Ariel

Origin

The iconographic origin is (1) the Hebrew Ariel — the alternative name of Jerusalem in Isaiah 29:1-2 of the Old Testament as 'lion of God' or 'messenger of God' — and (2) the air-element-angel canon of fourteenth- to sixteenth-century European Kabbalistic mysticism. In Book 3, Chapter 24, of the Latin treatise De Occulta Philosophia Libri Tres of the German mystic Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa (1486-1535) of 1533, Ariel is decisively recorded as the angel of the air element (Air, the wind gods of the four directions) among the seventy-two angels of the Shem HaMephorash of Kabbalah, and this canon combined with the four-element-spirit theory of Paracelsus of 1566 to settle the sixteenth-century Renaissance European mystical air-spirit canon. The decisive literary canon is the last solo play of Shakespeare, The Tempest, premiered on 1 November 1611 at Whitehall Palace in London, England — estimated to have been written by Shakespeare in 1609-1611, published in Volume 1 of the First Folio edited by Heminges and Condell in 1623 — the decisive canon. The plot is: the Duke of Milan Prospero, having had his power seized by his brother Antonio, drifted with his young daughter Miranda to a remote island where he learned magic for twelve years. On that island, he rescued the air spirit Ariel, who had been imprisoned in a pine tree for twelve years by the Algerian witch Sycorax, and made him his faithful servant, and with Sycorax's son Caliban performs magic on the island. The play was performed again on 17 December 1611 at the wedding celebration of Princess Elizabeth (1596-1662), daughter of the English king James I (reigned 1566-1625) — as the last of Shakespeare's late Romance quartet (Pericles, Cymbeline, The Winter's Tale, The Tempest) — and became the decisive canon of the English-literary air-spirit iconography. The sylph Ariel of Alexander Pope's 1714 The Rape of the Lock extended the eighteenth-century English-literary air-spirit canon.

Features

• Free movement in invisible form
• Commands tempests, lightning, and illusions
• Skilled in song, music, and poetry
• May appear in human form
• Eternal yearning for freedom
• Bound by the sorcerer's contract of service

Stories

Agrippa's 1533 De Occulta Philosophia Book 3 with Ariel as the air-element angel is the origin of the Kabbalistic mystical canon, and Shakespeare's premiere of The Tempest on 1 November 1611 is the decisive canon of the English-literary Ariel. The publication of Shakespeare's First Folio Volume 1 in 1623 is the decisive event of canonisation, and Book 6 of John Milton's (1608-1674) Paradise Lost of 1667 — mentioning Ariel among the angels of Satan — extended the English-literary canon, and the satirical poem The Rape of the Lock of 1714 by Alexander Pope (1688-1744) — in which Ariel appears as a Sylph — established the eighteenth-century neoclassical English-literary air-spirit canon. In the nineteenth-century British Romantic poets — in the 1820 Letter to Maria Gisborne of Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822) — Shelley compared himself to 'Ariel', and Shelley's wife Mary Shelley (the author of Frankenstein) called Shelley 'Ariel', making him the canonical symbol of Romantic poetry. The 1851 painting Prospero and Ariel by the British Pre-Raphaelite painter Henry Singleton (1766-1839) and the 1857 Prospero and Ariel by Joseph Severn (1793-1879) established the nineteenth-century Victorian Ariel visual canon. The 1965 posthumous poetry collection Ariel of the American poet Sylvia Plath (1932-1963) became the decisive canon of twentieth-century American feminist poetry, and the Air Elemental and Sylph of the 1977 D&D Monster Manual by Gygax of TSR in the USA — consistent through to 5e (5th Edition) of 2014 — are the decisive canon of the modern fantasy RPG air spirit.

