Culture, Tomb, SPHINX -- Mimetic Theory and Literary Study

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Date Posted: 14:36:32 03/11/08 Tue
Author: CS Holden
Subject: Culture, Tomb, SPHINX

Flipping through "Things Hidden," Girard's last section in Book I, Chapter Two caught my eye. He writes: "Culture always develops as a tomb. The tomb is nothing but the first human monument to be raised over the surrogate victim, the first most elemental and fundamental matrix of meaning. There is no culture without a tomb and no tomb without a culture; i the end the tomb is the first and only cultural symbol. The above-ground tomb does not have to be invented. It is the pile of stones in which the victim of unanimous stoning is buried. It is the first pyramid" (83).

So I did some digging (pardon the pun). I started thinking about the Sphinx, not just as a monstrous figure (human head, lion's body) but also in terms of the famous Sphinx in Egypt which is near the pyramids. That got me thinking about Oedipus, the defeater of the sphinx, and also of Laius, and also of himself. Clearly the cycle has older roots than the murder of Laius. What's the connection to the riddle of the Sphinx?

According to Wikipedia, "Generally the roles of sphinxes were as guardians and they were placed in association with architectural structures such as royal tombs or religious temples." Fun fact, eh?

Some more fun facts about the Sphinx:
- It's a foreigner, brought over from Egypt by Hera.
- It's considered a "threshold" moment in Greek mythology when Oedipus defeats the Sphinx, because it symbolizes the death of the old religious practices and the embracing of the "new," Olympian gods.
- The term "Sphinx" means, literally, "strangler." She comes to Thebes and starts riddling, strangling, and eating Thebans.
- When Oedipus solves its riddle, the Sphinx does one of two things, according to myth: One, she jumps from a cliff and killed herself. Or Two: SHE DEVOURS HERSELF.

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Replies:

Re: Culture, Tomb, SPHINX -- Cara, 06:29:50 03/12/08 Wed
- Re: Culture, Tomb, SPHINX -- CS Holden, 09:07:50 03/12/08 Wed
  - Re: Culture, Tomb, SPHINX -- Cara, 20:09:06 03/23/08 Sun
    - Re: Culture, Tomb, SPHINX -- CS Holden, 10:09:08 03/24/08 Mon