Is Transience Absurd?

On the history of the impact of the rendering of hæbæl as vanitas

Abstract

The “vanitas motif” – a defining feature of European art, cultural, literary, and philosophical history – finds its origin in the Old Testament, especially in the Book of Qoheleth. Jerome understood, similar to the underlying Hebrew hæbæl, also the rendering of vanitas as a metaphorical-dynamic conceptuality. Via the Greek Septuagint tradition, a concrete-static understanding of this motif was established, which resulted into a one-sided and exceedingly negative-pessimistic world view regarding the reception history of the associated current of thought – this pattern continues to the present day. This, however, does not do justice to neither the Hebrew nor the Latin foundation.