Darth Plagueis, Full of Wounds
Aug. 23rd, 2005 01:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sunnyskywalkerAt least after Palpatine finished with him. An (over)analysis of the possible meaning of "plagueis". Plagueis? What's a plagueis?
Darth Sidious, Darth Maul, and Darth Tyranus have names that clearly identify their characters: Sidious insidiously undermines the Republic from within, Maul mauls Jedi and anyone else who gets in his way, and Tyranus is a tyrant. (Note: the Greek word "turannos" meant "an absolute sovereing unlimited by law or constitution". These sovereigns usually took power in times of crisis and could be either good or bad. The modern connotations arose because a lot of tyrants abused their power. A few started off good and were corrupted. Fits Dooku pretty well.) So far, so good.
Then came Revenge of the Sith. Plagueis? What's a plagueis?
Well, it sounds like "plague," which seems appropriate. The Dark Side could be considered a plague clouding the Force. And if Plagueis did create Anakin by means of the midichlorians, then I guess you could say Plagueis infected Shmi with a baby.
But just out of curiosity, I decided to see what else I could find on "plagueis." The PT has a vaguely Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire feel, the Senate Guards are blatantly Roman, and Finis Valorum has a name you can translate from Latin ("end of the valorous [ones]"), so I thought Latin would be a good place to look.
Enter Perseus. Perseus is "an evolving digital library" with lots of helpful tools for scholars, including Greek and Latin lexica, morphological word analysis lookups, and tons of texts and translations so you can see the words in context.
As I suspected, there is a possible Latin origin for "plagueis." The search turned up both "plago, plagare," meaning "to strike, wound," and "plagosus," meaning "full of blows; given to blows; fond of flogging." That sounds Sithy. Plagueis, like all the Sith, was engaged in a long campaign to strike and wound the Jedi. We don't know how Palpatine killed him exactly, but it's possible he was full of wounds by the end. And for all we know, he was fond of flogging people.
The really interesting part, though, was looking at the words in context. The entry for "plago, plagare" had a link to Zecheriah 13:6 (trans. from the Vulgate version). "One will say to him, 'What are these wounds between your arms?' Then he will answer, 'Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.'" Well, that's mildly interesting, but there isn't a strong Star Wars connection.
But take a larger chunk of text: "[4] It will happen in that day, that the prophets will each be ashamed of his vision, when he prophesies; neither will they wear a hairy mantle to deceive: [5] but he will say, 'I am no prophet, I am a tiller of the ground; for I have been made a bondservant from my youth.' [6] One will say to him, 'What are these wounds between your arms?' Then he will answer, 'Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.' [7] "Awake, sword, against my shepherd, And against the man who is close to me," says Yahweh of Hosts. Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered; And I will turn my hand against the little ones. [8] It shall happen that in all the land," says Yahweh, Two parts in it will be cut off and die; But the third will be left in it. [9] I will bring the third part into the fire...'"
Obviously, we still don't have an exact parallel, but there are some similarities. First of all, prophesies. Anakin goes back and forth between trying to prevent his visons from coming true and being ashamed of them ("Jedi don't have nightmares"). Anakin "[has] been made a bondservant from [his] youth." He has wounds between his arms, on his arms (what's left of them), all around his arms--and he received them from his friend, "the man who [was] close to [him]," by means of a (laser) sword. The Jedi were scattered, and Anakin "[turned his] hand against the little ones." It happened in "all that land," not just at the Temple. Parts of Anakin were cut off and died, and the rest was brought into the fire. Again, these aren't exact parallels--"Yahweh" can be either the Sith or the Force or both or neither--but it's interesting nonetheless.
Just for fun, I kept looking and found another Biblical reference, this one Deuteronomy 28:59. Here "plagas" is translated as "plague": "then Yahweh will make your plagues wonderful, and the plagues of your seed, even great plagues, and of long continuance, and sore sicknesses, and of long continuance."
