Can the Gods Relate to Human Suffering?
An Essay Concerning the Relationship Between the Deathless Ones
And Mortal Beings


By Kouros

Copyright © 2004 by Kouros




During an online correspondence, a gentleman wrote:


I was reminded of a comment in Burkert ("Greek Religion"), that due to their immortality all the troubles the Gods might suffer lack the true seriousness and stir of our own. In that sense, at least, we are "huger" than the Gods.


To this, I responded:


Burkert is an amazing writer on the subject of Greek Religion, easily one of the best. But like all writers, he does have limitations- and his comment here has some troubles. Let us recall that he was writing a scholarly book on Greek Religion, and not a theological treatise. If we examine the holy mythologies with an eye for meaning, another picture emerges.


1. The interplay between the godly and the mortal realm is massive; the overlaps and connections are intense. The Gods know what mortals face, well enough- The Advent of Dionysos finalizes that fact; he is born from a mortal mother and lives as a mortal, and even suffers and dies, before his rebirth.


He has two advents, actually; in the numinal world, he is born of Kore (and she is hermeneutically a symbol of the human soul- the participation of the human soul in Fate brings forth the divine child) and in his second advent, he is born of Semele, who, though pictured as a human woman is also (from a broader perspective) Kore again- another maiden goddess of both the underworld and earth or the produce of the earth, or wheat.


The point is that the divine essence operates in and through mortals. The coming forth of a God like Dionysos from a mortal mother, and from mothers who themselves can be seen as divine symbols of the human soul, only drives the point home.


The fact that Dionysos raises his "mother" up to Olympus and makes her deathless, placing the crown of inspiration or "Thyone" on her head, (an Eleusinian theme as well as the theme of the Psyche and Eros mystery myth, in which Psyche becomes immortal through Eros) shows that poor Kore's many sufferings, which began with her descent into the underworld (a symbol of death and the loss of innocence) will result in final immortality, as Fate culminates and she becomes the vehicle of incarnation of the Divine Child.



2. In true Empedoclean philosophy, the Aither, the immortal essence that is mixed into the other four elements, is what the Gods are "made" of, and this Aither is also mixed into the mortal clay. The implication is that each mortal life contains the seed of the divine; the "mortal life" is nothing but the "divine life unlived".



3. Demeter's own passion at loss, her experience of grief and suffering led her to establish mysteries by which mortals might see the greater divine "point" of life, with all it's dangers and sufferings. I needn't point out that Demeter assumed a human form while she experienced her own sufferings and wanderings at the loss of her daughter/other self- a powerful hermeneutic symbol of the limited psyche of the mortal, longing for the end of grief and sorrow. She assumed a human form and understands well human troubles and grief.



4. Prometheus suffered the consequences of his actions, with his own liver being torn out over and over again as he was chained to a rock- the Firebringer himself being (as Kerenyi pointed out) not only the guarding and teaching Daimon of mankind as a whole, but a symbol of human existence- forced to feel the pain (over and over again) of our conscious, fire-endowed and self-aware existence, while chained to the unmoving rock of consequence.



From top to bottom, all these myths, taken on any level, indicate the great extent to which the Godly reality participates in human suffering, and thereby understands it quite well.


One might even say that Fate intended this divine relationship between Gods and humans, for as the Gods experience our suffering, they would also experience our joys- a divinely mandated two-way relationship (symbolized by the act of sacrifice) in which the God-being shares in or becomes Human-being, and Human-beings therefore have the potential to share in or become God-beings- the very highest promise of the Mysteries, and the final outcome of Fate's many workings.


There is one other point to the fact that the gods "don't seem to be as stirred" as we- They are not "moved" like we by Fate's darkness and trauma because they are above the mortal estate, in a different experience of Fate. They are silent and still, from mortal perspectives, because they know, love, and uphold cosmic Law- because they have seen what comes of it, and know necessity in a way that we don't. Kingsley has gone into impeccable detail regarding the fact that Stillness was seen as an attribute of the Divine- an uncanny stillness which could be seen as a kind of detatchment, stemming from their broader Godly perspective.


So, the Gods' "lack of stir' doesn't come from any inability on their part to experience things as we do- it comes from the dual fact that they totally understand our experience, but that they also have another, greater experience which places the first in perspective.


That they have "Both" is important, for in a way, this is what makes them Gods.







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