Antonin Artaud - Heliogábalo ou o Anarquista Coroado

Artaud once pointed out [to the publisher Denoël] that Heliogabalus, historically reduced to demented cruelty, anarchically embodied in himself the identity of opposites and professed a religious pederasty rooted in an unrelenting struggle between the Masculine and the Feminine; and that he was repugnant only "for having lost this transcendent notion and sinking into the eroticism of creation in act and sexualized."

Fascinated by this idea, and anticipating what it could become when filtered through the complexities of a mind and literary talent like that of Antonin Artaud, Denoël proposed that he write a biography of the emperor dominated by this "heterodox" vision that would challenge the endorsement of established authorities and seriously affront the opinions of renowned historians. Through Artaud's lens, this young emperor of such a brief reign was mainly concerned with being a supreme example of a sexual anarchy that realized the identity of opposites, responded to the confusion of the sexes, and brought them back to the purity of primordial androgyny. Let us quote Artaud himself:

"Heliogabalus is man and woman. And the religion of the sun is the religion of man, but one that can do nothing without woman, the double in whom he reflects. The religion of the ONE that splits into TWO in order to act. To BE. The religion of the initial separation of the ONE. ONE and TWO reunited in the first androgynous being. Who is HE, the man. And HE, the woman. At the same time. United in ONE."

Time has done the controversial Heliogabalus the justice he deserved. And we cannot fail to recall, as undeniable proof, what the irrepressible enthusiasm of J.M.G. Le Clézio said about him:
"Here we have the most violent book in contemporary literature, by which I mean a beautiful and regenerative violence. [...] Anyone who has not read Heliogabalus has not touched the true depths of our wild literature."