Thursday 22 July 2010

Images of Mammon (Part One)


If we're living in a devil's world - if one demon shaped our reality more than any other - whose world would it be? Paimon? Vassago? Ose? One name comes to mind more than any other -- that of MAMMON, associated with money and (at least in the West) the evil of money, its crimes and sins* - namely greed, exploitation, avarice.










Once considered the gravest of sins, society is now rife with religious people arguing that perhaps all this talk of money as "the root of all evil" has been misunderstood; surely, such voices argue, it is no sin to be wealthy? Maybe Mammon just has a bad rep.







How has Mammon been depicted over the years? Corpulence is one modern defining feature but even that isn't constant; indeed, the range of artistic depictions through the centuries is something to behold...




















SEE PART TWO HERE

*Avaritia being the sin of Wealth, Luxuria the sin of spending wealth on luxuries.

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