Observations placeholder
Island of the Blessed
Identifier
007135
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
The Fortunate Isles, also called the Isles (or Islands) of the Blessed (μακάρων νη̂σοι makárôn nêsoi), was where heroes and other favoured mortals in Greek mythology and Celtic mythology were received by the gods into a blissful paradise. These islands were thought to lie in the ‘Western Ocean’. So if we look at the spiritual map, with the Creator to the South, the Isles of the Blessed were/are on the right hand side.
A Dictionary of Symbols – J. E. Cirlot
......According to Krappe, the 'Island of the Blessed' in its Greek version was the island of the dead..... Krappe goes on to speak of the perennial validity of the symbol, recalling how the Spanish nobleman Juan Pince de Leon set off in search of Bimini and discovered Florida.
Pindar - Pindarus in Latin and Πίνδαρος in Greek (ca. 522–443 BC), was an Ancient Greek lyric poet.
A description of the experience
Hesiod – Works and Days
A godlike race of heroes, who are called
The demi-gods – the race before our own
Foul wars and dreadful battles ruined some
Some sought the flocks of Oedipus, and died
In Cadmus’s land , at seven gated Thebes
And some, who crossed the open sea in ships
For fair haired Helen’s sake, were killed at Troy.
These men were covered up in death,
But Zeus the son of Kronos gave the others life
And homes apart from mortals, at Earth’s edge
And there they live a carefree life, beside
The whirling Ocean on the Blessed isles
Pindar
And those that have three times kept to their oaths,
Keeping their souls clean and pure,
Never letting their hearts be defiled by the taint of evil and injustice,
And barbaric veniality,
They are led by Zeus to the end:
To the palace of Kronos,
Where soothing breezes off the Ocean
Breathe over the Isle of the Blessed:
All around flowers are blazing with a dazzling light:
Some springing from the shining trees,
Others nourished by the water from the sea:
With circlets and garlands of flowers they crown their hands,
Ruled by the steadfast councils of Rhadamanthys:
Rhadamanthys, the great Judge, whom the Father,
The husband of Rhea, whose throne is higher than all:
The great Father keeps him by his side, his loyal advisor.
Peleus and Kadmos both are there,
And Akhilleus, brought there by his mother,
After she had conquered the heart of Zeus with her prayers