On 28 Jul 1999, Christopher Crockett wrote:
> I've often thought that these examples (and, say, the ubiquitous scratched-out
> eyes in byzantine murals in subsequently Moslem-dominated areas) are proof
> positive that the images, far from being dismissed as mere impotent objects,
> were seen by their vandals as fully-charged, dangerous and threatening.
A belief by no means limited to artefacts. Physical human remains, including
saints' relics, are invested with identical threats, as witness the 1793
desecration of the tombs of past French monarchs at the abbey of St-Denis,
cogently discussed by Elizabeth A.R. Brown, and the desecration of the graves
of humble priests and nuns during the Spanish Civil War, graphically described
and illustrated by Bruce Lincoln.
John Parsons
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|