Episode 60 The Pursuit of Greatness (Part 21 of Series)
To listen to the audio version, please click on the link below (10:13):
In retrospect, we can see that this transformation is not an afterthought on the part of the storytellers. Rather, all the obstacles the heroes faced were intended for this purpose: to mold them into exemplary individuals.
Heracles is born strong, but he is not born great. Greatness comes only as he performs the Twelve Labors set before him by Eurystheus (Gods and Heroes of the Greeks: The Library of Apollodorus, Michael Simpson, trans. (Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press, 1976), chapter 5). Each task seems impossible, even for a man of superhuman strength. He must kill a lion that cannot be hurt by weapons and a many-headed monster that grows two heads for each one that is cut off. He must clean Augeus’ thousands of stables in a single day. He must bring back the Golden Apples of the Hesperides, even though he does not know where they are to be found. He must drag up into daylight Cerberus, the three-headed dog-guardian of Hades.
As Heracles accomplishes one and then another of these assignments, he grows in stature. Nor could he have become great in any other way. To be born strong means nothing. In Greek mythology, the point is to use such strength in overcoming impossible odds. The Greeks celebrate accomplishments, not mere potential. And accomplishments come about only through hard work.
The hero Theseus understands this early in life (Plutarch’s Lives (2 vols.), trans. John Dryden, ed. A. H. Clough (New York: Random House/Modern Library, 1992), vol. 1, 1-24). He has just come of age and must go to Athens in search of his father, who left his mother before Theseus was born. His mother wants him to cruise to Athens in comfort, but young Theseus refuses. Referring to his cousin Heracles, he points out that one does not become a hero by taking the easy way. Instead, Theseus travels to Athens by foot, using a highway that is known to be full of danger. Along the way, he meets a number of villains and serves them justice. By the time he arrives at Athens, his fame has preceded him.
But Theseus’ ascent toward greatness has just begun. Next he survives an assassination attempt by his stepmother. Then he voluntarily joins a delegation sailing for Crete. For diplomatic reasons, this group of young people must be sacrificed to the Minotaur—a hungry creature who is half-bull and half-man. With the help of Ariadne, daughter of the king of Crete, he navigates the Minotaur’s maze, kills the Minotaur, and leads the other members of the group to safety. Unfortunately, his father kills himself over a mixup in signals. (Theseus is supposed to replace the black flag aboard ship if he returns successful, but he forgets to do so.) Theseus now becomes the leader in Athens and inspires the Athenians to form a commonwealth in which all people can be equal.
As in the case of Heracles, Theseus attains greatness only by taking on tough assignments and handling them with courage and good heart. Theseus becomes wise through his struggles, and the Athenians benefit from his wise leadership.
Moving on to other texts……
After laying on his back on the floor, St. Francis of Asisi commands Brother Bernard to stand on top of him with one foot on his master’s neck and the other on his mouth, firing insults at him. Brother Bernard cannot disobey the order, but he carries it out as “courteously” as possible (Raphael Brown, trans., The Little Flowers of St. Francis (Garden City, NY: Image Books, 1958), Part 1, Number 3, p. 47). Strange as this behavior may seem to those outside the Franciscan order, St. Francis hopes to gain something from being mistreated in this way by his subordinate. He hopes to be shaped into a humbler person through the experience.
On the other hand, Francis is quite willing to spread the humiliation around when he feels it will be helpful. On one occasion he embarrasses Brother Masseo by commanding him to twirl in place until he is too dizzy to stand (Ibid., Number 11). And then Francis gives him a number of menial tasks in order to test his humility (Ibid., Number 12). We are not to feel sorry for Brother Masseo, however, for he greatly needs the practice. When an angel messenger knocks loudly at the gate of the monastery, the friar lectures him on the correct way to knock. And when the angel knocks loudly a second time, Brother Masseo tells him, “You did not knock the way I told you to do” (Ibid., Number 4, p. 50). Brother Masseo has some lessons to learn, even if it means that he must twirl in place on occasion.
But of all the members of the Franciscan order, Brother Juniper takes the prize for consistent self-deprecation. He loves to be ridiculed, and so he is pleased when he is almost hanged as a result of a misunderstanding (Ibid., Part 3, Number 3). He goes into town naked so that children will mock him, and when his fame travels ahead of him on a trip to Rome, he behaves foolishly so that people will lose their reverence for him (Ibid., Numbers 8-9).
As masochistic as this behavior may seem, the storytellers are trying to show how much Brother Juniper has grown. When he first started out trying to overcome temptation, the hardest thing for him to endure was an insult. These stories illustrate how thoroughly he has “conquered himself” (Ibid., Number 3, p. 226). And he has done this by repeatedly confronting the thing he finds most unbearable.
On one occasion he asks rhetorically: Who wouldn’t carry a basket of manure through town in return for a house full of gold? (He assumes that we would all line up if this opportunity were extended to us.) Then he adds: “Ah, why do we not want to endure a little shame in order to gain eternal life..?” (Ibid., Number 12, pp. 235-236). Heroes in all the world’s religious traditions have had to carry their baskets of manure and endure their shame in order to achieve greatness.
The Buddha tells his disciples to imagine a beauty contest (Jataka, Number 96). Between the winning contestant and the cheering crowd comes a man carrying a pot of oil filled to the brim. Behind him is a swordsman, poised to cut off his head if he spills a single drop. The crowd is shouting about how beautiful the woman is, and the man with the pot has the best view in the house. But if he takes his eyes off the pot for even one second, it will cost him his life. Somehow he must get through the crowd without spilling the oil.
“That would be hard!” the Buddha’s disciples say.
But the Buddha disagrees. It would be easy! Anyone could stay focused on the pot of oil if he had a swordsman breathing down his neck. The hard thing is to keep your thoughts collected at all times, under all circumstances, without a swordsman behind you. And that is what you must do if you want to attain enlightenment.
Mythic Adventures 