November 15, 2018 Thursday
Bedtime Story
Back to Pillars of Hercules and Novum Organum
Religious myths will also feature some fundamental
events, consummate deeds of goods that explain why nature, order and culture
exist.
Myths also establish social values and
norms of each society and set the ideal behavior pattern that is to be emulated
by the individuals though how successful it is in enforcing such idealistic
behaviors is a highly debatable question.
Perhaps in small tribal groups of the past
(and even present in many remote places) they did a far superior job than in
modern overpopulated metropolises and megacities.
Myth also codifies rituals for the society
and imparts sanctity to it thereby establishing and creating a cult around
it.
Cult is the first solid step for a set of
mythological and fictitious ideas under a charismatic leader of attaining a
religious status.
Whether that happens or not will depend on
historical accidents and chance events deeply affected by the prevailing social
and religious discontent present at that time.
Now is the time to return to the Strait of
Gibraltar and to its Mediterranean promontories that go by the name of Pillars
of Hercules depicted in the cover page of Bacon’s Novum Organum.
So where do Pillars of Hercules feature in
the Greek mythology?
Most of us would be familiar with Hercules
and his twelve labors that he performed over twelve years for the King of
Mycenae, Eurystheus.
The tenth task of these labors was to get
the Cattle of Geryon, grandson of Medusa and possessing three heads on one body.
Hercules had to go far west and bring along
the cattle to the King Eurystheus.
In one of the many accounts of the story of
Hercules this Westernmost limits is defined by the Pillars of Hercules.
In another version the story goes that
Hercules on his way to the Garden of the Hesperides had to cross the mountain
Atlas.
Feeling that it was too much trouble to
cross it barefoot he using his incredible strength smashed it.
With this one action he had created the
narrow connection between the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean that is
now called the Strait of Gibraltar.
It has almost been a month (to be precise
it was October 24, 2018) since we left Francis Bacon and his work ‘Novum
Organum Scientiarum’ that consisted of two volumes of aphorisms.
The cover page shows a galleon (these large
multi-decked sailing ships are hardly to be seen these days) passing between
the two mythical Pillars of Hercules that stand on either sides of the Strait
of Gibraltar.
So now you know the whole story behind the
mythical Pillars of Hercules and what they represent.
Stay tuned to the voice of an
average story storytelling chimpanzee or login at http://panarrans.blogspot.com
Good night Mon Ami and my fellow cousin ape.
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Another great educator and a teacher that I am aware of is
Professor Subhashish Chattopadhyay in Bangalore, India.
While I narrate stories, Professor Subhashish an electronic
engineer and a former professor at BARC, does and teaches real mathematics and
physics.
He started the participation of Indian students at the
International Physics Olympiad.
Do visit him here:
All his books can be downloaded for free through this link:
For edutainment and English education of your children, I
recommend this large collection of Halloween Songs for Kids:
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