The lineages involved in the Trojan War include: the Tantalum lineage, the Trojan royal lineage, the Spartan lineage, the Maia lineage, the Deion lineage and the Asopos lineage. The royal lineage of Sparta (Taygetus lineage) studied here illustrates the access to the intuitive mind from the illumined mind. It includes Helen, “The Evolutionary Truth”, Clytemnestra, Castor and Pollux, Idas and Lynceus, and Penelope.
Helen recovered by Menelaus
To fully understand this web page, it is recommended to follow the progression given in the tab Greek myths interpretation. This progression follows the spiritual journey.
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The royal lineage of Sparta is the symbol of new orientations of evolution (those which ‘surge forth’).
See Family tree 13
Amongst the Pleiades, daughters of Atlas, the lineage of Taygete corresponds to the level of the intuitive mind (or more directly to that of intuition in the classification given by Sri Aurobindo), a level which follows upon that of the illumined mind and precedes the overmind. According to Sri Aurobindo, it is a state of consciousness in which the seeker operates through different kinds of powers: ‘Intuition has a fourfold power. A power of revelatory truth seeing, a power of inspiration or truth-hearing, a power of truth-touch or immediate seizing of significance, which is akin to the ordinary nature of its intervention in our mental intelligence, a power of true and automatic discrimination of the orderly and exact relation of truth to truth, – these are the fourfold potencies of Intuition. Intuition can therefore perform all the action of reason -including the function of logical intelligence, which is to work out the right relation of things and the right relation of idea with idea, – but by its own superior process and with steps that do not fail or falter. It takes up also and transforms into its own substance not only the mind of thought, but the heart and life and the sense and physical consciousness’ (The Life Divine, Chapter 23 ‘The Ascent Towards Supermind’).
It is therefore possible to guess that this was the highest level which the adventurers of consciousness could access and perhaps also remain in at that time. In fact the next level is that of the overmind, of Maia and her son the god Hermes, of which the seeker only receives lightening flashes unless he is a living avatar. This is why Ulysses, representing the most advanced of seekers, belongs to this lineage through his mother Anticlia.
On the other hand the lineage of Taygete is closely linked to that of Perieres amongst the descendants of Aeolus, thus linking the stages of ascension to corresponding realisations. In fact, one member from each of the lineages entered into a union with Gorgophone, ‘she who slays fear’, who was a daughter of Perseus (although it must be noted that other writers describe different versions of genealogical relatedness).
A number of authors even seem to have confused the two lineages, bringing some uncertainty into these myths. Apollodorus, who seems to have always sought to present the most coherent and reliable versions of the myths, gives several alternative versions in this case. In the first version, which he attributes to the poet Stesichorus, the four great heroes Tyndareus, Icarius, Aphareus and Leucippus are brothers who descended directly from Perieres, himself a son of Cynortes, and therefore belong to the lineage of Taygete.
In the second version, Apollodorus mentions homonymous Perieres, each belonging to one of the two lineages. From the first (or it is sometimes said directly from Cynortes) and within the lineage of Taygete was born Oebalus, who was the father of Tyndareus and Icarius. From the second were born Aphareus and Leucippus within the lineage of Aeolus.
In this work it is this last version which is considered (see the first chapter), for it corresponds to the version in the Catalogue of Women in which Tyndareus is described as a son of Oebalus. In fact there is a tendency to consider that not identifying with what acts within ourselves, the ego (incarnated by the children of Aphareus in the lineage of Perieres), belongs to the domain of experience rather than to that of simple theoretical description, even if it is closely tied to the plane of the intuitive mind (Taygete) or at least to a temporary access to this plane. Sri Aurobindo also explains that the static experience of Self belongs to this plane of the intuitive mind, and that there exists beyond this the experience of the dynamic Self on the planes of the overmind and the supermind (See Replies on p.234, paragraph 404 bis).
