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San Francisco State University The Second Annual Maskaleris Lecture on Mythology and Literature November 14, 2001 Sponsored by: The Departments of Classics and Comparative Literature "Narcissus and Orpheus" Ladies and Gentlemen--colleagues, students, friends, son-friend- Dion, Dean McDermid -- Good Evening. I am very pleased to be presenting my second annual lecture on "Myth and Literature" before you, and I am grateful to my former home departments - Classics and Comparative Literature, here at the University - as well as the Modern Greek Studies Program for instituting this lecture series. My thanks to you, Chair Pamela Vaughn and Director Martha Klironomos and to your assistants, Jo Anne and Smithy, respectively. Before I proceed to the subject of my lecture I would like to say that those of us, now in retirement, who have taught the Humanities as I did, in this building and in the old Humanities building for many years, welcome the opportunity to continue our humanistic discourse, especially during these terrible times. We still believe and hope that a focused humanistic perspective on the problems of our world may help to avert, or at least minimize, inhuman conditions and actions on our planet. The two myths I have chosen to search into in this lecture are among the most widely known of Greek mythology; the names Orpheus and Narcissus have resounded across the world in the centuries since their birth. But myths, particularly central myths, are inexhaustible and new meanings can be mined in them by the searching mind. The richness and vitality of my subject myths are attested by the numerous depictions and recreations of them in art and in music as well as by their presence in philosophical and psychological treatises, from Plato’s to Freud’s—and they are even more frequently present in poetry and in every other literary genre. What we have in the narrative of the Orpheus myth includes a number of striking elements: Orpheus loses his beloved, Eurydice, after she was bitten by a serpent; his grief enriches his art of music and intensifies the impact of his songs; the power of his music enables him to overcome the formidable obstacles on his path to the Underworld — Charon and Cerberus are rendered powerless by the magic of his Lyre. In Hades he pleads before Pluto and Persephone and Eurydice is permitted to accompany Orpheus back to life on Earth; but he loses her again as he approaches daylight at the exit from Hades; after the second loss of Eurydice, with deeper grief inside him, Orpheus becomes a seer who enchants all creation with the tunes of his Lyre; and then, lo and behold, he is torn to pieces by the Thracean Meanads, devoted to Dionysos – he, the Apollonian devotee, receiving a Dionysian death. His lyre and head float down the river Hebrus, still singing, to land to the island of Lesbos, there to musically gift her people and her lyrical poets, his gift culminating in the voice of Sappho. Orpheus then becomes the fabulous embodiment of the artist, poet, musician for all time, and his lyre is placed as a constellation in the Heavens… During the post-Homeric period of Hellenic culture several religious sects appropriated the authority of Orpheus’ name, to enhance the prestige of their teachings, teachings that became known as the Orphic Tradition. We do not know to what degree these teachings are related to Orpheus’ own spirit; we know that they stressed the importance of the human soul and that they held a belief in its transmigration, which together with the beliefs of the Dionysian religion anticipated the coming of Christianity -- with Orpheus and Dionysos pre-figuring the image and nature of Christ. After the impact of the dramatic elements of the story of Orpheus on our psyche many questions arise in the quickened mind to set it searching into the human condition, human life and the reality of death. First, how can we explain the fact that Orpheus looked back too soon, which caused the second loss of Eurydice? Was he too anxious to see and embrace her as a physical body, prove that she was not still a “shade” as in Hades? Did the fact that he could hear only his footsteps on the ascending path and no sound from Eurydice and her conductor, Hermes, increase his anxiety and his doubt? Is she really following? Does she wish to join him in a new life on earth? Had Hades and Persephone kept their word or did they trick him? Or was it his confusion at the threshold of the day world that caused him to look back? Each of these is an expected question and it seems that each one could be answered in the affirmative. But, in fact, we are left without a definite answer, only with mystery. Perhaps the failure to bring back Eurydice should not surprise us. After al l , realistic thinking tells us that Death is unconquerable; that it will always have the final say. But what matters more is the experience of Orpheus—his knowledge of the dark realm, his second loss of the beloved and the impact of these experiences on his soul—from which he ascends as a great musician; He will now be able to animate the creatures that hear him, which, in the reverse symbolism of myths, means that he seeks and achieves union with the outer realms of Nature and the Cosmos; that he moves from the particular and the self centered to the universal. Here, several magnificent