The Veiled Image of Sais - The Feast of Eleusis
1795-1798
Author: Friedrich Schiller
Germany
Subject: Religion, Initiation
The veiled image of Sais
A young man whose thirst for knowledge led him to Sais in Egypt, to learn the secret wisdom of the priests, had quickly progressed through several degrees of knowledge; his restless mind pushed him ever further and the hierophant could barely moderate the ardor of the impatient disciple.
—What do I have, he cried, if I don't have everything? Does science suffer the most and the least? Is your truth like fortune which is distributed in unequal parts, and which we possess in large or small plots? Is not your truth one and indivisible? Take a chord in a harmony! take a color from the rainbow! what you have left is nothing until you bring together all the sounds and all the nuances.
They spoke thus in a silent and solitary enclosure, where a veiled and gigantic image struck the young man's eyes; he contemplates it in amazement and exclaims: “What is there behind this veil? - The truth. - What ! he said, it is the truth alone that I seek and it is this that is hidden from me. “Lift this veil with the help of the divinity,” replies the hierophant. No man, she said, will take him away unless I second him myself. And he who with a profane and guilty hand dares to tear off this sacred veil, this forbidden veil; - Well ? – This one will see the truth.
― Strange oracle! So you never brought it up yourself? - Me ! Oh no ! never, and I haven't been tempted to. - I don't understand you. If there is only this light curtain between the truth and me? … “And a law, my son,” continues the priest, “a law more imposing than you can believe. This veil, light for your hand, would be heavy for your conscience. »
The young man returns to his home thoughtfully, the thirst for knowledge robs him of sleep. He turns with burning anxiety in his bed and gets up at midnight. With fearful steps, he involuntarily moves towards the temple. He climbs the outer wall slightly and with a bold leap rushes into the enclosure.
There he stops in terrible silence, interrupted only by the sound of his footsteps. From the top of the dome the moon projects its silvery glow, and in the darkness of the enclosure, the veiled image appears in the light of this nocturnal star, like a visible God.
The young man advances with uncertain steps, his rash hand touches the sacred veil; but a sudden shudder shakes all his limbs and an invisible arm pushes him away. “Unfortunate! an inner voice shouted to him, what are you going to do? Do you want to harm divinity? No man, said the oracle, will lift this veil unless I second it myself. But did not this same oracle add: He who tears away this veil will see the truth? “What does it matter what’s behind there? cries the young man, “I want to lift him up, I want to see her. - To see her ! repeats the mocking echo.
He says and removes the veil. Now ask what he saw. I don't know; the next day the priests found him pale and lifeless, lying at the feet of the statue of Isis. What he saw and experienced, his tongue never said. The cheerfulness of his life disappeared forever. A deep pain led him quickly to the tomb, and when an intrusive curiosity questioned him: “Woe,” he replied, “woe to him who arrives at the truth through a fault! She will never make him happy.
The Feast of Eleusis
Make garlands of golden ears of corn; also braid fresh blueberries. May joy enliven every look; for here comes the Goddess who represses wild morals, who brings man closer to man, who has replaced the mobile tent with stable and peaceful dwellings.
The Troglodyte hid in the mountain caves; the nomad left the fields where he passed deserted; the hunter crossed the countryside with bow and spear, and woe to the stranger whom the waves threw onto the fatal shore!
Ceres, while looking for traces of her daughter, saw these abandoned regions. There no valley grew green, no roof offered him hospitality, and no temple attested to the fact that homage was paid to the Gods.
We did not know the fruits of the harvest which adorn a feast. Human bones could be seen drying out on terrible altars. In all the places that the Goddess passed through she saw only misery, and she groaned over the degradation of the human race. “Is this,” she said, “that I must find the man to whom we have lent our image, and whose ideal form shines in Olympus? Have we not given him the bosom of the earth, and in his royal empire he wanders unhappy like an exile? »
“Will no God have pity on him? will no celestial being remove this deep misery with a mighty hand? Happy Olympus is not moved by the tears of humanity; but they deeply touch my heart.
