CHAPTER SUMMARIES
1. The shadow problem
The shadow problem of Christianity - the split-consciousness psyche - body/soul antagonism - double-split consciousness – ego-ideal of perfection - splitting of society - spitting within the psyche between faith and doubt - orthodox and heretic - The Great Heresy – Anabaptism - a vicious circle principle at work – the secularisation of society - palliation by institutionalisation of hypocrisy: corruption, confession, indulgences, crusade, carnival, turning-a-blind eye - The Reformation – Recension of the ego-ideal - The either/or problem - philosophical anthropology - READ EXTRACT FROM THIS CHAPTER.
2. Historical analysis by layers
The many-headed hydra of heresy - the gap between Scripture and Creed - the fallacy of inerrancy - Medieval Christianity - the tragedy of the Roman epoch - the work of revelation - faith in tolerance - principle of textual analysis – The New Testament - Layer 0: The inferred sources: 30 – 50 CE - Philosophical theology - Layer 1: the letters of St. Paul: 50 – 63 CE - 2: the synoptic gospels: 63 – 68 CE - Layer 3: Post-Pauline and John: 68 – 95 CE - The Nicene Creed (Confession of the Catholic Church) - The principle doctrines of the Church: The Incarnation - the Trinity, the Resurrection, the Fall and Original Sin. the Atonement, Salvation, Day of Judgement, the Creation, The Holy Spirit - Doctrinal difference between the Catholic and Greek Church - Doctrinal difference between the Catholic and Protestant Church – (1) The Incarnation is not attested - (2) Original Sin is not attested - (3) There is a duty ethic not connected with the body/soul antagonism – The two commandments - the great ethic of Christianity - “Brotherly Love” - (4) The metaphysical teaching of Jesus - (5) The relationship between the teaching of Jesus and the Old Testament – Hell - (6) The nature of the epiphany of the resurrection - (7) Jesus’s social doctrine. READ EXTRACTS FROM CHAPTER TWO.
3. Splitting apart and coming together.
Christianity as bare duty alone - Christianity of love - Christianity of dogma - the shadow of the Christian psyche - Confession of Chalcedon 451 - The Manichaean Heresy - Heresies of the Trinity - Heresies of Revelation - Heresies of Apostolic Succession - Heresies of the Incarnation - The work of Gibbon – the heresy that Christianity is only brotherly love - Immanuel Kant, whose Religion within the Bounds of Bare Reason - universal religion. READ EXTRACTS FROM CHAPTER THREE.
4. The scandal of shadow
The concept of shadow derives from the philosophy/psychology of Carl Jung - archetype - the overthrow of Christianity as a metaphysics - materialism, naturalistic monism, epiphenomenalism - the collective shadow problem - the split-consciousness of Fascism - Sir Francis Galton, Karl Pearson, Arthur de Gobineau, Richard Wagner, Houston Stewart Chamberlain, Kaiser Wilhelm II, Charles Maurras, Nietzsche, Alfred Hugenberg, Gustav Krupp von Bohlen und Halback, Adolf Stoecker, Liebermann von Sonnenberg, Dr. Karl Lueger, Georg Ritter von Schönerer, Lans von Liebenfels, Adolf Hitler, Erich Ludendorff - Chögyam Tsungpa - spiritual materialism. READ EXTRACTS FROM CHAPTER FOUR.
5. Prologue to the history of Western consciousness
Philosophical anthropology - prolegomenon to the history of Western consciousness - collective spiritual illness - the Western way - the Eastern way - Certain constraints govern this enquiry - (1) Participation, (2) Sources, (3) Translation, (4) Selection, (5) Scholarship. READ EXTRACT FROM CHAPTER FIVE.
6. Primitive materialism
The Lower Palaeolithic - the Upper Palaeolithic and Neolithic - primitive materialism - contemporary materialism, realism - Consciousness - a relation between Subject and experience - Cognition, consciousness and religious consciousness – concepts - a difference of cognition - concepts through which consciousness perceives and interprets - religious consciousness - ego, or ego-consciousness - the soul – the Self - Subjective intensity of consciousness - contemporary ego-consciousness - Primitive ego-consciousness - the manikin – Frazer, The Golden Bough - sympathetic magic - the theory of reincarnation in primitive consciousness - primitive dualism. READ EXTRACT FROM CHAPTER SIX.
7. Primitive matriarchal religion
Primitive matriarchal religion - Venus figurines - universal Great Mother, the Goddess - Science and religion - Primitive matriarchy - Primitive ancestor worship - Primitive necromancy - Olympian and chthonic ritual. READ EXTRACTS FROM CHAPTER SEVEN.
