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Something that made me ponder
Mar. 21st, 2006 11:59 pmOn Persephone's Grief
by Gitana
This article appeared in He Epistole 7, Summer 2005.
But those at whose hands Persephone accepts atonement for (her) ancient grief, their souls in the ninth year she sends up again to the sun of this world; wherefrom spring proud kings, men of strength and speed and those chief in wisdom, and for all time to come they are called of men holy heroes.[1]
This is a very intriguing passage. What exactly is this “ancient grief” of Persephone? Mainstream Greek mythology gives us no clues as to what Pindar was referring when he wrote this. It is only when we turn to the Orphic literature and beliefs that we can begin to unpack the meaning in this quotation.[2]
Let us look at the passage: souls of the departed are “sent up again to the sun.” Often in the ancient literature the Underworld is described as a place where there is no sunlight. To be “in the sun” means to be on earth. Thus, the souls are returned to earth, i.e. they are reincarnated. Nilsson agrees, bluntly saying “This is metempsychosis clear and outspoken.”[3] Once we have established this it becomes obvious that we are dealing with non-mainstream beliefs, and Orphism is the most likely context.[4]
We now turn to the idea of atonement. From the wording of the passage it is not that each person individually is subjected to this atonement. All humans collectively have the same accountability and face the same consequences. Furthermore, what we have done is cause for Persephone to grieve.
Given all this information, the only explanation we can give is embodied by the myth of Dionysos Zagreus.[5] I summarize it here:
Persephone was impregnated by her father Zeus who had transformed himself into a serpent. The result of that union was the baby Dionysos Zagreus. It was foretold that Zeus would pass his position of King of the Gods onto this son. The Titans, already angry with Zeus for dethroning his father Kronos, took their revenge out on Dionysos Zagreus: they caught hold of the child and violently dismembered him. Afterwards they first boiled and then roasted the pieces, and feasted. One piece, however, was not eaten, namely his heart. Athena found this remaining piece, and hid it in a covered basket, which she then brought to Zeus. Zeus, furious at what had been done to his youngest child, struck the Titans with his thunderbolts, and set them ablaze. Their bodies were reduced to ashes. The race of humans was created out of these ashes; thus our constitution is part Titanic (due to the bodies of the Titans) and part Dionysian or divine (due to the dismembered god being in their stomachs). The story continues on from here, but this is the only part we are concerned with for the present discussion.
If we consider Pindar’s passage in the context of the above Orphic myth, the meaning becomes clear. Persephone grieves for her murdered son. Even though technically it was the Titans who killed Zagreus, humans must atone for this sin because they inherit the guilt from their Titan ancestors. Plato also uses the phrase of “Titanic nature of which our old legends speak” in describing humans who have contempt for oaths and religion.[6] There seems to be no other myth which can account for such an understanding.[7] As H.J. Rose explains, “if there was no story in which a son (or other person closely enough related to Persephone for her to wish to receive satisfaction for his death or injury) was murdered or otherwise mishandled by men or some beings connected with men, I can see no meaning at all in the crucial words of the fragment.”[8]
There is also a passage from Plutarch which is quite pertinent to our discussion. He says,
It would perhaps not be wrong to begin and quote lines of Empedocles as a preface… For here he says allegorically that souls, paying the penalty for murders and the eating of flesh and cannibalism, are imprisoned in mortal bodies. However, it seems that this account is even older, for the legendary suffering of dismemberment told about Dionysos and the outrages of the Titans on him, and their punishment and their being blasted with lightning after having tasted of the blood, this is all a myth, in its hidden inner meaning, about reincarnation. For that in us which is irrational and disorderly and violent and not divine but demonic, the ancients used the name, “Titans,” and the myth is about being punished and paying the penalty.[9]
Now, it is of utmost importance for humans to atone for their guilt. In the Homeric Hymn to Demeter Haides says, “Those who defraud you and do not appease your power with offerings, reverently performing rites and paying fit gifts, shall be punished evermore.”[10] In the Phaedrus it says that families can be affected by terrible sickness due to “some ancient sin” and that the only way to cure it is “rites and means of purifications.”[11] But it is not only bodily sickness which can affect us. Additionally in the Republic Plato says that Orphic priests “can expiate and cure with pleasurable festivals any misdeed of a man or his ancestors.”[12] A few lines later he explains that such rituals “deliver us from evils in that other world while terrible things await those who have neglected to sacrifice.”[13] It is what awaits us in the afterlife that is of greatest concern.
