The Rudolf Steiner Archive

8. The Myth of Heracles

[Ladies and gentlemen!]

[ 1 ] I have taken the liberty of describing the development of Greek spiritual life in the centuries before Plato—as it were, as a preparation for actual Greek mysticism, that is, for the period in which the mystery cults gave way to what is commonly called mysticism.

[ 2 ] I would like to note for the time being that Plato, who lived in the fifth to fourth centuries before the birth of Christ, appears as a great convergence of everything that Greek intellectual life produced before Plato. He died at the age of eighty in the year 347 B.C. This life was a concentrated expression of a continuous development that must appear particularly uplifting and grand to anyone who knows how to read the Platonic writings correctly.

[ 3 ] Plato’s history of development in Greece occurred at a time when life in Greece had taken on the most remarkable character. We must be clear that when Plato appeared, a kind of split also occurred, so that we must regard only the [one] branch of Platonic mysticism that developed after him and which can be called the “quest for truth.” [The other branch, which broke away from the unified mystery tradition, became art], above all in the form that confronts us in Greek tragedy, in the tragedies of Aeschylus and in the less significant tragedies of Sophocles and Euripides.

[ 4 ] Plato’s [life] fell within this period. The mystery tradition was reduced to mere tragedy. The mystery tradition united in an indivisible unity that which art and Greek mysticism had sought along separate paths. Such a division between truth and beauty, between mysticism and art, did not yet exist at the time of the ancient Greek mystery cult, and to a certain extent we will also see that a large part of the mysteries has found refuge in art. The most ephemeral is the ideal.

[ 5 ] One does not understand the concept of art at all unless one conceives of it as something that arose as a distillation of the Greek mystery tradition. But we can only see this once we have grasped the significance of the ancient Greeks of the pre-Platonic era, who understood the truly profound meaning of the word through the mystery tradition. The Greek mystery tradition of the pre-Platonic era united everything that can be expressed in terms of inner aspirations. And what meets us on the surface—including Heraclitus’ philosophy—are merely diluted products of those who had penetrated the depths of the mystery tradition, who cast these into the minds of others because they could not penetrate them themselves, so that they might at least sense, if not see.

[ 6 ] What the Greeks sought is something of which Plato also gradually became a part. It is what is presented to us in the writings commonly referred to as those from the first eight years of Plato’s literary career.

[ 7 ] If one takes these writings from his early period, one will see that one is dealing with purely philosophical writings, with ethical writings, with moral writings. And that is the character of so-called “Socratic philosophy.” Socrates even boasts of never having been initiated into the mysteries. After Socrates’ death, an extremely important development begins for Plato, which then reaches its climax in Plato’s most significant work, the “Timaeus.”

[ 8 ] That which existed [during the heyday of spiritual life in Greece, before Christianity had a transformative effect on Greek spiritual life] and which Plato underwent—this entire course of development was referred to in Greek spiritual life as “initiation.” It is what was sought by those who wished to be initiated into the mysteries. To receive initiation and to become an initiate were one and the same thing for the Greeks.

[ 9 ] And now, if I am to unfold Platonic mysticism before you in the form in which it will appear to us as a process of continuous initiations, I must preface this with a few remarks. I must preface this by noting that the Greeks’ conception of the nature of initiation was expressed in a remarkable myth that cannot be understood unless it is regarded as a symbolic representation of initiation. It forms a parallel to the Dionysus myth, a counterpart to it; yet it is entirely different.

[ 10 ] We know: Dionysus is the son of a mortal, Semele. Semele perished. She had demanded of Zeus that he appear to her in his heavenly splendor and glory. When he had granted her this, he had to appear thus, and she was struck by his lightning bolt and burned. Dionysus had to be born a second time, [after Zeus had saved him by bringing the still-immature child to maturity within his own thigh,] so that Dionysus, who was born as a human, was then burned and then appears as one born of a god.

[ 11 ] This myth of Dionysus presents the world process, the course of the world’s development, as the process of the incarnated god, as the process that the god undergoes, that which is undergone by the one who has become a god. These myths were mysteries that referred to the world process without taking into account the role that the human being plays within the world.

