Dante’s old man of Crete

Dante writes about the old man of Crete. He starts out in gold at the top of his head. It changes to silver, brass going down. Lower trunk of brass, legs of iron and a right foot of clay.

Maybe it’s a description of mappo. In Christianity is about the degeneration as Christianity gets older and older.

My therapist loved the metaphor of learning of people’s clay feet. When I read about Jung’s affair with his patient, my therapist pointed out that the theme of finding clay feet seems important to me. His clay feet was that he said he was going in for surgery, not to worry and he died. That was years ago. Feels fresh right at this moment. I can’t tell him about my finding. 

Links

INFERNO XIV – THE OLD MAN OF CRETE