The Context of Mystery

This morning @dirkjohnson asked if I was familiar with the work of Karl Kerenyi, the mythologist who contributed a great deal to the Eranos Conferences in the early years and collaborated with Jung on The Science of Mythology.  It so happens that earlier in the week I began re-reading Kerenyi’s Apollo.

What’s striking about all of Kerenyi work is how masterfully he places the mythic experience into context.  For example, the passage my eyes enjoyed this morning is worth sharing:

“Should we wish to ascertain the details of this archetypal experience, we should examine those pagan texts containing the extremely evocative force of mythology – where simile and simile-like passages are employed to describe otherwise indescribable events and actions.  Such a text is Virgil’s description of the Apollonian revelation to the Sibyl in Book 6 of the Aeneid…Before all else, it seems to be essential to anticipate the revelation at a location which has many entrances and exits.  Here is the renowned cavern in the hillside at Cumae:

“Where one hundred broad entrances and one hundred mouths lead down,

And from which rush so many sounds, the replies of the Sibyl.”

Karl Kerenyi, Apollo, pg. 16

It takes a masterful eye to recognize the pattens of initiation and encounter, such as the many passageways of this cavern.  Kerenyi’s work always places the reader before the depths.

(The other great thing about his works, he always send you on a treasure hunt.  Currently I’m tracking down Euripides Ion, a play that slipped past me and I’m now eager to read.  The greatest authors expand the geography of mind beyond their own pages.)