Moloch

El ensayo es el género que mejor se ajusta a este libro, tanto por su carácter exploratorio como por la dimensión de su empresa: cuestionar las bases mismas sobre las que hemos construido un mundo que cada día nos resulta más ajeno. Ajeno porque, en general, se presenta inac- cesible. Y ajeno también porque, si lo observamos con detenimiento, en perspectiva y a contraluz, se revela cada vez más extraño, como si hu- biese sido diseñado por otros, con las reglas de otros y para el disfrute de otros. La mayoría (enorme y en constante crecimiento) parecemos visitantes, “extranjeros” diría Camus, en nuestro propio mundo.

Es gibt bislang schon mehrere Vorschläge zur Etymologisierung des hebräischen Lexems „Tophet“, üblicherweise verstanden als die vor- exilische Kinderopferstätte außerhalb Jerusalems, wenngleich bis dato keiner überzeugen konnte. Hier wird nochmals ein Versuch gewagt, der die morpho-phonetische Gestalt des Wortes berücksichtigt, ohne sich auf die Fiktion eines den Vokalismus verunstaltenden Dysphemismus zu beziehen. Demnach müßte diesem Worte eine Wurzel wpy zugrundeliegen, woraus sich die Bezeichnung eines Terminus technicus für den Ort der Erfüllung ֹתּ ֶפת eines Gelübdes, gleichwohl der Kinderopfer Grundlage, also „Gelöbnisstätte“, ergibt. Zum Schluß wird in gleicher Weise eine andere, bisher unetymologisierte hebräische Vokabel, מוֵֹפת „Wunder“ als „Erfüllung (eines Gottesversprechens)“ erklärt.

Re-reading Allen Ginsberg’s seminal poem ‘Howl’ (1956) through the lens of Oswald Spengler, the article aims to identify a set of converging lines in the works of the poet and of the historian respectively. It traces the influence of Spengler’s The Decline of the West (1918-22) on Beat writers and on Ginsberg in particular, who, in ‘Howl’, shares many of Spengler’s concerns: the myth of the primitive, the loss of the intuitive – seen as a spiritual vessel – and the dereliction of modernity. The article argues that, in ‘Howl’, the radical expression of the dialectical articulation between nature – made universal and ideal – and culture – rendered toxic and malevolent – gains poetical force when formulated on the mode of the prophetic.

In the summer of 1948 Allen Ginsberg experienced a series of auditory hallucinations of the voice of William Blake that subsequently led to the creation of his most seminal pieces of poetry. The effects of William Blake’s poetry have been the topic of conversation surrounding the creative oeuvre of Allen Ginsberg, and this paper analyzes the connection between the two poets and the influence of one on the other. 

To further prove that Allen Ginsberg was heavily influenced by William Blake’s works, works by other scholars that investigated this connection were juxtaposed to find a common thread linking the poetry of William Blake to the works of Allen Ginsberg and highlight the impact it had on the counterculture of the Sixties. Furthermore, this paper investigates the similarities between Blake’s Urizen and Ginsberg’s Moloch, and the common themes of the mundane world, poverty, and madness both poets utilized in their respective works.

Finally, this paper heavily analyzes the concept of vision that both William Blake and Allen Ginsberg experienced in their lives, and that is considered to be the driving force behind Ginsberg’s creativity.

Sergio Ribichini, «Curriculum vitae et studiorum, 2022: (1) Personal Information – (2) Work Experience – (3) Education and Training – (4) Organizational Skills and Competences – (5) Participation in Promotional Literature and Dissemination Activities – (6) Scientific and Technical Reports – (7) Kudos – (8) Publications  – (9) Some Interviews and Public Talks»

Introduction

One of the topics mentioned in classical texts is the narration of a decree that Darius I sent to Carthage and asked the Carthaginians to give up some of their traditions and rituals (Justinus, Epitome of the Philippic History of Pompeius Trogus, 19. 1). From the second half of the 7th century BC, the grounds for conflict between the Greeks and the Carthaginians became more prepared (Ameling 2011: 42). The reason for the formation of these conflicts was the beginning of the Greek attempts to expand their influence in western Sicily and near the Phoenician settlements. Military conflicts between the Greeks and the Phoenicians opened the door of Carthage to the Sicilian wars. Carthage soon took control of Sicily's Phoenician settlers and entered into military conflicts on the island. It was under such circumstances that Darius's envoys came to Carthage and took the order of the Achaemenid emperor with them. Description of this command from Trogus (1st century BC) has been quoted by Justinus (the historian of 2nd and 3rd centuries AD):

