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Hegel and the Concept of Religion in Greek Tragedy Portland State University PDXScholar Dissertations and Theses Dissertations and Theses 1975 Hegel and the Concept of Religion in Greek Tragedy Barbara Scot Portland State University Let us know how access to this document benefits ouy . Follow this and additional works at: http://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds Part of the Continental Philosophy Commons, and the History of Religion Commons Recommended Citation Scot, Barbara, "Hegel and the Concept of Religion in Greek Tragedy" (1975). Dissertations and Theses. Paper 2263. 10.15760/etd.2260 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations and Theses by an authorized administrator of PDXScholar. For more information, please contact [email protected]. ) . ~ AN ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS OF Barbara Scot for the Master of Arts in History presented July, 1975. Title: Hegel and the Concept of Religion in Greek Tragedy. APPROVED :BY MEMBERS OF THE THESIS COMMITTEE: Susan Karant-Nmm Charles LeGuin David Newhall ~ A parallel can be drawn in intellectual development between ancient Greece and late eighteenth century Eu.rope concerning the secularization of the religious myth. This parallel is illustrated in a literary mode in Greece and in a philosophical mode in Europe. In both historical situations the intellectual development of a society was posited in a delicate balance of a religious mythical interpretation of human existence and in a growing assertiveness of the self-consciousness of the individual. A significant point of analogy is the similarity of the Greek tragedians' attempt to define man in relation to the gods a.nd Hegel's fo:rmu.lation of a philosophy which suspended in a delicate semantic balance the religious tenninology of his Christian heritage and the intellectual developments of the preceding century. To develop and research this analogy ·:required an extensive reading of the Greek tragedies and Hegel's writings on religion. From Aeschylus' works I chose Prometheus Bound and the trilogy of the Orestia to illustrate the seeds of humanism. In Sophocles' Antigone and Oedipus !i Colonus heroes have grown to a dignity articulated through suffering that extends the humanistio view. Euripides completes the secularization of religious myth by illustrating in the 13a.cchae the retu:rn to an anthropomorphic representation of myste:r;:y :religion and the problem this sort of religious myth poses for a society which is based on reason. In attempting to understand Hegel's :religious thought, it was necessary to formulate a linear progression by reading ~ Positivity .2! ~Christian Religion, ~Spirit 2!_ Christianity, ~Introduction~ ~Lectures £?.!!. Religion, and ~Phenomenology Ef.. Mind. l3y following this order, I saw an attempt to reconcile the Christian myth to the Age ~ 2 of Reason, whioh led to the ultimate statement in the Phenomenology of an integration of philosophy and ;religion that passes out of any conventional Christianity. The most important secondary sou.roes for the interpretation of the tragedies were F. M. Com.ford, who in his book ~ Religion !2, Philosop~ traces the evolution of Greek intellectual thought; Werner Jaeger, who in Paideia: The Ideals S2£. Greek Culture, explores the mind of Athens through a thorough discussion of the tragedians; and Erle Voegelin, whose Order ~ History, Volume two, ~ World .9.f. the Polis provided the model of comparison for re-occuring intellectual cycles following a paridimatio set. E. M. Butler's study ~ ~y 91. Greece Over German..y provided the tra.nSition for the analogy I wished to construct by examining the influence which the Roman.tie concept of ancient Greece had on the development or intellectual thought in Germany. While her study was primarily ooncemed with literary figures rather than philosophers, it was these figures who were most influential on Hegel's thought. Of these varied literary influences, I dealt briefly with Lessing, Goethe, Schiller and Holderlin. The most important interpreter of Hegel is Walter Kaufmann, but his biased interpre~ation of Hegel as a secular thinker mu.st be balanced with G. N. Findlay's portrayal of Hegel as sincere in his religious convictions. The ambiguity in interpretations of Hegel's religious writings demanded extensive reading of Hegel's works and an occasional bravery in individual interpretations. Jaeger's summary of the factors which expidited the transformation ... ..._,_.. .... ~ ~ 3 of myth in ancient Greece provided the basis for an analogy to the development of atheistic humanism in early nineteenth century Germany. Bourgeois ideals, rhetoric and philosophy destroyed :religious myth in ancient Greece, and the same th.l:'ee factors influenced and changed the Christian myth in eighteenth and nineteenth century Europe. The drama.tic statement of ancient G~ece re.fleeted in the tragedians was re-a.rticu­ lated in another literary form by Hegel, the German philosopher who created a secular statement of ma.n's capabilities whose religious semantic framework was no longer able to contain it. t.