Original words. Orphic

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Johann Wolfgang von Goethe , oil painting by Joseph Karl Stieler

Original words. Orphic is the title of a collection of five stamps by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe that he wrote between October 7th and 8th, 1817. He published it in 1820 in the booklets Zur Morphologie and provided it with his own explanations in his journal On Art and Antiquity that same year.

The short cycle is one of the ideological poems of Goethe's early years, revolves around metaphysical , mythological and hermeneutical questions and grows out of his years of attempts to recognize the legality of life in the forms of the original plant and the original phenomena .

The mythical-literary reference of the collection is already clear from the title, with which Goethe alluded to the legendary singer Orpheus and the Orphic poetry .

content

The work brings together the "basic powers" daimon (demon), Tyche (the random), Eros (love), Ananke (coercion) and Elpis (hope), who determine human life for Goethe. He assigned just as many phases of human life to these forces. While the “demon” determines birth, whereas Tyche determines youth, Eros leads to a turning point in life in which compulsion and volition are reconciled. Ananke, in turn, shapes the years of middle age and work, while hope helps Elpis to cope with old age. The individual stanzas are separated from each other by the rhyming pair of verses, but form a network of relationships that becomes particularly clear in the transition from the second to the third stanza.

The five punches are:

ΔΑΙΜΩΝ, demon

As on the day that bestowed you on the world,
The sun stood to greet the planets,
Immediately and away and away you thrived
According to the law according to which you began.
You have to be like that, you cannot escape yourself.
This is what sibyls, like prophets, said;
And no time and no power dismembered a
stamped form that develops in a living way.

ΤΥΧΗ, The accidental

The strict border but pleasingly bypasses Something that
walks with and around us;
You do not stay lonely, form yourself sociable
and act like someone else does:
In life it is soon gone, sometimes disgusting,
it is a trinket and is done that way.
The years have quietly come together,
The lamp waits for the flame to ignite.

ΕΡΩΣ, love

She does not stay away ! - He falls down from the sky,
Wherever he swung himself out of the old wasteland,
He floats up on airy plumage
Around the forehead and chest along the spring day,
Seems to be fleeing now, from fleeing it returns,
There will be happiness in pain, so sweet and bang.
Quite a few hearts generally
float, but the noblest is dedicated to the one.

ΑΝΑΓΚΗ, Coercion

There it is again as the stars wanted:
condition and law; and all will
is only willing, because we should,
And the will is silent before the will;
The dearest is
scolded away from the heart , Will und Grille relies on hard duty.
So we are seemingly free because, after some years,
only closer than we were at the beginning.

ΕΛΠΙΣ, Hope

But such a limit, such an iron wall The
most repulsive gate is unlocked,
it only stands with old rock-endurance!
A being moves easily and unchecked:
From the cloud cover, fog, rain shower,
she lifts us up, with her, inspired by her;
You know her well, she swarms through all zones;
A flap of wings - and eons behind us.

Emergence

Georg Zoëga oil painting by an unknown painter around 1786

Mediated by Herder and the Swiss theologian Georg Christoph Tobler , Goethe came into contact with Orphics at an early age . In his autobiographical book Poetry and Truth , he described how decisive that early encounter was and shaped his belief that “poetry, religion and philosophy coincided entirely”. Because of the connection between lyrical and religious knowledge in the Orphic testimonies, Goethe spoke enthusiastically of “holy words” in this context.

For Goethe, mythology was a treasure trove of “divine and human symbols”. For him, the metaphysical connection between the individual and the cosmos was “filled with a deep affirmation of being”. In his Winckelmann treatise, for example, he wrote of the “happy fate of the ancients, especially the Greeks in their prime”, on which one is now dependent. If the universe were sentient, it would “cheer and admire the summit of its own becoming and being. For what is all the use of the expenditure of suns and planets and moons, of stars and Milky Way [...], if not least a happy person unconsciously enjoys his existence? "

Here he designed an ideal image of antiquity and called Winckelmann as a witness for it. The writing bears anti-Christian traits in places and is differentiated from the Romantics, who devalued ancient art compared to Christian art. However, Goethe was not yet ready to pour "Orphic teachings" into dies or to delve deeper into Orpheus, whom he only later recognized as the Kitharoden , who had founded a mystery .