During the course of these transactions, ambassadors came to Carthage from Darius king of Persia, bringing an edict, by which the Carthaginians were forbidden to offer human sacrifices, and to eat dog's flesh, and were commanded to burn the bodies of the dead rather than bury them in the earth; and requesting, at the same time, assistance against Greece, on which Darius was about to make war. The Carthaginians declined giving him aid, on account of their continual wars with their neighbours, but, that they might not appear uncompliant in everything, willingly submitted to the decree.  (Justinus, Epitome of the Philippic History of Pompeius Trogus 19. 1)

The main question is why and in which historical context this decree was issued?

Evidence of human sacrifice and eating dog meat in Carthage

In a narration from Theophrastus, there is information about human sacrifice ceremonies in Carthage (Hughes 1991: 116 cited from Theophrastus 13. 22-6 ). There is another narration from Cleitarchus, speaks about burning children as human sacrifice in Carthage (Mosca 1975: 22). In a part of the book of Levicitus, Yahweh asks Moses to tell to the Israelites not to pass their children through the fire for a god called Molech (Levicitus 18. 21). In 1921, intact evidence of a Phoenician temple in Salammbȏ, near the northern port of Tunis, was first identified. On one of the stelae obtained from the Tanit Temple in Salammbȏ, there is a relief that shows picture of a person holding a naked child and wearing a thin dress. This relief has been dated to 7th-4th centuries BC that is almost contemporary with the Achaemenid period. In the early horizon of the Tanit Temple, the remains of jars containing ashes have been found, inside which a number of deciduous teeth have been reported (MacKendrick 1980: 8).

There is also important evidence of eating dog meat in Carthage. We know from historical accounts that this tradition has been practiced since ancient times among the Berber peoples from Egypt to North Africa and even the Canary Islands (Simoons, 1994: 227).

Such traditions was not acceptable for Iranian peoples. We do not have meaningful evidence about human sacrifice and eating dog meat from Achaemenid sites. But we know, similar traditions has been continued in non-central Achaemenid territory. So why the Achaemenid king forbade the Carthaginians from this traditions?

Conclusion

Darius sent the decree to the people of Carthage around 491 BC and before the Battle of Marathon. It seems, he wanted to conspire with the Carthaginians against the Greeks. The Carthaginians spent all their money on the conflict with the Greeks and got into trouble. Under such circumstances, Carthage naturally needed a military and political supporter, and that supporter could be the Achaemenid Empire. Darius's military support of the Carthaginians and Phoenicians against the Greek immigrants probably must have been accompanied by sending troops to Carthage and Sicily. Military forces, most of whom were Iranians and Persians, and traditions such as human sacrifice and eating dog meat, were unfamiliar and unacceptable to them. The continuation of these religious traditions in the midst of the Sicilian wars could cause religious conflict between the Iranians and the Carthaginians. According to the papyri of Elephantine, we know that the Achaemenid Empire was interfering in religious issues just for preventing a conflict between two groups of people and Darius's order to the Carthaginians can be considered as a strategy to prevent a religious conflict between the Iranians and the allied Carthaginians.

