Symbol Analysis
For a bishop in the Catholic church, our speaker sure seems to be big on mythology. He's got lots of ideas for decorating his tomb with imagery from Greek and Roman mythology, specifically. Sure, he's okay with some depictions of Jesus and Moses, but he'd also like to show nymphs and pans running around. The Greek gods acted a lot more…human than the Christian ones (fighting, drinking, etc.), so in the bishop's mythology fixation we see an attachment to the less-than-holy aspects of life.
- Line 57-58: In addition to "Pans and Nymphs," the bishop also wants a tripod and a thyrsus to decorate his tomb's frieze. The tripod is a symbol of the Greek god Apollo, while the thyrsus represents Dionysus.
- Lines 60-61: Speaking of Dionysus, the god of wine and partying, the bishop has another decorating idea. How about one of the pans is shown as he's about to rip the clothes off a nymph? Gee, that sounds totally appropriate for a bishop's tomb, right? It seems like the bishop is drawn to the lustier aspects of Greek mythology, rather than the more devout or religious ones.
- Lines 108-110: The tripod and the thyrsus make another appearance in these lines, as does a "Term," which is a marker of a boundary. In Roman mythology, the god Terminus protected boundaries. As the bishop prepares to move across the boundary the separates life from death, it seems that he's got more than just his Christian religion on his mind.