Literary notes about Prostrate (AI summary)
The word "prostrate" is deployed with rich versatility in literature, often conveying physical collapse, emotional despair, or profound humility. In epic narratives, it vividly illustrates the downfall of warriors and heroes—for instance, depictions of bloodied bodies and defeated combatants emphasize both the brutality of battle and the submission to fate ([1], [2]). Religious texts and devotional passages use "prostrate" to express reverence and penitence, where characters fall before divine majesty or succumb to overwhelming sorrow ([3], [4], [5]). At times, the term also paints a broader metaphor for societal or natural decay, as seen in descriptions of landscapes and figures lying flat in the grip of despair or exhaustion ([6], [7]). This layered usage underscores how the word not only marks a physical posture but also encapsulates the emotional and symbolic depths of defeat and worship across diverse narratives.
- Around the hero's prostrate body flow'd, In one promiscuous stream, the reeking blood.
— from The Iliad by Homer - Shall see his bloody spoils in triumph borne, With this keen javelin shall his breast be gored, And prostrate heroes bleed around their lord.
— from The Iliad by Homer - Terrified local agents glowered, but fell prostrate."
— from The King James Version of the Bible - And Moses making haste, bowed down prostrate unto the earth, and adoring, 34:9.
— from The Bible, Douay-Rheims, Complete - And I lay prostrate before the Lord forty days and nights, in which I humbly besought him, that he would not destroy you as he had threatened: 9:26.
— from The Bible, Douay-Rheims, Complete - I grew sick, and numb, and chilly, and dizzy, and so fell prostrate at once.
— from The Works of Edgar Allan Poe — Volume 2 by Edgar Allan Poe - In the sufferings of prostrate Italy, the name of Rome awakens a solemn and mournful recollection.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon
