Proverbs 3 & Notes on Bacchus

(Originally written January 26, 2014 on scrap paper)

Proverbs 3

Let me learn 3:5 in less painful terms. Teach me to trust in you and not lean on my own understanding. Give me humility that I may find favor with you. Take me into your confidence and make me righteous. I pray you - "keep my foot from being snared" (Proverbs 3:26).

The History of Western Philosophy
Bertrand Russell

Book I - Ancient Philosophy
Chapter I - The Rise of Greek Civilization

Philosophy begins with Thales and his prediction of an eclipse in 585 B.C. "Philosophy and science - which were not originally separate- were therefore born together" (Russell, 3).

Fate - the belief that something beyond us, and even beyond the gods, controlled the destiny of all. It was something that played a large role in the development of Greek thought. "Fate exercised a great influence on all Greek thought, and perhaps was one of the sources from which science derived the belief in natural law" (Russell, 11).

The Greek word 'ate' is a strong, if not irresistible urge towards crime.

It is a wonder that at the 6th century B.C. amazing achievements in thought developed independently. Greek's Homeric poems solidified, philosophy, mathematics and science also were birthed out of Greece while Buddha, Confucius and Zoroaster began to make their marks in the east.

Understanding Dionysus or Bacchus is critical to understanding Greek thought. Bacchus was originally a fertility cult of Thrace. From there he became associated with beer and wine. This association made him all the more popular. The divine madness of wine became a Bacchic rite.

When the religion of Bacchus migrated to Greece it was met with opposition by the orthodoxy. There were many barbaric elements in it, but it proved to be popular with the women of Greece.

The Bacchic religion is a rejection of prudence through a longing for the savage, primitive nature of things.

The Bacchic religion, although savage in nature, was mystified and spiritualized by Orpheus. Orpheus turned these primitive rites into something spiritual, substituting physical intoxication with the mental intoxication through ascetic traditions.

The Orphics taught the transmigration of the souls. There was a belief in an afterlife for the soul, bliss or suffering for eternity based on one's actions in life.

Orphics believed man was partly of earth and partly of heaven. Through purification, ritual or physical (i.e. abstaining from certain food), the heavenly part would increase and the earthly part decrease.

Orpichs taught that one could become one with the Bacchus. The Orphics desired intoxication through enthusiasm (the god entering the man).

To the Orphic, life is pain and wearisome. It is an endless cycle of births with man stuck on earth when he shouldn't be. Through purification he achieves freedom. Purification through asceticism results in a union with God.