The Liminality of Hermes and the Meaning of Hermeneutics by Richard E. Palmer MacMurray College
"By a playful thining that is more persuasi!e than the rigor of science" Heidegger tells us the #ree $ords for interpreting and interpretation% hermeneuein, hermeneia&&can hermeneia &&can be traced bac to the god Hermes. ' Ho$e!er (ue (u est stio iona nabl ble e the ety tymo molo logi gica call co con nne nect ctio ion n bet et$e $ee en He Herrme mes s an and d hermeneuein may be hermeneutics as the art of understanding and of hermeneuein te)t te )tua uall e) e)eg eges esis is do does es st stan and d un unde derr th the e si sign gn of He Herm rmes es.. He Herm rmes es is messenger $ho brings the $ord from *eus +#od,- thus the early modern use of the term hermeneutics $as in relation to methods of interpreting holy scripture. n interpreter brought to mortals the message from #od. lthough the usage $as broadened in the eighteenth and nineteenth century to tae in methods meth ods of und unders erstan tandin ding g and e)p e)plic licati ating ng bot both h sacr sacred ed and and secular te)ts fro fr om ant nti( i(ui uity ty th the e te terrm "h "her erme mene neut utic ics" s" co cont ntin inu ued to su sugg gges estt an interpretation $hich disc scllose ses s some metthing hidden from ordinary understanding and mysterious. ncient te)ts are for moderns doubly alien/ they are ancient and they are in another language language.. Their interpreter poring o!er a te)t in Hebre$ #ree or Latin cannot fail to con!ey the impression that he has access to a body of no$ledge from else$here is a bridge to some$here else he is a mediator bet$een a mysterious other $orld and the clean $ell&lighted intelligible $orld in $hich $e li!e and mo!e and 0ha!e our being. Hermes is 1ust such a mediator. He is the messenger bet$een *eus and mortals also bet$een *eus and the under$orld and bet$een the under$orld and mor mortal tals. s. Her Hermes mes cro crosses sses the these se ont ontolo ologic gical al thr thresh eshold olds s $it $ith h eas ease. e. notorious thief according to legend he crosses the threshold of legality $ithout a (ualm. "Marshal of dreams" he mediates bet$een $aing and dreaming day and night. 2earer of a cap of in!isibility he can become in!isible or !isible at $ill. Master of night&trics he can co!er himself $ith night. Master of sleep he can $ae the sleeping or put the $aing to sleep. Liminality or marginality is his !ery essence. ess ence. "Liminality" is a term gi!en currency in t$entieth century anthropology by 3ictor Turner of the 4ni!ersity of Chicago. Limen in Latin means threshold and anthropologists lie Turner ha!e become interested in a certain state e)perienced by persons as they pass o!er the threshold from one stage of
life to another. 5or instance Turner notes that the rite of passage at puberty has three phases/ separation from one0s status as child in a household then a liminal stage and finally reintegration into society as a full and independent member $ith rights and responsibilities that the initiate did not ha!e before. 6uring the liminal stage the bet$een stage one0s status becomes ambiguous- one is "neither here nor there" one is "bet$i)t and bet$een all fi)ed points of classification" and thus the form and rules of both his earlier state and his state&to&come are suspended. 5or the moment one is an outsider- one is on the margins in an indeterminate state. Turner is fascinated by this marginality this 7one of indeterminacy. He argues that it is from the standpoint of this marginal 7one that the great artists $riters and social critics ha!e been able to loo past the social forms in order to see society from the outside and to bring in a message from beyond it.
