Body Metaphors of Memory in De Noe by Ambrose of Milan

LIDIA RAQUEL MIRANDA

Leeds

Congreso; International Medieval Congress 2018; 2018

University of Leeds

De Noe is part of the whole of exegetical works in which Ambrose of Milan reflects on human condition and the effects of actions in natural order. As in the previous treatises, De paradiso and De Cain et Abel, the subject of the work is organized parallel and consequently with the narration of the patriarch story that Genesis provides. In this paper, I focus on the dialectic relation between past and future indicated in De Noe 31, 116-119, in which the preponderance of memory is enlightened through body metaphors such as ?to walk backwards?, ?to see the past things? and ?the sober mind?. This kind of metaphors reveals that biological life is necessary and ostensible to the development of any other human space, reason why the author prefers it as a privileged instrument of argumentation.