{"corpus":"steiner","locus":"GA 87/1901-11-30/p012-p018","extent":"range","passage_number":12,"through":18,"paragraph_count":7,"first_locus":"GA 87/1901-11-30/p012","last_locus":"GA 87/1901-11-30/p018","lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"title":"7. On the Book of the Dead","date":"1901-11-30","location":null,"alignment_confidence":"high","alignment_reason":"beads:identity","two_voice_volume":false,"translation_credit":{"scope":"unit","status":"established","translator":"Steiner Online Library","identified_edition":"SOL2024","book_title":"Ancient Mysteries and Christianity","publisher":"Steiner Online Library","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA087/English/SOL2024/19011130p01.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"]},"record":{"record_type":"listeners_notes","scope":"volume","note":"Written from listeners' notes, summaries, or memory rather than a shorthand transcript. The wording is the note-taker's as much as Steiner's: weigh a single striking phrase here far more cautiously than the same phrase in a stenographic volume, and do not rest an argument on one word.","evidence":"Auch wenn die Mitschrift noch nicht die später übliche Genauigkeit aufweist","evidence_translation":"Even though the transcript does not yet have the accuracy usual later","evidence_source":"The publisher's description of the volume, as mirrored on AnthroWiki (GA 87), which calls the cycle the earliest of which a listener's transcript exists. The translation is the maintainer's, not a published one."},"witness_completeness":{"ratio":1.05,"band":"comparable","note":null,"word_count":5222,"original_word_count":4981,"may_be_abridged":false},"site_heading":null,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/87/1901-11-30/p012-p018","json_url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/87/1901-11-30/p012-p018.json","lecture_url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/87/1901-11-30#p012","word_count":1786,"quote_safe":true,"passages":[{"passage_number":12,"locus":"GA 87/1901-11-30/p012","text":"The best-known Greek myth is that of Demeter and her daughter Persephone and then the myth of Dionysus, which has already been mentioned several times. Demeter, one of the supreme female Greek deities, was first understood in a naturalistic sense. She had a daughter with Zeus, Persephone. She was stolen by Hades, the god of the underworld. Hades had asked to be allowed to take this daughter as his wife in the underworld. She was only to remain in the upper world temporarily. She was to remain two thirds in the upper world and one third in the underworld. This myth, which is alive everywhere in Greece in its naturalistic meaning, was also that which was to be found in certain mysteries, namely that on which the Eleusinian Mysteries were based. This myth also had a threefold meaning. The naturalistic meaning lies simply in the fact that one understands the actual as such, that one has a mythological history of the gods. The second conception would then be something that took place in [Greek] life, and that was the marriage of the Ionian spirit with the Doric.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":187,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/87/1901-11-30/p012","witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"Steiner Online Library","identified_edition":"SOL2024","book_title":"Ancient Mysteries and Christianity","publisher":"Steiner Online Library","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA087/English/SOL2024/19011130p01.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 87/1901-11-30/p012"],"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."}},{"passage_number":13,"locus":"GA 87/1901-11-30/p013","text":"The Greek people were divided into tribes. Among the most important were the Dorians and the Ionians. The myth of Demeter had originated among the Dorians, and the Ionians had adopted it and mixed it with the myth of Dionysus. We are interested in the Dionysus myth because it leads to an esoteric view. Dionysus is also a son of Zeus and Demeter. He was torn to pieces and only managed to save his heart. From this, Zeus had formed the younger Dionysus. But he could no longer take the limbs. It is therefore the case that the world represents the scattered limbs. This therefore represents the marriage of the Dorian Persephone with the Ionian Dionysus. The fusion of these two views has thus taken place in this myth.