Good evening everyone! Today we close our cycle of classic books with the Odyssey. I mentioned a little while ago that it is a pity that if we were to take more classics, classical epopeias of humanity, maybe it would not go public, because there are some other things less known that would be worth talking about too. It would be worth talking about the Book of Kings, it would be worth talking about the epic of Gilgamesh, the Eddas, the Scandinavians, so many beautiful things that we do not get to know, sometimes they are much less popular than
a Heliod and an Odyssey. Today we are going to address a classic book, we know what this generated in terms not only of Greece, Because the whole history of Greece was representing Homer, it became a national pride, as well as the history of humanity, because there was no great poet at the time who had not imitated Homer. I think we can say that without fear of making a mistake. Homer almost creates his own language to make his poem. You know that in fact he takes a mixture of several languages at the time and makes a
written language, a written language, and there is a discussion. Nothing in Homer, is proven by the current history, nor his existence. There are those who say that he did not exist. Nationality is crazy, there are even those who say that Homer was Persian. And today he must be re-turning the tomb imagining that. That he could be Persian. It is of everything, because one of the etymologies of his name means exactly, Refrain. Refrain or blind man, which I think is more likely. So people raise the possibility of him being a war refain, that is, maybe a
Persian. There are many stories, I will show one of them to you, which puts him as a descendant of Telemachus, that son of Ulysses, from the Odyssey itself. Anyway, even the most arbitrary dates that you can imagine. There is practically nothing right in terms of history in relation to Homer. But one thing is certain, from all over the world, echoed his message. The language that he practically created, because he merges dialects from all over the Greek corner, was copied from all over the world too. From Mycenae to the Ionian, to the Aeolian, Everything is mixed
there. The language he writes, no one ever spoke. He created a literary language, a mixture of various nuances, Greek dialects. The fact is that he is copied, he inspires a lot, and even the genre with which he writes. Because he is the first writer in history who has this idea of starting the story in half. Those who were in Eneida, remember that it starts like this too, right? It starts in half. Here the Odyssey will also start more than in half. Two thirds forward. When he is almost reaching Ithaca again. I know that the Odyssey
is different from Eneida, unfortunately, because I think Eneida is beautiful, but much less known. The Odyssey, even those who have not read it, have heard the whole story in all sorts of ways. Because even our life is still very influenced by these stories. The cinema explores, not always in a very happy way, but explores to this day. In fact, poor Greeks! If they could, if ancient Greece returned to life, They would ask for million-dollar indemnizations to Hollywood. Because what has already mistreated them, is not a joke, right? And the Trojan War has already suffered mistreatment
of all kinds. From literature to cinema, etc. And some slightly better things too, let's be fair. But the fact is that it has inspired us throughout history. It is obvious that we will talk a little, very quickly, about each passage of the Odyssey. But what I would like most, Since this is not a new story for you, is that you understand the spirit of the Odyssey as a whole, more or less the mythical tone of the Odyssey, than to tell the whole story, different from what happened with Herneida, which was a novelty for you. You
know that the Odyssey comes from the name, the Odysseus, which was the name of Ulysses in Greece. Ulysses is the name he will receive in Rome. And we can't say it's a continuation of the Iliad, because it has a very different tone. The Iliad is a poem that deals with war. The Odyssey is a maritime poem. It is the return of Ulysses home, after ten years of the Trojan War. And he was lost for more than ten years, in the middle of the way. Being lost, he didn't stay long, because at seven he stayed with
the nymph Thalyssus. At seven years old he knew very well where he was. Only at three he was lost. So, in fact, it is all this struggle for Odysseus to return home. The Odyssey, which you must have heard about in this etymology, Means the one who is angry, means the one who is, let's say, choleric. It is a man whose emotions dominate. But it is very curious, because you will remember that Odysseus is the great protected, from the Iliad and by the Odyssey, outside of Athens. And Athens is the lady of wisdom, of the lucid
mind, of the sober mind. And you will see that no one, neither in Iliad nor in the Odyssey, is as mentally arduous as Odysseus. He was the smartest there. All the arduousness of the war were created by him. There is even a dialogue by Plato, wonderful, that I have already recommended to you, which is the Ipius Minor, where he discusses with this sophist, because this sophist said that Odysseus was a liar. This whole dialogue is Socrates defending Odysseus. And defining the truth with it. It is very interesting. But the fact is that I wanted to
show you, How a man can be so brilliant mentally, and his name means to say, angry, angry. One thing is emotion, another thing is reason. They are two very different things. But in fact they are not so much. If we see a little of the historical tradition that speaks of the human being, our mind is one. But it is like a mirror, that when you go down, is hit by emotions. And our mind works a little like the devil's lawyer. Justifies our tastes and our whims. It gives rational justifications, rationalizations, for the most absurd things,
