Published in Senses and sensibilities in classical and medieval worlds

Keywords: Keywords: Ambrose of Milan, Metaphor, Noah, Passions, Water.

De Noe by Ambrose of Milan (ca. 378) reflects on the human condition and the consequences of man's actions in the natural order. The Christian commentator exposes the patriarch’s life, customs and acts since an allegorical interpretation of Scripture and considering him as the prototype of the just and wise man, crossed by passions but who manages to choose the right path. The ark is a symbol of the world, from which it is possible understand the system of analogies on which the text is based, since it is also a representative figure of the body and the person. Thus, the ark is presented as the condition of sinners –unstable, corruptible, and at the mercy of the swings of the soul–, a figure that gives rise to a set of metaphors around water and aquatic issues. We focus on the philological and discursive analysis of these metaphors with the aim of explaining their symbolic projections and their moral reach.