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":129,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/87/1901-11-30/p013","witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"Steiner Online Library","identified_edition":"SOL2024","book_title":"Ancient Mysteries and Christianity","publisher":"Steiner Online Library","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA087/English/SOL2024/19011130p01.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 87/1901-11-30/p013"],"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."}},{"passage_number":14,"locus":"GA 87/1901-11-30/p014","text":"But what remains to be noted is the third, the divine conception. We can only understand this historically if we stick to the sparse information we have. We are first referred to the temple in which the service of Demeter takes place. This Demeter service is a service in which we encounter the three deities mentioned. Demeter herself is one of the greatest deities of Greece, symbolically shaped, with the inscription: \"I am the origin of the soul, I am the origin of the spirit.\" At her side, Persephone is presented to us with the inscription: \"I am death and carry within me the secret of life.\" Her brother Dionysus is presented to us with an even stranger inscription: \"I am death, I am life, I am rebirth and adorned with wings.\" - If we understand this, we come to the interpretation of one of the most important Greek myths. Demeter loses her daughter. She has to give her Persephone to Hades. She could return to her mother if she had not already partaken of the fruit of the pomegranate with Hades and was therefore unable to return completely. This Persephone is supposed to save her brother. Only this makes it possible - now in a deeper sense - for Persephone to return, for Dionysus to sacrifice himself. We have to look at these two in context again. We must recognize that sacrifice is what matters here. This is shown to us by the fact that Orpheus - who is originally credited with having communicated the deeper content of this to the Greek people - was also sacrificed, for he is also said to have been torn apart and to have lived on as a spirit by having flowed out into the world matter. The child of eternal life must be sacrificed to Hades, to Pluto. We can only understand this if we see the material world in Pluto. Thus, according to the esoteric view, we see in Demeter the universal spirituality, the primordial mother of intelligence, and in Hades the material world. In the whole Persephone myth we see the necessity of Persephone's falling away from her mother. The daughter must enter matter. She must partake of the pomegranate of the underworld. Now she can no longer save herself from matter and therefore a second sacrifice is necessary. Persephone's brother, Dionysus, must sacrifice himself again. He must allow his [own] spiritual nature to flow out into the gross nature, so that Persephone now enters into a spiritual marriage with her brother, but can flow back again to the original spirit of the primordial mother, Demeter. This mystery of the spirituality's necessary departure from itself, this immersion of the spirits in the material and this longing of the spirit to return to the spiritual is expressed in the Demeter myth.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":470,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/87/1901-11-30/p014","witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"Steiner Online Library","identified_edition":"SOL2024","book_title":"Ancient Mysteries and Christianity","publisher":"Steiner Online Library","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA087/English/SOL2024/19011130p01.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 87/1901-11-30/p014"],"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."