ZBORNIK - Matica srpska

Text 1: ¶steron dÇ d§ kati»n oÄkade Dåwn Èdelc» dÿo
proslambÀnei 'Au0nhuen, oœk ñk cilosocåaj gegonÃte cålw,
Èll' ñk téj peritrexoÿshj Ñtairåaj taÿthj téj t%n pleåstwn
cålwn, án ñk to‡ qenåzein te kaÆ myeìn kaÆ ñpopteÿein pragmateÿontai
(Later on, when Dion returned from exile, he took with him
from Athens two brothers, men whose friendship was not derived
from philosophy, but from the ordinary companionship out of which
most friendships spring, and which comes from mutual entertaining
and sharing in religion and mystic ceremonies), 333d7-e4.
Text 2: šhtÁn g2r oœdam%j ñstin ¤j Ëlla mau0mata, Èll'
ñk polléj synoysåaj gignomçnhj perÆ tÁ pr©gma aœtÁ kaÆ to‡
syzén ñqaåcnhj, oÜon ÈpÁ pyrÁj phd0santoj ñqacuÇn c%j, ñn
tü fyxü genÃmenon aœtÁ ÑaytÁ ôdh trçcei (For it does not admit
of verbal expression like other branches of knowledge; but after much
converse about the matter itself and a life lived together, suddenly 3 a
light, as it were, is kindled in one soul by a flame that leaps to it
from another, and thereafter sustains itself), 341c5-d2.
Love and Light are two mystical notions on which Anica Saviã
dedicated several studies, for instance an Erotology and a work on
Njegoš' Ray of Microcosm. Love and Light refer to the two main
features of the Greek Divinity Eros. According to Anica Saviã, the
manifestations of Eros before Plato take place through three stages:
first, the unity of the God of Love and Light, whose name is Kallistos;
second, the human-affective dominance in Eros' nature; finally,
the form of Light or Phanès. Such a development must be
understood not as chronological, but rather as psychological, i.e. as
a development of soul considered independently of any historical
event.
Amazingly enough, at least at first sight, we find these notions
of Love, Light and Beauty underlined in an important passage of
Thomas Mann's novel Joseph and its Brothers, where Amenhotep
reports Pharaoh's words about the mysteries he has been initiated to
thanks to strangers who brought him knowledge regarding a first
and original God calls “Erstgeborener Glanz" orFirst born Light:
Text 3: “Schönheit… hat mit Weisheit zu tun, nämlich durch das
Mittel des Lichtes. Denn das licht ist das Mittel und is die Mitte, von
wo Verwandschaft strahlt nach drei Seiten hin: zur Schönheit, zur
Liebe und zur Erkenntnis der Wahrheit. Dieses sind eins in ihm, und
das Licht ist ihre Dreieinigkeit. Fremde trugen mir die Lehre zu von
einem anfänglichen Gott, aus Flammen geboren, einem schönen Gott
3 Cf. also Symposium 210e4.
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