[ 12 ] This Dionysus myth is accompanied by another myth, like a counterpart. This is the Heracles myth. It presents itself to us as a humanized version of the Dionysus myth. Heracles, too, was the son of a mortal: he was indeed born of Alcmene. It turns out, however, that this birth was delayed by Hera’s jealousy, so that he was born too late. Eurystheus had been born first, and Heracles ceded the birthright to him. Because he was born second, Heracles had to perform his famous twelve labors in the service of Eurystheus. We thus see the Dionysus myth reappearing before us here in a humanized form. Both, then, were fire. Heracles then performs his human labors, and only after completing them is he taken up to Olympus. Then he is consumed by fire.

[ 13 ] Thus Heracles appears to us as the humanized Dionysus. He appears to us as one who has taken all suffering upon himself, in contrast to Dionysus, who was spared these sufferings. These twelve labors are nothing other than human trials that a person must pass in order to gradually ascend to the highest level they can attain. This entire myth can only be understood as a symbolic representation of the initiation process, and the twelve labors represent twelve successive states of the human soul. Through these, the human being gradually attains an elevated consciousness, the entrance to, and the attainment of, true divine consciousness.

[ 14 ] The nature of these labors proves to us that the twelve labors of Heracles are nothing other than trials that humans must undergo in the course of the initiation process. It might seem to us that these labors have been juxtaposed in poetry as the overcoming of twelve monsters. ‘But if one compares them, one will find that they are not tests of strength by a strong man, but meaningful symbolic events.

[ 15 ] These are monsters that were brought forth by the siblings Phorkis and Keto, from whom the actual earthly realm then emerged. In connection with Pontus, they are the deities who bring forth the fluid—standing between fire and the earthly. Phorkis’ and Keto’s offspring are the monsters that Heracles must overcome. These beings must be overcome; they must be cast off. Let us take a look at these monsters against whom Heracles fights:

[ 16 ] [First:] The “Nemean Lion”: It presents itself to us as a descendant of that brother-sister pair, Phorkis and Keto. Citing the kinship would lead to nothing more, but the genealogical structure is entirely accurate. The important thing here is that the lion has an impenetrable hide. Heracles can only strangle it. He does so and brings it to his master. His master, however, becomes afraid of it, so that Heracles must remain outside the city on his orders. The impenetrable force of nature is fully represented by the impenetrable hide. One cannot penetrate the veil, cannot pierce it with arrows; one can only let it remain, one can only paralyze its mighty willpower. Yet one must allow it to exist as an entity alongside oneself. It cannot be completely killed.

[ 17 ] In this struggle, we can only emerge as partial victors. We can only achieve the beginning, only a part. That is the crucial point of this work. Throughout the entire struggle, the forces of nature appear to us as speechless powers whose voice we cannot discern at the lower stages of development. Nature stands before us as a silent goddess. We must let her be, we can only partially conquer her. This is symbolized for us in this first labor.

[ 18 ] [Second:] The second labor that Heracles undertakes is the battle against the “Lernaean Hydra.” It has nine heads, of which the middle one is immortal. These heads have the property of regenerating themselves whenever they are cut off. The battle is therefore a very difficult one. Heracles can overcome this regeneration only through fire. Here something significant is revealed to us: he wields fire.

[ 19 ] We shall see, however, that there is a special significance to this second labor. It presents itself to us as a link between the temporal and the eternal. The middle, immortal head is nevertheless an obstacle to the actual entry into the eternal. This can only be overcome through spirituality. But Heracles is not yet at the stage where he can accomplish this labor. We must realize that it is like playing with fire by someone who does not quite know how to handle it. This second labor therefore seems to be something that cannot really be of significance to Heracles. It is strange that the link between the temporal and the eternal appears so early.

[ 20 ] [Thirdly: ] The third labor is the subjugation of the “Ceryneian hind,” which is sacred to Artemis, the virgin goddess of the hunt. In the allusion to the virgin Artemis, to the arts of peace, we see that it is an ascending process. [Heracles] captured this hind alive. He was only allowed to capture her alive and bring her alive to his homeland. This was a labor he accomplished in the purely earthly realm. He refrains from the struggle for the immortal. He strives to stand firm and look around.

[ 21 ] [Fourth:] After gaining strength in this way, he undertakes another task, [namely, to capture the ‘Erymanthean Boar’ alive]. He brings it bound to Mycenae. This is a warlike task. This tells us that, having overcome his warlike longing, he must descend again and can now undertake a more meaningful task. We see that he now—as if by chance—accomplishes something else: He wounds the centaur Chiron, who has the important task of interceding for Prometheus. We see how the Prometheus legend is linked here with the Heracles legend. We see how the element of will connects here with the actual course of Heracles’ development. We see how Heracles creates and appoints the being who is to deliver Prometheus from his torments. Thus we see how Heracles, at this stage, after having overcome himself and withdrawn from the struggle, after having gone through the recent conflict, is now called upon to do something for striving humanity. This meaning underlies the connection between the Heracles legend and the Prometheus legend.

