Symbology is the set of elements that serve to represent others. This expression is typical of certain artistic expressions, where the author tries to explain a situation through the evocation of a certain element. Thus, for example, these processes can be observed both in painting and in literature. To really understand a symbology it is necessary to understand a symbol. For this, it is convenient to return to Peirce’s categories, in which a sign means the representative and the represented in a relationship absolutely arbitrary. This demonstrates that there is no element of similarity between signifier and signified, nothing that the simple observation of the first makes one think of the second (unlike what would happen, for example, with an icon, where there is some kind of similarity between the represented and the representative ). That’s why a certain symbology must be known by everyone who uses it in some way.
A clear example of symbology in an artistic work is in “Divine Comedy”. In it, Dante is led by Virgilio to hell and purgatory, while Beatriz leads him to heaven. This aspect makes the symbology clear: Virgil was considered the Epitome of classical authors’ knowledge , it was the culture of the past, the one inherited from Greece and Rome; Beatriz, on the other hand, was theology and the ability to show the structure of heaven, as was Dante’s childhood love and for this circumstance, a pure love. The author reveals arbitrary elements that serve to understand his work.
Therefore, art is common in the process of using symbolism. It is also frequent in many passages of the Bible, especially in the apocalyptic books. In them, we can see how certain expressions and values built a story, where it could only be known by a person who knew the symbols. To us, it may seem distant, but it was a type of procedure and symbology that the community understood. Today, it is necessary to introduce ourselves to this culture to better understand the context.
