The Gospel of Hellas - Research Institute for Waldorf Education

the gospel of hellas
with the fight for the hegemony of the polis which culminated, within the
space of a few generations, in the cities of Sparta, Thebes and Athens.
Between these two trends of outer and inner development occurs the
transition from clairvoyant consciousness to the awakening of the intellect;
from the loosening of the family blood-ties to the founding of academies of
philosophers; from the temples and mysteries to the schools and theatres;
and from the courts of kings to the agoras of the poleis. This struggle between
tribal and individual consciousness took place between the poles of Orient and
Occident.
At the very outset the fall of Troy safeguarded the foundation of the Greek
polis. The Hellenes developed their tribal consciousness. The victory over the
East preserved the treasures of the national epics and the temples. Then the
repulse of the Persians saved the colonizations of the Greek metropolis. The
victory over the Persians guaranteed the life of the theatre and the world of
sculpture. Finally the conquest of Alexander rescued the idea of the polis at
the time when Greece had lost her political independence. The citizens of
the cosmopolis aimed at a cosmopolitan empire of Hellenism. The empire of
Hellenism protected the schools of the philosophers.
The war with Troy, which opened the drama of Greek history, signified
the first struggle between the East and the West. Through the excavations
of the last centuries, 60 we know that Troy was the site of a former priestkingship
which was based on matriarchy. This matriarchy expressed the forces
of heredity and stressed the importance of its domination. Research from the
time of J. Bachofen’s The Mothers 61 to the latest works on social psychology has
disclosed these facts and pointed to a multitude of documents and phenomena
to substantiate them.
What was the actual cause of the war against Troy? From the time of
Heracles, the destruction of this mystery-kingdom was the goal of all heroes.
After Heracles had embarked in the Argo, he left the ship, during the voyage,
to overthrow Troy which was ruled by Laomedon, one of Priam’s ancestors.
The myth indicates that an expedition against Troy was considered one of the
most important deeds of a Greek hero. Why should this have been so? Since
the plains of Troy were neither so fertile nor so vital a center of trade that this