Historical-philosophical discourse seminars will be held in Slow and Patrasas informed by Apostolos Pierris, philosopher and director of the Institute of Philosophical Research.
Argos meetings
The first event will take place on Wednesday, April 24, 7.30 pm, in the Lecture Hall of the Chamber of Argolis, Argos, (Sitaropazaro).
As Mr. Pierris mentions, “this year we are continuing with the second round of the Argos Meetings that we started last year. The idea and purpose of the Circles of these speeches is, on the one hand, to clarify, describe, analyze and explain the uniqueness of Argos both in the political history and in the cultural formation of classical Hellenism, and on the other hand, the meaning and importance of this uniqueness in the correct and internal conception of the essence of Hellenism.
I released the Program of the new cycle. We focus in time on the age of the Golden Beast of Greek antiquity, on the century of the classic Miracle, the 5th BC. We will study the historical developments in an organic correlation and combination towards the construction of the “Miracle”, in order to achieve a deeper understanding of the phenomena and the of the synergy of the events of that world-historical, politically turbulent and culturally apotheotical century, a “lesson learned” and at the same time a Lighthouse of humanity. And with the same synthetic way and the same “oneist” methodology, we will investigate the internal relationship between the overall Greek development in this long-suffering and brilliant century, and the position, attitude and action of Argos at that time.
The comparative study of the three symbolic cities, Sparta, Argos and Athens (Thebes is waiting for its approaching time), will reveal to us the hidden cause that explains the contradictory and incomprehensible. And this refers to the problem of Hellenism, a universal enigma, after the Revolution of the Doric spirit, – an existential issue that intensified demanding practical solutions for the harmonization of Idea and Reality after the active “entanglement” of the Beginning of the Empire with the Spirit of the Greek City, around 550 BC, – from where Herodotus begins his narrative, giving form to the sequences of events in time, making chronology true knowledge, “history”.
And the fundamental problem consists, in a word, in the repulsive or co-operative nature of the joyful children of eternity to the laborious care of the needs of time. In Argos the problem was posed in the form of the confrontation between Apollo and Hera. In the 5th century BC, Apollo finally prevailed, just as, mythologically and symbolically, in the beginning, during Danaus. The enigmatic of the Golden Age, and of the role of Argus in it, is illuminated by the multifaceted analysis of this current shape. We will dedicate ourselves to her with the Cycle that begins now, fittingly the week before the Great Passion and Resurrection.
The subtitle in the heading of the new Circle indicates dimensions of the field to be researched.
Argos in the Golden Age
Political Depression and Cultural Peak
The Smart City
Apollo and Hera
The Problem of Classical Hellenism and its Solution.
In our first two meetings I will discuss the general situation of Hellenism, from a political and cultural point of view respectively, at the turning point from the Archaic Spring to the Classical Theros, at the beginning of the period that we will thoroughly examine below.
And first the historical moment. The subject title of my first talk this Wednesday is therefore:
The State of Hellas during the Turn of the Ages (6th to 5th centuries BC)
I. The Political Big Picture
The High Strategy of Sparta, the Rising Power of Athens and the Bold Position of Argos
Meetings of Patras
Seventeenth Event
The event will take place on Thursday, April 25, 8:30 p.m., at the Palace of Speech and Art, Lecture Hall, 2nd floor, Georgiou A’ Square.
After the collapse of the system of power and culture in the Central Field of History towards the end of the 2nd millennium BC, the old Kingdom of the Lord of Hosts is reborn in Assyria, while at the same time the Idea of the Greek City in Sparta emerges under the breath of the Doric world-historical Revolution.
The Kingdom of Power is successively transformed, under the ever-increasing influence of Hellenism, into the Principality of the Empire.
The new existential enigma of man after the New Apocalypse of the Doric Spirit, consists in the problem of combining the saving child of eternity with the effective managerial care for the needs of time.
The dynamism of the spirit of the new experience releases an energy that first excites and mutates the structures of the Central System of History, and immediately after, causes a tectonic ripple that spreads along the entire length of the civilization zone, from the basin of the East
Mediterranean to the Pacific Ocean (Middle East, Persia, India, China).
In this “Axial Age”, the solutions to the fundamental new problem appear (in the image and manner in which peoples outside the Central System of History perceive it), – solutions that characterize the cultural identity of large geopolitical areas ( Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, Taoism – Confucianism).
Persia, on the eastern fringes of the System, as well as Rome on the west, are attracted to and participate in it. Thus, the first complete attempt to realize Imperial Authority with the Persian Empire (“King of Kings”) is created, and the final one with the Roman Empire, which is also the final one.
The Lydian empire basically represents a quintessentially Greek attempt at imperial projection in space and time. It also failed, just like Macedonia. Fully authentic Greek efforts never went beyond the terms of a hegemonic city or cities (Athens, Ionia).
The Hellenistic kingdoms are historical anachronisms (a new system of power and balance of power as they collapsed a millennium ago).
Thus, only the two archetypes of solution to the new problem of the human condition and destiny remain, as Polybius wisely diagnosed: Sparta or Rome.
Last Thursday, I indulged in the examination of the problem within the purely Greek area, because here of course the whole issue is presented with exemplary clarity. He who produces the problem, he also faces it deeper and brighter.
This Thursday I will conclude that discussion, then armed with the knowledge of the essential paradigm I will point out the corresponding important developments in the Central System of History from the Assyrian Idea to the Hellenistic Models, and finally I will arrive at the other archetype of a definitive solution to the human problem , the Roman empire, comparing it to the first and original Greek, i.e. Doric: Sparta.
Thematic title of my speech should be, correctly, according to the Program:
First Settlement: Roman Empire
iam regnat Apollo
I will insist on the presentation of images that we started last time for the endowment of Athens in the 5th century BC, and for the figure of Apollo in the plastic of the Golden Age, especially in the first half of it. The Greek knows then, in his full manhood, at the juncture of Earos and Summer of his existence in time, that the essence of his own problem is the enigmatic all-knowing and all-wise god of the intensifying string on the bow and the lyre, the unshakable forerunner of Kallus and of Truth, the Apollo of Light and “End”.
How do you adore this superlative Child?
“Be like me”!.
Die Epoche von 470-450 kann die eigentlich apollinische genannt werden, denn ihr waren die Greichen reif, das Wesen Apollons im Bilde zu erfassen. Denn nur seit und solang ihr Blut entflammt, ihre Leiber licht, stark und gespannt, ihre Sprache von rhythmischer Gewalt, brennend klar und todlich treffend, ihr Geist hehr, gründend und erfült vom Gesetz, ihr Ethos und zugleich von Sehen und Bescheidung gebunden waren , sind die Griechen mächtig, den höchsten Apollon zu bilden, oder offen, dass er sich ihnen als Höchster zeige.
Karl Arno Pfeiff, Apollon, Die Wandlung seines bildes in der griechischen Kunst, 1943, p. 69″.
Tags: Historicalphilosophical discourse seminars Argos Patras
-
