THE SYMPHONY AND THE STARS: HOW THE MYSTERIES OF THE UNIVERSE AND THE MYSTERIES OF THE MUSE SHAPED OUR MIND AND OUR SPIRIT
Part 4
Manifest Destiny: The Rise of Classical Greece
Archeologically verified human presence in Greece and its surrounding isles goes back at least as far as the Egyptian Old Kingdom, if not farther. Arthur Evans discovered the ruins of the Minoan civilization on Crete after the Christians and Muslims finished slaughtering each other in the early 20th century and he could get a few pickaxes into the ground. The stone complex of Knossos was unearthed, and a treasure trove of artifacts was catalogued from a culture that had been buried for 5000 years. It can be said with relative safety that the famous Horns of Consecration—sculptures of the horns of the sacred bull—which appear all over Knossos, and frescoes of their bull-leaping ritual probably didn’t appear out of the blue. Evans found it fascinating that the multi-roomed Knossos structure resembled the famous mythological labyrinth of King Minos of Crete that housed the Minotaur. Although the half-bull half-man creature is etymologically associated with the Minoans, they certainly didn’t invent it.
The painting of Chauvet Cave in southern France dates to 30,000 B.C.E., containing some of the most spectacular paleolithic art in the world. In its deepest, darkest grotto there is an image known as The Venus and the Sorcerer which consists of—in its original form—an exaggerated female triangle (vagina and exaggerated thighs) and a curious image of a man (the Sorcerer) with the upper torso and head of a bull. The Sorcerer, with his crescent horns, stands in a position of dominance over the female triangle, the location of which in the grotto suggests the entrance to the room is a birth canal. An exact interpretation remains unknown.
What is known with certainty is the Greek mythology of the Minotaur handed down by Hesiod in his Catalogues of Women. Supposedly, the Athenians were required to send a tribute of seven boys and seven girls to be eaten by the Minotaur every seven years. However, Theseus, with the help of Minos’s daughter Ariadne, killed the Minotaur and brought an end to its tyranny.
The Minoans were followed by the Mycenaeans Greeks, whose territory covered both Crete and mainland Greece. The demise of the Mycenaean civilizations occurred around 12th century B.C.E., roughly coinciding with the historical window in which the Jewish exodus occurred, although there isn’t a shred of archeological evidence for any of the stories in the Torah. According to theological tradition, the Jews are the first culture to outright reject the imagery of the bull, after worshiping a golden calf almost cost them entrance to the Promised Land.
The final and most beautiful and comprehensive manifestation of the ancient spiritualism occurred in the period from about 1200–800 B.C.E. known as the Greek Dark Ages. It is during this time that Hesiod penned his compendia of the Greek myths and deities such as Aphrodite—yet another avatar of the great mother Inanna. The heroic poetic tradition begun with the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh attained its highest artistic achievements in Homer’s 9th century masterpieces Iliad and Odyssey. The magic of the music of the Sirens was so compelling it drove men to dive into the sea. Orpheus' musical skill persuaded Hades and Persephone to bring his beloved Eurydice back to the land of the living, and when his weakness caused her to return he sang with such beauty he drowned in a sea of the tears of the lesser gods. The legends of great heroes such as Achilles and Hector were literally sung by the poets, thereby imbuing their exploits and heroism with the highest artistic ennoblement.
I have seen demonstrations of what this musical poetry might sound like by doctorate-holding professors at major universities, and they range from uncomfortable to downright embarrassing. For the record, possessing expertise “about” something does not in any way, shape or form qualify you to “do” that thing as well. Seriously. The reason you are having difficulty coordinating your intoning of the text with the chimes and gong strikes is because you are terrible.
However, as the Greeks achieved the high water mark of man’s metaphysical identification, the distillation flask of revolution was beginning to percolate. With the death of the Minotaur, two mortals had finally overcome the ancient mysteries of the dark. Selene, the goddess of the moon, was said to ride a chariot pulled by either horses or oxen across the night sky, wearing her crescent moon crown. She fell in love with the mortal Endymion—often portrayed as an astronomer studying the moon—and asked Zeus to grant him eternal youth. He obliged, putting the man of science to peaceful sleep and back in the dream realm of the painted caves. Asclepius, son of Apollo and a mortal woman, was a doctor of such skill he could cure any disease. He too was stopped at the threshold of enlightenment when Zeus struck him down with a thunderbolt for bringing men back from the dead, throwing into chaos the supernatural order of the of the Fates and Hades. Prometheus was bound to a rock and had his liver eaten out every day as punishment for teaching men the secrets of fire. Daedalus, the Da Vinci of Greek myth, is credited with the invention of carpentry and built the labyrinth which housed the Minotaur. His son Icarus fell from the sky when the wings cunningly constructed by his father burned to cinders because he flew too close to the sun god Helios.
The Greek poets’ musical, artistic and mythological high water mark of mankind’s attempt to align itself metaphorically with the universe would finally collide head-on with the \scientific and philosophical thought the men of Classical Greece discovered within their work. Exploration of the mysteries of the universe led to exploration of the mysteries of music, thus propelling us down a path of musical and celestial co-evolution that would persist for 2000 years.
NEXT— PART 5: TITANS OF GREECE—THE PYTHAGOREAN REVOLUTION