[ 22 ] [Fifth:] The task of cleaning the Augean stables. Those who sought admission into the Mysteries had to undergo a kind of purification, a baptism of sorts. This fifth labor can be accomplished by the one who has completed the first ones. It is not a labor in the strict sense; it falls to the person of its own accord. It is not a true labor of Heracles. The second and fifth labors cannot strictly be considered labors of Heracles. The second leads too early to the eternal, and the fifth is something that has come to him of its own accord. They are thus a kind of intermediate stage.

[ 23 ] [Sixth:] A special labor of Heracles is now the one he performs with the “Stymphalian Birds.” These are birds with which he must also do battle. Pallas Athena already comes to his aid in this labor. We have seen, after all, what she is. She plays a major role in the Odyssey. She is the goddess of wisdom, of heavenly wisdom. Now, after the purification, Pallas Athena stands at his side. Pallas Athena represents—in contrast to mere knowledge—true wisdom.

[ 24 ] [Seventh:] Overcoming the birds was only one stage of development. But only with Athena’s help is he able to bring the “Cretan Bull alive to Mycenae.”

[ 25 ] The bull is a symbol in all the mystery cults that were widespread in the ancient world at that time, a symbol that spread from Persia through Asia Minor, Egypt, and then from there through Greece. It is a symbol of fruitful, living nature. Therefore, in the Mithras mysteries, we see the bull paired with a remarkable symbol, a symbol of living nature. The bull’s tail ends in a sheaf of wheat ears. This is undoubtedly the symbolic representation of fruitful and living nature. And the Mithras symbolism represents nothing other than this labor of Heracles. This appears as a higher labor of Heracles: the “Nemean Lion” is the lower one, the bull the higher. The bull is nature from which life springs forth, while the lion is nature that is blind and dull.

[ 26 ] This bull is sacred to Poseidon. We also know that this bull is depicted for those admitted to the rites of Mithras as a bull upon which a youth sits, thrusting his sword into the bull’s side. A dog leaps toward it. Below is a snake, lying lengthwise. In front of and behind the bull are two companions. The youth represents nothing other than the one embarking on the path of initiation. On one side he has a companion holding a raised torch, on the other side a companion holding a lowered torch. This depicts a process between life and death, which is the process of initiation. The upper part depicts the departing Sun God, the one who rises and descends again. This rightly represents to us, in a spiritual sense, what is taking place below. This is the corresponding process in the realm of Dionysus, while the lower one is that in which Heracles finds himself. This image contains nothing other than the seventh labor of Heracles. It is present in all mystery depictions throughout the ancient world.

[ 27 ] [Eighth:] Now Heracles can accomplish a very important task. He can overcome the world hostile to humanity at its highest level. The trials are constantly renewed, and what must now be overcome presents itself to us in the eighth labor: the overcoming of the “fire-breathing horses of Diomedes, son of Ares.” These “fire-breathing horses” become immediately clear to us when we hear that they must be fed human flesh. The violence hostile to humanity at the higher level is what can still impose a trial upon a person, even if they have already attained a high level of spiritual mastery. Here he overcomes it by leading the horses himself and then taking them to Olympus, where they are torn apart by wild beasts. Now he is capable of undergoing the further trials. We see how, little by little, what a human being can achieve on his path of development forms a well-rounded whole.

[ 28 ] [Ninth:] He has thereby conquered the “Belt of the Amazon Queen.” This represents the taking possession of that which, as it were, hinders us—as something with which we are connected—from attaining the higher levels of consciousness. We are dealing here with a feminine element. He must take possession of the “Belt of the Amazon Queen.”

[ 29 ] [Tenth:] Then comes the “slaying of the three-headed Geryon and the leading away of his cattle” [which were guarded by the dog Orthos and the shepherd Eurytion]. At an even higher level, this is the same as with the lion and the bull. It represents an overcoming of the spiritualized force of nature.

[ 30 ] [Eleventh:] But it is significant for us because he erects the columns of Heracles on one side of the world and the other. The series of trials now concludes for him with the erection of the two boundary columns.

