Baphomet (sculpture)

Baphomet
The Temple's Baphomet statue, as unveiled in Detroit in 2015[1]
Medium Bronze sculpture
Subject Baphomet

In 2015, The Satanic Temple unveiled a 9-foot (2.7 m) tall bronze sculpture depicting Baphomet, in Detroit, Michigan. The group attempted to have the statue installed alongside the Ten Commandments Monument in Oklahoma. The one-ton sculpture shows Baphomet, with a human body and a goat's head, with a boy and a girl.[2]

History

In 2014, The Satanic Temple began a crowdsourcing campaign on Indiegogo for a Satanic monument depicting Baphomet with two children, with the intention to display this monument at the Oklahoma State Capitol.[3] The group's fundraising page stated that the statue was to be erected in response to a then-present Ten Commandments Monument installed by Oklahoma State Representative Mike Ritze in 2012.[3] The following year, in 2015, the satanic monument was unveiled at the Detroit chapter of The Satanic Temple amidst protests by religious organizations.[4] Vice reported that the 700 attendees at the unveiling ceremony had to sell their souls to Satan in order to receive a ticket, a tactic that the Temple stated was done in order to "keep away some of the more radical superstitious people who would try to undermine the event."[1][5]

Time noted that "the group does not 'promote a belief in a personal Satan.' By their logic, Satan is an abstraction, ... 'a literary figure, not a deity — he stands for rationality, for skepticism, for speaking truth to power, even at great personal cost.' Time also commented on the statue's unveiling, writing "Call it Libertarian Gothic, maybe — some darker permutation of Ayn Rand's crusade for free will. One witnesses in The Satanic Temple militia a certain knee-jerk reaction to encroachments upon personal liberties, especially when those encroachments come with a crucifix in hand. The Baphomet statue is the Satanic Temple’s defiant retort du jour."[5]

Arkansas State Capitol exhibition

On August 16, 2018, the statue was displayed on a flatbed truck parked in front of the Arkansas State Capitol building for several hours[6]. Satanic Temple members claimed the event was in protest of a Ten Commandments monument already on the grounds.[7][8]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "Inside the Satanic Temple's Secret Baphomet Monument Unveiling". VICE. Retrieved 2015-12-02.
  2. ↑ Reuters (2015-07-27). "Satanic Temple Unveils Baphomet Sculpture In Detroit". Huffington Post. Retrieved 2018-04-29.
  3. 1 2 "Put a Satanic Monument at OK Capitol". Indiegogo. Retrieved 2015-12-02.
  4. ↑ "Protesters: Don't turn Detroit over to Satanists". Detroit Free Press. Retrieved 2015-12-02.
  5. 1 2 Jenkins, Nash. "Hundreds Gather for Unveiling of Satanic Statue in Detroit". TIME.com. Retrieved 2015-12-02.
  6. ↑ "Satanic Temple Unveils Baphomet Statue at Arkansas Capitol". Snopes. Retrieved August 22, 2018.
  7. ↑ "Satanic temple sparks uproar by unveiling statue of goat-headed, winged creature called Baphomet in Arkansas state capitol". The Independent. Retrieved August 17, 2018.
  8. ↑ "USNews".
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