Classics and Greek science help us regain confidence – Corriere.it

yoA hot summer morning brought us a still-wrapped Christmas present, as the wonderful images of the Webb Space Telescope were released on December 25, 2021. It was the dawn of a new era for astronomy, The dawn of the story of the universe story until now has been hidden from our eyes.

A puzzle that over time keeps us closely connected to a fundamental question, how was it possible to get there a Cosmos, already dialed in name (in Greek
Cosmio
means order) starting with primordial disorder.

The Greeks approached the topic with the mythical depth that characterizes them: at the origin of the world was chaos, an undifferentiated void, without bottom or order, open to all possibilities. Darkness before light.

Our universe was born from a chaotic explosion of light. And from there was born Jia, the Earth, Tartarus, dark and silent where the palace of the lord of the dead lies, and Eros, the love that is born and the night. From the night his opposites were born, the luminous air and the day, and from the earth were formed the starry sky, the mountains, and the sea, and he bore them from his inner strength, and gave birth to the forces which he kept in himself. .

And so with the story of the celestial generations belonging to an ancient and distant realm, humanity is still absent from it, a world that Hesiod (700 BC) rearranged for us in his world. TheogonyAnd the Describe the forces that operate in the universe, natural and divine entities. A remarkable and amazing feature of the Greek mentality is the ability to see the presence of the sacred in natural phenomena and to respect it as sacred.

So now we wonder what place we humans occupy in this holiness. Too small in front of a mystery of primordial dust and gases, as of July 12, 2022, historical history, thanks to James Webb and his team and their telescope, they have a faceThe deepest image of the universe ever taken.

Again Hesiod (in this case in his last work, Business and days) tells us about its reflections on human existence and does so through the story of the myth of the Five Ages, a highly suggestive myth also found in Eastern culture: our existence, unlike the divine being that has passed from chaos to order, seems to be destined for a reverse process. Through the cyclical alternation of phases in which we humans wreak havoc in the conquests and sacrifices of those who came before uswe are destined to decline in a trend that goes from the mythical age of gold to the age of silver and then bronze and iron (with parentheses in the age of heroes).

The quality of our lives on this planet is deteriorating from generation to generation
Like a metal that turns from gold to ironIt is calm and in harmony with nature and without anxiety, it becomes a source of injustice, arrogance, inequality, greed, war and poverty.

The dreadful poverty that terrifies Hesiod because it terrifies us, on the cusp of a hot autumn of rations they have. Taste of water and lack of energy (Plus the education we’ve been living with for a very long time.)

But upon closer examination the word poverty, in Greek PeñaSure it means fatigue but it also indicates The idea of ​​this tension and that intelligent spirit thanks to which we can work hard to get out of it with our heads held high. And together, we always keep an eye out for the weakest. The hallmark of human dignity.

A spirit that makes us lead a more sober lifestyle. And the Sobriety means moderation and curbing waste. Returning to learning to distinguish between what is necessary and what is necessary is also an education for peace. And from this we only have to learn from the young people around us. Being poorer is not a disgrace, it is an incentive to save and fuel for civic education.

We think that for Plato, even Eros, love, is the son of Peña, poverty, and Poros, the means. The philosopher says that from their union he derives what is contradictoryThe characteristic age of each form of love, its ability to simultaneously evoke joy and pain in the human soul. But when the intelligence of love feels a strong and painful deficiency Then he can do his best to help achieve what he doesn’t have, using all the ingenuity he can do.

Come to think of it, a real Christmas gift from James Webb and the entire team of scientists who worked on the telescope It actually makes us look up and curious and wait for a colorful picture of the universe. Between war and pandemic, we desperately needed a confidence boost.