8. Egypt
Pre-dynastic Egypt - Pre-historic - Period Prior to the first recension of the funerary texts - First recension: Pyramid Texts – IV to VI dynasty - Heliopolis redaction - cult of Osiris-Isis - Second recension: Coffin texts – XI and XII dynasty - the Judgement of the Dead - Third recension: Papyri – XVIII to XX dynasties - Thebes - Amon-Ra - Fourth recension: XXI to XXII dynasties - Fifth recension: Sais recension, XXVI dynasty - sixth recension of the Ptolemaic period - primitive materialism - Developed primitive materialism - Egyptian ideas of human identity - Pyramids - (1) Social stratification, (2) God-king - antithesis of patriarchal and matriarchal religion - synthesis of patriarchy and matriarchy, (3) Nature deities, (4) Physical corruption of the decaying body, (5) Religious specialists, (6) The Egyptian revolution in consciousness, (7) Name magic, (8) Spiritual materialism, (9) The magic-science that confers “immortality”, (10) Judgement, (11) Indulgences, (12) Pessimism, (13) The economy of death. READ EXTRACTS FROM CHAPTER EIGHT.
9. Prologue to the history of sin
Sin as trespass - There is a history of the concept of sin - Sin as transgression of God’s law - Sin as corruption of the Flesh - Sin as polytheism - Sin as idolatry - Sin as failure of ritual observance - sin as desire - Augustine, On Free Choice of the Will - What is sin? – the religious-ethical-philosophical evolution of the Roman Empire. READ EXTRACT FROM CHAPTER NINE.
10. The crisis of the first millennium
The ethical-religious crisis of the first millennium BCE - ritual human sacrifice associated with the worship of the Goddess - Canaanite religion - Carthaginian religion - J. G. Frazer - Adonis and Attis - Tammuz - Astarte - Cybele - Ishtar - Dumuzid - Inanna - the ritual of Attis - The Punic wars between Rome and Carthage - The Third Punic War. READ EXTRACTS FROM CHAPTER TEN.
11. Primordial duality of religion
Cycladic culture - Early Greek history - patriarchal Aryan divinities - The Mycenaean culture - Mycenaean religion - the divine triad of the Mother, Daughter and Daughter’s Son - Greek Dark Age - The pattern of languages spoken in archaic Greece - the Dorians - the Ionians - Olympian religion - Idealization of female power - C.G. Jung - the Mother archetype and the anima - The archetype of the Great Mother - the positive mother archetype - the negative mother archetype - “the terrible mother” - Proto-Indo-European culture - the Sky Father - the Goddess of the Dawn - the fundamental pattern of ancient history - patriarchy versus matriarchy - Patriarchy - primordial patriarchal violence - a primordial matriarchal violence - primitive primordial duality of religion. READ EXTRACTS FROM CHAPTER ELEVEN.
12. No consensus among the scholars
Robert Graves, The White Goddess and Greek Myths - J. G. Frazer’s The Golden Bough - Jane Ellen Harrison - chthonic religion - Jungian school of archetypes - archetypology - Carl Kerényi - G.S. Kirk’s the Nature of Greek Myths - denial of the fact of human sacrifice - A.B. Cook - Walter Burkert’s Greek Religion - Burkert’s counter-thesis to Frazer-Graves - Martin P. Nilsson’s The Mycenaean Origin of Greek Mythology - Michael Eliade - Rudolf Otto. READ EXTRACTS FROM CHAPTER TWELVE.
