Page "Solomon and Saturn" Paragraph 4

The poetic version has been cited as an example of orientalism with the suggestion that it screens anxieties about the cultural identity of the English people.

Kathryn Powell claims that at the time it was preserved in Corpus Christi College, Cambridge England was beset by anxieties about the acquisition and dissemination of knowledge, the stability of the kingdom and the efficacy of religious faith.

She argues that by displacing ignorance, political instability and lack of faith onto the Eastern and pagan Chaldean people as represented by Saturn, English people were encouraged to identify with ideals and behaviours of the Christianised figure of Solomon.

This is cited as an example of bolstering English Christian culture through degrading the east.