Full Description
Holderlin felt his Germany as a Russian doll made of prison-like "containers". He suffered from both personal and political claustrophobia, from which he longed for liberating outbursts to utopian perspectives. The study calls these trends "escape lines" and the most important escape line is aimed at Greece. Hölderlin's writing turns out to be walking along escape lines in changing tones of a fascinating sound. The Greek escape line is multi-pole and also includes New Greece. The ancient Greek myths are rewritten for the sake of modern analogies: Empedocles-Rousseau versus Strato-Napoleon; Chiron-Hölderlin against Herakles-Napoleon etc. And last but not least: The ancient Greek myths are simultaneously demythologized in the context of a "higher enlightenment".