simply because I like it or because I reject it. It invents extraordinary stories, to make what I want be achieved. This is a concrete mind. It is a mind that serves, from which emotion is used, in fact. It falls from emotion. There is a superior mind, which is like this mirror facing up. It is a pure, fraternal mind, focused on the good of humanity, and on the promotion of the evolution of man. And in fact you will see that what Athena wanted, is for Ulysses to bring his mind back up. To purify his mind. But
he still had a lot of debt on the concrete plane. He disagrees with one of the most powerful gods. And you know there are three brothers there, which are Zeus, Poseidon and Hades. They are very powerful. He disagrees with Poseidon, who is the god of the seas. And he practically does not let him go home at all. He is ten years entangled in Poseidon's plots. And Athena is interceding for him. Trying to get him out of Poseidon's plots. It is not the first time we talk about it. I told you that the waters Are very
common. It can never be said in mythology that a symbol is always one thing. A symbol is subject to many interpretations. But it is very common that the waters represent the manifested world. So it's like a mind stuck in the manifested world. Remember what I told you? That if you take a water vessel, in any way I turn it, it's always horizontal. And if you take a flame of fire, in any way I turn it, it's always vertical. It's the cross of the world, the spirit and matter. And we will see that Ulysses, or Odysseus,
as you prefer, is being thrown from one side to the other in the ocean, because he disagrees exactly with this material world. Where he wants to impose his mind, but very tinged with passions, very tinged with vanity, arrogance. There is a very special moment. I don't know if you know, one of the versions I like the most for the cinema of the story of the Odyssey, Is one that is already a few years old, which was made with Isabella Rossellini playing the role of Athena. I don't know if you know, it's already a very old
classic. Today you can find everything on the internet, you will find it easily. And this classic has a passage, which I think is very beautiful, because they assembled an image, which is original, but they assembled it in a way that is plasticly beautiful. It's a moment when Ulysses loses his patience, goes to the beach, and starts to argue with Odysseus. Odysseus wasn't even there, sorry, with Poseidon. Poseidon wasn't even there, but he starts to shoot stones and to fight against a god. Angry because he couldn't get home. Then a huge wave rises, this scene is
very beautiful in this film. And in the concavity of the movie, The wave draws the face of Poseidon. And then he comes to Odysseus and says, I have nothing against you, but in fact, what I want you to understand is one thing, man without the gods is nothing. That is, he intended that he would discover, and all the gods, which are an aspect of unity, they intended that he would discover that your mind can be applied to something divine, and not merely to be able to enhance your cunning, your passions, because Odysseus, from the beginning,
Was characterized by his cunning to get what he wanted, and not what he should. So it's like a human being learning to deal with his mind. It's interesting because when you ... It's very good for us to stop and check etymology, it may seem like a boring science, to get all the words from where they came from, but it's very good when it's about, especially, mythology. Why? Because the names of the characters sometimes hide a lot of their symbolism. Have you ever stopped to think, why did Odysseus become Ulysses? What does one name have to
do with another? They are not even similar. There is another etymological root in Latin. Ulysses, at least where, until today, as it is interpreted, you know that even that, people do not come to a consensus, but it is the one who was hurt in the thigh. Curious, right? What does that mean? You remember that when he gets home, it's one of the scenes that everyone knows, when he returns to Ithaca, he is disguised, his maid will wash his feet and recognizes him for a mark he had on his leg, for a hunt he made of
a javelin. And this javelin seriously hurt him in the thigh. Where did the Greek god Dionysus come from? Then you will say, she's crazy, What does this have to do with history? But where did Dionysus come from? From Zeus' thigh, didn't it? You will see that there is an interesting characteristic in relation to this thigh issue, which is the part of the human body, as far as we know, from human anatomy, which concentrates the largest amount of flesh, of matter. So the thigh is always associated with instincts, the most material part of man. And the
javelin? Then we would have to take, because I don't know mythology, although there is also the javelin of Erimanto, in the Twelve Works of Hercules, but where I know the history of the javelin better, is among the Celts. You know that the Celts did everything, within their mythology, there was a whole cult of the javelins, and the Celts are of Indo-European origin too. That is, the mythology is similar to that of the javelin of Erimanto. Because the javelin looks, and is really very similar, to a pig. Only with a pig, with a horn. And this
horn is a cone, which was one of the sacred symbols of the Celts. So I commented with you on a occasion, I don't know if you remember, that this habit we have of Christmas Eve, putting a little pig with an apple in the mouth, this is a Celtic origin. They considered pigs associated with the Celts. And the apple is the heart. So at Christmas, which is the time of the birth of the spiritual, they kill the pig that enslaved the human heart. Which are the instincts. But the javelin is this instinct, dominated by the cone.
