Il dominio dell’impiccato. La lezione di Marsia

One of the most important and meaningful death figures in Western culture, the hanged man represents an European experience of death that is not only emblematic but also ambiguous, as it undergoes a continuous symbolic transformation and at the same time is the source of transformations. The figure of the hanged man manifests itself in the game between subject and object, victim and oppressor, religion and politics, crime and punishment. This essay offers a diachronic and comparative interpretation of the Marsyas figure and analyses the hanged man's omnipresence in various cultural and spiritual contexts, revealing the multiplicity of his roles.