13. Greek religion
Internal development of patriarchy - The transition from matriarchy to patriarchy - disruption of war - increasing differentiation within society - the nature of paternity - double parentage - the myth of rape or divine seduction - The Eumenides by Aeschylus - Apollo and the Eumenides - child-sacrifice - the offering of first-fruits - Dionysiac variant- the motif of the hero’s death - each hero myth is a multi-layered text - Orpheus, Pentheus, Ganymede, Orion, Itys, Erichthonius, Cecrops, Eumolpus, Erechtheseus, Hyacinth, Cadmus, Danaus, Lynceus, Castor and Pollux, the Dioscouri, Idas, Ixion, Deioneus, Endymion, Icarus, Daedalus, Sisyphus, Salmoneus, Pirithous, Theseus, the Minotaur, Iphitos, Eurytus, Heracles, Nessus, Lichas, Electryon, Amphitryon, daughters of Proteus, Perseus, Acrisius, Bellerophon, Actaeon, Marsyas, Meleager, Iphicles, Eurypylus, Toxeus, Apsyrtus, Jason - descent into the Underworld - promise of immortality - Medea and Pelias - oracular shrine - matrilineal succession - Pindar - Tantalus and Pelops - sin as hubris - Hippodamia - Oenomaus - Myrtilus - The curse of the House of Atreus - The cosmogony of Hesiod - Uranus - Titans - Cronos - Zagreus - Dionysus - Hermes- Ares - Hephaestus - Dionysus archetype - the archetype of all male deities of the maternal archaic layer - cult of Poseidon - husband of the Goddess - conflict between the Zeus-cult and the Poseidon-cult - the theory of primogeniture - Demeter - Hera and Artemis - the sacrifice of Iphigenia - Athena - Aeschylus’s Eumenides - Hestia - Aphrodite - Euripides - the predicament of women - Irony and insight in Euripides - Euripides and human sacrifice - the violent core of human nature - the story of Pentheus Maenads - the more fundamental problem of pure aggression - Another variant of the thesis of denial. READ EXTRACTS FROM CHAPTER THIRTEEN.
14. Reply to muddy thinking
Robert Graves - exaggerated idealisation of the Mother Goddess - The nature of myth - J.G. Frazer - scientific rationalist - the effect of scholarship - Greek myth became the language of the Western psyche - Archetypal situations - Walter F. Otto, Dionysus, Myth and Cult - epiphany of the godhead - Danger of apologetics - Miracles. READ EXTRACTS FROM CHAPTER FOURTEEN.
15. The religion of Dionysus
Soul-longing for a revitalised life - Friedrich Nietzsche - Stages in the religion of Dionysus - (1) Matriarchal form - (2) chthonic form - state of inner tension - (3) Orphism - (4) Satanism – the Goat of Mendes -(5) the Nietzschean form. READ EXTRACTS FROM CHAPTER FIFTEEN.
16. Prologue to the study of myth
Image - symbol - motif - mythologem - myth - legend - emblem - symbol - ritual - archetype or complex - pantheism - a deity is a transpersonal, collective, objective, real complex or archetype that manifests itself in world history - gods as archetypes - mythic time - mythological time - legendary time.
17. The reformation of the Greek Dark Age
The Olympian religion - the Chthonic religion - Olympian and Chthonic sacrificial ritual - a holocaust – the Chthonic victim - “offering” - the Olympian victim - “sacrifice” - festival calendar - the Attic Calendar - the coexistence of the two religions - Homeric view of Dionysus - attempts to suppress the cult of Dionysus - wrapper of Zeus-theology - the underlying motif of god-child sacrifice - Lycurgus - the Zagreus motif - the cult of Dionysus was suppressed - the thesis of Jane Ellen Harrison - Orpheus - conflict at Thebes and Argos. READ EXTRACT FROM CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.
18. The Zeus theology of Homer
(1) works of literature - (2) ethical-religious life for men in society - rite of sacrifice - Taboo acts - the laws of Zeus - divine retribution - the slaughter of the suitors - hubris - moral ascendency - listened to divinity within - oath - oath-breakers - guilty of hubris - might versus right - (3) the question of objective morality - promise-making - promise-breakers - supernatural witnesses - matriarchal conception of nemesis - the moral argument for the existence of god - personal god - anthropomorphism - poetic justice - karmic consequences - divine moral force - deontologist - consequences - rights, duties, obligations and persons as ends-in-themselves - providence - spiritual history of mankind - right will win out over might - moral reality - life-affirming religion - (4) theology of the underworld of Tartarus - (5) sin as transgression of divine law - the Greeks have no term for sin - (6) Homeric violence - (7) Homer and women - Clytaemnestra - latent monotheism in Greek religion -Hera - Zeus punished Hera - the over-riding symbol of male power is rape - Zeus and Hera on Mount Ida - Aphrodite - (8) Freewill - Homer’s psychology of man - culpability - the guise of incarnate humans - human trait of rationalising activity. READ EXTRACTS FROM CHAPTER EIGHTEEN.
19. The Greek epiphany
Homeric hymns - Immersion in the reality of god - sacral technology - The iconography of the archaic period. (a) Kouroi - (b) Herm - (c) Kore - (d) Sacred aniconic representations of the goddess - (e) Pottery in the geometric phase - epiphany of an encounter with a god. READ EXTTRACT FROM CHAPTER NINETEEN.
