-red lichen" (17).

l 'he Summer iirings with i t the thought o f approaching autumn and win- . / /

t e r She is now, for a time, apparently quiescent , the passionate blood

in her veins stilled as her brain explores possible avenues o f escape. Her

pregnancy drains her of passion and this knowledge registers itself intu-

itively in l ~ e r psyche as fragments of a dream : "The tides of the sea were

qtrier . . . because thc / moon is lost" (18). Her forced langour drives

her s p i r i ~ to rebel too soon (23) . initiating her into the next phase of her

cycle.

Wllcrl I ee, the jeijloils lo\:er, rid-s to "l\/lill Creek I 'To bar2,ni:i aboiit

some fieltis oi'ivirltet. p:,srt:r<.:" (IS), ?a:?lar mounts a foam w l ~ i t e poliy

and r ides thc tliree rnilcs t o Car:lieI vallzy, t o Will t2nd1-ews's p lace .

Andrews is tlic t;capczo:lt, the substitute, who is t o ofticiate for Lee t i l l

... h e is 1-itt1311; d o n e to dc:l i l i . i 11.' " a d v a r i c i n g year lias witlierctl tlic

l i l l ~ ~ s s , " I v I ~ C I I I I ! I t o 1 r e 1 . . the air- w a s

rich with ripening apples" (18) . Even the water below the Carmel bridge

was "shrunken with summer and shot with water lichen. . . ." The "apple

t ree and the maiden a r e interchangeable symbols o f the feminine self,

and the Cruit being a symbol o f nourishment and maturation . . ." (Estes

456), while "the flowering apple t ree is a metaphor o f fecundity," signi-

fying the "sensual creative urge" (457) . The r iver symbolizes death and

rebirth and the flowing o f t ime into eterni ty (Guerin 157) . The "three

miles" t o Carmel valley is also significant, fo r again, Jeffers in t roduces

the birth-death-rebirth theme through the archetypal number, three. Tamar,

who goes in search of Will Andrews, on the "foam white pony" is Demeter

o r Hecate , the "old horse mothe r g o d d e s s associa ted with the power

of the mare and fecundity as well" (Estes 113),while white, which is the

colour of the new,the pure, the pristine,is also the "colour o f the dead"

( 1 1 5 ) 'l'arnar, herself, corisiders white "a wanting colour" ( X I ' 2 0 ) .

The scene is set for a second seduct ion . Will is lured t o a "hid-

den bank under the deep green willows." Water again figures in the set-

t ing o f the second sexual e s c a p a d e . T h e water , however , a p p e a r s

"colourcd" and stagnant, unlike the "sweet green, cool" stream of the first

instance, and is sugges t ive o f dea th . But , Tamar does not want t o die

for " i t is less than half a year since life turned sweet" (16). At the height

of summer, the spectre of death haunts her. She desires to remain a spring

nlaiden, resisting change and dissolution. She entices Will Andrews, her

saviour, \vho in a dream, tliough "curiously wounded," promises to take

care o f her (1 8) . He is the sacrificial figure, the scapegoat, whose name

literally tl-ansalated means "the son o f man" (Brophy 3 5 ) . The "T-cut"

(SI' 6 1 ) on h i s face s tands for the first le t te r o f Tamar 's name; it a lso

hints at the cross, evoking the images of a whole host of "sacrificial figures

from Jesus t o t h e Hanged man o f t h e Tarot pack" (Brophy 6 3 ) . Will

Andrews is ready t o die fo r Tamar and spare her the suffering: "1 would

cut my hands of f not to harm you" (Sl' 20).

Tamar plays him false, giving him baseless hopes o f reciprocated

love. She plays for time, warning him t o keep away from the house: "Lee

hates you and my father is old . . . . we can't I sour the three years he

has before he dies" (2 1) The archetypal number three, stressing the cyclic

nature of life, again finds mention.

- Things come t o a head i n the searing heat o f midysurnmer. Spring

ha:; gi\,en w a y to sunlnlcr. "The high platcau o f surnnler" is reachcd with

<. i \ugus t waning." "Whitc 1 vapours I Breathed LIP no more tioni the brown

fields nor hung in the hills. . . . " T h e "insufferable sun" reigned su-

preme i l i the sky. It "rose, naked light and flaming naked through the

pale t ranspar- I ent ways o f the air" and "drained gray 1 The s t rengths

o f nature," while a t "night the east-wind streamed out o f the valley sca-

ward and the s ta rs blazed" (22) . T h e merciless sun continued t o hold

sway. parchins the gl-ound with its fierce heat and shrivelling the grcen

shoots that s t rusgled to stay alive. But even at the height of i ts glory,

t h e sun is chal lenged by the powers o f da rkness , "ascendancy" being

followed by "descent in endless rhythmic cycles" (Burland 107):

-1 he year went up to its annual mountain o f death gilded with

hateful sunlight, waiting rain.

Stagnant waters decayed, the trickling springs that all t he

misty-

I~cicided stlrnrner had fed

I'etldulous green under the grani te ocean-cliffs dried and

turned

foul , t he rock-f lowers f aded . (SI' 22)

The s t agnan t , decaying wa te r s herald d e a t h . "The drying up o f

springs, the dreaded event o f the seasonal cycle was dramatized in an-

cient myth by the emasculat ion o f t h e god:' Tamar, t he ear th goddess

awaits the rain, "the life-giving seminal fluid," which will fertilize the earth.

The fading rock-flowers also indicate the imminent death of the vegeta-

tion god (Brophy 37) .

'l'amar senses i n her blood. "the filth and fever o f the season" (Sf'

2 2 ) . l ler ritual union with Lee and Will Andrews, fails t o act as a "rain

charm." The sympathetic magic fertility ritual brings no downpour. She

resents "the wounds in the / cypress bark where Andrewslcliinbed t o his

t r y s t ' ( 2 . I'huy a r e \ Y O I I I I ~ S in her own psyche. She is the earth god-

dess wilting beneath the fierce heat of the cruel sun. She hates her lov-

ers,but "the intolerably masculine sun" is "hatefullest o f all." The sun i s

a lways conceived as ni:lsculi~:;,, a symbol o f male fertil i ty, a g lor ious

shining warrior, spreading its destructive heat in midsummer (Burland 107).

Tlie "centipedes, t he black worms that breed under loose I rock," mul-

tiply in the heat o f the season and invade the house, "their phalloid bodies

cracking under- 1 foot with a bad odor , . . . 1 . . . a vile plague, though

not poisonous" ( S P 23). She is the house invaded by phalloid bodies.Tamar

accuses Will: "the house is broken," "you have broken I ou r crystal in-

nocence" (22) .

"The hard and dry and masculine" tyrannizes "for a season," while

the "sweet and female sea" i s weak with ca lm. "Rain / in Oc tober o r

November 1 avenges the balance," but Tamar 's spirit rebels t o o s o o n .

She is the female fury abiding I In s o beautiful a house o f flesh" ( 2 3 ) .

She is a modern ear th goddess , in a hurry, o u t o f sync with t h e s low

but steady pace of nature's inbuilt cyclical rhythms. She refuses t o sub-

mit t o the iilasculine element in nature, desperately trying t o break free

from its vice-like strangle-hold.

Tamar, in despair, seeks the counsel of the dead. IHer conclusion,

'! nic~st talk to the dead," fol lows the'logic o f myth rather :Ii:!n tha t of

reason" (Brophy 38) . S h e makes an excurs ion t o t h e seashore i n t he

dark o f the night accompanied by her aunt Stel la , t he psychic medium

and the idiot aunt, Jinny. The tliree women gingerly find their way down

the jasged cliff face and descend into the womb of mother earth, while

thc g c ~ ~ t l e sc;r, cnS~>lds then: in i ts dark damp embrace . The archetypal

motif o f the descent to the dead is hinted at in this passage. The three

women, it may be surmised, represent either t h e Fates--Clothe, Lachesis

and Atropos--who spin the thread of human destiny (Bulfinch 23), o r the

"sacred t r ini ty 3 f t h e feminine personif ied by t h e maiden, mother and

the c rone . . . t h e anc ient t r i p l e g o d d e s s e s . . . t h e c r o n e in her dual

nature as life-bringer and life-taker" (Es tes 478). The "three sisters ar-

che type o f bir th, death and rebirth" (545) is humanized in t h e persons

o f Tamar, Stella and Jinny.

