Children of Dune

The baliset is a stringed instrument and is closely associated with Gurney Halleck, Warmaster and troubadour for House Atreides. Leto plays the baliset, which Gurney gifted to him. With Gurney, the instrument symbolizes the dichotomy between the arts of war and music: War is the art of violence, and music is the art of self-expression. In Leto’s hands, and under the ego-memory of Paul, the baliset spurs a nostalgia for Caladan, the Atreideses’ home planet. It symbolizes exilic longing and Paul’s memory of his profound friendship with Gurney.

In addition to this symbolism, the baliset also serves as inspiration. The instrument inspires Leto alone to sing an ancient song about the cycles of life and death:

Nature’s beauteous form

Contains a lovely essence

Called by some—decay.

By this lovely presence

New life finds its way (43).

The song denotes the ecological message of the novel and the important cycle of decay and renewal, two dichotomous events that enable nature’s beauty. It also foreshadows Leto’s ultimate death at the end of transformation, a necessary stage of the Golden Path in which his body returns to the sand and seeds the planet for the return of the sandworms. Ghanima mentions this course briefly at the end of Children of Dune. In God Emperor of Dune, Leto’s death is vividly described as an event that brings life.

Throughout the novel, Leto makes obscure references to a “terrible glove” (319), which is later revealed to be the first step of his sandtrout metamorphosis. One by one, Leto allows the sandtrout to cover his hand and join their cilia into a single membrane. The glove symbolizes sacrifice and the loss of Leto’s humanity. Leto’s father, Paul, had seen the cost of the Golden Path and was unable to go through with it. In contrast, Leto is willing to see the course through to its end and starts with his right hand. The hand is a significant echo to a test Paul had to endure in the first novel. As a product of the Bene Gesserit breeding program, Paul had to prove to the Mother Reverent Mohiam that he was not an animal but a human by sticking his hand into a box and enduring excruciating pain. Paul passes the test by using his right hand to prove that he is indeed human. In a reversal, Leto uses his right hand to forfeit his humanity by allowing the sandtrout to form a permanent glove.

One of the ironies of the Golden Path is that humanity’s worst enemy may be itself. In order to save humans, Leto rids himself of his primacy as a human and takes on a symbiotic form. The glove represents the symbiosis between humankind and nature, as the creatures form a living skin on his body, transforming him into a new organism. The sandtrout skin also functions as a living stillsuit, conserving Leto’s water and allowing him a full range of freedom in the desert. Leto’s body becomes a symbol of how humans, animals, and the environment can coexist in a balanced ecosystem.