Fury that dreams
Giorgio Agamben, Quodlibet, November 13, 2023
In the National Roman Museum of Palazzo Altemps is kept a marble head which, according to tradition, represents a sleeping Erinys. The eyes closed, her disheveled tufts of hair on the forehead and cheek, the lips slightly parted, the face of the Fury — if it is a Fury, be it Alecto, Megaera or Tisiphone — rests quietly on a cushion of dark marble, as if she were dreaming.
A fury who, rather than to moan and scream, shaking her serpentine hair, closes her eyes and dreams, belies herself. Yet only just the dream or sleep of a fury resembles thought. Thought is not only contemplation, it is first and foremost fury. One gives thought, one gives contemplation, only if first there has been fury, if looking at the abomination of humans and of the world, the mind — as Bruno said — descended “to the dark infernal cavern... feels itself lacerated and torn to pieces”. And only if in our heroic fury we can close our eyes and dream, there is true quiet, there is vision and theory. Our dreams, then, are not daydreams, which we know are deceptive and vain, but truths which, even with our eyes closed, we cannot help but believe, because first we have seen the revenge and error. Thought is this quieting down of fury, it is an Erinys who dreams.
Giorgio Agamben, Quodlibet, November 13, 2023
In the National Roman Museum of Palazzo Altemps is kept a marble head which, according to tradition, represents a sleeping Erinys. The eyes closed, her disheveled tufts of hair on the forehead and cheek, the lips slightly parted, the face of the Fury — if it is a Fury, be it Alecto, Megaera or Tisiphone — rests quietly on a cushion of dark marble, as if she were dreaming.
A fury who, rather than to moan and scream, shaking her serpentine hair, closes her eyes and dreams, belies herself. Yet only just the dream or sleep of a fury resembles thought. Thought is not only contemplation, it is first and foremost fury. One gives thought, one gives contemplation, only if first there has been fury, if looking at the abomination of humans and of the world, the mind — as Bruno said — descended “to the dark infernal cavern... feels itself lacerated and torn to pieces”. And only if in our heroic fury we can close our eyes and dream, there is true quiet, there is vision and theory. Our dreams, then, are not daydreams, which we know are deceptive and vain, but truths which, even with our eyes closed, we cannot help but believe, because first we have seen the revenge and error. Thought is this quieting down of fury, it is an Erinys who dreams.
(English translation by I, Robot)
Milady, the fictional Imperial Colonel and countess of the Zumo dynasty, created in 1980 by Magnus (a.k.a. Roberto Raviola). |
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