Metaforyka śmierci i archetyp niezniszczalnego życia
The Metaphor of Death and the Archetype of Indestructible Life

Summary/Abstract: Deliberations concerning the Greek metaphor of death and the archetype of indestructible life functioning in the Greek literature are the subject of the article. Their close correlation is most completely expressed by the graus methyse—anus ebria topos. For a proper understanding of the wealth of its meanings and symbols the cultural context is shown, in which the topos was created. In the article the phenomenon of the old age in Greek literature is analyzed in two basic aspects. The first one is perceiving the old age as contrasted with the worship of beauty and youth worked out by the antiquity; and the other one is showing it in the context of death, especially as compared with the symbolic image of Hades. The latter is accompanied by visions of overcoming the death that function in the Greek culture and are recorded in literature. One of them is presented in the symbolic image of graus methysē—anus ebria that is connected with the state of intoxication with wine and its benevolent giver, Dionysus.

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