A very interesting letter John. If I recall right, the english word
Logos has several
meanings. In fact, it's quite a complicated set of nested meanings,
and difficult to
untangle. Can you throw any light on the word logos as it is used by
Heraclitus, by
other Greek philosophers , and then in the Gospels ("In the beginning
was the Word,
and the word was made flesh " or somesuch), where i think 'Word' is the english
translation of greek 'Logos', isn't it ? And the the logos is Christ,
- the introduction
of God/the principle of life/the intellectual faculty into the
material world, or maybe
that primary principle as manifest in each individual.
I think that there is another interesting tale from roughly the
period we are considering,
and that is the Epic of Gigamesh, which relates a tension between
wilderness and the
first cities. Enkidu, a hero of the story, can be seen as symbolising
the life of the
hunter/gatherer and the principle of human wildness. Enkidu is
seduced and corrupted
by the temptations and illusions of civilisation.
C.L.
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