The emergence of philosophical and scientific knowledge in Ancient Greece was preceded by “mythological” knowledge — rooted in the life of the clan community and expressed in numerous forms of ritual practice and in the sacred legends of the Greek people — myths. Myth (Greek μύθος — “legend”, “story”) is a multi-layered and polyfunctional formation. Its main purpose is to present the experience of the interconnection of things as immediately given and “obvious”. From this follow its two fundamental characteristics: 1) the inseparability in the mythological representation of the material and the social, man and thing, thing and word, object and sign, the inseparability of the “subjective” and the “objective” in general — for which reason in ancient societies the explanation of the essence of a thing and the world was traditionally reduced to a “story” (legend) about creation or “natural” origin; 2) the content of the myth always seemed to ancient man to be “authentic” and “undoubted” (due to the “reliability” of understanding the world in the experience of many generations) and for this reason was usually the subject of stable faith and never of abstract criticism.
Myth served as a regulator of the entire social life of ancient (primitive) society, defined the boundaries of what was permitted and what was not, sanctioned and supported certain norms (stereotypes) of thinking and behavior. In myth, the relationships between things are conceived as relationships between people in human society. The anthropocentrism of mythological ideas is most clearly manifested in panpsychism (Greek – “all” and ψυχή – “soul”). All objects are thought of as more or less animated: like man, they are friendly or hostile to each other, strive for each other, attract each other, etc. On the other hand, from the beginning of time, a contract seems to have been concluded between things and man, according to which everyone must occupy the place allotted to him; whoever violates this law violates “justice” itself, since he encroaches on the rights of others; he must be punished and again take his original place. Trees and flowers are nourished by the earth, the earth by the sun’s rays, the sun by the vapors of the sea, the sea by its moist waters, the waters by the aroma of flowers and trees, and as a result of this cycle “justice” is restored. “If the winds did not disturb the sea,” says one ancient poem, “it would be impeccably just” (Solon, fr. 13, trans. S. Ya. Lurye). All things are connected with each other in a single natural circulation of substances; they are homogeneous – in the sense in which all people living in a clan community are “homogeneous”. The unity of the kinship relationship of things and people finds its expression in myth, i.e. in a living “legend” about the times when this connection was first (and “forever”) established. Philosophy and science arise in Ancient Hellas when the original interconnection of things loses its obviousness, and the truth of myth ceases to be sufficient and undoubted for man.
The pre-philosophical experience of understanding the content of myth in Ancient Greece were the poems of Homer (8th century BC) and Hesiod (beginning of the 7th century BC).
In Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey and in Hesiod’s Theogony, traditional myths were for the first time subjected to rationalistic processing and became the object of artistic aestheticization. In Homer’s poems, as in myths, the actions, decisions and inner motivations of the heroes are still explained by divine intervention. However, at the same time, the immortal gods cease to be simply amorphous and nameless “forces”, acquiring quite visible outlines. The gods in Homer’s poems are depicted as vividly and individually as the mortal heroes. They are omnipotent, beautiful, immortal, but in other respects they display purely human qualities: the gods are capable of experiencing feelings of joy, anger, envy and love; having fun and experiencing physical suffering. Man himself (Achilles, Odysseus), according to Homer, is only a visible mortal body (Greek σώμα – “body”, “bodily composition”; cf. Homer. Iliad, I, 4); on the contrary, the source of the formation of the personal properties of man (as well as the subject of consciousness, memory, speech) is something that is called the word “thymos” (Greek θυμός – “spirit”, “breath”, “soul”; cf. Russian “smoke”); “Thumos” fills either the lungs (Greek φρένες) or the heart (Greek τορ, καρδία), and dies (“disperses”) after the human soul (Greek ψυχή) (immortal, but without a body, not thinking and not feeling anything) flies away from the body and ends up in Hades (“the kingdom of the dead”, “shadows”) forever.
Along with human nature and the gods of Olympus, the Earth and the entire universe also acquire visible outlines in Homer’s poems. The surface of the Earth is likened to a flat disk, which is washed on all sides by the Ocean, a huge circular river. The Ocean is the “ancestor of the gods,” “from which everything comes” (Homer. Iliad, XIV, 201; 246). From above, the world is covered by a heavenly (“copper” — Homer. Iliad, V, 504; XVII, 425; Odyssey, III, 2 or “iron” — Homer. Odyssey, XV, 329; XVII, 565) hemisphere; The space beneath it consists of two regions: in the upper region, filled with light, transparent ether (αίθήρ — “light, transparent air”), Zeus and the Olympian gods reside (Homer. Iliad, II, 412; IV, 166; Odyssey, XV, 523); in the lower region, filled with air (Greek ήρ — “damp, heavy air”) and inhabited by people, fogs, rains and clouds arise. The underground world (“invisible”) has a similar structure: the upper part of the underworld, the closest to people, is the kingdom of the dead, Hades (Greek Άίδης — literally “invisible”); the lower one — Tartarus — is located at a distance from the Earth equal to that at which the sky is from the Earth, located in the center. Thus, at the council of the gods, Zeus threatens to deal with the supposed disobedient god from among the Olympians:
Or I will seize him and cast him down into gloomy Tartarus,
Into the distant abyss, where under the earth there is the deepest abyss;
Where there is a copper platform and iron gates, Tartarus,
As far from hell as the bright sky is from the valley!
