#damascius

the necromanteion, the oracle of the dead, in epirus is located at the convergence of three rivers that lead into the underworld: acheron, pyriphlegethon and cocytus. looking at the map, the geographical morphology of the rivers of the necromanteion and their branches is the exact same as that of the heart’s aorta.

pyriphlegethon and cocytus, on the top left, like the left part of the aorta, come together and flow into the acherusia lake. in fact, the field where the necromanteion is, looks a lot like a heart in its shape. and on the top right side sprout two other streams, which unite into acheron, and they appear like the two arteries that come off the right side of the aorta.

so, the road to ektheosis, that necessarily passes through hades-our world, is the road of the heart. and this is imprinted on the central aorta of our hearts.

thinking of connections to homer, specifically odyssey, the person that could be associated to the heart is circe. out of odysseus’ 12 challenges, the only one where odysseus has to return to the place he started is circe. he has to return to bury his friend elpenor, and there she says that she will give him directions to hades, where he will find tiresias to tell him τί μέλλει γενέσθαι.

odysseus goes to hades and then he returns to circe, just like the blood in the heart. in all the other organs, the acids and fluids do not return to their starting point. but in the heart, the blood leaves and the blood returns.

this is the road of the human. hades is here. lex talionis, karma, eimarmeni (cosmic wisdom-athena), whatever you want to call it, here everything is being paid. and when you owe to a soul, you must return to give, and analogically take what you are owed. else, the burden of the soul cannot be lifted, and you will never be free of the erynies, the furies, the guilt of having been unfair to another soul.

persephone, the queen of hades, in her orphic hymn (29) is called πραξιδίκη = the one who applies justice, and εὐμενίδων γενέτειρα = the one who gives birth to eumenides. eumenides are the erynies who are appeased only when lex talionis is applied. this is why we say that the road of catharsis and ektheosis goes through hades.

more about the morphology of these rivers can be found in greek philosophy; homer’s odyssey, plato’s phaedo and the commentary of the neo-platonists.

ἔνθα μὲν εἰς ἀχέροντα πυριφλεγέθων τε ῥέουσιν κώκυτός θ᾽, ὃς δὴ στυγὸς ὕδατός ἐστιν ἀπορρώξ, πέτρη τε ξύνεσίς τε δύω ποταμῶν ἐριδούπων·

odyssey, rhapsody k 513-515

eustathius’ commentary on the odyssey:

ξύνεσίς τε δύω ποταμῶν -> φρόνησῐς, σύνεσις

when you come to hades, there is a zeusian law which is presented in aeschylus’ agamemnon, τὸν φρονεῖν βροτοὺς ὁδώσαντα, τὸν πάθει μάθος θέντα. you cannot live without suffering. you have to suffer and you have to learn from your suffering and be persuaded by it and change. ξύνεσίς τε δύω ποταμῶν means, according to eustathius, two things: 1. suffering 2. persuasion

ἀχέρων < ἄχεα* ῥέων, the one who flows the suffering of the world, the one who brings the dead** to hades *ἄχεα = waters (tears) ἄχ-ach -> bacchus, the god of our world **the dead are us σώμα (body) < σῆμα (τάφος < τ + φάος, where there is no light = tomb), the body is the place where the soul is entombed

κωκυτός < κωκύειν (ἐνδάκυον θρῆνον = teary lamment)

πυριφλεγέθων < πῦρ ᾧ οἱ θνήσκοντες ἐφλὲγοντο, the burning of the dead to the bones

στύξ < στυγνάζεσθαι τοὺς θνήσκοντας, the souls are downcast, they fear hades

εἰς μὲν γὰρ τὸ αὐτὸ ὅθεν ἥκει ἡ ψυχὴ ἑκάστη οὐκ ἀφικνεῖται ἐτῶν μυρίων, to the exact place it came, the soul returns only after ten thousand years

phaedrus 248.e.5-6

εἰς ἅλλα μυρομένων ποταμῶν, ὅ ἐστιν ἐκχεομένων μύρομαι, μύρα/σμύρνα is the mother of adonis, (ἄδωνις, αδ + ων + ις, αδης+ων) the lament for adonis is the lament of aphrodite for the mind that traps itself into hades-our world. ποταμῶν = rivers, life

