The archaeological findings of Velia allow us to reconstruct the "Apollonian Way" of Parmenides, pre-Socratic philosopher, Apollo's iatromancer and healer
(Image: Nicolas Poussin, "Et in Arcadia Ego", 1618-22)
Article originally published onย turiyaย [http://blog.visionaire.org/],
blog of the author.
In an extract previously published on the site [cf.ย Ioan P. Culianu: the Hyperborean shamanism of ancient Greece] we illustrated the retrospective of the Romanian historian of religions Culianu regarding the existence of a Hyperborean Shamanism in the ancient Mediterranean area: a "technique of ecstasy" attributable to the divine figure of Apollo Hyperborean of which the major interpreters, called "iatromancers", were the ancient scholars and philosophers. We focus here on one of these "enlightened": Parmenides of Elea (IV - V century BC), born in Elea / Velia (today Ascea, in the province of Salerno), where he founded the Eleatic School together with Zeno.ย MM
The findings of Velia
In 1958 the archaeological expeditions of Pellegrino Claudio Sestieri and Mario Napoli in the Italian territories, where Velia once stood, brought to light something shocking for contemporary philosophical thought. The findings were simple inscriptions that testified to the presence in Velia of a strong cult for Apollo Oulis. Widespread mostly in the coastal regions of western Anatolia - that is the lands of origin of the Phoceans, Apollo was thought and revered as a destroyer who heals and healer who destroys. The men referred to in the three inscriptions were called healers and phลlarchos. The man devoted to Apollo is a healer and it happens that Asclepius - the mythical founder of medicine - is the son of Apollo. Healing is clearly not what we commonly understand today, rather in that context it meant entering into a dimension other than the lived one, a level of awareness such that it is exclusively communication with the divine that heals.
Phลlarchos is the combination of phลleรณs, ยซRefugeยป e archos, "man". The phลleรณs it was the refuge in which the animals lay motionless in a lethargic state, a state of apparent death. Therefore i Phลlarchos they are the keepers of the refuge as a place of incubation, that is, a place where it was believed that healing took place: people had to lie in a condition of lethargy and let Apollo penetrate them and heal them. THE Phลlarchos they are the priests of Apollo, by virtue of which the manifestation of the god to men is possible.
Two years later, in 1960, near the building in which the inscriptions with the name had been found shortly before Oulis, a block of marble was found that showed traces of an epigraph of thanks, whose engraved words were:
Ouliรกdฤs, Iatromantis, Apollo.
The new discovery was indeed the proof they awaited, but the marble fragment proved to be a source of embarrassment, it was something to talk about as little as possible or rather to forget because it had no place in the map of our knowledge.
The meaning is clear: the epigraph - together with the previous discoveries - was the clear testimony that Greece was other than what it had long been believed to be and the origins of Western culture now seemed to reveal a strong mystical imprint. The three terms are naturally closely related: Ouliรกdฤsย "Son of Apollo", while Iatromantis indicates the healer we have spoken of, that is, one who heals by virtue of his prophetic abilities.
Velia, September 1962. Another marble slab:
Parmeneides Pyretos Ouliรกdฤs Physikรณs.
It is the fragment that everyone was waiting for, the one that binds Parmenides to Apollo, at the incubation. The correct spelling Parmeneides - and not Parmenides - was already a hypothesis of study, but now it was certainly taking on a more meaningful value. The absolute novelty, however, is to make Parmeneide a Ouliรกdฤs, a priest of Apollo, a phลlarchos, a keeper of the shelter. And what is most upsetting is at the same time something else, namely the attribution of Ouliรกdฤs only to Parmeneides, that the lack of dating of the inscription, with a notable difference from the previous plates in which the priests were Oulis and dated "starting from something".
