De god die zijn vrouw had opgegeten

“The gods are phantoms, we have understood this for centuries. They can only be approached through the golden mask with which we have adorned them and through the names with which we can solemnly venerate them. Fascinated by the brilliance of timeless gold, we have put it on board in such a way that the masks of kings are always the ritual substitution of the supernatural cruelty of the divine gaze or of or his renounced compassion. The gold-clad king is the earthly stand-in for the golden mask of the gods. Stated in semiotic terms, he is, at once, a protocol “symbol” and a narrative “figure. Compared to the apparent figures of the gods, he is a ‘double figure.’ Such double-stature - ‘una persona, duae naturae / one person, two natures’ - can be nothing but a mythological simulacrum. Along the mythological side: the divine metamorphosis. Along the ritual side: the manifest embodiment of ritual authority over man and beast. In this story, manifest authority can be understood as the ritual power over words.”