Orphic teachings explain that upon one’s death the soul is taken to the Underworld. There we meet the Queen of the Underworld, Persephone herself. One of the Orphic tablets describes this meeting:
Pure I come from the pure, Queen of those below the earth;
and Eukles and Eubouleus and the other gods and daimons;
For I boast that I am of your blessed race.
I have paid the penalty on account of deeds not just;
Either Fate mastered me or the Thunderer, striking with his lightening.
Now I come, a supplicant, to holy Phersephoneia,
that she, gracious, may send me to the seats of the blessed.[14]
Again, we see this theme of paying the penalty, although what the “unjust deeds” are it does not say. Another Orphic text, which is surely related, is the Derveni Papyrus, in which we read, “This is why the magi perform the sacrifice, as if they were paying a penalty.”[15] Another Gold Leaf says that the soul has escaped “the dire cycle of deep grief.”[16] Obviously, then, the theme of paying the penalty is quite common in the Orphic literature.[17]
Further, the departed person is to declare to Persephone that they are of her “blessed race,” i.e. that they are also divine, or at least partly so. This also can be explained by the Zagreus myth, in which humans are a mixture of both the remains of the Titans and Dionysos. This theme is probably the most common in all of the Gold Leaves. One often quoted line among modern pagans, “I am the child of Earth and starry Heaven,” comes from the “B series” Orphic Gold Leaves of the 2nd C. BC.[18]
Another Gold Leaf says “Tell Persephone that Bakkhios himself has set you free.”[19] In discussing this line, R. Parker writes, “What is Dionysus to Persephone? The answer surely lies in the Orphic myth, in regard to which the soul is urged to use an a fortiori argument: ‘guilty though I am before Dionysus, the mother of the victim can have no complaint against me, since the victim himself has released me.’ ”[20] Olympiodorus also speaks of Dionysos as the one who frees souls of ancestral crimes: “That Dionysos is responsible for release and because of this the god is called ‘Deliverer.’ And Orpheus says: ‘People send perfect hecatombs in all seasons throughout the year and perform rites, seeking release from unlawful ancestors. But you, having power over them, you will release whomever you wish from harsh suffering and boundless frenzy’.”[21]
But how is it that Dionysos will choose who to release? The Orphics have a clear answer: those who have been initiated. Bremmer describes the ancient guilt as “a guilt which had to be atoned for and which was atoned for – presumably by initiation – before the deceased could enter the abode of the blessed.”[22] Once this guilt has been atoned for, the soul will not suffer more incarnations. Another recently-discovered text says, “Enter the holy meadow. For the initiate has paid the price.”[23] So, clearly, in order to pay the penalty one must be an initiate of the Orphic Mysteries.
For an initiate, upon her death, the soul will travel to the Underworld. There, being armed with the correct things to say, thanks to the Gold Leaves that were buried with the body, and having received the proper initiations, the soul can convince Persephone that she has paid the price of the ancestral guilt. The soul is then permitted to enter the “seats of the blessed” as it is called in the Gold Leaf from Thurii. Other texts may use slightly different wording, but the same meaning is obvious. For the soul to be released from the reincarnation cycle and come to final rest among the other blessed souls was the ultimate goal of an Orphic’s life. Thus we have come to an understanding on Pindar’s passage, and the context in which it was written.
http://persephones.250free.com/persephone-grief.htm
by Gitana
This article appeared in He Epistole 7, Summer 2005.