poems will add to our attempts to connect with the essential dimensions of the myth and its protagonist. First, an excerpt from Virgil’s Georgics: “At last, having evaded every hazard, He was returning, and Eurydice Restored to him and following behind (So Proserpine’s stern ruling had demanded) Was coming back into the world above, When suddenly a madness overcame The unwary lover--pardonable you ‘d say; But Death can never pardon-- And on the very brink, alas, Forgetful, yielding in his will, looked back At his own Eurydice. At that same instant All his endeavour foundered, void the pact Made with the ruthless tyrant; and three times Thunder resounded over the pools of Avernus. ‘Orpheus’, she cried, ‘we are ruined, you and I! What utter madness is this? See, once again The cruel Fates are calling me back and darkness Falls on my swimming eyes. Goodbye for ever. I am borne away wrapped in an endless night, Stretching to you, no longer yours, these hands, These helpless hands." She finished, and suddenly Out of his sight, like smoke into the air, Vanished away, unable any more To see him as he vainly grasped at shadows With so much more to say; and the ferryman Of Orcus would not let him pass again Over the sundering marsh. What should he do, Where turn, bereft a second time of her? Would any weeping move the powers below Or prayer the powers above? She all the while, Now cold, was crossing in the Stygian barque. For seven whole months on end, they say, he wept Beneath a lofty crag beside the Strymon Alone in the wild, under the chilly stars, And sang his tale of woe, entrancing tigers And drawing oak-trees… Alone he wandered over icy steppes Of the farthest north, the snowy river Don And those Rhipaean fields for ever wedded To frost, lamenting for Eurydice And Pluto’s cancelled boon. But Thracian women, Deeming themselves despised by such devotion, Amid their Bacchic orgies in the night Tore him apart, this youth, and strewed his limbs Over the countryside. And so it was That the river of his fatherland, The Hebrus, bore in the middle of its current His head, now severed from his marble neck, ‘Eurydice!’ the voice and frozen tongue Still called aloud, ‘Ah, poor Eurydice!’ As life was ebbing away, and the river banks Echoed across the flood, ‘Eurydice!’ (Book 4, 485-527) Penguin Books--L.P. Wilkinson, translator Then, the heightened voices of two great poets of the 20th Century: Orpheus In the mind’s eye, under the myrtles, I create Orpheus, Man of Wonders!…. Fire falls from the pure Circuses: It transforms the bald peak into a trophy of majesty Where exhales resonant the act of a god. Should the god sing, he rends the all-powerful site; The sun witnesses the horror of stones moving: An unimaginable wail calls forth dazzling The high gold harmonious walls of a sanctuary. Singing, Orpheus sits on the sky’s resplendent rim! A rock walks, and staggers: and every stone bewitched Feels a new pull within it raving sky-wards! Evening bathes a half-naked temple as it soars And spontaneously assembles, taking shape in the gold, Obeying the giant soul of the great hymn on the Lyre! Paul Valery-Album of Early Verse Translated by David Paul And the equally magnificent: Sonnet to Orpheus But you, divine one, unto the last still singing, although attacked by the flouted Maenads’ throng, beautiful god, above the shrieks rose ringing among the destroyers your ordered upbuilding song. There was none there could harm your head or harp, however they raved and struggled; all the sharp stones they cast at you grew soft when nearing your heart and, touching you, were endowed with hearing. Finally, driven by vengeance, they broke and tore Your body, but I cliffs and lions lingered Your music, in birds and trees. You still sing there. O you lost god! You never-ending clue! Only since hatred at last parceled you among us, are we hearers and a mouth for nature.Rilke, Sonnets to Orpheus Part I,26 --Translated by C.F.MacIntyre The last poem that I wi l l read at this junction was written by the contemporary Greek poet Yannis Ritsos. Unlike the previous two poems, which are triumphant, this poem questions the achievement of Orpheus, the significance of art and poetry in dark times: “To Orpheus” This summer, under the constellation of the Lyre we remain pensive. What was the use of enchanting Hades and Persephone with your song? Of their consenting to return Eurydice to you? You, doubting your own strength, turned back to re-assure yourself, and she was lost again to the kingdom of shades under the poplars. Then, bent by attempting the impossible, you declared to the Lyre solitude as the ultimate truth. For this neither gods nor men have forgiven you. The Maenads tore your body To pieces on the banks of Hebrus. Only your Lyre and your head reached Lesbos, swept by the current. What is, then, the justification of your song? The momentary merging (itself a false image) of light and darkness? Or, perhaps, that the Muses hung your lyre centrally among the stars? Under this constellation, in the summer of this year, we remain pensive. YANNIS RITSOS Karlovassi, Samos—27.VI.69 Translated by Thanasis Maskaleris The other central myth, to which I now turn, has its depths and its mysteries as well. In responding to it, I will not dwell on what has become a vast body of psychological literature on narcissism or, more recently on