T h e crone, Stel la , is a t rouble maker t o a cer ta in ex tent int imat-

ing Tamar o f the nature o f her father 's relat ionship with his la te sister,

Helen . T h e dead aunt w h o a p p e a r s a s t h e breas t less , face less woman

in a previous dream (Sl' 17), is a malevolent spirit. The breast is a symbol

o f the grea t mother goddess , Diana, t h e goddess o f ferti l i ty and child-

birth and represents "exuberant fecundity" (Frazer 141). But, Helen, the

breast less spirit laughs at Tarnar predicting a miscarr iage. Tamar disre-

gards her warning; Anger and hatred flare up within her and she exclaims,

''It will live and my father 's bi tch be proved a liar." She wecps b i t te r

tears till "her face . . . seemed heavy with blood," and raises her head

like "a snake lifting i t s head out o f fire . . ."(SP 28). "Tears" according

t o Estes, "carry creative power and in mythos, the giving o f tears causes

immense creation . . ." (Estes 176). The serpent o r the snake in its arche-

typal role is associated with fertility, sexuality, biological regeneration and

immortality (Wheelwright 2 3 3 ) . Tamar is lshtar whose emblem is the ser-

pent , the synibol o f renewal 1Brophy 4 1 ) . However, renewal is yet t o

be, for in the cycle o f the seasons it is t he winter o f death and destruc-

tion that is followed by the spring o f renewal. Tamar's a t tempts t o es-

tablish contac t with her dead aunt help her t o make con tac t with the

spirits of dead Indians, thus establishing kinship with those who have gone

before her, fo r life wases and wanes in regular cycles,and what is t rue

o f vegeta t ion i s t rue o f human life and civi l izat ions a s well . Wars and

natural calamities, which sound the death- knell o f civilizations, are but

usherers in of new civilizations. This universal reality is intuitively per-

ceived by 'Sarnar in the dream o f the races where brown skinned Indi-

ans a re followed by Spaniards, pr iests and soldiers and finally t h e En- . glish speakers . Tamar sees herself in the pivotal role o f t h e founder of

a new race that wanders down t o the r iver-- t ime flowing into eterni ty.

Ciencrations of people have disappeared into oblivion, swallowed by Time

Shc, who is outside Time, manages t o save her father from the flood of

humanity, wandering towards dissolution. She sees herself deified: a white

church built on a rock She takes her father as a consort and he t o o is

deified in the process They have t ranscended t ime t o embrace e ter -

nity itself

Tamar is Natul-e in f l u x , Nature in her t ransi t ional phase Slie is

both the "maker of babies, meaning new potential for life, but, she is also

a death mother" (Estes 224). Tlie trip t o the underworld is an initiation

in to a new phase . I t is a r i t e o f passage , a r i tual enacted wliicli p re -

pares her for her new rolc as the destructive goddess, the destroyer and

eventual renewer of al! s tagnant forms o f life. To live fo r seventy five

o r eighty years, have children and enjoy the beauty and s t rangeness of

the place "would not be a bad life," but she would rather be what she

was She has a duty to perform. and nothing can now stop her. She cries.

"Fire's . joy's . bur-nins" (Sl' 50) She is the f i re dest ined t o burn down

"the brush to make spring pasture" ( 3 8 ) .

Wiltins under the in tense heat o f t h e sun , Tamar longs fo r ra in .

. Impatient, she is not prepared t o wait for the October I November rains

which "yearly avenges t h e balance" (23) . S h e is t h e Ear th g o d d e s s ,

t h ~ r s t i n g for tarn Her dance on the sea shore is an invocat ion t o Jupi-

ter, the God of thunder and lightning (Frazer 149). In mythopoeic terms,

rain is the "sperm dropped from the sky into the womb of earth" (Wheelw-

right, "The Archetypal Synlbol" 224) She waltzes with the forces o f life

and death, her dance being a "ritual o f change," with the tideline acting

as a "boundary between life and death" (Brophy 67). Taken ove r by

the spirits of the dead, Tamar strips, drawing "her beauty out of i ts husks"

and like the "half moon about midnight," s tepping "out o f her husk o f

water t o dance in heaven" ( S P 25), she dances in the "tidal night under

the cl i ff ' ( 2 4 )

She is thc moon, the "primary symbol fo r periodic regeneration, ' '

and "in the !realm of the fertiiity tnyths the arbiter o f rain . . . . of veg-

etat ion . . and o f the menstrual cycle." (Brophy 29) . The moon is also

the home of the dead, it being believed that a person "suffers two deaths:

deaths of t h e body on earth and of t h e psyche on t h e moon (where f o r

a time it holds on t o dreams and memories, so~net imes returning t o earth

to take charge of oracles and orgiastic initiation rites)" (Brophy 68). Helen,

who returns from "The chilly and brittle pumice-tips of the moon," where

" the second dea th earl-odes . . . " her "shell ," is a case in point (SI'

3 1 ) . The moon is a l so cons idered t o be endowed with occul t power ,

mysteriously ir~fluencing the tides, seasons, women and humours (Brophy

3 0 ) . Tamar is thus a life-death force , and her dance is both a "dance

with life" and a "dance with death" (Es tes 3 7 ) .

She is i s t ~ t a r l l s i s in yearly descent t o the underworld t o redeem

her son-lover , TammuzIOsiris. The clothes she s tr ips off, sytnbolize "a

sor t o f ritual devolution" (Brophy 40) . Tamar's dance on the dark sea-

sliore with only the "evening star sharing the darkness," is propit iatory

in intent, tnearlt to appcase the ghosts o f dead Indians to whom "the shore

be lonss" (SI' 2 5 ) . She a t t empts t o redeem the once Indian land from

the curse laid on i t by the dead spirits, slain at the hands o f the whites .

Tamar's girlish body which turns coarse and beastlike gyrat ing in

a frenzy, in t h c course o f the orgiastic dance, smacks o f Dionysian fer-

tility rituals. He1 body,

crouching and widening

Agape t o he entered , as t l ~ e earth

Gapes with l ~ a r s h heat -cracks , . , .

Ar tile eriil o f summer

Opening sick months fo r i ts hope o f rain. (26 )

Her defilement by the dead spirits is also mythically significant, for

ritual, "sacred prost i tut ion figured in most o f the cyclic goddess cul ts ,

intended as sympathetic magic for renewal" (Brophy 39) .

Her feet dashed with blood, bruised by the grani te , she falls ex-

. hausted and lies gasp ins on the tideline (SI' 26). Her ritualistic dance,

reminiscent ot' the orgiast ic rites o f Attis, where the "high priest drew

blood . . . as an offering," while "the inferior clergy whirled about in a

dance," gashing themselves "with potsherds and knives t o bespat ter the

altar with blood," t o awaken the sleeping fertility god (Frazer 349), fails

t o evoke a response from him.

'l'amar is the rebel priestess interceding fo r rain, for the renewal

o f life, anticipating i n August the October/November rains. Her orgiastic

dance, her attcnipts to set [Ire t o the house are all magical rites, intended

t o "hasten . . . the flight o f the seasons" (Frazer 324). Nature, how-

ever, refuses to be impetuously driven. Tamar's propitiatory rites, her pleas

fo r rain, go unheeded. '1.11~ Rain God , "last season t l l~inder ," is unre-

sponsive t o her needs,her demands, and except for Jinny who luiinics a

storm, b c l l o w i n ~ "boom-boo.;l-boot~i: for thunder and "whoo-whoo," for

wind, (which is also a part o f the imitative magic ritual), she is greeted

hv I i ~ n p e n c t r n b l c s i lence . A while la ter out o f the silencc.,a voice

L i speaks, thc bl-eaker of l rces and father of grass ," who admonishes her,

" I t was no good to do t o o soon, your 1 fires out , you'd been patient for

me / I t might have saved t w o fires" (SI' 3 1).

