Gold Funerary Mask of Agamemnon

Thinking Through Henri Bergson (1859-1941)’s “Creative Evolution”

This golden mask represents not a static artifact, but the imprint of temporal depth—the individual face cast in eternity. According to Bergson’s metaphysics, reality is not a succession of states but an indivisible flow. The mask captures this duration, suggesting a metaphysical becoming of the heroic spirit across time. The gold, immutable yet shaped by human hands, symbolizes how consciousness impresses inner life upon matter. This is not a relic of death but a vessel of pure memory—an echo of vital impetus (élan vital) as it transits from the temporal to the immortal. The mask’s stillness paradoxically pulsates with metaphysical becoming, disclosing a hero not as a fixed being but as a continually self-surpassing potential.