God, the gods, and Nephilim

Reading Canto XXXI of Dante's Inferno I was struck by Dorothy Sayers's note on the Giants:

But allegorically, what do they signify? In one sense they are images of Pride; the Giants who rebelled against Jove typify the pride of Satan who rebelled against God. But they may also, I think, be taken as the images of the blind forces which remain in the soul, and in society, when 'the general bond of love' is dissolved and 'the good of the intellect' wholly withdrawn. and when nothing remains but blocks of primitive mass-emotion fit to be the 'executives of Mars' and the tools of treachery. Nimrod is a braggart stupidity; Ephthialtes, a senseless rage; Antaeus, a brainless vanity: one may call them the doom of nonsense, violence and triviality, overtaking a civilization in which the whole natural order is abrogated.

Nimrod is a braggart stupidity; Ephthialtes, a senseless rage; Antaeus, a brainless vanity: and Donald Trump is all three.

Nimrod, a mighty hunter

And perhaps that is why, in reading social media, I get a sense of an upsurge of interest in the Nephilim. There seem to be numerous podcasts about them. Podcasts are not my favourite medium, so I've only listened to one or two, but I've noticed the theme in many more. And, since Dorothy Sayers's translation of Dante was first published in 1949, a word has appeared to typify "the blind forces which remain in the soul, and in society" -- egregores. C.S. Lewis, in his book That Hideous Strength calls them macrobes.

And indeed it seems that "nothing remains but blocks of primitive mass-emotion fit to be the 'executives of Mars'" -- genocide in Gaza, war between Russia and Ukraine, US attacks on Venezuela and Iran, Israeli attacks on Lebanon and Iran, the governments of Germany, France and the UK increasing their military spending, and saying there is no money for health care. There is always enough money when they want to kill people and break things, never enough when you want to heal people and build things. The executives of Mars seem to be more powerful and influential than ever.