}},{"passage_number":15,"locus":"GA 87/1901-11-30/p015","text":"This was the vivid experience that was to be taught to those who were introduced to the Eleusinian Mysteries. They were to be given the urge to find their way back from matter to the spiritual primordial mother. This is what lived in Greece in the spirit of a few chosen ones and what carried the whole world view between Pythagoras and Plato. What lived as the deeper spirit in these personalities from Empedocles through Anaxagoras to Socrates and Plato sometimes appears to be merely a logical chain of thought, as presented to us by the philosophers. But it is an exposition of Greek myth, an exposition that was cultivated wherever a deeper foundation was sought. This is what appears to them as a mere logical chain of thought.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":129,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/87/1901-11-30/p015","witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"Steiner Online Library","identified_edition":"SOL2024","book_title":"Ancient Mysteries and Christianity","publisher":"Steiner Online Library","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA087/English/SOL2024/19011130p01.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 87/1901-11-30/p015"],"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."}},{"passage_number":16,"locus":"GA 87/1901-11-30/p016","text":"I would like to point out another myth, which was cultivated even more frequently than the Demeter myth, which is perhaps easier to understand, and which was cultivated in order to gradually lead initiates into a deeper spiritual understanding of the world. I would like to refer to the myth of the Argonaut voyage. This shows in each of its individual sentences that it can only be understood as the symbolic clothing of a deeper wisdom. Phrixos and his sister Helle set off on the ram [...] to the barbarian king. On the way, Helle falls into the sea and Phrixos alone reaches the coast on the ram. When they reached the barbarian people, the ram was sacrificed to the king. But the ram's skin was hung up in the sacred grove of the gods and guarded by a great dragon. Jason, together with Orpheus, Heracles, Theseus, Castor and Pollux, Meleager, Peleus, Neleus, Admetus, Pirithoos and many others, undertakes to retrieve this ram's skin [- the golden fleece]. These are the great heroes of Greece. It is significant that Jason, with the representatives of the highest Greek spirituality, undertakes to retrieve the skin. He actually wins the skin and brings it back. The dragon guarding the skin is defeated by Jason. The dragon's teeth are then sown, and out of these grow fierce men who fight each other. Finally, in short, he gets the fleece with the help of the sorceress Medea. On the way back, however, Medea decides to dismember [her] little brother Apsyrtos. The father Aietes collects the pieces and therefore does not reach the fugitives. The fleece is brought back to Greece.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":275,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/87/1901-11-30/p016","witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"Steiner Online Library","identified_edition":"SOL2024","book_title":"Ancient Mysteries and Christianity","publisher":"Steiner Online Library","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA087/English/SOL2024/19011130p01.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 87/1901-11-30/p016"],"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."}},{"passage_number":17,"locus":"GA 87/1901-11-30/p017","text":"We must also interpret this in a threefold sense. Firstly natural, secondly human and thirdly divine. [As a human event it is of no interest, but in its divine meaning this myth perhaps leads most deeply into the Greek intellectual world.] Phrixos is divine vision, that which points us to the abyss of divine being, to the premonition of an infinite depth. Nothing else is expressed in the personality of Phrixos. [Brightness is the personality, the representative of man before his fall into sin, for whom the struggle of the spirit with materiality has not yet existed] - the undivided humanity, which is connected with nothing other than the infinite vision of infinity. [Both set out on the path to the most sacred thing they have. And the representatives of the human soul first come to the sacred grove of the gods in order to sacrifice to it and to begin the path of life with this human soul]. We have only one other person in the