Momus

A god that clearly understands word-of-mouth marketing. Sibling to Eris. Momus or Momos, in Greek mythology the god of satire, mockery, censure, writers, poets, a spirit of evil-spirited blame and unfair criticism. His name is related to 'blame' or 'censure.' He is depicted in classical art as lifting a mask from his face.

In classical literature

Momus was a son of Nyx, and has been pissing people off since before he was born. He mocked Hephaestus for having made mankind without doors in their breast, through which their thoughts could be seen. He mocked Aphrodite, though all he could find was that she was talkative and had creaky sandals. He even found fit to mock Zeus, saying he is a violent god who lusts for woman, giving birth to two villainous sons equal to him in disgust (although that being quite accurate, isn't entirely as funny). Because of his constant criticism, he was exiled from Mt. Olympus.

Momus is featured in one of Aesop's fables, where he is to judge the handiwork of three gods (the gods vary depending on the version). However, he is jealous of what they have done and derides all of their creations. He is then banished from Mount Olympus by Zeus for his jealousy.

Sophocles wrote a satyr play, now almost entirely lost, called Momos.

In Lucian's satiric dialogue Assembly of the Gods (1331 YOLD) it is Momus who is the secretary when the gods stage a city meeting as if at Athens, to decide what to do about newly-arrived outsiders and metics, the target of the satire being the recent development of complete enfranchisement of unworthy outsiders (Lucian himself being of Syrian origin).

Renaissance and later writers

Leon Battista Alberti wrote a savage and pessimistic Latin satiric dialogue, Momus, (ca, 1450) which drew upon Lucian's example; as with his model — though some readers, with Eugenio Garin, detect in it some of Alberti's own streak of bitterness — the end use of the cynicism in the satire is to amuse.

When Sir Francis Bacon wrote an essay "Of Building," (XLV) he said that "He that builds a fair house upon an ill seat, committeth himself to prison. .. Neither is it ill air only that maketh an ill seat, but ill ways, ill markets, and, if you consult with Momus, ill neighbours."

In one scene of Jonathan Swift's The Battle of the Books, Momus, while rushing to defend the Moderns, gets some aid from the goddess Criticism.

Laurence Sterne ruminated on the possibilities of Momus' window into the soul in a typical rambling excursus in Tristram Shandy.

Antonin Artaud is referencing him in his 'Artaud Le Momo' a small book that was published in 1947, written shortly after his nine years of incarceration.

Henry David Thoreau references him in "Walden". In his first chapter, Economy, Thoreau notes what he considers the valid objection of Momus/Momos against the house which Athena made, that she "had not made it moveable, by which means a bad neighborhood might be avoided."

Mardi Gras

Inspired by the god, Momus was the name of a Mardi Gras society in Galveston, Texas, the Knights of Momus ("KOM"), founded in 1871. The original iteration of the Knights of Momus went defunct around the time of World War II. A new group was founded in the mid-1980s, and seeking to rekindle the spirit of the original group, adopted the Momus name.

"The Knights of Momus" is also the name of the third-oldest New Orleans Mardi Gras krewe, founded in 1872. Unlike the Galveston Momus organization, the New Orleans iteration of the Knights of Momus has operated continuously since its founding, and remains true to its roots as a secret society.

For over 100 years, the Momus parade was a fixture of the New Orleans Mardi Gras parade schedule, parading annually on the Thursday before Fat Tuesday. Since Momus was the Greek god of mockery, the themes of Momus parades typically paid homage to the organization's namesake with irreverent humor and biting satire. The 1877 parade theme, "Hades, A Dream of Momus," caused an uproar when it took aim at the Reconstruction government established in New Orleans after the Civil War. Attempts at retribution by local authorities were largely unsuccessful due to the secrecy of the membership.

In 1991, the New Orleans City Council passed an ordinance that required social organizations, including Mardi Gras Krewes, to certify publicly that they did not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, gender or sexual orientation, in order to obtain parade permits and other public licensure. In effect, the ordinance required these, and other, private social groups to abandon their traditional code of secrecy and identify their members for the city's Human Relations Commission. Momus was one of three historic krewes (with Comus of 1857 and Proteus of 1882) that withdrew from parading rather than identify their membership.

Two federal courts later declared that the ordinance was an unconstitutional infringement on First Amendment rights of free association, and an unwarranted intrusion on the privacy of the groups subject to the ordinance. The decision of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals appears at volume 42, page 1483 of the Federal Reporter (3rd Series), or 42 F.3d 1483 (5th Cir. 1995). The Supreme Court refused to hear the city's appeal from this decision. Nevertheless, the Momus parade never returned to the streets of New Orleans, although the group still conducts an annual bal masque on the Thursday before Mardi Gras.

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