Thomas Mann in his "Joseph and His Brothers" visualizes this scene almost as well as Brughel. I've always loved this painting, and Mann's words somehow give it a new perspective.
"For it is, always is, though the common phrase may be : It was. That is how myth speaks, for it is merely the garment of the mystery. But mystery's festal garment is the feast itself, the ever-recurring feast that spans all of time's tenses, making both past and future present in the mind of the people. Is it any wonder that on those feast days human beings were all in a ferment and custom accepted degenerate, lewd behavior, for it is then that death and life know one another? Feast of Storytelling, you are the festal garment of life's evoking the myth to be played out in the very present. Feast of Death, descent into hell---you are truly a feast, the reveling of the flesh's soul, which not for nothing clings to the past, to the grave and the 'It was' of piety. But may the spirit be with you as well, and enter into you, so that you may be blessed with blessings of heaven above and blessings of the deep that lies below."
Aside from the painting, Mann's writing in Joseph, the Descent into Hell, causes me to question a concept I've always felt I understood: Soul, Flesh, Spirit. In particular, what is the difference between Soul and Spirit? Clearly, Flesh is set apart. But what of Soul and Spirit? Two names for the same idea? or is Soul only the innermost being and Spirit the anima...the life-giving force that gives breath and unity to the whole?