But those at whose hands Persephone accepts atonement for (her) ancient grief, their souls in the ninth year she sends up again to the sun of this world; wherefrom spring proud kings, men of strength and speed and those chief in wisdom, and for all time to come they are called of men holy heroes.[1]
This is a very intriguing passage. What exactly is this “ancient grief” of Persephone? Mainstream Greek mythology gives us no clues as to what Pindar was referring when he wrote this. It is only when we turn to the Orphic literature and beliefs that we can begin to unpack the meaning in this quotation.[2]
Let us look at the passage: souls of the departed are “sent up again to the sun.” Often in the ancient literature the Underworld is described as a place where there is no sunlight. To be “in the sun” means to be on earth. Thus, the souls are returned to earth, i.e. they are reincarnated. Nilsson agrees, bluntly saying “This is metempsychosis clear and outspoken.”[3] Once we have established this it becomes obvious that we are dealing with non-mainstream beliefs, and Orphism is the most likely context.[4]
We now turn to the idea of atonement. From the wording of the passage it is not that each person individually is subjected to this atonement. All humans collectively have the same accountability and face the same consequences. Furthermore, what we have done is cause for Persephone to grieve.
Given all this information, the only explanation we can give is embodied by the myth of Dionysos Zagreus.[5] I summarize it here:
Persephone was impregnated by her father Zeus who had transformed himself into a serpent. The result of that union was the baby Dionysos Zagreus. It was foretold that Zeus would pass his position of King of the Gods onto this son. The Titans, already angry with Zeus for dethroning his father Kronos, took their revenge out on Dionysos Zagreus: they caught hold of the child and violently dismembered him. Afterwards they first boiled and then roasted the pieces, and feasted. One piece, however, was not eaten, namely his heart. Athena found this remaining piece, and hid it in a covered basket, which she then brought to Zeus. Zeus, furious at what had been done to his youngest child, struck the Titans with his thunderbolts, and set them ablaze. Their bodies were reduced to ashes. The race of humans was created out of these ashes; thus our constitution is part Titanic (due to the bodies of the Titans) and part Dionysian or divine (due to the dismembered god being in their stomachs). The story continues on from here, but this is the only part we are concerned with for the present discussion.
If we consider Pindar’s passage in the context of the above Orphic myth, the meaning becomes clear. Persephone grieves for her murdered son. Even though technically it was the Titans who killed Zagreus, humans must atone for this sin because they inherit the guilt from their Titan ancestors. Plato also uses the phrase of “Titanic nature of which our old legends speak” in describing humans who have contempt for oaths and religion.[6] There seems to be no other myth which can account for such an understanding.[7] As H.J. Rose explains, “if there was no story in which a son (or other person closely enough related to Persephone for her to wish to receive satisfaction for his death or injury) was murdered or otherwise mishandled by men or some beings connected with men, I can see no meaning at all in the crucial words of the fragment.”[8]
There is also a passage from Plutarch which is quite pertinent to our discussion. He says,
It would perhaps not be wrong to begin and quote lines of Empedocles as a preface… For here he says allegorically that souls, paying the penalty for murders and the eating of flesh and cannibalism, are imprisoned in mortal bodies. However, it seems that this account is even older, for the legendary suffering of dismemberment told about Dionysos and the outrages of the Titans on him, and their punishment and their being blasted with lightning after having tasted of the blood, this is all a myth, in its hidden inner meaning, about reincarnation. For that in us which is irrational and disorderly and violent and not divine but demonic, the ancients used the name, “Titans,” and the myth is about being punished and paying the penalty.[9]
Now, it is of utmost importance for humans to atone for their guilt. In the Homeric Hymn to Demeter Haides says, “Those who defraud you and do not appease your power with offerings, reverently performing rites and paying fit gifts, shall be punished evermore.”[10] In the Phaedrus it says that families can be affected by terrible sickness due to “some ancient sin” and that the only way to cure it is “rites and means of purifications.”[11] But it is not only bodily sickness which can affect us. Additionally in the Republic Plato says that Orphic priests “can expiate and cure with pleasurable festivals any misdeed of a man or his ancestors.”[12] A few lines later he explains that such rituals “deliver us from evils in that other world while terrible things await those who have neglected to sacrifice.”[13] It is what awaits us in the afterlife that is of greatest concern.