Argonaut train. Phrixos begins his journey through life into the realm of the barbarians on the other side of the sea. This is to be understood as the realm of passions, the realm of sensuality. The human soul is to be sacrificed to the realm of materiality. It is to be sacrificed to the waves and bustle of the world. As a result, one thing is lost, the original innocence. It is initially submerged, lost. It is initially something that has flowed out into existence. [It is something that is initially completely lost, which is why it has sunk into the Hellespont. The soul is led into life, where we have nothing but a dark urge, where we must find our way back to the higher life]. But [the soul] must be redeemed anew, just as Persephone was redeemed by Dionysus. It must be redeemed. What had to be sacrificed to life must be redeemed. It must be redeemed here by Jason, the Greek hero. The ram is sacrificed to the gods. Only the ram's skin, that which surrounds the human soul as a shell, is first hung up in the sacred grove of the gods and carefully guarded by the dragon. This is initially nothing other than what is given in the Book of the Dead. [The ram's skin] is the representative of enlightenment, of knowledge. It must first be redeemed from the fury of the terrible powers that lurk before it. The king's son Jason must overcome these forces through knowledge in conjunction with spiritual and physical forces. He must lead this ram's skin back to Greece, supported by Medea, a female figure. I have already pointed out that the female figure signifies a state of consciousness in Greek. The soul must be redeemed with the help of Medea's magical power. From this immersion she can then be led back up to her deification, her divinization. That is the deeper meaning of the Argonaut saga.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":494,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/87/1901-11-30/p017","witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"Steiner Online Library","identified_edition":"SOL2024","book_title":"Ancient Mysteries and Christianity","publisher":"Steiner Online Library","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA087/English/SOL2024/19011130p01.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 87/1901-11-30/p017"],"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."}},{"passage_number":18,"locus":"GA 87/1901-11-30/p018","text":"The fact that the young son of Aietes, Medea's brother, has to be killed so that Medea's father cannot reach [the fleeing Jason] also has its significance. The one who has achieved this must leave behind many things that have been in his life. He has to leave some things behind, for the reason that [he cannot be caught up] on the path to deeper knowledge. This is how the saga of the Argonauts concludes. Basically, it is nothing more than a different version, more tailored to the individuality of man, of the myth that we also encounter in the Demeter myth.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":102,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/87/1901-11-30/p018","witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"Steiner Online Library","identified_edition":"SOL2024","book_title":"Ancient Mysteries and Christianity","publisher":"Steiner Online Library","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA087/English/SOL2024/19011130p01.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 87/1901-11-30/p018"],"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."}}],"witnesses":[{"lang":"de","edition":"original","is_original":true,"is_default_edition":true,"first_passage":1,"last_passage":38,"passage_count":38,"word_count":4981},{"lang":"en","edition":"English","is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"first_passage":1,"last_passage":38,"passage_count":38,"word_count":5222,"completeness":{"ratio":1.05,"band":"comparable","note":null}}],"aligned_witness":{"status":"aligned","lang":"de","edition":"original","confidence":"high","passages":[{"locus":"GA 87/1901-11-30/p012","passage_number":12,"text":"Der bekannteste griechische Mythos ist derjenige von Demeter und ihrer Tochter Persephone und dann der schon öfter erwähnte Dionysos-Mythos. Demeter, eine der obersten weiblichen griechischen