Heliogabalus; or, the Crowned Anarchist

by Antonin Artaud, Alexis Lykiard (Translator)

Translated into English for the first time, this novelized biography of the 3rd-century Roman Emperor Heliogabalus is simultaneously Artaud's most accessible and his most extreme book. Written in 1933, at the time when Artaud was preparing to stage his legendary Theatre of Cruelty, Heliogabalus is a powerful concoction of sexual excess, self-deification and terminal violence. Reflecting its author's preoccupations with the occult, magic, Satan, and a range of esoteric religions, this account of Heliogabalus' reign invents incidents in the Emperor's life in order to make the print of the author's own passionate denunciations of modern existence.

Heliogabalus is Artaud's greatest and most revolutionary masterpiece: an incendiary work that reveals both the divine cruelty of the Roman Emperor and that of Artaud himself. -- Stephen Barber

Genres: Fiction, France, Literature, French Literature, Philosophy, Historical Fiction, Classics

154 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1934

About the author

Antoine Marie Joseph Artaud, better known as Antonin Artaud, was a French playwright, poet, essayist, actor, and theatre director.

Considered among the most influential figures in the evolution of modern drama theory, Antonin Artaud associated himself with Surrealist writers, artists, and experimental theater groups in Paris during the 1920s.

When political differences resulted in him breaking from the Surrealists, he founded the Theatre Alfred Jarry with Roger Vitrac and Robert Aron. Together they hoped to create a forum for works that would radically change French theatre. Artaud, especially, expressed disdain for Western theatre of the day, panning the ordered plot and scripted language his contemporaries typically employed to convey ideas, and he recorded his ideas in such works as Le Theatre de la cruaute and The Theatre and Its Double.

Artaud believed that theatre should represent reality and, therefore, affect the audience as much as possible, therefore he used a mixture of strange and disturbing forms of lighting, sound, and other performance elements.

Artaud wanted to put the audience in the middle of the 'spectacle' (his term for the play), so they would be 'engulfed and physically affected by it'. He referred to this layout as being like a 'vortex' - a constantly shifting shape - 'to be trapped and powerless'.

Reviews

[Vit Babenco · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heliogabalus is a tale about a madman told by another madman – a fantastic ejaculation of the poetical mind.

A thing named is a dead thing, and it’s dead because it is set apart.

Antonin Artaud tells the story of Heliogabalus as though he writes an alchemical treatise and in the first section: The Cradle of Sperm he depicts the transformation of sperm into a human being as if he is describing a transmutation of lead into gold… For him all metamorphoses are possible – the matter turns into spirit, the form becomes content.

Principles are only of value to the mind, and to the thinking mind; but outside the mind that thinks, a principle is reduced to nothing.

In the world and in the universe everything is interlocked: stars and fates, witchery and science, paganism and collective unconscious, divinity and Freudianism, astrology and Christianity, history and the present, life and death.
And Antonin Artaud boldly follows this trail, transmuting salaciousness into divine language.
Any imaginable thing can be compared with any other thing and one may draw parallels between any mythologems and any phenomena…

[Steven Godin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Artaud, who three years after the book’s publication was incarcerated in a lunatic asylum, emerging only shortly before his death in 1948, anatomises and recreates the sexual and blood-constellated life of the infamous Roman emperor who was assassinated by his own guards at the age of 18 after four years spent relentlessly deriding and disintegrating the empire’s power. Artaud asserts that the whole life of Heliogabalus was basically anarchy in action and presents the book in three parts - 'The Cradle of Sperm', 'The War of Principles' and 'Anarchy'. We go from myth and pagan iconography to the conceit of Roman decadence before finally getting to the ascent and subsequent assassination of the young emperor. While Artaud does provide historical background to Heliogabalus' story the book as a whole is not story-telling in the traditional sense. Explicitly he wrote his account of Heliogabalus’s acts as an embodiment of himself and of his own insurgency in art.

[Kieran · Rating 4 out of 5]

This bitch was punk as fuck

[Argos · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bu bir tarihi araştırma-anlatım kitabı. MS 218 - 222 arası Roma İmparatoru olan, ünlü imparator Septimus Severius’un sülalesinden, annesi fahişe J. Soemia, babası net belli olmayan, Emesa (şimdiki Humus) krallığında yaşıyorken İmparator Caracalla’nın öldürülmesinin ardından düzenlenen bir isyan ve sonrasında Antiokhiea (Antakya) civarında rakiplerini savaşta yenerek başa geçen,204 Antiokhiea doğumlu Heliogabolos’un hikayesi.