Drained of energy by t h e f ie rce h e a t , Tamar c raves f o r t h e coo l

rain that will assuage her thil-st and revive her spir i ts . She is t he ear th

goddess , beaten upon and overpowered by the merciless rays of the sun,

"And all these days ot' horrible sunlight, f ire / Hummed in nly ears , [ have

> I

worn fire abou t me l ike a cloak and 1 burning f o r c lothing (Sf' 2 8 ) .

Tamar is Diana, "the goddess of fire; in her manifestation as Vesta

(I'razer 164). Fire played a foremost par t in her ritual, a t Nemi, Italy,

conducted during her annual festival usually held on the thirteenth of August,

t he hot tes t month o f t he year ( 3 ) . Tamar is t h e fire goddess,"wrapped

in t1re.filmed in white shee t s o f fire" (SI' 62)!who exper iences a thril l

o f anticipation at the sound of " the farm-bell ringing f i re . " Her prayer

to the "strong a n d clean and tel-rible spirit" t o "drive the red beast through

every wol-mhole ot' t l ~ e rot t ing timbers," identitifies her a s the sacrificing

P I - i e s t e s s . S h e d e c k s J inny f o r t h e " fes t iva l f i re ," c rowning her wi th

wrea ths , wovcn o u t of "long black se rpen t s o f beached seaweed" ( 3 0 ) .

With excited expectation, she awaits "the bonfire" which will turn the sky

red. The "festival fire," mentioned here, clearly indicates the rriidsummer

festivals marked by dances, fire processions and bonfires, whel-e "people

prayed for the rains t o come after the long spring drought," pleading with

the "high sun" t o "veil his f;:ce with stor171 clouds" (Burland 109). The

serpent-like scaweed and [ h e bonfire, intended as magical charms to bring

down the rains, symbolize resenera t ion and ilnmortality.

'l'amar is, however, disappointed for the fire is put out and the rains

fail t o material ize. I t is she who has t o pay a price; She loses the pre-

mature life within her: "Blood ran and she fell down on the round stones,

and felt nor saw nothing" (Sl' 3 2 ) . Her miscarr iage has d isas t rous ef-

fects on the weather. 1:razer quotes the medicine man and rain maker o f

tlie Ba-l'edi t r ibe , "When a wornan has a miscar r iage , When she has

allowed her blood t o flow . . . it i s enough t o cause the burning winds

t o blow and parch the count ry with hea t . T h e rain no longer falls for

the country is no lonyer in order" (209).

Tamar, w h o is picked up sick and bleeding from t h e seashore ,

remains in a c o m a fo r th ree days . S h e regains consc iousness t o find

herself in the big wes tward bedroom, where L e e had lain nine months

before. The numbers three and nine (a multiple o f three) again remind

u s of the cycle o f bir th, dea th and rebir th. Tamar thinks "with vacant

wonder / That life is always an old s tory, repeat ing i tself always like

the / leaves o f a t ree . . . ." She wonders whether Lee t o o was "fouled

with ghosts . . . a gang o f dead men beating him with rotten bones, mouth-

ing his body . . .'' ( S P 32), which Brophy assumes to be "gestures redolent

of sexual violation, deatli-nssault and fertility ritual" (47). Bones typify

immortality and as Estes tells us , "In archetypal symbology bones rep-

resent the indestructible soul spirit." In Estes's study o f the wild woman

archetype , the "woman who lives at t he e d g e o f the wor ld ," is both a

creator-hag and a death goddess, or a maiden in descent, "both the finder

and the incubator of the bones" (38 )

Tanlar 's dream of the "axman chopping down a t ree" and "dark

horsemen cornins / out of the south , squadrons of hurrying horsemen /

Between the hills and the dark sea, helmeted l ike the soldiers o f / t he

war in France, / carrying torches," ( S P 34) foreshadows the apocalyp-

t ic end. Tamar has been initiated into the next phase o f the cycle. She,

who was hesitant, confused, resisting change and death, and craving for

spr ing and life, goes down t o the seashore and re tu rns equipped with

power t o put into motion the annihilative phase of the cycle, t he final

climactic end, the af termath of which is a fresh cycle, a new bir th.

Tanlar is now in touch with the Life-Death-Life pattern (Estes 486),

having internal ized the psychic clock o f t h e seasons . Her f ace t o face

confrot l tat ion with the dead has t ransformed her in to an instrument o f

destruct ion. one who no longer flees dea th .

Tlie s taye is set for the final denouement The tree being chopped

i s the t r e e o i L~fe, but i ts roo t system which cont inues t o d raw sus te-

nance from mother earth will sprout new shoots, signifying rejuvenation.

The horsemen carrying torches are part o f the midsumnler solstice celebra-

t i ons . Tlie goddess Diana's annual fest ival ce lebra ted on th i r teenth o f

August was also marked by a niultitude o f torches" (Frazer 3 ) Frazer

notes, ". . . the three s r e a t f c a t ~ ~ r e s of the midsummer celebration wet-e

the bonfires, thc processions with torches around the fields and the custom

of trundling a wheel to mean that the sun having now reached the high-

est point in the ecliptic begins thence forward t o descend (622).

Ramon Rarnirez. " the herdsman of the Cauldwell herds," also has

a vision of "horsemen, each carrying a light, / hurrying northward , . ."(Sf1

35). Riding t o Vogel 's place, he has a second vision,which i s doubly

significant, of Johnny Cabrera going in the opposi te direction t o Lobos,

carrying a "flaming bundle of dead twigs and dry grass. . . ." Johnny claims

t o be "carrying fire t o Lobos," where the Cauldwell house i s s i tua ted .

But on the hill slope under Vogel's, Ramirez sees the "same Johnny with

two other men / Firing the brush to make spring pasture" (38). Ramirez

i s highly d is turbed by t h e visions; H e fee l s " the sca lp t ighten on his

temples;" I-le fears the wors t , t roubled by a presentiment o f impending

evil . The house of Cauldwell seems marked for destruct ion.

Tamar, who sees th2 "smoke o f t h e burning brushwood s lopes 1

Tower up out of the hills and the windless weather, like an enorlnous pine

,, t ree , e ~ c l a i r n s , ' ~ Everybody / But me has luck with fire" ( 3 9 ) . Tarnar

is the agent o f destruct ion, the fiery scourge which will raze the house

o f Cauldwell . The evocat ion o f the image o f t h e pine t ree , considered

sacred to both Attis and Dionysus, is significant in that it is a potent symbol

of fertility and regeneration (Frazer 386). The vegetation gods, Dionysus

and Attis, who died violent deaths were brought back to life and in the

sacred rites of Oionysus it was customary t o burn a pine-tree, denoting

both death and resurrect ion.

Tamar dreams tha t s h e is "hung naked . . / Half way between

sea and sky, beaten on by both, / Burning with light" (SP 39),representing

a "cosmic phallic crucifixion" (Everson, "Archetype West" 252), empha-

sizing the death - resurrect ion motif. Tarnar, in her role o f t h e fertil i ty

goddess, "dances her bosoms" at David Cauldwell, her father, "to move

the old bones tha t seventy yea r s have broken." S h e a t t empts t o tempt

"age and the very grave" (SiU 3 9 ) . H e is t h e "old king who must be

sacrificed" t o renew life (Bodkin 21). Tamar reveals herself now as the

fierce, destruct ive spirit who has "a wild beast o f a secret hidden under

the uncovered breast" that will eat them all up (SP 40). She is the "fire

burning the house" (43). The final resolu t ion i s close at hand. David

is the sacred king who is t o be sacrificed; he dies, however, only t o be

reincarnated as the new king. He must wait for death and irebirth to fulfil

his desire. To him, however, "Death i s the horror . . . the only trap," and

he boasts that he is "much t o o wise t o swing [himselfl in the s table on

a rope from the rafter" (51) . He refuses t o take on the role of the hanged

god, refusing t o submit t o death. In an at tempt t o p ~ o l o n 3 his reign,

he is not averse t o having intercourse with his own daughter , who has

wrested power From his hands.

