Back to schedule
of class meetings:Back to schedule
of class meetings:
From Myth to Mind
October 26, 1998
Walter Burkert
GOES:On Greek Shamanism
[pp. 36-55]
1. [p.36]: Karl Meuli ("Scythica," Hermes 70, 1935, 121 - 176) has demonstrated how fruitful comparative ethnology - ethnography can be for classical studies. Meuli has attributed a significant role to the concept of shamanism within the context of Greek cultural history. When compared to the shaman-type among Siberian herders and hunters, certain seemingly disparate, unconnected details in the Greek classical tradition reveal their inner connection and become comprehensible.
The shaman is singer, seer and priest in one. He consorts with gods and spirits in ecstatic trance, journeys into the beyond, leads the dead to rest, heals the sick, and knows how to reveal things hidden. On the one hand, Meuli considers figures like Aristeas, Abaris, and Zalmoxis - all of whom point to shamanistic rites and myths, with which the Greeks first came into contact among Scythians and Thracians. On the other hand, Meuli uncovered a source of the old epic in shamanism, which the Greeks inherited as part of the Indo-European tradition.
2. E.R. Dodds ("The Greek Shamans and the Origin of Puritanism," in The Greeks and the Irrational, Berkeley, Univ. of Cal., 1951) has traced the development of the Greek concept of the soul back to shamanic influences, which the Greeks first encountered in the Black Sea region. In this context, he discusses Orpheus, Pythagoras and Empedokles.
3. F.M. Cornford (Principium Sapientiae, Cambridge, 1952, pp. 88 - 106/ 107 - 126) regards the philosopher as a descendent of the shaman, who originally united seer, poet and wise man.
4. [p. 37]: In his discussions of Anaximandros and Parmenides, Hermann Diels has also discussed Siberian shamanism. Diels discusses the Italian legends of Phormion and Leonymos, and their shamanistic motives: ecstatic journeys, traveling into the world beyond to heal the sick.
5. It nonetheless remains to be seen whether these shamanistic elements in Greece concern simply legendary migrating-motives (Wandermotive) or actually practiced rites which either go back to indigenous prehistorical times (Urzeiten) or were later reintroduced by foreign influences.
There is a certain discontent among classical philologists with regard to immoderate (excessive) efforts coming from un-Greek concepts. There have recently been criticisms of the attempt to expand (or generalize) the concept of shamanism. Otto Kern, for example, has insisted on using Greek words and concepts to explain Greek rites and customs.
__________________
Notes to pp. 36 -37:
2. The word 'shaman' comes from the Tungus language. See M.Eliade's Shamanism: Archaic techniques of ecstasy.
6. A brief synopsis of the material [about Phormion & Leonymos], since neither Meuli nor Dodds discuss it: Phormion is mentioned briefly in the comedy Trophonios by Kratinos. Theopompos explains how Phormion of Kroton was wounded in battle as if by a divine being. Since the wound would not heal, he was instructed by the oracle to travel to Sparta (to the house of the Dioscuri). As he grabbed the door handle there (in Sparta), he suddenly found himself holding the handle of the door to his own house in Kroton, where he found himself healed and at home. Later there was mention of an ecstatic journey to Kyrene. Pausanias (Bk. 3,16) tell another legend about Phormion 'the Spartan' and the House of the Dioscuri. Clement of Alexandria (Stromateis) places Phormion in the company of Pythagoras, Abaris, Aristeas, Epimenides and Zoroaster.
According to Pausanias (Bk. 3, 19, 11ff.) Leonymos was wounded in the battle at Sagras by Aias, who fought with the Locrians. An oracle directed Leonymos to travel to "the White Island" to be healed. There he encounted Achilles and Aias. This legend is interwoven with that of Stesichoros, which we cannot go into here. By nature, the 'white island' is a piece of the beyond. Leonymos is the 'first man' to reach it.....
7. M.P. Nilsson, History of Greek Religion (Munich, 1955, pp. 164,5). Nilsson is of the opinion that shamanism was alien to the Greeks and the rest of the Indo-european people, but he recognizes Meuli's interpretation regarding Aristeas and Abaris, etc.
8. L. Vajda, "Zur phaseologischen Stellung des Schamanismus, (UrAltaische Jb. 31, 1959, 456 - 485) is of the opinion that the concept of shamanism should only be used when referring specifically to those arctic tribes (people) [like the Tungus], who are a relatively recent [?] phenomenon.
