Religious Usage
In Judeo/Christian tradition, the term Ivory Tower is a symbol for noble purity. It originates with the Song of Solomon (7,4) ("Your neck is like an ivory tower"; in the Hebrew Masoretic text, it is found in 7:5) and was included in the epithets for Mary in the sixteenth century Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary ("tower of ivory", in Latin Turris eburnea), though the title and image was in use long before that, since the 12th century Marian revival at least. It occasionally appears in art, especially in depictions of Mary in the hortus conclusus.
The image is Biblical, and although the term is rarely used in the religious sense in modern times, it is credited with inspiring the modern meaning. Today, ivory tower usually refers to a metaphysical space of solitude and sanctity disconnected from daily realities, where certain idealistic writers endeavor and even some scientists are considered to reside. In the Odyssey (XIX.560) two kinds of dreams are distinguished, as they exit from the realm of Morpheus: true dreams exit through the Gate of Horn, and false dreams through the Gate of Ivory. Virgil put the image succinctly:
- There are two gates of sleep. One is of horn, easy passage for the shades of truth; the other, of gleaming white ivory, permits false dreams to ascend to the upper air. (Aeneid VI.893-896)
An alternative origin appears in the Bible in 1 Kings 22 verse 39. King Ahab's obituary is very damning and refers to his palace "inlaid with ivory". This would mean that the modern usage of "Ivory Tower" is not symbolic, but exactly what it implied in the Bible.
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