Tamar, as the sacr i t ic i r~g priestess, is more powerful than the old

king. I t is she who has t o gauge "the quality o f his ejnculation in her

body," the quality of the life within him. David is the king , the pharoah,

the "symbol of life," who must have "ceremonial intercourse with a priestess

t o bring fertility t o his land" (Burland 121) . H e is destined t o be slain

if he is found wanting, duplicating the death o f Osiris, to ensure his res-

urrection in spring when the life in his veins would be transferred to new

life both in vegetation and into the new king, for it was believed tha t a

king without blemish has a flourishing kingdom, while a maimed king has

a kingdom diseased like himself (Weston 58).

Tamar, the Nature goddess , who rebelled against the sun's heat,

is now forced to contend with frost , with winter. Facing the bitter cold

o f winter, in touch with "the ice-core o f things," she learns that "frost

burns worse than fire" (SP 49). The wheel of time dips: ". . . the shiny

side o f the wheel / D i p p i r s toward Asia; and the year dipping / toward

winter encrimsoned the grave spokes o f sundown; . . ." ( 5 0 ) .

T h r wlicel is the wheel o f time, o f nature, signifying both the ro-

tat ion of the earth on i ts axis and i ts revolution around the sun, giving

r ise t o day and night and the seasons . T h e sun i s the cent re , the sun-

beams, the spokes and t h e ou te r rim, t h e orbi t o f the earth around the

sun. in mythological terms, the wheel represents "the sun's course in the

sky" (Frazer 043) . The sun wheel which has "reached the hishest point

in the ecliptic" bes ins i ts "annual declension" (622 ,643) . On psycho-

logical terms. however, it refers to "the still standing point of disengage-

ment around which all things turn . . . the midpoint . . . where the oppo-

s i tes come toxether , like the spokes o f a wheel , , . . " (Campbell , Ori-

I A t / o X 7 ) Encompassing the three archetypal symbols of "light,

kingship and centrality" (Wheelwright, "The Archetypal Syn~bol" 230),"the

cent re of the wheel" connected with the brightness and majesty o f the

&

sun becomes o n e o f the grea t a rchetype f o r t h e understanding and or -

dering of human life" (23 1).

'The red rays o f the sinking sun, the "spokes of sundown," bathe

America in i t s dying flush, only t o rise on Asia, " the shiny side o f the

wheel dipping towards Asia." The sun se ts on America, suggesting the

decl ine of the West, o f wes tern civi l izat ion. T h e year i s also "dipping

toward winter." The "day's death flush" on Lee's face signalizes his death

(Sf' 50). The "marks on the cypress," the mutilation of the tree, a symbol

o f life, agitates Lee who unconsciously senses forthcoming calanlity. He

is an unconscious victim, while Tamar. conscious o f death, exults in the

possibility, for death carries with it the hope of fresh life. 'The old "tot-

ter ing" Cauldwell ,who has t o prop "his weakness on a chair" ( 5 0 ) , is

t he Jungian Sun God who refuses t o descend, who is reluctant t o die .

He exclairnsjl1l3eath is the horror, ' i . . . , 'nothing else lasts, pain passes.

Death 's t he only t rap . . ."' ( 5 1 ) .

'famar, who is accused by Lee o f being "a slut," "an open mouth,"

is inunuue to insults or threats. Her rejoinder, "you have to be wide alive,

' an open mouth ' . . . t o reach this heaven," is an eye-opener. She is the

fertility goddess proud o f her trinity o f lovers , the priestess ensagcd i n

ritual prost i tut ion t o e n ~ e n d e r new life. She s tands "dark against t h e .

west in the window, the i death of the winter rose o f evening i behind

Her voice rising in a "silver exultance," she exclaims, "1 could almost

be so r ry tha t I have t o d ie now I o u t o f such freedom" (51) . S i lhou-

e t ted against t he west , her head haloed by the winter rose of evening,

she is marked ou t f o ~ death . / m- ::,-. --.. Tamar, unperturbed, stages the last and final act in th ,annual drama t;~

' :. o f the seasons A l a ~ n p in her bedroom window, a pre-set Signal, lures i

t

t he unsuspecting Will Andrews t o the house o f Doom, a moth at t racted - - t o the bright and deadly, dancing f lame The "Lobos Star" in t h e bed-

room window signals the commencement o f the final, gory ritual, which

closely parallels the festival o f Adonis , t imed t o coincide with the ap-

pearance o f Venus as the Morning o r Evening star, where the celebra-

t ion o f the rites was signalled by the flashing o f a meteor which fell like

a star from the top of Mount Lebanon into the river Adonis. The meteor's

fall was interpreted as the goddess 's descent i~l^to the arms of her lover V

Lee, feeling his way in the dark among the cypress trees, sees the

evening star. Tamar who is Venus, Astarte, "the Lobos star," awaits him

in the "dark o f t h e wes tward bedroom"(SP 52) . Lee , who is asked t o . carry hel- to her bedroom in the eastern wing, is "like a man stung by a

serpent," as she enlaces her hands around his neck and raises her knees

to let his al-ms slip undel- them" (54). Lee is Attis, who sensing approach-

ing death, refuses t o submit to TamarICybele. He refuses t o die, t o ' un -

. ~ i i a ~ i ' himself: "Tamar: I 've got no right / To put illy hands into your life,

1 see I That each o f us l ives only a l i t t le while / and must do what he

can with it : so, I 'm going I Tonight; . . ." (SP 53). Armed with "knife

and whip" with "the black quirt" that "seemed a living snake" (52), with

everything niasculine, he confronts Tamar in the hope o f freeing himself

from her c lu tches . Tamar taunts him: " . . . Agh, you can ' t wait 1 To

get to France to crawl into s trange beds . . " ( 5 3 ) . She warns him, nev-

er theless , that he will "never see France Never wear uniform nor learn

how t o fasten / A bayonet t o a gun-barrel . . . " (54). He will be forced

t o forfeit his sexual freedom (gun being a phallic symbol / in Freudian

analysis) as he is in her power. Lee str ikes her in exasperation. T a ~ u a r

re tor t s "Flogging, whipping, whipping, I is there anything male about

here 1 you haven' t used yet?" ( 5 1 ) . S h e is the sacred prost i tute; Lee ,

however, not realising the role she plays, remarks with disgust: "'Slut how

many, how many? . . . Agh! You ~ n o u t h , you open mouth. But 1 I won' t

touch you"' ( 5 1). Losing control over himself, he whips her, nevertlie-

less. Whipping is reduced t o a sexual act, to a sexual violation and Tamar

accepts i t uncomplainingly. w-hispering: "It was in the bargain" (55). 1Ie

who refused to succumb to her, is finally bought down to his knees. Death

is imminent. Branded with the lashes o f the whip, "red snake-trails" swell-

ing from "waist and flank down the left thigh" (55), Tamar is Islitar her-

self, t he goddess who has the "ability to t ranscend death." who is o n e

with the powers o f renewal (Brophy 70).

Meanwhile, Will Andrews, the Na tu re goddess ' s third vict im, is

unwittingly drawn t o his doom. Following the "Lobos star," which shines,

"serene and innocent . . . writing / a long pale-golden track / In the river's

arm o f sea . . .," he rides towards Lobos , longing t o hold his 'Venus '

in his a rms . Enrou te , he not ices "f igures o f f i re . . . . / . . . pas tu re

fires and brush fires I Men kindle before rain, . . . " (SIJ 5 5 ) . The smell

o f the smoke reminds him o f an incident, witnessed by Tatnar two years

before : Verdugo, (meaning "young shoo t o f a tree") (Brophy 61), was

castrated and burned t o death "in a blazing bonfire" for raping nine year

old Mary Vierra ( S P 56). A vague sense of foreboding grips him. Hiding

his hot-se in a "clump o f pines," he makes his way towards the house .