_____________________________
TEXT: [pp. 38 -39]:
1.[p. 38]: In response to critics such as O. Kern, it should be recalled that there actually is an old Greek word which designates a realm of activity remarkable close in affinity to that of the shaman, and which has been used to describe both Pythagoras and Empedokles - a word that was already used by John Burnet [Early Greek Philosophy, London, 1930, p. 97] and translated as 'medicine-man': gohV.
2. When the original meaning (definition) of this word is investigated, the late antique classification must naturally be disregarded, in which goetia, as low, crude, deceptive or even malicious magic is contrasted to the higher form of mageia (magia). The word magoV (magos, magus), which was to enjoy such success, came into currency in Greece as an Iranian loanword no earlier than 600 b.c. If one attempts to discover a more postive meaning and function of gohV in the oldest sources and testimonies, particular problems result, due to the peculiar nature of the literary tradition.
3. [p. 39]: Magic & sorcery (Zauberei) in all its forms is a domain the overcoming of which has been a decisive achievement of the Greek spirit, which has fulfilled itself (ausgeformt hat) in Greek literature. Magic, nonetheless never completely lost its effect, but for a long time it was repressed and not gladly discussed.
In the older literature, therefore, we are faced with purposely fragmentary intimations, or parodies, comic exaggeration, and mocking distortion. It is no accident that the most to be gained is from Plato's writings: Plato touches upon this dark realm of the soul, at times disapprovingly, at other times with ironic appreciation.
4. The oldest documentary evidence for gohV is a verse from the 'Phoronis' which introduces the Idaian Daktyls, who invented (fabricated) iron, as gohteV. The associations between smiths and sorcerors (magicians) were widely known, indeed a secretive and difficult art such as the smith's seemed unthinkable without powerful magic. The activities of the Daktyls, however, were described in a more precise manner by Ephoros: they were gohteV, they were engaged in curing with magical formulae and consecrations and festivities of the Mystery rites; they came to Samothrace and frightened the indigenous population. Orpheus became a student of theirs at this time and was one of the first to celebrate the Mysteries.
___________________________
Notes for pp. 38 - 39:
9. O. Kern, Religion der Griechen I, Berlin, 1926, 13. Th. Mommsen formulated as "the first and most primary rule of all historical criticism", "that first of all, the individual phenomenon [occurrence, event] be tested and explained within the context (circle, Kreis) of the nation to which it belongs, and that only a result of this research may it serve as the basis for anything of international scope." [Römische Chronologie, Berlin, 1859,6]; nonetheless one must remember that the "Kreis der Nation" (circle of the nation) is never something closed in itself.
10. gohV as a description of Pythagoras: Timon Fr. 58 Diels = Diog. Laert. 8, 36; compare Apollonios hist. mir. 6 of Pherecydes and Pythagoras; of Empedokles: Gorgias & Note 60; gohteV "medicine-men": J. Burnet, Early Greek Philosophy, London, 1930, 97 (in reference to Epimenides, Onomakritos).
11. See Augustine, City of God, 10,9; Proklos, Resp. II 337 Kroll; Kosmas the Melode Migne S.G. 38, 491; Suda s.v. gohteia ; Hopfner RE XIV 373f.; Pfister emphasizes that the devaluation of gohteia ) is a secondary phenomenon, RE Suppl., IV 324.
12. Apart from Herodotus, magoV (magus), with its derivations mageia, mageuw, had the general meaning of 'sorceror' already in the 5th Century B.C. (Heraclitus B 14; Soph. O.T. 387; Eurip. Hik. 1110; Or. 1497; Hippokr. Morb. sacr. VI 354; 358; 396 I (or L?); Gorg. Hel. 10); see A.D. Nock, quoted by F.Jackson - K. Lake, The Beginnings of Christianity V, London, 1933, 164ff. Occasionally it is emphasized that the Persian magoi have nothing to do with gohteia, see Arist. Fr. 36 (from the MagikoV, whose authorship was disputed in antiquity); Dion or. 36, 40; J. Bidez - F. Cumont, Les Mages hellénisés I, Paris 1938, 144f. In contrast to magoV, gohV served as attikwteron (?), Phrynichos p. 56,8 de Borries.
