The first in a series of lectures and discussions on the history of humanism was given by Dr. Randall O. Stewart, Ph.D., at the September meeting of the Utah Humanists. The topic was "Humanism in Ancient Greece and Rome."

Professor Stewart began his lecture by explaining the "standard story line" that most scholars believe the lives of ancient Greeks and Romans were dominated by gods and goddesses and religion. These cultures believed that supernatural forces controlled the everyday events of their lives, and they naturally ascribed these events to these gods, accepting the literal existence of deities. Pre-Socratic philosophers began looking for scientific explanations, but still acknowledged the gods, and the god's control. This changed with the philosophers Socrates and Plato, who started to debunk myths and introduce rationalism.

The Mythical Mind

After this explanation, Professor Stewart introduced his own interpretation: that the mythical mind saw the natural phenomena in the world as mysteries; therefore, the writers of the day created poetic mythical explanations which were metaphorical. For example, the world was thought to be like a flat plate, and the sun was the great God Apollo with his chariot of fire rising in the east, flying across the sky during the day, and descending into the western ocean at night to float on the great river back to the East. Our present use of the phrase, "Acts of God," to describe natural disasters as events beyond human control, is a metaphor and can help us understand how the ancient Greeks interpreted their world.

In analyzing the myths, some conclusions can be drawn. There are five characteristics of the mythical mind.

1. Everything has a soul, and is living.
2. There is no distinction between the parts and the whole, a part can equal the whole.
3. Any result can come from any cause.
4. There is no distinction between that which is real and that which is unreal.
5. The mythical mind looks at things in a concrete way, rather than in the abstract.

The capability of humans to distinguish between the real and the unreal evolved very slowly. It was a developmental process. If we were to have asked an ancient Greek, "Can't you tell the difference between the real and the unreal?" the question would have made no sense, because they didn't see the difference.

It Is All Metaphors

As we study the ancient myths, we discover we are actually dealing with metaphors - visual and colorful figures of speech used to add depth and meaning to an idea. Humanism can masquerade behind metaphors. If we push the Greek myths far enough, they become rational Humanism, and Humanism was flowering long before Plato's time. An example of rational thinking is when Plato speaks about the gods telling him to do certain things. He couches all their advice in metaphors.

The Bicameral Mind

Professor Stewart then introduced the theory by Julian Jaynes, from his book "The Origin of Consciousness In The Breakdown of The Bicameral Mind" (Houghton Mifflin, 1976). In this theory, early humans had a bicameral mind, or a left brain and a right brain, and could not "think" as we do today. They were unable to introspect, experienced auditory hallucinations, and thought them to be the voices of gods, actually heard, as in the Iliad. These voices, coming from the right brain, told a person what to do under circumstances of stress. When there is a division between the two halves of the brain, people may have related to deities as personifications of inner forces and personality traits.

Homer lived in a culture where the emphasis is on "hero," not the deities. The emphasis is on humanness: life is wonderful even with its pains.

The Iliad

The culture described in the Iliad has these characteristics:

1. There is no sense of divine justice or punishment.
2. The gods neither reward nor punish humans for their actions.
3. Even the most noble person suffers the same pains in the Underworld as the basest criminal.
4. There is no more fear of the gods than of human overlords.
5. One fears only loss of face - one fears shame, as do the gods themselves.

Metaphor/Humanness

The deities represent humanness - metaphors - probably not literal for a large segment of society. For example, Aphrodite is the personification of love, and this makes as much sense as a biological and physiological explanation for this emotion. The comic playwrights and poets of the time perceived the myths of old as metaphors and poked fun at the literal interpretation of these myths. It's all metaphor. Socrates, while in his prison cell, before he drank the hemlock, goes into a long mythical exploration of the afterlife, after which he says, "No sensible man would rely on the things I have just described."

Plato also uses "myths" and "gods" to make his points, and introduces a myth only to dismiss its literal meaning. The underlying meaning is the message. Plato's god was reason; he was talking about his own humanity.

Discussion

During the discussion that followed, Professor Stewart explained that the Greek heroes had certain characteristics attributed to them, such as miraculous births, great deeds, coming back to life, and deification. As we study any of the Greek heroes, we find an extraordinary emphasis on human abilities.

Further, he said that the Greek heroes lived life in the present, and didn't believe in the literalness of their myths. If our myths are taken literally, then it becomes religion. "Myth is somebody else's religion, and religion is misunderstood myth," as Joseph Campbell put it. Jesus is a great metaphor. He teaches us about the things we should be doing now, and he accomplished what is considered the "ideal pattern" of the life of a hero.

Conclusion

In conclusion, he stated that the Greeks loved life, and made the most of the present. Life was great for them: tough but great. They faced the trials and tribulations squarely on their own. They believed in their myths, but only figuratively, and they were mostly speaking about their own humanity.

--Nancy Moore