The Gospel of Hellas - Research Institute for Waldorf Education

the gospel of hellas
3. THE CHILDREN OF DEUCALION
The son of Prometheus was Deucalion. He represented the age of Darkness
as his name reveals, for it consists of the word deus (god) and kalion (darkness).
Deucalion was the leader into the time which the Hindus call Kali Yuga. The
flood which is linked with Deucalion must not be understood as the decline of
Atlantis but rather as its final consequence. The event was experienced within
the consciousness of the soul rather than in outward commotion and change of
landscape. The ancient tradition of the Hindus indicated a particular date, 3101
bc, for the very outset of this age of iron and darkness.
This date coincides with the beginning of the first dynasties of Egypt,
during which were built the pyramids near Memphis, and with the wandering
of Abraham who led the Israelites to the land of the Jordan. Steiner points out
that it was Abraham who first transmitted, physically, through heredity, the
brain that enabled the human being to develop the faculty of abstract thinking
which gradually replaced the gift of clairvoyance. It was because he unfolded
for future humanity this capacity for thinking abstract thoughts that Abraham
could become the leader of the Hebrew people.
Similar faculties of mathematical and abstract reasoning were at work when
the Egyptians built their pyramids. The first and highest of all the pyramids was
that of Pharaoh Cheops which was erected exactly at the beginning of the new
period of culture when the sun rose under the vernal equinox of Taurus, 2906
bc. This date is closely connected with the beginning of Kali Yuga (3101 bc),
so that we may say: The pyramid of Cheops was an indestructible monument to
the sum of ancient wisdom at the threshold of the Dark Age. The way in which
it was constructed originated not only from mathematical thinking but from
the new faculty for creating works of art.
As Cheops guided the Egyptians and Abraham the Hebrews, so Deucalion
was the leader of the Hellenes. The Greek Deucalion landing on Mount
Parnassus may be compared with the Hebrew Noah landing on Mount Arrarat
after the deluge. Thus the new age of mankind began on Mount Parnassus
under the cliffs of which the shrine of Delphi was erected as the place which
the Hellenes, the children of Deucalion, believed to be the navel of the earth.
The sanctuary of Delphi, indeed, marked the center of life in Hellas and it