The Mouth of the Clown and the Smile of Demetra - Baubo / Устата на кловнот и насмевката на Деметра - Баубо (original) (raw)

2013, В. Мартиновски, В. Томовска (ред.) Сите лица на смешното: од антиката до денес, Скопје: Друштво на класични филолози Антика; Друштво за компаративна книжевност на Македонија

"The article is a continuation of the previous researches of the author, targeted to the classical circus performances and its archaic mytho-religious levels. This research is focused on the ambivalence of the clowns mouth which causes positive and negative emotions. Seeking the historical genesis of it, he first comes to the big, wide, gaping mouth of the mythical character Silenos and other chthonic gods, which indicate the regressive aspects of the universe - the principle of destruction and death. Since male chthonic gods do not possess organs of birth, such a mouth takes over their creative function, so the chthonic god, through vomiting, returns back to nature that which he had eaten or drank before (water, sun, fire, plants, etc.). This is why the use this type of mouth, in Greek theater masks, can be treated as residue of the presence of characters with such features in theatrical performances. Female mythical characters of the type of the Greek Gorgon Medusa or the Indian goddess Kali were also depicted with a similar gaping mouth. Both are obviously goddesses of death and destruction, which is represented exactly by using this organ. But, if you take into consideration their female gender, accentuated often by their spread legs, (pose specific for coitus and childbirth) it leads to the conclusion that originally (in relation with the vulva) progressive aspects of existence, conception and birth, were also coded in them. The concept of equalization between the organs of the upper and lower halves of the human body, and in this framework, of the mouth and the vulva, is inherent for all mankind. This relationship is the basis of the myth of Demeter and Baubo, whose core plot is the moment when Demeter who, after greaving for a long time because she lost her daughter Persephone, finally smiles when the old woman Baubo lifts her skirt and shows her her vulva. These actions cause the awakening of nature which suggests the basic logical structure of this myth: laughing = opening of the mouth = opening of the vulva = conception and birth = activation of the vegetative processes in nature. Taken generally, laughing (especially women`s) represents her spiritual opening which is proceeded by the opening of her body. This meaning, but also laughing as compensation for traur, may be taken as the key to justify the ritual laughter presented in funeral rites and ritual human sacrifices. The smile on the faces of the deceased and the sacrificed or the laughing of their mourning relatives, were seen as an indicator of the resurrection of the deceased and the instigator of their successful transition to the world of the gods. The mouth is an organ intended for grinding food and killing other creatures. Therefore, it symbolizes death and destruction. It is quite a small difference between the mouth open for laughing and the mouth gaping for devouring. In all its ambivalence, both meanings are present in the Balkan Gorgon Medusa, Demeter and Baubo, the Indian Kali, but at the same time in the typical European clown - "August the Stupid" and the unique "Joker" in the film "Batman." "