در روایتی از تروگ پمپه‌ای، به فرمانی از داریوش اول خطاب به مردم کارتاژ اشاره شده است. فرمانی که داریوش در آن، کارتاژی‌ها را از قربانی کردن انسان و خوردن گوشت سگ منع کرده و از آن‌ها خواسته تا مردگانشان را بجای دفن کردن در زمین، بسوزانند. شواهد باستان‌شناختی نشان می‌دهد، در میان جامعۀ کارتاژ، قربانی انسانی و خوردن گوشت سگ، از سنت‌های کهن محسوب می‌شد. اما چرا داریوش، کارتاژی‌ها را از اجرای آن‌ها منع کرده بود و فرمان او در کدام بستر تاریخی صادر شده بود؟ برای پاسخگویی به این پرسش، مقایسۀ روایت‌های تاریخی با شواهد باستان‌شناختی، امری ضروری است. بر اساس شواهدی همچون پاپیروس‌های الفانتین، هخامنشیان تنها در صورتی در امور مذهبی سرزمین‌های تحت سلطه دخالت می‌کردند که در یک سرزمین، اجرای یک سنت مذهبی از سوی یک قوم، با باورهای مذهبی قوم دیگر در تناقض بود و این تناقض به منازعات مذهبی می‌انجامید. فرمان داریوش، در آستانۀ وقوع نبرد ماراتن صادر شده بود. همزمان، کارتاژی‌ها نیز درگیر یک نبرد سرنوشت‌ساز با یونانی‌ها برای تسلط بر جزیرۀ سیسیل بودند. داریوش می‌توانست با ارسال کمک و نیروهای نظامی به کارتاژ، همزمان با مغلوب ساختن یونانیان در جبهۀ آتن، آنها را در سیسیل نیز دچار مشکل کند. بخش عمدۀ نیروهای اعزامی داریوش، احتمالاً ایرانیان بودند و قربانی انسانی و تغذیه از گوشت سگ برایشان مأنوس و پذیرفتنی نبود. طبق فرضیۀ این مقاله، صدور فرمان مذهبی داریوش به مردم کارتاژ، احتمالاً برای جلوگیری از وقوع درگیری‌های مذهبی میان ایرانیان و کارتاژی‌ها در آستانۀ یک نبرد مهم با یونانیان صورت گرفته است.

"Ancient Carthage: Models of Cultural Contact
St John’s College, Durham University
August 5th-6th, 2011

Cartheginian Child Sacrifice: an Overview
Keynote address, Friday August 5th 8-9:00pm
R Kerr, Waterloo

The Tophets of Carthage and its colonies bear witness to a rite involving the cremation of children. Many questions regarding this rite are still unclear. Was there in fact a regular immolation sanctioned by society and its religious establishment as attested by some Graeco-Roman writers, or was it rather a rite for the burial of uninitiated perinatal mortalities? Why then are the incinerated ashes of various animals also ritually interred at such sites? Is this ritual a Carthaginian innovation or rather the continuation of a Canaanite tradition? Although much forensic evidence of the practice has survived, little is known of what actually transpired or the motivation thereof. The charred remains unsurprisingly do not reveal cause of death. The accounts of Classical authors may indeed be open to question since they do not present eye-witness accounts and undeniably hailed from societies often unfavourably disposed to Carthage. The first-hand evidence of the Carthaginians is limited to the minority of inscribed stelae from the various excavated tophets. Of these, some mention the term mlk, usually in an adjectival genitive construction, which would seem to be the operative technical term. Is this lexeme related to moléch of the Hebrew Bible, often considered to be a deity to whom children were sacrificed? The statements on this matter attributed to biblical prophets describe a ritual quite similar to those mentioned by Classical sources. How then do these rituals then relate to each other if at all?

Thus many questions concerning this enigmatic practice still remain. Unfortunately, the discussion hitherto has often been marred by unscientific sensitivities and the transposition of modern Western ethical considerations to foreign cultures (including those of the Hebrew Bible). None of this is of much use if one wishes to understand the ancient Carthaginian ritual itself. This lecture will briefly survey the archaeological finds and textual evidence before attempting to answer some of the questions posed above. The critical issue to be dealt with when discussing this matter– even if one might be tempted to disjunct the biblical evidence, ignore the Classical sources as being prejudiced and read too much into the cremated remains – is the operative sacrificial term mlk (Punic molx). Many attempts to interpret the rite suffer from a solid philological analysis of of the word itself and instead are based on ambiguous archaeological remains. We will present a new etymology of the term which in turn permit an unambiguous interpretation of the tophets."

The exchange between Martin Buber and Franz Rosenzweig on the status of halakha is a well known, but also frustrating fixture in scholarship. For rather than responding to Rosenzweig's critique, Buber seems to retreat in silence, claiming to be "unable to speak" about his position on Jewish Law. Scholars have generally tried to explain Buber's failure to respond on philosophical and biographical grounds. What I propose, by contrast, is to revisit the question of Buber's silence and secrecy from a hermeneutical standpoint, arguing that Buber engaged in a deliberate strategy of concealment that constituted its own form of response. The hermeneutics of silence discloses a call for religious renewal that follows a state of Dialogvergessenheit, but which cannot be made audible. Neither dialogue nor its remembrance can be commanded. While Buber struggles with his Nichtredenkönnen, he also stands in a tradition of secretive hermeneutics-the Jewish hermeneutics of sod.