Whatever the case may be, these two lineages characterise an advanced stage of the yogic process in which the seeker strives to surpass duality, and which occurs long after the Calydonian boar hunt.
The name of the Pleiad Taygete, which is of obscure origin, also refers to a mountain in the region of Sparta, and therefore to a movement of hoisting oneself towards the heights of ‘that which is sown’, of the newness surging forth.
We have already come across the Spartans or ‘sown ones’ in the quest of the Golden Fleece, in which they represented memories surging forth from consciousness. This parallel is most probably not fortuitous, for advanced spiritual work is for the most part a work on memories.
The mountain Taygete is sometimes associated with Artemis and with the doe pursued by Heracles in his third labour, then indicating a kind of purity in the achieved receptivity.
The significance of the first four generations issued from the union of Zeus and Taygete is relatively obscure, for there are few myths about them and the versions which have been passed down to us are often unclear.
According to Apollodorus Zeus entered into a union with Taygete and fathered Lacedaemon, ‘a divinity resounding with force’, who in his turn entered into a union with Sparta, ‘that which is sown or that which surges forth’ (and which is therefore in relation to what is new and/or ancient). Sparta was a daughter of Eurotas, ‘a vast consciousness on the plane of the spirit’ which seeks to be incarnated. The seeker is therefore solidly connected to the heights of the Spirit, and strives to make what is new surge forth.
Lacedaemon engendered a son named Amyclas, ‘he who must achieve a desireless state’, as well as a homonymous Eurydice, ‘the right manner of behaving’.(According to Apollodorus she entered into a union with Acrisius, the father of Danae and therefore the grandfather of Perseus, which associates Lacedaemon with work on fear.)
On his side Amyclas entered into a union with Diomede, ‘she who has the goal of being divine’, daughter of Lapithus, who bore Cynortes, the meaning of which name remains obscure, and Hyacinthus, the ‘hyacinth’.
According to some sources Apollo fell in love with the comely Hyacinthus, but inadvertently killed him during a game of disc throwing. Ovid wrote that the blood of the young man spread over the earth and rose as a flower, which would resemble a lily if it was not scarlet in colour.
An understanding of the second part of the myth rests on a coherent understanding of the symbol of the flower, for which we do not have any clues. It would not seem that this flower refers to the one which we know by that name today.
The name Hyacinth itself does not bring much new understanding, aside from a notion of an inner evolution perhaps.
If we leave aside the part of this myth in which the flower appears, it would seem to refer to a link between the psychic light and a true realisation in the ascension of the planes of consciousness (Hyacinth was very handsome), but this link is difficult to maintain. This difficulty would be a sign that the corresponding realisation, that of mental light originating from the spirit, is not strong enough to support the psychic light or to ‘play’ with it on an equal footing. This confirms a placing of the lineage of Taygete well before that of the overmind, which includes Maia and her son the god Hermes who can ‘play’ at being Apollo’s rival even in his early youth.
Some say that it was Boreas who altered the disk’s course, suggesting that this would be an unfitting asceticism which would put an end to a true drawing close.
Cynortes engendered Oebalus, whose name is of an obscure origin. The latter entered into a union with Gorgophone, ‘she who vanquishes fear’ (who has slain the Gorgon), who also became the wife of Perieres. This element allows the two lineages to be brought closer together.
The children of Oebalus (Perieres): Aphareus and Leucippus
It has already been noted that in this work we will adhere to the version of the myth in which Castor and Polydeuces are sons of Tyndareus and Zeus within the lineage of the Pleiades, representing a theoretical descriptions of the different planes. On the other hand, Aphareus and Leucippus are sons of Perieres, ‘he who works around the right movement’, or of his son Oebalus within the lineage of Aeolus, representing corresponding realisations.
In a union with Gorgophone, Oebalus (Perieres) engendered Aphareus, ‘he who is without a mask’, and Leucippus, ‘the white horse’; the seeker who succeeds in vanquishing his fears lets fall the masks and armouring which have facilitated his evolution till that point but which can no longer do so, and acquires a pure vital energy or power.