20. Life after death
Cognition bounded by finitude - the concept of infinity - local hero cults - continuity of cognition - chthonic powers - Fear of the dead - the Nekyia of the Odyssey - ghost of Patroclus - two stages in the evolution of Greek religion - Orpheus - Orphism - working relationship with the realm of the dead - necromancy - cult of exorcism - the change from inhumation to cremation - Body and soul in the practice of cremation - breaking of the grave goods - Concepts of infinity and eternity are emerging - a physical barrier between life and the afterlife - the ferryman - spiritual revolution during the Dark Ages - the cognition of the body/soul relationship - adoption of cremation as normative. READ EXTRACTS FROM CHAPTER TWENTY.
21. Greek mythology
The main expeditions – myths of collective actions - Argo - The Calydonian Wild Boar - The Seven Against Thebes - The Epigoni - The Trojan War - The Return of the Trojan Heroes - (1) “mythic time” - “mythological historical time” - chronologies - myth formation - Chronological layers of Greek genealogy - (2) Inconsistent mythological time - (3) Nestor - (4) Diomedes and Tydeus - (5) Odysseus - descent to the underworld - (6) Heracles - (7) Asclepius - (8) Perseus - (9) Dionysus - (10) Theseus, Helen and the Trojan war - the unification of Attica - Theseus - the mythologem of the abduction of Helen - Helen - The abduction of Helen by Theseus - (a) Helen is the Goddess - (b) the mythologem of the abduction of Helen (c) The authors of the myth of the Trojan war – the judgement of Paris - mythologem of the Apples of the Hesperides - (d) Castor and Pollux - (e) the original locus of the myth of Troy - (f) Theseus - The Minotaur - (11) Oedipus. READ EXTRACTS FROM CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE.
22. The Dionysus archetype as prototype
Dionysus-Moon mythologem - (1) Dionysus, the sacrificial man-god - Semele the Moon - (2) Theseus-Minotaur-Labyrinth archetype - (3) Heracles - (4) Zeus - (5) The serpent motif - (6) Splitting of the Dionysus archetype - Zeus-archetype - Dionysus-archetype - (3) Heracles-archetype - heroic consciousness – mythologem of the hero - descent to the underworld - (7) Mythologem of Endymion -abduction motif - mythologem of abduction - (8) mythologem of the abduction Persephone by Hades - Demeter - (9) Mythologem of Hades - (10) Archetype of Perseus - mythologem of the heroic struggle against the monster - slaying the dragon - archetype of man defeating woman - St. George and the Dragon - Perseus myth - Perseus mythologem - symbol of Andromeda - rebellion is distinct from submission - the true path for humanity lies in negotiating higher awareness of archetypes - to become persons - the possibility of male independence from female domination - (11) Bellerophon - Icarus mythologem - (12) myth of Cadmus - divine marriage or the coniunctio - (13) Jason - the archetype of the failed hero - (14) Motif of divine assistance and extraordinary gifts - Jason archetype - general flow of collective psychic energy - the archetype of the divine child - (15) Delphyne and Argos - (16) mythologem of rape - the paradigmatic expression of male violence against women - archetype of divine justice. READ EXTRACTS FROM CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO.
23. The Hercules archetype
The motif of uncertain parentage - motif of divine descent - elevation of divine parentage - incarnation of the god in the act of procreation - Passion for genealogy - the Perseids - the house of Pelops - fictional genealogy - Eurystheus motif - cult hero of the Dorian people - the twelve labours - Hera’s jealousy - the madness of Heracles - the mythologem of murder - super hero archetype - Evolution of the Heracles archetypes - Heracles in Hesiod and Homer - Dorian cult of Heracles - Pindar - Rhodes. READ EXTRACTS FROM CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE.
24. The archetype of Apollo
Fixing of the myths - Apollo originated with the Dorians - Spartan religion - colony of Tarentum - Carneia - the Hyacinthia – the Gynopaedia - Apollo in Hesiod and Homer - cult of Apollo - Apollo-Artemis pair - Delos - patriarchal ideal of a brother-sister relationship - late emergence of the Olympian religion - the Peisistratids - cleansing of the island of Delos - oracle of Greece - archetype of Apollo - inspiration from above - quintessential masculine element of religion – spirit - the Apollonian and the Dionysiac - The religious transformations - Mycenaean civilisation - The watershed of the Trojan War - the rise of the patriarchal element - the violent supplanting of matriarchy by patriarchy -cults of Zeus and Poseidon - dual religion – Olympian and Chthonic - rise of the Olympian religion - cults of the superhero and culture-deity - archetype of divine justice - departmental goddesses of male regard - great stimulus to cognition - proto-Ionian consciousness - Zeus archetype of the all-powerful god - concept of infinite power. READ EXTRACTS FROM CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR.