This marginality is the realm of Hermes. 8n his recent boo The Meaning of phrodite Paul 5riedrich remars +in a brilliant appendi), on the multiple liminality of Hermes and his lins $ith phrodite. 9 He notes that '. Hermes mo!es by night the time of lo!e dreams and theft:. he is the master of cunning and deceit the marginality of illusions and trics9. he has magical po$ers the margin bet$een the natural and the supernatural;. he is the patron of all occupations that occupy margins or in!ol!e mediation/ traders thie!es shepherds and heralds<. his mobility maes him a creature bet$i)t and bet$een=. his marginality is indicated by the location of his phallic herms not 1ust any$here but on roads at crossroads and in gro!es>. e!en his eroticism is not oriented to fertility or maintaining the family but is basically phroditic&&stealthy sly and amoral a lo!e gained by theft $ithout moral concern for conse(uencesand finally ?. Hermes is a guide across boundaries including the boundary bet$een earth and Hades that is life and death. ; Truly one may say that Hermes is the #rees0 "god of the gaps" although not in the sense in $hich this phrase is used by Bonhoeffer +to refer to a religious attitude that does not turn to #od e)cept to fill in the empty spots and (uestion mars one encounters in life,. < Rather he is one $ho seems to inhabit an in&bet$een realm $hat Carlos Castaneda referred to as the "crac bet$een the $orlds." = The meaning of hermeneutics then is closely tied to the character of Hermes. 2e may see some further implications and dimensions of this fact by considering briefly +', Heidegger0s discussion of Hermes and hermeneutics in his famous con!ersation $ith a @apanese on the topic of language in On the Way to Language and +.:, 2alter 5. Atto0s famous chapter on Hermes in his The Homeric Gods.
5or Heidegger it is significant that Hermes is the messenger of the gods and not 1ust other humans- for the message brought by Hermes is not 1ust any message but "fateful tidings" +die Botschaft des Geschickes).> 8nterpretation in its highest form then is to be able to understand these fateful tidings indeed the fatefulness of the tidings. To interpret is first to listen and then to become a messenger of the gods oneself 1ust as the poets do according to Plato0s Ion.? 8ndeed part of the destiny of man is precisely to stand in a hermeneutical relation to one0s being here and no$ and to one0s heritage. Human beings insofar as they are truly human beings says Heidegger "are used for hearing the message . . . they are to listen and belong to it as human beings." "5rom the source of the e!ent of appearing something comes to$ard man that holds the t$o&fold of presence and present beings" ' says Heidegger. .The human being stands in this gap this 7one of disclosure. Ane does not so much act as respond does not so much spea as listen does not so much interpret as understand the thing that is un!eiled. The primary mo!ement here is understanding as an emergence of being. The human being becomes Hermes the message&bearer only because one has first and foremost opened oneself to a process of unconcealment/ "The human being is the message&bearer of the message $hich the t$o&fold0s unconcealment utters to it." '' 2hat is interesting and important about this description of interpretation is that it goes behind techni(ue&oriented conceptions to a moment more primordial a moment before our present thought&forms in order to grasp something essential. Duch interpretation enters into a lo!ing and fundamental dialogue $ith the greatest efforts of the past to grasp the meaning of being. This primordial listening is hermeneutical in yet another sense/ it is a listening to texts. The "message" one must interpret is really the doctrines and thining of one0s forbears as embodied in great te)ts. To e)ist hermeneutically as a human being is to e)ist interte)tually. 8t is to participate in the endless chain of interpretation that maes up the history of apprehending being. Days Heidegger one enters into dialogue $ith the doctrines of past thiners $hich $ere "in turn learned by listening to the great thiners0 thining." ': Ane participates in the endless chain of listening that constitutes essential thining. "Each human being is in each instance in dialogue $ith its forbears and perhaps e!en more and in a more hidden manner $ith those $ho $ill come after it." '9 gain this suggests the Hermes& related trait of bringing forth a hidden meaning. Heidegger $ould ha!e the interpreter pore o!er the te)t $ith the philologist0s lo!e of $ords/ "Each $ord in each case is gi!en its full&&most often hidden&&$eight." '; 2e can also understand Heidegger0s choice of the term hermeneutics o!er such alternati!es as interpretation $hen $e remember that implicit in the Heideggerian pro1ect is the effort to regain a grasp of being that has been lost in modern times and indeed since the time of Plato and ristotle. Ane sees the "hidden $eight" of ancient $ords precisely in order to go behind
