The Celestial Hunter by Roberto Calasso

Author:Roberto Calasso
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

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The Athenian knew that those who are pure and rigorous deniers of the gods are not so numerous. Indeed he had to admit, grudgingly, that some of them are “of naturally just character.” It was far easier to find those who claimed to have some acquaintance with the gods but were convinced the gods had no interest in human matters. Otherwise—they said—there could be no explanation for why wickedness is so often rewarded and virtue punished. The Athenian vented his annoyance on these people as well. To imagine that the gods neglect small things is, for him, no less impious than denying the gods themselves. Attributing negligence to the gods is like denying their nature, which is to watch over everything. Aren’t the gods “the greatest of all guardians”? The answer, on this point, was inflexible: “It would not be difficult to prove to anyone who thinks this that the gods care about small things not less, but more, than about great things.” Nothing is too small for a god.

But there was one last category of impious people, of the most despicable kind: those who believe they can gain favors from the gods, as though the gods were corruptible officials. And here once again the Athenian showed his intolerance of all that is private: small domestic sanctuaries, solitary sacrifices, secret invocations. The hidden life of Athens that was now brought into the open. And roundly condemned, not so much as a laughable pretension to corrupt the gods, but because it was hidden, the work of men and women ready to fall into the snare of “concocters of private initiation rites.” And here, against a scene teeming with soothsayers and witches, emerges yet another figure, the memory of whom is even more potent: Alcibiades, who himself had been accused of celebrating initiation rituals in private houses.

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