A study of the children of Aphareus and Leucippus has already been broached in the first chapter. Here the essential points will be repeated, for they are meaningful to the conflict which set them in opposition to the Dioscuri Castor and Polydeuces.
Aphareus and his sons Idas and Lynkeus
Aphareus, ‘he who does not wear a mask’, which is to say ‘he who lets fall his defences’ and who strives for a transparency in face of the Absolute, entered into a union with Arene, ‘the evolution of the true or just movement’, who bore him two sons, Idas and Lynkeus.
Idas, ‘he who sees the whole’ (and perhaps also ‘union in consciousness’ and therefore ‘the realisation of the Self’), was according to Homer (Iliad IX.557) the most powerful of the mortal men of his time (he who possesses the greatest powers), while Lynkeus ‘the lynx’ represents a perception of detail or ‘penetrating vision’.
These two heroes represent simultaneous aspects of the intuitive consciousness which ‘sees’ what is Real, which is to say the vision of the whole and the discerning vision of detail, the vision of the conditioned and the unconditioned, the vision of subjective reality and that of the Absolute, etc.
Idas is the central figure of a myth discussed in the first chapter of this work, in which he opposed Apollo and finally enters into a union with Marpessa, who Zeus had given the freedom to choose a union of her own choice. Euenos, the father of this young woman, had died in pursuit of his daughter.
The light of the psychic being, Apollo, strives to pull the seeker onto the path of psychicisation but the seeker shies away, preferring the security of a global mental vision, personified by Idas, than a psychic light which he considers to be an uncertain perception due to the disturbances of the lower nature not yet rendered pure and transparent. The subconscious allies itself to this security, for Poseidon supports the interests of Idas over those of Apollo. But in the end it is the supraconscient which decides (Zeus allows Marpessa to choose for herself), for the psychic being never imposes itself. That which till this point had been a ‘beautiful evolution’ comes to a halt after having sabotaged the energies which brought it dynamism (Euenos kills his horses and ends his own life).
This impedes the yogic evolution from progressing beyond the realisation of the Self. It must be remembered that in fact the latter does not in any way bring about a right attitude in incarnation, nor any desire for evolution. For this, it would be necessary for the psychic being to come completely to the forefront, which, as the Mother reminds us, was traditionally said to require thirty years of dedicated yoga to be attained.
Idas, who Homer describes as the most powerful man of his time, died under the blows of his cousins Castor and Polynices before the beginning of the Trojan War, which foreshadowed a change of orientation in the yogic process.
It has been said that Idas was a son of Poseidon, thus underlining the fact that this realisation could not be obtained through any specific method. Rather, it manifests itself when the seeker is ready.
The experiences attained when the seeker is in the Self leave a strong mark both in the seeker himself and in others around him. In fact, from a union with Marpessa Idas engendered Cleopatra, ‘ancestors of great renown’ – the realisations and achievements of the ancients -, who later became Meleagros’ wife. This vision of the whole allows the seeker to identify and purify, through the Calydonian boar hunt, the most archaic and gross of the perturbing vital elements.
Aphareus’ other son is Lynkeus, ‘a penetrating vision’. According to Apollodorus, he was characterised by a power of vision so piercing that he could see what lay underground.
According to some sources, in the conflict which set him against the Dioscuri Castor and Polynices, Lynkus ran till the summit of Mount Taygete to find out where the latter lay hidden. This is therefore a discernment which is able to elevate itself to the highest levels of the ‘intuitive mind’ and to perceive the depths of matter, and therefore to also perceive the dysfunctions of the body and what is most deeply hidden within others, the basic nature invisible even to their own eyes.
This sharpened discernment can most probably be associated with the ‘penetrating vision’ of Buddhism (also known as Vipassana), and characterises a direct perception of reality which can occur when the obstacles created by the ego are removed.