A. Artaud deyişiyle tarihi utandırıp irkilten bu çılgın, ekzantrik (TDK) adamı incelemek için kitabın sonunda verdiği çok farklı kaynaklar kullanmış, bu durum ise zaten Roma İmparatorluk tarihinin karışık ve şüpheli dönemini daha da karışık hale getirmiş. Kullandığı önemli kaynaklardan birisi de Tyana’lı (Niğde) Apolloinus’un yazdıklarıdır. İsa’dan 200 yıl sonra o bölgelerde Paganizm yaygındır ve kendisini güneş tanrısı kabul eden bir yeniyetmenin adı buradan gelmektedir: Heliogabalos.

Roma yasa ve geleneklerine göre skandal uygulamaları olmuş, çok yakışıklı (erkek güzeli) ve transseksüel olması, dini törenlere tüm senatörleri zorla sokması, hatta sonraları senatörlerin yerine kadınları koyması, ensest ilişkilerde bulunmadı, niteliksiz veya alt tabakadan insanları önemli mevkilere getirmesi, kısa süren hükümranlığında şaşkınlık yaratsa da yüzyıllar sonra bu davranışları statükoya karşı bireysel karşı koyuşlar, bireysel özgürlük adına yapılan davranışlar, anarşist uygulamalar olarak Antonin Artaud gibi gerçeküstücü yazar ve sanatçılarca adeta kutsanmıştır.

Kitapta aslında Roma İmparatorluğu yönetimine ilişkin çok ilginç bilgiler var, başta Humus olmak üzere imparatorluğa bağlı bölgelerin anlatımı da ilgi çekici. Ne var ki yazarın savruk ve cinsellik saplantılı ve bazen rahatsız edici sert uslubu kötü bir çeviri ile birleşince okurken zorlayıcı bir metin ortaya çıkarmış. Herşeyi cinselliğe dayanarak açıklayan, fallus takıntılı bir anlatım.

Genelinde Bassisanus Sülalesinin tarihini anlatsa da tanrılar ve yaratılış hakkında çok ilgi çekici felsefi değerlendirmeler de kitabın bonusu olmuş. Bu tip gerçek ve kurgu içiçe tarih kitaplarını severim, çevirmen faktörüne rağmen öneririm.

[Tim Pendry · Rating 2 out of 5]

Now this is a curiosity - one part flummery, one part insanity and one part genius. It is an account of sorts of the decadent teenage androgynous Emperor Heliogabalus.

Not that the average reader (in which category I include myself) will have an earthly idea what this is all about (given the limits of a modern education) until you remember that it is best not read but DECLAIMED out loud in a theatrical manner and that it has to be seen as the last flowering (written in the 1930s) of a forty year cycle of French decadent writing (and part of a much longer cycle of French artistic sensuality).

Surrealism, orientalism, obscenity (though not quite as outrageous as the publisher might like us to think), an incipient fascist mentality - it's all in there. It helps to know something of the Anatolian cult of self-castration and of Cybele but you can look that up in Wikipedia.

There are insights in the text about extreme anarchy but the book is part of a political-cultural death cult which re-emerges periodically amongst artistic types as a response to the mundane and the modern in many cultures and at many times - it is the type of thing you might write if you were suffering from radical ennui and raging hormones. It is no accident that Artaud's circle included the High Priestess of French sexuality, Anais Nin.

The publisher refers to it as the 'most accessible' of Artaud's books - the mind boggles at what the others must be like ...

[Mayo · Rating 5 out of 5]

qué lectura más chula me han entrado ganas de leer más cosas de artaud

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

this book is pretty cool if you'd like to read artaud spend quite a few pages rambling about the differing nature of divinity in pagan religions and the related symbolism, and then giving a mini biography of heliogabalus where he says that having orgies in the imperial palace was a deliberate subversion of the roman imperial institution. all in all heliogabalus sounds like a pretty fun guy and should probably be higher in your rankings of decadent roman emperors.

