The Symbol of the Sparrow

The Sparrow: (Christian) Lowliness; insignificance. Also lewdness and lechery. (Greek) An attribute of Aphrodite. Identified with Lesbia. (Japanese) Loyalty.

While we would first consider the Christian symbology of the sparrow because of our characters' own religions (Jewish, Jesuit, Catholic), I think the Greek interpretation can lend a different facet to the entire book.

Aphrodite was the Greek goddess of beauty love and sexual rapture (http://www.pantheon.org/articles/a/aphrodite.html). I think Doyle's story has a lot to do with the duality of love and lechery. Emilio was a prostitute when the second crew found him on Rakhat. While his actions could obviously be seen as lecherous given the connotation prostitution has on earth, one could also make the argument that this was the exact opposite of the celibacy he practiced out of his love for God. He believed God demanded celibacy and loyalty of him, and when he was alone and believed in nothing; he turned his back on God and whatever plan He might have had for Emilio.

Of course, what we must also consider is the sparrow's definition of 'insignificance' when it comes to Emilio's crisis of faith. On Earth and even with the Runa, Emilio Sandoz believed that he and his friends were sent on the mission for the greater glory of God. After everyone had died and he was alone on his physical plane, I think Emilio started to wonder whether he was alone on the spiritual plane as well. His colleagues, his friends, had all met their end at the hand of this new world, whether directly or indirectly. Were their deaths for the greater glory of God? Was Emilio's survival part of His plan, or evidence that He does not exist? With everyone gone and his belief in God waning, it is easy to believe that Emilio was feeling insignificant.

Also to consider in looking at Aphrodite is Emilio's struggle when it came to Sophia. Edward Behr said that she was beautiful, and that "A man would have to be a fool not to love someone like that," to which Emilio replies "Yes, a fool, but I didn't think so then." (Russell 285). Even when he could have had something great with Sophia, his love for God held him back. It must have been a blow to realize at the end that he turned away from real love, and yet became "God's whore" in the end(Russell 213).

Something incredible happened when I began to look up 'Lesbia', who is mentioned in the definition. She was not, as I had assumed, one of the lesser known prophets of Greek or Roman mythology, but a nom de plum for Gaius Valerius Catullus, who wrote a poem called Lesbia's Sparrow:

All you Loves and Cupids cry
and all you men of feeling
my girl’s sparrow is dead,
my girl’s beloved sparrow.
She loved him more than herself.
He was sweeter than honey, and he
knew her, as she knows her mother.
He never flew out of her lap,
but, hopping about here and there,
just chirped to his lady, alone.
Now he is flying the dark
no one ever returns from.
Evil to you, evil Shades
of Orcus, destroyers of beauty.
You have stolen the beautiful sparrow from me.
Oh sad day! Oh poor little sparrow!
Because of you my sweet girl’s eyes
are red with weeping, and swollen.

(http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/lesbia-s-sparrow/)
The passage, "Now he is flying the dark no one ever returns from" is obviously referring to death, but it reminded me of when Sophia and Marc flew the lander over the mountains to the Runa village, thereby eliminating their chances of getting back to the Stella Maris, and thus back to Earth.

This poem is obviously about grief; the writer is watching someone grieve, which is a difficult thing to do. When you see someone you know grieving, it is hard to know what to do. The helplessness reminds me of John Candotti's feeling of powerlessness as he watches Emilio recover in Naples. His inability to cope with Sandoz's mood swings, as well as John's uncertainty when it comes to knowing when to comfort and knowing when to push. Like I said, it's hard to know what to do, and sometimes even harder to do what is needed.

Meaghan Duncan