Antropologicheskij forum, 2015, no. 26

A Review of SILA VZGLYADA: GLAZA V MIFOLOGII I IKONOGRAFII [POWER OF THE GAZE: EYES IN MYTHOLOGY AND ICONOGRAPHY], ed. by D. I. Antonov. Moscow: RGGU, 2014 , 361 pp.

Alexander Makhov

The Institute of Scientific Information on Social Sciences, Russian Academy of Sciences (INION)
51/21 NahimovskyProspect, Moscow, Russia
makhov636()yandex.ru

Abstract: This collection deals with the theme of the gaze as presented in Russian and European medieval iconography and in the different mythological traditions. The reviewer outlines the main idea of the anthology, which is shared by almost all of its authors: the gaze is a source of aggression; the eyes possess some dangerous force that we need to defend ourselves from. This idea is embodied in a set of recurrent motifs (the evil eye, the blindness, the damage of eyes, the eye anomalies, the asymmetry of eyes, the eye illnesses etc.). The eye (as a vehicle of the gaze) is characterized by strange ambivalence: it is simultaneously a powerful weapon of aggression and, due to its physical vulnerability, a perfect object of reciprocal aggression.

Keywords: gaze, eyes, aggression, demonology, eye anomalitites, damage of eyes, blindness.

To cite: Makhov A., 'A Review of Sila vzglyada: glaza v mifologii i ikonografii [Power of the Gaze: Eyes in Mythology and Iconography], ed. by D. I. Antonov. Moscow: RGGU, 2014, 361 pp.', Antropologicheskij forum, 2015, no. 26, pp. 273–284.

URL: http://anthropologie.kunstkamera.ru/files/pdf/026/makhov.pdf