The Apples of Apollo

14 Pages·2001·0.07 MB·English

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The Apples of Apollo
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The Apples of Apollo
Pagan and Christian Mysteries
of the Eucharist
CarlA.P.Ruck
Blaise Daniel Staples
Clark Heinrich
Carolina Academic Press
Durham, North Carolina
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Copyright © 2001
Carl A.P. Ruck, Blaise Daniel Staples, and Clark Heinrich
All Rights Reserve d
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ruck, Carl A.P.
The apples of Apollo : pagan and Christian mysteries of the
Eucharist / Carl A.P. Ruck, Blaise D. Staples, Clark Heinrich
p. cm .
Includes bibliographical ref e r ences (p. ) and index.
ISBN 0-89089-924-X
1. Hallucinogenic drugs and religious experience. 2. Amanita
mu s c a r i a —Religious aspects . 3. Mysteries, Religious. 4. Christianity
and other rel i g i o ns. 5. Lord’ s supper—Hi s t o r y of doctr i n e s .
I. Staples, Blaise D. (Blaise Daniel), 1948– II. Heinrich, Clark,
19 4 5 – III. Tit l e .
BL65.D7 R83 20 0 0
00 - 0 4 0 3 5 1
Ca r olina AcademicPr es s
700 Kent Stree t
Du r ha m , No r th Carolina 27701
Tel e p h o ne [phone]
Fa csimile [phone]
E-mail: cap@cap-pres s . c o m
ww w .c a p - p r es s . c o m
Pr i n ted in the United States of America.
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Empedocles lived for a hundred-nine years.
Ap o l l o d o r os claims to have witnessed in person that
he was a shaman, as Empedocles himself relates in his poem,
al o ng with other such things as these:
“As many drugs as there are you will learn, as remedy for
sickness and age—for I will initiate you alone in all of this:
You will stop the wind that rushes against the land and wastes the fiel d .
Or again, if ever you want, you will summon it back .
You will inflic t upon mankind a season of drought after the dark rai n ;
so also will you inflic t, after the summer drou g h t ,
floods that nourish the tree s .
And the soul of a man who has died you will lead back up from Hades.”
Empedocles was a healer and a gifted speaker.
He purified his body with Fire.
“Y ou drank Fire from the immortal potion. ”
He disappeared, but many cities claimed to have his grav e .
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Contents
List of Illustrat i o ns x
Fo r ew o r d xi i i
Ac k n o w l e d g m e n ts xi v
Chapter One Bacchus Amongst Us
Carl A.P. Ruck 3
The Green Man 4
Sy m p o s i u m 6
Mo u n tain Revel 8
Cu l t i v a t i n g the Wil d 9
Feast of Flowers 11
Theater of Diony s o s 12
Chapter Two Mistletoe, Centaurs, and Datura
Carl A.P. Ruck and Blaise D. Staples 15
Ix i o n 15
Mistletoe 18
Wicker Man 22
Solstice 23
Horsemad 24
Ko r onis 29
Asklepios 29
Da p h n e 30
Th o r n Apple 32
Ce n ta u r y 33
Peirithoos 34
Ka l l i k a n tzari 36
Fugitive Vis i o ns 40
Chapter Three Perseus, the Mushroom Picker
Carl A.P. Ruck, Blaise D. Staples and Clark Heinrich 41
Re f o u n d i n g Mycenae 42
vi i
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vi i i Contents
Golden Pluck 45
The Shaman of Lake Stymphalos 46
Golden Apples 49
Ro c k r ose 51
Re f o u n d i n g Athens 54
Kibisos 58
The Parap h e r nalia of Perseus 63
The Springs of Pegasos 67
Golden Rain 69
The Honey Drink 71
The Golden Waters 72
Or i o n 74
Bull Hides 77
Be l l o w i n g Bulls 79
Ha z i n g 82
Ho m o nyms 85
Chapter Four Jason, the Drug Man
Carl A.P. Ruck, Blaise D. Staples and Clark Heinrich 87
School for Shamans 89
On e - F o o t 92
Talos of Crete 95
Mud-Foot 96
The Chrismation of Iason 98
The Serpent in the Garden 10 2
The Golden Ram of Sacr i fi ce 10 5
The Ship Argo 11 2
The Apples of Apollo 11 4
Golden Fleece 11 8
The Apple of Discord 11 9
The Golden Apples of Atalanta 12 7
Golden Apples and Balls of Fleece 12 8
The Theft of Fire 13 1
Agni and the Fireb i r d 13 5
The Golden Fleece and Alchemy 13 8
Chapter Five Jesus, the Drug Man
Carl A.P. Ruck, Blaise D. Staples and Clark Heinrich 14 3
The Jesus from Nazaret h 14 4
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Contents ix
Ap o l l o nios of Tyana 14 8
Gymnosophistai 15 6
Th e r apeutai 15 8
The Burni n g Bush 16 3
Shamans in the Desert 16 6
Eucharist 18 5
Br ead and Wine, Flesh and Blood 19 4
An ge l ’ s Bread 19 6
Tran s fi gu r at i o n at Gethsemane 20 7
The Holy Grail 21 3
The Isenheim Altarpiece: Matthias Grünewald’s
Religious Allegory as ‘Medical’ Explication 21 6
The Abbot’s Herbarium 22 0
Chapter Six Invitation to the Dance: Hanal Pixán
and Anthesteria
Blaise D. Staples 23 5
Me m e n to Mori 23 5
Sa cr ed Walls 24 7
The Phantom Dancer 25 2
Re f e r ences 25 5
Index 26 3
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List of Illustrations
1. Ix i o n bound to his winged wheel, Etruscan mirror , British Mu-
seum, Lond o n (not pres e n tly on view); printed as plate xvii in A.B.
Cook, Zeus, New York, Bibilo & Tannen, rep r i n t 1964 of original
19 1 4 - 4 0 .
2. Ix i o n, bound to the wheel by Hephaistos, with Zeus, Iris, and an
Erinys (or Fury), amphora from Apulia, Hermitage Museum;
pr i n ted as figu r e 146 in A.B. Cook, vol. i, p. 146.
3. Ix i o n, burni n g on his wheel, with Hermes, Hephaistos, Erinys, and
two Nephelai (?), Campanian amphora from Cumae, Berlin Mu-
seum, printed as 840 f no. 3023 in Furtw ä n gl e r , Vassensammlung
Berlin ii.
4. Ix i o n’ s flow e r , close-up of Etruscan mirror .
5. Da t u r a stram o nium, drawi n g, rep r i n ted from Ott 1976.
6. Mistletoe, drawi n g, rep r i n ted from Web s t e r ’s Third Inte r na t i o na l
Di c ti o na r y.
7. Eu r opean Bay Lau r el, drawi n g, rep r i n ted from Web s t e r ’s Third In-
te r na t i o nal Dicti o na r y.
8. Th o r n Apple, frui t i n g Datura, drawi n g, rep r i n ted from Web s t e r ’s
Th i r d Inte r na t i o nal Dicti o na r y.
9. Perseus picking mushrooms in the Garden of the Hesperides, am-
ph o r a, 3rd quarter of the fourth centu r y BC, Perga m o nm u s e u m :
Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Anti k e n - S a m m l u n g, inv. no. F. 3022.
10 . Eleusinian Caryatid with Cista Mystica, ca r yatid from the inner
Pr opylaea of the Roman period, first centu r y AD, Museum of
El e u s i s .
11 . Er i c h t h o nios in the Rockrose Hamper (with lid beside it), Attic
red - fi gu r e pelike, by the Erichthonios painte r , from Nola, Classical
period, Würzb u r g H 4803.
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