The actual stimulus for the lyrical “recapitulation of this ancient, concentrated representation of human fate” can be traced back to two books: First, Goethe read the “Letters on Homer and Hesiodus”, in which Gottfried Hermann and Friedrich Creuzer fought out a controversy about ancient ancient mythology. In the treatises of the Danish archaeologist Georg Zoëga , which had been translated into German by Friedrich Gottlieb Welcker , he came across the "hieroi logoi", the sacred words of Orphic literature, which he translated as "Urworte" and next to "Demon" and " Tyche ”,“ Eros ”and“ Ananke ”and“ Elpis ”added. While he only chose Greek headings in capital letters in three handwritten versions that have survived and in the first print, he added German, lower-case expressions in the second and third print.

background

Orpheus surrounded by animals. Third Century Roman Mosaic ( Palermo )

For Goethe, primordial words were “archetypal, typical, meaningful concepts” that seemed to him to have been handed down from antiquity and with which he associated divine revelations of the laws of life and the changes associated with them. The five allegorical designations he took up were not clearly outlined and could thus be supplemented with one's own content. Goethe did not enrich the cosmogony with further insights, but interpreted the words individually against the background of his experiences and convictions.

His lyrical elaboration of the principles is clearly under the influence of Zoëga's, who in his treatises dealt with the Saturnalia of the Roman Neoplatonist Macrobius Ambrosius Theodosius , according to which demon and Tyche, Eros and Ananke accompany the birth of a person. Zoëga had added Elpis to the four powers, a fifth force that was extremely important to Goethe because of its balancing character. The prefix “Ur-” in Goethe indicates the “quintessence” of his own convictions as well as his belief in an eternal essence.

In his ideological poems, Goethe usually formulated briefly instructive religious and philosophical views such as memorable maxims of life and used motifs and concepts that can also be found in other old works in which the earthly appears as a symbol of a higher reality. The eye, for example, can only see the color and not the primordial light and can only enjoy the reflection from a distant sphere. At the beginning of the second part of the drama , Faust, who has just awakened, looks into the sun and has to turn away, blinded, but recognizes the waterfall glistening in the sunlight and confesses: “We have life in the colored reflection.” For things that point beyond themselves, he used them Term "parable"; so at the end of the tragedy with the words of the Chorus Mysticus: "Everything that is transient is only a parable". This is the meaning of the word in the second stanza of the poem Prooemion .

Special features and interpretation

Tyche of Antioch, a work of Eutychides , in the Vatican

With the first poem Goethe revolves around the central question of individuality. He also dealt with the demonic being in poetry and truth and in conversations with Eckermann . He lets Goethe say that the demonic cannot be "dissolved by understanding and reason". It is not in his nature, "but I am subject to him".

Within the Orphic conception, the demon was a semi-divine being that occupied a person and thus influenced him in the further course of his life. As Goethe wrote in his self-commentary, he defined the demon as “the characteristic” and “the necessary, limited individuality of the person immediately expressed at birth”.

Goethe did not see it as an unreasonable, even diabolical compulsion, but as an entelechical law of development, as a “shaped form that develops in a living way” and thus drives out the already existing predispositions. The words given by Eckermann go in this direction, Mephistopheles is a "much too negative being, but the demonic expresses itself in a thoroughly positive energy.", An assessment that can also be understood as a self-interpretation.

The image of the star position, which illustrates the cosmic relationships and higher powers as well as the imprinting of the ego based on them, can also be found in his autobiography. In the very first paragraph he connects his birth on August 28, 1749 with a pleasant constellation and puts it in a favorable light: “The constellation was happy; the sun was under the sign of Virgo, and culminated for the day, Jupiter and Venus looked at her friendly ... “Although Goethe believed in a continuous connection of things, he was not an astrologer and only played with the symbolism of the motif.

The demonic definition is modified by the “random” of the second punch. Tyche overcomes the “strict limit” and loosens the formative form. Man reacts to different demands of life, moves in social relationships , sometimes acts like someone else and is tossed back and forth. Left to blind “chance”, the individual can be led into a network of entanglements. But if he recognizes the essence of this power, he can possibly discover things that one would not have found with a clear eye. In this way, Daimon and Tyche form a polar interplay, he relates to her like “the sun and moon, like the author of light to that which he irradiates”, a view that goes back to Georg Zoëga's treatises. Understood in this way, the demon as the sun is the starting point of the spirit, “the warmth and the light”, while Tyche is the moon that accompanies the walking “course [...] of mortal life”.

Surrendering in love may on the one hand be experienced as fateful, falling "from heaven", but it connects with the one to whom the heart, which is no longer floating in the "general", is dedicated. In contrast to the previous stanzas, the title and the text of the poem are linked like a bridge, characterize the subject matter and lead the reader directly into the lyrical statement. The first line is not missing! - He falls down from the sky is linked to the heading and, with the feminine gender of the German word "Liebe" and the masculine gender of the Greek "Eros" , puts the further course under the tension of both sexes. The idea of ​​polar unity shines through behind the brachylogical mode of expression, even if Eros dominates in the following lines , which was a primordial force in ancient cosmogony and is also found in the principles of yin and yang of Chinese philosophy . In the field of tension between internal and external circumstances, personality and “the hard” must of society, the middle position of love in the cycle becomes clear. Goethe does not understand it here as a mere passion, but as a challenge to promote the good and to reach a higher level of human development through voluntary commitment.

