Tempeste e tria genera navigantium: metafore nautiche e filosofia nella tradizione latina tardoantica e altomedievale

In Cicero, Seneca and early Augustine we encounter triadic classifications of human types based on three lifestyles: active, moderately contemplative or philosophical, and maximally so. These were associated with nautical metaphors: life as a stormy sea, human beings as navigators, and philosophy as a saving port. In the 12th Century we still encounter, alongside others, the “philosophical” triad of human types and lifestyles, e.g. in Abelard, William of Conches and John of Salisbury, but now the triad is presented without any reference to nautical metaphors. With the christian religion, in fact, a dichotomous division of human types into the damned and the saved became established, and the salvific function, instead of philosophy, was entrusted to the church, a new “ship” needed to face the waves of life or a true “port” in which to shelter from its storms. The nautical metaphors thus moved from the philosophical sphere to the theological one, and in particular the homiletic one.