13. In this context, see P. Lain-Entralgo, "Die platonische Rationalisierung der Besprechung (EPWIDH) und die Erfindung der Psychotherapie durch das Wort, Hermes 86, 1958, 298 - 323.
14. Epic. Gr. Fr. ed. Kinkel p. 211 = Schol Ap. Rh. I, 1129; ...Pherekydes FGrHist. 3 F 47, who distinguishes between the 'right' and 'left' Daktyls: aristeroi men autwn ...oi gohteV, oi de analuonteV dexioi. In place of the traditional analuonteV, C. Wendel has conjectured metaleuonteV; analuein means to 'break the magic spell', see Magnes Com. Fr. 4 Kock; Menander heros Fr. 213; it is therefore a suitable contrast to gohteuein, whereas a smithy's handwork is not to be separated from magic); see Hesiod Fr. 176; Diod. 5, 64 f.; Strab. 10 p. 473f., ....L. Preller - C. Robert, Griech. Mythol. I, Berlin 1894, 657f; Kern RE IV 2018-20; B.Hemberg, Eranos 50, 1952, 41 - 59. Zur Datierung der 'Phoronis', W. Schmid, Gesch. d. griech. Lit. I 1, München 1929, 294.
15. See M. Eliade, Forgerons et alchimistes [The Forge and the Crucible], Paris, 1956, esp. 106f.
16. FGrHist. 70 F 104 = Diod. 5, 64: [passage in Gr. ...]
___________________________
Text, pp. 40 - 41:
1. [p.40]: To the gohV belong the epwdai and the foundation (commemoration) of the Mysteries. Thus King Pentheus in Euripides' Bacchae calls Dionysos a "gohV epwdoV". It is 'music magic' (Musikmagie) which forms the bridge from the smithy's work to this realm. The Dactyls were repeatedly cited as the discoverers of music; a magical effect upon daemons and spirits was attributed to the ringing sound of metal in general, not just within the confines of Rhea, Mother of the Gods, who was associated with the Daktyls. Epwdh, however, literally means the 'magical song', and therefore the Greek Mysteries were traced back to singers: Orpheus, Musaios and Eumolpos. According to the testimony of Apollodorus, the sound of ringing brass especially belongs to the cult of the dead; the hierophant of Eleusis had a cymbal resound when Kore was conjured up from the dead. According to the Plato, the incantation of the dead, yucagwgia, [psychagogia] belongs to the arts of those who conjure ['zaubern'] with sacrifices, prayers and incantations: gohteuonteV. The activity of the gohteV is closely associated with the cult forms of the Greek mysteries, indeed according to Ephoros, they originated these devotions. Seen from this perspective, the position of the gohV shifts to the very center of Greek religion.
2. [p.41]: An often emphasized characteristic of the gohV which is of a seemingly different order is his ability to transform himself [change shapes]. Herodotus tells of the Scythian tribe of the Neuroi: "It appears that these people practice magic; for there is a story current amongst the Scythians and the Greeks in Scythia that once a year every Neurian turns into a wolf fora few days, and then turns back into a man again." [Hdt. 4, 105, pp. 305 - 306]. Plato criticizes the homeric myths of the gods, according to which the gods approach human beings in changing forms: "Shall I ask you whether God is a magician, and of a nature to appear insidiously now in one shape, and now in another - sometimes himself changing and passing into many forms, sometimes deceiving us with the semblance of such transformations?"[Republic 380d, p. 644] It must be asserted that "the gods are not magicians who transform themselves, neither do they deceive mankind in any way." [Republic, 383a, p. 647] The identifying characteristic of the gohV is his ability to transform himself at will. Particularly instructive in this regard is a fragment from a comedy by Aristomenes, a somewhat older contemporary of Aristophanes: in the play one of the characters masks himself as god. One can assume that it is not merely vulgarization (coarsening) through comedy that is at issue here; for original (primitive) feeling, masking (masquerade) is a transformation, and for this reason external props (means) like disguise (mummery) could have played a rôle in the gohteV stunts (tricks).
__________________________
Notes to pp. 40 - 41:
____________________
Text, pp. 42 - 43:
1. [p. 42]: Later sources speak of lighting effects and similar tricks. More essential than the question concerning what 'actually' happens in the individual phenomenon is the effect it has upon a receptive public.
