The Byzantine Greek eikonoklástēs , which can be translated as “image-breaker” , came into late Latin as iconoclastes . That is the immediate etymological antecedent of iconoclast , a term that in our language has two broad meanings.
According to the dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy ( RAE ), an iconoclast was classified as someone who, in the 8th century , was part of a movement that rejected sacred images , destroying them, persecuting their cult and attacking the people who venerated them. . By extension, an iconoclast is someone who does not recognize the authority of rules, guides or teachers .
It was the Byzantine emperor Leo III who promoted iconoclasm in the 8th century . Through various laws , he promoted the so-called iconoclastic revolution to end the cult of images and thus achieve what he understood as an improvement in public morality. However, this decision caused confrontations with different popes and motivated popular revolts.
Therefore, in the first sense mentioned by the RAE that derives from this current promoted by Leo III , an iconoclast is an individual who seeks to ruin and eliminate sacred sculptures and paintings. These are people with the opposite attitude to iconodules , who venerate images.
Hence, in the middle of the Byzantine Empire, what is known as the iconoclastic crisis occurred, which confronted the iconoclasts, protected by the measures imposed by Leo III, and the also mentioned iconodules, who came to make clear their opposition to the requests of that monarch. .
From that moment on, society, politics and ordinary citizens were confronted by this issue. Thus, the iconoclasts, on the one hand, defended their position by arguing that idolatry was a serious sin or that the representation of God was a desecration. In front of them, the iconodules stated that the only thing healthy images contributed to was being able to fulfill the confessional objectives in a pure and healthy way.
This crisis was accentuated with the death of Leo III because his son, Constantine V, accentuated the measures imposed by his father regarding religious images, which led him, among other things, to have to face a rebellion against the who had the opposite opinion to him in that sense.
However, he was not discouraged and convened the so-called Council of Hieria, which established the condemnation of iconoludia as it was considered idiolatry.
His successors, to a greater or lesser extent, maintained iconoclasm until a council of Nicaea was held during the regency of Constantine VI, which put an end to it firmly and advocated what was known as the policy of iconodulia. .
Iconoclasm varies according to each religion . Catholics, for example, venerate images since they do not worship the representations themselves, but rather what they represent. Muslims, on the other hand, are iconoclasts: they do not accept representations of the Prophet Muhammad nor do they allow figures representing people in mosques.
Iconoclast is also someone who does not respect leaders, statutes or codes accepted by the majority . “Lisa, the iconoclast” , in this framework, is the Spanish title of an episode of the seventh season of The Simpsons where Lisa refuses to worship the hero Jeremías Springfield upon discovering his dark side.