( Homer. Iliad, VIII, 13-16. Translated by N. I. Gnedich).
Hesiod’s Theogony (Greek θεογονία – “the origin of the gods”) contains a detailed description of Tartarus: it is an empty, dark abyss in which whirlwinds rush; its entrance is like a narrow neck, above which the “roots” or “sources” of the earth, sky and sea diverge. In the beginning, according to Hesiod, there was Chaos (Greek χάος – “yawn”), then came “broad-breasted Gaia” (Earth), gloomy Tartarus and the most beautiful of the gods – Eros (Love). Chaos is a gaping void between earth and sky, Gaia is the unshakable foundation of all that exists, Love is the sweet cause of all conceptions and births:
First of all, Chaos was born in the universe, and then broad-breasted Gaia, the universal safe haven, gloomy Tartarus, lying in the deep bowels of the earth, and, among all the eternal gods, the most beautiful, – Eros the Sweet-languishing – he conquers the soul in the chest of all gods and earthly people and deprives everyone of reason. ( Hesiod. Theogony, 116-122. Translated by V. V. Veresaev).
According to the later interpretation of Aristotle (Metaphysics, I, 4, 984 b), Chaos in Hesiod is space, Gaia is the primary matter of all things, Eros is their driving force. From Chaos and the Earth through Love arose all other parts of the universe – Darkness (Erebus), the bright Ether, Heaven (Uranus), the Sea, the Sun, the Moon, etc. All gods are related by Hesiod to either the “elder” or the “younger” generation, between which there is a struggle, and the “younger” overcome the “elders”. The anthropomorphic Olympic gods of the Iliad and Odyssey (Zeus, Hera, Athena, Hephaestus, etc.) turned out to be the “youngest” in this system.
In his poem Works and Days, Hesiod describes in detail the life of human generations, passing through five successive “ages”: the “golden age”, the “silver age”, the “copper age”, the so-called “heroic age” and the “iron age”. The first of the human generations of each “age” is created by some god (Kronos creates the people of the “golden age”, Zeus – all the rest), and the last “is covered by the earth”, i.e. perishes.
First of all, they created a golden generation of people
Ever-living gods, owners of the Olympic dwellings,
At that time, Kronos the ruler was also the ruler of the sky.
Those people lived like gods, with a calm and clear soul,
Not knowing grief, not knowing labors. And sad old age
I didn’t dare approach them. Always equally strong.
They had arms and legs. They spent their lives in feasts.
And they died as if they were in the grip of sleep. Disadvantage
He was unknown to them in anything. A large harvest and abundant
They themselves provided grain-producing lands. They,
They worked as much as they wanted, calmly collecting wealth.
( Hesiod. Works and Days, 109-119. Trans. V. V. Veresaev).
The reasons for the death of the people of the “golden age” are not exactly known, the “silver age” came to an end, since people “did not pay honors to the blessed gods”, and the people of the “copper age” perished in civil war; the people of the fourth “age” are “the divine race of heroes” who once fought and died under the walls of Thebes or Troy; the fifth “age”, the “iron age”, is the “present age” – the “age” of worries and discord, envy and violence.
If only I could not live with the generation of the fifth century!
I would like to die before him or be born later.
The earth is now inhabited by iron men. There will be no
They have no respite from work and grief, neither at night nor during the day,
And from misfortunes. The gods will give them heavy worries.
( Hesiod. Works and Days, 174-178. Trans. V. V. Veresaev).
Another experience of pre-philosophical understanding of the world order in its coherence and integrity was the experience of the “seven wise men” (early 6th century BC). They were Thales of Miletus, Bias of Priene, Pittacus of Mytilene, Solon of Athens, Cleobulus of Lindus, Periander of Corinth and Chilon of Sparta. According to legend, fishermen on the island of Kos once pulled a magnificent golden tripod out of the sea. The Delphic oracle ordered that it be given to the wisest man in Greece. The find was first taken to Thales, but he refused to acknowledge himself as the wisest and sent the tripod to Bias, Bias sent the tripod to Pittacus, Pittacus to Cleobulus, Cleobulus to Periander, Periander to Chilon, Chilon to Solon, Solon back to Thales, after which Thales sent it to Delphi with the accompanying inscription: “Thales, twice recognized as the wisest among the Hellenes, dedicates this tripod to Apollo.” Each of the “seven wise men” was famous for his short sayings – “gnomes” (Greek γνώμη – “opinion”, “saying”, “definition”), in which, in their own way, briefly and aptly for contemporaries, a kind of summary of traditional folk (“everyday”) wisdom was summed up. Sayings existed either in the form of answers to some “eternal” question, or in the form of maxims regarding the “proper” and “due.” For example, according to legend, Thales of Miletus, the first “sage” and the first ancient philosopher, asserted: “The oldest of all is God, for he is eternal. The most beautiful of all is the world, for everything in it is consistent and harmonious. The greatest of all is space, for the world is in it, and everything else is in the world. The most reasonable of all is time, for it teaches everything. The most inalienable of all is hope, for it is present even in those who have nothing else. The most useful of all is virtue. The most harmful is vice. The strongest of all is inevitability, for it rules over everything. The easiest of all is moderation, for without moderation even pleasure becomes a burden.” Solon asserted: “The main thing in life is the end” and “Nothing beyond measure.” Thales: “Do not vouch for anyone.” Bias: “The worst are in the majority everywhere.” Periander: “Restrain your anger.” Pittacus: “What angers you in your neighbor, do not do yourself.” Cleobulus: “Moderation is above all.” Chilo: “Know yourself.”