Century after century, healers were considered to be his descendants and it was in reference to him that the line of succession was given. In the ancient world it was customary to calculate the dates by going back to the life of the founder of a lineage or an institution, who was recognized the title of hero and as such was venerated from the moment of his death. [โฆ] The founder of Western philosophy [was] a priest, above all a priest revered as a hero [1].ย
ยซIn the excavations of Velia some busts and a complete statue came out years ago; the inscriptions on these bases are very significant. One bears the name of Parmenides: therefore on that base there was the portrait of Parmenides which has been found. Parmenides who is presented not as a doctor, however, but as physical, as a naturalist philosopher; then there are three doctors, just qualified as iatroi, doctors, these also have another term, physikos, which is a term that seems to designate a function of a priestly character, of a sacral character. Many hypotheses have been made, but the important thing is to see this connection between Parmenides and this group of doctors. The interesting thing is that these doctors and also Parmenides, on these inscriptions, on this basis, are designated as ouliadai, i.e. belonging to a ghenos, to one gens which recognized as its progenitor a God, a form, a hypostasis of Apollo, Apollo Oulios.ย Oulios means the healer, the savior, the healer, and Apollo Oulios is a healing deity known throughout Asia Minor and also in Kos, indeed in the area of โโKos, where the Hippocratic school stood, where Hippocrates was born, in the same demo (let's say in the area, the island of Kos was divided into demoi) in which Hippocrates was born documents of this cult have been found, which was supplanted by the cult of Asclepius.
This cult therefore represents a pre-Asclepian tradition, prior to the affirmation of this divinity of medicine which then imposed itself throughout the Greek world. We are faced with a medical-sacral tradition which has its roots in Ionia and which evidently the mouths have brought with them. This aspect of a school or rather of a development of the Parmenides school in the medical sense, as a medical school, brings Parmenides and the Eleatic school closer to the Pythagorean school, which also has this development. The problems are endless, because we are in an area where the testimonies are scarce, they are fragmentary. Even the data concerning Parmenides are fragmentary: we have verses, fragments of Parmenides' poem transmitted by other authors, we do not have the continuity of the text. In any case, all these data naturally favor a game of hypotheses: they are connected to each other through hypotheses, through links with other equally sporadic and fragmentary data. Overall there is a certain coherence, a certain unity that gives value to this tradition, at least of an influence, of a Pythagorean presence in the cultural formation of Parmenides "ย [2].
The "Way" of Parmenides according to Peter Kingsley
ยซThe true origin of Western philosophy, of many ideas that have shaped the world we live in, is found in Velia. "
Parmenides [of Velia, or Elea] was the author of a solemn poem in hexameters, of divine inspiration, written to reveal to men the world of gods and men and the meeting between men and gods. The first part of Parmenides' poem describes the philosopher's journey until he meets an unnamed Goddess. The second part describes the teaching of the Goddess about reality. While the third part contains a description of what the Goddess herself calls a liar, the world we all believe we live in.
Each figure Parmenides encounters is a woman or a girl, even the animals that appear in the story are female, and the teaching is given by a Goddess. Kingsley note: the universe described by Parmenides is feminine; and if this poem represents the starting point of Western logic, then something very strange has happened to logic, as it turned out.
The journey described is therefore a mythical journey, a journey towards the divine with the help of the divine. Not just any trip. But just because it's mythical doesn't mean it's not real. The journey that Parmenides describes, towards another reality, is an accomplished experience, not a theoretical process. His experience as a priest of Apollo is a practical experience, not a theoretical one. Therefore, ancient and modern who have read the teaching of Parmenides assuming that it was mere theory and subject of argument lack an essential fact for the understanding of Parmenides: the existence, thousands of years ago, of a "way" of Parmenides, or a Parmenidean "lifestyle".
Of this, we can take as testimony the story of the death of Zeno, first disciple and successor of Parmenides. It is said that he fell prisoner of some inhabitants of an area of โโsouthern Italy, who intended to defend themselves from foreign invasions, and that he was detained and tortured by them. Despite his pain, Zeno was able to keep silence and did not betray his traveling companions. It is said that precisely in suffering he "tested the words of Parmenides" finding them "pure and true as gold" [3].
Kingsley sees in Parmenides' poem the narration of the descent into hell, the "dying before dying", as it is said by the great initiates, a wakeful descent into the kingdom of the dead, following Orpheus - a tradition that had its center in Velia - experience that Parmenides himself would have made. The traveler is welcomed kindly by the Goddess who, also due to the fact that she is never mentioned, is to be identified with Persephone, who holds out her right hand to him. The otherworldly world, Tartarus, can only reach the man who knows, the initiate into the mysteries, the one who knows what those who flee from death ignore.