The shadow problem of Christianity - the split-consciousness psyche - body/soul antagonism - double-split consciousness – ego-ideal of perfection - splitting of society - spitting within the psyche between faith and doubt - orthodox and heretic - The Great Heresy – Anabaptism - a vicious circle principle at work – the secularisation of society - palliation by institutionalisation of hypocrisy: corruption, confession, indulgences, crusade, carnival, turning-a-blind eye - The Reformation – Recension of the ego-ideal - The either/or problem - philosophical anthropology - READ EXTRACT FROM THIS CHAPTER.
2. Historical analysis by layers
The many-headed hydra of heresy - the gap between Scripture and Creed - the fallacy of inerrancy - Medieval Christianity - the tragedy of the Roman epoch - the work of revelation - faith in tolerance - principle of textual analysis – The New Testament - Layer 0: The inferred sources: 30 – 50 CE - Philosophical theology - Layer 1: the letters of St. Paul: 50 – 63 CE - 2: the synoptic gospels: 63 – 68 CE - Layer 3: Post-Pauline and John: 68 – 95 CE - The Nicene Creed (Confession of the Catholic Church) - The principle doctrines of the Church: The Incarnation - the Trinity, the Resurrection, the Fall and Original Sin. the Atonement, Salvation, Day of Judgement, the Creation, The Holy Spirit - Doctrinal difference between the Catholic and Greek Church - Doctrinal difference between the Catholic and Protestant Church – (1) The Incarnation is not attested - (2) Original Sin is not attested - (3) There is a duty ethic not connected with the body/soul antagonism – The two commandments - the great ethic of Christianity - “Brotherly Love” - (4) The metaphysical teaching of Jesus - (5) The relationship between the teaching of Jesus and the Old Testament – Hell - (6) The nature of the epiphany of the resurrection - (7) Jesus’s social doctrine. READ EXTRACTS FROM CHAPTER TWO.
3. Splitting apart and coming together.
Christianity as bare duty alone - Christianity of love - Christianity of dogma - the shadow of the Christian psyche - Confession of Chalcedon 451 - The Manichaean Heresy - Heresies of the Trinity - Heresies of Revelation - Heresies of Apostolic Succession - Heresies of the Incarnation - The work of Gibbon – the heresy that Christianity is only brotherly love - Immanuel Kant, whose Religion within the Bounds of Bare Reason - universal religion. READ EXTRACTS FROM CHAPTER THREE.
4. The scandal of shadow
The concept of shadow derives from the philosophy/psychology of Carl Jung - archetype - the overthrow of Christianity as a metaphysics - materialism, naturalistic monism, epiphenomenalism - the collective shadow problem - the split-consciousness of Fascism - Sir Francis Galton, Karl Pearson, Arthur de Gobineau, Richard Wagner, Houston Stewart Chamberlain, Kaiser Wilhelm II, Charles Maurras, Nietzsche, Alfred Hugenberg, Gustav Krupp von Bohlen und Halback, Adolf Stoecker, Liebermann von Sonnenberg, Dr. Karl Lueger, Georg Ritter von Schönerer, Lans von Liebenfels, Adolf Hitler, Erich Ludendorff - Chögyam Tsungpa - spiritual materialism. READ EXTRACTS FROM CHAPTER FOUR.
5. Prologue to the history of Western consciousness
Philosophical anthropology - prolegomenon to the history of Western consciousness - collective spiritual illness - the Western way - the Eastern way - Certain constraints govern this enquiry - (1) Participation, (2) Sources, (3) Translation, (4) Selection, (5) Scholarship. READ EXTRACT FROM CHAPTER FIVE.
6. Primitive materialism
The Lower Palaeolithic - the Upper Palaeolithic and Neolithic - primitive materialism - contemporary materialism, realism - Consciousness - a relation between Subject and experience - Cognition, consciousness and religious consciousness – concepts - a difference of cognition - concepts through which consciousness perceives and interprets - religious consciousness - ego, or ego-consciousness - the soul – the Self - Subjective intensity of consciousness - contemporary ego-consciousness - Primitive ego-consciousness - the manikin – Frazer, The Golden Bough - sympathetic magic - the theory of reincarnation in primitive consciousness - primitive dualism. READ EXTRACT FROM CHAPTER SIX.
7. Primitive matriarchal religion
Primitive matriarchal religion - Venus figurines - universal Great Mother, the Goddess - Science and religion - Primitive matriarchy - Primitive ancestor worship - Primitive necromancy - Olympian and chthonic ritual. READ EXTRACTS FROM CHAPTER SEVEN.