2. For Plato gohV and mimhthV belong together. The Sophist who prides himself on knowing 'everything' , in reality only understands how to imitate everything, and instead of the truth, he produces mere illusions [Scheinbilder], eidwla (eidolons). Such art Plato ranks among the magic booths at a fairgrounds. At best, one can tolerate them as mere jest. In common with the actor, the gohV performs in front of an audience, who he tries to fool (deceive). The effect is seen on the one hand as joboV [fear] and ekplhxiV [consternation], and on the other hand as hdonh [enjoyment, pleasure]. In his Laws, Plato says that it would be good if one could practice and test the steadfastness of people in the face of fear and terror, but that unfortunately there are no means for experimentally inducing terror - touV gar gohtaV ouk en qoinh legw. [Laws , 649a]: "Well, lawgiver, there is certainly no such fear-potion which man has either received from the Gods or himself discovered; for witchcraft has no place at our board. But is there any potion which might serve as a test of ovrboldness and excessive and indiscreet boasting?" [pp.429 - 430]. Included in the trade of the gohteV ,therefore, is the ability to terrify people at will; this is considered beneath the dignity of Plato's Lawgiver.
3. In The Republic, the 'Guardians' must become resistant to the influences of 'delight' and 'terror', which Plato designates as gohteia [Republic, 413 b - d]:
"And you would also acknowledge that the enchanted are those who change their minds either under the softer influence of pleasure, or the sterner influence of fear?
Yes, he said; everything that deceives may be said to enchant.
Therefore, as I was just now saying, we must enquire who are the best guardians of their own conviction that what they think the interest of the State is to be the rule of their lives. We must watch them from their youth upwards, and make them perform actions in which they are most likely to forget or to be deceived, and he who remembers and is not deceived is to be slected, and he who fails in the trial is to be rejected." [p.678]
4. In order to demonstrate the power of the logoi Gorgias refers to enqeoi epwdai, which was to bring about delight instead of sadness through gohteia. The gohV gains power over the soul of another person: when Socrates brings his conversation partner to the point where he has forgotten what he believed he knew, and now no longer knows what to think, paralyzed as if by the shock of an electric eel (ray), then Socrates falls under suspicion of being a gohV. Whoever uses magic song, arts of transformation and illusions (deceptions) to fill people with delight and terror is a gohV.
5.[p. 43]: The general translation of 'sorceror' [Zauberer] for gohV can be more narrowly defined. A gohV is not a sorceror (Hexenmeister,) who lives outside the society in a dark forest. Nor is he a masked rogue who acts like a respectable citizen in public and then pursues harmful arts in secret. Instead, he is a sorceror who performs before a public. Word formation also provides an explanation. The words japmakeuw, magganeuw and gohteuw can be used as synonyms. Of the first two of these, their etymon is a neuter word: to japmakon, to magganon. For gohteuw,however, the etymon is a person, o gohV. Neither effective drugs and potions nor secret devices are decisive. What is decisive is the power of the sorceror's personality; the gohV conjures, it seems, from his own inner resources: gohteuei. [It is worthy of reflection and by no means self-evident that the Greek has an old word like gohV at its disposal (?)] In a prerational world, magic enters the picture not as a domain in itself, for it permeates the whole of life. But there is no denying that particular individuals have become the center of ritual-cultic processions by virtue of their own special gifts. The connection between the gohteV and the Mysteries points in this direction.
6. The etymology of the word gohV leads us further. It clearly belongs to gooV, goaw with which the 'lament,' esp. the lament for the dead [Totenklage] is designated. In fact, the stem 'gou-' seems to be a common Indo-european onomatopoeic word.
