Chthonism

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Chthonism ( ancient Greek χθών chthon , German 'earth' and -ism ) describes a mythical worldview within the framework of many ethnic religions , in which the earth is the center of worship. This includes the animistic belief that all creatures and natural phenomena are animated, the pantheistic conception of a mother earth in the sense of a “ planet earth endowed with spirit or divine power ” and the polytheistic personification of the earth (the earth ) as the earth goddess . In the latter case, there is often a two-part relationship between Earth Mother and Heaven Father .

An early example is that of the ancient Greek poet Hesiod around 700 BC. Chr. As chthonic gods (Chthonioi) called titans with the mother goddess Gaia and the sky god Uranos as the origin of the Olympic gods . Derived from this origin of the designation , deities and other beings associated with the earth or the underworld are generally referred to as chthonic ("belonging to the earth; underground"; see also chthonic animals ).

History of theory

In the 19th century, the German mythologist Friedrich Creuzer and the German archaeologist Karl Otfried Müller found indications of an interpretation of the entire Greek mythology as a chthonic religion.

Bachofen

Around 1850, the Swiss legal historian Johann Jakob Bachofen developed a comprehensive philosophy of history on this basis by combining polarities such as day-night, death-rebirth or substance-spirit with the contrast between female and male. According to Bachofen, human history has three stages of development:

  1. At the beginning there is hetarism , a kind of prostitution, with unlimited sexual freedom ("swamp life") based on the example of the ancient Egyptian soil, which is fertile every year through the floods of the Nile
  2. it follows the Gynaiokratie (Frauenherrschaft: Matriarchat ) as Bachofen them in different nations the Mediterranean reconstructed (about the Lykern , Cretans , Lemniern , lesbians or Locrians ); In this phase there are already legal rules such as marriage , but maternal law dominates (for example in inheritance law according to the maternal line ) and there is a chthonic religion in which the mother is considered the educator of the world and, through birth, a symbol of eternal return
  3. only in a third phase does paternity arise , the patriarchy or patriarchy , in which the “spirit” dominates; According to Bachofen, the religion of Christianity is the result of overcoming the contrast between life and death and thus the completion of the historical development of mankind

Bachofen's reception is initially carried out by left theorists such as Friedrich Engels in the sense of an argument in favor of equality . In the 20th century, representatives of the circle around the poet Stefan George took up the topic ( Alfred Schuler , Ludwig Klages ) and combined it with a philosophy of life based on myth . A distorted interpretation of Bachofen's cosmopolitan philosophy can finally be found in the time of National Socialism in Alfred Baeumler , Ernst Bergmann and Alfred Rosenberg , who develop a racism from maternal symbols of the body and blood , which, however, cannot be found in Bachofen.

literature

  • Alfred Bäumler: The myth of the Orient and Occident. An old world metaphysics. Introduction in: Johann Jakob Bachofen, M. Schroeter (Ed.): Selection. 1926, pp. ?? - ??.
  • Johann Jakob Bachofen , Hans-Jürgen Heinrichs (Ed.): The mother right. An Inquiry into the Ancient World Gynecocracy by Its Religious and Legal Nature. A selection. 8th edition. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt 1997, ISBN 3-518-27735-9 .
  • Georg Dörr: Mother myth and rule myth. On the dialectic of the Enlightenment at the turn of the century among the Cosmists, Stefan George and in the Frankfurt School. Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 2007, ISBN 978-3-8260-3511-1 .
  • E. Haberland: Chthonism. In: Historical Dictionary of Philosophy . Volume 1, Basel 1971, columns 1017-1018.
  • Jürgen Zwernemann: The earth in the imagination and cultural practices of the Sudanese peoples. Reimer, Berlin 1968.

Web links

Wiktionary: Chthonism  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Goldsmith: The Way. An ecological manifesto. 1st edition, Bettendorf, Munich 1996, ISBN 3-88498-091-2 . Pp. 15-16, 461.
  2. ^ Wilhelm Kühlmann : Pantheismus I, published in: Horst Balz et al. (Ed.): Theologische Realenzyklopädie , Volume 25: "Ochino - Parapsychologie". Walter de Gruyter, Berlin, New York 1995/2000, ISBN 978-3-11-019098-4 . P. 628.
  3. ↑ Geo Widengren : Religious phenomenology . Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 1969, ISBN 978-3-11-002653-5 . Pp. 125-126.
  4. ^ Duden online : chthonic. Status: July 2014, accessed on August 24, 2014.
  5. ↑ An example of the “chthonic Moloch ” in Klaus Bieberstein : Die Pforte der Gehenna. The emergence of the eschatological memory landscape of Jerusalem. In: Bernd Janowski u. a. (Ed.): The biblical worldview and its old oriental contexts (= research on the Old Testament. Volume 32). Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2001, ISBN 3-16-147540-2 , pp 503-539, here pp 516-518 ( excerpt in the Google Book Search).
  6. ↑ Friedrich Creuzer : Symbolism and mythology of the ancient peoples, especially the Greeks. 1812, p. ??.
  7. ^ Karl Otfried Müller : Tales of Hellenic Tribes and Cities. 3 volumes. Breslau 1820–1824, here volume?, P. ??.
  8. ^ Hélène Laffont: On the reception of Bachofens in National Socialism. In: Marion Heinz, Goran Gretic (Hrsg.): Philosophy and Zeitgeist in National Socialism. Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 2006, pp. 143–162, here p. 143.
  9. ↑ Friedrich Engels : The origin of the family, private property and the state . 1884, p. ??.
  10. ↑ Ludwig Klages : About Bachofen. Appreciation. In: Johann Jakob Bachofen : Attempt on the grave symbolism of the ancients. 2nd Edition. Helbing & Lichtenhahn, Basel 1925, pp. IX-XIII.
  11. ^ Hélène Laffont: On the reception of Bachofens in National Socialism. In Marion Heinz , Goran Gretic (Ed.): Philosophy and Zeitgeist in National Socialism. Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 2006, pp. 143–162.