Original scientific paper
Medusa's Mask of a Frenzied Civilization: Evocations of the Emperor Heliogabalus in Decadent Literature
Sebastian A. Kukavica
Abstract
As a particular genre of ancient biographies of sovereigns, the biographies of mad emperors aim to depict all the excesses, frenzies and indulgences of rulers commonly considered as the epitomes of bad governance, atrocious tyranny, debauchery, godlessness, norm defilement, and usurpation of the Caesar's mandate. These anti-hagiographies, intertwined with fiction, follow the standardized narrative matrix of intensifying exaggerations of the mad Caesars' perversions and ferocities taken to the utmost level of extremity, videlicet to the tyrannical desire for annihilation. Portraying the lives and deeds of the mad emperors as emblematic of the period of the empire's decadence, biographies of the mad emperors ultimately serve as a moral warning against the dangers of arbitrary rule and subjugation of the state to a private interest for satisfying the whims of a suzerain. Among all the mad Roman emperors, Heliogabalus has been widely regarded as the most frantic of all, as well as the epitome of excess, overindulgence and perversion, both in ancient sources and modern declinist studies on the causes of Rome's decadence. However, an interesting phenomenon occurred in the nineteenth century: once abominated, expunged and execrated for centuries, the life and rule of Heliogabalus were suddenly re-evaluated, gaining positive connotation within a field of the transnational decadent republic of letters. Due to the depictions of Heliogabalus as a dandy and a decadent obsessed with the ideal of morbid and unnatural beauty; due to the maelstrom structure of biographies of the mad emperors absorbing all aspects of decadence; due to the content related to the perversions and transgressions of the decadent-tyrant; as well as due to the style of saturation, which, absorbing all the excesses of the mad Caesars, itself becomes overstrained and bulky; therefore, the decadent literary criticism, as well as decadent literature, found in Heliogabalus their paragon and spiritual antecedent. This article aims to explore why Heliogabalus, among all other mad emperors, became crowned as the saint and martyr of decadence in decadent literature. The answer lies in the nature of decadent aesthetics, closely related to the genre of biographies of mad emperors. Key decadent texts will be analyzed, demonstrating how evocations of Heliogabalus in fact legitimize decadent aesthetics from the works of Gautier, Sade, and Musset through Villiers de l'Isle-Adam, Poe, and Huysmans to Wilde, Mishima, and Lorrain.
Keywords
Heliogabalus; the mad emperor biography; decadent aesthetics; tyranny; annihilation
Hrčak ID:
322292
URI
Publication date:
11.11.2024.
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