MARIUS ENGH: “LYCANTHROPIC CHAMBER”
21.02.-29.03.2008 / PREVIEW: 21.02.2008 / 19.00-21.00 /
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SCENE I & SCENE II
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“Homo Sum; Nihil humani a me alienum puto”. [“I am a man; Nothing human is alien to me.”]
– Terentius (185 – 159 BC), “Heauton Timoroumenos”
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“In vain he attempted to speak; from that very instant!
His jaws were bespluttered with foam, and only he thirsted!
For blood, as he raged amongst flocks and panted for slaughter.!
His vesture was changed into hair, his limbs became crooked;!
A wolf, he retains yet large trace of his ancient expression,!
Hoary he is as afore, his countenance rabid,!
His eyes glitter savagely still, the picture of fury.”
– Ovid (43 BC – 17 AD), “Metamorphoses”
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“We have to distinguish two classes of instincts, one of which, the sexual instincts or Eros, is by far the more
conspicuous and accessible to study…. The second class of instincts was not so easy to point to; in the end
we came to recognize sadism as its representative. On the basis of theoretical considerations, supported by
biology, we put forward the hypothesis of a death instinct, the task of which is to lead organic life back into the
inanimate state; on the other hand, we supposed that Eros … aims at complicating life and at the same time,
of course, at preserving it. Acting in this way, both the instincts … would be endeavouring to re-establish a
state of things that was disturbed by the emergence of life. The emergence of life would thus be the cause of
the continuance of life and also at the same time of the striving towards death; and life itself would be a
conflict and compromise between these two trends.”
– Sigmund Freud, “The Ego and the Id”, 1960