Again taking a larger chunk of text: "[56] The tender and delicate woman among you, who would not adventure to set the sole of her foot on the ground for delicateness and tenderness, her eye shall be evil toward the husband of her bosom, and toward her son, and toward her daughter, [57] and toward her young one who comes out from between her feet, and toward her children whom she shall bear; for she shall eat them for want of all things secretly, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemy shall distress you in your gates. [58] If you will not observe to do all the words of this law that are written in this book, that you may fear this glorious and fearful name, YAHWEH YOUR GOD; [59] then Yahweh will make your plagues wonderful, and the plagues of your seed, even great plagues, and of long continuance, and sore sicknesses, and of long continuance. [60]He will bring on you again all the diseases of Egypt, which you were afraid of; and they shall cleave to you. [61] Also every sickness, and every plague, which is not written in the book of this law, them will Yahweh bring on you, until you are destroyed. [62] You shall be left few in number, whereas you were as the stars of the sky for multitude; because you didn't listen to the voice of Yahweh your God."
Obviously Padme didn't eat her son and her daughter, but in his anger, Anakin thought "her eye [was] evil toward the husband of her bosom." The Jedi "[were] left few in number, whereas [they] were as the stars of the sky for multitude." It's tempting to identify Yahweh with the Force and "the words of this law that are written in this book" with the Jedi Code, but Yahweh could be the Sith and the law could be the will of the Force (which may be opposed to the Code), or any number of other things, once again reminding us that these are NOT exact parallels.
Is George Lucas aware of these passages? Probably not. It wouldn't be difficult to come up with these ideas and images independently. Furthermore, the Bible (and other ancient texts with similar imagery) has been influencing Western culture for a millenia, so these ideas and images are absolutely everywhere. It isn't hard to pick them up even if you never hear a single word out of the Bible. Either way, it's interesting, at least to me.
And either way, "plagueis" could be derived from "plagare" or "plagosis," though if I had to guess, I'd bet on it coming from the English word "plague." Though since "plague" is derived from Middle English "plage" ("blow; calamity"), which is in turn derived from Latin "plaga" (blow; wound"), then technically, "plagueis" would come from the Latin anyway. We should ask George.
Darth Sidious, Darth Maul, and Darth Tyranus have names that clearly identify their characters: Sidious insidiously undermines the Republic from within, Maul mauls Jedi and anyone else who gets in his way, and Tyranus is a tyrant. (Note: the Greek word "turannos" meant "an absolute sovereing unlimited by law or constitution". These sovereigns usually took power in times of crisis and could be either good or bad. The modern connotations arose because a lot of tyrants abused their power. A few started off good and were corrupted. Fits Dooku pretty well.) So far, so good.
Then came Revenge of the Sith. Plagueis? What's a plagueis?
Well, it sounds like "plague," which seems appropriate. The Dark Side could be considered a plague clouding the Force. And if Plagueis did create Anakin by means of the midichlorians, then I guess you could say Plagueis infected Shmi with a baby.
But just out of curiosity, I decided to see what else I could find on "plagueis." The PT has a vaguely Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire feel, the Senate Guards are blatantly Roman, and Finis Valorum has a name you can translate from Latin ("end of the valorous [ones]"), so I thought Latin would be a good place to look.
Enter Perseus. Perseus is "an evolving digital library" with lots of helpful tools for scholars, including Greek and Latin lexica, morphological word analysis lookups, and tons of texts and translations so you can see the words in context.
As I suspected, there is a possible Latin origin for "plagueis." The search turned up both "plago, plagare," meaning "to strike, wound," and "plagosus," meaning "full of blows; given to blows; fond of flogging." That sounds Sithy. Plagueis, like all the Sith, was engaged in a long campaign to strike and wound the Jedi. We don't know how Palpatine killed him exactly, but it's possible he was full of wounds by the end. And for all we know, he was fond of flogging people.
The really interesting part, though, was looking at the words in context. The entry for "plago, plagare" had a link to Zecheriah 13:6 (trans. from the Vulgate version). "One will say to him, 'What are these wounds between your arms?' Then he will answer, 'Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.'" Well, that's mildly interesting, but there isn't a strong Star Wars connection.
