The Road to Arcadiia

John P. Anton
Key note speech by John P. Anton, at the opening ceremony of the International Conference for the establishment of the Arcadia International Network, in August 2008, Kalteziotis Mansion, Kapsia in Mantinea, Arcadia. J. P. Anton is the Distinguished Professor of philosophy and Greek culture at the University of South Florida, Associate Member of the Academy of Athens, founding member and Honorary President of the International Society for Arcadia. would like to say a few words concerning the Arcadian Legacy, its perfection as Arcadian vision, as the concession of an ideal that was destined to become of the most noble and precious achievements of human nature.

I will begin mainly with the explanation of the purpose it was for us as Arcadians, how and why we must become fully aware of the meaning of the Arcadian ideal. In view of the need to recover and further cultivate our ideal, especially today as a treat of globalization tries to sweep away very heritage through the spreading force of the consumerism, the values of the opening lies ahead of us to meet this task and mission; especially now that the International Society for Arcadia has assumed the cultural responsibility to clarify the role this ideal can play by showing how to face the current problems of
civilization.

The first opening, rather fascinating, is to learn from modern Europe, especially from the Renaissance and later, how to view Arcadia and how its novel image leads to an idyllic life free from the burdens of the industrial society. The other opening would be to go back to the original source, the land where values of the Arcadian legacy were born. We need to see how this legacy grew and developed through the ageless myths of the people who then shared with all the Greeks and all societies; so that they may also try to rise to the height of civilized existence.

Arcadism: the side road of Europe.
When Jacopo Sannazzaro in 1520 wrote his work arcadia he couldn’t possibly have imagined that it would became the beginning of e many –sided artistic movement that come to be known as Arcadism .this idealized arcadia attracted many followers until Nicolas Poussin added a mystical touch to Arcadism when in 1640 he added to his painting The Arcadian shepherds the phrase «et in Arcadia ego …».

Thus, the art of modern Europe opened with Poussin a side way toward a symbolic Arcadia aspiring to bring man back to harmony with nature and in fact without the fear of subjecting the earthly life to the supernatural land of religious salvation Through the half-hidden meaning of the phrase “et in Arcadia ego” the art of painting moved beyond of literature and to complete the unfulfilled aspiration o the Renaissance to draw near the Arcadian Legacy of Hellenic humanism.
In 1655, Christina, the Queen of Sweden, after abdicating from her throne settled in Rome, were her dream to a establish the Academy of Arcadians was to be realized by Mario Crescimbeli (1663-1628), Vicenzo Gravina (1664-1718) and others who brought together men of letters and sciences. A century later, in 1786 Goethe will become a member of this Academy.
Arcadism as sideway to a utopian Arcadia was as beautiful as it was imaginary. This very sideway came down to our days through a series of transformations.
One has but to read the excellent book “Blissful Arcadia” by Pedro Olalla, to appreciate the impact of Arcadism through the centuries from the Roman beginnings down to our times.

Friedrich August von Kaulbach (1850-1920)
Arcadia 1880
Oil on camvas - 128 x 229 cm
Private Collection.

However, there remains a question that concerns not only the identity of the shepherds in Poussin’s painting, but also that of the members of the Academy of Arcadia.
Where are the native and genuine Arcadians? It is one thing to speak on Arcadians as European creations projected in as imaginary symbols in the world of atrs and letters of Poussin and Goethe, of Jacopo Sannazzaro (Aetius Sincerus, Αρκαδία, 1504) and Evelyn Waugh, of Bach and Debussy, including such art critics as Panofsky; quite another to think of our Arcadian ancestors who lived in your planes and mountains. It remains a bitter fact that throughout the many centuries that followed the later Roman empire, the real Arcadians suffered uned the yoke of the Francs, the Venetians, and the Turks, leaving in the margin of the history and art. While the illustrious Arcadians of the Academy in Rome were cultivating their Arcadism, Francesco Mοrossini was bombarding the Parthenon (1677). Just the same sideway of European Arcadism
continued its various transformations seeking new horizons without care or concerns for the right way to recover the Arcadian legacy, the one that real Arcadia had founded since antiquity for the fulfillment of the civilized existence what the Greeks called αίρεση βίου.

