Dr. Freund’s lecture put a very heavy emphasis on the
creation and worship of images. Although the images of which he spoke were
primarily religious, I can see the relation to the concepts about love and
desire that we explored last semester. The way we construct images for gods and
other mythical characters is very similar to the way we create an image of the
beloved and in many ways, we also worship the object of desire.
I found it interesting that the Jewish and Catholic
traditions call for the complete banishment of false images. Creating a false
image of god theoretically creates a barrier between you and your perceived divine
being. To create an image of another is to infuse the other with your own
desires. It seems as though the banishment of images was enforced so that
followers wouldn’t merge the concept of god with their personal desire for what
god should do and be for them. This concept sounds somewhat similar to the
Buddhist belief that desire is the root of suffering. In the Catholic or Jewish
traditions, this ‘suffering’ would be the separation between the individual and
god.
Several of the major symbols Dr. Freund outlined were of the
avian sort – the swan and the eagle. At the start of this discussion, my mind
immediately went to the falcon that appears in the first scene of Celestina and
I would be curious to know what the falcon symbolized in ancient art. I am not
well versed in Greek mythology, but it seems that in the story of Zeus and
Leda, Zeus forces himself upon his victims much like Celestina would enchant
her victims. Can this possibly be interpreted as another piece of literature
that enforces the concept that there is no escaping desire?
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