The Gospel of Hellas - Research Institute for Waldorf Education

the gospel of hellas
mythological to the historical consciousness. The traces of a so-called Aegean
civilization, between 3000 and 2000 bc, a Minoan epoch, especially in Crete
from 2000 to 1600 bc, and a Mycenean era, 1600 to 1100 bc—the latter already
connected with the half-historical Trojan War—may only be understood as
reflections of the days of the heroes.
From this standpoint it is revealing that, in accordance with modern
paleontology, the transition from the use of stone to the use of metals took
place during the Heroic Age. Research in paleontology shows us that the ruins
of Mycenae and Tiryns disclosed the last achievements in the use of bronze.
Iron was known no earlier than 1000 bc, that is, not until after the Trojan
War which concluded the age of the heroes and introduced the migration of
the tribes, the actual beginning of Hellas’ history. The Dorians who invaded
Greece fought on foot and used weapons of iron. The heroes of Homer still had
weapons and tools of bronze. 57
The story of the various ages of mankind, as Hesiod gave it, had nothing to
do with the conclusions of modern paleontology regarding the use of metals.
However, at the outset of the history of Hellas may be plainly seen the meaning
of iron in a double sense—that of the use of iron tools and weapons and that of
the beginning of the Iron Age with its twilight of the gods. Thus the history of
the Hellenes, as the story of the children of Deucalion and particularly of his
son, Hellen, is the tragedy of the beginning of Kali Yuga, the Age of Iron.
Homer and Hesiod stood on the threshold of this age. Hesiod was described
as being taught by the muses of Apollo while he fed the sheep on the hills of
Helicon. He was given a staff as a minstrel’s emblem. In order to preserve the
message of Apollo and to rescue it from the oblivion which might befall the
soul, Hesiod wrote down the myth under the command of the sun god himself,
the spiritual guardian of Hellas. “Mankind in the Iron Age will never cease by
day or night from weariness and woe,” exclaimed Hesiod. “Why have I to live
in this generation? Would that I had died before, or were born hereafter!”
Odysseus, during his wanderings in the netherworld from Achilles to
Heracles, experienced, as it were, in cross-section, the preceding ages of
mankind. Did not Heracles represent the last rays of the Golden Age when
man was still fully connected with the gods? Did not Tantalus signify man