1/ Solon, the main character in The Mystery of Healing, is a man of his time. He's been schooled in Greek rationalism - a belief that true knowledge must come primarily from observations of the natural world. This, of course, includes human behaviour. Often, as with Socrates, human behaviour is the primary concern. Solon, like many of the Greek philosophers, is sceptical of the gods. Their multiplicity and duplicity are an affront to the true powers of nature and arise from superstitions, not Reason.
But no character can separate themselves entirely from their milieu. This would be unnatural. Solon is drawn to the common beliefs of his fellow citizens. The gods represent tradition and identity. He says himself that it is "necessary to both believe and not believe". Their presence is an attempt to grasp the mystery of creation.
It is difficult to unpack the panoply of the pre-Christian Greek gods. They are many and ever changing. The primordial Eros is entirely different to the winged cherubic child of eighteenth century European paintings. But one way of unpacking the gods is to consider how they were envisaged at different times.
Firstly, in the Bronze Age they are primordial powers. They are the powerful first thoughts of nature that herd the material world into shape. They are partially anthropomorphic and mostly shamanistic. Eros and Aphrodite are probably interchangeable.
Later, during the archaic and classical periods (forgive my poor history, but approximately 1200 BCE to 400 BCE) the gods are wholly anthropomorphised. They have human characteristics, indeed super-human. These are the gods we are probably most familiar with. Zeus, Apollo, Athena, Aphrodite, etc.
As time goes by, these gods intermingle (sexually) with humans to produce demi-gods. These probably arise from the successes of powerful warrior-leaders whose victories must surely have been blessed by the gods. With the arrival of the Romans, the Greek gods become Roman. Zeus becomes Jupiter, Aphrodite becomes Venus, Eros becomes Cupid.
This is a very poor summary, but enough for me to keep in the back of my head while I'm writing Solon's stories. Solon is interested in the earlier manifestations of the gods, the primordial versions. He is drawn to them because, in a curious way, they are the most 'scientific'. These are the forces that drive change in the natural world and drive our actions as human beings. He 'feels' them both in the world around him and deep within himself. They are the source of his sympathy for others and his call to medicine. The two gods he is drawn to are Aphrodite, the god of care and love, and Aesclepius, the god of medicine.
These forces are not equivalent to the great four forces of modern physics, namely electromagnetism, gravity, weak and strong nuclear. They are not material forces. They are pure mindfulness. They are formal agency, as opposed to mechanical agency. They are the ideas that lead to the realities of the world.
The first primordial force is Chaos. The word puts us moderns in mind of 'things all in a tangle'. But I'm going go interpret Chaos as a primary thought that cannot be thought by humans. It is beyond reasoning and knowability. It is the greatest thought but cannot be thought. It has both light and dark.
Out of this unknowable thought comes five forces: Gaia, Eros, Tartarus, Nix (night) and Erebus. Gaia is mother-earth. She is the benevolent, and often not so benevolent, world of nature. Eros is the calling to care, nurture and sexual desire, but also the destruction of reason. Tartarus is where all living things are headed. It is the place souls go to after death. It is the teleology that draws changing bodies towards closure. It is a place of judgement. So there is a moral aspect to this place. Nix is night. Erebus is a deep nothingness. It is the necessary agency of the void that allows movement.
There seems to be more darkness than light in this schema. Nix and Erebus marry and produce offspring: Nemesis (retribution), Hypnos (sleep), Thanatos (death), Geras (old age), Eris (Strife) and Charon, the boatman who transports the dead to the underworld. But all of these are natural and experienced by us all. We find consolation in sleep. Retribution is destructive, but it can also be the person affirming his or herself. So, even though there is a 'heaviness' about them, there is also a balance.
But no character can separate themselves entirely from their milieu. This would be unnatural. Solon is drawn to the common beliefs of his fellow citizens. The gods represent tradition and identity. He says himself that it is "necessary to both believe and not believe". Their presence is an attempt to grasp the mystery of creation.
It is difficult to unpack the panoply of the pre-Christian Greek gods. They are many and ever changing. The primordial Eros is entirely different to the winged cherubic child of eighteenth century European paintings. But one way of unpacking the gods is to consider how they were envisaged at different times.
Firstly, in the Bronze Age they are primordial powers. They are the powerful first thoughts of nature that herd the material world into shape. They are partially anthropomorphic and mostly shamanistic. Eros and Aphrodite are probably interchangeable.
Later, during the archaic and classical periods (forgive my poor history, but approximately 1200 BCE to 400 BCE) the gods are wholly anthropomorphised. They have human characteristics, indeed super-human. These are the gods we are probably most familiar with. Zeus, Apollo, Athena, Aphrodite, etc.
As time goes by, these gods intermingle (sexually) with humans to produce demi-gods. These probably arise from the successes of powerful warrior-leaders whose victories must surely have been blessed by the gods. With the arrival of the Romans, the Greek gods become Roman. Zeus becomes Jupiter, Aphrodite becomes Venus, Eros becomes Cupid.
This is a very poor summary, but enough for me to keep in the back of my head while I'm writing Solon's stories. Solon is interested in the earlier manifestations of the gods, the primordial versions. He is drawn to them because, in a curious way, they are the most 'scientific'. These are the forces that drive change in the natural world and drive our actions as human beings. He 'feels' them both in the world around him and deep within himself. They are the source of his sympathy for others and his call to medicine. The two gods he is drawn to are Aphrodite, the god of care and love, and Aesclepius, the god of medicine.
These forces are not equivalent to the great four forces of modern physics, namely electromagnetism, gravity, weak and strong nuclear. They are not material forces. They are pure mindfulness. They are formal agency, as opposed to mechanical agency. They are the ideas that lead to the realities of the world.
The first primordial force is Chaos. The word puts us moderns in mind of 'things all in a tangle'. But I'm going go interpret Chaos as a primary thought that cannot be thought by humans. It is beyond reasoning and knowability. It is the greatest thought but cannot be thought. It has both light and dark.
Out of this unknowable thought comes five forces: Gaia, Eros, Tartarus, Nix (night) and Erebus. Gaia is mother-earth. She is the benevolent, and often not so benevolent, world of nature. Eros is the calling to care, nurture and sexual desire, but also the destruction of reason. Tartarus is where all living things are headed. It is the place souls go to after death. It is the teleology that draws changing bodies towards closure. It is a place of judgement. So there is a moral aspect to this place. Nix is night. Erebus is a deep nothingness. It is the necessary agency of the void that allows movement.
There seems to be more darkness than light in this schema. Nix and Erebus marry and produce offspring: Nemesis (retribution), Hypnos (sleep), Thanatos (death), Geras (old age), Eris (Strife) and Charon, the boatman who transports the dead to the underworld. But all of these are natural and experienced by us all. We find consolation in sleep. Retribution is destructive, but it can also be the person affirming his or herself. So, even though there is a 'heaviness' about them, there is also a balance.
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