$hat is self&e!ident in modern thining. This special and intense listening Heidegger calls for is necessary in order to brea a$ay from the confines of the modern $orld !ie$. Hermeneutics it $ill be remembered is the discipline concerned $ith deciphering utterances from other times places and languages&&without imposing one's own categories on them +the hermeneutic problem,. 8t is significant that Heidegger attempts to sharpen his reflection by a con!ersation $ith a person from a radically alien $orld&&a @apanese. The atmosphere of the con!ersation is an effort to understand the most difficult and ineffable conceptions&&beauty utterance language. @apanese tentati!eness and delicacy per!ades the dialogue and one can understand Heidegger0s fascination $ith a people $hose art stri!es for the letting&be of $hat is. But the use of a @apanese dialogical partner is not the only indication of Heidegger0s effort to transcend the $esterni7ed modern $orld !ie$. Heidegger e)plicitly states that the careful listener $ill put in (uestion "the guiding notions $hich under the names 0e)pression0 0e)perience0 and 0consciousness0 determine modern thinking."'< 8f one thins of these conceptions as constituting the mae&up of one0s "$orld" then $hat Heidegger has in mind is that interpretation as hermeneutics should be "$orld&shaing" a fateful message that shaes the foundations of thought. Anly an interpretation that goes outside the pre!ailing conceptualities can mo!e to$ard $hat Heidegger has in mind&&"a transformation of thining." '= 4nfortunately the $ord interpretation fails to suggest a mediation from something outside and alien but hermeneutics, since it customarily has reference to interpreting ancient te)ts in another language has precisely this sense of relating to something essentially other yet capable of being understood. The mediation Heidegger has in mind here is ontologically significant. 8t $ould seem to be a ind of bridge to non&being. The transcending of the already&gi!en $orld is else$here in Heidegger e!en called the "step bac"/ a "step bac" from presentational thought as such. '> This "step bac" is a mo!ement bac from embeddedness in a set of fi)ed definitions of reality in order to regain access to a certain realm of "latency" $hich $e might also call our deeper sense of the meaning of being. 8n a recent paper on Heidegger and Lacan the eminent Heidegger scholar 2illiam @. Richardson notes that both Lacan and Heidegger root their thining in a latency lying belo$ the le!el of manifest consciousness. '? 8t is not nonbeing in the sense of a mere emptiness but rather a source of being for $hich the $ord "latency" seems rather apt. The mediation in this case is not bet$een t$o $ell&lighted but incommensurate realms of being but bet$een the $ell& lighted daylight of consciousness and something more lie the mysterious night of $hat lies belo$ and abo!e consciousness. Heidegger clarified in his $ell&no$n letter to Richardson ' that this realm as ontological nonbeing is not the transcendental in the sense of ant0s conditions for the possibility for phenomena but a ind of creati!e foundation and source for our being&in& the&$orld.
gain one feels the parallel bet$een this realm of indeterminacy and $hat Turner calls liminality. Lie the realm of liminality it is a realm "bet$i)t and bet$een" not yet defined. Lie liminality it is a source both of creati!ity and criti(ue of the pre!ailing forms of thought and being. human being in the liminal stage or state has the potentialities of a human being but is suspended bet$een stages or states so he or she is neither this nor that. HeFshe is in the "crac bet$een the $orlds" to use a phrase of Castaneda cited earlier. 2hen $e turn to the chapter on Hermes in 2alter 5. Atto0s The Homeric Gods $e find these and other dimensions of the liminality of Hermes. .Atto notes for instance that "8t is Hermes0 nature not to belong to any locality and not to possess any permanent abode- al$ays he is on the road bet$een here and there." : 2hen one is on the road one may encounter sudden good fortune or sudden misfortune. Hermes is the god of the $indfall the (uic lucy chance. Thus the tra!eller or trader $ho suddenly comes on good fortune $ill than Hermes $ho as cattle&thief no$s ho$ to get rich (uic and ho$ to mae people poor (uicly also. Days Atto "He is the god not only of sly calculation but also of lucy chances. E!erything lucy and $ithout responsibility that befalls a human being is a gift of Hermes." :' 2e may say that the Hermes of sudden lucy breas of "deft guidance and sudden gain" :: is an appropriate god of te)t interpretation in that the solution to a problem or a burst of insight $ill come in a flash. nd the amorality of Hermes suggests the moral neutrality of understanding as a pure operation of the mind in grasping the point of something. The truth or insight may be a pleasant a$aening or rob one of an illusion- the understanding itself is morally neutral. The (uicsil!er flash of insight may mae one rich or poor in an instant. This sudden almost magical flash of insight suggests another dimension of Hermes his association $ith magic. Atto asserts that "his $hole character and presence stand under the sign of magic." :9 He has a magical cap and a magical $and. 2ith his cap the Cap of Hades he can mae himself in!isible. 