___________________
Notes for pp. 42 - 43:
___________________
Text, pp. 44 - 45:
1. The meaning of the [Wortsippe] in Greek is restricted to the loud, grievous lament - also in the further derivations goeroV and goednoV - GohV is, accordingly, the "Plaintive One" [or: "Lamenting One" or "Plaintiff" - 'der Klagende'] who 'performs (executes) the Dirge' [bewailing of the dead, Totenklage]. The general explanation that the gohV takes his name from the 'wailing' ['howling'] sound [Ton] of the conjurations [exorcisms] he performs is no longer satisfactory. There is another, more essential interpretation: the gohV takes his name from the dirge because he conjures the dead. Just as the activity of the gohV is connected with conjuring (exorcising) the dead, yucagwgia, so too is the gooV [weeping, wailing]. Darius is call forth from the tomb by means of a gooV in Aeschylus's The Persians. "yucagwgoiV orqiazonteV gooiV oiktrwV kaleisqe me" (687)["and you lamented, standing near my tomb, with cries of resurrection calling piteously"The Persians, trans. S.Benardete]. He comes forth ["Since I have risen obeying lamentations"] -- soiV gooiV pepeismenoV. (697) The gohV builds a bridge between the living and the dead - therefore the deceased is directly addressed in the dirge as a present 'thou'. The proximity of this to the epwdai, to the magical effect of song and music, barely needs mentioning. It is usually not the function of a normal gooV to summon the deceased from the grave, but rather is a parting lament serving the interment (burial): the grief is expressed in a loud and passionate form and then fades away. The dead are honored and find their rest. The etymology of gohV derives from the normal function of the gooV and not the special procedures of the Necromancer. For originally the gohV must have made his appearance with his fear-and-delight inspiring performance at burials in order to bring the dead peacefully to rest. And in this case the gohV was actually a shaman, one of whose primary functions (tasks) is to lead the dead on ecstatic journeys along the dangerous path into the beyond.
2. [p. 45]: This hypothesis is not ill-adapted to the tangible evidence (signs) of the gohV in our literature: the magic music which compels the spirits, the yucagwgia, the theatrical element, the power of suggestion with regard to the public. Ecstatic journeys are not directly referred to in connection with the gohV, though this is a characteristic of shamans. But if the above-mentioned ability to transform oneself is considered in a similar light, then the Greeks can speak in this regard of ekstasiV also. Direct evidence for developed shamanistic practices are not to be found, alas, in the tradition.
3. In the ILIAD the dirge is a matter for the next of kin. It is an expression of personal grief, the parting of mother from son, wife from husband. In close association stands that [emptying of the senses, Sinnentleerung] of the ritual Totenehrung [Honoring of the dead], that slaves were compelled to bewail the dead. On Hektor's bier sit 'singers' who are introduced with unusual epithets and then apparently forgotten. One is reminded of the poetic arrangement of the qrhnoV by the professional singers. Perhaps this is a reminder of the magical singer present at burials - a memory which was to be repressed, since the homeric epic replaced the magical with the human.
___________________
Notes for pp. 44 - 45:
____________________
Text, pp. 46 - 47:
1. [p. 46]: In Homer, the god Hermes serves the dead as the guide or Psychopomp into the beyond. Bk. XXIV of the Odyssey [lines 1 - 15]:
"Meanwhile the suitors' ghosts were called away by Hermes of Kyllene, bearing the golden wand with which he charms the eyes of men or wakens whom he wills. He waved them on, all squeaking as bats will in a cavern's underworld, all flitting, flitting criss-cross in the dark if one falls and the rock-hung chain is broken. So with faint cries the shades trailed after Hermes, pure Deliverer. He led them down dank ways, over grey Ocean tides, the Snowy Rock, past shores of Dream and narrows of the sunset, in swift flight to where the Dead inhabit wastes of asphodel at the world's end." [p. 457, trans. Fitzgerald]
2. Aristotles's pupil Klearchos described a man who understood how to use a "soul-guiding staff" yucoulkoV rabdoV: he could call forth the soul from a child, while its body lay stiff and lifeless until the soul was led back at the staff's command. What the myth represents - the magical God who leads the souls with his staff (cadeucus) - was practiced here as concrete reality. It takes no great stretch of the imagination to see aspects of a rite mirrored in certain details of this myth: the image of Hermes the guide of souls (Psychopompos) with his staff and his winged-sandals is a projection of the actual practice of a gohV, a soul-guiding shaman. The son of Hermes, Aithalides, could let his soul tarry upon earth or in Hades, which testifies to his shamanistic arts. Heracleides of Ponticus considered him an earlier incarnation of Pythagoras.
3. Otherwise, there are traces of shamanistic dead rituals for the most part in association with exceptional situations, when a normal burial was not possible. A death in a foreign country was disquieting; at the very least, the soul of the deceased had to be transported back to his home. Before departing, Odysseus three times calls out the names of his comrades fallen in battle at Kikonen. For those drowned at sea, one erected a cenotaph on the strand and called the name of the deceased three times.