To make the journey is the koรปros, by which we usually mean "young man, boy, child" or in any case "person under thirty"; but the word is very old and originally designated a person of noble soul, or, again, the hero. The term was also used to indicate initiates; or the koรปros he is a man who stands on the border between the human world and the divine world, has access to both and is recognized and loved in both. But this term does not indicate only this type of man; also indicates a god who is an image of such a human type, who divinely personifies the hero with the specification that "the most important among the koรปrai divine was Apollo. Apollo was the koรปros divine, the god of koรปros, his model, his image and universal incarnation ยป.
In this context, the phocaea provenance of Velia becomes important, since the cult of Apollo was widespread in the coastal areas of western Anatolia, where Phocaea stood. And there Apollo was revered with the appellation of Oulios, which literally means "deadly, destructive, cruel", but which also acquired the meaning of "he who heals"; Apollo was therefore "the destroyer who heals and the healer who destroys" [4].
The incubation
From the Orphic and Apollo rites derives the practice of incubation, intended not only for the sick and those who had to guard them, but also practiced by people who through ecstasy reached another level of awareness and were able to prophesy. The practice was widespread in Crete, Samos (for which Pythagoras also belonged to the group of these men) and Velia. The name that identified these prophets was "iatromancer", which meant precisely doctor, healer and prophet. Iatromante was one of the epithets of Apollo.
The term 'incubation' usually refers to the possibility of being hospitalized in a place where one can remain undisturbed. It may be a room in the house or inside a temple, but it was sometimes a cave or other place, considered an entry point into the underworld. It was customary to go there not only to foster a healing, one's own or that of others, but the possibility of accessing from there to another level of consciousness, from which a healing could possibly come, but which was essentially the contact with another world, or a contact with the divine, to receive instruction directly from the Gods.
The ancient testimonies on the practice of incubation describe a continuous state, in which it is accessed indifferently from sleep or wakefulness, with open or closed eyes. It is also said that it is like being awake, without being awake, that it is like sleep, without being sleepy. Neither sleep nor wakefulness, not the dream state, not the dreamless sleep state. Something different, a state of awareness that iatromancers were masters of.
Many testimonies and practices associated with Greek iatromantics have a parallel in shamanic traditions and in Yoga. This is not a coincidence. What would quickly disappear or rationalize in Greece was preserved and developed in India. How much remained an element of mystery in the West, reserved for initiates, was the object of classification and formalization in the East. And the state of consciousness that the Greeks saw or knew - what cannot be called dream, nor sleep, nor wakefulness - has received its own definition. It has sometimes been referred to simply as "fourth", turiya, which later became better known as Samadhi. It has often been believed that these traditions simply never took root in the West, or that if they did they were of little or no importance to Western culture. But is not so. Parmenides is the example of an author whose poetry, repeated for centuries without questioning the why or the method, is instead an example of knowledge resulting from this type of experience.
The sound of Silence
Throughout the course of Parmenides' journey there is only one sound description: the one the chariot produces when the Daughters of the Sun set it off: a hissing sound. The word used by Parmenides is syrinx, the meaning of which can refer to a musical instrument (syringe or flute), or to a part of some instruments that produces a particular sound, a whistle, called syrigmos. But for the Greeks, the same term that indicated the sound produced by a whistle or a syringe also indicated the hissing emitted by snakes.
Greek records of the practice of incubation repeatedly mention certain signs that mark the point of entry into the afterlife, or into the state of consciousness beyond wakefulness and sleep. One of the signs is the perception of a rapid rotation movement. Another is the sound of a whistle or hiss. In India, exactly the same signs are described to indicate the prelude to entry into samadhi, a state that arises precisely beyond wakefulness and sleep, and are directly related to the process known as the awakening of the Kundalini: the "serpent power", or the energy of creation, which lies in a state of latency in the human being. When his awakening begins, there is a hissing sound.
