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The Clashing Rocks PDF

525 Pages·1965·20.749 MB·English
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The Clashing Rocks A STUDY OF EARLY GREEK RELIGION AND CULTURE AND THE ORIGINS OF DRAMA JACK LINDSAY CHAPMAN & HALL • LONDON First published in Great Britain 1965 © 1965 J. Lindsay Printed in Great Britain by Tlte Camelot Press Ltd. London and Southampton To Tefcros Aiithias Whom else but you may I address with tidings of these ancient days, who, still a holy beggar bard, wandered the Greek or Cypriot ways across the mountain-silences following the bird of mantic song from fair to boisterous fair, and heard wherever dancers turned once more to ring the dusty threshing-floor or ragged men on craggy slopes muttered against the stony wrong: your pipe revealed their desperate hopes or came with marriage-tones to bless the stubborn wildflower sweetness bom between the pinewood and the com. You made your gay and bitter own the merrygoround voices of the fair, the lovers sighing everywhere in the dark thicket of rustling hair, the shepherd whistling down the track of tamarisk, the restless sea of Aphrodite as it breaks upon the brazen rocky shore, her home, the shell of whispering foam, the Dionysiac echoes blown at vintage-dusk, the unending beat of song which reaches clearly back to Homer in the niche of shade as still the panegyris wakes and once again the dancing feet— and you unfailingly are there, you that through Greek and Cypriot ways a holy beggar bard have strayed, whom else may I aright address with tidings of these ancient days? Contents FOREWORD I THE LEGEND 5 i First Glimpses 7 ODYSSEY - OTHER EARLY POETS - HERODOTOS AND STRABON - MORE POETS 2 Apollonios of Rhodes 15 THE STORY - THE PASSAGE - PLANKTAI - HADES - PHASIS 3 Later Versions 24 LATIN POETS - VALERIUS FLACCUS - WORLD-END - GEOG­ RAPHERS - VARIOUS - THE ORPHIC ARGONAUTIKA 4 Some Chthonic Relations 38 STONES OF HADES - IN RITUAL - STYX - STROPHADES 5 Darkblue Depths 47 kyanos - Agamemnon’s armour - COLOUR BANDS STORM AT SEA UNDERWORLD COLOUR KYANAIGIS CONCLUSION 6 Birds and Goddesses 61 ARGO AS BIRD - BIRD ARGONAUTS DOVE ATHENA - OWL ATHENA - GULL ATHENA - BIRDS OF PREY - OTHER BIRDS - HALCYON - SHIP ATHENA - MYKENEAN ATHENA CONCLUSIONS vii The Clashing Rocks 7 Doves and Danaids page 75 MANTIC BOUGH - DOVES OF DODONA - DANAIDS - WATER, FERTILITY AND GAMES - KADMOS - BRIDAL MURDERS - LYNKEUS - CONFLICTS - CONCLUSIONS 8 Ambrosial Doves and Islands 96 AMBROSIA - THEFTS OF AMBROSIA - ARKADIA - ALOADAI - TITANS - AMBROSIAL ROCKS - FLOATING ISLANDS AGAIN - CONCLUSIONS 9 Defers of the Highgods 118 SHAMAN - AIANTES - THE LOKRIAN MAIDS - KAINEUS - CULT OF WEAPONS - SALMONEUS - AFRICAN SPEAR-CULTS EGYPTIAN SPEAR-CULTS 10 More Defiers 144 OINOMAOS - DIOMEDES - PERIPHAS - IXION 11 The Seven against Thebai 154 AMPHIARAOS - KAPANEUS THE PLAY WEAPON-CULTS - IDAS - HERAKLES 12 Prometheus 171 ASKLEPIOS - PROMETHEUS - FIRE-FESTIVALS - POTTER - PROMETHEUS AND ATLAS - MAGIC HERB - CONCLUSIONS - KABEIROI - KOURETES AND OTHERS - DAKTYLS - TELCHINES - CYCLOPES - CHINESE ANALOGIES - SHAMANISM AND ITS CONFLICTS - FURTHER CONCLUSIONS - LEAP - DIONYSIAC IRRUPTION 13 Glaukos 209 GLAUKOS - RIDDLE - HONEY-BURIAL AND LIFE-HERB - MORE ON HERBS - ORACLES - WATERLEAP - HORSE-LORD - MORE ON PITHOI - PANDORA’S PITHOS - INO - MELIKERTES 14 Folktales and Myths 236 A RUMANIAN TALE - MORE FOLKTALES - PIT AND BIRD - MYTH AND FUNERAL CUSTOM - THE PACIFIC - VEDIC TEXT - NOTE ON SPIRIT GEOGRAPHY 15 Initiations and Shamans 247 SHAMAN AS BIRD - MUTILATION-MOTIVE - MONSTER­ FIGHT - SWALLOWED ALIVE - SLITS AND ORIFICES viii Contents 16 More on Shamans and the Origin of Drama page 272 MOPSOS - SHAMANIST CONTESTS - SHAPESHIFTING - FLIGHT AND ASCENT - SECLUSION - MYTH-PATTERNS AND DRAMA 17 The Olympians 3°3 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND THE SHAMANIST NORTH PANEGYRIS 18 Birth of Tragedy 317 INSPIRED BARD - PPIINNDDAARR - DIONYSIAC IMPACT ARCHI­ LOCHOS - LATER FORMS OF DITHYRAMB - FROM DITHY­ RAMB TO DRAMA - THE PROCESS OF CHANGE - KATHARSIS - GOATS - AISCHYLOS - COMEDY - HYBRIS 19 The Homeric Epics 357 ILIAD - ODYSSEY - BEAR’S SON - PHINEUS - ODYSSEUS THE BEAR SALMOXIS 20 Conclusions 378 A NOTE ON METHOD - SOME GENERALIZATIONS appendix: genealogical tables 389 ABBREVIATIONS 393 NOTES 395 BIBLIOGRAPHY 479 SOURCES OF ILLUSTRATIONS 503 INDEX 505 ix Foreword The main, theme of this book is an inquiry into the nature of the cultural and religious conflicts in the dark age of ancient Greece, out of which the historically known society emerged.We