Scary Glares
The Gorgons, the Basilisk, the little girl from Ring, they all have one thing in common: look in to their eyes and you're dead or petrified or both. Why is this so scary? What makes petrifying stares suitable material for a recurrent motive?
The Wikipedia defines these creatures thus:
In Greek mythology, the Gorgons ("terrible" or, according to some, "loud-roaring") were vicious female monsters with sharp fangs and hair of living, venomous snakes.
They are sometimes depicted as having wings of gold, brazen claws, and the tusks of boars. According to the myths, seeing the face of a Gorgon turned the viewer to stone. Homer speaks of only one Gorgon, whose head is represented in the Iliad as fixed in the centre of the aegis of Zeus. In the Odyssey, she is a monster of the underworld. Hesiod increases the number of Gorgons to three -- Stheno (the mighty), Euryale (the far-springer) and Medusa (the queen), and makes them the daughters of the sea-god Phorcys and of Keto. Their home is on the farthest side of the western ocean; according to later authorities, in Libya. The Attic tradition, reproduced in Euripides, regarded the Gorgon as a monster, produced by Gaia to aid her sons the giants against the gods and slain by Athena. Of the three Gorgons, only Medusa is mortal.
In Greek and European bestiaries and legends, a basilisk (from the Greek basileus, a king) is a legendary reptile reputed to be king of serpents and said to have the power of causing death by a single glance. According to the Naturalis Historia of Pliny the Elder, the basilisk is a small snake that is so poisonous that it leaves a wide trail of deadly venom in its wake, and its gaze is likewise lethal.
It is called "king" because it is reputed to have on its head a mitre-shaped crest. Stories of the basilisk place it in the same general family as the cockatrice. The basilisk is fabulously alleged to be hatched by a serpent or reptile from a cock's egg (in some legends specifically an egg laid by a seven-year-old cock during a full moon, or under various other astrological portents). In Medieval Europe, the description of the creature began taking on features from cockerels. Geoffrey Chaucer featured a basilicok (as he called it) in his Canterbury Tales.
Ring (リング, Ringu) is a 1998 Japanese horror mystery film from director Hideo Nakata, adapted from a novel by Koji Suzuki of the same name. The film was later remade in Korea as The Ring Virus (1999), and in the United States as The Ring (2002).
A few thoughts:
Sight is probably the most important sense to human beings. The thought of it being used as a weapon is nothing new (not counting petrifying glares, we have X-ray vision and laser beams coming from eyes in most comic book super hero's). We humans derive a large part of our power from sight. Therefor, the thought of eyes as a weapon is the thought of a powerfull weapon.
Moreover, what is the one defence we have against these glares: close our eyes or look the other way. And by doing this, we surrender our only defense. We are left at the mercy of those with the glare. If they have other weapons to use besides their glare, they will have no problems getting past our meager defenses. And of course if we were to fight back, or even try to escape, there is allways the chance of accidentally or involentarily opening our eyes. Closing our eyes with the thought that when we might open them and see something horible and then die instantly, is probably one of the strongest and most primal fears our species caries.
Furthermore, petrifying glares are incorporeal. There is no sword or bullet speeding towards us, something we can understand and avoid, but instead a sort of intangible laser beam-security system like invisible field, and when caught in this field, we die. It is not something we can avoid or defend against.
Also, the manner of death dealt is something frightening. One is dead *poof* just like that. When mortally wwounded one has time to be rescued or at best, take his or her leave of the world, perhaps say a prayer. When killed (be this by turning to stone or literally scaring to death) by a glare, one is dead before one has a chance to do anything, think anything. We leave this world with unresolved business. This also is a frightening thought, especially in these modern times where we busy ourselfs with so many affairs that would go unresolved if we were instantly killed.
But most of all, I think what strikes us most about glares, is their inevidabillity. The combination of our defenselessness, the incorporeal and powerfull nature of a glare, is one of an almost fate-like weapon, one that cannot be avoided. In this manner one could compare it to death, or the bacteriae that finally get the martians in War of the Worlds. There is nothing you can do about it, no matter how much you want to. You've been pre-ordained to die, and to die in fright, and nothing you can do or say will change that.
