Rudolf Steiner's Vision for the Future - Anthroposophical Society in ...

Iphigenia
he successfully convinces his wife to bring him their
daughter. This capacity would also explain why it was he
who had to make the sacrifice. On the one hand, his more
highly developed intellect raised him to a position above
all others; on the other hand, it made him more susceptible
to losing his connection with the divine. Perhaps he had
killed the deer out of sport rather than because he needed
it for food or clothing, thus causing Artemis’ anger.
Does the story have a lasting significance in our time? I
believe it does. It seems to me that our practice of going to
church on Sunday, for instance, is an example of the sacrifice
of Iphigenia. We dedicate our soul to the divine when we
could just as well have continued our work to make money.
We make a sacrifice. Similarly, a daily practice of prayer or
meditation also represents such a sacrifice. I also find it interesting
to realize that the age-old commandment in the
Catholic Church that everyone must attend mass every week
stands on the deeply hidden foundation of spiritual truth
that such a sacrifice is necessary for the health of the soul.
Anselm Feuerbach's Iphigenia (1862, detail).
62 • being human
Finally, last but not least, we also have priests; they dedicate
their lives to maintaining the connection with the spiritual
world as well as helping others do so.
Such is the significance of many of the Greek myths.
They bring us images of the wrenching transition in
human consciousness from the security of a close connection
with the divine world to a separation from this world
into the doubt and uncertainty of intellectual thinking. As
I mentioned above, the great symbol of this evolution is
the Trojan War. The memory of this war pervaded all of
Greek culture; it was represented in all forms of art through
the ages. Yet, never was it shown with the pride a victor
might feel in vanquishing his enemy. One has the feeling
that the memory of the Trojan War was carried by this culture
as a burden, as something that had to happen but was
in fact a tragedy. It is as if this people had an intuitive
awareness of the immeasurable spiritual loss they had suffered
through their victory, a loss they bore in the collective
unconscious with grief and a sense of responsibility.