メランコリーの系譜(III)

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In my previous two essays 'The Genealogy of Melancholy (I)' and '(II)' I have tried to trace the traditional notion of melancholy in British and American literary works from Hamlet to Breakfast at Tiffany's. This time the following three respects of Grecian artistic works are examined: 1. the rise of the figure 'head on hand', 2. the meaning of the figure, 3. the relationship between the figure and the notion of melancholy. One of the oldest figures is that of Oedipus meditating facing the Sphinx on a red-figure vase made in Vulci in c.470 B. C. (fig. 7). Oedipus himself was the answer to the riddle. As a consequence of his answer, which saved Thebes from the Sphinx, Oedipus had to realize his hidden secret, which almost destroyed him. His brooding figure suggests his later suffering from his unconscious sin, which reveals him to be a four-legged beast. The statue of Penelope with her forefinger on her cheek in the Vatican Museum (fig. 8) bears a striking resemblance to brooding Buddhist statues made in Gandhara, which I will argue in my next essay. The figure of Penelope shows her at a crossroads as to which way to choose, which requires her to gaze at her real mind, e. g. her core of existence as an independent human being. The relief of Demeter on the east frieze of the temple of Parthenon (fig. 2), which is now in the British Museum, denotes not only her mourning for the loss of her daughter Persephone but the 'kyklos genesion', e. g. the cycle of reincarnation, of which Persephone is the symbol. The teaching of Orpheus shows how to get out of this reincarnation by means of mystery, which Plato argues in Phaedrus. The brooding figure of Herakles by Lysippos carved at the end of the fourth or the beginning of the third century B. C. shows a phase of a quite human hero. Presumably under the influence of the pseudo-Aristotelian work Problemata 30. 1, Platonic 'madness' given by Gods was brought into new light and interpreted under the theory of melancholy, which migth have influenced Lysippos. The typical expression of the theory is embodied in the figure of a philosopher made in c. 230 B. C. (fig. 14). Philosophers ranked first among human souls in Phaedrus. Here the notion of melancholy and the figure 'head on hand' came together, and the figure came to denote the highest soul in the world of 'idea'. As is seen above, the figure 'head on hand', with several variations, has a close relationship with 'death' and 'that world'. The figure reflects 'that world', which in turn leads human beings to brood on the human condition in this world. Human beings, thrown into this world by fate, try to solve the riddle of it by their own intellect, which is the meaning expressed in the figure. As for the influence of the figure on Gandharan Buddhist statue I will argue in my next essay. My hypothesis is that figures like Penelope in the Vatican Museum came to be carved on tomb stones, with the wish to get out of the vicious circle of reincarnation, and were brought all the way to Gandhara in Hellenistic era. The figure 'head on hand' in the underground tombs in Palmyra shows how the figure and the notion in ancient Greece influenced the Hellenistic world.
東京芸術大学の論文
1994-00-00

メランコリーの系譜(III)

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東京芸術大学 | 論文

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