PHILOSOPHICAL MUSINGS

Funny how places take on so much meaning. First, something happens there. Then, the place itself happens. All you have to do is mention its name, and it fills with meanings, memories, desires. Thank God for places. Imagine what it would be to live in a world without them, a world without places.

It's not inappropriate to invoke God in this context. Because if it is true what I read a few days ago, namely, that cities on earth were founded as places of sanctuary, then every city must have been built around squares, or midans. A square would have provided space for a house of God, or of Gods, and for this reason it was regarded as a sanctuary, a place of refuge and safety. People must have been drawn to them as much, or, maybe, even more than to their own houses.

If you think that, maybe, this is only the wishful thinking of some geographer, that, maybe, historically it is not correct, it doesn't matter. That still makes it a very lively fiction. Look around! Look at your city. Look at its midans.

Here is a story, not from the square, but from another Egyptian midan: Midan Sphinges.

Let me take you back. Do you know the riddle of the Sphinx? Once upon the time, there was a human being called Oedipus. Being very human, he shared one of their most notable characteristics: he had to get somewhere. Now, to reach his destination he had to cross a pass in the mountains which was guarded by a strange being called „The Sphinx". It had the body of lion and a human head. And it spoke. When Oedipus approached it (him? her?), it said: „I have a riddle for you. If you can solve it, you may continue on your way. If not, I will devour you.

It goes like this: What is that which walks on four in the morning, on two at noon, and on three in the evening?"

Oedipus answered: „Man. As small infants, they walk on all four, in the middle of their life they walks on two legs, and in towards the end they walk supported by a stick." This was, indeed, the solution of the riddle. In dismay, the Sphinx threw itself down the abyss and was not seen again.

It was not seen again, because „man" who solved its riddle caused its dissolution. It does, of course, not mean that there are no more beings that are half-human, half-animal. The difference is only that now they look human. And most often, they regard the question of the Sphinx as antiquated and irrelevant. But sometimes, they don't.

Maybe, then, Midan Sphinges blends into the other square.