Turning a cypress th icket , he is s tar t led by the appari t ion o f a s t range

figure, swaying in the starlight, " . . . it faced the east gables o f the house,

and seemed twist ing / i ts hands and suddenly / Flung up both a rms t o

i ts face a n d passed out of the patch o f s tar l ight" ( 5 6 ) .

The sight assails him with fear, reinforcing in him a sense of dread.

"Troubled and caut ious ," he tu rns the o the r way and circles the house "

t o the southern s ide . Peer ing f rom behind, " the but t ressed base o f a

seventy-year-old [Cypress] trunk," he sights three people seated at a table:

old David Cauldwell, "stiff jointed as a corpse," Aunt Stella and old Jinny.

l'he three (representative o f birth, death and rebirth) remain still and mo-

tionless, almost glued to their chairs . Andrews finally finds himself i l l

the darkness under Tarnar's window. The strong, young cypress tree helps

him to her window, where he is greeted by her with "a high look of joy."

The feverish intensity of her gaze fr ightens him for a moment (SP 57) .

Andrews is the scapegoat f igure who must be ritually sacrificed;

but he is also the divine king's (Lee's) l ieutenant, t he 'mock-king' who

takes over from him at the summer solstice, t o be ritually done t o death

at the winter so ls t ice . The f igures o f f i re , t he pasture fire, the human

bonfire, the s trange appari t ion he witnesses a re all portentous omens of

events t o come. Andrews, who hides his horse in the clump of cypresses

and scales the cypress t ree t o Tamar 's window, i s the Att is f igure, t he

sacrificial victim, who has t o be slain t o ensure the rebirth o f vegetation,

the corning spring. Lee and Old Cauldwell a r e a lso sacrificial victims

at the mercy of the officiating priestess, Tamar. Tamar is exultant t o have

liel- "thl-ee lovers under o n e r o o f ' ( 5 2 ) . " ' W h a t , shall t he men tha t

made i your war suck up their millions, / Not I my three'!'" Meanwhile,

Stella prophetically intones, "a bridegroom for your Tamar, and the priest

will be fire and blood the wi tness . . . "(59) . Tamar, however, is not

content with one groom; She intends t o take all three . Her uniicentious

behaviour may be explained in mythic te rms as "essential t o the fertility

o f the earth . . " (Frazer 137), with "such outbursts o f the pent up forces

o f human nature, too often degenerating into wild orgies of lust and crime,"

being a common occurrence at t he end o f the year (538).

Tamar viciously instigates one against the other with deceitful lies.

The gullible Lee and \hiill, wholly in her power, are reduced t o mere pup-

pets Incited t o violence,Will lashes at Lee, "his fist hitt ing the sharp

e d g e o f the jawbone" while Lee fumbles fo r his t h r o a t . Lee s tabs at

Andrews's throa t , opening up the right cheek instead, "the knife scrap-

ing on bone and tee th" (SP 6 1 ) "The s t r u g g l e be tween the two men

parallels the ritual combat in the grave at Nemi,' (Vickery, "Myth and Ritual

i l l lhe Shorter Fieti011 o l '0 . I - I . Lawrence" 30l ) ,where both the rivals are

contenders t o the right of priesthood. Tamar, who goads them on, ex-

citedly screams, "1 dreamed a T cut in his face." Lee groans, "Akh, . . .

blood / What did you say t o make him hit me?" Andrews is nauseated

by the hatred e tched on Tamar ' s f a c e . His head a "blood clot" on the

floor, he s trusgles t o rise, like a "gopher-snake that a child 1 has mashed

the head of with a s tone ." H e can only gulp, "You devils, you devils"

( X I ' 63) . Old David, turning psychic, helplessly moans, "Fire, Fire . . .

the t i re o f the Lord coming in judgement" (60).

The sacrificial blood has been poured and "It is only an hour t o

the end . . . " (61) . 'I'lie sacrifice is about t o be consummated by Jinny,

the sur rogate priestess, who is officiating for Tamar. Fire is the priest,

consuming the house and its inmates in a sacrificial holocaust. Fire, which

is an agent o f "transformation and rebirth" (Jacobi 365), acts as a "sun-

charm . . . to ensure a needful supply o f sunshine" (Frazer 642). and in

keeping with the fertility rnyths, i t was right that the god o f vegetation

should "die by fire. For light and heat are necessary to vegetable growth"

(Frazer 651) . The three men and the three women charred t o death by

the flames symbolize the triad o f birth, death and rebirth. Moreover, i t

was believed that the greater the number o f persons "sentenced t o death,

the grea ter would be the fertil i ty o f the land" ( 6 5 7 ) .

Jinny is fascinated by the fire. She wants to be like Tamar, "wrapped

in fire, filmed in white sheets o f fire." "Ah, t o be like her . . . / cloth,

hair, burned oft'," displaying herself before "a wild old man . , . " (SI'

6 2 ) . Mesmel-ised by the f lame, she is d rawn t o i t : "Fire i s so swee t ,

they never let rile play with it / No one loves Jinny, wouldn't f i re be a

fa ther 1 And hold her in his arms?" The rag o f paper, she holds ove r

the hot lamp, is eagerly licked at , by the bright flame. Jinny in ecstasy

exclaims, "I've got my star. . . . " "The hungry beautiful bird" hops from

its bird cage t o Jinny's dress . She runs t o the window, "folded in a ter-

rible wreath," only t o have the window curtains leap into flame. Jinny's

"unprisoned spirit" is filled with a "nuptial joy in mixing with the bright

and eage r flame" ( 6 2 - 6 3 ) . l ' h e hungry f lames spread l o the wall and

"gnaw" through it; the window glass cracks t o let in the South wind which

rushes t o feed the ravenous f lames. The fire ea ts into every nook and

crevice till the whole "house was full o f i ts bright deatli." Tamar wel-

comes the bright death, refusing t o allow even one o f her lovers t o es-

c a p e She lovingly winds herself around Lee with her back to the will-

dow, while he makes a desperate struggle to break free. Entwined in the

coi ls o f the sinuous serpent , Lee is unable t o escape . Aunt Stella, i n a

futile attempt at escape, runs througli the open door into the red and black,

only t o be engulfed by the raging flames, while David screams, "Fierce,

Fierce 1 light I Have pity, Christ have pity. . . . " The roaring fire turns

the house into a veritable furnace; the f loor sags and turns like a wheel.

A few black stones are all that remain of the once handsome edifice. The

old trees, scarred by the fire, continue t o endure the sea wind, while the

"grass g r o w s where t h e f lame f lowered" ( S P 64) . The t r e e is both a

phallic, cyclic and coslnic symbol; Yggdrasil, the t ree o f the universe in

Norse myth being the archetype o f creat ion (Brophy 71) .

'The wheel of nature has turned full cycle. Winter has once again

eiveti way to Spring and Death has lost i ts s t ing, being vanquished by L.

Life. 'The green grass , which carpets the hollowed lawn, strewn with a

few black s tones , is the reincarnated spirit of Lee himself. The God o f

Vegetation has been resurrec ted t o reign fo r yet another annual cycle.

The green grass,which grows where "the flame flowered," e ~ r ~ b o d i e s the

spirit of life renewing itself, awakening from the long winter sleep of death.

I t testifies to the ebullient spirit o f creation, t o the ever-rejuvenating spirit

o f life evident in nature.