The cone of Cornuália, King Arthur. The cone that has the same symbol of the triangle in India, of the pyramid in Egypt, that is, the cone of the spiritual. It is as if the instincts had been subordinated by the spiritual. And you realize that it is this javelin, that is the bone of Ulysses. Ulysses is the one who was wounded in the thigh. That is, the one who was in a fight. You could compare that Poseidon does not offend me, but I could compare this symbolism of the javelin, with the symbolism of Poseidon himself. It
is a fight for the man to submit to the divine. So this will also happen at the root of his name, in Rome. What do you understand about all this? That Ulysses' fight, the war for him to go home, This Odyssey, which today has become a symbol of complicated travel, this Odyssey is the story of all human beings returning to their true spiritual identity, returning to their essence. And having to subordinate everything that exists within him. Everything that contaminates, everything that makes him selfish, makes him aggressive, makes him beastly, sensual, everything that makes him forget,
remember the lotophagos? All forms of vanity, As it was that Ulysses fled from Polyphemus, who had one eye on his forehead. In addition to being a rooster, what did he have to do? Who remembers? How did he say his name was? Nobody. He has to become nobody. That is, to conquer humility. To subordinate his selfishness, his vanity, his petulance. All Ulysses' stops are in the sense of showing a stop that the human being has to do within himself, To clean up elements that prevent him from reaching Ithaca. To reconquer his own soul, which is represented
by Penelope. Until the final moment comes, almost final, which I think is very beautiful, that does not give much importance, which is when he loses everything and dives into the waters of the ocean, totally despised, and that the goddess leucothesizes him, gives him a veil that covers his own heart. The only thing he had to preserve, The heart. He had to say goodbye to all the defects, all the weaknesses, but preserve his heart. Be it his noblest, highest, most human feelings. But all the gross feelings, all the instincts, he had to leave on the way.
He lost all his ships, lost all his men, even lost his clothes. Which, in fact, you know, as it is a myth, all this was inside him and not outside. He despises any artificial and is totally pure, only with a veil that protects his heart. And so, when he emerges in the ocean, he sees the island of the Phaeacians. That they will be those who will save him. Even the fact that he has to be taken works for this idea of humility, of fraternity, in the sense of knowing how to work for humanity, knowing how
to dominate himself and work more fraternally. Anyway, the whole story of Odysseus is our story. This is what is important for us to understand. It is very difficult, you will see that today it is fashionable to decipher both Iliad and Odysseus. They put a series of symbolism. And no one will ever prove who is more or less right. Sometimes some things fall into my hands that I think are a lot of fantasy. Sometimes some things that can even make sense. But the fact is that no one will ever convince me That what Homer was doing
was not an inner journey for man to conquer himself and conquer his soul. In fact, that's it. The Odyssey is a journey that we all do. And you see that right at the beginning. One of the very beautiful things, is that when it opens, Homer will make an invocation to the muse. And in this prayer, because everything Homer did had to be sacralized, He starts invoking the muse, sacralizing, he will give some tips of what he intends to do. And one of the most serious things that he puts in this prayer, because we remember some
mistakes, of many things he did, but one of the most serious things he did was exactly to devour the cattle of the sun god through the flesh, who left him in the dark. That is, For material and instinctive brutal interests, he profaned what was proper to the spirit. He profaned his intelligence, his creativity, put all this at the service of egoism, of material interests. He profaned the cattle of the sun god. And that makes him have to be punished and despised of all and any weakness, before he can reach his home back. And the decision,
Whether he will or will not reach his home, will be taken by the gods. That is, something divine has to be awakened inside him for him to find his home. So let's review this story quickly. Of course, we don't have much time, so we do another a catch of some elements. As always, this was a lecture scheduled for a slightly longer time. But let's see what we can do. This is the prayer. Today I was preparing a course that in the future I intend to bring here to you, which is the Art War, by Stephen
Pressfield, a modern author who is there, exists. And he, to write, still uses this prayer. Before writing the first word on your computer, he uses this prayer. He said, he taught me another writer, who said that without this he could not do anything. Very, very beautiful. So this prayer, the invocation of Homer to Musa. Oh, divine poetry, goddess, daughter of Zeus, keep this song of the man of multiple interests alive for me, who, after having piled the amulet of the sacred citadel of time, was taken to wander painfully through the coasts of other peoples, living
according to their customs, good or bad, while their heart, through all maritime journeys, suffered in agony to redeem itself and take their men home in safety. Hope goes to them, the fools, their own insensatez disgraced them. Destroy by the flesh the cattle of the most exalted sun, reason why the sun god darkened the day around you. Make this story alive for us in all its multiple meanings. Oh Musa! Very beautiful, right? Very beautiful. Imagine you, Homer, being able to ask anything to Musa, anything. What does he ask? Keep this song alive for me. That is,
I do not forget. Remember the myth of King Arthur, who told you, the greatest evil of man is forgetfulness. I do not forget this song, because this song is not a specific myth of a specific historical time. This is the story of man. If I do not forget it, I can move on. I can save others before they profane the cattle of the sun god. I can teach men to live. And what is part of this song? Everything, all the life of man is contained in this song. See how interesting he speaks, when he speaks