In Western tradition, St. George is known as the dragon slayer. In the Middle East, he is called Khidr (“Green One”), and in addition to being a dragon slayer, he is also somehow the prophet Elijah. In this book, Robert D. Miller II untangles these complicated connections and reveals how, especially in his Middle Eastern guise, St. George is a reincarnation of the Canaanite storm god Baal, another “Green One” who in Ugaritic texts slays dragons.

Allen Ginsberg, prophetic, wildly exuberant, the gay bard who saw himself an heir to Whitman, seemingly occupies  a literary tradition far distant from that of the knotted, formal approach of Elizabeth Bishop. This paper presents a lens for viewing the work of Ginsberg and Bishop through the radical reformulation of body/spirit and desire/sexuality.  Ginsberg, through "outer-leaping" verse and Bishop, through "inter-looping" structure, sought to free the body/spirit by salvaging and reconstituting homosexual desire as a form connective, organic being.  I explore the modalities, styles, and philosophical approaches that enable each poet to resist the power structure of materialism/heteronormativity and revitalize an ecstatic queer subjectivity.

…the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes "Awww!"-Jack Kerouac After almost 70 years of its first publication, Ginsberg's poem Howl stands as a colossal monument dedicated to the " best minds " of his " generation destroyed by madness " (Ginsberg, 1). It's a manifestation of the madness and insanity of a whole generation after the Second World War whose great hopes of long-term peace, prosperity and relief were totally demolished and annihilated and who were decentralized politically, morally, emotionally and existentially. These were the children and grandsons of Lost Generation and they were raised in the desperate barren lands of " Wasteland " of T.S. Eliot, who " cannot say, or guess, for you know only / A heap of broken images, where the sun beats, / And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief, / And the dry stone no sound of water " (Eliot, 5) and whose holy souls were burnt down under the incendiary light of " Moloch " who were defying the norms of the status-quo and " machinery of the night " (Ginsberg, 1). The main and sole purpose of this essay is to concentrate on the bliss of madness in Howl of Ginsberg and thus in the movie of Howl by Epstein as a confrontation and defiance to the status-quo and power tools. The very tools that strip the populations of thinking, dreaming and experiencing life at fullest extent while governing the minds and souls by stifling the space of mind, physical existence and also thinking capacities in general sense. In that sense, the focus of the essay will be the concept of insanity in both the poem and the movie as a defiance to the power tools in terms of dispositif (apparatus), great confinement

Dans cet article, nous examinons la phrase finale trouvée dans des dédicaces puniques k šmc qlɔ brkɔ, habituellement traduite « parce qu’il a entendu sa voix, il l’a béni » selon que les verbes expriment l’aspect ou qu’ils expriment la modalité.

Today, this day that I write, the president of the Nordic country, Sauli Niinisto, has informed President Putin of his entry into NATO "in the next few days", perhaps following that old advice of "silver bridge to the enemy". A decision that, we must say, is in no way naive or sudden or forced by the Russian military operation in Ukraine and that definitely hides the unspeakable intentions of its "ghost applicant", President Joe Biden and international globalism.
          That request for adhesion has the smell of Lemminkäinen's death, the fragrance of mothers who suffer next to the dead body of their children, the “aroma” of useless sacrifices and formalin; the fragrance of children and lambs that, in ancient times, were sacrificed to a bloody and cruel god as a propitiatory offering to achieve victory in war, in this case, to carry out and achieve the aggressively expansionist agenda of NATO and, by this means, the destruction of the Russian state. Let us think that NATO has already burned its ships with Russia and probably with China and has placed an “iron curtain” or “dung” between the West and the East.       
          What has happened in the Ukraine has this satirical, fateful, criminal face, as well as what could happen in Finland. The Ukrainian government of President Zelensky has offered the sons, daughters, women, men, elders, boys, girls, treasures, cities, buildings of Ukraine to this Western but metaphysical Molock who, every time, needs more blood, more sweat and more tears.