begin, however, not with general considerations, but with a detailed examination of a single myth-motive: the passage of the ship Argo through the Clashing Rocks on the way to gain the Golden Fleece. The earliest reference we have to the saga occurs in the Odyssey and deals wholly with this motive, mentioning also that ambrosia-bearing doves use the route as they fly up to Zeus. (The tale of the Argonauts belongs to the pre- Homeric world; its heroes arc of a generation before the TrojanWar. The Rocks-motive is certainly of high antiquity.) All the significant statements about the Rocks in ancient literature are examined. Though the voyage of the Argo was localized in the Black Sea after the Greeks broke into that area, the Rocks turn out to be a mythical place. The movement through them represents the initiation­ experience of the passage-rite with its great dangers; the space into which they open is the spirit-world which the initiate feels that he has entered at the most stirring ritual-moments. We turn to some related images in myth and ritual, which bring out the chthonic or underworld nature of the Rocks; and consider their main name, Kyancai (Darkbluc), which takes us back into the Mykencan world - it occurs in Linear B.We find that it owns a strong underworld aspect and is connected with a system of cosmic colours. Next we follow up the dove-clue and look at the archaic form of some goddesses, especially Athena, as birds. The Argo was a mantic boat incorporating a bough from Dodona.We glance at that oracle and its doves, and are drawn on to the myth of the Danaids at Argos, in which another primal boat, the Danais, shows various analogies with the Argo.We begin to grasp the social crisis embodied in these myths and the way in which fertility-rites take on a tragic coloration. We I The Clashing Rocks move on to further accounts of ambrosial doves and thefts of ambrosia — or struggles for its possession. The tales of Tantalos and the Giants clarify the issues further, and we come to a series of ambrosial rocks and floating islands which fill out the cosmic picture. A further long series of heroes who defy the high gods is examined. It shows an inner consistency and brings us to the conclusion that in the dark ages a prolonged and involved conflict must have gone on between the Olympians (who represent the new unifying trends of the polis or city) and the various tribal cults in which a key-role is played by figures of a mantic or shamanist type. In these sections we deal with many myth­ characters, such as the two Aiantes, Kaincus, Oinomaos, Diomedes, Salmoneus, Asklepios and Prometheus, as well as various cults aim Aischylos’ play, The Seven against Thebai. A series of deepgoing clashes in myth and ritual is clarified, sometimes fought out to the death, sometimes resulting in compromises and accommodations. The section on Prometheus brings this analysis to a head. Here alone a sustained resistance is put up by the culture-hero of what we have called the shamanist phase; the reason lies in his link with fraternities of pottersand metalworkers. His position and nature are illuminated by a scrutiny of the myths of the various fraternities linked with the Great Mother and metallurgy; and we turn to consider the second stage of the legends of conflict. Here the theme is not highgod against shaman, but Dionysos against the authorities who resist his advance; and the relation is to the crisis developing inside the polis. We have now reached something like definite ground under our feet. The rest of the book is concerned to consolidate and clarify the positions reached. We examine the myth of Glaukos, which carries us well back into the Minoan-Mykcnean world and enables us to strengthen many of our conclusions. Then we pick up afresh the Rocks- motive and follow it through a series of worldwide tales and customs, which finally bring out its basis in initiation-ritual and shamanist experience. So we turn to a thorough consideration of the nature of shamanism and its central function in the phases between the break­ down of tribal systems and the growth of settled town-life. We also consider the evidence thrown up by recent history as to what happens when a society still largely shamanist in culture collides with a higher religion and struggles against it. Once more a new light is thrown back on Greek myth. We approach the key-problem as to how and why the shaman’s ritual-mime (performed in a state of spirit-possession) developed in ancient Greece, and only there, into fullgrownTragedy. 2

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