Hyperion, Friedrich Holderlin (1770-1843)

Dear readers,

"Hyperion, or The Hermit in Greeece," is translated from the German by Ross Benjamin, archipelago books, 2008

This is an early modern novel of the late eighteenth century. Holderlin was principally a poet, but he did manage to write this prose before he went mad, and was confined for almost forty years.

In my readings of the philosophers, Hegel and Schelling, Holderlin's name came up many times. Though he is not considered to be a philosopher, his youth was spent with the other two, and his poetry has many philosophical themes. He did influence the other two philosophically. The three were comrades and their motto was 'hen kai pan,' or 'one and all,' from the Greek.

Hyperion, a Titan god of ancient Greece was the father of the Sun, the Moon, and Dawn. Hyperion thus brought the 'bright light' to the earth. The novel reflects on this. The novel is in the genre of an epistolary form (German, Briefroman) that is, it is a series of letters to Diotima, a seer or priestess who taught the philosophy of love. The reader is referred to Plato's dialogue, Symposium,( one of my favorites), where Diotima is the last speaker in a discussion about love and beauty at a local banquet. Plato offers some convincing arguments about love, beauty, and the good.

Holderlin's novel reflects Diotima's ideals of beauty, freedom, and harmony. The dramatic period is during the Greek revolution against the Ottomans. Our hero, Hyperion, returns to his native Greece.

The themes are a search for an all embracing unity, the struggle for freedom, and a better world, the constrictions of modern life (18th century) and the divinity of nature and love.

My purpose in discussing this early novel, in spite of its deficiencies in its translation, is to recommend it simply as a prototype of early European novels; this one is rich with Holderlin's profound desire to restore the world of ancient Greece, its artistic and philosophical grandeur. One wonders what he could have produce if he had not wasted most of his life with a mental illness. His poetry is a definite recommendation for reading.

My next discussion will be Virginia Woolf's early novel "Night and Day," which I have not yet completed.

Regards,

Bob