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Mythological Cities
Mythological cities were treated as historical realities rather than fictional constructs. King Solomon is created with founding ancient cities in Islamic tradition. Fictional genealogies granted capitals such as Rome and Istanbul antiquity. The origins of Istanbul were traced to Solomon for similar reasons that Virgil traced Rome's foundation to the Trojan War. Byzantine legends tracing their city's origins back to the Old Testament were readily adapted by Constantinople's Turkish conquerors. The biblical story of Babel was often represented as the origin of city-building. Nimrod, the king who according to the book Genesis ordered the construction of the great tower that was supposed to reach unto the heavens, is depicted in early modern paintings with all the signs of a powerful ruler. Contrary to medieval theological expectations, the early modern Nimrod is not presented in negative terms, such as a ruler who challenges God with his construction project. Whereas paintings from the eleventh to the thirteenth century often depict God putting an end to the tower's construction, thereby emphasizing how the project sought to place man equal with God, later paintings in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries take an entirely contrary approach. The Babel theme provided early modern painters the opportunity to depict the political and technological organization of a contemporary construction site. Perhaps the most famous depiction of the tower was painted by Pieter Brueghel in the middle of the sixteenth century. His two surviving paintings on the theme show in celebratory terms the relationship between Nimrod, the architect and the many laborers. Dutch and Flemish painters such as Maerten van Valckenborch, Frans Francken, Hendrick van Cleve and Lucas van Valckenborch followed Breughel's inclination to depict the vast human effort and multitude of machinery required in the sixteenth century to build a great tower. Painters in the Low countries were not the only ones to understand the Babel tower as a great and good accomplishment. At the end of the sixteenth century, the mason's guild of Nuremberg interpreted the biblical story as the origin of their own profession. Even before Brueghel's 1563 painting, Renaissance scholars read the Babel story as wondrous accomplishment. In 1430, when Cardinal Orsini commissioned 300 frescos of famous men for the palace at Monte Giodano in Rome, Nimrod and his Tower were included along with the many prophets, lawgivers and princes included.
The Greek world also provided myths concerning the founding of cities. Perhaps the most famous ancient story involved the architect Deinokrates who designed an ideal city for Alexander nestled on Mount Athos which would in turn he hoped would be transformed into a giant sculpture of the Macedonian ruler. Famously, Alexander rejects the idea as impractical but offers a position to Deinokrates in his court. Classically trained architects, well versed in Vitruvius and Pliny, have interpreted the story as an allegory depicting the relations between ruler and architect, as well as a cautionary tale about the basic requirements for founding a city. As is appropriate with such an ancient and unconformable tale, each re-telling gives a different emphasis and a different lesson.
The City of Brass described in the Arabian Nights collection has been read by non-muslin scholars as an allegory reflecting on the status of story telling, political exploration as well as sexual relations. In many of these readings, the City of Brass embodies the satisfaction of desires. It stands empty in the desert as the secret in plain sight, available to travelers who understand the path into its center. We will compare the treasures that the City of Brass holds forth to the idealized communal relations of the European utopia.
The interdependence of utopian literature and mythical histories of ancient cities can also be see when we consider Virgil's Aeniad as a source for More and others, for it combines the two strands that join utopian with mythical accounts of cities' founding. The epic recounts a dangerous sea voyage to found a new ideal city on a distant shore, that this tale is also presents itself as the history of Rome's founding makes clear how closely connected the early modern utopia was to imperial mythology. We are as interested in early modern representations of Troy as they connect with works such as More's Utopia.