Orpheus

Orpheus A legendary ancient Greek musician, poet and philosopher from Thrace, said to be the ancestor of the poets Homer and Hesiod. Orpheus could charm the wildest of beasts with the music of his lyre. Through his music he also obtained his wife Eurydice‘s release from the underworld, if but for a few moments. According to the myth Eurydice died from a poisonous snake bite, prompting Orpheus to journey to Hades in hope of rescuing her. He used his melodious lyre to liberate Eurydice from the underworld’s Lord of Death, the giant three-headed dog Cerberus. But like Lot‘s wife, Orpheus ignored a dire warning to not look back while escaping. Orpheus did look back and lost Eurydice to the underworld forever. When Orpheus died his lyre transformed into a constellation. Perhaps in a similar manner, or as a rough parallel to this story, Christians, Buddhists, Hindus and many others believe that the right type of music can help deliver a fettered soul to a better plane of existence. And the grim fates of Eurydice and Lot’s wife arguably symbolize the importance of not living in the past. » Bowie (David), Gregorian Chant, Mantra, Orphic Mysteries , Orphism, Polyphonic Chant, Raga, Rock and Roll, Song, Synthesizer, Throat Singing

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Cerberus

Cerberus by MattGrommes via Flickr

In ancient Greek and Roman myth Cerberus is a giant three-headed dog and Lord of Death who guards the gates to and from the underworld. As such, he prevents those who’ve crossed the River Styx¹ from making a return journey.

Cerberus was captured and chained by Hercules and brought to a higher region as one of the latter’s Twelve Labors. And Orpheus managed to outwit Cerberus and escape the bonds of hell by soothing the wretched dog to sleep with the music of his lyre.

He is depicted on ancient Greek coins, cameos, vases, paintings and temple sculptures. And he figures prominently in classical Western literature. More recently, he appears as a character in video games.

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¹ Styx is the boundary between the world of the living and the underworld (where souls are said to go in the afterlife). Sometimes ancient mourners placed a coin in the mouth of the deceased to pay the ferryman (named as Charon in the 6th century)  who’d take the soul across the river. See The Oxford Classical Dictionary, 1999, p. 312, and Garland, Robert. “Underworld and Afterlife.” In The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome, Oxford University Press. (, n.d.). Retrieved 15 Nov. 2012, from http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780195170726.001.0001/acref-9780195170726-e-1300

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Eurydice

George Frederick Watts – Orpheus and Eurydice (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Eurydice is a female figure in Greek myth. Among variants, the best known Eurydice in Greek myth is a tree or water nymph and wife of Orpheus. When the god Aristaeus tried to rape her, she fled to escape his advances. While fleeing she was bitten by a poisonous snake, died within hours and descended to Hades.

Her husband Orpheus later journeyed to Hades hoping to rescue her. Orpheus used the musical beauty of his lyre to wrest Eurydice from the underworld’s Lord of Death, the giant three-headed dog Cerberus. But like Lot’s wife, and against a dire warning to not look behind while escaping, Orpheus cast a glance backward, losing Eurydice forever.

The name Eurydice first appears on pottery in the 4th century BCE.¹ Although possibly orally present for centuries, they myth of Orpheus’ descent into the underworld to rescue Eurydice was not fully written down until the  first century BCE, when Roman poets immortalized the tale through written verse.²

Plato criticizes Orpheus in his Symposium for trying to rescue Eurydice through music instead of sheer courage.³

In other variants of the myth Orpheus attempts to save Eurydice from Persephone. The scene of Orpheus attempting to rescue Eurydice is depicted in Neoclassical art, most notably by Nicolas Poussin.

Eurydice is also known as one of the daughters of Apollo.
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¹ Richard L. Hunter “Eurydice” The Oxford Classical Dictionary, © Oxford University Press 1996, 2000.

² Sarah Hitch “Orpheus and Eurydice” The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome. Ed. Michael Gagarin. © Oxford University Press 2010. The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome: (e-reference edition). Oxford University Press. Toronto Public Library. 22 May 2012 http://www.oxford-greecerome.com/entry?entry=t294.e907

³ Ibid.

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Eros

Eros (Photo credit: virgi.pla)

In Greek mythology Eros is the son of Aphrodite and Ares. He is portrayed on ancient vases as a highly attractive athlete, as a boy with wings and arrows, and later, as a pudgy babe.

As the god of romantic love he is praised in Hesiod‘s hymns as the most beautiful of all the gods. In popular myth and classical art he’s depicted as shooting arrows of love into the hearts of soon-to-be lovers. The Orphic mystery cults deemed his creative powers great enough to regard him as the creator of the world. Hesiod wrote that Eros sprung from Chaos, representing instinctual, sexual and creative energy.

Sigmund Freud hypothesized a general life instinct which he called eros, in contrast to an opposing death insinct, thanatos (Greek = death). C. S. Lewis and many others use the term eros to describe emotional romantic love as opposed to Agape, or selfless love.