If in " ' lamar" the annual spectacle presents itself in a profusion of

anthl-opological images, with a well-defined demarcation o f the seasons,

in "Koan Stal l ion." the scope o f act ion i s te lescoped into a short span

of three to four months: the action begins one winter, on a Christmas eve

and ends in spr ing , in the month of April. The annual rite of sacrifice,

usually held at t he c lose o f the year (on Winter s o l s t i c e day) t o mark

" the year 's dea th ," takes place in "Roan Stal l ion" in spr ing. The spring

sacr i f ice which recal ls t h e resur rec t ion o f Chr is t , func t ions a s a me ta -

phor for the cyclical na ture o f life. Jeffers uses Christian symbols, jux-

t apos ing them with pagan myths t o e x p r e s s in my thopoe ic t e r m s his

' \ ~ e l t a n s c h a u u n g ' o r world v iew: the dialect ic of life in dea th and dea th

i l l life which is fundalner~tal t o the na ture o f all exis tence.

In "Roan Stallion': leffers integrates the animal or totemic myth with

the myths of the nature gods , sacrificing both the sacred animal and t h e

sacred king at the turn of the year. The roan stallion is "the astral horse,"

"a cos lnogo~i ic figure" (Brophy 9 6 ) tha t embodies within itself t he whole

universe (Frye , At7rrloni.y 143) , t h e sacr i f ic ing o f which, acco rd ing t o

Eliade, "symbolizes (reproduces) the act o f creation" (q td . in Brophy 96).

I t is also the totem animal ( the to tem being an animal or plant that sym- . bolizcs the lire of the tribe) towards which California, the heroine, is i r -

resistibly drawn California , who t r ea t s t h e s tal l ion with forced indif-

ference at first , is forced "to acknowledge it with interest , then with re-

spec t and at l ength wi th a s o r t o f a w e " (Lubbock q t d . in Freud Vol.

13 : 170).

The appeal-ance of the totem animal is, however, fraught with dangel-,

for i ts presence "in o r about t he house is of ten regarded a s an omen o f

dea th ; . . .': I t is t he ances t r a l animal w h o h a s c o m e t o fe tch [home]

his kinsman" (Freud Vol. 13 : 164) , t o e sco r t him t o the abode of t he

dead .

The winter solst ice. t he appearance o f the to t em animal in mid-

winter, the s torm that threatens t o br-eak out in all fury--all these differ-

ent elements that mark the opening of the nar-rative--are prophetic in intent,

foreshadowing the climacklc end.

California, the "nobly formed," dark, erect woman, "strong as a new

tower-," with "wide eyes, full chin, [and] red lips," is the Earth goddess,

the spirit o f ille land i tself . A primitive, half breed woman, "a four th

part Indian," "l)l;~nted" I I I "young native earth. / Spanish and,lndian, twenty

one yea[-s before" b y a Scottish sailor, she is o f a savage bent o f mind,

capable of assurning complete identification with her totem, the stallion.

Johnny. her husband, the pale-faced, "outcast Hollander," with "the

bur-nt out eyes." who inspite o f being young ("not old") is "shrivelled with . bad living" (.\'I' 142). represents the ailing fisher king, the year god in

his autumn phase, who must be ritually sacrificed t o renew creation. Only

his death can impart a n e w lease of life t o his daughter , Christine, who

has "inherited from his race blue eyes, from his life a wizened forehead"

(142) She is the infant year goddess, the 'Kore, ' the maiden (a comple-

ment to the mother in California) who will be rejuvenated in spring, re-

vi tal ized by her p roc rea to r ' s b lood .

The rna~nif icent stallion, won by Johnny as a gambling prize. is the

central f igure. the real protagonist o f the poem. Visualized a s a "huge

beast i n \vlio\e mane the stal-s [ a r e ] ne t ted ,sun and moon [be ing] his

eveballs" (SI' 154). tlie stallion is the cosmic sacrificial hol-se, "the ancient

totem animal, the primitive god himself' (Freud Vol. 13: 199), which serves

t o establish a mystic unity between the individual's tribe and the cosmic

life (Rrophy S I ) . It is a l so t h e sacred animal , "an embodiment o f t h e

god Virbius," also known a s Hippolytus, t rampled t o death by hor ses .

Johnny,who i s torn to pieces by the stallion,is none other than Hippolytus

himself. Paradigms for the same shifting reality o f the phenomenon o f

life and death. Johnny and the stallion are but parts o f a whole, for "an

animal ~ v h i c h is said t o have injured a god was originally (believed t o

be) the god himself" (Frazer 47) . First conceived in animal form, it later

came to a s s u n ~ c anthl-opomorphic dimensions (469) .

. In Calit'ornia's primitive sensibility, Christian and pagan symbol-

ism coa lesce The stallion is not only the vegetation spirit o r the totem

animal, i t is a lso god , the father (SIJ 150), who "lives / up high, ove r

the s tars . . . r a n g l i n ~ l on the bare blue hill o f the 1 sky." "holding the

sun in his hand," "hands that made the hills and sun and moon, and the

sea/ and the $1-eat redwoods . . . " and god the Holy spirit, the third person

o f the trinity: " the shining and the power. The power, the terror / the

burning fire" (148) , " the great god that came down t o Mary, gently

. . . " ( 1 5 1 ) . I t is also the sacrificial victim, god, the son, who is soon

t o be ‘crucified' "on the great arch and pride o f the hill, the silent cal-

vary" (152) .

Califorliia, who unconsciously identif ies herself with both Mary

hlagdalene and Mary the mother o f Christ , in a 'Freudian sl ip, ' admits

her de lus ion: She is "God ' s wife," the "stal l ion 's wife" ( S P 148) , the

w o m a n c o v e r e d by a h u g e b e a s t in w h o s e m a n e t h e s t a r s [ a r e ]

net ted . . . " (154). California's god is however not an anthropomorphic

god, but one who "not in a man's shape walks lighting naked on the Pacific

lacling1 the sun with planets, 1 l ' h e heart o f the atom with thcelectrons"

(149-50) .

Inextricably bound to the stallion in an intense, soul-binding rela-

t ionship, Calfornia is " the savage," who has been able t o achieve "mys-

tic union" with her totem (Frazer q td . in Freud Vol. 13 :166) . The real-

. ization is, however, not immediate, the significance of her attraction for

the stallion creeping on her almost unawares. The stallion which has a

mesmerizing hold over her senses, dominates her consciousness, ruling

her. She, who "hated (she thought) the proud-necked stallion," hat ing

"him for his uselessness that served nothing but Johnny's vanity" is Sol-ced

t o adlnil-e " the big twill masses o f his breast on the rail, his red-brown

eves tlash[ing] the white crescent" (Sf' 147). I t , however, requires ( the

crossing o f the ford on t h e night o f t h e s to rm) for the t ru th t o break

into blinding awareness, which is then followed by a "stage of confron-

tation" and "one of identification" (Vickery, "Myth and Ritual in the Shorter

Fiction o f D . H . Lawrence" 310) .

The storm serves as a rite o f initiation, the baptismal douching in

t h e storm-swollen ford awakening her t o t h e heightened tension in her

~ ~ n c o n s c i o u s . Enveloped in eer ie darkness , in a "world o f sounds and

no sight, the gentle thunder o f water" in her ears, she attempts t o c r o s s

the flooded creek on a bare-backed mare. The feel o f the animal sur -

f ace awakens a drear11 which "obscure[s ] real danger with a dream o f

danger." She and the mare a re one entity, waiting fo r the "water s ta l -

lion to break out of tlie stream . . . forehooves in air, crushing her and

curl[ingl over his woman " Reduced to a mere "prehensile instinct" (St'

1-15). wit11 the watel- lappirlg ovel- her hare thighs and belly "like a beast"

( 1 4 7 ) , she is forced to contend with the darkness within and wi thou t .

. (145). The "roar 1 and thunder of the invisible water" give way to blinding

light and a vision o f the baby Jesus holding "a li t t le snake with golden

eves" in his "small fat hand," and surrounded by angels with "birds' heads,

hawks ' heads" (146) .