[Terence · Rating 1 out of 5]

Voice Claudia also describes the history of a potential, and probable, active-trait male in her territory. He declared himself a living god-emperor, and through marriage to Bene Gesserat Livia produced several generations of active-trait males. One appears to have been the first known Abomination, a man who heard “voices” and claimed to be both male and female, but whose actions were so perverse that Voice Claudia refuses to describe them. (“Bene Gesserit History,” Dune Encyclopedia Tr, p. 121)*

I begin this short note on Antonin Artaud’s Heliogabalus with a quote from a fictional encyclopedia of a fictional future history because this novel puts me most in mind of the Bene Gesserit’s obsessive search for the kwisatz haderach, the person who would bridge the gap between Male and Female. Especially based on this quote:

All the same, Heliogabalus the pederast king who wanted to be a woman, was a priest of the Masculine. He achieved in himself the identity of opposites, but did not achieve it without harm, and his devout pederasty had no origin other than an obstinate and abstract conflict between Masculine and Feminine. (p. 72)

Having now read Artaud’s version of The Monk and this, I feel confident in writing that I am not a fan of French Surrealism. I fear that I am far too bourgeois to feel much except distate in the author’s worldview. That said, I understand why Artaud feels such rage and why he responds as he does. I don’t think it’s a compelling response but there are nuggets of interest (like the aforementioned conflict between Male and Female principles).**

* The reference here is to Caligula (AD 37-41), of course, and not to the hapless child elevated to the throne by his grandmother and mother in AD 212 but I think the characterization applies equally.

** I emphasize that this is entirely a personal opinion. If some – and from the reviews, there are – find meaning in Artaud, that’s fine, and I would recommend Heliogabalus to them.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

While reading this book at a grocery store bench I overheard a 13 year old defend himself to his mom by saying "Pubic hair is not a swear."

My favorite quote from the book:

The written numeral is a symbol for what one cant manage to add up or measure.
The written letter is a symbol for what one can't think - the limit of thought, where thinking ends and has to rely on an object, like a lilypad in order to progress (this is how the linguistic-centric people think: language is a necessary lilypad for thinking, but actually no: it's simply the shorthand for those who can't think in other ways.

[(yz) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Molt divertit👍🏼

[Troy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book alternates between turgid/dense and fast/insane. I read it because I recently read Deleuze's The Logic of Sense and in that book Deleuze consistently talks about Lewis Carroll, the Stoics, and Artaud. I haven't read Artaud since I read The Theater and Its Double which I honestly don't remember very well, even though I remember I loved it. Anyway, I see why Deleuze loves this book; a lot of Deleuze's thought, and a lot of writing style, is encapsulated by Artaud.

The first part of this book sets up Artaud's thoughts on Heliogabalus, the utterly debauched teen Roman Emperor. The second book dives deep into Artuad's world-view, and the book at this point slows down to frozen latex. It's here that Artaud prefigures Deleuze with his talk of levels, the reality of principles, Love, the Will, religion, numerology, etc. But the last section of the book sings. It's here that we get a sense of why Artaud thinks the debauched emperor Heliogabalus was an anarchist. Artaud explains how the boy was both an anarchist and creating poetry and theater. He was an anarchist because he was out to destroy the stratification of Roman society and the plurality of Roman religion. According to Artuad, he attempted to do that through destruction of what is sacred, and one of his prime weapons was sex.

It's not a perfect book, and some of it is both boring and deeply slow going, but the end is worth it. The end is a brilliant take on art, anarchism, destruction, and creation.

[Baris Ozyurt · Rating 2 out of 5]

“Onu görmüş olan askerler hemen oraya üşüşür; kendi Prsetorium erleri bir anda onu saçlarından yakalayıverirler. Burada tam bir kasap tezgâh�� olayı, antik dünyaya özgü iğrenç bir mezbaha sahnesi yaşanır

Fışkıran kana karışan dışkılar Heliogabalos'la annesinin etlerine dalıp çıkmakta olan kılıçların üzerine sıçrar.

Sonra cesetler çukurdan çıkarılır, meşalelerin ışığında kente taşınır ve dehşete düşen halk yığınlarının ve pencerelerini açıp alkışlayan soyluların evlerinin önünde, bütün kentte gezdirilir. Kanı tükenmiş ama dışkıya bulanmış bu acıklı et yığınlarının ardı sıra büyük bir kalabalık Tiber kıyısındaki rıhtımlara iner.