Gottheiten, wurde zuerst aufgefasst in einer naturalistischen Bedeutung. Sie hatte mit Zeus eine Tochter, Persephone. Diese wurde von dem Hades, dem Gotte der Unterwelt, geraubt. Hades hatte sich ausgebeten, diese Tochter in der Unterwelt als Gemahlin nehmen zu dürfen. Nur zeitweilig sollte sie wieder auf der Oberwelt verbleiben. Zwei Drittel sollte sie in der Oberwelt und ein Drittel in der Unterwelt verbleiben. Dieser Mythos, der in Griechenland überall lebendig ist in seiner naturalistischen Bedeutung, der war auch dasjenige, was in gewissen Mysterien zu finden war, was namentlich den Eleusinischen Mysterien zugrunde lag. Dieser Mythos hatte ebenfalls eine dreifache Bedeutung. Die naturalistische Bedeutung liegt einfach darin, dass man das Tatsächliche als solches auffasst, dass man also eine mythologische Göttergeschichte hat. Die zweite Auffassung würde dann sein etwas, was sich im [griechischen] Leben vollzogen hat, und das war die Vermählung des ionischen Geistes mit dem dorischen.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":169,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/87/1901-11-30/p012"},{"locus":"GA 87/1901-11-30/p013","passage_number":13,"text":"Das griechische Volk war ja gespalten in Volksstämme. Zu den wichtigsten gehörten die Dorer und die Ionier. Bei den Dorern war die Demeter-Sage entstanden, und die Ionier hatten sie übernommen und mit dem Dionysos-Mythos vermischt. Die Dionysos-Sage interessiert uns deshalb, weil sie zur esoterischen Auffassung führt. Dionysos ist ebenfalls ein Sohn des Zeus und der Demeter. Er wurde zerrissen, und es gelang nur, das Herz zu retten. Daraus hatte Zeus den jüngeren Dionysos gebildet. Die Glieder aber konnte er nicht mehr nehmen. Es ist also so, dass die Welt die zerstreuten Glieder darstellt. Dies stellt also die Vermählung der dorischen Persephone mit dem ionischen Dionysos dar. Die Verschmelzung dieser beiden Anschauungen hat sich also in diesem Mythos vollzogen.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":118,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/87/1901-11-30/p013"},{"locus":"GA 87/1901-11-30/p014","passage_number":14,"text":"Das aber, was jetzt noch zu bemerken ist, ist die dritte, die göttliche Auffassung. Diese verstehen wir geschichtlich nur dann, wenn wir uns an die spärlichen Nachrichten halten, die wir haben. Wir werden zunächst hingewiesen auf jenen Tempel, in welchem der Demeter-Dienst stattfindet. Jener Demeter-Dienst ist ein Dienst, in dem uns die drei genannten Gottheiten entgegentreten. Demeter selber ist da eine der größten Gottheiten Griechenlands, symbolisch gestaltet, mit der Inschrift: «Ich bin der Ursprung der Seele, ich bin der Ursprung des Geistes.» An der Seite wird uns vorgeführt Persephone mit der Inschrift: «Ich bin der Tod und trage in mir das Geheimnis des Lebens.» Ihr Bruder Dionysos wird uns vorgeführt mit einer noch merkwürdigeren Inschrift: «Ich bin der Tod, ich bin das Leben, ich bin die Wiedergeburt und geschmückt mit Flügeln.» — Wenn wir dies verstehen, so kommen wir zu der Auslegung einer der wichtigsten griechischen Mythen. Demeter verliert ihre Tochter. Sie muss ihre Persephone hingeben an den Hades. Sie könnte zu ihrer Mutter wieder zurückkehren, wenn sie nicht schon bei Hades von der Frucht des Granatapfels genossen hätte und dadurch nicht ganz zurückkehren kann. Diese Persephone soll ihren Bruder retten. Nur dadurch ist das möglich - jetzt im tieferen Sinne —, dass Persephone wieder zurückkommt, dass Dionysos sich aufopfert. Diese beiden müssen wir wieder im Zusammenhang betrachten. Wir müssen erkennen, dass Opferung es ist, auf das es hier ankommt. Das zeigt uns der Umstand, dass auch Orpheus - dem ursprünglich zugeschrieben wird, dass er den tieferen Gehalt davon dem griechischen Volk mitgeteilt hat - aufgeopfert wurde, denn von ihm wird auch mitgeteilt, dass er zerrissen worden ist und als ein Geist fortlebt dadurch, dass er in die Weltmaterie ausgeflossen ist. Aufgeopfert muss das Kind des ewigen Lebens werden dem Hades, dem Pluto. Wir können das nur verstehen, wenn wir in Pluto die materielle Welt sehen. So haben wir also in der Demeter nach esoterischer Auffassung zu sehen die universelle Geistigkeit, die Urmutter der Intelligenz und in dem Hades die materielle Welt. In dem