of the cattle, he speaks of the cattle, evidently it is a profanation. When a man profanes the sacred gifts that were given to him. And when he says, make this story live for us in all its multiple meanings. That is, it's like he said to you, This is a symbol. Pay attention! It's not for you to take the foot of the letter. It's not a Greek children's story. This is a symbol, it has multiple meanings. I think it's very interesting, I've already commented with you, it's even something that one day is worth doing. I don't
know if Melissa has not done it yet, a lecture about Don Quixote, by Cervantes. Cervantes puts on the first page, on the cover of his book, After the darkness, I wait for the light. Do you know what that means? People also didn't understand his book, they thought it was a comedy of customs. And there he was also talking about the history of the human being. Plato already said that when man becomes more and more materialistic, he becomes more and more shallow, and no longer understands more symbols. And that's why he recommended that he should not
tell myths to the common man. That they would interpret them at the foot of the letter, and sometimes they could reverse their meaning. So, what are the multiple meanings that we know? How can we ignore that the Odyssey is a deep symbolic language, When the poet himself says it? Clearly, right on the cover. So he asks that this muse, this divine being, inspire him not to forget what is essential in human life. Who was Homer? Then the story, I don't need to read all this for you, I already told you. The century is said to
be about eight. But any other date you look for, you will find it too. Even those who say that he did not exist. Then, nationality, no one gives the slightest idea. It is even put in foreign countries. As I told you, because one of the etymologies of his name is Refugee. So imagine if he could be a refugee from war. So no one knows practically anything, and there is no concrete proof that he really existed. One thing that is said is that he was blind. Which can also be symbolic. This wonderful painting by a pre-Raphaelite
painter, Bouguereau, shows Homer and his guide. He said he was blind, but was he really blind? Or is this a symbolism of him being blind to the vulgar, superficial things and having a more internal view? Looking at higher, brighter things. Who will know that? They doubt that he even existed. Why does this peculiarity of being blind enter? A being that is more for the myth than for the historical. This must have some meaning. Perhaps because he did not look so much outside, but looked more inside. One thing that is commented is that if Homer existed,
he was connected to some form of mystery schools in Greece. There were many, you know. Rome still inherited some, and after that it was dissipating. Egypt had internal or mystery schools. This goes to Greece, this goes to Rome, and with Rome it dissipates, closes, and loses. So he was certainly connected to some of these mystery schools. And his story is a testimony of the movement that he created, to leave a message of his own identity for the man of the future. And he should be someone of a very high degree, because he can. How can
you leave a message that reverberates for more than ... If we say he was from the eighth century? Twenty-eight centuries! Twenty-nine, almost! How can someone have so much willpower, to the point of wanting to communicate with the future and achieve this with so much efficiency, in such an enigmatic language? So complex! So it's interesting, because if he was really connected, he was some priest of some form of Greek mysteries, he should be someone very effective in what he did. Because he can and obtains exactly what he expected. That his message echoed in a very distant
future. How long will the Odyssey echo? I think our grandchildren will still watch movies of the Hollywood grandson. Speaking of that! Because it's impressive, it's a theme that doesn't run out. Never, never, never! The Homeric question is very interesting, because it is said that this was a consultation with the Python. The Python, or Pythia, you know, who was a priestess of the mysteries of Delphi. But there were Python in other mysteries, sometimes not exactly with this name, with the name of Sibylla. However, it was common for the mysteries schools to take women, which are considered
very intuitive, and in general are, To priests who invoked God, and said their messages. As it is not clarified, this Pythia was probably the Pythia of Apollo of Delphi, who received the inspirations of the very god Apollo. Emperor Adrian, well, well later, in 117, already Roman Empire, was curious to know, according to it is said, who Homer was. And Pythia gives this answer, according to what is documented. About what you are, Ignoto, you questioned me. The language and the homeland of the mermaid Ambrose the Canora. Itaca is the natural land of Homer. It was his
father Telemachus and his mother Polyseste, Manestoride, this man from them comes, Polypansabeus. That is, if this makes any sense, it was eternalized by history, this answer from Pythia, Homer would be of the lineage of Ulysses himself. You know that even today, even after archaeologists like Chilas, Philemon and others later, have discovered an archaeological pyramid that is Troy, there are still many historians who believe in Troy, But not necessarily in the Trojan War. And not necessarily that the characters, in fact, have existed. So, despite the existence of Troy today being undisputed, the Trojan War is still
debatable. And many still consider, for example, Ulysses a myth. So, if Ulysses is a myth, his grandchildren much more yet. All these riddles are justified, in exchange for a grand justification of Homer's origin. Anyway, no one will ever know. The fact is that it is curious that Emperor Adrian, who is considered one of the great emperors of Rome, Some of you may have heard of a very good book called Memories of Adrian, by Marguerite and Semar, a beautiful book, because Adrian was really very good, very wise, to have done and to have registered this answer.
