The Saturn Myth As A Type Of Meta Structure - 740 Words

It may be possible, if the monstrous rhetoric could be traced to its origin, to establish a type of meta-structure by which to identify uses of language and metaphor which rely on the monstrous to create difference or marginality. A brief look into the European origins of cannibalism, not as a practice but as a metaphorical construction, leads back to the Saturn myth. Again, Zika notes the use of the Saturn myth as the â€Å"explicit basis for [the] association between witch and cannibal,† and notes the similarity between depictions of the god who ate his own kind and depictions of both witches and cannibals. Sociologically, marginalized classes of people tended to be associated with Saturn throughout the Middle Ages, including â€Å"criminals, cripples, beggars, the elderly and low-born, the poor, and those involved in vulgar and dishonorable trades†; by the time of Columbus, the category of â€Å"Saturn’s children† had been expanded to include â€Å"th e dead, magicians, and witches.† It is also easy to see how the fear of consumption, so plainly manifested in the Saturn myth, also manifested in blatantly similar ways in a variety of Christian metaphors from the sixteenth century. For instance, hell was often depicted as an all-devouring mouth that opened as a cleft in the earth, and many popular representations of Satan, including Dante’s in the Inferno, depict him as a figure who consumes the bodies of sinners, often with limbs still hanging from his slavering jaws. Such imageryShow MoreRelatedManagement Course: Mba−10 General Management215330 Words   |  862 Pagesvolcanic twenty-first-century economy is that the terrain on which their businesses will operate tomorrow will be shaped differently from the terrain of today. They recognize that the business requirement is to lead accordingly, and they know that this type of leadership requires an understanding of the characteristics of the business initiative s that can meet the demands for supporting strong earnings growth in turbulent market conditions. Our work has shown that new powers of leadership and management