ganzen Persephone-Mythos haben wir zu sehen die Notwendigkeit des Abfalls der Persephone von ihrer Mutter. Die Tochter muss in die Materie eingehen. Sie muss von dem Granatapfel der Unterwelt genießen. Jetzt kann sie sich nicht mehr aus der Materie retten und deshalb ist ein zweites Opfer nötig. Der Bruder der Persephone, Dionysos, muss sich seinerseits wieder aufopfern. Er muss seine [eigene] geistige Natur in die groRe Natur ausfließen lassen, sodass nun Persephone in die geistige Ehe mit ihrem Bruder kommt, aber wieder zurückströmen kann zu dem ursprünglichen Geist der Urmutter, der Demeter. Dieses Geheimnis des notwendigen Abfalls der Geistigkeit von sich selbst, diese Versenkung der Geister in das Materielle und diese Sehnsucht des Geistes wieder zurück zum Geistigen drückt sich aus in dem Demeter-Mythos.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":458,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/87/1901-11-30/p014"},{"locus":"GA 87/1901-11-30/p015","passage_number":15,"text":"Das war die lebhafte Erfahrung, welche denjenigen beigebracht werden sollte, welche in die Eleusinischen Mysterien eingeführt wurden. Sie sollten den Drang bekommen, aus der Materie zur geistigen Urmutter zurückzufinden. Das ist es, was in Griechenland lebte im Geiste einiger Auserwählter und was die ganze Weltanschauung zwischen Pythagoras und Platon trug. Was als der tiefere Geist in diesen Persönlichkeiten vom Empedokles über Anaxagoras bis Sokrates und Platon lebte, es nimmt sich manchmal bloß aus als eine logische Gedankenkette, was uns von den Philosophen vorgeführt wird. Es ist aber eine Darlegung des griechischen Mythos, eine Darlegung, welche gepflegt wurde überall da, wo man nach einer tieferen Grundlage suchte. Dies ist es, was sich bei ihnen als eine bloß logische Gedankenkette ausnimmt.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":119,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/87/1901-11-30/p015"},{"locus":"GA 87/1901-11-30/p016","passage_number":16,"text":"Ich möchte auf einen anderen Mythos noch hinweisen, welcher noch häufiger als der Demeter-Mythos gepflegt wurde, welcher vielleicht leichter zu verstehen ist, und welcher gepflegt wurde, um Einzuweihende allmählich in eine tiefere geistige Auffassung des Weltenseins hineinzuführen. Ich möchte hinweisen auf den Mythos der Argonautenfahrt. Dieser zeigt ja in jedem seiner einzelnen Sätze, dass er nur aufgefasst werden kann als symbolische Einkleidung einer tieferen Weisheit. Phrixos und seine Schwester Helle begaben sich auf dem Widder [...] zu dem Barbarenkönig. Unterwegs fällt die Helle ins Meer und Phrixos allein erreicht mit dem Widder die Küste. Als sie angekommen waren beim barbarischen Volke, da wird der Widder dem Könige geopfert. Das Widderfell aber wird im heiligen Hain der Götter aufgehängt und von einem großen Drachen gehütet. Dieses Widderfell [- das Goldene Vlies-] zurückzuholen, unternimmt Jason zusammen mit Orpheus, Herakles, Theseus, Kastor und Pollux, Meleager, Peleus, Neleus, Admetos, Pirithoos und vielen anderen. Das sind die großen Helden Griechenlands. Es ist von Bedeutung, dass Jason mit den Repräsentanten der höchsten griechischen Geistigkeit es unternimmt, das Fell zurückzuholen. Er gewinnt auch tatsächlich dieses Fell und bringt es zurück. Der das Fell hütende Drache wird besiegt von Jason. Es werden dann die Drachenzähne gesät, und daraus wachsen dann geharnischte Männer hervor, die sich bekriegen. Schließlich, kurz gesagt, bekommt er das Vlies mit Hilfe der Zauberin Medea. Auf dem Rückwege aber entschließt sich Medea, [ihren] kleinen Bruder Apsyrtos zu zerstückeln. Der Vater Aietes sammelt die Stücke und erreicht daher die Fliehenden nicht. Das Vlies wird nach Griechenland zurückgebracht.