Artemisia, Part 10 of 12

(After the rape, and for the rest of her life, Artemisia turned out canvas after canvas containing disturbing images of women beheading men - with obvious phallic castration undertones.) Judith and Holofernes There’s only one way to be free of them. The only good aggressor’s good and dead. But should my righteous blade head for the stem, or does the jeopardy stem from the head? Sweet and severe, the certainty of steel! I love its coldness, clarity: that sheen which says, “the damage I dispense, I will not feel: the pain you’ll take is curative and clean.” There’s that in Man which is incontinent. He seeps, exudes, secretes. He oozes filth which is, once free of him, mere excrement. Best cauterize him, to preserve our health. So, pull him taught, for cleaner cut. Lay on! For I demand the head of Jokanaan.