Heliogabalos'un eliaçıklığından bol bol yararlanmış, fakat bunları fazlasıyla sindirmiş olan ayaktakımı şimdi ‘Lağıma!’ diye bağırmaktadır. ‘Lağıma atalım!’

Kana ve en gizli organlarına varıncaya dek her yerlerini açıkça gösteren bu iki paramparça ve çıplak cesedin seyrine iyice doymuş olan askerler, Heliogabalos'un cesedini önlerine çıkan ilk lağım deliğinden içeri atmak isterler. Fakat ne kadar ince yapılı olsa da yine deliğe büyük gelir. Başka çare bulmak gerekir.

Daha önce Elagabalus Bassianus Avitus'un, namıdiğer Heliogabalos'un adına Varius (‘Çeşitli’) lakabı takılmıştı, çünkü çeşitli tohumlardan olma ve bir fahişeden doğma idi.”(s.128)

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of I believe two novels that Artaud wrote. It's about the Roman emperor Heliogabalus, whose reign was noted for degeneracy and excess to the point where his generals eventually murdered him for it. Artaud makes the argument that his corruption and excess were so extensive and pure that in themselves they constituted a work of art transposed into the real world.

[Laginestra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Per la precisione si tratta della biografia più estrema vomitata su carta. Dalla torbida concezione del futuro imperatore romano alla sua entrata sodomitica nell'urbe, fino ad arrivare alla miserabile morte nella cloaca massima: dallo sperma agli escrementi, tutto è liquidamente imbrattante ed eccessivo, nella prosa di un genio. Un capolavoro. Non scherzo.

[S̶e̶a̶n̶ · Rating 2 out of 5]

From what I understand of them I appreciate Artaud's messages here, but I didn't find his delivery to generate particularly compelling reading.

[Giulio Andrade Fajardo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un ibrido tra biografia, romanzo ed esegesi della teologia antica; così come Eliogabalo è un ibrido di principi, tra Uomo e Donna, Divinità e Umanità, Imperatore e Sacerdote, Ordine e Anarchia, un'entità che bramò con tutto sé stesso lo sperma e per questo venne trucidato nella merda. Un testo inaccessibile (molto oscura soprattutto la parte dell'esoterismo e delle iniziazioni siriache) la cui incomprensione assomiglia alla sensazione di un coito interrotto coattamente; un testo che ti affoga l'animo in tutte le secrezioni umane, da quella più farinosa a quella più densa; un testo in cui gli istinti più primitivi vengono elevati a quelli più sublimi (Eliogabalo appena 14enne che mette in atto la tragedia di Paride per potersi far fottere vestito e truccato da Venere) e che ti rende compagno di corruzione nel momento in cui visualizzi queste immagini.
Purtroppo mi mancano le conoscenze e gli strumenti per comprendere appieno le analisi di Artaud, credo che in futuro lo riprenderó. Ciononostante, pensavo fosse più scabroso, probabilmente le dissertazioni diluiscono il tutto.
Lunga vita ad Artaud, Eliogabalo e al Dio Fallo.

[Oğuz Kayra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bundan daha tuhaf bir kitap okuyacağımı uzun bir süre zannetmiyorum.

Roma'nın bütün düzenini aşırılığa kaçarak yıkan transseksüel imparatoru Heliogabalos'un hikayesi. Roma tanrısı Jupiter'in tapınağını yıkıp yerine Pagan bir tanrının tapınağını yaptırması, 5 kez evlenip boşanması ve bunların arasında inançlara göre bakire kalması gereken bir rahibenin de olması. Din adamlarıyla dalga geçip, saray bakanlıklarına en nitelikli olanların değil, cinsel uzvu en büyük olanların seçilmesi, erkeklerin hadım ettirilip, kutlamalarda her yere çuval çuval erkek cinsel organı saçılması ve başından sonuna kadar Roma sarayını eli açıklıkla, bol altın harcama ve abartılarla tiyatro sahnesine çevirmesi.

Hikayeden, çılgınlıklardan aşırı keyif aldım. Heliogabalos ve Antonin Artaud bir deli ve ben bu deliliğin hastası oldum.

