Cultural depictions of Belshazzar explained

Belshazzar (6th century BC), son of the last king of the Neo-Babylonian empire, Nabonidus, has inspired many works of art and cultural allusions, often with a religious motif. While a historical figure, depictions and portrayals of him are most often based on his appearance in the biblical story of Belshazzar's feast in the Book of Daniel. This story is the origin of the idiomatic expression "the writing is on the wall".

The writing is on the wall

In chapter 5 in the Book of Daniel, a hand writes Hebrew letters on a wall, which Daniel interprets as "Mene, mene, tekel, upharsin". These words mean that Belshazzar is doomed. The phrase "The writing is on the wall", or "The writing on the wall", has become a idiomatic expression referring to the foreshadowing of any impending doom, misfortune, or end. If "the writing is on the wall" something bad is about to happen. A person who does not or refuses to see "the writing on the wall" is being described as ignorant to the signs of a cataclysmic event that will likely occur in the near future.^{[1] [2]}

One of the earliest known uses of the phrase in English is in the writings of a Captain L. Brinckmair in 1638, during the Thirty Years' War. Brinckmair writes: "Remarkable Prodigies..are in themselves like the writing on the Wall in Beshazzars Palace, which Sooth-sayers, Astrologians, and Chaldeans could neither understand nor reade’."^[3]

Music

• The Play of Daniel (Ludus Danielis), believed to have been first performed in the 12th century, and written by students at the school of Beauvais Cathedral. It includes elements from the Book of Daniel, including the feast.^[4]
• The oratorio Belshazzar by George Frideric Handel, with libretto by Charles Jennens. Written in 1744.^[5]
• The opera Ciro in Babilonia, ossia La caduta di Baldassare (Cyrus in Babylon, or The Downfall of Belshazzar) by Gioachino Rossini, first performed in 1812. Based on the Book of Daniel.^[6]
• Belsatzar, an 1840 ballad written by Robert Schumann to the words of the poet Heinrich Heine, inspired by the Book of Daniel.^[7]
• Belshazzar's Feast by George Frederick Root. A cantata based on the biblical text, published in 1860.^{[8] [9]}
• Belshazzar's Feast (Belsazars gästabud), op. 51, by Jean Sibelius composed in 1906. Incidental music to Hjalmar Procopé's play with the same name.^[10]
• Belshazzar's Feast by William Walton, composed in 1931. An oratorio based on the biblical text.^[11]
• The 1937 musical Pins and Needles added Harold Rome's song "Mene, Mene, Tekel" in 1939. The song is based on the Book of Daniel and described as "Rome's musical send-up of bellicose dictators".^{[12] [13]}
• Johnny Cash wrote a gospel song about and named Belshazzar, first recorded in 1957. The song is included on the album The Original Sun Sound of Johnny Cash (1964).^{[14] [15]}
• , a 1998 album by The Residents, includes the song "God's Magic Finger". The song tells of the feast.^[16]

Theatre and literature

• The fourteenth-century poem Cleanness by the Pearl Poet recounts the feast and subsequent events as a warning against spiritual impurity.^[17]
• In William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice (written between 1596 and 1599), Portia disguises herself as a lawyer's apprentice and calls herself Balthazar (in Act IV, scene i), alluding to the Biblical Belshazzar.^[18]
• Belshazzar's Feast (La cena del rey Baltasar, 17th century), an auto sacramental by Pedro Calderon de la Barca.^[19]
• In 1720^[20] Jonathan Swift wrote "'Tis like the writing on the wall" in the poem "The Run Upon the Bankers", using the idiom.^[21]
• Lord Byron's poem "Vision of Belshazzar" from Hebrew Melodies (1815) includes both the feast and Daniel's pronunciation.^[22]
• The poem Belsatzar or Belsazar by Heinrich Heine is based on the feast. It appears in the collection Buch der Lieder ("Book of Songs", 1827).^[23]
• "Mene, Tekel, Upharsin" and Belshazzar is mentioned in Alexandre Dumas' The Count of Monte Cristo (1844) in connection with Gérard de Villefort having one of his long past crimes come to light.^[24]
• In chapter 99 of Herman Melville's novel Moby-Dick (1851), the first mate Starbuck murmur to himself "The old man seems to read Belshazzar's awful writing" as he spies Captain Ahab speaking to the doubloon he had nailed to the mast of the Pequod.^[25]
• Emily Dickinson's poem "Belshazzar had a letter" from The Poems of Emily Dickinson is about Belshazzar's divine correspondence. Her poem was written in 1879.^{[26] [27]}
• In the novel Sister Carrie (1900), Theodore Dreiser entitles a chapter "The Feast of Belshazar – A Seer to Translate" in which the gluttony of turn-of-the-century New York City is highlighted.^[28]
• Belshazzar’s Feast (Belsazars gästabud), a play from 1906 by the Swedish-speaking Finnish writer Hjalmar Procopé, based on the feast.^[29]
• Belshazzar is a 1930 novel by H. Rider Haggard. In it, the Egyptian Ramose's sister is sent as a gift to Belshazzar, and the feast is part of the plot.^[30]
• In H. P. Lovecraft's novella The Shadow Over Innsmouth (written 1931, published 1936), the character Zadok Allen says "Mene, mene, tekel, upharsin", a reference to the Book of Daniel.^[31]
• Robert Frost's poem "The Bearer of Evil Tidings" (1936), is about a messenger headed to Belshazzar's court to deliver the news of the king's imminent overthrow. Remembering that evil tidings were a "dangerous thing to bear," the messenger flees to the Himalayas rather than facing the monarch's wrath.^[32]
• In Wallace Stevens' poem "Country Words" (1937) the poet sings a canto to Belshazzar and wants him "reading right".^[33]
• In Fazil Iskander's novel Sandro of Chegem (1983), one of the chapters depicting a dinner involving an Abkhazian dance ensemble and Joseph Stalin is titled "Belshazzar's Feast".^[34] The story was filmed in 1989.^[35]

