Leda Seeking (2022) Рисунок - Edwin Loftus

In ancient Mediterranean folk lore Leda was a human woman so attractive she drew the desire of a god. Jupiter, king of the gods had a wife given to jealousy, so he would disguise himself by transforming to various things like a shower of gold or, in Leda's case, a swan.
The deities and other mystical characters in this ancient religion are typical of those of other polytheistic religions and very different from the monotheistic ones in a fundamental respect. When there is one God, what that God approves or disapproves creates a foundation for the idea of Good and Evil. If believed to be pleasing to the One True God, an action is considered "good." if displeasing, the action is considered "evil." If there is but one God, that God's preferences are determinative if one wishes to remain in "God's favor."
But if there are multiple gods, what displeases one might be pleasing to another. So, it becomes possible to defy one god's pleasure by gaining the approval and protection of another god. In this style of belief, there is no "good" or "evil" based on divine authority. If it exists, (and it very often did), it is based on secular authority or the consensus or tradition of the people.
If humans invented a superior power beyond nature's forces to explain those things they could not understand, then in reality, there is no authority over behavior greater than the individual, or their willingness to comply with some form of social consensus. If the consensus approves under specific conditions of murder, rape, slavery or genocide, then under those conditions there is nothing wrong in engaging in these things. Only when a single authoritative source, be it a single entity or a consensus of superior entities speaking as one, says "This is wrong," can it be said, "This", is, "wrong".
Without that, each human's own opinion is the only gauge of what is "right" or "wrong". And the only consequence of doing wrong is the reaction of other humans, also guided by no authority greater than their own opinions.
Voltaire observed, "If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him." The key to this famous phrase being not "invent", but the word, "necessary."
In the philosopher's concept of "a'priori" elements, (elements that are implicit in another concept, like "change" is implicit in the concept of "act"), the idea of "necessity" is key. If it is not necessary, it is not implicit. In the concept, "civilization", civility, the ability to conduct oneself in a manner that respects the existence of another, an authority that overrides that of each individual is necessarily implied since without it, any action of any person would be authorized by their ability to act and there would be no higher authority to say otherwise.
So, as Leda, subsequent to her copulation with Jupiter, seeks him again in every swan she sees seeking an element of interpersonal relationship which, as the one who must live with the consequences of Jupiter's lust, she alone must live with. She displays the condition of victimhood in a system in which "Might makes Right," a system in which there is no greater authority to determine what is "Right" and what is "Wrong." A system in which the powerful will inevitably rule over the less powerful every time.
This is what this underappreciated type of art is about, its "reason for existence", once widely recognized and now hardly known of. It is an art in which the bulk of its content is invisible unless one has the time and intellectual ability to seek it. It is an "art of concepts", the true and original "conceptual art".

Связанные темы

LedaSwanGodGodsRight