Mammon Portrait

Mammon by George Frederick Watts, 1884: This is one of a series of paintings in which Watts questioned the purpose of modern commerce and its dehumanizing effects on the nation. Mammon, the God of money, is represented as a tyrant on a throne, nursing money bags on his lap. Two naked youths are crushed by the power of this monster. Watts subtitled the picture "Dedicated to his Worshippers".

Various ‘Mammon’ Mentions:

No one can serve two masters. He will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and mammon. [Matthew 6:24]

And the devil of Avarice and Riches is called Mammon [Malleus Maleficarum - The Witches Hammer - by Heinrich Kramer and James Sprenger, 1489]

“I am thinking this morning of the men in the mills and the factories; of the men in the mines and on the railroads. I am thinking of the women who for a paltry wage are compelled to work out their barren lives; of the little children who in this system are robbed of their childhood and in their tender years are seized in the remorseless grasp of Mammon and forced into the industrial dungeons, there to feed the monster machines while they themselves are being starved and stunted, body and soul. I see them dwarfed and diseased and their little lives broken and blasted because in this high noon of Christian civilization money is still so much more important than the flesh and blood of childhood. In very truth gold is god today and rules with pitiless sway in the affairs of men.” [E.V Debs, 1918, Statement to the Court Upon Being Convicted of Violating the Sedition Act]

“Let us be frank in acknowledgement of the truth that many amongst us have made obeisance to Mammon, that the profits of speculation, the easy road without toil, have lured us from the old barricades. To return to higher standard of living we must abandon the false prophets and seek new leaders of our own choosing.” [President Franklin Roosevelt, 1943-1945]

Those who set out to serve both God and Mammon soon discover that there is no God. [Logan P. Smith]

Mammon - - god of the world's leading religion. [Ambrose Bierce]

Peasants accused one another of accepting help from various demons, such as Lucifer, Cadaver, Mammon, Exterminator, and many others. The Evil Ones surely picked only those who had already displayed a sufficient supply of inner hatred and maliciousness. [The Painted Bird by Jerzy Kosinski, 1965]

And so here we are, the richest of the rich, all sub-species of American Mammon, each one, no doubt, wondering from time to time, how to become great – since we are already rich. [The Devil Tree by Jerzy Kosinski, 1973]

Proving that one could serve God and Mammon at the same time, the church paid his wages in untaxable cash. [The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen, 2017]

The Worship of Mammon - Evelyn de Morgan (British, 1850-1919)