Orphic teachings explain that upon one’s death the soul is taken to the Underworld. There we meet the Queen of the Underworld, Persephone herself. One of the Orphic tablets describes this meeting:
Pure I come from the pure, Queen of those below the earth;
and Eukles and Eubouleus and the other gods and daimons;
For I boast that I am of your blessed race.
I have paid the penalty on account of deeds not just;
Either Fate mastered me or the Thunderer, striking with his lightening.
Now I come, a supplicant, to holy Phersephoneia,
that she, gracious, may send me to the seats of the blessed.[14]
Again, we see this theme of paying the penalty, although what the “unjust deeds” are it does not say. Another Orphic text, which is surely related, is the Derveni Papyrus, in which we read, “This is why the magi perform the sacrifice, as if they were paying a penalty.”[15] Another Gold Leaf says that the soul has escaped “the dire cycle of deep grief.”[16] Obviously, then, the theme of paying the penalty is quite common in the Orphic literature.[17]
Further, the departed person is to declare to Persephone that they are of her “blessed race,” i.e. that they are also divine, or at least partly so. This also can be explained by the Zagreus myth, in which humans are a mixture of both the remains of the Titans and Dionysos. This theme is probably the most common in all of the Gold Leaves. One often quoted line among modern pagans, “I am the child of Earth and starry Heaven,” comes from the “B series” Orphic Gold Leaves of the 2nd C. BC.[18]
Another Gold Leaf says “Tell Persephone that Bakkhios himself has set you free.”[19] In discussing this line, R. Parker writes, “What is Dionysus to Persephone? The answer surely lies in the Orphic myth, in regard to which the soul is urged to use an a fortiori argument: ‘guilty though I am before Dionysus, the mother of the victim can have no complaint against me, since the victim himself has released me.’ ”[20] Olympiodorus also speaks of Dionysos as the one who frees souls of ancestral crimes: “That Dionysos is responsible for release and because of this the god is called ‘Deliverer.’ And Orpheus says: ‘People send perfect hecatombs in all seasons throughout the year and perform rites, seeking release from unlawful ancestors. But you, having power over them, you will release whomever you wish from harsh suffering and boundless frenzy’.”[21]
But how is it that Dionysos will choose who to release? The Orphics have a clear answer: those who have been initiated. Bremmer describes the ancient guilt as “a guilt which had to be atoned for and which was atoned for – presumably by initiation – before the deceased could enter the abode of the blessed.”[22] Once this guilt has been atoned for, the soul will not suffer more incarnations. Another recently-discovered text says, “Enter the holy meadow. For the initiate has paid the price.”[23] So, clearly, in order to pay the penalty one must be an initiate of the Orphic Mysteries.
For an initiate, upon her death, the soul will travel to the Underworld. There, being armed with the correct things to say, thanks to the Gold Leaves that were buried with the body, and having received the proper initiations, the soul can convince Persephone that she has paid the price of the ancestral guilt. The soul is then permitted to enter the “seats of the blessed” as it is called in the Gold Leaf from Thurii. Other texts may use slightly different wording, but the same meaning is obvious. For the soul to be released from the reincarnation cycle and come to final rest among the other blessed souls was the ultimate goal of an Orphic’s life. Thus we have come to an understanding on Pindar’s passage, and the context in which it was written.
http://persephones.250free.com/persephone-grief.htm
