Calydonian boar hunt represents a very advanced purification of the deep layers of the vital, only possible when equality is achieved.
The Boeotian Atalanta fighting with Peleus – Staatliche Antikensammlungen
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Aethlius
The lineage of Aethlius is an essential key for understanding the Trojan War, for it includes several characters of primary importance: Leda, the mother of Helen, Meleagros, Deianira and Diomedes, and the children of Oeneus ‘the winemaker’ or ‘the work necessary for acquiring Joy and divine intoxication’.
See Family tree 9
According to Apollodorus and Pausanias, Aethlius was the son of Protogenia, ‘she of those who advance at the forefront’, herself a daughter of Deucalion and thus a sister of Hellen (see Diagram 7). It is this genealogy which will be adhered to in this study, even though it has been suggested that Aethlius could also be considered to be a son of Aeolus. (Refer to Chapter 2 in Volume I.)
The name Aethlius, ‘that which concerns the price of the battle’, seems to designate a reply of the Divine to the seeker, who has long striven to know and unite with Him.
The aim of this struggle is the blooming of the psychic flower, Calyce ‘the flower bud’.
From the union of Aethlius and Calyce was born Endymion, ‘he who is filled with consecrated consciousness’. But according to Hesiod, Aethlius was a son of Calyce rather than her husband. Apollodorus claims that Zeus was his divine father.
Endymion, and the three generations following him.
Endymion led the Aeolians out of Thessaly and founded Elis, or succeeded his human father Aethlius on the Elis’ throne according to some accounts. He therefore indicates a turning point in the yogic process, the first stage of which ends in Thessaly, and the entry into a deep work of purification/liberation which consecrates its victory to Olympus and Elis.
Endtmion was known for his great beauty. According to some accounts, Selene fell in love with him and was so taken by his comeliness that she would contemplate her lover while he slept.
Whether there was an intervention from Selene’s part or not (see the study of this character in Volume I), almost all ancient Greek writers are in agreement that Endymion prayed to Zeus to be granted eternal sleep, and thus be exempt from the ravages of old age.
Aethlius is the symbol of a seeker who has since long fought for a consecration of his nature as a whole.
His son was Endymion, ‘he who is completely consecrated’; at this stage, the seeker asks his higher being for an ‘eternal sleep’ of the ego which will allow the power of action of the supramental – the true personality represented by Selene – to finally become active. In fact, if Helius symbolises the illuminating pole of the supramental which intervenes in the histories of the great heroes through the intermediary of his children (Circe and Aeetes, and in later texts Pasiphae as well), then Selene is the symbol of the supramental’s realisatory action, an external nature that is completely transparent and dedicated to divine action. As this transparency is very far from being realised, Selene only rarely appears in Greek mythology; completely pure act cannot in fact be carried out as long as the ego is present, even if it only continues existing in the body.
According to Pausanias, Selene bore Endymion fifty daughters, a number which indicates a totality in the world of forms, and therefore the accomplishment of consecration.
As this hero belongs to the lineage of Iapetus, the immobilisation granted by the supraconscient (the sleep induced by Zeus) can be considered to be a realisation of mental silence, as well as abolition of the ego. This attainment is definite, for Endymion’s sleep is to be eternal.
The fact that Endymion is ‘exempt from the ravages of age’ suggests that the seeker is at every moment ‘new’, available and virgin-like in the present moment, which means full adaptation to the movement of becoming.
In some sources it is added that Hypnos put him to sleep while keeping his eyes open, a sign of the continuation of active cons