Let us therefor take consolation in the fact that the above subjects are purely fictional. There are things of a similar inevidable nature that are not.
The Wikipedia defines these creatures thus:
In Greek mythology, the Gorgons ("terrible" or, according to some, "loud-roaring") were vicious female monsters with sharp fangs and hair of living, venomous snakes.
They are sometimes depicted as having wings of gold, brazen claws, and the tusks of boars. According to the myths, seeing the face of a Gorgon turned the viewer to stone. Homer speaks of only one Gorgon, whose head is represented in the Iliad as fixed in the centre of the aegis of Zeus. In the Odyssey, she is a monster of the underworld. Hesiod increases the number of Gorgons to three -- Stheno (the mighty), Euryale (the far-springer) and Medusa (the queen), and makes them the daughters of the sea-god Phorcys and of Keto. Their home is on the farthest side of the western ocean; according to later authorities, in Libya. The Attic tradition, reproduced in Euripides, regarded the Gorgon as a monster, produced by Gaia to aid her sons the giants against the gods and slain by Athena. Of the three Gorgons, only Medusa is mortal.
In Greek and European bestiaries and legends, a basilisk (from the Greek basileus, a king) is a legendary reptile reputed to be king of serpents and said to have the power of causing death by a single glance. According to the Naturalis Historia of Pliny the Elder, the basilisk is a small snake that is so poisonous that it leaves a wide trail of deadly venom in its wake, and its gaze is likewise lethal.
It is called "king" because it is reputed to have on its head a mitre-shaped crest. Stories of the basilisk place it in the same general family as the cockatrice. The basilisk is fabulously alleged to be hatched by a serpent or reptile from a cock's egg (in some legends specifically an egg laid by a seven-year-old cock during a full moon, or under various other astrological portents). In Medieval Europe, the description of the creature began taking on features from cockerels. Geoffrey Chaucer featured a basilicok (as he called it) in his Canterbury Tales.
Ring (リング, Ringu) is a 1998 Japanese horror mystery film from director Hideo Nakata, adapted from a novel by Koji Suzuki of the same name. The film was later remade in Korea as The Ring Virus (1999), and in the United States as The Ring (2002).
A few thoughts:
Sight is probably the most important sense to human beings. The thought of it being used as a weapon is nothing new (not counting petrifying glares, we have X-ray vision and laser beams coming from eyes in most comic book super hero's). We humans derive a large part of our power from sight. Therefor, the thought of eyes as a weapon is the thought of a powerfull weapon.
Moreover, what is the one defence we have against these glares: close our eyes or look the other way. And by doing this, we surrender our only defense. We are left at the mercy of those with the glare. If they have other weapons to use besides their glare, they will have no problems getting past our meager defenses. And of course if we were to fight back, or even try to escape, there is allways the chance of accidentally or involentarily opening our eyes. Closing our eyes with the thought that when we might open them and see something horible and then die instantly, is probably one of the strongest and most primal fears our species caries.
Furthermore, petrifying glares are incorporeal. There is no sword or bullet speeding towards us, something we can understand and avoid, but instead a sort of intangible laser beam-security system like invisible field, and when caught in this field, we die. It is not something we can avoid or defend against.
Also, the manner of death dealt is something frightening. One is dead *poof* just like that. When mortally wwounded one has time to be rescued or at best, take his or her leave of the world, perhaps say a prayer. When killed (be this by turning to stone or literally scaring to death) by a glare, one is dead before one has a chance to do anything, think anything. We leave this world with unresolved business. This also is a frightening thought, especially in these modern times where we busy ourselfs with so many affairs that would go unresolved if we were instantly killed.
But most of all, I think what strikes us most about glares, is their inevidabillity. The combination of our defenselessness, the incorporeal and powerfull nature of a glare, is one of an almost fate-like weapon, one that cannot be avoided. In this manner one could compare it to death, or the bacteriae that finally get the martians in War of the Worlds. There is nothing you can do about it, no matter how much you want to. You've been pre-ordained to die, and to die in fright, and nothing you can do or say will change that.
Let us therefor take consolation in the fact that the above subjects are purely fictional. There are things of a similar inevidable nature that are not.
Labels: thoughts
posted by Redge | 10:53
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