I will go into much more detail about this screen, because, as I told you, the characteristic is what is in black. Whenever you talk about Ulysses, you remember one thing. It is the Argus, who was quickly, perspicacious, good counselor and brave warrior. But, above all, the mental aspect is remembered. If you are going to remember a Greek hero for courage, you will not remember Ulysses, you will remember Achilles, You will remember Hector. Ulysses you would remember for mental arrogance. Now, an arrogance that, in principle, is not so pure. It is a little selfish, sometimes a
little dubious, and that goes purifying itself along this journey. And then I brought it just as a curiosity for you, because it is not the first or last myth, which is explored in all ways throughout history. Ulysses and Penelope, Ulysses and his son Telemachus, the famous Trojan horse. One of the most explored themes by the practical arts, throughout history, is Elida and Odyssey. More the Odyssey than Elida, curiously. Both in paintings and sculptures. Do you know that? It is one of the most explored mythical themes in history. So I wanted to bring just a few
images for you, contemporary and more modern, but the amount of very good quality things that exist about it, all the time. Really a psychological impact. Do you realize that when something has a message, it generates a psychological impact, even if the person does not know why? I was commenting with you about the extraordinary, which is a modern example, a musical like Phantom of the Opera, to remain since 1986 in posters, uninterruptedly in London. Do you realize that if it were just entertainment, this would not happen? When something brings some message, even if the man does
not decode it consciously, unconsciously, this generates in him a kind of process, as if it were germinating, fermenting Some process of self-understanding, of understanding. And it pleases more than anything else, even if it is only beautiful superficially. So this is a story that impacts a lot. There is something more behind, obviously. 24 songs. Although Plato, sorry, Homer, he is dividing these episodes, not so much by the songs. Every three episodes receive a name. The Telemachia, which is the story of Telemachia, the Neccia, when he goes to hell. You will notice a lot in common with
Eneida. Evidently Virgil is inspired here. So there are 12,000 verses of six syllables, hexameters. Very difficult, because I told you about all the complex language activities, it is said that Homer practically created a language to write this poem. The story, as I told you, starts in the middle. It starts when he arrives at the island of the Fiascos, That is, it is no longer in the middle, the story is almost ending. And soon we will see this sequence, in fact. Just so we can understand a little better. A map, probably the place that is now
called Ithaca, was not the Ithaca of Homer. By the historical description that the book has, by the geographical description, it was not the Ithaca of Homer. They say it was probably another little island, which today has another name. So it is very much discussed if the geography of Homer, Where was what. But you remember that all these islands also existed in Eneida. That is, they are endowed with more than a geographical meaning. They are proofs. I have also told you a little about the structure of history. There is a part that is when Ulysses leaves
home, and this part is even a little curious, because Ulysses did not want to go to the Trojan War at all. He got to the point of disguising himself as a woman. He did not want to go to the Trojan War. He goes crazy, he does everything he can. He did not want to go. He leaves for Troy, at the age of ten, from Elyda, and then a series of adventures, the arrival of the Phaeacians. The Phaeacians take him home, and when he faces the claimants, which is another complicated story, and the life of his
house while he was absent. Telemachus had months when he leaves. When he returns, Telemachus, his son, was already 20 years old. And Telemachus is also inspired by Athena to make trips, to go after his father. So he visits Nestor, He visits Menelaus himself, who had reconciled with Helena, looking for his father, looking for information about his father. So there are these narratives of the story. Here a little more, I show you that he walked through a lot of places and made a kind of illogical trip. He will be thrown by the winds, over there and
over here, until he reaches his Ithaca. It shows a little there, from his departure from Troy, which is right here at the tip, I don't know if you can see it, until you get to Ithaca, which is right here. But he goes through here. The land of the Trigones laws. He wanders disorderly for ten years. More or less a map showing. And the great dilemma that there was between the god of the seas, with his trident, and the goddess Athena. One trying to hold Ulysses and the other trying to make him arrive. The great question
of Athena is to make Ulysses return home and reign again at home. Reign again on Ithaca. Here, just as a curiosity, so you can see how it is similar, for those who watched the Aeneid, Is him defending himself before the king of the Thais, and telling the story of his entire journey. This is more or less the same thing that Ineas talking to the queen Dido. It is very similar. And from there he starts to return home. It is the moment when he tells his story, before the king Thais, Alcino, who will provide for him
to be taken home. Also a beautiful picture. This image I found, which reminds me a lot of that passage from the movie, That I told you about, when he argues, and he is very daring, you see that he is on the beach, and with the sword he wrings in front of Poseidon himself. He argues with the gods. He thinks he is so powerful, so arrogant, that he puts himself equal to the gods. And so Poseidon stops his journey in all ways, until he understands what he has to understand. Ulysses leaves, from Troy. The first adventure
that happens is this one, Of the Sycones. He goes to an island where there lived a people who had been allies of Troy. And he does not even argue, he attacks the island, kills all the men he meets, tries to kidnap women, then reinforcements come, and already in this first investment of piracy against the Sycones, he loses a lot of men. Then he realizes that he is being decanted, several elements are being cut off from him. Then he already loses a lot of men, and when the Sycones receive the effort, they attack and he has
to flee, and loses a lot of people. He attacks the Sycones simply because in the past they had been allies of an old enemy of his, who in this story had nothing to do with it anymore. Troy's war was over. This thing of being defensive against those who we think are our enemies, which has a lot to do with victimization, has a lot to do with always being thinking guilty of all our problems, And sometimes always being offensive against everything and everyone who can threaten us, even if there is no rational justification. And then, because
