A war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels were fighting against the dragon and its angels. But the dragon lost the battle. It and its angels were forced out of their place in heaven and were thrown down to the earth. Yes, that old snake and his angels were thrown out of heaven! That snake, who fools everyone on earth, is known as the devil and Satan. Then I heard a voice from heaven shout,
“Our God has shown
his saving power,
and his kingdom has come!
God’s own Chosen One
has shown his authority.
Satan accused our people
in the presence of God
day and night.
Now he has been thrown out!
Our people defeated Satan
because of the blood
of the Lamb
and the message of God.
They were willing
to give up their lives.
The heavens should rejoice,
together with everyone
who lives there.
But pity the earth
and the sea,
because the devil
was thrown down
to the earth.
He knows his time is short,
and he is very angry.”
After this I saw another angel coming down from heaven. He had great authority, and the earth was illuminated by his splendor. With a might voice he shouted:
“‘Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great!’
She has become a dwelling for demons
and a haunt for every impure spirit,
a haunt for every unclean bird,
a haunt for every unclean and detestable animal.
For all the nations have drunk
the maddening wine of her adulteries.
The kings of earth committed adultery with her,
and the merchants of the earth grew rich from her excessive luxuries.”
Warning to Escape Babylon’s Judgment
Then I heard another voice from heaven say:
“‘Come out of her, my people,’
so that you will not share in her sins,
so that you will not receive any of her plagues;
for her sins are piled up to heaven,
and God has remembered her crimes.
Give back to her as she has given;
pay her back double for what she has done.
Pour her a double portion from her own cup.
Give her as much torment and grief
as the glory and luxury she gave herself.
In her heart she boasts,
‘I sit enthroned as queen.
I am not a widow:
I will never mourn.’
Therefore in one day her plagues will overtake her:
death, mourning an famine.
She will be consumed by fire,
for might is the Lord God who judges her.”
“Then I [John of Patmos] saw a second beast, coming out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb, but it spoke like a dragon. It exercised all authority of the first beast on its behalf, and made the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose fatal wound had been healed. And it performed great signs, even causing fire to come down from heaven to the earth in full view of the people. Because of the signs it was given power to perform on behalf of the first beast, it deceived the inhabitants of earth. … The second beast was given power to give breath to the image of the first beast, so that the image could speak and cause all who refused to worship the image to be killed. It also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads, so that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark… or the number of its name.
“This calls for wisdom. Let the person who has insight calculate the number of the beast… That number is 666.” (New International Version)
The Number of the Beast is 666 by William BlakeRichard Armitage as The Great Red Dragon
In both pictures above, the Dragon displays his glory for the Beast from the Sea. in the Blake painting, however, the Beast from the Earth joins them in the guise of a sheep-like creature – a lamb but not a lamb – the proverbial “wolf in sheep’s clothing.”
As frequently as Will is referred to as a lamb throughout the series, the appearance of the second Beast cannot be dismissed. There is a dichotomy to Will: He is kind and he is a killer. He is dedicated to justice and he’s willing to bend the rules. Hell, for the second half of Season 2, he’s so dichotomous that even he doesn’t know where his sympathies and loyalties lie. Will is at once the Christ-figure of the Lamb and the minion of evil, a lamb-beast.
When you boil it all down, you have a lamb with a temper and a beastie that looks nonthreatening. There really is no better description of the dual aspects of Will.
Anyway… things don’t end so well for this merry band of baddies: The Dragon gets bound in chains for a thousand years and the Beasts get thrown alive into a fiery lake of burning sulfur. But at least the beasts go together, I suppose. To keep one another company in hell.
Episodes:
3.8: The Great Red Dragon
3.9: … and the Woman Clothed with the Sun
3.10: … and the Woman Clothed in Sun
“A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. … Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on its heads. Its tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to earth. …
The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed with the Sun by William BlakeRichard Armitage as The Great Red Dragon
“Then war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. The great dragon was hurled down – that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him. …
“When the dragon saw that he had been hurled to the earth, he pursued the woman… The woman was given the two wings of a great eagle, so that she might fly to the place prepared for her in the wilderness, where she would be taken care of for a time, times and half a time, out of the serpent’s reach.” (New International Version)
The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed with the Sun by William BlakeRutina Wesley as Reba McClane
“And I [John of Patmos] stood on the shore of the sea. And I saw a beast coming out of the sea. It had ten horns and seven heads, with ten crowns on its horns, and on each head a blasphemous name. The beast I saw resembled a leopard, but had feet like those of a bear and a mouth like that of a lion. The dragon gave the beast his power and his throne and great authority. … People worshiped the dragon because he had given authority to the beast, and they also worshiped the beast.” (New International Version)
If Francis is the Dragon, Hannibal is the Beast from the Sea. How is it possible, though, for Francis to give power to Hannibal? Ostensibly, Hannibal is the more powerful of the two. However, three years have passed since Hannibal has been a menace, a danger, a powerful Beast. Francis doesn’t so much give his power to Hannibal as he provides Hannibal the opportunity to resurrect his own power. Through Francis the old gang reunites, will returns to Hannibal, Hannibal becomes involved in FBI investigations again, returns Hannibal to the tabloid spotlight, provides him with an opportunity for mischief, etc.
Further evidence of this power by proxy is that Francis is only truly able to become the dragon when he is influencee, supported and protected by Hannibal. it is in the shadow of Hannibal’s power that Francis is able to flourish.