The first and right way to Arcadia.
I will not tire you with literary references to the mythical sources of the original Arcadians. I will only make a brief stop to discuss the double nature of Pan the divinity, son of Uranus and Earth, or if you prefer of Zeus and Callisto. The erotic urge of the male-goat, common to the entire living world, find its completion in Pan’s human part, or the pleasure that accompanies the life-giving power in Eros transforms into unexpected creations. The Arcadian Pan, whether god or man has no wish to return to nature, as it happens with the dreams of European Arcadism. Pan is nature itself, a union of male and female of the plentiful seed and the fertile womb that secures the immortality of the species. It grows as the maturation of the erotic logos and as the art of Harmony that gradually heightens logos as musical wisdom and political excellence.

Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640)
Pan and Syrinx, 1617-1619
Oil on panel - 40 x 61 cm
Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Kassel, Germany

Consider the double nature of Pan for a moment. The hedonic pleasure of the male-goat’s changes as it rises through the human part to become inventive intelligence. Thus, it becomes the fulfillment of nature. Is not an accident or a childish fantasy that Pan revives the nymph Syrinx and transforms her from a humble cane reed in the river Ladon to his famous Pan’s flute. He creates new harmonious sounds as he dances to the rhythm with his agile goat-legs. The day will come when the new rhythms will arrive in Athens where the great message of the Attic tragedy will be born.
“Many are the ways of the mind” as the poet Solomos said. So, by accepting Pan we come to realize that all the ways of the mind are erotic, whether to protect life from its enemies, or to climb the heights of the perfect beauty. This is the same Pan who called the name of the warrior Pheidippides from the slopes of Mt. Parthenion to inform the Athenians that they will defeat the Persian in Marathon. Such is also the erotic path of the Arcadian Diotima, the priestess of Mantinea, who will teach Socrates how to climb the ladder of love that alone can help human beings reach the immortal world of ideas with the Eros of beauty as their guide. In his Symposium Plato tells how Socrates admitted that he did not understand everything Diotima taught him. Hence, he lived his entire life trying to learn the beginning and the end of the Eros for beauty and truth,
and how one climbs the ladder of love from the arts and the sciences and from there to the virtuous political life and to the vision of the idea of absolute beauty.
Arcadia spoke and taught. Athens strived to learn. But in times of dark ignorance Athens will condemn Socrates, the lover of wisdom, to die accusing him of introducing new daemons. The secrets of Pan’s Mt. Lycaeon and Diotima’s Maenalon will be preserved in the Plato”s Dialogues and then bequeathed to Aristotle, his student, who will found the world if ideas on his principle of noesis noeseos (mind understanding itself). The right road from Arcadia to Athens will be herald the great hour
of civilized life.

Epilogue.
2.500 years passed since then. Arcadia of the right path was silenced. Something was promised to happen at the dawn of the Renaissance, but the Eros of intelligence had already become prisoner of mediaeval theology, latter the various Arcadisms will try to set it free through art and poetry. Their many-sided efforts continue to our own age. Humanity will still wait for the transition from the sideway to the right way. Meanwhile, the obstacles multiply and prevent us of bringing our soul to the full light of freedom. Modern science developed in curious ways without the benefit of Eros and entered into the
service of technocracy to help secure the globalization of the politics of consumerism. We now ask ourselves whether it still time left to defend our heritage, save the Arcadian Eros of values and preserve the Arcadian Legacy. The first line of  defense, suddenly, was manned through an unexpected decision.
A handful of Arcadians by birth as well as by way of thinking, decide in May 2007 not only to prevent the spread of technocracy, but also to utilize the sideway of Arcadism in all its phases, by choosing as their guide the right way to Arcadia, the one that started with Pan’s flute. As a result the International Society for Arcadia was created with a mission and universal tasks ranging from the protection of the natural environment to the protection of the human integrity and political intelligence.
I take this opportunity to congratulate my fellow coworkers and promise my full support for the success of this wonderful cause, that is, the revival and restoration of political Eros through the applications of the values and principles of the Arcadian Legacy