Dans Les Naufragés et les Rescapés, Primo Levi développe pour la première fois le concept de « zone grise », c’est-à-dire l’espace de privilèges et de luttes de pouvoir à travers les rapports ambigus de complicité et de responsabilité entre les prisonniers et les gardiens, dans le cadre absolument totalitaire et absurde du camp. Jorge, Gérard : je autobiographique ou il fictionnel, tous deux ont connu l’expérience concentrationnaire nazie, Jorge réactivant sa mémoire à travers Gérard, et Gérard hantant les souvenirs de Jorge. Le Grand Voyage rompt le silence sur sa déportation à Buchenwald, tandis que L’Écriture ou la vie tente d’expliquer cet oubli volontaire de plus de quinze années. L’éditeur et écrivain clandestin Vercors publie en 1945 Les Armes de la nuit. Pierre est un survivant du camp fictif de Hochswörth. Il estime avoir perdu sa « qualité d’homme ». Le récit suivant, La Puissance du jour, raconte comment cette condition peut être rétablie (ou perdue pour toujours). En quoi Gérard et Pierre sont-ils des figures de la zone grise ? Il sera abordé dans un premier temps le motif du moi altéré, à la fois homo sacer et possible représentant lazaréen. Or, l’être ne peut être flétri que dans un cadre où l’extra-ordinaire devient la norme : le camp, Moloch et laboratoire du Mal Radical. Conséquemment, l’oeuvre est amenée à devenir un espace d’affirmation d’une nouvelle altérité : écriture semprunienne du ressassement et questionnement ontologique incessant chez Vercors.

/// In The Drowned and the Saved, Primo Levi presents for the first time the « grey zone » concept, that is to say the space of privileges and struggles for power through ambiguous relations of complicity and responsibility between prisonners and guardians, in the absolutely totalitarian and absurde frame of the camp. Jorge, Gérard : the autobiographical I or fictional He, both know the nazi experience. Jorge reactivates his past thanks to Gérard, while Gérard is haunting Jorge’s memories. The Long Voyage breaks the silence about his deportation to Buchenwald, while Literature or Life tries to explain this deliberate omission of almost twenty years. The clandestine editor and writer Vercors publishes in 1945 The Weapons of the Night. Pierre is a survivor from (fictional) Hochswörth camp. He thinks he lost his « human quality ». The following novel, The Power of the Day, relates how this condition may be recovered (or lost forever). Could Gérard and Pierre be considered as figures from the grey zone ? The motif of a corrupted ego should be explored, especially the homo sacer dimension, and the possible Lazarus representative. Yet, the human being could only be withered in a frame where the extra-ordinary becomes the standard : the camp, Moloch and laboratory of Radical Evil. Consequently, the text becomes an area for a new otherness: semprunian writing of rumination, and constant ontological questioning for Vercors.

Resumen:
El dios Moloch, presente en diversos panteones de origen semita, a pesar de contar con un culto largo tiempo extinguido, ha dejado una importante impronta en el imaginario cultural mundial hasta nuestros días. Su entidad original de divinidad probablemente asociada al fuego y al poder ha sido distorsionada a lo largo del tiempo, pasando a convertirse a los ojos de los enemigos de los pueblos que le adoraban en un símbolo del mal. Mucha culpa de ello la tiene el terrible ritual infanticida que se relaciona con su culto, documentado en controvertidos testimonios de la Antigüedad. Además de demostrar una patente pervivencia a través de la literatura, diferentes artes plásticas y otras manifestaciones de lo más variopinto, su influjo ha llegado al cine para convertirse en un elemento recurrente. Con este trabajo se pretende reconocer este legado cultural y acercarse concretamente a algunas de las más importantes referencias cinematográficas tanto de la representación iconográfica de Moloch como de su concepción maléfica abstracta.

Abstract:
Moloch, a god appeared in diverse pantheons of Semitic origin, in spite of possessing a worship extinguished long time ago, has left an important stamp in the world cultural imaginary to the present day. His original entity of divinity associated probably with fire and power has been distorted throughout the time, turning to a symbol of evil in the eyes of the enemies of those who adored him. The terrible ritual of infanticide related to his worship is much responsible of this view, certified by controversial Ancient testimonies. Beside a clear survival across literature, plastic arts and other varied manifestations, his influence has come to the cinema to become an appellant element. This paper tries to recognize this cultural legacy and to approach specifically some of the most important film references about Moloch’s iconographic representation and his abstract evil conception.