Columbus-longing:

reference to the Italian navigator & explorer Christopher Columbus who discovered the New World in 1492; in that context it denotes the Faustian prime symbol of infinite space- the drive to explore beyond, further, above

 

Hjalmar Ekdal: * see EndNote<A>

a main character from Ibsen’s The Wild Duck (1884), considered the first modern tragicomedy masterpiece; he is Old Ekdal's son, a photographer & married to Gina with a daughter Hedvig; the protagonist Gregers take up residence in his “happy” home, whose closets are full of skeletons & lies. 

 

a Third Kingdom:

reference to The Third Kingdom, a Germanic ideal

see page 363 above

 

the Hamlet motive (inversion): * see EndNote<B>

Hamlet is possessed by an intense state of indecision; he is devoured by thinking & cannot break this spell & act decisively; an inversion of this would be action without thought.

 

Nietzsche (the idea of the return):

aka "eternal recurrence"- the idea that all events in the world repeat themselves in the same sequence through an eternal series of cycles, an idea central to the mature writings of Nietzsche who suggests that it was his most important thought; first mentioned of The Gay Science in aphorism 341 ("The Greatest Weight") presents this concept as a hypothetical question rather than postulating it as a fact. It also appears in Thus Spoke Zarathustra

Bayreuth: * see EndNote<C>

reference to Wagner’s Festspielhaus.  Begun in 1872 Wagner supervised the construction of the opera house in  Bayreuth & adapted the design from an unrealised project by Gottfried Semper.  It was specifically conceived & built for his own operas.  First used for The Ring of the Nibelung in 1876.  It is the venue for the annual Bayreuth Festival.

 

Pergamum:

see Chapter II, page 85 and Chapter III, p.111

 

morphology of a history of philosophy:

form & structure of philosophies of different Cultures over the duration of their respective lifecycle

 

macrocosm:

conventionally meaning the universe considered as a whole, for Spengler a more specific meaning-the actuality of the sum total of all symbols in relation to one soul; nothing is exempt, all are significant from the corporeal phenomena like visage, shape, mien, which have always been known to possess meaning, to the eternal and universally-valid forms of knowledge, mathematics and physics.

 

a priori:

Latin, existing in the mind prior to & independent of experience, as a faculty or character trait. from a general law to a particular instance; valid independently of observation;

 

subtilizing:

to elevate in character; sublimate; to make (the mind, senses) keen or discerning; sharpen.

 

anonymous fluid masses of texts as in India:

reference to the Vedas, the religious texts or scriptures which inform Hinduism.  Unlike the scriptures of other religions, they are not thought to have been revealed to a certain person at a specific historical moment; rather it is believed to have always existed and were apprehended by sages in deep meditative states at some point prior to  1500 BC but precisely when is unknown.  Before this they existed in oral form, passed down from master to student for generations.

 

Egypt (last secrets):

possible reference to the Egyptian Book of the Dead, Egyptian funerary text written on papyrus, dating from early New Kingdom (1550 BC) to 50 BC; original translation of the name Book of Coming Forth by Day; a loose collection of texts consisting of magic spells to assist a dead person's journey through the underworld & into the afterlife, written by priests over a period of about 1,000 years; placed in the coffin or burial chamber & part of a tradition of funerary texts which included older Pyramid Texts and Coffin Texts (painted onto objects); no single or canonical Book of the Dead, surviving texts contain a variety of religious and magical texts & illustrations; written in hieroglyphic or hieratic script often illustrated with vignettes depicting the deceased & their journey into the afterlife. Lepsius, a pioneering Prussian Egyptologist, published the first scientific study of the Book of the Dead in 1842.