Copyright 2018 by Gary L. Pullman
What makes a creature
monstrous?
That's a question with
which artists and writers) have contended for centuries. As a result,
there are quite a few visions, visual and literary, of the monstrous.
In this post, we'll consider a few examples of the former, as we
examine a few ancient, medieval, and modern examples of monsters, as
artists have envisioned them.
Since ancient times, the
unknown has been one source of the idea of the monstrous. Many of
these monsters, the likenesses of which are passed down to us in
pictures, sculptures, and poetry, from ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome,
and elsewhere, are hybrids, mixing characteristics of both human
beings and the so-called lower animals. Included among these
creatures are such monsters as centaurs, hermaphrodites, lamia,
minotaurs, and sirens, to mention but a few.
Other monsters are of gigantic scale, are missing an organ, an appendage, or another feature: the cyclops is a prime example, both of a gargantuan figure and of one who is missing an organ, having, as he or she does, only one eye. Another well-known specimen is the monopod, which was also known as the sciapod, skiapod, or skiapode, who appear in Aristophanes's The Birds (414 BC), in Pliny the Elder's Natural History (79), and St. Augustine's City of God (426).
In a few monsters, traits
or organs were multiplied. Cerberus had three heads; hydra, many.
Often, ancient monsters inhabited remote places. The fact that they lived far away made an encounter with one of them unlikely, because long-distance travel was rare for ordinary people, except, in some cases, soldiers. For the same reason, oceans were often represented the homes of mysterious creatures, many of whom were of gigantic size and strange appearance. Examples include the the biblical Behemoth, the Norse Midgard Serpent, and Scylla and Charybdis.
Our brief survey of ancient monsters suggests many often exhibit these one or more of these characteristics:
- Mix human and animal characteristics
- Are gigantic in size
- Are missing one or more organs or traits
- Have one or more extra organs or traits
- Reside in distant locations
Throughout the Middle Ages, many monsters were drawn from the same sources: ancient and Christian accounts of these fascinating, terrible creatures, although, now, all familiar monsters were interpreted from the Christian perspective, with pagan monsters assuming demonic significance.
New additions to the ranks of the monstrous came from travels abroad or from pagan European tribes, before their conversions to the Christian faith. Of course, Christianity also supplied several monsters of its own, most significantly, Satan and the Antichrist.
Once Christianity became the religion of most, if not all, of the Western world, it united peoples from various tribes and cultures, becoming the unum round which e pluribus found its center. As polytheism gave way to monotheism and pagan faiths were replaced by one catholic, or universal faith (at least as the Western world is concerned), ideas about the nature of the monstrous changed, even as they merged under the authority and direction of Christian belief, authority, doctrine, and practice. Satan, demons, witches and sorcerers, heretics, and others who became victims of the Inquisition were the new monsters, common to all.
In modern times, the
monstrous, as a concept, has taken on psychological significance, as
the demons of hell become inner, or personal, demons, which is to
say, personifications of individual human beings' unbridled impulses
and animal instincts: aggression, lust, and the like. Especially in
the stories of Edgar Allan Poe, the monstrous becomes primarily
psychological, rather than cultural or theological per se.
Alongside ancient and medieval
monsters, we now have the narrator-protagonist of “The Tell-Tale
Heart,” the vengeance-minded jester of “Hop-Frog,” and the
obsessive-compulsive protagonist of “Berenice.”
Monsters
are of only two origins: natural or supernatural. (“Paranormal”
is merely a term designating natural phenomena which are, as yet,
scientifically inexplicable, and psychological monsters, like
extraterrestrial monstrosities, are of natural origin.)
But what makes
monsters monstrous?
There are a number of
theories. Some say monsters are monstrous because they represent
actual, existential threats. The werewolf, for example, symbolizes
the beast within the human; the madman a person whose behavior is
unrestrained by reason. Such monsters are the bane of the
rationalist's existence (and aren't we all, at least occasionally,
rationalists?) They suggest the Enlightenment, though it undoubtedly
happened, might have occurred in vain.
Others contend that
monsters are monstrous because they suggest the threat of the unknown
and, perhaps, the unfathomable. According to this view, monsters are
only monstrous as long as they origin or nature remains unknown. Once
the nature of the creature in Ambrose Bierce's “The Damned Thing”
is understood (it is of a color outside the range of human perception
and, therefore, invisible), it is no longer monstrous (although it
remains both terrible and dangerous). Such monsters are
epistemological threats or, at least, insecurities. If knowledge is
power, ignorance is impotence (and, often, impotence is
helplessness).
Monsters who occupy a rung higher in The Great Chain of Being than our own rung on the celestial ladder are theological threats. God defeated Satan, casting him and his followers out of heaven, but, even if we are created in God's image, we don't have his omnipotence; our fight with the devil or with demons, as both The Exorcist and The Exorcism of Emily Rose show us, is not an even match, nor is it one that we, by ourselves, without divine aid, are able to win.
Christianity, it seems, is in abeyance; its influence over the multitudes of the western world appears to have diminished. As a result, paganism has resurfaced, and with it, the old monsters are, once again, venturing out of the darkness to which they were banished by reason and faith, as the current popularity of vampires, witches, demons, and other such ancient monsters attests. Side by side with them, though, the monsters of Christian faith continue to exist. The psychological monster, the madman, in his (or her) various guises, including those of the serial killer (Ben Willis, of I Know What You Did Last Summer), the sadistic sociopath (Jigsaw, of the Saw franchise), the psychotic murderer (Norman Bates, of Psycho), the mad scientist (Dr. Moreau, of The Island of Dr. Moreau), and the overzealous fan (Annie Wilkes, of Misery) has, more recently, joined them.
What monsters might the future spawn? What fears will they embody? What means shall overcome them? These, alas, are questions only time will answer, if they turn out to be answerable at all.