~"'·• "''- ~ HEGEL AND THE CONeEPr OF RELIGION IN GREEK TRAGEDY - by Barbara Scot A thesis submitted in partial .fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MAffilER OF ARI'S in HISTORY Portland State University 1975 ~ TO THE OFFICE OF GRADUATE STUDIES .AND RESEARCH: The members of the Committee approve the thesis of Barbara Scot presented July, 1975. Michael F. Reardon, l.:hai:rman Sus Charles LeGu.in David Newhall .APPROVED: David Clark, Dean of Graduate Studies and Research July, 1975 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Introduction • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 1 Chapter I • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 4 II • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 23 III • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 34 IV • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 52 Footnotes • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 55 :Bibliography • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 62 ~ In the development, flowering, and demise of Greek tragedy, an artistic statement was made which reflected a significant shift in man's self-conscious awareness of his place in the universe. Eric Voegelin concluded that an historical course of events is present "when the order of the soul becomes the ordering force of society."1 Voegelin saw in the statement of the dramatists, especially Aeschylus, the "historical 2 drama. of the soul," or as he also stated, the "order of the soul in historical evoluti~n."3 An interesting parallel can be drawn between this position of the soul in its historical evolution in Greek tragedy and the situati~n which occurred in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century in Ge:rma.n philosophy. In both historical situations, the intellectual development of a society was posited in a delicate balance of a religious mythical interpretation or human existence and a growing assertiveness of the self-consciousness of the individual. To encompass the entirity of this parallel position, it would be necessary to discuss both the transformation from religion to philosophy in ancient Greece and the secularization of Christian thought to atheistic h1lmanism in modern Europe, a project beyond the scope of this· pa.per. However, interesting and fruitful comparisons can be made by examining ind.ivid- uals within the process. It is my thesis that a significant point of analogy is the similarity of the Greek tragedians' attempt to define man in :relation to the gods, and Hegel's formulation of a philosophy which suspended in a delicate semantic balance the religious terminology of his Christian heritage and the intellectual developments of the preceding century. ~ 2 It is particularly interesting to draw this analogy because of Hegel's own fascination with classical Greece and his preoccupation with the form, content, and statement of Greek tragedy. Although Hegel was :reflecting a fascination that was widespread among the intellectual circles in the late eighteenth century, he was intensely personal in his identification with Greek culture, both through his literary associates · such as Holderlin, and through his identification as the perpetuator of the Aristotelian tradition in western thought. The major point of my consideration is that the philosophy of Hegel embodies a humanistic statement of man's potentialities which contains the very seeds of destruction to the intellectual viability of the :religious concepts around which it was framed, and that this paradoxical situation is analogous to the :religious situation presented in Greek tragedy. The trans.fomation of religious thought that is re.fleeted in Greek tragedy from Aeschylus to Euripides is the central statement of the transfo:rmation from myth to philosophy. According to Eric Voegelin, the actual transformation was a process o.f the myths being absorbed into a growing self-conscious awareness based on man's attempt to construct an order to his experience and existence through the application of reason. It was a process by whioh "the speculative :reason of the thinker asserts its autonomy against the mYthopoetic mode of expression."4 Hegel, a :product of the distinctly Germanic version of the Enlightenment, which refused to dismiss the Christian "mythopoetic mode of expression", attempted to traoe the process by which the speculative reason, both of the individual and the historically evolving society, could achieve autonomy through the prevailing "mythopoetic mode." His philosophy, ~ 3 like the dramatic statement of
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