Plato used the term eros to signify a desire to seek the transcendental beauty of the eternal Forms, which is partially recognized in particular instances within this changing world of becoming.

Eros is paralleled by the Roman god Cupid and in Latin is Amor.

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Gregorian Chant

Gregorian Chant - Photo: Nesster via Flickr (Fair Use Rationale)

A Gregorian Chant is a non-harmonic, unaccompanied melody of the Roman Catholic Church, usually but not only sung in monasteries for worship and spiritual elevation.

The earliest surviving manuscripts are from the late 9th century. The authorization of the chants for liturgical use is often attributed to Pope Gregory the Great.

Numerous recordings of Gregorian Chants are available today for listening among the general public. Some of these recordings are made by actual monks and others by scholarly musicians, such as the Ensemble Organum directed by Marcel Pérès.

Most lay people play this music for purposes of relaxation or contemplation. Among music scholars, however, there’s an ongoing debate about how best to perform the chants. The problem is that early forms of musical notation are notorious for not clearly indicating the timing of certain notes. So some may think a certain note should be longer, others shorter. This uncertainty leaves much room for rhythmic interpretation.

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Homer

Homer was also called Melesigenes (son of Meles) by the name of the brook which flowed by Smyrna. This photo is of a marble terminal bust of Homer. Roman copy of a lost Hellenistic original of the 2nd c. BC. From Baiae, Italy via Wikipedia

Homer is an Ancient Greek poet (Homeros) of uncertain identity.

He or she was believed by the ancient Greeks and Romans to have authored the classic epics of the Odyssey and Illiad around the 8th-7th centuries BCE, the former epic likely predating the latter. Today, most people will tell you that Homer is the outstanding author of the Odyssey and Illiad but, in reality, this authorship isn’t solidly established.

Not unlike the uncertainty concerning the originality and authorship of some of the works of Shakespeare, Homer probably borrowed from existing mythological tales which were transmitted through oral tradition.  And with a particular poetic genius, he or she depicted the enduring characters of the Olympic pantheon.

Contemporary scholars say that the two Homeric classics may have been authored by several persons.

The ancient Greeks saw Homer as an impoverished, blind minstrel. And a contemporary minority view suggests that Homer was a woman. Regardless of the poet’s gender, his or her lasting impact on Western culture is undeniable.

Medieval bards wrote of Troy and neo-classical painters depicted the pursuits of the Homeric gods in all their outrageous splendor and folly.

The 33 Homeric Hymns, likely written after the two epics, are no longer attributed to Homer.

In more recent times, a Homeric strain is arguably discernible in the works of the Canadian poet and musician Leonard Cohen, who took up residence in Greece during his formative years.

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Hesiod

Hesiod and the Muse by Gustav Moreau via Wikipedia

Hesiod was an 8^th-century BCE Greek poet, thought to be active from  750 and 650 BCE. Scholars still debate whether Hesiod lived before or after Homer.

Hesiod’s Works and Days is the tale of a simple but wise rural man who blends ancient myth with practical advice, such as who and when to marry. He also says that women should plow with oxen, and that men should never urinate while standing and facing the sun.

In addition, Hesiod says Gossip is a goddess, and warns against the ills of greedy profit. And he outlines a prophetic vision about passing out of the Iron Age, not unlike the New Testament Book of Revelation.

Yet here also there shall be some good things mixed with the evils. But Zeus will destroy this generation of mortals also/in the time when children, as they are born, grow grey on the temples, When the father no longer agrees with the children, nor children with their father.¹

Not unlike the Egyptian Book of the Dead, Bhagavad Gita, Old Testament or Koran, Hesiod writes:

The eye of Zeus sees everything. His mind understands all. He is watching us right now, if he wishes to, nor does he fail to see what kind of justice this community keeps inside it.²

The close of Works and Days provides an account of Goddesses joining sexually with mortal men, a theme which Mircea Eliade points out is present in some forms of shamanism.³

Hesiod’s Theogany and Shield of Heracles are closer to the Homeric style and less sociological but nonetheless full of vivid mythological tales, many of which could be adapted for contemporary film and TV fantasy.

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¹ Cited in Lattimore, Richmond (trans.). Hesiod. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1959, line 179-182.

² Ibid., line 267-272.

³ Mircea Eliade, Shamanism, trans. Willard R. Trask, Princeton, N.J.: 1964.

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Hades

Pinax of Persephone and Hades on the throne. Found in the holy shrine of Persephone at Locri in the district Mannella, photo by AlMare via Wikipedia

Hades is the ancient Greek lord of the underworld. Also known as Pluton from the 5^th-century BCE. Like the Hebraic sheol, the abode of Hades is an afterlife place of gloom and restlessness but not as terrible as the Christian idea of hell, which is more closely akin to Tartarus, a place even deeper and more dreadful than Hades.

The celebrated mythographer Karl Kerényi suggests that Hades had a dual identity of life (as vitality) and death (as afterlife) and that this paradox was apparently known to those initiated into the Greek mystery cults.