[ 31 ] Heracles might thus appear to us as a kind of initiate. However, there is something questionable about the second and fifth labors. The labors of “cleaning the Augean stables” and the “Lernaean Hydra” indicate, however, that he did not achieve his complete initiation. The two labors were not accepted.

[ 32 ] 11 b: “He had to seize the apples of the Hesperides. They were Hera’s bridal gift, [which Gaia had given to Hera at her wedding,] the symbol of knowledge itself. Heracles must first retrieve them from Hera’s garden, [where they were guarded by four maidens, the Hesperides, and the dragon Ladon, a descendant of Phorcys and Ceto]. 11 c: In this way he frees Prometheus and 11 d overcomes Antaeus, that giant figure who constantly draws new strength from the earth, who need only touch the earth to receive new strength, the power of nature. Only after Heracles has passed these seemingly insurmountable tests of nature can he retrieve the apples of the Hesperides. The [overcoming of] natural power is not yet something permanent. At this stage, he must be all the more aware that this insight must be continually renewed. This trial must be undertaken anew again and again. The only thing that can be achieved is that Antaeus must be fought anew again and again. He will always gain new strength upon touching the earth. It is, therefore, a constant struggle.

[ 33 ] [Twelfth:] Before Heracles performs the twelfth labor, he is initiated into the Mysteries. That is what we are told. We need not interpret this. Before he performs his twelfth labor, he is initiated into the Eleusinian Mysteries. And what does he accomplish here? He descends into the underworld, frees Theseus, and attains what is described with the words: He can bring Cerberus up from the underworld. The secret of the underworld becomes clear to him. Heracles attains the Heraclitean wisdom of “overcoming life with death.” He learns to understand the Heraclitean formula in which he says: The worship of Dionysus would simultaneously be the worship of Hades. In it, the highest deity of life converges with the god of the underworld, Hades. The fruit is thus the attainment of the underworld, something we already encounter in the case of Odysseus. It is the symbolic representation of the initiation process that we find in the Heracles legend. It remains so incomprehensible—to the point that one does not know what to make of it—only because it did not actually arise from Greek philosophy, but from the realm of the mysteries.

[ 34 ] If we understand the legend of Heracles, we understand the corresponding teachings among all peoples—the Indians, Persians, and Egyptians. The mysteries of Heracles existed alongside the mysteries of the others. They all represent the initiation process to us, and the initiation process is the same throughout the ancient world. I have cited the Mithras legend only to show how the Heracles legend lives throughout antiquity and how Greek spiritual life, in the Dionysus legend, represents the higher development of the Heracles legend, representing the higher in contrast to the lower. [This is illustrated by the parallel course of the Dionysus process with that of the others. It is also evident in Angelus Silesius that the initiate is not something indifferent in the course of the world, but something significant.]

[ 35 ] The Greek spiritual world also created a correspondence for the “Above” and the “Below.” What took place in Dionysus was designated as the “spiritual process,” the “Above”; what took place in human beings was designated as the “Below.” To mediate between the two, a mental image was created: the figure of Hermes, the messenger of the gods. He delivers messages, love letters, and so on, but he also has a deep esoteric significance. He presents himself as the mediator between the Dionysian and the Heraclean. He is the son of Zeus and a mortal, the son of Zeus and maya, a daughter of Atlas who dwells in the Arcadian caves. Through the mediation and union of maya with Zeus, the mediation between the “upper” and “lower” arises. Hermes is the symbol of the actual human spiritual power, which represents the mediation between the “upper” and “lower.”

[ 36 ] The entire myth of Hermes is proof that the human quest for knowledge pertains to both the earthly and the spiritual nature. This dual-natured quest for knowledge is expressed in Hermes. He is the “Wise One,” the “Cunning One.” Even as a child, he raids Apollo’s herd of cattle and carries off a number of them. His cunning as a child is already so great that the pursuer cannot follow their trail at all. He leads them in such a way that the cattle walk backward. The pursuer is thus misled. Apollo [does] however, with the help of Zeus, solve the mystery.

[ 37 ] Hermes succeeded in fashioning a lyre from a tortoise shell. Here we see how the power of the spirit leads man from the “lower” to the “higher.” He gives this tortoise-shell lyre to Apollo in exchange for the herd of cattle.

