From: Sam Norton (elizaphanian@kohath.wanadoo.co.uk)
Date: Mon Apr 04 2005 - 10:32:37 BST
Hi DMB,
Thanks for a full answer. I want to pursue one aspect in particular,
especially in relation to the story in ZMM.
You say that a correspondence between Jesus and Orpheus lies in their
death/crucifixion etc. I think there is a significant difference between the
two stories, and I wonder if you agree; more importantly, I think that the
story of Phaedrus echoes the Jesus side, rather than the Orpheus side.
Let's run through the Orpheus bit rapidly: child of gods, gifted musically,
falls in love with Eurydice, she dies, he pursues her in the underworld, he
loses her again, he is torn apart by the ? bacchanalians? So: Orpheus goes
in to the underworld when he is still alive; he goes to achieve something
for himself; he doesn't achieve it; he *then* commits a form of suicide.
With Jesus: child of God, gifted (religiously), teaches and heals various
people (not a single object of love), is executed by the state for sedition,
goes into the underworld, rises from the dead. So: Jesus goes into the
underworld when he is dead; he goes to achieve something for other people;
he achieves it; he then ascends into heaven.
{I'm not trying to say there are no parallels, just that they're not a
strong as you suggest}
But what is interesting is the parallel with Phaedrus.
With Phaedrus: not a child of God, gifted (intellectually), teaches students
(not a single person), is rejected by the authorities and given ECT, his
'personality' vanishes (into the underworld), he is then 'resurrected'. So:
Phaedrus goes into the underworld when he is dead; he discovers something
important and achieves it; and then returns to share it (and the end of ZMM
is an ascension of sorts - you can sort of tell these things).
In particular, I think that the crucifixion of Christ and the ECT on
Phaedrus resemble each other much more closely than either resembles Orpheus
being torn apart by the bachhanalians. With the first two you have the clash
between institutions of social authority and an individual conscience (you
could describe them both as a clash between the third and fourth level, if
you let go of 'intellect' as the description of the fourth level). Whereas
with Orpheus there is no social/individual clash, there is simply the
individual tragedy - which is, more or less, self-inflicted.
Does that make sense?
Sam
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