Weakness

Ariel's weaknesses are: (1) the sorcerer's binding contract — the decisive canonical weakness in Shakespeare's 1611 The Tempest, that Ariel is bound by Prospero's magic and obtains freedom only after twelve years of service, the decisive binding motif of the English-literary air spirit; (2) the witch's sealing — the canonical weakness in Act 1, Scene 2 of Shakespeare's The Tempest, that Ariel was imprisoned in a pine tree for twelve years by the Algerian witch Sycorax — the witch's sealing canon; (3) punishment for refusing the sorcerer's command — the canon in Act 1, Scene 2 of Shakespeare's The Tempest, that Prospero threatens Ariel — that if he refuses the command he will again be imprisoned in the pine tree for twelve years; (4) binding with the four wind gods — the Kabbalistic mystical canon in Agrippa's 1533 De Occulta Philosophia, that Ariel is bound to one of the four wind gods of the four directions — East Wind (Eurus), West Wind (Zephyrus), South Wind (Notos), North Wind (Boreas); (5) Paracelsian four-element binding — the canon in the four-element-spirit theory of Paracelsus of 1566, that the air spirit is environmentally bound to its own air element and cannot leave; (6) freedom at the end of service — the decisive freedom motif of the English-literary air spirit in the finale of Act 5, Scene 1 of Shakespeare's The Tempest, in which Prospero throws his magic book into the sea, gives up his magic, and frees Ariel; (7) dissolution after the end of service — in some interpretations, the canon that Ariel, after the end of service, returns to his own air element and vanishes; (8) sacred sealing rite — the Kabbalistic mystical canon that the Seal of Solomon seals angelic spirits like Ariel. The line 'To the elements / Be free, and fare thou well' in Act 5, Scene 1 of Shakespeare's 1611 The Tempest, in which Ariel obtains freedom from Prospero — is the decisive canonical scene of the liberation of the English-literary air spirit.

Cultural Significance

Ariel is not merely an air-spirit icon but the canonical iconographic figure of the Western air-spirit canon, traversing the Hebrew Old Testament Isaiah, fourteenth- to sixteenth-century European Kabbalistic mysticism, Agrippa's 1533 De Occulta Philosophia, Paracelsus's four-element-spirit theory of 1566, Shakespeare's 1611 The Tempest, Alexander Pope's eighteenth-century neoclassical poetry, the nineteenth-century British Romantic Shelley, twentieth-century Sylvia Plath's feminist poetry, and the twentieth-century D&D fantasy RPG. Shakespeare's 1611 The Tempest — Shakespeare's last solo play and the decisive work of the late Romance quartet of Shakespeare — is the decisive canon of seventeenth-century English literature, and was published in Volume 1 of Shakespeare's 1623 First Folio — seven years after Shakespeare's death — becoming the decisive event of the canon of English literature. The 1818 Frankenstein of the British author Mary Shelley (1797-1851) — written in 1816 at the Villa Diodati in Switzerland — was authored by a woman whose husband Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822) compared himself to 'Ariel', and the drowning of Shelley off the Tuscan coast of Italy on 8 July 1822 — his yacht was named 'Don Juan' (originally 'Ariel') — is the decisive tragedy of nineteenth-century British Romanticism. The 1851 Prospero and Ariel of the British Pre-Raphaelite painter Henry Singleton and the contemporary William Hogarth — Victorian Ariel visual canon — are the decisive canon of nineteenth-century British art, and the 1965 posthumous poetry collection Ariel (edited by Ted Hughes) of the American poet Sylvia Plath (1932-1963) became the decisive canon of twentieth-century American feminist poetry. The Ariel character of the Disney animation The Little Mermaid released on 17 November 1989 in the USA — different from the Shakespeare The Tempest canon — settled the twenty-first-century global Disney princess canon, and the Air Elemental and Sylph of the 1977 Gygax D&D Monster Manual — consistent through to 5e (5th Edition) of 2014 — are the decisive canon of the modern fantasy RPG air spirit.

In Popular Culture

Old Testament Isaiah 29:1-2 — etymological origin of the Hebrew ArielAgrippa, De Occulta Philosophia, Book 3, Chapter 24 (1533) — Kabbalistic air-angel canonShakespeare, The Tempest (1611) — decisive English-literary Ariel canonShakespeare First Folio (1623) — decisive publication of canonisationMilton, Paradise Lost (1667) — extension of English-literary canonPope, The Rape of the Lock (1714) — eighteenth-century neoclassical Sylph canonShelley, Letter to Maria Gisborne (1820) — nineteenth-century Romantic canonHenry Singleton, Prospero and Ariel (1851) — Victorian visual canonSylvia Plath, Ariel poetry collection (1965) — twentieth-century feminist poetry canonGygax, D&D Monster Manual, Air Elemental (1977) — fantasy RPG canon