Here the connection to the fourth punch is already indicated, in that love imposes “condition and law”, thus necessarily carrying boundaries and obligations with it. Before the pressures of life, what is loved must be “pushed away” and personal freedom restricted. Before the bitter realization of pseudo-freedom, the last punch of hope may comfort. It can “unlock” the “gate” of the eternal wall in order to carry us over the necessities. Goethe oriented himself here on Zoëga, for whom Elpis was also a central power of fate. From Goethe's point of view, it balanced out the compulsion of coercion and thus, comparable to Tyche's power against Daimon, reduced the conflicts and distortions that arose.

For Goethe, the core of the human being was indestructible beyond the individual lifespan and could neither be split up nor fragmented, even through generations. He did not want to accept that the human being could not leave the dungeon of his earthly existence within the eternal cycle of nature and would have to perish with it and spoke of the spirit as a “being of a completely indestructible nature; it is an ongoing effect from eternity to eternity. ”Thus the last line“ A wing beat - and eons behind us ”opens a view of immortality .

literature

  • Herbert Anton : Oracle of Existence . In: Interpretations, poems by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Ed. Bernd Witte, Reclam, Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 3-15-017504-6 , pp. 170-185.
  • Theo Buck : Original words. Orphic . In: Goethe-Handbuch, (Ed.) Bernd Witte…, Volume 1, Gedichte, Metzler, Stuttgart 1996, ISBN 3-476-01443-6 , pp. 354–365.
  • Karl Otto Conrady : God and Nature. Philosophical poems . In: Goethe, Leben und Werk, Patmos, Düsseldorf 2006, ISBN 3-491-69136-2 , pp. 911–917.
  • Walter Dietze : Original words, not particularly orphic . In: Goethe-Jahrbuch 94, 1977, pp. 11–37.
  • Ruth Klüger : Unlocking the gate: Goethe's Urworte. Orphic '. In: Goethe Yearbook: Publications of the Goethe Society of North America 12, 2004, pp. 185–87.
  • Børge Kristiansen: On the relationship between being oneself and being together in Goethe's Urworte. Orphic . In: Goethe Yearbook: Publications of the Goethe Society of North America 15, 2008, pp. 131–159.
  • Christian Schärf: Orpheus as an oracle: metamorphosis and cosmogony in the late Goethe with regard to 'primal words. Orphic ' . In: Goethe-Jahrbuch 117, 2000, pp. 154–64.
  • Jochen Schmidt : Goethe's age poem 'Urworte. Orphic ': borderline experience and dissolution of boundaries . Universitätsverlag Winter, Heidelberg 2006, ISBN 9783825352073 (= writings of the philosophical-historical class of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences 37)