Example from Pindars "Pythian Ode IV: "For Phrixus biddeth us go to the halls of Aeetes, and bring his spirit home, and recover the fleecy fell of the ram, on which he was erstwhile rescued from the sea, and from his step-dame's impious weapons." yucan komixai is the shaman's most genuine achievement. K.Meuli has already drawn attention to the shamanistic elements in the adventure of the Argonauts. ...
4. Traces of such shamanistic rites have actually been found in a Mycenaean shaft-grave from Dendra, which was apparently first erected as a cenotaph. The grave contains no skeletal remains, but does contain a sacrificial table, sacrificial knife and hearth, three sacrificial pits, in one of which animals bones were discovered, and above all, two menhirs were found: upright stone monumentals of rough, human-like form. Burial rites of a special nature took place here. In this context, G. Mylonas has recalled the "Nekyia" episode in the Odyssey, where Odysseus slaughters cattle to summon the dead. [see Odyssey, p. 198]. The menhirs were substitutes for the dead, perhaps serving for them to inhabit during their sojourn.
____________________
Notes for pp. 46 - 47:
_______________
Text, pp. 48 - 49:
1. [p. 48]: In the historical period, goetia has had an entirely marginal existence. Nonetheless, Gorgias is reputed to have called Empedokles a gohV. Quote from Diog. Laert. [Bk. VIII: p. 375]. See E.R. Dodds, p. 146. Reference to priests and 'mendicants' [The Republic, trans. Jowett, p. 627]. Plato may be referring here to Epimenides of Crete, who purified Athens of a plague, and he may also be referring to the Eleusinian Mysteries, which had been associated with Musaios.
____________________
Text, pp. 50 - 51:
1. [p. 50]: Negative representation of the gohV. Plato, Xenophon and Demosthenes use the word as a term of abuse (invective) for liars and deceivers. For Demosthenes, the true and the healthy are diametrically opposed to goetia. Sorcery that wanted to be taken seriously used the term mageia [magia]. What was once a legitimate role in the society, inducing fear and delight, was degraded to a term of abuse. The enchanter became disenchanted and reduced to a charlatan and deceiver.
__________________
Text, pp. 52 - 53:
1. Was it philosophy and the Greek physicists from Thales to Democritus who led to the demise of goetia? Burkert says no. Instead, it was Homeric Religion and its public celebration in the polis. Although Homer's world is literally full of gods, these gods have been divested to a great extent of their daemonic numinosity. Their ephiphanies lack the mysterium tremendum, and the world of the dead has been totally deprived of its power. One simply cannot overestimate the 'enlightening' rôle of the Homeric epic.
2. The second influence on the decline of gohV is the rise of the 'polis'. The gohV is a nonconformist, in whom a quite specific, seemingly abnormal talent, has become pronounced. To the 'polis' belongs, however, the ordering or incorporation of individuals into a community. The polis accentuates that which is supposed to be common to all. Just as the King was gradually deposed (dethroned), so too was the sorceror given no place within the polis. Even the relationship to the gods is now subordinate to the will of the community: the priest is the representative of the polis and is not a charismatic individual. As Meno says to Socrates in the Platonic dialogue MENO: "I think that you are very wise in not voyaging and going away from home, for if you did in other places as you do in Athens, you would be cast into prison as a magician." For to be a sorceror means risking imprisonment or even execution through the organs of the polis.
3. [p. 53]: See Plato's LAWS, 907d: pp. 650-651--Plato's punishment for sorcerors
_______________
Text, pp. 54 - 55:
1. [p. 55]: The etymological history of a word like gohV leads back to the prehistory of the Greek spirit, to a state which it was the accomplishment of the Greek to have overcome. And yet we are not simply concerned here with prehistory. It is worth noting that gohV and sojisthV are often connected. Empedocles, who made his name as a magician, was the teacher of the sophist Gorgias. Is not the sophist an heir of sorts to the wandering wonder-worker? In place of the wailing lament, there is the persuasive speech. In place of magical formulae there are rhetorical devices invented to have an effect upon an audience. Gorgias deserves to be closely investigated in such terms.