I had stated in this blog’s opening page that in a
previous life I was a healthcare professional and an academic. After 38 years of travelling the world to
address epidemics or improving the quality of hospital care I found my happy
space in the outdoors, the arts and all the books I had not had time to read.
But old loves do not go away that easily…. I still
read healthcare literature and even publish one article a year. After all, it
was my identity for most of my adult life.
Ok, all this prologue to explain why I was reading a
very intriguing article about medicocriminal entomology. I was reviewing the
contribution of Paracelsius to the harmonization of keen observation to
existing knowledge and ended up with an essay on toxicology where it was
discussed how in the 6th century, Paracelsius used the word “Silphid”
or “sylph” to describe mortal spirits that lack souls. Interestingly Sylph is
also related to “Sylva”, the Latin word meaning “slender, graceful girl” and
the Greek word “nymph” meaning “light, airy movements.”
Hmm.
All this gets more interesting when in forensic investigations
for determining time of death, a family of bugs, of the Coleoptera order are
used as their stage of development in the animal or human flesh will determine
when death had occurred.
Well, the special family in the order Coleoptera that
has this forensic importance is called Silphidae!!
So, mortal spirits lacking soul, graceful girl, airy
movements, and bugs that feed on decaying flesh!
Actually, all this led me to think about the world
Sylphide I first encountered in French literature. After a few moments of
forcing my brain to recall, I was quite sure it was in one of Balzac’s works
that I learned about that word. And, given the magic of the Internet search, I
was able to find the exact passage. It
is:
[Il] fut admis
auprès de la femme (...) qu'il avait vue la veille, (...) fraîche et pure jeune
fille vêtue de gaze (...). Il arrivait impétueusement pour lui déclarer son
amour, (...) il trouva sa vaporeuse sylphide (...) languissamment couchée sur
le divan (Balzac, Langeais, 1834, p. 250).
In this instance, Balzac use the word Sylphide to
describe an idealized woman, more fantasy than real. This passage is from La
Duchesse de Langeais, a 1834 novel where Balzac describes how General Armand de
Montriveau, a war hero, is enamored with Duchess Antoinette de Langeais, a
coquettish, married noblewoman who invites him to a ball, teases him but ultimately refuses
his sexual advances and then disappears in thin air.
Airy movements the Duchess Antoinette had?
…. After reading the multiple sources of history and
literature triggered by my initial intent to summarize the contribution of
Paracelsius to toxicology, I wondered if, through my camera lens, I can build a
sylphide. What if I could take pictures of different women and then try to
build an imaginary sylph through a puzzle?
There was only one way to find out.
I walked around the streets and without compromising
the identity of the women, took a few photos.
Should she favor a lace dress and sandals? In this instance it will be a Greek siren visiting our small cowboy town from the Sirenum scopuli islands...
Or perhaps she will proudly show her tattoo and shoulders. Her hair would be perfectly black and simple. She reminded me more of a mermaid with her strong shoulders. Interestingly, the first stories appeared in
ancient Assyria, in which the goddess Atargatis transformed herself into a
mermaid out of shame for accidentally killing her human lover.
Hmm, that is quite a story, especially since I could not tell if her lower body had fish scales and a large tail!
Talking about lower body, would she wear a comfortable pair of sweatpants with elephant prints on them? I laughed thinking how strange it will look to have the mermaid upper body on these hips and legs...
All this leads me to a most comfortable imaginary woman. A family woman, keeping vigil while her mate sleeps. A woman with no extravagance, no elephant prints, tattoos, or white lace dress.
I suppose a street photographer always tries to find
an angle to tell the story of people that the common mortal does not see or
does not think about seeing. A few years ago I did a similar experiment taking
photos of people from a dog’s perspective (https://liveingray.blogspot.com/2014/09/street-photography-from-dogs-perspective.html).
This project continues to intrigue blog visitors from around the world.
So, sylph, sylphide, Silphidae, siren (Σειρήν Seirēn)
or mermaid, one way or another they were dangerous creatures. Yet our male fantasy
of dreaming about the ideal woman, if not in real life but in our secret
moments, remains powerful across time, cultures and continents.
June 25, 2018
©Vahé A. Kazandjian, 2018
