Every single culture on earth has its own monsters, and the more that we learn about them, the more fascinating they become. Their stories, their curious habits and diets, and the ways in which they can be warded off create a picture of imaginations running riot. What does the existence of monsters, even if only in our heads, say about humankind? How have they survived the millennia, and why are they universal? Why do we find the same one-eyed giants in Japan and in ancient Greece, or the same dragons in Europe and China?

One reason is that monsters answer to a sense of the supernatural that lies deep within us. This has been true since the earliest times – certainly, the religions of Egypt and Mesopotamia reveled in monsters and demons, with even their gods appearing monstrous to modern eyes. The battle between order and chaos, between good and evil, was made visible through gods and monsters. …. Monsters are creatures that go against the laws of nature. They have many sources: mythology, religious texts and traditions, folklore and even literature. They tend to combine human and animal parts, although many – griffins and dragons, for example – are composites of different animals, and the human aspect is frequently reduced to the possession of a scheming mind. Others, such as werewolves, constantly switch between forms. The human bearing of these creatures deliberately raises disturbing questions. Are they thinking? Can they talk? What else might they be capable of?

...Medieval Europe was full of superstition and fear. Monsters could now be in the home (in the form of devils and demons) or in a far-away lands (creatures with faces in their torsos, and with one leg and three eyes). Such beings appeared regularly in sculpted capitals and in the margins of manuscripts, causing St Bernard of Clairvaux to condemn what he termed "monstrous deformities and deformed monstrosities". More acceptable were bestiaries, which related moral tales involving animals such as unicorns.

This fascination with monsters continued into the Renaissance. Even after Columbus´s travels, there remained places to explore and discoveries to be made. The new discipline of science initially attempted to categorize and explain monsters - leading to hundreds of badly-stitched together grotesques we find in "cabinets of curiosity" - but by the 17th century scientists were beginning to have serious doubts. Cartographers discretely started to remove the scaly sea monsters from the edges of their maps, embarrassed that they had ever been allowed in.

Christopher Dell: Monsters. Thames and Hudson, London 2010, p. 6-9.

Naposledy změněno: sobota, 3. srpna 2013, 14.30