«Heliogabalos da bir kez tahta çıkınca hiçbir yasa tanımaz; efendi odur çünkü. Dolayısıyla, onun kişisel yasası herkesin yasası olacaktır. Tiranlığını insanlara dayatır. Aslında her tiran, tacı ele geçirmiş olup d��nyayı kendisiyle uygun adım gitmeye zorlayan birer anarşisttir.»

[Vite da Lettore]

Pensieri e Recensione: https://vitedalettore.wordpress.com/2...

La vita di Antonin Artaud è così traboccante di esperienze che sembrano esserci innumerevoli approcci su ciò che si può esprimere sul suo ruolo di scrittore nonché attore e regista di un’arte immanente che si rivolge al mondo come un’entità intera, liberata da qualsiasi esteriorità, divinità o altra figura trascendentale, il cui tutto è incluso nei processi di interazione all’interno della materia stessa. Attenendosi a tale visione d’insieme, la nozione di moralità appare obsoleta; tuttavia, ciò che è estremamente interessante è osservarne l’applicazione nel libro dimostratosi il più illustrativo in tal merito: Héliogabale ou l’anarchiste couronné pubblicato nel 1934, fonde i mezzi tradizionali di documentazione alla narrativa per raccontare la storia di Eliogabalo, imperatore romano che salito potere quattordicenne, venne assassinato quattro anni dopo.
Per scrivere questo romanzo storico, Artaud, si avvalse d’opere di erudizione varie e della volontà di mettere in luce in maniera preponderante una rievocazione storica dal forte impatto religioso idolatrico, giungendo a mostrare che al di sopra di tutti i princìpi spirituali vi fossero quello Maschile e quello Femminile, dai quali dipende l’interezza della vita cosmica. Per l’autore, considerare solo la contrapposizione fra le parti, insistendo nel separarle nettamente, non può che ricondurle ad un antagonismo loro intrinseco per poi controbilanciarsi, provocandone una fusione. Egli riconosce nella figura di questo imperatore la realizzazione in se stesso dell’identità dei contrari, attraverso un diverbio ostinato ed indeterminato fra le essenze Maschili e il Femminili.
In rivolta, critico contro l’istituzionalismo imperiale romano, abitato perennemente da una profonda inquietudine, dalla ricerca dell’assoluto della decadenza e della catastrofe, Sesto Vario Avito Bassiano, nasce a Roma nel 204 d.C. dalla nobile Giulia Soemia della famiglia del sacerdote Bassiano, durante l’imperato di Caracalla. Il giovane cresce in Siria attorniato da donne, impegnate ad educarlo al gusto della lussuria ed alla devozione della divinità solare. A cinque anni, assume il ruolo di alto sacerdote del Sole El-Gabal di Emesa (oggi Homs, Siria), culto praticato nel regno d’Emath e basato sulla deificazione del principio virile, mutando così il proprio nome in Eliogabalo. Il suo acume e bellezza aggraziata si dimostrano ben presto singolari, di pari passo con lo sviluppo precoce di un ideale che lo porta ad identificarsi col dio a cui è dedito, con l’impegno di ricondurre per mezzo del conflitto, la molteplicità umana al sentimento d’unità fisica e trascendentale.
Nel 217, l’efebo Eliogabalo, succede col nome di Marco Aurelio Severo Alessandro Augusto all’imperatore Macrino grazie al piano escogitato da Giulia Mesa, madre di Giulia Soemia, per far tornare sul trono i Bassianidi. A parer degli storici, la battaglia contro la coorte del predecessore è l’unica occasione della vita in cui Eliogabalo dia prova di vigore militare, ma Artaud sottolinea come egli utilizzi la sua forza perché sedotto dall’intensità dei contrari che percepisce propri: da un lato il dio solare, dall’altro l’uomo che orienta il potere esercitato, verso e contro se stesso.