Despite being mainly of an intuitive type, this is a discernment which belongs to the higher regions of the mind and can no longer be useful or must no longer be utilised in a personal way, even it does not disappear altogether, when the yogic work is reoriented for a deepened purification of the vital and the body. This is why Lynkus was eventually killed by one of the Dioscuri.
It must always be remembered that when great heroes like Idas and Lynkeus or Castor and Polynices are mentioned in the great epic poems preceding their chronological appearance in the genealogical lineages, their presence only refers to preparations in the corresponding domains rather than to integral realisations, which only truly begin at the time of their genealogical appearance. This is why mentioning the Self and the penetrating Vision has been avoided in the study of the quest of the Golden Fleece, in which these heroes appear as companions of Jason. These are then only the first steps in view of such realisations, and were described as a ‘will for union’ in the case of Idas and ‘discernment’ in that of Lynkeus.
Leucippus and his daughters
The state which no longer identifies itself with the ego allows the liberation of an unperturbed vital energy, here represented by Leucippus ‘the white horse’.
According to later accounts Leucippus fathered two daughters, Hilaira ‘the beneficent’ or ‘that which is favourable’, and Phoebe ‘the pure and shining’.
Some add Arsinoe, whose name can signify either ‘the elevation of the spirit’ or else its opposite, ‘the suppression of the thinking mind’. It is the second meaning rather than the first which is to be retained, for she is more strongly linked with the healing capacities originating from the psychic being. In fact she is sometimes identified as the mother of the great physician Asclepius, who she bore from a union with Apollo.
The Cyprian Hymns attribute to Hilaira and Phoebe Leucippus as a human father and Apollo as a divine father. They therefore symbolise a result not only of the purification of the vital, but also of the growth of the psychic.
The children of Oebalus/Perieres: Tyndareus, Icarius, Hippocoon and Arene
The name Oebalus is of an obscure origin. Most probably linked to the root βαλ or βελ, it could mean ‘he who launches consciousness in a forward direction’. He entered into a union with Gorgophone, ‘one who slays the Gorgon’, and therefore exemplifies a work on the suppression of fear. According to other sources he entered into a union with Batia, ‘the place to which consciousness can go’, and thus represents a will to explore the limits of consciousness.
Whether through one union or the another, the couple parented four children: Tyndareus, Icarius, Hippocoon and Arene.
Arene
Above we have studied the descendance of Arene, ‘the evolution of the true or just movement’, who united with Aphareus and bore him two sons, Idas and Lynkeus.
Icarius
Icarius, ‘the opening towards the right movement of consciousness, belongs to the plane of the intuitive mind. He was according to all sources the father of Penelope, and his story is linked to that of his half-brother Hippocoon.
As Penelope’s father he represents that which draws nearest to the supramental consciousness, an association formed through an analogy with Icarius who flew too close to Helios the sun. His daughter is therefore the end-goal of Ulysses’ quest, Ulysses being the most advanced of the adventurers of consciousness.
Hippocoon
He is most often described as a bastard son of Oebalus and of Nicostrate, ‘the victorious warrior’. His name could signify ‘he who perceives energies’.
Hippocoon drove Tyndareus and Icarius away from Lacedaemon (Sparta), or else was helped by Icarius in driving Tyndareus away. But he gravely offended Heracles who brought about his death and that of his twelve or twenty sons, one of whom had according to some accounts killed one of Heracles’ parents, Oeonus. From that time onwards Tyndareus was able to return to Sparta (also known as Lacedaemon), while Icarius remained in Calydon (province of Aetolia).
To carry through his expedition Heracles first journeyed to Tegea and persuaded Cepheus, the son of Aleos, to grant him his support and his twenty sons as warriors. As Cepheus feared leaving his city defenceless, Heracles entrusted Cepheus’ daughter Sterope with a strand of hair of the Gorgon Medusa enclosed in a brazen urn. In case of an attack she was to wave this strand three times without laying eyes on it, and would thus force the enemy to flee.