The parallels between the known testimonies of the Indian tradition and the story of Parmenides are sufficient; many Indian scholars have written and discussed it. Perhaps the detail of this sound mentioned by Parmenides, similar to that of the snake, had escaped. The sound of the syrinx it was the call to silence. It is a fact that is recognized even at the most elementary level, that whistling in the direction of someone is a way to call them back to silence. For the ancient mystics and magicians, the journey to a higher reality was accomplished by passing through silence. So the sound of the whistle is the last word, the sound of silence.
The longing
It is seen in people whose desire is placed in the divine, or in God - those who want something that does not even exist for others. Those who desire this and that always run the risk that their wishes will be granted. But when the desire is so much greater than us, there is no chance of being satisfied. Then something really strange happens. When we refuse to be satisfied with anything, the object of our ardent yearning will come to us.
From the beginning of the poem Parmenides defined what one needs to possess to make this journey - yearning or desire. If he can reach his goal it is because he can go "as far as desire has led him". Not the will, not a particular effort or a struggle: there is nothing that needs to be done. The traveler is simply transported directly to the place where he has to go. And it is his desire for him that determines how far he can venture.
Consciousness and Existence
The Goddess then instructs the seer by explaining that whatever exists - that is, is the object of thought and perception - is Being. But still more must be understood: that the initial cause of thought, what sets it up initially, is Being. In other words, we are shown that the object of our thought and perception, as the final point and goal of the process of knowing, is identical to the starting point. Beginning and end are identical, knowledge and known.
Metis it is the particular quality of heightened awareness, which spontaneously becomes aware of everything simultaneously. While the ordinary mind moves on its incessant travel, this type of consciousness is always at home, and its home is everywhere. Metis he feels, listens, sees, is aware at the same time of everything that crosses our horizon of consciousness. Nothing escapes her. When we become aware of seeing and hearing and of the various impressions coming from the outside, after a while we no longer feel the visual and auditory sensations separately, but in a single whole. That is, it is something that is exactly as it has always been, but in this specific case it is endowed with perfect continuity, in which everything is united and there are no separations or divisions.
And in this fullness the past and the future also begin to mix, since they can no longer be separated. Both are included in the present. The sense of movement also disappears. Metis it is so quick in response, and perfectly aware of the present moment, that any movement will be perceived as still. But, beyond that, instead of being aware of a chair, or a tree, one is aware of the perception of a single being: total, immutable, perfectly still. Finally, if we look further, we will discover that instead of us perceiving reality, in fact, it is reality that is perceiving itself through us. In this way the circle is closed.
From the point of view of reality, nothing has changed: and it never could. And from the point of view of the strange unreality in which we move, too, nothing has changed. We go down the same stairs, we see the same faces, we sleep in the same bed. Yet from the point of view of the individual who witnessed the manifestation of the Goddess, the story is very different. Since nothing is capable of changing a human being like the experience of a state of immutability. The future and the past that were erased are returned. But they are no longer the independent realities they seemed to be: they are instead inseparable parts of the present. The names we used to refer to this or that are still perfectly usable, except that instead of applying to a given number of separate objects, they apply to one thing only. For anyone else, the difference may be more subtle than a hair. But in a real sense it is pure magic. Suddenly, instead of seeing and hearing thousands of things, we see or hear only one. And if one is eager to give this experience one of those names that mortals have invented: everything is divine [5].
Note:
[1]ย http://www.emiliosanfilippo.it/?page_id=305
[2]ย Giovanni Pugliese Carratelli. Taken from the interview "Parmenides. The story of Velia "- Rome, Capitoline Museums, Tuesday 12 April 1988.http://www.emsf.rai.it/aforismi/aforismi.asp?d=134)
[3]ย http://www.sitosophia.org/recensioni/nei-luoghi-oscuri-della-saggezza-di-peter-kingsley/
[4] Peter Kingsley: "In the Dark Places of Wisdom","Reality".
[5] Ibid.
Other articles:
- Elemire Zolla: Initiated at the gates of Hades. The shamanic experience at the origins of Western spirituality.ย http://www.gianfrancobertagni.it/materiali/zolla/kingsley.htm
- Robert Baldini: Ecstasy and enigma in Parmenides' poem.ย http://www2.unipr.it/~pieri/File%20PDF/L_estasiel_enigma.pdf
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