Ποιειν Και Πραττειν - create and do

D. The stranger and tasks ahead

The looks of the stranger indicated new rules to live by or it conveyed a measure of things to come since the task to bring about a just society would not be easy.

While villages were slowly transforming themselves into cities, a new dimension added to anxiety. For not everyone gave equal recognition to all things once man moved about within the borders of the city. Hence no stranger was equally welcomed when entering the city for the first time. Already Homer emphasizes that Odysseus had to learn on his long journey to come to terms of being a stranger. Usually the stranger is only begged in, if he brings good tidings. It reflects that those at home are in distress and eager to hear some news for their beloved have been gone too long.

There are many testimonies about someone suddenly entering the city, and since then nothing was again the same as before. It is not unusual to have poets describe a physically strong, equally wise looking man entering the village. Everyone becomes a witness at the sight of this stranger. His looks tell stories, so the eyes that meet for a moment, but only for a fleeting one, and then they fly off again, like scared off birds, eyes diverted to avoid the eyes of the stranger. There are people, in particular women who look from behind some protective shield. It may be a curtain, a door left half open or a side view from the balcony. Everything is felt as being an object of curiosity due to the newcomer, but deep down, suspicion remains. There is also a feeling of a kind of threat because the stranger could easily upset usual delineations between inner spaces and public places. With him around, nothing seems to be safeguarded anymore, not even the borders of the city. Ambivalences and ambiguities, threats and aggression mingle with the lust or desire to test the new. Since no one knows how the stranger will react, everyone is cautious. Still, the people would remark that his eyes have such a depth of blue as if looking into the sea. They would also observe that his glance retains a certain distance, a kind of detachment in them.

An example of people's reaction to a stranger can be taken from the period of Early Songs: Bacchylides, in the fragmentary Theseus, a lyrical dialogue, transforms the response of people into a wonder leaving no other possibility, but that "surely a god must speed him":

Who is this man who cometh?

Who are his companions?

Like a great host under arms,

Or wandering alone with slaves,

A wayfarer from far-off lands,

Mighty and valiant is he,

With strength which has slain so many!

Surely a god must speed him,

Who topples the unjust down.

No light task ever it was

To be free of all mortal ills.

All things end in the drift of time.

Such descriptions of ongoing life in the community of man seem to find no end. It reflects what people feel and see, think they can do. Confronting the strangeness not only in others, but in themselves, is, however, not the rule. Many uncertainties have to be overcome first. There is first a lack of self-knowledge as to what is freedom, then differences have to be sorted out as to what is good despite being foreign rule and unjustice despite own rulership dominating over oneself. There is also a need to bridge the gap between experiencing life as something familiar and 'rules' people feel are needed to live by once life becomes more complicated. People get into difficulties if these rules are not of their own making, hence not rooted in their self-understanding, but rather dictated from above or by some outside forces. This makes the definition of freedom into a freedom of self-governance according to rules which are understandable as opposed to causing 'estrangement'. The dilemma explodes especially when confronted by the otherness of the stranger. For he might be a carrier of other rules making the outcome uncertain if abided by. Usually the confrontation is justified only if it leads towards a 'toppling of unjust laws/rulership', while it is acknowledged that this is no easy task, hence a measure of things to come.

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