Revelations 5 tells of a scroll with seven seals that only the Lamb (Christ) is worthy of opening. In Revelations 6, a new aspect of the Judgment/Apocalypse is revealed with every broken seal. The chaos of the Judgment is not actually set into motion by the act of breaking the seals; rather, Revelations 6 serves as a dumbshow of sorts, introducing the cast of characters and each of their roles in the forthcoming chaos.
The First Seal: 1st Horseman – Anti-Christ & Conqueror
“I [John of Patmos] watched as the Lamb opened the first of the seven seals. … I looked, and there before me was a white horse! Its rider held a bow, and he was given a crown, and he rode out as a conqueror bent on conquest.” (x)(x)
The Second Seal: 2nd Horseman – War, Slaughter & Bloodshed
“… the Lamb opened the second seal… Then another horse came out, a fiery red one. Its rider was given power to take peace from the earth and to make people kill each other. To him was given a large sword.” (x)
The Third Seal: 3rd Horseman – Famine
“…the Lamb opened the third seal… and there before me was a black horse! Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand. Then I heard what sounded like a voice… saying, “Two pounds of wheat for a day’s wages, and six pounds of barley for a day’s wages and do not damage the oil and the wine!” (x)(x)
The Fourth Seal: 4th Horseman – Pestilence & Death
“…the Lamb opened the fourth seal… I looked, and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth.” (x)(x)
Death on a Pale Horse by William Blake
The Fifth Seal: Souls of the Martyrs
“When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained. They called out in a loud voice, “How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?” Then each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to wait a little longer, until the full number of their fellow servants, their brothers and sisters, were killed just as they had been.” (x)(x)
The Sixth Seal: Cosmic Signs
“I watched as he opened the sixth seal. There was a great earthquake. The sun turned black like sackcloth made of goat hair, the whole moon turned blood red, and the stars in the sky fell to earth… The heavens receded like a scroll being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place.” (x)(x)
from Episode 3.08: The Wrath of the Lamb
“Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and everyone else, both slave and free, hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains They called to the mountains and the rocks,
‘Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of his wrath has come, and who can withstand it?’” (x)
The Seventh Seal: Silence
“When he opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.”
Then the machinations of the seals and the chaos of Judgment begin.
I have made posts about the other two mosaics given special attention in the Cappella Palatina scene in Primavera: St. Ambrose and St. Cataldus/Catald/Cathal.
I have done sooooo much research on the mosaics of the Cappella and have not found the third mosaic – shown on the left above – anywhere. Anywhere at all. I’m knackered and am giving up on him.
So… I just decided it is Aaron Abrams. Yep. That’s what I decided. It is St. Aaron of Abrams. It is an ironic inside joke of some sort. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it!!
(In my search for this guy, I found an amazing site that lets you look at all the mosaics individually and has a magnifying glass to inspect them further. Go hereand use the search phrase “Cappella Palatina.”)
Saint Cataldus represented in mosaic. Pillar of the nave of Cappella Palatina, Palermo, Sicily
When the camera is panning to Hannibal in front of St. Ambrose in Primavera, it passes by two other mosaics. One is St. Catald. (He is never in full-focus, so the screen cap above was the best I could do).
I would think that the saint had no particular importance to Hannibal except that in the show’s “reproduction” of the Cappella Palatina, they have moved the mosaic of St. Catald near to St. Ambrose so that they can share the screen.
St. Catald was an Irish monk who became an archbishop in Taranto, Italy. He is invoked for protection from plagues, droughts and storms. wherever he went, people flocked to him because of his ability to heal and to resurrect.
This all seems pretty straight-forward and potentially uninteresting. However…
As with St. Ambrose, St. Catald has a particular and peculiar connection to the Fullerverse, if not to Hannibal itself: “The joy which [St. Catald’s] birth brought his parents was quickly turned to sadness, for a few hours after the child came into the world, his mother died. However, we are told that the infant fingers of the babe, having by chance touched the lifeless corpse that lay beside it, life returned, and the young mother, whose loss was mourned, was restored to her husband and child.” (x)
(Yep! St. Catald was the medieval Ned the Piemaker!)
One interpretation of Ambrose’s writings is that he was a Christian Universalist. Christian Universalism espouses a view of redemption that all human beings and fallen angels will ultimately be restored to a right relationship with God.
Ambrose displayed a kind of liturgical flexibility that kept in mind that liturgy was a tool to serve people in worshiping God, and ought not to become a rigid entity that is invariable from place to place. His advice has remained in the English language as the saying, “When in Rome, do as the Romans do.“
(Perhaps most importantly, St. Ambrose is the patron of bees and bee keepers. Oh, Bryan Fuller, we are on to you!)
from hereand hereand confirmed with other sources.
St-Ambrose was a proponent of the Felix Culpa too, an heresy stating that the fall from grace is a fortunate fall and part of god’s plan from the start. And that humanity loss of innocence will ultimately be better than remaining in the naive bliss of our Edenic beginnings.
Saint Sophia/Sofia (Wisdom) was the mother of three daughters: Faith, Hope and Charity/Love. All three girls were martyred at the hands of Hadrian. Sophia was allowed to live and thereby Wisdom – literally – lived without Faith, Hope and Charity/Love.
Ballad of a Wayward Fannibal 