{"corpus":"steiner","locus":"GA 204/1921-04-16/p009","lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"text":"Why was it that this culture of Greece was destined to decline and ultimately to pass away from the stream of world evolution?[^2] One could say that this decline and death of the ancient Greek people indicates a significant mystery in world history. With faculties of vision handed down to them as an echo of the ancient Oriental world view, the ancient Greeks still beheld the soul-spiritual human being in his full light. After all, in the earlier periods of Greek culture, every individual knew himself to be a being of soul and spirit that had descended through conception and birth from the spiritual worlds, that has its home in a super-sensible sphere and is destined for super-sensible spheres. Yet, at the same time, even in its prime, Greece sensed its decline in world history—I have often referred to this. It sensed that human beings cannot fully attain to humanity on earth by merely looking up into super-sensible worlds. It felt itself surrounded and pervaded by the earth's forces. Hence the ancient saying: “Better it is to be a beggar in the sense world than a king in the realm of shades”[^3] The Greeks of earlier periods had still beheld all the shining glory of the super-sensible world; at the same time, by attaining full humanity in ancient Greece, they sensed that they could not maintain this radiance of the spiritual worlds. They felt they were losing it and that their soul nature was becoming ensnared in the things of the earth. Fear of death arose in them because they realized that life between birth and death can estrange the soul from its spiritual home. Greek culture must definitely be described in accordance with this feeling.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"title":"Lecture V","site_heading":"The Holy Grail Mystery and Europe's Materialistic Turn","site_heading_note":"A heading the site wrote for this unit from a summary of it; not in the edition, and not the words of Rudolf Steiner or of the translator. Cite the unit by its title and locus, never by this heading, and do not quote it.","date":"1921-04-16","location":null,"word_count":286,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/204/1921-04-16/p009","alignment_confidence":"high","alignment_reason":"beads:length","two_voice_volume":false,"translation_credit":{"scope":"unit","status":"established","translator":"Maria St. Goar","identified_edition":"AP1987","book_title":"Materialism and the Task of Anthroposophy","publisher":"Anthroposophic Press","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA204/English/AP1987/19210416m01.html","evidence":"lecture_page_line","publisher_note":"The publisher is inferred from the edition code in this lecture's source URL, not stated by the source page. The translator IS verified for this lecture: its own source names the translator (evidence: the lecture's page, rsarchive's lecture list, or the cover of the book it was published in), and that page's text was matched against this unit (see match_score and source_url). Cite the translator with confidence; attribute the publisher only as probable."},"edition_coverage":{"de":["original"],"en":["English"]},"available_versions":[{"lang":"de","edition":"original","edition_basis":null,"is_original":true,"is_default_edition":true,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/204/1921-04-16/p009"},{"lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/204/1921-04-16/p009","paragraph_aligned":true}],"record":{"record_type":"unknown","scope":"volume","note":"How this text was taken down (shorthand transcript, listeners' notes or manuscript) is not on record here. Unknown is not an assurance of a stenogram: check the edition's own notes before resting an argument on one word.","evidence":null,"evidence_translation":null,"evidence_source":null},"german_anchor":{"de_prefix":"1921-04-16","de_passages":[{"locus":"GA 204/1921-04-16/p008","url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/204/1921-04-16/p008"}],"bead_confidence":"high","pairing_state":"proposed","verified":false,"length_check":{"de_words":268,"en_words":286,"ratio":1.07,"partial":false},"correspondence":"established","note":"English passage numbering is edition-relative, so the same number need not name the same paragraph in the German. The German original passage(s) above are the edition-invariant anchor — fetch them (lang='de') to verify wording before quoting across editions."},"paired_german":{"status":"paired","german":[{"locus":"GA 204/1921-04-16/p008","passage_number":8,"text":"Warum mußte denn in der Weltenentwickelung dieses Griechentum krank werden und dann im Grunde genommen absterben? Man möchte sagen, in diesem Krankwerden und Absterben des alten Griechenvolkes liegt ein bedeutsames weltgeschichtliches Mysterium. Ja, dieses Griechenvolk sah noch mit dem, was es als einen Nachklang der alten orientalischen Weltanschauung herüberbekommen hatte, den seelisch-geistigen Menschen in seinem vollen Lichte. Und in den älteren Zeiten der griechischen Kultur sah sich doch jeder Mensch an als ein seelisch-geistiges Wesen, das aus geistigen Welten durch die Geburt oder durch die Empfängnis heruntergestiegen ist, das seine Heimat hat in übersinnlicher Sphäre, das berufen ist zu übersinnlichen Sphären. Aber es fühlte zu gleicher Zeit, dieses Griechenland, selbst noch in seiner Blütezeit - ich habe das oftmals erwähnt - seinen weltgeschichtlichen Niedergang. Es fühlte, daß der Mensch nicht Mensch werden kann auf der Erde durch dieses Hinaufschauen, durch dieses alleinige Hinaufschauen in übersinnliche Welten. Es fühlte sozusagen sich umschlungen und durchdrungen von den irdischen Mächten. Daher jener uralte griechische Spruch: Besser ein Bettler zu sein in der sinnlichen Welt, als ein König im Reiche der Schatten. - Der Grieche hatte in seinen alten Zeiten noch allen Glanz der übersinnlichen Welt geschaut; aber er hat zu gleicher Zeit dadurch, daß er in diesem Griechenland ganz Mensch wurde, gefühlt, wie er ihn nicht erhalten kann, diesen Glanz der geistigen Welten, wie er ihm verlorenging, und wie sein Seelisches verstrickt wurde in die irdischen Dinge, und er fürchtete sich gewissermaßen vor dem Sterben deshalb, weil die Seele durch das Leben zwischen Geburt und Tod entfremdet werden kann ihrer übersinnlichen Heimat. Man muß das Griechentum durchaus nach diesem Gefühle schildern.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":268,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/204/1921-04-16/p008"}],"english":["GA 204/1921-04-16/p009"],"method":"length","confidence":"high","correspondence":"established","length_check":{"de_words":268,"en_words":286,"ratio":1.07,"partial":false},"pairing_state":"proposed","verified":false},"witness_completeness":{"ratio":1.11,"band":"comparable","note":null,"word_count":5250,"original_word_count":4746,"may_be_abridged":false},"witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"Maria St. Goar","identified_edition":"AP1987","book_title":"Materialism and the Task of Anthroposophy","publisher":"Anthroposophic Press","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA204/English/AP1987/19210416m01.html","evidence":"lecture_page_line","publisher_note":"The publisher is inferred from the edition code in this lecture's source URL, not stated by the source page. The translator IS verified for this lecture: its own source names the translator (evidence: the lecture's page, rsarchive's lecture list, or the cover of the book it was published in), and that page's text was matched against this unit (see match_score and source_url). Cite the translator with confidence; attribute the publisher only as probable."},"entity_parity":{"status":"ok","checked_against":["GA 204/1921-04-16/p008"],"missing_from_translation":[],"present_only_in_translation":[],"bead_confidence":"high","note":"Every load-bearing name in the German counterpart appears in this English passage. That is a check on NAMES only: a translation can keep every name and still reverse who acts on whom, change a number, or soften a claim. Read the German for anything you intend to rest an argument on."},"note":"quote_safe certifies the bytes of this text. This block is about the translation as a WITNESS: who made it, and whether it carries the same names as the original. See witness_completeness for how much of the original this witness holds."}}