Visual arts

• Belshazzar's Feast is a painting by Rembrandt created around 1635.^[36]
• Belshazzar's Feast is a painting by John Martin from c. 1821.^[37]
• In The Hand-Writing upon the Wall (1803), James Gillray caricatured Napoleon in the role of Belshazzar.^[38]
• Belshazzar's Feast is a painting by Washington Allston from 1817–1843.^[39]
• During the 1884 United States presidential campaign, Republican candidate James G. Blaine dined at a New York City restaurant with some wealthy business executives including Cornelius Vanderbilt, Jay Gould, etc. This was featured in newspapers, with a caricature titled "Royal Feast of Belshazzar Blaine and the Money Kings".^[40]
• Belshazzar's Feast, the Writing on Your Wall is an installation artwork by Susan Hiller, 1983–1984.^{[41] [42]}

Film

• Belshazzar is portrayed by Alfred Paget in D. W. Griffith's film Intolerance from 1916.^[43]
• Belshazzar is played by Michael Ansara in the 1953 William Castle film Slaves of Babylon.^{[44] [45]}

Notes and References

1. Book: Oliver, Harry. Bees Knees and Barmy Armies – Origins of the Words and Phrases we Use Every Day. 5 October 2010. John Blake Publishing. 10 September 2018. Google Books. 9781857829440.
2. Book: Lennox, Doug. Now You Know The Bible. 1 November 2010. Dundurn. 10 September 2018. Google Books. 9781554888276.
3. Web site: Where does 'the writing is on the wall' come from?. https://web.archive.org/web/20180823210534/https://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2017/01/20/writing-is-on-the-wall/. dead. August 23, 2018. OxfordWords blog. 20 January 2017. 3 September 2018.
4. News: A Feast and a Lions' Den, Conveyed in Multiple Ways. The New York Times. 10 September 2018. 2014-12-28. Tommasini. Anthony.
5. Book: Burrows, Donald. Handel. 15 June 2012. Oxford University Press, USA. 10 September 2018. Google Books. 9780199737369.
6. News: 'Ciro in Babilonia' by Rossini, in Bel Canto at Caramoor. The New York Times. Anthony. Tommasini. 10 September 2018. 2012-07-08.
7. Book: Robert Schumann: The Book of Songs. Jon W.. Finson. Associate Professor of Music Jon W.. Finson. 10 September 2018. Harvard University Press. 10 September 2018. Google Books. 9780674026292.
8. Book: Root, George F.. The Haymakers. 1 January 1984. A-R Editions, Inc.. 10 September 2018. Google Books. 9780895791924.
9. Book: Griffel, Margaret Ross. Operas in English: A Dictionary. 21 December 2012. Scarecrow Press. 10 September 2018. Google Books. 9780810883253.
10. Book: Sibelius Studies. 82–83. Timothy L.. Jackson. Timothy L. Jackson. Veijo. Murtomäki.

