Masks, Transformation, and ParadoxMasks are found world-wide in connection with seasonal festivals, rites of passage, and curative ceremonies. They provide a means of investigating the paradoxical problems that appearances pose in the experience of transitional states. In this far-reaching work, A. David Napier studies mask iconography and the role played by masks in the realization of change. The masks of preclassical Greece¯in particular those of the Satyr and the Gorgon¯provide his starting point. A comparison of Greek to Eastern and especially Indian models follows, and the book concludes with an examination of the interpretation of Hindu ideas in Bali that demonstrates the importance of ambivalence in mask iconography. |
Contents
Masks and the Beginnings of Greek Drama | 30 |
Perseus and the Gorgon Head | 83 |
The Third Eye | 135 |
Balinese Faces and Indian Prototypes | 188 |
Notes | 225 |
| 243 | |
| 269 | |
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Common terms and phrases
Agdistis Agni ambivalence amphora ancient animal apotropaic appearance archetypal Aristotle association Assyrian aśvamedha Atharva Veda Attic black-figure Attic red-figure B.C. Plate Bali Balinese Barong Beasts Brahmanical Centaurs century B.C. character Christian chthonic complex connection culture Cybele deities demon depicted Dionysus divine drama Durgā early evidence example face facial fact figures forehead marks Goddess gods Gorgon Gorgon head Gorgoneion Greece Greek Heracles Hindu horrific human Humbaba ibid iconography idea important Indian Indo-European Kālī kirttimukha known kumbha legend leonine lion madhu magic Mahābhārata manifestation masks meaning Medusa millennium B.C. monster Museum myth mythology naman Narasimha nature notion origin pantheon paradox Perseus Perseus-Gorgon story person Pickard-Cambridge preclassical problem Rangda rasa religion representations rites ritual role sacred sacrifice Sanskrit Satyrs Scythian significance Śiva social soma specific suggest superciliary marks symbolic third eye tion Tiryns tradition tragedy transformation tree underworld Vedas Vedic Vişņu word worship Zimmer