cadmus and harmony review

8/13/2019 Cadmus and Harmony Review

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The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony, Roberto Calasso

In the first of twelve, long chapters, Roberto Calasso retells the story of the abduction of Europa by

Zeus and repeatedly poses the question: “But how did it all begin! "stensibly this question refers

to the #ythical history leading up to the abduction but #ore generally to the philosophical question:

how did our world and everything in it begin$ Creation #yths are an i#portant function of #yth, but

Calasso%s concern is with the already e&isting "ly#pian gods$ ' #ore pertinent question is the

genesis of (ree) #ythology itself, which first e#erged into public consciousness in the conte&t of

ritual recitations of *o#eric poe#s at 'thenian festivals, initiated by the tyrant +isistratus -../012

BC3$ 4he Iliad and the Odyssey are thought to have been co#posed either by *o#er or by several

un)nown poets prior to 5.. BC before the advent of writing in (reece$ 4he sub6ect of these epic

poe#s, the 4ro6an wars, has been dated to around 778. BC$ 4he "ly#pian gods, and their

innu#erable supporting cast of divine and hu#an characters, therefore, have co#e down to us as

literary inventions rather than in the for# of the #onolithic, #ostly ani#istic deities of ancient

Egypt or 9esopota#ia$

+resu#ably, there are twelve chapters corresponding to the "ly#pic pantheon, but the content of

each chapter displays no such syste#atic classification, following, rather, the whi#sical preferences

of the author in elucidating his ideas$ In retelling see#ingly rando#ly selected #yths Calassoindulges in i#aginative fiction, attributing thoughts to the characters, as would a #odern novelist,

li)e 9ary Renault$ or e&a#ple, “'riadne was da;;led by the divine glory the god offered her$ 'nd

secretly she sneered at 4heseus, who had brought that glory on her by his very treachery$! +age783$

4his i#itates the Ro#an poet "vid, who puts si#ilar words into 'riadne<s #outh, saying, “=hy did

I weep li)e a country/girl, his faithlessness has been #y gain! asti, Boo) III3 reinforcing the

strongly literary character of the #yths that have co#e down to us fro# their principle sources$

Clearly, this wor) is not a novel but rather a pot/pourri whose intention is to show that particular

types of #yths eg abductions belong to a general class of events, which #ay have been based on the

historical adventures of free/booting bandits and traders in the 9editerranean region$

Calasso tells us, “In any Cretan story, there<s a bull at the beginning and a bull at the end$! +age173 "ne is te#pted to re#ove the indefinite articles and recall that “all Cretans are liars!, li)e those

who practice #ythopoeia$ *owever, he points out that “>o other wo#an, or goddess had so #any

deaths as 'riadne!, underlining the fact that #yths are inherently fluid and unreliable if viewed as

proto/history$ In assessing any wor) about #ythology, one is curious to )now what approach the

author has adopted$ or the early Christian writers, the still active stories of (reco/Ro#an

#ythology posed serious co#petition and had to be denounced as utterly false$ 4hey adopted the

euhe#erist argu#ent that the stories of the old religions were nothing #ore than fables$ ra;er%s

(olden Bough is a wor) of co#parative religion, an anthropological study, where the author says

that religion and science gradually precipitated fro# the #agical thought of pri#itive societies$

ra;er%s unifying thesis was that the vegetative #yths of >e#i were of universal i#port$ ?i)e

ra;er and later writers, Robert (raves too) the view that #ythology had been invented to e&plainand support ancient rituals, rather than having any basis in heroic deeds by actual historic persons$

Calasso see#s to proceed without such unifying theses$

9a& =eber clung to the validity of religious ideas and treated Indian #ythology as the repository

of i##utable truths$ @ung refined this approach by finding #ythological archetypes inherent in his

invention, the collective unconscious$ 4he atheist reud<s use of the "edipus #yth was #ore by

way of analogy than a belief in the living presence of #ythical forces, finding rather that actual

se&ual and power relations in fa#ily life gave rise to various fantasies$ *owever, 78 th Century

writers in all disciplines were overshadowed by their classical education, as well as by Christianity,

and e&pressed the#selves fluently with reference to the (reco/Ro#an #yths in which they had

been schooled$ @oseph Ca#pbell, in his *ero with a 4housand aces, adopted the @ungian idea, anduses the #otif of the hero as its organising principle$ Ca#pbell provides us with a prologue

e&plaining his approach and a definite structure, together with a detailed inde&$ Roberto Calasso

offers no such road #ap or inde&, although there is a detailed list of sources to overt quotations in



the te&t, which is perhaps less interruptive than the #ore usual footnotes$ or those who see) a

#ore detailed e&position of the #yths, such a list in invaluable$ 4he sources are very e&tensive and

include #ost of the classics of ancient (ree) and Ro#an literature$

' hint about the author<s attitude to #ythology is given in Chapter III: “9an<s relationship with the

gods passed through two regi#es: first conviviality, then rape$ 4he third regi#e, the #odern one, is

that of indifference, but with the i#plication that the gods have already withdrawn, and, hence, if

they are indifferent in our regard, we can be indifferent as to their e&istence or otherwise$! +age0A3$ 4his )eeping open the possibility that the gods are still active in our world runs counter to the

rationalis# of +lato and to the irreligious #aterialis# of the present day, but is appropriate in a

wor) which the publishers have classified as fictionliterature$ Calasso<s intention is to pass on his

love and understanding of #ythology as a perennial fund of wisdo#, which is still pertinent to our

lives today, rather than engaging in sterile debate about the genesis of religions past and present$ 4o

reinforce the point, Callasso sees the hu#ans in the #yths as puppets of the gods, eg the e&ploits of

