On the Subject of Areion, Rharian
Posted: 18 Jun 2016, 03:31(A repost from the Facebook group of a thing I done wrote.)
Areion is a horse in Greek mythology, sired by Poseidon (of obscure, possibly pre-Greek etymology), god of the sea, earthquakes and horses, according to one report by Demeter, the goddess of agriculture and fertility (literally, de-meter is god[dess]-mother, or earth-mother, according to a reading of the de- element as corresponding to a pre-Attic ge-, Earth, as in Gaia and geology).
The Rharian Field was a place in Eleusis, roughly near Athens, in Greece, which, in mythology, was the site at which the first plot of grain was grown by humans after they were taught the secret of agriculture by Demeter. Eleusis was the site of the Eleusinian Mysteries, a very ancient classical initiation cult (in which rites and mysteries were revealed progressively to initiates of the cult). Central to the Eleusinian Mysteries was the myth of the abduction of Persephone (etymologically, the thresher of grain or, according to classical authors, bringer of death), daughter of Demeter, by Hades, god of the underworld and the mineral riches of the earth (etymologically, 'the unseen'; the Roman name, Pluto, is derived from the Greek for 'he of riches').
The abduction of Persephone, as the daughter of the goddess of the earth's bounty, by the god of its unseen riches, symbolised, in the Eleusinian Mysteries, death. Persephone's name is interpreted, by classical authors, as meaning 'the deceased'; she is often depicted, as Hades' abducted consort, in funeral garb.
Zeus, Hades and Poseidon were the three brothers from whom the other Olympian gods were descended, in Greek myth. They divided the cosmos between themselves: to Zeus went the heavens and the earth; to Hades, the hidden depths of the earth, and to Poseidon, the sea. Poseidon, being jealous of his elder brothers' domains, interfered: he shook Hades' domain with earthquakes, and inundated Zeus' with floods. The Greeks, in fact, considered the sea deeply suspect; sacrifices were to be made before a sea voyage, because the sea was not the natural preserve of humankind, who belonged on dry land, and permission should be sought of Poseidon, as its lord, and Okeanos, as its primordial personification.
The myth of Areion seemingly antedates Poseidon's more famous 'quarrel with Athena', in which he created the horse to win the right for the naming of the city of Kekropia, which later became the Acropolis of Athens. In this myth, Poseidon pursued Demeter, who, spurning his advances, transformed herself into a mare. Seeing through her disguise, Poseidon in turn disguised himself as a stallion and mounted her; the horse Demeter gave birth to was Areion - a full god, because both his mother and father were gods, in horse form.
When Hades abducted Persephone, according to the Eleusinian Mysteries, Demeter caused a terrible drought, to draw the attention of Zeus, who, as lord of the cosmos, could secure her daughter's return. Because the drought would have deprived the gods of sacrifice and worship, Zeus intervened, and ordered Hades to return Persephone to her mother. It was in the course of her search for Persephone, however, in the Mysteries, that Demeter first encountered humanity and, by coincidence, taught them agriculture - that is, the drought could never have deprived the gods of worship and sacrifice, because the gift of agriculture was what initially endowed humanity with the surpluses necessary to offer worship and sacrifice to the gods.
It is explained that Zeus was bound by the rules of the more ancient Fates, who decreed that any who ate or drank of the food and drink of the underworld must remain there forever. Zeus, as such, was only able to free Persephone for part of the year. Demeter's drought was the first Winter; Persephone's temporary release was the first Spring; and this cycle would be repeated annually forever. There are inconsistencies: the productive period, in the climate of Mycenaean Greece, was from Autumn to the end of Spring; the dry Summer was the period during which crops could not be grown, and which would have corresponded to Persephone's annual residence in the underworld. However, the Homeric hymn on which the Eleusinian Mysteries were based stated that Persephone's return occurred in the Spring, not the Autumn.
