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The Occult
Poe evokes the occult both to highlight Ligeia as a scholar of the esoteric and to give the story a supernatural charge. The motif begins in the story’s epigraph with a false quote from the philosopher Joseph Glanvill, who famously argued for his belief in the existence of ghosts, spirits, and witchcraft. After Ligeia’s death, the narrator fills Rowena’s bridal chamber with items related to the occult, as if to make the room evoke Ligeia. For example, the bridal chamber is shaped like a pentagon, the innermost shape of a pentagram, which is often associated with witchcraft. The carvings on the ceiling evoke the ancient Druids, also often associated with magic. Although the censer-like lamp in the center of the room may seem to have ecclesiastical associations, the narrator describes the way the light moves through its holes as having “a serpent vitality,” once again evoking the esoteric and mysterious. Scholars identify the “ghastly forms” on the golden curtains as likely being depictions of werewolf transformations. The narrator further describes the movement of the curtains as “phantasmagoric,” evoking nineteenth-century phantasmagoria shows that used lanterns to project frightening and macabre images for the audience’s fear and delight.
Orientalism
Related to the occult motif is the motif of Orientalism, which refers to imagery that evokes an exoticized and othered East, broadly referring to Asia and parts of North Africa. As the cultural critic Edward Said explains, Orientalist imagery often paints the East as inscrutable, much like Ligeia herself. Because of its supposed enigmatic quality, Orientalist imagery was often used in nineteenth-century European literature to evoke the occult. The Orientalist strain in the description of Ligeia serves to underscore her erotic mysteriousness. The narrator describes her nose as being like those on the “graceful medallions of the Hebrews.” He also likens her eyes to those of a gazelle, citing a simile common in Arabic poetry. He compares her to the “Houri of the Turk,” referencing the maidens awaiting the faithful in heaven, according to Muslim scripture. The Orientalism continues after Ligeia’s death, with the narrator’s consumption of opium, imported from China, and the use of Indian couches in Rowena’s chamber. The various references to Egypt throughout the story, including the sarcophagi in Rowena’s bridal chamber, also evoke the nineteenth-century European fascination with Ancient Egypt as a mysterious land of esoterica and curses. This collapse of a culture into occult magic is part of the Orientalist gaze.
Ancient Greece
In addition to the Orientalist references the narrator uses to describe Ligeia, he also makes references to classical antiquity, and particularly to Ancient Greece. As Ancient Greece had long been considered a key site of philosophy, culture, and learning, these references highlight Ligeia’s superior refinement. Her name itself comes from Greek mythology, both as the name of a nereid (i.e., one of Poseidon’s sea-nymph daughters) and as the name of one of the sirens who lure sailors to their doom. The narrator suggests that Ligeia’s radiance is more wondrous than anything dreamed by the “daughters of Delos.” In Greek mythology, the Island of Delos is the birthplace of Apollo, god of music, poetry, and prophecy. The narrator describes Ligeia’s hair using the description “hyacinthine,” which he attributes to the poet Homer. In calling Ligeia’s eyes deeper than Democritus’s well, he refers to the metaphorical deep well of knowledge attributed to the pre-Socratic Greek philosopher Democritus. In this description he also includes the myth of Leda and her sons Castor and Pollux. Finally, Ligeia mentions the “music of the spheres” in “The Conqueror Worm,” which refers to the Greek philosopher Pythagoras’s idea of a harmonious universe.
