Years before Freud wrote his book, MOSES AND MONOTHEISM, he saw Michelangelo's famous statue of Moses in Rome and was spellbound.
Being Freud, he had to analyze the basis for the statue's power, and he wrote a brief essay on the subject for IMAGO.
Freud describes the sculpture this way:
"The Moses of Michelangelo is represented as seated; his body faces forward, his head with its mighty beard looks to the left, his right foot rests on the ground and his left leg is raised so that only the toes touch the ground. His right arm links the Tables of the Law with a portion of his beard; his left arm lies in his lap."
That's a straightforward description, which you can confirm for yourself dear reader with a look at the photo above.
Why was it so spellbinding?
The key passage in Freud's essay is this: "In his first transport of fury, Moses declined to act, to spring up and take revenge and forget the Tables; but [at the moment portrayed] he has overcome the temptation and he will now remain seated and still, in his frozen wrath and in his pain mingled with contempt. Nor will he throw away the Tables so they will break on the stones."
So it is about sublimation. Just as -- in Freud's view -- the real Prometheus was the guy who didn't piss on a fire, the real lawgiver was the guy who didn't get ticked off by the golden calf and destroy the laws.
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