CULTURE FILES // Who's a Hypocrite Now?

Who’s a Hypocrite Now?


A brief history of masks, mimicry, and morality 

by Lauren Earline Leonard

EXCERPT //

For modern ears, the word “hypocrite” likely calls to mind a politician partying during Covid lockdown, or that time in your teens you realized your parents had done in their young lives the very thing they now forbid you to do. Both conjurings speak to the act of presenting an outward self that is different from or in conflict with the authentic, inner self. Hypocrites blur lines, obstruct, and connive: To be a hypocrite is to wear a mask. 

But “hypocrite” originally comes from the Greek hypokrites, which translates literally to “an interpreter from underneath” and refers to an “actor” or “stage player.” In the cult of Dionysus, masks worn by Greek hypokrites were oversized representations of the interior landscape of the protagonist, the antagonist, and the chorus. 

The comedy-tragedy masks that have come to symbolize the performing arts originated in Greek theatre. Said to be the daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne, the goddess of memory, the crying mask is Melpomene, muse of tragedy. The laughing mask is Thalia, muse of comedy.. //

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