of this first impudence, he will already start to be decanted, to lose his men. If we are going to work with a rational mentality, this makes no sense, because the petulance was delicious, why are your men punished? You have to consider that your men are part of him. If you see another Indian epic that we studied at school, Which is the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna, who is a master, who represents his own divinity, instructs Arjuna about the need for him to fight and kill his cousins, his relatives, who are not cousins and relatives, they are his
own defects, his own imperfections. He has so much intimacy with them that they feel as if it were a mutilation. So, losing your men to Ulysses is like losing part of yourself, which are your defects, your arrogance, Your imperfections. Continuing the story, the Lotophagos. This is obvious, there is no need for explanation. His men descend into this island, some beaters get in there, and start to devour some lotus plants there. These are plants that cause total amnesia. People who eat that do not want to leave the island anymore, they forget who they are and want
to stay there. He has to force these men to take them to the force, into the boat, to continue the journey, because they did not want to leave this island anymore. That is, this forgetfulness, this dispersion, this alienation, in a mere comfortable survival, this love or comfort above love and mission, the loss of goals, he has to fight against it, because you would not lose your entire crew there. He brings the men back to the ship by force. So the island of the Lotophagos clearly represents the forgetfulness, the loss of identity, which may be one
of the worst things that can happen to us, in fact. Forget who we are. We remember so many irrelevant details in life, We forget who we are. Then the land of the Cyclopes. This Cyclope, so famous, who was Polyphemus, was the daughter of Poseidon, and you know, you don't have to go into too much detail, he devoured men, he was an anthropophagist. And then, the police with their men are caught, twelve men, inside the Polyphemus cave, and he starts to devour. When he had already killed half, Ulysses gives him a wine, an embryo, tells him
that his name was Ninguém, And in the silence of the night, he holes his eye. Then how did he get out of there? The Cyclope closed the door of the cave. Then he put him and his men, hanging on the belly of the sheep. When the sheep went out to graze, they left together. Then Polyphemus began to scream for the help of his brothers, and his brothers asked him, Who hurt you? Nobody! His name was Ninguém. Nobody, nobody. If nobody hurt you, what can I do for you? So this Polyphemus, which means many visions, many
prophecies, was a man who, it's as if he had already seen that the only way for Ulysses to survive is if he becomes Ninguém. He gives himself the opportunity to cancel himself, as a personality, to erase his own name. The great problem of Ulysses, one of the great ones, he was very vain. So he becomes Ninguém, to be able to get out of there alive. But the great problem of Ulysses, one of the great ones, was very vain. But even so, when he gets into the ocean, He shouts out his true name to Polyphemus. And
Polyphemus starts to take out several rashes, that if it weren't for him, he would have been dead. Ulysses was hard on the fall. It was difficult for him to learn some things. It was arrogance, it is said that it is incarnate arrogance. The mind, when it develops without a moral basis, makes us incarnate arrogance. Continuing, what will our friend go through later? He is of Elos. This Elos, the Lord of the Winds, gets upset with his story and says, You will get home. I will release, I will hold all the winds inside this bag, and
I will release only Zephyrus. Which is the wind that will blow you in the right direction. Now don't open this bag. And then he, very safe, because he was already seeing Ithaca on the horizon, sleeps. Then the ambition of his men, they think that in that bag there was gold. They opened the bag and the winds threw the boat away. They lost sight of Ithaca once again. That is, ambition, greed and also lack of attention. It causes him to lose something that was already within reach. This makes him again be pulled back and have to
suffer a little more before coming back to see his land on the horizon. He would have arrived quickly if he were there. And then he passes near the island of the Lestrigons. The Lestrigons were also anthropophagous, which did not even let them contribute. They were hungry, they were thirsty. The Lestrigons began to take out large rocks and almost sink the ships, and make the ships have to move away without being able to contribute. That is, this aggressive, defensive spirit, This spirit of not allowing the approach of the other, a lack of capacity for coexistence, which
can also be printed there. The Lestrigons do not even allow them to approach. They just let those they want to devour approach. Does this remind you of something? We just let those who have something to offer us approach. Isn't that right? What is this person interested in? What can she feed my interests? If not, neither close nor far. So the Lestrigons were carnivores And do not let them stop there. The Sirse Iria, you know that when she gets there, she gives a series of guloseimas to her men and they all turn into animals. In other
words, in fact, they saw what they already were. They just show that they were brutal and extremely instinctive. Only the Hermes God had given to Ulysses a plant that when he devoured, when he took the portion of the Sirse, he did not turn into an animal. When he did not turn into an animal, he forced her to bring his men back. She was very admired by his power. And in this story, he tried to seduce him and he stayed there for a year in this island. The returns with Sirse. But this exhibition, I already told
you, for example, that within medieval tradition, medieval alchemy, put their odyssey in the following way. The work in black, which is the descent to hell, the work in white, which is purification, and the work in red, which is the ascension of consciousness. The ascension of consciousness would be the arrival of Ithaca. The work in black, which is you confront everything that lives within you, is the observation. It is not that you have turned into an animal, because you saw the animals that exist within you. And purified them, by not subjecting yourself to their command. Do
you understand? When we dive inside us and see all the particular zoology we have in there, and we domesticate them, we do the work in black and the work in white. Which is the observation and the purification. Which represents the island of Sirse, at least in one of the keys. And as you saw, it is a myth of many meanings. Helena Blavatsky used to say that every classic myth is a house with at least seven doors. That is, there are several degrees in which you can decode this. This is a small psychological key. How? The
work in red is the ascension to the divine. Which is his arrival in Ithaca. Then he goes down to hell. Very similar to what Aeneas does in Cuma. He goes to a place where there was an entrance to the very Hades. And there he goes and curiously finds his mother who had died. His mother died of disgust because she thought her son had died. He finds Gamenon, the king who had just been killed by his wife. It's funny because Gamenon's speech to him says to him, Don't go back to Penelope, the women are all treacherous.