For man to become man, he must form an eternal and trusting pact with the earth, which is his mother; that he honors the law of times, the sacred course of the stars, in their harmonious movements. »
She gently parts the cloud that veils her from view and suddenly shows herself, in the middle of the wild hordes, in her divine majesty. These men celebrated their victory with a feast, and they offered Ceres a cup full of blood.
She rejects it in horror and says to them: “Blood does not water the lips of the Gods. Divine beings do not require sacrifices. It is by offering them the fruits of autumn and the gifts of the fields that we pay homage to them. »
She removes the spear that the hunter holds in his hand, she uses it to trace a furrow in the sand; then taking one of the fertile ears of her crown, she throws it into this furrow and makes it sprout.
The ground is covered with green ears of corn, and as far as the eye stretches we see a golden forest; she blessed the earth with a smile, tied the first sheaf, chose a stone for her hearth and said: “Jupiter, you who are placed above all the Gods, show me by a sign that this sacrifice pleases you. Remove the clouds from this people who do not yet know your name, open their eyes, so that they may know you. »
Jupiter hears his sister's prayers in his supreme abode. He throws the flash of lightning from the top of Olympus, the flame rises on the altar and the eagle turns in long circuits in the air.
The moved crowd throws itself at the feet of the Goddess. Gross souls experience human feeling for the first time. The barbarians cast aside their bloody weapons, opening their dark intelligence to the eloquent lessons of the Goddess.
The celestial beings descend from their thrones. Themis is at their head with her scepter of justice, she fixes the rights of each, sets the limits of the land and takes as witnesses the mysterious Deities of the Styx.
Then comes the ingenious son of Jupiter, the artist skilled in fashioning vases of bronze and clay. He teaches how to use pincers and bellows and he forges the first plow share on his anvil.
Minerva, who stands out among all the Gods with her heavy spear, makes her voice heard and speaks imperiously to the inhabitants of Olympus. She wants to build ramparts to serve as a refuge and defense, to bring together dispersed men in the same community.
She advances with majestic steps across the fields, and the god Terme walks in her footsteps. She measures the contours of the hill and encloses the river bed in a sacred enclosure.
All the nymphs and oreads who follow Diana on the mountain paths, their hunting spear in hand, set to work, work with joy, and under the blows of their axes the fir forest falls.
The God crowned with reeds also emerges from his green waves, directs his river according to the will of the Goddess, the light hours flee quickly, and the rough stems of trees become rounded under the hand of skillful workers.
We also see the God of the seas coming; with a blow of his trident, he tears the granite columns from the earth, he balances them between his powerful hands, like a light burden, and with Hermes he crowns the ramparts of the cities with them.
But Apollo makes the harmony of his golden strings heard, the sweet cadence and the powerful melody. The nine Muses join their songs, and the stones, attracted by these agreements, join the stones.
Cybele places the wide-winged doors with an experienced hand and places the bolts and locks on them. By the hand of the Gods the superb building is quickly completed, and the walls of the temple shine with solemn splendor.
The Goddess comes forward with a crown of myrtle. She leads the most beautiful shepherd near the most beautiful shepherdess. Venus with her sweet child herself adorns this first couple. All the Gods bring gifts to young spouses.
The new citizens enter the temple, led by the troop of Gods.
Ceres fulfills the office of priestess at the altar of Jupiter. She spreads her blessing on the crowd and says to them:
“Desert animals love freedom. The Gods reign freely in space; the laws of nature repress unregulated joys. Man, placed between the Gods and the animals, must associate himself with man; it is by his virtues alone that he can be free and powerful. »
Make garlands of golden ears of corn; also braid fresh blueberries. May joy enliven every look, for here comes the Goddess who gave us a sweet homeland, who unites man to man.
Let us celebrate in our songs the beneficent Goddess of the world.