Leutha

Leutha is a female character appearing in the mythology of William Blake. According to S. Foster Damon, A Blake Dictionary, she stands for 'sex under law'.

Incidence
Leutha is mentioned in


 * Visions of the Daughters of Albion
 * The Book of Los
 * Europe a Prophecy
 * America a Prophecy
 * The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
 * Milton
 * Vala, or The Four Zoas
 * Jerusalem: The Emanation of the Giant Albion

Relationships
She is the Emanation of Bromion. She occurs in a pair with the male Antamon.

In Milton


 * But when Leutha (a Daughter of Beulah) beheld Satans condemnation
 * She down descended into the midst of the Great Solemn Assembly
 * "Offering herself a Ransom for Satan, taking on her, his Sin."

Whence the interpretation commonly given as guilt, and in particularly sexual guilt.

Locality
In the poem And did those feet in ancient time by William Blake, Leutha is associated with the Isle of Dogs:

He came down from Highgate thro' Hackney & Holloway towards London Till he came to old Stratford, & thence to Stepney & the Isle Of Leutha's Dogs, thence thro' the narrows of the River's side, And saw every minute particular, the jewels of Albion, running down The kennels of the streets and lanes as if they were abhorr'd Every Universal Form was become barren mountains of moral Virtue, and every Minute Particular harden'd into grains of sand And all the tendernesses of the soul cast forth as filth and mire.

Name
The homophone relationship to Martin Luther has often been pointed out. Angela Esterhammer (Blake and Language p. 73, in William Blake Studies (2006), edited by Nicholas M. Williams) writes:

"Blake's Leutha represents 'Protestant speech' &mdash; an association achieved partly through the pun on 'Luther', but mainly through her own verbal behaviours in Blake's prophetic poems, where she manifests 'Protestant' modes of speech such as public self-scrutiny, self-exaggeration, confession, and plain-spokenness."