'l'he vision on the eve o f Christmas is followed by another in April:

"a crucified man writh[ing] . . . in anguish" (154 ) . The perspective. es-

sentially Christian in dimension is interlaced, however, with nature sym-

bolism, the images o f t h e snake and t h e hawk-headed angels being pa-

gan in evoca t ion . I ' h e snake is a phallic symbol, a symbol o f la tent

energy, o f resurrected life, testifying t o the power and mystery o f cre-

a t ion (Brophy 84) , while t h e hawk-headed angels , "weaving a w e b of

wings" about the child, call t o mind the myth o f Osiris and Isis and the

bil-tli of the Sun God, Horus : lsis who conceives him as she is hovering

over the corpse of her husband, in the shape o f a hawk, delivers him in

the swamps (Frazer 364). California is both lsis and Mary, while the child

Jesus assumes shades o f Horus . The Christian motif o f death and res-

urrection i n tile person of Christ , is appropriated and amalgamated with

Esvptian imagerv t o sound the theme o f dissolution and renewal evident

in nature

The second sta.qe of confrontation occurs in April, in spring, when

a man brings a mare t o be mated with the stallion (SI' 147). The stal-

lion, tlie viril t~ ~ n a l e , bursts unwillingly upon her consciousness, refusins . to be suppl-esscti She is forced to confront herself, to acknowledge the

t ru th t o herself Left t o grapple with her divided feelings, she is dis-

t raught . The truth o t ' he r realization hits her: "she loved, she was not

afraid of the hooves - 1 . . . the terrible strength / she gave herself without

thinking" ( 1 4 8 ) .

( ' a l i f o r ~ ~ ~ a is the na ture goddess , initiated into the next phase of

her cycle. April, which brings with it t he spring o f fresh awakening. a

new beginning. banishes the darkness o f winter. Winter, the time o f the

year when "dawn comes late in the year 's dark," i s left fur behind. "The (

storm in the ni::ht;" the lighting and the thunder which "walked down the

narrow canyon into Carmel valley" t o wear "away westward;" t h e rain

that bat tered " the thin shakes of the roof" (142) a re things of the past .

The clouds "hea\.y with level rainfall," the "red rays cryling) sunset,""the

cloud over L.ohos, tlie South-west occ ident o f the solst ice" (144)--al l

indicative of llie dying phase of nature--have ~ i v e n way t o " the tinkle of

the April b rook , deep in i ts hol lows," t o the "hush o f the wind in the

tall redwoods" ( . S f 1 1391, t o " the night o f the April moon" (150).

California is the nature goddess in search o f her mate. The white

man, her husband, who is out o f tune with nature is the ailing sacred king

who is unable t o satisfy her passions. He, however, lusts after her, but ,

the union is sterile, meaningless. She endures him "feign[ing] desire to

hasten the ac t" (143) Obsessed with the stallion, with the sheer power

. and beauty of the muscles rippling beneath the dark brown coat,she craves

sexual fulfilment: "she crushed her breasts / On the hard shoulder, an arm

over the withers, the o ther under / the mass o f his throa t and murmur-

ins / like a n ~ o u n t a i n dove , if I could bear you" (1 5 2 ) . She is Venus,

the goddess o f love and fruct if icat ion, whose symbol is t he dove . She

is also Diana in love with the ' ho r se -zod , ' Hippolytus. Realising tha t

scxual fulfiln~ent is an impossibility, there being "no way, no help;' sepa-

rated as they are by "a gulf in nature," California rides the stallion, "the

savage and exultant strength" up the hill to "the silent calvary" (152). The

mountain top, considered in traditional mythology to be " the seat of bless-

edness," is combined with Christian symbolism t o project ' t h e silent cal-

vary,' the scene of the crucifixion. I t is a t ime o f mystic awareness and

ritual sacrifice, sexual tension having giver1 way t o more elevated planes

of thought.

<:;ilifornia has crossed the threshold o f the third s tage o f identifi-

cation She is now ready " to endure dea thu--death being mystic union,

an emptying o f self to riierse with the divine (Brophy 91). The "hills shining

ope11 to the enormous night of the April moon . , . " awaken in her a sense

o f a w e She wondeis whether she might meet God, the father, face t o

face, on the mountain top, " the archetypal point where t ime meets the

eternal" (91) . G o d , however, appea r s t o her in the shape o f the s tal-

l ion, " s l i a k i n ~ the red-roan mane for a f l ag on the bare hills" (Sf' 150).

. She is awe stricken by the grand spectacle o f nature; the "enormous filills

of nioonlight" trailing "down from the height," "the moon saturate arcs and

spires o f the air" (152) . California has "entered sacred time and space,"

the cathedral "of arcs and spires of air" t o experience the reality of " the

world . , . as the temple o f God" (Bropky 93) .

l'he 'silent calvary' beckons her. It is a time o f ritual execution.

The stallion taken up to Calvary is the son of God himself. She pros-

t rates herself before him, a repentant Magdalene: "I'm not good enough.

0 clean power" ( S P 153) . She i s n o w be t ro thed t o G o d himself and

the initial dis taste she feels toward her coarse , insensitive husband as-

sumes gigantic propor t ions . She, "who had known him for years with

neither love nor loathing," finds herself "hating him" (154) . The final

denouement is close at hand.

The archetypal number three, introduczd right at the beginning of

the 11;irl-ati\,e,--JoIini~v "having been away three days" (143)--emphasizes

the nature of the denouement.

California, the nature goddess , rejects her spouse, the vegetation

god, t o become instrumental in bringing about his death. Johnny, coming

home half-drunk, with two jugs o f red wine, invites her t o "come drink,"

the blood o f the g rape , in a t raves ty o f t h e Euchar is t ic celebrat ion o r

the Llionysiac rites. He is Dionysus, the god o f the vine I the sacrificial

lamb, inviting California to partake of his flesh and blood, prophetically,

. foretel l ing his own death The gruesome spect re o f death l o o m s in the

background as California "sadly" complies .

Some o f the red wine which spills on to the tab le dripping down

o n t o the f loor , becomes the metaphor f o r spilled blood, t h e sacrificial

blood. Johnny noticins the "red juice," mutters stupidly " 'who stuck the

pig? . . . ' here ' s b lood, here 's blood,"' t rai l ing his f ingers in t h e red

lake under the lamplight" (Sl' 155), strongly suggest ing the sacrifice o f

the "mystic pig" which "points to an initiation into death" (I-lenderson 145).

Johnny is the pig, "Pig Attis" (Frazer 471). a manifestation o f both the

god , Attis, and his sacred animal, t he pig.

The hunt motif which dominates the rest o f the narrative is again

a pointer towards death. California, who slips out of the house t o evade

Johnny's drunken c l u ~ c h e s , se ts in motion the final ritual o f the harvest

hunt . Stalked by Johnny and rhe dog, Bruno, she flees t o the corral for

refuge, sure o f be ins protected by the stallion, her totem animal.

Johnny is the primaeval hunter, caught up in the excitement o f the

"chase under the solemn red woods ," and driven by a desire t o possess

her-, lie imagines " the panting / And unresistant victim caught in a dark

cornel-" (SI' 155) . His lips curve "like a faun's" anticipating the thrill of

the final capture . l 'he faun simile evokes t o mind the woodland deities

and the vegetation god. D i ~ n y s u s , who is "sometimes represented in goat-

form" (Frazer 465). I t stresses "the fecundating power o f the animal god

. i n man" (Henderson 143) .

Johnny is Actaeon pursuing his victim with the help o f his hound,

l i t t le realizing that the roles will soon be reversed with California, t h e

quarry , metamorphosing in to the hunt ress queen , Diana , t o exact her

revenge. The dying year god who seeks the goddess, as a matter o f sport,

is avenged by her.

I n an at tempt to evade her pursuer, California crouches under an

oak-bush only to be scented out by the dog, Bruno. Johnny's command.

