William Blake's Mythology - The Fall of Albion

The Fall of Albion

The longest elaboration of this private myth-cycle was also his longest poem—The Four Zoas: The Death and Judgment of Albion The Ancient Man—, written in the late 1790s but left in manuscript form at the time of his death. In this work, Blake traces the fall of Albion, who "was originally fourfold but was self divided." This theme was revisited later, more definitively but perhaps less directly, in his other epic prophetic works, Milton: a Poem and Jerusalem: The Emanation of The Giant Albion.

The parts into which Albion is divided are the four Zoas:

• Tharmas: representing instinct and strength
• Urizen: reason, tradition; a cruel god resembling the Gnostic Demiurge.
• Luvah: love, passion and emotive faculties; a Christ-like figure, also known as Orc in his most amorous and rebellious form.
• Urthona, also known as Los: inspiration and the imagination

The Blake Pantheon also includes feminine emanations that have separated from an integrated male being, as Eve separated from Adam:

• The maternal Enion is an emanation from Tharmas.
• The celestial Ahania is an emanation from Urizen.
• The seductive Vala is an emanation from Luvah.
• The musical Enitharmon is an emanation from Los.

The fall of Albion and his division into the Zoas and their emanations are also the central themes of Jerusalem: The Emanation of The Giant Albion.

Rintrah first appears in The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, personifying revolutionary wrath. He is later grouped together with other spirits of rebellion in The Vision of the Daughters of Albion:

• The loud and lustful Bromion
• The "mild and piteous" Palamabron, son of Enitharmon and Los (also appears in Milton)
• The tortured mercenary Theotormon