(Article of November 2003 / Internet) What does the word Agon (Áăţí) signify so that is generally firmly-established in athletics of ancient Greece? Instead, why the word “game = đáéăíßäé” was not used as it is today with the century old accepted term “Olympic Games”? The word Áăţí – Agon signifies every important and dangerous endeavour. Moreover, the esoteric dynamic of the word connotes Üăů Üíů = ago ano = lead, direct, drive upwards. The ancient Athletic Agones and not the sports games (like Olympic Games) lead, direct, drive upwards the athlete because they are referred not to his body but to his psyche instead. In order to lead aloft a psyche conditions of enlightenment and unfailing transcendence of her efforts are essential. The athlete does not compete with others. Competition aims at his past-self. The tops of mount Olympus fade out in the infinite ether of the heavens. The sacred Mountain is supported by its feet. The Nemea, Isthmia and Pythia along with the Olympics form the Tetraktys-like Construction (Tetraktys is a sacred Pythagorean quaternary symbol in Delta [Ä] shape, which refers to the unity of four different elements within one common attribute). These other sacrosanct and pious Agones are the feet that support the Substance of Immortality. The Olympic athlete does not come out of the blue into the Agones scene without having already proved his invariable intentness in the ideals of the Hellenic Race and its moral values. The preceding Agones lead and form the athlete, who at someday makes a reach for the Olympics. The first two of the Agones (Nemea and Isthmia) were in honour of the dead members of the Greek Race. These Agones also were initiation-rites for Greek children nation-wide. As invisible protagonist, the Sacred Child is the young psyche, who in her initial stages of awakening meets formidable obstacles in her march to perfection. In the third Agones the Pythia, god Apollo himself carries out total and victorious agon against Dragon (symbol of retrogressive degeneration) in Delphi. The psyche purged and sound is now well prepared to participate in the Olympics. When psyche is constantly enlightened by Helios (Sun) the highest symbol of the visible world, she is ready to get out of inactivity and start marching upwards. The lighting of the Olympic Flame symbolises the set-out of the Olympic Agones. If there is no set-up of Flame the setting-out of Agones is deferred or even cancelled. Why so much significance is attributed to a symbolic act that takes place in the Sacred Ground of Olympia before the start of Agones? The lighting of the Flame is the point of contact between visible and invisible worlds. It is the enlightenment of the athletes’ souls, who undertake the carrying of the inextinguishable flame of invisible fields with the symbolism of setting-up a torch. Then the athletes experience a transmutation. From dark, seduced shadows without knowledge of their destination become enlightened entities responsive to their undying existence. However, this symbolism does not suffice in connecting mortal athletes with immortal gods. According to the Olympic Ideal, the athletes are the cream of mortals. They have prepared not only their bodies but mostly their psyches for the Great Leap that springs them from mortality to immortality. So, what determines a preparation for Agones? It is the recognition of the solar descent of the soul, as with so much certainty and precision Plato unfolds our heliacal descent at the end of his dialogue in “Timeos”. In other words if there was not for a proemial (foretasted) knowledge of the Heliocentric Clergy, the preparation would be of no avail. Because the Olympic Flame is a visible expression of the fiery mass of the unfaltering Helios just as the heliocentric physical reality spots-on. For as long as psyche believes that she is limited into one small cycle of life on earth she has vainness engraved in her consciousness and the death certificate embedded in her moral fibre. Psyche needs a diachronic prototype in order to under-stand her connection with the Sacred Flame and to absorb the meaning of immortality. The athlete has to see with his physical eyes the flame. Only a visible, life prototype may offer this. Heliocentric System provides the objective, visible reality. Was Heliocentric System known in antiquity? Certainly, as the Tholus (Vault) of Epidaurus has on its floor the Heliocentric System imprinted. Consequently, Clergy had had knowledge of the heliocentric idea myriads of aeons before the building of the Vault. (Please note that only the fundamental beliefs are imprinted inside the sacred places of all religions.) And the most significant is that Heliocentric System comes from the Sacred Healing Place of both psyches and bodies. Therefore, it is indispensable that the Olympic Flame is firmly connected with the fixed Fire of Helios. Epidaurus, with the symbol of Helios on the floor of its Tholus along with its quadrennial Asclepiad Agones, connects the torch of Olympia with the meaning of immortality of the Psyche. If there were no firm light in his soul the athlete would not grasp the meaning of the setting-up of the Olympic Flame. A firm psychological enlightenment requires a visible prototype in order to correspond like diamond cut diamond. One of a kind prototype is the recognition of the Idea of Heliocentricism. Epidavros is the first Station where the psyche will start its journey from. First the Apollo’s son Asclepius will heal her bodily, mentally and intellectually. Then, afterwards she will be initiate to other Agones and finish-up at the Olympics. The Sacred Kotinos of the Olympic Agones is a cycle / crown of olive branch of the Sacred Altios (a wild olive tree) that is behind the Temple of Olympios Zeus. This sacred tree descents from Acropolis of Athens. The crown symbolises the Zodiac Cycle and the olive branch - an evergreen tree - the perpetuity of immortality. The athlete who has got a “healthy mind in a healthy body” sets-up the flame of immortality in his psyche. When he practices athletics (=deeds sanctified by tradition) as accomplisher among accomplishers, he aims at reaching the rooted to the spot-centre of the Eternal Light. The Kotinos of the Olympic Agones symbolises the crown of the Zodiac Cycle. The athlete’s crowned head with the Sacred Kotinos is the icon of the Zodiac Cycle that has got in its centre Helios / Nous. The athlete’s crowned head is the Central Helios of the Psyche. The Heliocentric Idea is its absolute expression. ALTANI P. F., 3 November 2003 |