Momus
Momus (/ˈmoʊməs/; Ancient Greek: Μῶμος Momos) in Greek mythology was the personification of satire and mockery, two stories about whom figure among Aesop's Fables. During the Renaissance, several literary works used him as a mouthpiece for their criticism of tyranny, while others later made him a critic of contemporary society. Onstage he finally became the figure of harmless fun.
For the Scottish artist and singer, see Momus (musician). For the Mardi Gras society, see Knights of Momus.Political satire[edit]
In Lucian's 2nd-century social comedy The Gods in Council, Momus takes a leading role in a discussion on how to purge Olympus of foreign gods and barbarian demi-gods who are lowering its heavenly tone.[10]
Renaissance author Leon Battista Alberti wrote the political work Momus, or The Prince (1446), which continued the god's story after his exile to earth. Since his continued criticism of the gods was destabilizing the divine establishment, Jupiter bound him to a rock and had him castrated. Later, however, missing his candor, Jupiter sought out a manuscript that Momus had left behind in which was described how a land could be ruled with strictly regulated justice.[11]
At the start of the 16th century, Erasmus also presented Momus as a champion of the legitimate criticism of authorities. Allowing that the god was "not quite as popular as others, because few people freely admit criticism, yet I dare say of the whole crowd of gods celebrated by the poets, none was more useful."[12] Giordano Bruno's philosophical treatise The Expulsion of the Triumphant Beast (1584)[13] also looks back to Lucian's example. Momus there plays an integral part in the series of dialogues conducted by the Olympian deities and Bruno's narrators as Jupiter seeks to purge the universe of evil.[14]
Social satire[edit]
17th-century English writers introduced the figure of Momus in a gentler spirit of fun, as in Thomas Carew's masque Coelum Britannicum (1634), which was acted before King Charles I and his court. In Coelum Britannicum, Momus and Mercury draw up a plan to reform the "Star Chamber" of Heaven. Two centuries later, Coelum Britannicum influenced Henry David Thoreau as he was preparing to write his Walden.[15]
John Dryden's short "Secular Masque" (1700) mocks contemporary society through the medium of the Classical divinities, with Momus playing a leading part in deflating with sarcastic wit the sports represented by Diana (hunting), Mars (war), and Venus (love), for "'Tis better to laugh than to cry."[16] It is with similar wryness that Carl Sandburg's statue of "Momus" (1914) surveys the never-changing human scene, "On men who play in terrible earnest the old, known, solemn repetitions of history", as they continue to overpopulate the world and then bleed it.[17]