8. Egypt
Pre-dynastic Egypt - Pre-historic - Period Prior to the first recension of the funerary texts - First recension: Pyramid Texts – IV to VI dynasty - Heliopolis redaction - cult of Osiris-Isis - Second recension: Coffin texts – XI and XII dynasty - the Judgement of the Dead - Third recension: Papyri – XVIII to XX dynasties - Thebes - Amon-Ra - Fourth recension: XXI to XXII dynasties - Fifth recension: Sais recension, XXVI dynasty - sixth recension of the Ptolemaic period - primitive materialism - Developed primitive materialism - Egyptian ideas of human identity - Pyramids - (1) Social stratification, (2) God-king - antithesis of patriarchal and matriarchal religion - synthesis of patriarchy and matriarchy, (3) Nature deities, (4) Physical corruption of the decaying body, (5) Religious specialists, (6) The Egyptian revolution in consciousness, (7) Name magic, (8) Spiritual materialism, (9) The magic-science that confers “immortality”, (10) Judgement, (11) Indulgences, (12) Pessimism, (13) The economy of death. READ EXTRACTS FROM CHAPTER EIGHT.
9. Prologue to the history of sin
Sin as trespass - There is a history of the concept of sin - Sin as transgression of God’s law - Sin as corruption of the Flesh - Sin as polytheism - Sin as idolatry - Sin as failure of ritual observance - sin as desire - Augustine, On Free Choice of the Will - What is sin? – the religious-ethical-philosophical evolution of the Roman Empire. READ EXTRACT FROM CHAPTER NINE.
10. The crisis of the first millennium
The ethical-religious crisis of the first millennium BCE - ritual human sacrifice associated with the worship of the Goddess - Canaanite religion - Carthaginian religion - J. G. Frazer - Adonis and Attis - Tammuz - Astarte - Cybele - Ishtar - Dumuzid - Inanna - the ritual of Attis - The Punic wars between Rome and Carthage - The Third Punic War. READ EXTRACTS FROM CHAPTER TEN.
11. Primordial duality of religion
Cycladic culture - Early Greek history - patriarchal Aryan divinities - The Mycenaean culture - Mycenaean religion - the divine triad of the Mother, Daughter and Daughter’s Son - Greek Dark Age - The pattern of languages spoken in archaic Greece - the Dorians - the Ionians - Olympian religion - Idealization of female power - C.G. Jung - the Mother archetype and the anima - The archetype of the Great Mother - the positive mother archetype - the negative mother archetype - “the terrible mother” - Proto-Indo-European culture - the Sky Father - the Goddess of the Dawn - the fundamental pattern of ancient history - patriarchy versus matriarchy - Patriarchy - primordial patriarchal violence - a primordial matriarchal violence - primitive primordial duality of religion. READ EXTRACTS FROM CHAPTER ELEVEN.
12. No consensus among the scholars
Robert Graves, The White Goddess and Greek Myths - J. G. Frazer’s The Golden Bough - Jane Ellen Harrison - chthonic religion - Jungian school of archetypes - archetypology - Carl Kerényi - G.S. Kirk’s the Nature of Greek Myths - denial of the fact of human sacrifice - A.B. Cook - Walter Burkert’s Greek Religion - Burkert’s counter-thesis to Frazer-Graves - Martin P. Nilsson’s The Mycenaean Origin of Greek Mythology - Michael Eliade - Rudolf Otto. READ EXTRACTS FROM CHAPTER TWELVE.
13. Greek religion
Internal development of patriarchy - The transition from matriarchy to patriarchy - disruption of war - increasing differentiation within society - the nature of paternity - double parentage - the myth of rape or divine seduction - The Eumenides by Aeschylus - Apollo and the Eumenides - child-sacrifice - the offering of first-fruits - Dionysiac variant- the motif of the hero’s death - each hero myth is a multi-layered text - Orpheus, Pentheus, Ganymede, Orion, Itys, Erichthonius, Cecrops, Eumolpus, Erechtheseus, Hyacinth, Cadmus, Danaus, Lynceus, Castor and Pollux, the Dioscouri, Idas, Ixion, Deioneus, Endymion, Icarus, Daedalus, Sisyphus, Salmoneus, Pirithous, Theseus, the Minotaur, Iphitos, Eurytus, Heracles, Nessus, Lichas, Electryon, Amphitryon, daughters of Proteus, Perseus, Acrisius, Bellerophon, Actaeon, Marsyas, Meleager, Iphicles, Eurypylus, Toxeus, Apsyrtus, Jason - descent into the Underworld - promise of immortality - Medea and Pelias - oracular shrine - matrilineal succession - Pindar - Tantalus and Pelops - sin as hubris - Hippodamia - Oenomaus - Myrtilus - The curse of the House of Atreus - The cosmogony of Hesiod - Uranus - Titans - Cronos - Zagreus - Dionysus - Hermes- Ares - Hephaestus - Dionysus archetype - the archetype of all male deities of the maternal archaic layer - cult of Poseidon - husband of the Goddess - conflict between the Zeus-cult and the Poseidon-cult - the theory of primogeniture - Demeter - Hera and Artemis - the sacrifice of Iphigenia - Athena - Aeschylus’s Eumenides - Hestia - Aphrodite - Euripides - the predicament of women - Irony and insight in Euripides - Euripides and human sacrifice - the violent core of human nature - the story of Pentheus Maenads - the more fundamental problem of pure aggression - Another variant of the thesis of denial. READ EXTRACTS FROM CHAPTER THIRTEEN.
