Antaeus – Sunday, February 23, 1941
One of the well-known characters of Greek mythology was the giant, Antaeus, whose strength was unconquerable so long as he remained in contact with his mother, Earth. Those who came to his country were compelled to wrestle with him, and many such, not knowing the source of his strength, would throw him to earth, from which he would gain greater power, and rise stronger that he fell.
But Hercules, so runs the story, forewarned of these things, avoided throwing Antaeus down, but lifted him above the strength-giving earth, where Antaeus weakened and was strangled in mid-air. There are inferences to be drawn from this classic myth. One such is the reminder that close living to the good earth is a source of physical and moral and spiritual strength. This is the verdict of history as far back as it goes, and those peoples and those nations and those civilizations who have forgotten it, have not fared well in times of crises.
Being too far removed from the soil has often caused loss of security, a warping of outlook, weakening of moral force, distortion of the sense of values, a weaning away from self-dependence, and even failure to survive. There is another application of this ancient story, less tangible but fully as important. Sometimes men, in the ignorance of their small wisdom, presume themselves to be all sufficient in matters of mind and of spirit and withdraw themselves from that God and Father in whose image they were made.
A dwarfing of mentality and a blighting of the spirit within are the result, and what follows is worse than physical failure, because it affects that part of man which is immortal – even his spirit and intelligence. These inferences from the story of Antaeus give us our clue to the shallowness of some of the things we do. Uprooted and suspended by another kind of Hercules – a way of life night quite touching heaven or earth – men risk succumbing to the spirit of living from hand to mouth, stripped of physical reserves and lacking in spiritual perception. Thus life crowds in upon those who, like Antaeus, don’t keep their feet on the ground – who remove themselves too far from the fundamental sources of physical and spiritual strength.
February 23, 1941
Broadcast Number 0,601