Individual evidence

  1. ^ So Karl Otto Conrady : Goethe, Life and Work , God and Nature. Philosophical poems, Patmos, Düsseldorf 2006, p. 915
  2. ^ So Karl Otto Conrady: Goethe, Life and Work , God and Nature. Philosophical poems, Patmos, Düsseldorf 2006, pp. 911–912
  3. ^ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Urworte. Orphic . In: Goethe's works, poems and epics I, Hamburg edition, Volume I, CH Beck, Munich 1998, pp. 359–360
  4. ↑ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Poetry and Truth. Second book. In: Goethe's works, Hamburg edition, Volume 9, CH Beck, Munich 1998, p. 221
  5. ^ Theo Buck , Urworte. Orphic . In: Goethe-Handbuch, (Ed.) Bernd Witte…, Volume 1, Poems, Metzler, Stuttgart 1996, p. 355
  6. ^ So Herbert Anton : Oracle of Existence . In: Interpretations, poems by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Ed. Bernd Witte, Reclam, Stuttgart 2005, p. 171
  7. ^ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, writings on art, writings on literature, maxims and reflections , Goethe's works, Hamburg edition, volume 12, CH Beck, Munich 1998, p. 98
  8. ↑ Erich Trunz . In: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, writings on art, writings on literature, maxims and reflections, Goethe's works, notes, Hamburg edition, volume 12, CH Beck, Munich 1998, pp. 610–611
  9. ↑ Herbert Anton: Oracle of Existence . In: Interpretations, poems by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Ed. Bernd Witte, Reclam, Stuttgart 2005, p. 171
  10. ↑ Quoted from: Theo Buck, Urworte. Orphic . In: Goethe-Handbuch, (Ed.) Bernd Witte…, Volume 1, Poems, Metzler, Stuttgart 1996, p. 356
  11. ↑ Gero von Wilpert : Urworte. Orphic. In: ders .: Goethe-Lexikon (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 407). Kröner, Stuttgart 1998, ISBN 3-520-40701-9 , p. 1102.
  12. ^ Theo Buck, Urworte. Orphic . In: Goethe-Handbuch, (Ed.) Bernd Witte…, Volume 1, Poems, Metzler, Stuttgart 1996, p. 355
  13. ↑ Gero von Wilpert: Urworte. Orphic. In: ders .: Goethe-Lexikon (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 407). Kröner, Stuttgart 1998, ISBN 3-520-40701-9 , p. 1102.
  14. ↑ Karl Otto Conrady: Goethe, life and work , God and nature. Philosophical poems, Patmos, Düsseldorf 2006, p. 914
  15. ^ Theo Buck, Urworte. Orphic . In: Goethe-Handbuch, (Ed.) Bernd Witte ..., Volume 1, Poems, Metzler, Stuttgart 1996, p. 362
  16. ^ Theo Buck, Urworte. Orphic . In: Goethe-Handbuch, (Ed.) Bernd Witte…, Volume 1, Poems, Metzler, Stuttgart 1996, p. 356
  17. ↑ Karl Otto Conrady: Goethe, life and work , God and nature. Philosophical poems, Patmos, Düsseldorf 2006, p. 908
  18. ↑ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, The Tragedy, Part Two. In: Goethe's works, Hamburg edition, Volume 3, CH Beck, Munich 1998, p. 149
  19. ↑ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, The Tragedy, Part Two. In: Goethe's works, Hamburg edition, Volume 3, CH Beck, Munich 1998, p. 364
  20. ↑ Quoted from: Theo Buck, Urworte. Orphic . In: Goethe-Handbuch, (Ed.) Bernd Witte…, Volume 1, Poems, Metzler, Stuttgart 1996, p. 358
  21. ^ Theo Buck, Urworte. Orphic . In: Goethe-Handbuch, (Ed.) Bernd Witte…, Volume 1, Poems, Metzler, Stuttgart 1996, p. 357
  22. ↑ Quoted from Theo Buck, Urworte. Orphic . In: Goethe-Handbuch, (Ed.) Bernd Witte…, Volume 1, Poems, Metzler, Stuttgart 1996, p. 357
  23. ^ Theo Buck, Urworte. Orphic . In: Goethe-Handbuch, (Ed.) Bernd Witte…, Volume 1, Poems, Metzler, Stuttgart 1996, p. 358
  24. ↑ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Poetry and Truth. First book. In: Goethe's works, Hamburg edition, Volume 9, CH Beck, Munich 1998, p. 10
  25. ↑ Erich Trunz. In: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Goethe's works, notes, Hamburg edition, Volume 9, CH Beck, Munich 1998, p. 644
  26. ↑ Herbert Anton: Oracle of Existence . In: Interpretations, poems by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Ed. Bernd Witte, Reclam, Stuttgart 2005, p. 174
  27. ↑ Quoted from: Herbert Anton: Oracle of Existence . In: Interpretations, poems by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Ed. Bernd Witte, Reclam, Stuttgart 2005, p. 174
  28. ↑ Quoted from: Herbert Anton: Oracle of Existence . In: Interpretations, poems by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Ed. Bernd Witte, Reclam, Stuttgart 2005, p. 174
  29. ^ So Karl Otto Conrady: Goethe, Life and Work , God and Nature. Philosophical poems, Patmos, Düsseldorf 2006, p. 915
  30. ^ Theo Buck, Urworte. Orphic. In: Goethe-Handbuch, (Ed.) Bernd Witte…, Volume 1, Poems, Metzler, Stuttgart 1996, p. 360
  31. ^ Theo Buck, Urworte. Orphic. In: Goethe-Handbuch, (Ed.) Bernd Witte…, Volume 1, Poems, Metzler, Stuttgart 1996, p. 360
  32. ↑ Quoted from: Karl Otto Conrady: Goethe, Leben und Werk , Gott und Natur. Philosophical poems, Patmos, Düsseldorf 2006, p. 915
  33. ↑ Quoted from: Karl Otto Conrady: Goethe, Leben und Werk , Gott und Natur. Philosophical poems, Patmos, Düsseldorf 2006, p. 915