One-eyed
One-eyedness (also: monophthalmia , cyclopia , one-sided anophthalmia ) in the narrower sense means the congenital or acquired lack of the eyeball on one side, and in the following also the lack of vision in one eye (functional one-eyedness).
The consequence of one-eyedness is not only a restriction of the field of vision , but also a lack of three-dimensional vision due to the loss of what is known as stereo vision , in which the two different images of the eyes are processed into a three-dimensional image in the brain. The younger an affected person is, the more adaptable his brain reacts to this deficiency .
Historically authenticated one-eyed
The nickname of the one-eyed z. B. Ekbert the one-eyed , Wilhelm I the one-eyed and Friedrich the one-eyed .
The portrait of Oswald von Wolkenstein with the closed right eyelid is well known, as is the one-eyed Hitler assassin Stauffenberg .
Philip of Macedonia, father of Alexander the Great , was one-eyed after a combat injury. Also known is the former Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Dajan , who was a well-known figure in contemporary history in the 1960s and 1970s with his eye patch.
One-eyed in mythology and religion
In addition to the Graien , the three (or, according to other traditions, two) sisters born as old women who together have only one eye and one tooth, the Cyclopes and, among them, Polyphemus, blinded by Odysseus, are the best-known one-eyed mythological figures.
The designation "Kyklop" is etymologically not to be interpreted as a single eye , but as a circle or possibly also as a central eye . Ancient depictions of the glare of Polyphemus show very different solutions. Vase paintings from archaic times basically depict people and human-like figures in profile, but their eyes seen from the front. This gives today's viewer the impression that Polyphemus is actually provided with two eyes here - but the creators and former viewers of these paintings may have this seen quite differently. Other paintings and, above all, sculptural representations show Polyphemus either with a single eye located on the root of the nose, or with a central open eye on the forehead and two closed, blind eyes in the eye sockets. In any case, however, it is clear from the text of the Odyssey that the destruction of only one eye in Polyphemus leads to complete blindness . (There are various theories about the origins of this myth. For example, the claim was made that the first narrators were inspired by elephant skull finds and wrongly mistaken the large nostrils of these skulls for a huge eye socket. Mofets are also discussed as a starting point for the polyphemum idea The dazzling scene in the Odyssey is depicted very drastically and works with comparisons that describe in particular the hissing and boiling of the destroyed, liquid eyeball around the glowing pole. This could actually be an etiological story that tries to explain the origin of the mofetten.)
The main Celtic god Lugh , whom the Romans equated with Mercurius , and Odin should also be mentioned here. Lugh and Odin have to be imagined as sinister one-eyed figures, accompanied by ravens and wolves. Like Mercurius, they both have the task of leading the dead into the realm of the dead. Also Hagen of Tronje draws a violation. According to the Thidreksaga , Hagen lost an eye as a young man in a fight with Walther; in Waltharius (1395–1398) his lip was split open in this fight, six molars were torn out and his eye was smashed. In the Nibelungenlied , Hagen is described as black-haired, with bushy brows, a large nose and a black eye, which gave him a grim look.
While one-eyedness is perceived as threatening and frightening in all these figures, the notion of the all-seeing eye of God in Christian thought, which has often been depicted in images since the baroque period , is not negatively charged. The Egyptian Horus eye is also assigned positive properties such as omniscience, foresight, invulnerability and eternal fertility.
One-eyed in fairy tales, proverbs and sayings
The Polish fairy tale Die one-eyige Not has clear reminiscences of the Polyphemus story . Three brothers who are well go out to look for trouble. You find her in the form of a one-eyed old woman - she has her only eye on her forehead - in a hut in the woods. Two of the brothers are immediately strangled by her, the third can stop her first with singing and then with a trick. He claims that as a blacksmith he can get her a second eye and burns her only eye out with a poker . Then he escapes like Odysseus with the help of a mutton. But just like Odysseus, having already escaped danger, he cannot overcome himself and lets out a triumphant laugh. Now the need outwits him and claims that a golden key can be found on a tree in the forest that could be of great use to him. The blacksmith climbs the tree, but his hand grows on the key. Since the hardship is already threatening him again, he saves himself by amputating his own arm so that in the future, deprived of his job, he actually has to get to know the real hardship. This fairy tale is at the same time an attempt to explain the fact that the need apparently comes over people indiscriminately and not on the basis of merit or not - they cannot form a judgment because of their blindness. The portrayal of Justitia as a blind woman has similar motives, but a positive background : She is supposed to judge objectively without regard to the person.
In Grimm's fairy tales One- Eyes, Two-Eyes and Three-Eyes , one-eyed or three-eyed (deviation from a clear view) is depicted as a deformity and source of envy and the general malice that results from it.
The phrase among the blind is known to be the one-eyed king . It means that among all the bad, the mediocre or the least bad is recognized as the best for lack of better.
With the phrase turn a blind eye is take something not as accurate lenient meant.
Keeping an eye on something , on the other hand , means being interested in something .
One-eyedness in literature
One-eyedness finds an ambivalent assessment in the literature. In the tradition of the Bible , the eye is regarded as the seat of sensual pleasure and desires. Here, the metaphorical loss of an eye (or another body organ that causes nuisance) and U. are considered to be moral because it represents the "lesser evil", as it were.
- “ And if your eye gives you a nuisance, tear it out! It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to be cast into Gehenna with two eyes. ” (Mark 9:47)
This rhetorically provocative demand soon became of course the narrowing of a fight against sexual desires alone. The church father Origen followed this invitation with a very straightforward interpretation by emasculating himself. Later examples glorify the chastity of a nun who - desired by a prince because of her beautiful eyes - gouged out her own eyes and sent them to him (with Jacques de Vitry ). Logically, Freud , who relies on the story The Sandman by ETA Hoffmann , explains the fear of losing sight as a hidden fear of castration .
An ancient dedicatory inscription from the Asclepius sanctuary of Epidauros tells that a certain Ambrosia from Athens - she is called monops , actually really one-eyed, but apparently still has the apple of her eye - visited the sanctuary, but about the healing reports that can be read there were mocked. Nevertheless, she went to the Abaton and then dreamed that Asklepios slit open her sick eye and sprinkled a remedy into it. After waking up she was healthy and donated a silver pig as a thank you. Such healing reports, of which there are many in Epidaurus, were widespread in antiquity. Apparently they were supposed to encourage people in their faith, and on the other hand, the mention of the silver pig in the present report appeals to the willingness of visitors to the shrine to make sacrifices.
Since one-eyed characters evidently occurred quite often as a result of war injuries or work-related accidents, numerous one-eyed figures can also be found in narrative literature up to the twentieth century, such as the noble hero from the battle of Reichshoffen in Marcel Pagnol's childhood memories or the one from an accident in the workshop One-sided blind man in Fontane's twists and turns .
In Otfried Preussler's Krabat , on the other hand, one-eyedness plays a central role as an attribute of the master who is allied with the devil .
Probably because of improved precautionary measures and advanced medical or pro- or epithetical care, one-eyed people no longer appear very often in literary works, but they do appear in comics and cartoons . The pirate captain from the Asterix volumes , wearing an eye patch, is well known - in one scene, however, it is shown that a normal-looking and possibly normal-seeing eye is hidden under the eye-patch. In cartoons , Mr. Bean often comes across a rather scratchy, one-eyed cat.
"One-eyed" technology
Well known is the one-eyed reflex camera , which works on the principle of SLR (single lens reflex) - that is, the photographing see in the viewfinder exactly what the camera "sees".