QUEST FOR MEANING
by Aubrey Cole Odhner|

                                                 THE IMPORTANCE OF MYTHOLOGY IN THE CURRICULUM:

Myths are some of the earliest remnants of the Ancient Science of Correspondences, the perception and knowledge of which is essential to a true understanding of the Word, of the soul’s operation in the body, and of the life after death.

S. 20 “In the most ancient times, the science of correspondences was the science of sciences, and was so universal that all their manuscripts and books were written by correspondences; the Book of Job is full of correspondences. The hieroglyphics and mythologies were nothing else.”

H.88 “Now, without a grasp of what correspondences is, nothing can be known in clear light about the spiritual world or about its influx into the natural world, nothing at all about what the spiritual is relative to the natural, nothing in clear light about the human spirit that is called “the soul,” and how it affects the body inwardly, nothing about our state after death.”

A. 9942.4.”For all the things contained in the first chapters of Genesis are made up historical things, in the internal sense of which, as before said, are Divine things concerning the new creation or regeneration of the man of the church. This method of writing was customary in the most ancient times, not only among those who were of the church, but also among those who were outside the church, as among the Arabians, Syrians, and Greeks, as is evident from the books of those times, both sacred and profane.”

A.9942. 5 “.—The book of Job also is a book of the Ancient Church” ( not holy because it does not contain within it heavenly things and Divine things in a series, as do the holy books –ref. Here to Song of Solomon as well as the Book of Job.   Mention is also made of holy books of the Ancient Church which are now lost, as in Moses (Num. xxi 14,15, 27.and following verses.)” The historical parts of these books were called “the Enunciations” (see n.2686, 2897). That in the historical parts of the books called “the Wars of Jehovah,” the style was of this nature, is clear from what has been taken from them and quoted by Moses. In this way their historical things approached a certain prophetic style, of such a nature that the things might be retained in the memory by little children and also by the simple. ---That among people outside the church such a style was very much used at that time, and was almost the only style, is clear from the fables of those writers who were outside the church, in which they wrapped up moral things, or such as belong to the affections and life.”

H. 114 “So if we were steeped in a knowledge  of correspondences, we would understand the Word in its spiritual meaning and be enabled to know hidden treasures in it that we do not see at all in its literal meaning.”

The Greeks provided the term “Muthos” to the earliest literature of all cultures, but there own religious tales represent, together with the Books of the Old Testament and the Icelandic Eddas, some  basic roots and  branches of Western Culture. As John Peradotto says in the bibliography for his university course in classical mythology,"it (mythology) is the lingua franca of Western culture and has too many facets to permit our glorifying any one of them at the expense of the others, and it has connections with too many disciplines to give any one of them, classical philology included, the right of eminent domain.”1

 My own experience in preparing for teaching my course in mythology was  similar; I was confounded by searching in so many categories in the library for source material; it was in History, in Literature, in Archeology in Religion, in Anthropology, in Space Science in the Occult-there was no end to its distribution and no way of comprehending its distribution. There could only be an independent and eclectic route for introducing students to such a universal study. Perodotto had the same experience and concluded: ”It soon became clear that, in order to achieve this desideratum, I must opt for selective and suggestive rather than exhaustive coverage.” 2

 Edith Hamilton, who speaks for most mythogists who rate Greek Mythology as a "high" mythology, assumes there must have been  "at least a thousand years of civilized development before the production of what has been considered the first books of Greek Mythology, the Iliad and the Odyssey. She allows herself to consider the possibility that at least  the Greeks , from the earlieat mythologists on “had a perception of the “diivine and the excellent.” She also similarly concurs that “in Greek Mythology there is a field that can never be exhausted.” 3

           In urging  perpetuation of the tradition  of teachin the vast subject of mythology in the classroom I tentatively offer  a few  examples of mythological remnants in our modern English language and  European culture. These should at least suggest to our students how much we are surrounded by remnants of correspondences. the awareness of their extent should help us regain some of that sense of correspondenses  so needed if that science is to be restored to our church.

As dual beings living in the realities of two levels, spiritual and natural, we are able to comprehend those realities on both levels by means of symbols and correspondences. We are hardly conscious of the degree to which we use correspondences. We say “I see” when we mean “I understand.” We shed a physical tear when, not our bodies, but our spirits are hurt by words in a letter. Our students are probably unaware of the ancient and deep roots of some of the customs and  superstitions which surround us: They may jokingly say “Knock on wood” and “Don’t step on a crack or you’ll break your mother’s back,” but we seldom reflect on  how much ancient magic  and gods and goddesses of old provide  hints of  forgotten meaning in our daily lives..