Sebbene incoronato, Eliogabalo trascorre i primi mesi invernali del suo governato a Nicomedia (oggi Izmit, Turchia), dove, come affermato dallo storico Lampridio, si dedica al vizio e alla lussuria. Acclamato, entra in Roma solo nel marzo del 218; preceduto da trecento fanciulle ed altrettanti tori trascinanti in una gabbia monumentale il Fallo Sacro del tempio solare di Emesa.
Da imperatore si comporta in modo irriverente tant’è che nella prima riunione cólle figure più rappresentative dello stato, chiede loro minuziose delucidazioni sulle personali abitudini sessuali. Eliogabalo continua la sua impresa di “conversione” dei valori pubblici, trasforma l’oscenità in abitudine atta a dimostrare il suo spregio per l’ordine precostituito ma d’altra parte piange le miserie del suo popolo, che non viene mai sfiorato dalla sua tirannia sanguinaria; sono bensì gli aristocratici che rimproveratigli gli eccessi, ne vengono colpiti. Caccia dal Senato gli uomini ed invita donne a prendere il loro posto perché generatrici di vita e sapienza. Sfida le convenzioni sposandosi numerose volte, di cui una con la vergine vestale guardiana del fuoco sacro pur rimanendo appassionatamente fedele sino allo morte all’auriga Ierocle, con cui decide di congiungersi secondo il rito romano. L’imperatore, incessantemente assetato di emozioni, diviene artefice e vittima di una febbre dello spirito, che lo conducono verso le file della zia Giulia Mamea, la quale cospira preparando il futuro al proprio figlio Alessandro Severo perché diventi il prossimo regnante.
Ogni gesto compiuto dall’adolescente regnante viene confrontato dall’autore con le vicissitudini formative passate. È il caso della descrizione della vita nella città di Emesa, e della decisione del soffermarsi sul tempio sotterraneo e sullo spazio vuoto che ne delimita le porte oltre il muro più esterno. Il brulicare di uomini, animali, oggetti, provenienti da vari angoli della città commerciale converge verso il luogo descritto, creando attorno alle sue stanze di rifornimento un’immensa tela di ragno sulla quale corre un parossismo, un disperdersi di lamentele e di rumori instabile. L’uomo, nato dalle fatiche della terra, emerge dalle profondità del tempio rovistando tra le vie in modo da rifornire il dio Apollo compiaciuto dei suoi altari cruenti, impastati di cenere, sangue e umori nel giorno profetico degli Helia Pythia o Giochi Pitici.
Che sia l’umano od il divino ciò che viene offerto alla lettura non può essere compreso in modo esclusivamente sovrasensibile, perché manifestazione concreta di un’energia il cui aspetto più emblematico è la gravità della forza solare posatasi sulla materialità del corpo nonché sulla materia prodotta dal corpo, espulsa da esso per nutrire il mondo. Il sangue umano sacrificale si ricongiunge a quello di certi animali, attraverso fogne cocenti che scendono nelle profondità terrestre, trovando la via per ricondursi al respiro purificante del dio infernale nell’Erebo. I corpi stessi diventano sacri dopo che la vita smette di animarli e l’autore insiste molto sull’aspetto ritualistico della morte di Eliogabalo, avvenuta l’11 marzo del 222 d.C.: pugnalato dopo essersi disperatamente immerso tra le deiezioni della cloaca romana, il suo cadavere viene poi gettato nel fiume Tevere dal ponte Emilio, tra il Foro Boario e l’isola Tiberina.
L’inversione di ciò che è normalmente inteso come sacro e ciò che descrive Artaud, tocca qui il suo culmine, coniugando il ruolo del deus romano all’agire fisico dell’arcaico numen nella figura dell’anarchico imperatore condannato alla damnatio memoriae, in un’epoca di passaggio ad una religiosità filosofica e teologica intrisa di devozione tipica della cultura orientale.