αἱ δὲ ἄλλαι ψυχαί, ἡ μὲν ἄριστα θεῷ ἑπομένη καὶ εἰκασμένη ὑπερῆρεν εἰς τὸν ἔξω τόπον τὴν τοῦ ἡνιόχου κεφαλήν, καὶ συμπεριηνέχθη τὴν περιφοράν, θορυβουμένη ὑπὸ τῶν ἵππων καὶ μόγις καθορῶσα τὰ ὄντα· ἡ δὲ τοτὲ μὲν ἦρεν, τοτὲ δ᾽ ἔδυ, βιαζομένων δὲ τῶν ἵππων τὰ μὲν εἶδεν, τὰ δ᾽ οὔ. αἱ δὲ δὴ ἄλλαι γλιχόμεναι μὲν ἅπασαι τοῦ ἄνω ἕπονται, ἀδυνατοῦσαι δέ, ὑποβρύχιαι συμπεριφέρονται 

phaedrus 248.a.7-8

the souls that have τὴν τοῦ σώματος πτοίησιν, that are attached to the body, cannot follow the ascending path, ἀδυνατοῦσαι δέ, ὑποβρύχιαι συμπεριφέρονται. ὑποβρύχιαι, ὕδωρ, poseidonian kingdom, life through the water.

the guardian of hades is the cerberus. κέρβερος < κέαρ-κῆρ (coeur, καρδιά = heart) + βορά (food of carnivore animals), the one who feeds on the heart. hence the three heads are meant for the platonic soul to eat itself: 1. logistikon 2. thymoeides 3. epithymetikon

proclus’ commentary on the republic:

there is a section where he talks about the myth of er, the first resurrection ever occured in history, written in the 10th book of the republic. er was a warrior who died in battle and 12 days later after his undecomposed body was set to the pyre, he came back to life and told them everything about his journey to the afterlife. he talks about the valley of judgment (δικαστικόν τόπον), where all the souls go and are handled accordingly by the deamons, or the asphodel meadows (ασφοδελός λειμών) of persephone. proclus says that the souls that ascend from earth, ἐκ τῆς γῆς, are full of dust and their etheric bodies are heavy, material (ἔνῡλον), and dark, filled with heavy mater, but those who ascend from the heavens, ἐξ οὐρανοῦ ἀνιοῦσας, are clear, brighter and more hollow meaning lighter because they are unburdened by the mater.

SOUL - AGATHON DEAMON/PROTECTIVE SPIRIT COLASTIC/CATHARTIC DEAMONS

the agathon deamon, which is our protective spirit, accompanies the soul in its journey until it is given to the colastic or cathartic deamons.

αἱ γὰρ σωματοειδέστεραι ὑπό τινων δαιμόνων ἤ ἀγγέλων καθαρκτικῶν ἐπιπόνως καὶ ἀλγεινῶν ἀπολλάττονται τῆς κακίας 760.3-5, those who are more attached to their body, from deamons or cathartic angels, with pain and being skinned they get rid their malice.

οὐ γὰρ ἐφικτὰ τὰ θεῖα βροτοῖς τοῖς σῶμα νοοῦσιν, ἀλλ’ ὅσσοι γυμνῆτες ἄνω σπεύδουσι πρὸς ὕψος ὥς φησι τὸ λόγιον 155.10-11, the divine entities cannot be understood by those who are attached to the body, but only the naked souls (stripped to their essence) hasten upwards and understand the divine.

διὰ τῆς τοῦ ἅϊδου καθάρσεως -> catharsis through hades you cannot go to the kingdom of zeus without passing through the kingdom of hades

damascius’ commentary on phaedo 5.45.1-5.46.6:

in tartarus go those who have done great sacrileges and have commited unjust murders with no repentance. they never leave tartarus. the soul is completely lost.

in pyriphlegethon and cocytus go those who have committed murder but have shown remorse, and more specifically, in pyriphlegethon go those who have killed their mother/father and have not planned the murder beforehand and in cocytus go those who have already planned the murder. these souls boil in tartarus for one year before each goes to their rivers. there they wait for the souls they have wronged and if they are forgiven, they can incarnate, if not they go to tartarus.

τῷ ἀχερουσίῳ τόπῳ καθαρτικὴν περιτίθησι δύναμιν 544.1, the power of catharsis is in acheron.

olympiodorus’ commentary on meteorologica:

τὰς δὲ δυσίατα ἁμαρτανούσας, εἰ μὲν διὰ θυμόν, τουτέστιν ἐξ ἀνάγκης καὶ μὴ προβουλευσαμένας, εἰς τὸν πυριφλεγέθοντα, τὰς δὲ μὴ διὰ θυμόν, ἀλλ’ ἐκ προβουλεύσεως ἁμαρτησάσας, ταύτας δ’ εἰς τὸν κωκυτὸν ὡς ἂν ἐπιτατικωτέρας οὔσης ἐκεῖ τῆς κολάσεως 145.1-4

etymology of hades (cratylus):

ἅιδης: < ἀϊδές (alpha privative + ἰδεῖν), he who cannot be seen and it has a dose of fear in it < copulative alpha + εἰδέναι, πάντα τὰ καλὰ εἰδέναι, he knows all good