Cepheus and most of his sons were subsequently slain in the battle against Hippocoon.
Apollodorus and Diodorus place this event after the plundering of Elis and of Troy by Heracles, and thus once the liberation in the spirit has been accomplished. It is therefore included in the ‘praxeis’ or ‘free acts’ of Heracles which follow his labours. The plunder of Elis having taken place almost two generations before the Trojan War, it can be concluded that Helen was not yet born at this time, for Tyndareus only met Leda during her exile in Calydon. The mention of this city suggests that one is to place this event roughly at the same time as the Calydonian boar hunt, within the phase of yoga which engages with the work of purification of the major archaic movements of the vital.
This story evokes an attachment which causes the evolutionary process of yoga to cease. In fact, the numerous modes by which the seeker works through his ‘perceptions of energy’ (Hippocoon and his twelve sons) bring about a discontinuation of the ‘highest intuition’, for they kill Oeonus, ‘the bird of prey’ or through the structuring characters ‘the evolution of consciousness in incarnation’.
This work on energy momentarily derails the seeker from the path of ‘what is to be born’ or from a listening to ‘the inner divine resounding with force’ (Tyndareus and Icarius are turned out of Sparta/Lacedaemon).
There may perhaps be a warning for seekers who have developed unusual perceptions and capacities by exploring the limits of consciousness (exceptional capacities compared to those of ordinary men, such as the capacity to perceive energetic structures of the living world, etc.).Trusting in them completely, they may in fact use them, whether consciously or not, for ends which though noble may get in the way of the yogic process.
To overcome this obstacle and end the corresponding illusion, the seeker must ‘open himself to the process of descent of consciousness in the being’ and appeal to the support of the mind (Heracles journeyed to Tegea to ask for the support of Cepheus and his twenty sons).
The mental fear of losing the structures of spiritual protection (Cepheus feared that the city of Tegea would be attacked) must be annulled by the higher mind by carrying out a ritual of faith against fear (Heracles ensured the safety of Cepheus’ city by giving his daughter Sterope a strand of the hair of the Gorgon, which she was to waive thrice in the air). The higher mind can handle this dangerous strand, for the struggle against fear has already been acted out repeatedly. In this struggle intellectual reasoning, even if it is to be mobilised in the widest way possible, disappears almost completely (Cepheus and most of his sons are killed).
Tyndareus and Leda, and their children Castor, Polynices, Helen and Clytaemnestra
Tyndareus entered into a union with Leda, ‘union through liberation’, who bore him four children: Castor, ‘the power which confers mastery’ or the absolute mastery of the vital which results from the right movement towards purity in incarnation, Polynices, ‘the entirely gentle’, Helen, ‘the evolution of liberation’, and Clytaemnestra, ‘renowned wisdom’.
However, other versions of this myth exist which address their paternal ascendancy.
In Homer and Hesiod’s accounts Helen is always a daughter of Zeus and Leda.
In regards to Castor and Polynices the sources diverge. In the texts of Homer, who refers to them as Tyndarides, they are attributed Tyndareus as their human father as was Clytaemnestra. In the Catalogue of Women they are both sons of Zeus, or else Castor is the son of Tyndareus and Polynices that of Zeus (the opposite is not possible, for in the conflict which opposes them to Idas and Lynkeus only Polynices survives).
Of the four children, Clytaemnesta is the only one not to be described as a daughter of Zeus in any account.
There is an ancient tradition, which would have been described in the Cyprian Hymns according to which Helen was the daughter of Zeus and Nemesis, ‘retributive justice’, which is meted out in accordance to merit.
In this account Nemesis was forced to enter into a union with Zeus. To escape from the god she turned herself first into a fish, and then into a goose. Zeus consequently also shape-shifted to be able to couple with her, and Helen was eventually born of an egg.