14. Reply to muddy thinking
Robert Graves - exaggerated idealisation of the Mother Goddess - The nature of myth - J.G. Frazer - scientific rationalist - the effect of scholarship - Greek myth became the language of the Western psyche - Archetypal situations - Walter F. Otto, Dionysus, Myth and Cult - epiphany of the godhead - Danger of apologetics - Miracles. READ EXTRACTS FROM CHAPTER FOURTEEN.
15. The religion of Dionysus
Soul-longing for a revitalised life - Friedrich Nietzsche - Stages in the religion of Dionysus - (1) Matriarchal form - (2) chthonic form - state of inner tension - (3) Orphism - (4) Satanism – the Goat of Mendes -(5) the Nietzschean form. READ EXTRACTS FROM CHAPTER FIFTEEN.
16. Prologue to the study of myth
Image - symbol - motif - mythologem - myth - legend - emblem - symbol - ritual - archetype or complex - pantheism - a deity is a transpersonal, collective, objective, real complex or archetype that manifests itself in world history - gods as archetypes - mythic time - mythological time - legendary time.
17. The reformation of the Greek Dark Age
The Olympian religion - the Chthonic religion - Olympian and Chthonic sacrificial ritual - a holocaust – the Chthonic victim - “offering” - the Olympian victim - “sacrifice” - festival calendar - the Attic Calendar - the coexistence of the two religions - Homeric view of Dionysus - attempts to suppress the cult of Dionysus - wrapper of Zeus-theology - the underlying motif of god-child sacrifice - Lycurgus - the Zagreus motif - the cult of Dionysus was suppressed - the thesis of Jane Ellen Harrison - Orpheus - conflict at Thebes and Argos. READ EXTRACT FROM CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.
18. The Zeus theology of Homer
(1) works of literature - (2) ethical-religious life for men in society - rite of sacrifice - Taboo acts - the laws of Zeus - divine retribution - the slaughter of the suitors - hubris - moral ascendency - listened to divinity within - oath - oath-breakers - guilty of hubris - might versus right - (3) the question of objective morality - promise-making - promise-breakers - supernatural witnesses - matriarchal conception of nemesis - the moral argument for the existence of god - personal god - anthropomorphism - poetic justice - karmic consequences - divine moral force - deontologist - consequences - rights, duties, obligations and persons as ends-in-themselves - providence - spiritual history of mankind - right will win out over might - moral reality - life-affirming religion - (4) theology of the underworld of Tartarus - (5) sin as transgression of divine law - the Greeks have no term for sin - (6) Homeric violence - (7) Homer and women - Clytaemnestra - latent monotheism in Greek religion -Hera - Zeus punished Hera - the over-riding symbol of male power is rape - Zeus and Hera on Mount Ida - Aphrodite - (8) Freewill - Homer’s psychology of man - culpability - the guise of incarnate humans - human trait of rationalising activity. READ EXTRACTS FROM CHAPTER EIGHTEEN.
19. The Greek epiphany
Homeric hymns - Immersion in the reality of god - sacral technology - The iconography of the archaic period. (a) Kouroi - (b) Herm - (c) Kore - (d) Sacred aniconic representations of the goddess - (e) Pottery in the geometric phase - epiphany of an encounter with a god. READ EXTTRACT FROM CHAPTER NINETEEN.
