The Marriage Of Cadmus And Harmony, by Roberto Calasso

If Roberto Calasso’s writings inspired the work of ambition that is Foucault’s Pendulum, then Calasso deserved to be ruthlessly skewered as the book’s clueless protagonist.  It is not right to say that this book is bad.  It is certainly the result of someone who has read widely and thought deeply about Greek myth and its significance for Western thought and culture.  As is frequently the case in the author’s body of work, though, the author shows his thinking to be deeply skewed, often ridiculous, and deeply partial in the sense that the author seems to focus solely on the importance of Greek myth to Western patterns of thinking without reflecting upon the moral heritage that we get from Jerusalem.  That the author focuses so much on rape and makes so many ridiculous comments such as when he says that it is pointless to worry about a woman who has disappeared because every woman who is taken wanted to go that the book comes off as highly unpleasant when viewed from the point of view of contemporary standards.  The author clearly wants Greek mythic thinking, not least its division into logical and mystical strands, to be viewed as relevant to Western thought ever after, and that comes with consequences.

This book is almost 400 pages in length and is divided into twelve unnamed sections.  A great many of these focus on Homer, Hesiod and on the relationship between Greek philosophy and myth and poetry and ethics, even if that doesn’t seem to be the right way of putting it.  Some of what the author says, almost in spite of himself, is quite profound, as when he comments that dignity and ridiculousness do not enter into the calculations of the Greek gods.  The author also shows himself to be deeply knowledgeable about the various sexual perversions of the Greeks and their myths, and to also be fascinated by the question of mystical and esoteric aspects of myth.  Whether one is talking about the sacred feminine (or the corresponding seeming hatred of Greek myth for women in the flesh) or about different versions of myth that cast different shadows on the story being told and its possible meaning.  The author seems to view all of the variants as shadows that cast light and that all possible variants of stories are valid as well, which certainly accounts for his interest in the Greek myths that he expresses here.

Ultimately, this book seems like it is written by someone who takes the Greek myths far too seriously.  As I was reading the book, I was struck by the fact that the author takes the Greek mythology as seriously as I take the Bible, and I found that thought provoking and intriguing, even if the author is not someone whose thinking I would have much reason to approve of.  Those readers who share the author’s perspective or who find a deep meditation on the Greek myths and their ethical implications will find much to enjoy in this book, but a great many readers will find this book to be baffling and illogical if they even bother to finish it at all.  Reading this book was not a waste of time, but most of the insight I got out of the book was the way in which it demonstrated the hostility to morality that exists among those who fancy themselves to be students of esoteric mystery systems who seek wisdom without divine revelation and divinity without moral and ethical restrictions.  For such people this book and the Greek mythology that it examines so lovingly and so devotedly are a godsend, but I am not of their tribe.