Myths Surround Us in our Daly Lives:

                        For one quarter of every year we mark our daily existence with the names of Norse and Greek gods: The two-faced god Janus, (whose descendant, the janitor, guards the door) guards the gate of the years, looking back at the old year and forward to the new in the month of January. The Romans started their new year in March; is that because the springtime thaws allowed them to march forth with Mars, the god of war? June is still a favorite time to celebrate with the goddess of marriage, Juno. Norse gods are with us for four days of every week, and a Roman god for the fifth: Tui’s day, Woden’s, Thor’s, Freya’s and Saturn’s days. The goddess Aurora wakens us early with her “rosy fingered dawn.” When we cannot sleep we insomniacs long for Somnus, or call upon Morpheus for the gentle sleep. We glory in the colorful rainbow of Iris, and see her reflection in each others’ eyes.

                        Myths reach to Outer Space:

                        Modern space age travelers venture forth on their Odysseys like that Homeric hero, not challenged but protected by the god of the Sea, on a “Poseidon Adventure. Those on Apollo, Mercury and Gemini missions dream of landings on Jupiter, Mars, Saturn, Mercury, Uranus, Neptune, Venus or Pluto. They chart their courses around the constellations Andromeda, Orion, Cassiopia, and the Big and Little Bear, Ursa Major and Minor, and myriad stars like Echo and Pegasus. The Norwegian explorer, Thor Heyerdahl confidently set sail under the auspicis of the Egyptian god, Ra.

                         "For all their viscissitudes the classical myths have not died, even in an age where classical learning has declined. Their literary tradition is too strong and their beauty too great  for them to be dispensible. Even where they are not found to be beautiful or noble they remain an inexaustible mine of image and sumbol."4

                        The Romance of Myth inspires Scientists:

                        Earth belongs to Zeus’ mother Gaia, who gives her name to many sciences like Geometry, Geology, Geography, and Geophysics. The Botanists cannot leave myth alone when contemplating colorful flowers. The healer Aesclepius gives his name to the brilliant orange Milkweed, The Moon Goddess Diana/Artemis gives her name to the silvery mound, Artemisia. The proper name for our English Yarrow is Achillea, for the hero/god Achilles, the story of whose vulnerable heel tells us where to locate the Achilles tendon. The jealous Athena turned the ambitious and challenging weaver Arachne into a spider, from whom we get that insect’s classification of Arachnids.

                        Psychiatrists, Artists, Musicians and even Aadvertising Writers take Wing with Myth

                        How could we enter the Olympics without our Nike shoes or make our tires without Vulcanizing the rubber? Where would Art be without Boticcelli’s Venus,  the Venus di Milo, or the Apollo Belvedere housed as they are in Museums, the homes of the Muses. The grand opera of Wagner honors Odin and tells of the hero, Siegfried who searches for the Ring of the Nibelung, a story still with us with compliments of Tolkein. Psychiatrists who untangle our complexes are inspired by the stories of Oedipus, Narcissus and Electra.  

Every poet from Homer to Shakespeare and Keats has challenged us with poetic “allusions.”

            John Milton’s heartrending  dream of the return of his dead wife reflects the tender myth of Alcestes who sacrificed her life that her husband Admetus might live, and was saved by Hercules who, guarding her sickbed door, wrestled with Death as he came to claim her:

 

“Methought I saw my late espoused Saint
Brought to me like Alcestes from the grave
Whom Jove’s great Son to her glad husband gave,
Rescued from death by force though pale and faint
Mine as whom washt from spot of childbed taint
Purification in the old Law did save’
And such, as yet once more I trust to have.
Full sight of her in Heaven without restraint,
Came vested  all in white, pure as her mind.
Her face was veil’d, yet to my fancied sight,
Love, sweetness, goodness, in her person
So clear, as in no face more delight. 
But O as to embrace me she encllin’d
I wakd, she fled, and day brought back my night.

 

George Meredith reflects that same myth in his Phoebus and Admetus, referring to the part that Apollo played in that love story. Havng  been condemned to a year and a day on earth, Apollo harnassed bulls and oxen to a chariot so the suitor, Admetus could claim his bride as Alcestes’ father had ruled.