[Michael A. · Rating 4 out of 5]

the most accurate biography of Heliogabalus, factual or not..!

[Julien Ligne 4 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Positively insane

[diario_de_um_leitor_pjv · Rating 4 out of 5]

Uma deriva apaixonada, e algo louca, do fervor surrealista de Artaud é o que temos neste "Heliogábalo ou o anarquista coroado".

Artaud escreve este livro em 1933 num registo de violência extrema e excesso sexual e corpóreo nos obriga a repensar e re-equacionar alguns das mais prementes questões do tempo em que o autor viveu, em especial o poder inquisitivo e impositivo das religiões.

Por isso mesmo é algures entre o excesso corpóreo - sangue e esperma como expressões - e o esoterismo religioso que se prende e plasma esta obra biográfica de um imperador romano desalinhado da historiografia oficial.

A beleza da escrita de Artaud, o seu protesto lírico e transgressivo em torno da loucura de outros tempos é quase uma reação visceral à modernidade vigente - mas em rápida e crescente crise - dos anos 30.

Sim. Ler Artaud foi bom, foi bom voltar à crítica surreal, ao desmontar sem pudor dos tempos da modernidade.

[Ghristian Cuerra · Rating 4 out of 5]

i know like 3 or 7 oeople exactly like this

[Ro L · Rating 4 out of 5]

Me impresionó, demasiado.

[Rob Atkinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

A strange fever dream of a book, this; not too surprising, coming as it does from madman and father of the “Theater of Cruelty” Antonin Artaud. He is in complete sympathy with Heliogabalus (aka Elagabalus), the teenaged emperor (r. 218-222 AD) who is perhaps the most infamous in ancient Roman history, seeing him as a deliberate anarchist who necessarily disrupted the continuum of a decadent, spiritually impoverished Rome. Part history/biography, part metaphysical inquiry, and partly an expression of Artaud’s own dark preoccupations, this isn’t for those seeking a straightforward account of this notorious Emperor.

There is some solid history here, amidst the speculation and digressions, and it makes for fascinating reading. The cunning women, all named Julia, who managed Heliogabalus’s ascent to Emperor all get their due. His mother, aunt, and grandmother, connected to the Imperial house through Caracalla’s wife, (another aunt) groomed him like a Ptolemaic Pharaoh during his childhood in Syria. They came from an ancient and proud line of priest/kings of Emesa, in service to the god Elagabalus, and were instrumental in fomenting the rebellion in the legions which took out the leader of the Praetorian Guard, Macrinus, Caracalla’s usurper, in favor of this gilded youth, their protégé.

Some of the set pieces in Artaud’s history are completely imaginary, however, so don’t accept it all as gospel. At least it is apparent that Heliogabalus’s own Grandmother connived to replace him with another relative, Severus Alexander, once things became untenable, and countenanced Heliogabalus’s and his mother’s (her own daughter’s!) death in the process. Anything to hold on to their wealth and power suited these truly Machiavellian women, it appears.

Primarily Artaud argues for Heliogabalus as a conscious anarchist, rather than a pampered ‘Priest of the Sun’ (from age 5!) who behaved as the spoiled brat he certainly was when handed absolute power. His homosexuality was likely baked in the cake as it were, and I find it hard to believe his flamboyance and overt public sexuality — which, granted, scandalized even the Roman decadents of his era — had much behind it beyond ‘I am emperor, a god on earth, this is my will”, and the perverse enjoyment he seemed to take in humiliating the ‘noble’ senators of Rome. Certainly his devotion to the cult of Elagabalus and its bizarre, androgynous rituals (its devoutest ‘Galli’ male adherents even were willingly castrated, and dressed as women) is without question, but I doubt the deliberate anarchist intent Artaud would like to attribute to him. After all, he was a boy of 14 when he became Emperor, and only 18 when his mad excesses led to his assassination.

Nevertheless, this is certainly a fascinating and seminal title for those interested in Artaud, and worth a look if you’d like to see a more esoteric, even surrealist, take on the history.


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[A · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whilst reading this, I considered for the first time the difficulty Artaud's writing must pose for the translator. Not because I read/speak French and am thus certain of the difficulty, but because there is a particular thorniness in the language in nearly every translation I had read, a consistent sort of thorniness that leads me to believe it's a matter of the source and not poor translation. If you go into this book unfamiliar with Artaud's work, you might find some bits difficult. I'm reminded of when I first read "Van Gogh: The Man Suicided By Society," reading that first sentence several times, trying to parse it (while simultaneously savoring its rotting beauty).