This is after the fashion of mystery cults in the classical world and cross-culturally, in which initial revelations - such as the foundational myth of Demeter, Persephone, Hades and the drought - are subsequently revealed to have been false, and more encompassing cosmological information - the role Demeter played in the endowment of humanity with the capacity of worship and sacrifice, and the role of Persephone, as 'The Deceased', in spurring Demeter's gift of agriculture to humanity - is revealed to have been the 'real' truth all along. The scriptures, if there were any, of the Mysteries are lost to us; in art, however, Persephone's return to Demeter is represented as an ascension which enables the cycle of generations: through Persephone's annual death, as she returns to Hades to be his bride, and rebirth, as she is returned to Demeter, life is perpetuated.
I have argued previously that 'love' and 'death', the Freudian Eros and Thanatos, correspond to 'love' and 'time' on Divers ("and we cut facsimiles of love and death / (just separate holes in sheets / where you cannot breathe, and you cannot see)"). Areion, as the progeny of Demeter and Poseidon, embodies both Demeter's bounty - the nullifying, negating, defeating, repeating joy of life - and Poseidon's envy, which would then correspond to love as a symptom of time (bounty as a symptom of scarcity). The Rharian Field, as the central site of the Eleusinian Mysteries and the key location in its foundational myth of Persephone's rebirth, is a place which demonstrates that love is not a symptom of time; time is just a symptom of love. Persephone is 'The Deceased'; she is the archetype of the dead. She is so because of her mother's longing for her, in her absence: it is Demeter's love which defines death as inhabitance in the underworld. Demeter's love for and her pursuit of her absent daughter also establish the cycle of regeneration, but not in the expected manner: it is not the case, in the Mysteries, that Demeter kills (those affected by her drought) to win Zeus's favour; it turns out, instead, that time, as the cycle of the seasons, which permits eternal life through the death and rebirth of successive generations of living things, is a symptom of Demeter's love.
So, the exhoration of Areion to go free and graze on the Rharian Field is an exhortation of the listener, the accidental progeny of love-life's bounty, to go free and graze on the accidental fruits of its eternal conquest of time-death.
Areion is a horse in Greek mythology, sired by Poseidon (of obscure, possibly pre-Greek etymology), god of the sea, earthquakes and horses, according to one report by Demeter, the goddess of agriculture and fertility (literally, de-meter is god[dess]-mother, or earth-mother, according to a reading of the de- element as corresponding to a pre-Attic ge-, Earth, as in Gaia and geology).
The Rharian Field was a place in Eleusis, roughly near Athens, in Greece, which, in mythology, was the site at which the first plot of grain was grown by humans after they were taught the secret of agriculture by Demeter. Eleusis was the site of the Eleusinian Mysteries, a very ancient classical initiation cult (in which rites and mysteries were revealed progressively to initiates of the cult). Central to the Eleusinian Mysteries was the myth of the abduction of Persephone (etymologically, the thresher of grain or, according to classical authors, bringer of death), daughter of Demeter, by Hades, god of the underworld and the mineral riches of the earth (etymologically, 'the unseen'; the Roman name, Pluto, is derived from the Greek for 'he of riches').
The abduction of Persephone, as the daughter of the goddess of the earth's bounty, by the god of its unseen riches, symbolised, in the Eleusinian Mysteries, death. Persephone's name is interpreted, by classical authors, as meaning 'the deceased'; she is often depicted, as Hades' abducted consort, in funeral garb.
Zeus, Hades and Poseidon were the three brothers from whom the other Olympian gods were descended, in Greek myth. They divided the cosmos between themselves: to Zeus went the heavens and the earth; to Hades, the hidden depths of the earth, and to Poseidon, the sea. Poseidon, being jealous of his elder brothers' domains, interfered: he shook Hades' domain with earthquakes, and inundated Zeus' with floods. The Greeks, in fact, considered the sea deeply suspect; sacrifices were to be made before a sea voyage, because the sea was not the natural preserve of humankind, who belonged on dry land, and permission should be sought of Poseidon, as its lord, and Okeanos, as its primordial personification.
