"...Be assured, a new period will come. Its spirit will be the fruit of Hermes, the learned and profit bearing.Those who gaze at the world through naivety, think foolishly that the new period will bring along only fraud, insatiable ambition and greediness. Yes, there will be difficult years but rich in ideas, art, science, progress and communication. Those who seek persistently in the depths of Hermetism, will discover the dazzling light of Truth always shining.
(from the play "Amphiaraos")."
(from the play "Amphiaraos")."
The myth of Amphiaraos comes from a distant past, which, in a number of ways, resembles our times: our world, like his, is on the verge of uniting into a single whole.
Globalization, the inevitable blending of all cultures, is accelerated by technology and by the immense growth of the population. At the root of questioning the form of global unification lie the beliefs one has about the world. For those for whom it is impossible to accept the necessity of democracy and freedom, the current form of globalization is threatening. For some in the west, the future is accompanied by images of Orwellian control. For some in the East, it is accompanied by the spectre of the West's military and cultural domination.
But globalization is here, now, whether we want it or not. Our world has already been united by the necessity of managing the global resources, by international trade, by the acceptance of money as currency of exchange, by internet and satellite communication and by the spread of mass media. An interesting point to be made is that all of these activities that involve management, communication and money, belong to what traditionally is thought of as the domain of Hermetic attributes. It is as if the characteristics of our time have been determined by Hermes, as if the union of our world is taking place along the axis of action which is traditionally controlled by Hermes. In a similar fashion, the cultural aspect that eventually united Amphiaraos' Greek world was not military power or religious uniformity; it was language, a Hermetic attribute.
The real union of the world, the one that has stability, cannot be founded on perpetration of enmity; it can only be based on communication. So, it will always take place in the name of Hermes.
Amphiaraos was a man of Apollo. His vision was the peaceful religious union of the Greek cities, and he believed in the potential of the Apollonian spirit. He resigned from the throne of Argos so as to dedicate himself to his ideal and to the worship of Apollo. He gave his city's rule to Adrastos, his competitor, who was a true son of warlike Mars, believing that the cult of Apollo would be the key to bring peace and calm to their society. At some point, he realized his mistake. He saw how easy it is for religion to become empty form: even his wife, Eriphili, was unable to assimilate his religious thinking and was ready to support the expansionist war against Thebes. This showed him how naive his beliefs were. The light of understanding dawned in his mind only when he realized that his views about his mission had led him to a dead end. If it was impossible to unite his world through war, in the name of Mars, as it was equally impossible to unite it in the name of Apollo, in the name of religious uniformity.
The only thing left for Amphiaraos was to follow his own personal fate without complains, even if that led him to his death.
Globalization, the inevitable blending of all cultures, is accelerated by technology and by the immense growth of the population. At the root of questioning the form of global unification lie the beliefs one has about the world. For those for whom it is impossible to accept the necessity of democracy and freedom, the current form of globalization is threatening. For some in the west, the future is accompanied by images of Orwellian control. For some in the East, it is accompanied by the spectre of the West's military and cultural domination.
But globalization is here, now, whether we want it or not. Our world has already been united by the necessity of managing the global resources, by international trade, by the acceptance of money as currency of exchange, by internet and satellite communication and by the spread of mass media. An interesting point to be made is that all of these activities that involve management, communication and money, belong to what traditionally is thought of as the domain of Hermetic attributes. It is as if the characteristics of our time have been determined by Hermes, as if the union of our world is taking place along the axis of action which is traditionally controlled by Hermes. In a similar fashion, the cultural aspect that eventually united Amphiaraos' Greek world was not military power or religious uniformity; it was language, a Hermetic attribute.
The real union of the world, the one that has stability, cannot be founded on perpetration of enmity; it can only be based on communication. So, it will always take place in the name of Hermes.
Amphiaraos was a man of Apollo. His vision was the peaceful religious union of the Greek cities, and he believed in the potential of the Apollonian spirit. He resigned from the throne of Argos so as to dedicate himself to his ideal and to the worship of Apollo. He gave his city's rule to Adrastos, his competitor, who was a true son of warlike Mars, believing that the cult of Apollo would be the key to bring peace and calm to their society. At some point, he realized his mistake. He saw how easy it is for religion to become empty form: even his wife, Eriphili, was unable to assimilate his religious thinking and was ready to support the expansionist war against Thebes. This showed him how naive his beliefs were. The light of understanding dawned in his mind only when he realized that his views about his mission had led him to a dead end. If it was impossible to unite his world through war, in the name of Mars, as it was equally impossible to unite it in the name of Apollo, in the name of religious uniformity.
The only thing left for Amphiaraos was to follow his own personal fate without complains, even if that led him to his death.
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