Ask Not What Your Gods Can Do for You - Ancient Light #1

Today we ask what our gods can do for us. We compare promised afterlives, we pray for help for both major and minor things. In ancient times, there was more of a balance between what a god could do for a mortal, and what a mortal could do for a god. We all know about the original idea of sacrifice. One might sacrifice a delicious calf or cow. The Archaic Greeks would wrap the bones of the sacrifice with fat and give it to the gods, while the assembled people would eat the aforementioned delicious meat. Make no mistake, the significant ingredient to offer the god and/or gods was the blood. The fat and bones were secondary. Even Homer or Homer/s spoke about the great power of blood to the dead. It gave them a taste of life again.

Fig. 1 Apulian Red-Figure Krater 4th cent. BC detail

Today we talk of personal sacrifice and the only thing we give to our gods are things like prayer, the signing of hymns, and dedicating your own meal to a god. I’m not going to go as far as say a tithe goes to the benefit of a god, as much as it is a donation made in a gods name. Those are merely the most well-known examples of how the ancients strove to please their gods. In several cases, an ancient Greek literary figure would promise to make regular sacrifices to a particular god for some sort of payment for help or seeking penance for a committed crime. Odysseus attempted to keep the god of the sun from killing his men for eating his prize cattle. Odysseus tempted the sun god Helios with regular sacrifices once he makes it back to Ithaca, somewhere in New York [This is a joke BTW]]. It makes one wonder what god-like endorphin was triggered by a mere sacrifice of livestock. 

Perhaps, at the end of the day, all the gods added up the spilled blood, burnt offerings, small cakes, and winding smoke gained by each god. If that is the case, the ancient mortals were merely appealing to the ego of a particular god. The Classical Greek Gods are often portrayed like extremely powerful teenagers.  
From my exposure to Greek and Latin Classics, one thing is evident when it comes to the gods: you can actively set out to give an unknown benefit to a specific god, by making a sacrifice in his or her name. My favorite example is the Roman ‘Evocatio.’ A general of an army stops the troops outside the walls of a hostile city somewhere in Gaul or Asia Minor perhaps, and addresses the main god of the peoples therein. The general makes a sacrifice and calls out to the god of the city. But what does he say to the god? Modern ears, upon hearing this for the first time might guess that the general will call out to the local god and denounce him or her, comparing the lesser known god to the mighty Gods of Rome. This would not be the case. The Roman mentality was much different. They wanted to make Rome the spiritual center of the conquered world by bringing all the gods to it. 

Fig. 2 "Evocation" Alexander Rothaug (1870 – 1946), Austrian

The Roman General proceeds to call the local god by name. He tells the god about Rome and how gods who move there experience much more glory and sacrificial gain then could be experienced in such a small city. The General then asks the god to abandon the temples of the hostile city and move to Rome. Of course, once the city was conquered, the people, one might assume, would be told where they can find their god. You know the phrase “all roads lead to Rome?” The roads are important, but what flows along those roads are much more than slaves, soldiers and trade.  

The moral of the prose: Ask not what your gods can do for you; rather, ask what you can do for your gods. 

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Ancient history themed podcast presented by Steve Dotson, history professor. 

Recorded Live at Cafe Blackadder in Warrensburg, Missouri during the SpoFest spoken word event, April 1, 2016.

A satirical and informative look at Greek and Roman views of sacrifice to a god or gods.

Ancient Light #1 "Ask Not What Your Gods Can Do For You," Recorded Live, April 2016, Cafe Blackadder, Warrensburg, Missouri.

Evolution of the Golem - From Golem to Robot

A Golem is a magical creature made from inanimate materials. He is usually summoned to perform a particular deed such as protect a city. The earliest extant text mentioning a golem is from the Jewish tradition. Many of the early traditions have the creature made from clay and dirt. Holy Hebrew letters and spellcraft provide the special formula to animate the humanoid shaped amalgamation. The ability to create a golem prior to the modern period belonged to the Rabbi.

Fig. 1 Der Golem 1915

The idea of the golem animated from a raw element remains in modern literature. The 1915 German expressionist film "Der Golem" featured the traditional creature, which was animated by a Rabbi. An episode of the TV series "Grimm" (2014) features a golem which was created by a Rabbi to protect his nephew.

Fig. 2 The Bride of Frankenstein 1935

As the age of scientific discovery emerged, a variation of the golem figure arose. Dr. Frankenstein's monster is not a base element empowered by magic, but a combination of human parts, animated by scientific means and the raw power of nature. Mary Shelley published her work in 1818, but the popular mind remembers the black and white film from 1931 or the 1974 Mel Brooks film "Young Frankenstein." Shelley's creature eventually became intelligent, but was given to grief and fits of rage because of his alienation from humanity. The Universal Studios film presents an unintelligent version of the monster. The film monster is less complex than the one in the book. "The Bride of Frankenstein" 1935 presented a second sci-golem who was able to view the original monster with horror. It was a duplication of a similar alienation present in the original.

Fig. 3 Fritz Lang's Metropolis 1927

In 1927 Fritz Lang released the film "Metropolis." This science golem, like Shelley's monster, was a robot disguised as a real woman. This begs the question: what is the difference between a golem and a robot?  The False Maria/Robot of "Metropolis" makes this overlap quite obvious: if we use science to create a golem, are we not just creating a type of robot or cyborg?

Fig. 4 The robot is made to look like Maria, becoming the "False Maria."

The False-Maria is designed to be a feminine disruptive force in the city of Metropolis. This is similar to the creation story of Smurfette in "The Smurfs." Click here to read an article about some of the symbols in "The Smurfs" comic and cartoon.

As the scientific age advanced, the golem connection was lost, but the robot became the new golem; science gradually replaced magic. The monster and robot alike often confront their own place in a society which rejects it or some other crisis of existence: Robocop, Chappie, Wall-E, The Iron Giant, and Bicentennial Man. Robocop is interesting in this comparison, he more than the others resembles Frankenstein's monster, made from a combination of human and non-human parts. It was Shelley who bridged the gap between magic and science to make this connection evident. It is not clear to me if Shelley's monster would be considered a robot or a cyborg. He was made from organic materials like a cyborg can be, but this is only a vessel. The False-Maria takes a step nearer the robot, made of metal parts, only a superficial layer gives the appearance of a real homosapien. A leftover device of the old golem, that of magic, can still be seen in Metropolis, unlike Shelley's creature. The house of the scientist who created the robot, was built long ago by someone known as the Magician. A large downward pentagram hangs on the wall above the chair of the False-Maria (Fig. 3) and an upright pentagram on the front door of the medieval style home. The original book 1925 was thick with occult references, many of which did not appear in the film. In the book, the Magician played a greater role. Nonetheless, occult and religious references abound in the film.

Looking at film history and the progression of the golem trope in this way shows a continuous thread from golem to robot. Alternatively, I think the robot existential crisis would have arisen in literature and film regardless of the golem tradition and Mary Shelley. The futurist and science fiction genres are in no way dependent on the golem tradition. The robot identity crisis idea naturally arises when we imagine robots who are self-aware.

Ancient Light #1 "Ask Not What Your Gods Can Do for You" History Podcast

Ancient Light Episode 1 "Ask Not What Your Gods Can Do for You"

Ancient history themed podcast presented by Steve Dotson, history professor. 

Recorded Live at Cafe Blackadder in Warrensburg, Missouri during the SpoFest spoken word event, April 1, 2016.

A satirical and informative look at Greek and Roman views of sacrifice to a god or gods.