    fi:Veijo Murtomäki

    . 11 January 2001. Cambridge University Press. 7 September 2018. Google Books. 9780521624169.
11. News: David . Ward . The six greatest works of William Walton . . 15 July 2002. 2012-02-20.
12. Book: Zimmers, Tighe E.. Lyrical Satirical Harold Rome: A Biography of the Broadway Composer-Lyricist. 30 October 2013. McFarland. 10 September 2018. Google Books. 9780786470266.
13. Book: Mordden, Ethan. Sing for Your Supper: The Broadway Musical in the 1930s. 7 April 2015. St. Martin's Press. 10 September 2018. Google Books. 9781466893474.
14. News: Johnny Cash: Bootleg Volume 2, From Memphis To Hollywood, CD Review. Martin. Chilton. 17 March 2011. 10 September 2018. www.telegraph.co.uk.
15. Book: Banister, C. Eric. Johnny Cash FAQ: All That's Left to Know About the Man in Black. 1 August 2014. Hal Leonard Corporation. 10 September 2018. Google Books. 9781617136085.
16. Web site: Wormwood – The Residents – Songs, Reviews, Credits. AllMusic. 10 September 2018.
17. Book: Spyra, Piotr. The Epistemological Perspective of the Pearl-Poet. 17 February 2016. Routledge. 7 September 2018. Google Books. 9781317033905.
18. Book: The Merchant of Venice: Choice, Hazard and Consequence. 8 February 1995. Macmillan International Higher Education. 7 September 2018. Google Books. 9781349238460.
19. Web site: Three Dramas of Calderón, from the Spanish: Love the Greatest Enchantment, The Sorceries of Sin, and The Devotion of the Cross. Denis Florence. MacCarthy. 7 September 1870. W.B. Kelly. 7 September 2018. Google Books.
20. Web site: The Run Upon the Bankers. Jonathan. Swift. 10 September 2018. 10 September 2018. Google Books.
21. Book: Dawn, Maggi. The Writing on the Wall: High Art, Popular Culture and the Bible. 23 June 2011. Hodder & Stoughton. 9781444722079. 10 September 2018. Google Books.
22. Book: The Blackwell Companion to the Bible in English Literature. Rebecca. Lemon. Emma. Mason. Jonathan. Roberts. Christopher. Rowland. 28 February 2012. John Wiley & Sons. 9781118241158. 7 September 2018. Google Books.
23. News: Was soll das bedeuten?. Der Bund. 7 September 2018. 2017-12-21. Mühlemann. Marianne.
24. Book: Dumas, Alexandre. The Count of Monte Cristo. 27 March 2003. Penguin UK. 9780141901251. 7 September 2018. Google Books.
25. Book: Phan, Hoang Gia. Bonds of Citizenship: Law and the Labors of Emancipation. 26 April 2013. NYU Press. 9780814738474. 7 September 2018. Google Books.
26. Book: Ph.D, Wendy Martin. All Things Dickinson: An Encyclopedia of Emily Dickinson's World [2 volumes]

    An Encyclopedia of Emily Dickinson's World]

    . 27 January 2014. ABC-CLIO. 9781440803321. 7 September 2018. Google Books.
27. Book: Doriani, Beth Maclay. Emily Dickinson: Daughter of Prophecy. 7 September 1996. Univ of Massachusetts Press. 7 September 2018. Google Books. 978-0870239991.
28. Web site: American Literary Realism, 1870-1910. 7 September 1984. University of Texas at Arlington, Department of English. 7 September 2018. Google Books.
29. News: Proms First Night review: off to a flying start. Tim. Ashley. 17 July 2015. The Guardian. 10 September 2018.
30. News: Rider Haggard's Last Story, "Belshazzar". . 7 November 1930 . 7 September 2018 . 7 . National Library of Australia.
31. Book: Lovecraft, H. P.. The Classic Horror Stories. 9 May 2013. OUP Oxford. 7 September 2018. Google Books. 9780191640889.
32. Book: Fagan, Deirdre J.. Critical Companion to Robert Frost: A Literary Reference to His Life and Work. 7 September 2018. Infobase Publishing. 7 September 2018. Google Books. 9781438108544.
33. Book: Cook, Eleanor. A Reader's Guide to Wallace Stevens. 9 March 2009. Princeton University Press. 7 September 2018. Google Books. 978-1400827640.
34. Book: Ryan, Karen L.. Stalin in Russian Satire, 1917–1991. 24 November 2009. Univ of Wisconsin Press. 7 September 2018. Google Books. 9780299234430.
35. Web site: Piry Valtasara, ili noch so Stalinym. 7 September 2018. www.imdb.com.
36. Web site: Rembrandt - Belshazzar's Feast - NG6350 - National Gallery, London. The National Gallery. London. www.nationalgallery.org.uk. 3 September 2018.
37. Web site: Belshazzar's Feast. Yale Center for British Art, Lec. Maj. collections.britishart.yale.edu. 3 September 2018.
38. Web site: The Hand-Writing upon the Wall.. British Museum. 3 September 2018.
39. Web site: Washington Allston's Unfinished Masterpiece Belshazzar's Feast (1817-1843): Millennial Desire and Social Conservatism in the New American Israel. David Voss. Bjelajac. 3 September 1984. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. 3 September 2018. Google Books.
40. News: The Dinners That Shaped History. The New York Times. 3 September 2018. 2017-10-26. Harris. Jessica B.. Wilson. Bee. Wineapple. Brenda.
41. Web site: In the Studio with Susan Hiller. Independent.co.uk. 3 September 2018. 2015-12-11.
42. Web site: Artist as archaeologist: Susan Hiller's first solo exhibition at London's Lisson Gallery. Wallpaper*. Magazine. 16 November 2015. 3 September 2018.
43. Book: Imagining Ancient Cities in Film: From Babylon to Cinecittà. Marta Garcia. Morcillo. Pauline. Hanesworth. Óscar Lapeña. Marchena. 11 February 2015. Routledge. 3 September 2018. Google Books. 9781135013172.
44. Book: Aaker, Everett. Television Western Players, 1960-1975: A Biographical Dictionary. 25 May 2017. McFarland. 3 September 2018. Google Books. 9781476662503.
45. Web site: Slaves of Babylon. 3 September 2018. www.imdb.com.