A later tradition recounted by Apollodorus claimed that Zeus transformed himself into a swan rather than a goose. In this version Leda was only Helen’s adoptive mother, raising her as if she was her own daughter.
Finally, in a version of this story which appears from the time of the tragic playwrights but which is perhaps much older, it was Leda herself who was courted by Zeus in the form of a swan, and it is she who gave birth to Helen in an egg.
According to some records both the Dioscuri and Helen were born from this egg. The egg plays a primordial role in the formation of the world in numerous traditions, as does the image of the incubation of consciousness.
According to Apollodorus, who also mentions the version in which Nemesis appears, Leda and Tyndareus first had three children:
– Timandra, ‘she who ascribes value to man’, who wed Echemus, ‘he who accomplishes consecration’.
– Clytaemnestra, ‘renowned wisdom’.
– Philonoe, ‘she who loves intelligence or consciousness’. She was granted immortality by Zeus; in response to this ‘love for consciousness’, the supraconscient grants access to non-duality.
Then in the same night Zeus and Tyndareus coupled with Leda. Under the form of a swan Zeus engendered Polynices and Helen, while Tyndareus engendered Castor and Clytaemnestra.
It can be understood from these different versions that the Dioscuri characterise a seeker who broaches the source of duality (at the level of attraction and repulsion in the vital). This idea is supported by the Cyprian Hymns, in which Zeus allows the Dioscuri to live amongst the gods for a single day after their death, either together or separately, indicating that the access to non-duality is possible but has not yet been established. These comings and goings probably also allow the path between the supraconscient and the conscient to be consolidated and balanced.
On the other hand if the highest wisdom, Clytaemnestra, is never established as originating from a fecundation of the overmind, then Homer, who has the tendency of focusing on the work in progress rather than on the final realisation, does not seem to attribute to the yogic work in regards to power and gentleness an origin in the overmind (for Homer, Castor and Polynices are sons of Tyndareus). Let us remember that according to Homer, Aphrodite is love in evolution rather than in its supreme state as portrayed by Hesiod.
If we only consider the lineage these are clearly realisations of the intuitive mind rather than the overmind (for all four belong to the lineage of Taygete rather than to that of Maia) whether they receive their impulse from the overmind or from elsewhere.
On the other hand, if the swan is taken to be a symbol of the psychic light then the goose is most probably associated with the female swan and would therefore be a symbol of the active expression of the psychic, one of exactness. In the different versions of this myth it is never Apollo who couples with Leda, but rather Zeus who transforms himself into his symbol of the swan. The union between goose and swan (Leda and Zeus) could then be understood as an expression of a fecundation by the supraconscient to achieve exactness, an impulse which the seeker perceives as being of the nature of psychic light rather than supraconscient.
While the children who are born of these unions still belong to a certain kind of duality, which is as we shall see more complementary than oppositional, this remaining duality disappears with the conflict between the Dioscuri Castor and Polynices and their cousins Idas and Lynkeus, of which the only survivor was Polynices, ‘he who is in complete sweetness’ or complete compassion.
(It must be mentioned that another daughter of Leda, Phoebe ‘the shining and pure’, is depicted both on vases from Attica and in the work of Euripides, giving a fitting illustration of a seeker who has attained this state.)
The Dioscuri or Tyndarides (sons of Tyndareus)
In the Iliad, Castor is the ‘horse tamer’, he who masters energies or power. Homer describes Polynices, ‘the very gentle’, as an able wrestler; here gentleness is in no way associated with half-heartedness, but is instead a combination of suppleness, adaptability, agility, swiftness, concentration, inner calm and strength. For one who liberates himself from fear and ego becomes transparent, and the course of events loses its strong hold on him.