[ 38 ] Here we see a division taking place: on the one hand, we have the actual pursuit of knowledge. — Music and the arts have passed to the other divine messengers; Apollo, too, is a divine messenger. Hermes and Apollo are two divine messengers. In Hermes we find the sense of truth, and in Apollo the sense of beauty. Here we find the gift of imagination once again as a connection between the Lower and the Upper. Thus Hermes and Apollo appear to us as mediators between the Lower and the Upper. They are the two forces that connect the Dionysian with the Heraclitean. They present to us as separate that which, at the original stage, existed for us as a unified process.

[ 39 ] This is how the later mystery teachings developed. These are the later myths, which could only arise from those that contained truth, beauty, and goodness as an undivided whole. When the festivals celebrated in the mystery temples contained everything as in a single trunk, there could be no “Hermes” and no “Apollo.” But when the artistic striving, as in the tragedies of Aeschylus, and the striving for truth in Socrates and Plato arose, these two branches of the original trunk emerged. Thus, on the one hand, we have the quest for knowledge, which originated with Socrates and Plato, and on the other hand, art, which, curiously enough, has never—even to this day—been associated in the consciousness of the majority of humanity with the quest for truth.

[ 40 ] It was not until the turn of the eighteenth to the nineteenth century that the realization dawned once more that these two branches belong together, that neither can exist without the other, and that true deepening is only possible when these two branches reunite. For a large part of human consciousness, this union cannot be described as attainable. But where we have encountered something significant in this regard, it is to be found in Goethe. How deeply Goethe penetrated these matters can be seen from the meaning of the following words: “I have the suspicion that the Greeks proceed according to the eternal laws by which nature itself proceeds.”

[ 41 ] There a ray of that [primordial ray] from which Greek spiritual life developed dawned upon [him]. And the result was much that has appeared to us as a shining point.

Questions and Answers

Question: What is the relationship between the emergence of Plato’s mystical philosophy on the one hand and the emergence of tragedy on the other?

[ 42 ] [Answer:] People have sought the origins of tragedy in the development of Greek life. In the Wagnerian camp, it is clear that even in late Greek culture there was still a sense of what the mere shadow of the mysteries—in tragedy—was all about. We see this from Aristotle’s description of tragedy and the epic. What he writes about this has been misunderstood in an incredible way. Countless books have been written speculating on what he might have meant by “purification through fear and pity.” Through catharsis, we are purified of fear and pity. One cannot know what catharsis represents unless one considers it on the basis of the wisdom of the Mysteries, the essence of the Mysteries. The passions were calmed by soothing music. Only then did the actors appear. This is the first stage of the initiation process. Tragedy presents this process to us in an exoteric way. It is the shadowed great catharsis within the Greek mysteries. If one reads poetry, Aristotle’s “Poetics,” with this premise in mind, then one can also understand what Aristotle was able to say. Without this background, it is completely worthless.

[ 43 ] Thus one truly grasps that art has grown out of immense depths. It is not something eternal; it stands alongside the quest for truth as something temporal. Art presents itself to us as something in the face of which the persuasive power of truth has faded from human consciousness. Therefore, it is not even sensed that art, at its core, also seeks truth. This awareness has been lost. The core of truth has been stripped away from it.

[ 44 ] The other tree appears to us in Platonic philosophy, in Philonic philosophy, as a new striving for truth. In Platonic philosophy, we are faced with a striving to advance toward knowledge along the one-sided path of the pursuit of truth. It is entirely natural that Plato arrived at the theory of ideas: For Plato, the world process was, on the one hand, emergence from chaos, and on the other, emergence from ideas. The world process consists of the continuous interpenetration of the spiritual with the material, of the Ideas with chaos.

[ 45 ] The Demiurge, the World Soul, emerges as the first product. It is prime matter into which the breath of the spirit has penetrated. Plato depicts this in the form of a cross. And connected to this form is the entire world of Ideas of the Logoi, as the Platonic world of Ideas must be called. Thus it presents itself as a striving for pure truth and then again in the “Timaeus” as truth itself. This truth is presented to us under the new image, under the new symbol of “the Logos stretched upon the world cross.” Here we have the Logos in connection with the world cross.

[ 46 ] You will now see that it was already inherent in the original Platonic mystic that, in the form in which Christianity later developed—after it had passed through a Greek spiritual consciousness—[...] it had to deepen from mere myth to true mysticism. The Logos crucified on the World Cross is indeed found in Greek thought.