The myth of Areion seemingly antedates Poseidon's more famous 'quarrel with Athena', in which he created the horse to win the right for the naming of the city of Kekropia, which later became the Acropolis of Athens. In this myth, Poseidon pursued Demeter, who, spurning his advances, transformed herself into a mare. Seeing through her disguise, Poseidon in turn disguised himself as a stallion and mounted her; the horse Demeter gave birth to was Areion - a full god, because both his mother and father were gods, in horse form.
When Hades abducted Persephone, according to the Eleusinian Mysteries, Demeter caused a terrible drought, to draw the attention of Zeus, who, as lord of the cosmos, could secure her daughter's return. Because the drought would have deprived the gods of sacrifice and worship, Zeus intervened, and ordered Hades to return Persephone to her mother. It was in the course of her search for Persephone, however, in the Mysteries, that Demeter first encountered humanity and, by coincidence, taught them agriculture - that is, the drought could never have deprived the gods of worship and sacrifice, because the gift of agriculture was what initially endowed humanity with the surpluses necessary to offer worship and sacrifice to the gods.
It is explained that Zeus was bound by the rules of the more ancient Fates, who decreed that any who ate or drank of the food and drink of the underworld must remain there forever. Zeus, as such, was only able to free Persephone for part of the year. Demeter's drought was the first Winter; Persephone's temporary release was the first Spring; and this cycle would be repeated annually forever. There are inconsistencies: the productive period, in the climate of Mycenaean Greece, was from Autumn to the end of Spring; the dry Summer was the period during which crops could not be grown, and which would have corresponded to Persephone's annual residence in the underworld. However, the Homeric hymn on which the Eleusinian Mysteries were based stated that Persephone's return occurred in the Spring, not the Autumn.
This is after the fashion of mystery cults in the classical world and cross-culturally, in which initial revelations - such as the foundational myth of Demeter, Persephone, Hades and the drought - are subsequently revealed to have been false, and more encompassing cosmological information - the role Demeter played in the endowment of humanity with the capacity of worship and sacrifice, and the role of Persephone, as 'The Deceased', in spurring Demeter's gift of agriculture to humanity - is revealed to have been the 'real' truth all along. The scriptures, if there were any, of the Mysteries are lost to us; in art, however, Persephone's return to Demeter is represented as an ascension which enables the cycle of generations: through Persephone's annual death, as she returns to Hades to be his bride, and rebirth, as she is returned to Demeter, life is perpetuated.
I have argued previously that 'love' and 'death', the Freudian Eros and Thanatos, correspond to 'love' and 'time' on Divers ("and we cut facsimiles of love and death / (just separate holes in sheets / where you cannot breathe, and you cannot see)"). Areion, as the progeny of Demeter and Poseidon, embodies both Demeter's bounty - the nullifying, negating, defeating, repeating joy of life - and Poseidon's envy, which would then correspond to love as a symptom of time (bounty as a symptom of scarcity). The Rharian Field, as the central site of the Eleusinian Mysteries and the key location in its foundational myth of Persephone's rebirth, is a place which demonstrates that love is not a symptom of time; time is just a symptom of love. Persephone is 'The Deceased'; she is the archetype of the dead. She is so because of her mother's longing for her, in her absence: it is Demeter's love which defines death as inhabitance in the underworld. Demeter's love for and her pursuit of her absent daughter also establish the cycle of regeneration, but not in the expected manner: it is not the case, in the Mysteries, that Demeter kills (those affected by her drought) to win Zeus's favour; it turns out, instead, that time, as the cycle of the seasons, which permits eternal life through the death and rebirth of successive generations of living things, is a symptom of Demeter's love.
So, the exhoration of Areion to go free and graze on the Rharian Field is an exhortation of the listener, the accidental progeny of love-life's bounty, to go free and graze on the accidental fruits of its eternal conquest of time-death.