20. Life after death
Cognition bounded by finitude - the concept of infinity - local hero cults - continuity of cognition - chthonic powers - Fear of the dead - the Nekyia of the Odyssey - ghost of Patroclus - two stages in the evolution of Greek religion - Orpheus - Orphism - working relationship with the realm of the dead - necromancy - cult of exorcism - the change from inhumation to cremation - Body and soul in the practice of cremation - breaking of the grave goods - Concepts of infinity and eternity are emerging - a physical barrier between life and the afterlife - the ferryman - spiritual revolution during the Dark Ages - the cognition of the body/soul relationship - adoption of cremation as normative. READ EXTRACTS FROM CHAPTER TWENTY.
21. Greek mythology
The main expeditions – myths of collective actions - Argo - The Calydonian Wild Boar - The Seven Against Thebes - The Epigoni - The Trojan War - The Return of the Trojan Heroes - (1) “mythic time” - “mythological historical time” - chronologies - myth formation - Chronological layers of Greek genealogy - (2) Inconsistent mythological time - (3) Nestor - (4) Diomedes and Tydeus - (5) Odysseus - descent to the underworld - (6) Heracles - (7) Asclepius - (8) Perseus - (9) Dionysus - (10) Theseus, Helen and the Trojan war - the unification of Attica - Theseus - the mythologem of the abduction of Helen - Helen - The abduction of Helen by Theseus - (a) Helen is the Goddess - (b) the mythologem of the abduction of Helen (c) The authors of the myth of the Trojan war – the judgement of Paris - mythologem of the Apples of the Hesperides - (d) Castor and Pollux - (e) the original locus of the myth of Troy - (f) Theseus - The Minotaur - (11) Oedipus. READ EXTRACTS FROM CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE.
22. The Dionysus archetype as prototype
Dionysus-Moon mythologem - (1) Dionysus, the sacrificial man-god - Semele the Moon - (2) Theseus-Minotaur-Labyrinth archetype - (3) Heracles - (4) Zeus - (5) The serpent motif - (6) Splitting of the Dionysus archetype - Zeus-archetype - Dionysus-archetype - (3) Heracles-archetype - heroic consciousness – mythologem of the hero - descent to the underworld - (7) Mythologem of Endymion -abduction motif - mythologem of abduction - (8) mythologem of the abduction Persephone by Hades - Demeter - (9) Mythologem of Hades - (10) Archetype of Perseus - mythologem of the heroic struggle against the monster - slaying the dragon - archetype of man defeating woman - St. George and the Dragon - Perseus myth - Perseus mythologem - symbol of Andromeda - rebellion is distinct from submission - the true path for humanity lies in negotiating higher awareness of archetypes - to become persons - the possibility of male independence from female domination - (11) Bellerophon - Icarus mythologem - (12) myth of Cadmus - divine marriage or the coniunctio - (13) Jason - the archetype of the failed hero - (14) Motif of divine assistance and extraordinary gifts - Jason archetype - general flow of collective psychic energy - the archetype of the divine child - (15) Delphyne and Argos - (16) mythologem of rape - the paradigmatic expression of male violence against women - archetype of divine justice. READ EXTRACTS FROM CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO.
23. The Hercules archetype
The motif of uncertain parentage - motif of divine descent - elevation of divine parentage - incarnation of the god in the act of procreation - Passion for genealogy - the Perseids - the house of Pelops - fictional genealogy - Eurystheus motif - cult hero of the Dorian people - the twelve labours - Hera’s jealousy - the madness of Heracles - the mythologem of murder - super hero archetype - Evolution of the Heracles archetypes - Heracles in Hesiod and Homer - Dorian cult of Heracles - Pindar - Rhodes. READ EXTRACTS FROM CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE.
24. The archetype of Apollo
Fixing of the myths - Apollo originated with the Dorians - Spartan religion - colony of Tarentum - Carneia - the Hyacinthia – the Gynopaedia - Apollo in Hesiod and Homer - cult of Apollo - Apollo-Artemis pair - Delos - patriarchal ideal of a brother-sister relationship - late emergence of the Olympian religion - the Peisistratids - cleansing of the island of Delos - oracle of Greece - archetype of Apollo - inspiration from above - quintessential masculine element of religion – spirit - the Apollonian and the Dionysiac - The religious transformations - Mycenaean civilisation - The watershed of the Trojan War - the rise of the patriarchal element - the violent supplanting of matriarchy by patriarchy -cults of Zeus and Poseidon - dual religion – Olympian and Chthonic - rise of the Olympian religion - cults of the superhero and culture-deity - archetype of divine justice - departmental goddesses of male regard - great stimulus to cognition - proto-Ionian consciousness - Zeus archetype of the all-powerful god - concept of infinite power. READ EXTRACTS FROM CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR.