Many people share a common fear of clowns, and there is a sort of mystery that surrounds this particular fear considering how well spread it really is. I myself never really cared for them, and there are countless horror stories made featuring them. Yet I think if you asked most people they could not in fact really nail down or explain thier fear as well they are an odd thing to be afaird of considering thier primiary role of bringing joy to childern and thier roles as entertainers ment to have silly and cheerful antics.
There may in fact be a deep pyschological and intuvitve reason for this fear.
There was an ancient and somewhat mysterious society known as the Etruscans, whom lived in what is now known as Italy, before it was Italy, and prior to the Roman Empire. There is much debate and speculation as to just where these people first originated from. There are images dipicted upon Etruscan tombs which envolved elbaroate and brightly colored costumes, as well as figures with elongated, and often beak like noses.
The costume and apperance of the mondern day clown were taken from these old images that were once used as symbols of death. And in fact traditionaly at carnivals, people would dress up in such garb as seen upon these tombs to remind people that they should enjoy thier life and live to the fullest becasue death lay in wait just around the corner and could strike at any moment.
From this the role and idea of the clown began to evolve into and intended bringer of joy and cheer, and a harmless trickstar, but it is still ingrained within the mind, that the clown is a symbol of death, though few people know the history of these icons and thus cannot understand thier insictcual reactions of unease around such figures, and this sort of unknown and mysterious discomfort develops into an acutal fear.
*Image Info: Phil Reynolds from http://www.philreynolds.com/home.html