2ith his $and he can put the $aing to sleep or a$aen the sleeping. He is thus the mediator belonging to those liminal realms mentioned earlier/ the magical realm and the realm of ordinary e!eryday reality/ bet$een $aing and sleeping day and night $orld and under$orld conscious and unconscious. 8n a brilliant and memorable section of his chapter on Hermes Atto points to night&&the e)perience of night&&as the ey to the nature of Hermes. gain night seems symbolically to possess the characteristics of liminality. Atto refers to the mysterious realm of night as follo$s/ man $ho is a$ae in the open field at night or $ho $anders o!er silent paths e)periences the $orld differently than by day. Gighness !anishes and $ith it distance- e!erything is e(ually far and near close by us and yet mysteriously remote. Dpace loses its measures. There are $hispers and
sounds and $e do not no$ $here or $hat they are. . . . There is no longer a distinction bet$een $hat is lifeless and li!ing- e!erything is animate and soulless !igilant and asleep at once. :; This realm of "danger and protection terror and reassurance certainty and straying":< is the realm of Hermes. Hermes is the god $ho brings this realm of night into day/ "This mystery of night seen by day this magic darness in the bright sunlight is the realm of Hermes $hom in later ages magic $ith good reason re!ered as its master." := 2e may as/ 2hat is this realm of night in $hich the nearness and far a$ayness of ob1ects !anishes $here there is no ob1ecti!e difference bet$een the lifeless and the li!ing if not the realm of ideas of thought of the mind itself 8t is the realm of mind not as perennial moral $isdom but as instant insight. 5or in the ob1ecti!e $orld of day things ha!e their finite measure but in the mind in imagination and dream in the $orld of ideas distances !anish relationships of time alter and one senses himself in a different $orld. s god of magic and mystery and sudden good luc Hermes is the god of sudden interpreti!e insights that come from an ability to approach daytime reality $ith liminal freedom. Dmall $onder it is ad!isable to ha!e Hermes as a guide. The guide& character of Hermes is central. Atto notes a parallel to the 3edic guide&god Pushan $ho comes to the rescue of those $ho ha!e gone astray. no$er of roads +lie Hermes, Pushan has a special $ay of helping men/ "his manner of gi!ing treasure to men is that he permits men to find it." :> gain this has a parallel in hermeneutic methods in that they are designed to enable the te)t to yield its treasure but the interpreter only leads the reader to the treasure and then retires. s a guide the interpreter remains a liminal figure an outsider a facilitator. Hermes then remains a god of roads crossroads thresholds boundaries. 8t is at these locations in ancient times that one found altars to Hermes. He $as considered the patron god of migrant silled and unsilled $orers $ho in going from place to place became professional "boundary&crossers. :? Hermes is the god $ho presides o!er all transactions held at borders. Thus he is the god of translation and of all transactions bet$een realms. nd it $ould seem to be the essence of hermeneutics to be liminal to mediate bet$een realms of being $hether bet$een god and human beings $aefulness and sleep the conscious and unconscious life and afterlife !isible and in!isible day and night. The dimensions of the mythic god Hermes suggest a central element in the meaning of hermeneutics/ that it is a mediation&bet$een $orlds. nd in the strongest instances Hermes0 message is "$orld&shaing"/ it brings as Heidegger says "a transformation of thining.":
Gote '/ This essay $as first published in Proceedings of the Heraclitean Society ! "uarterly #eport on Philosophy and $riticism of the !rts and Sciences Ipublished by the 2estern Michigan 4ni!ersity 6epartment of PhilosophyJ !ol. < +'?,/ ;&''. Permission from Kuentin Dmith to republish this here on my 2ebpage is gratefully acno$ledged. Gote :/ This essay e)pands some hints offered in the final section of my paper "2hat re 2e 6oing 2hen 2e 8nterpret a Te)t" gi!en May : '? at 2estern Michigan 4ni!ersity and later published in %ros ! &ournal of Philosophy and the Literary !rts Ipublished by Purdue 4ni!ersity 6epartment of PhilosophyJ > : +@une '?,/ '&;>. The special issue of %ros $as de!oted to hermeneutics and philosophical anthropology.
