The Pergamon Museum in Berlin is one of the great treasure houses of the world. Walk in and you find yourself facing a massive Greek temple, carefully transported here and reconstructed as it would originally have looked. Around the walls are fragments of statuary, arranged on a smooth grey background so that the figures seem to be appearing through of a curtain of mist. At the top of the steps lies the inner sanctum: here, the frieze tells the story of Telephos, mythical founder of Pergamon and legendary ancestor of the ancient royal family. The scenes from his life recall themes from so many powerful myths: the royal princess whose child will endanger the king; the infant cast out and suckled by a wild beast; his triumphant return to save the kingdom; the inadvertent reward of his own mother's hand in marriage, here luckily averted by divine intervention on their wedding night; the contrived relationships with other major military characters - notably Achilles and Odysseus; the consultation with oracles, and events leading to the final glorious demise of the hero. Thus is the power of the mortal order legitimized by its links to the semi-divine.
I last visited Berlin 25 years ago. Coming from Moscow, the train passed through sleeping suburbs until we crossed the shrouded border line and the city erupted into a permanent party. Nowadays, it is the east which houses the newest restaurants and late-night bars. Berlin is the cocktail capital of Europe: muscled men sip parasolled concoctions whilst their girlfriends nibble the pineapple garnish. Souvenir shops sell pieces of painted concrete claiming to be chipped from the Wall. But not all the people are in unmitigated favour of the new order. You can also buy little green plastic men like traffic light symbols: these are a feature of Ostalgia - the longing for a simpler time, when everyone knew their place. Whether it was a better time or not is a matter of emotional fealty rather than retrospective analysis. In Berlin, history is being created and updated all around you. The architects of the Pergamon Altar would have felt entirely at home.
Life Works is an ad hoc, alternative and occasionally aspirational approach to everyday life. Drawing on a combination of sense, sensibility and ancient wisdom it shows the relevance of mythic themes and archetypal figures to the modern world. Jane Bailey Bain teaches mythology in West London. Her book 'LifeWorks' was published in January 2012. For more information and further postings, visit the main LifeWorks site at http://janebaileybain.wordpress.com/