narcissism and society. It is generally accepted, and I agree, that excessive self adoration-- pathological narcissism-- is harmful, even deadly; a dead end for the narcissistic personality. But I should also say that a small amount of narcissism in us may e a good thing; it can be a positive contributor to our self-esteem… Instead, I will focus on certain less obvious aspects of the experience of Narcissus, and some intriguing symbolic possibilities, that I consider inherent in the myth. First, Narcissus’ avoiding and rejection of besieging lovers, including pitiable Echo, can be seen as an aversion to run-of-the-mill relationships, to lovers lesser than his ideal image of the lover. He resists being a beloved in terms imposed from outside himself, for he is dedicated to being a lover of a beloved who would be equal to himself, equally beautiful in ways that he considers essential. Compromise for him would be a degradation of his ideal of love. The perfect beauty that he sees in the calm waters stands, symbolically, for the ideal beloved he is seeking. And it should be noted that Narcissus is not aware, at first, that the face he is adoring is his own face. Related to this is Erich Neumann’s discussion of Narcissus (in his The Origins and History of Consciousness,pp.89-90). According to Neumann, Narcissus' avoidance of the youths that pursue him stands for the attempt of the developing ego ("selfformation" and "self-realization") to avert the total dominance of the Great Mother, through her surrogates Aphrodite and the Nymphs. In the end ,he is tricked by Aphrodite to fall in love with his own image, and perish for rejecting her. But, as is happening in Greek culture, the Great Mother and the subconscious powers are gradually opposed by individual upper consciousness, which aims at balancing the libidonal and the rational. On another level, what fascinates Narcissus is not only the beauty of the face beheld but the infinite unknown beauty of the inner self that he intuits, surface beauty being the gateway to it. The pond, the calm of the mysterious water, overwhelms him; (Gaston Bachelard, in his Poetics of Reverie, comments: " The soul is everywhere in a universe which reposes on the pond. The still water integrates all things, the universe and its dreamer.”, p.196); and when Narcissus fatally journeys below the surface he enters the fathomless regions of his inner self. " This is a plunge of introspection into the fabulous subconscious of his own being -- a voyage into the individual’s underworld from which he will emerge (as Orpheus did from Hades) a reborn self, here symbolized by the flower which he becomes. And how can a flowering can be seen it terms other than positive? With its roots deep in the fertile pond—the depths of inner being—Narcissus, flower and consciousness, rises toward the sun realm of upper selfhood but the flower head bows in reverence to the depths below that nurtured the up-shooting flower. The flower Narcissus continues to reflect itself on the waters, but the visual reflection can now be extended to a contemplative ritual, the mind’s act of reflection. At this junction in my remarks I will read two poems inspired by Narcissus, both for their beauty and for the light they may shed on my subject. The first is by D.H .Lawrence: Narcissus Where the minnows trace A glinting web quick hid in the gloom of the brook, When I think of the place And remember the small lad lying intent to look Through the shadowy face At the little fish thread-threading the watery nook-- It seems to me The woman you are should be nixie, there is a pool Where we ought to be. You undine-clear and pearly, soullessly cool And waterly, The pool for my limbs to fathom, my soul's last school. Narcissus Ventured so long ago in the depths of reflection. Illyssus Broke the bounds and beyond!--Dim recollection Of fishes Soundlessly moving in heaven's other direction! Be Undine toward the waters, moving back; For me A pool! Put off the soul you 've got, oh, lack Your human self immortal ; take the watery track! The Complete Poems,p.161 The second poem is by the Russian poet Novella Nikolayevna Matveyeva (born in 1934): Narcissus The willow’s crooked roots below the slope Are shaggy like a worn and raggy rope. The river strums and in its drowsing fuss My leafy brother blooms: pale Narcissus. He’s glad to sway the livelong day in such Bright currents, that flash now with green, now with blue. He seems to love himself so very much-- To all eyes om the banks watching the vie Narcissus’ true image shows no conveit. The legend lies, mirrors the wrong complexion Ignore it. No, Narcissus—handsome, sweet-- Loved not himself, but only his reflection. We can’t judge him: we’re all a Narcissus On a dry land—loving other souls like us. The pond, with its shadowy depths, corresponds as a dialectical opposite, to the infinite outer realms that Orpheus’ music resurrects for his consciousness; for Narcissus--who is a “diver” instead of being an ascending “flyer” like Orpheus--it is the lower realm, his own inner self that creates his resurrection/rebirth. The two journeys complement one another and open the doors of perception for us, to undertake our dual journey with Orpheus and Narcissus as signal-men and archetypal navigators through the visible and invisible territories of being. In Orpheus, the Dionysian and Apollonian