The Gospel of Hellas - Research Institute for Waldorf Education

the gospel of hellas
is at this stage that Penelope and Odysseus first meet again; but Penelope may
not recognize him yet, whereas the servant, Euryclea, the old maid, discovers
the birthmark on Odysseus’ foot while washing it.
The following events signify the crisis, the test of the depth of his humility.
The wooers filling his house urge Penelope to choose a new consort. Odysseus
decides to compete with the suitors. This stage corresponds to the first part of
the poem in which Odysseus has to face the danger of being transformed into
a pig, as were his companions, and in which, with Hermes’ help, he becomes
the disciple of Circe. We must recall that the most important of all advice
given to Odysseus by Circe was to descend to the netherworld where he would
see Persephone. Persephone is the archetype of the human soul in Hellas.
Persephone, taken away by Hades from the upper world and now united with
the god of matter in the netherworld, represents the tragic state of the human
soul since the beginning of the age of Iron or Darkness. Odysseus has to experience
this archetype of the soul as the “Eternal Feminine” before he comes back
to his own and meets Penelope again.
The decision to fight the suitors comes about, the fight rages and the suitors
fail, fall and die. Now the most intimate event may take place in the narrow
confines of Odysseus’ inmost soul. The fruit which was gathered when passing
through Hades may ripen at last. Just as Odysseus descended to the Mothers
in the seventh stage of the first part, and learned to know the mystery of birth
and death by contemplating the “Eternal Feminine,” so the seventh canto of
the second part (nineteenth canto) describes the unique scene of Penelope’s
rediscovery of her husband.
In this connection it is therefore of utmost significance to notice that
Odysseus who is gradually drawing nigh to Penelope relates to her the tales
of his travels and his descent to Hades. In a mystical sense, Odysseus and
Penelope are now one. Their reunion marks the stage of Odysseus’ initiation.
Immortality is found in the mortal. The Hades-experience in the Odyssey is the
inner axis on which the whole narrative seems to rotate. In telling Penelope of
his descent to the netherworld, when Odysseus repeats the words of the seer
Tiresias, who reveals the future, it seems to us as if here at the end, the epic has
once more reached its starting point, the prototypal experience, when death
becomes the portal of resurrection.