The Dioscuri are known to grant a special protection to sailors. They take part in Jason’s expedition as well as in the Calydonian boar hunt; even before non-duality is established as an aim of the yogic work, working on what they represent, both a power of realisation and an extreme gentleness, will always be a protection on the path (a special protection for sailors).
For seekers who have advanced in the process of their realisation they can ensure an appropriate orientation of the quest: the Dioscuri watch over the courtship of their sister Helen.
The name Dioscuri, which appeared relatively late, signifies ‘the young boys of Zeus’, in the sense that they are the most advanced works of yoga in the direction of the overmind. It is with the next Pleiad, Maia, that will be established the overmind with Zeus’ son Hermes. It must be remembered that while Zeus is the symbol of the supraconscient in general, he is more particularly so the symbol of its highest level, the overmind. The name Dioscuri also carries a connotation of ‘warrior’ or ‘free servant’, terms which also apply to the seeker.
Aside from their participation in the major epics the Dioscuri took part in three important exploits:
The rescuing of Helen after she was abducted by Theseus and Pirithoos
This was alluded to in the first chapter. It explains the fact that the seeker must wait to be ready to begin the phase of yoga which takes place in the corporeal inconscient; Helen was nubile at this time.
The abduction of the Leucippides (the daughters of Leucippus, Hilaira and Phoebe)
Only later sources mention the abduction of the Leucippides.
Promised in marriage to Idas and Lynkeus, they were abducted by the Dioscuri, by who they each bore a son: the purification of the vital nature generates a possibility of ‘shining’ and ‘right action’, for they are daughters of Leucippus. In contrast to what is commonly believed, the seeker must allow that this work depends more on the psychic being than on his capacity for vision.
We have in fact seen that Hilaira, ‘that which is favourable’, and Phoebe, ‘the pure and shining’, were described in the Cyprian Hymns as daughters of Apollo, and therefore only as adopted daughters of Leucippus, ‘a pure energy’. They are therefore representative of expressions of a psychic light which develops itself under the effects of vital purification.
However Apollodorus does not mention the promise of marriage, and therefore does not attribute the origin of the conflict between the cousins to the abduction of the young women. Instead, he attributes the origin of the conflict to a litigious division of livestock.
The conflict between the Dioscuri (Castor and Polynices, sons of Zeus) and the Apharetids (Idas and Lynkeus, sons of Aphareus).
The conflict which set the Dioscuri against the Apharetids took place after Paris’ abduction of Helen. In fact, as long as the problem of Truth on the path of an evolution beyond ‘liberation’ has not been set, there is no reason for this conflict to arise.
This is confirmed by the poet Lycophron, according to whom it was Zeus who sparked off a quarrel between the cousins so that Troy, which could not have withstood a combined attack by the four heroes, would not fall too soon to the Greeks. In fact only Polynices survived the violent quarrel. The supraconscient thus delays the possibility of a swift resolution of the conflict resulting from the reorientation of yoga. According to this poet, in addition to the need to perfect non-duality, the seeker must also lose his abilities and capacity for vision so as to attain an integral submission to the Divine, which would alone be able to grant the right orientation.
The abilities which he had with so much effort obtained disappear for the most part so as to make him discover within himself a new possibility for resolution (the intervention of Achilles). In other words, it is not possible to find a solution for collective evolution which extends beyond personal liberation through the power and capacities of vision of the spirit alone. In fact, irrespective of the varying accounts of their genealogical origins, Idas, Lynkeus and Castor all belong to the lineage of Iapetus either through Aeolus or Atlas.
According to other accounts the quarrel was caused by a raid on Arcadian herds carried out by the four heroes. When came the time to share the spoils of the raid, the task was conferred to Idas. The latter cut a cow into four parts, and declared that half of the herd would belong to the one who finished his part first, and the rest to the one who finished second. Swiftly he devoured his own part first, and then also swallowed that of his brother. Idas and Lynkeus therefore claimed all of the cattle, but the Dioscuri ambushed their cousins and stole the herds.
