Aesculapius in The Faerie Queene

Jason

June 23, 2022

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Aesculapius is, traditionally, a famous doctor from classical mythology. In The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser, he agrees to help Night and Duessa bring Sansjoy back from the dead.

Necromancy was a particularly bad dark art, but one for which Aesculapius was imprisoned in Night’s realm in the first place.

In Christianity, necromancy was particularly evil for two reasons:

The power to raise the dead should be left to God alone

It assumes that mortal life is greater than immortal life in the world to come

In book one, Aesculapius is successful at bringing Sansjoy back from the dead, allowing him to continue his service to Duessa.

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