“When by Zeus relenting the mandate was revoked,
Sentencing to exile the bright Sun-god.        
Mindful were the ploughmen of who the steer had yoked, ---“

                        Hymns to the Moon Goddess, the Huntress, Diana/Cynthia/Phoebe.

            Even as recently as Princess Diana’s memorial service her brother, Charles Spenser, referred to the origin of her name. But Ben Jonson’s ode comes first to mind.

Queen and Huntress, chaste and fair,
Now the sun is laid to sleep,   
Seated in thy silver chair, 
State in wonted manner keep:   
Hesperus entreats thy light,
Goddess excellently bright          
Earth, let not thy envious shade.            
Dare itself to interpose;                  
Cynthia’s shining orb was made            
Heaven to clear when day did close;        
Bless us then with wished sight,-“       
Goddess excellently bright.       
Lay thy bow of pearl apart,         
And thy crystal-shining quiver;                            
Give unto the flying hart                 
Space to breath, how short soever:                           
Thou that makst a day of night-              
Goddess excellently bright.”

            Earlier Edmund Spenser having referred to Cupid and Venus seems to allude more subtly to the Moon Goddess Diana as he addresses Queen Elizabeth I :

“And with them eke, O Goddesse heavenly bright! 
Mirror of grace and Magestie divine,                  
Great ladie of the greatest Isle, whose light            
Like Phoebus lampe threough out the world doth shine.-“

Milton to the same goddess: “Fair silver shafted queen forever chaste.”
And one more, from Keats:” On such a tranquil night as this she woke Endymion with a kiss.”

Diana’s twin brother, the Sun God, Phoebus Apollo has hardly  been neglected by the poets:

Phoebus, arise
And paint the sable skies
With azure, white , and red
The winds all silent are;                                                                                                                                      
And phoebus in his chair                                                                                                                               
Ensaffroning sea and air                                                                                                                                   
Makes vanish every star:                                                                                                                               
Night like a drunkard reels                                                                                                                                
Beyond the hills to shun his flaming wheels.”
                           (Drummond 1585-1649.)

                                                and---              “Hark! Hark! The lark at heaven’s gate sings,                                                                                          
                                                                        And Phoebus ‘gins arise,                                                                                                                                      
                                                                        His steeds to water at those springs                                                                                                                         
                                                                        On chaliced flowers that lies; -“
                                                                                                 (Shakespeare. 1554-1616.)

                                                                                   

                                                                                    Words and Phrases:

            We live correspondences and mythology. We are hardly conscious of them when they appear in words and phrases  and yet we could hardly communicate without the individual words taken from mythology and without our endless metaphors.

Think of the words like  cupidity  panic  cereal  chaos  nemesis  martial  jovial  aegis  music  chronology  atlas, and familiar sayings like : “a pandora’s box”   “a Trojan horse”   “ halcyon days”    “cleaning the augean stables”   “ a Gordian knot”  “ a panacea”   “a labyrinth”  “ his Achilles heel”   “a Herculean task”  “ they come as Greeks bearing gifts”   “caught between Scylla and Charybdis”  “ to work like a Trojan”

Consider poetic similes like:“Your Icarian flight  melts into a groveling existence.”-Disraeli

     “Gloomy Pluto king of terrors.”Pope.1688-1744.

                                                     “Language is a perpetual Orphic song.”-Shelley. 1791-1822.

Recall titles and names like Swedenborg’s magazine Daedalus Hyperboreas, reflecting in the North the Geek mythological Inventor. Some mythological characters are still remembered in tragedy: The Icarian  Sea into which  poor Icarus plunged when his wax wings failed, and the  Aegean Sea into which Theseus’father cast himself  in  despair at seeing the thoughtless black sail which implied Theseus’s demise. And finally think of the modern city where the great goddess Athena still reigns recalling “the Glory that was Greece.” (Byron)  

 

           



1 Peradotto, John.Classical Mythology, an annotated Bibliographical Survey.The American Philological Association. Urbana Illinois, 1973.p.1.

2 Ibid.,p.2.

3 Hamilton, Edith. Mythology.New American Library. New York,1940.p.14.

4 Morford and Lenardon. Classical Mythology. Longman N.Y. and London, 1971, p.77.