4heseus in relation to ionysus and 'pollo, who create hu#an destiny through their conflicts and

cooperative #achinations$ Behind such stories lies a philosophical belief in fate, characterised by

the goddess 'te, who led both gods and #en astray, and by 'nan)e who represents the principle of

necessity, #ore fa#iliar to us as the laws of nature$ 'pollo, despite his patronage of the arts andsciences, epto#ises the uncaring psychopath and ionysus a ho#ocidal #aniac bent of realising

ro#antic drea#s of blood and lust$ Calasso%s sy#pathies are clearly with Zeus, although his #ode

of creation is through seduction and rape, in who# he sees the basis of all things including gods and

hu#ans, and hints that he sowed the seeds of #onotheis#$

Calasso e&plains the #yth of *elen, which began with the rape of ?eda by Zeus, and distils out the

idea of beaty as a superior power to the brute force used by #en and gods$ 4he egg fro# which

*elen hatched contained her twin brother +ollu&$ ' second egg, fathered by ?eda%s husband Ding

4andareus, contained Castor and Clyte#nestra who beca#e the wife of 'ga#e#non and

subsequently his #urderer$ 4he binding of such unbelievable fantasies to the quasi/historical story

of the 4ro6an =ar, ostensibly caused by the abduction of *elen by +aris, creates a sea#less #yth

which e&plains how the reprehensible deeds of Zeus sowed the seeds of the tragic beginnings of(ree) society$ If we e&cise the #ythical ele#ents we are left only with the bare bones that can be

unearthed by archeology and lose the poetic power that was the real, creative, driving force of

ancient 9editerranean societies$ Calasso su#s this up by saying, “or the (ree)s, *elen was the

e#bodi#ent of that vision, beauty hatched fro# the egg of necessity$!+age 7A3$ *o#er%s epics are

even attributed to *elen, who is said to have appeared to hi# in a drea#, co##anding hi# to write

the#, another e&a#ple of #yth reinforcing #yth$

Fnli)e Robert (raves%s The Greek Myths, Calassos%s approach is the#atic rather than le&ical,

references to individual gods or heroes being distribued across the wor)$ Zeus, 'pollo and ionysus

appear in several chapters$ or e&a#ple, in Chapter IG the relationship between hieroga#y and the

#etaphysics of sacrifice is one such the#e$ 4he first sacrifice, we are told, was due to one Hopatrus,whose offering of ca)es to the gods was eaten by an o&$ Enraged, Hopatrus slew the o&, buried it

and rushed off to Crete$ ' drought followed and the idea of the e&piation of blood guilt by ritual

sacrifice was born, which led not only to sacrificing ani#als to the gods but also to the bloody rites

of ionysus and the consu#ption of ani#al and hu#an flesh by his 9aenads$ >ot until Chapter GII

do we learn of the #arriage of Cad#us and *ar#ony, which was i#portant enough to be attended

by the "ly#pian gods$ "ne day, the deadly #onster 4yphon, son of the earth #other (aia, reached

out to "ly#pus and chanced to find Zeus%s thunderbolts, without which the great god was

powerless, and was soon torn to pieces by by the #ulti/ar#ed #onster$ 4he "ly#pians fled to

Egypt, leaving 4yphon as supre#e ruler$ 4o cut a long story short, Cad#us flattered and char#ed

the rather stupid #onster with his pipe #usic and allowd the dis#e#bered Zeus to reasse#ble

hi#self and regain his thunderbolts in ti#e to blast 4yphon and restore the "ly#pian order$ 4hegratitude of the gods bestowed power and wealth on Cad#us, who founded the city of 4hebes$ ?i)e

#ost of the (ree) #yths, destruction and #isery eventually followed, although Cad#us and



*ar#ony escaped in a hu#ble o& cart, transfor#ed into intertwined sna)es$ 9a)ing sense of this

and other #yths is what Robert Calasso does, by see)ing out the co##on ideas which underlay the

develop#ent of ancient (ree) thought up to its final flowering into the profound wor)s of the great

dra#atists and 'thenian philosophers$

The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony provides the neophyte with a fascinating introduction to

(ree) #ythology and a #asterly representation of its significanc for those with #ore than a passing

acquaintance with this peculiar genre$ 4he thoughts and inventions of the ancient (ree)s were thefoundation of western culture, albeit overlaid by the equally elaborate #ythology of Christianity,

and still shine through the dar) canyons of our post/#odern #aterialis# with a hopeful if ever

fading light$ Robert Calasso has given us the opportunity to re)indle this light and to rethin) our

present condition in the equally tragic circu#stances of our ancient forbears$

4ony 4ho#as

July 2010.

cadmus and harmony review

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