But take a larger chunk of text: "[4] It will happen in that day, that the prophets will each be ashamed of his vision, when he prophesies; neither will they wear a hairy mantle to deceive: [5] but he will say, 'I am no prophet, I am a tiller of the ground; for I have been made a bondservant from my youth.' [6] One will say to him, 'What are these wounds between your arms?' Then he will answer, 'Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.' [7] "Awake, sword, against my shepherd, And against the man who is close to me," says Yahweh of Hosts. Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered; And I will turn my hand against the little ones. [8] It shall happen that in all the land," says Yahweh, Two parts in it will be cut off and die; But the third will be left in it. [9] I will bring the third part into the fire...'"
Obviously, we still don't have an exact parallel, but there are some similarities. First of all, prophesies. Anakin goes back and forth between trying to prevent his visons from coming true and being ashamed of them ("Jedi don't have nightmares"). Anakin "[has] been made a bondservant from [his] youth." He has wounds between his arms, on his arms (what's left of them), all around his arms--and he received them from his friend, "the man who [was] close to [him]," by means of a (laser) sword. The Jedi were scattered, and Anakin "[turned his] hand against the little ones." It happened in "all that land," not just at the Temple. Parts of Anakin were cut off and died, and the rest was brought into the fire. Again, these aren't exact parallels--"Yahweh" can be either the Sith or the Force or both or neither--but it's interesting nonetheless.
Just for fun, I kept looking and found another Biblical reference, this one Deuteronomy 28:59. Here "plagas" is translated as "plague": "then Yahweh will make your plagues wonderful, and the plagues of your seed, even great plagues, and of long continuance, and sore sicknesses, and of long continuance."
Again taking a larger chunk of text: "[56] The tender and delicate woman among you, who would not adventure to set the sole of her foot on the ground for delicateness and tenderness, her eye shall be evil toward the husband of her bosom, and toward her son, and toward her daughter, [57] and toward her young one who comes out from between her feet, and toward her children whom she shall bear; for she shall eat them for want of all things secretly, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemy shall distress you in your gates. [58] If you will not observe to do all the words of this law that are written in this book, that you may fear this glorious and fearful name, YAHWEH YOUR GOD; [59] then Yahweh will make your plagues wonderful, and the plagues of your seed, even great plagues, and of long continuance, and sore sicknesses, and of long continuance. [60]He will bring on you again all the diseases of Egypt, which you were afraid of; and they shall cleave to you. [61] Also every sickness, and every plague, which is not written in the book of this law, them will Yahweh bring on you, until you are destroyed. [62] You shall be left few in number, whereas you were as the stars of the sky for multitude; because you didn't listen to the voice of Yahweh your God."
Obviously Padme didn't eat her son and her daughter, but in his anger, Anakin thought "her eye [was] evil toward the husband of her bosom." The Jedi "[were] left few in number, whereas [they] were as the stars of the sky for multitude." It's tempting to identify Yahweh with the Force and "the words of this law that are written in this book" with the Jedi Code, but Yahweh could be the Sith and the law could be the will of the Force (which may be opposed to the Code), or any number of other things, once again reminding us that these are NOT exact parallels.
Is George Lucas aware of these passages? Probably not. It wouldn't be difficult to come up with these ideas and images independently. Furthermore, the Bible (and other ancient texts with similar imagery) has been influencing Western culture for a millenia, so these ideas and images are absolutely everywhere. It isn't hard to pick them up even if you never hear a single word out of the Bible. Either way, it's interesting, at least to me.
And either way, "plagueis" could be derived from "plagare" or "plagosis," though if I had to guess, I'd bet on it coming from the English word "plague." Though since "plague" is derived from Middle English "plage" ("blow; calamity"), which is in turn derived from Latin "plaga" (blow; wound"), then technically, "plagueis" would come from the Latin anyway. We should ask George.