MDDM Hephzibah ("Dark Hepsie, the Pythoness of the Point"25-29)

[jbor]

Patrick White also labels Mrs Flack, one of his elderly suburban witches in
_Riders of the Chariot_ (Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1961), as "the pythoness" (p.
251).

Coincidentally, adjacent to the title page in White's novel is a long quote
from William Blake about the Prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel. It reads as
follows:

            The Prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel dined with
                me, and I asked them how they dared so
             roundly to assert that God spoke to them;
            and whether they did not think at the time
                that they would be misunderstood, & so
                           be the cause of imposition.
             Isaiah answer'd: "I saw no God, nor heard
         any, in a finite organical perception, but my
         senses discovered the infinite in everything,
                 and as I was then perswaded, & remain
                   confirmèd, that the voice of honest
          indignation is the voice of God, I cared not
                   for consequences, but wrote. . . ."
           I then asked Ezekiel why he eat dung, & lay
        so long on his right & left side? he answer'd,
                 "the desire of raising other men into
          a perception of the infinite: this the North
          American tribes practise, & is he honest who
    resists his genius or conscience only for the sake
                    of present ease or gratification?"

best

ps 'The Rhapsodies of the Unknown Prophet', also called the Second, or
Deutero-Isaiah, which Keith cited from, are very interesting.


on 8/4/02 6:06 PM, jbor at jbor at bigpond.com wrote:

> 
> Thanks Keith. I did a bit of trawling about as well. Hephzibah was the
> mother of Manasseh, an Old Testament King of Judah. Manasseh succeeded
> Hezekiah to the throne in Jerusalem as a twelve year old and ruled for 55
> years. His reign is described in 2 Kings 21:1-18 - apparently he followed
> "the disgusting practices of the nations whom the Lord had driven out of the
> land [...] rebuilt the pagan places of worship [...] built altars for the
> worship of Baal and made an image of the goddess Asherah [...] Manasseh also
> worshipped the stars. He built pagan altars in the Temple [...] He
> sacrificed his son as a burnt offering. He practised divination and magic
> and consulted fortune tellers and mediums. He sinned greatly against the
> Lord and built up his anger. [...]"
> 
> http://www.bibleplus.org/witchcraft/witchcraft.htm
> 
> http://www.learnbible.net/topical/500.htm
> 
> There's another version of the story in 2 Chronicles 33:1-20.
> 
> The name Hepzibah Rea appears in the list of defenders in the 1692 Salem
> witch trials (upon which Arthur Miller's _The Crucible_ is based.)
> 
> http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/salem/witchcraft/texts/salem-defenders.html
> 
> And Hepzibah is also the name of the sister in Hawthorne's _House of the
> Seven Gables_, which crops up often in the critical literature as a likely
> Pynchonian source.
> 
> http://www.papercamp.com/lit82.htm
> 
> best
> 
>>s-Z wrote:
>> Isaiah 62
>> 1   For Zion's sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's
>> sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as
>> brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth. 2
>> And the Gentiles shall see thy righteousness, and all kings thy
>> glory: and thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of
>> the LORD shall name. 3  Thou shalt also be a crown of glory in the
>> hand of the LORD, and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God. 4
>> Thou shalt no more be termed Forsaken; neither shall thy land any
>> more be termed Desolate: but thou shalt be called Hephzibah, and
>> thy land Beulah: for the LORD delighteth in thee, and thy land
>> shall be married. 5  For as a young man marrieth a virgin, so
>> shall thy sons marry thee: and as the bridegroom rejoiceth over
>> the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee. 6  I have set
>> watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their
>> peace day nor night: ye that make mention of the LORD, keep not
>> silence, 7  And give him no rest, till he establish, and till he
>> make Jerusalem a praise in the earth. 8  The LORD hath sworn by
>> his right hand, and by the arm of his strength, Surely I will no
>> more give thy corn to be meat for thine enemies; and the sons of
>> the stranger shall not drink thy wine, for the which thou hast
>> laboured: 9 But they that have gathered it shall eat it, and
>> praise the LORD; and they that have brought it together shall
>> drink it in the courts of my holiness. 10 Go through, go through
>> the gates; prepare ye the way of the people; cast up, cast up the
>> highway; gather out the stones; lift up a standard for the people.
>> 11 Behold, the LORD hath proclaimed unto the end of the world, Say
>> ye to the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy salvation cometh; behold,
>> his reward is with him, and his work before him.12 And they shall
>> call them, The holy people, The redeemed of the LORD: and thou
>> shalt be called, Sought out, A city not forsaken.
>> 
>> HEPHZIBAH:  Biblical name meaning "in her is my delight."
>> Variant, Hepzibah, exists.  Diminutives are Hepsie and Eppie.
>> 
>> 
>