The Fifth Trumpet: The Locusts of the Abyss

Against a brilliant gold-leaf background, an angel standing on a rocky outcrop blows a long horn toward the left. Below, a large, hexagonal stone pit emits plumes of black smoke. Emerging from the smoke is a monstrous, composite creature with a lion-like body, insect wings, and a human head wearing a crown; it is followed by a second, similar hybrid figure with a human head and crown. In the bottom right, a figure with a golden halo and a blue cloak, likely representing John the Apostle, gestures toward the scene with raised hands.

This illumination illustrates Revelation 9:1-11, depicting the fifth trumpet sounded by an angel, which releases locusts from the bottomless pit to torment those without the seal of God. It is a canonical example of Ottonian manuscript illumination from the Bamberg Apocalypse, reflecting the intense eschatological focus of 11th-century medieval theology.