ἅδης < ῷ ἥδεται καὶ χαίρει οὐδείς κατὰ ἀντίφρασιν (eustathius’ commentary on the iliad 1.27.12-13), because in him no one is hedonism and pleased but with the other meaning

hedonism and pain are the two nails prometheus is pinned on the caucasus of matter. even the erotic act begins with hedonism and ends with the pain of birth.

proclus’ commentary on cratylus:

οὐ πᾶσαι ψυχαὶ μετὰ τὴν τοῦ σώματος ἀπαλλαγὴν ἀξιοῦνται τῆς τοῦ πλούτωνος συνουσίας, ἀλλ’ αἱ σπουδαιότεραι 160.1-3, not all the souls can share the essence inside the world of pluto after disembodiment but only the greatest.

hades ↔ pluto -> νοῦς -> εἰδώς (=ὁ γνωρίζων) τὰ πάντα

hades holds the circle of embodiments

πλούτων < πλουτῶν

τὸν μὲν πλούτωνα ὡς νοῦν εἰς τὸν τῆς φρονήσεως πλοῦτον 153.5-6, the wealth of prudence will give the mind inside us and this is the gift of pluto.

pluto ↔ νοῦς -> epistrophic motion to the being (ὂν), turning the ends to the beginings

“In a sense, all texts, all signs and symbols, and all phenomenon are spurious, and may be likened to a drunken hallucination, a mirage. This mirage, however, is rooted in the mystery of the immanent divine self-disclosure, which resembles an endless arabesque, reflecting the image of archetype Oroboros.” - Algis Uždavinys

A woman stares up at a cliff and a leafless, scraggly tree. Text is from Damascius, on Plato's Phaedo, §130.

“Time . . . is symbolically said to be the one principle of the universe; but ether and chaos are celebrated as the two principles immediately posterior to this one. And being, simply considered, is represented under the symbol of an egg. And this is the first triad of the intelligible Gods. But for the perfection of the second triad they establish either a conceiving and a conceived egg as a God, or a white garment, or a cloud: because from these Phanes leaps forth into light. For indeed they philosophize variously concerning the middle triad. But Phanes here represents intellect. To conceive him however besides this, as father and power, contributes nothing to Orpheus. But they call the third triad Metis as intellect, Ericapaeus as power, and Phanes as father. But sometimes the middle triad is considered according to the three-shaped God, while conceived in the egg: for the middle always represents each of the extremes; as in this instance, where the egg and the three-shaped God subsist together. And here you may perceive that the egg is that which is united; but that the three-shaped and really multiform God is the separating and discriminating cause of that which is intelligible. Likewise the middle triad subsists according to the egg, as yet united; but the third according to the God who separates and distributes the whole intelligible order. And this is the common and familiar Orphic theology.”

— Damascius, Orphica, Theogonies Fragment 54

* * *

Royal:

Of the life-generating rulers, the highest is called Hekate, the middle Royal Soul and the last one Royal Virtue. They also have Azonaic Hekatae like the Chaldean Hekate of the Crossroads, Hekate of the Revel, and Hekate of the Assembly. - Chaldean Oracles, xx, Psellus.

And therefore it is certain that Royal Hekate is said to issue from the Crown, as Royal Soul and Royal Virtue issue from the partial sources of the Girdle. - Chaldean Oracles, xx bis., Damascius

Archikos is far from the only epithet that gives Hekate a noble cast. Psellus also says that Hekate is a Goddess of the Assembly, the Ekklesia. Hesiod mentions Her role in guiding the archons of the polis in the Theogony.  She is also Anassa Eneroi, Queen of the Dead. She is Basileia, which also translates as Queen, in the Orphic Hymns. Of a similar bent is the title Pasikratea, Universal Queen, and Pasimedousa, Ruling over All. She is also Stratelatis, which can be translated as the Leader of Hosts or General. Even in the afterlife, she is sometimes known as Tartaroukhos, Ruler of Tartaros.

All of this suggests to me that, at least in some regions, Hekate was far more than a simple peripheral household deity. Certainly some of the poets might have been participating in flattery of the Goddess, but would the poems have been well received if they deviated from accepted norms? It is important to remember that each polis had its own understanding of the Theoi, and that the differences could be stark, and some of them are likely lost in the darkness of time.

Sources:

Athanassakis, Apostolos N. The Orphic Hymns, Johns Hopkins, 2013. ----. Hesiod: Theogony, Works and Days, Shield, Johns Hopkins, 2004. Ronan, Stephen. The Goddess Hekate, Chthonios, 1992.  Marquardt, Patricia A. “A Portrait of Hecate,” The American Journal of Philology, Vol. 102 No. 3, (Autumn, 1981), pp. 243-260.

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