Kouros is an ancient word,... «В темных областях мудрости»
denis-smirnov7 февраля 2022Kouros is an ancient word, older even than the Greek language. Often it's a title of honour, never an expression of contempt. When the great poets before Parmenides used the term it was always to communicate a sense of nobility. It was the kouros, more than anyone else, who was a hero.
In terms of physical age, it could mean someone under thirty. But in practice the word had a far wider meaning. Α kouros was the man of any age who still saw life as a challenge, who faced it with the whole of his vigour and passion, who hadn't yet stood back to make way for his sons. The word indicated the quality of a man, not how old he was.
It was also closely connected with initiation. The kouros stands at the borderline between the world of the human and the world of the divine; has access to them both, is loved and recognized in both. It's only as a kouros that the initiate can possibly succeed at the great ordeal of making a journey into the beyond—just as Parmenides does.
The kouros has a great deal in common with the world of the divine. In their own way they're both timeless, untouched by age. When Heracles dies and is made immortal, it's as a kouros that he's pictured rising up from the funeral pyre. And the situation of the nameless kouros face to face with the nameless goddess, just like Parmenides—this was a well-known scenario in the mysteries of initiation.
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