I went back to that Teminestre and she killed me. And he goes through all this and your mother tells him what was happening at home. No, you have to go back. Your wife is full of pretenders. They are messing up your house, trying to take power, they are forcing her to marry one of them. You have to go home. So your mother gives him a crutch in his conscience. So he realizes what his mission was. Remember what your mission was. Then the blind Tiresias, who was also there, tells him that if he passed through the
island of the Sun God, he would not touch the cattle. If he touched the cattle, he would lose all his men and would only get home with great suffering. That is, he was still warned. But the temptation of the cattle of Helios was very great. And he will touch the cattle. The Sea of Mermaids, you must have heard of it, one of the passages that I like the most. Once again, the pre-Raphaelites liked this theme a lot. It is a painting by John Willey in Waterhouse, which I think is wonderful. He fills the ears of
his wax sailors and asks them to hold him to the mast. Because he wants to hear the sands, but he wants to resist. And then the sands come and he gets crazy, but he can't dive into the sea behind them because he was tied. That is, he ties himself to the vertical mast of his principles, voluntarily. So as not to give in to the temptations, to the singing of the sands. Today we use exactly this exception. The singing of the sands is those things that pull us to weakness, to the worst of us. He ties
himself to the verticality of his own principles. And he goes through the singing of the sands. Then he goes through the islands of Scylla and the Caribbean. And also one of the most famous passages. One is a whirlwind, the other is a hole that sucks everything that passes through there. He can cross these two islands, summarizing the story a lot. And he will arrive at the island of Helios. And his hungry and sedentary men immediately launch themselves to kill the cattle of Helios. And then there is another moment when he is expelled from the island.
Several of his men die, he is thrown out. And he will stop at the island of Nymphocalypse. This Nymphocalypse, who falls in love with his beauty, seduces him. And he manages to keep him in love with her for seven years, trapped in the island. And he left there because Athena intervened. Athena makes an assembly with the gods, taking advantage of the fact that Poseidon was not there. He makes an assembly with the gods and says, Look, Zeus, if you don't send Calypso to release Ulysses, he will never get out of there. And the man needs
to return to himself. Ulysses needs to return to Ithaca. So Zeus intervenes directly with Calypso. He sends Hermes there and says, release Ulysses. And she releases with a lot of resistance. He was totally seduced by her comfort, by her beauty. It's like a Venus Pandemus, as the Plotinian tradition says. Love fallen into matter, comfort, physical beauty. And he would stay there for much longer, for sure. And he was already alone, he had already lost all his men. And when she releases him, he makes a wooden canoe and launches himself into the sea. And he goes.
But in the middle of the way, she gives him the linen to make the candle. She does everything she can. In the middle of the way, Poseidon appears and says, But this man is sailing again. And then he launches a great storm. And when Poseidon launches a great storm, he is in a shipwreck, having lost everything. Totally despised, without his canoe, without anything. Then comes the goddess Leucothea, the pure white. She takes the form of a seagull so that Poseidon does not see her. Then he comes to her and hands her a veil and says,
protect your heart. And you will reach the firm land. And he emerges with this veil protecting your heart. It was the only thing that could not be profaned. The rest had to be purified. And when he comes out, he sees the island of the Phaeacians. And when he gets there, he delivers this veil in offering to Leucothea. And it is found by the daughter of Nausicaa, the daughter of the king of the island. The daughter of the king of the Phaeacians, who was Alcino. And she takes him to her father. Then begins that story we
saw back there. He was not known, at first he lies about his name, but there he reveals himself and tells his story. And then Alcino is very touched to have a great hero on his land. And they agree to help him get home. He was exhausted, he fell asleep. The Phaeacians put him inside a boat and he can't even see how. When he wakes up, he is in a secondary port on the island of Ithaca. Then is the moment when he starts the last part of the story. The fight against everything. Against everything that tried
to dominate him. To dominate his own soul. Which is the elimination of the claimants. When he arrives, he meets a pastor who had been his servant. Then he meets his son and combines a whole strategy. His son had just arrived from a trip. And they combine a whole strategy. He would go to the house disguised as a beggar. And the telemaker had convinced his mother to do a tournament with the claimants. They would have to hold the bow of Ulysses and pass an arrow through 12 aligned holes and reach a target. Whoever could do it,
she would dispose. Meanwhile, you know that Penelope was weaving and unweaving a mantle eternally. She told the claimants that when she finished weaving that she would get married. Since she didn't want to get married, she would go at night and pull the wire. A mantle for her father-in-law Helaéctes. And then when he arrives, they do the tournament and he participates. As a beggar. It is interesting because all this is said to be one of the symbols of order. For the man to be able to, his will can be projected and reach a target, all the
holes have to be aligned. Because if some were unaligned, the arrow would roll and would not reach its target. So one of the last virtues that he conquers, which is order, discipline. And Athena herself turns to him and says, You are, despite everything, my son. Because no other man would find the impulse to advance disorderly over these claimants. He can now contain his fury, contain his impulse and make a very well thought-out strategy. Obviously none of the claimants can pin the bow of Ulysses, much less hit those holes. And he, dressed as a beggar, can
do it very easily. And then he and his son kill all those claimants. It's a endless carnage. And he identifies himself with his wife Penelope. And he goes to his father's house to see him. When that happens, the population dies. And the whole world comes after him. You killed all your sailors. And now you killed all our children who were claimants. You made an Ithaca carnage. And at that time, Athena herself arises. And reconciles the population of Ithaca with Ulysses. And convinces those people that those things should be eliminated. So that the island of Ithaca
could live in prosperity. Do you realize? Something inside us has to die for something new to be born. It is a law of physics. The same occupies the same place in space. Something has to give space for something new to be born. Ulysses is now reconciled with the god of the sea. With Poseidon, with Neptune. He is a being who now harmonized with what there was of divine within him. He raised his mind. And a lot of things had to be eliminated. A price had to be paid for it. And that's how our story ends.
