Of Gold and Iron Masks

Poster design featuring:

 

 1: Mask of Agamemnon  (c. 1550-1500 BC) [1]  

2 The Man in the Iron Mask (1939) [2] 

3: L'homme au masque d'or (2024) [3]

 

 

I. 

 

The death masks of Mycenae are a unique collection of gold funerary masks found on male bodies within a Bronze Age burial site located within the ancient Greek city. They were discovered by German businessman and amateur archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann during an excavation in 1876.   

 

The masks consist of a flat (foil-like) layer of gold that has been hammered into shape and depict faces with distinct features (including stick out ears) chiseled into the metal. 

 

The masks are believed to be fairly faithful representations of the deceased, although there's obviously a degree of artistic license (and idealisation); those who could afford to have such masks made would obviously want to look their best in the circumstances.

 

The most famous of these masks is known as the Mask of Agamemnon, after Schliemann claimed to have discovered the actual burial site of the legendary king of the Acheans from Homer's Iliad. Let's just say that from the very start there were doubts raised as to its authenticity ... [4]    

 

 

II. 

 

Whilst the Mask of Agamemnon certainly played a part in my thinking when I created the image shown as figure 3 above, I was actually more inspired by the story of an unidentified prisoner of the French state during the reign of  Louis Quatorze; a prisoner referred to (in English) as The Man in the Iron Mask ...

Arrested and incarcerated in 1669, the Man in the Iron Mask spent 34 years locked up until his death in the Bastille in 1703. Known by several pseudonyms, his true identity remains a mystery, even though it has been extensively researched and argued over by historians ever since. According to one theory, he may have been the son of Oliver Cromwell. Voltaire believed him to be Louis's illegitimate brother [5].

 

Whoever he was, his ordeal has been the subject of many fictional works, including novels, poems, plays, and films. 

 

Perhaps the best-known of these works is by Alexandre Dumas, although readers whose preference is for American cinema rather than French literature might better recall the 1939 movie directed by James Whale (or indeed the 1998 movie directed by Randall Wallace and starring Leonardo DiCaprio). Both films are what would be termed very loose adaptations of the third part of Le Vicomte de Bragelonne (1847-50) [6].   

 

 

III.

 

Hopefully, in my Man in a Golden Mask collage I have managed to capture something both of the Mycenaean death mask in all its aureate splendour and the close-fitting iron mask as imagined by Dumas in all its horror. 

 

By leaving the eyes open and the mouth exposed, I attempted to show how one who suffers great torment at the hands of others dreams of vengeance and this can often be seen shining in their eyes and smiling on their lips ...           

 

 

Notes

 

[1] The Mask of Agamemnon is currently held by the National Archaeological Museum of Athens, Greece: click here.   

 

[2] A still from the 1939 film The Man in the Iron Mask (dir. James Whale). 

 

[3] Papier collé by Stephen Alexander (2024). 

 

[4] Towards the end of his life, Schliemann accepted doubts as to the mask's true owner. Modern archaeological research suggests that the mask is genuine, but pre-dates the period of the Trojan War by 300–400 years. Other researchers say it may even belong to a much earlier period, c. 2500 BC. 

 

[5] It is thanks to Voltaire that the legend developed that the anonymous prisoner was made to permanently wear an iron mask; as a matter of fact, his face was hidden behind a mask of black velvet and official documents reveal that he was made to wear it only when travelling between prisons after 1687, or when attending prayers within the Bastille in the final years of his incarceration.

 

[6] Le Vicomte de Bragelonne ou Dix ans plus tard is an enormous 2,800 page novel by Alexandre Dumas which was first published in serial form between 1847 and 1850. In most English translations, the 268 chapters are usually divided into three volumes: The Vicomte de Bragelonne (chapters 1-93), Louise de la Vallière (chapters 94-180), and The Man in the Iron Mask (chapters 181-269). 

      Long fascinated by the tale of l'homme au masque de fer, Dumas portrays the prisoner as Louis XIV's identical twin. 

 

Atomic: The D. H. Lawrence Memorial Post (2021)

 

Jo Davidson's clay bust of D. H. Lawrence made four days before the 

latter's death on 2 March 1930. Lawrence judged the result mediocre; 

others have since found it slightly macabre.

 

 

I. 

 

Tomorrow is the 92nd anniversary of the death of D. H. Lawrence. 

 

That's quite a long time ago: long enough, I'm guessing, for a fair few of his atoms to have penetrated me, you, and everybody else on the planet, making us all neo-Lawrentians at some infinitesimal level - just as, indeed, we are all the other names in history (Louis XIV didn't know the half of it).   

 

I've written elsewhere on Torpedo the Ark about atomic reincarnation and how even the dead don't rest in peace [click here]. But it's a subject that, as a thanatologist, I never tire of and which I'm always happy to resurrect given the opportunity. 

 

So, once more unto the grave dear friends ...   

 

 

II. 

 

In February 1923, Lawrence famously consoled a grieving friend: "The dead don't die. They look on and help." [1] 

 

And, for the most part, that's true ...

 

For whilst the dead don't look on - obviously - they never really die because the atoms that made them are immortal: they are in the food you eat, the water you drink, the air you breathe, etc. It's a category error to equate the personal death of the individual with non-being. 

 

And, in as much as the dead lend us their atoms, I suppose they could be said, in a very real sense, to help us. 

 

 

III.

 

Now, as Jennifer Aniston used to say, here comes the science bit - concentrate ... 

 

According to the theoretical astrophysicist Ethan Siegel, one out of every 2.1 × 10^16 hydrogen atoms and one out of every 2.6 × 10^16 oxygen atoms in your body was formerly in any dear departed individual you care to name. 

 

That maybe doesn't sound like a lot, until you remember that "there are 4.3 × 10^27 hydrogen atoms and 1.7 × 10^27 oxygen atoms in a typical human body" [2]. Which means that there are approximately 200 billion hydrogen atoms and 65 billion oxygen atoms gathered from dead souls.

 

Siegel further notes that, because atoms are so outrageously numerous, if you do the maths you'll discover that "approximately one atom in everyone's lungs, at any moment" [3], came from D. H. Lawrence on his death bed as he exhaled his final breath.

 

And you thought coronavirus was the only thing to worry about in your respiratory system ...

 

 

Notes

 

[1] D. H. Lawrence, letter to John Middleton Murry (2 Feb 1923), in The Letters of D. H. Lawrence, Vol IV, ed. Warren Roberts, James T. Boulton and Elizabeth Mansfield, (Cambridge University Press, 1987), p. 375.     

[2] Ethan Siegal, 'Ask Ethan: How Many Atoms Do You Share With King Tut?', Forbes, (14 May, 2016): click here to read online.

 

[3] Ibid.