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":251,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/87/1901-11-30/p016"},{"locus":"GA 87/1901-11-30/p017","passage_number":17,"text":"Wir müssen auch dieses in einer dreifachen Auffassung deuten. Erstens natürlich, zweitens menschlich und drittens göttlich. [Als menschliches Ereignis interessiert es nicht, aber in seiner göttlichen Bedeutung führt dieser Mythos vielleicht am tiefsten in die griechische Geisteswelt hinein.] Phrixos ist das göttliche Schauen, dasjenige, was uns hinweist in den Abgrund des göttlichen Seins, auf das Ahnen einer unendlichen Tiefe. Nichts anderes drückt sich in der Persönlichkeit des Phrixos aus. [Helle ist die Persönlichkeit, die Repräsentantin des Menschen vor seinem Sündenfall, für welchen der Kampf des Geistes mit der Materialität noch nicht bestanden hat] - die ungetrennte Menschlichkeit, welche mit nichts anderem verbunden ist als mit dem unendlichen Schauen der Unendlichkeit. [Beide treten den Weg an zu dem Heiligsten, was sie haben. Und die Repräsentanten der menschlichen Seele kommen zunächst in den heiligen Hain der Götter, um denselben zu opfern und um mit dieser menschlichen Seele den Lebensweg anzutreten.] Nur eine andere Person haben wir ja im Argonautenzug. Phrixos tritt den Lebensweg an in das Reich der Barbaren jenseits des Meeres. Aufzufassen ist das als das Reich der Leidenschaften, als das Reich der Sinnlichkeit. Die menschliche Seele soll geopfert werden dem Reich der Materialität. Sie soll geopfert werden dem Wogen und Treiben der Welt. Dadurch geht eines verloren, die ursprüngliche Unschuld. Die ist zunächst versenkt, verloren. Sie ist zunächst etwas, was ausgeflossen ist in das Dasein. [Sie ist etwas, das zunächst vollständig verloren ist, daher ist sie versunken in den Hellespont. Die Seele wird in das Leben hineingeführt, wo wir nichts anderes als einen dunklen Drang haben, wo wir zurückfinden müssen den Weg zum höheren Leben.] Aber [die Seele] muss neuerdings erlöst werden, so wie Persephone durch Dionysos. Sie muss erlöst werden. Erlöst werden muss, was dem Leben geopfert werden musste. Es muss hier erlöst werden von Jason, dem griechischen Helden. Der Widder wird den Göttern geopfert. Nur das Widderfell, dasjenige, was als Hülle die menschliche Seele umgibt, das wird zunächst im heiligen Hain der Götter aufgehängt und sorgsam gehütet vom Drachen. Das ist zunächst nichts anderes als das, was im Totenbuch gegeben ist. [Das Widderfell] ist der Repräsentant der Erleuchtung, der Erkenntnis. Der muss zuerst erlöst werden aus der Wut der furchtbaren Gewalten, welche davor lauern. Dieser Gewalten muss sich der Königssohn Jason im Verein mit geistigen und physischen Gewalten durch Erkenntnis bemächtigen. Dieses Widderfell muss er wieder zurückführen nach Griechenland, unterstützt von Medea, also einer weiblichen Gestalt. Ich habe ja schon aufmerksam darauf gemacht, dass die weibliche Gestalt einen Bewusstseinszustand bedeutet im Griechischen. Die Seele muss mit Hilfe der Zaubermacht der Medea erlöst werden. Aus dieser Versenkung dann kann sie wieder hinaufgeführt werden zu ihrer Vergöttlichung, ihrer Vergottung. Das ist der tiefere Gehalt der Argonautensage.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":446,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/87/1901-11-30/p017"},{"locus":"GA 87/1901-11-30/p018","passage_number":18,"text":"Dass der kleine Sohn des Aietes, der Bruder der Medea, getötet werden muss, sodass der Vater der Medea [den fliehenden Jason] nicht erreicht, das hat auch seine Bedeutung. Derjenige, welcher das erreicht hat, muss manches, was im Leben gewesen ist, hinter sich lassen. Er muss manches Liebe lassen, und zwar aus dem Grunde, damit [er nicht eingeholt werden kann] auf dem Wege zu den tieferen Erkenntnissen. So schließt die Sage von dem Argonautenzug. Im Grunde genommen ist sie nichts anderes als eine andere Ausgestaltung, mehr auf die Individualität des Menschen zugeschnitten, der Sage, welche uns auch im Demeter-Mythos entgegentritt.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":99,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/87/1901-11-30/p018"}],"beads":[{"from":[12],"to":[12],"confidence":"high","pairing_state":"verified"},{"from":[13],"to":[13],"confidence":"high","pairing_state":"verified"},{"from":[14],"to":[14],"confidence":"high","pairing_state":"verified"},{"from":[15],"to":[15],"confidence":"high","pairing_state":"verified"},{"from":[16],"to":[16],"confidence":"high","pairing_state":"verified"},{"from":[17],"to":[17],"confidence":"high","pairing_state":"verified"},{"from":[18],"to":[18],"confidence":"high","pairing_state":"verified"}],"note":"Paired by the paragraph aligner; each language numbers its own paragraphs. 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