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Images of the poetic sublime figured as feminine death were prevalent in the Victorian Era, perhaps exemplified in the idea of the Lover’s Leap. The origin of the image in the mystery religions of the Mediterranean may shed light on why this image had such carrying power. In these early representations, themes of transgression, madness, catharsis, and renewal seem linked to the essential liminality of a landscape image, a precipitous drop into the sea, that is associated with death, love, and the feminine.