This story indicates that some parts of the seeker wish to profit from the realisations attained by the power of endurance at an advanced stage of yoga, and hence enter into a dispute. The province of Arcadia is linked to the history of Callisto ‘the most beautiful’, who hunted wild animals with Artemis and who Zeus fell in love with, engendering the hero Arcas. Despite the difficulties of situating this province within a general progression due to the contradictions appearing in different accounts, we will see later on in this work that Callisto represents a very advanced state of realisation in the conquest of the vital archaisms through a power of Truth (for Callisto, ‘the most beautiful’, hunts wild animals in the company of a goddess). She is indicative of a form of yoga which reaches far beyond that carried out in Thessaly, for it must be remembered that the Centaurs were driven out of Thessaly and Arcadia.
Here the seeker wishes to enjoy the realisations and achievements of this phase. It is his ‘capacities for vision’, to which his other realisations, power and gentleness, have willingly submitted themselves at first, that organise themselves in order to reap the benefits of all realisations (Idas claims the whole herd for his brother and himself).
But this attempt taking place before the Trojan War fails, and ends with the annihilation of all the seeker’s powers and capacities of vision. Only a complete gentleness remains, an infinite compassion (only Polynices survives the bloody conflict).
At the beginning of the struggle Lynkeus utilises his powers of vision from the summit of Mount Taygete, the highest plane of the intuitive mind (see below).
The exact progression of the struggle is recounted with some variations. Of these different versions we can retain the points that Lynkeus was slain by Polynices, and that Idas, after having slain Castor, died under Polynices’ blows or else was struck dead by the lightening of Zeus. According to several traditions Idas and Lynkeus were killed near the tomb of their father Aphareus, ‘he who strives to be without mask’.
The loss of great realisations aim to place the seeker in a state of integral consecration to the Absolute. It is to be remembered that according to the Mother, ‘Complete surrender… It is not a matter of giving what is small to something greater nor of losing one’s will in the divine will; it is a matter of ANNULLING one’s will in something that is of another nature’ (Mother’s Agenda, Volume 1, 7 October 1956).
The end of the Dioscuri
According to Apollodorus Zeus allowed Polynices to ascent to the heavens, but as the latter did not wish for immortality if he could not share it with his brother Zeus allowed them both together to spend a day amongst the gods and one amongst mortals.
In the Odyssey, Homer confirms this end: ‘These two the earth, the giver of life, covers, albeit alive, and even in the world below they have honor from Zeus. One day they live in turn, and one day they are dead; and they have won honor like unto that of the gods’ (Homer and A.T. Murray, Odyssey XI.301-304).
The seeker has renounced his quest for a ‘complete vision’ and a ‘penetrating vision’ in the personal being for the sake of pursuing evolution. The supraconscient then grants him the experience of ‘infinite compassion’ from the non-duality of the spirit, but the seeker also aspires to its being a source of power to be able to move forward towards the transformation of humanity as a whole (Polynices does not accept to live amongst the immortals if Castor is not able to share this existence with him). According to Sri Aurobindo and the Mother it would seem that the transformation is possible only if the seeker has identified himself in the spirit and from there pulls forward Power from the inconscient (see Mother’s Agenda Vol. 2, p 419).
But this is not the solution, for the transformation cannot be carried out by the power of the spirit alone – an alliance between gods and humans is necessary. This is why Zeus creates an alternation by which power and compassion strengthen themselves by moving from the Absolute to a descent into the corporeal inconscient (within the fertile earth) so as to infuse it with consciousness; they therefore strive for a corporeal transparency.
But these are only the first layers of the inconscient, for the descent does not take place in Hades but rather beneath the earth of their native Lacedaemon.
It is possible to situate this conflict within the same period as the abduction of Helen for it had already taken place when the Trojan War begins; the seeker has therefore already begun to work on the depths of the unconscious.