" 'find her Bruno, g o find her."' reinforce the hunt motif Hearing them

conic. she dar ts t o the open s lope and down the hill, with t h e d o g at

her heels.

California, who seeks t o escape notice under the oak tree, "a t ree

sacred. . . t o Cybele, the mother-lover-destroyer o f Attis" (Brophy 98).

is both Cybele and "the oak-goddess, Diana," while Johnny is "the king

of the wood" who personates the Oak-god,Jupiter (Frazer 164). The

tethering o f the stallion to an Oak bush symbolizes a marriage o f sorts ,

a mystic union between the stallion (Attis or Jupiter) and California (Cybele

o r Oiana) The Oak, svmbolic o f the life o f the cosmos. comes t o repre-

sent imnlol-tality (Gucrin 158)

118

Euhaus ted , pa~lt i r i? fo r breath, California th rows herse l f prone .

wri thes undei- the bars of the corral t o find refuge in the s tal l ion 's en-

closure. The horse backs away from her without hurting he].. The dog, . stalking its prey, follows her into the corral and "seeing the stallion / move,

the wornan standing quiet / dance[s] after the beast with white-tooth feints

a n d daslles." Johnnv. who sees "the formidable dark strength I-ecoil[ing]

from the dog." gathei-s up courage t o climb over the fence into the cor-

ral.

Death is in the air. Christine, who sleeps fitfully, unaware o f the

drama in tile cori-al, has an archetypal dream of the ocean corning up out

o f the west t o cover the wor ld . She looks "up through clear water a t

t he tops of the redwoods" ( S P 156). The great ' f lood archetype, ' which

materialises out o f Christine's unconscious, is reminiscent o f " the great

f loods of mythology" that a re "at once des t ruc t ive and reconstruct ive"

(Wallcer 3 7 3 ) . I t s e lves t o dl-ive home the idea o f "cosnlic disastel-

destroying the whole fictional society except [for1 a small group, which

begins life anew in some shel tered place" (Frye, Atraromy 203) .

Cht-istine's fears overwhelm her: the empty house and the red colour

o f the spilt wine, evoke a sense o f d read . T h e spl i t wine reminds her

of the "red juice" dripping from the coyote's muzzle, which her father had

shot i n the hills one day. She follows the dog's "friendly noise," in the

"white lane. of moonlight" and is in time t o see the gory ritual being en-

acted i n the corral. White, in its negative aspect, symbolizes death, terror

and the "blinding truth of an inscrutable mystery" (Guerin 1 5 7 )

Christine is the novice on the threshold o f her initiation in to the

. nlysteries of the vegetation cul ts o f yore. California, who stands t rans-

fixed, immobilized, watching the "dancing fury o f the dog" and the "dark

strength o f the beast" a s it charges on Johnny, knocking him down with

its fore-hooves. screams, spurring Christine into act ion. She runs home

t'or the rifle, lugging i t "somehow through the 1 door and down the hill-

side under the hard wcight / sobbing" (X I ' 156). She is the "little Christ"

(Brophy 81). who car r ies the "hard weight" o f the ' c ross ' by means o f

which her father is t o be 'crucif ied. ' She , unwittingly, precipi tates t h e

final denouement of the narrative, proving herself t o be the priestess 's

assistant.

Johnny, who drags his crushed, bruised body, crawling like a "hurt

worm" towards the fence, is t he dwindling life-spirit, the nature god in

his dyins phase. The image o f the hurt 'worm ' suggests life and regen-

eration, for the worm exhibits the power of growing i ts lost parts . Cali-

fornia shoots the dog which is distracting the stallion, it being an exten-

sion of Johnny himself. The stallion, "freed from his torment," turns once

again on the man, who lurches upto his knees, "wailing a thin bitter bird's

cry," the bird, a symbol o f t ranscendence (I ienderson 147), a lso being

associated with death I-looves and teeth tear hi111 apar t , leavins him a

rnerc "smear on the moon-like earth," which "in sacramental terms would

mark a ' s p a r a ~ m o s ; ' the rending of the victim's flesh (Actaeon, Hippolytus,

. L)ionySus o r Pentheus) in an action which ritually becomes a communion

feas t - - a shar ing o f the flesh and b lood, signifying a shared life and

participation in the resurrected god" (Brophy 99) .

California, urged on by her daughter and prompted by some "ob-

scure human fidelity" shoots the stallion, her face "the mask o f a woman

who has killed a G o d " "Each sepa ra te nerve cell o f her brain" cr ies

in her mind, falling froln their place like "flaming stars" ( S P 157), an image

fortifying the motif of the apocalyptic end (Mark 13.24; Rev. 6.13), leading,

however,to the establishment o f a new heaven and a new ear th .

California, who dons the mask, "used i n primitive religious ceremo-

nies to impersonate the god o r goddess to fulfil a role," assumes the role

o f the sacrificing priestess (Brophy 101) . She sacrifices the year god

surrogate to initiate the process o f renewal and change in nature, firing

three times before the horse crumbles sidewise, i ts "beautiful s t rength"

set t l ing t o earth (SfJ 157).

The archetypal number three is used time and again by Jeffers t o

reinforce the theme o f cyclical regeneration. Three is symbolic o f spiri-

tual unity and awareness (Guerin 158). a representation of " the triad as

c rea t ive energy" i n which t h e t w o oppos ing f o r c e s o f life and dea th ,

creat ion and des t ruc t ion , c o m e into balance t o c rea te "a third force"

which is " the immense progress o f life, the very movement of the u n i -

verse t o b a r d s whate\.ec s o a l i t seeks" (St r ieber 276 ,277) .

California, a personification o f this ' force ' o f nature, acquires an

inhuman will-power which enables her t o sacrifice her god for the reju-

venat ion o f life on ea r th . The sacred animal 1 g o d is sacrificed while

"the tide of life" is "still running strong" in its veins, so that it may" re-

vive and enter i new term of life" (Frazer 500) .

'l'he consunimated sacrifice and the smell o f the spilt wine drifting

down the hill from the house, reinforce the image of the ritualistic passovel-

culminating in the final bloody sacrifice.

"Mlerciless, bloody, sacrifice," which forms the basis o f all religious

myths, is a testimony to the rite o f sacrifice evident in nature, the sac-

rificial victim being a "symbol o f a world crumbling and needing recre-

ation" (Hrophy 191). b;ven the wal- that sounded the death knell o f civi-

l izations are but resolver-s o f the universal order o f things, leading man

to "the primal and latter silences" ("Night" O h 779) of the pristine world.

Jeffers who "sees dispassionately that the little black beetle on the

tor and the great star Betelgeuse" share with him "the common destiny

o f having a life cycle of bir th and death t o fulfil," philosophically ac-

cepts the inevitability of death (PoweII,.Hohi?rson .Jefji'r.s 167) . Violence,

deatii and des t ruc t ion a re but "d i sas t rous rhythms," "grand and fatal

niovernents towards deatti" comparahle to the "gold and tlaniing death dance

for lcaves" ("liearmanlent" OH 793) , with the "human excess of passion"

acting as "a catalyst necessal-y for annihilation and cyclical change" (Yozzo

11 I I - ) . Death is 110 evil ," for the life spir i t , ever resur-sent, "ful-ious

for continuance passionately feeding / Passionately / Remaking itself upon

its mates" ("Night" O K 778-779), emerges triumphant in the long run .

In the archetypal conflict of creation and destruction, life and death,

it is the sexual impulse. " the pulse bea t o f the species" [Schopenhauer

q t d in Ilurant 3201, that testifies t o the ebullient spirit o f creat ion, t o

the ever-rejuvenating spirit o f life evident in nature. Jeffers, who longs

for the pristine beauty of the uncorrupted world, hopes with Zola "to bury

old rot ten humanity beneath the ashes o f a world in the hope that a new

society would spring up again, happy and innocent in the terrestrial para-

dise o f the primitive legends" (Walker 376).