Passing some scenes. The moment he returns home and his maid recognizes him. The mark of the javelin on his thigh. And here, a final image of Penelope weaving and untying her cloak. While her husband did not return. Penelope is a symbol of loyalty. She is my daughter of Ere. A symbol of fidelity to pacts. And here is another beautiful image of her. Also of John William Waterhouse. So, a little summary. Logically, it would give us to talk about this subject for two hours. This subject would give a course. Because each of these stops we could
unfold the name a little. Talk a little more about some aspects. But only so that we have a notion. That these myths that we received from the past of humanity are heritage. And they are not a heritage merely with historical curiosity. They are heritage in the sense of being a journey into ourselves. It is a process of self-knowledge that is codified. Through a language that is not only Greek. It is universal. And it can still be codified. For a good understander. The one who wants to see beyond appearances. So that's it. I know that the
story is already well known to you. Maybe there have not been many news. But I hope to at least arouse curiosity. To think a little about the stops of the particular odyssey of each of us. I open for questions. Is there anything you would like to ask? What do you think of the death of the ancient traditions? You will realize that for ancient traditions, and especially in the East, we make a lot of this, we make a very big confusion. Because they have no notion of death like ours. Death for us is elimination. Something to
cease to exist. For all ancient traditions, when they say kill, it means subordinate. It means to dominate. Killing is killing the powerful. Because all this is inside him. He was still alive. So what died? The death of the claimants is like the domestication of all the forces that try to take power within man. When you talk about the three medieval stages, the three works, when you talk about the white work, which is purification, you did not kill the animals that live within you. You have trained them to obey you. Because the animal self is not
bad. But it was not made to take command of human life. But why did you take command? Because you left it. So it is a process of training, of domestication of all the forces that live within you. Decentralization. So that you are commanded through the center. All this is happening inside him. So nothing died. The focus of consciousness was simply diverted to the center. And all these things started to rotate around the center. One of the most classic things in the universe, that you see in all four corners of the world, is how everything gathers
around a center. From galaxies to solar systems, everything gathers up to atoms. Everything gathers around a center that coordinates everything around you. This is also a metaphysical symbolism of the divine, around which all things harmonize. Now, when any of these peripheral things try to take the center, then there is war. And then it can be any classic war you want. From the Iliad to the Bhagavad Gita, they all deal with the same thing. A peripheral element trying to take the center. This is fundamental, because this is what it is about. We came to the world
to take the center of ourselves. To take our Ithaca. To find your human identity. And subordinate all the other elements that are tools, not you. To do what nature expects of you, as a human being. To find your center. And many times it is represented as an island in the middle of the ocean. Not necessarily. We already talked a little about that. I told you that there are two ways to evolve. By reflection or by experience. The concrete experience is painful. But if the man does not reflect, life will put him against the wall. You
realize that a good reflection replaces many concrete experiences. You don't need to suffer on the skin if you use the potential that nature has given you. But if you don't, you will be taken there. It is very arrogant in terms of nature. In this sense, nature is impersonal and objective. If you need the experience, it will take you there. But if you are able to overcome it through reflection, which is the idea of philosophy, you will overcome it through reflection. To always evolve through pain is not intelligent. It is a long and dangerous process. One
of these is lost. The ideal would be that we could learn from the experiences of those who have perceived us. To gain time. It is much safer. That's why it is said that philosophy is like imagining Ithaca in the middle of the ocean. A person who lives in Ithaca is a wise man. He has already dominated himself. Philosophy is not a person who dominates himself. It is not a person who has wisdom, but loves wisdom. It is as if he had a rope tied to the ground and the other end was floating in the sea.
Remember this example? That rope leads to wisdom. If it goes, tracing, step by step, it is no longer a toy in the hand of the tide. It is no longer lost. But it is not there yet. But there is a path that leads there. Learning from those who preceded us is part of this path. It saves us from a lot of suffering. Without the rope, without the rope, waiting for the tide to throw us back and forth, one day I will arrive. Statistically, one day I will hit there. It's complicated.