co-exist; like Dionysos, he has experienced the terrible beauty of the terrestrial immersion; his love for Eurydice and his descent into the depths of the Earth have deeply imprinted in him the fate of the mortals—earth, beauty, materiality, song, death. From this knowledge his Apollonian music elevates his being to a sublime union with Nature and the entire Universe. In my concluding responses to the two myths I will attempt to make them relevant to ourselves and our predicaments, ours being old predicaments with new twists. Orpheus and the religious sects that used his name reflect the social, political and religious conflicts and concerns in Greek culture in the period between Homer and Plato. They are reactions against the prevailing order—established aristocracies and religious conservatism; the common people stir to claim and give worth to themselves as a group and to the individual self. Established religions become stale and ineffectual as life-giving beliefs; they need heretical stirring and renewal. The Orphic- Dionysian movements, like the Christian which they nurtured in significant ways, opposed the rigid Apollonian principles and the established Olympian religion. Dionysos cares for the common human beings; he dies annually to be resurrected and bring new life to all of nature and humanity. Eventually he is enthroned for half a year at Delphi, sharing with Apollo, the formerly exclusive lord, the prestige of the great Center. This development reflects the struggle for balance within the culture; society and life are not to be dominated by the austere rules of Apollo and his cold Hyperborean logic. Nor will license and irrational frenzy take over in human societies. Orpheus is an embodiment of the two gods and he represents the struggle for the balance signaled by the dual throne at Delphi. Because neither the followers of Apollo or those of Dionysos will accept him, he is sacrificed, a martyr of the supreme endeavor: to achieve completeness, balance, unity of the material and spiritual in human beings. Orpheus’ deepest awareness before he dies is the sacredness of beings in all spheres of Nature and the Cosmos, with humanity at the center. And Narcissus, dedicated to self knowledge and insisting on the uniqueness and inner autonomy of the self, parallels the transcending vision of Orpheus, his being directed toward the vast cosmos of inner reality. In our days to save and cultivate individuality and the inner life, assaulted and besieged as they are by excessive and all pervasive technology and mass life, we need inspiration and commitment for inner and ecological struggles; the two myths that are alive in me, that I tried to make meaningful for you this evening, can provide a part of the needed inspiration, and strengthen the commitments of our lives. And I would like to conclude with this, possibly discordant, note. No doubt, some people in our society would think that to be discussing the myths of Orpheus and Narcissus as I did in this lecture, amounts to an esoteric, perhaps extravagant, activity — particularly at this time of turmoil and global violence. My answer to them would be: If the levelers of man-built gigantic towers and Nature’s awesome caves and mountains had thoughtfully read the Classics of the Greek and other ancient cultures -- particularly Thucydides and the teachings of Jainism--they would be restrained in their vengeful destructive acts, for the sake of Humanity. Thanasis Maskaleris Delivered at S.F. State University November 14, 2001 ADDENDUM In his Eros and Civilization,-A Philosophical Inquiry Into Freud, Herbert Marcuse devotes a brilliant chapter ( Chapter 8) to Orpheus and Narcissus. The following excerpts from his important commentary will amplify my comments on the subject: “If Prometheus is the culture-hero of toil productivity and progress through repression, then the symbols of another reality principle must be sought at the opposite pole. Orpheus and Narcissus (like Dionysus to whom they are akin: the antagonist of the god who sanctions the logic of domination, the realm of reason) stand for a very different reality. They have not become the culture-heroes of the Western world: theirs is the image of joy and fulfillment; the voice which does not command but sings; the gesture which offers and receives; the deed which is peace and ends the labor of conquest; the liberation from time which unites man with god man and nature…” “The images of Orpheus and Narcissus reconcile Eros Thanatos. They recall the experience of a world that is not to be mastered and controlled but to be liberated--a freedom that will release the powers of Eros now bound in the repressed and petrified forms of man and nature. These powers are conceived not as destruction but as peace, not as terror but as beauty…” “The Orphic and Narcissistic experience of the world negates that which sustains the world of the performance principle. The opposition between man and nature, subject and object, is overcome…” “The Orphic Eros transforms being: he masters cruelty and death through liberation. His language is song, and his work is play. Narcissus’ life is that of beauty, and his existence is contemplation. These images refer to the aesthetic dimension as the one in which their reality principle must be sought and validated.” (pp.146-7,149-52) |
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