EG6GATED
'. " 6ialogue on Language/ Bet$een a @apanese and an 8n(uirer" in Martin Heidegger On the Way to Language transl. Peter 6. Hert7 +Ge$ or/ Harper Ro$ '>', p. :. #erman original/ "us einem #esprNch !on der Dprache/ *$ischen einem @apaner und einem 5rangenden" in Martin Heidegger nterwegs (ur Sprache +Pfullingen/ Gese '<, p. ':'. Hereinafter abbre!iated S. :. 3ictor Turner "Passages Margins Po!erty" in his )ramas* +ields* and ,etaphors Symbolic !ction in Human Society +8thaca/ Cornell 4ni!ersity Press '>;, p. :9:. 9. Paul 5riedrich The ,eaning of !phrodite +Chicago/ 4ni!ersity of Chicago Press '>?, ppendi) ? p. :<. ;.
8bid.
<. 6ietrich Bonhoeffer Letters and Papers from Prison re!ised edition edited by Eberhard Bethge +Ge$ or/ Macmillan '=>, p. &'=;. Letter dated :< May ';;. =. Carlos Castaneda* The Teachings of )on &uan The -a.ui Wa/ of 0nowledge +Bereley/ 4ni!ersity of California Press '=?,. Related is @oseph Chilton Pearce The $rac1 in the $osmic %gg $hallenging $onstructs of ,ind and #eality +Ge$ or/ @ulian Press '>',. >. Heidegger loc. cit. Botschaft des Geschickes is translated "message of destiny" by Hert7 in the edition cited. lso a good translation. ?.
Ion <9;e. Cited by Heidegger loc. cit.
.
OHeidegger On the Way to Language p. ;- S p. '9<.
'. 8bid. ''. 8bid. p. ;- S p. '9=. ':. 8bid. p. 9'- S p. ':9. '9. 8bid. ';. 8bid. p. 9'- S p. ':; '<. 8bid. p. 9=- S p. '9. Emphasis added. '=. 8bid. p. ;:- S p. '9?. '>. "5or Hegel the con!ersation $ith the earlier history of philosophy has the character of Aufhebung, that is of the mediating concept in the sense of an absolute foundation. 5or us the character of the con!ersation $ith the history of thining is no longer Aufhebung but the step bac." Martin Heidegger Identity and )ifference trans. @oan Dtambaugh $ith #erman te)t +Ge$ or/ Harper Ro$ '=, p. ; +English, p. ''< +#erman,. Dee my article "The Postmodernity of Heidegger" 2oundary 3 ; +2inter '>=,/ ;''&9: esp. ;'?- or reprinted in ,artin Heidegger and the "uestion of Literature Toward a Postmodern Literary Hermeneutics ed. 2illiam 3. Dpanos +Bloomington/ 8ndiana 4ni!ersity Press '>, pp. >'&: esp. >?. '?. Presented at the Heidegger Conference Thirteenth nnual Meeting May '> 6u(uesne 4ni!ersity Pittsburgh Pennsyl!ania. '. Preface to 2illiam @. Richardson Heidegger Through Phenomenology to Thought +The Hague/ Gi1hoff '=9, pp. !iii&))iii esp. pp. )! )i). :. 2alter 5. Atto The Homeric Gods The Spiritual Significance of Gree1 #eligion trans. Moses Hadas +Ge$ or/ Pantheon '<;paperbac edition Ge$ or/ Thames and Hudson '>, p. ''>. :'. 8bid. pp. '?&'. ::. 8bid. p. '''. :9. 8bid. p. '=. :;. 8bid. pp. ''?&''. :<. 8bid. p. ':.
:=. 8bid. p. ''? :>. 8bid. p. ':'. :?. Gorman Bro$n Hermes the Thief The %/olution of a ,yth +Ge$ or/ 3intage '=, pp. 9: <'. :. Heidegger On the Way to Language p. ;:- S p. '9?.
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