The philosopher Heraclitus, unifying opposites, declared that Hades and Dionysus, the very essence of indestructible life zoë, are the same god. Amongst other evidence Karl Kerenyi notes that the grieving goddess Demeter refused to drink wine, which is the gift of Dionysus, after Persephone’s abduction, because of this association, and suggests that Hades may in fact have been a ‘cover name’ for the underworld Dionysus. Furthermore he suggests that this dual identity may have been familiar to those who came into contact with the Mysteries (Kerenyi 1976, p. 240). One of the epithets of Dionysus was “Chthonios”, meaning “the subterranean” (Kerenyi 1976, p. 83).¹

Leighton depicts Hermes helping Persephone to return to her mother Demeter after Zeus forced Hades to return Persepone via Wikipedia

This kind of Jungian “union of opposites” thinking has become popular among some New Age, Zen and NeoTaoist groups today. The polar opposites of life and death, love and hate, good and evil, and so on, are said to more correctly be “complementaries.” And an awareness of their essential interconnectedness apparently leads to greater self knowledge.

Opposed to this view, each in their own way, are the orthodox versions of the “religions of the book,” as they are often called—namely Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. These three world religions share the belief that God is completely good and that evil is a personal rejection of that goodness. As such, the religions of the book don’t advocate some kind of mixing of good and evil as a pathway toward ultimate truth and goodness.

These three religions do differ, however, on the details concerning goodness and how to obtain it in this world and the next.

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¹ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hades

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Lot

Lot's Wife near the Dead Sea by GflaiG via Flickr

In the Old Testament Lot is Abraham‘s nephew. He departed from his family to the proximity of Sodom, a place of iniquity where he was rescued by two angels. But he’s really more famous for what happened to his wife.

Lot’s Wife is also a character in the Old Testament. Her tale has become emblematic as a kind of dire warning about the danger in not trusting God.

When delivered from Sodom, Lot and his wife are warned by the Lord to not look back because the city is being utterly destroyed. The destruction arises because “the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the Lord exceedingly” (Genesis 13:13).

Lot’s wife disobeys. As she turns to look back, she’s transformed into a pillar of salt. Lot, however, doesn’t look back and survives the ordeal unscathed.

Feminists point out that Lot’s wife is unnamed in the Bible.

Historians, tour guides and geologists each have their own take on what really happened. Two prevailing naturalistic theories are:

1. Lot’s wife is a natural rock salt formation that occurs in the Dead Sea area, which can still be viewed today.
2. Salt floes in the dead sea were thrust upward by surging waters, “hence legend is created out of what can now be explained as a simple geological phenomenon.”¹

From a practical perspective we might say that the story of Lot’s wife instructs us to “not look back” when life and, perhaps, our very physical, economic, psychological or spiritual survival demands that we move forward and not get stuck in the past.

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¹ “The geologists said that Lot’s wife did not appear to turn into a pillar of salt because she dared to look back but because of the briny nature of the Dead Sea. But the research shows it was more likely a case of mistaken identity. Mr. Harris said by telephone from Canada that the Dead Sea was full of salt floes that might have been thrown up by surging water to resemble a female outline. ‘Hence legend is created out of what can now be explained as a simple geological phenomenon.’” Source: “Geologists Zero In on Sodom and Lot’s Wife” in New York Times » http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B03E0D71739F934A25751C1A963958260

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Lot’s Wife

Lot's Wife near the Dead Sea by GflaiG via Flickr

Lot’s Wife is character in the Old Testament. Her tale has become emblematic with regard to the dangers in not trusting God.

When delivered from Sodom, Lot and his wife are warned by the Lord to not look back because the city is being utterly destroyed. The destruction arises because “the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the Lord exceedingly” (Genesis 13:13).

Lot’s wife disobeys. As she turns to look back she is transformed into a pillar of salt. Lot, however, doesn’t look back and survives the ordeal.

Feminists point out that the name of Lot’s wife is not mentioned in the Bible.

Historians, tour guides and geologists each have their own take on what really happened. Two prevailing naturalistic theories are:

1. Lot’s wife is a natural rock salt formation that occurs in the Dead Sea area, which can still be viewed today.
2. Salt floes in the dead sea were thrust upward by surging waters, “hence legend is created out of what can now be explained as a simple geological phenomenon.”¹

From a practical perspective we could say that the story of Lot’s wife instructs us to “not look back” when life and, perhaps, our very physical, economic, psychological or spiritual survival demands that we move forward and not get stuck in the past.

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¹ “The geologists said that Lot’s wife did not appear to turn into a pillar of salt because she dared to look back but because of the briny nature of the Dead Sea. But the research shows it was more likely a case of mistaken identity. Mr. Harris said by telephone from Canada that the Dead Sea was full of salt floes that might have been thrown up by surging water to resemble a female outline. ‘Hence legend is created out of what can now be explained as a simple geological phenomenon.’” Source: “Geologists Zero In on Sodom and Lot’s Wife” in New York Times » http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B03E0D71739F934A25751C1A963958260

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