The Truth Thou Hast Spoken and Judged Rightly of all Things (Notions of Truth and Justice from Homer to the Orphics)

In “Axial time,” the notion of order begins to be understood in the emerging forms of individual creativity - lyric poetry, philosophy and mystery. If the notions of order, truth and justice before that time were understood only in specific actual contexts, then along with the movement towards individual consciousness the nature of the referent is changing, and these concepts begin to interact independently of the context. As far back as the Indo-European unity, the ideas of order and struggle of the two beginnings (positive and negative), embodied in different forms, appeared. The idea of order is represented by the Vedic ṛta, the Iranian arta, and the Greek dike. It is interesting that certain ideas expressed by a number of words may end up being represented by a set of concepts in which these words sometimes are no longer included. If we turn to Greek, dike begins to correlate with themis, where the first word refers to inter-family and the second to family law. But in the “Axial Age,” themis is limited to the communal level, while dike reaches the cosmic level and turns out to be just world order. And, paradoxically, because of this, it is also placed in each individual soul. This truth is revealed in a state of frenzy to the mystics, to the prayers, and to the poets. The idea of metempsychosis plays a role here. A hitherto unknown state of individual responsibility arises. The article examines the situation according to which the formation of abstract concepts proceeds by the gradual formation of a semantic field, on which the meanings of words begin to be more and more definitely differentiated. The comprehension of the corresponding images and concepts at the individual level leads to the formation of the system of philosophical categories. The connection of the conceptual system and the orientation towards individual justice is determined, in particular, by the development of the mystery cults.