In the sayings of the “seven wise men” and in the poems of Homer and Hesiod, the content of the myth first receives its explanation and justification, i.e. it becomes visible and “commonly understandable”, acquires certainty and reveals its limitations. The myth ceases to be perceived as a living reality and “obviousness”, inaccessible to criticism and comprehension. The unconscious human experience ceases to be the experience of the world; the world is lost in the diversity of many different things and becomes alien and “new” to man, on the one hand, and arousing his curiosity, on the other. It is with “surprise” and curiosity about things happening in the world that philosophy and science begin in Ancient Greece. These feelings never left it. Traditionally, the history of ancient philosophy is divided into three periods:
1.
Archaic (philosophy of “early Greece”): 6th – 1st half of the 5th century BC. At this time, the traditional clan community disintegrates, and the first Greek city-states – poleis – emerge. The growth of cities, the development of crafts and trade, the emergence of monetary relations caused a deep stratification of society, accompanied by the discrediting of the norms of customary (clan) law. The crisis of the clan affected not only the limitation of the role of family ties in human society; in this era, the very homogeneity of things loses its obviousness, and the world appears for the first time in all its diversity. At the same time, a gap occurs between the “mythological” (“what has always been”) and the “historical” (“happening now”); this gap gradually develops into a conflict and leads to the emergence of philosophical and scientific knowledge. Philosophy at this time is identified with “curiosity”, i.e., the desire of man to determine the specificity (“place”) of each thing within the cosmic world order. Man perceives himself as a “thing among things” of this world, whose place also needs to be defined. The experience of the interconnection of things, which has become problematic, finds its philosophical justification either in the theory of a thing as an element of an organized totality – the cosmos, or in the theory of a thing as a totality of elements. “Cosmos” (world) and “physis” (nature) are key words of the early Greek philosophical tradition.
2.
Classical (philosophy of “classical Greece”): 2nd half of the 5th-4th centuries BC. This is the time of the flourishing of polis democracy and the establishment of civil law norms as rules of universal legislation. Economy, state, morality, education – all aspects of social life become the subject of practical discussion and theoretical reflection. Man ceases to be a “thing among things” and becomes a “man among people”, perceiving the world and himself from within a specifically human (social and civil) experience. The interconnection of things, their causal (formal, material and purposeful) determination, the very nature of the existence of a single thing receive their philosophical justification in the unity of the concept (“form”, “idea”) and being. At this time, philosophy for the first time acquired an independent status, combining two aspects at the same time: “scientific” (the formation of philosophical concepts—the “foundations of being”) and “educational” (the formation of man—the “ideal citizen”). The identity of these aspects formed the basis of the first philosophical systems—Plato and Aristotle. Among the individual characteristic features of classical Greek philosophy are: the identification of knowledge and virtue, the distinction between the “right and justice of nature” (“physis”) and the “right and justice of the law” (“nomos”), the assertion that “man is the measure of all things,” etc.
3.
The Hellenistic period is divided into two stages: 1) the early Hellenistic: from the end of the 4th century to the end of the 1st century BC; 2) the late Hellenistic (or Greco-Roman): from the end of the 1st century BC to the 6th century AD. This period saw the decline of the Greek city-states and the loss of Greece’s political independence. The old forms of government were replaced by new ones: the Hellenistic monarchies and the Roman Empire. The “Hellenistic” man ceased to be a citizen of his native polis and became a “cosmopolitan” – a representative of “world citizenship”. The entire period was characterized by the consideration of philosophical problems of knowledge and being in order to determine the norms and standards of the “right life”. The “conceptual” nature of thinking was replaced by a “value attitude”: a thing was transformed from a concept into a value. The value and reliability of thinking itself were called into question. Philosophy evolves from a general science into a “scientific discipline” or into a series of corresponding “disciplines” – logic, physics, ethics. In the early stages of the Hellenistic era, the search for a new worldview gave rise to numerous philosophical schools and a sharp struggle between them (Stoics, Cynics, Epicureans, Academicians, Peripatetics, Skeptics). In the era of late Hellenism, attempts are made to reconcile conflicting doctrines, to develop a universal worldview – eclectic teachings are created, eventually absorbed by Neoplatonism.