Hobbes’s hidden monster: A new interpretation of the frontispiece of Leviathan
In recent years, much work has been done on the role of images in Hobbes. But there is an unsolved riddle with regard to the famous frontispiece of Leviathan (1651). Why is there nothing monstrous in the sovereign body depicted, despite the fact that it is named for a Biblical sea monster? In this article it is argued that there is a monster just barely hidden in the image and that the iconographical tradition helps us rediscover this creature. We argue that this monstrosity serves a theoretical and political purpose pertaining to fear and imagery within Hobbes’s overall project and in the political context of his time. Moreover, we argue that the discovery of the hitherto unknown monster should make political theory and intellectual history sensitive to the role played by physical images in Hobbes as well as in political thought at large.
Om statens undergång, Kristus och krokodilens mage. Thomas Hobbes Leviathan i ljuset av en reptilallegori
In this article, the author addresses the question why Thomas Hobbes named his philosophical magnum opus for the Biblical monster Leviathan (1651). It is argued that Hobbes was acutely aware of the political power of images. Moreover, the author claims that the image of Leviathan as the state alludes to a contemporaneous interpretation of Leviathan as a crocodile. By reconstructing the history of the crocodile in European thought, from Aristotle via Diodoros Siculus to influential Christian animal allegories, we can discover the kind of images conjured up by Hobbes’s use of the Leviathan. More specifically, it is shown that the crocodile was interpreted as an image of the Devil. According to influential ancient authors, the crocodile can be defeated by a little animal, the ichneumōn, that is devoured by the crocodile yet defeats it from within. Ancient and mediaeval bestiaries allegorically interpreted the animal as an image of the Christ. Furthermore, Hobbes, by many considered an atheist or deist, constructs metaphors and similes likening the Christian religion to something that is swallowed. By having the crocodile represent the state, Hobbes thus esoterically indicates his disagreements with Christianity and his belief that the Christian doctrine is destructive to the state and inferior to the pagan empires with regard to its capability of inducing law-abiding behaviour on the part of citizens.
Henry IV, the Gallic Hercules
De tous les endroicts de la France on se rend a Paris pour veoir les magnificences de ceste journde; il s'y trouve tant de peuple et de toutes les qualitez, que I'on ne pouvoit aller presque par les rues, principalement aux endroicts oii la Royne devoit passer: les uns regardoient tout le long de la rue Saint Denis les arcs triumphaux, les autres les statues, les devises et les peintures, d'autres sur le Pont Nostre Dame ne pouvoient oster leur veue de dessus les termes qu'estoient le long de ce pont, avec des paniers d'ozier, pleins de toutes sortes de fruicts, et de veoir attacheez au berceau de dessus les armoiries, devises et chiffres de Leurs Majestis.