Kata Markon

["Rick Frommich" <eugor3 AT hotmail.com>]

>Rick, I reread Prometheus Bound. I saw several general themes, but nothing

>I would take to be mimetic the way I usually use the word. I have an

>article coming out soon on the goads passage in Acts and the prison break

>of Paul in Acts 16 as mimesis of the Bacchae. I'd appreciate the reference

>on the "glass darkly." I've seen it, as I recall, but I'm not certain

>where.

>Happy hunting.

>Dennis M.

 

Dennis,

 

Just a note to follow up on my last email:

 

I believe that the compiler of Mark does make use of mimesis in a certain sense.

He is convinced that Jesus is actually John the Baptist raised from the dead, or reincarnated if you will. Jesus is the Stronger of John, that comes after him in the sense of incarnated power. He would also say that Jesus is connected with Odysseus and is in some sense an incarnation of that hero as well. Finally the evangelist sees Jesus as an incarnation of Prometheus. The God who loved humanity so much he was willing to pay the ultimate price to bring them salvation.

 

 

Of course, where my research dovetails with yours is in the answer to the question "How is Jesus like Odysseus"? I would say that the Jesus figure that the compiler of Mark is writing about is actually the Apostle Paul.  Paul was indeed, quite like Odysseus as he was a world traveler to many strange lands and most of his travels involved sea voyages. He, like the Hero of the Odyssey came home to Jerusalem knowing that it was full of enemies, interlopers that had taken over the House of God. But unlike the Greek Hero, Paul did not regain control of his House. At this point Mark turns to Prometheus for his pattern. Jesus is tragically condemned to death and put on display and mocked. But like Prometheus, the crucifixion of Jesus was not the end of the story hence the abrupt ending of the Gospel of Mark ....which is in anticipation of the rest of the story, a kind of Prometheus Unbound, unbound in that he was freed from the body, the cage of the soul.

 

I do not recall how much of my research I have actually shared with you, so if this really sounds off the wall,  feel free to pose whatever questions might occur to you. I have been

researching this for about twenty years and have asked all of those questions at one time or another. I am absolutely convinced that the Jesus of the Gospels was none other than  the Apostle Paul. The second half of the thesis is that the Jesus of Paul was actually John the Baptist whom the early movement believed to be raised from the dead.

 

MIMESIS

Mimesis comes from mimos and mimeisthai, both terms that refer originally to the change of personality that was experimented in certain rituals in which the faithful felt that beings of non-human nature, divine or animal, or heroes from other times, were incarnated on them. Mimeisthai is not so much imitate, as it is to represent, incarnate a different being.

I look forward to your response.

 

Rick Richmond

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