Translation aside, I wavered between 3 and 4 stars, since I was not sure it compared as well to other works by Artaud I have read. So we'll say 3.5? This is not exactly a novel and not exactly a history. As with most of his prose, it's split between passages of brutal, visceral, and dreamlike body imagery and then more theoretical passages built off this. The source here is historical and Artaud takes great delight in describing the religious rituals and picking apart the life and progeny of Heliogabalus. Clearly a lot of research was put into this, and primarily from sources close to the period. He's not so much interested in direct transmission of events as he is in relating the events to his general ideas, particularly in envisioning Heliogabalus as an anarchist intent on destroying the Roman Empire from within. The pagan rituals and alchemical symbols bear relation to his ideas on theatre as cruelty and so forth, but this is something that makes more sense if the reader is familiar with Artaud's work in a broader context. Connections could also be drawn to his writings on the Tarahumara. Always the idea of performance as ritual, of symbols drawn into the material realm, thereby transforming it into something truer and purer (transmutation, if you will). But Artaud is essentially a monist, and this transmutation must come first by the stripping of boundaries and limitations. Therefore: no stage, no text, only gesture.

It's hard for me not to ramble over the thing, as I always find his way of seeing so interesting, even when I don't entirely agree with it. It's almost as if the intensity of it is enough, as if his single-minded focus on this one idea were all that mattered. In the end, it's not my favorite (still "Theatre and Its Double," or maybe "The Peyote Dance," or maybe "Jet of Blood" for the lulz). But very interesting and worth a read if you like crazy French Surrealists with a penchant for plague and blood imagery.

[Güney Erkurt · Rating 3 out of 5]

roma imparatoru heliogabalos'u (varius avitus bassianus) gayet subjektif olarak ele alan ve gerçekten sert bir üslupla yazılmış artaud kitabı. bir erselik olan genç imparatorun ancak 4 yıl süren kıyıcı, savruk ve ahlak dışı iktidarında anarşist bir güdülenme bulunduğu iddiasındadır artaud. ona göre heliogabalos, o günün bütün dini, toplumsal ve siyasi etik değerleriyle alay etmekteydi. önemli devlet görevlilerini pozisyonlarından alıp yerine alelade insanları (arabacı, bahçevan gibi) atıyor, roma'ya gelir gelmez bütün erkek senato üyelerinin işine son verip yerine kadınları meclise dolduruyor, penis uzunluklarına göre senatörlere pozisyonlar veriyor, toplu hadım ayinleri düzenliyor, dönemin bütün tanrılarını tek bir tanrıda birleştiriyordu...

"heliogabalos'un bütün yaşamı, eylem halinde anarşidir. zira düşman kutuplar olan erkekle kadını, bir ile iki'yi, bir araya getiren birlikçi tanrı elegabalus çelişkilerin sonu, savaşın ve anarşinin -ama savaşla- ortadan kaldırılmasıdır; aynı zamanda bu çelişki ve düzensizlik ülkesinde anarşinin uygulamaya konmasıdır. ve anarşi de, heliogabalos'un vardığı noktada, gerçekleşmiş şiirdir."

[Erik]

Looking around here at peoples disappointing responses one wonders why these people "read" -the only good thing that can be said is that these people are try to evolve their consciousness (although failing)

Its 'cute' to discover that there are all these little Pandora's out there opening up Artaud/Ceasaire/Maloror>>>>WARNING! CONTENTS UNDER PRESSURE!

This ain't Dorothy Livesay Kids! If you are still stuck on Enlightenment thought skip surrealism, it won't allow itself to be constrained by the straight jacket of rationalism, if you are thus constrained then yes you may feel you are confronting a foreign language...just because I can't speak Icelandic doesn't mean I assume that it is merely the chattering of the insane...

[Олег Шинкаренко · Rating 5 out of 5]

Artaud's fantasy is almost limitless. At some point, you realize that you are not reading the story of Heliogabal, but the story of Artaud himself. Artaud just covers himself with historical facts and names to simply present us with his personal phobias and passions. But what can we know about the real Heliogabal nearly 2,000 years after his death? Is there any other historian who can present us with anything but his fantasies? Any historical reconnaissance is just a random shot at a target we know it once was on this spot.

[aya · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was very difficult for me, but difficult good. Sometimes hard to sort the gibberish from the gems, but there were some amazing nuggets. Because it's not a straightforward biography, we get a real sense of the psychology and dichotomies within the child god emperor, but not any detailed chronology.

[trovateOrtensia · Rating 4 out of 5]

La disorganizzazione dell’ordine, le urgenze del caos e la demoralizzazione sistematica del potere: Artaud e l’allegra fuga verso il nulla di Eliogabalo, l’imperatore vissuto e morto “in stato di aperta ribellione”.