Balancing reason with mythology

Dionís
Originally uploaded by Sebastià Giralt

It occurs to me that I may have unintentionally given the impression that I am some kind of modern day Aristotle wrestling with deep metaphysical concepts such as Truth, Justice and the meaning of life while leading a life of impeccable virtue and moderation under the grapevines. This is not exactly the case. I don’t think I practice what I preach any more than your average philosopher. I have to confess that the only thing that stops me giving in totally to the sins of the flesh is concern for my health, not classical ideals of self-control and restraint. My virtues only really consist of being kind to animals and small children. I thought it best to be up front on that point before continuing my exploration of the philosophy and religion of the classical world.

Greek and Roman philosophers discussed morality, ethics and how to lead the Good Life from an entirely human perspective because their Gods were by and large uninterested in questions of morality. The Gods were larger than life humans who happened to be immortal and seemed to spend most of their time quarrelling, chasing lovers and sulking. The concept of life after death was mostly confined to a ghostly existence in the gloomy Hades along with everyone else. Only special heroic individuals like Heracles could look forward to the blessed fields of Elysium wherever they were!

The Gods obviously began as nature gods who developed special attachments to places or to cities. Temples were the houses of the Gods not where a congregation met for worship. You could pray to a particular God for protection when travelling for instance but all Gods and humans were at the mercy of the blind, indifferent Fortuna or chance. Religion was part of the civic duty toward your country and honoring the Gods meant honoring the State and its institutions. (This is why the Christians were seen as a treasonous cult and got into trouble later)

There was no revealed scripture but stories of the gods and their all too human antics abounded. Greek dramatists used the myths about the Gods to reveal profound truths about what it is to be human. The Oedipus complex described by Freud took its insights from the ancient myth. Plays like the Bacchae by Euripides pointed out the danger of trying to suppress the irrational in humans, a tendency that the Greeks and some would say our own culture, had. As the play shows, the desire to forget moderation and reason and find transcendence in a frenzy of ecstatic worship of Dionysus, the God of the Vine, had become increasingly popular.

Logos or rationality led to some of the great developments in mathematics, science and philosophy yet the role of mythos or the irrational perhaps equally contributed to classical culture. Maybe it is too easy in a rational world to underestimate the importance of the imagination and the outlet or catharsis that stories, music, dance and art provide in expressing human emotions and anxieties.